Kindred Spirits

Prologue:

The engineers from Esthar had rebuilt the complex that surrounded the main facility of Balamb Garden by following, rather slavishly, the original plans drawn up for the Garden years ago. As a result, most of the secret places that the student body had discovered over the years had not changed, and so a SeeD who had graduated, say, five years ago could go to one of the private spots that he or she had gone to to hide from the faculty after curfew and still find cadets using it for the same purpose. So while a few things had changed-quite a few underclassmen found themselves being sent down to the MD levels looking for some unlikely destination-some of the old standards still held. Quistis Trepe found herself somewhat comforted by the fact that cadets still used her favorite "secret place" at the rear of the Training Center the one some cadets called the Nest. She had once heard that the little balcony that overlooked the central Garden complex was actually meant for the maintenance staff to use to maintain the air handling units behind her. Looking at the young couple at the few end of the space, standing so close to each other that a molecule would have a hard time getting between them, Quistis doubted that they cared about why it was there. She leaned against the retaining wall and gazed out at the central complex of Balamb Garden, bathed in the light of the inert thruster ring. When the Garden was in flight, the ring propelled the unlikely airship; when it was at rest, as it had been since the end of the Third Sorceress War, it hung over the Garden like a giant halo. Why would anyone build something so large and yet make it flight capable? she thought, not for the first time. Presumably, all the Gardens could double as aircraft; Galbadia Garden had demonstrated such capability during the War. It just was not something that leaped readily to her mind as being a thing that would come up during the design of the Garden Still, it was undeniably useful, even in this day and age, when most SeeDs were air-lifted to combat zones aboard the Ragnarok. Quistis put matters of engineering and combat logistics out of her mind and thought about why she was here, alone, surrounded by a group of teens who had to be confused by why she was here, alone. Inside the Garden, the cadets of the first class that she had taught since becoming Head Instructor were attending their inauguration party, but for some reason, she felt more comfortable here, alone.

She had been removed as an Instructor shortly before the War had flared up, her superiors citing a lack of maturity and a tendency to be too lenient on her students. She had been only seventeen when she had received her license, teaching in some cases cadets who were her age or not all that much younger. Quistis had not quite seen it quite that way, and her removal had nagged at her during the War. While she had played an important role in the victory over the sorceress Ultimecia, she had found that she had wanted her former role back. In losing what she had taken for granted, she had gained a new appreciation for being a teacher, and had fought to reclaim her license. With Squall Leonhart serving as the Combat Master for Balamb Garden, that should have been easy-they were, after all, life-long friends-but Squall had not been so easy to sway. Prove to me that they were wrong about you, Quistis, Squall had said. She believed, hoped actually, that Squall had been so hard on her to prevent anyone from saying that he had favored her. She had made it a moot point, performing so well that Squall had not been able to deny her. She had returned to being Instructor Trepe, and she had found so much of her former life repeating itself that she had expected Squall and Cid Kramer to remove her as Instructor again. The Garden grapevine had kept her fan club, for lack of a better term, alive, and it had turned her exploits during the War into myth. No matter what happens, I suppose that there will always be "Trepies." She did not know if that was a good or a bad thing.

She heard footsteps behind her and for one irrational moment she thought it was Squall, who she had brought here the day he had become a SeeD and she had lost her license. She had thought that she had wanted to talk to someone about her problems, when in actuality, she had been trying to get him to notice her as something other than his teacher. She had thought that she was in love with Squall, until she had recalled that she had grown up with Squall at Edea's orphanage, serving as sort of a surrogate sister for him. Or at least that was what she told herself. Sometimes, seeing Squall with Rinoa Heartilly, the two of them so in love it irritated cynics for miles, she wondered how true that was. The fact was, with her memories stolen by the effect of junctioning Guardian Forces, she had good reason to doubt anything she felt based on her childhood feelings. And that does not change the fact that someone is standing behind you, Quistis. She turned to address whomever had come to bother her and found herself rather surprised to see the best student of her current class, Eric Alfredsson, standing there in his duty SeeD uniform. What was so surprising was the fact that she barely knew her student-she had often thought that she had not so much taught Eric as refined him-and of her current lot of students, he was about the last she would have expected to find her here.

Eric Alfredsson stood five foot eight and weighed maybe one hundred and forty-five pounds soaking wet. He certainly did not look like a warrior of any kind; he was slender in build, blessed with the kind of boyish good looks that most seventeen year olds would kill for. He wore his brown hair cut short in the back, long in the front so it fell over his right eye, and perhaps half the females of the cadet corps found him to be perfectly beautiful. Quistis had read more than one posting to Balamb Garden's internet chat rooms describing Eric in terms that would probably cause Eric to blush if ever read them. Assuming that Eric ever blushed: Quistis had never met anyone so levelheaded in her life. He never got angry or upset, and for that matter he never seemed to joke with anyone. Eric's appearance masked a very competent fighter, perhaps the best since Squall and Seifer Almasy had gone through Garden. Slung over his back was his preferred weapon, an ornate broadsword with hilts shaped like angel wings; being armed in one of the private places at Balamb Garden seemed odd to outsiders, until you discovered that the Training Center was stocked with live and deadly monsters. Quistis had her preferred weapon, the chain whip called Save the Queen, on her hip. She noticed that the three other couples that shared the balcony were looking their way, probably starting rumors as they watched. "Shouldn't you be at the party, Eric?" she asked. "Might be the last time you get to have fun before they start giving you missions."

"I don't party well, ma 'am," he told her, his voice level and polite. "The Combat Master said that you would probably be here. Said that you came here after the last inauguration party."

"Did he now? I'm amazed that Squall remembers that. He met Rinoa that night." She turned to face the night again. "You probably should be at the party, Eric. Could meet the girl of your dreams."

"I'm not Squall, ma'am." Which was a particularly eloquent response, she had to admit. "Actually, I came here to thank you."

Well, that's odd, Quistis thought. "Thank me for what?"

Eric was quiet for a moment, clearly searching for the right way to say what was on his mind. It occurred to Quistis that this was the most casual conversation she had ever had with Eric. Other than answering questions in class or communications during combat drills, Eric had rarely spoken to her. After what felt like an eternity, Eric said "I'd like to thank you for putting up with Aiko, ma'am."

Oh, now I get it. Quistis understood what had motivated Eric to speak to her on the day that he had passed the SeeD field exam, achieving a Level Ten ranking, the highest since, well, she had graduated. If Eric was the finest student of her current class, then Aiko Hayashibara was the most irritating. There was nothing wrong with her capabilities-in terms of raw talent, only Eric surpassed her. But Aiko was the walking dictionary definition of attitude, a wild, authority figure defying practical joker of the highest order. Aiko did not short sheet beds: she cast Sleep spells on her victims and, aided by whatever underclassmen that she could wrangle into helping her, would deposit her target miles from the Garden. She was like a force of nature that Quistis could not claim to have tamed, only directed positively. The most unusual thing about Aiko, though, was that she and Eric were fast friends; they had been since both had arrived at Galbadia Garden years ago and had stayed that way after coming to Balamb after the War had ended. Most of the men at the Garden, seeing the boyishly handsome Eric and the exotically beautiful Aiko together, assumed that they were more than just friends. As far as Quistis knew, however, that was the case. She admired Aiko for that if nothing else. "Putting up with Aiko is part of my job, Eric. I knew there was a good SeeD somewhere in there. Just had to find her."

"I just wanted to let you know it was appreciated. Aiko can be hard to handle, and I would like to express my admiration." Eric stepped up to the railing and studied the scene. "Nice view. Um, you know, ma'am, this isn't normally a place that you come alone."

"I like it here. And, Eric, you're a SeeD now. You don't need to be so formal. You can call me by my name."

"Old habits die hard, ma'am, er, Quistis." He looked down over the railing. "Do you come here often?"

Quistis smiled. "That sounded dangerously like a pick up line, Eric. I'd scold you if I didn't know you were so formal."

"Thanks for the benefit of the doubt." Most seventeen year old men, standing next to a beautiful twenty year old woman, would be breaking out in a sweat. Eric seemed to be handling it well. "So, do you come here often?"

Persistent fellow, she decided. "I used to, when I was a cadet. I roomed with a girl that was a bit of a wild child, she told me about this place. She would come here with boys and smoke cigarettes. Aiko would have liked her."

(Aileen her name was Aileen and it rained on the day they buried her)

Quistis scowled, knowing that Eric would notice and not caring. How long had it been since she had thought about Aileen Navarre? Months? Heaven forbid, years? She put it behind her and moved on. "I would sneak out here with her and she would try to talk me into smoking and we would talk about guys and, you know…" Eric nodded.

(crouching against the air handlers on the other side of the balcony, tears streaking her face/ a promise to always honor her memory)

This time Quistis shuddered uncontrollably, drawing a comment from Eric. "Are you all right, ma'am?"

"I'm-I'm fine. It's been a while since I thought about Aileen. She was killed on a mission, years ago."

"My condolences," Eric said with his usual politeness.

"Like I said, it was a long time ago. I wasn't even an Instructor yet-

(fifteen you were fifteen and you were so scared)

-and I wasn't even there, anyway."

Eric stepped back from her, his bearing formal. "I had better get going, Quistis. Aiko is in all likelihood raising some sort of hell. It's her nature."

Quistis had to agree with that. Part of her longed for his company, not out of any attraction to him, although he was very good looking, but simply because she did not want to be alone. She had felt the same way the night that she had brought Squall here, thankful in a way that she had lost her Instructor's license because it had given her an excuse, come to think of it. "You take care of yourself, Eric. And congratulations on becoming a SeeD."

Eric bowed his head at her in a curt, proper gesture and left. Once he was out of sight, Quistis wrapped her arms around herself, trying to stop the sudden shiver that ran through her body. What's wrong with me? Why don't I want to be alone on this night? And why am I so scared? What did I forget?

A girl, across the balcony, giggled, and just like that the spell was broken. Quistis looked up at the sky and said to herself " A goose just walked over my grave." She decided that it was time to put on an appearance at the party and see if she could do any preemptive damage control about her conversation with Eric. By the time she had left the Training Center, she had put the incident on the balcony out of her mind.

On the edge of a forest in the Alcauld Plains, a few miles away from Balamb Garden, a slim, shadowy figure knelt, eyes on the skies. "Oh, Quistis," it whispered, "I'm coming home."