Legacy of Gaia
Chapter 3: The First Losses
Author: Shadow@ngel
superpinay@hotmail.com
Summary: (AU) Quistis, one of the most elite soldiers in the high-profile alliance known as the Garden, is sent to destroy the rebel org. of the Forest Owls. But upon capture she is caught in a web of lies and conspiracies that may destroy her very way of life. Will she be able to find the truth and reveal it to the world before it's too late for the ff8 gang? (Queifer)
Main couple: Queifer
Secondary couples: Squinoa, Selvine,

Author's Note: Bwahahah! Seifer's finally in this one!... yeesh... how the heck am I going to reveal such a frikkn complicated plot into this ficcy!? Heaven's alive, I'm doomed! Hm... maybe I need a cowriter or something. or maybe a REALLY good beta reader perhaps! hehe... Here's where you guys email me at superpinay@hotmail.com if you wanna help my pathetic little story with its plot.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Red, like the idiot he was, made the trip hell.

He continually made remarks to us about being babies and inexperienced until we were clenching our fists, our knuckles turning white.

Finally, after countless hours on the train, we decided to take care of him. We were far too pissed about the long ride to put up with any crap he wanted to pull.

When we got off the private train we had taken, Laguna gave us a brief twenty minutes as a break to walk around and stretch our legs, buy some supplies, etc.

The both of us were minding out own business when even Lady Luck decided that Red was an asshole and needed someone to smack him. He came to torment us alone and Irvine and I looked at each other at the precise moment before we reached out, grabbed him and threw him into a supplies closet. He was surprised at our strength and reflexes because we hadn't been in battle yet and he wasn't good enough to tell how good someone was by their reflexes alone.

And that's when the commander walked in to find me holding down Red with the ball of my foot while securing his hands with my whip and Irvine in the midst of giving a nuclear wedgie to the poor boy. The other SeeD's wandered one by one behind Laguna, who had started to scream his head off about proper conduct but still couldn't help but laugh at Red's disposition of being picked on by a pair of fourteen-year-olds. Even the civilians behind us…. Or I like to call them civs…. were stopping to stare. Laguna abruptly sent them on their way with a, "Move! This isn't any of your business!"

But of course he was too focused on screaming at me to notice Irvine 'dropping' a can of bright blue metallic paint all over Red.

Irvine had already slipped the paint can back on its proper place on the shelf by the time Laguna turned to him to give him his lecture.

Needless to say, Red was a bit sour when it came to giving his looks, but I wasn't sure whether it was because he was scared of us or just embarrassed because he looked like a smurf. Whatever it was, he sure brought the remarks down to a minimum.

He learned early that there was a reason we had become SeeD's at fourteen, I guess.

Anyway, the time came when we were starting to approach our destination.

We were on the final train before we were supposed to travel on foot to destroy the rebel alliance known as the Forest Owls. The air was tense and I suspected that even Laguna knew we were all nervous as hell.

"Quisty, you okay?" someone asked. It was Irvine. He stood from his seat across from me and sat beside me. The bright red seats sank down as the weight shifted from my side to his. I lifted my head off the back of the chair and focused on him.

"Huh? …Don't call me Quisty," I said casually. Irvine smiled under his mask and leaned back in his chair, his ankle resting on his knee.

"How cute. Little Quisty is growing up and wants to drop the nickname! I'm just bursting with pride! She's just growing up so fast, it brings a tear to my eye…" He mock-sobbed and Laguna did what sounded like a mild snicker.

"Shut up. I'm older than you." I said, referring to our emotional ages. I laughed when he yelled,

"Older?!"

Laguna's hand shot out in front of Irvine and hit the wall. Irvine looked just about as scared as hell, but it took him two seconds to realize Laguna wasn't trying to hit Irvine, he was trying to steady himself. The train gave an incredibly forceful lurch forward. Irvine and I were nearly thrown off our seats and the screeching of the brakes was loud in our ears.

We were nearing the end of our wait. Laguna, who was staying in our small cabin to keep an eye on us, stood from his seat and headed out the door. Irvine and I followed, eager to find out what all the commotion was about.

When we stepped out, Laguna held out his hand to stop us. We did and gave him a questioning look. He seemed focused on the head of the train.

"Sir?"

"Shhh… something's wrong," he said. We looked down the section of the train. There was a flash of blue uniforms outside through the windows. It was just for a second, but all three of our eyes managed to catch the movement at once. "I knew there was a reason there were no other passengers on this train…Ready your weapons. It's a trap."

We knew exactly what he was talking about.

The train was a decoy. They probably knew we were going to take this train. They emptied it beforehand to minimize civ casualties. An attack was imminent.

"Quisty, battle tactic 4- 6?" Irvine said. "He's light on his feet…. He's trained."

Laguna shook his head. "No. I think there's more than one. 4-6 isn't one that can handle a group. We're going with formation 8- sec 04, got it?" he whispered. Irvine and I nodded. I stretched out my whip and Irvine cocked his shotgun. We waited in silence, our heart rates skyrocketing.

When the window shattered and several figures jumped inside, Irvine shot off to the left and ducked just in time for the flying shuriken to fly past and graze his trench coat.

A woman stood at the head of the train. The she caught the shuriken upon its return to her. I ducked under the next attack of the shuriken and sent her flying back with an uppercut to the jaw. She hit the floor, but her reinforcements flooded into the train with amazing speed.

"Fool!" she cried and before I could step back to get out of her way, two strong arms flew up and held my shoulders at bay.

"Lieh, hold it!" The woman stopped her hand in mid air, inches away from my face. The shuriken-handler made eye contact with my captor and they frowned at each other.

"Child … !" the woman said, hitching her shuriken to her belt. She had an eye-patch over her right eye and an extremely short haircut that accented the outline of her face. She brushed her pale, blue hair out of her good eye.

"The hell they doing recruiting kids!??" cried the man holding me. I looked up at him on my knees and caught a glimpse of a scar running across his face and his golden colored hair. He looked down at me and we stared at each other. For a moment I was caught up in his image and even the sun that shined through the shattered windows favored to light up his face.

He was probably about my age if not older…

Irvine's shotgun was fired three times before I broke out of the trance and threw a strategic blow to his shin with my heel. He cursed and stumbled back, leaving enough room to clear a path for me to escape.

"We're retreating! Now!" Laguna's voice. If I wanted to get out of there alive, I was going to have to find my own way out. I knew that they had to leave, otherwise both their lives would be sacrificed in vain. And there was a small group of the rebels between Irvine and Laguna and myself so I knew I was on my own.

"No! What about Quisty!" Irvine cried.

"We're getting out of here. There's too many. We can't fight in this crowded space… we'll regroup in the forest! We're not going to jeopardize the mission! " Laguna had to grab him by the waist. He kicked the door open and the two leapt out and I heard their retreating footsteps outside. There were several more shots.

I leapt over the blonde's form, desperately hoping no one would get in my way. My weapon wouldn't help me in such a tight situation and it would take too long to retrieve. Apparently, in all the scrambling I had lost grip of it and had dropped it somewhere. I didn't bother to look. I could always be assigned another whip when I returned to the Garden. But I still cursed my inexperience.

I rushed towards the nearest exit, hearing only the clanging of my rubber boots on the rusted metal floor. I saw Irvine and Laguna running away from the train and making for the cover of the bright green foliage lining the track not fifty yards away.

Irvine luckily glanced back and stopped when he saw me at the door. Laguna did as well and knelt down on one knee to provide me with cover fire as I ran to meet them. I was stopped short as I jumped to the ground. The woman was one step ahead of me and before my feet touched the ground, she grabbed me in a chokehold and brought me down.

"Don't let the girl go!" I heard the blonde behind her say. "They'll be back for her." He raised what I knew was a gunblade and fired at Laguna and Irvine. I watched in horror as Irvine's right shoulder was suddenly stained in red and he fell to the ground. Laguna picked him up dragged him into the woods with all the strength he could muster.

"Irvine!" I cried. I nearly broke the woman's hold on me, "Bastards!"

"Kaio!" the woman said, struggling to keep me still.

"Lieh, shut her up," he said and walked away. I felt a sharp pain as she knocked me out and I faded out of consciousness.

Yet another really bad chapter... yeck... oh well.. at least I got more than five reviews on my last 1. Hopefully now that the plot is pretty much moving alone, it'll attract a bit more readers? Hm. We'll see.