Chapter Three

Chasing Glory

The Garden vehicle pulled to a stop in front of the docks of Balamb. Trepe jumped out of the van first—looking the closest to frazzled as Seifer had ever seen her—followed by himself and then Squall—or Puberty Boy as he was now going to think of him. Had a good ring to it, much like Chicken-wuss. The two of them turned to stare at the sleek blue assault boats docked near-by while Wuss struggled to undo the seat-belt he'd put on five minutes ago. There were seven of them, six-man vessels that were deadly quick with enormous gun turrets on the prow. Trepe began moving off toward the docks, while he and Leonhart stood there for a moment, taking it in.

"So that's the vessel?" Squall questioned. Seifer grinned.

"Ain't no turning back now." He noticed Leonhart fiddling with the hem of his jacket and his eyebrow quirked. "Huh? You scared, too?"

Another instructor suddenly yelled out, "Hey! You guys are the last! Hurry up and get in!"

Ignoring him, Squall turned to give Seifer one of his blank stares—his hand dropping from his jacket—and Seifer gave him a grin.

"Don't disappoint me now."

"Come on," Trepe suddenly yelled back at them, tone impatient, "move it!" Zell finally emerged out of the vehicle and all three of them headed for the boat. Leonhart was pulling up the rear, as usual, prompting Trepe to add, "Hurry, Squall!" before all four of them boarded.

They all moved below deck, to the briefing room. It was a medium-sized rectangular shaped space with six seats—three on each side—a long table stretching out between the two rows and a large vid-screen on the back wall, which showed a common Balamb Garden screen saver at the moment. Seifer entered first and quickly sat down toward the end of the right row, propping his feet up onto the table and draping his arm across the head-rest to his left with a sigh. Leonhart sat down on the last seat of his row, Chicken-wuss coming to sit across from him and apparently doing his very best to try and pretend that he wasn't here. Seifer smirked at the thought.

Quistis entered next and came to stand across from Squall, but before she had a chance to sit down, another woman suddenly came down the stairs behind her. Seifer tensed slightly at the sight of her, and then his foot began twitching restlessly.

The woman was dressed smartly in her SeeD uniform, two wicked-looking guns holstered in the small of her back beneath her coat. Her medium-brown hair was cut in a severe bob style and her dark eyes were steely with experience. In her mid twenties, Xu Allayne was the highest ranking SeeD in Balamb Garden at the moment, just under Headmaster Cid in command. Hard-assed and no-nonsense—and a damn good strategist and warrior even though it caused Seifer physical pain to have to admit it, even to himself—it was no real surprise that Xu was here. If and when Garden ever accepted large scale jobs such as this, Xu could commonly be found directing the action on the front lines.

She came forward and Zell immediately got to his feet respectfully. Seifer and Squall stayed in their seats. Xu ignored them and focused her attention on the Instructor, giving her a tight smile and a nod—rather friendly for her standards. "Hi, Quistis." Trepe smiled and nodded in return.

"Well, these are the members of Squad B. Guys, this is SeeD member Xu Allayne, Rank 30. She'll be leading the mission." Squall stood at that and turned. Seifer remained insolently in his seat, fixing his gaze in front of him.

Zell saluted her like the little kiss-ass that he was. "Nice to meet ya."

Not to be outdone, Pube Boy saluted as well. "Pleased to meet you." Xu nodded to their greetings, then her eyebrow rose to haughty levels and she tilted her head to the side to see around Squall and pin him with a snide look.

"Seifer, how many times has it been now?" Seifer turned his head and gave her a sneering grin.

"Oh I just love these exams," he greased, causing her to scowl for a moment, then she turned away from him and preceded to ignore his presence.

"I'll explain the current situation and the mission." Xu walked past them to the back of the room and to the vid-screen, picking up the remote. She turned back and fixed them all with a stern look. "Be seated!" The others quickly did so. "Our client for this mission is the Dollet Dukedom Parliament. A request for SeeD was made 18 hours ago." The screen behind her shifted to show a map of Dollet in green. As she continued, a line of red dots began invading the map. "Dollet has been under attack by the G-Army since about 72 hours ago. 49 hours into the battle, Dollet abandoned their position in the inner city. Currently they have retreated into the near-by mountains and are reorganizing their troops." The map zoomed in and several red triangles appeared and blinked at them, indicating the Dollet army's positions. "According to our reports, the G-Army is mopping up the Dollet troops in the mountains." The map zoomed back out again, then red dots began moving through the water toward land, indicating their course. "We're to make a landing at Lapin Beach. We're to eliminate the remaining G-Army within the city and liberate it A.S.A.P." Now three lines appeared on the map, indicating a three-pronged attack. "Afterwards SeeD members will intercept any G-Army forces trying to make their way into the city from the mountain region."

The screen shifted again to once more show the Balamb Garden emblem, and Xu replaced the control on the table. Seifer sighed.

"So what are we supposed to do?" Xu fixed him with a bland stare.

"SeeD candidates are to eliminate the G-Army inside the city." Zell brightened.

"Sound's important!" Seifer scoffed.

"Sounds boring." He glared at Xu. "So what you're saying is, we do all the little dirty work." Xu's smile was equally as sneering as his had been a moment before.

"Oh, it hardly needs to be said, but . . ." Seifer sighed loudly, then turned away again and glared off into space. Hyne-damned uppity bitch. Xu continued dauntlessly. "The order to withdraw takes priority. Do not forget. We're almost there. We anticipate a battle as soon as we disembark. Just be prepared. That is all. Any questions, talk to Quistis."

Seifer rolled his eyes as she marched back out of the room. Zell looked as if he might ask a question, then glanced at him and apparently thought better of it. Seifer chuckled under his breath. Must've been a stupid one.

Several minutes of silence passed before Quistis sighed, glanced at her watch and then checked the clasp holding her coiled whip to her hip. "We'll be landing pretty soon. Get ready."

"Alright," Squall murmured, while he double-checked the rounds in his gunblade.

"Roger!" was Chicken-wuss' far too energetic response as he absently tightened the gloves on his hands. Seifer—who knew damn well Hyperion was loaded and ready to rumble—didn't bother.

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes. Quistis shot him a dirty look, then turned back forward and settled her eyes on Pubes. His eyes narrowed as she continued to stare, her alabaster face getting that softer look that she only got when she looked at him. That same pinch of anger that always assaulted him in such times reared it's head, though he refused to analyze too closely why it did. Seifer turned to Squall with a jerk. "Well then, Squall," he called. "Go see what's going on outside."

Pube Boy slowly turned his head to fix him with a cold glare, one that Seifer was in no way intimidated by. He just grinned. Let him try and tell me no, he thought gleefully, and watch the points on his exam drop faster than a Cadet's skirt on Inauguration Night. Squall must've come to this same realization as well, for after another moment he sighed heavily.

" . . . Ok," he finally murmured, tone grudging. Seifer just grinned.

"Good," he reiterated, inordinately pleased with himself as Squall got to his feet, "because it's my order."

Trepe waited until after Squall had left before she narrowed her frosty blue eyes on him with her usual disapproving stare.

"Way to abuse your position, Almasy. Really mature." She shot to her feet, pulling her SeeD jacket back straight with an angry jerk. "Do you have any intentions of ever passing this field exam," she continued snottily, "or do you like the idea of being a thirty-year-old cadet?"

She stalked out after her precious Squall and Seifer just glared. "Bitch, bitch, bitch," he snarled half-under his breath. "All that woman ever does is fucking bitch."

Zell stood. "She has a point though, Almas—,"

"Shut the fuck up, Chicken-wuss," he snapped, interrupting the martial-artist's misplaced intentions. Zell—face turning nearly purple—started to open his mouth to reply and Seifer stood himself. At 6'2", he towered over Dincht's diminutive 5'5". "And before you go and say something else equally retarded," he growled, "let me remind you that I am your squad leader for this mission and I am ordering you to keep your fucking mouth shut until we hit the beach."

With that Seifer turned on his heel and headed for the back hatchway. He was in the hall when he felt the boat suddenly accelerate, and quickly reached up to grab something just in time as they went air-borne for a few minutes before crashing back down with a thud. He and Zell hurried forward just as the boat made landfall and the hatchway opened to the sound of gunfire and yelling. Squall appeared and all three of them ran out. Quistis stopped at the threshold.

"Ok, you are to secure the Central Square! Be sure to equip your GF before you head into battle!"

Out of habit, at her words Seifer did a mental check.

Still here, hatchling, Tiamat's powerful booming rumble sounded out in his mind, and Seifer grinned—infused as he always was with just a bit more confidence and strength by the Dragon Prince's presence. He unbuckled Hyperion from his belt and raised it into the air.

"Let's move out," he called to his two subordinates before spinning on his heel and leading the way up the beach.

What few enemies there were to be had in this area had already been long taken care of. Seifer moved them up a small flight of stairs, then jerked as three Galbadian soldiers—dressed in their navy blue uniforms with those stupid helmets that made them look like they had three red eyes in the center of their foreheads—appeared from around the corner.

Seifer dodged the spray of bullets that came raining from one of their guns, swinging around and catching the other in the thigh with Hyperion. He went to the ground with a yell, clutching at his now furiously bleeding appendage. Squall wasn't two steps behind him, and similarly dealt with the one that had shot at them. Amazingly Zell darted in next, and caught the last one with a stiff right, spinning the man a full rotation before he landed on the pavement with a thud and didn't stir afterward.

Another squad of cadets—Squad A—had followed them, and took up positions as Seifer, Squall and Zell continued down the street. They were harried by two more soldiers along the way, but a few more crippling wounds dealt out by him and Pubes had the Galbadians out of the picture soon enough.

"The Central Square is up ahead," he announced from where he knelt over a fallen soldier, squinting down the street. He grinned, the heated adrenaline rush of battle thrumming hard in his veins. He stood and swiped the air with Hyperion, then yelled out, "hey! All you Galbadian cowards out there! Come out'n show your faces! Don't leave me hangin' now!"

He started jogging for the Square. Behind him he thought he might've heard Chicken-wuss mutter, ". . . what an idiot," and promised himself he'd investigate such presumptions later.

All three of them rushed into the Central Square of Dollet, and almost immediately a dumb-ass soldier—probably a rookie recruit—jumped out from behind the fountain and rushed him. Seifer sneered, then ducked slightly and smashed the handle of Hyperion right in the guy's face. The soldier crumpled immediately, out cold.

The blonde straightened and immediately tensed again at movement to his left, but loosened when he realized it was just a sandy-colored, mutt of some sort. The knee-high canine scampered out from under a near-by car and ran up to them, it's tail half-tucked and it's big brown eyes filled with nervous fear. It was a stray apparenlty, fur dirt encrusted and matted with months of neglect. Seifer turned and ignored the dog for now. He scanned their surroundings, unable to shake a continued feeling of uneasiness.

"There may be more," Squall suddenly called out, echoing Seifer's own thoughts. There were several alleyways that broke away from the main square, and lots of places to hide and stage an ambush. Seifer motioned with his gunblade.

"Alright, I want you guys to scout the area for more enemies."

Seifer stood his ground while Squall and Zell nosed around. He hung back, sharp eyes darting here or there, looking for movement. He tensed when he found it. Unfortunately he didn't find it quick enough for Squall to avoid getting clipped in the arm. Zell and Squall dove in two different directions while Seifer took cover behind the fountain. His stomach bottomed out when a wild-eyed soldier suddenly emerged from behind a dumpster dragging a young girl behind him. She looked to be only ten or so years old, roughed up and probably scared out of her mind as the short-fused Galbadian put his machine gun to her temple and then commenced to using her as a human shield.

"Get back!" he screamed at them. "Get away from me or I swear to Hyne I'll blow this little bitch's brains out!" He dragged the crying girl a few more inches forward, then fixed his widened stare on Squall—who was rolling up to his knees with a pained grimace—then to Seifer—who had straightened slightly from behind his cover. "Get those gunblades where I can see them, assholes! Right now!"

"All right, all right," Seifer called out, striving to keep his voice calm and neutral and not betray the nervous fury he felt. "Just calm down there, man. Nobody needs to get hurt here, eh?"

"Yeah, tell that to Timmons," the soldier spat, jerking his head to his fallen comrade nearby. Seifer didn't reply, recognizing the note of unbalanced lunacy in this one's voice. Logic wasn't going to work with this guy, so it'd be pointless to point out the fact that "Timmons" was merely unconscious and the worst he'd sport was a broken nose and one helluva headache come morning. Apparently the heat of battle had completely broken this guy's mind, though. It would take one sick bastard to use a young girl as a shield anyway, so Seifer felt very little pity for the creep.

He slowly set Hyperion down on the edge of the fountain and then took a step away, hands raised, meanwhile wracking his brain frantically for something to do to get them out of this mess. Squall set his Revolver on the pavement afterward and then sat back away from it, clutching at his bleeding arm.

The soldier's eyes darted back and forth between them, his grip tightening spasmodically around the girl's arm, who continued to cry and cringe in his grasp. This bozo was obviously hanging on to sanity by a thin thread. Nothing was stopping him from swinging that machine gun off the girl and plugging one of them. Seifer knew he could probably get to Hyperion in time to save himself should the Galbadian go for Squall first, but wasn't as confident on his ability to do so if he was the unlucky one.

Seifer tensed however as he suddenly realized there was one in his squad unaccounted for. He struggled to keep his stunned disbelief off his face as he suddenly realized where Chicken-wuss had gotten off to. Apparently after he'd initially dove out of the way of the gunfire, Zell had managed to sneak his way back completely behind the solider. Very slowly the blonde melted through the shadows of the alleyway, his tanned face eerily blank, blue eyes like cold mirrors as he snuck up behind his intended victim. Part of Seifer wanted to yell at Zell and tell him to back off—knowing that if he screwed this up the girl and possibly all of them were dead meat—yet he kept his silence because if he said anything now it'd definitely be all over.

Yet the hairs on the back of Seifer's neck stood on end as the normally energetic, bouncing teen moved through the shadows with such eerie, fluid stealth. How someone normally so annoyingly restless and hyper could move so slow and furtively he'd never know. Had he not been staring, Seifer probably wouldn't have even seen Zell coming. The soldier sure didn't. And then all at once Zell went from slow and controlled, to lightening fast, moving with a surgeon's precision.

Zell grabbed the soldier's arm that held the gun and wrenched it back to an unnatural angle, and Seifer winced as he heard the bones snapping from all the way on the other side of the fountain. Before the soldier even had a chance to scream about that, Zell's opposite foot shot out and slammed down into the man's kneecap, shattering it backward. The Galbadian released the girl—who immediately stumbled away—and then fell to his knees with a loud, agonized wail. Yet that too ended abruptly as Zell—his face utterly blank and apparently deep into some kind of zone—reached out and grabbed the guy's head in both hands, then sharply twisted it with a swift, deadly efficient gesture.

Zell let go and the body fell forward and thumped lifelessly onto the pavement in front of him. Seifer could only stare, wide-eyed. Hyne-damn, he'd had no idea the Chicken-wuss had that in him. A quick glance to Squall showed him with what must be a similar look of shock and disbelief on his own face.

The nameless girl disappeared down a side street with a sob, and was quickly forgotten about.

Zell just stared down at the body at his feet for several moments, and slowly that blank stare left his face. Most of the color left his complexion, until his black tattoo stood out in garish relief against his suddenly ghost-white skin. Soon his breaths were coming in faster and faster. Seifer sighed. Dincht was just now realizing that he'd just killed somebody and apparently he wasn't taking that too well.

Sure enough he suddenly started to mumble with an edge of incoherency. "They . . . they said it was different . . . said people were different . . . different from monsters. I didn't . . . I never . . . they said it was different . . ."

Seifer knew he had to act fast. He couldn't let Zell fall to pieces on him. Selfishly, if any member of his squad started going cookoo, it'd probably reflect badly on his exam score. And in a slightly less selfish light, Zell himself would undoubtedly fail the exam with flying colors if he flipped his lid over popping his kill-count cherry.

Not that Seifer necessarily blamed him. Killing another human being was easier said than done, and the first was always the hardest to get over. One of the reasons why he himself had failed his first exam was that he'd been forced to behead a guy on his first mission. Seifer had thrown up all over the place right after, and that had been the end of that.

"Yo, Chicken-wuss!" he suddenly snarled, putting his meanest face forward. Zell's widened blue eyes snapped off of the dead guy at his feet and centered on Seifer instead. He gave a ghost of his usual blustery scowl. That's it, wuss, he thought to himself. Forget about the horror and get pissed at me. Pissed I can use. "Would you get a grip and knock that the fuck off? We still have a mission to get through, so stop pissin' your pants over there and help Puberty Boy get these bodies out of the open."

The pallor disappeared, replaced with that more familiar ruddy flush of anger. Seifer refrained from patting himself on the back, however. That'd just be too arrogant, even for him. Leonhart—after splashing a bit of Potion to his wound to stop the bleeding and then quickly chasing the rest with a grimace—re-clipped his Revolver to his belt and then obligingly grabbed the leg of the dead guy and hauled him back into the alley, secluding him in a pile of refuse. Zell did his ultimate best not to look in that direction, instead grabbing Timmons from underneath the arms and hauling him back as well. With Squall's help they dumped the live one into the dumpster and then wedged the top closed.

Meanwhile Seifer did his best to convince the dog to get away from him. It had returned after the commotion had died down, and now seemed overly fascinated with sniffing his shoe.

"I think that's all of them," Squall murmured as he and Zell came back over.

"Well then, we're on stand-by 'til the enemy comes." He sighed heavily. "Stand-by . . . how boring."

The dog at his feet inched closer and let out a low whine just before the air around them was lit up with the distant din of explosions and gunfire. All three of them turned toward the mountains.

"Sounds like it's starting," Squall announced needlessly. A rare occurrence for him, betraying his nerves. Seifer scoffed.

"Bring it on." The dog started barking then and Seifer made a mock swipe at it with his gunblade. "Get outta here! Scram!" The mutt cowered away a few steps, but didn't leave the area entirely. Instead it turned back and stared at him with a look of absolute puppy betrayal. In order to take his mind off of the annoying niggle of conscience that struck him from a stupid dog, he ran forward to the street that would lead into the mountains. "Hey!" he suddenly roared. "Galbadian soldiers! What are you waiting for?! Come show me what you got!"

The only answer he got was that stupid dog's bark.