Author's note~ Okay so I lied when I said this would be posted on monday... I finished my coursework early... I hope you like it, even though it's a bit short. Thanks for reading though guys ;-)
Selphie smiled when she saw Trabia in the distance, it's green and silver ring seemed to be beckoning her home. When they saw the students milling in the Quad Roo and Selphie gave each other a funny look. Roo stopped to ask one of them what was going on. 'Mr Festreli has organised a special night exercise for some of the best students and SeeDs for training purposes Ma'am.' One of the students said to her, Selphie frowned, it was an unusual thing to do especially at the last minute. Jillina watched the preperations in consternation, even the young girl saw that things were not right.
Selphie nodded. 'Lets go home, I say that this little party has the night off.' Jill bit her bottom lip.
'Excuse me Miss Tilmet, but I haven't been on one of Mr Festreli's training exercises, shouldn't I be going with them?' The girl was eager.
'No Jill, you're to stay at Trabia, that's an order, if they wanted you they would have notified you already.' She said sharply the girl hung her head and Selphie felt bad. 'But between you and me, you've earnt it, you came at the top of this years intake in the field exam ya know.' She saw Jill's shy little smile and felt happy again. 'Anyway girl, dismissed.' Jill threw her a quick salute and broke into a run towards the dorms. 'That girl is going to be a SeeD faster than even Quistis was.' She told Roo who smiled.
'See, some of students are good.' Selphie looked at her in surprise.
'That's not why we are here Roo, we already think they are good, we don't want to criticise you, the teachers here are doing the best that they can.' A small patch of red crawled up behind Roo's ears. Selphie grinned. 'Anyway, I'm beat, I'm going to my room.'
*
Selphie yawned as she reached her room stuck her shinobu down the side of her bed, then she slid out of her SeeD uniform and quickly into a pair of grey trousers, a red top and her boots, now she felt more comfortable. She noticed a few files on the table that Zell had obviously left there for her and sat down to read through them. The knock on her door surprised her, she wasn't expecting anyone, nobody knew she was back yet except the people in the quad. She answered it and smiled when she saw Badier. 'Hi, Selphie, I've got a favour to ask you can I come in?' He asked her.
'Sure.' She said opening the door wider and standing aside to let him through. He grinned at her as she shut the door. 'Now what can I do for you?' She asked turning round.
*RUN!* Shouted Bahumat in her head so loudly that she was immediatly dwarfed by his presence, she could see him flying, rearing back in panic. *Run away now! He's the one!* Bahumat was screaming at her so loudly that it was all she could do to turn around and look at Badier. She only just turned around in time to avoid the slash from a glinting gunblade. She threw herself to one side rolling and coming up on her feet. Badier was now between her and the door and she looked around wildly for something to protect herself with, her weapon was on the other side of the room, she had nothing else to fight with. She immediately thought of Zell and lowered into a fighting crouch, he had always insisted she learnt a little hand to hand combat in case she was ever disarmed. She had been a fool to only learn the basics.
'You aren't going to stop me doing what I'm doing you know, no one is going to come in and save you at the last minute.' He told her and she used his distraction to make a move behind the table, never talk during battle. Unless you have something that will incapacitate your opponant completely. He frowned at her, she looked at his eyes not at his shimmering gunblade. She grabbed the chair in front of her and when he made to move at her, she picked it and threw it at him, she could hear him snarling just over Bahumat's terrified wails. *Shut up I need to concentrate* She yelled at her GF. Badier used that breif distraction to throw an overhand slash across the table at her. She grabbed hold of the table edge and she slid onto her back underneath it. She gave a brief thought to his sloppy technique, Squall would never have done that, neither would Seifer. She kicked out at his ankles making him tip forward slightly, then she pull down on the table edge and slammed it forwards into his face. He cried out in pain as she rolled out from under the table and ran across to her bed to grab her shinobu. She had been fighting when he was eight years old, she refused to let herself be beaten by him.
She nearly did it... she nearly grabbed hold of her weapon but he caught her arm and dragged her around to face him. She hit out at him with her other fist, but she was no where near strong enough to cause him any kind of disabling pain. He took her wrists in one hand as she squirmed. She looked into his eyes and stopped dead, she began shaking, his eyes burned. 'You asked me what you could do for me... for me personally... you can die for me.' She watched his blade come from beside him, not that she would ever admit it later but she had every intention of screaming... not a scream for help as such... a scream of pure unbridled terror, the kind that cuts you with it's intensity. But, fortunately for her ego, she never got that chance. She only grunted as the blade slid through the wall of her abdomen, but when the bullet ripped through her back she threw her head to the sky and howled in pain. The blade was icy cold as it slid back out of her gut, her hands came up to cradle her ruptured body. Her knees gave out on her and she collapsed to the floor on her side, she was curled into the foetal position and the pain burned. Selphie whimpered as she lay there, her hair curling in gentle waves across the floor and her blood gushing from her like from a river. Badier knelt next to her down next to and pulled a lock of her brown hair off her face.
She looked up at him, her wide eyes staring into his brown ones that were burning from the inside. She felt her tears running down her face but she could barely breathe and was unable to sob. 'You know, I really couldn't care if you lived or died.' He told her. 'But we need you yet, you carry a small value, Trabia is mine... I'm using you to ensure it stays mine.' He placed his hand across her stomach and she tried to scream but it came out as a gurgle. 'Cure spell methinks, you aren't needed back at your full capacity, you just need to stay alive.' The white light of the spell slid inside her and began the large task of reworking her tissues into their original framework, she found the energy to howl, just once, before Badier knocked her out.
*
Zell watched Badier's night-time exit from the cafeteria with a slow grin on his face, he had been expecting Selphie to call on him and was a bit surprised that she hadn't by now. He watched Badier walk out of the garden with a cloth wrapped bundle in his arms, he threw it across an empty loading stretcher and strode to the head of the colomn making everybody fall into line. Rathi had been left behind on this outing, he wasn't officially assigned to do it so he didn't go, Zell thought that was incredibly selfish. He watched the line of SeeDs and students walk out of the gates, Badier had told him where he was heading, the snowplains to the west of Trabia. He smiled and turned back to Roo who was sitting at their table. She tossed her red hair over her shoulder and grinned, telling him all about this girl that she and Selphie had taken to the ice caves. Roo pointed her out to him, she was watching the Trabians leave with a frown on her face.
It was an hour later that Ifrit roared into his head. *Selphie is in danger, she's dieing, she's cold!* Zell stood up and felt his eyes bulging out of his head. He had never been on the receiving end of a guardian forces' full voice before. It took him a second before what he had said was actually processed by his brain. Ifrit roared again and Zell spirinted from the room, taking the stairs upto Selphie's bedroom three at a time. The door was locked, he knocked frantically and when she hadn't answered him he took a step back and kicked it open. What he saw made him stop and he felt the cold pain of terror enter his chest. The chair was overturned by the door and the table was tilted onto one side. But he couldn't take his eyes of the bright pool of red on the floor. The sheets had been ripped off her bed and used to mop up the best of the blood, there was a dark smear of it that had been brought across on someone's boots. He trembled as he put his hand to it... it was cold, but that didn't mean anything, everything in this damn place was cold. His eyebrows were drawn down as he turned and ran out of the door. He meant to see Rathi dead if he didn't tell him where Selphie was. She was still alive, she had to be.