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C:/nomad/fanfic/1388651> chaptr10.rtf

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(A)bort, (R)etry, (F)ail? R

After its humiliating defeat in the Sorceress Ultimecia Attacking From The Future War, Galbadia had wandered in the darkness, searching for a leader. Rather, Galbadia's citizens wandered in the darkness, since Galbadia was a geopolitical institution and therefore incapable of independent movement. And the darkness was more metaphorical than literal, although nighttime in Deling City does seem to last a very long time.

In any case, Galbadia needed a ruler. Having been handily beaten by Garden was a humiliating defeat, as suggested above. Having no real government other than President Deling had left the nation leaderless once Deling was killed, and many had rushed to fill the vacuum. Now, one of them had succeeded.

"Are you here to see the president?" asked the receptionist, who doubled as an extremely muscular guard with a high-powered rifle standing by the door to the president's office.

The messenger gulped, because he was nervous. "...Yes."

"Wait here," the guard commanded, then he opened the door, stepped through and closed it again. Another, equally muscular guard stepped up to ensure that the attendant waited there.

A moment later, the receptionist returned. "The president will not see you. What do you want?"

"Um..." The messenger gulped again, because he was still nervous. "...I have a message."

"Give it to me," said the guard. "The president does not accept messages personally. I will deliver it."

The messenger gave up the message. "Um...so why did you have to check and see if the president was taking visitors if you could just—"

The receptionist pointed the rifle at the messenger, and it made a high-tech charging-up noise. "Don't ask questions," he said. "Run away now."

"Eek!" agreed the messenger, before going away.

After the messenger was gone, the two guards stood around in silence for a while, as guards do.

"...So," said one guard. "This is all pretty mysterious so far."

"I don't think so," said the other. "Mostly just pointless. This scene doesn't really seem integral to the story."

"Yeah," said the first guard. "I wonder what's up with that."

The messenger, meanwhile, was still running through the halls of the Presidential Residence because the guard hadn't specified when he should stop. As it happened, his stop came when he crashed headlong into a shadowy figure who had been standing in the doorway. This figure had only one arm.

"Yikes!" apologized the attendant, picking himself off the floor he had fallen onto shortly after crashing headlong into the one-armed shadowy figure. "Sorry!"

"That's quite all right," said the figure. "You've fulfilled your role in this scene well. Guards!" A pair of shadowy guards stepped up. "Have this man killed. Or I should say, disciplined. To death."

The messenger, providing the requisite amount of wailing, was dragged away.

C:/nomad/fanfic/1388651> more

"Man, this is such a drag," said Laguna, who was in his office surrounded by forms. "Do I really have to sign all these forms right away?"

"This is Esthar's national budget, Laguna," Kiros said. "If they're not delivered to Parliament by midnight, the government will shut down."

"Yeah, yeah," said Laguna. "Y'know, sometimes I wonder if maybe the government should shut down. I mean, what do they do besides making stupid forms all the time?"

"Sir, I must protest your cavalier attitude towards the Government," said a short, mostly bald man who was Laguna's Minister of the Government. "Government provides numerous valuable services to the citizenry including but not limited to: 1) constructing and maintaining non-profitable infrastructure; 2) distributing social services; 3) providing for the national defense; and 4) as a largely incidental function, generating highly important documents and forms."

"See, that's what I'm talking about!" said Laguna, ignoring the Government Minister's first 46 words. "Forms! I mean, if I wanted to sit around and sign forms all day, I could...uh, write some forms myself! And then sign them! While I was sitting!"

"That was a pretty good example of a government official undermining his point by giving the listener an unfortunate word or phrase – commonly called a "sound bite" – that distracts from the overall point he was trying to make," Kiros said to Ward.

Ward might have complained about Kiros' entirely pointless exposition, if he had the ability to speak. Instead he said, "............."

"Man, I'm tired of this!" said Laguna. "Can we go save Squall now?"

"Mr. President, it is entirely improper for an official of your stature to undertake any sort of dangerous operation due to your importance for the Nation of Esthar," said the government minister. "If you were to be harmed in any way, or particularly incapacitated by some sort of unknown energy beam that were to wipe out your memory and/or paralyze you from the waist down – especially if this were to happen before you had signed all the budget forms – then the question of succession could provoke a civil war!"

"Did that scenario about the energy weapon seem oddly specific to you?" Kiros asked Ward.

Ward might have given a coherent answer here, if he had the ability to speak. Or he might have nodded or shaken his head to indicate a yes or no response. Instead he said, "............"

"I don't care!" said Laguna, probably responding to the government minister rather than Kiros (or Ward). "Look, I'm gonna help Squall! Now, are you guys coming with me?"

Kiros shrugged. "I've got a really bad feeling about this, but sure."

Ward might have said something similar here, if he had the ability to speak. Instead he said, "............"

"Mr. President, you are absolutely inviting disaster with this poorly-conceived endeavor," said the government minister. "The Government Ministry will have no part of it."

"...Okay," said Laguna. "So, what about you?"

"I was using 'the Government Ministry' to refer to myself," said the government minister.

"Ohh," said Laguna. "So kinda like trying to make yourself sound more important by acting like you're this whole agency instead of the guy in charge of it?"

"My position of leadership affords me the power to speak for the Government Ministry!" insisted the government minister, whose voice was becoming notably more high-pitched as his agitation increased. "It is a perfectly normal term of phrase!"

"You mean turn of phrase," said Kiros.

"Anyway!" said Laguna, jumping to his feet. He had been sitting before. "I'm gonna go get the Apocalypse ready! You guys come quick!"

"Mr. President—!" The government minister obviously wasn't done objecting, but Laguna was gone before he could continue. Therefore, he sighed and looked dejected.

"What kind of a position is 'government minister,' anyway?" asked Kiros. "It seems really generic."

"It's highly important!" The government minister's voice was becoming quite squeaky.

Kiros frowned. "For that matter, what's your name?"

With a very high-pitched hmph!, the government minister turned on his heel and left.

"He seems a little high-strung," said Kiros. "What do you think?"

Ward might have pointed out that he couldn't reply to this question, if he had the ability to speak. Or not, since if he had the ability to speak, he would be able to reply. Even as he was, he could have written out a note on paper. But he didn't do any of these things. Instead he said, "............"

"Well said," Kiros agreed.

C:/nomad/fanfic/1388651> more

"What did you say?" Cid asked.

Colonel Torzen was just finishing putting the drapes over the windows to Cid's bedroom. "I said, I regret to inform you of a tragic event that apparently happened last night along the Dollet coast." He pointed at the photographs Cid was holding, which showed a car with a person in it being raised out of the ocean. "That event there."

"Yes, I remember," said Cid. "I was just expressing disbelief." He reached for his glasses, and put them on. He hadn't been wearing them because he was sitting in bed, and he was sitting in bed because it was well after midnight.

"Hard as it is to believe, there the evidence is," said Colonel Torzen. "Obviously Instructor Xu went out for a night of drinking in Dollet, then attempted to drive back to Balamb—her drunkenness preventing her from realizing that there is an ocean between Dollet and Balamb."

"That's so horrible," said Edea, who was also sitting in the bed.

"Fortunately these photographs were taken to document the horror," said Torzen. "Er, that is, so that we know for sure that she is dead." He pointed to the dark-haired body in the car in the water in the photograph. "And that is her in the car, there. Note the SeeD uniform and the proper hair color."

"Oh, my, look what it's done to her hair," said Edea. "It looks like some awful wig."

"That's not a wig," said Torzen. "That's silly. Only a dummy would need a wig, since the hair of a real person could be dyed to match Xu's. And that's certainly not a dummy; the pictures are simply vague and unfocused because they were taken with a personal camera. By someone who just happened to be there for no particular reason and certainly was not party to any sort of sinister scheme."

"This is so tragic," said Cid. "And with Squall gone, too. Who can I count on now to serve as headmaster so that I won't have to?"

Torzen looked solemn. "Sir, I am ready to assume such duties if there is no alternative. Not that I have any desire to, or would ever wish for harm to befall anyone else so as to clear the way for me to do so."

"That's very thoughtful," said Cid, looking at the pictures again. "This is dreadful. Poor Xu; already in these pictures she looks so amazingly thin. And oddly tall."

"That was probably the stress of the crash rearranging her bones in some way," said Torzen. "Certainly not evidence that the body is not Xu's at all. I can't emphasize that enough."

"No, apparently not," said Edea, in a rare and out-of-character moment of cynicism. "Please, can you just leave us alone for now?"

"Of course," said Torzen, beginning to take down the drapes. "Simply leave everything to me."

"You know, we do have our own drapes in this room," said Cid.

"It's my idiom," Torzen growled. "Don't you start about it now."

"No, I understand completely," said Cid. "But since it's nighttime at this point, regardless —"

"Idiom." Torzen stalked out of the room in a suddenly bad mood.

"...It's so awful about Xu," said Cid. "Especially how the car fell out of the lifting harness and sank to the bottom of a crack in the ocean, so that these pictures are the only evidence we have that she's dead."

Edea nodded. "You certainly made a good choice with Colonel Torzen. He's very professional."

Cid nodded. "I only wish Squall were here. That would make everything better somehow. But with things the way they are, I wonder if anything can bring Squall back for us."

C:/nomad/fanfic/1388651> more

"Bring it on!" the monkey jeered. "You think you can skip a rock, huh? I bet you're as bad a skipper as you are a dresser! Loser! Jerk! Teacher's pet!"

As Colonel Garden Master Acting Headmaster Torzen walked through the Garden's courtyard, he stumbled upon a confrontation already in progress between a brown-haired teenage girl in a student's uniform and a talking monkey. Mr. Monkey was throwing rocks at the girl.

"What's going on here?" he demanded. "I demand this disruption stop immediately!"

"Screw you!" retorted Mr. Monkey, who then threw a rock at him. Torzen would have ducked, but that would have damaged his rugged image. He tried to try to catch the rock with his hand – but this plan failed when the rock was knocked off course by a second rock, this one thrown by the girl. Both of them landed neatly on the side of the walkway.

"Why, you little—" Mr. Monkey never got to finish the sentence; another perfectly aimed rock struck him on the head, knocking him out cold.

Torzen blinked.

"Sorry about that," the girl said, grinning sheepishly. "Hey, do you work here? 'Cause I'm new."

Torzen was absolutely certain that this girl was going to be trouble.

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