I do not own Final Fantasy 8 and neither it's characters and/or monsters. Squaresoft does. I only own the characters that appears in this fanfic who dosen't appear in the original game.

By the way, english is my second language. So please bear with me and review fairly. (This means not only the grammar flaws. I know I am far from perfect but I try my best to write in a different language than my native one.) So please, try to give a fair ammount of the good critics as well of the bad ones. It would be more motivating for me to hear some critics about my initial storyline as it unfolds...

Thank you

Chapter 1

Aftermath of silence.

Squall got up very early the following morning. He felt the need to go elsewhere. To go sight see. It was 6:23 AM. Irvine was still laying pathetically on Squall's couch with only his tiny whities on. The cowboy hat resting on the living room table. Squall packed up a backpack of his clothes in the most serene silence of the morning. He didn't bothered to cook something for breakfast. He would leave that up for the cafetria staff when he will pass by. Squall opened his dorm room and before getting out he said to Irvine « I'll be out of Garden for a while. Lock the door before leaving. If I find anything messy or any mysterious stains of any nature upon my return on my bed or anything else, you're dead meat. Got it?» Irvine, who was still sleeping, only responded by scratching his belly and getting back to his snores. Squall shut his dorm room and lock it behind him. It was a cloudy morning. The clouds were gray and almost formed a rooftop in the sky. Squall stopped in his tracks and gazed at the sky a moment. It seemed almost ominous. As if the clouds were announcing a heavy rain shower but he didn't really cared. He just enjoyed the moment in all it's majesty and beauty. It comforted him to know that besides him, someone or something else felt gloomy that moment. He got back on his way soon after.

Balamb Garden made some heavy ajustments in the following year. It found back it's original location on the islamd of Balamb and stayed permentaly there like before. It made many new dormrooms and enhanced the resident's room spaces by adding a personal bathroom, a balcony for some rooms like Squall and Quistis's and a living room for each appartement. The training center offered a new themed section called '' The wide spaces''. It is a simulator who projects the environnement of a solitary island. The monsters are real however but they are not as more dangerous than they were in the previous version of the training center. The Balamb Garden staff only wanted to add more variety of monsters into the mix to offer a better training experience to SeeD's and students alike without enhancing any risks of serious injuries.

Squall's footsteps echoed in the vast and empty hall of Balamb. Rythms of the leaving man no one expected to go. He didn't really told anybody he wanted to get out of Balamb. In fact, he didn't knew himself why he wanted to leave so badly for a moment. He, of course told Headmaster Cid about it who promised not to say a thing about the talk they had about it. Cid wanted to dispatch SeeDs on a rescue mission to Winhill. The village had being overrun by monsters since the last lunar cry. This time, the monsters had shown themselves more numerous and also harder opponents. The soldiers of Winhill who usually protected the village well enough coudn't handle the situation anymore. Therefore, they asked Balamb's SeeDs in backup. At first, Cid wanted to send as a dispatch party Zell, Selphie and Irvine but Squall asked Cid to take over the mission personally and also, alone. Needless to say that Cid who knew Squall had been in a bad shape since some while ago agreed with some hesitation. He concluded that these monsters woudn't be too much to handle for him and also, some time and space would do him well. Squall arrived at the cafeteria. Very few students were there that morning. Three of them were there. Xu was drinking her morning coffee with an other student finishing his level 3 SeeD exam and Zell, who surpringly enough was awake at this time of the morning.

«S'up Squall! What's with the backpack?» He said noticing it. «...I'm heading to Winhill. There has been some changes with the dispatch party. I'll be going there myself.» Squall said. «Really, you mean I got up early for nothing?» Zell replied. «Afraid so.» Squall finished «Shit! Okay, well, who's coming with you?». «Nobody. I am going by myself. I need to do a couple of things there too but i'll be back soon enough.»

Zell didn't seemed pleased by the response. As a man, he knows when some of them lie. «Tell me Squall.» Zell asked «It's about Rinoa right?. I know it's hard to admit it but I understand. You doin't even need to tell me. I understand you need to evacuate that feeling of emptyness that invades you. You need to chill out a while. This will be an easy mission for you. Consider it to be a paid vacation. You're paid to say a final goodbye to Rinoa. I don't mean to widened the burden but I know you cared and the way she left you is a real slap in the face but trust me, going away will be a good thing for you However, come back home someday okay? Don't let this be a farewell...»

«...» This is the only answer Zell would have from Squall. Squall grabbed a coffee cup and some buttered bread on the counter and layed some gills where the food was placed. The lunch lady picked it up. Squall then turned from Zell and walked away. Not an additionnal word was said as Squall walked away..

Squall passed the reception desk and was now officially outside of Balamb Garden. There was nothing distinguishable at all in the sleeping scenary of the morning mist.The raising sunlight was enough to see the road, the trees and the city of Balamb just ahead but only as shadows on a orange sky. Squall walked among this wasteland of darkness with the only hope of seeing the light soon elsewhere. He didn't had the courage to tell Zell about if he ever wished to come back to Garden or let alone retire from the SeeDs. His ideas weren't clear. As he walked, he wondered how people would react if they knew he left to never return. Quistis would run after him. No need to wonder about Zell, he already guessed. Selphie would cry or at least make a scene about it and Irvine, well, he would act cool to try to convice him but it would not work at all. Besides, Squall always took care of himself. He only needed himself to survive through all hardships. It's not Quistis's tears, Irvine's cheesy punch lines, Zell's karate moves or Selphie's ways that would change a thing about it. The street lights of Balamb began to shine on Squall. As he turned around to look at Balamb Garden perhaps the last time. «Goodbye.» He whispered. Followed by a «Good riddance...» in his thoughts.