FicWad

Disturbance in the Peaceful Era:
Squall Leonheart never wanted to be a hero but when fate plunges him into battle with the leader of an entire nation, he must face the emotions he has shunned and rely on the friends he never wanted... but is Galbadia's president really the true threat to the world, or is there something sinister behind the secret meetings he has been holding with his newly appointed peace ambassador? Squall/Rinoa Seifer/Rinoa Squall/Selphie

Rated M for offensive language, adult themes, drug use, abuse

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.

Chapter IX – Dawn of a new headache

Peaceful Era 16, July 23, 1830

Seifer made a few smart comments and Rinoa tried to smile at these but in authenticity, she wasn't really listening. She was too busy watching the train leaving the station. The engine was pulling its carriages away from her, out of her reach and with them; it was taking Kane out of her life forever.

"So, he's really gone" Rinoa said. She had been walking with Seifer in Timber for no more than a few minutes but she had already run the events of the day through her mind at least half a dozen times.

"Yep" Seifer answered in a bored tone. A grin made its way onto his face. "You were really beginning to like him, weren't you?"

"I don't know, maybe."

"You did! You feel bad that he's gone."

"Kind of, but I'll get over it."

Seifer patted his empty pockets. "Fuck!"

"What is it?" Rinoa asked with concern.

"Oh, never mind."

"Come on."

"I need a smoke, that's all."

"Oh, are you all out?"

"No. Kane took 'em, bastard."

"Kane told me you are a student of Balamb Garden."

"Yeah, so?" asked Seifer impatiently.

"Are you a SeeD?"

"No... But I'm gonna be."

"Don't they teach you strength of will at garden?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I thought SeeDs could fight addiction, I thought they didn't smoke or drink?"

"First of all, the plural is SeeD; not SeeDs... and secondly; don't lecture me. I'm older than you."

"Only by about a year!" the raven-haired girl protested.

Seifer laughed. "I see you're practicing your preaching skills for motherhood." Seifer smiled a sly smile. "So, when d'you think you'll be ready?"

"Shut up!" Rinoa said, playfully punching Seifer on the shoulder.

Rinoa didn't feel annoyed with Seifer, neither did she feel sad. She felt like she could really let loose and have fun around Seifer.

Kane had been like her protector although Rinoa got the feeling he was always on edge. It was as though he was afraid to relax around her, afraid of his own emotions in case he could not contain them because she reminded him of his... his 'Sheik.'

"Rinoa?" asked Seifer.

"...What?" Rinoa asked, coming out of a daze.

"You were thinking about Kane again, weren't you?"

"How did you know?"

"The smile faded from your face. If this is going to happen every time you think of him, maybe you should just forget him. I think I like you better when you're happy."

"That makes two of us" Rinoa smiled. "Treat me right and I might just stay happy."

Rinoa was feeling things just by talking with Seifer that she had never felt before. Just by being there, Seifer was making her happy. Something Kane could never do.

"But he sure knows how to say goodbye" she said out loud.

"What?"

Rinoa blushed slightly. "Oh, never mind."

"So, Rinoa; what are you going to do?" asked Seifer. He was being serious.

"What will I do?" Rinoa repeated.

"Where are you going to go?"

Rinoa's eyes filled with worry. "I don't know; I can't really go back to Galbadia, can I? I don't want to but I might just have to."

"Would you consider joining the Owls?"

"I don't know, I talked about it with Kane a little... but I'm not really sure if I can commit to that..."

"Then how about this, I'm staying with the owls until the end of the month. Hang out with me until then, stay with the Owls, and then decide. How does that sound?"

Rinoa nodded. "I could do that." Rinoa was happy to do anything to delay a difficult decision like this, anything to delay the prospect of being forced to move back in to that mansion and all that it represented.

They passed the town center and spotted a street merchant. "Wait here" Seifer instructed her. Rinoa did what she was told and found a wall to wait by. It happened to be the wall of the Timber Hotel.

Seifer walked toward the merchant to make a purchase.

Rinoa turned her head to her left, towards the direction of the Hotel's entrance. The right hand side of the glass double-doors opened and out stepped a young woman. She seemed to be in her late twenties. She wore her brunette hair in a high ponytail. She looked over to Rinoa and smiled.

The Woman let the door swing closed behind her. She walked around and stood to the right of Rinoa.

Rinoa greeted the woman, who smiled in response. Rinoa noticed the uniform that the woman was wearing. "So you work at the Hotel?"

The woman shook her head then smiling, she said "I own the Hotel."

"Oh, sorry miss..."

"Call me Franchesca."

"Oh, okay. My name's Rinoa."

"So you know Kane, don't you?"

Rinoa was surprised at the mention of Kane's name. "You know Kane as well?"

Franchesca nodded.

"How?"

Franchesca stopped smiling and a tinge of pink made its way onto her cheeks. "Well, that's kind of hard to say... especially since I don't really know how he felt about me."

"Oh, I get it."

"I've seen you walking around with Kane. I guess he must've moved on to you. I won't hold it against you but you seem a little young for him, then again people once said that about me."

"...How old is he?"

"I don't know, I never really asked him but I wish I had. Maybe he could've shared with me his anti-aging secrets."

"No, I've seen him fight. He moves so fast, he can't be too old."

"His body has stayed young far beyond his time but he must be at least forty."

"...Forty!?" asked Rinoa in disbelief.

"Maybe older... Anyway, about you and him..."

"No, it's not what you think. We never went that far... and we never will."

"Where is he now?"

"I don't know" Rinoa answered. "He left earlier today."

"He never said anything to me. I guess that explains how he felt. He never really cared."

"Don't judge him harshly for it, he has a low opinion of himself but he probably thought of you as a higher being than himself. I don't know why he never came to see you; maybe he didn't want to disturb you. Who knows, he may come back to see you."

"Maybe, I don't know. He was never much of a socializer. It's like he could never relax around me... Anyway, if you ever need a place to stay, feel free to come in to the Hotel."

"Thanks anyway but I don't really have any money at the moment."

"Don't worry about it, It's my hotel; I own it and my friends can spend a free night or two whenever they want. Just come in and ask for Fran."

"Fran, is that you?"

"Yeah, that's what all my employees and guests call me; Franchesca, Fran for short."

Rinoa saw that Seifer was walking towards her. "Good timing" she said to herself.

"Is he with you?" Franchesca asked.

"Yeah, I'm staying with him and the Forest Owls."

"I see."

"Thanks Fran, for the talk and the offer. I'll come back and talk to you later. I may even need to take you up on your offer."

"You're welcome to. I'll be glad to see you again. Well, I'm heading off home so I guess I'll be going. I'll see you around."

Rinoa nodded "yeah, you too."

With that, Franchesca left and passed by Seifer who was approaching. "Ready to go?" he asked.

"Alright" Rinoa answered and they departed to the hiding place of the Forest Owls mobile base. They followed the railway line deep into dark forest seclusion.

*

Peaceful Era 17, July 6th, 1200

Squall had been alone in the entrance room of his Dormitory for over an hour. He sat at the terminal, studying his timetable. He had only a month to pass all compulsory units, both practical and theory necessary to become a SeeD.

His eyes drifted to the top of the page and widened when he saw who his instructor would be.

"Instructor: #14, Trepe, Quistis"

Quistis Trepe, she was the youngest of all Balamb Garden's instructors. She had been his instructor before; she had taken him for his home-room class in the mornings during the previous semester. Squall had never seen her fight but it was a well-known rumor that her weapon of choice was the whip. She even had her own obsessive, almost-oppressive cult-like fan base within the students of Garden.

Quistis Trepe had blonde hair, blue eyes, a young body, was it any wonder the vast majority of her male student body had failed last semester? Pools of drool made handwritten notes incomprehensible to any eye.

Quistis was only eighteen and in her short time as instructor, her capabilities had been called into question more than once. Great, thought Squall. I'll be stuck in a class with herteaching me, surrounded by her groupies. That's just what I need.

On Squall's left was the desk he used to study. Behind him was the elevator to exit the dormitories. In front of him were the two doors to the two Dorm rooms, the sleeping quarters for two.

Squall had been alone in this separate Double-Dorm for the last two years but now it seemed the administration had decided to stick someone in with him– poor someone.

Squall logged off and powered down his terminal. He stood up and walked towards the two rooms. On the right was his room. On the left, the door was unlocked and inside the room there were various boxes. On the bed was a stack of textbooks and various other essential supplies for a life of study.

Hanging over the bed on coat-hangers were two complete spare female-cadet uniforms. In the open wardrobe there were hanging up, various skirts, dresses, T-shirts and other items of outer-clothing.

Beside this wardrobe there was what Squall suspected to be an underwear draw. Whoever it was that had been assigned to this room, they must have trusted Squall enough to leave their door open. (Or maybe they were unaware of the fact that Squall would be here, maybe they thought they would have this Dorm all to themselves, who knows.)

Squall did not know who now called this room theirs but nevertheless, they had enough trust to leave their door open and unlocked. Squall decided he would return their trust and respect them enough to not go rifling through their draws. After all, he was not Seifer.

Squall turned around and walked into his own room which was exceptionally neat and tidy. He went over to his bed-side table and picked up an item. This item was simply two belts crossed and attached to an oddly shaped scabbard.

He carefully picked up this item and placed it on the floor. He stepped into it with both legs and pulled it up to his waist. He buckled the belts tightly enough that they would not slip but not so tight that they restricted his movement.

Leaning at a forty-five degree angle at the foot of his bed was a large black tin case. On the front of this case was an emblem of a lion. Squall had a ring and a necklace with the same emblem. He lifted the tin case (and it was quite heavy) onto his bed and opened it.

Inside this case there was an odd weapon, almost like a large misshapen four feet long broadsword but with a pistol grip in place of a hilt, as though a smith had grafted a gun to the blade of a sword.

This weapon was known as a gunblade, a gun-sword weapon. The gunblade was extremely difficult to master, taking years of training to use safely. The traditional design of this weapon is the Revolver. Squall's model was a custom-made Revolver Gunblade.

Technically, the weapon belonged to Garden but should he pass the exam and become a SeeD; the weapon would be given to him as a graduation gift. Such was Garden's rule.

The gunblade was armed with oversized Brass shells loaded with charges. Originally, each shell was loaded with a single charge each but modern technology had allowed smaller charges with greater potency, meaning that each shell contained six charges.

The Revolver held six shells meaning a gunblader could charge thirty six times in a single battle without needing to reload. For the reason of simplicity, these shells were known simply as bullets.

Squall pulled out his Gunblade and unlocked the ammunition cylinder. He removed it. It was a circular steel object. Squall loaded one bullet into each of the six chambers, replaced the cylinder and locked it in place.

Squall examined the weapon and ensured the safety catch was on before sheathing it. He took a pouch of bullets and attached it to his belt. He closed the case, left the room and locked the door.

*

Peaceful Era 16, July 23, 1830

Safe in the sanctuary of the Forest Owls base, Rinoa could finally rest. At last she could say she was among friends again. They had even gone through all the trouble of clearing out and decorating a room for her to stay in.

Kane had given Angelo to the Forest Owls but had put Rinoa in charge of her.

"Alright, off you go" Seifer told her. He had led her here and was now standing behind her. "Strait up that hallway, take the last door on the left."

Rinoa walked strait forward. On her right was a door, an exit of the train. Strait ahead of her was a long hallway. She walked to the end of this hallway and entered her new room by walking under the arch in the wall.

The pink abomination of a room hit her in the face like a solid brick.

"Note to self" Seifer remarked as he appeared through the arch. "Don't come up this way while suffering the hangover effect."

"Yeah, I'll have to remember that one" Rinoa commented.

"Be sure to thank Watts and Zone for this room" Seifer joked "and be sure to tell them exactly how you feel about it. I need a good laugh."

"Wait on a minute" Rinoa said. "I've been on my feet pretty much all day. I need to sit down for a while." She approached a fold-out couch in the corner. She turned around and sat down on the couch and stretched out her legs in front of her.

At this, Angelo came running over to smell Rinoa's legs. The animal's nose moved down to Rinoa's feet. Angelo took the lace of Rinoa's shoe in her mouth and pulled.

"Hey! What are you...?" Rinoa said to the dog and then, after realizing what it was doing she added "that's a neat trick. Where did you learn that?"

Both of Rinoa's shoes were now untied, waiting to be removed.

"Kane must've trained her strictly. He must've taught her to do things like that."

"I wonder what else she can do."

"I don't know, there'll be more tricks than that one but I dunno what. I guess you'll just have to find out on accident.

*

Peaceful Era 17, July 6th, 1230

Squall walked through the hall heading in an eastward direction. He was walking towards the Training Centre armed with his Gunblade. It was a peaceful quiet day in Garden. Most of the students had gone home for their month's break; leaving only SeeD, candidates and staff at the Garden.

The only sound Squall heard was the tranquil splashing of the Balamb Fish water fountain surrounding the main elevator. The sound soothed him but this was soon interrupted by the sound of oncoming footsteps.

Walking in the opposite direction, heading for him was a girl wearing the Cadet's uniform. Squall looked strait ahead focusing on his destination and not looking at the girl.

"Hey, it's you" the girl said. Looking at her, Squall realized that she was the girl he had met earlier that same day. "You're the guy who showed me around before, right? Thanks. I don't get so lost anymore."

"It was nothing. Don't worry about it" Squall replied.

"Okay, if you say so... but still, thanks... hey, I never caught your name. What is it?"

"It's... its Squall."

"Squall, that's your name?"

Squall glared at her, giving her one of his threatening looks that usually told others to back off.

"Whoa, not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just... it's not a normal name."

"Whatever" Squall said, he walked right past her on his way to the Training Centre.

"Hey! Wait up, I'm Selphie. Maybe I'll see you around."

"Maybe" Squall told her.

"Really?" the girl asked excitedly.

"It's a big Garden, but not that big. Who knows, we're bound to run into each other at some point in the future."

"Oh, right. I guess I'll see you around then."

Squall nodded and continued walking towards the Training Centre. When he got there, he felt the eerie atmosphere as the room made the transition from a formal hallway to a humid jungle-like forest.

Squall kept walking and eventually reached an electric fence. The fence was rounded in a large circle that engulfed most of the forest. Right in front of Squall was a lever. There were two large reinforced steel doors, one to the left and one over on the right. Behind each of these doors was another lever.

Squall pulled the lever. The doors and fence were now safe to touch. He walked over to the door on the right, quickly opened it and entered the Monster's Lair.

"From the time a lever is pulled, the circuit is broken and it is safe to enter and leave for exactly two minutes. After two minutes, the lever snaps back up, the circuit is complete and anyone in contact with the fence receives a brutal four thousand volts of electricity."

Squall could remember his instructor warning him of this at the start of every semester. 'You'd need to be pretty a pretty slow cripple to take two minutes to open a door though.'

Seifer had been the first to say this and for once, Squall agreed with him. Squall didn't see himself ever taking more than a minute to enter the Lair but he understood the need for safety precautions. Sometimes the immature junior classmen could stand idly by chatting and not notice the time fly by.

Once inside, Squall simply followed the trail. Craning his neck upward, he could see the blue sky with few clouds soiling its clarity. The Training Centre was the closest anyone could get to a rainforest in a room (not including conservatories.)

There was no roof so training students had to deal with the effects of the weather. This was especially true for aspiring sharpshooters and archers. The rain and the wind could get you in here, especially in the cold winter months.

The only way to make combat training more realistic than it was in here would be to fight in a war or hunt down monsters in the wild. There really was nothing better than the Balamb Garden Training Center to simulate the heat of battle.

The ground was a dirty russet and in the distance, a wooden plank-bridge was the only way across a lake.

This lake's only clear purpose was to fish and confront water creatures although Squall had never seen anything alive in that water. He didn't even know if it was salt-water or fresh-water.

He trod carefully over the wooden planks, when he reached the other side he opened the utility pouch on his belt. He pulled out three items, two earplugs and a sonic grenade. He fitted the earplugs in his ears for protection and pulled the pin from the grenade.

He tossed the sonic grenade aside. After a few seconds, a deafeningly shrill sound was emitted from the grenade. This sound was powerful enough that it could stun all creatures in the immediate area and draw all nearby creatures out of its danger range.

Soon enough, the sound began to die down. When it had hushed a little, Squall figured it was safe to remove his earplugs. He placed them back in his utility pouch so they did not interfere with his fighting ability.

Sure enough, eventually Squall could hear creaking sounds and soon he saw the foul plant-type creatures approaching, hissing obscenities in their own unintelligible language.

Squall drew his Gunblade and stood in a battle-ready stance as the plants slowly drew ever closer. A large hardened bulb came swinging down over Squall. Quickly and with ninja-like reflexes he swung his blade and sliced strait through the stem connecting the bulb to the rest of the plant.

A shrill cry echoed throughout Squall's eardrums. The fiendish plant seemed to be screaming. Did monsters feel pain? Squall guessed that they must, although his instructors believed that they didn't. 'Monsters don't have feelings; they are a pest that must be eradicated, just like every enemy that you may face. They are a plague unto themselves. By killing them, you are doing them a favor.'

Squall had conflicting feelings on the subject but as long as the ugly creatures continued to show up, Squall would continue to fight. He needed the practice and he wouldn't stop training until he could wipe the smug smirk off Seifer's face.

Squall sliced through the monster's other stem, leaving it with no kind of blunt weapon to barrage him with. Unfortunately, the putrid thing had its most terrible weapon hidden deep within itself. The monster lifted a third stem, connected to a large leaf that hid it's 'face' in seclusion.

Another slice and the leaf fell to the ground. Squall evaded the gastric juices the plant was projectile-vomiting. Three more acid spits later and Squall's Gunblade sliced through the plant's remaining stems and roots.

Squall stood back and watched as the plant-like creature screamed and writhed in agony until death's relief washed over it like a soothing wave.

That's one, Squall thought to himself but now, he was surrounded by these monsters, these Grats. One of the Grats used its large bulbs to propel it into the air in order to do some kind of deathblow that Squall had never before witnessed.

Squall simply countered this by thrusting forward his blade and letting gravity do the rest. The Grat easily slid onto the blade as if it were a skewer, all the while crying out in its agonized scream. Squall took the safety off his gunblade, cocked the hammer and put the Grat out of its misery with the pull of a trigger.

The loud deep bang echoed in the forest between the trees to be answered by the high pitched shrieking of the Grats. Squall removed the impaled carcass from his blade as he heard something that truly frightened him.

A loud demonic roar echoed throughout everywhere, ringing in Squall's ears, ringing throughout the entire forest.

What is that, the rumored monster? Squall thought to himself.

He cast a couple of Blizzard spells to scatter the nearby Grats. He then made a run for it, sheathing his Gunblade so he could sprint faster. He knew he stood no chance against such a creature. He had seen hospital cases of its victims.

If he could get to the fence, pull the lever and get to the other side he'd be safe... assuming the horrid beast didn't come smashing through the fence during the two minute 'safety time' and tear apart every forsaken soul in Garden.

The roars were growing louder. Whatever it was, the monster was obviously getting closer. Within seconds, the monster's footsteps could be heard. Squall dived into a hiding place, hidden under trees.

A pair of giant legs ran right past Squalls face, low on the ground. After waiting for the beast to pass, Squall silently crawled out of his hiding place. Looking at the monster, he froze up in surprise. "A... dinosaur?" he uttered, his voice breaking in disbelief.

Squall rose to his feet and ran in the opposite direction of the dinosaur. Luckily the outline of the Monster's Lair was a complete circle with two exits. Hopefully the dinosaur would not notice its escaping prey.

Unfortunately, Squall had seemingly forgotten that luck was never on his side. Squall heard one more deafening roar. Squall looked back to see the dinosaur chasing him. It was getting closer with each giant step.

Squall began to sprint flat out, wishing that Balamb had some kind of supply of Haste spells. Of course there were none, the only spells around here were healing and elemental types.

As the dinosaur was moving in for the kill, he spun around in a full circle. As its tail swung around it slapped Squall diagonally upward and sideways, sending him flying hard into a nearby tree-trunk.

At the force of the impact sent Squall's legs swinging backwards around the trunk before his body fell limply to the ground.

The dinosaur brought his head down low and sniffed at its potential meal. The dinosaur sunk its teeth into Squalls leg, the pain of which was enough to extract a silent scream from Squall's throat.

The monster tossed Squall up into the air. Just as Squall bas beginning to fall back down, the Dinosaur spun again and used its tail to whack Squall away. Squall's body flew through the air before landing in a heap in such a position that it was a miracle his neck had not broken.

The pain of Squall's impact on the hard ground of this new hidden area was more than enough. As a result, Squall let a brief moan of agony escape his tight lips.

Squall crawled forward before the pain from his neck and leg grew too much for him to bear and he collapsed, lying there motionless until unconsciousness washed over him.

Unseen by Squall, the dinosaur came even closer, sniffing for his lost lunch. After several failed minutes of searching, the monster gave up and ran off to search for food elsewhere.

*

Some time later, on that same day, near that same place, two students who were known to Squall entered the Monster's Lair. Maybe if they were there earlier, they could've helped him out. It was merely a case of bad timing.

The first to enter the Lair was Zell. He had a smile on his face. He was soon followed by one of Seifer's tag-along friends, Fujin. Normally Fujin had been Seifer's partner and Zell had been with Squall but for SeeD training, Squall had been told he would be with Seifer while Zell was to be partnered with Fujin.

"So, where's Raijin again?" Zell asked.

"With Seifer, they went... fishing"

"Fishing?" asked Zell with disbelief.

"Yeah... it was Raijin's idea."

"Huh, I never knew Raijin liked fishing, neither of them really seem like the quiet, patient type."

Fujin smiled at that particular comment. Seifer being patient and Raijin being Quiet... that would never happen. The smile eventually faded. Zell had apparently not noticed this and continued talking.

"So they're fishing at Balamb, gonna get some o' the famous Balamb Fish huh?"

"No talk, Fight now!" Fujin demanded in a voice that meant business.

"Alrighty then" Zell said. "The game is cat and mouse. You run off now. In ten minutes, I try to hunt you down. If I can corner you, we face off. If I knock you out, I win. If you knock me out, you win. If time runs out, you win."

Fujin nodded.

"The time limit is two hours. If we are separated at this time, we make our own way to the safety zone."

"Agreed!" exclaimed Fujin. She ran off to find a good hiding spot.

Zell waited and allowed the ten minute stand-by time limit to pass before he began the process of tracking his opponent down.

As Zell walked through the humid landscape of the Monster's Lair, he saw the same scenery that Squall had been walking through earlier that same day, before he had run into the dinosaur.

Zell was careful to tread silently so he could listen to any sounds of movement in the trees. He wanted to find Fujin and catch her by surprise for a sneak-attack but the last thing he needed was to be ambushed by a group of monsters.

He froze when he saw a small flash of dark blue among the green and brown. He smiled, she was close by. He readied the most powerful of Thunder magic's daughter-branch, a level sixteen lightning-bolt spell.

Before he was able to cast the spell however, he was distracted by something. Something round and metallic, it was painted blue, roughly the size and shape of a circular saw-blade.

"A Pinwheel" Zell said to himself. This distraction had been enough to make Zell drop his spell, the magical energy was radiating out from Zell's hand, out into the air, now wasted.

"Alright Fujin, you got me" Zell shouted at the air "but now you have no weapon, just come out and fight me!"

His cry was answered by a grenade.

"Come on Fujin, you know you aren't supposed to use live ammo in training, although most people do against the monsters. Besides, throwing a frag grenade at a candidate of SeeD is pointless."

Unfortunately for Zell, he had underestimated Fujin. This was no fragmentation explosive. Before Zell could figure out the device's flight path, it had gone off with a blinding light, leaving Zell's vision impaired, to say the least.

"Damn, a flash bang. That aint fair Fujin!"

The next thing he knew, Zell was being lifted up as if caught in a miniature cyclone. He felt hard objects hitting him, things like rocks. He felt his body being manipulated by strong winds... then nothing. He was falling, until he was caught by something... someone... was it Fujin... or something else?"

Zell's vision returned. The light came to him as only a blur but slowly, his eyes began to focus. Someone was holding him; they had their arm around his throat in a sleeper hold.

The person brought their face close to Zell's ear "Grenade is an item" the person said in Fujin's harsh voice "item, Magic... combat use, Training, use."

"Fujin," Zell said "I have no idea what the hell you just said."

Fujin let him go and quickly circled him so they were face to face. She seemed to glide through the earth below her.

She jumped backward, forced herself into a back flip and landed near the pinwheel she had thrown at Zell.

Never taking her eyes off Zell, she bent down to pick up the pinwheel. It had the thickness of about half an inch and was covered in six inch spikes all the way around.

She held the cool metallic pinwheel against her cheek. "Fight, Now!" she said.

"Oh, right. I got ya" Zell answered, grinning all the while. He tightened the red leather gloves he was wearing in preparation for the fight. He stretched out his arms and back. He punched his knuckles together a couple of times before standing in a battle-ready stance.

One of Zell's hands was guarding his torso while the other guarded his face from any attack. "Alrighty then" Zell said to himself. "Here we go..." He launched himself up into the air and aimed a punch right at Fujin's gut.

Fujin blocked the attack with her pinwheel. One of the weapon's spikes grazed against Zell's hand and as he ignored the pain, he felt sure that the inside of his red leather gloves were right now getting redder by the second.

Fujin swung the pinwheel wildly left to right, back and forth as though it were a melee weapon. Zell dodged these aggressive swipes and aimed a high kick at her hand. The force of this caused her to loose her grip on the pinwheel.

Zell still had his leg up in the air. He kicked the pinwheel away from Fujin. "Now, let's do this hand to hand."

"Unfair!" Fujin accused.

"Yeah, maybe, some people see me having no primary weapon as a weakness but actually, I constitute it as an advantage. Now let's try this again."

Zell lunged forward at Fujin once more and charged at her with a fast combo of punches which he rounded off with a twin axe kick. He sent his knee up to her torso then straitened his leg, kicking her away from him.

Fujin stumbled backward but didn't fall. Instead, she seemed do be uplifted by a powerful wind. She faced her palm to Zell and the wind lifted him up as well. They were both in the air. They were both in Fujin's domain. The wind was her field of expertise.

Zell summoned up another Lightning bolt spell and shot it through the air at Fujin. It hit her, sending electricity through her body. The two of them began falling to the ground. Zell landed on his feet. Fujin however, did not.

Once his feet were on the ground, Zell began concentrating his spirit energy, focusing the magical energy of his stored Para-magic. He summoned the weakest Lightning-based spell, the first tier of lightning magic; Lightning spark.

He focused the magic into his fists, electrically charging them. As soon as Fujin got up, Zell hit her with a three hit left-right punch combo, the third punch sending her back to the ground.

The electrical charge in Zell's fists had by now been used up. Zell walked over to Fujin and lifted her up by the throat. "You're not really much of a fighter, are you?" he said "What exactly is you preferred area?"

"Intelligence" she told him.

"Ahh, intelligence gathering is it? I guess you must be good at computer use... I don't see you as much of a people person though."

Fujin gave no response.

Zell punched her twice in the face before lifting her high above his head and throwing her at a tree trunk. He approached to deliver the final attack when her expression stopped him.

"Zell, stop" she pleaded him.

"That's a pitiful fighting ethic."

"No, really" she said "behind, look"

"How stupid do you think I am? Even a drone of the G-army wouldn't fall for that."

Fujin sighed before raising her hand. "Surrender" she said.

"What? I was about to win!" Zell complained.

"Behind you!" warned Fujin.

Zell shook his head.

"Squall!" she cried out.

"What, Squall aint here!" Zell responded using Galbadian slang.

"Behind you, look!"

"Fine, but I'm gonna kick your ass till it falls off if you're faking surrender. Just remember that!" Zell informed her.

"No trick, look behind! Squall, unconscious!" Fujin said.

"What, all right. I'll bite." Zell replied. He looked around in search of any kind of body. Finally, he found Squall "Shit!"

"Unsafe, monsters everywhere!" said Fujin.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Zell agreed. "We'd better move him to safety."

Zell walked around to Squall and lifted him up by the shoulders. He turned Squall around and dragged him onto the dry-mud path. "Hey, Fujin, I need you to keep all the monsters away from me."

"Affirmative" Fujin responded.

There were relatively few monsters to bother them and Fujin quickly blew these away with her wind-based Para-magic. Eventually they got Squall to the Monster's Lair's closest exit. Fujin pulled down the lever to break the circuit between the electrified fence and the solid metal door.

She opened the door and walked through, holding it open for Zell as he dragged Squall's unconscious body out to the Safety Zone.

Zell gently let Squall lie flat on the grass. "Now what?" he asked.

Fujin shrugged her shoulders. "Injuries?" she asked.

"Maybe we should check" Zell answered. He leaned over Squall and undid his uniform blazer. Underneath he saw a chain around Squall's neck containing two items of jewelry. One was a metal pendant in the shape of some kind of monster. The other was a ring containing an engraving of the same thing – some kind of monster. Both were silver in colour.

Zell removed the blazer from Squall and asked Fujin to come over and hold Squall up.

She walked behind Squall, kneeled down and held his torso up against her own body. While she did this, Zell lifted up Squall's T-shirt. "Shit..." he said.

After a minute of examination, Zell was surprised by a quiet sound.

"...Ze-ll"

"Huh?" Zell asked. He looked up into the eyes of Squall. He smiled. "Squall!" he said, "You're awake!"

Squall's neutral expression quickly changed to a frown. "Zell, I'm counting in my head, if you're touching me when I reach five, neither of us will be participating in this years SeeD exam."

It took Zell a while before he could realize what Squall was talking about. When he finally figured it out, he jumped back. Squall's white T-shirt fell back down to cover him.

After a long pause, Squall finally asked "Zell, Who is holding me?"

"Oh, that's Fujin" Zell answered.

"Then tell her she can feel free to drop me at any time."

The Hands holding Squall up instantly relinquished their grasp on him, causing him to fall backward. He landed on Fujin's slim figure. After a short while, he tried to stand. Looking to Zell, he asked "Where's my jacket?"

"Oh, it's over here" Zell answered. He picked up Squall's jacket and handed it to its rightful owner. Squall put the jacket on and began walked toward the exit but after a few steps, he lost his balance and fell. He put his leg in front of him to stop him falling over; instead he landed hard on his knee.

Fujin put out her hand to help Squall up but Squall ignored this and stood up on his own. He took another step but as soon as he put weight on his leg, he fell over again.

"Squall," Zell said "when Fujin offers you help, you should accept. You know you may never get the offer ever again."

"Whatever" replied Squall.

"But... damn, man. Squall, you know you shouldn't train alone."

"Whatever" Squall replied once more "Why do you care anyway?" he asked.

"...damn" Zell repeated. "What happened to you anyway?"

Squall ran through the days events in his mind. "I came here to train, just like I always do... but there was something else in here... and today I saw it."

"What?"

"Have you ever been training late at night and heard something monstrous, a roar far away in the distance?"

"You mean..."

"The rumored monster... I saw it."

"Really, what was it?"

"A dinosaur."

"What, that can't be... right Fujin?" Zell looked to Fujin. Her eye was wide. "What is it; don't tell me you've seen it too?"

Fujin nodded her head. "My eye, taken."

"Shit, the rumored monster took your eye?"

Fujin nodded. Her eye cam to rest on Squall "his leg" she said.

"He should go to the Infirmary" Zell agreed as if Squall was not there. "Can you take him? I need to go into town."

Fujin nodded.

"Thanks, I'm already running late. I'll see ya later." He ran towards the front gate at the south of Garden.

After Zell's departure, Fujin offered Squall her hand once more. This time, he took it and Fujin helped him to stand and to support his weight, keeping it off his injured leg. Slowly, Fujin helped him to the infirmary to see the doctor.

Eventually the two reached the doctor's office, the inside of which was pure white and sterile. Upon seeing them, the doctor stood up and said "Squall, what is it, are you injured again?"

"No" Squall lied. "I'm fine."

"Negative!" Fujin said "Training injuries, his leg... and upper body!"

"Fu... with Leonheart?" sounded a hidden voice. It was Seifer's voice. Great Squall thought what's he doing here? "What the fuck?" Seifer said. The next sound Squall heard was that of a large heave and then the sound of liquid vomit hitting a no-longer sterile aluminum bucket.

"Seifer!?" asked Fujin.

"What's he doing here?" Squall asked. Fujin must have been thinking the same thing.

"Nothing to worry about, just a mild case of food poisoning" the doctor assured them. "He ate some poisonous fish." She turned to Fujin and said "Take him into the end cubicle. There's someone in there, but I'm sure she won't mind. I'm ready to talk with her anyway. Send her out for me?" she requested.

Fujin nodded and walked Squall to a private cubicle at the back of the room.

In the cubicle, Squall saw the girl from before... Selphie, that was her name.

"Squall, what happened to you?" she asked.

"Nothing," he answered. "I'm fine. I just need to rest."

"SeeD training starts tomorrow doesn't it" Selphie asked. "Are you going to be well enough?"

"Don't waste your time worrying about me. You should look after only yourself." He turned to Fujin. "And you don't feel obligated. You can leave whenever. I'm sure you'd rather go and see Seifer anyway."

Fujin looked away.

"Go on."

Eventually, Fujin left Squall alone with Selphie so she could talk with Seifer.

"So you wanted some alone time with yours truly, huh?" Selphie joked.

"You can leave too." Squall said, electing to be left alone. "The doctor said she wanted to talk with you."

"Nah uh, I'm not going anywhere."

"Leave, as soon as the feeling in my leg returns, I'm heading for my Dorm room."

"Squall, you may think you're top of the class but you've got a lot to learn. When a cute girl elects to sit by your side, you're not supposed to drive her away." With that being said, Selphie left the cubicle leaving Squall sitting alone on the bed.

In the cubicle next to Squall's, Fujin walked in to see Seifer leaning over a bucket. "You sick?" She asked.

Seifer spat before speaking. "No, I'm on vacation island" he said sarcastically.

Fujin ignored his sarcastic remark.

"This is all Raijin's fault." Seifer said. "'Let's go fishin'. It'll be fun, ya know! damn Raijin and his poison fish, I swear to Hyne I'm going to fucking kill that dumb bastard."

"Seifer, no joke!" Fujin said.

"Yeah yeah, he's our friend and all" Seifer said, rolling his eyes.

Back in Squall's cubicle, Selphie had returned.

"What?" Squall asked her.

"You don't wanna stay here all night do you?" Selphie asked in response to Squall's own question.

"No" Squall answered, biting back the sarcastic bitterness he felt towards Selphie's stupid question.

"Well, I'm heading up to the dormitories. If you want, you can walk with me. I don't know how badly you hurt your leg but if you need to, you can lean on me."

"Why are you doing this? Why do you care?"

"You showed me around, well... sort of. I want to return the favor, alright?"

"Fine" Squall answered.

"You don't seem very enthusiastic."

"Whatever."

Selphie helped Squall to his feet and walked with him out of the Infirmary. Together they walked to the Dormitories in silence. Squall didn't know what time it was... he still needed to get a new watch. For some reason, the halls were empty. Usually there were SeeD and cadets walking all over the place.

When they reached the dormitories, Selphie pushed the button for the Dorm elevator. After a few seconds, the door opened and they stepped inside. The door closed behind them.

"What Dorm room is yours?" Selphie asked.

"Three six oh... nine oh two" Squall told her.

"Wait a minute..." Selphie said. She took a piece of paper out of her blazer pocket. Examining it she cried out. "This is cazy! We're roommates."

Squall was surprised by this news but hid it well. His facial expression remained neutral. Selphie punched in the code for the Dorm room.

When the door opened again, the two stepped out. Squall headed toward the door in front of him on the right while Selphie headed for the door on the left. Squall pulled out his ID card and swiped it through the lock on the door.

The lock beeped and the door opened.

"Squall," Selphie said.

Squall looked in her direction.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

Squall nodded.

Selphie approached him and handed him a bottle full of red liquid. Squall unscrewed the lid and smelled the harsh chemical inside.

"I know" Selphie said. "I don't trust that stuff either, but the doctor told me to give it to you. She said if you drink it all in one go, it will repair your body to perfect health. If you trust me to tell you the truth, I'd suggest you drink it. I don't want you to fail the SeeD exam all because of some dumb injury."

"...thanks" Squall said before stepping into his room. The door swiftly closed behind him with a whoosh sound.