Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy…though I wish I did. Anyway I do own my original characters that will be coming up. So please don't take them. Okay now that's all over enjoy my fanfic!

A New Arrival

So after Irvine and the group talked to Xu, asking her if anything was taken for Garden to transport Squall, she replied with a no.

-------------------Flashback-------------------------------------- < p>"I haven't seen The Commander at all today! Is something wrong?" Xu asked with concern.

Irvine retold the story for about the 6th time today and got a gasp from her.

"I will announce this to everyone in Garden. They should know…"

Irvine nodded and glanced over to Zell, who was squirming, ready to get this over with so he could go back to talk to Jewel and Seifer, whose brow was twitching from the younger blonde squirming so much. His patients was running extremely thin. Irvine shook his head and turned his back from Xu toward Seifer and Zell. He sighed and shook his head.

"Just break the news lightly to everyone, okay?" he turned his glance back to Xu to let her know he was talking to her. "I don't want a rampage to come to Garden…"

"Don't worry, Irvine. Everything will be taken care of!"

He nodded and began to walk away, with Zell and Seifer following.

---------------------End of Flashback----------------------------------------

Now the group was heading to Balamb. Zell and Seifer were far apart from each other and Irvine led the group. Since Balamb wasn't far it wasn't as if they needed a SeeD car or anything. Anyway the walking was good for the group, right?

A crackling cry was heard by all the members of the group and they all stopped, taking a quick glance over the surroundings. The cry was very near, but where was it coming from?

Suddenly, as if on cue a Grat popped out of nowhere, startling the group. It whacked Zell with its tentacle, making the young blonde crash to the group a few feet away.

Before any one could get a chance to do anything, a gun shot was heard followed by the ripping of flesh. The monster fell forward and from behind appeared a figure in a raven black cloak, their face was covered from the hood of the cloak and all they could see was a suspicious looking weapon, held in the hand of the mysterious figure. It was a pure black gun blade with a large red amber moon picture engraved into the blade. It was shimmering a black aura around it, making the team gaze at it in wonder and fear. When the figure spoke it was almost a whisper, but everyone heard it, clearly.

"Where's Squall…?"

All three went into fighting position. Irvine aimed Exeter at the figure and cocked the powerful rifle and-

The figure stood, laughing and removed their hood to reveal luscious chestnut-colored hair, amber eyes that bore into the three men with a mischievous glint and a beautiful grin that said she was enjoying all of this. "Hello guys…" her voice was like a sweet song, but used either to heal or worse…to hurt.

Seifer growled. "Who the hell are you?!"

She took a few steps forward. "Names Leona Loire!" Hands on her hips, she tilted her head in amusement. "I guess you men aren't the humorous type eh?" she giggled. "You should have seen your faces!"

Irvine lowered Exeter and tipped his hat, his eyes full of curiosity to this young beautiful girl. "Did you say Loire?"

"Yes sire, cowboy! I'm the one and only Leona Loire!"

"How do you know Squall?" Zell asked, rubbing his head from the blow that he received from the Grat. "He never told us about you before…"

"I'm his cousin! I'm the niece of his father Laguna Loire!" she nodded and crossed her arms. "My uncle sent me here because a woman named Rinoa called Uncle Laguna and asked for his help...I was there at the time, so I decided I would come and help!" She continued to grin, seeing the expressions on their faces. "So I'm here!"

"How do we know your Squall's cousin?" Seifer questioned, coldly. "And more importantly, how did you know we knew Squall?"

She giggled. "Well now I do!" She took a few more steps forward, toward them and was now in front of them. She was a little shorter than them, but not by so much. "Anyway, Uncle Laguna described you guys to me! In detail too!" She turned her body toward Irvine and pointed at him.

"Irvine Kinneas, has the title of 'The Best Shooter in Garden', a cowboy…" She moved next to Seifer, which glared down at her. "Seifer Almasy, a gun blade specialist and rival of my cousin Squall." Then, last, but not least, she moved on to Zell. "And the spunky Zell Dincht, a master martial artist. Cutie aren't you?" She poked him in the stomach and took a step back.

Zell blushed a deep crimson and turned his head away. "How about we talk things over at my house?" he said, a little speechless. "Away from monsters…"

A distant roar was heard and they all hurried into Balamb toward Zell's house.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mrs. Dincht was overjoyed when the group came to visit. She was even MORE excited when she saw Leona and she began to ask her questions. "Are you Zell's girlfriend?" and remarks like, "Oh deary we need to fatten you up!"

Leona didn't mind the attention at all, but she was still on her guard. She didn't know what to expect of these people, yet from the way things are going it was pretty fun! Mrs. Dincht was nice, Zell was also like his mother- nice, Irvine had that cowboy bounce to him and he seemed a bit lazy, but she knew on the inside he was a terrific person and Seifer….well it seemed Seifer didn't like her that much. She knew why. Well one: he didn't trust her and two: he doesn't like Squall so why like his cousin?

"So Leona…" Irvine began. "Rinoa called Laguna and he sent you here?"

She picked her head up and nodded. "Yep."

"You don't look like Squall…" Seifer studied her, coldly.

"I hate to agree, but you kind of don't…how did you get that eye color?" Zell asked, a little rudely.

She sighed. "It's a long story…"

"We have time…" Seifer said. "If you're going to come along with us, we'll need to know more about you. Everyone knows each other and most of their stories, but we know nothing of you. So start Miss Loire…" she spat the last part, as if it was the most vulgar thing he came in contact with.

Leona nodded and began. "I was born August 2 to Lance and Rebecca Loire. In the Loire family usually cousins look opposite and act opposite from each other. Cousins are also paired up according to age. Squall and I were paired up. When he was little he was very quiet and distant from people, except me. I, on the other hand, was very spunky and hyper!" She giggled and grinned, happily. "Like I am now!" she continued. "When Squall's mother Raine died, Uncle Laguna was not there and Squall was sent to-"

"We know his story…tell us yours…" Seifer interrupted, rather rudely.

"I was getting there!" Leona snapped at him and continued rather annoyed. "Anyway, when I turned five I begun to use the basic gun blade, training countless hours everyday with my father, Uncle Laguna's brother…until he…died…" A pang of sadness dwelled inside her, but quickly she put on a smile for everyone and continued. "Then I trained everyday, sharpening my skills. My mother fell ill a few weeks ago and on her death bed told me to go to my Uncle. Uncle Laguna and Mr. Kiros knew from the start and Mr.Kiros came and took me to Esthar I had only been there for a whole day when we got the call. So now I'm here!"

"Question…" Seifer said, with a smirk on his face. "How did you know Squall was distant and quiet eh? After his mother died he went to the orphanage that all of us were at…that's the story we heard…"

"Yes…but he's opposite from me! That means that's what he would be…even my uncle said that!" Leona defended herself. "I'm not lying about this!"

"But how did you get your eye color..?" Zell piped up once again.

"I…"

"Zell Dincht! You know better than to ask people those things!" Mrs. Dincht piped up, as she came back from making sandwiches and lemonade for everyone. Everyone's mouth watered at the sight of food and stomachs growled in unison. Mrs. Dincht chuckled. "Now you all eat up there's plenty for everyone!"

"Thank you Mrs.Dincht!" Leona grinned and quickly took a bite. Her taste buds thanked her with all their hearts as the ham and cheese worked its way into her stomach and her stomach gave her a growl of happiness. She clung to the sandwich with all its goodness. "Thank you Mrs. Dincht! They're wonderful!"

Mrs. Dincht's eyes lit up. "Thank you, deary!" She smiled and turned, leaving the group once again to talk.

"Well, it's all great you're here and all…" Seifer said, after a few moments. "But how do we know your Squall's real cousin and not a fan girl, eh? Everyone knows Squall. Since he is a big hero…" a dangerous tone now was in his voice. She knew that he disliked Squall VERY much. "I'm going to need evidence…"

Leona nodded and unhooked her cloak, letting it fall from her shoulders and lay on her lap, sloppily. She wore a loose white t-shirt that cut off at her belly button and she wore black shorts with a hilt tied around her hips. Around her neck was a silver chained necklace and a ring hooked onto it, the ring that bore the lion, Griever. She gripped the chain in her hands and slid the necklace over her head and carefully in her hand, she held out her hand for all of them to take a look at the ring.

All the men leaned in to get a better look. All of them backed away startled. She must have been telling the truth. Rinoa had the other one…she must have been right.

Seifer grunted. "This could be a fake!"

Leona shook her head. " As us cousins are teamed up we each get a ring- for the guys- and necklaces- for the girls-. Only the paired up cousins get the same one. Look at it very carefully…its real…" She smiled. "Look familiar?"

Zell nodded and glanced up at her. "Yes I've worked on rings before and examined Squall's many times. This is the same ring. Not a fake…"

"Believe me now?" Leona asked, a smirk plastered on her lips.

"I guess we'll have to…" Said the silent Irvine, shrugging. "Rinoa does have Squall's ring, so we know Leona couldn't have stolen it…"

"I believe her!" Zell grinned. " She does kind of look like Squall…kind of!" He said, cheerfully.

Leona flipped her hair to the side and continued to smirk. "So…when are we leaving?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rinoa, Quistis and Selphie, quickly busied themselves once the men left. With the men gone they had to do SOMETHING to get them off their minds, but as hard as she tried Selphie couldn't stop thinking about Irvine. She gave a little sigh as Quistis talked about the preparations.

"Selphie?" a voice asked.

Selphie glanced up to see Jewel, her raven black hair was put up in a pony tail and she wore a black tank top with a white dress shirt covering her shoulders and dark blue Capri's, she looked like a frightened mouse.

"What's wrong, Jewel?" Selphie asked, concerned. She motioned for her friend to sit beside her.

Jewel took a seat and Quistis glared, angrily and was about to say something for interrupting her, when Rinoa shook her head 'no'.

"It's about Zell…" Jewel began and paused, as tears burned her eyes. " I was being stupid…I don't know what came over me, but I just got so mad…I heard a rumor that Zell was seeing this other girl behind my back and well…I asked him and he denied it…I didn't believe him and now I found out it was just a stupid rumor!" She put her head in her hands. She began to sniffle. " I went to go tell him I was sorry this morning and he's gone!" Now her sniffling became great big shaky sobs.

"It's ok, Jewel!" Selphie patted her friend's back, reassuring her. "He only went out with Irvine and Seifer on a mission! He'll be back!"

Jewel shook her head. "What if he finds another girl? Selphie…"she began to whisper. "This is my first serious relationship and I blew it!"

Selphie shook her head and smiled. Never a dull moment at Garden.

"He loves you Jewel and only you! You should hear him talk about you! Don't worry he'll come back to you, if you wait for him."

Jewel was still in doubt. She didn't know what to of to do. "Okay…" she sighed, after a long pause. She shook her head. "I'm sorry to interrupt you, Selphie, its just I didn't know who to turn to…"

"Why don't you help us?" piped up Rinoa. "We need another hand with the Garden Festival."

"Can I?" asked Jewel, with a little smile.

"Sure!" Selphie grinned, eyes lit up. "Quistis was just going over the preparations. We'll need to go to Balamb in the morning to get most of the stuff and then to Timber to get the rest."

"Actually, Selphie, I wanted to get the supplies tonight and then head over to Timber, if it's necessary. I sent a message to the supplies store and they said they have everything and on sale, but only tonight. Think you can handle it with Jewel?"

"Why not!!" Selphie grinned and stood. "So let's get prepared, Jewel. We leave in an hour."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They all decided to leave in the morning and in the mean time, Leona went exploring. Actually, she wanted to leave. She had felt a pang of something indescribable when they decided it, even so something told her to stay. Some instinct.

So she explored, but got bored and sat on the edge of the dock, letting her legs hang over the edge. She gazed at her reflection and sighed. They wanted to know about her and she told them the basics, but no more and no less. They couldn't really know anything about her past. She barely knew anything.

She sighed once again and continued to gaze into her reflection's eyes. If only she was the reflection, always in the water. Reflections could be happy or sad, angry or hurt, but they really didn't feel the feelings, only the beholder did. The reflection acted like they did to make the beholder feel like they weren't the only ones to feel whatever they felt. Their true self. Reflections had no parents, no dark mysterious past. They were only a reflection in the light.

She brought her knees up and hugged them. Her gun blade glistened black in the sun's rays. It was beautiful, but deadly, as was the owner of it.

Her thoughts traveled to Squall. She had only seen pictures of him, but why him? She asked herself. He was the good cousin, from the stories she heard, he was always the one to get people out of trouble…He was the hero and the good guy. Why would someone lure him out and what was really going on? How would she confront Squall?

She chuckled. Just say "Hi I'm your long lost cousin! One of your only blood relatives left! How are you doing?" Tell him-

"Leona?" a voice called her back to reality.

She turned and found Zell standing behind her. "What's up, Zell?"

"You look sad…"he commented and took a few steps toward her, plopping down next to her Indian style. "Wanna talk about it?"

Leona smiled. For all the time she had been with the group, she never had seen Zell so sensitive. She put on her best fake smile and smiled at him. "No! I'm not sad!" She grinned and whacked him on the back. "I'm totally-"

"AHHHHHH!" Before Leona could finish, Zell fell face first into the water, making a huge splash.

She started to laugh, when he came up for air. His spiky hair was now slicked forward in front of his face, covering up his left eye. He glanced up to see a laughing Leona. He swam to the ladder and began to climb, slicking his hair back to be able to see.

As he finished climbing, he couldn't help, but smile. He made a beautiful woman laugh. He jumped up onto the dock and with an evil grin, he shook himself like a dog, water flying everywhere.

Leona turned to shield herself from the droplets of water. She continued to laugh and turned back to gaze at him when he stopped. She doubled over with laughter at the sight she saw.

His hair was every which way and his clothes were baggy from all the wetness. He had his arms crossed, smiling.

"I can see you're enjoying this…"

She nodded and snickered. "Yep!"

"Why don't we go back to my house?" he motioned for her to follow him and he started to walk off. "I came to tell you that dinner is ready."

Dinner this early? It must have been 6:00 p.m. or so. She shrugged it off and quickly followed him. As she walked side-by-side with him she spoke. " Thank you for all the hospitality, Zell." she smiled and continued to look straight ahead. "You and your mother have been wonderfully nice."

Zell shrugged. "No problem. A cousin of Squall's is like a cousin of mine!"

Leona's brow raised. "Maybe you should work on that phrase?"

"Yeah…I know."

He suddenly stopped and pointed to a street light, which was right by his house. " Watch it's gonna come on any minute now! I love to watch it come on."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Selphie and Jewel finally made it to Balamb. It was getting slightly dark and all the lamp posts, as if from their arrival turned on, lighting up, beautifully.

Jewel gazed in amazement. "It's so pretty."

"Have been here before?" Selphie asked.

She nodded. "Yes only once when it was really early in the morning with Ze-"

There was an awkward silence. Selphie was looking up at the slowly forming stars, when all of a sudden a high pitched; chilling scream was issued from Jewel. It was a long frightful scream that made Selphie jump out of her skin. She looked around and took her Nunchaku, positioned for battle. She looked around as people began to come out of their homes.

Zell turned, quickly to find Jewel screaming in horror. She was looking right at him. His eyes widened and without a second thought, he ran to her.

Leona took a step back, flinching and went into fighting position, gun blade in both hands. What the hell was going on? She made a whole 360 degree turn and saw nothing.

Irvine and Seifer heard the scream and glanced at each other; each grabbed their weapon and headed outside, dashing out of the house. Irvine quickly cocked and aimed Exeter, but only to find Selphie and Jewel. He sighed and glanced over toward Seifer. Seifer shook his head with a smirk.

Irvine aimed to the sky and fired.

Everything went suddenly quiet, as everyone turned to him and his smoking rifle. Zell stopped in his tracks, a few feet from Jewel and gazed at him. Irvine sighed.

"Now what's going on out here, eh?"

"Irvy?!" Selphie lit up with joy. They didn't get very far today and she at least got to see him one more time before he left.

Irvine glanced at her and gave her a little wink, then looked at the rest of them, more toward Jewel. "What's wrong, little lady?"

Jewel burst into tears. "I'M SORRY ZELL!" she sobbed, loudly and ran the few feet to him, embracing him. "I should have believed you! I was going t-to tell y-you I-I-I w-was SORRY, but you weren't in your d-dorm this morning! Please forgive me. Even though you love someone else now, just tell me…" she paused and let out a huge sniffle. "Tell me you forgive me…"

Zell was speechless. What was she talking about? He gazed down at her with loving eyes and embraced her, tightly. "I forgave you a long time ago…" he ran his hand through her hair. It felt so good to do this again… "What new love, Jewel? I only love you…the one I hold in my arms…"

Jewel lifted her head up and pointed to Leona. "I thought she was your new-"

Leona burst out laughing. Everyone watched her. She lowered her gun blade and walked over to the couple and patted Jewel's shoulder. "You've got it all wrong, Jewel is it?" Jewel nodded and Leona continued. "Zell here was only coming to get me for dinner! I'm- with these guys- looking for my cousin, Squall." She rubbed the back of her head and grinned. "Zell and I are like cousins!" Zell laughed and nodded.

"Nice one, Leona." Zell replied.

"It was your phrase!" she sighed. "Anyway, Zell loves you, Jewel. I won't get in the way!" She smirked. "I'll find my own guy someday, okay?"

Jewel nodded and sighed. "Zell you're soaked…"

Zell chuckled and held Jewel closer to him. "I kind of fell in the water with the help of Leona."

Leona grinned, sheepishly. "I didn't mean to! I swear!"

Selphie studied Leona, carefully and approached. "Hmmm…." she tilted her head. "You said your Squall's cousin?"

Leona nodded and turned to Selphie. "Yep! Name's Leona Loire. My Uncle is Laguna Loire."

Irvine sighed. "How about we all go inside now?"

They all nodded and headed into the Dincht's home.