Icicle Knight, Fiery SeeD

Chapter 6

//\\

Seifer stood silent vigil over Fujin's unmoving body. He'd just relieved Raijin from the task, the only way he could convince the remainder of his posse to finally get some sleep. Everyone was worried about her, given that his silver haired spitfire of a lieutenant hadn't so much as twitched since the confrontation with Edea and Leonhart over two weeks ago. Dr. Kadowaki had no clue as to the cause of the condition, and even less idea of how to treat it, which was more worrying than Seifer wanted to admit. Dr. Kadowaki had been with Balamb Garden since it was founded, treating all sorts of bizarre injuries and ailments that could only come from a facility in which the students were training to be killers. Seifer had lost track of the times he had woken up in the Infirmary after getting injured in a spar with Leonhart, and the doctor's calm, no-nonsense manner had actually become comforting, though Chicken-wuss would have to kill him to get him to admit it. If Kadowaki didn't know what was wrong with Fujin, than it was hard to think of who would.

Honestly, he didn't mind vigil duty for the moment. It gave him a free moment to think away from all the work he'd found himself saddled with. He hadn't realized exactly how much work being Commander turned out to be. He'd had to review all the lesson plans for all the classes, and make suggestions as to how they could be improved in regards to their current crisis, not to mention go over Intelligence reports for the past year at the least to see if there was any scrap of information that could make a difference in the way Garden responded to the next threat. He'd dumped some of that paperwork on Raijin, but though he knew he could trust the quarterstaff user with his life, Raijin just didn't have the head for strategic leadership. He could have trusted Fujin with the Intelligence work, but she was in a coma and therefore unavailable. All that in addition to abandoning his work for at least two hours a day while he kicked monsters around the Training Center to keep himself in shape.

And that didn't even get into the headache Edea had caused when she had given him all the information she could on Sorceress Ultimecia, who had apparently been the one controlling her body as She laid waste to the Gardens and countryside in search of Ellone. Apparently, Ultimecia wanted to trigger something called "Time Compression" whatever the fuck that was, and She needed Ellone's special abilities to do so. The reason She needed someone to act in Her place, was apparently because She lived several centuries in the Future, so far out of reach that it wasn't even funny. How on earth was he supposed to conduct a campaign against an enemy that didn't even live in the same time period as he did? Someone who wasn't even born yet? The prospect gave him a massive headache.

Glancing around the Infirmary, he let his gaze rest on the few cadets still confined to the room. He winced, thinking about the 28 cadets who had died in the defense of Balamb Garden, and the 30 or so others had their careers ended by disabling injuries. True, Balamb Garden had defended itself better than he could have possibly expected, but any self-congratulation he might have felt had turned to ashes the moment the file with the names of the diseased had crossed his new desk. He'd forced himself to read it through, looking at the profiles and memorizing the names. He'd never lost anyone under his command before, which when he thought about it, was a miracle. He should have, and would have during the last exam if not for Leonhart's skills when he'd left his squad to go inform the main contingent about the motive of the Galbadian Army's attack on Dollet. If he hadn't known that Leonhart could look after himself, Tilmitt, and Chicken-wuss, he never would have left them. But that safety net was was gone now, he was at the helm of an entire Garden, and because of that, and the decisions he'd made, 63 cadets would now never have the opportunity to fulfill their dreams and join SeeD. Those who still lived, but were too injured to continue their training would have to leave Garden as soon as arrangements could be made.

Hyne's balls, he missed Fujin's sharp commentary, and for that matter, he even missed Puberty-boy's moronic "whatever" to knock him out of this self pity rut. He didn't usually indulge, but when he did get caught thinking himself into a rut, he needed a good knock on the head to get out of it. And there was no one around that would try it. Raijin was far too careful with his strength and had far too much respect for Seifer to even contemplate taking him down a size. Trepe had taken to avoiding him since his promotion, likely holing up with Xu to plot takeover plans or some other such shit. Tilmitt had thrown herself into Garden Festival committee meetings; frankly Seifer wasn't sure if the Messenger-girl even remembered that they were still technically at war. Kinneas had formed his own fan club, and was currently leading them in mock battles against the Trepies when he wasn't blowing every record Balamb Garden's shooting range had to pieces. That only left Chicken-wuss, but if the wimp even tried to get Seifer's head on straight, the gunblader knew that he'd mangle the marital artist, and go right back to brooding.

Fuck, Fuck, Fuck. Now he knew exactly why Leonhart spent so much time brooding. Once you started, you just couldn't seem to stop. Then he groaned aloud, but softly to avoid waking any of the sleeping cadets just a few feet away. Just thinking about his rival caused his mind to go onto yet another track, this one of his rival. He couldn't seem to get Leonhart's face out of his mind. Whenever he closed his eyes, the image that stared back at him was that of his rival's face, soft in its unconsciousness. It wasn't as if the sight wasn't one he'd seen before, but for some reason it wouldn't leave him alone. And let's not forget the dreams he'd been having lately….

He blushed, averting his face from Fujin's bed, even knowing his lieutenant was unconscious. Thank Hyne for that. If Fujin had been aware, there would have been nothing that could have hidden the blush from her. Seifer swore that the silver haired girl was telepathic and hypersensitive to embarrassing situations or something. Let's not think of the time Fujin had caught up to him when he'd had his first wet dream ever. She hadn't said anything beyond two words, simply "GOOD DREAM?" and there had been nothing he could do to stop the cold sweats that had warred with the heat of his blush that morning. That had to be the one and only time he had ever run from a member of his posse. Now that he thought about it, that dream had been about Leonhart, as had been the majority of similar dreams that he'd had over the years.

'Ok, ok, think of something else,' Seifer told himself, slightly frantic at the directions his thoughts were going. He deliberately went over every spell he had in his arsenal, as well as every GF ability he had Junctioned. The combined list was more than long enough to relax him, so much so that he was only ¾ of the way through it before he passed out.

//\\

Laguna blinked, abruptly startled out of his spirited, well, conversation with Kiros and Ward. Man, he still felt guilty that his long-time friend had permanently lost his voice. Thankfully, Ward had worked out a system of hand signals and body language that made him easily understandable to his friends.

Wait, there it was again. A vague, irritable shifting near the back of his mind, one that he knew was not simply one of his wilder flights of fancy uncurling on its way to his mouth. He frowned, almost in spite of himself. The fairies were back, but why? why now? Before, they had only appeared when something fairly serious was happening, like that disastrous escape from the Centran ruins that had nearly cost Laguna his leg, and had ruined Ward's voice. If the fairies had returned, than did that mean that something was going to happen soon? Hyne, he hoped not. He was enjoying life with his friends, Raine, and little Ellone in peaceful Winhill.

A cautious whap upside the head, not hard, but more than enough to get his attention, made the presence flair with irritation and Laguna to blink hurt eyes up at Kiros. His friend was unmoved due to long immunity to Laguna's best pout and only smirked. "You alright, Laguna? We had to make sure that you didn't wander away from us and get lost in your own head."

"I wasn't lost!" Laguna maintained, one hand rubbing the rapidly vanishing sore spot gently. Everything always healed faster when the fairies visited. Truthfully, that was the only reason they had made it through some of the things they had. "And what was that for!"

Kiros's smirk widened. "Truthfully?" Laguna nodded, wanting to know. Kiros continued. "Nothing really. Ward and I decided that you could use a random smack upside the head to keep you from getting sappy about Raine when you're with us." Ward nodded agreement.

"That's mean, you two! I thought you were my friends, not a pair of closet sadists that get of seeing their friends in pain. And I wasn't getting "sappy over Raine" as you so eloquently put it, and even if I was, that's my business!"

:So, what were you thinking about?: Ward inquired. Laguna promptly redubbed him his Only True Friend, as he had on other occasions in which Kiros was being mean. A blast of impatience from his mind reordered him to the business at hand.

"The fairies are back." He announced. Instead of the confirmation he was expecting, his friends only looked confused.

"Laguna, are you sure? I don't feel them."

:I don't feel them either. Are you sure that you're not imagining it?:

"You two suck. I'm not lying! Don't you feel it?" a closer look at his friends faces told Laguna that Kiros and Ward truly had no idea of what he was saying.

"No, we don't." Kiros said slowly, able to see the truth on Laguna's face just as Laguna could read Kiros's. "I thought that the fairies only came in three's."

:I felt them once when I was working in D-District.: Ward volunteered. When both his friends looked at him in surprise, the big man rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment for withholding the information. Laguna let his feelings of doom dissipate a bit. If Ward had experienced the fairies at D-District, when he had already told both friends that nothing of note had happened while working there, there went his theory that the fairies only appeared for life or death moments, which dispelled his apprehension that something was about to happen in Winhill.

Of course, it was always just when he dropped his guard, just when he believed that he was safe, that was always just when things went wrong. No sooner had he accepted that nothing was going to happen, then the first screams began, as Estharian soldiers, all adorned with Adel's red flame, marking Her elite troops, burst onto the small town, searching for one, specific, little girl.

/\

He was going to kill Kiros.

Laguna had forced Kiros and Ward to get ready to go, long before his friends thought that he should be up and moving. He didn't care that he had been badly wounded, so badly that only the enhanced healing and abilities granted by the fairy's presence had saved his life. His little girl was gone. Esthar's troops had finally achieved the task they had set out to do, capture the girl who had been marked as a potential successor for their Lady, not caring that while she might not have any remaining blood family, she had adopted family that loved her just as much if not more. In every way but blood, Ellone was Laguna's daughter, and he would stop at nothing to get her back.

Though, he hadn't really thought that he would have to do this. "Are you sure that we have to do this?" he asked Kiros somewhat plaintively. 'This' was torture beyond the cruel and unusual kind, particularly since Kiros and Ward were not required to be subjected to his humiliation. A movie director had seen Laguna fight, and for some reason had decided that he absolutely had to have the man in his latest movie. Thus, here he was, wearing flimsy armor, wielding a weapon he had only the faintest idea how to use, feeling far more foolish than usual, about to shoot a movie of all things. It didn't help that Kiros couldn't stop smirking at what Laguna had gotten himself into. This would definitely teach him to pay attention to what he agreed to, if nothing else did.

"Yes, Laguna, we do. Or rather, you do have to see this through. Remember, money for food, supplies and good information doesn't grow on trees. Plus, wasn't it one of your old dreams to be an actor? Well, here's your shot." Kiros was having far too much fun at his predicament. Curse his friend's long memories of times and things Laguna would have preferred to be forgotten. He just knew that he would look horrible. He'd tried to tell the director this, but unfortunately that was after he had absently agreed to do the movie.

True, they did need money. Raine had helped them prepare for the journey as best they could, but there was a limit to how much she could spare and none of them had any idea of how long the chase would take, or how they would get the supplies they would need cut off from the general Army stores that they were used to having access to. Given that they were classified K.I.A to the Galbadian army, they couldn't access any of those supplies they were accustomed to having without being jailed for desertion. Thus, here he was, trapped into filming a movie so they could get the needed supplies to continue chasing after Ellone. Ward was at least trying to be supportive, but Kiros could barely restrain his snickers.

Ok, here goes. Nervously, he gave the unfamiliar weapon an experimental swing, and felt his fingers moving into a different grip than the one he had been using previously. Looking down at his hand, he tried to return it to his previous grip, and failed. His fingers were locked in a position that he had no recollection of assuming. Abruptly, he realized that the slight buzz that marked the fairy's presence was concentrated in his right hand, the one that was holding the gunblade. He was so absorbed in trying to figure out what was going on, that he nearly missed the call for places, and only a light shake from Ward, which meant that it nearly caused him to stumble and fall, pulled his head out of the clouds and to business. He'd think about the strange behavior of his hand later, now he had to concentrate on not making even more of a fool of himself than usual in front of the camera.

//\\

"Crap, I can't disconnect!" the frustrated female voice was music to Seifer's ears after having to spend far too long listening to Laguna's moronic drivel, both inside and outside the idiot's head. Gauging the level of frustration in that voice with the ease of long practice, he quickly determined that whoever she was, she was not from Garden, as those females who lived there would use far stronger words than simply 'crap' to vent their feelings.

"Who the fuck are you?" he snarled into the black void, any remnants of patience gone thanks to his worry over Fujin and having to watch a long haired idiot nearly kill himself in a variety of stupid ways. It had physically hurt watching the moron attempt to handle a gunblade when he clearly had no idea how to use the difficult weapon. Seifer's professional pride had smarted after that episode.

"What? Oh, Seifer. So you're the one I connected to when I couldn't connect to Squall."

He knew that voice, had heard it not that long ago. Right, Ellone. The girl the Evil Bitch was trying to get Her hands on. With that realization came yet another. The reason he'd been so uncomfortable with her presence when he'd come across what had been his surrogate older sister in Garden, was because of what had happened to Leonhart after Ellone left the orphanage.

"Ellone? What the fuck are you doing in my head?!"

"I said I was sorry." A bit of embarrassment crept into the older girl's voice. "If it helps, I meant to be doing this with Squall." A note of sadness touched Ellone's voice now. "Not that it matters as it didn't work."

"What didn't work?"Seifer allowed his temper to reign, letting all the irritation of the past week enter his voice. He was fucking tired of having things only half explained. Ellone would give him the answers he wanted or he would rip her a new one for toying with him. That was not a threat.

"I was trying to prevent him from leaving, I was hoping that the influence of you or Squall would be enough to prevent me from being kidnapped and Uncle Laguna having to leave Raine to rescue me!" a small wail. "But it wasn't enough. I guess that I really can't change the past, no matter how hard I try."

Seifer was confused. Really, he was. What did the idiot leaving Winhil have to do with himself and Leonhart? He couldn't help but ask Ellone as such.

"Because he won't be back in time! He won't ever come back. He won't be there when Raine gives birth, he won't be there to prevent us from being sent to Matron's orphanage, he won't be there to get to know his son!"

Seifer rocked back on his heels as the import of Ellone's outburst struck him. "Fuck me, are you saying that Laguna the moron, is Squall Leonhart's fucking father?! You got to be shitting me!" though now that he thought about it, it did make a horrible kind of sense. Not he understood the faint echoes of Leonhart that he occasionally picked up in Laguna's features and actions, but Hyne's balls, talk about a personality differential. He'd had both Fujin and Raijin in stitches over his stories of Laguna (as much as Fujin ever laughed anyway) but thinking that the idiot and his rival were actually related took a moment to process. Thinking of his posse, an idea came to him.

"Can you connect me to Fujin and show me what happened to her that made her fall into a coma? Dr. Kadowaki might have a clue how to help her if she knows what happened in the first place."

"Seifer, I can't connect to Fujin. It isn't like connecting to you or to Squall."

"Then how is it different? You didn't have any problems showing me Laguna's journey."

"I meant to be showing Squall that!"

"Why? If you meant to show Leonhart, why didn't you?"

"Because She's blocking me. And if I force the connection, She will find me and I can't let that happen!"

"I don't get what you're whining about; you're the reason the Bitch has him in Her clutches to begin with!"

A moment of shocked silence. Right then Seifer cursed the dark void he found himself in. he wanted to be able to see Ellone's face, to read exactly what expression was on her face. He continued the condemnation, deliberately grinding the knife in deeper even as some kinder part of himself tried to make him ease up on the girl.

Screw that. Ellone was the whole reason Leonhart was in Ultimecia's clutches to begin with. His voice made Diamond Dust feel warm as he continued his implacable message. "You broke him. After you left, he cried for nearly a full six months; that is, when he wasn't running away from the orphanage looking for you, or fighting with me. After that, he went cold, convinced that since you left, then everyone would leave, that it was better to cut himself off from everyone than to be hurt by the fact that they would leave him behind again. Then along comes Ultimecia, in Matron's body no less and with access to her memories, telling him that She's come back for him, and will never leave him. How do you think he would respond! Did you even tell him that you were leaving, or did you simply disappear on him without warning?" a brief pause to let things sink in, then he continued. "Not that it matters, but my gil is on the latter. "

Seifer could hear the slightly muffled sounds of sobbing after he finished his rant. He felt slightly better having finally addressed one of his biggest problems with his rival, and even better, had shared it with the one responsible. Apparently Ellone didn't share the same feelings, and was completely overcome by guilt over what she had directly and indirectly caused, clearly crying hard but trying equally hard to keep it quiet. Pangs of guilt began to assail Seifer as well, realizing belatedly that laying the fault of Leonhart's defection on Ellone's doorstep was not perhaps the most cool of ideas. As the sounds of crying began to subside, Seifer awkwardly tried to change the subject. "So, you were saying why you couldn't help Fuu?"

"Right." He could still hear a faint watery quality in Ellone's voice, but as the older girl was trying to move past it, he deliberately ignored it. "I can only connect with people that I am either touching, or have a pathway to. I've had a path to Squall since he was born, and I've had one to Laguna since he basically adopted me. That's why I could connect them."

"Wait," Seifer was a bit confused. "If you have a pathway to Leonhart, then why am I getting the connection that you intended for him? And what does this have to do with Fuu?"

"I'm getting you Seifer, because you have the strongest connection to Squall, that you're the person who mattered to him to most at Garden and before. Pathways aren't just bonds of love, or of family, they can be created any number of ways. Also, a person's individual defenses can influence how the pathways form and who has access to them. I might be able to find Fujin through you, but you distrust me, thus your defenses are raised against me. I can't use you as a conduit. Not to mention, I can't use your pathways as a conduit and connect with you at the same time."

"Ok, I think I'm getting you. You can get to me because Puberty-boy considers me his rival, and that's the strongest bond he's got. But you can't get past me, because I don't trust you and won't allow you near my pathways to my posse. Is that it?"

"Yes. And that's why Ultimecia can't find me through Squall. Subconsciously, he's blocking her from finding my pathway."

"Hold on just a minute. Did you say Ultimecia uses the same types of pathways to spread Her influence?" Seifer was understandably alarmed. Was she saying that Ultimecia could get inside their heads through Leonhart?

"Yes, She does. That's how I've known to avoid Squall's mind ever since She took him over. She got to him from Matron's concern for him, something that likely happened after I…. after I left."

"Wait, let me recap a bit. So you 'connect' people using the emotional pathways between them, something that you need in order to 'find' them, right? Ultimecia takes people over using those same pathways. The reason you can't help Fuu is for the same reason She can't find you through Puberty-boy, subconscious blocking. That right?"

"Yes, and Seifer, I wish you'd stop calling Squall by those dreadful nicknames. That's not nice of you."

Seifer smirked, even though he knew Ellone couldn't see. "I ain't the little boy you helped Matron look after anymore, and you said yourself that Leonhart's strongest pathway is to me. Maybe he likes the names." Then he frowned, thinking hard. "Hey, Ellone, could you connect to Fujin if you had physical contact?"

Even though he couldn't see anything, Seifer could sense Ellone mulling his proposal over. "I guess that might work. Though you would need to be able to find me in order for me to try, is that right?"

"Yeah, yeah." Seifer still didn't trust Ellone, not completely, but the older girl was still the only hope he had to help Fujin. He couldn't see himself letting Ellone near his pathway to his lieutenant so that meant going to her physically. Abruptly, he felt extreme hesitation on the other side of the link and offered some 'encouragement'. "Hey, you help Fujin, and I might just forgive you for abandoning Leonhart like you did."

"Was it really that bad?" Ellone's voice was soft.

"Connect with me and see for yourself." Seifer focused on the slightly fuzzy memories of Squall crying in the rain, the endless cries of "I want Sis!", and Matron's constant worry whenever Squall disappeared from the orphanage. Then came the memories of Squall cold, not playing, not talking to anyone, even when Selphie physically dragged him outside; Squall sitting by himself in a corner, not allowing himself to join in and participate in even his own birthday party. The memories of his rival, stalking through the halls of Balamb Garden, with a permanent, ferocious scowl on his face. Leonhart the Sorceress Knight, on his knees before his Mistress. He could feel Ellone's resistance fading, as guilt overwhelmed any paranoia she might have had towards being found.

"I'm in Esthar. Ask for me at the Presidential residence. If I'm not there, someone will direct you to me."

"You better be there." With that, Seifer woke up, almost not recognizing the familiar surroundings of the Infirmary. Once he realized where he was, he hurriedly glanced down at Fujin. Still no change, not that he had expected anything different.

As soon as Raijin returned to take over the vigil, he would head up to the bridge and change course. Finally, there was something that he could do.

//\\

Esthar was marvelous, in a way that made the little rascal inside Selphie itch to do some mischief. Who knew, a little mayhem just might cheer Seifer out of his funk that he'd been in for ages. Seifer may have been an asshole, but he was her asshole, and if anyone said differently they'd find Strange Vision up someplace uncomfortable where the sun didn't shine! The Orphanage Gang had to stick together, through thick and through thin! Sure, Fujin and Raijin weren't part of the gang originally, but they had become honorary members through Seifer. Plus, Selphie kind of admired Fujin; just a little. It was strange to see the silver haired girl, normally so strong and so self assured, have to be carried like a limp sack of treasure over the trails to Esthar.

Not to mention that Matron had come along. Selphie had thought that Seifer would throw a fit when Matron turned up at the departure point, citing a need to talk with Dr. Odine, apparently the foremost authority on magic and Sorceresses in the world. She would have bet her salary for the next 5 years that Seifer had been a heartbeat from tossing the older woman off Garden ( from the Bridge while in flight no less) but was unable to deny that it was important to be sure that Ultimecia was unable to take over Matron's mind again. Not to mention, Selphie suspected, that Seifer was far too worried about Fujin to object too much. It was sweet, how concerned he was about his lieutenant, him and Raijin both, but Selphie had far too much respect for Seifer's skills and obvious worry to tease her leader about it. Much.

But, back to Esthar. Whoever had designed the city; must have had a superb sense of style. All the buildings were crazy colors and designs, some were even leaning sideways a fair amount, and it was just awesome!!! Far too often cities were boring, one dreary old building after another, perhaps with tacky boring ornamentation if it was important in some way, but not in Esthar! It had style! No two buildings were alike, and all looked cool, even from their birds-eye-view as they were swept along on the clear platform. Zell, Raijin, and even Quistis were looking a bit green by the end, Irvine was looking cool as a cucumber, and Seifer looked to be so focused that Selphie doubted that he was even seeing the awesomeness that was Estharian architecture. Which was major suckage, because what was the use of such awesome sights if no one paid attention to them? Maybe they simply didn't appreciate her sense of style, not many did, after all.

Ooh, imagine what that building would look like with the addition of Selphie's Magic # 14? She grinned happily, imagining the carnage that would ensue if the citizen's of Esthar woke up one morning to find a building or two covered in the bright pink goo she had developed in her 5th year at Trabia Garden. The best thing about the goo was, while it stuck to anything and was stable on its own, add a harmless substance like, oh, say, sodium chloride, table salt, and it made the most glorious BOOM! And when most of Trabia's cleaning compounds had salt as one of the ingredients… well, let's say that the Trabian Disciplinary Committee had their hands full whenever she had felt the urge to liven the place up. The best thing about the current prospect of potential mayhem; was that her Magic # 14 would blend perfectly into its environment, where it could possibly stay for years until something happened to ignite it. She gave a happy little giggle at the thought, making Zell, Seifer and Irvine all to give her strange looks and back away from her. Slowly.

Suckers. Oooh, look at that building over there! The building they were coming up to totally surpassed all the others around it, heck, all the other buildings in the entire city for sheer awesomeness. It was big, and it was bright, and, was it, sparkly? Yes it was!! So cool!!! She couldn't stop herself from jumping up and down a few times in happy fangirl mode, uncaring that the sudden movements made Zell finally lose the battle with his stomach and spew the remains of his lunch on the platform. Ewww, at least he'd managed to keep from splattering her…

At least the retching accomplished one task: it brought Seifer out of the funk he'd been in alone the way. Though she had the wild idea that Zell didn't think that was a good thing, given the way the Seifer immediately started mocking the tattooed blond. Selphie listened in unfeigned awe as Seifer verbally ripped the other blond to pieces, Zell giving his best attempts of a comeback, but even when he wasn't sick and miserable he was no match for Seifer in the art of verbal warfare. The gunblader was truly gifted in that department. She really had to remember that line about the feeding habits of farm animals for when Zell stole the last hotdog of the day, again. Not that hotdogs had been on Garden's menus recently, given the way that Garden was moving around, the last time they had picked up hot dogs had been in Fisherman's Horizon, and with how popular they were, had only lasted a few days.

And they wouldn't be back on the menu until Garden got back to Balamb. There had been no time to visit the Fisherman's Horizon markets, Mayor Poopy-Pants had made it clear that he wanted Garden and its personnel to stay away from the town when they had left the last time. Given that for all Seifer knew, the only way to Esthar was through FH, Garden had came long enough to drop off the team headed there, before heading to Balamb. Given that Galbadia had surrendered, and was currently in the midst of the beginnings of what threatened to be a civil war, there was no longer a strategic reason to keep Garden on the move. In fact, at the moment, Garden's mobile nature was a disadvantage. Garden needed to start opening up contracts again, while there was still a comfortable chunk of change in Garden's various bank vaults scattered in strategic locations around the world, they needed to start bringing money in soon if they didn't want Garden to be in serious financial trouble later on. Headmaster Cid had command, with by-the-book Xu assigned to be his backup. If clients couldn't find Garden, then neither could contracts. Selphie knew without asking that Seifer didn't want to even try to think about how much Garden's finances had suffered already, what with the expenses of war, the loss of contracts, and the penalty fees for early cancelation of contracts. Thankfully Selphie knew that the Timber contract had been so low-key that there hadn't been a penalty clause included. Likely that was because Rinoa had been so overwhelmingly grateful that the Headmaster had awarded her the contract despite her lack of funds, that she hadn't checked over the fine print. Or had been too stupid to. Either way was a possibility.

Anyway, she was getting off topic. She had a tendency to do that from time to time. Oh, look, they were almost there. And it looked as if they were expected, which was news to Selphie, given that Seifer hadn't told them anything about why they were headed to Esthar in the first place. The big meany. Would it have killed him to clue them in on occasion. They were all SeeDs; they knew how to keep their mouths shut. Well, when it was important. At least, now they did.

Seifer being Seifer; just walked up to the front gate as if he owned it and told the guards, "We're here to see Ellone." They were here to see Sis? And Seifer hadn't told them? Ooh, he was so going to get it when they got back to Garden. She was thinking jello in his pillow, shaving cream switched with whipped cream, maybe get some help to make a fake grat and dangle it over Seifer's window when he was just about to go to bed. Something so devastating, Seifer would know the consequences for trying to hide the fact that they were going to see family in Esthar.

And how had Seifer known that Ellone was there at all? The last they'd heard of her whereabouts was with the White SeeDs, a parallel organization that Matron had founded to protect Ellone from Ultimecia. It was unlikely that he'd received reports of her arrival there, given that: 1) Garden Intelligence was still mostly down, 2) the White SeeDs didn't fully trust those from Garden and were well experienced in avoiding detection, and 3) Esthar's borders had been closed for so long that Garden hadn't been founded when the wall of silence went up, which meant that there were no Garden agents in the country, which meant no information going from the isolated country to Garden.

Well, whatever Seifer's sources were, they seemed to be right on the money. The guards didn't protest, simply opened the doors to let the SeeDs and Sorceress in. Selphie hoped that it would take a bit for Sis to be notified of their arrival, well, with a place this big; it would have to take a bit of time to locate one person. She planned to use the time in full, grilling Seifer for details, and haranguing him for leaving them all in the dark.

//\\

I can just picture Selphie as a mad scientist. Giggling like crazy around a lab, cooking up the most outrageous substances that fulfill her inner prankster. Scary thought, isn't it?

Yes, Selphie has fully embraced all the old relationships from the orphanage days. So for her, Ellone is still "Sis", Edea is still "Matron". Seifer however, hasn't, partially because he's grown up a bit more than Selphie, and partially because he still holds both Ellone and Edea responsible for Squall's defection. Not to mention, we all know how Seifer can keep a grudge.

About reader responses to this story, I can frankly say that I'm disappointed. I know I can't force people to review, that everyone has their own responses to it. I'd like to say that my problem has only been with feedback for the last chapter, but it isn't. The past 3 chapters have been nearly entirely snubbed in my opinion, compared to the response gained by the first two chapters. Unless you, my readers, show me that things will change, my motives for writing this story will change. I started this story partly because an intriguing plotbunny bit, but also because I wanted to introduce a scenario that I thought was likely yet was largely (or completely, one of my first reviews indicated that there were other stories with a similar plot, but I've never been able to find them) ignored. I will still continue to write this story, and continue to post it, but will only be doing so because the plotbunny isn't letting go. In short, I will be writing the story for me, not for you. Personally, I find that to be extremely selfish, almost a violation of what it means to me, to be a fanfiction author. You may also find that the quality of my updates decreases or the wait times between chapters grow longer because of it. I had tremendous writer's block on this, and when I have writer's block, I can't write this, and I also can't work on my other story that is on hiatus until this story is complete and the bunny lets go. And my responses have been much better for that story. So really, when you don't review, you're essentially slowing down not only one story, but two, and disappointing two very different groups of fans.

Sorry about the rant. Just needed to gripe a bit. I actually meant to keep this author's note short, but one thing led to the next….

Hope to see you next chapter