Once Again

A Final Fantasy VIII Fan Fic

Characters and Locations from said game belong to SquareSoft.

By Robertdogwood

Once Again

Chapter Three

Cid’s Surprise

Squall Takes a Chance and Breaks the Code

Rinoa Makes a New Friend

The rest of Squall and Quistis’ ride to Deling 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 Deling 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 Deling 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 glanced 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 all 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, asking, “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 angrily exploded. “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 spoke 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 continued, “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 Deling 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 Deling 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 Deling 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 Hyne' she thought, 'Irvine missed that shot. We would have killed Matron!'

Squall gently squeezed her arm. He declared, “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.

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 Deling 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 Deling 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 way 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 despite our pleasant interlude 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 Deling 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 thinks 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 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 it's 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 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.”

Squall said, “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, but we don’t. Galbadia has all communication except for their own frequencies blocked. It was the one thing Xu wasn’t able to help us with.”

“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. I think from now on everything should be on the q.t.,” 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, while 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. Rinoa hurried to the door and opened it. Akane was standing there.

"Oh, what cute jammies," Akane gushed.

Rinoa thought, 'Selphie was right. She’s precious.' Rinoa leaned forward and gave Akane a little hug and declared, “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 a quarter of a 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 spoke 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 Deling 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.