time compression
(the life and times of the legendary hero and his knight)

past

"You'll thank me when the time comes."

Eighteen years ago, Seifer Almasy was born to parents neither he nor we know anything of. In all likelihood they were killed during the Sorceress War, which had been responsible for the deaths of countless others.

Seventeen years ago, Squall Leonhart was born to Raine Loire (nŽe Leonhart) in a small out-of-the-way village by the name of Winhill. Raine died in childbirth, and having recently fallen into disfavour with the community by marrying an outsider, her newborn son and four-year-old adopted daughter were left with the Kramers, a couple running an orphanage on the southwest penninsula on the Centra continent.

The Kramers, Cid and Edea, lived in a small stone cottage by a lighthouse and cared for several children, including Selphie Tilmitt, Irvine Kinneas, Quistis Trepe,and Zell Dincht. Both Seifer and Squall lived with them for several years, along with Squall's adopted sister Ellone. Squall was a quiet, introverted child, who only really cared for his older sister Elle. Seifer hungered for attention, developing into a brat and a bully when he lacked the notice of others.

Approximately fifteen to thirteen years ago, Ellone was taken away from the orphanage, distressing and very much traumatising young Squall. He had looked up to his big sister Ellone, and didn't understand her loss. As young children are wont to do, he took her leaving personally, believing it to be some fault of his own that caused her to leave. He decided that he had to become strong for her, to learn to depend on himself and not others, and that if he stopped letting people close they wouldn't be able to hurt him anymore.

While Squall was mourning the loss of his sister and trying to figure out how to better himself, Seifer already knew what he wanted to do in life: follow in the steps of his fictional hero and become a Sorceress' Knight. He had seen a movie starring Laguna Loire portraying a noble knight weilding a fantastic gunblade and some element of the chivalry, nobility and strength he'd seen caught his attention. Later he would even imitate the eccentric Galbadian stance taken by the actor for his own use.

Given Squall's introversiveness and Seifer's need for acknowledgement, it is not difficult to see how problems between them might arise. Squall would try to shy away from everyone, immersing himself in solitary pursuits, while Seifer would hunt him down and try to get a reaction out of him. Squall would ignore him, Seifer would become incensed, the temperamental blond would take out his aggressions on the younger boy, and finally Squall would be moved to anger and would respond. Seifer lived for Squall's reactions, Squall for Seifer's attentions. You can see the vicious cycle developing, can't you?

Between twelve and eleven years ago, Seifer and Squall had both failed to be adopted and were sent to the Kramer's latest pet project: Garden. Garden was a privately-funded military institution founded by Cid Kramer based on his wife's vision. Children as young as five and old as fifteen were able to enroll and receive a thorough training in the art and science of warfare and battle. Three such institutions were founded, the first in balmy Balamb, the second in the canyons of Galbadia and the third in the snowy northlands of Trabia.

At Garden, the students' education included the physical, the mental and the magical. Balamb Garden, the first of the three and under direct administration by Cid Kramer, even promoted and taught the use of G.F.s (Guardian Forces,) creatures of magic that Junctioned to the minds of their users. This was looked down upon by the other two schools, and rumours (only a decade later proven, and never accepted as truth) spread saying that the G.F.s were responsible for memory loss. Thus, Seifer and Squall slowly forgot most of their childhood, turning their memories into one big blur.

Seifer, of course, chose the gunblade as his weapon, with Squall deciding to follow in his footsteps. Seifer's high, one-handed pose and light footing awarded him greater speed. Squall chose a heavier blade and a more orthodox, balanced stance, favouring immediate strength and endurance over speed. Seifer's willingness to break the rules to achieve his ends also gave him several tricks up his sleeve that the more orthodox, rule-following Squall does not.

The two were the only students learning the gunblade in the school, and of necessity practiced together often. Things extended into a rivalry; Seifer was fiercely devoted to besting Squall and Squall had nowhere else to go and nothing else to do.

As a way to gain funds, Garden created an elite group of mercenaries culled from the best of the students, which they called "SeeD." Joining the ranks of SeeD became a dream for many students, including Seifer. He attempted the entrance exams several times, failing each time due to his inability to accept authority other than his own.

Squall and Seifer's rivalry grew into something deeper than envy or hatred for the other, past respect or admiration. The two of them drove each other on, pushing each other harder, faster, stronger and smarter. They grew skilled far beyond what they would have achieved had they not had such fierce desire to best the other.

Seifer's fiercest and most loyal friends were the two nicknamed Fuujin and Raijin, after the gods of wind and thunder. Fuujin, she an albino of few words and harsh disposition, and Raijin, he a tall and built yet easy-going and relaxed guy, were utterly confident of and devoted to him. The three of them made up the Garden's Disciplinary Committee, doing their jobs briskly, effectively and with much relish.

Though Seifer was by no means popular or universally liked, he was at the least known to and almost feared by everyone. Squall, on the other hand, had no such close friends like Seifer with his posse, and preferred to be "a lone wolf." His behaviour was cold and aloof, and preferred not to have anyone else involved in his life or his problems, nor be involved in anyone else's.

One year ago, Seifer met a girl named Rinoa and had a mysterious summer fling, ending with him less than interested and she thinking she was in love with him.

Seifer and Squall continued to struggle.

present

"Show me what you got. I'll show you who's the better man!"

On the morning of the latest SeeD exam, Seifer and Squall engage in a heated duel using combat gunblades. Neither seems to attain the upper hand until Seifer breaks the rules of the game and uses magic, casting Fire on Squall and knocking him to the ground. While Squall struggles to clear his head and get to his feet, Seifer takes the opportunity to attack, slashing him across the forehead. On angered reflex, Squall returns the hand he was dealt and brings his blade up to make a mirroring cut on Seifer's forehead before they both fall to the ground, exhausted mentally and physically.

The fight gives the two deep, mirror-identical scars on their faces, marking the two for the rest of their lives.

The SeeD exam goes as well as could be expected; Seifer and Squall end up on a team together, Seifer as captain. Seifer obviously enjoys his position; Squall acts the perfect soldier and follows his orders with no complaints. While the team defends their designated area from enemy soldiers, Seifer decides to go after the enemy, disobeying orders. His hunch works out for the best, but a recall order brings them back before they can do more than learn of the problem. And when they get back to Garden, it is not approved.

The squad under Seifer's command makes SeeD. He does not.

On the night of the SeeD graduation ball, Squall plays the wallflower until an insistent yet pretty brunette makes up her mind to make him dance with her. Squall allows himself to be dragged to the dance floor, picks up the steps, and for a moment he is mesmerised.

She does not take notice, and she leaves him without saying so much as a word.

The next morning, already Squall is assigned a SeeD mission. This mission brings him and his team to Timber, a small nation under Galbadian's oppressive rule, to join up with a ragtag resistance group which wants to kidnap the Galbadian president. The de facto mascot/leader of the group is their "princess" Rinoa Heartilly, the girl from the dance. The resistance barely has a plan and when new situations arise they spin one out of thoughts and dust, praying the SeeDs' skill will make it work.

The kidnapping is pulled off with impeccable skill by the SeeDs, though the Galbadians had set up a trap with a double instead. The SeeDs manage to defeat the double handily enough, but then realise that the Galbadians are to use the Timber television broadcast station to make the first live worldwide transmission in seventeen years. Hurrying to the station in hopes of catching the president, they find someone is already there.

Seconds after Vinzer Deling, President of Galbadia, announces to the world of Galbadia's intentions of naming the Sorceress Edea their ambassador, Seifer Almasy rushes on to the screen and grabs the president, holding his gunblade to Deling's neck. Quistis Trepe, the former Garden Instructor who had an illicit desire for her former student Squall, commands the SeeDs to come assist her.

Seifer rushes off to the back room. In there he runs into the Sorceress, who casts a wall around the two of them to ensure they will not be interrupted. Casting her enthrallment, she lures Seifer to her side, then disappears.

Confused, intrigued and not daring to return to Balamb, Squall's SeeDs make a party with Quistis and the Timber resistance leader Rinoa and return to the nearest Garden for sanctuary and instruction. This turns out to be Galbadia Garden, the largest of the three Gardens and the most structured. There, they receive immediate instructions from the heads of Balamb and Galbadia Gardens to assassinate the Sorceress at her introductory parade and are joined by Irvine Kinneas, not yet SeeD but Galbadia Garden's most talented sharpshooter.

The plan executes with a major hitch as one party is trapped in a locked room as time runs out, but manage to make it to their destination nonetheless. The Sorceress is trapped, the shot is fired and it is deadly accurate. However, the Sorceress is not so fool as to leave herself open to such transparent trickeries, and has cast a Protect spell around herself, letting the bullet bounce off it harmlessly. With no other recourse, Squall leaps down to the float and moves to attack. However, he must first get through her knight: Seifer.

Presumed executed by the Galbadian goverment for treason, Squall does not let the sudden reappearance of the boy he'd known all his life to throw him off. Despite their history and their former comradeship, both attack.

Squall emerges the victor, but Edea isn't about to let her Knight be felled by a mere boy. Engaging Squall (who had by this time been joined by Rinoa and Irvine) herself, her magic is strong and overpowering. Just as she begins to falter and it seems as if the SeeDs will triumph, the Sorceress unleahses her limit break and sends a tremendous ice shard through Squall's shoulder, sending him flying off the edge of the float almost two metres below.

Thus goes their introduction to the Sorceress, she who would derail their perfectly ordinary lives into a desperate existence. Empires would fall and the grounded fly, the Lunar Cry would wreak its havok upon the largest nation in the world and the hallucinations in Squall's head would come to an end as he met their maker.

The worst is yet to come.

future

"But, for the first time, I don't know which way to go."

And what do we believe for the future? No fairy-tale ending; there is no escape from the Sorceress and her reign of destruction generations in the future. But happiness for Squall, Seifer, Rinoa and the rest of the SeeDs?

People are not, as a general rule, quite so lucky.

It's too much to ask of Squall to continue heading Garden in anything other than a combat capacity. But in a world where the former major power has lost its missiles, its oppressive government and its spirit and the other major power is neutral-friendly and spending their time exterminating the hundreds of thousands of monsters that had fallen to their vast country, a major war of the calibre Squall would feel most comfortable handling is not likely for years to come.

And it's not like he seemed comfortable with such power in the first place. First and foremost, despite his natural charisma, Squall is a follower, desiring only to obey the commands of his superiors. Only recently does he realise that he has the power to make his own choices.

So what of the lovely-dove relationship between Squall and Lady Sorceress Rinoa? She has proven to be no more and no less than your average teenage girl; she believes wholeheartedly in love and her current beloved, but she gravitates toward he who will serve her best. Squall is not going to wholly open up to her so quickly as she expects, and now that she has him, how long will the bloom remain on the rose? She is, it is said in the kindest possible way, rather flighty, and with the fame accorded to her as a Sorceress, as one of the saviors of the world, as the daughter of the Galbadian General (and likely by then the new President of Galbadia) and the darling of Timber's resistance movements, her attentions may glide elsewhere.

Squall would not be without fault in any split between them. He would throw himself in his work, staying up all hours to finish it, though in a bureaucracy there is no end to work. He is also not as sensitive to the subtleties of others' emotions, as he has spent his entire adolescent life trying to block them out, and it might not be until it is too late that he realises that something is wrong.

Having her leave would kill him. It would most certainly reinforce the idea that people are creatures not to be trusted, women especially. Parting on good terms is to be hoped for and is most definitely possible.

And as for Squall's father, the best Laguna can hope for is brusque replies to his letters for at least the first few years.

Seifer, on the other hand, has a long, hard road ahead of him. Known throughout the world for his role as the Sorceress' Knight, famous or infamous depending on the region's opinion of the Sorceress, and known through Galbadia as the short-termed President Almasy, even if all authorities formally absolve him of culpability for his actions while enthralled by the Sorceress he will still find it difficult. Fuujin and Raijin seem like they will continue to stick with him, and the three perhaps may work as freelance mercenaries. Seifer would rather eat rocks and die in filth than take charity from Garden, which is most certainly how he would view an invitation to return.

But you look at the two young men, Seifer and Squall, and think of what they could have done, who they could have been, and you think it's a damn shame the way things turned out.