Chapter 4

I woke up still laying on Irvine, who I couldn't tell was awake or not. Just in case, I just lay there, enjoying the moment while it lasted. Irvine woke up, so I pretended to still be asleep. He stroked my hair some. I had gone to heaven. I was probably really falling back asleep when.....

Knock

"Alex? It's Zell, um I couldn't find you most of yesterday, but um, if you want we can go train now." Shit! I looked over at Irvine who was as shocked at I was, where was I gonna put him!?

"Um just a sec!" I yelled though the door. "Irvine, um, hide in the um..." but when I looked he was already in the closet. I opened the door.

"Hi um yeah I guess so I uh just have to change. Uh come in" I walked to my suitcase and pulled out a pair of really, really baggy jeans, a tank, and went into the bathroom. I pulled off the shirt I had worn to bed and put on the jungle green tank. I was about to change my pants when I saw a shadow in the shower. I pulled open the curtain and nearly had a heart attack. Irvine hadn't gone to the closet, he had gone into the shower.

"Fuck you!" I said in a semi loud whisper.

"Shhhhh" he hissed

"Ok when were you gonna tell me that you were there? After I changed?!" I yelled in a whisper.

"I didn't want to scare you. But I didn't look." I soooooo felt like punching him right then but instead....

"Turn around I hafta change my pants." He turned and I changed.

"Ok so uh, do I bring my Gunblade?" I came out of the bathroom and shut the door behind me.

"Dunn matter." I took it, the whole 'I feel safer with a weapon' thing. On the way to, wherever we were going we met up with Squall.

"Yo Squall, how's it hanging?" Squall looked right past Zell and at my Gunblade.

"Nice" he turned his head sideways to look at the dragon. Zell laughed and rolled his eyes

"Yeah," I drew it so he could get a better look.

"Can I?" he asked wanting to test it out.

"I dunno can you?" I liked bugging people but I gave it to him anyways. He slashed at the air a couple of times and looked impressed.

"Very nice," he handed it back.

"You and me, one on one some time." Please say yes, please say yes......

"Whatever," he went back to his normal dull self and waved us off.

"How rude," I protested

"No, how Squall." We walked into a room covered in mats, most-likely the other training center for hand to hand combat practice.

"Ok, attack me" Zell said talking off his metal knuckles.

"What?" I took off my belt and Gunblade

"Attack me, punch me, kick me, attack me" I had I plan....

"Um no....." I started to walk away then turned around and did a running kick at Zell who dogged it by a hair. I fell, rolled a bit and found myself at the feet of Seifer who was laughing hysterically.

"Fuck off." I started to get up but his foot came crashing into my back.

"Oof" I couldn't breath when I hit bottom

"Seifer fuc..." Zell was cut off

"Nah, I'd rather not." He started putting more and more of his body weight on my back. I tensed up, bit my lip and quickly rolled to one side when all his weight was centred on my back. Seifer came crashing down on top of me, to keep his face away from mine I crossed my arms over it.

Ok, talk about gross, Seifer was on top of me.

"I like this position" he taunted. Ok that was it...I grabbed his shoulders rolled us over so I was on top, punched him in the face again then got up and walked back to Zell.

"You think good on your feet."

"No, I was just fucking pissed off. Now, you attack me."

"Fair enough," Zell was fast and smart. He came at me with a fake to the stomach and at the last minute changed the angle for a head punch, but I saw it coming, so I ducked under and flipped him over my back. I didn't see him land but when I turned to face him, I had a close encounter with his shoe.

I got that in the face and I was down, but he didn't stop, thank god, I hate being treated like a little kid just cause I'm 15 and there all 17, 18, 19.

He ran towards me and looked like he was gonna jump, step on me like Seifer did so at the last second I rolled outta the way and kicked him in the calf. As he fell toward the mats I rolled as fast as I could, grabbed my gunblade, and came up behind him as he was getting up gently pressing the blade against his tender throat.

"Never underestimate your enemy," I sneered then released him and started cracking up when I noticed everyone on the training center looking at me and Zell. Zell joined in and the rest of the people went back to what they were doing. We stretched for the remaining time.

"Zell? Why is Squall so anti-social?" He seamed like he could be a nice guy if he said more then a one or two word sentence.

"Eh, he's been through a lot I guess. Actually he's always been like that.....I guess it grows on you..." yeah but how can you hang with someone who's not gonna talk to you?

"Hmmmm speaking of Squall...." he came in holding his gunblade and taking off his jacket. Nice! Man Squall has a lot of muscle, why doesn't he just where the muscle shirt instead of that stupid jacket?

"Hey, you ready to fight?" he sounded ever so enthusiastic but that's Squall for you. I got my gunblade and stood up.

"Bring it on" this is gonna be fun, cause he's not gonna try to kill me unlike Seifer. But by looking at him, he wasn't gonna go easy on me either.

We stood facing each other my eyes not leaving his and his not leaving mine, like we were trying to read the first attack from each others eyes waiting for Zell to start it. One thing I knew for sure was that he was going to make the first attack by the way he was impatiently waiting.

"Ok," Zell started, "three.....two.....one......Go!" I was right.

Squall ran toward me, gunblade half dragging behind him ready to slash in an upward motion. I jumped back and blocked it his attack holding my gunblade at the handle with one hand and at the top with the other for extra support. But I forgot that I didn't have gloves on...ahh well Just a lil more blood shed, that's all. I pushed him away and slashed down at him, missing his chest by millimetres. Actually, I think I cut his shirt. And he noticed.........He swung sideways at my face and slashed the bridge of my nose. Ok now I was mad. I ran toward Squall as fast as I could and rolled under his legs just as he thought I was gonna strike. Which was kinda hard when your two and a half inches taller, but I managed. I tripped him on my way up and put the tip of my gunblade at his neck gently like I did with Zell but with enough presser that he wouldn't dare try to struggle. Walking to the side of him but keeping the gunblade at his throat so when I took it off he couldn't trip me, I released the pressure, winked at him, then headed for the exit.

"Come on Zell," and we left. Squall wasn't that far behind us cause we were all eating together. Can you believe it? Lunch already.

We all met up at the usual table and we all got up for lunch at around the same time too. Irvine caught up to me.

"Oh, it's hotdogs again, that's it I'm going veggie" and I did! I don't know why, I just did.

"So how did training go?" he asked

"Oh my god you shoulda been there! I was attacking Zell......." yeah, I told him everything but it felt like when my dad would ask, just cause it's the nice thing to do. It's not like he wanted to here and I knew it. But anyways, that's how it felt with Irvine, so I summed it up really fast, and ate my salad. He didn't even notice my nose! Oh yeah........I took the napkin and wiped the blood away, that's when Quistis noticed

"Oh my god Alex! What happened?" Rinoa, Selphie and Irvine all looked at me.

"I was training with Squall." Smiled and winked at him. Rinoa rolled her eyes.

"Squall! Your just as bad as Seifer," Quistis glared at Squall's totally cool scar.

His blank expression quickly turned to anger, he was about to snap at her so I.....

"I deserved it, I cut his shirt, I guess I need to work on my blocking skills." Quistis left him alone after that.

"Alex, are you excited about the SeeD test?" Quistis asked me.

"Yeah I guess," I totally forgot! But I'm ready for whatever it is. "I'm just gonna go to my dorm, see ya in and hour," I hadta feed Zoro and clean her cage.

"Hello Zoro baby," I said in a 'mother talking to her infant' voice. I started talking to her when the door opened.

"Hello?" a female voice asked

"Who are you?" I knew but why not ask?

"Um, this is my dorm, are.....are you my room mate?" I forgot that we hadn't met yet.

"Yeah...uh......hi." Oh shit! Zoro!

"Uh, can I bring my boyfriend in?"

"It's a free country," I closed the cage and through a sweater over it.

"Thanks so much!" a blonde in a pink top and baby blue shorts walked in with her much taller boyfriend.

"Nice bird." He, as I said was much taller than her, short, dark brown hair and blue eyes.

"He's taking the SeeD test and I'm not gonna be here when he gets back, I'll be in the training center then I have classes, oh duh, I'm Aurora, and this is Timmy."

"Hi" she was nice, a prep, but nice, "I'm Alex."

"Alex......oh come on, Alex is a nick name, what's your full name? Alexandria?"

"No, um, I don't use it or respond to it." Just tell him, they'll understand

"Oh please?" he gave me the cutest puppy dog face, I giggled as well as Aurora

"Hehe, oh fine, it's Alzera"

"That's pretty but we won't use it" she looked so happy with him it was funny

We talked for a bit about Zoro and Aurora promised not to tell, and about the garden.

"Time to go." I grabbed my gunblade and five cures

"Yeah." Timmy got up and started to leave

"I know you'll make it, both of you!" cheered Aurora

"Yeah me too," Timmy agreed. I just nodded said good by to Zoro, then headed for the front gate with Timmy.

"Ok now that everyone's present, Team A will consist of Seifer, Timmy and Alex."

My eyes widened, I can't believe I'm stuck with Seifer on my SeeD test!

"Um, can you r...repeat that?" I stuttered

"Team A will consist of Seifer Almasy, Timmy Larson and Alex Kessler."

"Eh, thanks," no, No, NO!!!! Man he is so gonna screw me up on this mission.

"Team B Will consist of Stan Burden, Tommy Levi and Gary Gates

"Team C will consist of Roddy Hull, Vernan Croke and Squall Leonheart to complete the team." Quistis was talking al serious and stuff but I guess that's what you hafta do when your talking to an all guy group.

"Your mission: Go to Galbadia, kill all monsters, protect the citizens and get the computer chip that makes Balamb garden fly. Oh yes, be prepared to kill Galbadian soldiers. Team A, Seifer Almasy is your commander. Team B, Tommy Levi is your commander and team C, Squall Leonheart is your commander, Dismissed,"

Me and Timmy walked over to Squall

"Stuck with Seifer as your commander, haha," Squall laughed not meaning any harm

"Yeah, well it's not like I hafta take the test again," I winked and walked passed him

We took a car to Balamb's port and took a boat from there to Dollet.

"It's too hot in here, I'm goin' up top." I went up so I could feel the rushing wind in my hair. I started out into the ocean, and a million things went through my mind. How could Balamb have been so careless to let Galbadia take the fly chip? Why did Quistis pair me up with Seifer when she knew that we wanted each other dead? Why in six days did Irvine feel like the only one who cared about me, then become so distant? Who's behind me? I got my fist ready to punch Seifer.

I turned, punched, and realized that it was Squall, luckily for him he dodged it.

"Woah! It's just me!" he knew that I thought it was Seifer

"Sorry, what do you think is gonna happen, during the mission?" I turned back out to the sea.

"Depends on Seifer, he screwed up on his last test and nearly cost us the mission, and our lives."

"Oh that's reassuring," I said sarcastically and laughed.

"Time to go," Squall headed back downstairs. I stayed so I could get a good look at the city.

"Alex! Get a move on!" Seifer yelled as if he actually cared about the mission

All the teams split up as they were told to, Team A (my team) was to hang out in the town and wait for monsters and Galbadian solders. I didn't listen to the others. We waited for twenty minutes and encountered a few one hit wonders before we realized that we were suppose to walk around.

"Ok, Timmy, you take that street, it's just one big circle and will bring you back here, I'll tale that one over there and Alex you stay here." Timmy started to leave

"Excuse me! I am so not staying hear. I'll take that one." I started walking

"Get back hear Kessler, that's an order!" I had to listed or risk losing points from my final mark.

"Why do I hafta stay?!" I sat on the fountain and protested.

"Cause I told you to, get going Larson!" Timmy ran down one of the streets. Seifer ran down another.

"Great, I'm not only the youngest on this stupid mission but I'm the only girl."

I waited ten minuets when Squall and his team ran toward me.

"I got it, but there's an army after us so lets go, I already consulted with team C."

"Seifer and Timmy are down there somewhere," I pointed "Seifer made me stay" I rolled my eyes

"Well go get Timmy and I'll get Seifer, now!" I ran down the street.

"Timmy, we gotta go! Where are you?" someone grabbed me from behind. I threw him in front of me. It was Timmy

"Shut up! I'm hiding from like twenty Galbadian solders!" he yelled in a whisper "Now they know were here!" we started running, I heard a gunshot, looked behind me and saw Timmy stumbling to get up.

"Timmy!" I had to get him. You never ever leave a comrade behind. I saw a couple of Galbadian solders running to him but I got there first. I drew my gunblade and stood in between them and Timmy. Unfortunately for me, they drew guns. I took a couple of hits with my shoulder but killed them off. I had to get him to safety before he lost to much blood, or before I did. I started dragging Timmy up the street where Squall and Seifer were waiting, but I was getting weaker and weaker, and so was Timmy, he could hardly keep his eyes open. There was a long thick trail of blood from him and me, and soldiers were shooting at us but had bad aim from where they were. Squall came running up to me.

"Leave him! He's not gonna make it!" I shoved him off

"Alex! He's lost too much blood and what about you!?" I kept pulling.

"Help or leave." I almost had him to the fountain when soldiers jumped from a balcony and attacked me and Squall.

He had me pinned with a gun to my head, I looked hard into his eyes and realized who he was.

I couldn't believe it.

"D..Dad?" I was crying

"Alex?" he realized it too. But he was the enemy and I was ordered to kill the enemy as was he, and to him, I was the enemy. I took the opportunity to punch him get up and try to get Timmy outta there. Squall was up and at my side.

"Come on! You're too weak and he's gonna die anyway!"

"No! We can't leave him!" I looked over at my father running towards me his gun.

"No!" Squall yelled, then my world went black.