The next morning, Squall was rudely awakened by a loud knock on the door. He stared at the door hard, as if it was the door's fault, and not the person on the other side, for waking him up. The knock sounded a second time.

"What?" Squall shouted angrily.

"Forgive me, Commander, but I thought you might like some breakfast and have brought you some," answered a voice that sounded like it belonged to an old woman.

"All right, come in," Squall said as he sat up in bed.

An old woman entered, carrying a tray overladen with food. She stopped walking abruptly and gaped at Squall. Squall smirked slightly, realizing he probably made quite a sight, clad only in black boxer briefs and with his usual bed head. It was unlikely that the old woman saw such a sight everyday, so Squall excused her astonishment. Squall got out of bed and walked over to the small table near the window and sprawled out in the chair, purposely trying to look wanton. Squall smirked as the woman continued to stare at him. He was only trying to be helpful, he could not imagine her life was all that exciting and seeing the man who saved the world almost completely naked would give her something to talk about for the rest of her days.(1)

After the old woman left, Squall started eating and realized that maybe there were some benefits to being famous, it got him decent breakfast. Once he finished, Squall quickly showered and did his other various morning routines. Once ready, Squall briefly considered taking his gunblade but eventually decided against it for he did not want to intimidate anyone. As he exited the room, Squall left some gil on the breakfast tray for the old woman's troubles.

Upon immediately leaving his room, Squall ran into the innkeeper, who seemed unusually cheerful.

"If you'll follow me please, Commander, I'll take you to see the Mayor."

"Thank you," Squall said as he followed the old man out of the inn.

As Squall stepped out onto the street, he found himself surrounded by dozens of people, probably the entire town, all babbling excitedly. Squall stopped walking with a sigh, remembering again how much he hated being famous. Confronted with a wall of people, Squall was forced to sign autographs and let people (especially the young women) touch him and shake his hand. Finally, Squall was able to break through the crowd, which allowed him to find the innkeeper and head off towards the mayor's house, with the entire town trailing along behind him.

As they approached the mayor's house, a very large man stepped out onto the porch. Squall tried not to gap at the man, who he assumed was the mayor, that stood before him. At least six and half feet tall, the man's clothes looked like they were about to burst at the seams because the man's muscles were so large. Squall had never felt intimidated by a person's mere presence, not even by Seifer; yet, standing in front of this man made him feel like a helpless child. He probably looked like a child to this man since he was a measly 5'8" and very skinny. Squall realized that he was not going to be able to force answers out of this guy if he proved to be uncooperative, especially since he did not bring his gunblade with him.  Squall really wished he had brought it with him, instead of leaving it back at the inn.

"So, you're Squall Leonhart, the boy who saved the world, huh?" the Mayor said with a chuckle while sizing Squall up.

Squall refused to show that he was intimidated so he walked right up to the man and said, "I am a representative of President Laguna and am here on a matter of urgent business. I would like to request a private audience with you."

"Yeah, yeah, I know why you're here," the man said with a wave of his arm.

Squall could tell that dealing with this man was going to be just as difficult as dealing with the mayor of FH had been. Maybe it was something about being a mayor that made a person so difficult to deal with.

"Well, come on in then," the Mayor said as he walked back into his house. "Oh yeah, by the way, my name is Ted McPherson, just call me Ted."

Squall resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the man's unprofessional behavior.

Once they were settled inside and away from the prying eyes and curious ears of the townspeople, Squall immediately got down to business.

"It has come to the President's attention that you have unlawfully detained a man and have not been taking proper care of your prisoner."

Before Squall could say anything else, McPherson interrupted him with a loud snort while saying, "My prisoner doesn't deserve any proper treatment or a trial. Why that little son of a bitch is lucky I haven't killed him yet."

Squall felt his temper start to rise with every word the man said. Ever since he had learned to open up and share his feelings with others, ever since he began to be consciously aware of and respect the feelings of others, he found that he could not tolerate such people as McPherson, who showed neither sympathy nor compassion.  Even if this prisoner was truly guilty, Squall felt that a person should never be treated with pure, unadulterated hatred. 

Trying to calm his temper, Squall took a few deep breathes before saying, "Every person has a right to a trial and humane treatment, no matter what crimes they may have committed.  President Laguna has given me the authority to remove the prisoner from your care and take him to Esthar where he will be given a proper trial in a court of law. And believe me, Mr. McPherson, I intend to do exactly that no matter what you may say about it."

Squall realized he probably should not have said that last bit for it certainly would not help him in any way but at this point he was so angry that he was not thinking clearly.

McPherson laughed loudly as he said, "Boy, once you find out who I've got hidden away, you're gonna want to get that sharp stick of yours and skewer him with it!" The mayor paused to gauge Squall's reaction and upon seeing Squall's confused look he said, "Just out back here in an underground shelter, I've got the Sorceress' Knight!" He stopped talking and crossed his arms over his chest, looking extremely self-satisfied.

Squall caught his breath; he could not believe it! Seifer was here, only a few steps away.  Squall never imagined that he would get this lucky, that it would be this easy to find Seifer. Then Squall finally realized that Seifer was the one who these people were treating unfairly. Squall felt his chest tighten as all sorts of unwanted thoughts came to him about what these people might have done to Seifer. Knowing that there was a general contempt and hatred for Seifer, even though there had been an official statement made concerning Seifer's forced participation in the Sorceress Wars, Squall knew that Seifer was likely to have suffered a lot at the hands of the unsympathetic man in front of him.

Squall tried not to let his concern for Seifer show though; the Mayor clearly expected him to hate Seifer and Squall figured that it would be better for the time being to play along with that idea.

"I wish to see him," Squall finally said in what he hoped was a calm, steady voice.

"Of course," McPherson said with a smirk as he stood up and headed out the backdoor.

As Squall followed him, he tried to calm himself; yet, he could not help feeling nervous and even perhaps a little afraid at what he was going to find in the shelter.

The two men crossed the mayor's backyard over to a large wooden door set into the side of a small hill.  The mayor took a set of keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door.  Taking a lantern that was hanging just inside the door, McPherson started down a flight of stairs that took the two men several feet underground.  Squall shivered in the cold, damp air, feeling like he was walking into a crypt as they headed down a long hallway.

"Hey, you little piece of shit, ya got a visitor," McPherson yelled with a loud, nasty laugh as he entered the small chamber at the end of the hallway.

Squall tried to see Seifer but being behind McPherson meant his view of the small room was blocked by the man's large body. The mayor finally moved, walking over to the side of the room and thus allowing Squall his first glimpse of Seifer.

Squall could not restrain the small gasp that escaped him as he looked upon Seifer. The blonde was clothed in only a pair of tattered black pants, which allowed Squall an unobstructed view of the multiple lash marks that covered Seifer's back, as well as the bruises and dried blood that covered his arms and face.

Squall felt an almost unbearable urge to run to Seifer, to touch him, to shake him, anything to get some kind of response out of the frail, motionless body. Squall wanted Seifer to open his eyes and look at him, so Squall could tell him that everything was going to be all right, that Squall was not going to stand for anyone hurting someone he had known his entire life.

Squall's thoughts were interrupted when McPherson walked over to Seifer and kicked him in the side. This caused an immediate response in Seifer; he groaned weakly and started coughing up blood as he curled up protectively. It took all of Squall's willpower to restrain himself and not attack the mayor. If McPherson found out that Squall did not hate Seifer but instead intended to help Seifer, Squall was positive that the mayor would not hesitate to kill Seifer and there was no way Squall could defend Seifer against such a huge man unarmed.

McPherson suddenly grabbed Seifer by the hair and pulled him up onto his knees while shaking him violently and saying "You're finally going to get what you deserve, you bastard, now that the Commander is here."

Squall saw Seifer flinch when McPherson said 'Commander'. Squall desperately wished he could reassure Seifer that he was not going to hurt him; that he actually planned on helping Seifer. If only he could get rid of the mayor...

"Well, I'll be leaving you two alone now. I'm sure you have a lot catching up to do," McPherson said with an evil smirk as he let Seifer fall back to the ground.

Squall felt his chest tighten painfully as he watched Seifer curl up into a small, protective ball again.

As McPherson started to leave, he said "You just go ahead and do whatever you want to him, boy. If there should be an....unfortunate....incident, well, that'll just be between you and me." McPherson paused briefly before laughing loudly and saying "We'll just say he attacked you and call it self-defense. That'll be a fine joke between you and me since no one else knows that he's blind."

That said, McPherson disappeared down the dark tunnel and left Squall with Seifer.

-Mmmwahhahahha such an evil place to stop at! :P

1. I know this is rather OOC but I couldn't help it, it was fun to write :P

Part 4 Part 2