Final Fantasy VIII: SeeD (IC)

With the strategy meeting finally over, the members of SeeD's newest team decided to break apart and take it easy until the beginning of the Lunar Cry. There were any number of her comrades Alex would have liked to join for the interim, but it seemed each was content to pass the time on his or her own.

Elia, in particular, Alex wanted to accompany, but the icy stare from the sniper communicated that such was a bad idea. Then there was Kryse. Ever since arriving Alex had been hoping for a guided tour of the city with him, and though now was as perfect a time as any, it looked as though Kryse would rather spend the time playing chess, preparing for the coming event in his own quirky way. Alex even considered tagging along with Wolf, but he was headed for the simulator room again, and he would be far too single-minded to even notice Alex's presence. The rest of them, as well, had things to do, and so Alex simply resigned to wander the city alone.

Without her notice, her feet whisked her in the direction of her home before leaving for Trabia almost ten years ago. When she finally realized where she was headed, Alex stopped. Was there really a reason to go back there? Was her mother still there? Was the house even still there? Even if the answer to both was yes, would Alex really find any comfort there? After she had left for Trabia, there had been no communication between mother and daughter. At first, it had made Alex sad, but eventually she moved past it, conceding to the fact that her mother had simply forgotten her. The years went by, and Alex no longer even thought about it. There were times when she forgot about her mother, too.

Rather than put herself through whatever kind of reunion awaited her at that place, Alex turned off the main path and plopped down on a nearby bench. For a long time, she just sat in silence, watching anxious Estharians pass her by with nary a glance in her direction, ignoring her presence.

The feeling of being home again was disappearing. Or was it even real to begin with? This place felt so foreign to her, so strange. She didn't really belong here. Esthar had not changed much at all, but it was still so very different. She was right here inside it, yet it was so far away.

Did she even have a home at all? She lived at Trabia Garden, but she couldn't call it a home. It was a military academy, a training facility for mercenaries. A place where children were bred into killers. Such a place could not be considered a home.

Alex had hoped to find a home amongst her new team, but that prospect was quickly vanishing, especially after the most recent events. Back at Galbadia Hotel, they had worked so well together, and they had cared for and looked after each other despite not knowing one another. But now, here, on their first real mission, the pieces were already beginning to fall away. The team members were just too different from one another. Each had his or her own ideas and ideals that differed from the others', and it was becoming harder and harder to reach compromises. It seemed as though the only thing holding the team together at this point was a mercenary's paycheck, and that was a glue that could not hold for long. Their foundation stood upon pillars of sand.

The short answer was that she had no home.

Glancing down, Alex realized that during the spell of her thoughts, she had produced her daggers and had begun maintaining them. While one lay on her lap, she dragged a narrow, V-shaped stone along the length of the other. The gentle vibrations of steel grinding against stone in her fingers and wrists were soothing.

What would become of the team when all of this was over? It seemed likely they might break apart, unable to handle working with each other. Elia's contempt for Wolf was made incontrovertibly and inexorably clear. Alex feared she might just leave when the mission was complete, utterly unwilling to work alongside him any longer. And Wolf seemed more at home on a team consisting of just himself. Maybe he would leave, too, unable to stand looking after the less-experienced SeeDs, and seek a solo career of personal glory. Eva was in the same boat as Wolf in that she was already a year ahead of the others. Would she opt for an assignment more worthy of her advanced skills? Phileo was always too quiet, too reserved. Alex couldn't decide what he'd do. What of Zeke? Would his borderline-insubordinate attitude earlier earn him some measure of discipline when they got home? Had it been bad enough to warrant taking him off the team too? And then there was Kryse. Kryse was disinclined to join the team in the first place, preferring instead to return home and take up a scientific career. A desk job, more or less. This mission was hardly going to change his mind.

Alex had moved on to her second dagger, but stopped grinding it when a crystalline droplet landed upon the flat of the blade. She hadn't even noticed the tears as they had welled up. She wiped her eyes with her forearm and quickly suppressed her emotions. You're a soldier now, she told herself. Soldiers don't cry.

Alex brushed a few strands of her rosy hair from her face and put away her knives. About that time, an announcement rang through the city, informing the occupants to head towards an observation dome immediately. The Cry would be starting soon. Alex stood and followed the closest group of civilians to one of the domes.

When the Lunar Cry started, she watched with a mix of excitement, awe, and horror as monsters ricocheted off the powerful shield surrounding the city, bouncing away to who knew what fate. Seemingly without end, monsters rained down in a terrible storm. Cats and dogs had nothing on this. And this was just the first wave.

Just then, the ground shook. At first, Alex suspected an earthquake, but the area was hardly prone to them, and certainly not ones of this magnitude. The true cause of the tremble made itself apparent soon enough: rather than bouncing harmlessly off Esthar's shield, the monsters were now falling straight through into the city, landing in the streets and on buildings and immediately setting about a pattern of destruction.

"Oh, shit!" Alex exclaimed, but in the ensuing chaos and panic, there was no one to hear. The worst of the worst had happened, and now it was time for action. Alex rushed from the dome, daggers in hand.

What are you afraid of?
I'm not afraid.
Who are you trying to convince?
...Okay, I'm a little afraid. But who wouldn't be? This is just our first mission, and already we're going to be up against something so huge. So powerful.
I'll be at your beck and call the whole time.
I know. Thanks.

Just a block away from the observation dome, Alex encountered her first monster. It was a small, skeletal thing with a blood-red cloak and a sturdy longsword, a being known only as Forbidden. The more powerful of these creatures had access to powerful death-magic, but if Alex was lucky, this would be a weaker one. While closing in on it, she reached out mentally into the thing and searched it. She found only weak Zombie magic. Retracting her metaphysical hand, and taking a few copies of the usually-useless spell with it, she engaged, confidant it would offer little threat.

Alex's assumption proved correct, and the Forbidden put little force behind the swings of its blade. After parrying once or twice, she began dismantling the monster, bone-by-bone, until it was no more. She looked down at it's weapon lying on the ground. She remembered that the blade, called a Betrayal Sword, could be converted into powerful magic by some GFs. She decided it might be useful and stowed it away as a spoil of her first battle.

As she recuperated for the next battle, another quake rocked the city, only this one felt far more powerful. Alex looked this way and that, trying to ascertain the source, and it quickly became apparent. Not far off, the mighty Alpha Giant had landed. Alex's gut churned as she took in the size of the thing. It was even bigger than she imagined and, apparently, bigger than the Estharians had anticipated. It was a behemoth that put Behemoths to shame. Still, she could entertain no thought of fear now. Her team would engage the beast at any moment and she needed to be there to back them up. Away she went.

Alex converged with Zeke and Phileo on the steps leading down to the battleground. Wolf and the Brothers were already fighting the Giant, but they couldn't do it alone forever. Every now and then, a shot would ping off the Giant's hard carapace, meaning Elia was somewhere in the distance doing her part. And the protection spells that enveloped Alex and the others soon after meant Eva was there too.

The fleet-footed thief dashed towards the creature. It turned in time to see her coming, and it brought one of its massive swords down in an attempt to crush her. Alex was far too quick for it, though, and darted to the side in time. The ground rumbled as the gigantic sword, hardly sharp by human standards, smashed into it with incredible force. Taking the offered opportunity, Alex sheathed her daggers and leapt onto the Giant's enormous fist and clung with all her might as it was lifted back into the air.

Slowly, she climbed the length of the Giant's forearm. Luckily, it was more concerned with Wolf at its feet than shaking her off. When she reached the Giant's elbow joint, she was pleased to discover that the team had been correct about its weak points. The gap between its massive plates was covered by a substance somewhat resembling rubber, but not quite rubber. Whatever it was, it looked penetrable. Taking out just one of her daggers and using her other hand to cling to the creature, with a grunt of effort she plunged it down into the rubbery substance as hard and fast as she could. It poked through easily and went all the way to the grip.

The Alpha Giant shuddered and let out an earth-shaking, mechanical cry, and its arm jarred violently. Alex lost her grip on both her weapon and the Giant itself and she tumbled away. She managed to grab the underside of its elbow, but now she dangled helplessly above the ground, kicking her legs futilely.

"Don't you dare look up my skirt, Andrew!" she yelled down at the warrior directly beneath her.

Another jarring of the Giant's arm caused Alex to lose her grip, and she fell. Her warning to Wolf had apprised him of her situation, and he pulled away from hacking at the Alpha Giant long enough to catch her securely in his arms.

A trace of red colored the girl's face as she looked up at him. Apparently, each was equally surprised, and neither saw the Giant's next move. Angered by Wolf's relentless assault on its leg and Alex's attack on its arm, the Giant saw fit to kick out its leg with speed and dexterity that belied its monstrous form. The blow struck Wolf in the back and sent both warriors tumbling through the air and clear of the battle.

Wolf had taken the brunt of the attack, but Alex took her fair share of the damage as the first to hit the ground, with the enormous Wolf smashing down on top of her moments later. When they finally skidded to a halt, Alex rolled away and into a crouch. She turned to her companion and helped him get up. If it weren't for Eva's support magic, the blow might have seriously damaged him, but as it was, he would be fine. Nothing a quick Cure couldn't handle.

"Thanks," she stated matter-of-factly, in the manner of one comrade-in-arms to another.

Turning back to the Alpha Giant, she set her sights on the dagger protruding from its inner elbow. An idea struck her. It was a long shot, but she had to give it a try. Summoning up a Thundara spell, Alex closed some of the distance between herself and the target, and when she thought she was close enough, she let the magic loose.

A tremendous bolt of lightning arced from her outstretched hand and connected with the hilt of her dagger. It coursed through the blade and down into whatever lay below the Giant's rubbery covering. Just like that, the arm stopped moving, then fell limp, the gargantuan sword smashing into the ground and sending out small tremors in all directions. Alex gave a satisfied smirk.

But that was just one arm. The Giant possessed another, equally-equipped appendage, and it swung its remaining sword with increased fervor at Zeke and Phileo who still battled it at close range.

Alex was about to take Wolf and rejoin the fray when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw an explosion of infrastructure in the distance. No... was it... Elia? Alex had not taken sharp mental note of Elia's position, but it seemed as though the previous rounds had come from that direction. If their long-range support was down, then it was more important now than ever that the team finish off the Alpha Giant as soon as possible.

"Zeke! Phileo! Get away from it!" she cried.

Time to do your thing, Quetz.

In an almost blinding flash of light and dancing electricity, the mighty avian Quetzalcohuatl appeared on the battlefield.

Go get 'em.

For Zeke Watanabe, waiting around was the hardest part. He’d never fashioned himself as much of a patient person, but it was even worse when he knew that the other members of the team were already putting themselves in danger. Sure, he’d tried to play it off to Alex and Phileo like there was nothing on his mind, just Zeke being the same person he’d always been. One step away from the normal, definitely hearing some other beat of the drum than the one that everyone else was content to march to.

“Okay guys, what do you say it’s time we get in there and cause a little trouble ourselves,” he said with a mischievous grin, slowly and reverently drawing the long and graceful blade of the katana into full view of the world. The last time it has seen any real action was during the tactical strike on the hotel in Deling City. It was strange now to think that he was already on the other side of the world, this time fighting on behalf of the sworn enemy superpower to the one they’d just tried to save days before.

“Guess that’s life as a mercenary,” he muttered aloud, not even realizing that the words had escaped his mouth. In preparation for their strike, the Watanabe boy and Trabian SeeD began to go through a series of forms and movements, his body and sword trained to work together in that fashion from a young age. His family and its traditions had already taught him all Zeke would ever need to know about using the katana. SeeD had simply told him where to point it.

Zeke barely remembered what happened as he began to charge toward the Alpha Giant, but he suddenly became aware of feet falling quickly beneath him as his body surged toward the target. He was never one known for incredible speed, but the young man’s stamina and endurance carried him at a steady pace as the massive beasts form began to grow in relative size as he neared. That didn’t mean, of course, that there weren’t a number of obstacles in the way.

A Geezard had been lying low in a small broken pocket of the ground. As soon as Zeke neared, the creature burst from its hiding place and lunged forward at the SeeD with arm-claws in a slashing motion. Throwing his sprinting body out of the way just in time to avoid the blow, Zeke allowed his body to slip from balance and roll for a moment, the somersault landing him back on his feet again as he turned to face the beast, its large mouth snarling. The Watanabe didn’t claim to know much about the psychology of Lunar Cry beasts, but he knew a look of hunger when he saw one.

Zeke took a defensive stance, waiting for the Geezard to strike first. When it came forward with another swipe of its arm-claw, the boy stepped to the side and used both arms to brace the katana inverted and vertically while leaning forward. The pressure from his position and the force with which the fiend attacked caused the blade to slice through the arm, severing it from the creature. It withered away a few steps with a shriek of shock.

It was then that the rocking sound of an explosion distracted the young man from combat. Turning to his left, Zeke narrowed his eyes and watched in horror as the observation deck began to crumble and fall to the earth. Immediately he recognized it as the place where the long-range cover fire had been originating since the start of the mission. His mind left the Geezard and even the Alpha Giant, jetting instead to the two teammates he knew to be in serious danger now. Instinctively, his feet changed course and began to carry him back toward the deck.

What about the mission? Khevan is going to need some cover at some point.
I’m not going to abandon her again. Not this time.
Still beating yourself up about the hotel? Okay, I guess it’s us to the rescue.

Leaving the wounded beast behind, Zeke detached himself from the mission for a moment in the hopes of finding his teammates amidst the crumbling structure and the pile of rubble lost in a cloud of dust. Fighting into the middle of it, Zeke began to move slowly and deliberately. Waiting. Listening.

“Eva! Elia! Somebody!” His voice cried out before it was met by that of a startled Evangeline fa Toren. Even at this distance, he couldn’t see Elia. What was left of the structure above them groaned with pain as the lack of support and the weight of its own design threatened a deadly fall any second. “We’ve got to get out of here, now!” He yelled from point blank range.

The vehicle sped down the crystal highway dodging all manner of creatures barring its forward progression. Kryse sat behind the wheel trying not to think about what was happening to his city, his home. Fires erupted into the air off in the distance and buildings collapsed with the sound of thunder. The damage to city was severe and there was another wave on the way. Esthar's only saving grace was that much the city was deep within the canyon. The damage on the surface would take time to repair but the city would live on and if they were lucky, casualties would be low.

Ahead of him the Alpha Giant came into view; it was much larger than anticipated. The larger size didn't hurt the strategy but it would take more time to defeat, time they didn't have. Just ahead and to the right of the vehicle lane he saw a group of soldiers fending off some monsters but something was odd about them. The commander of the group was holding a shoulder mounted grenade launcher but it was facing the Alpha Giant; a thin ribbon smoke flowing from the barrel indicating it had just been fired. “What the hell are they doing?”

Slowing down he called out to the commander, “don't worry about the giant. The SeeDs will take care of it. Concentrate on the monsters and getting people to safety!” The commander saluted him then turned to address his men. Kryse didn't wait around, he gunned the accelerator to meet up with his team. In the rear view mirror he could see the men saluting their commander...they must have been new, their salute was all wrong.

Lightning flashed all around the giant lighting it up like the city during holidays. Quetzalcoatl soared above the monstrosity with fluid grace, but its attack wouldn't last long. The giant however would be severely crippled after the assault. Upon arrival Kryse could see the team had done quite a number on the beast. One of its arms was now useless thanks to Alex's assault on the creature as evidenced by her dagger protruding from its joint. It was also having trouble moving due to damage done to its ankles and the GFs attack. Everyone had cleared away to give the lightning GF a wide birth but once it finished, the attack was back on.

While the GF did its thing Kryse assessed the situation. Wolf and Alex were picking them selves up off the ground while Phileo was preparing his next attack. Zeke didn't appear to be around...was he hurt? After further observation he spotted him further away climbing over a pile of rubble, that bore the colors of the palace. Glancing up he could see that half the observation deck had collapsed. There was something hauntingly familiar about the damage, but at the moment he was more concerned why Zeke was ignoring his team mates and the giant, unless...Elia and Eva were in the rubble?

Quetzalcoatl had finished its attack and the remaining team members continued their assault. However their plan had completely fallen through. With the destruction the observation deck, they were out a sniper and support. There was also the matter of the device that was being used to stop the giant from calling help; was it still working? It didn't matter now, the giant had to be stopped. “Time to switch to Plan B!”

“Great, whats Plan B?” Wolf asked looking over at the gun-blade wielder.

Readying his weapon he replied, “wing it!”

Wolf smiled, “my kind of plan!”

Kryse stared up at the wounded giant and an idea began to form in his mind.
Diablos, do you think you can fly me up to that things chest?
I can, but what are you...you're not!
I am
Alright, but it's your funeral

Dark clouds began to form over head adding to the already ominous looking red sky. Seemingly coming from the four corners of the world, swarms of bats began to appear and started colliding with one another to form a giant inky ball. From this ball the demon known as Diablos descended to the Earth, his wings wrapped around his body. Once free of the giant sphere it spread its wings and stood before the young scientist. Massive hands wrapped around him in a snug grip as the bat like wings began to beat. Within mere moments he was airborne and headed to their target. The world rushed by in a blur as Diablos flew at the giant's chest with his lightning quick speed. The other SeeDs resumed their attack giving Kryse the opening needed.

Touchdown. The lip of the intricate pattern on the giant's breastplate served as a ledge for the SeeD as he put his plan into action. Balance was key at this point and the giant's constant attacks on his teammates was making it difficult, but he was able to steady himself long enough to thrust his weapon through the breastplate. Pulling the trigger caused the weapon to vibrate giving the blade the force required to slice a large enough gash in the creature's chest, allowing the blade to split exposing his core gun which was now charging up for attack.

As soon as the giant realized its core was in danger its shield went up, trapping him within.

As Elia tried to step forward, the splitting pain rising from beneath her was a sure sign that her ankle was at least badly sprained if not broken altogether. Still, the pain came in the form of a dull pressure, a sort of gentle reminder from beneath rather than a screaming bolt of lightning refusing any denial by mind or senses. It probably had something to do with the smooth trickle of warmth steaming softly from the girl’s neck. Holding the knife in inverted position before her in a picture-perfect from for close-quarters combat, Elia reached up with her spare hand and touched the nape of her night lightly.

All suspicions were confirmed as her fingers recoiled, recalling with them a smear of the sticky warm liquid of life that flowed through her veins and now spilled in a single drop to the broken ground below. Like a child that didn’t cry after falling until seeing the reactions of those around her, Elia didn’t begin to feel the dizziness and nausea truly set in until she saw the blood on her hand. Another staggering step barely managed to keep her standing, still blinded by the almost opaque cloud of dust that had risen around them from the collapse of the observation deck.

Somewhere in the earthly clouds, her blurred vision from failing blue eyes, the girl thought she made out the rising figure of Eva. Or was it someone else. Her mind drifted to Zeke for a moment, but that was impossible – he had another part of the mission to carry out somewhere else. A voice sounded in the chaos, but that too was lost the reverberations of sound inside her ears. Her fingers twitched for a moment, longing for the familiar grip of a rifle. With unfettered moan, the girl dropped to the ground.

About that time, the very air around Zeke, Eva, and Elia seemed to shake, wisps finding movement where they had only lingered before.

“Go,” the girl breathed as stayed in kneeling position. As if taking that final verbal cue, suddenly the dust and all the debris around them bolted into the air and began to fly away, back in the direction that Elia had been shooting in the first place. By some magic or other force, however, it seemed that all the rubble and the pieces of the formerly solid deck somehow missed all three of them with a skill and grace that spoke of something beyond an accident or coincidence.

As Pandemona rose behind them out of a seeming grave of rubble, all thoughts of coincidence were erased. The Guardian Force rose slowly, manifesting a literal breath of wind and expelling a great burst, gracefully binding all the debris and sending it in a mass whirling at the Alpha Giant. It wouldn’t be enough to pierce the beast’s shield, but the swirl of rock and dust, metal and marble all around it would be enough to blind the beast, hopefully long enough,

Wolfs relentless assault had hopelessly mangled the giants ankle, which was now at a nearly ninety degree angle, giving it a noticeable limp. He had calmed down enough to be slightly disappointed. He’d wanted to take the foot clean off, but after his first attempt the thing had been moving around so much that even if he hadn’t started just wailing away at it he wouldn’t have been able to get a clean cut.

“Don’t you dare look up my skirt Andrew!”

What?what?What?

He looked up.

“Oh.”

It seemed like a rather pointless thing to say, as she was swinging through the air and kicking at lesat twenty feet above his head so he couldn’t have seen anything even if he’d tried to.
He heard her gasp suddenly as she slipped and fell.

He didn’t think about it, he just hopped forward and caught her.

She looked up at him and he caught the faintest hint of a blush on her cheeks, before a creaking of metal and a change in the shadows was his only warning.

He didn’t have to think. He knew he would be slowed down with Alex in his arms, he knew if he tried to dodge and failed he’d be seriously injured, he knew he couldn’t drop Alex. He knew he had only one choice.
He curled around her as the giant lashed out with it’s damaged foot and sent them both flying. He winced as he felt the jagged metal cut into his back, and between that and cradling Alex he wasn’t able to make a proper landing. He came down on her hard, but it didn’t seem to do any harm as she rolled right to her feet and helped him up.

He stretched and he felt the burn from the wound in his back.

Are you going to heal that?
He rolled his shoulders and swung his arms around, Nah. I’m good.

Are you su-

Yeah, I’m sure. Weapons. the weapons he’d stashed away before catching Alex appeared in his hands and he started back towards the battle. Suddenly he felt a cure spell wash over him, his back tingled as the wound mended and he felt refreshed over all as the magic faded away.

“Thanks,” she said.

“Thanks.” he said over his shoulder.

They both headed back towards the fight, but she was lagging behind him. He understood why when a thunder spell arced through the air, hitting the giant in the elbow and making it’s arm useless.

And then, disaster.

A stray round had detonated against the platform Elia and Eva were positioned in, causing it to crumble to the ground and taking them with it.

“Shit”

Almost immediately, Alex summoned her GF, yelling for everyone to get clear.

Phileo, who had managed to scale the giant and finish off the crystals, jumped off slowing his descent by digging a weapon into the giant and scraping his way down it’s dead arm. He cleared the giant just before the GF attacked.

Kryse arrived just as the massive electrical attack ended, leaping out of a car and quickly assesing the situation, “Time to switch to Plan B”

“Great,” after all, Plan A had worked so well, “What’s Plan B?”

Kryse readied his weapon, “Wing it.”

He smiled, “My kind of plan.”

Suddenly, Kryse stopped as if he was considering something, but Wolf continued forward. Charging the Giant, he hopped to reach it and inflict some critical damage before the stun from the GFs attack wore off. Unfortunately his luck stat wasn’t that high, and he narrowly sidestepped a crushing blow from a blade as long as a bus.

For a split second he was glad his initial plan had been vetoed. The sheer size of it would have made it a failure, though, had it been as big as he thought, the damage he did to it’s ankle proved that it would have worked. No sense dwelling on might-have-beens though.

He continued his rush and delivered a spinning ax strike, severing two of it’s fingers. Unfortunately it was still able to grip it’s sword.

He ran between it’s legs and looked up as the sky suddenly darkened, That’s not the next wave, is it?

No...

Swarms of bats streamed from all around, joining together into one massive, writhing, ball hovering over the battlefield.

What the hell is this...

I...think it’s...

“What the fuck?!”

A great demon descended from the ball, darkening the world just by it’s presence. It landed in front of Kryse and engulfed him with it’s wings.

“Shit. Shit.” Wolf cried as he rushed towards him.

When the demon lifted off again, Wolf could see that it was carrying Kryse, gently, towards the giant.

“That is a GF?” he asked, stunned.

It would seem so.

As Kryse and his GF made for the giant, Phileo took the opportunity to follow up on Wolfs attack and sever the remaining fingers and leaving it without any weapons. Aside from it’s massive legs and one arm.
Wolf recovered from the shock at seeing a godamned demon drop out of the sky and turned and finished off the giants ankle, causing it to fall to one knee. He looked up to see the Kryse had landed on the GF’s chest plate, and had stabbed his sword into it’s chest.

A sudden shimmer surrounded the giant, signaling that it had just raised it’s shield. It wasn’t going to do the giant any good however, as he could see that Kryse was within the shield.

Kryse didn’t seem to care, and Wolf could see the blade open, exposing the core gun.

“Oh shit.”

The explosion was deafening and it decimated the Alpha Giants torso as well as it’s arms and head(presumably, as they were no where to be found after the battle) leaving only a pair of legs joined by a shred of metal to collapse to the ground, and a dark black smoke trail leading off into the distance.

Wolf quickly rejoined the group, were Eva and Elia seemed to be still recovering from the collapse of the VIP Observation Deck.

“Is everyone alright, more or less?”

There was a general consensus that everyone was reasonably intact, and that they’d be fine after a cure spell or two.

“Good. Then we should go find Kryse. He went and blew himself up and sailed off that way somewhere,” he said, gesturing towards the fading smoke trail.

The Alpha Giant was no more, but as is often the case with such victories there was a price. Elia and Eva had been injured during the battle. The injuries were not life threatning thanks to the actions of the team. Cure spells had been used to heal any wounds but the effects of the injuries could still be felt. Para-Magic wasn't as potent as the real thing so there was a chance that some minor internal injuries still remained. To be safe they were taken to the infirmary for futher observation and treatment if needed. Wolf's injuries were minor but he was checked out anyway, as was Alex and the rest of the team.

Kryse was another story; his unconsious form was found in an upper hallway of the Presidential Palace, he'd been blown through the wall but his armor was able to absorb much of the impact. However, it was not able to prevent a piece of his gunblade from piercing his chest. Thanks to advances in medical science and technology the surgy was swift and the damage was repaired, the young knight had yet to wake up though. His mother, who only left his side breifly thanked the team for their deed and rewarded them with the use of the family ariship. Rewards were not the only thing handed out though, everyone also received a demerit for their failure to act as a team, the exception being Kryse, Elia and Zeke who received two, one of which was for Conduct Unbecoming.

While the team was preparing to leave Dr. Salmance paced back and forth in the room her son was laid up in. His injuries had been healed but he wasn't waking up...what was wrong?

“Doctor, I think you should take a look at this...these test results arn't making sense.”

Taking the data pad she scanned the information. “It makes perfect sense,” she said while looking at her unconsious son. “So you went through with it after all.”

“Doctor?”

“It's nothing.” Walking away she cocntacted Kryse's professor.

“Hello Rebecca. Is there something I can do for you?”

“Did my son sign the contract for the lab?”

“He did, but in a very clever way.”

“What do you mean?”

“He signed it with a three year delay.”

“I might have known, he was already three moves ahead of me. It seems my efforts to keep him here were ineffective. Now he can still get the lab when he finishes his tour as a SeeD. Once again I underestimated him.”

“I know you're worried about him Rebecca, but perhaps it's time to let him go.”

With a tap of her finger she dropped the connection. The professor was right of course but she still didn't like it. Still, she needed to let her son's teamates know he was going with them.

>><><<
The team was preparing to leave when she arrived at the Aerodrome. Catching up to them she again thanked them for their assistence, then said; “I know you all think my son abandonned you after the training exam. The truth is, he didn't have much choice in the matter. I told him I needed his assistance for the LCE and afterward he was free to choose where he went from there. I thought giving him his own lab would make him stay, but I was wrong. The strings I had to pull...he saw right through it...sorry, I'm rambling. It's important that you know he always intended on joining you. If I hadn't...” she trailed off. “You should take my son with you; he should wake up sometime between here and Trabia. If he wakes up here, he'll never forgive me.”

A number of Cure spells could heal the actual injury, but they couldn’t take away the soreness and the general pain that came as unwelcome guests. Despite the fact that the bone in her previous broken ankle had been refused and made new by the healing magic cast after the fall of the Alpha Giant, Elia still walked with a slight limp as the weight placed on the bruised bone still forced a poorly-hidden wince to her face with every step. A scrape graced her left cheek, something she’d refused to allow the others to heal. Maybe it was pride or a need to show that something had come from this trip other than negative marks on her record, but Elia Barron wore the scrape with a bruised pride.

As she returned to the Ragnarok, the blonde-haired girl quickly stored her equipment again. Pandemona was a silent companion for the time being, recovering on her own from joining the fray against the Alpha Giant and throwing her own strength against the mighty construct. Elia had a feeling that the others were experiencing much the same thing. Eva, Zeke, and Phileo, the entire team had brought their Guardian Forces into play for the first time as fully-fledged members of SeeD. It had been the incredible power of those beings that had turned the tide of battle and ended up saving the day.

In packing her equipment, Elia carefully set her rifle down on the table in the middle of the room lined with bunks for Eva, Alex and herself. Icy blue eyes filled with a pained frustration as she look upon the weapon. After the fall from the observation deck and the collapse of the struck, the sniper rifle had not fared well in the fall. At the moment, it was nowhere near any condition close to combat ready and it would take a number of hours, quite a few replacement parts, and a handy amount of gil to get it back in order. For Elia, seeing the weapon in that condition was almost as bad as seeing one of her teammates in pain.

Leaving the rifle on the table, Elia made her way back out of the ship to join the rest of the team for a moment before they left. She had no desire to deal with the Estharians anymore, but not simply because of the negative marks they’d placed on her record for mission performance. Barron knew that she deserved the down grading for her attitude and lack of professionalism at the time, but that didn’t mean she was going to go hat in hand to anyone and apologize, especially given the way they had cobbled the mission together and, in her opinion, created all the problems in the situation long before SeeD was summoned to clean up the mess.

An official investigation was ongoing in the midst of the cleanup and restoration effort, but so far there was no answers regarding what had caused the balcony to collapse from beneath Eva and Elia. The girl had been hoping for an update, but instead she and the rest of the team were met by the mother of their once teammate Kryse Salmance. Elia expected some sort of tradition Estharian goodbye although she had no idea what that would entail, so the news of Kryse planning to rejoin the team struck her like a short blow, causing her to lose focus for a moment and do a double-take to the scientist and leader that carried the face much more of a worried mother than any important member of the state.

The sniper had long since made her feelings about Kryse and his leaving the team after the Deling Hotel incident well known both to the Dark Knight and to anyone that cared to ask. The only other person that seemed as deeply affected by the strains of that situation had been Alex, but Elia had been unable to bear herself brining up a conversation with the thief about Alex’s interest. She knew that Alex and Kryse were both from Esthar and had a backstory that stretched farther than the one of a few days between Elia and the rest of the team, but the details were blurred to her icy blue eyes. Girl talk just wasn’t something she’d ever learned, so instead she’d managed to keep her mouth shut about the situation and ignore all tension or confusion. It looked like things were heading back that way again.

“Hmm,” was all she managed to respond before snapping to attention and delivering a crisp SeeD salute to the woman, feeling a pain in her should as she rose her arm, the soreness and bruising beneath her uniform enough to remind her of a far fall and a quick stop not too long ago. There wasn’t anything else she could say at the moment, really. It was a team decision, one that she’d voiced her opinion on days ago. She wasn’t about to beg to anyone now. Instead, Elia turned around and made her way back into the ship, settling next to the table and beginning to sort through the wreckage that was her rifle and, at least in her mind, her future.

The rest of the Lunar Cry Event had been a blur. This was probably due to the immense pain from having fallen from who knows how high. However, she did remember Zeke reaching her and Elia first, as well as Pandemona being summoned to help finish off the Alpha Giant. She also remembered the blast that came from within the Giant’s shield that had apparently been Kryse’s core gun. Aside from those major events, most of it had faded away with the Cure spells used to mend her wounds. And to add to this, she was now riddled with various stinging spots and was being continuously nagged by her now aching body. It was nothing compared to her original state, but it was certainly annoying.

On top of her Cure-Aches, the demerit given to her and her teammates made her feel immensely guilty. She had been the one to think of that plan, and it had fallen to pieces not long into battle. The blonde also felt as if she’d failed Elia. It had been her job to watch the sniper’s back, but she’d let them get blown into next week because she wasn’t paying full attention. The Estharian authorities had done a full investigation as to how it had happened, but research left them as clueless as the collapse’s victims. Frankly, Evangeline was disappointed, and she could see the same disappointment in the icy eyes of Elia.

“It wasn’t your fault you know” Bahamut spoke up.

“As Senior member of this team, I should have made sure their conduct was more becoming.” Eva made an excuse.

“That’s not what I’m talking about”

“I should have seen the round coming. Back up should be more alert”

“Not even the best SeeD could have seen that explosion coming”

“That’s not true. I bet Instructor Trepe or any one of the Headmaster’s old team could have seen it coming and taken the right precautions” This only served to make her GF sigh and point out something else.

“They’ve been SeeDs for decades, Evangline. You’ve only been one for a little over a year. You shouldn’t compare yourself to them.”

“If I don’t I’ll never be as good as them,”

Bahamut gave up for the time being. There was no talking sense into Evangeline while a failed mission was fresh in her mind. She would get over this within the next few hours; she’d never been one to dwell on failure for very long. But it certainly didn't help that there were very visible negative effects on her teammates from her failed plan. Elia had undergone her first extensive Cure spell healing and the discomfort was very evident in how she carried herself as she approached the Ragnarok. The only thing worse than that was seeing the still unconscious Kryse being brought to the ship. If everything had gone according to plan, he would be awake and well enough to tell everyone that he was returning to Trabia with them on his own.

After Dr. Salamance’s speech, Elia gave a nod and a salute to the clearly worried mother before headed into the ship. Evangeline wished she had had a mother who cared as much as the doctor did for Kryse, and couldn’t possibly imagine what the woman was feeling right now as she sent her son off to fight more battles that could be equally, if not more, perilous than this one.

“Don’t worry about it, Dr. Salamance. We’ll do our best to keep Kryse in one piece.” Evangline gave her a reassuring smile before throwing in her own salute. “And rest-assured, we never thought ill of your son for making the choices he did. Don’t blame yourself, because there’s nothing to be blamed for.”

Giving the woman a nod, she went into the Ragnarok, herself. She headed for the girls’ room, but stopped when she saw Elia quite intently working on her rifle. It wasn’t uncommon for a SeeD to tend to their weapon as a sort of therapy, and it was especially common for gunners. Even so, the intense look on Elia’s face made Evangeline wonder about the young woman. What exactly was going through her head right now? The emotional turmoil was obvious, that was the one thing Eva knew for sure. The young woman seemed to be the one most emotionally affected by her new SeeD status.

Evangline put a foot forward to step into the room, but decided otherwise. Elia needed alone time. So, after lingering only a moment longer, she went and sat in the commons where Phileo had discussed the LCE situation with them the day before, awaiting takeoff.

Zeke Wantanabe

For someone who had just been essentially sanctioned on his first real mission as a member of SeeD, Zeke Wantanabe was in a surprisingly good mood. The smile on his face was something that seemed largely missing from the rest of the team as he carefully stored the graceful katana in the storage bin next to his own bunk in the Ragnarok’s male cabin. Loose and stylish threads of a dark blue spoke of his heritage, the clothing harkening back in many ways to the traditional clothing he wore before becoming a student of Garden and a SeeD.

The good mood may have been a mystery to the rest of the world, but Zeke felt better than he had since the beginning of the Deling City SeeD test. Since that time, he’d been carrying a heavy weight on his shoulders, he and Leviathan arguing for endless hours about his perceived failures during the mission, his actions nearly causing Elia Barron her life at the hands of a terrorist. Now, he was redeemed. In the heat of the battle he’d been able to extract the injured sniper from the dangerous area of the collapsing observation deck. Karma restored – or at least it would have been if the boy believed in karma. Whatever powers were overhead, he felt better.

The news of Kryse rejoining the team was received well enough, but it seemed that the eccentric samurai seemed prepared to take anything with a grin at the moment.

“Tell him he’ll have his work cut out to keep up with me,” he said with a smirk before nodding a gracious thanks to SeeD’s mother before bounding up the steps of the ramp, passing by the cabins and crashing down into a seat across from Eva. He’d barely had much of a chance to talk to the slightly-more veteran SeeD, at the moment he was ready for any conversation. Silence just didn’t fit the mood.

“Any idea where we’re going next? I don’t know if Trabia is going to want us to report on everything that happened…or maybe we’ll even have to check in with Esthar Garden after all that’s gone down.” He spoke quickly, slightly excited by everything that had happened. It was clear that he’d broken out of the rut he’d been in for the last few days.

Aiden Barron

Five hours ago…

The communications pouring in through the comlink flooded the soldier’s mind as he ducked down behind a railing. That railing normally provided a barrier inside which cars and trains could run safely and outside of which pedestrians could make their way through the streets of Esthar without danger. Now, that civil construction served as a moment of cover from the threat of the Lunar Cry beasts sliding about the city. The heavy electronic presence in the city began to interfere with the transmissions coming into his ear as Estharian engineers worked frantically beneath the city to restore power to the shield.

Taking a moment to reload his rifle and make sense of the chaos, Commander Aiden Barron of the Galbadian Army realized that things were going extremely well. Four Guardian Force hits were confirmed. A detachment of Estharian regulars had forced his two-man reconnaissance team to withdraw from their position near the felled observation deck, but the fact that at least one Guardian Force had swept from the wreckage was a sign that the SeeD were too stubborn to submit just yet. The thought brought a smile to the officer’s lips.

“Commander, the Alpha is down. Regulars are sweeping in to clean up the mess,” the crackled transmission came through, carrying the gruff voice of the sergeant around a hundred yards away.

“Evac to the extraction point. Hold all fire. We’ve started enough wars for one day,” Barron ordered, throwing the rifle back over his shoulder as he pressed away from the barrier and began to sneak from the west end of the city. Two Estharians dead by his own hand and enough carnage caused to have the nation-city sitting uneasy for a few weeks. Not a bad day.

Now…

The sleek cutter blasted through the waves easily. The ship powered a few dozen miles north of the land bridge jutting from Fisherman’s Horizon. Inside the small isolated quarters of the ship, Aiden Barron was stripped clean of the Estharian armor, all of it tossed into the depths of the water to sink below the waves, erasing their involvement with the Lunar Cry Event. Most of the unit was catching up on the sleep they’d missed during long recon assignments and the stress of combat, making the powerful hum and vibrations of the cutter’s engine drowning out everything else.

Having stripped down to the bare minimum in the interest of letting his skin breath after hours in the restrictive plates of Estharian armor, Balian laid back on the small cot and pulled up the computer monitor that was bracketed into the wall. It was effectively a communication portal to the rest of the world, enough to allow him to check in with Command or anywhere else he desired on a secure channel. This time, he had something completely different in mind. Punching in the digital signal coordinates given to him by the headmaster of Trabia Garden, Aiden waited for some response that he knew would have to come from the control deck of the Ragnarok granted to the SeeD team. Several hours had passed since their mission, things would have calmed down by now.

-Andrew "Wolf" Khevan-

The door closed behind him, leaving him alone with his unconscious teammate.

"You're an idiot, you know that? What possible reason could you have had for doing

something like that? And to make it worse, you can't be healed with magic. You deserve all

of this. You even deserve being impaled on your own damn sword. What the hell were you

thinking? You didn't even bother to chug a potion or anything. You can't just charge into

things. There's a difference between taking risks and getting yourself killed. And that

stunt you pulled? That was suicidal. Was that the idea? Did you, for some reason, want to

die in a blaze of glory? You can't do things like that! You have a responsibility to

your teammates to come back alive."

He sighed and sat down on a chair next to the bed.

"You're such a dumbass. What the hell did you think would happen? Really? Did you think

that you could pour that much energy into it's magical core and it would go, 'Oh, I'm over

loaded. whoops. *pfft*?' like a circuit breaker or something? You should know better than

anyone that magic is volatile."

He sat silently, looking at his teammate, for a few minutes.

"Just get better. And I swear if you do something like that again I'm going to kick your

ass."

With that he got up an left.

----


-Phileo Arentus-


The battle had been a success. To a degree. Kryse's injuries and his demerit took something out of it. He also wasn't too pleased with what Melody would have to say when she heard he'd gotten a reprimand on his first mission. Between injured comrades and past and future reprimands he paced nervously up and down the Ragnarok.

While he was near the flight deck the co-pilot called to him, "Mr. Arentus. We just received a transition from a Galbadian vessel. He's requested to speak with the SeeDs. Do you want to take it?"

A Galbadian transmission?

"Yeah. I'll take it."

He stepped onto the flight deck and pressed the indicated button, "This is SeeD Arentus."

***

Phileo couldn't believe that Elias brother was calling them.

He paused for a moment before knocking on female cabin, thinking of what he'd say to her.

When Elia opened the door he barely managed to get, "How are you doing?" out of his mouth before he told her about her brothers call.

The only thing time had allowed Elia so far was a chance to survey the damage done to her primary weapon. The sniper was fairly sure that she could fix the rifle to firing status by the time they reached their next destination, but it was going to take parts beyond their stock on the Ragnarok and someone with skill far beyond her own to get the thing back to the precision strike status she’d come to expect. Upkeep and constant maintenance to tweak the weapon was one thing. This was practically building the rifle back from nothing.

Footsteps coming around the corner of the ship’s corridor broke her futile attention toward the sprawling mess of mechanical parts on the table before her. Firing a glare toward the door, she allowed it to soften slightly at the sight of Phileo. The boy had been so quiet since their conversation at the Training Center’s secret area in Balamb Garden that it was almost easy to forget he traveled with the team. He was so content to slide into the shadows and wait out the storms that Elia often allowed him to slip into those same shadows in her mind. She wondered how much the young SeeD missed his sister right now. As terrible and maniacal as she could be at times, Melody was still Phileo’s sister and Elia of all people knew the powerful bond between siblings.

“Right. Thanks,” she said. She still wasn’t in for much of a conversation with any member of the team, especially not after the way that Phileo had bared his soul to her at the secret area. He had talked about wanting to protect her and what would become of him if something happened to Elia. It had been sweet and unnerving at the same time, leading the otherwise brash and blunt sniper to simply avoid the subject as much as possible for a while, especially now that she was recovering from injuries suffered in another mission.

Not long after the message had been relayed, Elia slowly settled into one of the non-pilot seats of the cockpit of the Ragnarok. After a moment of familiarizing herself with the controls of the display screen before her, Elia Barron flipped a switch and was rewarded with a static-jumped image of her brother. A small smirk was enough to communicate that he was seeing her as well. The image was clear enough, a few bars of interference waving through on a regular basis to reflect the breaks in the signal between the two ships, neither of which routed their communication in a cable line, relying on radio waves instead.

“Hey little Ellie,” the voice spoke through small speakers on either side of the monitor.

“Hi,” she spoke softly. Elia knew that Aiden would be able to see the scrape on her face, one of the only unresolved pieces of evidence from her fight with the Alpha Giant and literally fall from good standing.

“Looks like you’re getting a taste of the real thing. Dad would have been proud,” the flickering image on the other end of the line spoke. There was a moment of silence that followed, a hollow echo in the transmission and the girl’s heart before the voice on the other end broke the silence. “Anyway, no sense wasting all of a pretty girl’s time. There’s something I need your help with…”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The conversation must have lasted for another ten or twelve minutes. By the time it was over, Elia felt a stiffness in her legs and back before peeling herself from the seat in the cockpit. The blonde sniper did her best at the moment to ignore the slight gimp take to her steps as she shuffled back into the girls’ cabin, putting away the excess parts to the rifle and storing it all away for now. Whatever attention she’d had focused on the weapon’s repair was now lost to some other goal.

A few more minutes passed as she wandered into the central hub of the ship, finding both Eva and Zeke there. The girl passed by in an almost catatonic state, mumbling something about hoping to get underway and as far as possible from the computer city, eventually stumbling along to track down and find Alex. Elia wasn’t exactly sure why, but the thief seemed like the only person she could talk to at the moment.

Zeke sat down across from Eva. He seemed like he was in a better mood than before, which was odd seeing as he’d been one to receive a demerit. Maybe he was just glad to be getting out of Esthar.

“Any idea where we’re going next? I don’t know if Trabia is going to want us to report on everything that happened…or maybe we’ll even have to check in with Esthar Garden after all that’s gone down.” Was Zeke striking up a conversation? Maybe her original guess of him being a non-social character was wrong.

“There’s no reason for us to stop back in at Esthar Garden. We’ve finished our mission and are to report back at Trabia. And the Headmaster will want to know everything. Should we have to come back to investigate this mission, the details will be important,” Evangeline answered professionally, a smirk upturning a corner of her mouth. It would be naïve for one to think that you should leave anything out of a report. She hoped Zeke had just been joking.

She then noted Elia headed towards the cockpit. She nearly got up herself to see what was up. Was she frustrated with how long it was taking for them to leave? Or had a transmission been received? She hadn’t been told about it, and if it was supposed to be common knowledge, she would have been. She’d leave it be.

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much, though. It was our first mission, so there were bound to be a few rough edges to smooth out.” She turned her attention back to Zeke. “So long as we do better on our next mission, we should be fine. Just be sure you seem at least a little sorry for your behavior or the Headmaster won’t think you’ve learned your lesson. That would result in disciplinary action. And believe me, the Headmasters get creative when it comes to that,”

Wolf sat back and reviewed everything that happened in Esthar once again before checking his report over for typos and and spelling errors. He stopped though, trying to polish up one of the foggier details.

He hadn't noted it during the battle with the Alpha Giant, but when he'd sat down to review everything that had happened, he came across something that started nagging at him. For some reason, he couldn't shake the feeling that some Estharian troops had been shooting at them. He hadn't been hit, neither had Zeke, Phileo, Alex, or Kryse. The Alpha Giant hadn't been hit by anything that wasn't of SeeD origin either, though, and he was almost positive that he'd seen a squad of soldiers firing in their direction. And of course, there was the stray round that had demolished the viewing platform and injured Elia and Eva. Of course, if the Estharian soldiers had been able to miss the giant, then it stood to reason that they would have missed anything else they'd been shooting at. But, if they hadn't been shooting at the giant, what where they shooting at?

He shook his head and finished the report.

He walked out into the main cabin of the ship and sat down with some of the other members of the team, "Man it feels good to get that report done. I hate waiting too long, the details start to fade and it become a real chore trying to remember everything."

Not too much longer the ship landed back at Trabia.

Wolf excused himself almost immediately. He had some business to take care of.

Esthar had been amazing and he loved almost everything about it. However, the distinct lack of plants had started to get to him. Even creating a forest in the holographic training ground hadn't worked out. He placed a hand fondly on the great tree in the center of Trabias main hall before sitting cross legged under it, with his back against the trunk and his eyes closed.

Esthar was a great place to visit, but he could never live there. He needed nature.

As the ship landed and the team made their way back to solid ground, a few members of the Trabia Garden Faculty in traditional garb met them as well as Della Halren. The woman was a bit older than the average operative, a slightly thicker woman of a short build. A long-tenured member of the staff at Trabia’s Garden, she was known as one of the Headmaster’s leading aides. Her main duties involved negotiation and the maintenance of the actual SeeD contracts drafted between the Garden and its clients. Essentially, she was the ship’s business manager and a notoriously dry and painful woman.

“Welcome home, operatives,” she spoke with a short version of the salute, flanked on each side by a robed member of the faculty. “Your official debriefing from the Esthar encounter is posted and available on the Garden’s computer panel network. Those of you receiving demerits for your...conduct on this mission will note that personal and professional records have already been updated. Also, the necessary funds to repair the structural damage from the battle site at Esthar has already been deducted from the mission’s contract price and will summarily be deducted equally from the team’s pay.

“There will be a required briefing for your team tomorrow morning at 0900 hours. Also, because of a confusion with a set of new students, your quarters have been temporarily reassigned. Until further notice, you will be rooming together. Watanabe, Arentus, Room 221. Khevan, Salmance, Room 224. Raines, fa Toren, Barron, Room 136. Again,” she spoke, almost breaking character with a smile, “welcome home.”

With that, she left the area as the faculty members entered the ship behind the SeeDs in order to take care of the logistics that came with preparing the ship for its next destination and removing any personal effects of SeeD personnel.

Zeke leaned in to Phileo with a smile playing on his lips.

“I keep forgetting that you and Elia don’t know everything about this Garden. Halren is a running joke with the underclassmen, but she’s the reason that Trabia actually brings in more money than any other Garden right now even though it has the fewest active SeeDs. Anyway,” he said, quickly changing the subject with a slap on the shorter boy’s back, “hope you don’t snore too loud at night! See you at the room. I’ve got a craving for some real food that doesn’t come in a ration packet.”

With that, he headed away from the landing area and into the Garden. It was good to be home. Thoughts of the mission that had been and what was waiting for them at another briefing? It was all out in the ether for a moment. For now, the boy felt a rare peace.

As Ragnarok flew swiftly toward Trabia Kryse lay in restless sleep in the ship's medical bay. Visions of blinding light and deafening explosions plagued his mind, but there was something else...something otherworldly. It was a quiet place deep within a lush forest, he was leaning against a tree or was it slumping? The sound of a breaking twig caught his attention. Someone was approaching, but try as he might he couldn't move...was he paralyzed?

“There you are, Balier, I found him!”
“Is he hurt?”

“I'm quite alright,” he said, but it wasn't his voice. “That Brachiosaur really packs a wallop though. If it hadn't been for your wards Xidia I might not have recovered.” What the hell? What is this and what's a Brachiosaur?

“Kryse? Are you alright?”

“I'm fine, but my head appears to be buzzing. I'm sure it's nothing. Come on, we've wasted enough time, that demon isn't going to seal it self.”

As the dream continued Kryse remained an observer to one who shared his name and his companions. They were on a quest to seal a powerful demon but there were many stops along the way. Though their task was important it didn't stop them from helping those in need along the way; it was a true adventure. On this adventure, friendships and loyalties were tested, allies were gained and lost and love bloomed. When they finally reached the demon they were no longer friends; they were family.

“Alright, everyone ready? We only have one shot at this so let's make it count. Balier, get the lamp ready. Xidia, are you still able to perform the spell?”

“I'll be OK.”

“OK. Wedge, contact Biggs and Syd. I want that ship ready to go when we're done here. Now, let's go seal a demon.”

<><><>
I am beaten. What is it you wish?

“We need your power to prevent a great calamity.”

The calamity of which you speak will not happen in your lifetime. Why do you care?

“I wish to secure a future for my people.”

A noble act, but my power can not prevent this world's destruction

“Then our journey...”

Was not in vain. Our meeting has a greater purpose
<><><>

The vision faded and Kryse found himself standing in a dark space, though the darkness was not an absence of light; it was more light a backdrop. A woman with dark hair and green eyes stood before him outlined in a light blue hue. “Hello Kryse, I am Xidia, an ancient Sorceress and your ancient Grand Mother.”

“Then what I saw was...”

“A history long since forgotten. It was part of a deal I made with Diablos. After we defeated him, he agreed to become a Guardian and was sealed within a lamp. Though it was my husband he resided with, I often talked with him. I learned many things from him and even became a traveler of time.”

“You traveled through time?”

“It's not what you think, but yes in way I did. I was able to view images from the past and the future. I did this here in the Astral Plain. It was here that learned of your plight; the reason for my deal with Diablos.”

“What sort of deal?”

“Before a sorceress can truly die she must pass her power on to another, but before I pass on my power there is something I must do. I asked Diablos to bring me here when your spirit left your body.”

“This is the Exchange he spoke of. So I did have to die.”

“Not exactly. Under normal circumstances you would have, but thanks to Diablos, your spirit was spared, though the cost was high.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your life was spared at the cost of his own.”

“Diablos... is gone?”

“The Diablos you knew is no more, however, a demon of the Nether World is not so easily destroyed. You will be reunited, but he will not be the same. Of course the same could be said about you as well.”

“What do you mean?”

“During ancient times a Sorceress would sometimes bestow power on her knight. These knights were called Death Knights, but their reputation as protectors gave them a new name. A Dark Knight protects his allies and his people. The path of a Dark Knight is not an easy one though, they must battle a growing darkness inside them. This change can have dire consequences which is why I want you to be sure before you agree to...”

“I've made up my mind. Let's get this over with.”

“I admire your conviction but are you certain? Yes I suppose you are...you're a lot like him you know, my husband that is. It seems you share more than just a name. Very well, close your eyes.”

“Wait, before we begin; you could have done this as soon as I arrived, why the vision quest?”

“Oh Kryse, I wanted you to know where you came from.”

<><><>
Trabia's infirmary wasn't as advanced as Esthar's, but the beds were quite comfortable. Opening his eyes and fighting the urge to close them again he slowly sat up. “You're awake,” the doctor said, how are you feeling?”

Kryse thought about it for a moment, he didn't feel any different aside from a pain in his chest which was understandable considering his injury, but shouldn't he feel different after The Exchange? “Uh, I'm fine...I think”

“Maybe you should rest a while longer. Your roommate can fill you in on what's going on after you get up.”

“That sounds good. Wait, roommate? SeeDs get their own room don't they?”

“Normally yes, but for now you'll be rooming with Wolf.”

“Great,” he said before lying back down, “just great.”

Unable to find rest after the traumatic battle with the Alpha Giant, Alex spent much of the ride home in the Ragnarok either sitting near Kryse in the medical bay or pacing around. Not once did she retire to the bunks, which, added to her wandering, was probably why Elia never had the chance to speak to her.

She couldn't help but dwell on the whole experience. There were many things she had wanted to do while in Esthar, none of which had been done, and few of which she could foresee an opportunity to do in the future. But that wasn't the primary reason for her uneasy thoughts.

Her demerit--rather, the reason for it, was. The Alpha Giant was destroyed, and Esthar was safe for the time being, but the plan, the mission, were failures. It wasn't that Eva hadn't devised a solid strategy; it was that the chemistry between the members of the team was lacking significantly, to the point where a warmaster's own scheme would likely have fallen through. Just because their objective was complete, they couldn't go home calling this one a victory.

They arrived at Trabia Gardan and disembarked only to have more sour news thrown at them. A demerit for poor performance, a suspect salary deduction for collateral damage that the team didn't even directly cause, and now the loss of her room, made for a pretty piss-poor homecoming.

On the other hand, the thief could have been stuck with worse roommates. For the first time since before exam that had earned her a place on this fiasco of a mission, Alex felt tired. Dead tired. With a lethargic salute to Halren as the older woman turned and left, and some half-hearted nods to her teammates, Alex began a meandering journey towards her newly assigned room.

As she walked, however, she passed the infirmary, and thought to check up on Kryse. News that he would be joining the team after all came as a welcome surprise, even though she wondered why he hadn't said anything before, leaving them all to wonder what his game was.

She passed a few students she knew and not-so-enthusiastically returned their enthusiastic waves of greeting. Just a split-second glint in some of the girls' eyes told Alex she looked like hell, which wasn't surprising at all.

Inside the infirmary, Alex was pleased to see Kryse finally awake. He had been unconscious through the journey on the Ragnarok, and for a while Alex worried his slumber might have been permanent.

"Hey," she said, drawing closer to the boy in his bed. "I guess asking how you're doing would be kinda stupid, huh?" With an evil smirk, she added, "But I s'pose stupid is an idea with which you're intimately familiar."

Elia didn’t need an explanation to get a feeling for the business-blinded woman addressing the team upon their return. That was twice now in the short time since becoming a SeeD that the blonde-haired girl had found herself on the wrong end of a disciplinary tone from an authoritative figure. For a girl that had spent the better part of her life learning to follow orders better and faster than anyone around her, getting in trouble was coming far too naturally to Elia Barron.

As soon as they were dismissed for the rest of the day, Elia wandered off to the side of the group for a moment as everyone began to disperse. She knew that she wasn’t the most popular figure with most of the team right now, the majority of her fellow SeeDs still bothered by her actions during the mission and especially by her conduct during the briefing before things got underway. By all official standards, she’d been so far out of line that a Galbadian command officer would have thrown her in the brig for the night just to think about the meaning of loyalty and respect for superiors. SeeD was a completely different beast.

So was this place. Elia had to remind herself the Trabia Garden was her new home for the time being. Part of her missed Deling City. A larger part of her missed Balamb. That was the strangest part of all to her, the way those parts of her heart were reversed.

She didn’t have much of an idea where to go. The only other time she’d been in the Garden had been during a huge celebration with the disorientation of just having graduated and the shock of suddenly seeing her brother. Now there was nothing. It was just another day. Part of her wanted to go see Kryse in the infirmary, but considering the anger she’d seen in his eyes when he chased after her during the Esthar briefing, the girl had a feeling that going to visit the boy wouldn’t exactly help his mood.

The sniper first headed north and found the dormitory and room 136. The room was actually designed for four people but would serve as a home for the three young SeeD women. Claiming right to a top bunk and stowing away her gear like the good little solder everyone expected her to be, the girl found herself with an annoying amount of spare time. Her rifle was busted and she simply didn’t have the attention and patience necessary to work on the finer details at the moment.

Instead, she dug into her bag and placed a small framed picture next to her pillow on the top bunk. The picture showed a much younger and happier Elia in the middle of two strapping young men. One of them was a familiar face to the team, the younger version of a dirty blonde with a cunning smirk and a sharp set of cheekbones. A Galbadian Military Youth uniform on his shoulders should have told the rest of the story. The other boy was just a little shorter and younger than the oldest brother, a striking head of black hair to separate him while the same eyes made his siblingship a dead giveaway in relation to the others.

“Don’t judge me,” she said with a warning tone to the two smiling boys in the picture, leaving it leaning against the pillow as she made her way out of the room and back toward the heart of the Garden. She eventually wandered out to the recreational area. A few students were playing basketball and didn’t seem to be bothered by any graduated SeeD operatives in the area or even notice in the least. Then again, there wasn’t much that would identify Elia from anyone else. Her short cut of blonde hair made her look younger, young enough to still be on the short side of the SeeD written exam.

Sliding up against the wall that served as a boundary of the Garden, the girl drew out her combat knife and began spinning it around her fingers, occasionally gripping it with a few swipes at the air. The girl’s military background was clear in how she held the knife. She didn’t grip it with the blade facing upward like a warrior, but instead with the blade facing downward like a soldier. Like someone used to gripping the knife and a gun at the same time. Like a Galbadian.

Eva’s foul mood had long since left her, and now that they’d returned to Trabia, Bahamut broke the silence of her mind. She’d sort of wished that she had taken the time to unequip him, but he would never forgive her if she did not allow him to see the garden at some point. He’d barely seen Balamb that was for sure. With how little she’d kept him equipped in the past, it was a wonder how well he’d taken to her.

“So this is Trabia Garden! Doesn’t look much different from Balamb, I dare say. But your eyes could be deceiving me. I didn’t get to see much of-”

“I will unequip you right now if you finish that sentence, Bahamut,[i]”

Luckily, he obliged her, but it was probably because of Miss Haldren’s rather firm greeting. Evangeline welcomed the silence, and the news about where she would be staying. She needed more time to bond with other members of her team.

The team pretty much scattered after Haldren’s greeting. Since her things were being stored with Bahamut, she didn’t feel she should follow Elia; the sniper’s demeanor was screaming ‘leave me alone’. But that left every other member of the quickly scattering team. Should she really tack herself to anyone right now? With a sigh, she simply wandered into the garden.

“Why is it so hard to just admit you’re lonely? I’ve never felt you act so shy, ”

“[i]That was because I grew up with everyone at Balamb.”

“What about Phileo and Elia? They went to Balamb, too,”

“If you hadn’t noticed, Elia really needs her space, and I new Phileo’s older sister better than I ever new him. And saying that’s a stretch, because I never really talked to her outside of class,”

“You’re making excuses. If you act as if you want your team to trust you when their around, but act nonsocial every other time it will only push them away from you. Actions speak louder than words,”

Without thinking, Evangeline had wandered to the tree growing inside of Trabia. It was as good a place as any to pass the time. It would seem Bahamut sensed her wish for silence and shut up to avoid being unequipped. Good dragon.

It was then that she saw Wolf approaching the tree not too far off. She made a face as she realized that Bahamut hadn’t shut up because she wanted him to. He’d shut up so she wouldn’t have any excuse not to talk to Khevan.

She approached Wolf from around the tree; mostly to catch him off guard. When she looked around its trunk, she found that it wouldn’t have taken much effort to sneak up on him for anyone, much less a trained SeeD. Wolf was leaning on the tree, eyes closed, in his own little world.

“So you’re a tree hugger,”

Seated cross legged on the ground, with his back to the tree, Wolf closed his eyes and let himself feel the world around him.

He could hear the tricking water in the pool and a few insects buzzing around. He could feel the slight currents in the air. He could smell the bark, the leaves, the flowers, the dirt. He stretched his awareness, reaching out with every sense to become as one with the world as he could.

He heard footsteps, felt the vibrations, and could smell her shampoo.

"So you're a tree hugger."

He snorted, "Nothing like that." he took a deep breath before continuing, "Nature is part of life, if you lose your connection to nature, you'll loose your connection to life, and a warrior can't afford to lose their connection to either. It makes you less aware in battle. Less able to feel the flow of a fight. And that makes you less effective and less likely to live."

Coming back from a late Theories of Paramagic class, the two underclass girls tucked their books dutifully against the sides and idly chatted about their plans for the weekend. After the big party that had been such an ordeal and the talk of Trabia Garden for the last few days, the upcoming short holiday seemed like a rather boring event. Turning the corner from the Garden’s main area, the girls began the trek down the long corridor leading to the student dormitories.

The shrill scream of a tortured soul was the only warning either of them had before a metal object roughly the size of an open palm when soaring through the air in front of them, crashing violently into a pillar supported the structure of the hallway. Upon inspection, anyone with a working knowledge of firearms would recognize the metal object as the firing trigger mechanism for a long-barrel rifle. Upon further inspection, anyone with a working knowledge of the female gender would find a blonde girl on the edge of insanity as she sat in the middle of a community dorm with a partially-assembled rifle and partially-unraveled mind, mussed hair of madness complete to match.

Elia Barron was thankful to have the room to herself for a moment. In an attempt to snap out of the apathy that had been consuming her since the Esthar mission began, she dedicated herself to fixing the rifle that had been her companion since she reached the SeeD student level that allowed students to choose their specialization and earn the right to carry a weapon. Any student qualifying to a firearm had to go through another step in the process and often score higher than other students. After all, it’s usually easy to dodge an idiot with a sword. An idiot with a gun, however, could get someone killed in an instant.

With books dropping to the ground out of fear, the two girls dared to venture into the doorway.

“Shut up! Not a word,” came a feminine growl from inside the room, but a second glance would reveal that the girl inside didn’t even notice the newcomers, instead directing her capable threats to a picture balanced against the wall in the room’s top bunk.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

An hour and a half later, that same girl was almost impossible to recognize. That hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail with little flair left on the end thanks to her recent short cut. While her body didn’t showcase her SeeD uniform, it was clear that she was attempting to look as professional as possible at the moment as she waiting on one side of a thick door.

“Enter,” said a deep voice on the other side. Glancing up from a number of after-action reports that had been piling on the side of this desk, the headmaster of Trabia Garden eyed the frame that slipped past the cracked door and into the office. The young woman snapped into attention and delivered a crisp SeeD salute before speaking. It was the tone of the girl’s voice that caught his attention. She didn’t speak like a timid student or young SeeD looking to prove herself, but with a sense of certainty that surprised the elder statesmen.

“Elia Barron, sir. Transfer SeeD from Balamb.”

“Yes, yes, I remember. Part of the team that brought Raines and Watanabe back to us,” he said, sliding back one of the reports with a last cursory glance before leaning back in his chair, fingers interlacing over a relaxed waist. “I was just finishing the report about the incident in Esthar. Some interesting reading,” he said, tapping the cover of the report.

“Yes, sir.” A visible twitch came from tightly-pressed lips. It was clear that the girl was holding something back, clear that she was just on the edge of telling the headmaster everything that she wanted to say. About the mission. About Andrew Khevan’s antics. About everything since their sudden departure from her home. So much boiled underneath the surface and it took everything within the operative not to explode.

You’ve come this far. Not exactly the time to start doubting yourself now.
Encouragement? Last thing I expected to hear from you lately.
Just because I’m part of your mind doesn’t mean you know everything about me.

“I assume you didn’t come up to this office just to introduce yourself,” the deep voice spoke behind the desk.

“No, sir,” she responded quickly. Okay, now or never.

“Headmaster, I have a formal request on behalf of the Galbadian government.”

--------------------------------------------------------------

Not long after the meeting, things were rolling. Aside from a chip in the paint where a firing trigger mechanism has smashed into a pillar, there was no physical trace that Elia Barron had ever been in her assigned room.