Author's Notes: Yes, I have made many calculations for such things relating to this story. I promise that it is quite interesting. It is intended to take place 3 years after normal game in the FF7-verse (making it JUST post Deep Ground) and about 4 years post game in FF8-verse… mainly so Nids can be of drinking age. There are new errors in the prologue now that things have been thought out more, but I have not changed what Nida wrote. I suspect he's just being modest and such.

I'm doing the whole thing from Nida's side, and might in the future do it from Cid's. Because lord knows Cid is a bundle of joy. I add 'please do not sue me for the presence of Kiros. He's just too cool'. I doubt that I shall again, at any time, write as if Nida was writing what has taken place like in the prologue. I've got other ideas for this thing, and I hope you enjoy them.

Chapter 1

Hours are a rather tricky little thing. In the old days hours were all known for some special purpose, like six in the morning being the hour of awakening, and midnight the hour of dark magic. There was four a.m. when the most ridiculous, and perfect, ideas were conceived, and noon, where lunches were taken and wars halted for a shared meal. Other hours varied by region, era, and often beliefs of people, but there was one hour as universal in its meaning and purpose as midnight or noon. That hour was three in the morning, when those who were sleeping wanted to keep sleeping, and those that were awake knew that they would not find sleep. Interrupting either the sleeper, or those awake, was always likely to find a head parted from a torso…

Apparently someone in the world did not understand this point, some part of Nida, way back in the corner of his mind, mused as the sound of a ringing phone cut through the silence of the dark room. A part of him that was a throwback to the times where the holiness of the dark hour was kept wanted to just shoot the vid-phone, but the part of him that was trained as an obedient sort of person crushed that desire and sat up. He groaned and reached out, fumbling around for the button that would answer the annoying ringing. As the 'ping' of the answer came and the screen lit up, the SeeD prepared the dirtiest look he could manage that he might direct it at whoever would dare to call him this early.

Somewhere inside he'd been ready for just about anyone calling him without good reason. They were, after all, calling his person line back in Balamb, and they weren't at fault if they didn't know he was in Esthar with all his calls being forwarded there. Selphie never really looked at the clock, Zell never seemed to calm down, and Quistis, even after all this time, sometimes forgot just what her actions could cause. What he hadn't been expecting was to meet a look as cold as his was dirty.

His first thought was that he should really salute. The second was that it was pointless, as he was supposed to be off duty and Squall didn't like that formality anyway. A third suggested flipping Squall off. So the man went with a neutral reaction… he blinked and continued to give Squall that dirty look.

"You know," he said after a minute, knowing Squall wouldn't say 'hello' anyway, "There is that little set of clocks on your desk that give you the exact time it is in the major cities of the world. Have you looked at it lately?"

Were Squall the sort to do it, he probably would have sighed. Nida could tell that sort of thing just from the sort of silence he was suffering from now. What people didn't know was that you could tell a lot about the Lion of Balamb by the type of silence you got out of him. This was the 'I'm fully aware of what you mean, but the way you're saying it is frustrating me' silence. Normally it was reserved for the Galbadian Headmaster, young mister Seifer Almasy. Of course, he had also used that silence a good deal during the war. Not the Sorceress War, but the Reclamation War. But that was another story all together.

"So," Nida sighed after another moment of the withering silence of Squall's gaze. "To what do I owe the honor of getting a call at this hour in the middle of my mandatory vacation?"

Mandatory vacations had been a brain child of the SeeD Commander come Headmaster of Balamb Garden, come High SeeD Commander after the war. All SeeDs over a certain rank were required to take three days in a row off every third month. It was due to the 'stress' of their jobs. Considering the fact that the only SeeDs over that level were either heroes of the wars, or other parts of the 'Garden Bunch' as Selphie called them, there wasn't much stress on their parts. Well, no greater stress than they had previously been under. Unless you counted the work of SeeD Commanders and Headmasters to be strenuous. Often, when they got together, Nida was teased for being the only one that actually had a stressful job. He did, after all, train young men and women to drive and pilot many sorts of vehicles, and the girls could be jumpy.

There was a look upon Squall's face that answered the question, and Nida sighed. He knew that look, it meant that Squall had a job for him. There was, after all, no other reason for the man to summon him at this time during those days he was promised not to be bothered in his private home in Esthar. If Squall was summoning him then it was important and dangerous. Something only a high level SeeD could do. If one set aside the busy schedules the others had, which they often did when they were needed, the fact that was chosen meant it required a quick and clear mind, which ruled out Selphie and Zell, an ability to follow orders, which meant no Seifer, a gift with technology, so no Irvine, and an unobtrusive way of getting information from people while seeming totally harmless, which meant no Squall or Quistis. He hated work like this, it was never very fun.

Apparently Squall managed to read his own expression, and a hint of pity came into otherwise cold eyes. Great, Squall was pitying him. That was ALWAYS a horrible sign of how things were going to go.

"So, what is it? Lost technology we need to retrieve from archeologists in the Centra ruins? Protecting some inventor from Esthar as they travel to Galbadia? Talk some sense into President Loire?"

It was all said in one breath, and ignoring the one time Squall could not resist cutting in with his own beliefs. No matter who was talking or about what, the second 'President' came out in reference to Laguna, Squall quickly corrected people with a mumbled 'King'. Let no one ever say that Squall got along well with his father. Sure, they did actually get along well when you ignored how much Squall hated his father's very physical way of reacting to things and people, but saying so to Squall would result in a gunblade in your gut.

"Odine."

It was all Squall had to say to get a groan from Nida.

"Odine? Come on, you're waking me up at three in the fucking morning for Odine? You're sure someone else can't do this?"

Ah yes, there was that trademark Leonheart look that was a frown wrapped in a disapproving glare.

"Zell and Selphie…" Nida began, only to realize just how dumb that was. Zell hated the man for how he felt belittled near him and Selphie always referred to him as a not-so-happy clown.

"Or Irvine…" he continued, but that was a fail as well. Irvine didn't have any clue about any technology more complicated than his point and shoot guns. The Trabian Headmaster was having a hard enough time keeping the gunner from frying the computer systems from his attempts to 'reason' with it.

"Seifer is free…" was the next attempt from the pilot. That would not work at all. Seifer preferred to avoid Esthar. There weren't very many people that held the Sorceress Knight thing against him, but those that did lived in Esthar, and Odine was among those that called for his head, but mainly for his desire to examine the bond between knight and sorceress since he couldn't cut open Cid Kramer or Squall.

"What about Quistis?" But that wouldn't work either. Odine hit on that woman without shame, and the last time she had worked with him it had ended with a threat to cut his head from his body if he was in the same room as her again, and she wasn't talking about the one that could be mistaken as a clown mask.

"Come on Squall, couldn't you do it?"

The look Nida got for that one was enough to make Ifrit himself shiver. A look like that four years previous would have sent even Ultimecia or Griever running. If only he had mastered that look before the war they might have avoided a lot of heartache. Truth of the matter was that Squall did his very best to avoid the country where Rinoa and his father resided. Well, they didn't reside together. Rinoa was there to help Odine with his research on sorceresses. Laguna was there because he was the President. And the man seemed quite set upon making Squall his successor in the office of President. Squall was very adamant about not becoming the next king and was currently doing everything in his power to avoid the country and his father. Oh, and Rinoa and Odine and people that really thought he was some kind of prince. Hero he could handle, General he could accept, but prince or king was a title he didn't desire to add to the list.

"Fine," Nida said, his defeat finally accepted. Sometimes he wondered just how he managed to argue with someone who didn't say a word and still lose. Maybe it was because it was three in the morning. He always managed to lose if something came up at three in the morning, and it did often enough. Could that be the reason Squall always chose that sorts of times to call him at?

"You won't have time to come back here to be briefed, and I won't do it over the phone. I'm sending the files on to Kiros, so have him brief you in the morning…"

Nida could understand that approach easily. As long as it was election season in Esthar the scarred man didn't even want to speak with his father. That wasn't why he glared at Squall for bringing Kiros into this. No, the glare that he developed was because that with the use of the name, the person it described shifted in the bed beside him. While a light sleeper in most cases, the man would sleep through time compression at Nida's side and not awaken unless his name was used or the alarm clock went off.

When Kiros groaned and slowly awoke Nida couldn't help but blush. Time to end this conversation before Squall found…

"Hmmm…" came from the vid-phone and Nida wanted nothing more than to hide the man who was propping himself up behind him. The noise was accompanied by a grunt in response from Kiros as he finally looked over Nida's shoulder at the screen.

"Kiros," came the greeting from the brunet. There was amusement in the following silence. It was a kind of silence that said 'You're busted Nida'.

"Squall," Kiros responded, easily picking up on the nuances of the silence from his time dealing with Ward. The silence after his own greeting meant something along the lines of 'You hadn't told him?'.

Great, attacks by silence on two fronts.

"Well, will you just look at the time? I should really be heading back to bed," the pilot said, desperately trying to break up the attack of silence.

"I'm sure you should. I'll send the information later for Kiros to look over," Squall responded, the look in his eyes reading 'We'll talk about THIS later'.

"I shall get right onto it as soon as possible," Kiros responded, draping a rather possessive arm over Nida's shoulder, making sure to let his fingers play over the strong torso. The young SeeD would have put any money on the fact that Kiros was doing it not just to embarrass him, but to see Squall's reaction. He was, after all, the best friend of the SeeD's father.

"Quite sure you will," Squall said, a smirk much like one Seifer was famous for gracing his scarred face. "Call me when that is cleared up."

With that the screen went black and Nida went red as a beet. Okay, maybe that red as a beet thing had to do with Kiros sinking his teeth into an already tender shoulder, but he was still red.

"Did you HAVE to do that?" the pilot sighed. It wasn't that he wanted to be all private about the whole thing, but Kiros had said it was just a little fling, and that he'd rather Laguna didn't know. According to Kiros the worst kind of Laguna one could have to deal with wasn't father-mode Laguna, but Laguna attempting to lecture someone on why whatever it was that they were doing was wrong.

"Yes actually," the older man chuckled. "And it isn't as if he's going to tell anyone."

Kiros did have quite the point there. Squall listened to the gossip, he didn't spread it. Said that it helped him to keep up to date on things that might impair the work of his SeeDs. Nida couldn't help but feel that he was just rather nosey. For a man who had tired so hard not to be invisible, he didn't actually want his personal life handed on a silver platter to the most powerful man in the world.

"But that isn't the point," Nida protested, allowing Kiros to push him back down on the bed and lean over him.

"And what is the point?"

The question was followed by teeth nipping once more at his shoulder and fingers slowly moving south. Part of Nida was thankful for the inappropriateness of the whole age thing. Being with Kiros was an experience fueled by his years of experience. Not to mention the man had quite the agile body.

He hissed through clenched teeth, quite enjoying the pressure of the exotic man's bites, "He didn't know about this."

"He's quite smart you know. I'm sure that he could tell what was going on if I was in bed with you."

"Not that," he sighed. "Squall had no clue that I was…"

There was laughter as Kiros finally caught the drift of his young partner. "So what you're saying is… I have just outted you?"

"In simplest terms… Yes you ass."

Pillow connected with head and after a moment laughter filled the normally empty Estharian apartment. There were, after all, worse ways to come out. Granted, he couldn't think of very many, but there had to be worse ways. After a further romp, and dealing with a shoulder that was now bleeding, they settled down to return to sleep. They did, after all, have several hours until sun up and work had to begin.

If three in the morning was an hour for leaving things as they were, and four an hour for inspiration, five was an hour of thought. It was a time of introspection and revelation. Nida knew this. It was as sure to him as three in the morning or midnight or noon. In knowing this he intended to make full use of the hour, even as he stared up at the ceiling and wondered what more could go wrong.

He would swear upon the Rag itself that this hadn't been his intention at the beginning of the day. All he had set out to do was enjoy a casual lunch and look over the schematics of the newest hovers being designed. No part of him had sought out the minister of foreign affairs or would desire to do so. It had been very pleasant, and Nida had fallen even more for the city he had already decided to retire to when he had the chance. But there he'd been, clad in those long robes that Nida knew now did him no justice. Glances back and forth had lead to the older man joining him at his table, discussing the new designs and what Nida might change about them.

Before he'd known it the SeeD had found himself agreeing to a duel with the dark skinned man. Never before had he fought someone who used a set of katals, much less one who was proclaimed as a master. Yes, he had taken on Squall time and time again when neither had sparring partners, and he'd trounced Quistis and Selphie once in a while. All things considered he was in a good position to take Kiros down. What he hadn't expected was to be laid out flat on the training room floor with the blade of one of those katals against his throat. Moments later the weapons had been tossed aside and the two were all over each other. And the rest was history.

Who knew such a little mistake would cause him trouble with Squall. Well, there wasn't exactly trouble yet. Squall had been more amused by the situation than shocked. Could the man have known? Why wasn't Squall more upset about him sleeping with a man who was old enough to be his father? And why hadn't the man been bothered by the fact that Kiros was feeling him up so to speak while they were on the phone?

There were no answers when six rolled around and the alarm went off. The SeeD rolled from the bed and made for the shower. Questions could be answered later. Right now he had work to do. And work was a damn important thing to a SeeD.

--------

Nida loved Esthar. The city was clean, the people were nice, the sky was so beautiful that one could stare at it for hours with no regrets. If one were to ignore the fact that the city had once been ruled by a cruel sorceress than it was a wholly pleasant place. Except for Odine.

Odine was a pompous, heartless, insensitive, arrogant, maniacal fool. And those were just his good qualities. He had willingly worked with a sorceress. His hands had been those that Ellone had been delivered into. It was his work that had given Ultimecia the means of sending herself back, and compressing time. He worked for the highest bidder, and was hardly worth the price of his clothes. But, were it not for him things might have been far worse. He had helped to seal Adel, he'd created the Odine brand jewelry, he'd given them means to stop the Lunatic Pandora. It was his technology that had sealed Esthar off from the world. And so SeeD let him live, but no experiment went unwatched.

That was why Nida was here today. One of the larger projects was going to be tested today, and he was the only one but Quistis or Squall who could even understand it. At the moment he was frowning as he looked over screen after screen of data from smaller scale experiments. Even with all of these details he was having trouble understanding just how the machine worked. Nor could he understand just why Odine would desire to create a machine the replicated time compression. Still, it wasn't his place to ask. That was what Laguna and Kiros did. He was just here to make sure things went smoothly. They usually did anyway.

"Ready?" Odine called from his place near the large machine.

In all honesty, Nida was far from ready for whatever Odine was willing to try. But he did nod and stand. The reports were detailed enough and from what he had understood he was sure the principle was sound. A bit of magic from both the Ellone machine and Rinoa directed into the small portal, and voila, a small bubble of compressed time. No one, not even Odine, was completely sure what it would look like if it worked. All they could do was hope that it did.

With a nod to Rinoa, Odine began the machine. One could almost feel the power of the young sorceress's magic filling the room. The energy made the hairs on the back of Nida's neck stand on end. Rinoa's hair seemed to catch in the magical wind, whipping it around wildly. Even Odine's clown clothes were moving from the power, despite the fact that they were stiff from starch.

It was hard to tell just when he knew it was going wrong. Maybe it was when time seemed to speed up instead of slow down. Maybe it was when the pinprick of light gave way to darkness. It was probably when Rinoa screamed or Odine threw himself behind a tall shelf for safety. But by the time he had noticed it was too late to do anything himself. The whole of his being was being pulled at, and there was nothing he could do. It hurt, as if he was being tugged in different directions by wild chocobos. It hurt and all he wanted was for that pain to stop. He was almost thankful when darkness enveloped him.

--------

When he awoke, it was far from willingly. Every other second his whole body shuddered as drop after icy drop of water fell from some source and made contact with his closed eyelid. It did not help that the rest of him seemed to be drenched as well, and his whole body was aching in one way or another.

Nida's first thought was 'captured', and a close second was 'shit, Seifer'. Now, while it might not seem a logical order of thoughts to an outsider, it most definitely was to him. Over the years, and especially during the war, there were points where good men and women (boys and girls really) had fallen into the hands of enemy forces. Somewhere behind the wall of ice, Squall seemed to sense when things like this happened and where they would end up. So a small force was always brought together to bring their people back home. Logic had dictated for strong arms who were more than capable of handling massive amounts of enemy forces on their own, so Squall and Seifer were selected for these missions. They also needed a person that could get through the electronic defenses and get them out of there. So Nida joined their little force.

It had all been rather nice until it came to the point where Nida's plane had been shot down over terrorist territory and he had been captured. He remembered being beaten and cuffed to something or other just below a leaky pipe. While it hadn't been pleasant, it hadn't been for long either. No later than a day after his gracious accommodations were arranged had a hubbub been created outside of his 'room'. After a moment the door was knocked in and there was Seifer, Hyperion in hand and coated in blood. The white clad man had frowned as he entered the room.

'You okay?' Seifer had asked as he used the blade to cut through the bindings.

'Yeah,' Nida had agreed, taking the long wooden pole Seifer had brought with him. Not his actual weapon, which was probably stored somewhere closer to where Squall was, but it would do. 'Thanks.'

'Good,' the scarred blond had said, hauling Nida to his feet before punching him with quite a bit of force in the arm. 'I don't like having to beat the shit out of morons who got injured on top of being captured.'

Seifer had continued to tease and insult him while leading him through the compound until they met up with Squall. After that Nida had taken great care not to get caught again, and he understood a bit better why the people Seifer rescued tended to look like children with their hands caught in the cookie jar. Five minutes alone with Seifer tended to put the fear of him into a person. It was one of those cases of 'with friends like these who needs enemies' situations. He had, after all, seen what Seifer had done to Squall, who was a friend. The amount of scars they had from each other was alarming. Of course, these days Nida had his own fair share from time spent with Squall in training.

Well, time to wake up then. Nida quickly opened his eyes and sat up, despite the dizziness that came with it. Damn, if he was dizzy like this he'd been laying down for quite a while. His mind, aided by fingers, took stock of what injuries he might or might not have long before the scenery registered. He had gotten all the way to assuring himself that there were no broken bones before he really paused to look around.

Nida found himself outside below a cloudless night sky. The grass around him was soaked, the ground was soft, and the water that was dripping down happened to be from the branches of the tree he'd apparently been placed under. It took a whole ten seconds for his mind to file away the fact that he was wet from rain that had already passed, and by that time the SeeD was on his feet.

Something was wrong, very wrong, and it wasn't just him being outside. Firstly, Esthar didn't have any grasslands within many miles, and the closest trees were part of the great forest of the north. That wasn't the worst of it though. When he'd been in Esthar he'd been enjoying his vacation in the wonderful fall air, and from the looks of things here, it was early spring. He was in an entirely different hemisphere from the city. And, worst of all, the stars were wrong.

Now, many people might argue that different stars would be visible were he actually in another hemisphere, but it was worse than that. Nida was a pilot, a navigator, and he'd prided himself on not only a sense of direction, but a knowledge of the stars. None of the constellations were right for any time in the year in any part of the world. Were he in the northern half of the world he'd always be able to see Eden's Light, also known as the north star. Were he anywhere else there would be a handful of easily recognized stars and constellations calling out to him. Instead there was none, there was nothing.

He was utterly and totally lost, and there was nothing he could do. Part of him said search for civilization. Another said to just sit around and wait to be found. The SeeD part of him went into crisis mode, announcing very clearly to those two other parts of the brain that they weren't needed at the moment and could they please shut themselves up. They would? Good.

Despite the pain in his back, Nida listened when that part of his mind directed him to search around for any lose branches in the tree, in case he would need some weapon other than his hands. Sadly there were none, but then again, he wouldn't be forced to climb the tree to pull it down either. The next step was to shed as much of his damp clothing as possible. The uniform coat he had always been so proud of was removed and made into a little bundle that he could throw his undershirt into. Luck was with him in that his boots were dry and watertight at that, so there was no concern there. Then, with bundle in his arms, Nida took a look around before heading in a random direction. No reason behind any of it, just needed to go somewhere, right?

There was little more than walking and shifting the bundle that was his wet shirt and coat until nearly sunrise. It was then that things began to happen. Everything started slowly of course. The distant sound of the grass moving just the slightest bit wrong. A growl coming from some point closer. A shadow between him and the now rising sun. One thing was sure of course, he was being tracked, and probably by something he really didn't want to be tracked by. Were either of the two silenced parts of his brain able to shout, they would have shouted run. The SeeD part directed him to drop the bundle and shift into a defensive stance. It didn't care that he was without a weapon. It didn't care that he was probably out numbered. What it cared about was survival, and running did not give you survival.

Whoever, or whatever as it was, had been following took this as a sign that he was ripe for the picking. He was lunged at and sharp teeth sunk into his arm. A fist was slammed into the muzzle of the large wolf creature that had attacked. The beast yelped in shock and released its grip. It was only a small victory though, for moments later three more of the beasts had appeared and were stalking around him and snarling. They were larger than any wolfs he had seen before in his life, and the ruffs of fur around their heads were like those of lions. These weren't creatures from any place his mind could recall, but that wasn't important at the moment. What was important at the moment was that another one of them was attacking, and he could do not more but react.

Fighting wasn't always a thing ruled by the conscious mind, as Nida found himself proving. His conscious mind was busy trying to see if there was ANTYING like this in any bestiary or histories he'd heard of back home. He was busy wondering just what had happened to him, and blaming it on Odine. He was busy wishing he had his own weapon with him instead of having to fight hand to hand. All the while he was lashing out with punches and kicks, keeping the beasts barely at bay while they slowly, slowly wore him down. What he didn't think about was what kind of trouble he'd be in when he just couldn't move fast enough any more. What he didn't think about was how much longer he really had left.

So he didn't really think about it when one of the beasts behind him yelped and he heard a bit of a 'thud'. His body was too busy trying to keep one that was leaping at him away. Nor did he think about it when he heard a second yelp and saw a flash of yellow and blue from the corner of one eye. He did, though, manage to think about it when the one before him was consumed in a blast of fire, and when he stumbled backwards onto the grass wet from rain and his blood. Unfortunately he didn't have long to think about it, as the final beast was upon him and impaled within seconds of his passing out.