Strider sat in the infirmary...Squall had lost and was left with many new scars, mostly located on his chest and lower abdomen. Strider had won with no compitition. Squall was barely able to bring his guage down to 9,750. He had a luckey shot...he hit him when he fell.

~Flashback~

A crowd had gathered...though it was easy to tell who everyone was rooting for. Everyone placed their bets on Squall. To them it seemed like no competition.

Squall backed up the energy from the last strike still had a grip on him and he was now moving very sluggishly. Squall shook his head, in the feutile attempt to shake out the numbness he felt. It worked to some extent. He could now feel his upper arms, the rest was still tingling. Squall gathered himself and jumped at Strider, Squall's blade was meer inches away from Striders good arm. With speed that equal to only a chocobo, Strider spun and Squall missed. Strider smiled to himself, bringing the back of his metalic arm down directly on top of Squall's head. He fell, to the astonishment of the crowd.

Squall layed there unconcious, unmoving. No one moved, no one dared to move. They just stared at Squall. Their leader, taken down without landing a single blow. The one who saved the world.

"Don't just stand there people! Get a medic!" Strider screamed, annoyed at the on lookers.

Thats when he saw her. She had beautiful blonde tresses and deep blue eyes. The kind of eyes you could get lost in, the color of blue you would think you could swim in. The dangerous kind. His kind. She wore a tan dress and a matching sleevless top. She wore dark boots and gloves, they looked close to if not black, with one band of red to secure them on. At her waist she sported a very dangerous looking whip. It was completly metal with what looked like small razor blades imbeded all the way down.

He felt something he had never felt before. He felt, to him what seemed to be pure unadulterd desire. Something so pure and raw that he was starting to feel hot just looking at her. He had to have her. Suddenly he was scared, she was walking casually closer to him.

"Hey! You could have killed him! He is the most important person in this academy next to Cid Kramer. What did you expect to prove by doing this to him?" She asked, Strider could hear the anger in her voice.

"I wished to be put into the advanced courses so I could one day become SeeD S.O." Strider said, a bit scared to talk to her. He hoped she couldn't tell what she was making him feel like.

"SeeD Special Operations, huh... I see. Next time don't be so brutal. Everyone here is only human you know. All except for Squall and Seifer. They are something else. You watch out for Seifer. Now that he knows you beat Squall, he will be coming after you to test you. Don't let him get under your skin and you should be alright." The Female SeeD said before she started to walk off.

"Wait! I didn't catch your name!" Strider said, eagerly waiting for her response.

"My name? My name is Quistis, but to you it is Intructor." Quistis replied. She had a cold toung.

"Well it was nice to meet you, 'Instructor'" Strider said with the same coldness, only trying to hide all the heat that was actually inside him.

~Flashback~

Strider smiled to himself at the thought of the Instructor. She had awakend something inside him and he wasn't going to rest until she had brought it out. Just then the doctor interupted his day dream.

"Squall is awake and asking for you...you should go in and see him." The doctor walked away back to her desk.

Strider walked in and sat in a chair by Squall's bed. He looked at his commander and inwardly laughed to himself.

"What's so funny?"

"Just a joke I've heard before. Want to hear it?" Strider asked with little enthusiasm.

"Sure, why not. It might take my mind off the numbness."

"Okay. There are construction workers, one is Jewish, one is Italian and one is a Redneck. The Jewish construction worker says, 'If I get corn beef and cabbage one more time I am going to jump off this building to my death.' The Italian says, 'If I get Spagehti one more time I am going to jump off this building to my death.' and the Redneck says, 'If I get bologni on more time I will jump off this building to my death.' The next day they all got the same thing and jumped to their death. At the funeral all the wifes were mourning their lost loved ones. The Jewish person's wife said, 'If only I knew I wouldn't have made him corn beef and cabbage.' The Italian wife said, 'If only I knew I wouldn't have made Spagehti.' And the Rednecks wife said, 'Don't look at me he makes his own lunches!'"

With this Squall was laughing hysterically, the numbness was forgotten, at least for a few seconds. Before he realized that the tickling sensation that was making him laugh even longer was brought on by his movements.

"Oh and by the way, the numbness would go away if you unjunctioned Quazecotle. I focused that GF on my blade and when I struck you it activated that GF in your body, acting as a paralyzing agent. If you unjunction him the numbness should go away."

"Really? That is quite a trick you pulled on me, but hey it worked didn't it? You earned your rank. I have already assigned you to a class. Your instructor will be number 1584232, Instructor Quistis Trepe. She is the most skilled Instructor that I know. If anyone could teach you enough to be SeeD S.O. she would be the person. Of course, you are the only person that I know who is in the advanced courses. There is a 98% chance that you are the only student." Squall said with a sadness in his voice.

"That's okay, the less people to get in my way the beter." Strider said with pleasure. That and the less people there is all the more time I get to spend with the Instructor. I am so luckey to have her as my Instructor.

"Okay Squall, I will leave you be. I have a long day tommorow. I have my first day of class."

"Alright, and if you see that woman I was with earlier, could you send her to my office. As you might know, we have some unfinished business." Squall said that with a small smirk sliding across his face.

"I'll be sure to do that." Strider said with a grin.

Strider walked out of the medical wing thinking. He was happy he was able to convinvingly get out of telling the truth of his laugh to Squall. The real reason was much more desturbing. The real reason was that he had just beaten up one of the strongest fighters on the planet. It wasn't even a smile it was a mixture of sorrow and confusion of all the irony. Him beating up one of the two people on this world that should technically care about him the most and one of the two people that he should care about for the most. He was just sad that Squall would never know the truth and neither would she.

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Kaiser_X -

The Dragon Lord

Wow, that was pretty screwed up. Why would Squall be so important to him and who is the other person he is talking about? Why would he feel this way and what significance does this play later in the story?

If there are ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR A PLOT then just drop a review with your ideas to make this story better. I already have the entire plot layed out, but if you have any really good ideas out there I might just incorporate them into my story...

UNTIL NEXT CHAPTER

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