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Ring ring ring.

"Yeah?"

"Can you come up to my office?" Cid inquired.

"Right now?"

"Well...ya. Are you busy?" Squall sighed.

"A little. But it's okay. I'll be in up in a bit." He glanced at his watch.

"Okay, thanks." Squall hung up the phone. Why couldn't Cid just tell him whatever he wanted to say over the phone? Squall stopped what he was doing and stood up, stretching. He yawned and left his office, heading towards the elevators. He pushed the up button and jammed his hands in his pocket to wait. When the doors opened, he came face to face with Quistis. Neither of them spoke. She hurried off towards the back wing.

I wonder what she's doing up here? He thought looking after her. Her office is on the second floor. He walked onto the elevator and pushed the four button.

Maybe she was coming from Cid's. I wonder if he told her something too. No wait, she must have been coming from the lower levels if the elevator took that long. He told himself looking at his watch. It was normal for Squall to overlook the little things, like that he had been at Garden so long he had the elevators timed out. Whatever, I can just ask Cid if he said anything.

He stepped off the elevator into the quiet hall, walked past Cid's secretary and walked into the office, plopping himself into his chair.

"What's up?" But from the look on Cid's face, he could tell the news wasn't good.

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"It's not like I need it immediately or anything but yeah, it would be nice to have." Quistis told Xu over the phone as she typed up a report on her office computer.

"Well, I don't think she'll have it by tomorrow morning so I can just finish whatever she doesn't have done." Xu told her. Quistis sighed, looking at her watch.

"Okay, I guess that works."

"Then I'll bring it by after my last newbie's training session."

"Fine, then I'll see you later." She hung up the phone. She glanced at her watch again just to make sure it had been correct ten seconds ago even though she wished it wasn't so late. She sighed again and began to rub her temples. She heard footsteps in her classroom and she stopped. No one was supposed to be on the second floor at this hour unless they were staff but who would come to her room? Normally the others SeeDs would call or e-mail but hardly ever walk in unannounced.

Well, except Squall. He would just walk over to say hi if he was near. The she remembered that Squall and her weren't talking. When she found herself thinking about Squall she focused her thoughts back on the intruder.

She didn't move. Should she investigate? If they wanted her they would knock on her door, right? She saw the light under the door suddenly shadowed by the figure standing outside the office entry. She stared. Hopefully it wasn't Cid or someone important to walk in and find her just sitting idly. She turned quickly and continued typing. It seemed the person was having a hard time knocking because they were just standing there. Then, without a knock, the door opened.

She looked up to see Squall's face in the doorway. Her eyes were piercing as if they were screaming for him to start speaking about what he wanted and get out as soon as possible. He wasn't meeting her glare.

"Can I help you?" She asked after a few minutes of silence. He looked as if he was on the verge of revealing a dark hurtful secret and wanted to shout it out but knew it was likely to sting on the impact. He still would not look at her. The scene was frozen. Quistis was sitting, waiting while Squall stood motionless on the threshold, content on watching the floor.

"What's going on? Is something the matter?" He still didn't speak.

He took a deep breath, as though he had needed to reflect a bit before spilling the secret.

"As commanding officer of Battalion Staff it is my duty to-"

"Oh, Squall! NO!" She cried, standing up, pounding her hands on the desk. She had heard those beginning words so many times before when she had to recite them, to learn them in case anything ever happened, but hearing them for real on the receiving end hurt so more than she had ever anticipated. Nothing was ever supposed to really happen. He continued to talk as though he had not heard her.

"It is my duty to alert you to reassign all advanced, intermediate, beginner and newb trainees and or any officer training or working underneath you to another leader. I am also to alert you that your classes will need to be reassigned to the instructor of your choice who is not in Battalion Staff. There will be a mandatory officer's meeting held tomorrow in the main meeting room at three sharp. Please be prompt and have all official gear and paperwork ready by then." He closed his eyes, now that what he had had to memorize was over. He was afraid to know how horrified her face was. He would not look.

She had a look of utmost horror on her face as she stumbled backwards into her chair. The address given by Squall was saved for the extremely important occasions. The very fact that Cid had told Squall to tell her, the second commanding officer of the Garden made her worry. She knew that there were only three people in the whole Garden who knew the information as of that moment: Cid, Squall and her. That was not a good sign.

"How can this be? How can this have happened?" She said, her face still incredulous.

"Battalion Eight has failed. We're going to war."

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Repeating the memorized "War Ticket Address", as the SeeDs often called the speech, was not easy. It was something every SeeD has to learn before even becoming a SeeD. It was called that because when someone told it to you, it was like they were handing you a sure ticket to war.

He had gotten the hardest ones over first: Quistis, Zell, Selphie, Nida, Xu...the SeeDs he would be closely fighting with...his graduating class…his friends.

He trudged up to Cid's office, thoroughly put out.

"How did it go?"

"How do you think it went?" He snapped at him.

"Don't give me lip." Cid said, warningly. Squall gave him a dirty look but refrained from saying anything more. Cid was his father or the closest thing he'd ever had to one and although Squall didn't like Cid's conditions he knew when to keep his mouth shut. Squall didn't feel like hanging around Cid's office so he turned and walked out with folded arms.

He didn't walk towards the elevator when he came out of the office either; he turned and walked to the stairwell. He climbed a flight because the elevator didn't go to the roof. The neat thing about Garden's buildings was that they were inside. He emerged from the door and shielded his eyes. The sun was poring through the dome's tinted teal surface and making the light around him look eerie. He walked to the edge of the building and looked down. He saw the Garden, it's students talking happily as they made their way to their next classes. He turned to see the beginner class coming out of the training center swinging their weapons around, bragging about how they whooped up on some monster in the training run. How carefree they were. He sighed and looked at his watch. He would be expected back in his office soon. He took one last look at his home and left back down the stairs.

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