Unfortunately most of Rinoa’s clothing had been badly ripped in their sexual hijinks of the night before and, not feeling as though she wanted to waste any more time rummaging through Squall’s badly disorganized closet to search for appropriate clothing, she decided to just gather up what was left of her almost totally ruined outfit and hold it up, as if it were a shield in front of her transparent bra and panties, while attempting to quickly run down the corridor to the women’s quarters.

Rinoa ordinarily wouldn’t have considered such a foolhardy endeavor owing to her innate sense of modesty, but it was fairly early in the morning and the dayshift would have already left to report for duties and classes and the night shift would be just laying down to sleep.

Rinoa quietly tiptoed to the door and cracked it open to take a quick furtive glance down the corridor and, observing the hallway appeared clear, she quickly took a step outside of the room not realizing the door locked behind her. She immediately heard voices moving in her direction. “Oh no,” Rinoa thought, “It sounds like Zell and Irvine!” She quickly spun and attempted to open the door just as she heard Irvine greet “Good Morning, Rinoa.”

As the two young men continued to quickly move up the corridor towards her and, as they hadn’t yet fully grasped the situation, Rinoa frantically attempted to open the locked door. Just as Zell and Irvine came walking up, Rinoa, in her haste to avoid embarrassment, dropped what was left of the ruined outfit and turned to face them clad only in her sheer bra and panties that left nothing to the imagination. Irvine burst out laughing. Zell immediately turned bright red from his own embarrassment and quickly turned away, although Rinoa noticed he kept stealing little glances at her predicament.

“This is a great way to start a morning,” laughed Irvine, who was gazing intently at her. “Is there anything I can do to help you, Rinoa, on this fine day?”

“For one thing,” she snapped, “You could quit undressing me with your eyes and help me open this door.”

Irvine responded, “I don’t have to undress you with my eyes for obvious reasons and the door appears to be locked and, not having a key with me to Squall’s private quarters, I don’t think I can help you with the door, but are you sure there isn’t anything else I could do?”

While Irvine was enjoying himself immensely being engaged in his usual bantering with an attractive, young woman, Zell busied himself with gathering what remained of Rinoa’s clothing and handing it to her, although Rinoa noticed he was now boldly looking her up and down.

“Thank you, Zell. At least someone here is a gentleman,” said Rinoa.

Irvine suggested “Why don’t we escort you down to the women’s quarters, before Xu and Squall show up to do their morning inspection?”

“Oh my God!” exclaimed Rinoa “I forgot all about that.”

“We should probably go now,” directed Zell and taking her gently by the arm began to walk her quickly down the corridor with a laughing Irvine following behind.

As they passed one room, Nida stepped out and then suddenly paused with a startled “Oh!”

“What’s the matter with you?” demanded Irvine. “Can’t you say good morning?”

As the trio quickly stepped by Nida, Irvine whispered in Rinoa’s ear, “The poor sap has probably never seen a woman undressed before. Rinoa, you probably are now the highlight of his life.”

Rinoa realized, with a groan, now everyone in the Garden would probably hear about this by nightfall. “Just get me to Selphie’s room” she snapped.

Irvine took off his cowboy hat with a big flourish and bowed. “We aim to please.”

“Cut the crap, Irvine” Zell replied “And let’s go.”

The trio reached the end of the long corridor and opened the main door leading to the women’s corridor. Three young women students, who were standing there gossiping as they did every morning, looked up and giggled. Irvine, Zell and the, by now, completely befuddled Rinoa stood in front of Selphie’s door.

“Selphie, open up” demanded Irvine as he knocked rapidly on the door.

“Go away” said a voice from inside the room. “It’s too early in the morning to put up with you.”

Irvine explained, “There’s a friend out here who really wants to see you.”

“Now what in the world?” Selphie opened the door. “Holy shit! What are you doing, Rinoa?” She grasped Rinoa by the arm and dragged her quickly into the room and slammed the door.

Irvine turned to Zell and commented “This is all the thanks we get for helping out a damsel in distress.”

“Just cut the crap, Irvine,” said Zell turning away and beginning to travel back down the hall.

……………….. “What in the hell are you doing, Rinoa? Parading around in your underwear in the hallways?”

“Selphie, please. I’ve had a heckuva morning so far and I really just need to take a good hot shower.”

“Oh, sure. You can parade around with my Irvy and Zell wearing practically nothing and then you don’t even have the common decency to explain it to me. Well, I’m pissed, Rinoa! What if I hadn’t been here? Then what would you have done?”

Rinoa, understanding she had hurt her friend’s feelings, relented and replied she would be glad to explain everything to her, but only after she had taken a long, hot shower. Rinoa glanced around the room and, noticing her long blue vest she had worn all through the time of battling Galbadia and the Sorceress, wrapped it around herself and stepped out in the corridor. She headed down to the showers listening to the same three female students giggling behind her back.

Back in the room, Selphie fumed “The hell with this noise. I’m going to find out about this from Irvine.” Selphie checked the back of both of her boots and then slammed out of the room and strode down the women’s corridor leading to the main hallway that would lead her to the Garden rotunda. ………………..

On the third floor of the Garden, Squall sat at a long conference table in Headmaster Cid’s newly remodeled office listening to Cid ramble on concerning Garden’s fiscal report. Squall didn’t know how he put up with this every morning of his life, but there just didn’t seem to be anyway out of it. He had attempted to step down from his current position many times and become an ordinary SeeD again, but to no avail; not only would Cid and Xu not allow it, but also all of his friends promised to make his life even more miserable if he quit.

“Squall, are you listening?” Xu’s sharp question brought him rudely back to the present.

“Whatever” he replied.

“Well, I thought you might be interested in this, since it involves Laguna and Esthar” Xu retorted.

“Please go on” Squall said in a resigned tone.

“Thank you” Xu replied. “As you know the current war between Galbadia and Esthar is stalemated. Esthar is only making sporadic attacks because of difficulties with their logistics due to the great distance they have to travel. Another of their concerns is regarding the Galbadian Missile Program and whether or not it is up and running again.”

Xu continued “Esthar has a superior missile program, but is unable to implement it because of the fallout that might damage the very countries they are fighting to protect. Consequently, Laguna is very worried because, if Galbadia’s Missile Program becomes active again, Esthar would be at a distinct disadvantage. President Loire also doesn’t know who is in charge of the Galbadian government at this time. It makes it extremely difficult for him to formulate his own war strategy, because he doesn’t know how to read his opponent.”

Cid asked, “Where do we fit in all this?”

Xu answered “Galbadia is still controlling Dollet, Timber and Winhill and could take over F.H. and Balamb anytime they want. There are many splinter resistance groups located in and around Timber and Dollet. President Loire has asked us to send a small group of SeeDs to Timber, Dollet and possibly Winhill to try to coordinate some cooperation between these groups. Whipping up any kind of opposition in F.H. would seem to be counterproductive at this time, because of the political stance of Mayor Dobe.”

Squall remembered with a grimace what a feeb Mayor Dobe was.

Xu went on to say “Also, President Loire has requested we send two of our top SeeDs into Deiling City on a recognizance mission in an attempt to ferret out who is in control of their government.”

Squall perked up a little at this bit of startling news. This could be his ticket out of Garden for a while. Fighting is always what Squall did best, and downtime from his fighting was a killer for him. It would help him to avoid these deadly meetings for a period of time and also, to tell the truth, Rinoa was beginning to wear him out. He could use a break there, too.

Xu continued “We have already sent out the first group of SeeDs to Timber and Dollet, but now we need to decide who is going to Deiling City.” “It’s obvious” Squall said. “It’ll be me and Quistis.”

Xu started to shake her head violently. “You’re too well known in Deiling City to attempt this.”

“Hear me out” Squall said.

“I’d rather throw you out” Cid giggled, but quickly regained his composure and apologized.

Squall went on to say “We traveled back and forth from Deiling City many times during our past missions. Their security is amazingly slight; just a bunch of bored, low pay soldiers. Besides, think about it. You can’t send Zell because he is too excitable and Irvine, in that cowboy outfit, would stick out like a sore thumb. Selphie might do in a pinch; at least she could keep them mesmerized with her short dress and momentarily flash of panties, but Quistis would be best. She’ll do a fine professional job.”

As Xu started to disagree, Cid stood up from the table and exclaimed “Good. That’s taken care of.”

Squall stood up with some alacrity, happy to discover the meeting over.

“I’ll go with you and Xu on your rounds today” Cid explained. “I think it’s good for morale, if the students see me around a little bit more.” ………………..

It didn’t occur to Rinoa, until after she had taken her shower, she had left the room so quickly she had forgotten to grab a towel. As she glanced around the shower room for something, anything to use she noticed she had carelessly thrown her underwear on the wet shower room floor. “Oh well” she thought. “I didn’t want to put them on over my nice clean body, anyway.”

Rinoa realized she didn’t want to ruin her long blue vest by using it as a towel and anyway she was going to have to try and wrap it around her, as best she could for the short trip back to the room. She would just have to go down soaking wet and dry off in the room, although she knew this would infuriate Selphie, who could be so anal-retentive at times.

Rinoa gathered up her wet underwear and wrapped the vest around her as best she could. Although she realized it still left a lot of her body indecently exposed, she was certain this would be okay because no men were allowed in the women’s quarters. She could walk down the hall stark naked, if she wanted to.

Rinoa opened the shower room door and proceeded down to her and Selphie’s room. Rinoa attempted to open the door, but it was locked. She gently knocked on the door saying, “Selphie, let me in. It’s me.”

There was no reply. Rinoa knocked a little louder and said “Selphie! Let me in.”

“Oh great” Rinoa thought with a groan. “Now what? She must have gone out and locked the door behind her.”

Just then the same three young women students from earlier in the day materialized from around the corner. Upon seeing Rinoa in her present condition they halted their conversation, looked at each other and giggled and decided to remain and see what would happen next.

Before Rinoa could turn to the young women and ask if she could stay in one of their rooms until Selphie returned, she heard voices coming down the hallway. She turned her head and saw Squall, Cid and Xu inspecting rooms.

“Oh my God!” she gasped. “I forgot about dorm checks.”

Rinoa was so distraught she was unable to think rationally concerning what her next course of action should be, so she collapsed to the floor on her knees in an effort to hide as much of her body as she possibly could, since they were now coming out of the room next to her and Selphie’s room.

“Oh!” exclaimed Cid. “Rinoa’s fallen and hurt herself,” said Cid rushing to her aid.

Cid bent down and attempted to help the struggling Rinoa to regain her feet.

“I’m okay. Please don’t help me,” pleaded Rinoa.

But Cid continued to help Rinoa up and, in the process, her vest fell to the floor fully revealing the beauty of her naked body.

Cid immediately backed up, his mouth hanging open and Xu started uncharacteristically laughing. Squall slapped his forehead with the palm of his right hand in his familiar gesture.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” babbled Rinoa, while attempting unsuccessfully to cover her lovely breasts and vagina with her hands. “I’m locked out.”

Xu stepped forward with the passkey. “I can rectify that,” Xu said unlocking the door. Rinoa fled inside followed by the mocking tone of the giggling girls. ………………..

Selphie strode down the main dormitory corridor leading to the Garden’s rotunda. The rotunda was the center of the first floor. The rotunda resembled a hub of a wheel having corridors leading out in different directions, as if they were spokes. In the interior of the hub, as one walks along the wall, there is a large circular pool of beautiful blue water with fish statues every few feet or so spouting water. The corridors also led over small pools of water. Selphie strode past the blue water pool and fountains attempting to decide where to begin her search for Irvine. She decided to try the library first; not that Irvine was interested in reading that she’d ever noticed, but he was always interested in attempting to hustle the young women who worked there.

Entering the library, Selphie quickly glancing around the first room espied nothing out of the ordinary – that one male upper-classman that was always looking on the same shelf for a book and that female student who was always looking for a good romance novel.

Selphie spotted the pony-tailed girl (she never could remember that girl’s name!) standing behind the circulation desk using one of the two computers available to the library staff.

“Excuse me” Selphie said while checking the heel of each of her boots. “Have you seen Irvine?” she asked. Selphie realized almost every girl over the age of twelve in the Garden knew who Irvine was.

The pony-tailed girl glanced up from her computer and smiled sweetly. “Well, he was here earlier but he left. I believe I heard him say something about going to the rec center.”

“Okay, thanks” Selphie tossed over her shoulder leaving the library.

The rec center was located on the sub-floor. The sub-floor was located between the first floor and the basement and held such facilities, as the aforementioned recreational center, a coffee shop, a gym and swimming pool, the virtual reality training center, locker rooms, the weight room, and the laundry area and the baths.

Access is gained to the sub-floor from the inner hub around the first floor elevators. Selphie walked down the long black-stoned staircase, which led to the corridor to the rec center and coffee shop area. Upon arriving at her destination, she peered into the rec center seeing the usual room full of video games and the tables for table tennis and pool, bumper and straight. As her eyes adjusted to the over powering bright lighting, she finally espied Irvine playing the presently popular video game The Deiling City Challenge. As per usual he was joking with a number of pretty upper-classmen women, who were clustered around him.

“Irvine, I want to talk to you right now!”

Irvine glanced up at the sound of his name and, perceiving the angry look on Selphie’s face, his smile quickly faded. “Uh, oh girls. I’d better go talk to her.” With that, Irvine sauntered over to Selphie and said “Hi, Selphie. How’s it going?”

“Don’t you how’s it going, me.” “You, come with me!” Selphie clutched him by the arm and yanked him along to the coffee shop that was connected to one end of the rec center almost pulling him off his feet.

Selphie looked around the coffee shop that had pink walls, a green tiled floor and held a great number of tables and chairs. When she discerned an empty table in the corner, she continued dragging Irvine over to it and flung him down in a chair with some force.

“Ow,” responded Irvine. “Take it easy, Sefie.”

“Don’t you Sefie me, Irvine! I’m mad. I want to know what you were doing walking around with Rinoa in the halls with her half naked!”

“I’m totally innocent. Ask Zell. We were just coming down the hall and Rinoa was locked out of Squall’s room, so we volunteered to help her get back to the room. And that’s all there was to it. To tell you the truth, I was kinda embarrassed to be seen with her.”

“Why didn’t you offer her your coat to wear?” Selphie suspiciously asked.

“I did” Irvine replied “but she turned me down saying it would be too hot.”

“Are you telling me the truth?” queried Selphie.

“I swear to God!” Irvine said raising his right hand.

Selphie, at last, smiled and said, “Alright, I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. Sorry I was so rough.” She proceeded to sit down beside him at the table. ………………..

Quistis was searching for her instructor friend, Melissa Jenkins. Outside of Doctor Kadowaki and Xu, Melissa was her closest friend in the Garden. They had been students together and then SeeDs and finally were made instructors at the same time. As she walked along the corridor peering into classrooms, her hand subconsciously would drop to her hip to check on her whip. Of course she didn’t wear her weapon ordinarily in the Garden, but some part of her missed the excitement of her past adventures.

The problem was Melissa’s classroom had been relocated and Quistis didn’t know which corridor it was now located on. When they are fifty classrooms to look in, this can become a problem.

All of the classrooms were on the second floor of the Garden. There were four elevators to the second floor, one on each side of the elevator shaft that led to a different corridor of classrooms. Quistis continued to walk along looking quietly into classrooms taking the entire classroom in a single glance automatically seeing, while not noticing, the students seated at their desks, each having a personal computer on it, the large windows in the back of each classroom and the blackboard in front with the various subjects being taught, such as magic use, battle tactics, survival skills, care of a G.F., the Articles of the Garden Bible and advanced diplomacy training.

Quistis came to the last classroom on the left at the end of the third corridor she had investigated, before finding her friend’s classroom. Glancing at her watch and realizing the class would let out in five minutes, she decided to just wait quietly in the hall.

As soon as the female and male upper-classmen began leaving the classroom and milling around the hall talking, Quistis stepped inside the room.

“Hi, Quisty” said Melissa stepping from around her desk in the front of the room and moving toward Quistis, who stood just inside the doorway. “I thought you’d be looking for me today.”

“You did?” Quistis asked with some surprise. “I just decided to look for you a few minutes ago.”

“Oh, is that when you found out?” asked Melissa.

“Found out what?” asked the baffled Quistis. “What in the world are you talking about?”

“Oh, aren’t you the coy one? What’d they do – swear you to secrecy?” asked Melissa in a halfway mocking tone.

“I really don’t have any idea what you’re talking about, Melissa. I just came by to say hi, because I was feeling a little lonely and left out and thought it would be good to see you.”

“You’re telling the truth, aren’t you?’ Melissa asked.

“Of course I am.”

“Well, come over here and sit down,” Melissa stated, while pointing to some desks in the back of the room.

After both of them were seated, Melissa asked “You know one of my students works for Headmaster Cid?” Quistis nodded in affirmation. “Well, she was upstairs this morning before class, when they were having a meeting and she overheard them talking about a special mission to be done for Esthar in Deiling City and you and Squall are going.”

Quistis sat with a half-smile on her face and thought, “At last I can be contributing again.”

“Well” queried Melissa, “Aren’t you gonna say anything?”

Quistis replied “If it’s this big a secret, I hope she didn’t spread it around Garden.”

“Come on. She just told me and she swore me to secrecy.”

“Which you just failed!” Quistis replied.

“Quistis, you’re my best friend. Of course I can trust you! I know why you’re being so bitchy, you don’t want to tell me how you feel about this.”

“Okay, okay” Quistis owned. “I’m excited. Now give me the details.”

Melissa proceeded to explain the scenario to Quistis and the two of them sat and talked and laughed and enjoyed each other’s company for the next half an hour.

Finally Quistis stood up. “Thanks a lot, Melissa. I really needed this. I’ve been feeling so down lately. I guess I better go and, see if I can find Squall so we can make our plans.”

Melissa stood up and gave Quistis a hug, “Take care, Quisty.”

Quistis assured her she would and walked out of the classroom and down the long corridor to the elevator. ………………..

Zell entered the library with one thing on his mind. He wanted to talk to the pigtail girl and explain to her what had occurred in the morning with Rinoa, before she heard some kind of garbled rumor. He knew she wasn’t scheduled to be on duty but also knew that, if she weren’t in class, she would be here. She took her library duties very seriously.

Zell stepped to the area by the shelves in the front left corner under the picture of the Legendary Seed, that for some reason could not be seen readily from the rest of the room. The Legendary SeeD was, according to Headmaster Cid, the first graduate of the Garden and a gunblade specialist and had the best fighting skills of anyone Cid had ever seen. He disappeared mysteriously eleven years before while on assignment and had not been seen or heard from since.

And sure enough she was there. “Uh, Na-“ Zell began.

“Zell! You startled me. Don’t sneak up on me like that without saying anything” the pigtail girl exclaimed whirling around so quickly she dropped some of the books she was attempting to shelve.

Zell and the pigtail girl both lowered their heads simultaneously to pick up the books. “Ow!” howled the pigtail girl, “Zell, watch what you’re doing.” She staggered back into the shelves holding her forehead.

“I’m sorry, Na-.“

The pigtail girl interrupted “What do you want? I’m trying to get finished here before the library closes.”

“Well, uh” Zell said handing the books back to her. “I just wanted to talk for a moment and see how your day went.”

“Well, that’s sweet” she said “but can’t this wait for a few minutes?”

“I was just wondering” Zell continued, “if you had heard any strange or bizarre rumors floating around the Garden about me.”

The pigtail girl turned with some puzzlement on her face, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, good” Zell sighed with relief “I’ll just wait over here for you to finish.” With that said, Zell began to shadow box. ………………..

Quistis started down the corridor to the quad area. Someone said they thought they saw Squall moving down that way about an hour earlier. After reaching the end of the corridor, Quistis began stepping down the long, wide, doubled tiered staircase leading down to the quad area. The quad area had been completely renovated by the F.H. technicians. The stage now was much larger and curtains and a backstage area were added. There were rows of red, plush theatre seats added and a retractable partial roof that could protect theatergoers from inclement weather. A much higher wall had been added to the outside of the balcony, due to some fool falling off and almost dying there. This was done at Headmaster Cid’s request to avoid this type of accident from ever occurring again.

Sure enough when Quistis reached the stage area, she espied Squall sitting in a theatre seat staring out into nothing.

“Looking for me?” Quistis asked facetiously.

Squall looked up from his deep reverie. “As a matter of fact I was getting ready to go do that very thing, but I had no idea where you hang out these days.”

“That’s part of the problem” Quistis admitted. “When I’m not on assignment, I don’t have anywhere to hang out. You’re lucky. You have other duties.”

Squall grimaced “Be careful what you ask for, it just might come true.”

“I hear you talking” Quistis responded.

After a moment of silence had passed, Squall stood up and walked over to Quistis. “I take it you’ve heard.” “Yeah, one of my informed sources told me.”

Squall laughed. Quistis realized she was always taken by surprise when he laughed, because he never used to, but this had changed after Squall finally admitted his feelings for Rinoa. There was still a little part of Quistis that was sorry she couldn’t have been the one to help Squall laugh.

Squall said, patting the back of one of the theatre seats, “Sit down and we’ll make our plans.” ………………..

Rinoa stood slumped with her back leaning against the door, feeling as though her legs wouldn’t hold her up if she attempted to move. “Oh, no” she sobbed. “That was so awful. It was bad enough Cid and Xu saw me, but to have Squall there. He must be so embarrassed. What will I ever say to him?”

Rinoa threw herself across her bed, her entire body still quivering with adrenaline, unable to stop sobbing. After ten minutes or so of the most intense sobbing she had ever experienced, her tears began to subside and she began to feel some relief from her emotions.

Rinoa sat up on her bed and began to dry off with a towel that was lying across a chair. She began to replay the entire scene in her head in a more calm fashion and began to see the humor inherent in the situation. Rinoa began to inexplicably giggle. And then the intercom came on. ………………..

The bridge was on the floor above Cid’s office. Quite naturally being at the very top of the Garden, it was a very small area allowing room for the pilot and two or three others. Nida stood at the controls looking out of the huge circular window that allowed him complete visibility. It was dusk and the sunset was beautiful. They were headed out over the waters around Timber in the direction of Balamb. Cid and Xu were standing in back of Nida. There was no room for a desk or even chairs.

Nida turned his head and grinned at them.

Xu queried, “What are you looking so pleased about, Nida?”

He whirled around so fast he almost lost his balance and, as he reached out to steady himself, he unknowingly turned on the intercom button. He had been dying to tell someone about this all day.

“When I came out of my room this morning” he began “I was almost immediately run down by Zell dragging Rinoa along the hall and” – here Nida paused for dramatic effect – “I didn’t get the best look, but I swear she was only wearing underwear! And Irvine was walking behind her and laughing. I don’t have any idea what was going on, but I couldn’t understand why Irvine didn’t lend her his coat, because she appeared very embarrassed and I still don’t know what Irvine found so amusing. It looked to me, as if Rinoa was being made to do something against her will.”

“Now, now” Cid offered, “I’m sure that’s not the case. We saw Rinoa this afternoon and she appeared fine.”

“Oh, yeah” snuffled Xu “We saw all of Rinoa this afternoon alright.” And she proceeded to tell Nida the entire story. As she spoke, Nida’s face became flushed and his knees began to tremble.

“Now, now” said Cid again “It was an accident and we really shouldn’t be gossiping about it.”

“Come on, Cid” laughed Xu. “It’s just us chickens here. You can tell us. You really actually enjoyed the show.”

Cid admitted, “Just don’t let Edea find out.” With peals of laughter resonating on the bridge, Nida turned back to the controls and noticed the intercom light was blinking. “Oh, no!” he shouted. “The intercom is on!” ………………..

All activity in the rec center and coffee shop had ceased, when the intercom came on, because there were often important messages relayed and students and SeeDs alike needed to be able to respond immediately to whatever the emergency might be. When they had initially heard it was just an ordinary conversation they began to resume their former activities, but then when they heard what the conversation concerned they froze again. No one made a sound, except for some heavy breathing.

After the intercom clicked off, Selphie stood up and, towering over the seated Irvine, said, “So Rinoa said she didn’t want to wear your coat, huh? You said you were embarrassed, but actually you were laughing and playing around with Rinoa. You lied to me! What were you all planning to do? Pull her down to your room?”

Irvine attempted to stand up, “But, Selphie.”

Selphie pushed him back in the chair.

“Don’t bother, I’m leaving.” And, with that, she strode quickly out of the coffee shop and back down the corridor leading to the staircase that would take her to the first floor. She was going to talk to Rinoa about this right now! ………………..

In the library the pigtail girl turned to Zell, who had paused his shadow boxing and asked “Zell, what was that all about?”

Zell turned bright red and began to stutter “Now Na-.”

The pigtail girl interrupted “Is this why you came down here? To see if I had heard about this?”

Zell continued to stutter, “Don’t get upset, Na-.”

The pigtail girl again interrupted the slow talking Zell “Don’t get upset! Are you serious? You were seen dragging a naked Rinoa down the hall to your room to do God knows whatever to and you tell me not to get upset!”

“She wasn’t naked, she had underwear on and we were going to her room” Zell explained.

“Oh, I stand corrected,” retorted the pigtail girl turning away and flouncing out of the library. “Oh, by the way” she threw over her shoulder “I noticed you didn’t explain what you were going to do to her!” and left Zell standing red-faced and stuttering. ………………

In her room, Rinoa burst into a new round of sobbing and collapsed in a chair and lowered her head on a desk. Her prediction of the morning had come true with a vengeance, she realized. Nida had told everyone in the Garden. ………………..

Quistis and Squall had been sitting in the quad area and discussing their mission when the intercom came on. As the message from the bridge continued, Squall sat silently stone-faced while Quistis placed her right-gloved hand up to her mouth to cover her laughter.

When the intercom clicked off, Quistis and Squall sat silently each privy to their own thoughts regarding what they had just heard. Finally Squall stood up and said resignedly “I guess I better talk to Rinoa. I’ll see you tomorrow, early.” And not waiting for a reply, he wandered dejectedly up the staircase.

As events often seem to work out if left to their own devices, Selphie, the pigtail girl and Squall converged at the door to Selphie and Rinoa’s room simultaneously.

Selphie, noticing Squall’s serious demeanor, asked, “I suppose you want to see Rinoa?” Squall silently nodded.

“Maybe we’d better knock first.” Selphie knocked gently on the door saying “Rinoa. It’s Selphie, is it alright to come in?”

There was no answer. Selphie tried again, a little louder “Rinoa, is it alright to come in?”

Suddenly Selphie became worried about Rinoa’s possible mental and emotional state. “I’d better open the door with my key.” So saying, she took out her key and opened the door just as Rinoa stood up and began moving toward the door dressed only in her beautiful nakedness. Selphie came to a complete stop. The pigtail girl turned bright red and fled down the corridor in horror and Squall stepped inside the room. Selphie suggested, “I think I’ll leave you two alone,” and quickly exited the room. Squall gently closed the door.

Rinoa rushed at Squall and threw herself into his reluctant arms sobbing “Oh, Squall. I’m so sorry.” Squall realized finally just how upset Rinoa really was when she continued to be racked with great gales of sobbing for a number of minutes. Squall began to gently stroke the back of her hair with his hand, whispering, “It’ll be okay, no damage was done, nobody died, no da.”

Rinoa finally stopped weeping and stepped back from Squall’s arms. Her face was flushed and swollen from crying. “Thank you, Squall” she said. “That’s the first nice thing that’s happened to me today.”

Squall looked away from Rinoa’s beautiful naked body and requested, “Would you mind putting something on? We need to talk seriously and you’re very distracting.”

Squall went over and sat on the edge of Selphie’s bed, clasped his hands together by intertwining his fingers and stared silently at the floor. A great lump of fear and anxiety arose in Rinoa’s throat. Had her behavior today ruptured their relationship? Rinoa thought wildly as she hurried to the closet and pulled out a robe and put it on.

Rinoa crossed over to Squall, knelt and opened his hands and held them in her’s and asked “What is it, Squall? Is it bad news?”

Squall looked up. “Well, no. It’s not as far as I’m concerned, but I don’t know how you’re gonna take it.” This statement certainly didn’t decrease Rinoa’s anxiety at all.

Squall, noticing Rinoa’s terror stricken face, slightly grinned and said, “No, it’s not what you’re thinking. It has nothing to do with us.”

Rinoa hadn’t realized she had been holding her breath while he spoke until then. Her breath came out in a rush. “Oh thank God,” she thought.

“Then what is it, Squall?”

Squall reached down and pulled Rinoa up on her feet and helped her sit on the bed next to him. “I’ve been assigned to go to Deiling City with Quistis and discover some information for Laguna.”

Rinoa’s heart sank. She didn’t want to live without being by Squall’s side everyday. “But Deiling City” she said “That’ll be dangerous.”

Squall grinned slightly “Well, I guess I’ve been through that before and I’ve always come out okay.”

Rinoa stood up and stamped her foot in frustration. “I’m not joking, Squall!” “You know they’ll be looking for you. What are you thinking about?”

Squall’s face and tone became serious. “Rinoa, I’ve been assigned by Garden to do this task.”

Rinoa angrily stamped her foot again. “Who are you trying to kid? You were assigned by the Garden. You’re the Garden! You could tell anyone to go!”

Squall stood up finally fully aroused. “I am a SeeD” he said a trifle loudly. “It is my duty to go. I don’t send people out on missions that I should handle myself. You have always known that, Rinoa. It’s too late in the game to be pulling this now.”

Rinoa crossed the room and sat on her bed. “Then I’ll go with you,” she suggested. “I can be a big help to you in Deiling City.”

“Now who’s kidding who?” Squall asked. “You know you’re a dangerous commodity in Deiling City being General Caraway’s daughter. You could end up being kidnapped or worse.” “Besides” Squall went on, his words sending little arrows into Rinoa’s heart, “You’re not even a SeeD.”

Rinoa sat on the edge of her bed, her mind reeling around the fact Squall wouldn’t be here for God knows how long and also he’d be with Quistis. Rinoa had always had a sneaking suspicion Quistis wasn’t as over Squall as she pretended to be.

Rinoa looked up and attempted to put a smile on her face. “Well” she said, “I guess you’re going. I’ll miss you badly everyday you’re gone, but at least we have tonight together.”

Squall shook his head gently. “No, I have to get ready to go. We’re going to be leaving very early tomorrow.”

Rinoa’s eyes began to tear up, but she forcibly willed her expression not to change. She realized this was a dangerous time for them and she could end up pushing him away from her completely if she didn’t let go. “Well” she said remembering the first time she had said this to him on the Ragnarok “Give me a hug.”

Squall crossed the room, knelt down and gave her a perfunctory hug. He stood up, kissed her cheek and said “Catch you later.” Squall turned and left the room. “Good luck” Rinoa whispered. ………………..

Squall hadn’t been lying to Rinoa. They did leave early in the morning. At 5 o’clock a.m., before anyone else was up except for the midnight shift, Squall and Quistis entered the parking garage and secured a Garden truck. They drove out into the predawn darkness and down to Balamb. Somebody would be sent later in the day to retrieve the vehicle. After reaching Balamb, Squall and Quistis padded down the dark, deserted streets to the hotel and went in and had breakfast, because the Garden cafeteria had not yet opened. By 6 o’clock a.m., they had boarded the train to Timber where they would transfer to a train that would take them to Deiling City. ………………..

Rinoa awoke in her bed and felt good. She stretched luxuriously under her sheets, smiled and sat up in bed, the sheets tumbling from her upper body. And then her entire world crashed, as she remembered she wouldn’t be seeing Squall today. She probably wouldn’t be seeing Squall for a long time or maybe never again!

Rinoa shook her head no! That would never happen! “But the worst” she thought “was when Squall said to me, You can’t go. You’re not even a SeeD.” Rinoa sat and remembered the sharp pain this caused her, when he uttered those words with such finality.

Rinoa spoke aloud “Well, that’s going to change starting today!”

She tossed off her sheets, stood up and crossed the room pulling open her closet. Rinoa had a campaign in mind and it involved Headmaster Cid. ………………..

Rinoa waited near the first floor elevator for Xu to come down to do inspection after the morning staff meeting. Rinoa was slightly uncomfortable with some of the strange looks she had been receiving from SeeDs and upper-classmen, although she wasn’t quite sure if it was because of the way she was dressed or what they heard over the intercom the day before.

Rinoa had decided on a full frontal manipulative attack on Cid to allow her to attend classes. She had shampooed and brushed her lovely hair until it shone, applied her makeup and a liberal dose of her favorite perfume. She then put on her high heels and slipped her slinky, short, yellow dress over her nude body. This was the same dress she wore when she manipulated Cid to send SeeDs to assist the Forest Owls.

The elevator door opened and Xu stepped down the stairs. Rinoa turned away, not having the courage to speak to Xu after yesterday and to have to watch the expression on Xu’s face. Rinoa waited until Xu cleared the stairs and turned left and then she quickly strutted up the stairs and entered the elevator.

Rinoa departed the elevator on the third floor and immediately bypassed Cid’s student receptionist-secretary and instead went and stood in front of his desk. Cid appeared to be busy shuffling papers, something he spent a great deal of time doing. “Good Morning, Cid” Rinoa called out brightly.

Cid looked up, totally disorientated for a second, perceived who it was and blushed slightly and then recovered nicely and said “Good Morning, Rinoa. How are you today?”

I’m wonderful!” Rinoa lied, glancing around for a chair.

Cid purposely didn’t have any chairs for visitors, because he wanted to discourage uninvited students or SeeDs from visiting him without an appointment and he found keeping them physically uncomfortable helped minimize this.

Rinoa was still searching for somewhere to sit, when Cid asked “What can I do for you today?”

The student, who worked for Cid, understood the entire situation in a glance and felt sorry for Rinoa, particularly after yesterday and picked up her chair and carried it over to Rinoa.

She said “Headmaster Cid? I have to go to class now.”

Cid glanced away from Rinoa. “Uh, okay. Thanks a lot, Catherine” he said.

“It’s Pamela, sir,” the girl said.

“Oh, sorry” Cid apologized “Of course it is.”

Pamela turned to Rinoa and asked, “Would you like to sit down, Rinoa?”

Rinoa gratefully sank down quickly in the chair and offered the girl her best smile in return.

As the student was leaving the office, Cid turned to Rinoa and again asked “What can I do for you today?”

Rinoa sat back on the chair, crossed her legs, smiled at Cid and then crossed her legs again. “I would like to become a SeeD” she explained.

Cid was visibly taken aback by her request. “Well, now Rinoa” he began to stammer, “As you know SeeDs are raised from a very young age. Uh, that’s why we call them SeeDs, ha! ha!” Cid reached up and wiped some sweat off his brow.

Rinoa crossed her legs slowly and a little more widely than previously offering Cid a momentary glimpse of brunette pubic hair.

Rinoa said calmly “But Cid, you already know that I can fight and I ran my own resistance group.”

When she perceived Cid was going to offer a rebuttal, Rinoa slowly crossed her legs the widest of all causing her dress to ride up dangerously high on her thighs.

Perspiration was freely flowing from Cid’s face as he spoke “I see your point. I think it can be arranged for you to start classes today as an upper-classman.”

Rinoa sat back smiling sweetly at him. She thought to herself “That bit gets him every time.” ………………..

Zell, Selphie and the pigtail girl were sitting around a cafeteria table, where they had just finished eating their breakfast. The pigtail girl felt anxious, because she had to report for her shift in the library momentarily.

Selphie leaned forward and spoke to the pigtail girl “I’m sorry. I never can remember your name.”

“What!” sputtered Zell indignantly “Her name is Na-.”

Zell was interrupted by Irvine sauntering up to the table beside an extremely attractive redheaded, fifteen-year-old female upper-classman. Selphie felt an instant partiality toward her, because she looked so cute in her uniform that included the extremely short skirt Cid preferred all the girls to wear and because her initial introduction to Garden by Irvine, of all people, caused Selphie to feel sympathetic towards her.

Selphie stood up and held out her hand. “Hi, I’m Selphie. Glad to meet you.”

The younger girl took Selphie’s hand and shook it. “Pleased to meet you” she said.

“And you are?” Selphie asked.

Irvine attempted to explain, “This is –.“

“Let her talk!” snapped Selphie.

The new student, a little shocked by the vehemence in Selphie’s voice, replied “I’m Akane.”

Irvine continued, “She’s from-.“

Selphie exploded “Irvine! Let her talk for herself! And sit down!”

Irvine dropped like a rock into a chair. Akane began to sit next to him until Selphie indicated she should sit next to her.

Selphie spoke to Akane “You need to do yourself a favor and stay away from him” and pointedly stared at Irvine, who finally glanced away.

The pigtail girl stood up and said, “Well, I have to run. I’m already late for my shift at the library. Goodbye everybody.”

Zell started to speak “Take care, Na-.“

Selphie interrupted “So where are you from, Akane?”

Akane shifted self consciously in her chair to be thrust among so many strangers, but felt a little better when she realized that they were giving her their undivided attention and most were smiling at her.

“I’m from East Academy,” she explained.

The town of East Academy lay halfway between the towns of Timber and Dollet. It was located in the Vaulny Canyon near the Roshfall Forest. The town grew around the East Academy University. The University was approximately one hundred years old and was a well-respected institution of higher learning. East Academy was considered to be neutral in the war between Galbadia and Esthar, although Galbadia was currently the ruling authority.

“Now that’s interesting,” commented Selphie. “I don’t think we’ve ever had anyone here from East Academy.”

Zell leaned far forward and accused in a loud voice “How come you wanted to come here when you could have gone to the University instead?”

Akane flushed a little at Zell’s tone and began to stutter, although before she could speak Selphie stood up, reached across the table and pushed Zell back in his seat. “Zell, calm down. You’re scaring her.”

Selphie reseated herself and turned to Akane. “That’s just Zell. He’s always like that. He doesn’t mean anything by it. He’s just very excitable. Now what were you going to say?”

Akane, feeling a little more reassured, offered Selphie a timid but sweet smile. “I’ve always wanted to be a SeeD ever since I was a little girl. I was attending the University, but a professor of mine pulled some strings and got me in here.”

“Well, we’re glad you’re here” Selphie said. Irvine loudly exclaimed “Here, here!” until Selphie pointedly stared him down again.

Selphie asked, “Why don’t we meet after your classes and go down to the baths and have a good soak?”

“Okay” Akane readily agreed. “It sounds like fun.”

Everyone stood up from the table preparing to go their separate ways, when Rinoa walked in wearing an upper-classman female uniform with the shortest skirt any of them had even seen. “Hi everyone” Rinoa exclaimed. “Guess what?” she asked. “I’m going to be a SeeD!”

“Oh my God” retorted Selphie “Since when?”

“Since this morning” Rinoa explained, “Cid is allowing me to attend classes. Isn’t he sweet? And he even handpicked this uniform for me.” ………………..

Xu walked into Doctor Kadowaki’s office and said “Hi, you busy?” The doctor looked up from the files she was writing in and smiled when she saw it was Xu.

“Not particularly, just some catch-up work. What’s up?” the doctor asked, noticing the tightness that was not normally on Xu’s face.

“Oh, I don’t know,” sighed Xu while pulling over the patient stool to sit in front of the doctor’s desk. “I guess I’m a little worried with both Squall and Quistis gone at the same time. You know, I think the world of Cid but he lives in his own little world of papers and billing. I guess I’m just not used to being the person in complete charge.”

The doctor nodded an understanding of what Xu was saying. “If you think back, Xu, when the Galbadian Garden was attacking our Garden, Quistis, Squall and you were all here, but Squall was so new in his leadership role that someone had to step up and take charge and I did it. I’d never done anything like that before, but it had to be done if we were to avoid being overrun by them.”

Xu nodded in a sudden understanding and respect for the doctor.

“Now you are a lovely, wonderful and capable young woman who can certainly handle the same responsibilities and duties that this tired old doctor did once upon a time,” explained Dr. Kadowaki.

Xu gave a little laugh and nodded her head.

“What are our immediate plans?” asked the doctor.

“Well, that’s my main problem right now” Xu confessed. “I don’t have any idea as to what our next agenda should be.”

The doctor suggested, “Why don’t we go up to Trabia and see how they’re coming along with rebuilding their Garden?”

“That’s a good idea,” Xu agreed, while standing up. “I’ll run it by Cid and if he’s okay with it, maybe we’ll head up there in a week or so. Thanks doc, you’re the best,” Xu said while bending down and giving the doctor a kiss on her cheek. ………………..

The Balamb train pulled into Timber two hours after leaving Balamb. Squall and Quistis had spent the time sitting and quietly talking about a variety of subjects, but not one minute of it was taken up with talking about their present mission. Both of them were too veteran to over analyze their plans.

Timber was located on the Lanker Plains near Lake Obel off Timber Beach. The town of Timber had been literally carved out of a vast acreage of forestland nearly a hundred years previously. Most of the forest was now gone, leaving Timber economically depressed.

The Balamb train pulled into the station close to the center of town. Squall and Quistis disembarked from the train and walked down the steps into Timber; with Squall remembering back to the first time he had done so and the silly password he had given Watts.

Squall turned to Quistis and asked, “What say we grab a bite? We don’t know how long it’ll be after we get to Deiling City that we’ll be able to eat again.”

Quistis readily agreed and as they walked along the street to the Hamptons, the best restaurant in town, Squall realized after all there was a certain charm to the town. As they were walking past the weapon shop and hotel, Squall recognized a young SeeD who was apparently sent on the Timber mission walking on the other side of the street. The SeeD’s initial reaction was to speak to Squall, but Squall quietly shook his head. The SeeD walked on.

After Squall and Quistis were seated in the restaurant and their food was brought to the table, Quistis leaned forward and asked, “Wasn’t that Kasumi?”

Squall nodded and quietly filled Quistis in. After Squall was finished, Quistis said “Whew, we’ll just have to keep our eyes open and not allow them to blow their covers or ours.”

Squall nodded silently in agreement. After they were done eating and had paid the hefty bill, tip included they started back towards the other end of Timber. One of the first things Squall had instituted when he took over the Garden was having an expense account for SeeDs, who were out on assignments. They no longer had to pay for everything out of their salary.

The train to Deiling City had to be boarded in the area in front of the Timber Pet Shop. They walked up the steps to the boarding area. Squall paid the conductor and they boarded the train, and then walked down the narrow hallway until they found and entered their private compartment. The train pulled out of the station soon after.

“Well” Squall looked at Quistis “I guess we should change.”

Quistis flushed slightly. “Have you given any thought as to how we’re going to do this? The bathroom on this train is far too open and public. We couldn’t change back at the restaurant, because it would have appeared way too obvious to go in as one person and come out as another and one of us standing out in the hall on this train, while the other one changes could prove disastrous depending on who came down the hall during that time. There are many Galbadian military and government people on this train.”

Squall answered, “As a matter of fact, I have. We’ll have to change together in here.”

“In your dreams!” Quistis laughed.

“No, I’m serious” Squall replied. “We’ll change back to back.”

Squall turned his back to Quistis, knelt down and began to pull out clothes from his small carry-on valise, figuring he should be the one to get the ball rolling. Quistis, observing what he was doing, quickly turned her back to him and began doing the same.

Squall, hoping to cut the tension, joked, “Now don’t be peeking.”

“Yeah, right” Quistis retorted, “It would be more likely the other way around.”

Squall replied in a serious tone “You might be right.”

When Quistis started pulling the front zipper of her orange top down, after already detaching her long sleeves and pulling off her gloves, she began to get a twinge of regret. Actually she wouldn’t mind sneaking a peek. Why should Rinoa get all the fun? Quistis attempted to turn her head just slightly enough, while she was removing her top and then unbuckling the belt of her long skirt, to use her peripheral vision to catch a glimpse behind her. As she attempted this, she could suddenly distinguish enough of Squall to perceive he had already removed all his clothing and was standing facing her stark naked! Quistis snapped her head back, accidentally letting her skirt drop to the floor with a loud thud of her belt buckle. “This is wrong!” she thought, “I shouldn’t be doing this!”

Squall asked, “What in the hell is going on back there?”

“Oh, nothing” Quistis lied.

The rest of the undressing and dressing was uneventful, but when both of them turned around they were staring at different people. Squall had long blonde hair in a pageboy style cut and was wearing a white T-shirt and low cut blue jeans with a good inch or more of his striped boxer shorts showing. Quistis realized, with a pang of sexual longing, that when she caught a glimpse of him in the raw his flaccid penis had appeared enormous.

Quistis broke into laughter at Squall’s appearance and then quickly covered her mouth with her right hand.

“What are you laughing at?” Squall asked irritably. “You should see yourself.”

Squall had a point. Quistis was wearing a red spiky wig and a schoolgirl uniform, which consisted of a white blouse with a blue collar, low cut enough so a little bit of her lacy white bra was visible and a extremely short, blue check skirt with a little midriff showing and a belt that also held a gray purse by her side. The entire disguise was topped off by her new square framed glasses.

Quistis glanced at the image of herself reflected from a mirror that hung on the compartment wall. “What do you mean?” she asked innocently. “I think I look great!”

Squall said, “Well, at least it doesn’t look like you.” “Where are you going to keep your weapon?”

Quistis picked up her backpack, opened it and pulled out her ‘Save the Queen’. “I’ll be in real trouble though, if I have to open this for anyone. I’ll have to be ready to use it.”

“What’s that?” Quistis pointed at a guitar case lying on the floor behind Squall.

Squall knelt down by the case, flipped the catch and opened the lid. “Watch this” Squall said as he lifted the guitar up and placed it on the floor. Then he lifted up a false bottom and pulled out ‘Lion Heart’.

“Pretty sneaky” Quistis complimented. Squall nodded in agreement. “It was Xu’s idea.” ………………..

Rinoa thought her first day of classes went as well as could be expected, though she admitted to herself she had some difficulty in concentrating fully at all times on the instructor, as she was out of practice with this and also because she kept finding herself wondering how Squall was doing.

Rinoa was planning on meeting Selphie and Akane for a good hot soak in the baths but, as she was unable to locate Selphie, she decided to go on down to the sub-floor and wait for them in the baths. Rinoa headed down the long staircase that led to the sub-floor corridor leading to the bath area.

When Rinoa reached the end of the corridor she headed left to the bath area; right would have taken her to the laundry area. A wooden wall separated the men and women’s sauna baths. There was a strict Garden rule prohibiting men and women sharing the same bath together; in fact they were not even supposed to be on the floor at the same time. There were very rigid guidelines regarding the times of the day the different sexes were allowed in the bath area. Rinoa rechecked her watch just to be on the safe side. She didn’t want any repeat performances from yesterday.

Ascertaining she indeed was here at the appropriate hour, she entered the small dressing area on the women’s side of the baths. Rinoa quickly removed her clothing, taking care to hang up her new uniform and placing her underwear on a bench and took down a huge towel from a stack of towels provided by the Garden and proceeded into the bath area. She laid her towel carefully on the side of the bath and eased herself down slowly into the bath.

“Ah” she thought, “Now that’s more like it.” Rinoa sat there for a few moments with her head resting on the back wall of the bath with her eyes closed basically thinking about nothing, when she heard a sudden noise. She opened her eyes expecting to see Selphie and Akane, but instead observed Seifer, Raijin and Fujin looming over her standing at the edge of the bath!

“Seifer!” Rinoa squealed, “What are you doing here?” while instinctively attempting to cover herself, even though she realized they would be hard pressed to see any part of her body through the steamy water.

“Is that any way to greet an old friend?” Seifer asked sarcastically. “You’re looking good, Rinoa but I can’t really see you. Rage, pick her up!”

Before Rinoa could react, Raijin reached down with one huge arm and pulled Rinoa completely out of the bath exposing the beauty of her nude body from tip to toe!

Fujin shouted, “PERVERT!” and kicked Raijin in the shin hard causing him to drop Rinoa back into the bath with a large splash of water that covered the three of them with spray.

“OW!” yelled Raijin.

“Seifer, you’d better get out of here,” Rinoa warned excitedly. “This is not the time for men to be in the baths and, besides, you are never to be on the women’s side!”

“Oooh” responded Seifer. “Are you going to sic the disciplinary committee on me? We don’t live here anymore, in case you haven’t noticed.”

Selphie and Akane entered the bath area, wrapped in large towels. “Seifer! What are you doing here?” Selphie demanded in a loud voice.

Seifer turned his attention to Selphie and Akane. “Well, if it isn’t the little messenger girl and who’s this little cutie here?” Seifer leaned forward and chucked Akane lightly on the chin. Akane shrank away from him as quickly as possible. “You know” he went on “I think I’ve seen you somewhere before.” “SEIFER!” screamed Selphie.

Seifer turned his attention back to Selphie. “If you must know, like it’s any of your business, we have an appointment with Cid and we’re on our way to talk to him right now.”

“Then go” Selphie demanded.

Seifer turned to Raijin and Fujin and said, “Let’s go guys. I can tell when we’re not wanted.”

After they left, Selphie asked, “What the hell do you suppose that was all about?”

Rinoa just shook her head “I don’t have the slightest idea.” ………………..

The rest of Squall and Quistis’s ride to Deiling City was uneventful, as they sat quietly preparing themselves for the roles they would have to play upon their arrival. When they disembarked from the train at the Deiling City Train Station, the conductor did a double take when they walked by and wondered thoughtfully “That’s strange. I don’t remember when those young students got on.”

The train to Deiling City, as it approaches the suburbs, goes underground via a tunnel and literally arrives under the city. Squall and Quistis disembarked from the train and rode the escalator up. They came out at the top of a wide staircase over looking the city. Squall never got over what a breathtaking scene it was when first arriving. Squall and Quistis stepped lively down the staircase and strolled past some Galbadian soldiers at one of the city’s main entrances.

“What now?” whispered Quistis.

Squall answered in a low tone “Let’s just head downtown and see what we can pick up. Keep your eyes and ears open.”

Quistis nodded her assent.

They turned right and headed into the downtown area. There were many people on the streets and Squall and Quistis stayed in the middle of crowds as much as possible. That night they stayed at a youth hostel. It was the safest place Squall could think of; at least it was on ground level and had front and back doors.

Just before Quistis drifted off to sleep, she murmured, “Let’s hope that tomorrow is more productive.”

“A-men to that” replied Squall. ………………..

At morning staff meeting the next day, Xu sat with Cid and his student secretary, who took notes from the meeting to be published and posted, if it involved any new rule changes or additions or any other information that might need to be brought to the attention of students and/or SeeDs.

Xu suggested “I’ve been thinking, Cid. After a week or so why don’t we ride up to Trabia and see how they’re coming along with rebuilding their Garden? Maybe we can lend a hand.”

Cid looked up and replied, “That’s a very good idea, Xu. You handle the logistics.”

Xu thought to herself “That was certainly easy enough. Why do I allow myself to become so worked up about this stuff?”

Xu stated “That’s the last thing on the agenda” and began to stand up.

“Please wait a minute, Xu” directed Cid. Xu reseated herself.

Cid appeared a little flushed and wiped some sweat off his brow, causing Xu to wonder what was coming next. She thought, “If it’s about Rinoa attending classes, I’m going to cut him some slack. In fact, I think it’s a good idea. It’ll keep her out of trouble.”

Xu waited patiently for Cid to begin to get to the point.

Cid finally said, “There’s no easy way to go about this, so I’m going to be direct.”

Xu thought, “Please do.”

Cid went on “I’ve decided to readmit Seifer, Raijin and Fujin.”

“What!” Xu exclaimed in a loud agitated voice and halfway standing, while slamming both of her hands down on the table.

“Now, Xu” Cid went on, “I think we’re, at least, partially responsible for the mess Seifer caused after we refused to make him a SeeD. After all, he initially went to Timber to help us out.”

Xu sat back down, but her tone hardened “I respectfully disagree. He brought it all on himself by bad judgment.”

Cid replied, “We could argue this all day, but I’ve already made my decision. I think he could end up being a big help to us.”

Xu seethed inside, but held her temper and her tongue.

Cid took advantage of Xu’s acquiescence and, began to stand up, saying, “Is there anything else?”

“Uh, Headmaster Cid?” the student secretary said.

Cid glanced at her and sat back down. “Yes, Catherine?”

The student secretary responded “I’m Pamela, sir.”

“Of course you are” Cid said.

Pamela went on to ask, “Have you been in my desk, sir or do you know anybody that’s been in my desk?”

“No Cath-, I mean Pamela. I haven’t been in your desk and no one else has been here.” “Why do you ask?” said Cid.

Pamela replied “Somebody’s definitely been in my desk. Everything has been moved all around.”

Cid muttered impatiently, “I’m sure you’re mistaken, dear. Okay, that’s it. Meeting is adjourned.” ………………..

Xu pulled up the stool and sat down in front of the doctor’s desk. Dr. Kadowaki glanced up from her paperwork.

“You appear to be very upset, Xu.”

“Yes, I’m upset!” Xu exploded angrily. “Do you know what Cid’s done now?”

The doctor replied, “Yes, I believe I heard some rumblings about it. You’re upset because Cid has allowed Seifer to return to the Garden.”

“You’re damned right, I am” Xu cursed.

This alone let the doctor know how upset Xu really was. Xu seldom cursed.

Xu went on “I just don’t know what Cid is thinking about.”

The doctor explained, “He is thinking about giving a person another chance.”

Xu exploded again “Another chance! That man has run out of chances!”

“Xu” the doctor explained, “In the first place that man isn’t a man.”

Xu looked up in total confusion. The doctor pushed on “He is a young man and young men can change. Seifer is also a very strong young man, emotionally and physically, and I feel that Cid’s thinking is, that not only should a person not be allowed to run out of chances but, also that Seifer, if he did change, could probably be a real asset to the Garden.”

Xu muttered, “Ah, that damn Cid! He’s always forgiving somebody!”

“That’s true” the doctor agreed quietly “He even forgave his wife when she sent missiles to kill him.”

Xu sat in a stunned silence for a minute or two that felt as though it were hours to her. Xu finally looked up and managed to grin a little. “Okay, doc. I get your point.”

“My suggestion to you is that you give Seifer an honest chance. Let your history with him be just that – history. If you can, sit down with him and be honest and see if he’ll meet you halfway. If he perceives you’re trying, he might be willing to drop his defenses some.”

“Okay, doctor” Xu agreed, “I’m willing to try that, but if it blows up in my face I’m coming back and cursing you out.”

Doctor Kadowaki laughed. “And another thing, Xu, don’t attempt it when he’s around Raijin and Fujin. He seems to draw negative energy from them.”

“No da” Xu said and they both laughed. “But seriously” Xu went on “That’s another good idea. I need to assign them different duties to breakup that threesome.”

“But anyway, Cid did give his permission that we could travel to Trabia, so we should be doing that within a week or two” Xu reported.

“That’s good. I think we could all benefit from a change of scenery.”

“For sure!” Xu laughed. ………………..

Squall and Quistis awoke early and had a quick breakfast at the youth hostel, before hitting the streets of Deiling City once again to gather information about the new Galbadian President. By mid-afternoon, they had learned absolutely nothing.

Squall said “This is getting us nowhere.”

“Then where do we go from here?” Quistis asked.

Squall responded, “I have an idea, but you’re going to think it’s crazy.”

“Well, what is it?” she asked.

Squall replied, “Sneak into General Caraway’s mansion through the sewers.”

“Oh, that is crazy” Quistis laughed. “What makes you think it’s still open?”

Squall stated, “I know it’s still open. The only people who know about it are us and General Caraway himself. He would never close that off. It’s his only escape route, if things ever get bad enough.”

“Okay, I’m game” Quistis agreed. “Which way?”

Squall knew Deiling City better than some people, who had lived there all their lives. “This way” he pointed and they started moving down the street.

Squall and Quistis walked along briskly retracing their steps from the previous day, until they walked past the staircase leading to the train depot. They crossed the street, as soon as possible, to avoid passing the soldiers and then went up the next street coming out, ironically enough, in front of General Caraway’s mansion.

“Too bad we can’t go in the front door” commented Quistis.

“Yeah, too bad” smirked Squall. They took a path to the right that led through a city park. There were couples on the lawn down by the lake that looked as though they were enjoying the late afternoon. At the end of the path, Squall motioned right and they walked along a major four-lane boulevard. There was plenty of bus traffic in Deiling City, but not many cars, due to the gasoline shortage, because of the war effort.

Reaching the end of the boulevard, Quistis recognized the door that led to the city sewers causing her suddenly to remember that fateful night that she, Selphie and Zell participated in the would be assassination of Sorceress Edea. “Thank God” she thought, “Irvine had missed that shot. We would have killed Cid’s wife!”

Squall gently squeezed her arm “Come on, Quisty” and opened the outside door for her. Quistis realized she had been daydreaming and mentally kicked herself. She needed to stay sharp or they were going to get captured or worse.

Walking into the small entry room, Squall mounted the ladder and started climbing down. Squall always went first as the point man to protect the other members in his party, as much as possible from surprise attack. When they jumped off the ladder, they were now in the Deiling City sewer system. The sewer system was a very convoluted, maze like collection of different hallways and ladders that often as not ended with a wall. Again, like Deiling City itself, Squall knew the most expedient route to take to travel through it as efficiently as possible. As they ran down hallways and across fallen ladders, Quistis again slipped back in her mind to that fateful night when she chose to deviate from her orders and returned to General Caraway’s mansion to look for Rinoa. “Strange” she thought. She had never really regretted doing that; maybe because everything had worked out well in the end or maybe because, at least, her heart had been in the right place.

“Quistis!” Squall shouted bringing her back to the present. They were being attacked by three Creeps. Before she could step forward and snap ‘Save the Queen’ one of the Creeps slashed her viciously on her bare legs. Quistis bit her lip hard to keep from crying out in pain and stepped forward and killed one of the Creeps. Squall leaped out with ‘Lion Heart’ and swish – finished one Creeps while throwing a cure on Quistis’s legs, who was busy finishing the last Creeps.

“That’s why I like to wear long skirts,” Quistis complained while bending down to check her legs.

Quistis glanced embarrassedly at Squall. “Sorry, I was day dreaming again.”

Squall turned to her and smiled. “I know and I know what about. It’s only natural that you would think back to that night.”

Quistis realized with a jolt how beautiful he looked when he smiled. “Beautiful!” she thought giving herself another mental kick. “I’ve got to get serious here or we could end up dead. Besides for the umpteenth time he belongs to Rinoa now.”

Squall watched with some puzzlement the conflict of emotions that appeared to be running across Quistis’s face. When she realized Squall was staring at her and what she must have looked like, she flushed slightly but said simply “Let’s go, Squall.” Squall nodded and once again set off leading point down the hallway.

The rest of their journey through the sewers was uneventful. They had three more fights, but only with bats that were quite easy to finish. They finally walked up a stairwell that led straight into General Caraway’s den. Not having any idea of what to expect upon entering the den gave them momentary pause. Squall looked at Quistis and asked, “Ready?” “Ready” she nodded and they stepped inside the mansion.

General Caraway’s large private den contemptibly yawned at them. There was no one in the room.

Squall said with a grin, “This is kinda anticlimactic, wouldn’t you say?” Quistis smiled back “Let’s get hunting.”

Squall took one side of the room and Quistis took the other. They looked in all of the obvious places for any information that would help them, such as the General’s desk, and in each and every book on the shelves, but they knew they wouldn’t discover anything valuable there in the way of information, but it had to be done just in case. They had started looking in the less obvious places, such as searching up under furniture to see if anything had been taped there and under the huge planters that held plants when suddenly the door opened. Before Squall or Quistis could make a move, General Caraway walked in! All froze for a moment and then General Caraway reacted. “Hey! How’d you kids get in here?”

Before Squall or Quistis could offer a plausible explanation, General Caraway strode across his den toward Quistis and scrutinized Quistis in her skimpy schoolgirl uniform. “Hey!” he repeated. “I know you!”

Then the General did a passing strange thing. He signaled them to remain silent and he walked behind his desk, bent down and turned on his radio placing the volume near the highest level. Ironically enough, it was Radio Deiling Oldie Hour and they were playing Eyes on You by Julia.

Squall understood immediately and attempted to remember just what he and Quistis had said before the General arrived. Quistis looked questioningly at Squall, who speaking softly explained, “The General is afraid the room is bugged.”

“That’s right,” the General said. “The President is a very paranoid individual and I would put nothing past him. Now what exactly are you doing here?”

Squall decided to trust him, because, if they couldn’t trust him, all was lost anyway.

“We’ve been commissioned by Esthar to locate and identify your President.”

Quistis reacted with a start saying “Squall!” Squall shook his head at her slightly and she stepped back following his lead.

“I can not help you,” the General said. “I will not hinder you, but I can not help you. My position here is tenuous at best and helping you would definitely place me in jeopardy.”

Squall answered “I can readily respect your position, General, but you must know that this is an unjust war, which is a continuation of another unjust war that is hurting a lot of innocent people.”

The General retreated behind his desk and sat down. He looked up; his visage softened considerably as he asked in a low tone of voice “How is Rinoa?”

Squall was finally able to comprehend how much the General loved his daughter. “She’s doing fine, sir.”

“That’s good. You keep her safe.” General Caraway stood up for emphasis. “Here’s the best I can do and I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing it for Rinoa. You can stay here. There are fifty rooms here spread among four floors. You can certainly find a space to hide if need be. If you are captured, I will disavow any knowledge of how you came to be here, but I will also disavow any knowledge of whom you are. I must ask you, though, if you do choose to go out into the city that you use the sewer exit.”

“Certainly, sir” Squall replied.

“And one more thing” the General went on “I have been reassigned to the Grandidi Forest. My orders will come through sometime this week. You have until then and after that you will have to leave here. For God’s sake, keep your eyes and ears open! There are major officers, guards, government officials and high ranking politicians in and out of here all the time.”

“We understand, thank you sir” Squall replied. Quistis nodded. ………………..

A few minutes later, Squall and Quistis were sequestered in a fourth floor room. They had adjoining bedrooms. Squall figured, if for some reason someone was hunting for them it wouldn’t matter what floor they were on, they would be discovered. But as far as someone just stumbling on them by accident, then they would be safest on a higher floor.

Quistis asked “Squall, why do you think he put himself in danger like this, just to help us out?”

“Two reasons, I think” answered Squall. “The first one is I think he is really tired of fighting Galbadia’s constant wars for them and two is his overwhelming love for Rinoa. He knows we all love her too and he wants us to stay alive, so we can continue to look out for her.”

Quistis nodded in understanding. “Squall” she said, “Just before General Caraway came into the room I was looking at his family pictures on his desk and when I picked up the picture of Rinoa this tiny scrap of paper fell out. It looks as though its just gibberish. Do you think it means anything?”

She handed the paper to Squall who read “Kim slag amid Omar onus its oh you our cases day a any 005 pap yam.”

Squall said, “Must be some kinda code. Let me look at this for a minute.”

After a few minutes, Squall looked up and said, “I think I have it.”

Quistis appeared incredulous “You’re kidding!”

“No, I’m serious. Don’t you remember our ciphers class?”

“Well, I guess I do. I used to teach it, no da,” Quistis said pedantically.

“Oh, yeah, I forgot” Squall said with a grin. “Take a look at this. This is one of the easiest codes to break. See if there’s any paper and something to write with in that desk drawer over there.”

Quistis found some paper and a pencil and brought it over to Squall. “Now write this down,” Squall stated. “We’ll go by every third letter,” he instructed. He said “m..a..m..o..r..u..t..h..u..r..s..d..a..y..5..p..m.”

“Okay” Squall asked, “What do you have?”

Quistis spoke excitedly “Mamoru, Thursday, five p.m. My God, you’re brilliant!”

Squall had the decency to blush slightly. “No, I’m not. You taught it to me.”

“Okay, but who’s Mamoru?” Quistis asked.

Squall replied, “If it’s this big a deal, then it must be somebody pretty important. And why would the General keep the note rather than throw it away?”

“I’ve got it!” Quistis stated. “He must have needed to keep it for some kind of proof or verification. We need to return this note right away, so he doesn’t get into any kind of trouble.”

“You’re right, of course,” agreed Squall. “But there’s one thing that bothers me. Why is that name so familiar?”

Quistis looked up and said “The Legendary SeeD.”

“Of course” Squall said. “How can I be so stupid? It was supposed to be the Legendary SeeD’s name.”

The Legendary SeeD was supposed to be the first graduate from Garden eleven years earlier. He was a gunblade specialist and had the greatest fighting skills Cid had ever witnessed, before or after. He disappeared on a mission to Esthar and was never seen as far as anyone knows since. Cid had grieved for years over his disappearance.

Quistis asked “But did he ever really exist or is it just a Garden rumor started by some student?”

Squall answered “Only Cid knows and he never talks about it. I wish we had some way to reach him and find out about this.”

“Oh, well. We’re not going to figure this out right this second. I’m going to lie down for a while and then I’ll sneak down and return this message to the back of the picture. See you later this evening” Squall said leaving the room and entering his bedroom.

“Make sure you knock first before just barging into my bedroom” Quistis called after him. Squall responded by raising his right hand and waving it in a circle. ………………..

Selphie and Rinoa were talking in their room after the dinner hour on the second day Rinoa had attended classes. Selphie was preparing to go out and meet Irvine and Rinoa was preparing for an evening of study. She had already slipped out of her upper-classman uniform and put on some pajamas with pictures of rabbits on them.

Selphie turned to Rinoa and said while dabbing a little bit of perfume behind her ear “Don’t you just love that Akane?”

Rinoa agreed, “Yes, I think she’s very sweet.”

Selphie went on “Well, I told her to drop by this evening before I realized I was going out with Irvine-.”

“Where are you two going, by the way?” Rinoa interrupted.

“Oh, just out to supper in Balamb” Selphie responded rather absently. “Anyway as I was saying, why don’t you spend some time with her? Kinda clue her in.”

Rinoa exclaimed, “I’ll be glad to. We can study together!”

Selphie turned her head quickly to hide her smile. This was a side of Rinoa she had never seen. She was acting like a schoolgirl again.

Selphie turned back to Rinoa. “Well, whatever. I’m outta here,” she said leaving the room.

“Goodbye” Rinoa said to the empty room. Rinoa thought to herself “I never thought I could be this lonely at Garden. I never realized how much I depend on Squall. Well, that’s gonna change.”

A short while later, while Rinoa was reviewing her notes from the Articles of Garden class, a barely audible knock came upon the door.

“That’s probably Akane” Rinoa thought as she padded to the door.

Rinoa opened the door and Akane stood in the doorway.

“Oh” Akane said, her eyes opening wide “What cute jammies!”

Rinoa thought, “Selphie was right. She’s precious.” Rinoa leaned forward and gave Akane a little hug and said, “Come on in.”

After Akane was seated next to her on the bed, Rinoa explained where Selphie was.

“So you’re welcome to stay” invited Rinoa. “You can help me study for my Articles of Garden test that I’m having tomorrow. Plus I can explain anything you want to know about the Garden. I know what you’re going through. When I first arrived I was really overwhelmed, but I had a great guide.”

Rinoa smiled thinking back to Squall’s twenty-five gil tour of the Garden.

“How long have you been here?” Akane asked.

“Oh, about eight months” Rinoa answered, slightly puzzled by Akane’s interest.

Akane wondered “Why are the female bedrooms so much bigger than the male?”

“That’s a good question,” praised Rinoa. “Actually the way I understand it is when the Garden first began there were so many more men than women, it hardly mattered, but now you know there are a lot more women here, but still only about thirty per cent of the students are women, so we get the bigger rooms because we have to have roommates.”

“We’re lucky” Akane added brightly. Rinoa smiled sweetly at her.

After forty-five minutes of Akane quizzing Rinoa on the Articles of Garden from a handout Rinoa received in class, Rinoa sat back on her bed and said “Well, I think that’s enough for now. I’m getting a little tired.”

Akane became flustered. “Oh, do you want me to leave?” She started to get up.

“No, no” Rinoa said emphatically. She thought to herself “Such a sensitive child.”

Akane asked, “Who is this Squall that I keep hearing about?”

Rinoa was partially taken aback, but realized it was a perfectly natural question from any newcomer to the Garden. Certainly she would have heard his name mentioned from any number of people.

Rinoa answered, “He’s second-in-command of the Garden and was instrumental in defeating Sorceress Ultimecia.”

“Is he your boyfriend?” Akane asked.

Rinoa found herself blushing when she answered, “Well, yes. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, I’m sorry” Akane responded in a meek voice. “Did I ask something too personal?”

“No, no!” Rinoa rushed to alleviate Akane’s feelings. “I was just surprised for a moment.” Rinoa thought “Well, it’s natural that she would have heard that too around the Garden and she’s just doing the right thing to check it out.”

“Where is Squall anyway? I heard he’s not here.” Rinoa answered, “He and Quistis are on some kind of mission to Deiling City. I’m not quite sure what it involves.”

“That’s too bad” Akane replied. “I would love to meet him.”

“”He’ll be back soon, hopefully” was Rinoa’s explanation.

“I bet you really miss him,” Akane stated. Rinoa thought “This kid is sharp as a tack and straight to the point.”

Rinoa nodded in the affirmative, not willing to trust her voice, being frightened it might crack. She hadn’t discussed with anyone how badly she missed Squall, because she was afraid she would break down.

Akane, sensing Rinoa’s mood, changed the subject. “Who was that jerk yesterday, anyway?”

Rinoa, distracted by her feelings for a moment, off handedly responded “Oh, that’s Seifer. He used to be a student here. Why do you ask?”

“Because” Akane explained “he used that old line Don’t I know you from somewhere, my dear?” Rinoa and Akane began to giggle and then began to laugh. Rinoa leaned forward and gave Akane another hug. “She’s so precious” Rinoa thought again. ………………..

Selphie and Irvine strolled into the lobby of the Balamb Hotel.

Selphie asked, “Why did you choose this place to eat when there’s that nice place down by the water at the end of the dock?”

Irvine explained, “I heard the weather was going to be a little rough tonight and I thought this would be less dangerous.”

“That’s strange. I didn’t hear anything about that” Selphie replied.

After they were seated at their table and ordered their dinner, Selphie leaned forward and said “Irvy, you should have seen Rinoa when I left the room. She was wearing pajamas with little bunny rabbits on them. And she was waiting for her little friend, Akane, to come visit, so they could study together. It was so sweet.”

Irvine questioned “I wonder if Squall is going to think it’s so sweet when he comes back?”

“Now what’s that supposed to mean, exactly?”

“Selphie” Irvine said distinctly “if you can’t read between the lines, I’m not going to explain it to you.”

Selphie, choosing to ignore that particular line of conversation, changed the subject saying “Isn’t that Akane so cute?”

“Yeah, she’s really sexy” Irvine agreed. When Selphie glared at him, Irvine attempted to correct himself “I mean, for someone who is young, I mean for a fifteen year old little girl.”

Selphie retorted, “Oh, just shut up and eat, Irvine!” as the waiter had just arrived with their food.

After they had finished eating, Irvine pushed himself away from the table and said, “Now that was good!”

“I don’t know, Irvine,” said Selphie shaking her head. “Didn’t you think those clams were a little funny?”

“Yeah, they were a laugh riot” snickered Irvine.

“Oh, very funny. Har! Har! Irvine” snapped Selphie.

“Well, what are we going to do now,” questioned Selphie as they stood up and left the restaurant and entered the lobby area of the hotel.

“I thought we might take a walk down by the beach,” Irvine suggested.

Selphie smiled to herself. “That Irvine” she thought “He never stops trying.”

Just to hassle him, Selphie remarked, “I thought you said there was going to be bad weather.” “I kinda wanted to go to the Balamb Theatre and see that new movie Loveless” Selphie continued. Irvine made a large production out of peering through the huge window behind the hotel reception desk and then spinning around and glancing out of the open hotel doors.

“No” he finally said. “It looks as though those reports were mistaken. But first I have to do something.”

“What’s that?” Selphie queried.

“The last time I stayed overnight at Balamb, I must have lost my grandfather’s heirloom pocket watch. I didn’t realize it until a couple of days later. I haven’t been down here since. I want to go and look for it in room 115.”

“Grandfather’s watch? I don’t remember anything about you having your grandfather’s watch” Selphie said suspiciously.

“Oh, sure” Irvine said blithely. “You’ve seen it a million times and just don’t remember it. It’s a big pocket watch.”

Selphie continued to look dubiously at Irvine. “And when were you here by yourself?”

Irvine glibly explained “I came down to get some supplies for the Garden and a unexpected storm came up leaving me stranded.”

“Hang on a minute, Selphie” said Irvine as he strode up to the reception desk leaving Selphie back by the hotel entrance. Selphie was continuing to appear dubious about this entire scenario.

Irvine positioned himself in such a way that Selphie could not see money exchanging hands between Irvine and the hotel owner’s wife who worked behind the reception desk. Irvine came back with a large smile on his face and a room key held high in his hand.

“I’m in luck! There’s nobody staying in that room today, so I can go search it.” “Coming Selphie?” Irvine asked.

Selphie, who still thought there was some shenanigans going on but realized it would be rude of her and also very boring to not go with him, said “Okay, Irvy.”

Room 115 was on the next floor up from the lobby. Selphie and Irvine walked up the slightly curving staircase and went down a hallway to the left until they were standing in front of the door of room 115.

“We’re here” Irvine said making a large production out of holding up the room key and inserting it into the lock.

Selphie continued to eye Irvine suspiciously.

Irvine opened the door and bowed from the waist. “Mademoiselle” he said indicating that Selphie should go in first. As Selphie crossed the threshold of the room, she said “Irvine! Knock it off. You are so corny.”

Irvine, following Selphie into the room, stopped and stretched his arms straight out. “Whew” he said, “Might as well get comfortable” and took off his long cattleman’s coat and cowboy hat and laid them on the desk against the far wall across from the three beds in the room. He looked expectantly at Selphie who rebuked him saying “Irvine! I hope you don’t think I’m taking my dress off to get comfortable. I’m not wearing a coat in case you haven’t noticed.”

“Aw, Sefie” Irvine said while walking over to the large window at the end of the room. “Sefie, come here and look at this view,” Irvine requested. Selphie walked over to the window. She had to admit that it was a breathtaking view of the mountains that surrounded the town of Balamb under a beautiful starlit night. Irvine slipped his arm around Selphie and bent down and ever so softly began kissing Selphie’s neck. It took Selphie’s breath away. Irvine looked Selphie closely in the face and asked “Sefie?” Selphie cooed “What, Irvy?”

Irvine suddenly reached down and pulled the zipper on the front of her yellow dress all the way down fully exposing her abundant breasts and sheer panties.

Selphie screamed “Irvine!” and began striking him wherever she could reach until she was able to push him away. “I should have known better. Grandfather’s watch! What a crock!”

“I’m going back to the Garden – with or without you!” Selphie said marching out of the hotel room, while readjusting her clothing.

“Sefie, wait up” called Irvine hurriedly retrieving his hat and coat. ………………..

A few hours later, Squall dashed into Quistis’s bedroom out of breath.

“Squall!” “Get out of here! I’m not dressed,” a stark naked Quistis shouted.

Squall, who had his eye pressed up to a crack between the frame and the door that entered the hallway, said urgently “Keep your voice down.”

“Okay” Quistis said in a lower tone. “But you get out of here. I don’t have anything on.”

Squall explained “A few minutes ago, I was down in General Caraway’s office replacing the note behind Rinoa’s picture when suddenly I realized there was a group of soldiers making a room by room sweep of the mansion. I ran straight back here. They’re on the third floor now!”

In her anxiety, Quistis forgot to keep her vagina covered and she moved her right hand up to her mouth as she exclaimed “Oh my God! What are we going to do?”

Squall, who was still looking out of the doorway, explained “You’re not being dressed is a Godsend.”

“Oh, great” Quistis replied. “What do you want me to do? Stand naked in front of the door? Why would that cause them to not check the room? Don’t you think they might find it a bit suspicious?”

“If you would slow down for a minute, I’ll tell you what I’m thinking,” answered Squall.

“Please do,” retorted Quistis.

“When they open the door, just hold that scanty schoolgirl uniform up in front of yourself and go EEK or something. I guarantee you they will become so flustered they’ll leave,” explained Squall.

“Okay” Quistis agreed. “That sounds as if it might work, but where are you going to be?” “Under the bed, of course” said Squall with a grin.

A few moments later, the door opened and three Galbadian soldiers walked in. Quistis let out the loudest shriek possible and held the schoolgirl uniform up in front of her nudity.

“Rape! Rape!” Quistis started shouting.

The Galbadian soldiers immediately started to back up. “We’re sorry, little girl. We didn’t mean to frighten you” one of the solders said as they closed the door.

Squall crawled out from underneath the bed. “Worked like a charm,” he said grinning at her. “That was a nice touch yelling rape like that.”

“Squall!” Quistis said sternly. “I’m still not dressed. At least turn your back or better still go to your room!”

“Yes, instructor” said Squall while he turned around and headed toward his bedroom. The last thing he heard was Quistis snorting “Little girl! I’ll show them their little girl!” ………………..

Around midnight, Squall and Quistis sat quietly talking on her bed when there came a very soft knock on the door. Squall cautioned Quistis to remain still and then he very quietly but quickly covered the area to the door, pressed his face to the door and cracked the door open ever so slightly to see General Caraway standing there holding a tray of hot steaming food. Squall threw the door open quickly as he and Quistis had not eaten since early morning before leaving the youth hostel and that seemed a long time ago.

The General entered the room and Squall shut the door behind him and locked it. Squall liberated the dinner tray from General Caraway and placed it on the bed where he had been sitting by Quistis.

“Thank you very much” Squall said. “It is much appreciated.”

The General nodded. “I assumed that things would still be too hot in the kitchen for you to come down and get your own meal” leading Squall to understand the soldiers were still searching the lower floors. “Oh, by the way” the General said turning toward Quistis and smiling ever so slightly “three soldiers were very upset they had walked in on my niece when she was changing.” Quistis offered a small smile in return. General Caraway turned to Squall and stated “You two did very well to escape that dragnet tonight.”

“What’s going on, General?” Squall asked. “Who are they looking for?”

“They’re looking for you” was the General’s startling reply.

“What?” Quistis was shocked to learn that their cover had apparently been blown so quickly. “They’re looking for us? They’re specifically looking for us?”

“Yes” the General nodded. “They have your names and your descriptions, but they don’t know why you’re here. Your disguise saved you from capture tonight.”

“But how?” Quistis was incredulous. Squall quietly answered, “There must be a spy back at Garden.”

The General nodded approvingly at Squall. “Yes, I believe they’ve planted a mole at your facility.”

“But who?” Quistis rhetorically wondered.

Squall answered, “We have no way of knowing from here. There’s nothing we can do about that until we get back to Garden.”

Squall turned to General Caraway and asked point blank “Who is Mamoru?”

General Caraway remained silent for several minutes as Quistis felt the tension rise palpably in the room. Finally he answered, “You two are very good. But then why should I be surprised considering the things you have accomplished in the past? Okay, you asked me direct. I’ll answer you the same way. He is the President of Galbadia.”

Squall continued probing “How did he accomplish this? Where did he come from? Who is he?”

The General said softly “Slow down, son. I’ll answer all of your questions” and he pulled up a straight back chair and sat down.

Squall continued to stand near the bed. General Caraway said “He appeared in Deiling City about a year and a half ago. I don’t where he came from, but he had a great deal of money and was not averse to throwing it around in the right areas, if you catch my drift.”

“What did he do for a living?” Squall asked.

“No one knows” was the General’s reply. “Squall, please” Quistis said from her seat on the bed, reaching out and placing her hand on Squall’s arm. “Let General Caraway tell it in his own way.”

“He began to become very influential in politics” the General went on. “He didn’t do anything hands on, but he bought others. He bought a lot of others and then moved into the military,” the General said somewhat bitterly. “He had some big-shot politician award him a high commission and he became involved in the war.” “I will say this for him” the General admitted, “He’s a brilliant tactician and he doesn’t know the meaning of fear.” “I don’t know where he received his training, but I know it was someplace good,” General Caraway explained.

Squall thought to himself “I know where he received it and he’s supposed to be the best there ever was.”

“After you defeated Sorceress Adel and destroyed Lunatic Pandora, everything was complete chaos here.” “That’s when he moved in and took over” the General said. “He had enough political power in his back pocket and he had the support of the military.” “What else did he need?” General Caraway asked rhetorically. “Plus he was completely unknown to the general public and he still is to this very day.”

“Why is he coming to see you, General?” asked Quistis.

“I’m not sure” was the General’s response. “I only know it isn’t about my reassignment.”

“General” Squall asked, “Do you know anything about the status of your missile base?”

General Caraway stiffened. The question had obviously struck a nerve. “I know nothing about it,” he said formally. “The new President strictly operates on a need to know basis and I have no jurisdiction in that area.”

General Caraway stood up. “If that’s all of your questions for now, I’d like to retire and I’m sure you’ve had a long day also.”

When the General reached the door he said with a small smile “Make sure you keep this door locked. You don’t want anybody walking in on my niece again.”

Quistis said “Thanks again for the food.”

Squall asked “General, is there a message you’d like us to give Rinoa?”

General Caraway looked sadly at them and replied, “Tell her I love her very much and miss her badly.” “Good night” he said leaving the room.

As Squall was crossing to the door to lock it, Quistis commented, “That’s really sad.”

“Hey Squall, did you notice he called you son?” “I think he was giving his consent for you to marry Rinoa” teased Quistis.

Squall blushed and said, “It’s just an expression, damn it!”

“Ooh, touchy” Quistis laughed.

Squall returned to the bed, where Quistis was already digging into the food.

“I wonder why the President is visiting General Caraway” Quistis said.

“I don’t know” said Squall stuffing food into his mouth “But I do know when he gets here tomorrow, I’m gonna be in that room somehow. I want to see what this guy looks like!” ………………..

Selphie, Zell, Akane, the pigtail girl, Irvine and Rinoa were seated around an early morning table in the coffee shop.

Selphie was talking about the new Garden Festival she was planning. “It’s going to be the bomb!” Selphie said. “What about you, Akane? Are you going to help us?”

“Oh, sure” Akane said excitedly. “I’d love to, but what do you have planned?”

Zell spoke up “She’s probably going to try and make us play music again.”

Selphie fought back “Cut me some slack, Zell. You loved it!”

The pigtail girl leaned over, gave Zell a peck on the cheek, stood up and said, “I have to get to class.”

As she walked away, Zell shouted out “Have a good day, Na-.”

“Rinoa!” Selphie exclaimed in a loud tone drowning out Zell. Rinoa’s head snapped up. She had been nodding over her notes on the Articles of Garden.

Selphie said, “I see someone went to cram school last night. Which course is the test in?”

When Rinoa responded it was an Articles of Garden test, everyone except Irvine and Akane began groaning, each of them remembering how difficult the class had been and what a backbreaker the tests were.

Zell advised, “You should let it go now. Don’t study up ‘til the last second. You’ll end up just psyching yourself out. If you don’t know it by now, chances are fifteen to twenty more minutes of cramming isn’t going to help a bit.”

Selphie agreed “Zell’s right. It’s time to just let it go and do the best you can.”

Rinoa, deciding their feedback was sound, closed her notebook and said, “Thank you everybody. It’s just so hard. I haven’t been in school for four years. Actually I wasn’t in school then either. That man always had tutors for me. It was really easy.” Zell changed the subject saying, “Can anybody help me today? I need to go down to Balamb in one of the trucks to pick up some supplies.”

Selphie and Irvine both knew that Zell always volunteered for this duty because he liked to spend a couple of hours with his family before returning and it became very boring quickly for anyone who traveled with him. They quickly thought of excuses for why they couldn’t go.

“What about you, Rinoa? Could you go with me?” Zell asked.

“Me?” asked Rinoa, feeling secretly flattered that somebody had asked her for assistance. “Sure, I can go, but you’ll have to wait until I get out of my Articles of Garden class.”

“Hey, no prob!” exclaimed Zell. ………………..

When Cid entered his office, he was surprised to see Xu leaning over Fujin, who was sitting at his secretary’s desk. Xu looked up and greeted him “Good Morning, Cid.” Fujin echoed “MORNING.”

Cid asked, “What’s going on here? Where’s Catherine?”

Xu asked him “Don’t you mean Pamela?”

“Uh, right,” admitted Cid “That’s what I meant.”

Xu explained, “Pamela was assigned to different duties. Fujin is going to be your new secretary. You’re okay with that, aren’t you?”

Cid, who appeared more than a little perplexed, answered, “Of course I am.”

At the end of a rather uneventful morning staff meeting, Cid stood and asked “Have we heard anything from Squall and Quistis?”

When Xu answered in the negative, Cid looked vaguely disturbed and said wistfully “I hope they’re alright.”

“I’m sure they are, Cid” Xu said emphatically. “You couldn’t have sent anyone better equipped to do the job.”

“I hope you’re right” Cid replied.

“Well, if you’ll excuse me” Xu said while offering a slight bow “I have the rest of my duties to attend to” and then left the office heading toward the elevator. ………………..

Quistis was in the bathroom completing her morning grooming, while Squall sat on her bed waiting impatiently for her to finish.

“What’s our first move today?” Quistis asked through the bathroom door.

“Getting you out of the bathroom” Squall muttered.

“What?” Quistis asked. “I can’t hear you. You need to speak up.”

“I said getting something to eat” lied Squall.

Quistis said from the bathroom “I was thinking more in terms of our mission, Squall.”

The bathroom door opened and Quistis exited wearing her schoolgirl uniform.

“Good Morning, little schoolgirl!” Squall said. “Can I come home with you?”

“Stop it!” Quistis demanded. “Will you get serious? And anyway, I suppose you think your outfit looks attractive.”

Squall grinned and then replied seriously “We need to discover a method to get word back to the Garden about everything – the probability of a spy, the new Galbadian front being formed in the Grandidi Forest, who the President is, and the possibility of his being the Legendary SeeD. Only Cid will know for certain, if it could be true. I wish I already knew what he looked like.”

Quistis asked “I suppose attempting to get back to the Garden with the information ourselves is out of the question?”

Squall agreed “Very much out of the question! They’re looking for us. If we try to leave now, we’ll be under much closer scrutiny than when we arrived. We’re just going to have to lay low until this thing blows over a little.” ………………..

Squall and Quistis were standing by the hidden entry to the sewers in General Caraway’s den after literally creeping down from the bedrooms. Quistis said, “That was certainly nerve wracking, but we didn’t see a soul.”

Squall joked, “Maybe it’s maid’s day off.” Quistis pushed him. “Will you please get serious!”

“Okay” he said “But try to not be daydreaming this time through the sewers.” It was Quistis’s turn to feel chagrined. “Okay” she said tersely.

An hour later they emerged from the sewers and were back up in Deiling City.

“Thank God” exclaimed Quistis. “I get so sick of that stench down there.”

“Well, you better get used to it, if you don’t want to stay home a lot” replied Squall. Quistis asked “Which way?” Squall pointed to the street that would eventually take them through the park. They walked briskly and attempted to do nothing that might attract attention. As they walked along the path through the city park, Quistis suddenly exclaimed, “Squall, look!”

Squall turned his head and peered into the park in the direction that Quistis was gazing. He observed a young woman sitting under a large bush gently weeping. Squall looked at Quistis with an expression of puzzlement on his face that appeared to ask so what?

Quistis explained simply “It’s Kasumi.”

“Kasumi!” Squall thought, “What in the hell is Kasumi doing here?”

Squall suggested, thinking rapidly “Quistis, we need to get her out of the public eye as quickly as possible. You go over there and attempt to scoop her up and calm her down a little. I’ll walk up about a block ahead, so I can keep my eye on you two. When she appears as if she can start moving without attracting attention, walk her down and we’ll meet at the doorway leading back to the sewers.”

“Good plan, Squall” Quistis complimented and turned and headed toward Kasumi.

Squall walked down the path until he was far enough away to just barely distinguish them and paused. He knelt down by his guitar case and opened it up, so he could keep a closer eye on the entire perimeter in case any Galbadian soldiers or Secret Police suddenly arrived in the area. He was gratified to observe Quistis didn’t waste any time in assisting Kasumi up on her feet and moving towards him. Squall closed up his guitar case and walked ahead of them down to the sewer entrance.

Kasumi and Quistis came walking up. “Squall” Kasumi said.

Squall shook his head sharply and whispered “Not here” and pointed through the door.

Once they were downstairs in the sewers, Squall breathed a sigh of relief and said to Kasumi “Now you can talk. What are you doing here?”

Squall could perceive from her appearance she was close to the breaking point and recognized he needed to be gentle with her in order to not push her over the line.

Kasumi sniffed back a couple of tears, appeared to draw on some inner strength and launched into her explanation.

“Brian, Shinji, Mishima and myself were assigned to basically infiltrate Timber and Dollet and attempt to consolidate resistance to the Galbadian Army. When we initially entered Timber, we were in contact with Watts and Zone. At that point, it was decided that Shinji and myself should move on to Dollet. Everything appeared to be going well. Dollet was calm and we were able to meet some resistance people and do some networking.”

Squall grimaced. He hated these new jargon code words.

Kasumi continued, “We were foolish. It appeared so peaceful we were staying in town – in the hotel. We should have been camped out somewhere in the forest. One night around midnight the Galbadian Secret Police made a sweep through town. When they got to the hotel we were trapped. There was no back way out. We attempted to escape. There was gunfire. I saw Shinji fall. I don’t know if he was hit. I attempted to get back to him. I would have been captured myself. I had to run. The next day Dollet was sealed up tighter than a drum. Either everyone was in hiding or they wouldn’t talk to me. I myself had to go down to the beach and swim down the coast to escape.”

Quistis questioned, “So you have no idea what happened to Shinji?”

Kasumi looked up, shook her head no, while tears silently started falling from her eyes.

Squall suddenly remembered that back at the Garden Kasumi and Shinji were a couple. “No wonder she feels so guilty” Squall thought. “They were staying at the hotel in Dollet playing house.”

Squall glared at Quistis for interrupting Kasumi and encouraged Kasumi “Go on when you think you can.”

After a minute or two, Kasumi pulled herself together and began again “I managed to get back to Timber. But I couldn’t find anybody! No one at all – not even Zone or Watts. I talked to that Forest Fox lady and she said she didn’t know anything except two days previously the Galbadian Secret Police made a sweep through town and arrested a lot of people. She was kind enough to let me rest for a few hours, but after that she said I had to leave because she was too hot herself. She was afraid they were going to come to her house anytime and I would be captured along with them.”

Kasumi paused for a moment and then began again “I didn’t know what to do. I could have returned to Balamb, but what good would that have done? I couldn’t return without knowing what had happened to everyone and without accomplishing my mission.”

Squall nodded approvingly.

Kasumi went on “I managed to get up here to Deiling City. I thought maybe I’d find one of them or at least I could learn something about where they were or what happened to them. But I ran out of money yesterday and I’m so hungry and I have no where to stay.”

Kasumi began quietly sobbing. Quistis reached over with her right hand and squeezed one of Kasumi’s arms and said quietly “It’ll be alright now, Kasumi. You’re among friends.”

Squall realized instinctively it was time to instill some backbone into this capable young woman. “Kasumi!” he said sharply as Kasumi looked up and Quistis gasped moving her right hand to her mouth.

“I’m sorry” Squall went on “that you were too busy playing house with Shinji in that hotel to pay attention to your assignment. I’m sorry that it might have cost him his life, but it’s time for you to fight back. You’re a SeeD! Act like one!”

Kasumi instantly snapped to attention, her tears dried up and she offered Squall the SeeD salute.

As Squall returned it, he said in a softer voice “That’s better. Now we will get you to a place to grab some sleep and some food to eat. Then you’re going to take some critical information pertaining to our mission back to Garden for us. Once you’re back there, they’ll decide how they want to handle finding your lost comrades.”

“Yes, sir!” Kasumi answered emphatically.

“Now let’s go” Squall said while turning his head towards Quistis and giving a quick wink. The trip back to the General’s mansion was uneventful consisting of a few battles with bats. Because of her weakened condition, Kasumi was unable to add much in the area of fighting, although she was able to keep everyone healed.

When they stepped into General Caraway’s den through the hidden door, the General looked up from his chair at his desk. “Ah” he said “I see my niece has brought a friend home with her.”

Standing up the General explained “Excuse me while I go to the kitchen” and bowed slightly and left the room. Squall understood the General was going to bring them food.

They hadn’t been in Quistis’s room very long at all, when a soft knock came upon the door. When Squall cracked the door open and looked out, he saw three trays of food lying on the floor.

After they had eaten, Kasumi curled up and fell instantly asleep on Quistis’s bed. Squall and Quistis quietly left the room and entered Squall’s bedroom, but left the adjoining door open so they could be aware of anything that occurred in the next room.

As they sat down together on the side of Squall’s bed, Quistis said, “When you started going off on Kasumi I thought what a jerk! But then I realized I was giving her what she wanted. You gave her what she needed! You were magnificent, Squall.”

Squall ducked his head with a grin. “Oh, go on with you now” he joked.

“No, I mean it Squall!” insisted Quistis.

Squall looked up. “Arigato” he said. ………………..

Xu was in the middle of the daily dormitory inspection when she reached Seifer’s room. She took a deep breath and stepped inside. “Well” boomed out Seifer’s voice “If it isn’t my dear Xu. Have you come to threaten me or just lock me in the disciplinary room?” Seifer was seated on his bed with his back to the wall, wearing his same duster coat, with his legs and feet stretched out over the seat of a straight back chair and holding his gunblade up by his right shoulder.

“Seifer!” Xu exclaimed loudly noticing that Seifer had stiffened just a little at the sound of her voice. “I have come to talk.” “May I sit down?” she asked.

“Please do,” responded Seifer sarcastically removing his feet from the chair and putting them down on the floor, while sitting up from his slouching position.

Xu sat down. “Thank you.” “Seifer” Xu went on “I have come to ask for your forgiveness.” Seifer appeared extremely perplexed and at a loss for words. Seifer realized when he returned to Garden that he eventually was going to encounter Xu and he had his verbal attack prepared. This was totally confusing him. Xu inwardly smiled. She recognized this approach would throw Seifer off his guard.

“Forgive you for what?” Seifer finally blurted out.

Xu explained “A good teacher, instructor, administrator – whatever you want to call it – would have attempted to draw you out, win your trust in an attempt to help you. I never did any of those things. When you failed, I blamed you instead of looking at how I failed you. Will you forgive me?”

Seifer still appeared totally confused. “Uh, sure” he said. “I forgive you.”

Xu stood up. “Good, that’s settled. Now you make sure you come to me, if you’re experiencing any problems at all – Raijin and Fujin too. Do you promise?”

“Uh, sure” said Seifer.

Xu smiled to herself when leaving the room. Wait ‘til she tells the doctor this one she thought. ………………..

Rinoa met Zell in the parking garage in the afternoon and they set out for Balamb in a Garden truck with Zell driving; a little haphazardly by Rinoa’s thinking, but they arrived there safely. Pulling into Balamb, Zell explained, “We have to load all the cases into the back of the truck. This is a monthly order, so the shop will have everything ready for us.” It took them about an hour to load the truck and once they were finished, Zell looked at Rinoa, who was sweating profusely. “Man, you look zonked” Zell said.

Rinoa agreed, “I feel zonked.” Rinoa realized she was really feeling the effects of remaining up all night studying.

Zell informed her “I’m going to visit my parents for a little while. Do you want to come along?” Zell felt relieved when Rinoa declined the invitation. His friends were usually quite bored, if they went along with him.

Rinoa explained, “I’m going to crawl into the back of the truck and get a little sleep.”

Zell exclaimed “Hey, no prob! Catch you later” and ran off down the street toward his parents’ house.

Rinoa opened the back door of the truck and climbed in, shutting the door behind her. “Whew” she thought “It’s so hot in here. I’ll never be able to sleep in here.” Against her better judgment, Rinoa decided to remove her clothing in order to feel a little more comfortable. She folded it all neatly and placed it in the corner of the truck. Rinoa laid down and fell asleep immediately.

Two hours later, Zell emerged from his parents’ house and returned to the truck. He climbed into the cab and glanced into the back of the truck. Rinoa was lying sideways against the supplies and Zell could only distinguish her head and shoes. “Still sleeping” Zell thought. “Poor kid. I’ll let her sleep until we get back to Garden.”

The next thing Rinoa realized Zell was opening the back door of the truck and a group of upper-classmen, including Akane, was standing there to help unload the truck. Someone reached out with a hand to help her down, so they could unload the truck. Still groggy from sleep, Rinoa automatically accepted the hand and stepped down from the truck stark naked, her entire body glistening with perspiration. Someone in the crowd gasped when they caught a glimpse of Rinoa and a male upper-classman wolf whistled. A look of total shock and disgust crossed Akane’s face that she was quick to hide.

When Rinoa finally woke up enough to glance around and then down at her total nudity, she screamed “Oh my God!” This brought the situation to Zell’s attention who quickly handed Rinoa her uniform, who wrapped it around herself and ran down the corridor.

When the unloading was completed and practically everyone had left, Akane turned to Zell, smiled sweetly and asked “Rinoa is General Caraway’s daughter, isn’t she?”

Zell, caught off guard, answered slowly “Why, yes she is, but where did you hear that?”

“Oh, somewhere around the Garden” she answered blithely. ………………..

It was mid-afternoon by the time Kasumi woke up. Squall had already gone down to the kitchen and brought up an early dinner and, as soon as Kasumi had eaten, they schooled her in the information they needed her to take back to Garden. Squall wisely decided that she should carry nothing written regarding this information in case the Galbadian Army or Secret Police stopped her.

Squall explained, “Here’s more than enough money for you to get back. It will pay for several days of meals and lodging, plus I want you to rent a car here in Deiling City. Forget trying to use the trains. They’re watching them too closely. Make sure to use your false I.D. when you rent the car. If they insist on a deposit, pay it without a murmur. At all costs, you want to get out of Deiling City, because I think things are going to get worse before they get better. Take the train from Timber if you can. If you absolutely can’t risk the Timber train, go over to Dollet again. There are a number of smugglers in Dollet. For enough money, they’ll take you anywhere. You have to get to Balamb! If the Garden is not there, you are to go to Balamb City. You look up Zell’s mom and tell her who you are. She’ll hide you until the Garden comes back. Don’t stay at the hotel, even if you still have money left. We have no idea when the Galbadian Army might show back up there. Is all of that understood?”

Kasumi hopped up from her chair, stood at attention and snapped up the SeeD salute. Squall returned it and said “At ease.”

Squall explained in a softer tone “I’m not going to wish you luck, because you’re not going to need it. People who need luck are incompetent and doomed to failure, because one day their luck runs out. You are a young, capable, strong SeeD backed by the finest training in the world.”

Squall reached out and shook her hand. “Thank you, sir” she responded.

Once they were safely out of the sewers and back to Deiling City proper, Squall and Quistis saw Kasumi safely out of town by following her at a discreet distance to the Rent-A-Car business.

As she drove the car past the city limits, Quistis turned to Squall and said “I hope she makes it okay.”

“She’ll make it” Squall stated without equivocation.

“Thanks to you, Squall” Quistis said softly.

“Stop it! You’re embarrassing me, Quistis.”

Quistis turned and looked at him thinking not for the first time “Rinoa certainly is a lucky young woman to have the love of this man.”

Quistis snapped herself out of her reverie and asked “What now, Squall?”

Squall answered, “Now we have to put our heads together and figure out where in the mansion the General will be meeting the President!” ………………..

Squall and Quistis discussed the possible meeting place of the President and General Caraway on their return through the sewers. As Squall stepped back into the General’s den, he wasn’t surprised to see General Caraway absent. He realized the General wouldn’t want to be questioned as to where in the mansion the meeting would take place. Squall understood that if the General chose to tell him, it would place General Caraway in grave danger.

As they entered into Quistis’s room, Squall said “I think I know where they’re gonna meet.”

Quistis protested “So don’t keep me in suspense.”

Squall crossed the room, sat on her bed and began talking “We’ve been wracking our brains trying to come up with the place that fits the following criteria – safe from the outside means no windows, doorways easy to block and a central place to whisk the President in and out from, right?”

Quistis nodded her head.

Squall said “The front foyer!”

Quistis replied, “You’re right. They can bring him right in the front door. There’ll be guards on the front door, guards on the back door, it’s a big open room with no place to hide, no windows to the outside and ground level for easy access.”

They sat in silence for a moment and then Quistis asked “But how are we going to get into the meeting and hear what they say?”

“Oh, that’s easy” Squall said glibly. “We’re not.”

Quistis appeared completely baffled. “What are you saying, Squall? Are we giving up?”

“No, of course not” he replied. “But we have to face the reality of the situation also. The President’s tantamount concern is remaining incognito to the general public. I want to see who he is. Of course, I would like to know what they talk about, but that’s not possible. And anyway the General might tell us.”

“So what you’re saying is that we need to see if he looks anything like the picture of the Legendary SeeD!” Quistis said excitedly.

“That’s right” Squall agreed.

“But how are we going to do that, Squall?”

“We’re not, you are” Squall answered. Perceiving the puzzled look on Quistis’s face, he pushed on, “We’ll already be in the house. You come down the staircase, as if you’re going out. You stop in surprise as you notice what’s going on. Don’t worry. The General will have to cover for you. He won’t want to incriminate himself. You bow greatly and excuse yourself running back up the stairs.”

Quistis exclaimed, “Squall! That might work.”

“Of course it will” he replied. “But Quistis, one thing” he went on “make sure you carry your backpack in front of your breasts. They’re way too large for a schoolgirl.”

Squall turned his head, so he wouldn’t see Quistis blushing. ………………..

Squall was waiting in Quistis’s bedroom in the huge walk-in closet. He had decided hiding under the bed would afford him little opportunity to launch an attack if he was discovered. He stood patiently in the closet holding ‘Lion Heart’ in his right hand not making a sound, except for quiet breathing, when his thoughts drifted back to Garden and Rinoa. He hoped she was doing all right without him. He felt so sorry for her sometimes. She wanted so badly to fit in and seemed to always get herself in such terrible situations. He shook his head, impatient with himself. He needed to stay alert. It wouldn’t do at all if a Galbadian soldier suddenly pulled the door open and he was in here daydreaming!

Suddenly Squall heard the bedroom door open and shut quietly. He waited apprehensively until he heard “Squall?”

He opened the door and stepped out. Quistis was standing in the center of the room looking around.

“Well?” he asked her.

“Worked like a charm!” was the answer from Quistis. “And Squall?” “It was him!” “It was the Legendary SeeD” Quistis exclaimed excitedly. “He was a little older looking, but it was definitely him.”

Squall made no comment other than to say, “Now we wait.” ………………..

Zell, Selphie, Irvine and the pigtail girl were sitting around a table in the coffee shop just before dinner hour later that afternoon.

Irvine asked, “Did you hear about Rinoa’s latest escapade?”

Selphie responded tartly “You’re more than a little late, Irvine. Zell was there!”

Irvine glanced at Zell “Aw, man. You’re so lucky!”

Selphie glared at Irvine “Irvine!” He sat back in his chair.

“It would seem to me” Selphie went on “that the longer Squall is gone, the more these episodes will occur, because Rinoa, feeling inadequate, will need to continue to check out if men find her attractive.”

“Aw, Selphie” Zell complained. “Where do you come up with this crap?”

“Oh, I just make it up as I go along.”

“Come on, let’s go eat” said Irvine, pushing back from the table and standing up. ………………..

Xu was in her now customary seat on the stool in front of the doctor’s desk. Doctor Kadowaki was laughing uproariously. “Did you really say that, Xu?” the doctor asked.

“I swear to God!” Xu responded holding her right hand up. “And you know, doc” Xu went on “You were right. By actually saying those things, it turned out I meant some of them. I probably didn’t do right by Seifer all the time. There were times I should have backed down, but I let myself become involved in an ego struggle with him. But he was just a student – I was one of his commanders. Of course, I was always going to win. But what exactly did I win? So, all I’ve got to say to you is thank you.”

Doctor Kadowaki said seriously “You’re welcome, Xu.” Standing up from her desk, the doctor said, “Let’s go eat.” ………………..

Akane was sitting beside Rinoa on Rinoa’s bed literally holding her hand. “Oh, that must have been horribly embarrassing for you” Akane cooed. “I felt so sorry for you and I just wanted to slap all those horrible people, who kept looking and didn’t have the decency to turn their heads away.”

Akane went on “It was a natural mistake that anybody could have made. I don’t why everybody is so hard on you. You’ve been wonderful to me.”

Rinoa realized this young girl was actually helping her to feel better. She supposed presently she was so hungry for any kind of support it didn’t matter where it came from, but she didn’t care. She was just grateful for what Akane was saying.

Rinoa squeezed Akane’s hand and said, “Thank you so much, Akane. I really appreciate your friendship.”

“By the way” Akane asked off handedly “has anybody heard anything from Squall on how he’s doing in Deiling City?”

Rinoa felt an instant pang at the sound of Squall’s name. She forced herself to maintain an even tone when she replied “No, not a word. But I’m sure he’ll be back anytime.”

“Oh, good” Akane smiled. “I really want to meet him.”

As they stood up and started out the door, Akane asked in an innocent voice “Rinoa, shouldn’t you put some clothes on before we go out?”

“What!” Rinoa shouted quickly glancing down at herself. When she saw she was attired in her uniform, she heard Akane laughing. Akane said through her giggles “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t help myself.” Rinoa looked up and smiled weakly. ………………..

Cid stood up from his desk and said “Fujin, you may go to dinner now.”

Fujin stood up from her desk and said, “OKAY.”

Cid walked over to Fujin and said, “I want to tell you that you’re doing a fine job.”

Fujin said, “THANKS.”

Cid went on “And I wanted to thank you for the way you’ve been helping Raijin adjust to the Garden.”

Fujin said, “WELCOME.”

“Well, see you tomorrow,” Cid said while walking her to the elevator and helping her on it.

When Fujin stepped off the elevator on the first floor, Raijin was pacing back and forth in front of it.

Fujin said, “RAGE!” Raijin looked up from his pacing. “At last you’re here. It’s dinnertime, no da. I’m starving, no da.”

Fujin said, “GO!” They began walking down the staircase.

Raijin asked as he and Fujin reached the first floor and began walking toward the cafeteria corridor “What’s it like working for Cid? Is it weird, no da?”

Fujin agreed “WEIRD” as they began walking down the corridor toward the cafeteria.

Raijin continued “And what’s with Seifer? He’s acting strange, no da. He actually went to class this afternoon, no da.”

Fujin replied “BIZZARE.”

Raijin and Fujin entered the cafeteria and joined the line of people waiting to be served. ………………..

Several hours later, Squall and Quistis were curled up sleeping on the opposite ends of Quistis’s bed. They had decided that they might have to leave Deiling City suddenly so they should acquire some sleep, just in case.

The moment the gentle knock touched the door, Squall was instantly awake. He touched Quistis waking her up and motioned for her to remain silent. He quickly crossed the room on cat-like feet not making a sound. Squall cracked the door open to see General Caraway waiting in the hall. He pulled the door open so the General could enter.

The General stepped into the center of the room and said, “Well, my niece keeps appearing in the oddest places.”

“Sorry, General” Squall apologized “But it was of the utmost importance to us that we identified the President.”

General Caraway replied “And now I suppose you know who he is?”

“Yes, we do” Squall answered. “Squall!” Quistis protested.

Squall made a shooing motion with his hand. He turned to Quistis and explained, “The General has been honest with us. We are going to be honest with him. General, you might want to sit down. This may take a little while.”

As General Caraway sat in the one chair in the room, Squall paced while he told him the story of the Legendary SeeD. After Squall was finished, the General asked “And you’re absolutely positive that this is the same man?”

“Without a doubt” Quistis responded.

The General stroked his chin and said thoughtfully “Well, that would explain a great deal. I told you his battle tactics and fighting skills are second to none. I wonder where he’s been all these years? I would like to thank you for sharing this information with me. Anything that affords me an edge with this man might save me in the long run.”

Squall asked “General, is there anything you can tell us concerning the conversation you had with the President?”

General Caraway stood up. “I can only say it was about the Missile Base. Apparently my need to know was upgraded.” The General took a step toward Squall and held his hand out to Squall, who shook it. “Now I must not only bid you good night, but also goodbye because I’m off tomorrow on my reassignment. Please take care of Rinoa.”

Quistis said “Of course! And thank you for everything.”

Squall asked, “General, have you ever considered defecting?”

General Caraway appeared puzzled. “To Esthar, no.”

Squall said “Not to Esthar. To us! We could certainly use your strength, intelligence and experience.”

General Caraway slightly cocked his head. “I’ll keep it in mind, son. Keep safe, the two of you.” With that General Caraway turned and left the room shutting the door behind him. Squall immediately crossed the room and locked the door. Squall turned and looked at Quistis. “Well?”

Quistis commented, “It’s too bad he couldn’t tell us where the Missile Base is.”

“Ah, but he did” Squall insisted. “Do you remember the first day we were here and he told us he was going to be reassigned to the Grandidi Forest?”

Quistis nodded and then a light of comprehension entered her eyes. “And he just said that his need to know had just been upgraded.” “Squall, that means,” she said excitedly “that the Missile Base -.”

“Is somewhere around Trabia” Squall said finishing her thought.

Quistis worried “Oh, I hope we can get word to Trabia Garden in time before they just stumble into it.”

Squall echoed, “Let’s hope so.” ………………..

After sleeping for three more hours in their respective bedrooms, Squall and Quistis reconvened in her room to discuss their escape plans. Quistis asked as per usual “Any ideas, Squall?”

“Yes” he said “But you’re not going to like them.”

Quistis interjected “I always hate it when you say that.”

Squall continued, “We should separate. You should leave on the-.”

“No, Squall!” Quistis interrupted.

“Let me finish” Squall insisted. “They’re looking for me and you, Quistis. In other words, a young man and a young woman traveling together, they will not be expecting us to separate therefore we separate. You will take the train. I don’t foresee any way that someone is going to interfere with a schoolgirl on her way to East Academy.”

Quistis said puzzled “East Academy?”

“Yes, East Academy” Squall repeated patiently. “At some point after we’re gone, they’re going to figure out that we left. Do you think they’re just going to let us walk away? No, I don’t. I think they’ll start running sweeps everywhere. If we’re stranded in Timber or Dollet, we’ll be sitting ducks. East Academy is considered an open city despite being presently under Galbadian control. There is a major university there. We will have no problem fitting in and, in case of trouble, there are a number of escape routes out of the city.”

“Okay, Squall. You’ve convinced me. If I’m taking the train and by the way where I am taking the train to? There is no train to East Academy from here.”

Squall answered “You’re taking the train to the Monterosa Plateau in West Galbadia. I will meet you there. I’m renting a car and driving over to the Vaulny Canyon Forest that we passed through on our way to the Galbadian Garden.”

“Squall” Quistis warned, “that forest can be very dangerous for just one person to try to pass through.”

“No worries, mate” Squall quipped with a grin “I think Mr. Diablos and Mr. Bahamut will have something to say about it.”

Quistis stated, “You’ve gotten it all worked out again, Squall. I’m beginning to think you’re the one who should have been the instructor.”

“Yeah, right” said Squall ducking his head. ………………..

Squall and Quistis emerged from the door leading outside to the streets of Deiling City after coming up the ladder from the sewers. It was early morning and would still be dark for several hours.

Quistis turned to Squall and said, “Under the cover of the night, eh Squall?”

Squall grinned and replied “That’s right, Quisty. Let’s go.”

Squall walked her down to near the train station and then stood across the street and watched her walk up the long staircase leading to the train station. He hoped everything went well for her. After she disappeared from view, he walked down the street toward the Rent-A-Car business on the outskirts of Deiling City.

Squall hadn’t informed Quistis of his concern that possibly the Galbadian Government would have temporarily closed down the rental car business, because he didn’t want to cause her needless worry. He had worked out a contingency plan of his own that involved his also taking the train, but an hour later after Quistis boarded. So he was relieved when he saw the bright lights of the Rent-A-Car sign. He rented the car without any difficulty, using his false I.D. and had to place a large deposit down on the car, which he did gladly. By the time he turned the car’s headlights on high and roared down the main thoroughfare out of town, he was glad he was putting the lights of Deiling City behind him. ………………..

Quistis waited in the ticket line, bought her ticket for West Galbadia using her false I.D. and now stood in the boarding line without incident. Blushing slightly from remembering Squall’s directive, she removed her backpack from her back and held it with her arms in front of her chest.

She surreptitiously took small glances at her surroundings seeing many Galbadian soldiers around each of the boarding gates and a number of official appearing men, who were not wearing uniforms, that were probably members of the Galbadian Secret Police.

Squall was right again, Quistis realized. If they had stood here together – disguises or not – they would have been pulled out of line, interrogated somewhere and probably discovered.

The train Quistis was waiting for finally pulled into the station and the boarding line began to move. As Quistis neared the front of the line she noted, with mounting terror, that the Galbadian solder, next to the ticket-taking conductor, was going through people’s bags and suitcases before allowing them to board. If she had to open her backpack and display ‘Save the Queen’, she was as good as arrested!

As the line continued to move, Quistis quickly formulated a plan in which she would cause her short skirt to plummet to the ground hoping to cause enough confusion after to avoid having to open her backpack. She made her preparations accordingly. When Quistis finally reached the front of the line and handed the conductor her ticket with her right hand, the Galbadian soldier stepped forward and ordered, “Open that backpack.” Quistis was holding her backpack in her left hand and, as she lowered it to the ground, she pulled her belt, which she had already unbuckled, through her schoolgirl uniform’s skirt belt loops causing the skirt to plunge to the ground. Unfortunately her plan went slightly awry as the weight of her skirt and belt caused her sheer panties to also plummet to the ground leaving her naked from the waist down!

Shocked and panicked, Quistis attempted to shield the lower half of her body as best she could, but somehow managed to remain in her role as she shrieked in a high pitched voice “Oh! You yucky pervert!” “You didn’t say anything about a strip search. What could I possibly be hiding under my skirt and panties?” Heads were turning towards her from all around the train station. The Galbadian soldier backed up in confusion with his arms held straight out from his body as if to prove he hadn’t touched her.

The conductor handed Quistis her now punched ticket and false I.D., noted with a slight smirk her most secret spot and bare legs and said, “You may pass.”

Later sitting in the back of the day coach in a mostly empty car, because traffic to West Galbadia was never heavy during the week, Quistis breathed a sigh of relief. Her plan had worked! But she sincerely hoped that Squall never heard about this. ………………..

As Cid sat down at his desk with his first cup of coffee of the morning, he couldn’t help but notice that Fujin was already at her desk.

He greeted her “Good Morning, Fujin.”

“MORNING” she echoed.

Cid further went on “You don’t have to be at your desk for another hour when our morning staff meeting begins.”

“REALIZE,” explained Fujin.

“Then why are you here?” Cid couldn’t help but ask.

“LIKE,” said Fujin nodding at him.

Cid slightly grinned to himself and nodded back.

Suddenly Xu burst out of the elevator excitedly and headed toward Cid, but stopped when she realized Fujin was sitting at her desk. “Fujin?” she asked “Why are you here so early?”

Cid interrupted “We’ve already been through that, Xu.”

Xu brought her attention back to Cid and said in a more controlled manner than when she first burst into the room “Kasumi’s back from Deiling City with some messages from Squall and Quistis. Should I bring her up?”

Cid directed “Make it so” with an impish grin.

As soon as Xu stepped off the elevator with Kasumi, Cid stood up and said, “Welcome back, Kasumi. Come sit down at the table.” After everybody, including Fujin, was seated at the table, Kasumi began to relate the occurrences she had experienced since leaving the Garden on her initial assignment. It took her the better part of an hour to recount the entire episode.

When she was finished, Cid exclaimed “Wow! That’s a lot to chew on.” “So they really think it might be Mamoru?”

“Who?” Kasumi asked.

“The Legendary SeeD” Cid explained, “That’s his name.” Cid nodded toward Xu “Do you have any questions for Kasumi? No, all right. Kasumi, you can be excused for right now. Go get some breakfast and a hot shower. Go see your friends and, when we know exactly how we’re going to proceed, we’ll page you over the intercom, okay?”

Cid added “And Kasumi” as Kasumi stood up from the table to leave, “You did very well making it back here. We’re all very proud of you.”

Tears began to form in Kasumi’s eyes and she ducked her head quickly and mumbled “Thank you.”

After Kasumi had gotten on the elevator, Cid turned to Xu and Fujin and asked, “What are we going to do?”

Xu suggested, “Maybe we should try to approach this in a logical order. First of all, I think we should send Selphie and Zell immediately to Esthar on the Ragnarok and deliver Squall’s message to Laguna. We’ll tell them to return immediately, because they’ll probably be needed in other areas. We’ll need to decide if we’re going to risk compromising Squall and Quistis’s position in Deiling City by going in with the Ragnarok and attempting to help them escape or if we should leave it to them to escape themselves, because it sounds as if, presently, Deiling City is shut down tight searching for them.”

Xu went on “Now as far as this thing concerning there being a Galbadian spy in the Garden, this needs to stay in this room until we decide the proper way to approach it.” Xu finished the statement by staring at Fujin who replied, “UNDERSTOOD.”

“Good.” Xu continued, “We need to send Kasumi and two other SeeDs back to Timber. We can drop them off from the Garden on the outskirts of Timber on our way to Trabia.”

Cid questioned “But what if Squall and Quistis manage to escape Deiling City and return to Balamb? Shouldn’t we stay here?”

Xu explained, “There are two answers to that. The most important is Squall’s message mentioned that General Caraway was being reassigned to the Grandidi Forest. That probably means the Galbadian Army is forming their new front in Trabia. I think it’s imperative that we travel there to protect Trabia Garden if anything comes of it. And we can leave the Ragnarok here guarded by some SeeDs in case Squall and Quistis return. Quistis can pilot it, if need be.”

“That’s well thought out!” exclaimed Cid. “YES” echoed Fujin.

“Thank you” Xu acknowledged the compliment looking strangely at Fujin. “Now as I was saying we should send Kasumi and two other SeeDs to look for Brian, Shinji and Mishima.”

“Who’s Mishima?” Cid asked. “I can’t seem to place her.”

“Oh, you know her Cid” Xu explained. “She always wears a midriff white blouse, a short leather skirt with suspenders and has very large – you know -,” said Xu while she held out her cupped hands in front of her chest.

Cid asked “Hands?”

Xu said “Oh, never mind Cid, it’s not important” shooting a glance at Fujin, who nodded and grinned.

Cid stated, “I think we should send Selphie and Zell with Kasumi. It’s imperative that we find out what has happened to our people and they’re the best we have right now.”

Fujin said, “AGREED.”

Xu excitedly replied, “Now wait a minute, Fujin! I think it’s more than enough that we have you sit in to take notes if there’s something that needs to be written down, but I don’t think we need your feedback on staff decisions.”

Cid protested, “You’re out of line, Xu. Fujin and I have had some long conversations and I appreciate her opinion.”

Xu appeared completely befuddled, “Conversations with Fujin?”

Fujin said, “YES.”

Xu turned to Fujin. “Okay, I stand corrected and I apologize.” “ACCEPTED” Fujin said.

Xu turned back to Cid. “Okay, we’ll send Selphie and Zell with Kasumi. We’ll inform them after they return from Esthar. Are you ready to send for them, Cid?”

Cid arose from the table and, crossing to his desk, he leaned down and pressed his intercom button. ………………..

Zell, Selphie, Irvine, Rinoa and Akane were sitting at a table eating breakfast, when Kasumi burst into the cafeteria heading straight toward their table. Irvine called out “Hey slow down, Kasumi! You’re gonna have a stroke.” Kasumi grabbed a chair and sat down.

Irvine asked, “What’s up, Kasumi? Come to think of it, I haven’t seen you for over a week.”

Kasumi took a moment to catch her breath, before she explained that she had been on a mission to Timber. “But that’s not the big news! I saw Squall and Quistis in Deiling City!”

Kasumi sat back in her chair enjoying everyone’s startled expressions. Rinoa, leaping up from her chair, exclaimed, “Tell me, Kasumi! Are they okay?”

Selphie said quietly “Rinoa, sit down.” “You’re making a spectacle of yourself again.” Rinoa blushed and quickly reseated.

Kasumi informed her, “They were fine! And guess what? They think they found out who the new President of Galbadia is!”

Akane leaned forward and asked “Is Squall coming home?”

Kasumi looked at her strangely and asked, “I’m sorry, who are you?”

Irvine shouted out “Wait a minute everybody! I want to know who the President is.”

Kasumi said, “Oh, I can’t tell you that. This is all very hush-hush.”

Selphie introduced Akane to Kasumi, who slightly bowed and said, “Pleased to meet you, I’m sure and to answer your question – Yes, I think he and Quistis are preparing to leave Deiling City momentarily. In fact, they may have already left.”

Rinoa, whose complexion appeared ash white, whispered “Thank God.”

Selphie, glancing over to Rinoa, felt pangs of sympathy for her and reached out with her hand and placed it over one of Rinoa’s and said “It’ll be fine, Rinoa. You know Squall knows how to take care of himself.”

“Yeah, right on!” chimed in Zell.

Suddenly the intercom clicked on and practically everyone in the cafeteria fell silent in anticipation of the upcoming message, “Zell and Selphie, please report to Headmaster Cid’s office immediately.”

Zell leaped up from his chair and exclaimed, “Hot damn! Some action at last!” while pounding his left fist into his right hand. As Zell and Selphie were hurrying from the cafeteria, they could hear Irvine asking, “Do you want me to walk you to class, Akane?” ………………..

On his way to the Vaulny Canyon Forest, Squall drove off road as much as possible to avoid any complications arising from Galbadian Army vehicles or other government officials. As he drove along at a reasonable rate of speed, because he didn’t want to attract any unnecessary attention to himself and he had plenty of time to meet Quistis arriving on the train, his thoughts drifted back to the Garden and then Rinoa and finally to the Legendary SeeD and whether he would end up having to fight him. He wondered how he could possibly defeat the best gunblade specialist Cid had ever seen.

Squall gave his head a shake, slightly disgusted with himself for projecting things in the future that may never happen. He never worried about the future – He had too much to worry about in the present he thought ruefully.

As he neared East Academy, he turned left over the bridge and parked on the Monterosa Plateau very close to the forest. As he locked the car, he took a good look around and, perceiving nothing out of the ordinary, began to walk through the forest.

Squall had crossed half way through the forest, when two Anacondaurs suddenly sprang across his path. Squall realized that although the option of fleeing was always available it wasn’t wise against these giant snakes because of the possibility of their releasing poisonous mist that could cause severe damage before he could escape. Eschewing the use of his GF’s despite what he told Quistis, he leaped forward and after two quick hits with ‘Lion Heart’ the first Anacondaur lay dead. The giant snake’s partner took exception to that and laid a good smack along the side of Squall’s head which Squall ignored while leaping forward again and killing it also.

When he stepped out of the forest and noticed the train hadn’t arrived yet, Squall was indecisive concerning how to continue. The Monterosa Plateau was basically flat and afforded a view for miles. He could see Galbadian Army trucks blocking the main intersections of many of the highways in the area and was relieved he had traveled the route he did, but he was concerned at this point to not call attention to himself and there was literally no where to hide. He purposely didn’t want to enter the train station early because he realized it would be full of Galbadian soldiers, some waiting to be transported back to Deiling City and some on duty looking for him and Quistis. He also assumed there would be Galbadian Secret Police lurking around. The problem became academic, as Squall watched the train from Deiling City arriving from a mile away. He would just have to bite the bullet and hope he could mingle with the crowd that would step down from the train. He could not afford to have Quistis standing around attracting unwanted attention.

As Squall entered the train station, he noticed that a Galbadian soldier was standing at the head of a short boarding line for a train that was preparing to depart and was searching the carry-on bags and suitcases of the people waiting in line. Squall became instantly frightened about Quistis and whether she had even been able to board the train in Deiling City or had been immediately arrested. “Damn” he thought, “Maybe we should have stayed together.” “At least we might have had a chance of fighting our way clear.”

So Squall felt a great sense of relief when he observed Quistis emerging from the train, but the station had an even greater amount of soldiers than even he had anticipated and there was no crowd to speak of. Quistis had paused immediately after exiting the train instead of advancing purposefully down the long staircase and it was only a matter of time before she would be approached by a soldier and questioned extensively.

Taking the bull by the horns, Squall bounded up the long staircase two steps at a time and shouted “Hey Sis! Down here! Come on, Dad’s waiting!”

He reached the top of the staircase quickly and, noticing with a slight grin that Quistis was carrying her backpack in front of her chest as he had instructed her to, he gave her a quick brotherly kiss on the cheek, took her backpack in his right hand and transferring his guitar case to his right hand, he grabbed her upper right arm with his left hand and escorted her briskly back down toward the floor.

“Sis?” Quistis smiled.

Squall cautioned, “Be serious. We’re not out of the woods yet.” Once they reached the station floor, Squall told her “Glance around for any Galbadian Secret Police.” After exiting the station Quistis said, “I think we’re safe. I didn’t see any.”

But Quistis was wrong. Immediately following their leaving the station, a man dressed in a black suit stepped from around a corner and stared intently at where their backs had been a second before. ………………..

Once they had stepped into the protection of the forest, Squall handed Quistis her backpack.

“Welcome to West Galbadia, Quisty” he said softly. “It was really good to see you step down off that train. However did you avoid having to open your backpack in Deiling City?”

Quistis flushed uncomfortably while slipping on her backpack and said, “Oh, I’ll tell you another time. Shouldn’t we get going?”

Squall noticing her embarrassment decided to not pursue the subject. “Not yet” he answered. “Give me your false I.D.” Quistis handed it to Squall with obvious puzzlement on her face and had even more so as Squall took it and cut it into tiny pieces with an incredibly sharp penknife that he brought out of his back pocket. He then took his false I.D. and performed the same procedure. He knelt down and dug out a small depression in the forest floor and buried the pieces making certain to place leaves and dirt back over the hole.

“Squall!” Quistis said.

“Wait Quistis, I’ll explain” Squall directed. He next opened his guitar case, took out the guitar and lifted up the false bottom and set it on the ground. After removing ‘Lion Heart’ he pulled out two different false I.D. along with matching birth certificates for he and Quistis. Handing Quistis hers, he took his and placed them in his wallet that he wore on a chain attached to his belt.

Quistis exclaimed in a surprised voice “These are in a different name!”

Squall nodded. “Xu’s idea. To prevent us from leaving a paper trail, if we had to go somewhere else after Deiling City.”

Quistis smiled and said admiringly “That Xu, she thinks of everything.”

Squall reassembled his guitar case and stood up. “Let’s go. We can talk in the car.” ………………..

Zell and Selphie hurriedly returned to the Garden from the Ragnarok. All had gone extremely well in Esthar, although there had been some difficulty with deciding who was going to pilot the Ragnarok so Selphie flew there and Zell on the return trip. Selphie hoped she could remember every one of the kind words that Laguna uttered about Squall and his performance on his latest mission, so she could repeat it to Squall.

Entering the Garden, Selphie and Zell headed straight to the elevator and up to Cid’s office. When they arrived on the third floor, they stepped off the elevator. Cid was standing by his locked file cabinets that filled almost an entire wall. He returned a file to a cabinet and locked it. He asked “Fujin, would you please page Kasumi over the intercom?”

Fujin stood up from her desk and crossed to Cid’s desk and pressed the intercom button and said “KASUMI!” and clicked the intercom off. Xu, who was seated at the table, stared at Fujin and shook her head in disbelief.

Nonetheless Kasumi arrived off the elevator less than five minutes later. Cid invited all to be seated at the long conference table. Xu briefly outlined, for Selphie and Zell, the original mission the four SeeDs had been assigned and what Selphie and Zell now needed to accomplish in traveling to Timber and locating the missing SeeDs.

Xu elaborated, “We have no agenda we’re assigning you. We trust your judgment in the field completely and realize if anyone can help Kasumi locate them it will be you two.”

Selphie said “Thank you for your trust in us” and nodded at Xu and Cid.

Zell asked, “Who are the three missing SeeDs again?”

Xu answered “Brian, Shinji and Mishima.”

“Mishima” Zell echoed almost wistfully. Selphie swore to herself that Zell had a twinkle in his eye.

“When shall we leave?” asked Selphie. Xu explained “We want you to arrive as soon as possible, so we’ll drop you on our way to Trabia Garden.”

“Trabia Garden!” Selphie thought. “Just my dumb luck. They’re finally going back to Trabia Garden and I won’t be here. Oh well, this mission is a lot more important than just seeing my old friends again.”

Xu further explained, “We have to keep the Ragnarok here at Balamb, in case Squall and Quistis return when we’re gone.”

Selphie joked “Well, just be sure to leave a note on the steering wheel.”

Xu asked “Cid, are we ready to leave?”

Cid nodded, stood up from the table, crossed to his desk and pressed the intercom button and began speaking, “This is Headmaster Cid. The Garden is preparing to depart. Everyone report to their assigned duty stations immediately.” …………………

After dropping Kasumi, Zell and Selphie off on Mandy Beach, Xu directed Nida to travel to Trabia the long way, while stopping at the orphanage in Centra. After the Garden had landed in Centra, Xu took the elevator down to Cid’s office and asked “Cid, may I borrow Fujin for a little while?”

Cid looked up from his constant paperwork. “Why, certainly Xu. Is there anything that I should know about?”

Xu reassured him “Nothing that I can’t handle.”

As Xu and Fujin rode down on the elevator to the second floor, Fujin stood stoically staring ahead. When they stepped off the elevator, Xu asked “Will you please go and get Seifer out of class and bring him here?”

Fujin arched one eyebrow and nodded. Fujin returned within five minutes with Seifer, who appeared totally mystified.

Xu said “Good Morning, Seifer.”

Seifer nodded politely “Good Morning, Commander.” Beside him, Fujin’s eyes grew wide in surprise at his respectful demeanor.

Turning to Fujin to also include her in the conversation, Xu reported, “I want you two to accompany me to visit Edea.” Seifer visibly blanched remembering the last time he had seen Edea. ………………..

Since Nida had landed the Garden at the Cape of Good Hope in Centra, Xu, Seifer and Fujin exited and headed for the orphanage. They were immediately beset by Fly Monsters. Xu rushed forward swinging her weapon that resembled a bola, but had spikes attached to the balls, and killed one of them. One swing from Seifer with his ‘Hyperion’ finished the other one.

They entered the main path of the orphanage. There was a demolished building on the right and the flower field laid to the left. Edea suddenly appeared at the front door.

“Why Xu, what a surprise! Is something wrong with Cid?”

Striding up the path, Xu assured her Cid was fine and went on to say, “I’ve come to visit you, because I think you’re the one who needs some help, Edea.”

Edea said with a laugh “Same old Xu! Direct and honest to a fault, well come.”

As Seifer approached, Edea greeted “Hello Seifer.” Seifer nodded, but remained silent. Edea turned to Fujin and said “Welcome Fujin. I never thought I’d ever see you again having anything to do with the Garden.” Fujin answered “IRONIC.” Edea laughed, “Yes it is.” Edea turned back to Seifer and spoke hoping to help ease his obvious discomfort “There’s no need to be shy and afraid of what I think, Seifer. I’ve known you most of your life.”

Seifer tersely replied “Hello Matron.”

Edea turned back to Xu and directed “Come in. We’ll go to my bedroom. It’s the only room that has chairs.” Edea led them through two rooms that were badly damaged and had little or no furnishings, but, at least, had walls and a ceiling; they came to the bedroom, in which there was a bed and two old straight back chairs. After Edea offered the chairs and receiving no immediate response, Seifer and Fujin sat down leaving Edea standing in one corner and Xu in the center of the small room by the end of the bed.

“So Xu, don’t stand on further ceremony. What is it you wish to say to me?”

“Edea, when you first returned to yourself, you didn’t have a worse critic than myself. I felt forgiveness in your case should not have been given so easily, but I came to realize I was wrong through watching you and listening to others. I forgave you. I, your worst critic, forgave you. Everyone else had already forgiven you. It’s high time for you to forgive yourself.”

Edea asked, “What makes you think I haven’t, Xu?”

“This” replied Xu raising her right arm and sweeping the room with it. “You have remained here in this broken down old ruin and left your husband alone for weeks at a time to run the Garden. It is past time for you to become his wife again.”

Tears began to flow down Edea’s face and she had difficulty in speaking. “What you say, Xu, is entirely correct, but what you don’t say is how to do this thing – how to forgive myself for the unspeakable crimes I committed.”

Xu started to speak “But-.”

Edea interrupted “Let me finish.” “I know what you’re going to say – that I was possessed.” “Is that a reason or an excuse?” “That’s the question that so bothers me.”

Xu replied, “Is your guilt a reason or an excuse for why you don’t rejoin your husband? He needs you, Edea! His bedroom is lonely at night.”

Again tears began to flow down Edea’s face and she flushed slightly.

Xu went on “I’m not a psychiatrist, but I can tell you this. If you want to learn to forgive yourself, you don’t do it here by yourself among these battered old buildings. You do it by your husband’s side and you do it among your friends and your children. Now that’s all I came here to say. Please think about it. We will lay over here tomorrow and then we have to leave for Trabia. I hope to see you again, Edea, and I hope it will be very soon.”

With that, Xu signaled Seifer and Fujin that it was time to leave and they silently left Edea weeping in the room and returned to the Garden. ………………..

After passing through the forest and reaching the car without incident, Squall and Quistis were now riding down the highway towards East Academy. Quistis turned to Squall and asked “What now?”

Squall answered with a slight smile “Now dear sister, we are going to enter East Academy University.”

Quistis asked, “What are you talking about now? Aren’t we trying to get back to Garden? And what’s with this sister stuff?”

Squall held up his right hand. “Slow down please. Of course we’re trying to get back to Garden, but the closer we get to Timber the harder it’s going to be to escape detection at this time. We need to lay low until some of this heat dies down which it will eventually.” “East Academy is the logical place and attending the University is the logical thing for us to do, if we’re staying in East Academy. There will be many young people around the University and it will make it more difficult for the Galbadian Secret Police to locate us.”

Quistis pointed out “But Squall, we need transcripts to get into the University. We can’t just go waltzing up there and start school.”

Squall reached under the front seat of the rental and pulled out some documents that he had earlier liberated from underneath the false bottom in his guitar case and handed them to Quistis.

Quistis said shocked “These are acceptance papers and Ronin School transcripts! How is this possible? We left the Garden on a moments notice. There was no time for anyone to do this.”

Squall grinned, “Mind boggling, isn’t it? Apparently this is something Xu did a while back just in case something like our assignment ever came up and to answer your other question – Yes, we are supposed to be brother and sister. It’ll make it a lot easier to explain why we’re entering together and also to explain to other students why they see us together all the time.”

Quistis shook her head in amazement. “That Xu!” ………………..

After the Garden had dropped off Zell, Selphie and Kasumi on Mandy Beach on the outskirts of Timber and lifted up almost immediately, Selphie suggested, “We might as well get going, it’s going to be a long walk.”

Almost immediately after leaving the beach area, they were attacked by two Thrustaevis. Selphie noticed, with satisfaction and some relief, that Kasumi immediately sprang into action by throwing her ‘Rising Sun’ and killing one of them. Zell, simultaneously, pummeled the second one with his fists killing it immediately.

The first thing Selphie noticed, when they entered Timber, was the large amount of Galbadian soldiers present in the streets. It appeared to her to be worse than after Rinoa’s ill-fated attempt to abduct Vinzer Deiling.

“Wow” Zell proclaimed, “Things are serious here!”

Kasumi agreed “Yes, we need to stay very low profile, so we don’t attract much attention. Maybe we should separate right now and meet at the Forest Fox lady’s house.” Zell and Selphie quickly agreed and Kasumi immediately set out down the main thoroughfare, while Zell interested himself in the menu posted in the window of Hamptons, the most popular restaurant in Timber.

Selphie sauntered past Zell, as if she were out on a morning stroll, and glanced into the open doors of the hotel as she passed by and saw the lobby was full of Galbadian soldiers. As she walked across the railroad trestle that spanned three lanes of tracks, she noticed that not one train was moving. “If the trains are shut down, it certainly is going to complicate our getting to Dollet” Selphie thought.

Noticing that strange little man, who always walked on the trestle searching for Rinoa, Selphie approached him and asked “Is the train service shut down?” As he nodded his head yes, he asked, “Where’s Rinoa? Is she in Timber?” and when Selphie told him no, he immediately ran off.

“He certainly is a weird little dude,” Selphie thought to herself. “A Rinoa groupie” she giggled aloud.

As Zell turned and started down the street following about five minutes behind Selphie, he began to muse of Mishima. Boy, did he use to have a crush on her! Mishima and Zell were in many of the same classes together, although she was actually a few months ahead of him in graduating. Zell remembered when he and two close friends at the time snuck into Headmaster Cid’s office and looked into Mishima’s file to discover her measurements listed in the medical history section of the file, because there had been such wild speculation concerning this among the male upper-classmen. Zell could still recite her measurements – 91cm – 61 cm – 91 cm, just an awesome figure and pretty too! Zell was also very attracted to her, because their weapons and fighting techniques were very similar. But Zell was always shy. “She probably never even knew I existed” Zell thought ruefully to himself while walking down the streets of Timber.

As Zell walked into the lower end of the main part of town, he was surprised to discover Selphie talking to someone in front of the Timber Pet Shop. It appeared to Zell that Selphie was conversing with an old man, wearing a religious robe, who appeared badly bent by age. Zell became uncertain whether he should approach Selphie and this strange old man or walk by, as if he didn’t know her, until she waved him over.

Zell approached Selphie who said softly but with a large grin on her face “We’ve found a friend!”

Zell was completely perplexed until Selphie explained “It’s Zone!”

“Zone’s here!” Zell thought excitedly. “Maybe he knows something that will help us.” Zell decided, rather than standing there turning their conversation into a crowd, he should continue walking downtown. He knew Selphie would catch up later.

Zone and Selphie continued with their previous conversation. “So like I was saying, Watts and I had to separate when we fled town because of the massive sweep by the Galbadian Secret Police. I just came back this morning and I don’t have a clue as to the whereabouts of Watts or any of your comrades.”

Selphie responded, “We’re headed down to the Forest Fox headquarters. We’ll tell her you’re back. Maybe she knows where Watts is.”

“Thanks, Selphie” Zone said enthusiastically “I really appreciate that. I’ll be around the train station, if you need to contact me.”

“Okay, thanks.”

“By the way, Selphie” Zone said as Selphie began to turn away to walk down the street “How is the princess doing?”

Selphie thought “The princess! Another Rinoa groupie!” Selphie replied “She’s doing fine, Zone. In fact, she’s started taking classes in preparation of becoming a SeeD.”

“Oh, isn’t that something!” Zone exclaimed his face wreathed in happiness.

“Uh, Selphie” Zone started to say and then stopped. Selphie thought to herself “Now what?”

Zone started again “Do you think – I mean when everything starts to calm down a little – uh, maybe we could – you know – uh, go out to dinner sometime?”

Selphie thought, “So that’s it!” and had to restrain herself from laughing out loud.

“Why certainly Zone” Selphie replied offhandedly “I’m certain that can be arranged.”

Zone practically shouted “That’s wonderful, Selphie! I’ll be in touch!” and he rushed away down the street.

“Now what have I gotten myself into?” Selphie wondered. ………………..

Zell continued walking downtown until he came to the Timber Maniacs Building next door to the Forest Fox leader’s home. Zell quickly approached the Forest Fox leader’s door and softly rapped on it. It was opened almost immediately. They must have been watching him, Zell thought. The leader’s daughter waved Zell in silently and glancing around the street she quickly shut the door.

“They’re upstairs,” she explained laconically.

Zell bounded up the stairs two at a time and looked in the first bedroom – empty – and then in the second where he saw Rinoa’s friend who ran the Forest Foxes and then noticed Kasumi talking to a young woman in the corner of the room. Zell’s heart skipped a beat. It was Mishima!

“Mishima’s alright” Zell thought happily.

Mishima, noticing Zell for the first time since he had entered the room, stepped forward. “Zell!” she exclaimed happily. “How wonderful to see you again” she expressed while continuing to move toward him until she paused and embraced him in a big hug.

“Oh my God!” Zell thought, “I’m going to die.”

Before Zell could respond in any manner, Selphie bustled into the room. “Alright” she demanded with a grin, “What’s going on here?” Selphie continued, “Unhand him, wench! He is spoken for.”

Mishima dropped her arms and said “Good to see you, Selphie.”

Selphie offered another smile and asked if she knew where any of the other SeeDs were.

Mishima answered in the negative. Zell continued standing there with a vacuous smile frozen on his face.

Kasumi suggested from the corner “We need to sit down and discuss what we’re going to do.”

Selphie concurred, “That’s a good idea” and then turning to the Forest Fox leader explained “Zone’s back in town.”

Rinoa’s friend replied “I’ll leave you to your planning.” “I’m going to look up Zone,” she said while returning to the lower floor.

“Well, let’s get started” Selphie directed. …………………

The town of East Academy lies halfway between the towns of Timber and Dollet and was located in the Vaulny Canyon.

East Academy University was a well respected institution of higher learning. In fact, outside of the Garden, it was considered to be by many the best education possible. The actual city of the same name expanded around the University after the school had been established.

Driving up the main thoroughfare leading into East Academy, Squall informed Quistis “We’ll need to ditch this car in the city as far away from the University as we can.”

Quistis questioned “Why not leave it somewhere outside the city?”

“Because we would look very conspicuous walking for miles into town.”

“If and when they find the car” Squall explained “at least it won’t be around the University, even though I think they’ll assume whoever left the car will be at the University, it will make it more difficult for them to track us.”

Squall drove past the hotels that dotted the highway when first entering East Academy. He took the first left and, when he approached a street with a number of shops, he turned right and parked on the street.

“Squall, are we stopping for some reason?”

“Yes,” Squall explained, “What would you think if you saw students enter the University only carrying a backpack and a guitar case?”

“Oh, I get it” Quistis replied.

After about an hour Squall and Quistis were finished shopping for their new clothes and two suitcases. In fact, Squall made his purchases in the first five minutes and spent the rest of the time trailing behind Quistis, watching her choose different outfits and trying them on and asking his opinion. “Good grief” Squall thought, “She’s worse than Rinoa.”

At long last, in Squall’s opinion, they were back on the road. Squall made a U-turn and returned almost to the spot, where they had entered East Academy, searching for an appropriate site to park the car. He finally decided on parking in a back parking lot of a fairly large hotel. They vacated the car with their possessions and thoroughly searched it for anything they might have forgotten or might be incriminating. Squall locked the car, threw the keys in a small pond that lay beside the parking lot, placed his guitar case over his shoulder using the strap he had attached to it, picked up both suitcases, one in each hand and said “Come on, Quisty” and set off down the road towards the bus stop whistling as he walked.

The bus they boarded not only traveled to the University front gate; it also went to a number of places on the University property. Squall and Quistis, from their vantage point high atop a double decker bus, were able to distinguish where the dormitories were located. They rode past the many different colleges the University had to offer and finally arrived at the Main Administration Building.

Squall hopped down from the bus and, after setting the suitcases and his guitar case down, helped Quistis step down. As the bus roared away, Quistis commented, “I hope this goes quickly. I’m hungry.”

“Uh, huh” Squall said, “What else is new?”

Quistis made as if she was going to slap him. Squall ducked away.

“We better get going” Squall said picking up his guitar case and the suitcases “It’s getting fairly late in the afternoon. I’d hate to be stuck outside all night.”

“Then let’s go!” Quistis said giving him a slight push.

“You’re asking for it” Squall joked.

“Yes, I am.” “But when I am I going to get it?” Quistis asked seriously.

Squall was taken aback at how quickly things had turned serious. “I’m sorry, Quisty.”

“I know, Squall, I know,” she said softly. ………………..

Quistis was in luck. An hour later she and Squall were sitting in a coffee shop much like the one in Garden except it was larger. Their admission to the University had proceeded smoothly and quickly. Squall and Quistis were now officially students at East Academy University, but, of course, not under their real names.

Quistis glanced up from her voracious eating and asked, “What’s your new name again?”

Squall patiently answered “Yuji.”

“And mine is Madoka” said Quistis brightly.

“Uh, huh” Squall replied dryly. “Eat up” he directed “I want to get to the dormitories and get settled for the evening.”

“Yes sir!” Quistis snapped off a SeeD salute! Her face immediately fell as she realized her blunder. “Oh, Squall.” “I’m so sorry, it was automatic” Quistis apologized while taking a quick glance around the coffee shop to discover if anyone was watching. She felt somewhat relieved when it didn’t appear there was.

Squall stood up and picked up the bill, along with his guitar case and the two suitcases and strode toward the front of the shop to pay for their meal, while Quistis quietly glided behind him.

Once they were outside Quistis said, “Squall, I-.”

Squall interrupted “Let it go. No harm done.”

“Thank you, Squall” Quistis spoke softly. “It won’t happen again” she promised.

But Squall wasn’t certain there was no harm done. He wasn’t sure if he was just being overly paranoid or had there been one woman in the corner of the coffee shop, who had displayed an inordinate amount of interest in them, only looking away from them when Squall would meet her eyes? ………………..

Rinoa, Irvine and Akane sat around a table in the coffee shop waiting for dinner hour to arrive. Rinoa asked while nodding to her right “Akane, is that the cute boy I saw talking to you in the hall this morning?”

Akane nodded slightly blushing. Irvine exclaimed obviously upset “What?”

Rinoa pressed on “Let’s call him over” and, before anyone at the table could protest, she stood up and called “Hey, yes you. Come on over and sit down.”

The short fifteen-year-old boy with dark hair and even features, who obviously had been lurking around the perimeter of the area surrounding Akane, quickly arrived at the table. He introduced himself brightly “Hi! I’m Arnaz” and held his hand out for Irvine to shake, who limply touched it.

Rinoa introduced “I’m Rinoa and this is Irvine. Grab a seat” while automatically registering that he might have been short, but he appeared to have a nice build.

Arnaz turned to Akane and said “Good to see you again, Akane. How have you been?”

Akane again blushed and slightly turned her head looking at the table replied softly “Fine, Arnaz.”

Rinoa turned to Irvine and asked happily “Aren’t they so cute together?” causing Arnaz and Akane to both blush furiously. Irvine shook his head no, but declined to comment.

Akane softly pleaded “Rinoa, please!”

Rinoa, who was not to be thwarted, declared “We’re laying over at Centra tomorrow for some reason and classes are cancelled. Let’s all go the beach together.”

Akane excitedly answered, “That sounds like fun. I’ll go.” Of course seeing that Akane had agreed, Arnaz immediately acquiesced.

“Rinoa” Irvine replied in a heavy voice, “That’s a bad idea. That beach is full of Fastitocalon-F.”

Fastitocalon-F were fish that swam in the sand of beaches. They were believed to be a distant member of the shark family. They were quick moving deadly enemies.

“Okay Irvine, then you come along as protection,” countered Rinoa.

“I guess I’ll have to” Irvine replied in a resigned voice.

“Good! We’ll leave in the morning after breakfast” Rinoa informed them.

Rinoa stood up. “Let’s go to dinner, everyone!”

As they were walking through the coffee shop, Irvine sidled next to Akane and asked “Hey! How’d you like to go to the training center tonight and practice killing some monsters?”

“Oh, wow!” Akane excitedly exclaimed “That’ll be way cool!”

Irvine rejoined “Good! Then it’s a date. Meet me at seven outside of the training center.”

Rinoa shook her head and thought “When’s the cat’s away, the mouse will play.” ………………..

At the end of two hours, with a short break for supper served by Rinoa’s friend, they had arrived at a decision. Selphie left Zell, Kasumi and Mishima talking among themselves and traveled downstairs to locate the Forest Fox leader. Selphie discovered her sitting by the kitchen table drinking a cup of coffee.

As Selphie entered the room, Rinoa’s friend held up her cup of coffee as an offer to serve Selphie some. Selphie shook her head. “No, thanks.”

Selphie drew up a chair and sat down. “We’ve come up with our plans” Selphie explained. “We’d like to stay here tonight, so we can get an early start in the morning, if that’s alright with you.”

“Of course, Selphie” Rinoa’s friend quickly replied. “You’re always welcome to stay with us, unless the heat is on so bad that you would be in danger remaining here. Things are bad right now, but not that bad. They haven’t made a sweep in about a week. I’m thinking of having my two sons sent back from Winhill, where I sent them to live with a cousin of mine when the initial crackdown began.”

Selphie again thanked her and then explained “I’m going to remain here in Timber and attempt to work with Zone in locating Watts and Brian, a SeeD who was last seen here in Timber.”

The Forest Fox leader responded, “I certainly hope your associate is hiding with Watts and hasn’t been arrested and placed in the D-District Prison. It’s incredibly difficult to get anybody out of there!”

“I know that’s right” Selphie responded remembering their own experiences in the D-District Prison. “Believe you me” she thought to herself “you need to do more than just win a Chocobo race to get out of there!”

Selphie continued, “Kasumi, Zell and Mishima are going to Dollet to search for Shinji, another one of our lost comrades. He was last seen in Dollet.”

The older woman said “That Mishima! She’s such a sweetheart.”

“Geez!” Selphie thought. “What is it with this girl that everybody loves her so? I just don’t get it.”

“Well anyway, those are our plans” Selphie explained while standing up in preparation of returning upstairs.

Rinoa’s friend again stated, “You’re welcome to stay here as long as you need, Selphie. But please be careful, when you’re out in Timber. There are plain clothes Secret Police everywhere in town.”

“I will,” promised Selphie. “Well, good night” Selphie said heading to the staircase to the second floor. Behind her the Forest Fox leader called out “Sleep sweet!”

Selphie didn’t know how to respond to that admonishment, but thought to herself “Sleep sweet? Good grief! Everybody who Rinoa knows in this town is weird.” ………………..

A half an hour later, the Rising Sun Dormitory manager was saying to Squall “It is very unusual for us to give permission for a young man and woman to share a dormitory apartment, even in the co-ed dorm, but since you state you are brother and sister I guess there is no major problem. May I please see your birth certificates and I.D.’s?”

After studying them for what seemed to Quistis to be an inordinately long time, the dorm manager looked up and smiled “Everything appears to be in order” handing them their documents. “I will have the dorm monitor show you to your room. Excuse me, please.”

The dormitory manager leaned down and pushed an intercom button and said, “Will the on-duty dorm monitor please report to my office? Thank you.” He swiveled his chair around and began searching for a specific key on a bulletin board that held hooks for fifty keys. “Ah, there it is” he said while reaching for the keys he was searching for.

He swung around and set two keys on the counter. “You each get a room key” he explained “But you mustn’t lose them. We have no spares to give you, just our master key.”

“We’ll be careful” Quistis promised while Squall looked on stoically wondering how much longer he would have to wait. He wanted to get to their room! A second later Squall lost his impatience when the door opened and one of the most beautiful young women he had ever seen entered the room.

She possessed long blonde hair, a lean attractive face with a little button nose, and a beautifully sculpted figure with a bust line that promised heavenly delights and long beautifully curved legs and was dressed in a macro mini-skirt so short that her sheer panties were clearly visible.

The dorm manager said “Ah, Kyoko. Good, you’re here. This is Yuji and Madoka. Could you please show them to room 504?”

The young beauty called Kyoko slightly bowed and responded in a velvety voice “I would be happy to” and reached out and touched Squall on the arm. “I am most pleased to meet you.”

Quistis spoke, her eyes blazing sparks of anger because of Squall’s passive staring, “We would like to go to our room now! My brother and I are very fatigued!”

Kyoko turned with a slight grin and said, “Of course, follow me please.”

Squall began automatically following the twitching behind of Kyoko out of the dorm manager’s office when Quistis exclaimed “Yuji! What are you doing? You are forgetting the suitcases and your guitar case.”

When they were finally in front of room 504, Quistis said very icily “Thank you so much for your effort.”

Kyoko leaned forward toward Squall touching him with her substantial upper body and cooed, “I hope we’ll see more of each other real soon, Yuji.”

“Oh, I’m sure you have in mind to see all of each other” Quistis retorted. ………………..

Once they were safely inside their dorm apartment, Squall and Quistis viewed a green-carpeted, moderately large room with yellow walls. There were two single extra-wide beds, one on each side of the room, two walk-in closets, two large desks with a PC on each and one large easy chair. “Pretty nice” Squall commented.

“Are you talking about that girl or the room?” Quistis retorted.

Squall turned to her and asked “Is that what all this is about?”

Quistis responded, “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about how nasty you were with our guide. We’re not here to make enemies, no da.”

Quistis’s face flushed with anger. “The way I was acting!” “What about you?”

“What about me?” Squall innocently asked. “I wasn’t doing anything.”

“That’s right” Quistis agreed. “You were just standing there with your mouth hanging open.”

“That girl didn’t affect me at all,” Squall protested.

“Yeah right, Squall” Quistis replied sarcastically. “Then why did you forget the suitcases and your guitar case?”

“That was a natural mistake. It had nothing to do with that girl.”

“Okay” Quistis pressed on “What about forgetting to ask about us getting a room on the first floor?”

Squall pressed the palm of his hand against his forehead. “That’s right. I did forget about that. I’m sorry, Quisty.”

Quistis softened somewhat saying “Apology accepted.” “So where’s the bathroom?” she asked while looking around the room.

“Quistis” Squall explained pedantically “This is a dorm. There are no individual bathrooms in dorms.”

Quistis spun and retorted, “So you’re telling me I’ll be using a communal shower room in a co-ed dorm?”

Squall grinned, “Uh, huh.”

“Squall!” Quistis shouted. “Why did you ask for the co-ed dorm?”

“So I could see that blonde.”

Quistis began to slap at him. “Okay, okay” Squall admitted, “I’ll tell you.” He went on in a serious tone “I didn’t want us separated, if and when an attack came.”

“I can see that” Quistis admitted somewhat mollified.

“Oh, by the way” Squall grinned “The actual shower rooms and bathrooms aren’t co-ed. They’re on opposite sides. It’s just the main locker room that’s co-ed.”

Quistis pushed him away playfully. “Okay, smart guy.” “You go take a look around the campus, while I get ready to take a shower.”

As Squall was passing through the doorway he asked, “What was that girl’s name?” “Koyko, wasn’t it?” ………………..

Seifer, Raijin and Fujin were seated at a cafeteria table eating dinner. Seifer had an enormous amount of hot dogs on his plate.

“Hey Seifer!” Raijin pointed out “You got too many hot dogs, no da.”

Seifer responded, “So have me written up.”

Raijin replied “No da, I don’t even know who the disciplinary committee is and, no da, I wouldn’t do that to you anyway, no da. I just want some, no da.”

Seifer said flatly “Too bad.”

“Aw Seifer, don’t be that way” Raijin said and then continued “So what’s this that Fujin was telling me about you kowtowing to Xu? That doesn’t sound like you Seifer, no da!”

Fujin said, “RAGE!”

Seifer glanced at Fujin and replied, “It’s okay” and then turned to Raijin. “I’ll tell you, even though it’s none of your business. I lust over Xu, I dream of her at night. I can hardly concentrate in class, because of my desire to ravage her over and over!”

Raijin exclaimed “Seifer, you must be joking, no da!” “This can’t be true!”

Fujin just smiled. Seifer, finishing the last of his hot dogs, arose and directed “Let’s move out, men.” ………………..

Rinoa sat in the middle of her bed, dressed in her pajamas even though it was still quite early in the evening. She was sitting cross-legged with a battle tactics textbook in her lap that she was attempting to study. But her thoughts kept escaping to Squall and wondering how he was doing and when she was going to see him again. “Darn that Irvine” Rinoa thought “Taking Akane away from me for the evening.”

Rinoa suddenly felt incredibly lonely. She realized everybody she cared about and who cared about her was gone – Squall, Quistis, Zell and even Selphie who was sometimes impatient with her, but whom Rinoa knew, underneath it all, loved her too.

The only person left to Rinoa with a connection to the events of the past year, except for Irvine who was mostly an irritant, was the pigtail girl. “Good grief!” Rinoa realized “I don’t even know her name.”

Rinoa was attempting to force herself back into the textbook when a knock came upon the door. Rinoa jumped up and pattered across the room thinking “Maybe Akane broke her date with Irvine.” Rinoa was nonplussed when she threw open the door and Xu was standing in the doorway. Rinoa took a step backward and stared.

Xu asked, “May I come in or did I come at a bad time?”

“Uh, no. I mean yes, come in please” Rinoa stammered suddenly remembering the circumstances surrounding the last time she had spoken with Xu and blushed furiously at the memory.

Xu said, as if she were reading Rinoa’s mind, “We all make mistakes, Rinoa. We all need to be forgiven at some time. In fact, I need to ask for your forgiveness for speaking about you behind your back. Will you accept my apology?”

Rinoa just nodded, but offered a small smile.

“That’s better” Xu commented and took a seat on Selphie’s bed and indicated she desired Rinoa to sit with her.

After Rinoa seated herself, Xu continued, “I actually dropped in to see how you were holding up with all of the children gone from the house.”

Rinoa answered, “Well, just fine Xu.” Rinoa stopped suddenly and then continued, “No, I’m not fine” with one tear running down her face from the corner of her right eye. “I’m not fine at all. I miss everybody terribly and I’m really glad I’m taking classes because it’s giving me something to do. But worst of all I’m so scared about Squall – and, of course, Quistis too. I just don’t understand why we haven’t heard from them by now.”

Xu replied, “Thanks for being so honest.” “I think I can relieve your anxiety a little. Before they left, I ran a chaos theory analysis on their mission and one of the highest percentage scenarios was they would become trapped in Galbadia, because of the shut down of all the train service, etc. So in anticipation of that eventuality, I provided them with a false acceptance letter from East Academy University and fake school transcripts to carry with them, in case they needed to run aground there. I truly believe they are fine, because we haven’t experienced any kind of retaliation from Deiling City, which we would expect if they had been captured.”

Rinoa, with hope suffusing her face, asked, “So what you’re saying is you think Squall and Quistis are okay and attending the University?”

Xu nodded “Yes, I’m positive.”

“Oh thank you, Xu!” Rinoa reached out impulsively and hugged Xu, who sat ramrod stiff but did attempt to return the hug by slapping her hands twice on Rinoa’s back.

Xu stood up. “That’s what I came to say. I now need to go visit Seifer.” “Good night” Xu said and exited the room.

“Good night” Rinoa echoed while she thought to herself “Visit Seifer! Good grief, what now?” ………………..

Irvine purposely arrived at the corridor leading to the training center ten minutes early and was very surprised to see Akane already there waiting for him, as he strode down the corridor.

“Hi” Akane spoke brightly.

Irvine grinned at the cute teenager, who had quite a nifty little figure Irvine decided right at that moment. “I take it you’re anxious to go” Irvine commented.

“Right on!” Akane excitedly called out.

“Whoa!” Irvine cautioned. “What do you know about the training center?”

“I know it’s where you go to practice killing real monsters and then you go to the one place open after dinner where guys take you to try to mack on you.”

Irvine was visibly taken aback. “Naw, that ain’t right,” he said. “Who told you that?” he demanded.

“Selphie” was Akane’s simple answer.

“That figures” Irvine thought, but he replied “It is a place where young men and women, who are just beginning to spread their wings to fly, can learn more about each other.”

“Yeah, right” Akane retorted sarcastically.

Irvine muttered, “This is just like having Selphie along” but spoke aloud “Let’s get going. Time’s a wasting.”

“Alright!” Akane shouted.

They hiked into the training center that resembled a lush jungle with myriad tall trees of all varieties, large plants and shrubs, and fallen stumps. Irvine paused and pointed past a bridge they were approaching and directed “There’s where we’re headed, where that light is coming from. And if a T-Rexaur attacks, since there’s only two of us, it would be wiser to run.”

“Oh, you’re no fun” Akane whined.

“Fun?” Irvine thought “I’ll show you fun!”

They began their run through the training center with Irvine taking point in order to partially protect Akane in case of a surprise attack.

From what appeared as out of nowhere, two Grats suddenly attacked. Irvine instructed, “Be quick! They can put you to sleep.”

Akane sprang forward holding a long, deadly appearing, dagger in her right hand, but Irvine was intrigued to note that she declined to actually use it on the Grat, but instead began to pummel it with sudden kicks, and then chops with her left hand finally culminating in doing a complete forward somersault body slam on the Grat and showing a momentarily flash of pink panties that gratified Irvine, as he blew the other Grat into eternity with his ‘Exeter’.

“What in the hell was that, Akane?” Irvine demanded.

“Just some martial arts my father taught me” she explained off-handedly. “They won’t let me use them in hand-to-hand combat class, because they said it was too advanced for the class and I might hurt someone, so I thought this would be a good place to get some practice.”

“Whoa!” Irvine thought, “This girl is sharp!”

A few minutes later, Irvine and Akane stepped into the balcony area that lay halfway through the path that encircles the training center. Akane instantly cooed “Oh, it’s so pretty” upon viewing the beautiful night sky and the light shining on the main part of the Garden. There were two couples involved with each other; one couple on each end of the wall, so Irvine guided Akane by her left elbow to the center of the balcony wall.

“So what do you think?” Irvine asked.

“It’s so nice” Akane gushed “But why is this open at night, when everywhere else is off-limits?”

Irvine answered “The way I understand it is when Cid started the Garden he thought there should be somewhere open late, but in order to keep it a place just for older students, he placed it in the training center. He realized that only upper-classmen, who had achieved a certain level of combat readiness, would even chance coming into the training center.”

“So, Akane” Irvine continued while reaching down and slipping his right hand around her waist “What do you think of Arnaz?”

“Oh, he’s okay” Akane replied while attempting unsuccessfully to wrest herself away from Irvine’s grip.

“The reason I was asking was” Irvine began to say while he slipped his hand inside the waistband of her skirt and panties and yanked them down to her feet leaving Akane standing half naked and wearing only shoes below her waist! Akane made no effort to shield her vagina from Irvine’s intense staring and the startled gazes of the other couples on the balcony but, on the contrary, stepped completely out of her skirt and panties and turned to face him with a sweet smile on her pretty face. Irvine was intrigued to note that her pubic hair was every bit as flaming red as the hair on her head. As Irvine reached out to embrace her, Akane stepped forward and quickly kneed him hard in the groin! Irvine fell to his knees moaning. “Why did you do that?” gasped Irvine.

Akane laughed while pulling her skirt and panties on. “Selphie told me what to expect from you and also how to handle it. I’m leaving! Are you coming?” ………………..

Zell, Kasumi and Mishima decided it would be safer to not leave as a group, but individually instead. Zell had already left and Mishima was going to wait about fifteen minutes before leaving. She went upstairs to the bathroom to perform some last minute toiletries, because she was uncertain how many days they might be on the road before reaching Dollet.

The Forest Fox leader had gone out and the daughter was upstairs straightening the bedrooms leaving Kasumi and Selphie alone downstairs.

Selphie was uncertain as to the correct method to broach this sensitive subject with Kasumi, but reached a decision to plunge ahead anyway. “Kasumi” Selphie questioned, “How well do you know Mishima?”

“Fairly well. She was my roommate for a while. Why do you ask?”

Ignoring the question, Selphie asked, “What do you think of her?”

Kasumi didn’t hesitate. “She’s a sweetheart!”

Selphie thought to herself “Not again! What’s with this girl that everyone thinks she’s a sweetheart?”

Mishima returned from the second floor and appeared absolutely gorgeous having applied a touch of makeup expertly with just a hint of eye shadow and a touch of perfume behind her ear, Selphie noticed with a sinking in her heart.

Mishima crossed the room and explained, “I’m going now. Wish me luck.” And she gave Kasumi a hug and a quick kiss on her left cheek and did the same with Selphie, who was so stunned she couldn’t respond. Mishima closed the door gently on the way out with a little wave back with her hand.

“Okay, Selphie!” Kasumi demanded, “What’s up here with you and Mishima? You jealous or something?”

Selphie started to laugh. “No, I’m not jealous for me.”

“What in the world are you talking about?”

Selphie asked, “Do you know the young woman who has a crush on Zell?”

Kasumi considered the question for a few seconds and then responded “Yeah. It’s the pigtail girl, isn’t it?” “What is her name?”

Selphie replied “Oh, don’t go there. I can never remember her name either. Anyway, it seemed perfectly apparent to me yesterday that Zell has suddenly forgotten all about her, once he laid eyes on Mishima and I want to know what kind of person she is.”

Kasumi reassured Selphie “Mishima would never do anything to breakup somebody else’s relationship. Anyway, she isn’t even interested in a relationship at this time. She just likes to hang out with a group of close friends.”

Selphie thought that sounded vaguely familiar, but couldn’t remember from where and when.

“I sincerely hope you’re right, Kasumi, because I could never forgive myself if I helped make plans that would end up breaking that pigtail girl’s heart – SeeD mission or not!”