Operation: Mariposa

by Scarlet Fever

Seifer/Squall slash! Rated M for Graphic language, violence, sexual content and drug/alcohol use. What do you do when your whole world turns against you? Been a while since I posted a fic on here! Work In Progress!

8. Chapter 8

Chapter 08

Squall bit his lip so his loud breathing wouldn't give away his position. He was crammed in a small crevice in the red rock face in the canyons near the Dingo desert. It was the only time he wished he was still as skinny as he'd been at his drunkest. It was an extremely tight fit, especially when he was pretty certain he'd dislocated his shoulder. His gunblade was jammed at his side, useless. But, he had magic ready if any of the SeeD hunting him found his position. He was covered in blood by now; not only his own. He didn't want to stop and think about the fact that he was killing fellow Garden members. Fellow Garden members who just happened to be trying to decapitate him. Why?!

He strained his ears, listening. He could hear distant gunfire, and prayed they hadn't found Quistis. They'd got separated after running from the armoured truck. Why would Astor and Luchia be commanding SeeD to kill them? It just didn't make any fucking sense! All Squall knew was that they were greatly outnumbered, and he was already injured. He needed help badly. He winced and tried desperately not to cry out when he had to move his hurt shoulder, pulling out a satellite phone he'd taken off one of the young SeeD's bodies. Squall didn't dare use his own phone. Not only did he not want to be traced, but he probably wouldn't get service way out here.

He dialled the number, keeping his ears perked for any kind of noise. He just needed a few minutes of safety... There was only one person he could call. That he wanted to call. It's not like he could call Zell or Rinoa. These were Garden officials that were coming after them. And, Laguna wouldn't be able to help. He would of course, but any help from Laguna would come in a governmental capacity from Esthar. Squall had no clue about Luchia and Astor's motives, but he was pretty certain they had some sort of official Garden backing from Xu, so anything the Estharian government did would be seen as an act of war. There was no way Kiros or Ward would let their country go into a war again, especially not for some inter-SeeD conflict.

No, the only person he could call for help was the one person he feared wouldn't heed his call. 'Dammit', he mouthed when Seifer's voicemail picked up. "Garden betrayed us," Squall whispered into the phone, charging an ice spell in his palm. He figured he better get Seifer's attention fast with this phone call, so he wouldn't delete the message when he got it. If he got it. Maybe he wouldn't listen to it until Squall and Quistis were already dead... "Me and Quisty are in trouble. SeeD are hunting us... I don't know why," he panted. His dislocated shoulder was making him dizzy. "Please," he quietly begged. "Please help us. You're the only one we can trust." He then rattled off the GPS coordinates being given by the satellite phone. "Please," he begged again, a hail of bullets and magical explosion getting closer. He could hear shouting. "Please, Seifer..." He wanted to say more, but his time had run out. He hung up, and then dropped the phone, smashing it with his foot so its call history couldn't be traced.

"I saw him go this way," a voice called. Squall could make out footfalls from at least three separate people. He really wished he wasn't so magically tired so he could call Shiva again. Summoning a GF was very physically and psychically taxing, and right now he needed to keep his wits about him, and definitely not risk passing out. It's not like they were looking to take him prisoner if they found him fainted. They'd probably just stomp his skull into the ground.

Squall held his breath and waited for them to come nearer. He ignored the wetness at his side. There was a wound there that was bleeding quite heavily, but only his survival mattered. Him and Quisty. He had to find her... He could now hear pebbles rolling along the ground as they scuffled their feet. He could smell the gunpowder coming off one of them, they were so close. Once they were in eyesight to his hiding spot, Squall cast ice magic on them, frozen shards of water hailing down on them and sticking into their skin. A rather large icicle went through one's left temple, and came out his right. The ice magic didn't kill the third of the group, so Squall fired from a small handgun he'd stolen off one fallen enemy (former comrade).

Squall shimmied out from the crack and groaned. The sharp rock caught his side, and further opened his wound. He could feel blood sloshing around inside his leather coat, stiffening the navy blue linen shirt he had on underneath. He started searching their bodies for bullets matching either his gunblade or the stolen semi-automatic. As he slapped a magazine into the gun, he noticed that one of the fallen, frozen bodies wasn't one of the faces he remembered from the truck. Squall looked around for anyone else who might have been nearby before crouching over the body, studying their face. It was possible he just didn't recognize them, but once he's got his bad feeling in the truck, he'd taken the time to look at each person's face carefully for signs that the feeling was wrong.

When he started searching this stranger's body more carefully, he realized that they were wearing dog tags for the Galbadian army, similar to the kind that Laguna still wore around his neck. The man was too young to have been both SeeD and army. Had there been a mercenary force of Galbadian swordsells waiting for the armoured truck to get to them? There to make sure the job was finished? To make sure he and Quistis were dead? This just didn't make any fucking sense!

Squall's head jerked up when he heard a distant explosion, one that he could feel vibrating the ground under his knees. "Quisty..." He whispered, pulling himself upright. The quick motion nearly bowled him over, and he stumbled against the rock face, feeling blood dribbling down his leg into his boot. He cast a small cure spell on the injury to stave the pain for at least a little while. He started walking with gunblade drawn, internally praying that Seifer would get his message.

---

"OKAY?" Fujin asked out of the corner of her mouth. She, Raijin and Seifer were sitting in the blonde man's living room, having just come back from a movie.

"I'm fine," he muttered, staring straight ahead.

"I was kinda hoping we could talk, ya know?! About the whole TV thing, ya know?!" Raijin asked. He kept trying to find intervals to breach this subject with his childhood friend, but every time he was met with an unpleasant silence. "They said the ratings were really good!"

"Probably because they only cared about seeing a former war criminal," he muttered, wiping some rain droplets off his coat before hanging it up.

"Or, because it was interesting?" Fujin offered.

Seifer was silent.

She and Raijin shared helpless looks. Raijin just threw up his hands and shrugged his massive shoulders. "Look, ya know... far be it for me to ever, ever say anything Squall's favour, but..."

"Don't even finish that sentence," Seifer threatened, peridot eyes blazing. He flopped down on the couch, making a face of discomfort when he sat on something that dug into his butt. He sat up and pulled his phone from his back pocket, seeing it was still turned off from the movies. He turned it on, and saw he had a call from a number he didn't recognize, from twenty-five minutes ago. Something started gnawing at Seifer's gut that had nothing to do with any food he'd eaten, or any sickness. He could taste bile on his tongue as he started to check his voice mail.

"Garden betrayed us."

Even before Seifer heard Squall's voice, sounding like it had come through time, back before Squall had turned himself into a drunk junkie. It was the sound of the Squall he'd known for so long, and the Squall he missed so badly it was like his heart was ripped out. And, even before he heard it, he knew Squall was telling the truth. That he was in danger. And, the vocalization of this feeling honestly didn't surprise Seifer in the least. Seifer could hear the other man was in pain as he unabashedly begged for help amidst the background noise of gunfire.

Squall's last words - "please, Seifer..." echoed in his ears for long seconds after the message ended. That was twenty-five minutes ago... When Garden was hunting you, twenty-five minutes was a long time to stay alive.

"You have to go." The phone was still pressed to his ear.

"WHAT?" Fujin asked.

"You have to go," he repeated, standing up and punching in the coordinates Squall had rattled off into the GPS application within his phone.

"What happened, ya know?!" Raijin asked, seeing the paleness of Seifer's face.

"Go to Esthar," he told them sternly, pulling a large suitcase out of his coat closet. He flipped it open with force and yanked out the false bottom, not caring if Fujin and Raijin saw him pulling out a very suspicious number of guns.

"ESTHAR?"

"Are you going to repeat everything I say as a question?" Seifer snapped, starting to reload a shotgun. "Go to Esthar, and get to the Presidential Palace. Tell Laguna we're coming, and that they're innocent. And, give me your car keys. I can't use a motorcycle."

"I, uh... huh?" Raijin scratched his head, watching dumbfounded as Seifer stormed into his bedroom, coming out with three duffel bags, all with similar false bottoms as the first suitcase. He pulled out more weaponry to the shock of his friends. Raijin was completely flummoxed, but comprehension started to dawn on Fujin, since she had similar bags in her apartment.

"If anyone stops you on the way, fucking lie."

"Can you just tell us what's going on, ya know!?" Raijin asked, handing out his car keys with high confusion.

"Go home and pack a fucking bag!" He hissed, eyes blazing with urgency. "Get the next fucking train, and get. To. Esthar!"

"Where did you get all the guns?" Raijin questioned.

Seifer stared at his friends for a few moments, feeling them slip away forever. How many SeeD would he have to kill if he found them dead? Would it matter? Would he care?

"Which one are you?" Fujin asked, a question that took both men off guard.

Seifer quickly realized that she was outing both of them. "Jupiter," he answered. He didn't have time to get into this with Fujin, but it would be on the top of his to-do list later on. "Now, fucking go!" He shouted at them, shoving them towards the door.

"But..." Raijin began.

"HURRY," Fujin barked. "EXPLAIN AFTER."

"You owe me big for this, ya know?!" Raijin promised, pointing at Seifer as Fujin pulled on his beefy forearm. "EduTV?"

"Fine!" Seifer ground out. "Now, get the fuck out of here."

Seifer continued to grab every available weapon in his apartment, including his much beloved gunblade, which he hardly ever used in employment of Sol. He packed them loosely into duffel bags, barrels and handles sticking out from every angle. Honestly, he didn't care if someone saw him carrying enough guns to supply an army. There was no time for social secrecy now. He also chucked in what medical supplies he had, wishing desperately that he still had Guardian Force access. Magic would be the only field where he would be sorely outmatched by a bunch of Garden cocksuckers.

He stuffed all the stuff in the backseat of Raijin's small sedan, and peeled out of the parking lot with much squealing and smoking of tires. He prayed to Hyne that Raijin and Fujin would get to Esthar before the shit really hit the fan. He had no idea what was going on, but he had the distinct feeling that Squall and Quistis staying alive wasn't part of Garden's plans.

---

Quistis groaned as she tugged hard on her whip, making it so taut it was digging into her wrists where she secured it. She cast a powerful fire spell into the back of the SeeD that she was restraining with it, then kicked his body forward. His charred corpse went sailing into two other men wearing bits and pieces of Galbadian army surplus. Definitely not SeeD. She cracked her whip in the face of one of the men, trying to get up from under the bulk of the dead body. To the other, she shot him in the throat with a magic bullet. When she'd first started running from the truck, she'd tried not to kill any of her pursuers. But, after a while she'd lost that desire. They were trying to kill her, and if she didn't kill them...

"Squall, where are you...?" She whispered under her breath. It was starting to get dark, and with each inch the sun disappeared over the top of the canyon, Quistis's fear rose. She had to find a way to get in contact with Garden. She had to tell Xu that Luchia and Astor were acting on their own, that this was all some horrible misunderstanding.

Quistis started to slowly back away from the bodies, keeping her senses strong. She heard the sound of pebbles being disturbed behind her, and froze. She slowly tightened her grip on the handle of her whip, and felt the heat of magic balling in her palm, waiting to be discharged. She was in the same boat as her separated partner - she was too tired to call on Diablos to come help her again, and the GF had also taken injury, and needed the time to rest and heal up.

There was silence behind her for a full minute before Quistis relaxed her posture. Probably just a tiny rock falling from one of the high canyon perches, or maybe an animal scared by all the noise. But, she felt like she was being watched. She spun around and fired a wave of magic right at the spot, hitting the rock face. The wind was starting to pick up, and blew sand in from the desert. There was nothing there, and all her magic did was make a black, smoking smear. The second she relaxed her shoulders, she felt a searing pain between them, jerking through her entire body. It was electricity, and it shocked her so strongly that she was lifted off her feet. She was flung off the spot by a strong prod to the back, and rolled coughing and sputtering, where she hit the rock she'd just burned with magic.

Through bleary, unfocused eyes, she looked up into the cobalt ice of Luchia's gaze, her face illuminated in the setting sun by her electrified staff, which was sparking from having just shocked the hell out of Quistis. The blonde's heart was beating painfully, and she started to charge magic at Luchia, but the end of the stun rod was pressed into her breastbone, and a massive voltage of electricity was poured into Quistis's body, knocking her unconscious.

When Quistis came to, it was forcibly. Icy water was being thrown in her face, and she gasped and coughed for air from around the gag stuffed in her mouth. She was on the cold cement floor of some building, trussed like livestock. Her vision was still blurry from the electroshock, and her entire body ached so much that she could only feebly struggle when she felt Luchia's hands pulling her up to her knees. She had the impression that there were other people in the room she couldn't see. And, that they meant her harm.

"Oh, good. You're awake."

Quistis blinked, looking around at the sound of the voice. So familiar

"I was hoping that Luchia wouldn't have addled your brain too much. She does tend to get a little shock-happy."

Quistis groaned, forcing herself to lucidity. She saw the voice was coming from a laptop screen, Astor standing beside it and looking down at her with his black shark's gaze. Quistis's vision cleared enough for her to see that it was a video conference with Xu, sitting in her office in front of her butterfly shadowboxes.

"You must have so many questions for me, but I only have one for you. Why couldn't you have just gone away? It wouldn't have had to come to this."

Quistis tried to control her muscle spasms from the electricity, but wrestled just as much with her confusion.

"You think I'm going to let that fucking buffoon choose you and that drunk over me for Headmaster?" Xu asked. "You know, this is always someone's downfall. Being so arrogant that they reveal their plans to their enemies. But, I do feel like I owe it to you, Quistis, after all our years of friendship."

Comprehension started to dawn on Quistis. All of it. The rumours that would never leave Garden, the story about her and Evan in the newspaper. His murder, and the suspicion laid at Quistis's feet over it.

"No one could accuse you of being stupid, Quisty," Xu murmured. She could see the look in her old friend's eyes. She knew. "I would have let you come back and teach. You could have been with Squall if you'd just left Nida alone! That's what you always wanted!"

Quistis tried to shout 'fuck you', but it just came out as a garbled mess because of the gag.

"But... it had to come to this. I regret that, Quistis." Xu stared at her friend from the comfort of her Balamb office. "I really, really do." She tented her fingers, looking over the blonde's head now at Luchia, not wanting to look into Quistis's hurt and furious sapphire eyes anymore. "Use her as a bargaining chip to bring that junkie out of hiding. Make a deal to save her life if he turns himself in, then kill them both. Report back here when you're done."

"Affirmative," Astor's voice wafted from out of picture. Luchia nodded silently in understanding.

"Tell the mercenaries to leave her unspoiled, before and after death."

Quistis's blood ran cold, and she started screaming profanities, calling Xu the most degrading names she could think of, but it all came out as just a slur. Telling them not to rape her like she was doing Quistis a favour! She started struggling wildly against her bonds for all the good it did her. Her only reward was a rough smack on the top of the head from the butt end of Luchia's stun rod.

"I'll be the best Headmaster Garden ever had, Quistis. You can take comfort in it. And, you know this isn't something I wanted, honey. It just..." She shrugged a shoulder, and looked away from Quistis. She couldn't see her anymore. The angry, hurt tears in her eyes. But, even when Xu looked at her beloved butterflies, she could still see it. Burned into her brain. "There's no going back now."

"Xu!!" Quistis screamed around her gag when the video conference cut off, leaving Balamb Garden's logo where Xu had been sitting.

"We're going to radio contact the others," Astor told one of the other people in the room, who hung back in the shadows against the wall. Some of them were eyeing Quistis greedily, like she was a slab of beef hanging on a slaughterhouse hook. "Alive, remember. Alive and unviolated," he repeated, his voice chilling and leaving no room for argument.

Quistis started screaming when Xu's agents went to the door of whatever complex they were in. When Luchia opened the door, Quistis could see it was full night out now, and the desert air coming in was bitingly cool. She tried to beg them with her eyes, but when they looked back at her, there was no familiarity, friendship, compassion or pity. She was already dead to them.

---

Squall panted heavily, leaning against a boulder. His fingers were like ice, even covered in gloves. He felt like he was going to pass out from blood loss. He had buckshot embedded in his shoulder now, and a large, seeping gash on his calf to go along with dozens of other cuts and deep bruises. The wound on his side had stopped bleeding for now, but whenever he had to move, he would feel it tear open and start bleeding anew. He was also covered in dry and not so dry blood that didn't belong to him.

He was being pushed back down a ravine. The mercenaries and former Galbadian army that were with the SeeD knew this area far better than Squall, and he had the feeling they were cornering him, or pushing him to the edge of a cliff. He still had no idea why his fellow SeeD would be doing this, or where Quistis was. He also hadn't seen any sign of Seifer. True, he had to come from Dollet, but it had been at least five hours by now. Each time he looked at his watch, his hope at seeing Quistis again dwindled. He had every bit of faith in her capabilities as a soldier, but it's not like he was doing really great right now.

"Ah ha!" A voice called out mockingly. A bullet whizzed by his head. It was obviously meant to miss, because he'd been caught by surprise. "There you are, you little cunt."

Squall held his gunblade at the ready, the weapon's blade nearly completely coated in blood and bits of gore. He started slowly walking towards them, keeping his back facing the cliffs. There was probably a sniper up there though, his head trained in their scope.

"Are you going to stop acting like an asshole?" The head of this bunch asked, voice drawled by a southern Deling City accent.

"Why did they hire you?" Squall demanded, stepping closer. The moon was bright tonight, so it at least helped Squall see.

"What, you think you can buy me away? Think Daddy's Estharian money will save your life?"

Squall clenched his jaw, a muscle twitching.

"Well, maybe it will... as a ransom."

Squall grunted and dashed forward, deflecting a bullet with the large flat of his gunblade. He slashed out with a powerful one-handed stroke. The mercenary leapt back, but as he did, left his chest vulnerable for Squall to cast a fatal lightning spell. The smell of his burnt flesh filled Squall's nostrils and churned his stomach, but he ignored it. He immediately spun around to slice at the mercenary who'd moved to his back. He could hear more shouting and running footsteps - backup. He had no energy left as he eyed about a dozen people - men and women who were obviously mercenaries, and even a few that were probably hired out of Galbadian Garden. Soldiers from there had less scruples about doing unethical things than Balamb. Or, at least that's what Squall had always thought.

He was so exhausted in every regard that he was only running on memory. These soldier instincts came back to him as easily as breathing after such a long absence. Cutting his gunblade up and firing the trigger just at the right moment was like blinking, like walking. He arched his back, almost doing a back flip to dodge a magic attack and fired a round from his gunblade, quickly going to a one-handed grip when he was grabbed from behind. He flipped the assailant over his shoulder so they were on their back at his feet. He thrust his blade down hard into their chest, and threw a knife at one reloading a shotgun in the brief moment he was vulnerable trying to pull the gunblade out of the dead body's chest.

"Where's Quistis?!" He demanded through clenched teeth as he tackled a woman in Galbadian Garden student garb against a rocky outcropping. She groaned as he winded her, but then head butted him. She threw out a hot non-elemental spell and Squall had to somersault to avoid taking the full brunt of it. He could feel his cheek throbbing, not a hundred percent successful at dodging it. He'd already fought against so many opponents that his gunblade felt like he was holding up a truck. He sliced in a wide arc with the gunblade, which the woman did a cartwheel to avoid. Squall somersaulted after her, and elbowed her right in the diaphragm as she was finding her footing.

She lunged at him, and got her limbs all twisted around him so he couldn't use his gunblade. A knife appeared from a hidden sheath, and was driven into the shoulder that had taken the shotgun spray. Squall cried out as the blade went right through the front, end sticking out the back. His opponent rolled them over, and started slamming him into a large, jagged rock. He could feel his breath leaving his lungs at the impact, and black and white smears and dots passed over his vision. Squall slammed his forehead into her nose, feeling blood explode from it against his skin when it crunched and broke. She groaned in pain, and Squall got an arm free, wrenching the knife out of his shoulder. He wrestled himself free enough for the motion to slash at her throat. Their bodies were so tangled, and he was dizzy and winded, so he only clipped her skin. She slammed his head against the rock again, and he felt like he was going to black out. As a last-ditch effort, he dug the blade hard into the softness of her thigh. He could feel blood pour out from the severed artery. Her grip on him loosened, and he rolled away as she bled out, trying to quickly find strength enough to cast cure magic.

Once Squall was free, he rolled over and retched bile and blood, shaking his head to try and clear it. He could not pass out now. He needed to find Quistis. He pulled himself up, heart plummeting when he heard shouting echoing in the gully. He cast a quick, weak cure spell on himself. It churned his stomach and made his muscles ache. He knew he couldn't take all of them on his own like this, having just gotten his bell rung so thoroughly. Though he was so psychically weak, he called upon Shiva to help him. His breath came out in fast, thick white clouds of cold air. The ground moaned and cracked under the ice goddess's feet, ice appearing where she touched down.

The four Galbadians were flanked by a pair of Balamb SeeD, both of whom started casting magic against Shiva. The yellow ribbons adorning her frozen hair flapped in the magical wind as she filled the gully with an air blast filled with sharp, icy shards. As she attacked, she kept an eye on her master's position, using magic and her own naked body to shield him as best she could. She could feel that he was fighting only on fumes now, but that he wasn't giving him. His love and concern for his partner's safety was too great. Shiva couldn't sense Diablos nearby, which she mentally conveyed to Squall. But, that didn't mean Quistis was dead. Diablos could have just been inactive at the moment.

Squall dashed at the others with his blade, slicing through limbs and torsos. He could feel their blood spraying on him, boiling hot compared to the cold wind of Shiva's magic. He cut down hard with a loud grunt at one of the mercenaries just as Shiva had frozen him, and his body shattered like a broken window, hard little chunks of frozen skin skating across the ground with loud, metallic-like plinks. Squall was then hit with what felt like a cannonball, thrown off his feet. It was hot, and singed his chest through his leather jacket. The force of the impact caused his gunblade to go flying out of his hand. It had been a flare spell, and Shiva had actually taken the full brunt of the blast, so she'd collapsed on the ground, body becoming translucent with her injury.

It's okay,

he assured his Guardian Force as she looked over at him with apologetic, frozen irises. He called her back into his body as he clawed his way up a nearby boulder, his legs feeling like there was nothing inside his skin. He could smell his own skin smoking from the attack. Another flare spell hit him, this time in the back. The two SeeD had kept out of the fray, and were now flanking him. Squall again tried to rise to his feet, but collapsed when he heard the loud ring of a gunshot. Okay, this is it. You're dead. I'm sorry Quisty.

But, he was still breathing. He looked up and saw the SeeD standing in front of him swaying on his feet, then he fell to his knees. His eyes stared out blank, the light leaving them, blood oozing down his temples. The top of his head was missing, brain exploded apart from the gunshot wound. A second rang out, and Squall covered his head with his arms. He heard the SeeD behind him fall in a loud heap. Groaning in pain, he clawed at the ground to rise to his feet. He felt that one of his fingers had gotten broken somewhere along the line, and throbbed angrily when he tried to curl it against the rocky ground.

He could see his gunblade a few yards away from him. He froze when he heard the sound of rock being disturbed, like someone was sliding down the rocky slope from a cliff ledge above. "Go!" He hissed at himself, wanting to get his gunblade before the gunman came into the gully. Just because they'd killed the SeeD didn't mean they were Squall's ally. He rolled onto his uninjured shoulder to get to his weapon faster, and came to a standing position with it facing out towards the noise. He found himself facing down a tall male figure all in black. One hand had a large sniper rifle, the other was holding a long blade. The familiarity of his walk, and the realization that the blade was Hyperion made Squall slump against the ravine wall, relief overcoming him.

Seifer was assaulted by the same overpowering feeling of relief when he looked into Squall's blue eyes, glittering in the moonlight and very bright compared to all the blood splattered on his face. "Even half-dead, you're still the best soldier I've ever seen."

Hearing Seifer's voice made Squall's lips tremble. He pushed himself off the rocks and half ran, half limped towards him, nearly collapsing into his arms. When Seifer gingerly completed the hug, Squall truly felt how scared he'd been. His world, having just been put back together, was completely unravelling again. But, he felt a sense of calmness in Seifer's touch as he struggled to keep himself together. The love that Squall felt at that moment was crippling.

He looked up into Seifer's face, shadowed by the black baseball cap he wore to cover his pale hair from the moonlight. His eyes glittered from under the brim as they looked into Squall's. "You okay?"

Squall nodded, still panting from exhaustion. He craned his face upwards, lips heading towards Seifer's for a kiss, but the taller man turned his face away at the last second, so Squall's mouth fell on the underside of his jaw. "Where's Quistis?" Seifer asked in all seriousness. Even now, he didn't know if he could let Squall kiss him, get that close to him again. They hadn't spoken since their last disastrous meeting, and Seifer wasn't sure he was over those hurt feelings.

"I... I don't know. I haven't seen her since we ran from the convoy truck."

Seifer pulled away, going over to the bodies. "So... what happened?"

"I don't know that either," Squall answered wearily. He tried not to feel hurt by Seifer's rejection, especially not at a moment like this.

"What do you have for me...?" He asked of the dead SeeD. He knew that if they were dealing with Garden trained soldiers, he'd need the use of magic. He'd need a GF, hopefully one he was compatible with. The first was carrying Quetzacoatl, one he wasn't too in sync with. But, the second was carrying one that seemed to scream out to be taken by him, to be one with him. Seifer put his hands on the dead body's chest, and let the power of Bahamut flow into him. Seemed fitting that a reptile GF would want to be junctioned with him. Once he and Bahamut were psychically meshed, he drew magic from the bodies, and cast a few strong cure spells on Squall. He'd never junctioned Bahamut before, but it felt like he'd done so his entire life for some reason.

"Tell me what happened." Seifer asked quietly, keeping his eyes on Squall, and his ears on their surroundings.

Squall propped his weight on Lionheart. "Right after I came... home, we were sent out for a mission..." Squall trailed off, still trying to catch his breath. The cure magic was only a band-aid. He needed true rest to recover fully. "With Astor and Luchia, and a bunch of SeeD I'd never seen before."

Seifer's eyebrows shot up under the brim of his hat at the mention of the names of Xu's lieutenants. He started to reload his rifle as Squall talked, still panting hard and holding his side.

"We were supposed to be coming out here to look into some anti-government militia taking up in the decommissioned D-District buildings, but I got a really bad feeling during transit. I called Astor out on this militia head not even existing, and then..." Squall trailed off with a shrug, wiping his cheek with the back of a gloved hand, smearing bits of flesh off his face. He didn't even want to know what part of someone's body it had been. "They're trying to kill us, that much I know." He couldn't help but reach out and run his hand up and down Seifer's arm. He touched Seifer's hand, then squeezed it in his own. The taller man didn't pull away. He could feel the trembling in Squall's fingers, feel how afraid he actually was.

They remained in silence for a little while, as Seifer thought about what to do next, and as Squall rested. A beeping noise caught their attention, and both men instinctively had their gunblades up and at the ready, pointed towards the source of the noise. Seifer lowered his first, and quizzically went over to one of the Galbadian mercenaries that Squall had killed. The beeping was a radio. Seifer took it off the corpse's belt when he heard a crackly voice coming through it.

"We have the woman," a female voice murmured that they both recognized as Luchia's. "Tell Leonhart that we'll let her go if he turns himself in to us. Our position is the west maintenance building in the old outer F block."

Seifer stood and clipped the radio to his belt. "I bet anything once you show up, they'll put a bullet in both your brains."

"Why?" Squall wondered under his breath.

Seifer had an idea, but he kept his mouth shut for now. "I don't think we should just barge in there. They'd probably just kill Quistis. How long before you can cast Shiva again?"

"Don't worry about me," Squall muttered, rising to full height. Which still felt quite low standing next to Seifer. "Only Quisty matters right now."

"All right then. You need bullets?"

Squall nodded, reluctantly releasing Seifer's hand. He watched in mounting confusion as Seifer pulled out a handful of magazine clips, checked them, and then handed one to Squall, as well as a handful of loose bullets for Lionheart. When his coat had been gapped, Squall had seen various holsters holding lots of different knives and guns. And, he figured the duffel bag Seifer carried wasn't filled with clothes.

"Seifer..." He trailed off. Because they knew each other so well, even after all the many downs of their recent relationship, all his questions about Seifer's many, many weapons came out in that one single word.

"Later," Seifer said shortly. He shouldered the sniper rifle and kept Hyperion out, starting to walk slowly through the ravine, back towards the old prison buildings. Squall silently followed him, and Seifer periodically looked over his shoulder to make sure he was walking okay. Squall was probably quite hurt, but he wasn't letting it show. Seifer admired him for it.

They didn't say a word to each other as they made their way to the old bunker buildings on the outskirts of the prison's land. Squall and Seifer crouched low, pressing themselves flat against the ground on a bluff overlooking the buildings. They didn't need to speak, and quickly fell into that familiar old pattern they had back in their Garden cadet days. Back when Squall was completely oblivious that his most heated rival would come to completely own his heart.

Seifer pulled out a pair of binoculars from one of the pockets in his cargo pants and looked down at the scene. He silently handed them to the man beside him. Squall looked through the binoculars, and saw Luchia and Astor talking to a man Squall didn't recognize. There was an air of familiarity to the conversation, so he guessed this mystery man was SeeD. He tried to read their lips, but it wasn't a skill he possessed. Squall looked over to Seifer for what to do next. He found it easy to defer to the other man, especially when his thought processes felt so sluggish from the injuries and blood loss. He was surprised to find that Seifer was already setting up a tripod for his sniper rifle, and aiming the gun. He'd done it completely silently, like this was something he did all the time. Alarm bells might have gone off in Squall's head if the situation weren't so dire, and if he weren't really, really grateful for him being armed to the teeth.

"Shit," Seifer hissed under his breath, pulling up on the gun, rising. "They're getting in a car." He quickly bounced up to his feet like a spring. "I'm betting Astor and Luchia are the best trained out of the lot, so this will make it easier to get Quisty."

"Are we just going to let them go?" Squall asked incredulously. He knew it was right to put Quistis first, but Astor and Luchia had just tried to kill him.

Seifer didn't answer. He signalled wordlessly for Squall to go around the other way when they reached a fork in the bluff's path. They would come from both sides and set up an ambush. 'Go for Quisty', Seifer mouthed. Squall nodded and saw Seifer charge up a fire spell in his palm, Hyperion out as he walked purposely around the bend in the path. Squall hurried as quietly as he could around to the back of the building. There were a trio of opponents guarding the back of the building. Squall snuck up behind them, and let out a powerful wave of magic that left him feeling woozy. He was brutally forced into sharp clarity by a strong jolt of electricity right to the center of his back.

His vision turned smeary black and white, and he looked over his shoulder as he was falling to see Astor standing there, victory glittering in his cold, black eyes. Squall rolled his eyes up to see Astor's foot coming towards his face. He tried to roll away, but his body wasn't responding, and he caught a heavy toe right in the chin.

"You think you're being a hero?" Astor asked. He didn't even sound amused. Maybe it would have been better if Squall heard sadism in his voice, instead of that horrible, empty nothingness. "You're just being predictable."

Squall tried to call up Shiva, but was too weak to summon a corporeal form. Instead, he only felt cold wind tickling him like a useless breeze. He kicked Squall in the chin again, and then jerked when there was a loud explosion from the front of the building. Squall rolled away, and felt like the world flipped on her axis.

"Ambush," Luchia's voice came through the radio on Astor's hip. "They must have called for help."

The first flicker of worry came across Astor's angular face. "Who? Other SeeD?"

"Unknown, I can't--" Luchia's voice was drowned out by a deafening explosion. The smoke plumed up into the sky, black and thick, and Squall could feel it vibrating the ground underneath him.

"Luchia!" Astor called. "Luchia, respond." He waited a beat. The distraction of the explosion made him take his eyes off Squall, and the brunette used the chance to fire at Astor from the semi-automatic he'd stolen. His aim was quite off because he couldn't focus and was struggling madly to not pass out. Rock exploded nearly two feet away from Astor's head, but Squall kept firing, bullets whizzing past Astor before one finally got him in the leg.

Astor yelped and fell to one knee. He shot a powerful aero spell from his palm, hitting Squall in the chest and sending him flying into the rock. Squall turned his body mid-air so he wouldn't hit the cliff face first, and fired a couple more bullets. He heard a grunt of pain as he grazed Astor's shoulder. As he crashed into the rocks, he saw Astor start running, but not before he charged the air with powerful magic, and summoned his GF, Siren. He could hear her music, beautiful and deadly. He tried to blot it out, but he was slipping under a sea of magic, Astor getting away like a coward.

The music turned awful, screeching and hideous, and it snapped Squall out of his suffocating sleep. The horrible wailing was actually Siren's voice, hissing aggressively at the large dark form in the sky. With a bone-rattling quake, Bahamut's huge dragon body came down to the ground, standing between Siren and Squall's prone form. Bahamut snapped his jaws at Siren's face. She reared back, feathers flying into the air. Her hands and feet, looking much uglier than Squall was used to when he'd cast her before, lashed out at the dragon's hard, scaled muzzle, and she pelted him with magic. Was this ugly harpy Siren's true form? Squall tried to follow what was going on - it wasn't every day you got to see Bahamut and Siren in a knockdown fight, but he couldn't stay conscious anymore.

Bahamut flapped out his great wings to allow Seifer passage around Siren. The tall blonde ran past the GF, the pressure of the magic actually pulling Seifer towards it, like it had its own gravitational pull. He was knocked to his knees by a ground shaking roar from the dragon king, but finally made his way to Squall, who was passed out. Seifer cast a couple cure spells, but he didn't stir. So, Seifer picked him up, strapping Lionheart to his own back. Squall was a lot heavier than he looked, and it was awkward holding him and trying to keep a weapon out at the same time.

"Come on, wake up," Seifer muttered impatiently as he started running as fast as he could towards the building that Quistis was being held in. He knew he had no time. "Hyne's curse, Squall! Wake up!" He growled. Luchia and Astor had taken off in a Galbadian army issued SUV, running away like rats from a sinking ship. They would contact Garden, and they'd have every SeeD on roster coming after them. Seifer knew he needed to get Squall and Quistis and get as far away from here as possible.

As he dashed towards the building, Seifer again cast cure magic on the other man, until he heard a faint groan. "Wake the hell up, Squall. I can't carry you like this." He threw his shoulder into the door of the maintenance hut, stumbling into the blackened area, hulking and disused machinery creating large shadows. Seifer had to unceremoniously drop Squall to the floor so he could have his hands free to return the gunfire that met him. "Quistis!" He shouted. "If you can hear me, make noise!" It was too dark to really see who he was firing on, and he sure as fucking hell didn't want to kill her by accident. He heard gunfire from behind him. Squall had come to, and was emptying his magazine from the ground, still too woozy to stand.

When the loud ring of bullets stopped, Squall and Seifer still kept their weapons aimed, waiting to see if anyone else would pop out. Siren and Bahamut could still be heard outside. "Quisty?" Squall asked into the darkness. Seifer cupped a bright fire spell in his gloved palm, holding his hand out so he could look around for a light source of some kind. He found one on the wall and flipped it open. The shed was filled with blindingly bright fluorescent light, and both men groaned as their eyes stung and started to focus.

"Quisty!" Seifer called quietly, seeing her laying sprawled on the floor, half pinned under a dead man wearing Galbadian army fatigues. Seifer kicked the corpse off her, noticing with a sinking stomach that his pants were down, and Quistis's own had been torn and knifed away from her pelvic region. Her face was battered, and her torso was covered in blood from a huge bleeding gash that went from ribcage to pubic bone. "Quisty!" He whispered, casting healing magic on her.

She snorted and gasped, waking up in an instant, immediately jerking away. Black mist poured up from her body, forming a bevy of bats. Their mass of flapping, black leathery wings was so strong that it numbed Seifer's face, and they came together to form the massive black body of Diablos. The demon only regarded Seifer for a moment, looking at him with hellish eyes that stared right through Seifer's skin and muscle. Then, he flew out of the room like a missile, heading towards the magical battle raging outside.

Quistis felt hands on her, and screeched and started punching whatever she could get her fists on. Seifer caught her wrists in a firmer grip than he would have wanted, but she was fighting him hard. "Quisty, it's me. It's Seifer! Stop, stop. It's okay! It's me."

Her fighting became more feeble, but she was still shouting and screaming. It became a wail as Seifer's arms came around her. Slowly, as he whispered in her ear, her wrestling ceased, and she started panting and sobbing. She could feel cure magic flowing through her body from his own.

Squall stumbled over, and collapsed beside them to all fours, balling his fists against the cement floor. He reached out and touched Quistis's blood-matted hair. She jerked at the contact, but then relaxed when she knew it was Squall. She knew she was safe with them. Right now, that's the only thing she knew.

"You think you can stand?" Seifer asked, pulling away and looking into her face. He cupped her chin and looked into her eyes clinically.

"What are you doing here?" Quistis whispered. She couldn't help the large swell of tears that was overcoming her.

"I was just in the neighbourhood," he answered dryly. "Hand me his pants," he said to Squall, pointing at one of the dead bodies, somewhat comparable to Quistis in size.

"Here," Squall whispered, as gentle as she'd ever heard his voice. The pants were baggy, so Squall helped put them on right over the ruins of Quistis's other pants and chaps, as well as her boots. She tried to swallow back sobs in big, noisy gulps.

"We have to get out of here. Now." Seifer quickly got up and went to the door. "Get ammo and weapons from them. I'll get a vehicle."

He stopped when a thick cloud of bats came flying towards him, passing right by him, into the maintenance shed towards their mistress. Bahamut landed silently, remarkable for his massive size, in front of Seifer, then hovered beside him with great flaps of his wings as Seifer started looking at the vehicles. Most got badly damaged in the explosion.

"Siren's been dispatched," Bahamut answered aloud, majestic voice echoing and multi-layered, mouth not moving. "Her master fled spinelessly."

"To get reinforcements," Seifer muttered, looking into the backseat of one army truck that looked like it would at least start up, and it had enough room for Quistis and Squall to lay in the back. He opened the hatch in the back, and started searching it for weapons or useful items. Talking to Bahamut, and having a huge dragon floating right beside him like some kind of gargantuan dog just didn't seem strange to Seifer at all. But, he didn't have time to reflect on this instant connection. "Take a rest," he told the slate-coloured dragon. "They'd be able to feel your power a hundred miles away."

Bahamut nodded and vanished. Seifer had left Raijin's car a mile away and continued by foot, and Squall and Quistis were way too injured to walk back that far. Not to mention they just didn't have time for that. Seifer crawled in under the steering wheel and started hotwiring the vehicle. When the engine roared to life, he sat up and saw Squall half-carrying Quistis towards the utility vehicle. Her face was ashen from the blood loss.

"Get in the back," Seifer told them. "There are rifles in that bag there, in case Astor and Luchia come back with more SeeD." Seifer barely waited until they were inside before he peeled away, spinning the truck around, heading southeast. He travelled around the Galbadian desert sometimes for study, so he knew where all the radar traps were. He would gun the engine as fast as it would go until he hit one, then slowed down to the speed limit. The last thing they needed right now was to get pulled over.

"I don't think Astor and Luchia would go back to Garden. They must have been rogue," Squall guessed, sitting up. He didn't try to crawl into the passenger seat, but he did sit right up against the side of the driver's seat, as close to Seifer as he could get without interfering with his concentration on the road.

"Xu," Quistis muttered. She was staring up at the ceiling of the truck, angry tears spilling down from the corners of her bloodshot sapphire eyes.

"She knew?" Squall asked sharply. Quistis just continued to stare up, and Seifer kept his eyes on the road, driving at dangerous speeds. But, he didn't seem very surprised.

"She planned it. She planned everything." Quistis felt like her heart was a seeping wound. "She planned to ruin us."

"Why?" Squall demanded. "How do you know?"

"She talked to me in a video conference." Quistis tried to ignore the sharp pains in her stomach, intensifying every time they hit a rough spot in the road. "She wants to be Headmaster, and sees us as a threat to that."

"That doesn't make sense," Squall muttered.

Quistis didn't say anything else. Squall tried to wrap his head around the fact that Xu had just ordered a hit on her best friend. And, around the fact that Seifer was carrying an entire gun store around. Or, what they were going to do. Could they call Selphie or Zell for help? Or... Rinoa? She probably didn't ever want to see him again, and he wouldn't exactly blame her. He leaned against the side of the driver's seat, his eyelids starting to feel heavy. He watched Seifer's profile intently, eyes periodically closing. His entire world was crashing down around him again, but it somehow felt okay with Seifer there.

---

Xu picked up her phone after the first ring, her fingers tingling with anticipation. "Yes?" She was anxious to hear Astor or Luchia's voices, and wasn't disappointed when her male assistant spoke.

"They got away."

All Xu's euphoria at finally having the Headmaster's seat in her grasp went out of her in an ugly whoosh. "What?" She snapped.

"There was an ambush. They must have called for reinforcements."

"So why didn't you get rid of their reinforcements?" Xu demanded. She was holding the phone so tightly that the plastic was creaking under her grip. This could not be happening. Not now. She was so close to having a chance at leading Garden, at making Garden so much better, more efficient. She'd just sacrificed Quistis, something she hadn't initially planned on doing, and did deep down feel bad about. Even though it had been necessary.

"Whoever it was caught us by surprise. They were also junctioning Bahamut with a level of power I've never seen before."

"Spare me your fucking excuses," Xu hissed, mind already reeling. She started pulling open drawers in her desk, and yanking out various items. "Who the hell was it, anyway?"

"We didn't see them."

"You fucking stupid bastard," Xu cursed him out. She pulled on a pair of gloves, then took out a file of paperwork, and a box containing a drinking glass, carefully wrapped in cheese cloth. "Get your useless asses back to Garden. And, you better look like you were jumped and beaten within an inch of your life. I don't care if you have to kick the shit out of each other to make it happen." She slammed the phone back down in the cradle, already putting Plan B into motion.

"Well Xu, the only way to have it done right is to not rely on morons. Just do it yourself," she murmured under her breath, putting the drinking glass in one of her SeeD jacket pockets. She held the file folder in front of it so nobody would notice the bulge. She purposely stalked down the hallway from her office, rapping on Cid's office door.

"Come in, come in!" His voice boomed jovially through the door.

Xu cleared her face of all anger, and strode it with a breezy smile. "Good afternoon, Headmaster. Do you have a few minutes to go over these forms I have?"

Cid's smile wilted a little. "Oh... yes, sure. You know how much I dislike paperwork, Xu."

"Yes, I do know." She gave him a wink. "You don't mind if I get a drink while we go over these?"

Cid gestured to the decanters lined up on a desk. "Go ahead."

Xu took one of the glasses there, and poured some water. Looking over her shoulder to make sure Cid wasn't looking in her direction, she pulled the hidden glass out of her pocket, as well as a vial she kept on her at all times. She poured some water into the brought glass as well, then deftly dropped some of the liquid from the vial in with the water. She plunked the doctored drink in front of the Headmaster, and sipped from her own water as she sat down and handed him the file folder. "I poured one for you, too."

"Oh, thank you." Cid adjusted his glasses and started to read the files. "Oh, I also have some paperwork for you to sign. Just some new mission contracts." He handed her a heavy stack. "Probably should have gotten to it a couple of days ago."

"It's fine," she lied. She could feel a vein in her temple starting to throb, so she hid it by resting her fingers there as she read. His mission proposals were like verbal diarrhea. No wonder Garden couldn't even catch one fucking assassins cell. Garden would be far better off without him at the head. He was a cancer.

"All of your paperwork is always so organized," he complimented, signing a few of them. But, still not drinking his water. Xu tried not to keep looking over at it, but it was getting harder with each passing minute. Minutes that Squall and Quistis were using to escape. And, now Quistis knew that Xu had ordered her to die. Xu tried not to start panicking, and had to bite down hard on her lip as she pretended to read. She could feel sweat trickling down her spine. She'd wanted to be honest with Quistis at the end. Xu felt that she at least owed her that, and look where it got her. This wasn't a backup plan that she'd wanted to use, but she'd set things in motion long ago, and it couldn't be undone. She rather felt trapped by her plans, but as long as the outcome was Garden becoming a better organization, which would happen under her control, anything she did to get there would work out in the end. Even hunting her best friend like a dog.

Xu's lips broke into a huge smile when Cid finally took a drink from the water glass Xu'd hidden in her desk for weeks. "Thank you," Xu said brightly. Even having to read Cid's bastardized legalese seemed like heaven now that the poison she'd dropped into the water would be running through Cid's body. She had regrets about what she'd done to Quistis, but there were none now. Cid had become the bane of her existence. Not only because he kept overlooking Xu as the most capable to take over as Headmaster, but also because he was such a bumbling, spineless, weak fool.

Cid blinked a couple of times, shaking his head as the poison within him started to take effect. He took another drink of water as he suddenly got a hot flash, unknowingly making things worse.

"Something wrong, Headmaster?" Xu asked. She could see his face starting to turn grey under a thickening layer of sweat.

"Suddenly... suddenly I'm not feeling... I'm not fee-feeling so well, Xu..."

"That's too bad," she replied with complete insincerity. She rose to her feet as Cid flopped back in his chair, eyes rolling into the back of his head.

"Xu... I can't... I can't see..." His tongue was starting to feel thick and fat in his mouth, and fire was coursing through his entire body.

"Yes, I know. That's just the arsenic doing its work." She leaned against the edge of the desk beside him, looking into his face. "I wouldn't have had to do this if you would have just made me Headmaster, instead of insisting on Quistis and that fucking drunk."

Cid was starting to pant and struggle for air. When she leaned over him, he tried to lunge at her, but it was really only his brain feebly trying to send commands to his body. All he wound up doing was jerking a little in his chair. He was starting to foam at the mouth.

"You making me kill my best friend. You're the one that's killing her," she hissed. "You think I wanted that? All you had to do was notice me!" Her voice became a growl.

"Never..." He struggled to whisper. Bubbles of thick saliva burst at his mouth. He started seizing as the poison took control of his heart.

"Never?" Xu echoed, feeling a little like she'd been punched in the gut. Had his snubbing of her been deliberate? "Well," she said, regaining her composure as she stood. She wiped the front of her uniform as if she were wiping clean what she'd just done. "It's going to happen now, and you don't really have a say, Headmaster."

His only response was to utter a death rattle, body slumping in the chair, void of life.

"I don't care what you say," she told his still-warm body. "I'll be a good Headmaster. I will." Xu continued to do paperwork, letting Cid's body cool and stiffen. With him dead, the whole process really did go more smoothly and she got quite a bit done. She properly filed everything away so it would look like it had been that way for days. After checking her watch to make sure enough time passed, she looked up at the ceiling, and started to will tears to come. It wasn't that hard to make herself cry. She actually thought of the burning lasers of Quistis's glare, reducing her and stripping her bare. The tears then came freely, so much so that she started sobbing. "It's for the best," she told herself, believing it wholeheartedly.

She then dashed out of Cid's office, shouting at the top of her lungs. "We need help here! Something's happened to the Headmaster! Help!" She cried, running down the halls, masking her victory with panic. "HELP!"

"Xu, what's wrong?" One of the mathematics instructors asked, coming out of a conference room. People were starting to run towards the sound of the shouting. She kept scanning the crowd, and when she saw Zell's spiky blonde hair, she ran towards him and threw herself into his arms, sobbing into his broad, hard chest. She needed to completely finish swaying him and the others now to believe the worst about Quistis and Squall, or her plan would fall in shambles.

"Xu, what happened?" Zell asked with gentleness in his voice that he rarely showed because he was too busy being a loudmouth. It was a quality that a lot of people actually found endearing. Xu wasn't one of them.

"C-C... Cid," she moaned, looking up at him as pitiably as she could. "He's dead."

"Dead?!" Zell blustered loudly. Every head turned towards him, and the echoes of 'dead?' rang throughout the hallways.

"Get Dr. Kadawaki!" Someone shouted. "And, call Edea Kramer!"

"Here, sit down..." Zell led Xu into the nearest empty conference room, and gently pushed her down in a chair. "Drink this." He pushed a bottle of water in her hands.

"What happened?" She heard a voice asked that numbed her to her toes. Nida. Her beautiful Nida. Who would completely be hers now. Quistis wasn't going to be an issue between them anymore.

"Cid's dead," Irvine murmured. He'd poked his head into the office, and saw the Headmaster sitting in chair, eyes white and rolled back, foam crusting at his mouth. "Looks like he was poisoned."

"Poisoned?" Nida asked quietly.

"Here you guys are!" Rinoa exclaimed quietly, poking her head into the room. Her eyes were really red-rimmed, but this awful situation made her forget all about her own problems. "It's not... is it true?" She asked Irvine, barely a whisper.

He gave one, slow nod. "Doc Kadawaki just went in with Selphie and the rest of the security team. Like I said, I'd bet my life it was poison."

"Who would want to poison him?" The Sorceress asked helplessly. Fresh tears were starting to come, but these ones were all for Cid, instead of over Squall. "Poor Edea. She'll be devastated."

"Well, it has to be SeeD," Nida guessed. "Cadets can't access this part of the building, unless they're being really ambitious."

"You're thinking SeeD?" Rinoa asked, shaking her head. "I can't believe someone here would want to kill the Headmaster."

"It might have been the Solar System," Xu answered stuffily, wiping her cheeks. Zell was crouched beside her chair, stroking her arm. "I knew they had someone in Garden."

"You think?" Irvine asked, voice showing his high scepticism.

"They probably know that we're getting closer to catching them. Getting Cid out of the way would send this place into chaos."

Irvine's eyes narrowed further with each of her words. "Nah... I don't think that's it."

"How can you be sure?" Zell asked. "I'd sooner believe that than one of us trying to poison Cid."

"...just a feeling," was all Irvine would say.

"Xu?" Selphie poked her head in the conference room. She had her head of security badge pinned to her bright orange quilted vest. "I know this is hard, but I need to ask you some questions." She looked to all her friends. "Alone, please."

Zell bolted to a standing position. "Right. Sure. I'll just be right outside, okay?" He leaned down and kissed the top of his girlfriend's head.

She nodded. "Thanks."

"Has anyone called Matron?" Irvine asked of his former lover.

Selphie nodded. "Yeah. Doc says he was definitely poisoned, but they're going to do an autopsy and a tox screen, and they're looking for fingerprints right now. It had to have been a SeeD, so any prints will be on file."

"We'll let you get to work." Nida put a hand on Irvine and Rinoa's shoulders and gently nudged them out of the room. "I wonder if I should try to call Quistis," he wondered once they were in the hallway. "You tried to call Squall?"

Rinoa shook her head. "Uh uh." She hadn't told anyone about their break up, or the reasons behind it. She herself could still scare wrap her head around it.

They decided to wait around to find out what Selphie had to say, and to show moral support for Xu. Zell was doing his usual nervous pacing, hands stuffed in the back pockets of his SeeD slacks. Or, he'd start shadowboxing and think better of it, and then just start playing with the buttons on his bright tropical print shirt.

"You're looking awfully thoughtful," Nida commented lowly in Irvine's ear. The other man was running his thumb and index finger across the brim of his hat, staring into a singular point far in the distance. "You never look this lost in thought unless you're thinking about sex."

"Just... thinking."

"Something feels funny to you too, right?" Nida asked, so quietly that nobody else could hear him. Except for Rinoa.

She'd also been in deep concentration, trying to gain control of her emotions, and in turn, her magic. She was so upset about Cid's death, and about her last conversation with Squall, that her emotions were like a bubbling volcano, and all that energy wanted to come forth in a massive explosion. She found that when she was concentrating on her magic as much as she was now, it seemed to heighten her senses, including hearing. The tone of Nida's voice seemed to indicate he was sceptical somehow. It came off his aura, too. She had the great urge to go to him and ask him about it, but then the conference room door opened and Selphie came out.

"It's okay to go back in," she told Zell, who bolted like a flash back into the room to be with Xu.

"Well?" Nida asked impatiently of the diminutive SeeD. Irvine was uncharacteristically silent.

"Xu said that she found Cid like that when she went into his office to get him to sign some paperwork. There was a glass on the table in front of him, half-empty. We're going to analyze what water's left, and check the glass for prints. Actually, we should get a hit really fast if there are prints on it, since they would have to be SeeD. No civilian could have gotten past all the checkpoints into the building."

"What if it was a cadet?" Nida asked.

"Unlikely. You need key cards to get up to this level. So, even if it was a cadet, they would have had to steal a SeeD's card, or had help. Xu thinks it was a member of the Solar System who's SeeD. If that's true, we'll have caught them for sure. But, most SeeD wear gloves around all the time, so maybe there won't be prints..." Selphie scuffed her feet on the carpet. "But..."

"But what?" Rinoa asked, crossing her arms nervously.

"We checked Cid's appointment books. His last appointment was with... Squall and Quistis, before they left for their mission."

"What are you saying?" Rinoa asked, heart lurching.

Selphie didn't answer for a long time. "I... I don't know."

"Yeah you do," replied Irvine, eyes unreadable within the shadow his hat cast across them. "You're thinking you're going to find one of their prints on the glass."

"Oh, come on!" Nida scoffed. "Neither of them would kill the Headmaster."

"Well... maybe rehab didn't work again for Squall. Hyne knows what he got addicted to when he was on that three-week bender. And, Quistis what about Evan Phaighn?"

"I don't believe this," Nida muttered under his breath, walking away from the conversation in disgust.

"I think rehab worked this time," Rinoa murmured. "Besides, they aren't murderers!"

Selphie frowned, looking so un-Selphie like. "Rinoa, to be completely fair, all SeeD are killers."

The Sorceress really didn't know how to respond to that. It's something that she sometimes forgot, living here in Garden. Nearly everyone here had killed at least one person. Even Rinoa. She'd helped kill Ultimecia. Though Ultimecia may have been a horrible example of it, she'd still been a human being.

"Selphie!" A security team member called, poking her head into the hallway. "Come here!" She added with urgency.

"Gotta go." Selphie ran off back to the crime scene. "Chairman," she greeted in passing. One of the Chairmen who sat on the board of directors of Garden was walking down the hallway, flanked by two officials.

"Is Miss Fuu Wong in there?" He turned to Rinoa, respectfully inclining his head to her. "Sorceress Rinoa."

"Hello," she mumbled into her dark green silk shirt.

"Yes, Sir." Irvine gave a SeeD salute, watching with curiosity as the Chairman went in, closing the door behind him.

"What do you think they want?" Rinoa asked, peering up into Irvine's face.

"Probably to make Xu acting Headmaster until an official vote on a replacement can be made." This guess was only cemented further was Zell came out of the room again, the door closed almost immediately behind him.

"Poor Xu," sympathized Rinoa. "To have all this heaped on her at once must be hard."

"She's strong," Zell pointed out. "If anyone can handle it, she can. She'll probably be a kick ass Headmaster. But... to get the job this way... It's horrible." He shook his head.

"Yeah," Irvine echoed hollowly. "Horrible."

---

Squall and Quistis tried to not even breathe as they hid under a tarp in the flatbed of a pick-up truck, shivering in the night air. Since leaving the Galbadian desert, they'd switched cars twice, once at a rental shop on the highway, and once having stolen this truck out of a parking lot. Squall was sure they'd switch again here in Timber. Squall knew that Esthar was the only safe place for them, but he didn't know how they would get there. There were probably Garden officials watching the railroads by now. But, they were sure Seifer had some sort of plan. Right now, he'd left them to get supplies.

Under the tarp, Quistis reached out and squeezed Squall's hand. She could taste her heartbeat on her tongue. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been this scared. Not even during the whole Ultimecia thing. At least then, she'd had friends to back her up, and Garden was a safe haven. Now, the three of them were completely alone. And, one of her best friends had betrayed her so thoroughly.

Both stiffened and caught their breaths in their throats when they heard someone approaching the truck. "It's okay," the heard Seifer murmur quietly as he opened the driver's side door. The truck roared to life, and they felt themselves being blindly driven to... somewhere. They could hear traffic sounds all around them, and train whistles in the distance. Neither dared to move a muscle, because if someone happened to look and saw motion, it could be game over. All they could do was hold each others hands tighter.

After a tense fifteen minutes, they felt the truck slow, and the sound of some mechanical engine whirring. The engine stopped, and they heard the car door open and close. "It's safe," Seifer's voice assured.

Squall sat up and threw the tarp off him and Quistis, breathing deeply of fresh air. They saw they were in some kind of one-car garage, and the mechanical noise had been the garage door closing.

"Where are we?" Squall asked, helping Quistis out of the back of the truck. She stumbled, and had to lean against the truck's side just to stand. The cure magic was starting to wane, and the deep wound was bleeding freely once more.

"A safe house in Timber. We'll stay here for a day or so, get you two patched up. Can you take these?" He gave Squall half a dozen shopping bags to carry. Seifer pulled out his wallet and went to the door that led into the bungalow the garage was attached to. He took out what looked like a Timber public library card, and put it to a scanner box where there should have been a doorknob. Squall and Quistis watched quizzically as the little grey device started beeping quietly. "Fuck, I hope there's nobody else in here..." Seifer muttered quietly, but loud enough that the other two could hear him.

A light on the scanner turned yellow, and Seifer took off a glove and pressed his thumb into the middle of the scanner. It beeped again, then the light turned green. They could hear some sort of mechanical lock release and click. Seifer opened the door, and ushered the pair of them inside. When the door was closed behind them, it automatically locked once more.

Seifer flipped on a light switch, dropping his many bags on the ground. Inside looked like a normal house, except that instead of a dining area, there was a gurney, IV stands, and various medical monitors.

"What is this place?" Squall asked.

"Quisty, you lay down on there." He gestured to the gurney. "I'll get you first, then stitch up Squall's wounds."

"Tell us where we are first," she demanded. "What do you mean by 'safe house'? How come it's all locked electronically?"

"Sit down. You need to be stitched up before you bleed too much more." He gestured to her stolen pants, the waistband already quite bloodied.

She did, saying "okay, I'm sitting. Now, explain."

"A hideout that needs a thumbprint, and you're carrying around an arsenal of weapons. I can't see you being a government spy, so it's either mercenary" Squall guessed aloud. "Or, professional killer."

Seifer sighed. "This is one of the safe houses for the Solar System's agents. We'll be safe in here. For now, anyway. Take your boots off," he told Quistis gently.

"You're in the Solar System?" She spat out.

"Jupiter, at your service."

"Since when?" Quistis asked.

Seifer looked away from her. He hated the disappointment in her voice.

"Since just before I came to you looking for my transcripts."

"So... going back to school was all a cover...?"

The tall blonde couldn't help but laugh. "You sound more disappointed that I'm not actually studying than about me being an assassin." He couldn't look at Squall at all right now. He didn't want to see disappointment on his beautiful face. "Okay... did you get raped?" It was a question he hated asking her.

Quistis frowned deeply. "Tried to. The cut's from him trying to cut off my clothes."

"Penetration?"

She shook her head, as embarrassed as he was.

"Okay. I'll close it up for you. You can take your own pants off." He went to an armoire, and opened it to reveal it was full of medical supplies. He pulled out stuff he needed, and put it on a metal cart with wheels. "You wanna act as nurse?"

Squall nodded, trying to catch Seifer's gaze, but the blonde was having none of that.

"Syringe, please." Seifer handed out his free hand, encased in a latex glove, requesting the local anasthesia. "At least while we're in here, no other members can come in."

"Do you know any of the other... planets, or assassins, or whatever?" Quistis asked. She wanted to direct conversation away from what was happening right now. She hated getting stitches, and really really didn't want to dwell on the fact that she was now in hiding because of her supposed 'dear friend'.

"No. I've never met any of them, and I've never met Sol. I only talk to him on the phone, and his voice is masked. Well, it could also be a woman. I only have contact with Pluto, Eris or Ceres." He kept quiet about the moment when he and Fujin had met each other as 'planets'.

"Are they assassins too?" Squall asked.

"Messengers, and Ceres is a doctor. I trust this information isn't leaving this room, correct?"

Both shook their heads.

"Can you angle the light here better, Squall?"

"But... what about you being on TV?" Quistis asked. "An act, too?"

He just shrugged.

"Well, it was a pretty darn good one. It was quite informative, and you and Raijin have good comedic timing," she rambled. But, it still didn't stop tears from pooling under her lashes. "Edea had all the Orphanage kids watch it, and they couldn't talk about anything other than tonberrys for days, and how they wanted them as pets, and how cool they thought you were."

"Maybe they wouldn't think I was as cool if they found out I'm someone who kills people solely for money." That comment killed the momentum of the conversation. "Squall, move the light to the left."

He did so. "What are we going to do?" Squall asked quietly.

"Esthar is the only safe place for you right now. It's lucky they voted down any Garden involvement there. Getting to Esthar isn't exactly going to be easy, though. I bet Xu has agents watching the Horizon rail line, and has people posted at Fisherman's Horizon and Esthar customs."

"So...?" Squall asked.

"We'll go through Centra." He patted Quistis's knee as he pulled away from her. "You can put those back on. I got you some new clothes, though. I'm not sure if they'll fit. I kinda just bought you the same size Fujin wears."

"You don't think they'll realize we might try to go through Centra, especially with Matron there?" Quistis asked, looking away from them as she put on a new pair of cargo pants that Seifer handed her.

"I know Centra better than they do. Besides, they don't know you're with me. That will buy us some time."

"Maybe not," Squall muttered, crossing his arms.

"Whaddya mean? You have any cuts that need antiseptic?"

Quistis nodded. "My elbow looks pretty deep. And, this one on my neck here."

"I told Rinoa the truth," Squall watched Seifer's reaction carefully.

"Your sense of honesty has really shitty timing," he grunted, masking the whirlwind of emotions that were suddenly overtaking him. Hope for him and Squall, but also worry that they may have lost any of their advantage. "Still... I do know Centra better than they do. I know all the hidden goat paths in the mountains. The biggest problem will be getting across the Lenown Plains, especially because it's so close to Good Hope, and they'll figure we'll go there."

"What about getting across the water?" Quistis asked. Talking about this was good. It distracted her. "You don't think that will be a bit" She hissed sharply as the antiseptic stung her cuts. "You don't think it will be a bit problematic?"

"Smugglers. If we pay them enough, they'll ship us to the Centran coast. They hate Garden as much as they hate any other official body of power. Okay, you're done. There's a bathroom with toiletries if you want a shower."

"Thanks," she mumbled miserably.

"I sent Fujin and Raijin to Esthar after I got your message to tell President Loire we were coming. And, that you were set up, but I don't think he'd need to be told that."

"You think they'll get there okay?" Quistis asked over her shoulder as she shuffled towards the bathroom.

"Yeah... I hope so." He couldn't hide his mounting concern. "They should get across the border before Garden can muster their troops. Xu would have planned on you dying, and making up any story she pleased about how it happened. But, Astor and Luchia would have told her by now you got away, so she'll need to regroup, and think of something to discredit you in the eyes of Garden."

"You mean discredit us further," the blonde woman hissed. "She was planning this all along. Planning to ruin us."

"To be fair, Squall ruined himself all on his own."

"Hey..." He trailed off sullenly.

"I bet... Hyne's spit, I bet she was behind that whole Evan thing. I bet she fucking paid him to sell those photographs. Or, maybe she paid him to come onto me in the first place."

"Maybe she had him killed, too." Seifer cocked his head. "Squall, get on the gurney."

"Maybe?" Squall echoed, taking off his now tattered leather jacket. The navy blue shirt underneath was caked with dried blood. "Definitely."

When Quistis closed and locked the bathroom door behind her, Squall and Seifer were left in a silence that was more awkward than any they'd ever shared before. Squall's entirety of skin tingled when Seifer placed his gloved fingertips with the most featherweight of touches. But, that wasn't the contact he wanted. He wanted to meet Seifer's gaze, which the blonde man was avidly avoiding. Squall winced when his wound was cleaned with antiseptic, then jabbed with the sewing needle. But, it didn't make him look away from Seifer's face.

"I wondered if you'd even come," Squall murmured. Normally he could handle a thick silence quite happily, but not this one. "Or, maybe that you'd delete my message as soon as you heard my voice."

Seifer didn't answer. Instead he concentrated on the wound. It was quite deep, but the magic had helped staunch any further bleeding.

"Seifer..."

The way Squall said it made Seifer look up. The firmness of the command that was also equally gentle pleading. "I dunno... I just knew something was wrong."

"Did you get my other message?"

"I didn't listen to it, if that's what you're asking," was the cool response, Seifer going back to concentrating on the stitches. "Any of them."

"The last one was before I went into rehab." Squall tried to tell himself that the tears growing in his eyes were because of the discomfort of getting stitches. "I sent one to Rinoa, too. And, I knew I had... to change things. That I would make a decision. But, I knew what I wanted before I went in there."

Seifer loved to hear Squall talk. His voice was soothing and as beautiful as the rest of him. Seifer counted himself very lucky that Squall talked a lot more around him than he did with most other people. But, he still didn't know if he wanted to hear what Squall had to say.

"I broke up with her before the mission. I told her I..." Squall stopped himself from saying 'I love you', and instead said "wanted to be with you."

The silence wasn't what Squall wanted to hear.

"Seifer..."

He looked up from the stitches, staring hard right into the other man's face. "And, what about when you're back in Esthar? Will you still want me then? You have a penchant for falling in lust in life or death situations. When you're back among the world, will you just want to go back to her, and leave me behind?"

"I knew what I wanted before I went into rehab. It wasn't..." He wanted to say it wasn't lust. It was love.

"It was life and death for you," interrupted Seifer. "The rest of the world might have been doing fine, but for you, it wasn't."

"Then, why bother coming to help us?"

Seifer rolled his eyes and sighed in exasperation. "For Hyne's sake, Squall. Don't be so dramatic. I wasn't going to let you die, not when I could help it. Well... not now, anyway." He studied Squall's face, one so achingly familiar to him. "You know... I understand why Xu did what she did. I don't doubt that she loved Quistis very much at one point, maybe even still does. But, Quistis would have gotten everything that Xu wanted. Respect within Garden, a chance at being Headmaster. Nida. And, to keep seeing someone else get everything that maybe is rightfully yours, at least in your head... even if it's someone you love, it makes you bitter, and angry. And, it turns to hate really fast."

Squall felt the personal heaviness of those words. "So, you think she's justified? You think she's right?" He asked carefully. Was this Seifer's veiled way of saying his feelings for Squall turned into something ugly?

"No." Seifer snipped off the last stitch, and started to examine Squall's shoulder. Cure magic had done all the work on that injury. "But... I understand."

"I didn't mean to be the one that everyone looked to," Squall retorted, a bit defensively. He winced when Seifer touched a deep bruise on his cheek.

"I know." He looked into Squall's eyes for a while. "Looks like the old you is back. Morning Lake must have worked." He started swabbing antiseptic over a cut on Squall's forehead, having to brush a lock of hair out of the way. He tried not to show how even this small gesture affected him. But, given what their relationship was, he wasn't successful.

"Seifer?"

"Yeah?"

"Did I... Did I apologize for how I acted... last time?" Squall's cheeks started to burn pink with humiliation.

" ...yeah. You don't remember?"

"Some of it. It's all kind of blurry, and I can't remember anything after I left Esthar. I don't even know how I left. The doctor said it's because I apparently dropped a bunch of angel dust."

"You're lucky you didn't die."

"Maybe I'll die this time instead."

"Ah, the old Squall Leonhart really is back. It's so you to be so depressing and mopey and socially maladjusted, even after pulling off some first-class badassery to stay alive."

Squall couldn't help but smirk. He reached up towards his face and covered Seifer's hand with his own, feeling the warmth of his skin, the delicate metacarpal bones, his veins, his long fingers calloused in the same way Squall's were under the latex. He was close enough to kiss...

When their faces were close enough they could feel the warmth of each other's breath, Seifer pulled away, rising to full height as he stripped off his gloves. "You might have a minor concussion. You should get some rest, but I'll wake you up periodically to make sure you don't go into a coma."

Squall knew he really didn't have the right to get frustrated by the rejection, but he was going to get frustrated anyway, dammit. "You are the most stubborn, pigheaded asshole ever."

"You don't really have ground to be pissed at me over this, Squall. And, way to be ungrateful." He gently knocked on the bathroom door. The shower was still running, and he was getting a little concerned. "Quisty? You okay?"

"Compared to what?" She asked weakly through the door.

"Want a new shirt?" He picked up one of the shopping bags. "Don't worry, I won't look. I'm too busy glaring at Squall because he's being a bitch."

The door opened a crack, and her arm came out to snatch the bag before the door was closed again.

"...Whatever. And, I'm not being ungrateful." Squall crossed his arms, mumbling out the last part.

"Get some rest while you can," Seifer muttered dismissively. He took up Hyperion, and started shutting off any lights they'd turned on as he went to the draped picture window to check the street outside.

"Is this about you admitting to us you're Jupiter?" Squall asked, not being brushed off so easily. Seifer couldn't hang up on him here, so he wasn't going to just give up. "You think that matters? You think I care?"

"Maybe I care."

Hearing Seifer say it that way made Squall's anger disappear. He recognized that trapped, defeated body language and tone of voice very acutely. He'd been living with himself for two years, or maybe even longer. Maybe his whole life. "You told me before that I should listen to myself. Do what I want to do. But, you can't take your own advice?"

"It's different."

"No."

"If I had to choose between booze and Ultimecia, I'd so be at the bottom of a bourbon bottle."

"So, that's it then? She's just going to control your life until you die? This is what Seifer Almasy is going to be now? Where's the guy who risked his entire future because he wanted to follow some shady Galbadians up the Dollet communication tower?"

"That Seifer was a fool."

"So is this one. I just wish I knew why you were so afraid, because I really need you right now."

A muscle twitched in Seifer's jaw, which was like words to Squall. He knew that he was correct, that Seifer was afraid to talk to him about this. About them.

"I told myself I would never date a bi boy."

"Don't be glib," Squall snapped. "That can't be the reason."

"But, it is." Seifer turned away from the window and looked at Squall hard. "I can't give you what she can if you want Rinoa, or any other woman."

"Nobody can give me what you can," Squall replied in an extremely quiet whisper. "And, you're not telling me the full truth. You just put your life at risk to save me, and you can't be honest?"

"Being a Sorceress's Knight was my dream for as long as I can remember," Seifer said monotonously, robotically as he looked out the window. "I wanted it so fucking bad. It was a stupid, childish, unrealistic dream. But, it was still mine." His voice shook. "And, to have it stolen from me..." He felt hotness growing behind his eyes. "You don't realize how much something like that destroys you. And, I I can't go through that again, Squall." He kept looking out the window, even when he could feel Squall standing in his personal space. Close enough to smell him. "It hurt when it was just sex... and, I don't want to feel what it would be like if I let myself love you, and you went back to her."

"You think it was just sex?" Squall asked, actually hurt. He stepped deep into Seifer's personal space, putting himself between the taller man and the window. Seifer still wouldn't look at him, so the brunette grasped the sides of Seifer's face, and forced eye contact. "It hurts that this has to be one of the few times you don't know what I'm thinking."

Seifer tried to look away. He felt so naked an vulnerable in the sights of those cold ocean eyes. But, Squall wouldn't let him break the gaze. He held his hands firm on the sides of Seifer's face, and searched his eyes. He'd never looked into anyone's eyes so deeply as he did with Seifer. Ever. Even when they'd been at each other's throats, he'd never stared into another person's eyes and seen to such depths within them. And, even their life's fuck-ups seemed to be in unison. Both feeling utterly trapped by life, stuck in places they loathed, and places they never wanted to be. Squall, locked in self-destructive addiction, and Seifer locked in the idea that he was nothing more than Ultimecia's lapdog and a mindless killer.

Seifer wanted to believe what he saw in Squall's eyes so badly. It made his heart race to see love directed at him there. He'd known it was in there, from the language of Squall's body when they'd been together, but he'd wanted to ignore it because he was so afraid. And, his fear could have prevented him from seeing it forever. Seeing Squall look at him in a way he'd dreamed of for years, for almost as long as he'd dreamed of being a Sorceress's Knight. Squall could have died today if he'd been slower, or if he'd deleted that voicemail. And, Seifer would have never had the luxury of trying to ignore Squall's eyes silently saying the most intimate words two people could say to each other.

Hyperion clattered to the carpeted floor as Seifer possessively wrapped his arms around Squall and kissed him fiercely. Squall kissed him back with as much passion, a kiss equalling their first in Squall's Garden office. That first kiss where, in that split-second moment before their lips smashed together, Squall realized feelings for Seifer he'd never considered before. But, they must have always been there, and he'd only just been awakened to them. And now, in that split-second before they'd come together, Squall had felt more love than he'd ever thought himself capable of. It dwarfed anything he'd felt for Rinoa, even when his heart had ached with fear and love for her when she'd been lost in outer space.

As he ran his hands up Squall's back, Seifer was keenly aware that this kiss may never had happened for so many reasons, so he ignored his fear and committed every millisecond to memory. The lean definition of Squall's body under the ruined shirt he wore hadn't been there the last time Seifer had touched him like this. He'd been all skin and bones, on the verge of killing himself with booze and drugs. He could have easily died on his bender, completely oblivious to any dangerous thing he was doing. He could have gotten out of Morning Lake and decided he did want to be Rinoa's lover. He'd been so close to death tonight

Any of these things could have happened, and the last thing Seifer would have said to Squall was 'you don't have to bother locking up'. He'd told him he never wanted to hear from him again. And, Seifer would have gotten what he'd asked for, losing Squall forever but still having his fear, self-righteous anger and hurt pride. What would any of that have mattered?

Their embrace tightened, but became less forceful as their mouths opened to one another, tongues rolling together. It wasn't the kind of kiss that was going to lead to sex. Squall pressed his body flush against Seifer's - chest to chest, hips to hips, heartbeat to heartbeat. He could feel Seifer's hands shaking as they moved slowly up and down his back. His own fingers trembled in kind as they swept down Seifer's neck, and gripped his shoulders, slipping around them to hold the other man closer.

Also like the first time they kissed, Squall could feel Seifer starting to hesitate. Starting to pull away. But, Squall wouldn't let him. He held Seifer tighter and closer, feeling the stiffness in his posture starting to melt away. They both came up for air at the same time, lips breaking contact. Seifer reached up and brushed Squall's bangs off his forehead, then stroked his thumb across his cheekbone, studying his face as if he'd never looked at him before. Squall felt intensely scrutinized, but kept his eyes glued to Seifer's face, stroking his fingers through his short blonde hair.

Seifer leaned in and kissed him once, then buried his face in Squall's warm brown hair, auburn highlights fiery in the light through the curtains from the rising sun. He held Squall so tightly that the shorter man's feet were briefly lifted off the ground. Seifer was one of the few people that Squall really wanted to hug, so he greedily completed the embrace. He rested his chin on Seifer's broad shoulder, cheek pressed into the warmth of his neck. "I'm sorry," he whispered into Seifer's ear. He wasn't really sure exactly what he was apologizing for, but there was a laundry list of things it could have been.

"Don't," Seifer whispered back. His anger about their last confrontation was leaving him like a great gust of air, and he didn't care about apologies right now. All he cared about was holding the man he'd loved for so long that he couldn't remember when he'd started.

Quistis leaned against the wall, having come out of the bathroom. She felt emotionally raw and drained, having cried more tears than her body should have been able to hold. She'd given Xu nothing but her love, friendship and loyalty, and she'd been rewarded with having everything taken away from her. But, even in this black emotional place, she smiled at what she was seeing. The way Seifer and Squall were holding each other. It was the kind of embrace that came out of deep love, so even this horrible situation could have something really good come out of it. And, it made her realize that Xu didn't steal everything. She silently slipped into the bungalow's only bedroom to give them a moment of privacy and happiness. She was certain it would be the last they could have like that in a while.

She lay out on the bed, trying to ignore the itchiness of her new stitches. But, of course since she was thinking about it, the itch only got stronger so she had to ball her hands into fists. She stared up at the ceiling, and thought of how far away Esthar really was from Timber. Being a SeeD, international barriers seemed like nothing. They could just take the train, or a boat or just fly Garden. But, on foot? With an entire mercenary organization after them? Esthar may as well have been on the moon.

It wasn't long before she wasn't alone. She could hear the shower start running, and then Seifer came into the bedroom. He started checking out the window, and organizing things in the bags of things he'd purchased. He pulled out a map, and started looking at it, sitting on the bed beside Quistis. He and Squall had allowed themselves a small moment of pleasure, but now it was back to business.

"It's nice..." She trailed off, still looking up at the ceiling with her hands folded on her sore belly. "You and Squall, I mean." She lolled her head to look at him.

"You were watching?" He asked, a lilt of amusement in the question. "You dog."

She lightly swatted him. "Are you..." She trailed off. "You know?"

"No, I really don't know."

"Together? Or, was it just a kiss?"

"I don't know," Seifer repeated, but this time with different meaning. "The future ain't exactly certain."

"If not now... when?" She asked with a measure of impatience.

Seifer opened his mouth, but really... what kind of response did he have? Whatever it was, it wasn't a very good one.

"You love each other, and don't try to deny it, because it would be a lie. You should just be happy."

"You're getting a little incensed there, Instructor." His voice became gentle. "Maybe you're projecting about the situation with Nida."

"Our last conversation wasn't a pleasant one. Besides, I'm sure Xu's saying all kinds of horrible things about me to him. I kept pushing him away because I didn't want to hurt her feelings..." She suddenly felt very sick.

"If he doesn't believe in you, he's not worthy of you."

Quistis smiled sadly, looking at his handsome profile as he studied the map. "That was a very brotherly thing to say."

"Heh, wouldn't that be wild if we were actually related?" Seifer asked. "Who knows, it could happen."

"I always thought that you and Zell acted like brothers." Quistis grinned, briefly looking over as Squall came into the bedroom, skin shiny from the shower, eyes looking utterly exhausted.

"What? Oh, dear God no. You hear what she said to me?!" He asked of Squall as if she'd suggested the most horrible thing in the world. "Being related to that moron? I shudder to think."

"Zell would probably think it's equally horrible. And, now he'll think just as badly of me and Quisty."

"Wow. You're such a ray of sunshine, honey."

"You don't really think...?" Quistis trailed off sadly. It hurt to even think it, let alone say it out loud. "They wouldn't believe it, would they?" She implored Squall with her eyes as he sunk down on the bed on the other side of Seifer. "Selphie, Zell, Irvine and Rinoa?"

Squall didn't answer.

"Squall?" She demanded.

"Have they really been our friends lately?" He asked testily, laying down. He was so fucking tired in every facet of his being. Even just having to admit that about people he did consider to be his deepest, closest friends was exhausting. He reached out and found Seifer's wrist, encircling his fingers around it. It didn't seem weird to him in the slightest that he and Seifer were going to be sleeping together after some kind of wordless understanding, with Quistis right beside them. There were no awkward looks, no stammering about 'maybe it would be better to sleep all together because safety in numbers, you know'.

Seifer set his watch so the alarm would go off every hour for four hours, so he could wake up Squall and check on his possible concussion. He put Hyperion at the head of the bed, Squall and Quistis both sidling up to him and putting their arms around him like he was a life preserver. Because, right now he kind of was.

The strengthening sunlight coming through the drapes was briefly overmatched by the soft white light from Quistis casting a sleep spell on herself. She knew she needed the rest, and didn't want to let her mind and hurt feelings and fear combat that.

Squall found he didn't need magical assistance, and was jarred out of a surprisingly deep sleep after the first hour by Seifer gently shaking him. He grunted in irritated, brief ignorance as he nuzzled his body closer to Seifer's.

"When's your birthday?" Seifer quietly asked in his ear.

The question confused the other man's sleepy brain. "August 23rd," he answered, realizing that Seifer was making sure his thought processes weren't screwed up.

"What's 12 times 6?"

"72."

"How tall are you?"

"Five-eight."

"Hyne, you're short."

"Shut up," grumbled Squall into the front of Seifer's throat.

"Go back to sleep," the blonde man whispered gently, giving Squall a small kiss on the lips. The next three hours passed the same way. Squall being woken up, asked questions like how old his father was, names of old Garden Instructors, math and a couple algebra questions, and getting him to say simple sentences in other languages like Estharian, which Squall was beautifully fluent in unlike most people in the world, since Esthar had been so secluded. Seifer's own was rudimentary and rather accented. Then, Seifer would tell him to go back to sleep and give him a kiss. After the fourth hour, Seifer was satisfied that Squall's head was okay, and cast sleep magic on both of them. They needed a deep, dreamless sleep right now, for it could be their last chance.

---

The sun was bright and cheery, the sky cloudless outside the windows of Balamb Garden's largest conference room. It completely flew in the face of the room's mood. Grim, tense, ugly. SeeD were milled shoulder-to-shoulder together, some whispering to their neighbour, but most staying completely silent. Xu was sitting at the head of the table, flanked by Astor, Luchia, Selphie and her investigative team. Rinoa hung in the back of the room, the only non-SeeD present. She felt properly out of place, and stuck close to Irvine's side. Zell had his back to the room, staring out one of the windows towards the impossibly blue ocean, where the shadows of the islands that made up the Albatross Archipelago could be seen far in the distance. It was the stillest he'd ever been. No shadowboxing. No fidgeting. No shooting his mouth off.

"Can I have your attention everyone?" Xu asked calmly. But, nobody was concentrating on anything else.

"First off, I want to say I know how sorry we all are about Headmaster Cid. He was a kind, wonderful man and we all respected him greatly," she lied. "And, I hope to live up to him. It's with a heavy heart that my first task as Headmaster is to solve his murder."

"Murder?" A SeeD exclaimed. "So, it really was a murder?"

Xu held her hands up. "Please, everyone This is going to be a very hard meeting, so I'd like to keep all the questions until the end, please," she said, not unkindly. "Yes, it was murder. Dr. Kadawaki confirmed arsenic in Cid's bloodstream, and it was also found in the glass he was drinking from. Captain Tilmitt's team also searched the office for evidence, and came across a second-party's fingerprints on that same glass. It was found that they belong to former Instructor, and SeeD Captain Quistis Trepe."

Gasps and profanity broke out across the room. Nida's bellow of "bullshit" was the loudest.

"Come on, seriously?" He asked, looking around the room at his fellow SeeD. "I don't believe it."

"I don't want to believe it either," Xu answered after looking at the man she loved for a few silent moments. "But, it was confirmed. Isn't that correct, Captain Tilmitt?"

Selphie nodded, uncharacteristically grim. The fact that she was in full SeeD uniform echoed the severity of the matter.

"Captain Trepe had a meeting earlier, before shipping off on her mission to the Galbadian desert with General Leonhart. She had a period of time alone with him, and Cid... he would have been..." She trailed off, making a show of composing herself. "It's lucky I found him when I did. Nida, you know that I hate saying these things about Quistis. She's my best friend, but the evidence is against her. We all know about her... personal problems lately, and she's currently suspected in a second murder. Not to mention the fact that lately her loyalties have all been towards General Leonhart, and we all know his conduct has been highly questionable in the past couple of years."

The room was uneasily silent. Nobody could argue that fact.

"And, the most damning evidence of all is the most recent, and the most disturbing. Several SeeD were sent on the mission to the Galbadian desert along with Trepe and Leonhart, and Majors Blackwell and Westfield are the only two to return. Quistis Trepe and Squall Leonhart have officially gone rogue."

The room erupted in horrified and disbelieving shouts and oaths. All the eyes in the room were taking in Luchia and Astor's heavy injuries. Luchia's face was nearly unrecognizable under all the bruising and swelling, and her arm was in a cast. Astor was leaning heavily on crutches, and there was a tensor bandage around his knee. He had a large, stitched gash on his cheek, and one eye was swollen shut. The noise only intensified when Xu brought some images up onto the room's large projector screen. It showed the dead SeeD, as well as the Galbadian mercenaries Xu'd hired.

"Not only do we see the dead SeeD, but there are also dead civilians. Mercenaries hired to help with this investigation because they knew the landscape best."

"This is insane," Nida whispered under his breath, so that only Rinoa and Irvine could hear him over the cacophony.

"Leonhart and Trepe escaped with the help of a third, unidentified party. We believe non-SeeD, and Westfield and Blackwell investigated the bodies of our fallen comrades, and confirmed that some of the bullet wounds were from a great distance, and highly accurate. We believe it was a professional sniper, and more than likely a member of the assassination cell, the Solar System."

Rinoa was clenching her fists so hard that her nails were cutting her palms. She could see a muscle in Irvine's jaw jumping, and that he was visibly grinding his teeth. Nida looked purely disgusted.

"Attention, SeeD!" Xu had to shout over the noise, which died almost immediately. "We do not know if this means either Trepe or Leonhart are a member of the cell, or if they know someone in the cell. But, I've suspected for some time that one of the members of the Solar System, or Sol themselves is SeeD. Perhaps Squall or Quistis is actually Sol, acting as a double-agent. Neither Major Blackwell or Major Westfield saw the third party, but we have compiled a list of people it could be. Topping the list is former Garden cadet, Seifer Almasy."

"Big surprise," someone hissed. "He's already a fucking killer!"

"We have no proof, but we've tried to get in contact with Almasy, and have been unsuccessful. We also received word from two of his professors at the University of Dollet. He did not show up for his morning classes. Trepe and Almasy are very close friends, and there is suspicion that he was also involved in the death of civilian Evan Phaighn. We are unsure of a further motive."

"Love..." Rinoa trailed off quietly. A few SeeD looked over at her.

"Love?" One echoed, which Xu heard.

"Sorceress Rinoa, did you say something?" Xu asked, making sure she had a respectful tone. "I asked you to come because I believe you have great insight into Squall's character over the last year or so. Do you know something?"

Rinoa pursed her lips, feeling hot inside. Angry. She didn't realize how foolish and angry she felt about the fallout of her relationship with Squall. How angry she was at him, and mostly at herself for not seeing the truth. For thinking she knew Squall. Could he have really been a killer all this time? Could she really not have noticed that he was the leader of a group of assassins? It's not like she noticed that he was in love with someone else, a man no less.

"Seifer would have helped them out of love."

"I thought he was gay?" Someone asked. "Is he in love with Quistis?"

"With Squall," she muttered. She willed hot tears not to fall from her eyes. "Before he left for Galbadia, Squall told me that he and Seifer had been having an affair for a while now. Squall said..." She trailed off. She just could not say aloud that Squall had said he'd loved someone besides her. "He said it was over between us, because he wanted to be with Seifer."

A heartbeat could have been heard in the shocked silence. It stretched on for a really, really long time. Irvine, unsurprisingly, seemed to be the only person who wasn't flabbergasted. He had a way of sensing those kinds of sexual feelings in other people.

Xu felt her heart beating faster, but it was from joy. Something seemed to be going right. When she'd realized that someone outside Garden had helped Squall and Quistis escape, she'd suspected Seifer, and wanted to make him a villain too, if only because she loathed him so much. Now, the motive was just falling into her lap. She wanted to go over and hug Rinoa for it.

"Almasy, Trepe and Leonhart will have already gotten a good head start on us. We cannot let them escape. Not for what they did to their own people. But, especially because of the civilian deaths. And, if they really are with Almasy, we can bet there will be more innocent people caught in the cross-fire. I've already spoken to the Board of Directors, and we think the best direction is to ask the public for help in finding them."

The tension in the room was so thick, people felt they could barely breathe.

"It is with a heavy heart that I implement the Garden-wide mission - Operation: Mariposa. Mariposa's objective is the capture and execution of rogue SeeD Quistis Trepe and Squall Leonhart."