A/N: I really can't think of anything to say, so I'll just start the story.

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"It's not going to be a big deal Squall. Just go in there and tell them the story we rehearsed. You have the perfect poker face, use it!" encouraged Shiva as Squall stood outside the meeting room.

"I don't like lying to my friends though," thought back Squall.

"It's not lying, its excluding information that they don't need to know," reassured Siren, "Besides, if we want to keep this quest going without Omega Weapon dropping in on us midway then we need to keep our secrecy."

Squall sighed, he had gone through this conversation several times with the Guardians and there didn't seem to be any way he could ease his friend's minds without lying to them.

Steeling himself, Squall opened the door and took a seat across from his friends.

"So Squall," spoke Quistis after a moment of silence, "What have you been up to?"

"I was just completing my mission that Headmaster Cid assigned me. There was a report of an ice monster near Shumi village and Cid wanted me to take care of it."

"But why didn't you tell any of us?" asked Rinoa suddenly, "You know we would have come with you,"

"Mr. Macho here probably thought that he could take the monster on all by himself," broke in Seifer, "He's been in the training center nearly every day since the defeat of Ultimeca."

"Actually, that's exactly what I was thinking," silence followed his statement, "Call it a little boredom reliever if you will,"

"Boredom reliever?" inquired Zell.

"There really isn't a need for war heroes in times of peace Zell."

"But what happened up on the mountain? What made that explosion?" asked Selphie.

"It was another one of those critters that I defeated on Shumi Island. After they die they have this nasty effect of self destructing. The one on Shumi Island was an ice monster and after I defeated it, I had to camp out in a cave for a few days while a huge blizzard passed. It was just dumb luck that I found out another one was here."

"Do you think there's any more of them?" asked Quistis.

"Probably not," assured Squall, "And besides, even if there were more of them, they don't go out of their way to attack humans. The two I fought were pretty much in abandoned areas."

Squall continued answering the questions his friends threw at him for the next 20 minutes. A corner of his mind noticed that Rinoa had stayed silent throughout the whole exchange but he didn't think too much about it.

"Well, if that's everything then, I need to go meet with the cleanup crew from Esthar…"

"Who was that woman who spoke on the radio?"

Squall stopped dead in his tracks.

Shiva, what the hell is she talking about?

Oh crap responded Shiva Remember when we were trying to get control over the Ragnarock and Cid contacted us?

Don't tell me you…

I did.

Well what do I do then?

Play dumb. Broke in Siren, Just play it off as a malfunction in the communication system.

"Woman?" asked Squall, trying to sound as confused as he could, "What are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb with me!" shouted Rinoa, standing up suddenly, "A woman's voice came over the speaker and said, 'We're trying not to get killed at the moment.'"

"Okay first of all," said Squall cutting her off abruptly, "Where in the hell would I pick up a woman when all I did was fly my ass straight into a blizzard after leaving base? And secondly, why would I take a civilian on a solo seed mission when there is a possibility of death?"

"I don't know," retorted Rinoa, "I'm the one who's asking here."

"As Cid may have already told you, this was a SOLO mission. That means there was no other human being with me."

Technically true thought Siren, we're not exactly human are we?

Rinoa sat down, but her expression said everything. Squall hadn't actually answered her question, he had just diverted her focus.

That girl is your X? Asked Siren.

Yeah.


Quite a handful isn't she?

You have no idea.

So are you single now?

Um…well…

"Squall!"

"Hmm?" said Squall, suddenly looking up, "I'm sorry, I was thinking, what were you saying?"

Selphie rolled her eyes, "I said what are you going to do now? Is the mission over? Or are there more of those things?"

Squall was about to respond when a sudden inspiration hit him, "Actually, yes. I am coming back to the garden. Really no point in sticking around here now that those things are dead."

"Aw man, I was hoping for some action," whined Zell, getting up and stretching.

Seifer just grunted and didn't say anything.

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So Siren, can you sense any more GF's around here? asked Squall mentally as he left the closure where his friends were.

Not at the moment, responded the GF, "But I've been scanning over your travels with your friends and I think…

That Ifrit's spirit is lurking somewhere in the fire caverns back on Balamb Island?

Actually that was exactly what I was thinking. How did you know?

Originally, we drew your bodily form from Elvorett up on the communication tower. Ifrit's spirit was found in the fire cavern, so following that thought through logically it makes sense that we'd look for their spirits in the places where we found their bodies.

How did you find me then? Broke in Shiva, I though you got me from your computer.

I just found you by dumb luck.

Oh. So does this mean you know where all of the GF's are?

No, I remember the location of most of them, but we never found all 16 of the main guardian forces.

Where are we going anyways? Asked Siren.

We're going to go talk to Wedge again; we need to give him his interview.

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Wedge sighed to himself as he picked up the sword given to him by the military. He wasn't a bad fighter with it but after his original training, he could never fully adapt to the weapon.

"Wedge!"

"Huh?" Wedge looked around and saw Squall coming towards him, his gunblade drawn in his hand. Quickly recalling his talk with him earlier that day, Wedge jumped up to attention.

"Draw your sword Wedge; let's have a little practice match."

"Huh? But I though…"

"It's an evaluation of your skills, don't worry about beating me."

"Okay…" tentatively, Wedge drew his sword and got into a ready stance, Squall just kept his gunblade on his shoulder. The two stood still for a few seconds, and then Squall attacked.

By the first strike, Wedge could already tell he was outmatched. Squall was wielding his gunblade one-handed and the force of his strikes nearly tore the sword from his grip. Abandoning his training with the long sword, Wedge stepped into a completely alien stance and retaliated.

Squall's eyes widened in surprise at the new stance and the pattern of attacks. He knew them like the back of his hand, almost as if Wedge was…

A moment of hesitation and Wedge capitalized on, and his sword almost nicked him. Dancing back out of range, Squall countered the pattern with a well timed strike and disarmed him, flinging his sword off to the side.

Not wasting a moment Wedge dived out of the way of Squall's probing strike and retrieved his weapon, coming to his feet a good distance away.

"That's good enough," said Squall, resting the gunblade on his shoulder, "I recognize that pattern, you were trained on a gunblade weren't you?"

"You can tell?" asked Wedge surprised, "But I haven't used a gunbalde in nearly 4 years!"

"Your grip on the sword was completely wrong, it was held too tight to be effective, which was why I was able to disarm you. A gunblade requires a tighter grip, not only because of its weight but also because of the force of the shot. The pattern you used was also one of the basic gunblade forms, but it was ineffective because of the difference in size."

Wedge turned his eyes downcast, "My dad used to be a gunblade maker," he admitted, "Ever since I was little I had trained on them, but since only very few people in the world use gunblades, he didn't make much money. I joined the army to help him pay for expenses, but they made me use this sword."

Squall smirked, "At Balamb garden, we don't have any weapon policies. You use what you can cause the most damage with."

"Does that mean…?" he looked up hopefully.

In response, Squall tossed him his gunblade, "Go on, give her a whirl."

Wedge caught it one handed and took a firm grip on it, getting into a basic stance, familiarizing himself with the added weight and size. Slowly, he began to move, going through an old kata Squall had mastered when he was ten years old.

Beside him, the seed commander looked on with a trainer's eye. Despite the fact that he hadn't picked up a gunblade in five years, his form was pretty solid, and his mistakes few. Given a month he could probably be back to his old form.

Wedge finished the kata with a flourish, a one handed thrust followed by a parry and a crescent strike, before resting it on his shoulder.

"Not bad," said Squall taking the gunblade back and sheathing it, "A little rusty but good overall."

"It's a nice blade," said Wedge wiping a small bit of sweat that had developed on his brow away, "How long have you been using it?"

"For about a year now, I had it specially made for my final confrontation with Ultimeca."

"I thought so. My dad made that blade."

"Really? Small world." said Squall mildly surprised, "You'll have to thank him for me sometime."

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The boat ride home was incredibly tense. Squall's group had been at odds with Wedge and his superior Biggs before, and people kept shooting suspicious glances at him, regardless of how many times Squall assured them it was okay. It finally took a direct order as captain of the garden to allow him on the boat.

Rinoa was still shooting furious glances at Squall as well. She hadn't bought his excuses and they both knew it.

What the hell is her problem? Asked Squall as Rinoa continued to stare angrily at him.

Well you are with two completely different women now. Said Siren mischievously, She's probably jealous.

She doesn't own me! He shot back angrily.

Oh please, broke in Shiva, Girls like her always think their boyfriends are cheating on them. It's a general fact of life.

She's not even my girlfriend anymore!

Doesn't mean she can't act like it. Responded Siren.

Squall idly noted it was amazing how human the two girls seemed despite the fact they were incredibly powerful Guardian forces.

A guardian force has needs too, Said Siren mischievously.

Squall mentally blocked off the rest of his thoughts.

"Yo Squall, you up for a game of cards?"

Squall looked up from his conversation to see Seifer casually shuffling a large collection of cards. At random he picked five cards from his deck and laid them facedown on the small table in the middle of the ship.

"What are the rules?" asked Squall taking out his own deck.

"Nothing but Random."

What are you playing? Asked Shiva curiously.

A card game, responded Squall shuffling his cards, Just watch, you'll understand.

Playing by the random rule was incredibly difficult if you weren't prepared. You might get four weak cards and one strong card and end up loosing your best card. But then again, the same thing could happen to your opponent. Fortunately for him, Squall didn't really carry around anything below boss level cards ever since the random rule was spread.

Picking five cards from his deck, Squall laid them face down on the table, "What's the wager?"

Seifer smirked, "All."

Make that incredibly risky. Wagering an All on a random game was practically suicidal.

"I accept."

"As the challenged, I'll go first," said Squall. Picking up his hand, he saw what fate had given him.

Holy shit I better not loose this hand, thought Squall evenly, letting his perfect poker face come into play, always better to start off with a perfect defense.

"I'll play Edea to the lower left hand corner," said Squall placing his card. It had taken him forever to get that card from her. It was the perfect defensive card, having two A ranks in its north and east sides, making it near invincible when played in a corner. Really the only time it could be taken was when some of the more…exotic rules were in play.

"I'll play minotaur on the lower right," said Seifer, putting down the GF card. Minotaur was just a step below Edea, having two 9 rankings on his north and west side.

Squall looked at his hand again and smirked, "I'll play PuPu in the lower middle and take your Minotaur," It was the only level five card he carried around. With one A ranking on the right side and all its other stats below three it was a practically useless card. The way he played it though, it would require Seifer to play to the middle if he wanted to tie the game. And there was only one card in the whole game that didn't have at least one stat below 6.

"I'll play the GF Doomtrain to the upper right." So he wasn't going to fall for the bait. Probably a good idea, the card doomtrain had an A rank on its south and west sides making it impossible to take in this game.

No matter, all he had to do was play defensively for the rest of the game and he'd win, "I'll play Laguna to the middle right." That way only his 9 rank was showing.

Seifer smirked, "I play Alexander to the center." An A rank on the right and a four rank on the bottom.

Ouch. There goes Laguna and PuPu. The score was four to two now, Seifer's favor. Fortunately, Seifer had played Alexander's weak side, a two rank, on the left. And with a nine rank on the top, Squall doubted Seifer would be able to take it back again.

"I'll play Squall, middle left and take Alexander." Two spots left and the score was tied. The game would all depend on Seifer's last card.

"I'll play Zell in the upper middle." So he did have one A rank left. He was taking a huge risk though. If Squall didn't have anything that could beat a rank six on the right, Seifer would win. Otherwise a combo would occur that would take every card on the field except doomtrain.

"I play Shiva in the upper right hand corner," And Shiva had a rank 7 on her right side. The ice GF took Seifer who took Alexander who re-took PuPu and Laguna, bringing the score 8-2 Squalls favor.

"Shouldn't have gambled that last one," said Squall, "What were you holding back?"

Seifer grunted and tossed the card Siren onto the table with the other cards. They belonged to Squall now, per the rules. Thinking for a second, Squall picked up his cards and the Siren card, "You can take the others back," he said noncommittally, "I'm not much of a card player myself."

The other gunblade master rolled his eyes, "Yeah and I suppose that you got those cards by asking nicely huh?" Nevertheless Seifer gathered up the rest of his cards.

"It's amazing what saving the world can do for you," replied Squall nonchalant.

Silence filled the room. Squall felt everyone's eyes on him.

"What?" he asked finally.

"Did you just…make a joke?" asked Selphie hesitantly.

Squall didn't respond, opting instead to lean back and try to fall asleep.

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"So our accident budget will be able to cover the damages to Dollet?"

"Fortunately yes," responded Cid leaning back in his chair, "the only real damage that was done to the place happened to the communications tower, property damage was down to a minimum…for once."

Squall ignored the jibe, Cid had the right to be a little upset, "And what about the Ragnarock?"

"Completely totaled. Laguna said that repairs would take at least a week working at full capacity but they really can't spare the manpower on it at the moment so he estimated about a month."

"And Wedge?"

"Already on payroll. As captain of the garden you can place him where you see fit."

"Excellent. If that's all?"

"Actually Squall, there's something I wanted to ask you,"

Oh boy here it comes, said Shiva mentally.

Got your liar face on? Asked Siren.

"Just what are you up to? I've known you for nearly 6 years now Squall; I know when you're hiding something."

"Actually sir I wasn't…"

"Now hold on a second," interrupted Cid before Squall could make his excuses, "Before you start denying everything I want you to think about this. Now, I'll believe anything you say, but if I know what I'm dealing with I can help you."

When Squall didn't respond Cid took that as a sign to continue, "You have access to all the gardens resources, but I've been around a while," Cid had stood up and was now pacing back and forth behind his desk, "I know people Squall, I've got connections and I know the right people who can get you access to anywhere."

Is he actually trying to bribe me? Asked Squall slightly confused.

Seems like it, responded Siren, but what does he have to gain from it?

"If you'll pardon my asking sir, why do you want to know so badly? For all you know this could just be another of the dozens of grunt missions that the garden does on a daily basis."

Cid stopped pacing and faced the window, "Did you know I used to be a mercenary once?"

Squall's eyes widened in authentic surprise, "You were?"

"Oh yes. They don't let just anyone become headmaster of a garden. I was signed on during the Galbadian unification wars about twenty years ago. After the war was over, all the mercenaries were out of work, so we went on to create these gardens, basically mercenary havens."

"That's an interesting history lesson sir, but that still doesn't tell me why you want to know about my mission."

"The truth is Squall, I'm bored out of my mind sitting behind this desk filing out paperwork. I can't fight like I used to but I've got political standing that comes with age. So what do you think? You let me in on the mission and I'll smooth your way, how about it?"

Just when you think you know someone… thought Squall idly, Well, what do you guys think?

I've been asleep for a few hundred years but if what I've been reading from your memories is correct we might need someone like him in the political field, responded Siren.

Yeah that's what I've been thinking…wait a sec, you were reading through my memories?!

Fight about it later, broke in Shiva, the point is I think we should take this guy up on his offer.

Cid watched curiously as Squall's expression changed a few times as if he was arguing with himself. Finally the commander closed his eyes, his poker face set back in place, "Alright Cid, but from this moment on you're sworn to secrecy, got that?"

The headmaster nodded.

"Alright, on out."

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A/N: Mostly filler. I'm working on developing some of the lesser known characters rather than the actual cast. No particular reason, that's just my style. Remember, all constructive criticism is appreciated.