Hey, folks. Finally, here's the decision Cid made to dump the Garden on Squall (a seventeen year old rookie SeeD with no administrative experience and two failed missions under his belt)

Abdication

He was tired. So tired. Years ago, he'd have been better able to take it, but what was happening now was just too much, too quickly. And the worst part was, no one blamed him for anything! Even the faculty simply assumed their Master had gone insane. Part of that could be the influence of the GFs , but he hadn't seen any of the administrative or cafeteria staff suppressing hate filled stares as he passed, and he was very good at noticing things like that. NORG was now a hated malcontent, while Cid was revered, and in the case of the other board members, feared.

He could have handled their hate, but nothing was so hard to bear as their love. He couldn't take this any longer. But...who could he leave in charge? Xu? Quistis? No, because they would be good at it, and the last thing Garden needed was a talented Headmaster/Mistress. Cid had spent the last two decades carefully cultivating little conflicts between Dollet, Timber, and Galbadia, keeping his Seeds blooming. But...he hadn't the heart to subject the world to more war. It had taken quite a beating over the last three decades. And now the world knew who the SeeDs were, and were not pleased with them. If Balamb Garden overstepped their boundaries, the entire world would rise against them (except Esthar, but not even Cid had managed to breach the sealed borders, and they would grant no sanctuary) and a coalition army of Galbadia, Dollet, and even the Trabian Seeds, would eradicate Balamb Garden down to the last Junior Classmen.

But, neither could he allow Balamb to just crumble. Edea was still out there, and he'd promised her he would have her killed if she ever tried to pull an Adel. He intended to keep that promise, but he had neither the strength of body or mind to do it himself.

Managing a Garden in the short term was not difficult. The faculty were genii to a Shumi. A recent project had involved a faculty member in the accounts department altering the machines to facilitate paying wages through holes in the fabric of spacetime. That was the kind of things Shumi did, unasked, unpaid and unthanked. But...the Garden needed someone to follow, someone to unify them and give them purpose.

Then...inspiration! Leonhart could lead, but only as long as he had an objective in front of him. Like Almasy, he had that odd, transitory charisma. People would follow him into hell...but once they came out the other side, they'd wonder 'Hang on...what the hell happened there?' He'd hold their loyalty as long as the sorceress loomed on the horizon, but afterward, Seed would shatter like glass as their fervour faded and the thought of practicality. It would shatter, but there'd still be a loyal core, a loyal core which would train and stay under the radar and not threaten until the next sorceress arose...and then, his buried Seeds would blossom.