It has been 7 years since the defeat of Ultimecia and the salvation of the world was wrought…so much has changed yet…still so much is the same. Headmaster Cid resigned from Balamb Garden soon after Edea was freed of her sorceress possession and they continue to live operating their orphanage on Centra. Naturally Squall was nominated to take over as Headmaster...and he did just that…but he was never one to just sit behind a desk…
So one day during a mission in Trabia, there was an accident and Rinoa got hurt…so much in fact she almost died…she recovered but didn’t come out of the comma for the longest time…yet Squall never left her side and never said a word…we all knew he blamed himself and no matter how hard we tried…we could never make him understand it was just an accident…he would just look at us with that blank stare of his and we knew…he couldn't change how he felt...
So the Garden could still operate even though Squall and Rinoa were out of commission, Quistis took over as active Headmaster of the Garden. Irvine even joined the team as a SeeD officer to help out. But then one day…he just left…Squall just got up and left...and Rinoa wasn’t even out of her comma yet. No one knew where he had went or why he left, some said it was because he felt he couldn’t protect the ones he loved and it just got to be too much for him…he just couldn’t face her anymore…
We all knew how much he loved her but it was so sad…all the time he was by her side and yet he wasn’t there to see her wake up. She doesn’t fault him, never has…so much so that when someone slips up and says something about him when she is around…she will just clinch on to the ring of his around her neck and give us the biggest smile…it was like she knows he will come back to us one day…but still...he hasn’t come back…net yet.
Things were slow for SeeD with the war no longer happening and there wasn’t much need for mercenaries…so much so that we thought the Garden would have to be shut down…that also meant we could afford to spend resources looking for Squall…Rinoa never complained though…and like I said the more things changed the more they stayed the same. Esthar re-launched their lunar base program only months after Adel and Ultimecia were defeated. But with the world's knowledge of their existence and how much more advanced they were then all the rest…fear and jealous raised their evil heads.
The funny thing was Esthar never tried to keep the rest of the world in the dark after the lunar base accident, they even worked with the other governments to build their societies but that didn’t stop the evil ambitions of some. Galbadian sent spies in to try and steal the secrets of Esthar…they succeeded for awhile but when the spies were caught the bad blood flowed. Now with tensions high between the two countries war appears inevitable and with war comes high demand for mercenaries. So business has picked up around here and there is even a whole new group of SeeD Candidates that just came in today…it will be interesting to see what all unfolds….
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