Squall walked slowly across the empty desert, eyes sweeping the landscape for approaching
monsters. So far he had only encountered a couple, although he knew there were
more out there since it had not been long since the lunar cry. He was not overly
worried though, he was now quite capable of handling the monsters that invested the
Esthar plains, whereas previously he had needed at least two companions in order to defeat the creatures.
Squall had been traveling towards the southeast coast of the Esthar continent for several days
now. He discovered that he enjoyed traveling alone; it meant that he did not have
to worry about the safety of his friends and that he had to rely solely upon his own
resourcefulness. It also gave him time to think, to sort through and try to
understand his current feelings and problems
He was particularly preoccupied with his situation with Rinoa. It was clear that
everyone, especially Rinoa, thought that the two of them were a couple,
particularly because everyone had witnessed their first kiss on the
balcony near Balamb's ballroom. He had let everyone think that
and he had even played the role of the loyal boyfriend, believing at
the time that it was what he wanted.
Yet, not even a week had gone by since that first kiss before Squall had already begun to
feel uncomfortable with his relationship with Rinoa. While he
cared for Rinoa deeply and knew she cared for him, she kept trying to
force him to change. She wanted him to go to all these social functions,
to go out on the weekends, to talk and make friends with everyone; she
basically wanted him to be a social butterfly like herself.
While Squall had opened up to his close friends, he did not want to expand upon his social
network. Rinoa seemed unable to accept the fact that he was
a naturally quiet and solitary person; instead, she was trying to force
him to fit her idea of the perfect boyfriend, something he was unable to do.
Frustrated with Rinoa's inability to accept him as he was, he had decided a few days ago
to called in on some vacation time in order to visit his father in Esthar
City. While having a father still seemed like a rather novel idea,
Squall wanted to get to know Laguna better. Squall really admired
Laguna's dedication and loyalty to Esthar. Squall also enjoyed the
older man's jovial and outgoing personality; it reminded him of Seifer.
Squall stopped walking and stared at the ground as he wondered where that last thought had
come from. The two men were so completely different; yet, they did both have very noticeable
and very loud personalities. Maybe that was why Squall had thought of Seifer while thinking about his father.
Squall sighed, knowing that was not the reason why he had thought of Seifer. He had
been thinking about the blond a lot lately; Squall was worried about him.
There had been no trace of Seifer after time compression had
ended. Squall had hoped that Gilgamesh had not killed Seifer but
just knocked him out. However, Squall was beginning to lose hope
as Seifer continued to remain missing.
Squall had at first been extremely surprised to find himself worrying about his rival.
He could not believe that he actually missed that arrogant bully and that he
actually wanted to see Seifer, wanted him to come back to Garden.
Squall finally realized it was because Seifer had always been around him;
Seifer had been a part of Squall's life for as long as he could remember.
Even though things had not always been pleasant between them, Seifer was still his
childhood friend, his classmate, his sparring partner. Squall could not even begin to imagine his
life without Seifer. At first he had thought Rinoa could take Seifer's
place but soon realized that was not possible. Seifer respected
him and accepted Squall just the way he was, something Rinoa could not do.
Squall shook his head, realizing he had been standing still and staring at the ground for
several minutes while thinking about Seifer. Squall figured he needed to stop thinking
about Seifer or else he would get extremely worried, which usually made him get depressed.
Squall decided to just focus on reaching his destination. He was heading towards
a small village on the southeast coast of the continent. Someone had reported
to his father that the villagers were holding someone prisoner without following the proper
judicial procedures. There were also rumors that the prisoner was being treated unfairly.
Laguna, keen on preserving peace and justice within his nation, had naturally become
extremely worried and upset by the report. So, Squall had offered to check out the situation,
hoping to relieve his father of some stress and worry that he constantly suffered from.
Laguna was of course ecstatic when Squall made his offer, even willing to give Squall several thousand
gil for the job. Squall had adamantly refused to be paid since he had also offered
his services as an excuse to get out into the Esthar countryside and search for any traces of Seifer.
Esthar was the last place Seifer had been seen alive, so Squall reasoned that this would be the best place
to start looking for him. Unfortunately, Squall had found no clues thus far as to what had happened to Seifer.
Squall hoped that the villagers he would soon be meeting with would have seen or heard
something concerning Seifer. With this thought in mind, Squall picked up his pace a bit,
hoping to get to the village before the sun set.
Squall walked on for several hours, watching the sun make its steady journey towards the
horizon. His journey was relatively uneventful. Monsters helped to break the monotony
of traveling alone and only a few Marlboros had given him anything close to a challenge.
As the sun began to disappear over the horizon, Squall noticed the fading sunlight glinting
off of something ahead of him. Obviously something made of metal; yet, Squall wondered
how a piece of metal could come to be in such a barren place as the Esthar plains.
Squall quickly approached the thing lying on the ground, his curiosity getting the better of him.
As Squall knelt down and examined the object he felt his heart stop and his throat constrict
as he realized what he was looking at...
Hyperion.
Squall stared dumbly at the weapon in front of him, his mind unable to register what his
eyes were showing him. Squall could not quite believe that he was looking at Hyperion,
it seems impossible that the weapon would be out here on the empty plains of Esthar.
Yet, Squall was absolutely positive that it was Hyperion, he knew it almost as well as his own gunblade.
Knowing that Seifer would never willingly leave his gunblade, Squall quickly scanned
the land around him. When he did not see anyone, Squall quickly got up and search
the ground surrounding the weapon for any clues that would tell him where Seifer was.
Unfortunately, Squall was unable to find anything, not even footprints, which
suggested to him that the gunblade had been lying there for quite some time.
Squall returned to where Hyperion was lying and picked it up. He then pulled some
rope from his backpack, tied it around the hilt of the weapon and then tied the end of
the rope to his backpack, allowing him to carrying Hyperion. It was rather awkward
but he was glad his father had insisted that Squall bring some rope with him, just in case.
Now Squall would be able to return Hyperion to Seifer, something he was very determined
to do.
Yet, Squall was at a loss as to where to look for Seifer. After several moments of
consideration, Squall finally decided to just continue on towards the town, hoping that
the people there would know the whereabouts of Seifer.
End Part 1
Part 2