Ok guys and gals!! Here’s chapter 2!! Hope you guys didn’t wait long for this….
Any comments please email me at chrisg_83@ecreators.net.
Hope you’ll enjoy this part too!!

End Game: - Sabotage

	Quistis Trepe, former Balamb Garden instructor and part of the team that defeated 
Ultimecia was at the beach, feeling a bit pensive. She tried to shake off that irritating 
feeling; she went to beach, to the forest, and even just stayed in the inn. She went 
shopping, to the pubs, and even tried flirting with guys. All of it didn’t work. She 
couldn’t help but feel restless. Sure, she was given a week off from Balamb Garden for 
rest and relaxation, but being here in Timber made her even more stressed. The suspense 
of not knowing what was happening at Balamb Garden just tore at her. ‘Quistis Quistis 
Quistis,” she told herself, “Ever the workaholic, even when you’re on vacation, you still 
think of work.”
	“Fine,” she said aloud, “Since I can’t seem to relax, then I guess I’ll just head 
back to Balamb then.” She stood up from her beach towel and folded it neatly, placed it 
back in her wicker basket, put on a hat and slipped on a pair of sandals. As much as she 
liked the feeling of warm sand between her toes, she didn’t like them tickling her feet as 
she walked. She put on a pair of sunglasses, or ‘sunnies’ as she so affectionately called 
them, and began the walk back to her hotel, wearing only her two piece bikini and a 
towel around her waist. She didn’t mind all the looks she got from the guys at the beach, 
and kind of enjoyed that attention. She thought, “As long as I’ve got it, I might as well 
flaunt it.” However, she had more pressing matters to attend to, rather than fulfill some 
adolescent’s fantasy, so she hurried back to the hotel to pack up and check out.

	“This is gonna be fun!” exclaimed Selphie as she skipped along to the gate of 
Balamb Garden with Irvine in tow.
	“Did you HAVE to bring your whole room with you?” He grunted sarcastically. 
He was carrying 3 luggage bags full of her clothes and other accessories, while his own 
necessities just fit into a duffel bag.
	“Well, Trabia IS kind of cold at the moment, so I’ll be needing all my winter 
clothes.”
	“You mean all three have winter clothes?” he asked, his eyes wide open.
	“No you silly goose, only one has winter clothes, another has my normal clothes, 
and the last one has my summer clothes,” she said, “Trabia Garden’s on the move 
remember? We might find ourselves in a warmer region.”
	“Argh!” exclaimed Irvine, as he collapsed under the weight of all the bags.
	“Oh, they’re not THAT heavy.” Selphie said as she skipped on ahead.
	“Well that’s cos you’re not the one carrying them,” Irvine mumbled as he stood 
up painfully under the weight of the bags, “Women!” he muttered under his breath.
	
“Woah! You guys planning to migrate there?” Zell exclaimed after looking at all 
their bags. “We’re gonna be there for only a week, not the whole year.”
As tired as Irvine was, he shot Zell a look that could melt a hole in rock. “It isn’t 
my idea, ask little Miss ‘I-think-I’ll-bring-everything-AND-the-kitchen-sink’ over here.”
Selphie pursed her lips and thought hard, “Nope, I didn’t bring the kitchen sink, 
should I have?” She gave them a blank look.
Both guys couldn’t help but burst out in laughter. “Oh Selphie my dear, 
sometimes, you’re just too cute to hate.” Irvine said, as he gave her a little peck on the 
cheek.
“Now, where are the others?” Zell asked no one in particular, “They should be 
here by now.”
Just then, an explosion rocked Balamb Garden, sending people into hysterics, 
shattering glass and causing a massive power failure.

Rinoa Heartilly, present sorceress and the love of Squall Leonheart was staying 
over at the orphanage of Edea and Cid Kramer to help take care of the kids while learning 
from Edea, the arts of a sorceress. As she sat in the dining hall, she looked at the loving 
couple of Edea and Cid, and as powerful as she was, she did not need any powers to see 
the love of both of them. It was not just visible in their expressions, but also in their 
movements, and their eyes. Those eyes, full of love and commitment to one another, they 
spoke more than any word could describe. So powerful was their love that she could not 
bear to look at them anymore, otherwise she might be reduced to tears. She thought, 
“After 20 or so years, would we still be like that?”
She stood up and walked to the window, gazing out at the flower fields next to the 
orphanage. It was spring again, and the flowers were in full bloom. The golden marigolds 
filled the whole field, like a golden carpet in the radiance of the sun. Scattered between 
the marigolds, were various flowers of different colours. Purple, blue and red, the 
foxgloves, morning glories and other unnamed flowers gave the golden field a touch of 
colour. Tall trees lined the field with a fresh green border, giving it the resemblance of a 
masterpiece, a natural masterpiece.
“What’s on your mind?” Edea asked, as she came up behind Rinoa.
“Beautiful day,” Rinoa replied, “I wonder…” she trailed off.
“Yes dear?”
“What’s he doing now?” she asked to no one in particular.
“Well, I guess he’s probably doing the same thing you are right now.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes dear, I’m quite sure, the both of you are really inseparable, even if you two 
are on opposite ends of the world, your hearts will still be linked.”
“What if…” she was stopped from saying more by Edea.
“No ifs, you two were meant to be together. You’re a sorceress, and he’s your 
knight. Nothing can change that, not now, not ever.”
Rinoa glanced at Cid, who was busy feeding some of the more hyperactive kids. 
“Would we be able to last as long as the two of you have?” she asked Edea, a look of 
concern appeared on her face.
“Why not? What could possibly keep you two apart?” Edea then smiled gently, 
then she sighed. “My dear Rinoa, you think too much, as long as you two still love each 
other, nothing will happen. Come, your breakfast is getting cold.”
As they walked back to the table, Rinoa suddenly had a feeling that soon, 
something was going to happen, something that might change the entire world.

The train pulled into the Timber station, its wheels screeching to a halt on the iron 
rails, steam whistled out from underneath. Almost all at once, everyone started moving; 
people alighting, people boarding, the whole platform was bustling with energy. 
Somewhere, someone was selling the day’s newspaper, and other magazines that 
commuters liked to buy. Children were running about, playing around while waiting for 
their parents to pick them up. Stewards were rushing to and fro, helping people find their 
cabins. Quistis boarded the train and found her cabin. She left the cabin door ajar for the 
conductor, put her duffel bag on her chair and took out a thick novel. The trip was most 
likely to take at least 6 hours, and she wanted to make sure she wouldn’t be bored. As she 
slumped into her ‘couch’ to read, she noticed that she was alone in the cabin, “All the 
better, then I can have my peace and quiet,” she thought.
Clarice was memorized by Phillipe’s piercing blue eyes, his chiseled features and 
his suave demeanor. Again. Unbeknownst to Clarice, Armand had also been smitten by 
the ravishing Clarice. Again. Predictably, Armand plots the death of his rival.
Quistis rolled her eyes and sighed, “Yeah, right.”
Suddenly, the door slid open and a curious head popped in. Seeing the cabin quite 
empty, the person quickly entered the cabin, closed the door behind him and hastily sat 
down at the far end of the cabin, on the bench opposite Quistis’. His noisy entrance was 
enough to rouse Quistis from her reading. She peered at this new intruder who had 
suddenly barged into what had been her tranquil surroundings. Upon further peering, she 
noticed that the ‘he’, was actually a ‘she’. Obviously in disguise, ‘he’ was wearing a 
jacket, with its hood pulled up over ‘his’ head. ‘His’ head was so obscured that only the 
tip of ‘his’ nose could be seen. However, the diminutive body and some not-so-well 
hidden features revealed to Quistis’ trained eye that her intruder was a girl. “I’d better get 
this over and done with,” she thought. She stood up and went over to her guest.
“Hi, I’m Quistis, and you are?” she asked, as politely as she could.
Her intruder stayed silent for a while, and then replied, “I’m Minas Gunthar, from 
Obel,” talking in a fake deep voice.
“May I ask what you are doing so far from your town?”
“I’m er, I’m on a trip to visit my grandmother in Balamb.”
“Really? How nice of you, I’m sure she would appreciate the visit. Well, I’m not 
going to disturb you anymore, have a nice trip.” Quistis walked back to her seat, she 
thought, “Visiting relatives? While in disguise as a guy? Yeah, right. Anyway, it’s not my 
business.”
She sat back down again and continued her reading. Just as she got to the part 
where Armand and Phillipe were going to duel to the death, she heard ‘Minas” ask her, 
“Excuse me miss, are you from Balamb?”
She looked up from her book, “Why yes, is there a problem?”
“Well, not really, but would you know whether Balamb Garden was stationed 
anywhere near there?”
“Ah, so I see,” she thought. “Well, the last I heard, it was still stationed off the 
southern beach, you’ll have to take a transport boat from Balamb Town to get there,” she 
replied.
“Oh, thank you,” came a mumbled reply.

Squall was out doing his morning rounds in Balamb Garden. Instead of being 
cooped up in the office the whole day, Squall decided to take a walk around the Garden, 
to see what the other cadets and trainees were doing. It has already been 6 months since 
he started doing this, and it sort of settled into a daily ritual for him. He took long walks 
every morning, walking around the various sections of the Garden. He would always stop 
by the infirmary to have a chat with Dr Kadowaki. She was his unofficial advisor, if he 
needed advice on how to run the Garden, she would be the first person he turned to. 
Sometimes, he would need advice on some other matters, and she would always be there 
to help him. Like the time he had a slight falling out with Rinoa, she would listen to his 
problem, chide him for his mistakes and help him to solve it. It took quite a lot of 
apologies and roses, but Rinoa eventually forgave him.
However, Squall wasn’t the only person who came to her for advice, nearly 
everyone in the Garden knew that Dr Kadowaki was the resident healer, advisor and 
counselor. People often came to her during lunchtime, sometimes even in the evening. 
And she would address each and every one of them, not turning away from any problem.
Squall would then walk to the Quad, to see what the Garden committee was up to 
and how the planning for the annual events was progressing. He would often stand 
around the Quad, observing the students as they went about their work. Sometimes, they 
would approach him to get his approval on certain activities. Selphie was usually in 
charge of the committee, but she was preparing to go to Trabia Garden and wasn’t in the 
Quad this morning. The students would usually go to the Quad only if there were any 
parties or festivals held there. There would also be some who went there for some peace 
and quiet, whether to study or just ponder, the Quad was the ideal place for it.
His third stop brought him to the Training Centre, where students who wanted to 
train would go to battle the monsters. He had occasionally done so himself, especially 
when he wanted to de-stress after a hard day’s work. On one occasion, he even saved one 
of the junior members from being eaten by a T-Rexaur. The poor boy had been looking 
for Ochus to fight and a T-Rexaur had stumbled upon him. Squall had just walked in 
when he heard the boy’s cries for help. He summoned Shiva to deal with the T-Rexuar 
and managed to defeat it. Of course, after that, he became even more of a hero to the 
junior members. He didn’t bother going to the secret place on his rounds, since there 
wasn’t anything interesting there in the morning, most couples only went there at night, 
after school ended. He had been there with Rinoa as well, when both of them just wanted 
to relax and see the stars.
Sometimes, he would visit the library to see if his favourite magazine, Timber 
Maniacs had arrived. But he decided to forgo the visit today, as the magazine had already 
arrived just last week.
As he was walking around the fountains, he saw something strange. Some trainees 
were gathering at a bench outside the garage. “Strange, I don’t recall there being any 
driving lessons for trainees today,” he thought. As he walked towards them, he saw them 
discussing something in hushed tones, he couldn’t make out what they were talking about 
and decided to investigate.
When he got to the group, they seemed startled at first, but quickly regained their 
composure and saluted him, as was the rule in Balamb Garden. “What are you all doing 
here?” he asked.
“Erm, nothing sir,” a kid with a crew cut said, “Just hanging around.”
“Don’t you have classes to attend to?”
“We do, our next class is in the garage. We’re er, having a mechanics class there,” 
replied the kid.
“And who’s in charge of teaching you?” Squall asked, beginning to suspect 
something.
“Er… Instructor Nida, isn’t it guys?” the kid asked the others. They just nodded 
dumbly.
“Nida?”
“Er… sorry sir, but we’ve gotta go now. We’ll be late for the class,” the kid 
interrupted. Then he and the others just ran off into the garage, leaving Squall behind.
Squall knew that something was definitely wrong. He immediately used his 
portable receiver to contact Nida at the bridge.
“Nida, you teaching any class today?” he asked.
“Squall? Erm… no, you know I don’t teach on Tuesdays. What’s wrong?”
“Damn, I thought so. Don’t ask any questions, just get some SeeDs over to the 
garage now!” Before Nida could reply, had already switched off the receiver and was 
sprinting to the garage.
“Damn! I hope it isn’t what I think it is,” he thought as he sprinted through the 
corridor to the garage.

Back at the bridge, Nida scrambled to call the disciplinary committee. “Raijin! 
Fujin! Squall needs you guys at the garage now! Hurry!”
“Got ya! We’ll be there in a flash, ya know!” replied Raijin.
“I hope they’re in time,” thought Nida, as he put down the receiver.

As Squall entered the garage, he heard the kids shouting, “Move it now!”
“What the?” thought Squall as he saw then running out of the garage into the 
street, “There’s no way out from there!”
Before he could shout out to them, a powerful blast ripped apart one of the cars in 
the garage and sent him flying to the floor. This was followed by another more powerful 
blast, one caused by the nearby fuel tanks exploding.
Weakened by the blast and sprawled on the floor, Squall could only watch as the 
kids jumped off the street, into the sea. He didn’t hear the splashes though, but was too 
weak to investigate further. As he lay on the ground, he heard the alarm go off and saw 
three blurred shapes moving towards him. He couldn’t hold out any longer and blacked 
out.

Just then, over at Edea’s Orphanage, Rinoa was taking the children out for their 
morning walk when she suddenly fell to her knees, clutching her head in pain. In her 
mind, she saw Balamb Garden, and flames were surrounding it. Then she felt herself 
speeding into the Garden, passing by all the hysteria and pandemonium. She stopped at 
the bridge, and saw Nida giving orders to the crew and students. Then she felt herself 
traveling again, to the garage, where she saw Squall lying facedown on the asphalt, 
flames all around him. Then just as sudden as she had lapsed into this state, she found 
herself back at the Orphanage, with Edea and Cid looking over her. After her collapse, 
one of the children had run back to the Orphanage and told Cid of Rinoa’s collapse. He 
then rushed Rinoa back to the Orphanage while Edea prepared some hot water and a 
towel.
“I think she’s coming round dear,” Cid said to Edea.
“Good, I need to have a talk with her. So could you please take the children out 
for their walk?” Edea replied.
As Cid took the kids out for their walk, Edea turned her attention back to Rinoa. 
“All right Rinoa, what happened?” she asked gently.
“My head hurt, and I saw Balamb Garden,” she replied weakly, “The Garden was 
burning, I saw flames all around! And everyone was panicking, and there was lots of 
smoke. It was terrible! And then I saw Squall lying on the ground! He wasn’t moving! 
It’s terrible, just so terrible!” Tears began to flow from her eyes and she kept saying, “It’s 
terrible… so terrible.”
Edea took one look at her and said, “Listen to me Rinoa, what you just had was a 
vision, they show you images of what has happened. These images are very significant 
and are trying to tell you something.”
Rinoa looked up suddenly, “That means that the Garden’s in trouble! That 
Squall’s in trouble! Oh no! We HAVE to go there now! I have to go there now!”
“You’re not going anywhere now young lady, not in this condition.” Edea said 
sternly.
“But Squall’s hurt!” she replied weakly.
“He’s tough, he won’t die. You, on the other hand, have to rest, we’ll go when 
you get better.” Edea replied and gave her a look that said she wasn’t changing her mind.
Rinoa could only sigh, “Yes Edea.” As she sank back down onto the bed, she 
knew that for Squall’s sake, she HAD to get better. She just had to.

The next day, Rinoa woke up feeling much better, albeit still a bit weak. 
However, she was so determined to get to Squall that she put on a strong front to deceive 
Edea. Her acting worked, as Edea agreed to let Rinoa go to the Garden, of course, not 
without Edea accompanying her there. So Edea and Rinoa set out for Balamb Garden, 
leaving Cid to tend to the Orphanage.
“Give Squall and the rest my regards!” Cid shouted as they left the beach on 
Edea’s White SeeD ship. Now that there was no need to protect Ellone from Ultimecia, 
they had become Edea’s personal entourage. Edea had wanted them to live with her in the 
Orphanage, but they still preferred their ship, citing the ability of having a quick escape 
as an excuse for staying on the ship. Edea knew better than to argue with them, and so let 
them station near the Orphanage, on the newly built dock when Edea and Cid were 
rebuilding the Orphanage.

Rinoa stayed mostly at the bow of the ship, often starting out into the horizon, just 
enjoying the sea breeze, feeling the breeze on her face, the salty tang in the air. The sun 
had begun to set in the horizon, turning the sky into an orange canvas, where grey clouds 
seemed to be painted onto. As fast as the ship was, she knew that it would be at least a 
day before they got to Balamb Garden. She couldn’t sleep, her visions haunting her once 
she closed her eyes. The scene of Squall lying facedown surrounded by flames always 
kept her awake. She loved Squall with all her heart, and didn’t know what she would do 
if anything happened to him. She wished that the ship could go faster; she longed to see 
him again and hoped that he was all right.

As the train came into Balamb Station, Quistis could see that there was a 
commotion at the beach. She turned to see if her ‘intruder’ was still in the cabin, but only 
saw an empty seat. “She’s fast,” she thought.
She quickly took her bag and left the cabin, squeezed out of the train onto the 
platform and hurried to the beach. The crowd there was nearly made up of the entire town 
of Balamb. As she hurried from here to there, tiptoeing to see over the taller people, she 
could hear the people discussing in hushed tones. “I hope nothing’s wrong,” said one 
woman. “It looks bad,” said another.
Eventually, curiosity got the better of her and she squirmed her way to the front of 
the crowd. She was not at all prepared for the scene that she saw. Out in the middle of the 
sea, the beautiful Balamb Garden sat, however, there was one thing that made it different 
from other days. On other days, Balamb Garden didn’t have smoke billowing out of its 
side. Quistis could only watch in shock as more smoke billowed out of its side, on closer 
inspection, she saw that there was a gaping hole in the wall of the garage, the thick black 
smoke billowing out of it.
“Oh my…” she trailed off; she was at a loss for words. The only thing she thought 
of now was whether her friends were safe, and who had the nerve to do that to the 
Garden. Even as she stood there, she could see the fireboats speed to the Garden, to try 
and help put out the fire from the outside.
At that moment, she knew she had to get to the Garden, but just as she turned to 
leave, she heard someone behind her say, “Darn, I’m too late.”
As she turned to look, she saw her ‘intruder’ standing in the crowd, her head 
staring straight ahead. When ‘Minas’ caught Quistis looking at her, she bolted into the 
crowd, but Quistis was faster than her and intercepted her just as she was coming out of 
the crowd.
“All right little lady, spill it, you knew about this?” Quistis asked angrily.
“You knew I wasn’t a guy?” her captive asked, eyes wide open in shock.
“Yeah, I knew it in the train, but didn’t bother about it, now tell me, did you know 
about this? Did you?” Quistis asked again.
Her captive looked around, “It’s not safe here, get me to Balamb Garden and I’ll 
tell everything.”
Quistis looked hard at her and said, “Alright, but any tricks from you and I’ll push 
you into the ocean. Now move!”
As they walked to the docks to board the transport boat, Quistis couldn’t help but 
worry for the safety of her friends.


END	Written by Chris a.k.a. Lionheart83