Aha! Problem solved even as I wrote. Boy this took for-freaking-ever, especially that last part. I couldn't decide what was next. Now I'll just have to figure out how it all ends up (don't worry, I've got that mostly settled. And this is probably just going to be a first part to a larger story, if I get my way ).

* * * *

8

“How did you guys know to find us here?”

The question seemed to amuse Rinoa, who cut the last bit of gauze binding my shoulder. “One of the perks of being a sorceress is you can find lost things. Or lost people.”

“Did Garden send you guys after us?”

“Of course, silly, who else? Now turn around, I need to check if this bandage will hold.”

I did as I was told and didn’t flinch when she pulled it a tad too hard, abrading the arrow wound. “Sorry,” she murmured, and I nodded.

“Actually, when we heard what had happened we all practically begged the headmaster for the assignment,” Squall stated, coming through the door just as I was buttoning up my shirt. “He was an easy sell on the idea though.”

“But why are you here?” I asked Rinoa. “You’re not SeeD.”

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Squall grumbled, taking off his jacket. “She met us halfway here and won’t go back to Balamb.”

“He’s just worried I’ll get hurt,” Rinoa whispered. “I swear, he’d make me stay home and tend to the home like a good girl if I didn’t escape every once in a while.” Instead of being put out by the realization, however, she sounded pleased as punch.

“Hey, what are you ladies talking about?” Squall protested just as Irvine and Selphie entered the room.

“Nothing,” I assured him then turned my attention to the two newcomers. “Any signs?”

Irvine shook his head. “None whatsoever. It’s like he just disappeared.”

“We found some blood leading away, but the trail came to a dead end halfway down the alley,” Selphie piped up. “After that, nada.”

I said nothing, just thought for a moment. “They could have been with that man who tried to buy me a drink at the bar,” I mused out loud.

“Guy?” Squall asked. “What guy?”

I quickly briefed them on what happened, including what I felt when he touched me. As I talked Zell came in, but there was still no sign of Seifer. “He might have been counting on Seifer’s reaction to get us thrown out of the bar like we were.”

Irvine snorted. “So his being a hothead got the both of you beaten up.”

I fixed him with a glare and her threw up his hands. “Alright, alright, forget I said that.”

“What’s up with you two?” Zell asked, looking between Irvine and I.

“Nothing,” I replied just as Irvine said, “She’s on a ‘Save Seifer’ crusade or something.”

Zell looked puzzled. “Why’d you want to do that? He doesn’t need any help, just a therapist.” He, Selphie, and Irvine snickered at the joke while the rest just looked amused.

Irrational anger curled in my belly as I realized that just twenty-four hours prior I’d been exactly like them, cracking jokes at Seifer’s expense. My hands curled into fists, I spat out, “If you’d all stop acting like jackasses, I’d like to know what’s been happening.”

That stopped the laughter but now everyone was staring at me strangely. Squall, bless his heart, got the hint fastest and began talking. “The raid on Galbadia Garden wasn’t expected. As Irvine told you it was an inside operation, but what he didn’t tell you because he himself didn’t even know was that the whole garden had rebelled.”

I glanced over at Irvine and realized from his anguished but unsurprised expression that he’d already been told. He quickly looked to the side, not meeting my eyes.

“Cid is sure, as are we, that the whole deal is somehow connected to a form of sorcery. Your original mission would have hopefully found out more about this, but the assignment came too late.

“There is also a possibility that some or all of us may be targets.”

“Targets?” I questioned. “For what?”

“Contacts of Cid’s have told us that someone out there wants us, preferably alive. The reasons are unknown, but Cid isn’t going to take any chances on any of us being compromised.”

“So,” Seifer’s voice wafted suddenly from the entrance, “who started the party without me.” He sauntered in, leaning a hip against the table. “Oh, don’t stop on my account. We can’t have that.”

Squall gave him a disgusted look but continued the narrative. “Anyway, Cid decided the best thing to do would be for us to stick together, to be able to back up one another if anything were to happen. Rinoa,” he slanted her a look, to which she just beamed, “was to stay secure at Balamb but as you can see she’s…here.”

“And not leaving anytime soon either,” she added, giving me a wink.

“So we’re going to G-Garden to determine the situation? A simple recon mission?”

“Actually,” Squall hedged, “we don’t exactly…have a mission. We’re to go back to B-Garden and do anything we can from there, since our faces are too well known.”

I opened my mouth to protest, then shut it again. I wasn’t about to question the Headmaster’s orders, and they did make sense. I had no idea what exactly we could do at Garden, but our faces were too popular to succeed at anything undercover.

“You mean the mission’s off?” Seifer sounded surprised, and I knew he had to be pleased at the turn of events.

“I think that’s what the man said,” Zell muttered.

“Thanks for the refresher, chicken-wuss,” Seifer replied, but his voice lacked the mocking quality usually associated with the hated nickname. Zell seemed to notice too because the tension quickly left his stance and his good-humored look quickly reestablished itself.

“Because of the attack we’re stepping up on our leaving time. We have a transport ready to go just outside the town’s limits.” Turning to me Squall asked, “Do you have anything in your hotel room?”

“Seifer coat and gunblade were the only things left there,” I replied and motioned towards the blond man. “He’s got those now.”

“Good. So if nobody has any objections, I say we get a move on now.”

* * * * * * *

This had seriously been the easiest assignment of my life. Not even my SeeD instructor exam mission had been remotely as simple. It was almost … depressing.

We were all sitting in the transport, some of us dozing, when an explosion rocked the car. Less than a second later another explosion sounded, this one lifting the passenger side and throwing us against our belts.

The third one toppled the vehicle, and the only thing that kept us from slamming against all sides of the transport as we rolled were the safety harnesses securing us to the sides of the transport.

We had probably only rolled once but by the time we stopped all of us were thoroughly thrashed and hanging upside down. I could feel blood running across my forehead from a gash above my eye, and my chest hurt from crashing against the belts. I saw that Irvine and Seifer had been knocked cold, but I couldn’t tell the condition of Rinoa and Squall who were in the front seats.

Selphie was struggling with her belts, a similar gash to mind bleeding from high on her forehead. The seatbelt suddenly released and with a squeak she fell down to the top of the transport. Managing to land nimbly on her feet she withdrew Strange Vision and held it at battle ready.

Grabbing the seat behind me I undid the belt clasp then slowly lowered myself down. Ribs protesting, I unslung Save the Queen and glanced at Selphie. “You okay?”

“I’ll live,” she murmured back even as I heard someone groan behind me. I heard Irvine curse, but faint footsteps coming from outside drew my attention.

The rear doors suddenly wrenched open, and I readied Save the Queen for action. A figure stepped in and I whipped my arm back in preparation to strike…

And stopped dead as I realized who it was.

“Hello again, Quistis,” Headmaster Martine stated smoothly. “Surprised to see me?”

There was the very faint sound of something moving through the air and something pricked the side of my neck. I whirled around, lashing out with the whip even as I spotted the two cloaked intruders beneath the slumped figures of Rinoa and Squall. I held back on the blow so that neither of my friends would be hurt in the backlash, but the two were still blown out the window by the hit. My arm could as well have been jelly by the end of the maneuver, however, and blackness was beginning to rush in from the edges of my sight.

"Crap," I heard Selphie mutter just before I heard something collapse, and my knees gave way as I tried to turn around. The last thing I saw was the smirking face of Galbadia Garden’s Headmaster watching me from what seemed high above and the whole scene faded away.