Squall, Rinoa and Zell are sat in the Cafeteria eating lunch. Rinoa and Zell are discussing going into Balamb that afternoon. Squall is slightly preoccupied by his thoughts but throws in comments every now and again.

‘I wonder where Irvine’s got to. It was him that suggested meeting for lunch here, so why hasn’t he shown? I mean it’s not that I’m worrying too much, but I am slightly. The image of him last night, weak, vulnerable, and pleading for help with his eyes, just won’t leave me. It’s not like him not to show, late possibly, but to not appear at all …’

Squall glances at his watch for the ninth time in three minutes and scowls at it.

“Are you expecting someone Squall?” asks Rinoa.
“Hmm? What?” Squall replies, drawn away from his thoughts by the mention of his name.
“Well you keep glancing at your watch and scowling, so I was wondering if you were expecting someone.”
“Well yeah, Irvine.”

Selphie walks over at this moment and sits down with them.

“Have any of you seen Irvine? I’ve checked his dorms so many times, yet he never seems to be there, and it seems as if no one has seen him all day or yesterday for that matter.”
“Squall was just saying he was expecting Irvine yet he hasn’t appeared,” says Zell.
“You’ve seen him Squall? When?”
“I saw him first thing this morning; you say he’s not in his dorm? I think I’ll go take a quick look for him,” says Squall as he gets up to leave.
“You will, thanks Squall. You probably know where he is better than I do after that time you spent bonding with him,” says Selphie.
“You want any help?” asks Zell.
“No I’m fine thanks Zell. I should be back soon.”

He bends down and gives Rinoa a quick kiss on the cheek, then he exits the Cafeteria heading for the dorms.

‘I’m gonna have to go to the dorms, no matter what, I haven’t got Lionheart with me. I’ll quickly check Irvine’s dorm, even if there is no response I can still get in. Sometimes being commander has it’s bonuses. I can override anyone’s door code, in an emergency, or as long as I have good justification. And right now I think I have. I need to check that Irvine is ok, as I know that something is wrong, I just don’t know what it is yet. There aren’t many things that can reduce him to tears, and I think it is serious if he has been.’

‘Now where is Irvine’s dorm? I know it is near mine, but I can’t remember if it is before or after mine. Damn, I should have asked Selphie where it is, she knows where it is. Mind you that may have aroused her suspicions. It is probably better I didn’t. Well I guess I’ll have to access the dorms floor plan to find out where it is.’

He arrives at his dorm, and quickly punches in his access code and walks into his dorm, switching on his laptop as he walks past on his way to getting Lionheart. He attaches the sheath for Lionheart to one of his many belts, and returns to his laptop which by this time has booted up. He doesn’t bother to sit down, just leans over his desk so that he can see the screen properly. He quickly searches through the files until he finds the floor plan of the SeeD dorms.

‘Ahh there is his dorm, right it was before mine. Well time to go see if he’s there. Just need some pulse ammo in case I do have to go into the training centre, and I’m ready to go.’

He carefully opens the bottom draw of his desk and gets out six pulse ammo. Getting Lionheart out of its sheath he leads them into the barrel of his gunblade. He also picks up a few shot gun ammo, and puts them into trouser pocket. He throws his coat onto the back of the chair and leaves his dorm, closing the laptop so that it shuts itself down.

‘Right Irvine, it would be simple if you were in your dorm. But something tells me that you aren’t going to be there. Please just be there.’

He arrives in front of Irvine’s dorm and knocks on the door.

“Irvine you in there?” calls Squall. No answer comes and after a few minutes he calls “Irvine, I’m coming in ok?” He still gets no response so he types in the override code and the door sweeps open to reveal Irvine’s dorm.

‘Damn this doesn’t look good. He isn’t here. I just hope he isn’t in trouble. Mind you there isn’t anything in the training centre that would prove troublesome for us after Ultimecia. I’m just going to check for Exeter. If that isn’t here, then he must still be in the Training Centre. Right Exeter is normally kept under his bed, so …’

Squall quickly crosses the room to Irvine’s bed, and reaches under it for Exeter’s Case. He finds it and pulls it out onto the bed, opening the case he discovers where Irvine may be.

‘Damn not here, right Training Centre it is. I just hope nothing bad has happened to him.’

He leaves Irvine’s dorm and jogs to the Training Centre. Upon arriving he draws Lionheart and enters the first area.

‘Strange, it seems unnaturally quiet in here today. I wonder where all the monsters are. It is unusual for it to be this quiet.’

Squall continues through the Training Centre but still finds no monsters, and also and almost worryingly so, no trace of Irvine.

‘This really does feel wrong. I should have encountered something by now. It feels to quiet in here. And it almost feels uncomfortable. I hope I find Irvine soon, there is something that doesn’t feel right about here today.’

As he approaches the save point, near the secret area, he starts to hear the high pitched hum of insect wings.

‘At last a monster; sounds like a Granaldo. They’re pretty rare, and almost a challenge.’

He smiles to himself as he walks round the last bit of foliage, only his expression falls when he has a clear view of the glade with the save point in it.

His gaze falls upon a patch of tan, purple, and auburn on the ground, lying motionless. This is all too noticeable against the green grass. The trade mark black cowboy hat is a few feet away from the motionless body. Bearing down on Irvine is a rather large Granaldo. It hasn’t noticed Squall yet; it is too intent on the unconscious form of Irvine which will provide an easy meal for it. No resistance, no energy wasted.

‘Oh my Hyne, Irvine, what happened? Nothing here should be able to injure you seriously, let alone knock you out. Never mind that now though, I have to get that Granaldo away from Irvine. I can’t just shoot it, Gunblades aren’t as accurate as guns, and it is too close to Irvine. I don’t want to shoot him again. I guess there is only one thing left to do …’

Squall quickly opens the barrel of his gunblade, removes one pulse ammo, and replaces it with a shot gun bullet he has pulled out of his pocket. He closes the barrel and holds his gunblade so that it is pointing directly upwards, and fires.

The Granaldo quickly turns to face this new threat, and upon seeing Squall, it flies at him. Squall replaces the spent ammo case with the pulse ammo that he took out, then stands facing the Granaldo, gunblade at the ready.

‘Come on then, I’m ready for this.’

Squall ducks at the last moment, just as the Granaldo was about to scratch his face and attacks the monsters wings, knowing that once it is on the ground, it will pretty much be helpless, and will be far easier to attack. He manages to cut through two of the wings before the Granaldo recovers, spin round, and catching Squall off guard; it rakes one of its sharp claws down Squall’s arm. Squall grunts in pain and also he stumbles slightly, and reconsiders his course of action. Due to the fact two of its wings are gone, the Granaldo is flying lower but isn’t on the ground yet.

‘Ok sod the wings, lets just kill this thing.’

Ignoring the pain in his arm, Squall raises his gunblade and attacks the beast from the right side, slicing through the beast’s side. The Granaldo shrieks in pain, but can’t get away from the gunblade that is digging in its right side and slowly slicing through it. Squall wrestles the Granaldo onto the ground and continues to slice through it. The monster is writing on the ground but is unable to do anything. Just as his gunblade reaches the centre of the monster, Squall pulls the trigger on Lionheart. The pulse ammo goes deep inside the beast, before it explodes and devastates the monsters insides. The monster falls silent, and Squall removes Lionheart from it and quickly wipes it down, before sheathing it and running over to Irvine.

‘What happened Irvine? Are you alright? Or are you hurt? Are you asleep? Is this the result of a battle or what? I can’t see any obvious injuries … but what if something I can’t see is wrong? Can I risk moving him?’

Squall gently inspects what he can see of Irvine for injuries and upon seeing none he checks Irvine’s neck for a pulse.

‘Come on Irvine, you can’t be dead, can you? No I can feel your pulse, possibly a little weak, but definitely there.’

Squall next turns Irvine over so that he can check that Irvine is in fact breathing. Reassured by the steady rise and fall of Irvine’s chest, Squall contemplates what to do next.

‘Irvine, what could have happened? I can’t see any injuries yet you aren’t just asleep so what is it? I don’t understand this … and something tells me we are no longer alone. I knew that gunshot wouldn’t go unnoticed here for long. Damnit. I guess the best thing is to get you into the Save Point, where you’ll be safe, while I dispose of our … guests.’

‘I’ve done this before, I can do it again. I mean you can’t have put on too much weight can you Irvine?’

Squall quickly and carefully lifts Irvine and heads as quickly as he can towards the Save Point.

‘Ungh, put on a little weight, but not so much that I can’t carry him. Just got to get him into the blue aura of the Save Point, monsters can’t enter that so the can’t harm you there. And then I get to have my fun.’

Squall places Irvine carefully in the Save Point Aura before quickly grabbing Exeter and Irvine’s hat from near the Save Point. He places the two items next to Irvine, and the turns to see what he is up against.

Even through the blue shimmering haze caused by the Save Points Aura, Squall can tell that he has problems.

‘Ahh I wasn’t quite banking on this. I can definitely make out two T-Rexaurs, three Buels, two more Granaldos and five Raldos, a lot of Grats and, Oh Hyne, a Tri-Face. What’s that doing here? I guess it must have gotten in here when we opened up the MD level. There can’t be that many of them though, as I haven’t received any complaints about them. They are rather strong. I can’t take on all of these by myself; there are ten strong monsters as it is, not forgetting the Buels, and Grats. Well there is only one course of action I can think of.

~ Shiva, come to me. ~

~ Commander. ~

~ I need you to take out these monsters for me. ~

~ As you wish commander. I can’t appear here commander. ~

~ I know, I will take it to the brink of summoning, and then will step out of the Save Point’s Aura. ~

~ That will work commander; concentrate please. ~

Squall lapses into the familiar state of mind he has always used for summoning. Only this time it is a longer, harder, slower process. He is slightly out of practice due to the fact he hasn’t summoned since beating Ultimecia, but he perseveres, not willing to give up as his only other alternative it to fight the monsters hand to hand.

Just as he feels Shiva is ready he steps outside the protective aura of the Save Point and Shiva appears. Upon her appearance the area around the Save Point become very cold due to her presence. The monsters all let out a mighty roar and move for her. Squall watches as she calmly throws very powerful ice magic at them, freezing them all before she disappears. When she disappears everything heats up again quickly causing the monsters to shatter due to the sudden rise in temperature and thermal expansion.

‘Brilliant, now I can leave without problems. All the monsters in the vicinity are now either dead, or will have felt the effects of that and won’t come near here for a good few hours. Right now to get Irvine out of here.’

Squall turns back to Irvine, first of all he jams Exeter behind one of his belts, then he picks up Irvine gently, the cow boy hat in Irvine’s lap. He alters Irvine’s position in his arms so that he can feel Irvine breathing against his skin so that he can monitor it. He then sets off for his dorm, knowing that Irvine hates the Infirmary.

‘Hmmm, Déjà vu. Reminds me of when I … when I … I shot Irvine. Wow … I can finally admit what I did.’

He unconsciously hugs Irvine closer to himself.

‘Hyne, forbid anything happen to him. I know he hasn’t always been one of the most … well all I can say is that he’s known a lot of women, but he is dedicated to Selphie. He loves her so much I can’t let anything come between them. Irvine, you’re gonna have to talk to me, tell me what’s wrong. I need to get you and Selphie to talk. But I want to know first.’

*~*~*~*~