Quistis had always been a creature of habit. She liked to wake up every morning at the same time, drink her coffee as she put on the same uniform, put on her makeup the same way, and throw her hair up in the same eloquent bun. Every morning before her first class she would sit at the same Terminal and go over the details of the day's lesson. Being an instructor accommodated this lifestyle very well. Even if something ever went awry there was someone above her to deal with it.

The peace and tranquility of morning (afternoon and evening) customs went out the door as soon as she took the seat of headmistress. Instead of calling to have someone come fix the containment field in the Training Center, now her phone would ring with a desperately overwhelmed instructor of junior classmen trying to fend off ten grats when only two were supposed to be released. When the cafeteria ran out of hotdogs she would inevitably get a message from a faculty member telling her that she should plan for the demand of the morsels better (even when she wasn't in direct charge of ordering food). All before mid-morning coffee.

Quistis had never been easy to find in Balamb Garden as the woman flitted easily between hobbies and interests. Now, though, it was pretty easy to get to her if you needed. Sometimes running from various Garden ending disasters or sitting in on painfully droll and unnecessary meetings with the administration, but mainly perched in the glass spire at the top of Garden. The view of the Rinauld Coast was calming, yet sometimes infuriating to the woman. She had achieved what some people worked their entire lives for so young, but at the sacrifice of her own worldly experience in the formative years.

A high-pitched chirp from her Terminal broke her out of whatever deep thoughts may have been brewing in her mind. Deep royal blue eyes shifted away from the sea and to the screen sitting atop her desk. A security camera feed from the elevator had popped up in front of various messages and reports that littered the monitor. "Ah, good, he's making time for me." Squall had used his ID badge to grant access to her office. The addition of the camera alert had saved her so many times when Trepies had managed to get their hands on cards programmed with elevator access to her office. Quistis knew it took exactly five seconds to sprint from her desk to the lock on the door because of this security feature.

Quistis shut the feed window before pulling up several documents that pertained to Squall's visit. She wasn't sure what they all were supposed to mean yet - if they meant anything in the first place, that is. They had all learned long ago that it was easier to prepare for a threat than let it creep up on them from behind.

"Quistis," Squall nodded to her as he entered the office. Every time he came up there he was reminded how so Quistis is all was. All of the various tchotchkes were in their spot and displayed just so. Save the Queen was displayed proudly behind her desk with a single tasteful sconce lighting the intimidating looking whip from above. The colors were cool and calming, the faintest of grays coloring the main wall until the large main window turned to the blue of the sea. Rare books filled the shelves along with magic scrolls that could've been as old as Hyne himself.

Quistis' lips curved up into a smile while he sat in the leather armchair across from her desk. "Welcome back. Everything in FH is taken care of, I take it?"

"Yeah, Dobe should be sending the last of the payment any time now. What was it you wanted to see me about?"

There was no such thing as small talk with Squall Leonhart. Any time one tried to attempt it there would be more awkward silences and long stares than anyone could deal with. "Ah, yes.. that. Do you remember the Deep Sea Research Center?" Squall nodded immediately. "Well a few years ago when we started the Research and Development program we went and retrieved a few things from Deep Sea. Just as a precaution, I made the team install an alarm when they left. If anyone entered the facility I, or whoever was in my place, would get an alert about it."

"And you got an alert about it?" Squall pieced together the very simple puzzle to get to the point.

Quistis nodded and swiveled around her monitor to face Squall. "Yes. I took the liberty of sending Zell and a few others out to investigate. He sent me this update last night."

This place is still so weird. You guys keep on alert, okay!? I don't want to be ambushed by some Behemoth or something! Oh, shit, this things on, isn't it?

Quistis, this is weird. It's all cleaned out. You know you gave me that list of stuff we didn't take? It's all gone. It looks like they took some reactor pieces, too, like seriously worthless junk. We trekked down to the lower levels, that blue crystal is gone. Did we take that? I dunno. That's all I can report. Whoever came here didn't leave any trace. Sorry, Quis."

The video cut out and Quistis returned her monitor to its original position. "So someone broke into Deep Sea and took what we didn't think was worth it. Would you mind asking your fath-" she hesitated finishing the word, knowing Squall's opinion of the F-word, "President Loire if he had anyone go? And Caraway? If it was as simple as another nation going in then I would feel much better about the situation." Not that Galbadia scavenging for leftovers was anything that she should get excited about, but there were other possibilities that were much worse.

"I'll ask, but we need to have a plan in case it wasn't them. They were up to some pretty severe things in there. If someone is planning on restarting the work then we need to know." His counterpart nodded in agreement. Quistis was relieved that Squall seemed to be taking the situation every bit as seriously as she was.

"Agreed. I'll put out feelers to a few labs. Maybe they can be of some help. If someone is trying to recreate Deep Sea then they definitely don't have everything they need now. They'll need to get the extra equipment from somewhere."

"Alright. I'll send messages to Laguna and Caraway as soon as I can." Squall pushed off from his chair. "Anything else, Quistis?"

"Not from me, but I hear you have a candidate waiting for you downstairs."

'Dammit. I forgot about her,' Squall thought, immediately furrowing his brow as he turned to leave.

"Try to be open about this one, Squall. You have to replace Selphie and Irvine eventually." She knew that he didn't like the thought; putting other people in their spots among his Elite just cemented the fact that they were gone. It had been more than long enough since the couple left Balamb, it was time to add new blood.

"…whatever."