Disclaimer: FF8 and all of its characters belong to the one and only Square Enix. Hail! But all other characters belong to me grin

Prologue

TIMBER, 2400 HRS

"Hey Joey! I'm taking over from now!"

"Thank you, Rob." Joey signed in relief. He was thankful for Rob being on time tonight. There was an eerie feeling about tonight that he didn't like one bit. It is just so quiet tonight, and he didn't like it one bit. Although his comrades kept telling him that things were just merely being peaceful, but the colds he was feeling - and he knew that his friends could also felt as he could also see them shake from time to time - was nothing close to just being peaceful. And as he was walking back home, he wished to be inside his cozy house as soon as possible. It was getting colder and colder every minute.

"Hey there, Joey! What a peaceful time, don't you think? Those SEEDs heroes had actually did us all a favor, don't they?" An old man from the house next door whom he had known to be Brad called out to him as he was entering his own house.

"They sure did, didn't they?" Joey smiled back to the man. He had always enjoyed short conversations with Brad. He had always admired the SEEDs ever since he was a little boy. He had wished to become a SEED once, but didn't want to leave his family – so, off with the dreams! He really appreciated the SEEDs' help in declaring Timber's Independence from Galbadia and not just that, but now because of the SEEDs Galbadia is no longer a threat to anybody. The new SEED Commander had seen to that by having his future father-in-law took charge of the new provisional government after the second sorceress war 2 years ago. But tonight however, he'd really love to get in bed and cuddled next to his wife as soon as possible. "Anyways, tonight had really worn me out, Brad. Good night old man!"

"Good night, lad!" laughed Brad. As they both were entering their houses, they saw some sort of fireball flew over their heads.

"What was that?" Joey spun his head around the meet an equally confused Brad staring right back at him.

Before another word could be uttered between them, Joey was knocked down to the ground by a massive energy blast coming from behind him. Around him, he could hear women screaming, children crying, people running and yelling in panic. Houses were set on fire, his own house blown up into pieces with his wife inside. His wife! "Sandra!" he screamed, eyes widened in horror. Joey pulled himself up from the ground and ran inside the ruin of his house, and there, by what was once a staircase was his beloved Sandra. Upon seeing her lifeless body, anger over took him and he held on to his rifle tight before marching out of his blasted house, his eyes scanning for the enemies. And then, he spotted them. They were advancing towards him. A man, wearing black leather pants with black cotton shirt. Black leather shoes with black leather coat. In his hand was a long Gunblade, marked with a logo of a cross. His cold green eyes staring directly at him, his rather long blond hair blown by the chilly wind. Behind him, Joey could see shadows of men. He probably had an army with him, but Joey didn't care. He would kill as much as he can to match the pain of losing his wife. He aimed his rifle at the man and shoot. The bullet was reflected with a protect spell. He fired again, and the same thing happened. And they kept on advancing towards him with a steady pace. And as they closed in, Joey realized how very wrong he was. There was in fact no army behind the man, there were only 3 others and no one else was with them. His eyes widened in horror as the 4 men towered over him…

The Gunblade was lifted up above his head…

Its wielder smiling down at him in a chilly way…

His followers laughing a chilly laugh behind him…

The Gunblade swung down to him…

And darkness consumed him…