Restoring the Lion's Heart: Chapter 2

A/N: Many thanks to those who took the time to review the previous chapter! I'm really glad to hear this story is at least intriguing. Anyway here is the next chapter which is admittedly a little boring, if just because it's mostly setting everything up. It also may be filled with many errors because I'll be away for a while and I didn't want to hold this chapter up. So here's to hoping that it's actually readable. *crosses fingers* Well, enjoy what you can of it. (:

The sounds of the chirping spring birds could be heard. The wind whistled along, swiftly carrying the lovely melodies around and about in the air. There were also crickets, some fluttering, and other little noises from various creatures that added to the general ambient music of what sounded like a bright, sunny day.

It was all this that resounded, at first, as nothing but a faint and distant memory - but as the minutes passed by the sound became clearer, and louder.

"Uurh…"

That was Bartz. He was just beginning to stir awake from his unconscious sleep. He, along with Zidane, were currently sprawled about completely on an ever green plane where the grass was just long enough to tickle their noses, and where the tall green trees circled them as various bursts of the blazing sun spurted right through the uncovered parts of the daylight. They looked to be in a forest of some sort.

When Bartz had rubbed away the last of unconsciousness, he lazily turned his head about in search of his partner - ah, there he was, sprawled out not too far off. However he seemed to be giving no signs of consciousness. Bartz frowned slightly at this.

"Zid…" croaked Bartz, once he managed to drag himself over to his friend. He tried to shake him in hopes of getting a reaction. "Ziddy, you alright?"

Finally it amounted to something, because the thief - while groggily - began to stir awake. "Mmrh… are we…?"

Before anyone could get any further a monstrous roar banged painfully at their ears - followed by an out of nowhere massive gush of wind. It practically carried them right out of the forest, for their dreary and limp states left them rather vulnerable and not nearly alert enough to react immediately. Fortunately however their reflexes kicked into gear just in time to fumble back into a defensive stance, the unexpected agitation having cleared away the last of their sleepy residues.

Completely startled by the random outburst Zidane gave an undignified cry. "What the hell was that?"

When Zidane noticed Bartz wasn't looking nearly as annoyed as he was but rather astonished or what could constitute as vaguely bewildered, he simmered down from his rage and instead made a questioning face. "Bartz?" In fact, Bartz wasn't looking at Zidane at all, but rather looking upwards - bending his head all the way back. Zidane, curious, then looked up as well. "Oh what in the…"

They were looking right up into the eyes of a giant tyrannosaurs rex.

The monster roared once more, but this time Bartz and Zidane were prepared so they managed to hold themselves into place.

"Oh for the - I am not fighting that thing!"

"That makes two of us - smoke bomb's away!"

Apparently Bartz had stored some of those - that or he had found the time to switch to his ninja job class - and pulled one right out, effectively shrouding up the view long enough to keep themselves away from enemy eyes. When the smoke had dissipated, the duo was completely out of sight.

"…I wasn't mentally prepared to face a flaming dinosaur at our arrival here."

They were out of the forest - quite far from the forest - and rested on the open grass out in the sun. The monster made no attempt to chase after them despite it being the one that initiated the confrontation. Upon reflection, maybe it was just screaming them away from its turf.

Either way it came as a bit of a surprise to the boys, Zidane only just getting over the after shock. "Yeah…yeah that really could've come with a warning."

"Well looks like Noelle did it at least? We're definitely in a different world now."

Effectively, they were. They looked around and noticed the layers upon layers of green, highlighted by the fierce sun that hung from the clear blue sky. The entire area was just a field of grass with the occasional bush and forests here and there - it was completely remote, but at the same time calm and peaceful. At a much further distance back they noticed something that looked like a town, but closer to them and what intrigued them currently was a large, slick, futuristic looking building, that Bartz jokingly thought was shaped similarly to a turd.

"That must be the Balamb University Noelle talked about. She wasn't kidding when she said it was hard to miss."

She mentioned a number of things before their send-off. Zidane recalled back on the several notes she made: about Ultimecia's goals to compress time, about the school Squall attended and what it was to be a so called 'SeeD', about how to return back once they had found the ring and most importantly, about the use of magic and summons which they called guardian forces. Apparently wielding magic was only a thing Sorceresses were gifted with, whereas the ordinary folks could only replicate it through 'para-magic' thanks to the aid of those guardian forces. Zidane was never able to cast magic to begin with and had no intentions of using the para-magic of this world either - having your memories fed off to those summons in exchange for power was not something he was ever willing to do - but a warning was made to Bartz who, as opposed to himself, could wield any kind of magic naturally so he had to be rather careful.

Speaking of which, he was pointing towards the curiously designed building. "You think that would be a good place to start? Hell, maybe we'll find it in Squall's room."

"Not like we have any other leads anyway, so it's as good as any."

And so the boys found themselves walking towards the odd looking university, agreeing it would be a fine place to start fishing out for the lost ring. If the exterior design left a bit to be desired, then the interior was a different story; the minute they helped themselves through the main gold entrance gates and up the stairs...they were struck in awe at the wild, futuristic display which neither Bartz or Zidane had ever seen the likes of. And they weren't even in the actual building itself.

"Woah, check this out! Everything looks so sophisticated and classy!" Bartz excitedly went to touch at everything and anything that tickled his curiousity.

"Yeah...yeah I know right? Dang, Squall would come from a place like this." whislting, Zidane stood there arms folded as his head rolled around to take in the scenery.

It was a blissful and curious wonder walk, with plenty of ooh's and aah's at all the intricate little details that caught their attention. They continued like this, all through the journey into the university...up until they hit the security gates that is.

"Hold it right there strangers!"

Startled out of their wonderland stupor, the boys looked towards the intruder voice. It was from their left, where a large looking guard was currently sagged in his seat from behind a booth. His face was old and tired, and even somewhat unfriendly. If the boys didn't know better they would've said that this old fellow wasn't even bothering to hide the fact that he hated his job. "I'll need to see your pass."

"Pass?" Zidane started tentatively.

"Like I said."

"But…we don't have any," continued Bartz, vaguely confused.

"In that case, this classifies you two as intruders. No pass, no entrance sorry."

"What? But we have a very important retrieval to make!"

The guard looked over to Zidane with the same bored expression. Clearly this man didn't give a damn. "If you were sent from abroad, then you would have been granted with an entrance certificate."

"But we don't have one!" the mime was quick to interject again.

Scoffing, the guard shrugged his plump shoulders and finished with a rather decided, "Then no entrance."

With being so close to their target, this hindrance of a guard was easily getting to Zidane's nerves - but not enough to either make him shoot to the moon or crash right through the gates, breaching security. So he opted to listen to what this security guard had to say, in the hopes that they could get in by their rules. "Fine. How do we get a pass or whatever? We really need in that place."

At that the man was forming a skeptical face, seemingly unsure of whether to bother going through with the explanations or not. Eventually he made up his mind. "…We will first of all need your ID cards so we can make a background check. That could take a while. If you're deemed appropriate, we'll later proceed to do finger and eye scans, then have you fill out application forms then have you take other body scans then…."

Noise noise noise. He was just going on and on and on. He wasn't stopping. And Zidane wasn't really making any sense of the flooding babbles either, let alone Bartz, who was looking just as lost and dejected at the whole situation. Was this Balamb University some sort of secret assassination unit? The security seemed so convolutedly tight for a school which was supposedly specialized in actually helping out those in need. The whole thing sounded like such a bother.

And when the guard had finished his course, it took a while for both Bartz and Zidane to realize that the older man's mouth ceased flapping, still lost in their internal questioning. The rock of realization hit them square in the head, eventually, bringing them back to reality but not helping much to clear their confusion. No one really knew what to say. Well, Zidane didn't. Bartz had tentatively started with the first thing that caught him off-guard and had since lost him throughout the entire monologue. "What if we…don't have IDs?"

"Oh for the – is this kid serious?" at this point the guard was showing signs irritation.

Bartz tried again. "Uh…can't we just skip all these formalities just for a second? It's not like we're going to stay there or anything, we just need to make a quick search. We'll be real quick, promise."

"You kids are wasting my time. I already told you that no pass equals no entrance. Rules are rules. Either give in or go home already."

"Okay fine, if you're gonna be like this then we'll have to put it this way: open this here gate or we'll just barge our way in!" fired back Zidane.

"Yeaah! And Ziddy's got gas like you've never smelled before!"

"...Why do you talk, seriously."

Between their little banter, the guard had taken the opportunity to slip away from their attention and wheel behind from his desk. It looked like he was leaning into a speaker of some sort. "Yes, I'd like to report a madman and his goofball accomplice trying to invade Balamb…"

Oh, now that's just great. Zidane couldn't decide whether rolling his eyes or rubbing the sides of his head would've been more effective to cool off his growing frustration. Either way, he didn't particularly like the direction where this was heading.

Seemingly out of options, Bartz thought it was only logical that they go all out. "This calls for drastic actions: emergency plan in motion!"

For the record there was no emergency plan between the two that was ever discussed, but apparently they had the same thing in mind: the boys swiftly leaped over the security gates and dashed their way into the university. And they would've made it, had it not been for the armed forces charging towards their direction.

From behind, they recognized that very same guard that gave them a hard time earlier screaming. "Stop those idiots!"

"Abort! Reinforcements are here!" yelled the mime.

Halt. Skid. Turn one-eighty. They dashed right from whence they came - over the security gates - down the stairs - through the gold entrance gates and back into the wilderness of Balamb. They didn't stop to look back and see if the reinforcements were indeed chasing their wanted behinds for having yet behaved like their inner idiot selves.

It took a while for the boys to lose the guards that had chased them out of not only Balamb University, but also through the open fields and right into one of the vast forests. Apparently what the boys did had really upset them, because they found themselves trying to lose their trails from the enraged mob of reinforcements for a good hour or so. Not even half way through the day of their mission and they were already causing problems. At that rate, this task was announcing itself to be a major flawless success. They could only hope that they weren't going to be listed on their "Wanted" or "Black" list if you will, and instead pray that this would simply be brushed off as some mishap.

Currently the boys - defeated and wheezing - were up in the high ends of a tall tree deep in the richly green forest, away and hidden from the possible wandering eyes of the enforcers. They were both settled on two separate thick branches, Zidane hanging from one with his tail while Bartz sat rigidly, clinging tightly to the rough, hard trunk.

Ten minutes in. Zidane peeped down ever so slightly - careful not to make so much of a rustle - just to make sure the guards had dropped the chase completely and were out of sight. Coast was clear for now, and Zidane - having calmed down on his wheezing - deemed it safe again to start talking. "Well this is lame. We can't even get IN the damned most important place and worst of all, we may even be on their wanted list". He swung from below with his tail and landed in a seated position on the thick branch, legs dangling over.

Bartz though still looked like he was having a hard time. He hadn't said anything. In fact Zidane thought his skin color had vaguely turned green…

"Dude you ok?"

"No. No I'm not. I'm far from ok."

"Don't worry; the guards are gone, so we can get down and try getting into the uni by climbing it 'round the back - that way they can't see us."

"…I'm scared of heights."

He was what?

"Huh? How? All those double jumps you do in the air, you climbing the tree just now - and you're telling me you're afraid of heights?"

It came as a surprise to Zidane. Especially since they had known each other for over two years now, and no such thing ever left his lips or was vaguely hinted at.

"I can overcome it enough to get up and do things!" shrieked Bartz, "But it doesn't mean I still don't feel uneasy about it..."

Sighing amusedly, Zidane simply offered a sympathetic smile at his dear frightened friend. It was the least of all possible phobias Zidane expected the man to have. "Haha, I'm really sorry man. Think you can stomach it one more time for the bust in to the uni?"

"Just don't complain if I throw up in your face."

Zidane laughed whole heartedly. "I'll take it!"

And so with a little bit of a help from Zidane and some eventual fumbles and ruffles and tiny yelps here and there, the boys got back down safely and scuttled out of the forest. They were prepared and careful to avoid any possible guards that were still scouting the area, but thankfully for them this was not the case - the coast was completely clear, so they assumed they were a dropped case entirely and went on their way.

But as they hurried over to try and go around the university, they noticed a troop a people coming right out from the entrance of the school - first instincts were to flee and hide, which they did just as, by quickly fumbling over each other and flopping right into the nearest bush for cover, alarmed at the possibility that they could be more guards. Once they settled in and started double checking the situation by peeping through the holes of the bush, they noticed that the uniforms were completely different.

Those weren't guards. Ah, for once they were having a lucky streak, thank heavens for that. Deeming it safe to carry on with their master plan, they paid them no mind and scurried right off while the troop exiting Balamb - students, more precisely - marched away in the opposite direction. There was a person leading the squadron.

"Students of Balamb Garden University! I reckon you've equipped yourselves properly - as in G-Forces, Magic and Weapons! This is the SeeD test you're about to take - the slightest error could be vital!"

Getting into Balamb University wasn't that great of a feat thankfully, they both managed to get in without any real problems - unless of course Bartz's hysteric phobia counted as a problem, but in general that too was managed pretty well. Sure he almost toppled off from his hold and was threatening he'd pass out, but the important thing was that he made it and was was alive. Only just, Bartz would've retorted.

Their wonderland stupor was quick to reemerge itself however. Having climbed through the window and land right into what looked like a classroom - fortunately for them it was completely empty - they gazed a little at how refined, high-end and advanced everything looked. From the hard polished floors, to the elegant architecture, to the specially designed computer desks; everything about it screamed luxury. They wobbled out of the room and out into the hall, letting themselves get overwhelmed by fascination.

"You still feel like throwing up now, eh Bartz?" the thief threw playfully, with a smirk.

Not having any real material to retaliate with, Bartz settled with sticking his tongue out. "Still though, this place doesn't fail to impress."

"You got that right," a pause. "Well, as fascninating as this school is we better start getting to work."

Bartz blinked, seemingly having forgotten what they were even doing here. "Ah yeah! I'll go back and check that classroom just in case."

The thief gave a curt nod. "Alright. I'll scout any other empty rooms here. It'll probably be a good idea to come back here at night for any currently occupied classrooms, since classes are usually over by then. That's of course if we don't find the ring elsewhere."

Bartz nodded in agreement, and with that he was off to check back into the room from where they came. Zidane himself got down to work with the other vacant rooms.

Several minutes went by into the search as Zidane was just exiting one of the empty classrooms. Apparently the school was on a lunchbreak or something of the sort, because all the classrooms currently looked like ghost towns.

As he came out though, a couple of voices could be heard at a far distance.

"C'mon pleeeeease! Just tell me!"

It was a rather loud, and boisterous voice if one could put it as such. It sounded needy, and was bordering on annoying. The theif got the faint impression you could grow tired just by listening to it.

Supposedly there was a faint but curt sigh that followed the pleading. "Just wait until the briefing, Zell. It's in forty minutes by the lobby.

Aaahh...a woman! Suddenly the blond was infinitely more interested. He made an internal whistle, curious to peek and see who exactly were the conversing duo. Actually that was a lie; he mostly just wanted to see if this woman was just as beautiful as she sounded.

"But I'm right here, so you might as well just tell me! Or give me a hint!" continued this 'Zell'.

The lady sighed again. "You're not exactly scoring any points with me right now."

"All I wanna know is who I'm taking my SeeD exam with! Is that really such a big deal?"

Zidane - who was walking towards the voices - reached the only turn of the long hallway, and it was from that area where the voices were coming. He peeked his head slightly at the corner, just to get enough of a glimpse of what was going on in the far end. And enough he did - the first thing that grabbed his eyes was the ethereal figure of an elegant blond lady, standing in front of what Zidane could only guess was an elevator. He couldn't see the whole of her face as she was practically standing with her back to him but angled slightly towards the side. The angle was enough for him to make out the trace of her fair face and red plush lips. That were currently sitting in a frown. Zidane too, frowned at that. Man that Zell guy must be a real nag.

"Promise you will leave me alone and do something else productive."

"Deal."

"Fine. It's Squall. You are taking the SeeD exam with Squall. I will not tell you who your leader is, that will have to wait until the briefing."

Zidane wasn't particularly paying attention to the boy named Zell (except of course the obvious first glance like how he was tanned and had odd spikey hair, vaguely reminding him of Cloud) let alone the conversion, but it was hard to miss the sudden jolt of excitement that burst through the loud being. "Alright! I getta work with the legend Squall!" Was he punching the air? "That's wicked..."

A ding resounded. That must've been the elevator. The heavy doors slid open, waiting for the next batch of people to enter aboard. Zidane watched as the lady stepped in, apparently waiting for the hyperactive boy to enter the elevator as well. "Are you going down?"

"Hells yeah, I'm gonna stuff myself with hotdogs before the big deal. It'll be like my good luck charm!"

And then they were off.

"...What was that all about?"

Zidane made a visible jump at the sudden comment. It was merely Bartz, but he was close enough to Zidane that he should've noticed his presence. How long had he been standing there?

"Dude don't do that - scared the crap out of me." Zidane held his chest, heaving a little.

"Ah, sorry."

Zidane scratched the back of his head idly. "So, did you find anything?"

Unfortunately the answer was no, as the mime slowly shook his head. "I'm guessing you didn't find anything either."

"Sadly. Let's try and find Squall's room and search it then, before we turn this entire school upside down."

Since there was nothing but classrooms on their current standing it was assumed the dormitories would be elsewhere, so Zidane started walking towards the elevator, hoping Bartz would take the hint. It took a couple of seconds before Bartz could even register Zidane wander off as Bartz was deep in thought, musing over something. Eventually he snapped out of it and quickly hurried after his partner.

When the mime and thief found Squall's room after much inquiring the first thing that came to their attention was that there was a corpse on the bed.

It was actually Squall himself.

But like the one from their world, and presumingly all the other Squalls in the other time cycles, he was void of his soul and was lost in a deep sleep.

"So this is Squall from here," idly commented Zidane. "They look exactly the same. Same clothes, same hair...same everything."

"Wait but...doesn't he have a SeeD exam in a bit?"

Zidane stared at Bartz with a confused face, but then he vaguely recalled the conversation between the woman he currently had his eye sights on and the over zealous boy. SeeD was mentioned several times in the conversation. "Ah, so you heard all that? Admittedly I wasn't really paying attention."

"Yeah I did! And I'm finally realizing that we're in the past!"

While the mime geniunely seemed to be worried about something that Zidane couldn't quite place, he still offered Bartz a questioning look. "I see that, but what I don't see is what that has anything to do with anything."

"It has everything to do with everything - if he doesn't take the exam then he won't become the SeeD he's supposed to be. We have to do something about it! "

"Um, we already are? We're trying to find the ring?"

"But that could take ages - Squall needs to take his exam now, who knows how often these things come up! That could mess up the whole cycle thing!"

"All the cycles are messed up anyway! Which is why we gotta find the ring tout de suite!"

"We can at least save one and put it on track. I mean, what if -"

"Look I get it Bartz - you wanna save Squall. You wanna save the world. You wanna headbutt into anything and everything to make it "right" because that's you, that's what you do. But take a minute to stop, think and look at the bigger picture: there is no Squall to take that exam. We're much better off finding that ring ASAP and fixing everything at once instead of trying to fix one cycle, however the hell that can be done. Finding the ring is our only solution to currently help Squall, so let's stick with it."

Bartz said nothing, looking downwards.

"Continue searching for anything 'round that corner, I'm going to go check the back."

And with that, Zidane temporarily disappeared into the second section of the room.

Bartz had well listened to Zidane's reasoning but he still wasn't convinced. If Ultimecia hid the ring herself, why would it even be in his room…which was a valid point. If the location of the ring wasn't random, and Ultimecia really had purposely set for it to be transferred to a particular location, then it was probably within a special place known to her, or with someone she trusted - if she had any henchmen that was - or worse case scenario, it was possibly with herself. But that would mean she'd be around here, right? Noelle felt the presence of the ring and teleported us as close to it as possible…ugh, I honestly don't even know anymore.

Feeling dejected, he turned to look towards his unconscious 'friend' stuck in a slumber, pushing aside his inner quarrels. This Squall didn't look all that much different from the one he knew, but you could faintly tell that he seemed just slightly younger. Maybe it was because this Squall had yet to face the hardships to come of his fate? Bartz frowned again. 'Hardships of his fate', there may very well even be no such thing.

The very idea that this boy's life could be a wreck by the time he woke up wasn't sitting well with Bartz at all. If this search took months – hell even if just weeks or days – Squall would be presumed dead. The world would move on without him, and worse yet Ultimecia could possibly get away with her crazy nonsensical plans...which would affect both him and Zidane, too, since they were currently breathing within the dimension. He knelt down beside the bed, careful as not to disturb the brunette – despite the fact that the boy was deep in a coma – and smiled bemusedly.

It was a fact; Bartz felt the compulsive need to do something. Even though he knew in his head Zidane was right, he knew that finding the ring first and foremost was the best solution for all – but in his heart, he couldn't let go of the feeling frantically eating at him. He couldn't watch this trainwreck happen before his very sight. He had to help this Squall keep his life back on track. He had to at least start it. This boy here, while looking exactly like his friend, wasn't even the Squall he knew and grew to care for fondly…and yet he still felt that urge to have his back.

While most of the time Bartz never understood why he felt the way he did, he usually always did blindingly follow his heartfelt instincts.

Because it felt right.

o-o-o-o

When Zidane came back out groaning under his breath about being empty handed and something to do with weird equipment in the area, his first thought was that Bartz was out of sight. "Hey Bartz, where you at? I didn't find anything, let's try another-"

He caught sight of something as he turned. It first stirred vague confusion. Then wonder.

And then the realization hit him like a boulder to the head.

Splayed on the bed was the ever still oblivious, peacefully sleeping Squall. But the only fundamental difference…

…was the complete absence of his clothes.

"Oh no. Oh no he didn't. Just no."

Zidane couldn't believe what his accomplice was about to get himself into.

To Be Continued...