Author's note: I do not own Final Fantasy VIII or its characters. This is AU.

Siege Preparations

Quistis woke to noise. This actually didn't surprise her. She would have been more worried if it was silent when she woke up. And since it wasn't the noise of yelling or a firefight, Quistis wasn't too worried. She felt better. She was still sore and her shoulder throbbed with a dull pain, but she was definitely feeling rested and ready to deal with whatever came next. Rolling out of bed, she decided that the first order of business was clean clothes. It took her longer than she had expected to get dressed, and it was something of a challenge to do without aggravating her injury too much, but Quistis managed. Then she decided it was time to see what chaos the boys had brought to her ranch.

It did not take her long to find at least some of the group. Quistis just followed her nose to the kitchen. It appeared that Fuujin had taken over the place, and there was hot coffee on the stove as well as what appeared to be the leftovers of a very large meal. The other woman smiled when she saw Quistis.

"Sit down. I'll fix you a plate. How are you feeling?"

"Better. Thank you."

Raijin pulled out a chair for her. Quistis smiled at him.

"What have I missed?"

He shrugged. "Not much, you know. Rinoa left a couple hours before dawn, Irvine and Zell are currently laying booby traps, Squall and Seifer almost came to blows a couple times. We have a working plan, but Seifer wants you to look it over and okay it."

Quistis would not call that 'not much', but she was distracted by Fuujin setting a very full plate in front of her. She dug in without hesitation. During her time living with Seifer and his posse, she had learned that Fuu was a very good cook, and her meals were not to be missed. As she ate, Selphie, Irvine, and Zell drifted in. Most of them helped themselves to some of the coffee. Given the way the light was pouring into the kitchen, Quistis guessed it was about mid-morning.

"Where are Seifer and Squall?" she asked.

Irvine shrugged. "They were checking the fences. We don't think there are any problems, but Squall wanted to make sure. We don't need any surprises. Don't worry, ma'am. They haven't killed each other yet."

"It's the yet that has me worried."

Selphie grinned. "Nah, they'll probably wait till this mess is over with before they duke it out. They might not like each other very much, but they're not about to do something that might get the rest of us killed."

Quistis just shook her head. "So tell me about the plan."

"We should wait until Squall-" Zell started, but he was interrupted by Seifer and Squall coming in through the kitchen door. "Never mind."

Seifer headed straight for Quistis. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine." She smiled at him. "You've got a plan?"

He nodded and pulled a chair up beside hers. "Yep. We've already started putting it in action. With any luck, we'll be able to hold out until Rinoa shows up with the cavalry."

"So what exactly is this plan?"

Seifer accepted a cup of coffee from Fuujin. "Mostly it's delaying tactics. Rinoa got off without a problem this morning. We arranged a little distraction to cover her escape, but it didn't look like she was being followed. From the looks of things, Adel's going to put off a confrontation until this evening or tomorrow. So far we've used to time to rig booby traps. Most of it isn't lethal, but it will definitely slow people down. We've got some other defenses to finish setting up as well. It's nice that the house was built in an easily defensible location. We're also going to be setting up weapons and ammunitions stockpiles in several locations, so when things go down, people won't be caught without weapons."

Quistis nodded. "I take it you all have been keeping an eye on Adel when you can."

Squall nodded in return. "That's were Selphie has been most of the morning."

They all turned their attention to the petite auburn haired girl.

"There really hasn't been a lot of activity so far today. After our distraction earlier, about half of the group watching the ranch headed back to town. I assume in order to inform Adel of what is going on. Those that remained have done some scouting of the area, though they haven't had much success. There were only about five of them to start with, so clearly they aren't all of Adel's gang. I expect that we'll start seeing the rest of Adel's people start arriving later today."

Quistis frowned. It was too bad that they didn't have a way to keep Adel from bringing more people in. Unfortunately, with their current numbers, that would be rather difficult. They also didn't want to tip their hand too soon. Adel might be expecting resistance from them, but they had a number of cards up their sleeves currently, and the element of surprise was one of them. Quistis rather doubted that Adel knew how much effort had been put into both fortifying the ranch and stocking up on weapons. It also helped that there was more in this for the people on Quistis' side than just money. They were fighting for their home. And that added incentive for her side might make a difference.

"So what can I do?" Quistis asked.

Seifer gave her a stern look. "You are going to take it easy. We're going to need you both for the fight and if anyone official comes around. So until then you need to let us take care of things and save your strength."

"It's your land," Irvine explained. "If someone questions our action or even our presence here, you're the only one who can make us legitimate. As long as we're acting for you and under your orders, it's fine, but without you, we have no more claim than Adel."

Quistis nodded in understanding. She didn't exactly like it, but she couldn't argue with their reasoning either. But it did make things just that much harder for her. All that was left for her to now was wait.