Squall's frown deepened and found himself wondering if he should try to change his approach of the somehow intimidating piece of paper. Maybe if he approached it from behind it wouldn't explode and drag him into the center of whatever argument had erupted between the largest and smallest Garden. Maybe if he was cautious in his approach he wouldn't have to deal with the two Gardens bickering and demanding his own attention on the issue. 'I have enough to do already, I don't need this! Maybe…if I ignore it… it will go away.' He thought hopefully.
After a moment of trying to ignore the dangerous looking piece of paper, trying to turn his attention off of it, his mind wandered back. 'Well… it is my responsibility.'
Whatever it was, it looked dangerous to the forty year old man. The Commander of the oldest Garden pondered taking out one of his many backup daggers from the hidden locations in his coat and prodding the 'innocent' piece of paper, checking to see if it would explode the way it almost promised to do.
His frown deepening further, he removed his black leather trench coat and laid it on a hook near the door. Rinoa had complained when he had bought the new coat, and started wearing it constantly instead of the short bomber jacket, with the white fur at the collar. He now wore a steady grey thin sweater, black pants, black boots and of course black leather gloves. Not much had changed on the steady Commander over the last twenty three years. 'I might as well get this over with.' He sighed to himself.
With that, he picked up the paper and took off the first page. It was a brief report sent by the elderly Headmaster of Galbadia Garden. Only a few sentences long. But in his years of experience in the role of Commander of Balamb forces, he knew that a short report like this almost stated bluntly that he would be forced to call over to the Headmaster to get into the real issue.
Also, with his years of experience on human nature, he had slowly begun to realize that it was almost with a childlike innocence that the younger Gardens, when presented with an issue they could not solve on their own, would delight in bringing it to his attention and would watch with trusting eyes as he struggled to find a solution. It was human nature to bring things like this up to the highest authority, and unfortunately for him, he was the highest authority. He had to get out of this job.
Squall read over the first lines of the report, turning them around in his mind as he did. 'The Galbadian SeeD exam was held yesterday. An incident, involving a Cadet in Squad A has forced Galbadia Garden to hold up the entire grade for this year!'
Squall sat back and pondered that. 'Sounds like Kayden.'
He leaned forward, pinching the bridge of his nose with his left hand before continuing to read. There was already a headache forming in his consciousness over this topic.
'The actions of the Cadet involved were severe enough that Galbadia found it necessary to bring in Trabia Garden as a mediator, but they still didn't get anything done… Of course. I still hate you for this job, Cid…' He mentally cursed the late Headmaster of Balamb Garden. 'Definitely sounds like Kayden. But why bring in Trabia first? Kayden's' old Garden was Balamb. Maybe Martine was actually trying to keep my workload down?'
Taking a breath, knowing that he was not going to like the last words of the brief report he continued. 'Cadet Maeda's actions involving her Squad leader could be viewed as voluntary manslaughter by the courts.' What actions! It wasn't Kayden! This gives me no information! Martine, what's your game?' Squall wondered to himself.
When he was done reading, he sat back stumped. The report gave no real information on what the action was, nor background for it, and Galbadia and Trabia officials wanted to hold a Tribunal to determine Garden's position on the matter. 'Probably here, if I know my luck, and how much Hyne seems to like me. What position could we have? This Cadet either acted in a manner that deliberately killed her Squad leader or she didn't. There's no middle ground, and Martine has almost forced me to have to call him over this. I better call Xu in for this one too; it does involve a cadet.'
With that, Squall reached forward and hit the intercom, and the dark haired woman entered a few minutes later. He gave her a few minutes to read through the brief report before raising an eyebrow at her.
"That was largely uninformative." Xu muttered under her breath. "Go ahead and call. You might as well before we have both Gardens tying up the phone lines looking for your answer."
Squall sighed once more. Everyone was being relatively unhelpful that day. He had already had a bad morning to begin with. Waking and slipping out of bed, trying not to stir his sleeping wife, he missed the dozing dog known as Dax and tripped over him just as he escaped the bed, tangling the sheets with him as he fell. Said dog yelped in surprise, waking up his owner, and immediately pretended to be injured, limping around on one paw for the benefit of his concerned wife. Rinoa bought the whole act, and cuddled the whining 'puppy' protectively while glaring at him.
'So far two bad things have happened. Only one more until Hyne's limit is fulfilled until tomorrow.'
With a sigh, he picked up the phone, and dialed the secure connection to the Headmaster's line. There were a few rings before the phone was answered.
"Hello Commander." Martine addressed without the SeeD having said a word.
"Martine. What's going on? You're report doesn't tell me anything." Squall broke in, not wanting to get involved with pleasantries of normal conversation. It was too early for that, and he still had not received his daily intake of caffeine.
He already had enough to do today, and this issue looked like it would take some more time out of the day that he didn't have to spend on it. 'Then there's Rinoa.'
As he had left their apartment for the day, Rinoa had made him promise that he would be back for lunch, in return for not making him sleep on the couch for hurting her precious pet. He knew, well enough, that whenever Rinoa forced him to sleep on said couch, the dog would happily steal his spot on the bed. He swore he almost saw the triumphant gleam in Dax' eyes when he left the room.
"Well, as the report said, there was an incident involving a student at our Garden during the SeeD exam."
"I need more details than that." Squall stated bluntly. "Don't quote what's said in the report."
"You'll need the background to fully understand the circumstances. I'm not trying to stall your time, Squall. But it is a sensitive issue."
"We're all ears, Headmaster Martine." Xu answered.
"Xu?"
"Martine. The incident. Please." Squall sighed out.
He was almost sure that the elderly man seemed to be hesitating on how to report this to him, and now he wanted to know why. The bad day had gotten worse if Martine was actually unsure of how to tell him something.
"Alright." The man sighed into the phone. "The final SeeD exam was excessive; it placed far too much responsibility on the candidates. I did not agree with it personally, but was outvoted by the majority faculty and the Commander."
'Wonderful.' Squall thought. 'Martine's losing his control over the faculty. What else can go wrong?'
"We received a distress call from Dollet, saying that an unknown enemy army was trying to invade through the mountain range separating the two countries-"
"How?" Squall broke in.
"By using the largely uncharted caverns in the mountains." Martine answered promptly. "The enemy army was divided into larger - several larger – sections, separated by a small section of runners, to deliver messages between the two groups."
Squall already did not like the direction this was heading in, and by the disapproving look on Balamb's Headmistress' face, she had also put together what may have occurred. 'They better not have given out the mission I think they did! It breaks nearly every rule in the SeeD manual!'
"There were four Cadet Squads with four members each. Their duty was to infiltrate and surround the smaller sections of the army and ensure that no message was delivered or left to a larger section of the army."
'Damn… why can't I be wrong once and awhile!' Squall thought to himself.
"So you sent inexperienced cadets into a battle with an unknown enemy! What if a message had broken through!" He said aloud, Xu nodded in agreement.
"Then the larger groups of SeeDs and Dollet soldiers would fail in their attempt to surround the larger groups of enemy soldiers."
"You tied the entire success of the mission on whether or not all the cadets would be able to carry out that order! Are you insane! That was asking for something horrible to happen!" Squall continued in an irate tone.
"Well, all the cadet squads passed on that order..."
"You still forced them to kill their first human without support from SeeD. Not that their situation was safe either, the entire mission was tied on their success. And if a section group failed then the whole attack would have! Who authorized this!" Squall was incensed.
Being a SeeD was risky; you played the odds of death and life all the time. But that was no reason to risk the lives of the inexperienced cadets in such a manner.
"The Commander, in the end."
"Verauan! Why didn't you stop him! You're the Headmaster of Galbadia Garden. You have final say over what the cadets can and can't do." Squall continued.
"I… tried. But my support and I were outvoted by the other faculty and the Commander. There was nothing I could do to stop it."
"And you didn't contact me with your concerns?" Squall asked.
"Respectively, Commander, even if I could have, there would have been nothing you could have done to stop the exam; not at that point."
"In the SeeD manual, section 26:9b it states that if any Garden official is deemed incompetent by others, with evidence, the events leading up to the discovery would be on hold until the matter is investigated by a tribunal."
"Not in our SeeD manual, Squall. My hands were tied."
"And you let that stop you from trying to help your cadets?" Squall asked. "There are times when leaders have to take control. You could have ordered them to stay."
"The Commander would have ordered them to leave… and that split in authority would bring the administration of Galbadia Garden crashing down."
Squall closed his eyes, wishing he had just stayed in bed. Why did these things always have to happen to him, around him or with him in charge? Why couldn't they just leave him alone? And what made it worse, was Martine actually had a point there. 'Maybe his hands were tied. But he should have tried harder to protect his cadets. It is his responsibility to them as their Headmaster. Garden can't threaten the lives of its students like that! I made sure of it!'
"I knew it would place all the cadets in danger, but I was outmaneuvered." Martine continued on the phone. "The squad in question is Squad A. Their members were; Cadet Higa as the leader, Cadets Dincht, Trepe, and the Cadet that has inadvertently caused all of this, Cadet Maeda. The day was proceeding as planned, until a little after the order to withdraw came. Cadet Higa was too far ahead and the Squad couldn't risk calling out to him to slow him in risk of their location being found by the enemy soldiers, nor could they catch up. Cadet Higa had frozen during the first human wave and hadn't completely recovered by that point; thus he had been moving too incautiously for his own safety. Cadet Higa ran head long into an eight person group of highly trained soldiers; two of them had him pinned before the final three members of the Squad caught up."
"You expected all the members of the Squad to behave normally, as if nothing had happened!" Squall continued into the phone. "You don't know what it does to someone of their age to kill their first human. Did you expect them to be machines? That's not what we train them for."
"This seemingly lack of concern for the entire graduating year's safety is disgusting!" Xu continued, following Squall's argument. "The rules clearly state that it goes against any form of safety to put people without that experience in a crucial role for the attack. You were asking for something to happen, and now that it has, you're surprised!"
"I certainly expected there to be repercussions. And in Squad A there were. I really tried to sway the vote, or to stop the SeeD exam, but I couldn't. Not without dividing the entire administration team of Galbadia Garden and causing discord within our Garden." Martine offered. "I'm not defending the fact that I failed the cadets involved. And I'm certainly not defending sending them into such danger. I can't change the past. But the worse case Scenario occurred, and a cadet died potentially at the hands of another."
"What do you mean potentially?" Squall asked. "Either she did kill him or she didn't… there's not much middle ground to that." Squall sighed. "And you can't just keep running to me with your problems."
"I know." Martine sighed and continued. "After the first human attack, Cadet Higa and Cadet Dincht both experienced some battle shock. Thankfully the other two were able to pull themselves together to complete the mission. Cadet Maeda took control of the Squad to allow her leader time to recover. By the time the order to withdraw came, Cadet Higa came out of his shock and took control back." Martine answered.
Squall sighed. "Carry on. Cadet Higa encountered eight enemy men and his Squad was too far behind him to assist." He edged the conversation back to the topic.
"Cadet Dincht was spotted by the men, but Cadets Maeda and Trepe were not. Cadet Maeda had Cadet Dincht continue shooting in hopes to lure the men to their location so that they were away from Cadet Higa. This worked partially, and the remaining five attacked after one was brought down by Cadet Dincht. Working together, they managed to either kill or neutralize the enemy. By the time Cadet Dincht had managed to kill off the two pinning Cadet Higa, they had injected him with a substance in a needle. The effects were that it began to eat his body alive, causing massive cavity bleeds all over his body. According to their debrief, the Squad tried all forms of magic and medical treatments they had available to them but nothing worked. Finally Cadet Maeda cast sleep on him, and thus could be charged with manslaughter. Trabia and Galbadia officials can't decide what to do in this situation."
'I'll be dammed.' Squall immediately thought in disbelief. 'She found the exact middle ground between manslaughter and mercy… perfect! But that doesn't mean that it was the right decision. If she had waited to cast the spell, an affect might have been seen or someone with more experience and stronger magic or medical items could have assisted. But he may not have survived to that point anyways, and if he had he would not have much of a life afterwards, that's assuming he survived past that incident. I'm not sure I agree with her decision. But I'm not going to disagree until I get a better sense of the topic.'
"Squad A, under Cadet Maeda's leadership managed to secure a sample of the infection to be studied and, with some help from SeeDs sent in to assist, escaped the cavern with no other injuries."
"We have a sample?" Squall asked in incredulity. 'At least that's something. Hyne's losing his touch.'
"Yes. Cadet Maeda was thinking far enough ahead to realize that her Squad may have been the only ones to have encountered this specimen, and she was right. It's under close study in our labs. So far, whatever living tissue has been fed to it, in experiments, it has destroyed in seconds. It looks as if it's a hundred percent kill rate. But that's off topic. Garden needs a position on this; either to back her decision or not to. Galbadia and Trabia tried to sort this out on our own but the votes are too close and a large number of the faculty withheld their vote at every session." Martine continued. "In short, we need the tribunal formed."
"At Balamb, right." Squall asked, feeling dread begin to take over him.
This was definitely not what he needed, but as much as Hyne hated him, this was exactly what he was going to get; officials from Trabia and Galbadia Garden as well as three extra Cadets; one of them causing so much chaos in her own Garden, one being safe at least, and the third being the menace. All he needed now was for the first and the third to be friends or involved in some sort of relationship and he would have his answer on how much Hyne had it out for him.
"It is between both Garden's and more neutral than holding the meeting Trabia or Galbadia." Martine was saying.
"Very well. I will call Trabia Garden and arrange the meeting between officials from all three Gardens." Squall sighed out. "I want the three Cadets involved as well as the tapes of their exam and their debriefings in Balamb as soon as possible."
"Yes, Sir." Martine answered.
Squall shook his head. It still shocked him when a Headmaster that was old enough to be his father, and had held his job for nearly as long as he had been alive, addressed him as their superior. It upset some internal balance he had, and still seemed wrong to him.
"Send the entire evidence over to both myself and officials at Trabia. Let's not walk into this council unprepared." Squall continued. "Is there anything else?"
"I believe that the majority of the officials are waiting to see what the parent's decision will be before they cast their vote. It is reasonable, considering what we're voting for."
"Whatever." Squall answered.
"That is reasonable…" Xu answered. "I would prefer to have a decision before the parents do, but that may be unlikely."
"Squall?" Martine questioned.
"Yes?"
"Cadet Maeda has a trained dog that she will probably wish to bring with her."
'As long as the dog is better trained than Dax.' Squall mused to himself. 'He only listens to Rin. And I swear he has it out for me. Great the dog is in league with Hyne and the rest of the world.'
"If the dog is well trained and is obedient I see no problem with the dogs' presence. Anything else?"
"No, not really. I really wish we could have spoken under better circumstances." Martine said in passing.
Squall agreed and soon the phone call ended. He turned to look at the irate Xu. "It's ridiculous what those cadets were put through. I'm not sure I agree with her decision, but with those circumstances, something was bound to happen. Garden can't treat cadets like seasoned SeeDs; it goes against several aspects of the manual. You have to do something about Verauan, Squall. If it was his decision that created this situation, then he holds some responsibility for the events that transpired." Xu ranted.
The man sighed. 'Great… more work! Thanks Hyne, I hate you too.'
"I know, Xu. I'll deal that issue after the council."
"And where do you stand, Commander?" Xu questioned.
"I'm not sure. I don't agree with Cadet Maeda's decision, but we haven't seen the entire set of evidence. So I don't know exactly what the progression of this substance was or what the cadets had been presented with in that moment. I'm not going to prejudice myself by forming a quick decision without looking at all the facts." He answered. "It would be unfair to Cadet Maeda to judge her acts without examining all the evidence first."
"Still so neutral."
"It's practical." Squall answered.
"I will inform Quistis, Seifer, Zell and Amaya of what happened. It is their children involved." Xu remarked.
Squall felt a flicker of relief. At least someone was trying to be helpful and not give him more work to do. "Good luck." He responded simply.
"I'm going to need it." Xu spoke back.
'And this will tie up weeks of my time just to sort it out.' Squall mused as Xu left. He would have to get to work soon.