3. The SeeD exam
Back at the Garden, Squall changed into his uniform. He didn't particularly care for the regulation blue jackets and trousers and white shirt. But he hoped after today, he'd be trading it for the much more prestigious SeeD uniform, in any case, rules were rules, and he wasn't going to jeopardise his chances for something as trivial as his appearance. Besides, didn't everyone hate uniforms that didn't command respect? Picking up his gunblade, extra ammo and student ID, he checked to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything else, and had headed to the foyer for the exam assignment. There were several others all mingling around. Some were just chatting. Others were practising their techniques against invisible opponents. Most were trying to conceal their nervousness. Squad A were announced. Then came Squad B.
"Squall, come over here" called Quistis. "How are you feeling?"
"Ok, I guess."
"Let's see, you'll be with Zell. Zell Dincht. Quite a lively fellow."
Squall knew Zell. He looked across at one of the boys practising his punches and hopping about. As far as Squall was concerned he was a fidget who couldn't stay in one place and appeared to have no inner monologue or volume control. He shook his head. Normally he'd just accept what he'd been given, but this time?
"Lively? He's just loud. Can't I switch members?"
"That's not possible I'm afraid. Over here Zell!" called Quistis.
Squall watched as Zell executed a fly kick in midair, did three backwards handstand flips before ending in a full backflip and turning to face them. There could be worse team members, Squall realised. For all their personality clashes, Zell was a talented martial arts fighter. It was clear that Zell was more than happy with his team member.
"Whoa! I'm with you?" breathed Zell, impressed. Squall didn't answer. Zell held out his hand. Squall just looked at him. "You don't get on with Seifer do you?" continued Zell, unperturbed. "Heard he whooped ya pretty bad this morning." This was not an insult, just a sympathetic remark, the kind that would infuriate Seifer if he heard himself proved right. Squall didn't care about that however, but he didn't want to appear bad in front of his team mate.
"We weren't fighting. We were training," he corrected. Zell nodded.
"Well I'll bet he doesn't think so"
Squall looked away. It was probably true. Had he come out on top however, and you could bet Seifer would be humbly muttering about how it hadn't been a real fight. Zell carried on.
"Look, Seifer's just a pain in the ass. Nobody likes him. Why don't you just ignore him?"
Did he ever shut up? And who did he think he was. One training match gone too far, and now this?
"Look!" he said. "That's…"
"…None of your business?" said Quistis, in perfect unison with him. Squall looked over to see his instructor chuckle, and looked away again.
"I hate to interrupt you" she carried on. "But that Seifer you're talking about, he's your Squad Leader."
"SAY WHAT????????" yelled Zell, horrified.
Perfect! Well, didn't that just crown it? There were certainly worse people to be teamed up with, and they went by the name of Seifer Almasy.
"It can't be changed" apologised Quistis seeing the looks on their faces. "Over here Seifer."
Squall watched as walked up to join them. Still in his grey overcoat and blue shirt.
He hasn't even bothered to change into his uniform! Squall noted with contempt. Flanking him was a huge dark-skinned man with baggy trousers and a vest, and a slighter woman in blue, with grey hair and a patch over one eye.
Raijin and Fujin tagging along as normal. Guess that makes up the disciplinary committee.
"Well, you're the Squad Leader of Squad B." Quistis was telling him. "Good luck to you."
"Instructor" drawled Seifer, in condescending tones. "I hate it when people wish me luck. Save those words for a poor student, who needs them, eh?" he added, with more than a touch of conceit and arrogance about his voice. In accordance, Raijin laughed whole-heartedly and Fujin nodded in agreement.
Quistis was not impressed.
"OK" she agreed. "Good luck, Seifer!"
Quistis had not been impressed, Seifer looked apoplectic.
"Add Instructor Trepe to the list!" he yelled at Raijin and Fujin, swinging his gunblade in fury.
The list? Wondered Squall. What is it?
"You're the instructor for Squad B" Quistis was telling them. "Teamwork is of the utmost importance. I want you all to get through this exam."
"Listen up!" Seifer turned to his teammates. "Teamwork means staying out of my way! It's a Squad B rule, don't you forget it!" Quistis silently despaired.
Squall was furious. Seifer could do what he wanted to himself, but as Squad Leader, he was threatening HIS chances of passing. He didn't say anything. Zell shook in fury.
"Everybody here?"
Before anything could happen, Headmaster Cid had walked into the room. He was wearing his standard red waistcoat and not bothered to put the suit jacket on. He looked at them all with an elderly, but kind face.
"It's been a while everyone, how's everybody doing?"
He started to brief them. "This exam will involve 12 members, from Squads A to D. You will be proceeding to a real battlefield. Obviously, the battles are for real.
"Life and death, victory and defeat, honour and disgrace. Each of these go hand in hand. There's only one way or the other. How 'bout it? Are you all still up for it?"
He paused, but no-one backed out. As if they would. This was the day they had been preparing for and there was no way they would chicken out now. Cid continued:
"You will be accompanied by 9 SeeD members. Should you fail, these members will get the job done. They always do."
He broke off and looked at them all.
"Well, that's one less worry on your minds.
"The pride of Balamb Garden! The elite mercenary force, SeeD! Learn from them, obey their commands and accomplish the mission. Prove yourselves worthy of becoming a member of SeeD. Best of luck."
With that, Seifer and his posse turned and left for the garage to get a car. Zell and Squall quickly followed.
They were only glad Seifer wasn't driving. The idea of him boy racing down the roads and sending people scattering was not one they relished. Both of them sat next to each other, while Seifer sat opposite Squall, watching them coolly, without speaking.
"Hey Squall, can I have a look at your gunblade?" Zell tried to speak to Squall instead. Squall didn't answer.
"Come on, man!"
….
"Just a peek?"
….
"Come on, please?"
….
"Say something will ya? What's on your mind." Zell was nervous and trying to take his mind of it. He didn't want to talk to Seifer, but he was pleased at being with Squall and he hoped he could be friends with him.
"…Nothing" Squall and Quistis spoke in perfect unison. Squall looked up at Quistis chuckling again. This habit of cutting in with his words was starting to annoy him.
"C'mon, it's our big exam, you must be thinking something?" Zell didn't give up.
When Squall didn't answer, he got up and started practising his punches to the air.
"Scared are you?" jeered Seifer "Chicken"
Zell was clearly riled. "WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?"
"Hah hah, what a kid?" Seifer was clearly enjoying himself.
Quistis was in no such mood. "Seifer! Stop it!" she scolded. Zell sat down. The car carried on in silence.
Squall had kept silent through all this. He was beginning to think their chances of passing were decreasing step-by-step. He wasn't arrogant and up-himself like Seifer was. He knew that on their fighting skills, he had quite possibly the best team. But Seifer and Zell…
Zell was well intentioned and clearly pleased to be with him, but he rose to the bait too easily. Seifer had noticed this and was quite clearly getting a kick out of provoking him; he knew he couldn't bait Squall had he been given a whole week and his exam dependant on it.
It wasn't Zell's fault he got heated too quickly, or even that he was paired up with the one person who would refuse to work as a team. In fact, had it not been for Seifer on the team, there would have been no problem.
But Seifer WAS a problem. In a different respect to Zell, he too was liable to lose it, except he noticed Zell could actually keep from snapping. Seifer wouldn't. There was more than a chance of things coming to blows between their own team than with monsters at this rate. Well, the scar still on his forehead reminded him of waking up in the infirmary. Which reminded him of something else. For the first time, he looked up.
"Instructor…"
She looked over.
"Who was that girl in the infirmary this morning?"
Quistis looked puzzled, and a bit upset. "Was someone there? I didn't notice."
"Oh" Squall looked down again.
Seifer smiled. "This is great! I have Chicken-wuss and a guy who just reached puberty in my squad!"
Squall didn't dare look over at how Zell was reacting.
"So that's the vessel?"
They'd reached Balamb harbour and were watching three bulbous, yet somehow aerodynamic looking ships speed away. A fourth was moored to the harbour. This was obviously theirs.
"Hey! Get in! You're the last to leave!" yelled one of the Garden staff as all three cadets marched silently past him and into their ship. Once inside, they took up their places on benches each side of a table. Squall and Zell on one side again, and Seifer by himself on the other. Quistis watched at the doorway. Another woman with shoulder length brown hair, wearing the same SeeD uniform as Quistis walked in.
"Hi Xu!" Quistis greeted her.
She gestured towards her students. "These are the Squad B students taking the exam. This is Zell"
He waved a hello "Nice to meet you!"
"And Squall" In spite of himself, Squall stood up and shook her hand. This was Cid's second-in-command after all. There was no harm in making a good impression here. "Pleased to meet you." A faint look of surprise registered on Quistis' face.
A dry smile appeared on Xu's face as she spied the third member of the group.
"Seifer. How many times is it now then?"
If he was put-off or perturbed in any way, he didn't show it. "Oh I just love these exams" he responded just as dryly.
"Well let's begin the briefing." Xu got down to business. She walked past the candidates to the other end of the ship and turned on a screen.
"Our client for this mission is the Dollet Dukedom Parliament. They've been under attack from the Galbadian Army since 72 hours ago. A request for SeeD was made 18 hours ago."
An image flashed up on the screen; a map of Dollet City and it's area. Dollet was in an unusual situation, it was surrounded by mountains, except for a narrow road than ran in between them to a small, flat area jutting out into the sea, where the harbour town had been built.
"This is the current situation" Xu continued. "The Dollet forces have retreated from the city and have undergone manoeuvres into the mountains, where they have more of a strategic advantage. We make a landing at Lapin Beach. Your mission is to eliminate any of the Galbadian Forces still in the city, and secure the area. The Galbadians will probably split their troops and come back down into the city. You are to eliminate any that do so. With their numbers decreasing, the Dollet Army will have time to reorganise and get rid of the troops in the mountains. "
"Sounds important." Zell was impressed. It was to be his first time inside a real battlefield and was looking forward in helping out an actual mission. It made him kind of proud.
"Sounds boring" Seifer was not so enthralled as Zell. "So what you're saying is, we do all the dirty work?"
Xu flinched, unsure what to say. Seifer smiled at her uneasiness. He liked this kind of power over people, even if no-one respected him for it. Squall new that attitude was one of the things assessed on the exam. He now had a good idea of why Seifer had failed so many times.
Xu remembered something "Oh, it hardly needs saying, but the order to withdraw takes priority. Don't forget!" she looked around. "Well, that concludes the briefing."
The group sat in silence for a while.
"Hey, Squall. Go see what's happening outside." Seifer suddenly chimed in.
Squall had not been impressed with Seifer's behaviour so far and was on the verge of ignoring him. But then he realised, Seifer WAS his team leader, and he WAS meant to be following his instructions. It'd look bad to ignore one as simplistic as that.
"Ok" he said, getting up.
"Good" Seifer sat back with relish, putting his legs up on the table. "Because it's MY order."
Zell watched as Squall left. Seifer's attention instantly turned to him.
"How you feeling Chicken-wuss? Not too scared I hope?"
"It's my first real battle, sure, I'm a bit nervous." Zell went on the defensive.
"Better not piss in your pants." Seifer tried to bait him.
Zell sat up. He'd had enough of him already. Did he even have any intention of working as a team? Was he TRYING to get Squall and him failed?
"LOOK!" He yelled. "Just what is with your frigging attitude? Why do you think you're so superior to everyone?"
"What a kid" smiled Sefier in glee. How he loved Zell. The kid was as easy to taunt as a five-year old. "Just be used to it. It's the kind of air you get in the presence of superiors. Just get used to it, there's winners and losers in this world. Welcome to reality"
"Yeah! And you're one of the biggest losers in it! You fail this exam god-knows how many times and you're still so far up yourself it's untrue. You're the one who needs to get a grip on reality. You think you're strong and powerful, but you're just a coward a bully. You think you're better than everyone, but everyone is leaving you in the dust. You STILL haven't passed your SeeD exam and you think every SeeD should be answerable to you. You're just a sad attention seeking kid!"
Zell hadn't been trying to make Seifer angry, but he had succeeded admirably.
"Look you little Chicken…!" he began, his face turning scarlet.
"ENOUGH!" roared Quistis. "Look at the pair of you! You're BOTH acting like children. You're supposed to be working as a team."
"I know that! Tell it to HIM! He thinks he's a one-man army and we're just his lackeys!"
"ENOUGH!!" The word sounded pronounced far more slowly and threatening than before. "May I remind you your attitude is assessed on this exam, as part of your ability to work together in combat. What do you think you're scoring right now? Both of you?"
"My dear instructor…" Seifer feigned hurt. "I only aim to introduce my colleagues to the way things really are. This is a real battlefield, we're not sheltered in the Garden now. Isn't that right Chicken-wuss?"
Zell realised, from now on, in Seifer's eyes, that would be forever his name. But Quistis's words had sunk in and he wasn't about to fail on account of Seifer.
"I'm going to see what Squall's doing." Let Seifer be an idiot. Him and Squall could do this. Hell, Squall could do this on his own! He still couldn't believe his luck being paired up with a fighter like that. He got up and head out. Squall didn't talk much, but he'd much rather the company of someone who didn't talk much than someone who would carry on like Seifer all day.
Squall was standing on the bridge looking at the horizon. Dollet was now clearly visible, they'd arrive in ten minutes or so. He looked at the schematics he'd been given. He could see the tower on top of the hill and the harbour where they'd insert. These seemed to be the main two features. He could already make out flashes of gunfire and explosions in the hills. They were heading into the fray and no mistake. He half smiled to himself. Now he could get the chance to really prove himself.
"S'up dude!" Zell's voice piped in behind him. He glanced at him in acknowledgement, not entirely happy at being disturbed, and held up his schematics, matching the diagram to the skyline.
"I, uh, just thought I'd come out, see what you were doing."
Zell's face was still quite red. Seifer had obviously been goading him further. In silence, Squall handed him the diagram and mission details.
"Oh, yeah, right!" Zell enthused. "So this is a map of Dollet huh. Take it we're going in through here…" he ran his fingers along the road map. "You reckon we'll be going through the streets out in the open, or what?"
"That's for Seifer to decide" Squall stared dead ahead at the scene.
"Oh, yeah, Seifer" Zell was clearly in a bad mood at the mention of THAT name. "Can't believe he's in charge of us can you? He just doesn't care about working with us, he could jeopardise the entire m. Why'd we have to get stuck with him?"
Squall shrugged. He felt exactly the same way as Zell, but what good would it do to moan about it? The decision had been made and no amount of complaining could change it. Best just to ignore him and try and pass the exams themselves and certainly not get dragged into the whole juvenile arguments.
"It's not our decision. Besides, weren't you the one saying to ignore him?"
"Yeah, I know, it ain't always easy, but…"
Squall had stopped listening. There were more important matters at stake.
"Zell, we'd better get inside and get ready. We'll be landing in 5 or 10 minutes and from the look of that scene there…" he gestured towards the explosions in the town "we should expect an attack as soon as we touch down."
The crafts lurched onto the beach with a bit of a crash, the doors opened and out spilled the various SeeD candidates and their instructors.
"Squad B!" called Quistis. "Your job is to secure Central Square. Move out!"
They ran up the beach and up a flight of stairs onto the road.
"This way to Central Square" yelled Seifer gesturing towards the left, where the road ran under a bridge. As if to match Squall's predictions, two blue-suited Galbadian soldiers ran out to greet them, swords raised ready for an attack. They stopped when they looked at their attackers.
"They're Dollet reinforcements?" the first soldier laughed. "They're just kids!"
"Just kids eh?" snarled an already psyched-up Seifer as he ran up and decapitated the offending man with one stroke of his gunblade.
All his cockiness gone, the second man turned towards Seifer ready to strike, but before he could do a thing, he felt the blow of Squall's gunblade, trigger and all surging down his back. Within 20 seconds, both soldiers lay down dead. Seifer was clearly on a high.
"Bring 'em on!" he shouted, ecstasy all over his face, his eyes on fire, as he ran under the bridge.
Squall and Zell ran after him, keeping their cool much more, but still feeling an adrenaline rush. It wasn't long before they came to another bridge above their heads, from which another two more soldiers jumped down. They showed none of the complacency of their predecessors.
"Look out" the first called to his comrade, "it's SeeD!"
One of them headed to Zell, believing him to be unarmed and easy to take out. But he didn't know Zell's skills. He brought his sword down in an arc. Zell quickly moved around the blow and pincered the man's arms in between his own. The soldier felt a surge of pain as Zell brought his lower arm up, moving his own elbow up, almost breaking the joint. He tried to wriggle out of it, but Zell swung the man round, sticking his ankle out, and causing the man to trip over it and fall flat on his face. The man's sword was also in his possession, but Zell had no need for such things. He tossed it aside and instead, brought his heel down onto the man's spine, breaking it neatly in two. He then turned his attention to the second man coming up at him. This time he jumped up and executed a perfect 360o Crescent Kick to the man's temple, sending him reeling. Dazed and groggy, he staggered up, only to find Seifer's gunblade at his throat. One slash later and the man had breathed his last breath. Seifer gave the first man similar treatment.
"Just being on the safe side!" he grinned looking at his team-mate's disapproving looks.
"Just being sadistic" muttered Zell.
They proceeded a bit more cautiously; having breached the first two waves with no real hassle, the Galbadians would not be underestimating them. But they reached the Central Square with no more attacks.
"Alright men!" Seifer was surprisingly sounding like a pro. "We've reached our destination. Scout the surrounding area for any more and eliminate them." There were only four routes away from the square. One they had just taken, one led up into the mountains, another towards the exit from the town and the fourth was blocked up with debris. Yet as Squall and Zell inspected it, two more soldiers leapt out from behind the burning chassis of a wrecked car to attack. But leaping down at the SeeD cadets brought them to their doom instantly. The first was impaled on Squall's gunblade, and a pull of the trigger instantly burnt away all the man's vital organs and sent him flying off towards the debris again, his body ripped in two.
Zell meanwhile grabbed his assailant in midair. The man hadn't even bothered to draw his sword, putting Zell in the immediate advantage. He stuck his foot into the man's stomach; falling onto his back, he threw the man flying headfirst towards the wall. Zell inspected him; his skull was cracked and he was completely unconscious. Satisfied all the forces in the immediate vicinity were vanquished, they headed back to where Seifer was waiting.
"All taken care of?" he inquired. Squall nodded. "Alright then men, stand down, we're on standby till the enemy comes."
They relaxed, but still kept on guard. Squall reloaded his gunblade with ammo. Zell kept on his feet, as did Seifer who was leaning on his gunblade. All of a sudden, things seemed to have gone eerily quiet. There were no sounds of battle anywhere. When Squall had looked at the town from the ship, it had seemed that a full battle was going on. Now, after only three fights, the fighting seemed to be over. The only other company was a small brown dog, which was sniffing about.
"Things are going pretty well" chimed in Zell. "3 fights in, and we've already achieved our goal."
"Don't get too complacent yet" warned Squall. "I doubt they'll be planning a retreat yet."
"Man, this sucks being on standby" complained Seifer. "How long are they going to keep us waiting?"
He climbed on top of a fountain in the middle of the square. "HEY! All you Galbadian cowards out there! Come out here and show your faces!"
Zell groaned and Squall looked away at the floor, in his usual manner. Things had been going well until now. But now here was Seifer drawing needless attention to themselves, all they had to do was defend the Square. As if to answer Seifer, a fresh round of gunfire broke out in the background.
"This is it!" Seifer jumped down onto the floor and readied himself, his eyes gleaming. "Get ready everyone"
But no enemy came.
Half an hour later and there had still been no more conflict. Zell by now had taken a seat on the fountain "This ain't right man" he was saying. "Something's up". Squall was still standing and alert. There was no disguising Seifer's frustration however as he was pacing up and down, his hands behind his back a look of pure scorn on his face. Finally he burst out and started swinging his gunblade round in anger.
"That's IT!" he yelled in fury. "I can't take it anymore. What is this? Some kind of dog training?" As if to respond, the dog started barking. All of a sudden they heard footsteps approaching. Squall and Zell took up a position behind the fountain so they could see whether the people approaching were friend or foe. After a moment's hesitation Seifer joined them.
Sure enough six Galbadian soldiers came along the route from town and head up into the mountains. The crew looked at the way they'd head off. It was a track into the mountains and at the peak of this one was a large tower.
"What's that thing?" Zell wondered out loud.
Seifer pointed at it with his gunblade. "Our next destination!" he exclaimed smiling.
"What?" Zell was stunned. "But that's against orders! We were told to stay here!"
Seifer shrugged this irrelevant matter off. "You not bored yet? That's where we're heading" he stood firm.
"This is ridiculous! Squall, tell him!"
This was the kind of thing Squall had been dreading. Seifer just couldn't obey orders and now he was placing them all in a dilemma. Seifer was going on to the tower whatever. He would fail for it, Squall was certain of that much. But what about them? They could either split up the group or disobey orders. Either way, it would look unfavourably on them and there was a chance both would be failing offences. But then, Seifer was their Squad Leader and they WERE meant to be following his orders. If anything happened, Seifer could take the flak for it. But he wanted to pass, and he figured just obeying his direct orders would be the best way of doing so. That and winning the fights of course.
"I stand by the captain's decision" he said.
"Captain's decision?" Seifer was surprised. Maybe there was hope for the lad after all. He went over to Squall and shook him by the shoulder. "You want to wreak some havoc too don't you?" he said, admiringly, pleased and goadingly all in one.
Squall just shook him off.
"It's a good opportunity to test my training." He admitted. "After this morning I feel I can take on anyone. Even if they do fight dirty like you."
Seifer was impressed. He was seeing a new side to Squall. He too, was pleased with having Squall on his team. Here they were, the two best fighters in the Garden. They'd tear up shit, wipe out the Galbadians and be hailed throughout Garden, and that Chicken-wuss... well he could suit himself. He'd always respected Squall's abilities and was quite flattered with Squall's comment.
"You'll thank me when the time comes." He remarked.
"What the hell…?" Zell cut in. "I thought you guys didn't get along. You're like all buddy-buddy now."
He shook his head and looked at both of them. "Listen, this is no ordinary battle. It's an exam, an important one! I'm telling ya, we have to stick to orders!"
Squall knew Zell was right. He was still clinging to faint hope Seifer would see sense and agree. But this was Seifer. All hope evaporated when Seifer replied.
"Then you stay here. I don't need any boy scouts." He was half hoping Zell WOULD chicken out. Lose the weaker ones and he and Squall could get on with things. He felt Zell would only slow them down.
Squall knew there was nothing for it. They'd have to follow Seifer, or they'd fail anyway for not working as a team.
Zell had risen to the bait again.
"What was that?"
"Don't take him seriously Zell. Look, he's the Squad Leader, we have to obey his commands, otherwise the team is split up and we fail anyway for not working together. Seifer, what do we do. If you decide to go, you will fail, you know this. You can do what you like, but you're not jeopardising my chances of passing. If you go, I'll go, because I'm not splitting up the team. What's it to be?"
Seifer was in no mood for reasonable arguments. He wanted action. The examiners would see he was in the right, when they'd beaten off the Galbadians and saved Dollet.
"The enemy is headed for the facility. We, Squad B are to secure the summit. Move out."
"Alright" Squall agreed. "Zell?"
"Tch… fine" Zell knew it would count against him if he went off on his own.
Seifer turned and ran after the soldiers towards the mountains. Squall and Zell knew he was going to fail, but just hoped they'd made the right decision to save themselves the chances of becoming SeeDs.
