What Quistis Did Next Book 1
By Lee Chrimes
INTRO & DISCLAIMER:
Welcome one and all to the first book of my brand new Quistis fanfic, "What Quistis Did Next." There are to more books and chapters to follow if you all like this one, so read and enjoy!
I’m currently looking into a webspace to host this on, so I’ll get the link spread around once that’s sorted out.
I would also like to state that I are the writer of this fan fiction and it's not allowed for distribution without my permission. Also please also note that this cannot be used for commercial purposes.
So, this is Mr D Heart, e-mailable at mr_d_heart_the_second@yahoo.co.uk with the first book.
Book One
Quistis thought this quiet, safe little town was a wonderful place to start the second chapter of her life. She’d left the Garden and her friends to seek my own path in this ever-changing blur of events that we call life, and she was looking forward to some hard earned downtime while she figured out where her place in the world was now.
So quite what she was doing slugging it out with an enraged lizard monster at 2 in the morning, down a dark alley miles from anyone who could help or care enough to at least scream in shock, desperately trying to stop it from both carving her into a slimmer figure and biting a chunk out of the terrified young girl cowering behind one of the dumpsters, was entirely beyond her.
Another swift tail swipe from the creature sent Quistis slamming to the ground, the barbed tip of the monster’s tail leaving a bloody gash across her cheek. Now that was going to be tough to explain away tomorrow in class.. She had no time to think about what flimsy excuse to come up with as the lizardman slammed its fists down on the cold concrete floor, inches away from where her head had just been. Whatever this thing was, it was getting the upper hand on her and Quistis needed to find its weak spot and take it out, and fast.
Her black outfit was covered with patches of dirt and filth from the alley, and her normally pristine boots were coated with household rubbish from one of the dumpsters overturned earlier in the fight. Quistis had happened upon this by chance, hearing the girl’s screams for help and rushing to the rescue, not knowing that pretty soon she’d be the one who could do with rescuing! The monster rushed at her, slamming its tail into the lone streetlamp that illuminated this little action scene and sending the bulb several feet above them swinging wildly from side to side, adding a disorientating strobe effect to further blur Quistis’ already hazy vision. She held her whip handle up protectively, hoping to get a lucky shot at the thing’s face, but the lizard grabbed at the handle with its own scaly claws and started to push it against her throat.
The monster’s hot breath hissed in her face, smelling distressingly like fresh meat, and Quistis was pushed back down to the ground as she struggled to stop the creature from throttling her with her own weapon. As it pressed its weight down on top of her, the edges of her vision started to blur and fade to black, which Quistis unfortunately recognised as the first signs of rapidly closing unconsciousness. If she passed out, the lizard would probably rip out her throat and then finish off the girl for dessert, and she wasn’t about to let that happen.
Managing to gain a foothold with her boot heel on the floor, Quistis arched herself upwards sharply to throw the monster up a little, enough for her to angle her knee squarely into its solar plexus. The lizard made a muffled ‘whoomph’ noise and backed off the pressure around her neck, so Quistis took her chance and threw it off of her.
Standing upright at last, she cracked her whip once against the ground as the lizardman slowly got up, crouching and ready to pounce. It hissed venomously at her, its narrow eyes darting from side to side, trying to guess her next move.
Luckily, it was a fraction of a second too late to catch her rapid whip crack across its shins, and as the creature yelped and crashed to the ground she followed up her advantage with a firm boot to its head. Feeling the creature’s tough skull under her foot, she leapt back and span on one heel, sending her whip flying out in a broadside attack that swept the beast over and into the wall at the far side of the alley. It slammed to the ground and lay still.
Quistis, panting with exertion, kept her eyes on the fallen creature but motioned for the girl to come over to her. The girl, her tear streaked eyes also locked on the lizard, shook her head and stayed where she was, wedged into a tight spot at one corner of the alley. Quistis irritably waved at her again to come over, and the girl slowly started to shuffle along the floor towards her. When she was a foot away, the lizard groaned and stirred, provoking the girl to yelp and dash for cover behind Quistis.
Facing down her by now badly wounded enemy, Quistis carefully lined up one last whip strike, unleashing it as the lizard got to its feet. The monster cracked its head against the alley wall, leaving an ugly splatter of blood, and this time was down for good.
Silence reigned in the alley for a few moments, until Quistis picked up the faint sound of the young girls sobs, her face pressed into Quistis’ thigh and her tiny arms clutching tightly around her boot. Trying to calm her breathing, Quistis wound up and hung her whip off her belt before crouching down to face the young girl.
"What’s your name, then?" she asked. The girl sniffed once, wiped away a tear and answered.
"Marie," she said.
"Well then, Marie, I’ll get you home and you can forget any of this ever happened, okay?" The girl nodded a few times, before looking up at Quistis with a puzzled gaze.
"But who are you?" Quistis smiled.
"Oh, I’m nobody. Just an out of date teacher trying to find somewhere to call home. So speaking of home," she said as she stood up, taking Marie’s hand in her own and walking out of the alley, "let’s get you to yours."
How Quistis actually found herself in this situation is a much longer story..
* * * * * * * * * * *
The final ball at the Garden was in full swing as Quistis stepped out onto the breezy balcony, away from the swaying crowds of precisely-dancing students and increasingly inebriated SeeDs. It was getting late now, almost midnight in fact, but the full autumn moon hanging in the sky lit up the forests and landscape around the Garden for miles in every direction. The stars were out, light puffs of fluffy white cloud drifted gently across the sky – it was like a perfect painting of how an evening should look, complete with lone flights of birds flitting across in the distance, even down to the glittering reflection of the moonlight on the waves of the beach just past the forest.
So why did Quistis feel like she was looking out into nothing but a deep black abyss? Despite all the attempts of her friends to cheer her up, despite the fact that they’d managed to face and defeat the insanely powerful Sorceress Ultimecia, and even despite the six or so vodka shooters that the Trepies had been plying her with all evening, Quistis still couldn’t stop feeling like she was at a different party altogether. And a little sick, although the height she was at and the mixture of fresh air and alcohol was probably causing that.
Squall and Rinoa were dancing away as though they were the only two people in the world, and the way Rinoa was careening energetically across the ballroom floor they were soon going to be the only two people there, a combination of the girl’s whirling and Squall’s famously clumsy footwork gifting them a large space on the floor all to themselves. Quistis had to admit that the girl looked good, having drafted her favourite shimmering white evening gown back out of the wardrobe for tonight’s celebratory dinner and dance, and she certainly seemed to be doing a good job of sharing the limelight with the rest of the team. Zell and Irvine were busy trying to drink each other under the table, surrounded by a posse of cheering students, Selphie was dashing here and there still making last minute touches to everything, having spent the past few days organising the decorations, the band, the food, the outfits – it was a wonder the girl ever turned her hand to combat, considering she was just as skilled at playing the hostess with the mostest!
The venerable Headmaster Cid, never one to miss a good party, was sat at one of the large dinner tables arranged around the circular dance floor, chatting away to the other senior Garden staff, his newly de-sorceressified wife Edea back by his side, and looking a lot better without all the gothic regalia she’d worn back in her world domination days. She still had a good line in killer figure-hugging black evening dresses, however, although this time her jet black hair was left to fall loosely around her shoulders, which also looked a lot better now the colour had returned to her skin. Cid himself looked like the king of the hill right now, and Quistis smirked to herself as she remembered the words of encouragement he’d whispered to Squall and the others when they’d graduated.
So everyone was happy, everyone was feeling that sense of accomplishment and the world in general was breathing a sigh of relief now that there were no more crazed time-travelling witches threatening its safety. Everyone was happy except for Quistis. Though she still but a brave face on in public, and had certainly not let anyone at the party see the dark cloud hovering over her, now that she had a moment to herself she let that cloud rain down on her for a while. She hadn’t wanted to spoil anyone’s evening, and she’d actually spent the past few weeks forgetting to be miserable or depressed about anything – they’d all been doing too much racing about and battling fiendish monsters to sit and mope about what was on her mind. Now she had a chance to think again.
She was going to leave the Garden. That part of her future was made up. She’d already handed in her papers and quit as an instructor before the Ultimecia affair, that moment out on the balcony in the training centre with Squall having been the moment she made her mind up. She had, in her own words, failed as an instructor, and the time had come to find out what she was actually supposed to be doing with the rest of her life, and that life lay somewhere past the walls of the Garden, and out there in that postcard view of the world she was looking out onto.
Then there was Squall himself, the brooding, introverted but commanding young man who’d led the team into the very jaws of Death and then back out again, blazing a trail all over the world and finally exterminating the evil that was threatening to devour it. Quistis hadn’t yet worked out how she felt about him. Whether the feelings she had were a crush (she had to remind herself sometimes she was still a teenager, even though she felt like she’d been at the Garden for nearly twenty years sometimes), exaggerated friendly affection or something more, or perhaps just a symbol of her longing to find the peace and happiness he seemed to have found in the arms of a bouncy young girl called Rinoa Heartilly.
Quistis certainly didn’t wish the girl any harm, far from it, and she wasn’t even what she’d class as jealous of her relationship with Squall. A little envious, but more of the emotional contentment she saw in Rinoa than the person she’d actually found that with. Quistis looked down at the half-finished vodka martini in her hand and swilled it round the glass a few times, staring thoughtfully into the bottom of the glass. As the liquid inside stopped swirling and she could make out her reflection again, she became aware of breathing next to her. Without looking up, she recognised the occasionally laboured breaths of Cid. The headmaster was barely in his fifties and in good health, apart from the giveaway slightly asthmatic wheeze that had alerted her to his presence. Without looking up, she spoke.
"I suppose you’re going to ask me what I’m doing out here by myself when the party is going on in there without me, right?" Cid paused, rocking back on his heels for a moment before replying.
"Actually, I was just going to comment on what a beautiful evening it was, but now that you mention it, yes, your friends are wondering where you’ve gotten to. I noticed you’d picked the one balcony that can’t be seen from inside the ballroom."
"I didn’t want to spoil their night with my moping, Cid," she answered, leaning her arms onto the balcony and resting her chin on her forearms. "I was just having a moment to wonder what happens next."
"You’re not the only one," he said, taking off his glasses and giving them a wipe with the loose bottom end of his dinner shirt. "I mean, I sent your team out to defeat the sorceress, and you did. I wanted you to restore peace to the land, and you did. And I wanted you all to come back in one piece, which thankfully you did. Although In Zell’s case I doubt his mind was ever all in one piece to start with." He grinned and looked down at Quistis, who was also smirking at the remark.
"Yes, I see all that. It’s just that for so long we knew exactly what we had to do and we got on with it. Now, it suddenly seems like there’s nothing for us to do anymore, like we’ve done all that we can."
"Oh, now, I wouldn’t say that at all, young lady," said Cid, turning and leaning against the balcony and crossing his arms over his chest. "There will always be evil to fight and peace to maintain. Just because we’ve defeated one enemy doesn’t mean another won’t come along, one perhaps more powerful than the last. I will always need you, the other SeeDs, the students and all my staff behind me to defend this world of ours." Quistis stood up and stretched her back, then turned to face Cid.
"I want to leave the Garden, Cid," she said bluntly. Cid didn’t look round for a few moments, then lowered his head and scraped one shoe along the floor, choosing his words carefully.
"I know," he said. "I already sort of knew you weren’t happy here, even though your student feedback was always glowing and your skill in the field was of the highest class at all times, but it wasn’t until squall mentioned it to me that I knew for sure."
Quistis reddened. Squall had told him? Of all the-
"Wh- when did he tell you?" she stammered, caught off guard for a moment.
"Oh, not long ago, just before you all finally jetted off to Ultimecia Castle, in fact. He was afraid you wouldn’t all make it back and didn’t want to leave any unfinished business. He only told me because he knew the Garden policy towards bereavement funds, and that if you were still an employee when you died the pension paid out to your next of kin was a lot more substantial."
"Oh," said Quistis, stumped again. "So, Squall told you to do what, exactly?"
"He told me to make sure you were still entitled to the full pension, even though technically your decision to leave would have been processed before your death." Cid looked up at her at last, seeing the young woman’s face a jumble of emotions. "He cares for you a great deal, you know. They all do."
"Wow. That.. I had no idea," she managed, not entirely sure what to say or think.
"So you see, whatever choice you have made is entirely up to you," said Cid, laying a fatherly arm around her shoulders and guiding her back towards the party, "but I just want you to know I still have yet to process that form, and I want you to make sure you’re doing what you think is best."
Quistis was silent as they rejoined the party, Cid drifting away once they were back inside. Selphie bounded up to Quistis like an eager puppy, and like a true professional social butterfly Quistis snapped out of her thoughts and put her disarming happy face on. It was hard not to grin when Selphie was around anyway, her enthusiasm and lust for life was infectious.
"There you are!" beamed the youngest of the team. "Come on, you’ll miss everything," she said, grabbing Quistis’ hand and dragging her across the packed dance floor.
"Wait, where are we going, Selphie?" she protested, but Selphie was too busy weaving through the crowd of dancers to respond. They were soon on the other side of the hall, where a makeshift podium had been assembled. Students and instructors alike were gradually congregating around it, and Selphie noticed Squall and the others were waiting too. Irvine motioned for her to come over so she did, as Selphie let go of her hand and disappeared off again.
"Irvine, what’s going on now?" she asked, as the auburn-haired sharpshooter fiddled nervously with the tie on his obviously borrowed dress uniform.
"I have no idea, something the munchkin’s been cooking up for us all night," he said, with a glance over to his partner Selphie, who seemed to be almost physically pushing the rest of the partygoers towards the podium.
"Just so long as they don’t all start chanting-" she began, but was interrupted by the crowd.
"Speech! Speech! Speech!" they sang as one, no doubt spurred on by the ‘munchkin’ Irvine so lovingly referred to. Quistis looked round. Rinoa was giggling as Squall slowly shook his head, his paralysing fear of public speaking taking hold of him, while Zell just grinned and leaned over to whisper in Quistis’ ear.
"I think we just have to go up and say ‘yeah, we blew up the bad guy, or girl, now let’s get back to the party!’ and then we can go again," he said, his trademark mischievous smirk in place.
"Good, because I was hoping that this’d be a low key-"
"Ladies and gentlemen!" boomed Selphie’s voice from the podium next to them. It was up on a little stage just to the side of the band who’d been supplying the ballroom music, and by now almost everybody in the whole Garden seemed to be there, making a huge throng of expectant faces looking up at little Selphie, clearly loving every second of this brief power trip.
"Oh wow, it’s so good to see everybody here! Okay, okay, briefly serious for a second. As you may know, this banquet is in the honour of a very special group of students, one of whom just happens to be me," she said, pausing for a ripple of laughter, "so I just wanted to take this opportunity to get everyone up here so you can show your appreciation, so without further ado, may I present the Garden class of the year!" She bowed and stepped away from the podium to a round of applause, and gestured for the others to join her on stage. One by one they climbed up, all except Squall who was almost literally dragged up there by Rinoa as if he was a naughty child. Quistis surpressed a chuckle and smiled at the crowd of clapping and cheering students. Cid and Edea were visible towards the back of the crowd, a proud smile on the headmaster’s face.
"Say something!" whispered Zell, "you could tell them to go and run off the balcony and they’d do it for you at the moment!" Quistis sent a scolding look at him and then stepped up to the podium.
"Thank you. On behalf of everyone in the team I’d just like to thank you all, first for coming here, secondly for believing in us and finally for giving us something to come home to," she said, putting on er silkiest announcement voice and receiving another round of applause for her words. "I do have an announcement to make this evening, however, and despite the fact that a part of me is currently screaming ‘what are you doing??’ at me," she went on, letting another murmur of laughter pass through the crowd, although a few faces had already become a little more perturbed by her words. With a deep breath, and trying not to look either Cid, Edea or any of her friends behind her in the eye, she continued.
"I know I haven’t been at the Garden long, but I’ve done a lot with myself in that time. saved the world at least once, last time I checked. But I think that the time has come for me to move on. I’ve always believed that you should never stay in the same place for too long – it keeps life interesting, and I feel in my heart that I have many more places to go and people to meet yet. I have loved every last second of my time here at the Garden, and it will always have a dear place in my heart, but I’ve made my choice for my future. Tonight had better be the best damn party this place has ever seen, because I, Quistis Trepe, SeeD instructor, am announcing my retirement and that I will be leaving Balamb Garden at the end of the week."
Silence followed. Quistis imagined she could actually see the Trepies starting to sob. No-one had spoke, the crowd having quietened as her speech had carried on until now, the distant sound of nocturnal animal cries from the forest outside was the only sound that could be heard.
"Well what are you lot waiting for, fireworks?" came a voice from the rear of the hall. There was a hubbub as the crowd turned to see who had spoken. It was Cid, trying to hide his teary eyes. "I’d better hear the biggest standing ovation for Instructor Trepe in my life in the next two seconds or you’ll all be out of here on your ear before you can say ‘snap’!" he started to clap. It took less than two seconds for everyone else in there to join him. Quistis reddened again as the cheers started, and as a smile broke out across her face she stepped down from the podium with a bow and a wave, and walked steadily past her dumbstruck friends and off the stage.
"Beat that, " she whispered to Irvine as she walked away.
* * * * * * * * * * *
The rest of the evening went as well as could be expected – as she’d hoped, it didn’t take the masses long to forget about Quistis’ announcement and get back to eating, drinking, dancing, drinking, laughing, drinking and then being sick or helping those who were too drunk to stand make their way back to their dorms. She’d managed to suppress a smile watching the others make their way through their little speeches on the podium after hers, although all most of them seemed to want to say was ‘thanks, now back to the party,’ apart from Rinoa who seemed to want to thank everybody she’d ever met for everything, and Squall, who just mumbled a few words then skulked away again.
She’d stayed out of people’s way as much as possible over the last week or two while she caught her breath from the whole saving the world thing, but tonight she was inundated every second with well-wishers, sad looking Trepies and people from all levels of the Garden’s faculty and administration wanting to pass on their good regards. Quistis answered them all with a smile and a hug (or a handshake, depending on the seniority of the potential hugee), and made most of her little fan club’s night by treating each one to a quick peck on the cheek for all their devotion. She normally loathed brown nosers and creeps, but the Trepies were a bit more honest than that – just a bunch of students who thought she was great, and Quistis had decided long ago they were a good pick-me-up when she felt a bit down, as long as she was careful not to let it go to her head.
One by one her friends had come over to say goodbye as well. Irvine was first, sidling up to her as she was pouring herself a glass of fruit punch. He slid a sly arm around her shoulders, inadvertently triggering a self-defence reflex in Quistis and nearly getting a face full of punch ladle for his troubles, but she stopped her elbow halfway along its path to his head and decided just turning and returning the hug was a more civilised thing to do.
"Wow. I mean, just.. wow. With everyone watching, too.. wow. Just.. wow." Quistis chuckled and took a sip from her drink as Irvine stumbled through what sounded like it was trying to be a compliment.
"Thank you, Mr Kinneas, I think you’re trying to say I made a good speech back there but I’m not a hundred percent sure.." She grinned and he followed suit, relaxing in an instant and getting himself a glass of wine from the well-stocked food and drink buffet in front of them.
"I’m not going to ask you why, or anything, don’t worry," he said, absently swirling the drink around in his glass, and also failing to notice he was splashing his once-pristine dress uniform with it, "I just wondered what you were going to do next. I mean, up there, when you were speaking, there was a glint in your eyes I haven’t seen for a long time, not since-"
"Not since we headed for the castle, no, you’re right. That was the last time I felt like I knew exactly what it was I was meant to be doing. I’ve lost my way a little, Irvine, and I just wanted to see if I could find it again." She walked away from the table and started to make a slow circuit of the dance floor, Irvine walked alongside her.
"I think I must be the only person who feels this, but when we got back here after that last fight, and I got back to my room and went to sleep, that was the best night’s sleep I ever had in my life. How about you?" Irvine blushed.
"Well, I, er.. Selphie came over and we didn’t get much sleep.." he said, looking down at his shoes coyly but powerless to stop a huge smile spreading across his face. Quistis smiled back.
"I had sort of noticed. Girls can always tell these things. You two go well together, you compliment each other’s natural sense of perkiness," she said, taking a sip of punch and scanning the ballroom for the others.
"So what next?" Irvine asked bluntly, and Quistis came to a stop as her mind turned it over for a while.
"Good question. Small steps to start with. I’m going to spend the next few days tidying up loose ends, organising replacements and generally putting my affairs in order, then on Saturday morning I’ll jump in my little car and just drive out the front gates, into the big wide world outside."
"So you’re going to look for a job in Balamb, then, " said Irvine without a hint of sarcasm. Quistis glared at him for a fraction of a second until she realised he was being honest.
"Maybe. Maybe I’ll try somewhere a bit further out, like Timber or Deling. And I’m still not sure what to actually do there, either. I think another teaching job is on the cards though – I didn’t make it as a SeeD instructor but I think the real world may be more within my limits."
"Quisty, the only reason you ‘didn’t make it,’ to quote you just then, is because you don’t have enough faith in yourself. And that is a terrible reason to give up."
"Irvine, you said you wouldn’t lecture me," she replied sternly, prompting Irvine to hold up his hands submissively and take a step back.
"I’m not, I’m not, all I’m saying is maybe you just need to find your faith out there and then maybe you’ll feel like you can take all this on again." Quistis stood thoughtfully for a long moment, before shaking her head to throw off the thousands of thoughts that had started to rush into her head.
"Not now. Maybe. Oh, damn it, Irvine! I just don’t know right now. All I know is that I need to not be here before I know where I want to be and what I want to do. You know?" Irvine stared blankly at her for a few seconds, then grinned and shook his head.
"Can’t say I do, sweetheart, sorry. But I hope you do find whatever the heck it is you’re after." He drained his wine glass and with a small belch placed the empty glass on the tray carried by a passing waiter. He tipped his hat to the man as he glared at Irvine.
"Much obliged, Jeeves," he smirked, before turning back to Quistis. "Go talk to the others, okay? They each want a few quiet moments with you." Quistis nodded and scanned the room for whoever was nearest. Spotting Selphie and Rinoa standing together, she wandered over to chat to them.
The girls were busy laughing and giggling about something as Quistis drew near. She coughed quietly once to draw their attention, only for the ever-enthusiastic Rinoa to leap at her and throw her arms round her. Not sure what to do with the affection, Quistis patted the girl gently on the back a few times until she let go.
"Your hugs are as famous as I’ve heard, then," she quipped, secretly trying not to look as winded as she was after the bearhug she’d just received.
"You!" chirped Rinoa, waving a scolding finger at Quistis but still grinning all the time. "Going and making a big announcement like that, trying to steal our thunder!"
"Rinoa, the gods themselves couldn’t steal your thunder and you know it. I just figured while I had everyone’s attention I may as well speak my mind."
"Well, you sure did that alright!" said Selphie, "the whole party’s been buzzing about you since that speech! Everyone wants to know what you’ll do, where you’ll go, when you’ll go.."
"Don’t know, not sure, and soon, to answer the questions," said Quistis. The three girls chuckled together.
"We’re all going to miss you, you big silly," said Selphie, delivering a less powerful but similarly affectionate hug to Quistis, whose ribs were starting to hurt now from all the attention she was receiving.
"I won’t be gone far. I’m going to travel out to Balamb or somewhere nearby to start with, then look at my options once I’m there. I feel like I’m discussing my life’s plans with everybody this evening – I have to keep reminding myself I’m not even twenty yet!"
"Youth doesn’t last forever," came a commanding voice from behind them. The girls turned to see Edea, their old matron at the orphanage and one-time nemesis, although who thankfully looked a lot less threatening these days. She maintained the impressive aura of someone who has spent a lot of time raising young children, and when combined with the large number of times she had soundly beaten Quistis and her teammates, they all remained a little bit in awe of her, much as she tried to deflect attention away from her past.
"So I keep hearing, Headmistress!" Quistis replied, with a nod of her head to respectfully acknowledge Edea’s recent appointment to headmistress alongside Cid.
"So you should make the most of every moment in this life that you get," Edea continued, "because too many people waste their lives settling for something, without really finding what it is they want." Edea laid a velvet gloved hand on Quistis’ shoulder and looked deep into her blue eyes. "You know I wish you every success in finding your path out there, Quistis, and I don’t need to tell you that you will always be welcome and among friends here at the Garden." She smiled, and Quistis laid her own hand on top of the one resting on her shoulder.
"Belive me, that’s one of the few things I do know for sure!" she replied, looking round at the three women before her and grinning again. "As long as you guys’ll keep having me back, I’ll be duty bound to pop in and say hello from time to time."
"Damn straight you will!" boomed a voice to her right, owned by the inimitable Zell, who was making his way over with Squall in tow. Squall looked even more downbeat than usual, and kept his eyes to the floor as though afraid to look straight at Quistis.
"You come to pay your respects too, huh?" said Rinoa cheekily, but Zell went straight in for a hug on Quistis without answering her.
"Alright, go easy on me, you lot, I’d like to be able to walk out of here without using crutches! At least I know you’re not the huggy type, right Squall?"
"Uh, yeah," Squall replied uncertainly, suddenly conscious of the attention on him. Quistis noticed his obvious discomfort and distracted the attention as best she could.
"So anyway, everyone, here’s my plan for the next few days," she said, drawing everyone back to her. "I’m going to be speaking to Xu and a few of the other instructors to get my duties covered and tying up my loose admin business, but after that I plan to head off early Saturday morning. I don’t want a big send off or anything, but a quiet little drink with you guys would be.. well, it’d just be nice. What do you say?"
"I think trying to stop Selphie organising another party may be the hardest part there, seeing as- ow!" said Irvine, interrupted halfway through his sentence by a sharp elbow courtesy of Miss Almasy. The others chuckled anyway.
"I can do a small party!" Selphie protested! "Just because my smallest to date has been a hundred and fifty people, doesn’t mean I can’t do small!"
"I leave it in your capable hands, then," said Quistis, looking around and spotting the person she was after, "but there’s just one last person I’d like to speak to, if you’ll excuse me," she said, leaving the others talking and walking off in the direction she’d noticed Squall slope off while everyone’s attention was diverted.
Squall was stood outside on one of the balconies, his hands clutching the railing as he stared out into the night. A light breeze gently ruffled both his spiky, flowing hair and the lapels of his dress uniform. Illuminated as he was in the moonlight, Quistis paused just outside the balcony for a second to admire him. Friend or not, Squall was still a damn fine-looking man. Nevertheless, she hadn’t come here to lust after him all over again, so with a deep breath she stepped out into the evening and took her place next to him. He didn’t look round. Knowing the way his mind worked, she started talking without waiting for him to speak.
"It’s a beautiful night, isn’t it? I was stood out here earlier when the headmaster came out to say hello. I was going to be a sulk and sit out here all night but he told me to go back inside. In a way, I’m glad he did, because I feel much better for having spoken properly to everyone, and it does feel like a big weight off my shoulders, now that-"
"Quistis." Squall spoke one word and she stopped mid-sentence. He still hadn’t looked round, and he still kept his eyes averted, a sure sign that he was digging deep to find the right words.
"That’s the rumour," she replied, waiting for him to speak again.
"I don’t want you to go," he said deliberately, "but at the same time I know it’s the best thing for you. I just wanted you to know I’ll miss you, that’s all." The silence stood for a few more seconds before Quistis giggled, drawing a stern glare from Squall.
"Why do you always do that whenever I try to be serious?" he said.
"Squall, you’re always serious, you don’t have any other way to be! Thank you, don’t worry, I know that emotional responses are often a sore point for you, so hearing you say that meant lot to me. Thank you." She beamed proudly at him, and he grinned a little, the tension having floated away into the night.
"Will you need any help sorting your affairs out?"
"Maybe a little, I’ll let you guys know," she said, looking out towards the distant city lights of Balamb with a sigh, "there’s just so much that I don’t know what to prepare for right now."
"Here, I’d like you to have this," he said, taking Quistis’ hand and pressing something into it. "I’ll see you back inside," he finished, walking back into the ballroom suddenly. Quistis looked after him for a few moments then looked down into her hand.
In her palm was Squall’s ring, the one he’d originally given Rinoa all that time ago. He’d gotten her one for herself since then, and had taken his original ring back. Until now. Quistis smiled at the gesture and tucked the ring into her dress uniform jacket pocket. She cast a final glance towards the night.
"Just make sure nothing happens to them while I’m gone, okay?" she asked of nobody in particular. With that, she turned and went back indoors.
* * * * * * * * * * *
And so as Quistis awoke the following morning, the weight of the world that had been resting squarely on her shoulders the past few weeks felt lifted at last. It had also been the best night’s sleep she’d had for as long as she could remember, a deep, dreamless slumber from the second her head had hit the pillow at about one in the morning, to rise again just after nine, feeling as though she’d slept for eight days rather than eight hours. Perhaps it was the relief at having first told everyone she was leaving and then surviving the rest of the evening, the two things she’d been terrified about for days, but more likely it was the freedom that she now felt rushing towards her like a tidal wave in surfing season.
Sunlight filtered into her room through the blinds over the windows, and Quistis sat up slowly in bed, stretching the nights drowsiness off of her. As an instructor, she was entitled to one of the more luxurious dormitory rooms, on one of the top floors of the Garden, even though she only really came here to sleep, preferring to spend more time with her students and in the regular parts of the Garden, for fear that she gain an element of the elitist snobbery that she’d seen some of the other instructors fall for.
Her room was furnished in a homely way, because Quistis only ever came in here to relax. Any computing work she did downstairs in the library, and all her teaching work was kept in the staff room so she didn’t need to keep anything other than her personal belongings up here. Rising slowly from the bed and heading to the wardrobe to pull on some old clothes for the day, she took a glance round her room and was surprised to realise how many of the little trinkets in it held a lot of meaning for her.
There was the half of Zell’s hoverboard from that day he’d crashed it into her jeep and she’d confiscated it from him, and the battered helmet that had landed at her feet after Zell (again) had wiped out whilst trying to board around the rings that formed part of the Garden’s mobile levitation system. There was the skirt that Selphie had made for her back when Selphie, Squall and Zell had graduated, even though it was a little too.. flashy for something Quistis would normally wear. Maybe she’d wear it on Friday night. There were a few framed certificates and diplomas in recognition of her teaching qualifications, plus a selection of photographs – some framed, some stuck loosely to the walls. Quistis made it a point of getting a photo taken with each SeeD cadet she successfully took through their first Guardian Force mission, and in amongst the dozens of snapshots of students who were variously tired, battered, bruised, lightly toasted, defeated, ecstatic and terrified, was the prized one of herself and Squall
after he’d beaten down Ifrit in the Fire Caves just outside the forest. He hadn’t looked up at the camera at all, so all there was to see was a beaming Quistis, soot-covered but happy, and Squall, his head down against his chest and black dirt marks all over his feather-collared jacket.
Other pictures included Quistis back at the orphanage, her early days at the Garden and the handful of friends she had there, the parties they’d been to and some memorable nights out in Deling (there was a story that one of the ambassadors had tried to chat Quistis up, but in her drunken state she’d accidentally laid him out cold, although she remembered none of the above). One in particular caught her eye – her honorary aunt, Nona Telway, whom Quistis had met when she’d brought her son, Jasper, to the Garden many years back, and with whom since then she’d formed a strong friendship with. She lived halfway between Deling and Galbadia in a little town called Dulcett, so Quistis would have to go pay her a visit soon.
Quistis slipped on a pair of faded grey combat trousers and a khaki green workshirt, noticing the pair of boots Irvine had bought her as a present at the bottom of her wardrobe. She smiled as she closed the door. One thing she could always rely on was that her friends would always care for her. Or if nothing else, be there to buy good gifts when the time came. Heading over to the little basinette in one corner of the room to finish freshening up, Quistis reached for a bobble to tie her hair back and noticed something glinting on the bed in the sunlight. It was Squall’s ring. Not wanting to be too obvious about it, she decided to hijack the chain from an old necklace and hang the ring around her neck, tucking it into her shirt so it wasn’t on display. Little things like that meant a lot to her.
She was glad she’d actually been able to remember a lot of these things – little Selphie’s revelation about how the use of guardian force spirits affected long term memory had actually earned her a fair amount of interest in the scientific community, and she’d co-written a paper on it that was currently doing the rounds of every major science fair in the country. As a result, Balamb Garden had banned the use of GFs in all of its operatives, and many other Gardens were following suit. Sure, having what basically amounted to your own personal monster to kick ass on your command whilst boosting your own natural abilities was a great combat asset, but it was no good if your troops forgot who they were supposed to be fighting along the way. Quistis had kept hers, though, and the blue crystal she used to summon little Shiva stayed on her desk, glowing softly and also doubling as an excellent nightlight.
She finished her daily ablutions and opened the door of her room to head down to the staff room, almost walking straight into Xu who was about to knock.
"Oh, sorry, I was just coming past to say hello," said the ever-smart instructor. Xu was almost a teacher’s pet in that she was generally always seen at the headmaster’s side, and was often put in charge of any larger scale missions or sent out as an ambassador and representative of the Garden. Not that Quistis minded, she knew that Xu was the best instructor in the whole place, even if she had difficulty dropping the formality when off-duty.
"That’s okay, Xu, I’m on my way downstairs to start reorganising my rotas from next week onwards. Care to join me?" Quistis locked her room and walked over to the elevator to take her down to the teaching level on the second floor. Xu followed her and waited with her as Quistis called the elevator.
"So I imagine you’re into your last few elements of business to finish off, right?"
"Something like that. I’m setting things up for whoever takes over from me, basically – notes about my classes and students to keep an eye on, stuff like that," said Quistis. The elevator dinged to announce its arrival and the two ladies stepped in. Quistis hit the ‘2F’ button and the elevator slid smoothly down to the second floor.
"This place will b a lot different without you, you know," said Xu as they stepped onto the mezzanine walkway leading to the classroom black. Various students and lecturers waved their hellos to Quistis as they walked.
"Xu, this place will get on just fine when I’m gone, just like it has done when instructors have gone in the past. It’s not like I’m irreplaceable at all!"
"I don’t mean that, I just mean your character will be missed. Your unique way of dealing with your students. And the fact that you’re the only instructor with a fan club," said Xu, motioning to three Trepies standing outside one of the rooms. Quistis waved at them and they all snapped to attention, saluting her smartly. Quistis chuckled and carried on to the staff room at the end of the corridor. Pushing the door open she was greeted by the ten or so other instructors of the Garden, who were ready with what she’d been dreading the most
"Surprise!!" they yelled as one, and as Quistis laughed they set off the party poopers, turned up the stereo and brought out the cake.
"Oh for the love of.. thank you, thank you all very much," she said, one hand placed to her heart to show her gratitude. "I didn’t want a big fuss made of me-"
"So it’s a good job we haven’t made one!" shouted out Rack, the thirty-something male combat teacher, "this is just something we knocked up in a few minutes or so!" More laughter, and Quistis looked down at the cake as her colleagues began to sing ‘for she’s a jolly good fellow’ loudly at her, compounding her embarrassment but making her feel warm and fuzzy at the same time. The cake was a simple one, sponge with white icing, but the elaborate design on its surface made her chuckle – it was stylised representation of a caricatured Quistis, complete with bullwhip, surrounded by fawning Trepies with the slogan ‘First Garden – Now The World!’ written on it.
"Thank you again, everybody," she said, trying not to get emotional, "and even though part of me is glad to never have to see any of your faces again, the other part of me will still miss feeling like that!" Another cheer and then the offensive on the cake began. A tactical attack that resulted in the cake being carved away into nothing before Quistis’ very eyes by her greedy colleagues, although they did save her a large piece which she gladly wolfed down.
A few hours later things had calmed down a little. Quistis was sat behind one of the staff room’s terminals, her reading glasses perched on the end of her nose as she stared at the glowing monitor. She’d been busy reorganising her schedule and arranging for cover for her classes while the day’s work had gone on behind her – instructors and lecturers filed in and out of the room around her, some bringing more good wishes and occasional hot drinks, others just relaxing for a few minutes between shifts. Quistis only had one more group to sort out – the junior class she was teaching ethics to – to cover for, when there was a small cough behind her to get her attention. She turned in the chair, draping one arm over the back rest, to see Dallara, the pretty blonde sharpshooting instructor, who was badly hiding a large gift wrapped box behind her back.
"Ahem. Sorry to bother you, Q, I just wanted to pass this on to you in a quiet moment. A few of us put what cash we could together to get you a little something for your travels." She handed the box across, and Quistis gleefully placed it on her lap as she unwrapped it. Leaving the sparkling paper to fall on the floor, inside she found nothing but swathes of crisp white wrapping paper.
"Er, Dallara dear, there doesn’t seem to be anything actually in here.. were you having another one of your ‘moments’?" said Quistis with a wry smile, referring to her colleague’s famous lapses of memory.
"You’re not looking hard enough! Try rooting around at the bottom," Dallara replied cryptically. Quistis obliged, and her hand came across a small metallic object. Lifting it up into view, she saw that it was a key. A car key, in fact.
"Is this what I think it is?"
"You betcha. The second part of this is waiting down in the garage for you," said Dallara excitedly, "so let’s go!" She grabbed Quistis by the hand and yanked her out of her seat, racing downstairs to the steps leading out to the parking area. Rack, Xu and some of the others were waiting there, crowded together to obscure what was behind them.
"But I’ve already got a car!" Quistis protested. "I mean, I know it’s old, and it doesn’t go very fast, and the mileage sucks too, but.."
"Which is why we got you this," said Xu, and the instructors parted to display a gleaming, brand new top of the range land cruiser jeep, painted in the Balamb Garden colours of blue, white and grey.
"Oh.. my.. god! That is so great!" Quistis leapt forward and threw her arms round Rack for a hug, knowing that Xu would have snapped under the pressure if she’d tried the same trick on her.
"Well, we couldn’t have you going out into the world in your old car, now could we?" Quistis hopped over to the jeep and peered in through the window to examine the luxurious interior. "And don’t worry, we moved all your junk from your old car to this so you’ve still got everything."
"So that’s your tapes, your maps, your empty food cartons, your fluffy toys, your old clothes, and all those odd bits of metal in that box at the back," said Xu, ticking the items off on her fingers.
"Oh, you mean my craft project?" said Quistis, referring to the metal box. She’d been trying to build herself something, but she’d started it so long ago she’d actually forgotten what it was. never mind, the bits always came in handy at odd times so it was a comforting thing to have around.
"Yes, that thing too. Good as new! And ready for its first and so far only owner to take it out into the big, wide world," said a beaming Xu as Quistis opened the driver’s side door and hopped in. The leather seated interior hissed satisfyingly as she sank into the seat, feeling the reactive surface mould to the contours of her body. She gave the steering wheel a few practice turns, then put the keys into the ignition and started the engine.
It purred like a kitten lying in a sunbeam, and a huge smile spread across Quistis’ face as she experimentally revved the highly torqued engine. Seeing a button for the sunroof, she clicked it and couldn’t suppress a laugh of joy as the roof of the jeep slid smoothly back, making it into a convertible in seconds.
"This baby will do 0-60 faster than you can crack that whip of yours. It’s got reactive off-road suspension, a V12 180bhp engine that could scale a sheer mountainside with enough juice, and it’s got enough fuel mileage to make it to Centra and back!" shouted Rack over the roar of the engine. Quistis cackled with glee.
"So are you guys getting in for the first ever test drive or what?" she shouted, and as one Xu, Dallara and Rack leapt in. Quistis floored the accelerator and with a burst of tire smoke squealed away, down the ramp that led from the car park out to the road outside the Garden and out into the surrounding countryside. Other students whooped and cheered as the high performance jeep screamed its way around the perimeter of the Garden, the instructors hanging on for sheer life but Quistis having a look of fire in her eyes that she thought she’d lost.
Quistis had a thing for fast cars.
* * * * * * * * * * *
It took Quistis a good hour of racing around in her new jeep to wear herself out, although her queasier comrades had bailed out after just a few minutes, leaving Quistis free to go bouncing across the sand dunes down at the beach before heading back to Garden. By the time she pulled into the underground car park, the once pristine and shiny bodywork was coated with muck and filth, making it look like it had been running a rally every day for the past five years. Which was, of course, just how Quistis liked it.
Dusting herself off and wiping the sweat from her brow, she took off her shirt and tied it round her waist, a plain black vest top underneath being comfortable to wear in the afternoon sun over Balamb. It was always warm and sunny in this part of the world, although Balamb had its share of heavy showers in the early and late parts of the year. Quistis left the jeep in her parking spot and headed back up to the staff room. As she walked through the reception area of the department, she bumped into one of her better students, a young girl named Annabelle Mochika. The girl had shoulder length black curly hair, a pale complexion and looks that made a small part of Quistis burn with envy every time she looked at her. Annabelle specialised in recon and scout operations, and had perfected the habit of slinking quietly round the Garden, appearing out of the shadows behind people and leaving a trail of frightened nerves behind her. Plus, she’d adopted a manner of dress that leant her towards floor length, figure hugging skirts which completely hid her feet, and helping her silent shuffle manner of walking that bit extra.
"Oh, hello Instructor," she said in her soft, upper class tones, "I take it you enjoyed your little drive around?" She gave Quistis a wry smile which the instructor returned.
"Let’s just say that if I need to get out of here in a hurry I have the right tools for the job," she said, heading for the elevator Mochika followed her.
"I’ve heard about the big party that we’re holding for you on Friday night, it sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun," she said, not noticing the sudden look of fear on Quistis’s face at the mention of the word ‘party.’ Especially when it was preceded by the word ‘big.’
"Party? Oh no, that must be for someone else, I was just after a quiet drink with my-" she began, but stopped as Mochika carried on.
"It’s been being announced since the day after the victory ball, everyone’s talking about it. It’s probably going to be even bigger than that! We’ve got a famous band flying in, there’ll be a huge buffet, and I think pretty much everyone in the Garden got an invite as well," she said.
"Look, are you sure we’re talking about the same thing here? I told Selphie specifically that I didn’t want a.." Quistis trailed off as she saw a poster in front of her, just outside the entrance to the tunnel leading to the ground floor staff area. It was large and eye-catching, especially as it was emblazoned with the words "The Biggest Party Garden Has Seen!" Quistis read on with a cold hand of terror closing around her heart.
"Celebrate the achievements of Balamb Garden’s favourite instructor with the largest party ever attempted within the confines of this fine institution of ours!" it read. "Live music by the renowned rock band ‘Quattro’ and a buffet laid on by the highest rated chefs we could get our hands on. So don’t miss your chance to say farewell to the one and the only Quistis Trepe this Friday evening, in just about every single part of the Garden!"
"Oh god.." said Quistis softly, stepping back from the poster and blinking a few times, hoping each time she reopened her eyes to find that the poster had gone and this was nothing but a bad dream.
"Instructor? Are you all right?" asked Mochika, looking concerned about the fact that Quistis had suddenly turned paler than she was.
"Umm.. tell you what, Annabelle, I may have to catch up with you later, okay? I just need to, er.. go and take care of some business," she said, turning and racing away before Mochika could ask what was wrong.
Quistis disappeared into the downstairs toilets and darted into one of the cubicles, bolting the door and collapsing down onto the seat. Her breath came in short, sharp bursts and she clawed at her chest to try and free whatever it was that felt like it was lodged in her throat, stopping her from breathing. She felt the salty taste of a tear slide down into her mouth and she realised she was actually crying, something she hadn’t done for a long time. She buried her head in her hands and tried not to sob as the full weight of everything came crashing down onto her all at once.
This was stupid of course – having a panic attack about her friends throwing a goodbye party for her! Most people would be glad about such a thing, but for some reason it had triggered all these unexpected responses in the young instructor’s mind. She’d asked there not to be loads of people there for a reason – the big speech at the victory ball a few days ago had absolutely terrified her, and the last thing Quistis wanted to do was have another big evening where everyone was looking at her, wondering about her, thinking about her, asking her what she’d do next, talking to her about the future – being asked over and over again a million permutations of the same ‘So what now?’ question, one that she still didn’t have an answer for no matter how many people asked her or in however many different ways. You’d have thought that someone who’d faced down the terrifying monsters she had could handle a bit of public scrutiny, she thought bitterly, but the truth is I’m afraid of what happens now. I want to make something of myself but I still have this fear that nothing will come of it. What if I spend the rest of my life searching for somewhere to belong and never finding it?
A knock on the cubicle door shook her out of her reverie – it was Mochika, who’d followed her into the bathrooms.
"Instructor? Are you alright? You suddenly looked very ill," she said in a concerned tone of voice, "and I just wanted to check you were okay."
"Yes, yes, I’m fine thanks, Annabelle, I just- I think I just came over a little nauseous for a second or something. Must have been that sandwich at the cafeteria I ate earlier!" Quistis said, lying through her teeth but thankful of the cubicle door to shield her from the students eyes.
"Okay then, just as long as you’re okay! I’ve got to get to class now, so I’ll see you Friday if I don’t see you before then!"
"Yes, Friday.." said Quistis, her voice drifting off again. She heard the bathroom door close and it jolted her back to reality, so grabbing a handful of toilet tissue to dry her eyes with, she stepped back out of the cubicle and over to the sinks and mirrors to make sure she didn’t look like she’d been crying. That was when she heard another voice, sobbing quietly, from a closed cubicle at the far end of the row of stalls.
Quistis walked slowly and carefully up to it, listening more closely to whoever was inside. It was another female voice, trying its best not to make any sound and crying quietly away. Leaning back to check the floor, Quistis made out a pair of black platform-booted feet inside, and a rucksack that suggested another student, most likely one of the junior ones. Quistis took a breath then clicked into Concerned Instructor mode, rapping her knuckles lightly on the door. The sobbing inside stopped at once, and Quistis spoke out over the silence a few moments later.
"Hello in there," she said softly, having been in this situation herself many times before, though unfortunately on both sides of the door.
"Er.. hello?" said the voice, clearly startled by this intrusion into its own private grief.
"Don’t worry, I’m not planning to bust the door down and drag you out here to answer me or anything. I just heard you and hoped there was something I could do to help. What’s your name?"
"Zoey.. Zoey Tyburn," came the voice, sounding like it was coming from an eight year old when filtered through the tears but seeming more like one of the middle school students, placing her at roughly fifteen years old.
"I’m Quistis. So what’s gotten you into a place like this, Zoey?"
"Oh.. oh, nothing really. *sniff* Just stupid stuff. You know."
"Well, I know the usual sorts of things, but you’ll have to give me a little more than that to go on, I’m afraid! Trouble in the class or out of it?"
"Out of it," said Zoey, seeming to have shaken off the sadness a little now she had someone to confide in.
"Well, then I can divide that into four categories for you," said Quistis, counting them off on her fingers as she spoke, "boys, girls, teachers or something else."
"Something else.. well, kinda boys, too. *sniff* Maybe it’d be best if you just left me to it, Quistis, I’m just being a stupid little girl again," she said, and Quistis spotted a possible lapse back into the waterworks looming. Perching herself on one of the sinks, she carried on.
"Don’t be daft, I asked you what was wrong because I wanted to help, and help you is what I’m going to do," she said, assuming her more familiar instructorly authoritative tone. "Now then, you mentioned boys, so I’ll work on a process of elimination. Someone in your class?"
"No, someone in the class above me. He’ll be graduating soon."
"Okay then, good progress. Is this a romantic thing in any way?"
"Yes, he’s my boyfriend," said Zoey, "but he may not be much longer."
"Sounds bad – is something going to break you two up then?"
"When he graduates! You know about the curse, don’t you?" Zoey sounded very serious all of a sudden, provoking Quistis to inquire further.
"Wasn’t aware of it, what curse?" she asked, although a vague recollection of something started gnawing at the back of her mind. Zoey sighed heavily and continued.
"The curse of the Garden, it only affects couples who aren’t in the same year when they graduate. They always break up, always! And I don’t want to lose him! Danko and I were made for each other.. I can’t lose him, I just can’t!"
"Wow. That’s the first mention I’ve heard of the Curse for about five years, you know that? I guess people must have been avoiding it on purpose before now.."
"You don’t understand, you wouldn’t know what it’s like! Nobody understands.." Zoey had started to snuffle again, but Quistis’ thoughts were racing ahead of her by now.
"Yes I do, Zoey, yes I do. I knew a boy when I was an instructor and he was a student. I thought I had feelings for him, but I guess now I’m not sure what they were. I told him how I felt but there was always something in the way. When he graduated, he met someone else, and I had to spend a long time watching the two of them fall more and more in love with each other. He’d have died for her if it meant that she’d carry on living. I sometimes wonder if he’d ever have done that for me, or I for him."
The crying had stopped, and the cubicle door had peeked open a little so that Zoey could look out at who she was speaking to. Her eyes widened when she recognised Instructor Trepe, but Quistis was still engrossed in her story and didn’t notice.
"These days, I’m not sure I ever really understood what it was I felt, but what I do know is that, curse or no curse, when you find the right person for you, you’ll stay with them no matter what. Even if they move away, even if something happens to one of both of you, you’ll never lose them. At least that’s what I believe, other people may see it a little differently.." Quistis paused when she saw that the cubicle door was now wide open, and little Zoey Tyburn was looking up at her with a mixture of awe and mild shock.
"Wow. I mean.. Instructor Trepe?" Quistis gulped.
"Well, I know I’m leaving at the end of the week but consider this one of my extra-curricular activities," she replied, hoping that Zoey wouldn’t figure out who she’d been talking about.
"No, no, that’s great, it was.. it was great to hear you say those things," said Zoey, smiling at last and visibly brightening up.
"Well, don’t go telling everybody," warned Quistis with a grin, "they’ll think I’m going soft! I have an image to maintain, after all.." Quistis hopped down from the sink as Zoey got up and left the stall. She was a slip of a girl, with short bubbly blonde hair and big, innocent looking blue eyes.
"I suppose I’d better get to my next class.. but thank you, Instructor," she said earnestly.
"No worries, that’s what I’m here for. And my colleagues too. Anytime you feel like this, or have something you need to talk about, go find a teacher. They can’t talk about what you tell them to anyone else so you can always confide in them, okay?" Zoey nodded and bustled out of the bathrooms. Quistis turned to face herself in the mirror again. This time, she was more pleased with what she could see.
"Looks like you’ve still got it," she said to her reflection, "so let’s hope it does you some good when you’re not part of this place anymore. And let’s hope it can work without you!" Quistis turned and walked out, feeling a strange sense of satisfaction that seemed to have been lacking the past few days.
Once outside the bathrooms, she made her way back up to her quarters. There were a few things to tidy up before the evening, and she had a night out in Balamb with the other instructors planned to get ready for. Maybe her last week wouldn’t be so bad after all.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Thursday morning. Just one more day now until the fateful final party to look forward to. One last day of relative freedom and one last day free of pressure. Well, mainly – Quistis had managed to organise replacements for her shifts without too much trouble, and all but one of her regular classes had been informed of her impending departure. As far as she could make out, pretty much all of them were going to the party tomorrow night anyway, so there wasn't much to do with any of them.
She had one final class today to take care of, just after lunch – her 'intelligent' class as she put it – the small group of students who consistently scored the highest in their written exams and would no doubt make fine SeeDs once they graduated. These were the students who would end up leading other teams, having displayed good leadership qualities on other field tests, and so Quistis enjoyed the hour a week she spent with them, mostly going over old combat strategies and discussing ways that old lost battles could have been won.
They would probably approach her with the least questions with regards to what happened after Friday and beyond, and that was what she was thankful for. Her magic tutorial of the junior year had almost become very emotional when the class had all asked if they could go with her on her trip beyond the Garden. She felt like she was leaving for a war of some kind as she explained to them that after that lesson she wouldn't be coming back as an Instructor, and as some of the more emotional students had begun to well up at the prospect of losing her, she had to admit she'd begun to get a little misty-eyed as well. Kids had a habit of doing that.
Quistis was sat in her room, the windows open to let the beautiful mid-morning weather filter into her space and hopefully blow away the dark clouds lingering over her. She was dressed in her school clothes, a navy blue jacket and black skirt, her hair tied back into a small bun with two long bangs hanging forward across her face. Her reading glasses were perched n the end of her nose, and she was waiting for the realisation that this was the last time she'd wear this outfit to sink in when there was a knock at the door.
"Come in," she said lazily, having at least half an hour before her lesson started. She'd been leaning back in her plush leather-backed chair, her feet resting up on her desk and her boots still on the floor next to her unmade bed. Protocol had taken a back seat in her normally impeccably tidy quarters just lately. The door swung open to show Selphie, looking a little sheepish.
"Erm, hello, Quistis," she said meekly, bracing herself as if expecting a barrage of abuse following her transformation of Friday night's intended quiet round of drinks into another massive party.
"Come on in, Miss Tilmitt," said Quistis, waving an arm at her and motioning for her to shut the door. "And take that scared look off your face, I'm not angry at you. A little advance warning would have been nice, however."
"Well, the thing is, you see," Selphie began to protest, "I told Zell and he said we should make it a big celebration and then little Suki Longbow came walking past, and I mean you know what a gossip she is, and anyway she said 'gathering? Oo, who's having a party?' and I said 'no-one – well, sort of for Instructor Trepe, only not really,' and then she went 'a party! Wow! Who's invited?' and I was trying to tell her 'well, just us lot, really,' when her friends Cordelia and Siana came walking past and asked 'a party? Are we invited?' and before I knew it the whole Garden was asking me, and then without me even realising it became a massive party and so I had to make posters telling everyone and just hope I could come see you before it got too out of hand-"
"For goodness' sake, Selphie, take a breath before you pass out cold!" ordered Quistis, watching Selphie try to cram a week's worth of events into just one sentence. "I get the idea, really, and it's okay. As long as I can still have that quiet drink with everyone like I originally wanted, then a bigger party afterwards will be fine."
"Really?" said Selphie, brightening up at the prospect of not actually being punished.
"Really. It'll be fine. Of course, now you are unfortunately honour bound to make sure it's the best party that the Garden has ever seen, but I'm sure a girl of your.. unique organisational abilities will be able to sort that out no problem." Quistis beamed. "Come on you, I've got a class to get to soon and I haven't decided what I'm going to tell them yet."
"I've been hearing good reports so far, Quistis," said Selphie, sitting down on the bed and kicking her heels just above the floor. Despite being just two years younger than Quistis, Selphie came across as being a lot younger sometimes, although Quistis knew her youthful spirit was nothing to be ashamed of at all.
"Good reports? In what way?"
"In that you've been making the students feel happy. You know, they're sad that you're leaving but at the same time they're behind you all the way. You've made them feel like they're inspired, that they needn't feel like they have to do something anymore, and that it's okay to want to change your mind and go somewhere different if you want to."
"Oh great, Cid'll be coming to see me because I'll have started a mutiny at this rate!" said Quistis with a chuckle.
"Oh yeah, I meant to say, Cid asked if you'd go see him after your last lesson. Just a quick word, he said, nothing heavy."
"I'll remember. I'd best be heading off then, Selphie, I'll catch up with you later. Meeting in the cafeteria for dinner at about 6 as usual?"
"The normal table is reserved, Miss Trepe," said Selphie, standing and saluting smartly with a giggle, "so we'll see you there!"
"You sure will," said Quistis, as Selphie headed back out the door. Quistis stood up and pulled on her boots before walking over to the windows and looking out. The windows in her room afforded her an excellent view of the Garden and the landscape surrounding it. Currently, as it was nearing the end of the lunch hour, the fields outside were full of lounging students soaking up some sunbeams before heading back inside. Groups of boys were playing ball games with complicated rules, usually dreamt up during dull lessons, although most seemed to involve lots of jumping on each other and mock fighting. Small gangs of girls were watching the boys, trying not to make it look as though they were keeping an eye on them as they chatted amongst themselves. A few pairs of instructors were patrolling around to keep a watchful eye on things, and Quistis realised for the first time how much she'd miss little moments like this. The feel of the sun's warm rays on her face, the smell of the midday breeze as it picked up a million intangible scents from miles around, the faint sound of waves crashing against the beach, the more noticeable sounds of the students out on the fields below her – all the little things she'd taken for granted a little before now.
No time to get sentimental, she told herself, there was work to be done. Closing her window, she left her room and made her way downstairs to the classroom where the Group Tactics class was waiting. The class of twelve smartly dressed students stood smartly to attention as she entered. She grinned, trying to remember that this little powertrip was the last one she'd enjoy.
"At ease, class, I gave up paying any attention to that sort of stuff a long time ago and you know it!"
"Sorry, instructor," said Derin Maldrew, the unofficial class leader thanks to his good looks and charm, "we just thought it'd be a mark of respect in your last ever lesson with us."
"Yes, I've been thinking about what to do with this lesson for a while now," said Quistis as her students took their seats again. "a normal lesson plan just seemed a bit of a cop-out somehow, and yet I want to do something constructive with this last hour of our time together. After a lot of headscratching, however, I came up with the following idea – I'd like you each to take a piece of paper out." She didn't look round to check on them, because she knew they were all reaching for their pads and pens as she spoke. Quistis stood and walked over to the windows that overlooked the green fields outside.
"Please tell me you're not throwing a pop quiz on us in our final lesson with you, instructor?" asked Steen, a young sportsman who had the makings of an excellent SeeD.
"Relax, Steen, just go with me on this. I'd like each of you to write down three things that you would do, or change, if you were the headmaster of Garden." There was silence behind her as the class processed that idea, so Quistis turned to face them to explain herself a little better.
"It is an important quality of leadership to show initiative in battle. The most famous leaders of our history have not been the ones who've followed orders blindly, they've been the ones who took risks, who thought outside of the box, sometimes even the ones who disobeyed direct orders that conflicted with their own judgement. That all links in to the dual purpose of this little exercise – I want to see what kinds of ideas you guys and girls have for the future of this Garden, because some of you will doubtless be staying on to teach and maybe even run this place in years to come. I want to read your ideas and know I passed on the right kind of wisdom to you. And, when I go to my appointment with the headmaster and headmistress after this, I'd like to be able to take these papers along, lay them on his desk and say 'This is the future of Garden, and this is my legacy to you.'"
Several of the students grinned, some were already writing before she'd finished, being way ahead of her, but one stayed chewing his pen thoughtfully as he looked out of the windows. His name was Marael Daraq, and he was often the quietest student in class but always the one who produced the best written work. Quistis had long thought he'd make a better artist than soldier, but as she'd been saying all week, your life was up to you and not someone else's perception of it.
"Searching for inspiration, Marael?" she asked. He didn't look round, but slowly and deliberately removed his pen from his mouth before he answered.
"What if there's nothing you'd want to change?"
"There must be something, even if it's just the recipe for the hotdogs!" A ripple of laughter, but Quistis was, as ever, intrigued by the way young Cadet Daraq's mind worked, and she leaned forward at her desk to listen more closely to him.
"I don't think someone like me is going to change this place. It takes the right kind of vision which I just don't think I have. There are some things I'd do differently, but they're with my own life and nothing to do with the Garden."
"Is it anything you'd like to share?" asked Quistis, noticing that several of his classmates had also stopped what they were doing to listen in.
"I don't think I'd have come here if I'd had the choice. I lost my mother when i was very young, and my father wanted to make sure I made something of myself, so he sent me here. Personally, I'd rather have become an artist. There are some things I can do here outside of the curriculum, but I think perhaps I didn't take the right path when I was younger."
"Are you saying you want to leave the Garden, Marael?" asked Quistis, a little concerned that her actions may have inspired someone to follow her footsteps right out the front gate.
"No, instructor. I'd like to teach art. But I'd like to teach art here, at the Garden." Quistis smiled.
"Then write that down. That counts as something you'd do differently. I think there are several students like you who don't want to leave here but feel that they've still got something to offer the Garden. Maybe it's time we gave them the options to do that!" Quistis settled back as Marael and the others got back to work. Most were still writing when the class bell rang a while later. Quistis having spent the lesson answering occasional questions. As her students filed out, each placing their suggestions on to a pile at the edge of her desk, Quistis made a point of thanking each one personally for their time and attention over the past few years. Marael paused, the last to leave, as Quistis packed up the papers into her briefcase.
"Instructor Trepe?"
"Quistis, please. I think the time for formality passed when I announced my resignation!"
"Alright then, Quistis. Just one question, if I may."
"You may," said Quistis, noting that Marael seemed to have been considering his words for some time.
"Would you ever come back here? If the right offer was made and the situation was good?"
"You know what, Marael, I've asked myself that many times over the past few days. And my answer is still definitely maybe but probably not," she said with a grin. "There are just too many other things out there I want to try first. It's nice to know I'll be missed, but for now this part of my life," she said as she snapped her case shut for emphasis, "is over."
Marael nodded his agreement and left the classroom. Quistis stood up, and mad her customary sweep of the room to make sure all the terminals had been switched off, and there wasn't anything important left behind by her class. She noticed a piece of paper on top of Steen's desk and picked it up. It had been scribbled on quite heavily, and it seemed like he'd used it to work on his ideas for the test she'd set them. When she examined it closer as she approached her desk, however, she spotted something else.
"Quistis Forever," it read simply. "The memorial goes online Friday night at midnight. Pass it around." A cryptic message that had Quistis frowning in puzzlement for a few moments before the next class arrived, and she picked up her case and left, saying hello and goodbye to Instructor Yseult as she left.
A memorial? Perhaps it had something to do with the Trepies? Quistis' own personal fan club were rumoured to be planning something big for the party on Friday night, and she dreaded to think what. Whatever the situation, she had that appointment with the Headmaster to keep now, so without further ado she made her way towards the elevator. She did her best not to notice the poster advertising Friday night as she left the teaching block.
* * * * * * * * * * *
The elevator ride from the main mezzanine floor up to the headmaster's plush suite on the top floor seemed to take a lot longer than usual, and Quistis fidgeted nervously as the numbers on the counter above her head updated agonisingly slowly on their way up to the summit. With a thunk and a hiss the elevator stopped and the doors slid open, revealing the red carpet that led up to the entrance to the headmaster's office. The short corridor leading up to it was plastered with photos of SeeDs past and present in their endeavours around the world – Quistis tried not to spot the one of Squall, herself and the others on their victorious return to Garden after sending Ultimecia back to the future in a selection of pieces. Cid's receptionist, a Faculty member called Rianna, looked up as Quistis approached and gave a friendly smile.
"Go right in, Instructor, the Headmaster is expecting you." Quistis nodded and walked straight in through the double doors into Cid's office. There were two desks in here now, at right angles to each other but facing towards the centre of the room where a row of seats stood. Cid was behind one desk and Edea was at the other. Cid stood as Quistis entered and pointed her towards the chairs with another friendly smile. All these friendly smiles were becoming more than a little bit unnerving, but Quistis sat anyway. Cid's office was backed by an enormous pair of windows which faced the distant Galbadia Garden, although you needed the antique telescope in one corner of the room to see it properly. The walls were dark wood panelling covered in paintings, murals and photographs, and several exotic looking plants gave the room a homely feel. A large fireplace sat framed by one wall, ready to warm the office up during the cold winter months.
"Good of you to drop by, Quistis, I imagine you're busy so this won't take me too long," said Cid benignly, moving around his desk to sit on the edge of it closest to Quistis, who pulled her knees up demurely and sat her case down in her lap.
"There's definitely something about this office that always makes me feel like a schoolgirl about to be expelled," she said, "although I think on reflection it's probably the chairs." Edea failed to stop a snort of laughter from escaping, but as Cid looked up she simply reddened and with a smile waved him to continue.
"Sorry, private joke," he explained. "Now then, my dear, there's just a few last things I need to run through with you before you take your leave of us," said Cid. "A few bits of form filling-out that you can complete at your leisure," handing her a sheath of papers as he spoke, "but really this is just the last chance I'll get to have a quiet word with you before the big, ah, celebration tomorrow night, so I guess I really just wanted to ask you, er, what do you have planned?"
Quistis just about resisted the urge to throw her head back and laugh out loud at the question she'd been avoiding all week come from the one man she couldn't get away from, but reigning herself in she managed to answer.
"Well, as you can probably imagine I've been asked that a lot all week, but for you, Headmaster, I think I finally have an answer. I'm going to start by visiting my aunt Rosen in the little town of Dulcett for a few days, then I think I'll take a walk around Balamb to see what's gong on in there."
"Will you be looking for employment?"
"Yes, I have plenty of things I want to try and now is the best time of my life to try them, I think. I'll check the three schools in the area for positions, then move on from there."
"A teacher, eh? I suppose trying to teach students in the real world perversely seems very appealing at the moment," said Cid, cleaning his glasses on the end of his red tanktop, despite disapproving tuts from Edea.
"Absolutely. My life has been so extraordinary for so many years, I want to experience a normal life for a change. Maybe I'll hate it, I really can't say. I do know that I have my reasons for wanting to leave here and I intend to honour them."
"There'll always be a place for you here, you know. You're without a doubt the most promising young instructor I've seen here in all my years at the Garden, and I would hate to see that lost because you didn't think you could return to us." Quistis smiled, touched by the headmaster's sentiment.
"Thank you, sir. That's good to know."
"Of course, we also want you to know that we support you one hundred percent in whatever you do with yourself outside of these walls. Isn't that right, dear?" said Edea, and Quistis struggled not to giggle at her affectionate way of talking to him regardless of who was present.
"Yes, yes, your links with this Garden will remain whether you are still inside these walls or not. We have a proud history of students who have left us and gone on to achieve great things in this world – leaders, diplomats, ambassadors, teachers, and last time I checked we even had a very popular musician amongst our ex-cadets!"
"I'll be in good company then," said Quistis.
"Absolutely. Yes, yes. So, ah, is there anything left you'd like to talk to me, er, I mean us, about?" Cid leaned back, his head resting on one hand as Quistis opened her case and took out the papers from her previous class.
"There are a few things, Headmaster, but you can look over them in your own time. I'd like to think I've made up a kind of blueprint for the future of the Garden for you, or an instruction manual on how to build the Garden of the future." She placed the papers in Cid's outstretched hand and stood up again. "I think you'll find them all very enlightening reading," she added.
"I'll make sure he reads every last one, dear. We'll see you tomorrow evening then!" said Edea from behind her desk, with a pleasant smile. Quistis bowed her head once respectfully and took her leave of them both, leaving Cid engrossed in the papers.
Once outside the doors, Quistis made a beeline back to her quarters, eager for a chance to meditate for an hour or so and clear her thoughts. The night on the town with Xu, Rack and the other instructors had been rescheduled for tonight, so she had enough time to get changed and have dinner with Squall and the others before having to get ready to go. She was most of the way to her quarters when Mochika appeared out of nowhere next to her.
"Hello, Instructor, I didn't mean to scare you!" she said as Quistis jumped halfway out of her skin when she began speaking.
"That's okay, Annabelle, but i still say I need to get you a bell on a collar or something for when you're moving around this place!" Mochika chuckled and followed Quistis as she carried on heading for her room.
"I've just been speaking to Zoey Tyburn. She told me, in strictest confidence, about the little meeting she had with you yesterday, and I just wanted to tell you that I thought it was one of the nicest things anyone's ever done for that girl around here." Quistis allowed herself a satisfied smile.
"She gets picked on a lot, poor girl, and she's often very emotional, but she's had a determined look in her eyes since yesterday. I think it was the first time anyone had ever really tried to speak to her, and you can take some pride in the knowledge that you helped hr turn a corner with what you said."
"Excellent! I wish I'd had someone like me to talk to when I was in her year," said Quistis wistfully, before suddenly remembering the details of her conversation with Cadet Tyburn. "Ah, she didn't give you much of the detail of it, did she? Only some elements of it were a bit personal, and I'd hate for anybody to-"
"Don't worry," said Mochika, holding her hands up to reassure Quistis, "she mentioned that you seemed to have made some pretty personal references but she kept them all to herself. That girl'll be a loyal supporter for you from now on, wherever you end up!" Quistis breathed a sigh of relief.
"Whew! There were a few things I don't share with many people in there.. I think she brought it out of me somehow."
"That happens sometimes. Anyway, I just thought you'd like to hear that, and I'll leave you to you evening now."
"Thanks, Annabelle," said Quistis as the student slinked away again. Quistis wore a proud grin as she entered her room to change for dinner. Wearing half of what she'd later go out in to save time, she made her way down to the cafeteria to join Squall's group in their regular table over by the far end of the food counter. The usual suspects were here – Squall, Rinoa, Selphie, Irvine and Zell. They'd taken the liberty of fetching her food already, but thanks to their graduate status they were entitled to a slightly better menu, so Quistis sat down to a plate of steaming meat steaks and vegetables that looked good enough to eat. So eat it she did.
"So, you're out on the town with Rack and the boys and girls of the staff later on, I hear?" asked Irvine as a hungry Quistis tucked into her meal.
"Why does everyone in this place seem to know what I'm doing before I have chance to tell them?" she said through a mouthful of potato, "it's like you're spying on me or something!"
"We prefer to think of it as being 'well-informed,'" replied Irvine.
"Yeah, and we're just trying to make sure your last few days here go as smoothly as possible, so any additional organising we can do for you is our way of saying thanks!" said Rinoa. Quistis waved a fork at Selphie.
"If that young lady has anything to do with the organising, then count me out," said Quistis, "I'd have hundreds of people following my every move!" The table laughed together, something they hadn't had the luxury of doing for a while now.
"And anyway," continued Rinoa, "we just wanted to check because we're all out too this evening, and we hoped we could meet up with you later on."
"That'd be really nice, I'd like that," answered Quistis. "I'm not sure where we're going yet, Xu won't tell me. She says it's a surprise, and seeing s how they've also asked me not to drive I'm guessing it's going to involve those three new bars that have opened up in the town centre at some point!"
"Sweet," said Zell, "we’ll probably take in a few of those as well. You see, we have a little something to celebrate as well!"
"Really? What?" asked Quistis. The others suddenly looked a little bit shifty, as though they didn’t really want to tell her the news but now they were going to have to.
"We all got our new assignments. Holiday leave is over the Monday after your party, and we’ve all been given our new missions and stuff," said Irvine, as the others continued to look a bit guilty.
"Oh? When did you find this out?" said Quistis, still eating and not really noticing the change in atmosphere.
"Well, earlier this week, but we kept it quiet because-" began Rinoa, but Selphie interrupted.
"Because we didn’t want you to worry about us, basically!"
"Worry?"
"Well, yes, I mean, we wanted to make sure that everything was perfect for your last week, and so something like this announcement, well.." Selphie faltered a little as she searched for the right words, so Rinoa took up the baton again.
"We decided to leave it so we could concentrate on you instead." Quistis finished her mouthful of steak and rolled her eyes at her comrades before continuing.
"Honestly, what are you lot like? We’re all friends, we all went through a lot together and there is no reason for any of us to hide anything from each other. And as for concentrating on me, well, I think that’s been done more than enough this week so I’d actually be glad of diverting the attention for a change!" She laughed and the others followed, the possibly tense moment having passed. "So what are you all doing?"
"Well, Zell is shipping out to this city called Talerin in the morning to be a bodyguard for this professional racing driver out there," said Selphie.
"Yeah, my natural interest in racing means they asked for me by name! Maybe I can pick up a few tricks while I’m out there too," he added with a grin.
"Irvine and myself have got ourselves a job in Fisherman’s Horizon, working on training up local people at this new martial arts and rifle range training centre they’ve set up. They’ve asked several Gardens for help assembling a squad of teachers, and Cid asked us tow if we’d like to go," continued Selphie.
"Yeah, man, how could I refuse to get paid to teach civvies how to shoot little painted targets all day?" said Irvine with a grin.
"What about you two?" said Quistis to Squall and Rinoa, forgetting for a second that Rinoa wasn’t actually a SeeD, having teamed up with the others during their first mission together and tagged along ever since.
"Well, as you know, I’m kind of a technicality around here," said Rinoa with her ever present wry smile firmly in place, "but I’ve spoken to Cid and he’s said I can go along with Squall’s mission, so that suits me."
"And that would be?" said Quistis, looking over at the always quiet Squall. He spoke in his usual hushed tone.
"The forest of Timber. Locals out there have made reports of large packs of wild creatures roaming the area, I’m going along to help the rangers there co-ordinate their efforts and try to get rid of whatever’s out there," he said, hardly looking up.
"And I’m going with him, which is doubly handy for me because I can go back and see the Forest Owls again!" enthused Rinoa.
"Sounds like your plans are all made up then," said Quistis, "I wish I had somebody handing out orders to help me work out where I’m going next!" The conversation turned to the events of the next few days after that, with Quistis explaining her plan to go and see her aunt the morning after the party, and also mentioning the plans from her final class that she’d passed on to Cid and Edea.
After the meal, the group said their goodbyes and made their ways up to their quarters again. After having spent so long out on the road with them, it seemed odd for Quistis to not head back to the dormitories with the rest of them, but that was just one of those things. She got changed reasonably quickly, only swapping her combat trousers for a knee-length sparkly black skirt to go with the sleeveless top she’d thrown on for dinner. It was warm until quite late in the evening at this time of year, so she planned to take advantage of that. A knock on her door told her that Xu was ready and waiting for her, so Quistis just had chance to tie her hair back up a little more neatly before the girls left the instructor’s quarters. Meeting up with Rack and the others downstairs, Quistis hopped into a waiting taxi to get a ride into Balamb town, hoping that the night had some good suprises left in store for her.
* * * * * * * * * * *
The beep-beep of Quistis’ alarm clock early Friday morning split her head in two like the claws of a T-Rexaur, and continued to stamp around on her battered and bruised grey matter until her flailing arm managed to catch the offending clock and send it slamming to the floor of her room, where gravity thankfully played a part in popping it open and silencing it for good.
Quistis opened one eye experimentally, but as the beautifully sunny Friday morning came crashing into her fragile brain she clamped it shut again, trying her best not to do any more damage. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this hung over, although that was probably because she was having difficulty thinking anything other than ‘oh god, my head’ at this precise moment.
She groaned and shuffled round in her bed, looking for that sweet spot on her pillow where she could rest her head ant have it hurt anymore. She failed to find it, and after a few more minutes of rustling round in bed she sat up at last. Pressing one hand to her forehead to try and cool it, she was shocked to find how hot she was. Even though all she had was a bad hangover, it felt more like a fever.
Luckily, a girl like Quistis was always prepared for eventualities like this, and so she reached for the cooler underneath her bed and took out a two-litre bottle of ice cold mineral water, gulping it down greedily to try and pay penance to her body for the sins she committed against it last night. The first part of the night had gone fine, a few quiet drinks in a few quiet bars, everyone getting on fine and no worries at all
Then, Xu had insisted they try the first of the three new bars on the night out, the aptly named Slammer, which turned out to be an uber-trendy tequila bar where the group had rapidly degenerated into a mess of drunken fools, giggling and falling over each other in the space of a few rounds. Next up, Rack’s choice was hot Balamb nightspot Shaken & Stirred, where the party managed to look sober enough to get in before getting twice as blasted on fancy cocktails. Quistis had lived in the Balamb area for years but never heard of any of these places – Balamb wasn’t the sort of town that screamed ‘trendy bars!’ anyway, but they’d found plenty to keep them busy, finishing the evening at Dallara’s choice of venue, a traditional gypsy themed pub where dancing on tables and loud, raucous singing was both compulsory and easily encouraged given the state of most of the patrons.
Quistis had dim memories of making it back at some time around four in the morning, leaning on and being leaned on by Xu as the two tried to get back to their rooms as quietly as possible, giggling and shushing each other as they clattered off the walls all the way around the Garden. She’d flopped down onto her bed and passed straight out, half waking up just enough to throw off most of her clothes and clamber under the covers before waking again at what must only be about 10a.m.
She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror over the sink and was happy to notice she didn’t look too much like death warmed up, despite what her body was telling her. She finished off the last bit of the first bottle of water and grabbed a second, the fluid intake already starting to ease the pounding in her temples a little. Getting up, she looked down and saw she wasn’t wearing much, so grabbed a dressing gown in case anyone came round. There wasn’t much of anything she had to do today, thankfully – the entire Garden had been given the day off in readiness for tonight’s party.
Oh god. The party. It had thankfully been at the back of her mind from the moment the first drink of the evening had hit the back of her throat, but now the full awfulness of the trial she faced later came rushing towards her, and she shut her eyes and tried not to listen to the millions of voices suddenly screaming at her what a bad, bad idea this was. Quite where this fear of social gatherings had come from she wasn’t sure, but it was probably something to do with how this event was the culmination of her time here, how it was the full stop on her career, and maybe some part of her was still, despite her best efforts, desperately afraid of all that.
Still, there was little she could do about all that now. Selphie had spent all week getting things ready, so all there was for little old Quistis to do was finish packing her things away and get ready for the night. If she could survive a one-on-one with the Ultima Weapon, deep in the depths of Ultimecia’s castle, and come out in one piece, then a few hours of hiding her nerves and putting on the brave party face would be no trouble at all. In theory.
She turned to her wardrobe and opened it to check what was left. Her clothes and accessories wouldn’t be a problem – Cid had given her a few extra suitcases as part of her leaving gift so all she needed to do was fold them up and pack them away. Reaching up to the top of the wardrobe for the first of the cases, she hefted it down on to the bed and threw its lid open. As she did, she noticed something had been dislodged from the top of the wardrobe onto the floor, and she knelt to pick it up for a closer look.
It was a photograph, dusty and faded but fairly recent, of a smiling Quistis and three equally happy looking people, outside a ski resort that she recognised as being in Trabia. She grinned as the memory of the event came back to her – the other people in the photo, dressed like her in shades and expensive jumpsuits and skiwear, were her best three friends from before she’d graduated to become an instructor, and the people she’d been closest to before meeting Squall, Zell and the others. Consisting of two girls and one guy, the foursome was known as Q-Dis on account of their first names, respectively being Dexter Malchisy, Isabella Takagi and Serena DuCont. They were four people she knew while she was a regular SeeD, friends from Balamb who’d drifted apart over the past two years but who’d enjoyed a few years of high times together. She flipped the photo round and saw each had written a message on the back. Quistis had scribbled ‘Camp Balkirk Resort – Q-Dis hit the slopes again!’ and below that were lines from the others. ‘Q – you ski like a pregnant chocobo but you’re still better than Izzy! – Dex,’ ‘Together again, sharing everything except broken bones – love Izzy XXX’ and ‘Quisty, always remember how drunk you were when this picture was taken! – Serena.’
She chuckled and put the picture on her desk. Now was the ideal time to catch up with her old posse again. She had their numbers and addresses written down somewhere, so she’d have to track them down soon. None of them were SeeDs too, which helped – she’d met Isabella and Serena when they were on holiday at a beachside town Quistis had been sent to help patrol from a possible pirate raid, and the three of them met Dexter a few months later when he was a fellow passenger on board a cruise ship the girls were partying on board on one of Quistis’ rare holidays. They’d been away plenty of places together – the ski slopes of icy Trabia, rock climbing in Centra, dune buggy racing in the deserts outside Galbadia – and had only fallen out of touch when Quistis became an instructor, losing the free time she used to have to spend with them. Last time she’d heard from them, shortly after the trip where the photo was taken, they were all still living in and around the Balamb area, so she’d have to check up on them when s
he left.
It didn’t take long to get most of her clothes packed away, leaving out a modest outfit for the evening and more casual clothes for today and tomorrow. She picked up one of the old boxes she’d picked up from the cafeteria and started carefully laying her personal effects down in it when there was a knock at her door.
"Come in," she said, and looked up to see Rinoa wander in with a cheery wave.
"Just wondered if you could use a hand packing," she said, "so you can relax a bit longer before tonight!" Quistis wondered if Rinoa had a bad bone in her whole body sometimes. She patted the bed for Rinoa to sit and waved her hand across the bits and pieces lying all around the room.
"I’m just doing little things at the moment, so grab a box and go for it. Pictures, jewellery, valuables at first, and after that my music and things." Quistis carried on with her box, moving on to the row of ornaments that lay across her windowsill. She noticed the window was shut so stood up to open it and let some of the glorious day outside into the room, the reassuring sounds of the students at play accompanying the cool breeze that wafted in.
"It must be strange, packing everything away like this," said Rinoa absently, peeling off the many photos carefully from the wall. "I mean, you’ve been here for how many years now?"
"Since I was about eight," answered Quistis. "I went from the orphanage to my aunt’s place for a few months, once they’d managed to locate her, and during that time we found letters from my parents asking that I be given the Garden entrance exam when I was old enough."
"Wow. When I was eight I was still playing with dolls at my father’s mansion and dreaming of becoming a princess!" said Rinoa. Quistis grinned.
"I suppose our years at the orphanage together were the best times we had," she said, fondly looking at a statue of the Tear’s Point Memorial she’d been given a while back. "I mean, we didn’t know or care about what the future held for us, we just had fun together every single day. Matron always looked after us. Sometimes I wish I could remember more of those times. We all used our GFs so much over the past few months I’m surprised I can remember my name when I wake up sometimes."
"I sometimes wish I shared that the way you other guys do, you know," said Rinoa, looking wistful for a moment. Quistis could sense that a deep conversation was looming and so put her box down to give Rinoa more of her attention. The raven-haired girl carried on taking down the framed pictures from the wall as she spoke. "You, Squall, Zell, even Seifer – you went through so much together I’m still amazed we get on so well together sometimes."
"Well, you were with us for a lot of those experiences, Rinoa!" said Quistis diplomatically, fully aware that Rinoa had a slight sense of alienation sometimes with the others. She’d spotted the young girl sat by herself in the cafeteria or just walking round the Garden when the others were tied up on official business, and even though Cid had given her free reign of the place she identified with Rinoa’s feelings of displacement at times.
"I know, I know. I just would like to have been part of it all. I sometimes get jealous of all those extra years you’ve known Squall for!" she said with a cheeky smile. Quistis fought back a blush and answered her.
"It doesn’t mean I understand him any better, I’m afraid! Although I do have that ability to be able to finish his-"
"Sentences," they said together, sharing a laugh at the private joke.
"You shouldn’t feel like you do, Rinoa," Quistis continued. "We’d all feel at a loss without you around, and it’s as though we have known you since we were children, given all we’ve been through with each other."
"That’s how we feel about you, even though I think the others don’t know how to say it," said Rinoa profoundly. "You going is like each of them losing a part of themselves, and they don’t know how it’s going to affect them. I mean, they all have their new assignments still, but they’ll be keeping in touch with each other. They’re a little afraid that they won’t hear from you again, I think." Quistis stopped to think about that for a moment. She’d been so caught up in herself the past few days, she hadn’t given any thought to how the others might be feeling about her going. Probably because she’d let her paranoid mind rationalise that they’d all be fine without her and so she’d not thought about it again.
"You may be onto something there, Little Miss Angelwing," said Quistis, making a reference to Rinoa’s new found status as a sorceress (which Rinoa herself downplayed due to her own fears of ending up like Adel, the sorceress corrupted by her powers that they’d fought during their travels). "I think maybe I should talk to everybody later to set a few things straight at last."
"They’d appreciate it. I mean, I know you’d never dream of losing touch with any of your friends, right?" enthused Rinoa. Quistis threw a glance at the photograph on her desk and felt a sudden pang of guilt.
"I certainly hope so," said Quistis quickly. "I don’t plan to cut myself off from everyone completely, at least. I just don’t plan on being a part of the Garden anymore. I’m sure our paths will still cross many times yet."
The remainder of the packing took place under discussion of less heavy subject matter, lifting Quistis’ spirits a lot in preparation for the evening. She could now count the hours until she was gone, although she tried not to in case it sparked off another attack of nerves. Tidying up her room sent the hours passing by a lot faster than she realised, and before she knew it the plain clockface on the wall told her it was almost 8 o’clock, and that the party would be starting in a handful of minutes. Quistis stood before the mirror in her room and laid her modest yet fashionable selection of makeup out in front of her. Lip gloss and eye shadow was a luxury whilst out in the field, which was why the female SeeDs always took advantage of being able to use it when back home at the Garden. Quistis herself favoured a subtle approach – a little lipstick, a hint of eyeshadow, that was it. Tonight, however, was going to be the last time she wore makeup here, so it had damn well better be special.
Black eyeliner, dark red lipstick and eyeshadow to match gave her a pleasantly brooding look, and when combined with the off-the shoulder dark purple top she was wearing – one that had been looking for an excuse to be worn for some time now. She added the skirt that Selphie had made for her and stepped back to look herself up and down, for once actually quite proud of how she looked. Quistis was often bemoaning her lithe figure, saying she was too skinny to wear anything flattering, but tonight even she was forced to admit she looked pretty damn good.
Now to find out what the night would bring. Switching off the lights in her room and locking her door, she mad her way down to the main floor, following the sound of music coming from the parade ground.
* * * * * * * * * * *
The halls and corridors of Garden were eerily empty as Quistis headed downstairs – at this time of night the halls were usually buzzing with students who were either taking advantage of the cafeteria’s late lunch service, heading to the training centre for night exercises, or just heading for the social areas of the Garden to relax for the evening. Students were always congregating in the main hall before heading out to Balamb town for the night, but this evening everywhere was deserted. The faint sound of dance music could be heard in the general direction of the parade ground, home to Selphie’s famous Garden parties, so Quistis headed for that.
Sure enough, as she drew closer the hubbub of dozens of students, instructors and cadets all gathered together started to rise to a crescendo, peaking as she entered the corridor leading out to the parade ground. The rhythmic thump-thump of the music was making some of the metallic sections of the walls vibrate and rattle, and Quistis made a mental note to stay away from the speakers that evening if at all possible. Zell was waiting at the end of the corridor, and bounced over to her with a grin when he saw Quistis approaching.
"Hey there, guest of honour!"
"Oh, stop," said Quistis, dismissing him with a wave of her hand but smiling all the same. "I’m just here to have a good night, like everyone else."
"Yeah, literally, everyone else," said Zell. "I’m not kidding when I say there isn’t a person in the Garden not here tonight, Quisty! And it’s all for you!" Quistis tried to suppress the flutterings of panic she felt in her stomach and managed a weak ‘oh really?’ in reply. Zell tugged at her arm for her to follow him.
"Come on, my duty is to escort you in so the party can really get started. Ready?" Quistis sighed.
"I suppose so, Zell." Zell beamed and took Quistis by the arm, leading her round the corner and into the start of the parade ground area. There was a long flight of steps, flanked by mini-fountains and outcrops of greenery, and the area turned slightly to the left to accommodate the main stage where the Garden’s various bands were always found playing. This evening, however, the hall was jammed full of students, all in their best party clothes and taking full advantage of the buffet table that spread round two of the walls. The stage was home to a DJ at the moment, but the drum kits and mic stands behind him show that the bands had not taken to the stage yet.
Selphie stood near the head of the mass of guests, scanning the stairs for the approach of Quistis and Zell. When the two reached the top of the steps, Zell, whistled to signal to Selphie that the evening’s guest of honour was here, and with a wave of her hand Selphie triggered an enormous cheer and round of applause that deafened Quistis down every single step of the long, brightly lit staircase. The DJ stopped on cue as well, leaving just the noise of the cheers to greet her.
Quistis put on her most diplomatic smile, actually not feeling too freaked out by all the attention on her for once, waving regally to the crowd as she made her way to the bottom of the steps. Selphie, whose voice seemed to carry all around the hall as easily as if she was using a megaphone, spoke out to announce her.
"Ladies and gentlemen of Balamb Garden, three cheers for our guest of honour this evening, Instructor Quistis Trepe!" Three cheers duly followed, and Quistis lapped up the applause for a moment, although she hoped that the party would start again in a moment and she wouldn’t feel under the spotlight so much very soon.
"Thank you everybody, it means a lot to me to see you all here tonight. But this night isn’t all about me, it’s about us all getting together to have a big old party, so let’s forget about me and get on with the evening!" shouted Quistis, which was followed by a cheer of acknowledgement and a rush of all the male students heading equally for the free bar and the free food. The DJ started up the music again, and in moments the dance floor area before the stage was full of students letting their hair down, preferring this more energetic celebration to the rather more formal ballroom event of the previous week.
Quistis headed for the bar where she spotted Squall and the others, who welcomed her with a series of hugs – Squall for once managing a public display of affection! A round of drinks was already waiting, and with a clink of raised glasses the friends toasted to their futures.
"You are so gonna love what we have lined up for this evening, Quisty," said Selphie, grabbing at her comrade’s arm to demonstrate her earnestness. "Your favourite band is coming to play later on, and we have this great buffet, and then later on there’ll be a fireworks display, and-"
"Easy, squirt," said Irvine, sliding an arm round Selphie to restrain her, "you’ll pass out if you don’t remember to breathe!" Quistis grinned at him.
"Thank you, Selphie, it all seems perfect. I couldn’t have wished for a better day. Even though we seem to have skipped that quiet drink I was coming to find you all to have before all this kicked off.."
"Er, yeah, sorry about that," said Selphie guiltily, "I’m afraid that was kind of my fault because I got too excited to wait any longer.." Quistis laughed away Selphie’s worries.
"Don’t worry about it. As long as you lot don’t mind me being in the background for the night, I just want to make sure everyone else has a good time." She adopted an authoritative tone for a moment. "Selphie Tilmitt?" she ordered. Selphie played along and stood to attention.
"Yes, ma’am!"
"I order you to ensure that everybody has a great time!"
"Yes, ma’am!" saluted Selphie, evoking another ripple of laughter from Selphie’s group.
The evening went on as well as Selphie could have hoped, and thanks to keeping a low profile Quistis managed to enjoy herself as well. People came by to wish her well, but not so many as to turn the evening into an uncomfortable reworking of the previous ball – she spent most of the evening propping up a corner of the bar with her friends, chatting indiscriminately to everyone who came past as long as they avoided the topic of what was going to happen to her any time after the end of the party. The other instructors toasted to her, her friends toasted to her, she shared a quiet drink with Cid – it went just how she wanted it all to.
Many hours later, when a lot of the guests had finally given up, Quistis sat at one of the tables arranged to the left of the buffet with Rinoa, Xu and Mochika, each girl having partaken of plenty of the free drink on offer as signalled by the table full of empty wine and shot glasses in front of them. There wasn’t an official legal drinking age in the Garden, but most of the students were well-behaved enough to not get blasted on a regular basis. Which is precisely why so many of them were currently unconscious in their quarters and would wake up with an enormous hangover.
"An-an ananother thing," slurred Quistis, waving her finger dramatically at Rinoa to prove her point, "maybe I won’t settle down anywhere shtraight away."
"’Shtraight away’?" mocked Rinoa.
"Yesh!" shouted Quistis. "Anyways, where was I.. yeah, and another thing-"
"What about if, if, you know, like, if you find, like, a nice bloke or something?" said Mochika with difficulty, squinting as though trying to focus on words written in the air in front of her.
"Maybe.. who knows?" said Quistis, leaning back in her chair and almost sending it clattering to the floor. She grabbed hold of the table to pull herself forward. "Important thing, right, important thing is.."
"Yes?" said Rinoa, the least drunk of the foursome. Quistis paused and frowned, then slumped forward in defeat.
"I dunno," she said, her forehead resting on the table. "I just want to have a good life. I always feel so.. so.."
"Like you should know what you’re supposed to be doing?" said Xu profoundly. Quistis looked up, a happy gleam in her eyes.
"Yes! Yes! That is, like, totally it, right, yes," she said, waving her arms enthusiastically. "You get put into, into the system, yeah?"
"Yeah," agreed Mochika.
"And then, then there’s all these people, saying stuff like ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ and you have to just say, ‘I don’t know!’" Quistis continues, affecting a deep boomy voice for the role of ‘all these people.’
"You’re like, ‘I’m still a kid! I haven’t grown up yet!’" said Mochika, the two of them really connecting over this issue.
"Exactly!" said Quistis, thumping her palm on the table for emphasis. "Exactly. Who knew what they wanted to be when they grew up when they were a kid?"
"I always wanted to be a princess.." said Rinoa, starting to look a little hazy-eyed.
"Well, yeah, there’s stuff like that," said Quistis, "but I mean who knew how they wanted to spend their life when they were just a kid? Who could be, like ten, or something, and know what they wanted to do until they were, like, fifty or something?"
"Yeah, yeah!" agreed Xu, her exterior breaking down in the face of Quistis’ superior drunken logic.
"No-one does! Well, a few people do, but the point is," she said, waving that accusing finger at nobody in particular again, "the point is, I’m not one of those people. I don’t know what I want to d0. I’m only.. I’m only.." Quistis frowned and counted her age on her fingers. "I’m only not quite nineteen but almost!"
"You’re still a kid!" said Xu, looking like she was going to end up on the floor some time soon.
"Right!" said Quistis. "But I’m a kid who has decided to not just, like, sit back and listen to the man anymore, trying to tell me what to do, or nothing. I’m going to find out for myself."
"Yes!" said Mochika, punching the air triumphantly. Xu slid quietly off her chair and crumpled to the floor, unnoticed by the other three. Rinoa yawned like a lazy cat and stood up, a little unsteadily.
"Ah’m gonna go to bed," she said sleepily, "you three, er, two, have fun, mmkay?" She tottered off and out of the parade ground. The band had long since finished playing and were packing up their equipment. The hall was largely empty apart from a few Faculty members with black bags clearing up some of the detritus of the night, and as Quistis scanned the place she spotted one of the Trepies sitting in one corner, enjoying a crafty cigarette out of one of the slightly ajar windows overlooking the fields at the rear of the Garden. Quistis stood up and wobbled her way over to him. He saw her approaching and in one fluid movement tried to flick the cigarette out of the window, but it bounced back off the pane and landed in his lap. He beat frantically at the ashes, but saw that as Quistis was nearly in speaking range he had no other option than to grab the cigarette and swallow it in one smooth gulp.
He was still coughing and retching when Quistis stood in front of him, hands on her hips authoritatively. He couldn’t bring himself to look directly up at her, and merely spoke with his head half bowed.
"Y-yes, Instructor Trepe?"
"Student Kyle Denear, am I correct?" she said. Kyle looked up in surprise that she knew his name.
"Yes, ma’am!" he answered, not sure whether to salute or not, and trying not to notice that the cigarette he’d swallowed appeared to be trying to slowly burn its way back out of his stomach.
"Good. In recognition of your years of faithful service as one of my loveable, if misguide, fan club, more commonly known as the ‘Trepies,’ I hereby grant you this special, once-in-a-lifetime-and-don’t-you-forget-it award. Please stand." Kyle didn’t know what to do, but decided that slowly standing was the wisest course of action, given the determined look in Quistis’ eyes.
In response, Quistis grabbed Kyle’s head squarely between her two hands, puckered up and gave him a huge kiss full on his lips. His eyes bulged in shock for a moment, but before he had chance to react Quistis had pulled away again. She nodded once, satisfied with her work.
"Thanks a lot, Kyle. See you around," she said, and with that she turned on her heel, walked past him and straight out of the hall.
Kyle stood in silence for a few more moments before collapsing back into his chair.
"Woah.." was all he had the strength to mutter. Quistis’ work here was finally done.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Quistis woke up on Saturday morning as she had done so many times before with a sense of peace. The Garden thankfully kept weekends largely free for non-curricular activities for its students, promoting sports and other recreational clubs to allow the students to develop their minds and bodies in other, non-combat orientated ways. This meant that everyone who was at the party last night (which accounted for 99.9% of the Garden, staff and students) could enjoy a nice long lie-in to recover from their hedonism the night before. Sports teams had cancelled matches, field trips were postponed, and life at the Garden in general was on pause for the day.
All of which suited Quistis down to the ground, because it meant she could sneak away early in the morning as she’d planned, and not have to worry about a big goodbye ceremony. She rose and dressed at about 9am, having arranged the previous day to catch a boat out to Dulcett at around 11 from Balamb Harbour. Carrying her last suitcase and backpack downstairs took a bit of effort, but she’d had the sense to load up most of her stuff into her new jeep yesterday to save time this morning. The Garden was eerily quiet again, but this time with a sense of relaxation than of anticipation compared to last night, so Quistis quietly and carefully made her way down to the garage.
Tossing the last two bags into the jeep, she started the engine and sat for a moment, letting it warm up. The full impact of what she was about to do was thankfully lurking elsewhere at the moment, so she could recline, catlike, in her seat and allow herself a very satisfied sigh. Reaching up to the sunblinds to pull them down and grab her sunglasses, she saw the photo of Izzy, Dex and Serena she’d stuck up there to remind herself to track down her old friends. Shifting the jeep into gear, she drove forwards slowly towards the exit.
Somebody stepped out in front of her suddenly, and she slammed her brakes on to avoid hitting them. It was Irvine, a cocky grin on his face as always, and he looked pretty out of breath. Quistis slid her sunglasses down onto the bridge of her nose so she could peer critically at Irvine over them.
"Sorry! Whew, almost missed you," he panted, motioning for her to wind the window down so he could talk to her better. With a grin, Quistis hit the sunroof button and let the jeep transform itself into a convertible. She stood up in the car and leaned on the windscreen.
"So should I ask why you want me to run you over?" she said with a wry grin. Irvine pushed his trademark hat back up on his head before he answered.
"I just needed to pass on a message to you. I had a feeling you’d try to sneak off this morning without making a scene, that’s your style!" Quistis grinned, taking the remark as a compliment. "Anyway, I just need to tell you that Squall’s waiting by the main entrance for you, and he just wanted to say a few words to you before you went."
"He did, huh? Interesting.." said Quistis, her thoughts wandering off for a second. Irvine cleared his throat to draw back her attention.
"So, anyway, do I get a goodbye hug then?" he said, opening his arms in anticipation.
"I’m sure you got plenty last night, but one more won’t hurt! Come here, you daft thing," said Quistis, reaching out and giving Irvine a squeeze. "Now that’s your lot, alright? I’ve got a boat to catch."
"Come back and see us again soon, okay?" said Irvine as Quistis started the jeep up again. "Don’t forget where we’re all going to be stationed!"
"I won’t!" she shouted back. "See you later!" She waved at his reflection in her rear-view mirror as she drove up the ramp that led out of the garage. Once outside, it was a short drive round to the front of the Garden, and then on to the gates and security wall that ran round the perimeter of the Garden’s grounds. Sure enough, sat at the gates on the concrete walls, kicking his heels in the dust at the end of the access road, was Squall. Quistis pulled up a few metres behind him and got out to walk up to meet him.
"Thanks for stopping," he said as she drew near, without looking up at her. The morning sun was out in all its glory, sending glittering flecks of light back from the sea and lighting up the lush green landscape of Balamb for miles all around. Even Squall’s own personal storm cloud appeared to have been left behind, so Quistis aimed to take full advantage of this hopefully lighter mood. She walked to his side and hopped up to sit on the wall next to him.
"Well, I wasn’t about to just drive away, now, was I?" she said cheerily, looking out towards the harbour in the distance. She could just about make out her ship approaching, some way out at sea and coming from the mist-shrouded continent of Galbadia, but she still had about an hour to get to the town yet.
"I’m happy for you, to see you going through with all this," said Squall, his eyes still downcast. "I know what it feels like to not feel as though you belong anywhere."
"Yes, I know, that’s why I’m glad you’re here, right now, Squall," said Quistis. "It shows me that I’m not the only person feeling like I do, and that there are people who understand what I’m setting out to try and do here." Squall looked up at her for the first time, and she smiled back at him. The emotion of the moment had started to creep up on her like an old, familiar sense of dread, but for once Quistis felt inspired to use what she normally ran away from for once.
"What re you thinking about?" asked Squall, noticing the sudden gleam in Quistis’ eye.
"I did something last night I’ve always meant to and thought it was all the business I had left here, but I think there’s one last thing I need to do," she said, reaching forward and planting her hands round Squall’s head suddenly. Before he had chance to respond, she leaned in and kissed him. He didn’t struggle, as though he understood that this was just something Quistis needed to do. She didn’t linger, keeping the moment fresh, and when she was done she leaned back without a trace of guilt in her expression.
"So what did you find?" he asked.
"I think I know why Rinoa loves you so much," she said, releasing him and stepping down off the wall. She walked over to her jeep and leapt back in, only turning to look back at him once she was sat down again.
"Take care of yourself, Instructor Trepe," said Squall with an uncharacteristic grin, waving at her. Quistis just smiled back, started the engine and drove away, leaving Squall sat on the wall behind her. She mentally crossed off the last item on her ‘to do’ list and cleared her head to concentrate on the journey ahead.
With the roof down, the brisk Balamb breeze flowed deliciously throughout the jeep, prompting Quistis to switch on the cassette player and play some of her favourite road music – a classic rock band from the Galbadian deserts, who