Xu stepped from the elevator and found herself looking down upon the numerous activities that lay before her in the Garden. It had been a long time since she had made it out of her office, her job kept her there a lot, and she had even taken up to sleeping there the past few nights. But today she was out, it had been a long week, but she'd finally finished processing the applications for transferring to the newly rebuilt Trabia Garden. It was a surprisingly popular idea among cadets, mainly those who had been around during the time of its destruction, course an always enthusiastic Selphie promoting the idea didn't hurt. After that Xu had been confronted by Squall with a mission request of her. Of course she'd refused straight away, not only was she out of practise, but the Garden needed her. Swiftly Rinoa and Quistis had appeared from the hall, obviously behind the request to begin with, assuring Xu that it was more like a vacation than anything else. They convinced her that she deserved it, and anyway, the Diamonds were going on the mission as well. The Diamond duo had graduated to SeeD status not many months ago, but they had been highly successful on all their missions so far.

Xu had agreed, and now she was determined to get at least one session of practise in before the mission, even if there wasn't much of a monster threat in the mission description. Xu had never been much for training back when she was a cadet, she simply had a perfectly toned body and knew more theory than any SeeD that had been around in her time. The Library had been her sanctuary, always studying, not just for tests, but personal curiosities. Most efficient ways to kill different breeds of monsters, the most effective ways of taunting enemies into berserk-like states without resorting to magic, and, Xu's favourite, how to benefit from the most, and care for one's Guardian. At the time she didn't know it but she eventually became extremely close with her Guardian, closer than any other had before her. It was more than just power; it was a friend, always with you. It had been along time since Xu had been junctioned with her Guardian, but she was lucky, once she'd stopped working actively in missions, her guardian was assigned to a newer SeeD. Xu was lucky for that SeeD, that had had her Guardian assigned to him, had just left for Trabia in hopes of becoming a successful instructor there. It was because of this that in Xu's head, again, was the only Guardian she had ever junction, probably the only one she ever would. And it remembered her.

Xu entered the training center and breathed in the humid air now surrounding her. It truly had been too long, how she had kept her figure she'd never know. Possibly she had subconsciously crafted a perfect diet for herself simply out of habit, due to memorizing the theory of anything she'd taught herself when she was younger. Either way it was going to make this a lot easier for her. Xu called Iouga into junction, asked for it to junction her as it saw fit for the situation at hand. Xu felt her body tense up as magic flowed down her nerves and was carried throughout her body.

"Its been a long time Xu" said a voice which she felt more than heard. Actually it couldn't be heard at all, technically.
"Yes," Xu smiled to herself, drawing the same rapier she'd used all her life, "Let's kick some ass!"
Xu felt Iouga smirking in the back of her mind, "I concur." Yep, this was the Guardian Xu had bonded with all those years ago.

Launching herself forward Xu began forcing all the weapon theory she knew straight into practice. The first grat went down easy, (since when didn't they?) but still it felt good to kill something again. Damn good. Xu couldn't believe how much she'd missed feeling such primitive emotions flow through her. Why hadn't she trained in all this time? After her sixth grat fell before her, Xu felt extremely appreciative for the vitality junction that Iouga offered her, course Xu had cared so much for her Guardian that she had taught it almost every junction she could. Actually, other than that Xu couldn't think what else she had spent any Gil at all on during her time as a SeeD, Iouga was just so important to her.

Finally Xu found herself wanting a challenge, grats really never were much of anything for a SeeD to compete against, but they were everything cadets needed to prepare for any exam which was destined to come. Xu scanned her surroundings looking for the only real challenges in Balamb, the T-Rexaurs. One dead grat later and Xu had spotted her prey. She began to fight her way towards it. It didn't seem that the monster had noticed her yet but their hearing was actually quite better than many other known creatures in the world. The T-Rexaur got the first hit, a tail swipe as it turned around once Xu's presence had been noticed. Xu was forced to the ground, but sprang back to her feet and rushed towards the beast before her. Striking her opponent as she rocketed past Xu made here way around the beast, pausing only once she was an appropriate distance away on its other side. The T-Rexaur turned on Xu again, and lunged to her bite this time. Xu rolled to her left but still ended up on the ground with a bloody gash in her side. Panting, Xu pulled herself to her feat and began to focus Meltdowns into her weapon, something only she had ever managed. Adrenaline pulsed through her veins, and Xu hurled herself into the air, plunging her rapier straight into the monster's throat before her. Xu released pulse after pulse of magic, focused through the point of her blade, and straight through her prey. Every element of magic was used in this attack, Firagas, Thundagas, Blizagas, Waters, Quakes, Tornadoes, Bios and Holys rocketed through the T-Rexaur, blasting it from the inside. Then Xu released an Ultima from her blade, just like the others focused into a concentrated form, more than doubling its power. It blasted out of her rapier, forcing her back into the air and landing her safely onto the ground. Xu stood up, breath coming in short gasps, she looked up to see her foe still swaying, then, Crash. The corpse lay one the ground before her, it had been awhile since she had released a Limit, let alone have the adrenaline to pull one off. It was encouraged that every student eventually develops their own unique Limit. These attacks were created to be fuelled by adrenaline, and actually harmful to oneself if attempted without enough to support them. Even artificially created adrenaline worked though, causing many SeeD to draw upon Auras.

Xu exhaled slowly. That was enough. She let the magic drop from its junction within her. It had a calming effect actually, suddenly feeling powerless, but leaving yourself protected by the Guardian within you. It was a strong bond of trust. It comforted Xu, she knew she was safe. One doesn't rely on their Guardian like that at most times, it usually strains them. But Xu's path was clear of danger, all the grats in the centre had felt the T-Rexaur fall, and was scurrying towards its corpse to ravage it with vampirism for any remainder of life or nutrition. Xu walked steadily towards the exit, Iouga still junctioned, just in case.

Xu stepped back into the main body of the Garden dropping Iouga from junction.
"It is good to be with you again," Iouga slipped slowly into the back of Xu's mind.
"Thank you Iouga, It's good to be back."

Xu felt pleased with herself, it was amazing how much she'd missed that and didn't even realise it. She walked around towards the directory were she would eventually meet up with the Diamonds. Then she saw him, there was Zell just sitting on the bench, head in his hand. Not moving. It was possibly the most disturbing thing she'd ever seen. Zell was supposed to be full of energy all the time, even when he was down it was extremely hard to tell, he probably didn't even realise it most of the time when he was sad. But now something must have been wrong, very wrong.

"Hey! You okay?" Xu was standing right in front of him, possibly a little intimidating she suddenly realised, looking up to see someone peering over you. She quickly sat down.

"Oh, Hey Xu. I'm fine, I just, ...uh I don't know." Xu didn't actually talk to Zell much, she liked him and he was good to have around, but she had just never had a real conversation with him before.

"Sorry to say it, but, well you really do look down, you know? I don't mean to be rude but, well, its gotta be something. You just don't look like... Zell."

Zell gave a half-hearted chuckle, "yeah I guess it does look like that, well, its just... her."

Xu looked confused, she followed Zell's gaze and saw that he was looking directly at the Library sign. The Library Girl. But that didn't add up. The Library Girl had signed for a transfer to Trabia, and there had been nothing happening between them before then. Well she had obviously been interested in Zell, but he'd never seemed to notice this fact.

"I can't believe she's actually gone. Like, Trabia is, ...Far." Zell managed to finish his thought. Maybe something had been going on, and no one knew. But how? Zell isn't known for being very discrete.

"Uhm," Xu started, "I'm sorry, I don't quite-"

"Yeah I know," Zell cut her off, "There was never anything solid between us. But I just always thought she really liked me, I should have said something. But, But I didn't know what... What I was thinking, I guess."

Actually thinking back on it, Xu thought she remembered something being said about her leaving because of Zell, "Uhm, do you think maybe she might have left, because of you?"

Zell's head spun around. Xu hated herself for mentioning it, it must have sounded terrible.

"I mean, uh... well, she did have feeling for you, everyone could see it. But I guess when this opportunity presented itself, she took it. She may have been wanting to distance her self from you, so it wouldn't hurt as much. I'm sorry I said anything, uh... oh dear." Xu felt heat growing in her cheeks, surprised at herself to have said all that without thinking.

"N- No, Y-You're right." What? That not what Xu had expected at all. "Maybe I am a chicken-wuss, I should have talked to her before. Uhh, maybe this is better anyway. I guess I'd never felt anything for her before anyway."

Zell rested his head in his hands again and sighed. Xu suddenly noticed Zell's scent. It was more masculine than one might have expected and laced with a hint of musk. It was surprisingly breathtaking. He was beautiful, so innocent and scared, she'd just never noticed before, never even been like this before. Before Xu had known what happened she found Zell's chin resting in her palm and her lips brushing against his. Her eyes closed, their connection broke, but they still held themselves before one another allowing their breaths to be felt on each others faces.

Xu's eyes flickered open to see a stunned Zell before her, lips parted breathing the breath she could still feel on her face. Suddenly Xu felt terrible, she didn't know what had come over her. She didn't regret what she'd done, but she was quite scared of the look Zell was reflecting at the moment.

"I'm sorry," She said hurriedly, "I don-"

"No. No it's okay..." Zell looked up into Xu's eyes, "Thanks, I'm not sure what you were exactly trying to do, but I'm sure you meant well." I highly forced looking smile creeped onto his face. Actually Xu wasn't sure what she was trying to do either. Nothing in particular really, she just wanted to help, but now she couldn't get the taste of Zell out of her mind. It truly amazed her really, how such a simple act could produce such feeling. Actually create them, from nothing.

"I really have to go," Xu suddenly said, noticing what time it was for the first time in the last few hours, training had taken longer than she had thought. "I'm sorry to leave you like this-"Crap that sounded terrible, "I mean. See you round," she offered with a smile, "Hope I didn't make anything worse."

Xu stood up and began walking towards the directory, the Diamonds were already there. She broke into a jog leaving Zell behind in her wake, but she could have sworn she heard him mutter to himself.

"No, no... Fine... you made everything... fine."