FicWad

I wrote this story a very long time ago. I touched up a few things, but otherwise left it pretty much intact. My views on the game are different from when this was written, but it was a cute story, so I decided to post it.
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Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VIII, its characters or anything else for that matter. The only thing I do own is the expansion of this idea. If you want to base a story around it, please email me for permission. Thank you.

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Edea Kramer frowned as she lay in bed for what felt like an eternity; gazing up at the ceiling and losing herself to her thoughts. So many things had happened to them recently, and it was a small wonder that things were beginning to fall back into place. For instance, little girl named Ellone had just left them, barely a day prior. The ten year old had been removed from this place; her home, and had been settled on a ship that Edea and her husband had taken their time to prepare. It was not safe for the little girl there; not anymore.

This place; the orphanage where the elder woman currently resided, had been the little girls’ home for nearly four years. She had come from a small town just outside of the Galbadian Republic after her caregiver had passed from this world. Once she had arrived, the little girl explained that people were after her for a particular reason, and only shared this information with Edea because of her own mystical talents. The little girl possessed the ability to send people’s consciousness into the past; allowing them to view what had already occurred. The details behind these powers were unknown; only that Ellone had had them since even before she could remember.

But like most gifts, it became a curse, as many people desired this kind of power. According to the little girl, she had been pursued by Esthar, before the end of the Sorceress’ War and the disappearance of the tyrannical country. After that, it was feared that someone may appear to take advantage of the child's power and, in time, the threat of an invasion had proven too great to allow it to chance.

It had happened nearly a day ago, relatively early in the night; the younger children had already been put to sleep when Edea had approached Ellone and told her of their intentions. The woman, who was currently nearing her mid forties, had not known what to expect from her. Ellone had always proven to be unpredictable at the best of times and the reaction she gave would always be the opposite of what one would expect. Even when catching onto her temperament, Ellone would prove that she could be spontaneous and throw off ones’ expectations when they lease expected it.

That night, Ellone had been surprisingly calm about the situation. Despite this calm, however, the little girl had initially refused the plan. Edea had known better than to accuse the girl of being selfish; that was not the case. Ellone had not refused the suggestion because she did not wish to leave the orphanage; her home. On the contrary; the little girl didn’t wish to bring anyone any harm. It was a particular little boy that she was thinking about.

When Ellone had come to the orphanage, she had not come alone. With her had been a small infant child, having been left behind after his mother; the woman who took care of her, had died. The both of them had been together ever since; Ellone having had a hand in raising the boy, and it was understandable why the little girl would hesitate in leaving him behind. The boy, for the most part, was extremely timid and never made an effort to interact with the other children. If anything, he stuck around his sister like glue, never allowing her to leave his sight for more than a moment (unless of course Ellone had to use the bathroom).

Edea had been especially worried as to how well the boy was going to take this news, but resolved that it was for the best; in everyone’s position, if Ellone disappeared for now. Naturally, the elder woman would keep taps on the girl for the time being, but she couldn’t afford to allow more people to know her whereabouts; even if both children were closely related.

The woman didn’t want to separate the two. She knew that it would be difficult on both of them. Ellone would be able to overcome the pain eventually, but the boy was merely four years old. He wouldn’t understand why his ‘sister’ left without him, nor would he be able to move on easily. Edea understood the pain the child would feel and was willing to help him through the obstacle.

Finally, Ellone had accepted, but only due to the point Edea had crossed upon. The last thing the girl wanted was to cause the people she cared about, and whom cared about her, any pain. She had done that once before, and she was determined not to do it again. If someone were to discover that she resided on Centran land, what was to stop them from invading and taking her by force, as the Estharians had nearly five years prior? The Centran civilization had been destroyed by the Lunar Cry that had occurred just sixty years prior, so there were no neighboring armies to combat the enemy forces. It would be easy to infiltrate and kidnap her from them. Edea refused to allow that possibility to ever occur, and thus was pleased that the child had agreed with the solution, although both of them wished that there was another alternative.

So both Edea and her husband Cid had helped the young girl pack up her belongings and Cid had arranged for Ellone to be picked up by two individuals; both of them sisters and close friends of the couple. Ellone had left with them as soon as they had arrived and Cid had returned to the orphanage, while it was still dark out.

Frowning in thought, Edea looked over to her right and watched as Cid Kramer rolled over onto his side, his back facing her as he slumbered on. She knew that he wasn’t satisfied with the decision as well, but she also knew that he managed to deal with serious situations far better than she did. Sighing, she resumed her thinking process, turning her gaze up towards the ceiling above once more.

Cid and Edea had both been the owners of the orphanage they resided since before the war’s end Children were orphaned while Galbadia and Esthar were at war; their parents having been killed in the onslaught and thus resulting in there being no other place for them to go. Edea and Cid had for the longest time been trying to become pregnant, but due to Edea’s family history, it was not possible. Instead, they decided to build a place where these children would be able to flourish and grow as they would have had their parents survived. It has begun with only a few children, however as time continued to pass the number began to grow until the end of the war, and even then more children were being discovered and brought to the Centran orphanage located on the Cape of Good Hope.

Six years had passed since they had first begun taking in children, and so far the orphanage held a perfect percentage rating for adoption. The people who came to them had either lost a child during the war or couldn’t have any, although a percentage of people who came had their own children as well and wished to adopt. Many children had left the orphanage due to adoption, and although she missed them terribly, Edea felt a sense of accomplishment. She and Cid had begun the business to find a place for orphan children to stay, and with each adoption they fulfilled their task.

The orphanage itself was fairly big; the size of a larger than average house. There were several sets of bedrooms stationed on the second floor of the building, and the master bedroom (of which Cid and Edea resided in) was located on the first floor, in case anyone managed to break into the building and so the children wouldn’t get hurt. The orphanage was built together by a combination of marble and concrete, making it virtually impenetrable. Located near the front of the orphanage were a group of tall spires made of marble, strictly for decoration and to allow for shade from the hot sun. Located closer to the front and side doors, which were made of wood, was a vast flower garden that seemed to stretch on for miles beyond. It was odd to most people that such a garden flourished in the everlasting heat wave that struck the Centran island, but to the people who knew better, it was no surprise at all.

Behind the orphanage stood a lighthouse, a building used to alert ships and boats that they were heading towards land. It was made of the same materials as the actual building. Near the lighthouse and stretching nearly the entire width of the orphanage grounds was a beach, the only thing separating the property from the ocean which was also located nearby. Most days, the children were permitted to play outside in the ‘backyard’, just so long as an adult was with the group. Of course, running the place was difficult for just two people, but they managed perfectly well.

Edea sighed once again as she recalled what occurred after Ellone’s so called disappearance. Some of the children had been determined to believe that the elder girl had been kidnapped by some sort of villain from the television shows they watched, while others wondered if she had been adopted. Edea knew that they wouldn’t have understood if she had explained it to them, but it was more difficult finding homes for the elder children than it was for the younger ones. It was set up that way because parents preferred to have a younger child join their family, so that way they would feel as though they were becoming a part of it. An elder child who was adopted into a family would always remember his or her old lifestyle, and, for that reason, wouldn’t feel too much at home with the new family.

The morning after Ellone’s departure had been a strenuous one. She and Cid had both been awoken by the cries of startled children and had tried to calm them all down, all the while trying to figure out what it was that had them so distressed. It turned out that Ellone's sudden disappearance had scared them into believing that something horrible had happened to her. In the end, Edea had had to talk to the children in groups and explain the situation to them in terms that they would understand. The general explanation had gone like this; ‘Very bad people were after Ellone and she didn’t want anything bad to happen to the rest of you if she stayed, so she had to go away for a little while.’

Even with the little understanding they possessed after the explanation, Edea could tell that they were still very crestfallen about the departure of their ‘big sister’. She knew that the act had to have been done, but it didn’t stop the hurting that it caused her every time she caught sight of one of the children's melancholy expressions. Cid had dealt with that extremely well actually. He had told them all that Ellone wouldn’t have wanted them to be sad by her leaving, and that it would make her sad when she came back and heard about it. Of course she didn’t condone Cid’s lying to the children, but it had brought them back into better spirits. It wasn’t that Ellone wouldn’t be coming back to them eventually. It was just that the future was so uncertain at times, and as long as people were searching for the little girl’s power, there was no telling if she would be safe staying in one place for any given amount of time.

But in the end, she realized that her suspicions about what would happen had been correct. The rest of the children, although still saddened, seemed to put that behind them, trying to return to their normal daily activities and talking about her to make themselves feel better. However, there was still one child who didn’t seem to be taking the news so well.

The child, Squall, had been devastated when he heard that the elder girl had left, and ever since then he had not been in the best of moods. He isolated himself from everyone else, even more so than he normally did, and he didn’t seem to understand why the girl had had to leave. The both of them had been virtually inseparable ever since they first arrived at the orphanage, and this was the very first time they had been apart for more than an hour at most. Although Cid had told her that it was best to leave him be, Edea wasn’t so sure; the boy was already beginning to develop a shell that he customarily crawled into, and she knew that it wasn’t healthy for such a young child to be forced to deal with this all by himself.

And this was the reason why she had stayed up for a while. She just couldn’t stop thinking about what this whole situation was doing to the small boy. As a motherly figure, she felt that she should not be the cause of his miserable disposition, but she also knew that she had made the right decision. She just hoped that she would not regret it in the long run.

She also understood that he was probably upset that Ellone hadn’t come to talk to him about it. Not that it was really his decision to make, but she figured that he was hurt that the elder girl hadn’t even said goodbye before she left. Edea had wanted for that to happen, but two possible outcomes forced her not to. For instance, he was still young, and if someone did come looking for her, he might accidentally allow something to slip that would lead them to her whereabouts. Another reason was that they needed to get her to leave immediately, since they never knew when her pursuers may come looking for her next.

Of course there had been the possibility of allowing Squall to accompany her, but it had immediately been stricken from the list of possibilities. He was only four years old, far too young to be setting off with strangers. Although Ellone would have been there, Squall had a horrible habit of wondering off on his own at the best of times. Besides, a child that young needed to be cared for constantly, and he wouldn’t get the proper attention he would need if he had tagged along.

Sighing aloud once more, she could recall to memory exactly what had happened the previous morning; when he had discovered that his ‘big sister’ had disappeared.

…

“Squall! Where are you going?!” Edea shouted after the young boy that she was chasing. The boy had light brown hair that constantly fell forward and into his face and was dressed in an orange t-shirt and a pair of black jeans. Instead of possessing dark brown eyes like most of the children with dark hair had, he had ice-blue eyes, that seemed to like to jump from blue to gray at certain points.

She had just caught up to him when she saw that he had already grabbed his black and white running shoes and ran out the door. Taking in a deep breath, she ran after him, not even bothering to put on her own pair of shoes. As she ran down the steps as carefully as she could, she called out after the distressed boy. “Squall!”

The boy stopped in his tracks and Edea felt a glimmer of hope that he would come back after realizing just where he was about to go. Although the flower field was on the ground that she and her husband owned, fiends still occasionally appeared to take over the territory. Usually, the children would end up being kept inside of the building while either Cid or Edea took out the monster themselves. Not exactly the safest of ideas, but with no one else tending to the orphanage, there weren’t very many options.

However, the boy just turned around and folded his arms across his chest before saying, “I’m gonna go find Sis!” and rushing out into the flower garden. Edea frowned and was about to run after him when she suddenly realized that they weren’t alone.

Standing near the entrance of the orphanage grounds, was another boy. This boy couldn’t have been older than the late teens, and was dressed nearly completely in black; a white shirt sat underneath his fur-collared black leather jacket, matching the pair of black jeans and combat style boots that he also wore. His light brown hair wasn’t short, nor was it long; with strands falling in front of his face, covering his stormy-blue eyes and a scar that ran from his forehead, running diagonally past the bridge of his nose and stopping underneath his left eye. His left ear was pierced; a small bud earring resting on the cartilage on the bottom of the ear and sitting around his neck and on his chest was a chain attached to a strange looking pendent that appeared to be the head of a lion on a cross. A dark red coloured belt sat loosely around his waist, attached to his a scabbard that appeared to be carrying a weapon.

The weapon was what caught the womans’ eye and she approached him slowly and cautiously. If he had come looking for the little girl that they had just sent away, she didn’t want him going anywhere near the children. But there was something about this boy that told her that he wasn’t there to cause any trouble. More importantly, Edea felt as if she had come into contact with him before, but she couldn’t place the date or time. He was too old to have been among the children in the orphanage, as they had merely begun taking the children in roughly six years prior, and the eldest child they had taken in had been Ellone.

Trying her best to appear unassuming, she had smiled at the visitor before asking her question. “Excuse me…” she said as calmly as possible. “But you wouldn’t have seen a little boy around here, would you?”

The teenager appeared stunned and confused for a moment, and Edea wondered if she had confused him with her question. However, before she could elaborate, she noticed a fleeting expression quickly crossing the boys features. She could have sworn it was understanding, but she couldn’t be sure as it had disappeared quickly afterwards. Smiling back at the woman, the boy shook his head quickly. “Don’t worry.” He said. “He won’t go very far.”

For a moment, she contemplated the meaning behind those words. She had already decided in her mind to trust the teenager, since her sixth sense wasn’t sensing anything hostile about him at all, but it seemed very strange that he would just wave off her concerns. A sudden though occurred to her that maybe, perhaps, he had siblings that tended to run off every now and then. He must have figured, from personal experience, that the child she was looking for might not head very far from where they were currently. She chuckled at the notion, also knowing from past experience that Squall would soon be coming back after tiring himself out. “I think so too…” She said after a moment when she gathered back her composure. “Poor thing…” she said as she looked past the visitor and finally spotted the elusive child. Squall was in the midst of searching the flower field, thinking that Ellone was hiding there.

Suddenly, Edea sensed something forming behind her, and turning around, she was surprised to see a billowing smoke appearing between herself and the door. Stepping back and to the side, she noted that the purple and black smoke continued to spread and before she even realized it, she had already stepped behind the teenager. However, rather than follow her example and step backwards, the boy reached towards the hilt of his weapon and unsheathed if from its scabbard. The weapon was a sort of a mix between a revolver and the blade of a weapon, seeming to meld together with each other. The blade itself was short, thin and white, but it pulsed to life with a glowing blue light that made the weapon appear to be far larger than it really was. The handle, which in reality was a grayish-white pistol, was larger than it normally would have been (probably to help balance out the weight of the weapon) and came complete with a barrel in the side for loading bullets. Hanging off the handle of the weapon appeared to be another chain with the same kind of lion head amulet on the end. Along the side of the blade also appeared to be an engraving of the same creature, only more completed, and appeared to be the cross between a lion and a bird with large wings.

Edea had always been fascinated about the concept of a gunblade. No one in history had ever been able to wield the legendary weapon, let alone master it. But this teenager, of whom she had only just met by chance, wielded it like an extension of his arm. He must have trained with it for a very long while… She thought to herself.

“You’re still alive?!” the boy cried out, surprise apparent in his tone and she noticed him tense up as the swirling purple and black smoke seemed to form into a being. Edea wasn’t surprised when a woman dressed in scantily black and red attire emerged, walking slowly and limping, as if she had been seriously wounded. She possessed long flowing silver hair that did nothing to make her appear older than she probably was, with long black tips decorating the ends. Light purple lines decorated her face and amplified her golden cat-like eyes. Her lips were painted red and her hands were covered by long black gloves that seemed to suggest that her fingers were nothing short of long claws A black and red cape flowed behind her and black and red horns protruded from either side of her head (probably a decoration of sort). Black boots protected her feet from the rubble and broken slabs of stone that had crumbled from the roof of the building behind her and she swayed as she began to approach the both of them.

Edea was not surprised by what she was, but mainly behind the impossibility of it. There were only two sorceresses that she knew of; one of them having been the ruthless tyrant of Esthar, Adel. The other she knew personally, and, although there was no mistaking the fact, this woman who stood before her was not the second sorceress. “The Sorceress?” she muttered aloud.

“Yes…” The boy standing before her answer, and she was surprised that he had even heard her. “That is the Sorceress Ultimecia. We had defeated her, but it looks like she managed to survive the attack.”

“Defeated her?” Edea asked in shock. “We? What do you mean by that…?”

“I’ll explain later.” The teenager said, shifting his weight as he prepared to attack. “Matron, stand back.”

Edea was momentarily taken aback by the statement. The only people to call her by her title were the children in the orphanage, and, although she felt as if she knew him, she didn’t believe that she had ever seen him before in her entire life. But she understood that her questions could be answered later. Right at that moment, she needed to handle the situation before any unnecessary bloodshed occurred. Placing a calming hand on the boy's shoulder she quickly shook her head as she stepped around and in front of him. “There is no need to draw you’re weapon.” She spoke as calmly as the situation allowed her to. “Take another look at her.”

The boy stared at her for a moment before doing as she asked and glanced at the sorceress, who was still steadily approaching them. Edea allowed him to do so for a second before she continued her explanation. “This sorceress is dead. I can’t sense any life emitting from her. She is just a being; a container that is holding her powers in check, and she will continue to wonder aimlessly with this power until she passes it on to another.”

Swallowing audible, she realized that to have him understand the full situation she would have to allow him to know her secret; one that not many people were privileged to know; not even the children she was raising. The only person who was still around who knew what was was her husband, and he was the only one she knew could see through that knowledge and see the person she really was. “I know all of this…because I too am a Sorceress, and have been for a long time.”

She didn’t notice any sign of surprise from the boy, and that alone shocked her to the core. It was if he had already known the truth, but there was no way he could have. As more questions seemed to take hold of her, she pushed them aside and continued to press forward. “I will accept her powers…because I do not wish for any of the children that are under my care to become a Sorceress. I alone will continue to possess this burden.”

With that said, she turned away from the visitor and slowly began to approaching the dead woman, meeting her halfway. She heard the boy behind her calling to her, using the same title the children did, but she ignored him, continuing on until she and the Sorceress were staring at each other, face to face. Biting her lip, she stayed her ground as the Sorceress stared at her with her cold dead eyes.

“I…” the woman struggled for words for a moment, before staring blankly at the raven haired woman. “I…cannot…die yet…”

“I understand.” Edea said, nodding as she did. “I will accept your powers. May you rest in peace.”

The Sorceress nodded once in understanding before closing her eyes. Soon afterwards, a wave of wind passed between the two women and began to lift the Sorceress up into the air. At once, her arms extended to either side of her and a blast of fuchsia coloured light emerged from the center of her chest and flew into Edea with enough force to push her backwards. Still, she stayed her ground as she outstretched her own arms, accepting the power as it began to meld together with her own. After a moment, the force began to die down and Edea felt her strength leaving her as she sank to her needs and pushed her arms forward to prevent herself from landing on her stomach and face. Looking up through the one eye she still had open, she watched as the Sorceress fell forward onto the ground in the same manner as herself, only her body disintegrated in the same fuchsia coloured light as her power and her remains flew up into the sky like purple specs of light. Edea smiled herself as she watched the dead sorceress finally leave the plain, passing onto a new afterlife.

She suddenly felt strong arms help her into a kneeling position and immediately know that it was the boy she had just met. Placing her left hand to rest on her forehead, she looked up at him wearily and managed a small smile to grace her features. “I am alright.”

Looking back towards the ground of which the other Sorceress had been a moment ago, she couldn’t help but voice another question. “…Is it over?”

“It seems like it Matron…” the boy answered as he helped her to her feet. “It’s finally over…”

Looking at him curiously, she decided that now was as good a time as any to receive the answers she desired. “You just called me Matron.” She said, surprising him a bit. “You’ve called me that a few times since you’ve been here, but I don’t believe we’ve met before. Who…?” She took in a deep breath to calm herself. This entire ordeal was rather mind shaking and she would have been lying had she pretended it hadn’t affected her so greatly. “Who are you?”

The boy hesitated for a moment, as if he were trying to reign in his own thoughts to properly address her question, and after a moment he finally spoke. “A SeeD.” He said. “I’m a SeeD from Balamb Garden.”

The answer only confused her still. “SeeD? Garden?” The thought sounded absurd, although figuratively, anyone was a seed in the world that was the garden, but other than Cid, only she had expressed that opinion over the years. Hearing it from a stranger just seemed odd to her.

The boy nodded once in answer to her question. “I don’t know why they’re called what they are, but Garden was built to train SeeDs. And SeeDs are created to defeat the Sorceress.” At her surprised expression, he nodded once again. “And both of them were your ideas, Matron.”

Just as she was about to question him further, a sudden realization struck her, and even though it sounded absurd, she couldn’t help but believe in the explanation since it was the only one that made any sense. “Garden…SeeD…my…?” She shook her head to clear it when another answer came to her. No wonder she had sensed that she had known him before; she had…just in another time.

“Do you mean…” she glanced back to see the young boy she had run after still searching amongst the flowers, as if the whole episode that had occur had not happened. “You’re…that boy…from the future?”

The older Squall nodded once in agreement. “That’s how I understand it at least.”

Edea took a deep breath before letting it out. “I am sorry if this comes off as abrasive or rude, but… you need to leave here. You do not belong in this time.”

He nodded once again. “I know.”

Just before he could say any more, however, the younger Squall ran passed him, reaching Edea as he took in a deep breath, as if trying to calm himself down. For all it had done, he still looked about ready to break down. Edea took a moment to glance up at the child’s elder counterpart and smiled lightly at the shocked expression on his features. She could only imagine what it would be like to come into contact with her own younger self. Looking back down at the younger boy, she knelt down, instantly sensing his distress.

“I can’t find Sis…” he said, looking dejectedly at his shoes.

Edea could feel her own heart breaking at the sound of his tone. It sounded so sad; so lost.

“Am…am I all alone?”

Shaking her head, she pulled him into a hug as he still stared down at his shoes. “Of course you are not alone.” She said to him. “You have me, and Cid, and all of the other children in the orphanage. I know it may not be the same as it used to be, but you still have us, and we all care about you very much.”

Edea could tell that he had only been half listening, as she noticed that he had looked up towards his counterpart, as the elder boy watched the scene with an expression that seemed to say ‘I understand’. She smiled to herself, knowing that in the end, her words had stayed with him.

“Who’s that?” The younger boy said, breaking the elder woman out of her thoughts. Edea smiled a bit at the startled expression on the teenagers face, signaling that he had also lost himself to his thoughts. “And what’s he doin’ here?”

Brushing a strand of hair out of the little boys’ face, her smiled widened. “Nemo…” she said, speaking in the dead Centran language. “That means ‘no one’ But you do not even really need to know.” She ruffled his hair a bit as she continued. “The only Squall permitted here is you.”

The young boy merely looked up at Edea in confusion as Edea looked to the elder Squall. “Do you know how to get back home?” She asked, the maternal part of her personality taking hold. “Do you know where to go? And will you be alright getting there by yourself?”

The elder Squall nodded in response before straightening his spine and pulling his right arm forward, his fingers snapping together and curving slightly in front of his face. Although Edea wasn’t fully aware of military affairs, she understood that the gesture was intended to be a salute, and that the lower ranked soldiers would always salute to their superior. But she didn’t even have a chance to mention it as he suddenly vanished into thin air; disappearing into the fabric of time and, hopefully, back to his own.

Glancing back down at the young boy, she couldn’t help back allow her thoughts to drift onto what the boy from the future had told her. SeeDs are trained in Gardens to defeat the Sorceress. It seemed uncanny to her, but also it provided a glimmer of hope. Perhaps there would be a way to prevent another Sorceress War from breaking out. Perhaps it would prevent Sorceresses like Adel, who would greedily welcome the use of their powers to use to their own gain, from doing something horrific and unthinkable. It would give everyone a fighting chance if something like what happened so long ago happened again. The only problem Edea could think of was that the people who held the head position within this organization might use their biased opinion of Sorceress in general to guide their decisions. She did not want there to be a group of people who could defeat a Sorceress breathing down the necks of the ones who try to keep a low profile in life.

That was when the rest of the boy’s words rang in her head as if it were a reminder. ‘Both of them were your ideas…’

Edea chuckled at the irony behind that statement; a Sorceress behind the idea of defeating Sorceress and protecting mankind from the ones who wish to abuse their powers. The idea itself seemed sort of like someone dreaming of a future without war. That wouldn’t happen, with everyone within the world thinking differently from one another. But that was also what set people apart from each other; their ideas, their behaviours, their beliefs; all of it shaped and formed the people of today, and it would be barbaric to attempt to take that freedom away from people. Edea herself made it a personal practice to encourage the children in the orphanage to accept everyone’s different beliefs.

“Matron…”

The small voice brought Edea out of her thoughts and she looked down at the boy she still held in her arms. “Yes?”

“...I’m a little hungry.”

Edea laughed at the statement before taking hold of his small hand. “I bet you are. All that running around made you very hungry. Come; let us go join the others.”
…

‘I remember telling Cid about that strange idea…’ she thought to herself as she glanced over at her slumbering husband. Cid had been ecstatic about the idea of people training people to defeat a Sorceress is necessity called upon it. Edea had waved the idea off almost immediately after she had told him, saying how ridiculous it sounded now that she had said it instead of thinking about it, but Cid on the other hand was determined to make it a personal project for himself. Edea had sighed then; whenever Cid had a personal project, he rarely ever finished what he started. In fact, he still had yet to complete the expansion of the little play set he had set up for the children to play on. In the end, Edea had purchased multiple amounts of them with her own savings money. Sure, Cid had not been happy about it, but the children were and that was what mattered.

But something was still bothering her. Fate and Destiny were nice words, but the future was never quite set in stone. What would happen if something were to change the idea behind SeeD? What if something or someone were to come along and use the creation of SeeD for something less noble? She knew Cid was a trusting man, and he saw the best in anyone, but he was also easy to lead around. Seeing the best in everyone was a great trait that Edea admired, but in the end, people tended to use that trust to lead the person astray. She for one had been led around in the past because of her powers, and she would do anything to prevent that from happening once again. 

Rolling back over onto her right side, she stared out the window and noticed that the sun was peeking just above the horizon. Sighing, she rose to her feet and headed towards the window and leaned against the railing, her long dark hair blowing as a gentle current flew past. She knew that she wouldn’t be getting any sleep as of that night. ‘The children are probably starting to awaken as I’m standing here…’ she thought to herself.

As she reached the bedroom door (careful not to rouse her husband), she suddenly felt a chill, as if something weren’t quite right. Following that instinct, she quickly pulled the door open and went to check up on the children. Her main concern was that they were safe. If nothing showed up from there, then she would pursue another possibility. Bandits customarily set up forts in the surrounding area to find precious artifacts and whatnot left over from the Lunar Cry. Edea couldn’t understand what they would find, considering the amount of time that had passed between then and presently, but she was concerned that they may try to rob the orphanage of anything that wasn’t bolted down.

Walking up the stairs as quickly and quietly as she could, she looked outside to see that the sun was still slowly making its way over the horizon, but she paid it little mind as she entered the room that the girls resided in. Checking up on them, she noticed that most of them, the younger children, were already in the midst of waking up and watching the sunrise from their own bedroom window. One of the little girls, a small brunette with green eyes and dressed in yellow pajamas was propped up to look out the window by one of the older girls.

Inspecting the room, she counted the girls quickly before nodding to herself and heading towards the boy’s room. Just as she was about to grab a hold of the doorknob, the door swung open and out ran a little boy with blond hair and blue eyes dressed in light blue pajamas. Running after him was another boy with blonde hair, and he was fully dressed in a blue sleeveless shirt with white lines crisscrossing at the center and a pair of dark pants.

“MATWON! HELP!!” The littler of the two screamed as he ran down the stairs.

“Seifer!” Edea shouted behind her. “It is far too early to be picking on Zell!”

The second boy, Seifer, stopped in his tracks and turned to look at Edea. “But I can’t pick on Squall, coz he’s not here.”

Edea stopped herself from entering the bedroom and approached the blonde boy, stopping him from running after the younger boy. “What did you just say?”

“I said 'I can’t pick on Squall coz he’s not here'.”

Kneeling down to Seifer’s level, Edea looked the child in the eye. “Seifer, this is important. Was he there when you woke up?”

Suddenly jumping backwards, Seifer stared at Edea wide-eyed. “Whatever it is, I didn’t do it!”

“I know you did not do anything, aside from picking on Zell, but was Squall there when you woke up?”

“…No…I went to wake him up but he wasn’t there so I got dressed and started chasing the cry-baby.”

“Seifer, that is not a nice thing to say about Zell. We’re going to have a talk about that later.” With that said, Edea quickly left the child alone to wonder what it was she was talking about and headed back down the stairs towards her bedroom. If Squall had done what she thought he had, then they needed to find him quickly.