Sarah looked over the group that had been gathered in the quad for the training that they were going to be going through. She sighed.
"They seem stronger than the
last group I tried to help," she thought. "Who knows, we might just be able to
work together and defeat the Shadow Claw once and for all."
She cleared her throat and made sure that the microphone was working.
"SeeDs and students of
Balamb Garden," she said. "You have been especially chosen to be trained to
fight against an enemy unlike any you have ever faced before. The enemy I speak
of is a group of powerful demons called the Shadow Claw. They seek out worlds,
deplete them of their natural resources and just leave them to die. I am part
Shadow Claw demon, and part human. I hunt these evil creatures, and help the
warriors of other worlds hunt them whenever I can. That is my mission, and that
is what I plan to do here."
Silence.
"Do they even believe me?" Sarah thought. "Or
are they going to just walk out and ignore me until it is too late?"
A male SeeD came out of the crowd and looked at her.
"How long do we have?" he
asked. Sarah looked at him.
"Do they believe me?" she thought. "Two
months at the most, that is why we have to start training today."
The SeeD nodded. "I can do
that," he said. "My name is Clifford. Nice to meet you."
He held out his hand, and
Sarah shook it and looked at him closely. He was tall, had a medium build, red
hair, green eyes and a freckled face. His SeeD uniform looked good on him.
"My name is Sarah," she said.
"What about your comrades, will they help too?"
Clifford nodded. "Most of 'em
will," he said. "Ain't that right, guys 'n girls?"
The group stood to attention
and saluted.
"See?" Clifford said. "So,
where do we train and when do we start?"
Sarah had to smile. Clifford
was enthusiastic, to say the least. But enthusiasm was nothing if it did not
have courage, strength and the ability to fight backing it up. She noticed that
he had a retractable staff hooked onto his belt.
"Is that your weapon?" she
asked. Clifford nodded.
"This is my baby," he said. "I
carry her everywhere with me. She's saved my life more than once."
"I see," she said. "His 'baby'?"
Another person stepped out of the crowd, Seifer Almasy.
"Heh, so you were serious,
eh?" he said. "I'm glad that I made it into your little selection."
Sarah grinned. "Well, you've
had more training than any of these other people," she said. "So I figured that
you might be useful in battle. You did, after all, survive against a Shadow
Claw demon long enough for me to save you."
Seifer glared at her. "I was
doing fine until you showed up and destroyed it," he said. Sarah shook her
head.
"Then why did it have you pinned
to the ground?" she asked. "Trust me, you were about to become a tasty
snack for a powerful demon."
Seifer clenched his fists to
control his anger. "I just hope you can do to the rest of these demons what you
did to the one in the training center," he said, turning around and walking
off.
"Is he always so
difficult?" Sarah asked Clifford.
"Actually, I think today is
one of his better days," he replied, grinning. Sarah sighed. Training Seifer
was going to be her biggest challenge yet.
------------------
Eve stared at her milkshake.
It was chocolate, her favourite flavour, but she just wasn't in the mood to
drink it. She put it down with a sigh.
"I've been putting on weight
lately anyway," she thought. Maybe she would go to that training center she saw
earlier and fight a few of those monsters. She got up and walked out of the
cafeteria and made her way to the training center. When she got there, she
noticed two doors, one on the left and one on the right.
"Door no. 1, or door no. 2?"
she
thought jokingly. She eventually went through door number two, the one on the
right. The second she got inside however; she was attacked by a huge
dinosaur-type monster!
"What the heck is that thing?"
she
thought, raising her fists. The monster swung at her with its tail, but it was
so slow that Eve simply jumped over the tail and brought her fist down onto it
hard. The T-Rexuar roared in pain and immediately stepped away from her. Eve smirked;
there was no way she was about to be defeated by an over-sized gecko! The
T-Rexuar lowered its head to scoop her up. Big mistake, Eve jumped high into
the air and slammed her fist into its head! She heard the satisfying sound of
its skull getting split open, and landed safely behind the T-Rexuar as it fell
to the ground and dissipated in death.
"Too easy," she thought.
"Whoa, how'd you do that?!"
Eve twisted around to see a
teenager with blonde hair, blue eyes, and wearing baggy pants, a blue-black jacket
and fighting gloves with a tattoo on the side of his head standing behind her
with his eyes wide and his mouth open.
"Uh-oh," she thought. "Busted!"
"I, well, you see…" she said, not really sure just how to explain her strength. "I…had been fighting that monster for nearly half-and-hour and I finally managed to beat it."
"Don't bullshit me," the boy
said. "I saw what happened: it attacked you and you jumped into the air and
cracked it's skull open like a melon!"
"Darn," Eve thought. "He
saw the entire fight! Now what do I do?"
"Well, I'm waiting for an answer!" he said impatiently.
"I…I have to go!" she said,
turning and running out of the training center.
Zell watched her leave and
sighed. How had she finished that T-Rexuar off so quickly…?
-----------------------
Sarah watched as Clifford
warmed up before their practice match. He finished his warm-ups and took the
staff from his belt and expanded it to its full length. She unsheathed Destiny
and concentrated on making it like a normal sword. After all, she didn't want
to beat him straight away, right? The runes shone once, and then dimmed
out. Sarah nodded.
"Come and get me," she said
playfully, a wicked grin on her face. Clifford returned her grin and raised his
staff.
"If you wanna be beaten that
badly," he said. The entire group had gathered around them in the quad to watch
the practice round with interest. Sarah gave them one look, and turned back to
Clifford.
"I will not lose so easily,"
she said, laughing softly. "Even in practice."
Clifford gave her a small
smile and charged at her, swinging his staff at her abdomen. Sarah blocked it
easily and countered with an upward slash that Clifford managed to block with
the left end of his staff, and countered by ramming the other end into Sarah's
side. She grunted and stepped back.
"Oh my," Sarah thought. "He
is good!"
She charged at him and feigned another upward slash. When Clifford moved to block it, Sarah tripped him with a foot sweep and put Destiny to his throat.
"You're good," she said. "Strong
and fast, but you need to stay focused. Do you surrender?"
Clifford nodded. "Sure," he
said. "Y'know, you're the first person to beat me in practice in more than a
year?"
Sarah tilted her head to the
side. "Really?" she said. "That's nice to know."
She helped him up and turned
to the crowd. "Remember, even if you think you've won-" she turned and grabbed
Clifford by the throat just as he was trying to stab her in the back with a small
knife. "-Your enemy can still get up and stab you in the back. Now, why would you
try and kill me?"
Clifford dropped the knife
and stared at her.
"I was just following Ranka's
orders," he wheezed. "She wants you dead."
Sarah's grip on his throat
tightened. "You're not a demon," she said. "So why are you helping them?"
"I was promised a fine
reward," he replied. "All I had to do was kill you."
Sarah dropped him. "A human
assassin?" she said. "That's a new one for Ranka. I never saw it coming. Tell
me, Clifford, how does it feel to have nearly betrayed your world?"
Clifford rubbed his throat. "Go
to hell," he said, standing up and running off. A few SeeDs started after him,
but Sarah stopped them.
"Let him report to his mistress,"
she said. "This isn't good, if Ranka already has assassin's on this world,
then that means that she has had her eye on it for a long time."
The group walked out, and Sarah began to think.