Not Alone
Chapter I "Erase"
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Quistis sighed. Half the day passed and her body still refused to eat. She tried eating a little bit of a sandwich, but her appetite just wouldn't come. Giving up on her food, the blonde slid her tray a couple of inches away. Leaning back, she rubbed at her eyes. She couldn't get much sleep either.
"Hey did you guys hear what happened?"
Quistis' ears perked. She groaned slightly and looked around. There were a small group of three girls and one boy, all students, sitting across from her.
"Of course!" A second girl jittered excitedly. "Everyone's talking about it. It's horrible if you ask me. I think I'd die of embarrassment if everyone knew if I ever did something like that."
"You have." The boy grinned behind his hotdog. The girl gasped and playfully punched the boy. Her eyes scanned the room and fell on the corner Quistis sat in. Eyes brightening, the girl leaned forward and whispered to the table. Everyone turned and stared at Quistis.
That's my cue to leave, Quistis thought. Standing slowly, Quistis grabbed her lunch tray and dumped it on her way out. Quistis glanced at her watch, it was only a quarter past noon. She had nothing planned for the day, well not anymore. Her last mission was her third in a row, and by Garden rules she had to rest for at least two days.
Sighing again, Quistis passed some gawking and whispering students and SeeD's. It had been like that since she returned from her mission. No one had the courage to talk to her, but they had enough ignorance to talk behind her back and make the rumors worse. Shaking her head, Quistis ignored the whispers and chuckles and reached the center of Garden. She contemplated on just heading to the training center and blowing off some steam, but SeeD exams were near, which meant the training center would be filled with nervous students.
Quistis could help Selphie, that poor girl was working on some sort of festival again and mostly alone, but Quistis dreaded facing the others that would probably be there. Growing frustrated, Quistis just took off for Gardens entrance. She had to get away from the stares and whispers. Only place she could get some time alone would be Balamb City, and she had a couple of things to get anyway.
When the ex-instructor reached the main gate she cursed silently when she realized she forgot to bring her whip. It was sitting on top of her dresser back in her dorm room. Guess I'll just stick to magic then, Quistis thought. She stretched out her arm to pry the gate open when she suddenly heard a loud noise. For a moment it sounded like a gunshot, but it came so fast Quistis' ears didn't have time to register what had gone off. She turned around but the entrance was still empty.
The sudden turn made Quistis feel queasy and lightheaded. Frowning, Quistis lifted her hand to rub her eyes but felt wetness on her fingers. Opening her eyes, Quistis' eyes widened when she saw that her hand was covered in blood. Glancing at herself, pain suddenly pulsed from her shoulder to her brain. She cried out softly when the pain increased as she continued to move her arm.
She was shot. But by who? Quistis tried to summon a healing spell while looking around to see anyone that could have shot her, but the place was still void of any people. The pain eased slightly as Quistis cast cura on her bleeding shoulder, but it couldn't do much. Anything short of curaga wouldn't even stop the bleeding. The bullet had hit an artery. Quistis' leg was now covered with blood as well was the floor. The sudden loss of blood was too much, the infirmary was too far, and no one was around. Probably not that anyone would want to help her.
Falling on her knees, Quistis' ears perked when she heard a distant laugh before she was engulfed in darkness.
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Seifer snored, loudly, and somewhat in sync with the much louder Raijin. Fujin shifted uncomfortably, she normally got up before the boys, but all night their snores kept her up. As she rubbed her eye she debated on kicking Raijin awake. Seifer's snores were soft and never bothered her, however, Raijin was a completely different story.
Smirking, Fujin reached into her bag and pulled out a flashlight. Sneaking next to Raijin, Fujin held back a snicker as she swiftly spread his eyelids apart and pointed the flashlight into his exposed eye.
Raijin howled, turned and fell off the bed. Seifer's eyes opened and narrowed as he drunk up the scene before him. Raijin remained hissing in pain and whimpering on the floor and Fujin sat on her bed, her head down but her shoulders were shaking. She glanced up at Seifer but didn't hide her grin.
Seifer's bad mood quickly extinguished. Seeing Fujin smile was a rare sight, let alone laughing. Last he remembered Fujin laughed was shortly after she lost her eye. She always enjoyed grossing out Raijin with the glass eye she had then. Seifer turned his attention to Raijin, who was still writhing in pain, and laughed.
The blonde stood up and stretched. He glanced around the small room for a clock. It was still early, they had enough time for a quick morning session of hunting before they left Esthar for FH. They had been saving some money to go on a badly needed vacation, away from Esthar and away from the monsters they hunted every day. But more importantly, they were really saving money to buy their own place to start their business.
Ever since Esthar was the target for all of the lunar monsters, Seifer and his friends moved to the city and did all they could to help the city rid of the excess monsters. After some time civilians simply saw Seifer, Fujin, and Raijin as mercenaries. The small time business steadily grew larger with every passing week. Most people couldn't afford to hire SeeD, so most settled on hiring Seifer and his posse. And there was plenty of work to be done in the city. Seifer's posse was so successful they decided to buy their own building and turn it into their headquarters. So, to save as much money as possible, Seifer and the others settled in a small, but comfortable, apartment.
Raijin's eye finally recovered, he stood up and glared at Fujin. "That hurt, ya know."
Fujin laughed again. The phone rang, which lightened Seifer's mood even more. NO one ever called them unless it was for a job.
Seifer answered. Raijin and Fujin sat quietly and anxious. Seifer's voice lowered and his eyes narrowed. After a moment Seifer replied with, "I'll be there," before he hung up.
"WELL?" Fujin asked.
Seifer, his good mood now gone, rubbed at his scar. "It was Balamb. They're hiring me for a job."
Fujin's eye narrowed. She was deep in thought.
"Only you?" Raijin asked, a hint of disappointment in his voice. Seifer nodded. "For what?"
"I don't know. Cid said he'd give me the details there." Seifer grabbed his bag and angrily stuffed it with some random clothes. He was tempted to wear his gray trenchcoat, but he hung it up a long time ago to avoid unwanted attention. He didn't like the idea of going back to Garden, but he suspected they'd pay him well. He then wondered how they got his phone number, or knew where he was. Then he cursed aloud, he still kept in contact with Rinoa. Or rather, she kept in contact with him.
"So is it a job at Balamb City or Balamb Garden?" Seifer and Fujin glared at Raijin. "What'd I say?"
Fujin threw her flashlight at him.
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Seifer tapped the armrest of his chair nervously. He didn't know why he felt nervous, but he assumed it had something to do about being in Cid's office for the first time. Only SeeD's or clients entered Cid's office. And suddenly Seifer felt superior than any SeeD. He was neither SeeD nor client, Garden was hiring him.
Seifer grinned as he thought up what mission they'd ask of him. Whatever it was, it was obviously too much for Squall or his precious instructor to handle.
The door slid open and Cid walked in. Seifer made no attempt to stand up. "Seifer, I'm glad you could come." Cid smiled warmly as he shook Seifer's hand and sat behind his desk.
"Why did you want to hire me for a job?" Seifer smirked. "Your own infamous SeeD's can't handle something?"
Cid frowned slightly, but shook his head. "It's not that. It's just…"
Seifer sighed mentally, and slouched in his chair.
"We have a…situation. And we think you'd be the best candidate for this assignment."
"Will I be paid?"
Cid nodded. "Of course." He opened a drawer and reached into it. He pulled out a folder and handed it to Seifer. "The details are in the folder."
Seifer opened the folder. It was empty except for a lone sheet of paper. It gave a vague description of an assignment. He was being hired to protect someone. Then he groaned, he hoped he didn't have to protect Rinoa. But when he glanced at the bottom of the paper, which disclosed his payment of fifty thousand gil, Seifer suddenly didn't care who he had to protect. Maybe with a little more luck he'd be protecting Edea.
"Do you accept?" Cid asked.
Seifer nodded. "Yes, I accept. Who am I going to protect?"
Cid smiled. "Wonderful! Normally we don't do this sort of thing," he stood up and showed Seifer out of his office with haste. "But this is a special case. We really appreciate everything. Please follow me Mr. Almasy, I'll be showing you your subject to protect."Confused, Seifer just shrugged and followed the old man.
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Quistis stirred. Her body felt heavy and out of energy and her arm was still hurting, but not as badly. She continued to hear a soft voice, which annoyed her. She wanted to sleep more but that voice became steadily more loud and clear.
Finally,Quistis lifted her eyelids with minor difficulty. Dr. Kadowaki gazed down on her with a worried expression on her usual stern face.
"You're finally awake," the doctor smiled warmly. She pulled out her stethoscope and placed the small cold, metal disk on Quistis chest while she placed her free hand on Quistis' inner wrist.
"Your vitals have returned to normal, how do you feel?"
Scared, Quistis thought. Who tried to shoot her? "Fine."
"Your arm?"
"Still hurts."
"Of course it would, you did get shot."
Quistis nodded nonchalently. She didn't know for sure what struck her before, but at least now she knew for sure. But who would want to shoot her? If it were in the training Center she could have dismissed it as an accident. But not when she was at Balamb's front gate.
"Quistis?"
"Huh?" Quistis pulled out of her thoughts. "Sorry?
The doctor placed her hand on Quistis' forehead, her skin didn't feel as cold as it did when she came in, but it didn't feel too warm either. "I asked if you saw anyone that did this."
Quistis shook her head. She was feeling tired. "N-no, nothing."
Dr. Kadowaki sighed before smiling softly again. She padded Quistis good shoulder before heading out of the small room.
Quistis just realized no one else was present in the infirmary. She expected Selphie and the others to be waiting for her to wake up, but their lack of presence saddened Quistis. Her head bowed down until her chin touched her chest.
Were her friends that angry with her? She could understand if Squall and Rinoa never wanted to speak to her again, but she never thought the rest of her friends would be angry.
Dr. Kadowaki walked in with clipboard in hand. She seemed to have read Quistis' mind when she said, "your friends had been called out to some missions earlier before you were attacked. Headmaster Cid decided not to alert them for it could cause a distraction."
Quistis felt a very heavy weight lift off her chest. She inhaled deeply and sighed in relief. Now that her worry was gone the sleepiness returned. A wide yawn escaped.
"Get some rest Quistis." Dr. Kadowaki suggested.
Not needing to be told twice, Quistis made herself as comfortable as possible, trying not to disturb her injured shoulder. She had just shut her eyes when she heard the infirmary door open and heavy footsteps echoed in the room.
"Headmaster? What's he-."
Quistis opened her eyes. In front of her bed Dr. Kadowaki stared at a blonde man that stood next to Cid. The man stood much taller than Cid, his blonde hair hung loosely at either side of his head, but was no longer than the length of his eyes. The man seemed familiar to Quistis, but she couldn't see his face.
"Doctor, could we have a moment alone with Ms. Trepe?"
Dr.Kadowaki nodded. Shrugging, she returned to her desk and continued writing on her clipboard.
Cid stepped in front of Quistis bed and smiled. "Quistis, how're you feeling?"
Quistis tried to sit up straight and salute, but the pain in her shoulder kept her in place.
"Please, my dear, you need not move." Cid said warmly.
Quistis' attention was quickly averted to Cid's guest. With the man standing closer to her she was able to study his face better. One look at the faint pink scar between the man's eyebrows was enough to instantly identify him, Seifer.
Quistis frowned, but remained silent.
Cid noticed her gaze. "Sorry. Quistis, let me explain."
Seifer, too, remained silent. Quistis analyzed him more. He finally ditched his white coat and settled with simple black pants and a dark blue button down shirt. Quistis almost grinned. She never knew Seifer owned any other clothes besides his same pants, shirt, and coat.
Seifer noticed Quistis' eyes scanning him head to toe. He snarled.
"You serious Cid? Someone's been trying to assassinate the instructor? Ha, this is rich."
Quistis frowned again at Seifer. She bit her tongue to keep herself from scolding him for calling the headmaster by his first name only. But she remembered Seifer was no longer a part of Garden. Or was he going to be?
"Quistis, we still don't know who did this, and the lack witnesses makes it even more difficult. If this was an assassination attempt, then they'll only keep trying. So, I decided to call in an expert." Cid stood and clasped his hand on Seifer's shoulder. "I've hired Seifer to be your bodyguard."
Quistis' eyes closed and her head tilted to the side. She fainted.
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