FicWad

Disturbance in the Peaceful Era:



Disclaimer:

I don't own Final Fantasy VIII. Original characters and names belong to me. All names and characters relating to Final fantasy belong to Square-Enix.

Author's Notes:

It may have been a while since my last update (sorry about that) but I've had some problems, including being sick strait after uploading the last chapter (yeah, I was sick for my birthday.) and I've had some computer problems, including my keyboard loosing its ability to work. Despite this, I'm back and still writing, despite the lack of reviews (at the time of writing this, I had only one and I thank you for taking the time to write it, freestyler91. Also, I've been writing a crossover fic, it is unnamed so for the moment is entitled 'untitled high school crossover' this title may be misleading so I added 'ffanime' to the end. It is located in the miscellaneous crossover category (misc/xovers). It is rated M but since it is in a category that may be full of high school musical/jonas shit crossovers and the like, I have received 0 hits. Come on, check it out for me. What's the point if no one is reading it? If you're still with me, I apologize for the excessive author's notes and sincerely hope you enjoy the chapter (no mater how short it may be.)

Chapter VIII – The New Girl

Peaceful Era 17, July 6th, 0900

Squall was alone. Seifer had left him. Fortunately, No one had seen his humiliating defeat, served to him by Seifer. On the other hand, there were no witnesses to see Seifer's cheap underhanded tactics.

Squall couldn't know how long he had been alone in that classroom with its overly formal glossy white walls and ceiling and large monitor at the front. The varnished instructor's desk stood at the front of the room, leering towards the students desks like the scowling face of a minister silently judging the alternative lifestyle choices of the so-called sinners sitting in the pews in a church.

Squall had been bent over from the pain of Seifer's attack. Of course he had lost to Seifer, he always did. He'd never beat him in a fight; he knew it and it made him feel so damn pathetic.

He stood up strait and flinched from a sharp sensation he was feeling throughout his entire nervous system. He could handle constant pain, he could ignore that easily. His real problem was with the short bursts of stabbing sensations. He had not yet learned to control these.

Squall cursed Seifer's name in his head as he straitened his back and took a few steps forward. Another surge of pain rushed over him like a jolt of lightning running down a metallic pole.

He lost his balance and put out his arms out to stop himself from falling. In doing so, he landed hard, putting his entire wait on his hands which were on the wall. Seifer's attack may not have lasted long, but he had hit Squall hard enough to tenderize his Abdomen.

Squall closed his eyes in thought of the impending bruising. There was no way it would be bad enough to bother the doctor with, but it may leave him soft and sore for a while. A horrid thought struck him like a drunken smith striking an anvil.

What about the SeeD exam, Will I have recovered by then? he thought to himself, although he already felt sure of the answer. With luck, he would be able to fight against the physical tortures and force himself to train and pass the practical units but even so, would he be able to handle the final test? Squall could only hope that his body would have healed enough by then.

Squall gritted his teeth once more and pushed against the wall with his arms. Then, holding them out until he regained his balance, he began to walk back to his dormitory, all the while promising himself that he would get even with Seifer.

Squall felt that he had no control over these events and now, if Seifer wanted to be rivals; then so be it.

The silver plated classroom door opened automatically when Squall approached it. He hobbled down the long hallway like a back-broken old man relying on his Cane for support, only he was forced to rely on his own two legs to get him safely back to his dormitory where he could lock the door, be disturbed by no one and peacefully rest for a good long while.

He finally reached the three-way junction in the centre of the hallway. In the middle of this junction on the floor, was a large circle on the painted cement floor. Within this circle was Garden's insignia, a black hand armed with a gun crossed with a white hand armed with a sword, a derivative of the ancient 'yin-yang' symbol.

The instant squall stepped foot upon this symbol, he heard an unfamiliar voice.

"I'm late, I'm late" it said, the sound was getting louder as this mystery person got closer. The high-pitched girl's voice seemed rushed and full of panic. Squall continued walking and soon heard hurried footsteps coming towards him.

"Late-late-late!" the voice said, getting louder and louder all the time. As he was preparing to turn the corner into the adjacent corridor leading towards the elevator, be began feeling sorry for––

Bam, Squall collided with the body of a girl he didn't recognize. She must have been running down the corridor at full speed because the collision knocked Squall backward and sent the girl falling backward to the ground.

The impact had been hard on Squall's tender body so it took a while for him to overcome the sting. When he had recovered, he was able to look over at the other casualty. Seeing her, he noticed her injuries were not so severe. He judged that she would bare no bruise.

Squall lost control of his gaze and it wandered of its own free will over the girl's appearance. She wore Garden's female Cadet's uniform consisting of a dark blue short-sleeved undershirt and skirt however she seemed to be lacking the blazer.

Her thick auburn hair was just short of shoulder-length and curled up slightly, following the natural curve of her shoulders. She looked up and her eyes met with Squall's. She held the gaze for a while before winking and smiling.

She jumped up to her feet while saying "There."

Squall continued staring, his eyes fixated on this stranger.

"Tee hee, I'm fine" she said, answering Squall's unasked question. "Oh, hey..." she said with less confidence. "Did you just come from one of the classrooms?"

Squall nodded in response to the stupid question.

"Is... registration over?"

Squall nodded again but he was not prepared for what was coming next.

"Oh no!" she cried "I'm late, I'm late, I'm late-late-late!"

This girl seemed almost as energetic as Zell and as annoying as that could be, he felt sorry for her. Squall feeling sorry for someone was not a regular occurrence but this cadet seemed different.

"Hey, this place is so much bigger than my old Garden. Do you think you could show me around?"

Squall shook his head. "I'm not the best person to do that."

The girl lost the sparkle from her eyes and her smile became a pout. "Pretty please" she moaned in a slow sulky tone.

"Sorry" Squall said apologetically and quietly.

"Aw, that's' too bad." the girl complained. She turned around and slowly and sulkily departed back towards the elevator.

Squall stood there, watching her walk away until she faded out of sight. She was the type of girl who could drive a person insane. To describe her and sum her up in one single word, it would have to be 'cute.'

Finally, Squall began to walk towards the elevator.

At the end of the corridor, was a bridge connecting it to the elevator. This bridge was made of steel with sides about two hundred millimeters high to stop people from accidently walking off and falling to their death.

When at last Squall reached this bridge, He noticed two other cadets sitting with their backs to the safety board sides on his right. On his left, he noticed another cadet. This cadet mostly kept to himself. Squall had nothing against this cadet because the two never bothered each other.

Walking forward, it wasn't until Squall was near the elevator that he noticed a fourth cadet. It was the girl he had run into only minutes earlier. She was now blocking his way down via the elevator.

"Oh, hi" she said when she realized who was standing behind her. "I'm... lost again. I know you're busy but could you at least tell me how to get to the infirmary? I have to see the doctor about my starter kit."

Squall looked around at the other cadets.

"These guys won't tell me anything, cheap asses!" she said, directing the insult at the cadets.

"Not unless you can beat us in a card game." One of the cadets on the right taunted.

"But I already told you! I don't have any cards. I left them at my old Garden."

"Here then!" the cadet said, tossing a small 'starter deck' of cards. A starter deck was basically just seven to ten cards with weak monsters printed on them. An avid card player would know that these were all level one monster cards, Squall however had no interest in this game, this craze, this ever-lasting fad that had consumed the world like a cancer. He had no need to take part in this pointless distraction.

The seven cards fluttered down gently to land on the bridge. The girl quickly dived on these cards and examined them as though they were made of gold. She flicked through the cards and her jaw instantly dropped. "I can't win with these!" she said angrily.

"I... I guess I can show you the directory in the GF Lobby" Squall said.

A smile instantly grew on the girl's face. "Really, Thanks!"

Squall nodded and pushed the button to call the elevator car. It arrived momentarily with a "ding" and Squall walked in, followed by the girl and pressed the button imprinted with a 'G'.

The doors closed and the elevator car swiftly began its speedy descent to the Ground Floor.

The elevator slowed to a halt and with another ding, the glass doors slid open.

"There it is" Squall said as they stepped out and walked down the stairs.

Having pointed out the large object in the center of the lobby, Squall led the girl down the stairs and strait for the large square-shaped metallic object standing out in the middle of the floor.

They approached it and walked around so they could use it. This thing, the Directory, was simply at first glance a large sign, a map of the ground floor. After careful examination, it could be seen that the glass over the map was really an electronic monitor.

Squall touched the monitor with his finger and the map cleared. A new page was now showing. In the centre of the screen was the Garden insignia; above this was an empty dialogue box. To the left of the image of the insignia was a list of menu items.

The index finger of Squall's right hand hit the empty dialogue box and the image of a typewriter keyboard appeared over the directory's home page. Over the keyboard, a message appeared. "Welcome to Balamb Garden Directory; Please input your query."

Below this message was an on-screen push-button labeled 'OK'. Squall pushed this button and then quickly began pushing buttons on the virtual Keyboard, typing something.

Squall hit 'enter' and suddenly the keyboard disappeared to show the home page once more. This was soon covered with a new page.

"Student Directory – Enter name" appeared on the screen. The keyboard returned into view. Squall began typing again. His right hand moved back and forth over the virtual keyboard. 'D-i-n-c-h-t' he typed.

A new message appeared on the monitor.

'Thank you

...now searching

...search complete'

A list appeared on the monitor.

'Results:

SeeD, Staff and Students with the name 'Dincht' – 1 match found

Dincht, Zell'

Squall pressed his finger on Zell's name and a new page appeared. At the top left corner was a photograph of Zell's face and in the centre was a list of his details. At the bottom of the page there was a list of options.

Squall turned to the girl who was now standing on his left. "This is the student directory" he explained "just one of the features of the directory."

"Umm, Excuse me... I have a question" the girl asked.

"What?" Squall asked her in a softer tone than he normally used. After all, she was new.

"How exactly do you use this anyway?"

"...It takes some getting used to, but if you play around with it, in time you can find all kinds of information... but be careful. It is an expensive piece of equipment; not a toy."

"Right" the girl answered "go on, continue. I'm listening."

"You can find all sorts of information using this machine, even your timetable if you've lost and forgotten it." Squall pushed one of the virtual on-screen buttons for one of the options.

Zell's timetable for the next seven days instantly appeared on the monitor. It showed that he was doing the exact same as Squall, taking the same classes and trying to pass the same tests and observations. Everyone still taking classes at Garden this month did these things and they all had the same goal.

Everyone is doing the exact same thing, Squall thought... trying to become a SeeD.

"Hey, are you taking the SeeD exam?"

Squall nodded.

"Hey, me too!" the girl said excitedly. "I've already finished my training and I've passed everything."

Squall looked at her.

"I got an eighty percent average."

"You passed... everything?"

"Yeah, I'm a new student. I just transferred here from Trabia and back there, we were far ahead so we did our training early and got an extra month's holiday. I could've stayed there with all my old friends but I wanted to come here and get to know everyone, you know? And make new friends."

Squall pressed another menu button and was returned to the home page. He brought up the keyboard again to search the directory. He pressed four on-screen keys, 'm-a-p-Enter'.

A list of maps came up on the screen. Squall picked the map for the ground floor hall. A basic diagram of Balamb Garden's Ground floor showed up on the monitor.

"As you may have already figured out, Balamb Garden is a pretty big place and it's easy to get lost, especially if you don't know your way around so it's best to find where you need to go and look it up here."

To explain this, Squall pressed his finger to the north-most push-button and a page of information about the Dormitory came up on the screen.

"That's basically it" Squall said. "...unless you want a brief explanation of each area."

The girl nodded, smiling.

"Fine..." Squall said in a bored voice. "First, in the north are the dormitories. This is where most people stay. Not many students commute to this Garden."

"Yeah, I'm in the dorms too, although I don't know what room I'm in or who I'll be sharing with. People have been wishing me luck, I wonder why. So who's your roommate?"

"I... I haven't shared a room in a long time."

"Really," the girl asked "why not?"

"Let's... lets just continue."

"Okay" the girl said innocently.

"West of the Dormitory is the Cafeteria. Students go there for food, drink and to socialize. It's also a good place if you want to play cards." He waited for a response. When he received none, he continued.

"East of the dormitory" he continued "is the car park. Some senior members of SeeD have permission to keep their cars in there, if they have one. Also, the Garden car is kept there. We usually use that if a mission comes up."

"Can you drive?"

Squall nodded "hmm, driving a variety of vehicles is an essential skill for a SeeD. At Balamb Garden, we learn to drive below the legal age so when we graduate, we already have that skill under our belt."

"I should have figured it would be the same in both Balamb and Trabia."

"In the west is the Quad and in the east is the Training Center. Do you need anymore information than that?"

"No, that's pretty basic but what's in the Training Center?"

To answer this, Squall pressed the push-button to go back to the map, then to the page with information on the Training Center. A picture of a large mutant-bulb appeared on screen. This bulb looked like an overgrown carnivorous plant with stems extending to smaller bulbs on the plant's left and right.

"The Training Center is like a humid jungle but it's built into Garden. In this jungle, the monsters are free to run around, breed and fight; just like in the wild. This is so Cadets can get a realistic feel for actual combat."

Squall heard a loud gulping sound as it was emitted from the throat of the girl next to him. "The monsters roam free, are you... serious?"

"I never joke about training" Squall told her. "If you're not careful, you could get yourself killed so just watch yourself, okay."

"...okay."

"The faculty say you should always train in pairs and never enter that area alone although I train alone all the time."

"Why?"

"To put it simply, I don't get along with my training partner. In the Training Center, at the moment there is only one breed of monster. It is a plant-type called a Grat. Do you see the hard bulb-like arms on the picture?"

"Yes."

"Those are its primary weapons. It can also bite, drain blood, spit acid and release gas."

"Sounds like a nightmare."

"That's why they call it a monster... but even so, Grats are easy enough to kill. Sever their roots and stems, impale them or set them on fire and they're as good as dead. They may be weak but they make good live combat practice. Also, they are a good source of silence and sleep magic so be sure visit the Training center before a mission if your stock of green-type Para-magic is running low."

"Okay, got it. Next?"

"The first exit east from here is the Library. Students go there to check out books and quietly read. You can go to the reference section to study if you want but the terminals in the classrooms are more efficient. Most of the classrooms are upstairs on floors one and two."

"Yep, I remember the classrooms."

"The first exit west from here is the Infirmary."

"Question!" the girl interrupted. "What's the doctor's name?"

"Doctor Kadawaki" Squall answered. "She's a good doctor and can treat most injuries and also knows a lot about psychology so quite a few students turn to her for advice. Finally, south of here is the front gate; the main entrance and exit to the Garden, but I'm sure you must have known about that one."

"Yep, I remember that one as well."

"So if that's all..."

"Wait a minute, I have another question."

"What?"

"Where's the headmasters office?"

"It's on the third floor but that's out of bounds. You need special permission to get in."

"Oh, right and what's the headmaster's name?"

"Headmaster Cid Kramer" Squall told her.

"Alright, thanks. I guess I'll be heading to the Infirmary to talk to the Doctor, then I might take a walk. Hopefully I won't get lost again. Oh and by the way, Good luck for the SeeD exam."

Squall nodded.

"Good luck for the both of us huh?"

Squall quietly thanked her and watched her leave as she walked away in the direction of the infirmary. He touched his finger to the Directory's monitor and the pages disappeared one by one, leaving only the home page.

Squall walked out of the lobby, following the girl's route down the circular hall around the elevator shaft. He followed the hall until he got to the Dormitory. He stepped into the Dorm elevator and punched in the code for his Dorm-room, '360902'.

Finally Squall arrived in his Dorm room. He walked up to the steel door with a white 'B' painted on it. To the right of this door was an electronic card-swipe locking mechanism. Squall pulled out his wallet and took out his Balamb Garden Cadet ID card, which he swiped to get the door open. He placed the card back in his wallet, put that in his pocket and stepped into his room.

The door closed behind him. He didn't bother to lock it; no one ever bothered him up here anyway. No one even knew which Dorm was his, did they?

He walked over to his bed and lay down. He closed his eyes and let his mind wander. Maybe with a little luck he could relax and get some rest. He had a hard month ahead of him. Maybe with a little luck he could get some sleep.

- - -

Yeah, Squall has met the new girl. I know in the game this happens later, but I wanted the two to know each other a little better. I know it's not a great chapter, it was really a rush job. I wrote this in about two or three days. Anyway, take a look at my other story in the misc crossovers category, tell me what you think of it and if you can think of a good name, let me know. Sorry for spamming my own story. I don't know when the next chapter will be up so it could be a while.