Disclaimer: Ditto.
Two days, it has been two days, wandering FH, waiting, watching. She hated waiting, despite the necessity for now she had a certainty, a near perfect plan, all she had to do was wait to set it into motion. She played the entire plan over and over, fine tuning and setting herself for the necessary actions, she had made sure she was recovered physically and made a more secure harness for Hyperion and her brother's Bo staff, all she had to do now was put it all in motion…. She would not have too long to wait.
Squall stood on the overlook, peering out into the ocean as the town came into view over the sparkling sea; he had already cleared his schedule of all major appointments for the next three days. They would perform a complete diagnostic and all he had to do was nothing. He let himself smile into the wind, it was a warm day with a cooling breeze, a good time for anything especially a time spent at nothing. Doing nothing, what a refreshing concept. Another deep breath and a sigh as he leaned on the railing somewhere behind him he heard the door open and inwardly cursed, turning slowly he was met with the face of Quistis. Could have been worse, could be Zell. He watched as the lithe woman walked up to him in her street clothes calm as ever and trimmed to the perfection she demanded of herself he waited for her to speak first.
"I thought I would find you here Commander. I just wanted to ask you a question" he mulled over the request for a moment before considering her again as she shifted nervously from foot to foot. She looked distracted which was unusual but hardly an issue, as a precaution he gave all none essential staff the time off so they would be out of the way during the checkup, it was the best excuse he could come up with to ditch the whole place.
"go ahead Quistis….. and call me Squall." He got really sick of hearing commander all the time, just because he was the best man for the job didn't mean he had to like it. He awaited her supposed little question but was only really half there half of him had already disappeared to his spot in FH where the garden had yet to find him.
"I was just wondering if we couldn't just take the team out and maybe have dinner and reminisce a little, never forget and all that?" he just knew this was Selphie's idea…. It stunk of the little preppy girl's scheming. However, he would rather be doing other things but he could only dodge her for so long…
"fine, what did you have in mind then?" he spoke in a semi-monotone, mind being elsewhere, especially the growing city on the horizon, slowly roused to activity as the monstrous building moved in to dock against the crane as it had in times past. Slowly pulling to a stop before them as the engineers started toward them.
"good! I'll update you ASAP." She turned and disappeared back inside, to inform the giddy selphie no doubt. He sighed and turned to greet the engineers as they came about, thirty in all. He greeted them as they came and once they had past he made no great hurry of descending to the ground beneath and out into the town swiftly heading down the bowl and to the other side of the mayor's place. He had found this place a few trips back, it was hidden by the mayoral building but still had a great view of the sky. He was unsurprised to find the Ex- Galbanian headmaster sitting back sipping at a whiskey sour, he was rough about the chin and wearing loose clothing but it was certainly him. The headmaster had taken to a simpler existence after a time realizing things were not going to return to how they were and so he had taken to the easy life of fishing in the FH area with a few other boys sharing stories and drinks, he seemed to enjoy it enough.
"good afternoon commander." The old headmaster still had that unerring edge of military discipline to him as he stiffly offered a handshake rising to meet Squall, their handshakes were about the most formal they got, neither preferring to make a bit deal of the other's situation. It was quiet and pleasant, he had left his radio on though, he didn't want to miss the page from Quistis and have to listen to the lecture about responsibility afterward. He sat down as Martine poured Squall a simple juice cocktail, not being much of a drinker. They sat in silence enjoying the squawks of seagulls and the blue sky that stretched forever….
she was sitting under the main structure in a crouch leaning against the I beam behind her for balance as Garden came to a rest, this was it, she could see a loose panel ahead of her and she jumped, hanging in the warm air for but a moment before stealthily unscrewing the panel and slipping into the duct, she knew this from her childhood at the garden, it was one of the primary ducts and it would bring her to the bowels of garden. Perfect. She crept into it, secured the panel behind her somewhat, and crawled on adjusting her effects a bit. She was dressed in civilian clothes, a simple white shirt and her own pants, washed and cleaned to satisfaction. She moved slowly, trying to remain as quiet as she could before dropping into the deeper mechanical section of the garden, she fell with the grace of a cat and looked around analyzing everything she saw almost mechanically. She was in main engineering, the main drives for the garden movers, she had always wondered what they did, now she knew, how useful… she walked along the catwalks slowly pulling herself into another duct going up from the AC system the cold air was next to frigid but it was better than hot. She worked slowly up the near vertical work and came to rest in near silence except her pounding heart and throbbing limbs, who knew that sword was so heavy… she looked out a vent into the garden, she was over the parking garage. Since they were no longer on the ground, there was hardly a need so they had converted it into storage, she nodded, and that would be the best place to hide out until they got moving again, no matter how long the wait. She pried open the latch on the duct and slowly dropped behind a few boxes in a crouch and set about finding a secure location to hide away until such time. Settling in for the long haul, she let herself smile, stage two complete.
A/N: well it seems I have one fan, and thank you very much. I too have a yearning to see more of our Albino girl. I think she is actually very underrated as a charactor, I can't help but feel that somewhere in that firebrand soul of hers is an untapped potential, and I hope to maybe touch on that in the story, especially since I am finally getting around to haveing the meeting, next chapter at soonest, the chapter after at latest by my estimation. Also before I get ANY complaints from diehard fans YES I am takeing artistic liscence with a lot of this, because I can so don't start with me. it's less drastic than the constant gay Irvine pairings I keep seeing, now THAT is a strech. as always R&R, what are you still reading this, I am not even saying anything anymore, blah blah blah blah blah ... Fin.