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Quistis awoke abruptly and sat up, drenched in sweat. She looked around. She had fallen asleep in her SeeD uniform and hadn't finished reading the update she'd been given the previous night. That wasn't like her at all. She shook her head and looked at the clock. She'd overslept too. If she didn't hurry she'd be late for the war briefing. She changed quickly, ran a comb through her hair and brushed her teeth before glancing into a mirror. She slipped on some shoes, grabbed the notes and her keys. She locked the door behind her as she left and continued to read where she left off.

She hadn't even gotten out of the Dorm hallway when she heard a door ahead of her open. She looked up to see Squall was emerging from his room. That was a good sign. Squall was also supposed to be at the meeting. At least she wouldn't be late by herself, if she even was late. Squall was a pretty punctual person.

She resumed reading. He turned to lock the door behind him and spotted her. He opened his mouth to acknowledge her but she didn't look up as she passed. She walked a little faster away from him and as she turned the corner at the end of the hallway, she chanced a glance back down it. Squall was gone.

She did a double take. She looked around the hall. Something was puzzling her but she didn't speak and carried on reading, with a bemused expression on her face. She hurried onto the meeting, still reading. She fumbled past the elevator gates and reached out her hand to push open the door of the conference hallway but when her hand hit nothing, she looked up.

Squall was standing there, holding the door open for her. She saw him up close and he looked as bad as she felt; he was panting out of breath and sweat was running down his face. His hair was a shuffled mess and it had not been combed. It looked as though he had dressed in a hurry and forgotten to iron his uniform. The shirt underneath the wrinkled vest was hanging out where they would usually be folded up into cuffs and his collar was doing an odd sort of new fashion statement, with one half up and the other down. She also saw that he had his notes in his hand, probably reading them in a great rush. She had her notes in her hand from the meeting the night before, which Squall had conveniently absent for. Then again, she was sure nothing could keep Squall from a war that had do with his Garden but a very good excuse. Something stirred in her memory from the night before. Before she had gone to bed, she had seen Squall escort a crying girl into his room.

She opened the door to the conference room and all heads turned towards them. They quietly took the empty seats closest to them. Cid's eyes had fallen on them as well but as far as they could see, he was positively fuming.

"Is there any excuse to why you're late and why you did not show up to yesterday's meeting?" Cid asked them, looking over at Squall to say the last bit. Quistis spoke up at once.

"Sir, I was dealing with a personal issue and it could not wait. Anything I have missed I will attend to it after the meeting ends, sir." Quistis said, perfectly professional. Cid eyed her for a second before turning on Squall who said nothing.

"You'll meet me in my office after the meeting." He said.

"Sir." Squall muttered. He hated calling Cid sir. Cid was more like his father and having to be reprimanded was infuriating. Squall glanced around. Xu, Nida, Selphie, Zell and Bejei were all there listening raptly to the words coming out of Cid's mouth. There were more SeeDs towards the front but he couldn't see them all since their heads were turned towards Cid again. Quistis was scanning her notes. He sat in a daze listening to Cid drone on and on about an upcoming war with Arâshnia Garden. Usually, a war would've interested him greatly but today there was much more weighing on his mind then a war.

Towards the meeting's end he appointed commander positions to SeeD members and were given lists of SeeDs in their troupe. As most of the people filed out, he caught a glimpse of his old SeeD training school enemy, Seifer.

Seifer? He hadn't seen Seifer for a long while. Lately, he had been fighting with his own troupe for the Karabalding Garden's over in Middleton, who were at war against the Jiksid Garden. If the war had ended, he would surely have heard. With a pang of guilt he remembered he had skipped the meeting the night before. Maybe if he had been there he would know why Seifer was back. But why on earth would he be back? Seifer was probably very pleased to see Squall get reprimanded by Cid, but Squall was pleased to see that Seifer was not given a commanding position for the mission.

After the meeting, he shambled out of the hallway and onto the elevator that took him to Cid's office. He sat down and waited for Cid who wasn't there yet. Cid came bumbling a few minutes later, set a thick stack of papers on his desk and sat down across from him. He looked up at Squall and back at the papers. Then he did a double take and stared at Squall.

"What?" Squall asked after a few seconds.

"Why are you sitting there?"

"What? I always-" He was sitting in the chair next to the chair he always sat in. He blinked and then moved to his seat.

"Is something wrong, Squall?" Cid asked, concernedly.

"No, nothing's wrong."

"Why did you skip the meeting last night?" Cid demanded. "I could have used your input."

"Why is Seifer here?"

"Maybe if you'd've bothered to show up you would know." But instead of answering, Squall scowled at him. "Well, why weren't you there? Arâshnia is going to war with us!" Cid exclaimed.

"You didn't answer my question." Squall protested.

"You didn't answer mine."

"Alright," he said. "I met Kelsey last night." Cid was dumbfounded and relaxed a little.

"A newbie then?" He asked, like a father would.

"Yes. She spent the night in my room last night. We were just...catching up, you know?"

"Yes. I understand now. You are exempt from anything if you need to be with her." He hesitated before adding, "Even the war, if you must." Squall sat up quickly.

"I would never bail on our Garden! This Garden means more to me than anything and you should know that better than anyone!!" He shouted, appalled.

"I do know. You just let me know if you need anything okay?"

"Okay. So...why is Seifer here?" He asked, leaning back against the chair.

"We called in all the troupes last night. Trabia Garden is taking over their place with the Karabalding Garden in the war in Middleton while we need our soldiers here, fighting our own war. We think the Arâshnia will attack Trabia soon and we need to be prepared." Squall absorbed all this.

"Why are they attacking us and Trabia? What's going on with our economy and theirs?" Cid got out a map and showed him where everything was in relation to each other.

"We're unsure of what they want yet. They sent in troops and attacked Genevia and as you know their Garden's program...isn't all that reliable. They've assembled what they can but have been mostly taken over. Genevia Garden is closer to Trabia then here, but Trabia and Arâshnia have never had had any confrontations and there would be no reason to attack them unless they were in the same league with us, which they are. We have reason to believe that in order to put us out of commission; they'll attack Trabia, first completely throwing the current war in Middleton into a chaotic mess." Squall rubbed his temples.

"No, that would be bad for them." And proceeded to tell Cid a better plan. "It's the most logical thing to do. Trabia is fighting in our place while we prepare for Arâshnia's attack. They won't be expecting another Garden's attack and all their troops are in Middleton and all our troops will be stationed here."

"So you're saying we protect Trabia?" Cid said, looking over the map.

"We need to put most of our troops at the Middleton war and end it. That will isolate Jiksid and Arâshnia. Then, we need men at Trabia to protect it while they are fighting. Only the back end of us should be here just in case."

Cid looked at the map. Squall was making sense. It was more logical for them to gather their forces and be the strongest Garden of all before attacking Trabia and Balamb Gardens, which were the top Gardens in the country, than to attack Trabia from both sides and have no strength.

"You know, I wouldn't be surprised if that were true. Why didn't you say that at the meeting?" asked Cid, disgruntled.

"All I could think about was Kelsey." He admitted. Cid's anger softened. They continued to speak on the issue and Cid made up his mind. He called another meeting within the next day.

Squall went to his room, head aching from all the thinking he had had to do. He had always been more on top of things about the way the enemy's mind worked. When he neared his door, he found a girl sitting in front of it.

"What took you?" Kelsey demanded.

"Emergency meeting." He looked around. "Are you sure you're not going to get in trouble for being out? You didn't sleep in your dorm last night. Did they notice?"

"No. I came back because I wanted to see you, not to worry about whether or not I'm going to get in trouble."

"You better start thinking about it. I have spent years of my life earning a place at this Garden but that doesn't mean I can override the system to save your skin, so be careful okay?"

"I will."

"And I need sleep tonight. I know we didn't sleep last night and then I was late for the meeting this morning."

"Sorry. Was it important?"

"Yes. Our Garden is at war."

"What? Are you going to fight?" She looked horrified at the prospect.

"No, not as of right now. I am staying to protect Balamb Garden first. But even if they do call me, I have to. This is my, and every SeeD's job." She looked angry. They retreated into his room and she tried to convince him to reconsider. He thought of Cid's words to him, "Yes. I understand now. You are exempt from anything if you need to be with her, even the war, if you must."

She sighed. He had someone who needed him. This emotion swelled up inside him but he wasn't backing down when Arâshnia was picking a fight with his Garden. He would fight to the death for the things he loved most: his Garden and his sister.

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Here's a quick war recap.

There's a war in Middleton (between the Jiksid Garden and Karabalding Garden) so Balamb sent troops to help Karabalding Garden, because they are allies. Arâshnia and Balamb Gardens are going to war too so Balamb calls back its troops from Karabalding and Trabia Garden takes Balamb's place protecting Karabalding.

Cid wants to send all the troops to protect Trabia. Now that Arâshnia is gaining power, they took over Genevia Garden.

Instead of Arâshnia attacking Trabia straight out, they're going to help Jiksid win the war and get more allies first and then attack Trabia, when it's weak. Balamb's people were expecting Arâshnia to strike them but instead they're going to strike Trabia first, where we're least expecting it.