Author's Note: Ok, this is my first attempt at fanfiction for this fandom, so I hope it works out. :) Two of my favorite characters in the game are Squall and Laguna, so it just made perfect sense for me to write a fic with both of them. :) I am sure that this story idea has been done before, but I hope I can keep it interesting and enjoyable for my readers. Well, please let me know what you think either way.

I do not own Final Fantasy VIII or any of its characters.

Thank you to everyone who reads/follows/reviews this. It is always appreciated.

Chapter One

Sitting behind his massive, illuminated desk in his private office within the Presidential Palace of Esthar, Laguna Loire tapped his fingertips against its cold, smooth surface.

It had been six months since the threat of Ultimecia had loomed over the entire world which had led to Sorceress Adel being freed from her outer-space prison and Esthar being overrun with monsters from the latest Lunar Cry that accompanied her release. Fortunately, despite all of these dire events, things had worked out very well. The SeeDs had been able to put a stop to Ultimecia's plot, and people from Dollet, Balamb, Timber, and even Fisherman's Horizon had worked together to contain the monster invasion that had swept through Esthar and the world beyond.

Restless, Laguna jumped up from his chair and paced around behind his desk. Clearing the monsters out of Esthar had not been an easy task. Isolated and purposely secluded from the world after the last Sorceress War with Adel, Esthar soldiers were trained, but not battle-hardened and ready to deal with such an onslaught. SeeDs from Balamb and ones who could be spared from Trabia Garden had helped as much as they could, but even they faced difficulties in dealing with so many monsters.

Eventually, Laguna realized that he simply could not stay in his office and direct things from afar. Despite numerous loud protests from Kiros and Ward, mostly from Kiros with Ward offering stern expressions as a means of support, Laguna suited himself up and pulled out his old machine guns to join in the fighting.

"Come on, Kiros, Ward, I can't just sit here," he had told them. "The best offense is not waiting around for the enemy to test your defense."

Kiros and Ward had rolled their eyes in response to that and prepared themselves for battle. After years of serving with Laguna in the Galbadian army, they knew that when Laguna started to mangle tired sayings like that to fit his perverse sense of logic, there was little chance of talking him out of whatever he had made up his mind to do.

Fortunately, Laguna's presence within the ranks of the Esthar soldiers had managed to significantly boost morale and give them extra courage and an incentive to fight with everything they had which helped to turn the tide in Esthar's favor. In the end, the three of them had made it through mostly unscathed, with only Laguna suffering a minor wound to his shoulder, which he made sure to whine about as loudly as possible. While he had managed to get rid of a fair number of monsters, the greater impact of Laguna's actions was a strong resurgence in his popularity with the people of Esthar.

Once the monsters were cleared out of Esthar and their population had been spread and thinned out enough for everyone to handle, there came the work of helping Esthar recover from the ordeal. There hadn't been too much in the way of damage to the city itself, other than the citywide lift system, so recovery mainly focused on the people themselves and getting the atmosphere of the capital city back to a sense of calm and normalcy.

Laguna sighed and paused to study the consoles near his desk. At first, he thought about trying to make sure that Esthar faded into the background again so as to lower the chances for new hostilities with their neighbors and to prevent research, like the things Odine continued to dabble with, from becoming too big of a threat to the world. After some additional thought, however, Laguna decided that it was time to make some changes that were perhaps a bit long overdue.

He proposed a series of reforms including an exchange program where various specialists and scientists within Esthar traveled to other countries and cities to learn from their scholars and to experience a different way of life from what they had grown accustomed to. At the same time, he provided an opportunity for small, select groups of students and scientists to visit Esthar for a couple of months at a time to help them learn more about the technological advances that had been quietly developed over the last seventeen years. While he still harbored some fears of other countries becoming too eager to advance their technology above any other cost, he hoped that exposure to these other people would give the people of Esthar a new perspective, one that could be shared with the rest of the world as well.

Laguna's ideas were met with plenty of resistance along with cautious support. Many of the most vocal critics became strong supporters, however, after seeing the effects a few months after implementation. The exchange program had given the people of Esthar a chance to get their minds off their own problems and to gain much needed support from people from other countries. Soon, Esthar was swiftly moving back toward normal and was making progress toward becoming a more active, productive member of the global community.

At this moment, however, all of these developments were actually a distant echo in the mind of the president of Esthar. Instead of contemplating his future endeavors to help his country prosper, he was preoccupied with something that had been at the forefront of his mind ever since he had discovered it about six months ago.

Laguna's mind kept going back over one day in particular: the day when he found out that he was a father.

He had been up in space at the Lunar Observatory when he had found out. Ellone had been found just before she could be captured by Galbadian soldiers and she had been sent up into space to meet him. He was preparing to go out to check on the seal holding Adel when he finally got to see Ellone again after years of wondering about her. For a second, he marveled at how much she had grown up, but those thoughts soon faded when he watched her give him a radiant smile.

"Uncle Laguna!" she had beamed. "I've missed you so much."

Laguna was almost certain that he had missed her even more, but hadn't been able to find the words to tell her as she ran over to embrace him. The two of them started to talk after that, both of them full of stories to share about what each of them had been doing over these long years. By the end of it, Laguna was smiling and wondering if he would be able to stop smiling any time soon.

His grin did fade a little, however, when he realized how Ellone was looking down in her lap, clearly hesitant to speak about something that was weighing on her mind.

"Hey Elle, what is it?" he asked her. "If it's about Adel, don't worry. We've got her locked up tight here. Oh and don't worry about Odine either. With me being the president and all, I can make sure that he doesn't get any chance to force you into a bunch of experiments. And as for Galbadia…."

"No…no, it's not any of that," Ellone cut in.

"Then what?" he asked. "Come on, you know you can tell me."

Ellone looked back down into her lap for a couple more moments before taking a deep breath and looking up at him.

"You remember why Adel and now all those Galbadian soldiers kept looking for me, right?" she said. "Because of my special powers?"

"Of course I remember," he said, nodding his head vigorously. "It's why I swore to Raine to always keep you safe."

The passing reference to his late wife was enough to make Laguna pause while he quieted the sudden ache in his heart. Even after all these years, he still could not fully deal with her loss and would almost always lapse into melancholy whenever he thought about her too much. When he did take the time to let himself analyze his feelings though he realized that what he felt was not just sadness over the fact that he would never see her again, but also guilt and regret that he had not gone back to Winhill with Ellone so he could see her one last time.

Ellone had watched him for a few seconds with a somber expression on her face before continuing.

"Anyway, I kept thinking recently, what if I could actually get some good out of this ability for a change," she added. "Maybe I could do something to make our lives better…maybe I could change the past so that things could turn out differently. For both of us."

Laguna raised his eyebrow, puzzled, which prompted Ellone to explain.

"I used my powers to send some people I know into the past," she said. "Your past. Yours and Kiros' and Ward's."

Laguna blinked several times in surprise. Elle had sent people into his past? But why?

"Who were these people?" he asked. Ellone shifted slightly in her seat before answering.

"Some people I knew as a child," she said. "When I was in that orphanage that Cid and Edea ran. They're all grown up now, and they're SeeDs with Balamb Garden."

"SeeDs, huh?" Laguna nodded. "I suppose that makes sense."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, before, Ward, Kiros and I, we just thought that those were some faeries who were watching over us," Laguna replied. "Faeries who gave us power whenever we needed to do battle. But now that you mention that you sent SeeDs back into our past, it makes sense because they're elite mercenary soldiers. It was probably their fighting spirits that were giving us this great boost to our strength. I mean, really, that is so cool that we had their support all those times."

Laguna stood up, energized, and was about to say more when he noticed how Ellone had bowed her head again. He then knelt in front of her, much like how he had many times when she was still a small child.

"Elle, these people, these SeeDs," he said. "They were special to you, weren't they? They were friends?"

"Yes, yes they were," she said. "I'd like to think that they still are. Uncle Laguna, I am so sorry. I didn't mean to….I just wanted to make things better. I wanted to make it so that you didn't have to make that huge journey to Esthar just to save me. I wanted us to have a chance to live peacefully in Winhill this time. Us, Kiros and Ward…and Raine. I wanted us to be happy."

Laguna put his hand on the back of his head and made sure to smile. All of this was still somewhat of a shock to him, but he was also certain that it wasn't worth letting Elle suffer.

"Don't worry about it, Elle," he told her. "I'm not mad or anything. I think I get what you were trying to do, so it's ok. I mean, there's no harm done, right? And hey, you know, if these people really are friends of yours, I'd like to meet them some time. I'm sure Ward and Kiros would feel the same way." Laguna stood back up and put his hands on his hips.

"Hey, maybe when this whole sorceress thing is over, we could get together," he said. "I could send some kind of message to get them to come here."

"I'm pretty sure you're going to meet them very soon, Uncle Laguna," Ellone said as she smoothed out her shawl. "They're leading the fight against the sorceress, and I am sure that they will be coming here to find me so I can help them."

"Well, if that's what you want, I'll make sure to offer them any support that I can," Laguna replied. "But if the energy I felt from them while fighting is any indication, I'm sure they will do just fine without much help from me."

Ellone nodded again and settled her shawl back onto her arms. She twirled some of the fringe in her fingers, and Laguna was about to excuse himself so he could get ready to go check Adel when something inside him told him that there was something Elle wasn't telling him.

"Elle….?"

"Uncle Laguna, there is one more thing," she mumbled, as if she had read his mind. "It's about one SeeD, the one I sent back into your past. I…he's….Uncle Laguna, how much did they tell you at Winhill? About what happened to me and Raine?"

Laguna gulped and felt a twinge in his leg. He didn't really want to discuss Raine right now while they were in the middle of all this trouble, but a part of him sensed that this was vitally important to Elle, so he forced himself to move past his discomfort.

"Not much," he rasped. "They, uh, they said that she had gotten sick and she…and afterwards they sent you to that orphanage so that you'd be taken care of. They…they said that they were really nice people there."

"They were, Cid and Edea, they were really nice," Ellone responded. "And those other kids I knew there, the ones who are SeeDs now, they were great too. But um, didn't they tell you anything else? About Raine?"

"Elle, you know that I wasn't all that welcome there in Winhill," Laguna said with a forced laugh. "I was lucky to get that much out of them. I think if that old lady who ran the flower shop had her way, I wouldn't have even gotten that."

"So you don't know?" Ellone asked.

"Know what? Elle, I…."

"About Raine, about why she..." Ellone paused and took one more deep breath so she could gather her courage. "You don't know about her son. Your son."

Laguna's eyes bulged and his mouth fell open. He wanted to say something in response to this sudden revelation, but then he felt the biggest leg cramp he had ever had overtake him.

"Arrrrggh!" he cried out as he hunched downward and grabbed at his leg.

"Uncle Laguna! Are you all right?" Ellone gasped. "What's wrong?"

"Not—thing's wrong," he stuttered. "Just…just help me to that chair, please."

Ellone got up and let Laguna lean on her while she guided him to a nearby chair. Once he sat down, she pulled up another one to sit beside him while holding his hand.

"Sorry," he mumbled once he was able to catch his breath. "That was just an old….Elle, what were you saying about Raine…is that….?"

"I am so sorry, Uncle Laguna," she said. "I can't believe that they didn't tell you. And I guess I thought that Raine might have said something before you left to find me. You see, not long after I got back to Winhill, Raine had your son. Unfortunately, it was a difficult birth for her and she passed away not long after that. I remember how she kept wishing that you could see your son."

Laguna looked down at the floor as he tried to digest what she was telling him. He remembered now how Raine had said something about a "big surprise" that would be waiting for him once he came back with Ellone, but he had no idea what she was talking about and hadn't thought much about it after he found out about her death.

"Anyway, the both of us were sent to the orphanage," she continued. "Soon, Cid and Edea realized the truth about my abilities, and Edea decided that it would be better if I were to leave and hide away with some people on this boat that she had had made just for me. I left as soon as it was ready. That's why you weren't able to find me."

Ellone sighed and let go of Laguna's hand. Laguna clasped both of them together as he tried to regain some shred of his composure. A son? He had had no idea that Raine was pregnant when he left to find Elle. They had talked at one point about children and both of them had smiled at the thought of a potential sibling for Ellone, but after hearing about Raine's death, Laguna had tried to think as little as possible about those memories. They were just another set of lost dreams that were part of a vast collection, and in some ways, they were among the most painful of all to consider.

But now, Elle was telling him that it wasn't merely a poignant wish after all. That he and Raine had actually had a child. That somewhere he had a family.

"Unfortunately, Squall ended up staying at the orphanage," Ellone said. "And later, I heard that he was taken into Balamb Garden, so I wasn't able to see him again until just recently."

"Squall," Laguna whispered his head still down. "Is that his name?"

"Yes," she replied. "Squall Leonhart. He recently became a SeeD, and is already one of the top people at Balamb Garden. Uncle Laguna, he is the one who I kept sending into your past. The others…sometimes I would send different people into Kiros' or Ward's past, but I only sent Squall into yours."

"Wait…you sent my…my….you sent Squall into my past?" Laguna said, dazed.

"I did," Ellone said. "I figured that if anyone could help change things, he could. But it didn't work. I know now that you can't change the past. I'm sorry."

Laguna waved at hand at her in an attempt to reassure her that he wasn't angry with her, but his lips could not form any words to match what he felt inside. His mind was instantly filled with a thousand questions: what was his son like? Did he know about his mother? His father? Would his son be excited to meet him? Or… would he be angry that he had been left on his own for all those years?

"I think he is coming here to meet me," she added. "So you can see him soon. But would you like to see what he looks like now?"

Laguna lifted his head, his mouth hanging open again while Ellone smiled and reached into her pocket.

"Remember these?" she said. Laguna saw the deck of Triple Triad cards in her hand and laughed.

"How could I forget?" he said, happy for the light distraction. "I'm the one who taught you and Raine how to play, and in no time at all, you both were kicking my butt every time. Kiros was always laughing at me over that."

"Well, I had a friend on the SeeD boat who knew someone in Dollet who sometimes makes rare cards," she continued. "I told him about you and showed him one of your old articles for Timber Maniacs, and he sent it to his friend in Dollet. He got this made and gave it to me."

Ellone pulled out a card and Laguna put his hand to his head and laughed again when he saw that a card had been made with his picture on it. He could tell that an older picture of him had been used when making it, but Laguna had to admit that it was a very good likeness and a part of him was thrilled that he was now a part of his favorite game.

"I asked him if he would have his friend make one more for me," Ellone said. "And I showed him a picture of Squall from an article that was written about Balamb Garden. He said he still owed me a favor so he managed to get it to his friend and he gave me this recently. I…I want you to have it. You still play, right?"

"Oh, of course," Laguna said, hurriedly. "I'm still getting back at Kiros for all those snide remarks he made about my Triple Triad strategy and…."

The words stopped when Ellone placed the card from her deck into his palm.

'He looks just like Raine,' was the first thought that came into his mind. He clutched at the card and stared at it for several moments in silence. Seeing this card, seeing his son's face, made what he had just learned real to him. Against his will, Laguna felt his eyes mist over with tears, and he had to work hard to smile and keep them from falling.

"Thank you, Elle," he said, his voice rougher than he would have liked. "Hey…maybe some time we could play another game together with these cards. You know, just like old times."

"Sure, Uncle Laguna," Ellone laughed. "Let's do that soon. But you should know now, that no matter how many times you lose, I wouldn't dream of taking that card away from you."

"Elle, I…."

"Sir."

Both Ellone and Laguna swiveled around to see one of the scientists stationed at the observatory standing in the doorway behind them. Laguna ran a hand over his face and stood up to meet him.

"What is it?"

"Sir, we are ready to do the latest inspection of Adel's seal," the man replied.

"All right, I will join you in a few moments," Laguna nodded.

"Sir? You don't have to…."

"Ah, you guys should know me by now," Laguna said. "I've got to check on it too for my own peace of mind and all. Besides, it's always good to have another set of eyes so that too many cooks won't spill the soup, right?"

"I suppose so," the man replied. Having been stationed up in the observatory many times before, he was familiar with the president's 'quant expressions'.

"We will be waiting for you in the airlock, Mr. President," he said as he backed out of the room.

"I'll be there in a couple minutes," Laguna said. The man nodded and walked off down the hallway. Laguna then stuffed the card into his pocket and turned to Ellone while putting his hand back onto the back of his head.

"Well I've got things to do here, Elle so I need to get going for now," he said. "But we will talk more later. I promise. And I…I want you to know that I'm not upset about what you did and that…well….I'm really happy to see you again."Ellone smiled and embraced him again.

"I'm very happy to see you again too," she murmured.

Laguna let her go and waved at her before shuffling out of the room and leaning against a wall in a nearby corridor. His hand fell back onto his pocket, and he thought again about the child that he had just learned about. His heart was swelling with an equal amount of joy and fear at the possibilities that lie ahead for the both of them. He then decided that it would be better for now to put all of this aside and concentrate on taking care of the sorceress and on making sure that Adel did not get the chance to cause even more havoc.

But before he started off for the airlock, Laguna Loire made a promise that he would do everything that he could to make up for the mistakes he had made with his son.

Back in the present, Laguna shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. Three weeks after Ultimecia had been defeated and as soon he had been able to spare some time, he had invited Squall to the palace for that talk that he had alluded to right before Squall and his friends went to defeat Adel and Ultimecia. The conversation had been even more strained and awkward than Laguna had expected it would be and now it had been months since he had heard from his son. Despite the fact that he had guessed that Squall might not take what he told him very well and his assurances upfront that he would understand if Squall was angry or didn't want to listen, Laguna found himself unable to stop himself from continuing to send messages to Balamb Garden in the hope that Squall would give him another chance to work things out between them. So far all attempts to contact him have been met with either silence or curtly worded responses about how busy SeeDs usually were.

Laguna frowned and shook his head. It wasn't until he had had a chance to spend some time alone with Squall and to talk to him that he realized that he just could not let his son go without trying everything he could to fix things. He was determined to not give up, but he was running out of ideas to encourage Squall to listen to him and the thought that he might lose in his struggle to be a part of his son's life continued to gnaw at him every day.

"Laguna?" Kiros suddenly said. "Laguna, have you been listening to anything we've been telling you?" Laguna whirled around and looked over at Kiros and Ward, who were standing at the other side of the room.

"Huh? Oh…oh yeah, I have," Laguna said.

"Really?" Kiros replied, shaking his head. "And just what have we been talking about then?"

For a second, Laguna panicked. Truthfully, thoughts about his son had overtaken his mind and he had lost track of what his friends were trying to discuss with him. He happened to look over at the papers on his desk, however, and seeing the heading of Galbadia Conference was just the cue he needed to shift his mind back to the subject at hand.

"Oh right, we were talking about the conference," Laguna said. "The one coming up with Galbadia and a bunch of other countries including Esthar. I'm going to be attending that."

"Yes," Kiros said. "And?"

"And?" Laguna echoed, confused.

"And we were also talking about the recent assassination attempts against high ranking members of our government," Kiros continued with an exasperated sigh. "Including you."

"Ha ha, well I guess I'm just not too worried about that," Laguna grinned. "After all, they haven't even come close to getting me so far. And besides, we're not entirely sure that these 'attempts' aren't just accidents."

"Doesn't it seem like a little too much of a coincidence that two chief secretaries and three council representatives have all suffered from these so-called 'accidents' in the last month?" Kiros said.

"I suppose you could have something there," Laguna said, putting his hand to his chin. Kiros glanced over at Ward before speaking again.

"And Ward says that the only reason why you're still uninjured is dumb luck," he said.

"Dumb luck? Wow, Ward, that's not cool," Laguna said. "Why couldn't you say that I'm still a highly skilled warrior in his prime who can't be taken down by a few childish pranks?"

"I wouldn't call almost plummeting several hundred feet to your death due to a lift malfunction a 'childish prank'," Kiros said. "If it hadn't been for that other lift passing by at the same time, you would be a pancake."

"I guess," Laguna smiled sheepishly. "I'm just glad I didn't hurt that other guy too much when I landed on his leg."

"So yeah, I am going to concur with Ward that it's your dumb luck that's kept you intact so far," Kiros smiled back. "But we can't afford to have an incident like that at this conference. If anything were to happen to you, there are people within our government who would use the public fervor for justice as an excuse to retaliate against Galbadia. You know that there are still a lot of grudges against them for siding with the sorceress."

"Yeah I know," Laguna sighed. "But I guess you can't really blame them for that, even if it's a little hypocritical for Esthar to take that kind of stance. Still, it's not like I can back out of this conference. We have to start somewhere if we are going to settle our differences. And if I don't show up, chances are, a lot of other people who need to be there won't show up either."

"Sadly, you are not wrong about that," Kiros frowned.

"So it's settled," Laguna said, putting his hands on his hips. "I'm still going."

"Laguna, I said that you weren't wrong about what you said before," Kiros said. "That doesn't mean I agree with your plan of action. We need to take some additional precautions if you are going on this trip."

"Oh sure," Laguna said. "That's why you guys are coming along, right?"

"Yes, we are still coming," Kiros replied. "But Ward and I have discussed this, and we agreed that we need to ramp up the security around you."

Laguna's shoulders slumped down and he groaned as he contemplated what Kiros' plan could mean. He was all too familiar with how formal and serious Esthar's soldiers tended to be while guarding him, and he was pretty sure that, not only would he have no fun at all at this conference, those soldiers would give off the wrong vibe for what was supposed to be a friendly gathering of representatives from various governments. He moved to sit down behind the desk and prepared to mount another argument against beefing up the number of soldiers accompanying them when a thought suddenly occurred to him.

'Hey…SeeDs are a mercenary group. They work in small numbers. They're supposed to be as inconspicuous as possible. And this wouldn't be the first time that they've acted as bodyguards….'

'Of course….'

"Perfect," Laguna said aloud as his grin returned to his features. "This is just the opportunity we need."

Kiros looked over at Ward, and the both of them shook their heads. They pondered how it was just like Laguna to find something positive in the midst of attempts on his life and potential global chaos.

"Guys," Laguna said, standing back up and walking toward them. "I have just come up with a solution to our problems. Just leave it to me."

"Leave it to you?" Kiros said, raising an eyebrow. "Why do I suddenly feel like we're going to end up in even more trouble now?"

"Oh come on, have some faith in me for a change," Laguna grumbled. "Trust me, I've got a great idea, and it's all going to work out. You'll see."

Kiros and Ward looked at each other again and shrugged their shoulders while they waited for Laguna to tell them his idea. In that moment though, Laguna was mostly focused on how pleased he was to have come up with a way to work on his relationship with his son.

'Raine, I won't give up,' he said to himself. 'I'm going to find a way to fix things. No matter how long it takes or hard it will be.'

'I promise.'