Chapter 3: Matthew

            "All right, SeeD cadets, this is your mission, as well as your test for whether or not you are to attain SeeD status," Headmaster Arik Barnett informed the group of ten students standing at attention in front of him.

            Each of the students, six young men and four young women, nodded smartly.

            "At ease."

            They each relaxed slightly, yet still standing tall before their headmaster.

            Arik nodded and continued speaking.  "Your mission will take place at the town of Tears' Point, where a large group of renegade Esthar soldiers has taken over, rumored to be at the order of the Dark Mage Ciaran.  You are to be divided up into five pairs, each with a specific mission to accomplish.  However, you must keep the general goal in mind as well: the expulsion of the renegade force from Tears' Point. 

            "Now, the assigned pairs are not open for discussion.  You will work at your specific task with your partner, and that is all."  The headmaster glanced down at his clipboard and indicated each person mentioned with his pen.  "Ericka and Martin, you will secure the West Gate.  Ferran and Ria, your task is to guard the Central Square.  Colene and Mark, you two will look after the Northeast Gate.  Kadin and Hera, you're assignment is the Southeast Gate.  Matt and Fox, you are to patrol the South Tower just outside of the town."  He paused, put the clipboard and pen down, and turned to address all ten cadets.  "Once you have taken care of any renegade soldiers in your assigned areas, you are to remain at your post until you receive further orders.  If you all complete your respective missions, the goal will be accomplished and airlifts will arrive to pick you up.  Any questions?"

            "What if soldiers get past us and get back into the city?" Hera asked.

            "Then you will have failed, and the real SeeDs will have to come in and mop up after you," the headmaster said bluntly.

            Hera nodded and shrunk back slightly.

            "How are we getting there?" Ferran inquired.

            "I'll explain that more in detail momentarily, but we are going overland."

            Kadin frowned.  "Why aren't we using the airlifts to get there, as well as leave?"

            Arik turned and made eye contact with him.  "Do you want the entire town to know you're coming?"

            The young man's eyes widened.  "No, sir!"

            "That is what I thought."

            "Sir, do we know why these soldiers have gone renegade and invaded the town?" Matt queried.

            Arik glanced at the young man.  'A sharp one, he is.  I knew he would be the one to ask, somehow.  I will be surprised if he does not pass the exam.'  "No, we do not.  But that is not your concern, at this point," he added quickly before Matt could voice his next question.  "The priority for the ten of you is to fulfill your tasks—do not allow your minds to stray from that fact.  Like I said earlier, if by some chance you fail at your mission, ten real SeeDs will come in and accomplish the task that you failed to complete.  Now, all of you head to the parking lot.  From there you will be transported to Balamb.  After you arrive in the town head for the train station and take the one headed for Esthar.  From there you will be driven to Tears' Point and dropped off just outside of the town itself.  Once you arrive, head for your assigned posts and follow your orders.  That will be all," he said finally, dismissing them and turning away before they had even finished their salutes.

            As one the cadets turned and filed out the door, each gravitating toward his or her assigned partner. 

            "Yo, Leonhart!  Looks like we're together again," Fox Danes said with an impish grin.

            Matt nodded distractedly.  "Yeah, yeah…"  He turned away from his partner and headed out into the hall with the others.

            "Humpf…that was odd," Fox noted with a frown.  "I wonder what's eating at him?"

            In the rather crowded elevator down to the main floor of Garden there was a lot of jostling, so Matt managed to maneuver himself to stand behind Colene Elnara.  "You ready for this?" she whispered, turning to face him before he had a chance to say a word.

            "I think so—yes," he said, quickly amending it to sound more confident at the fleeting look of surprise that crossed her face.  "Are you?" he asked after a brief moment's pause.

            "Yeah," she replied, but her voice shook as she said it.

            He reached out to give her a reassuring pat on her shoulder.  "You'll do just fine, I'm sure."

            She flashed him a grateful smile that dazzled him, making him go weak in the knees.  Then the elevator stopped and other cadets came between them, halting any further conversation.

            On the walk to the parking lot it was much the same: Matt was completely unable to get near the young blonde woman, much as he would have liked to.  And in the car, much to his chagrin, he and Fox were forced to sit in the front, while Colene and her friends sat in the seat furthest back in the transport car.

            Suddenly, just as the car was starting, he felt a jab in his side.  Glancing over at Fox, he saw his friend wearing a smirk that somehow unnerved him.  "What?" Matt asked, his tone more irritated than he had meant it to be.

            "You really like her, don't you?"

            "Not so loud!" he hissed.

            Fox laughed, but politely kept his laughter down.  "Just as I thought.  No wonder you seemed so antsy on the walk to the lot—I thought you were just nervous, but you were trying to get closer to her, weren't you?"

            Matt looked over at him with a worried expression.  "Am I that obvious?"

            Taken aback by the glance—'I've never seen him look so anxious about anything!'—Fox hastily assured him, "No!  I just noticed 'cause I was walking right next to you and am your partner and friend, after all."  He smiled in a further attempt to soothe Matt's feelings.

            It worked.  The young man's face slowly relaxed, and he even managed a half-smile after a moment.  "Thanks, Fox," he replied.  Then he recalled the partner assignments, and that Mark Devenfield, the one who made most girls go crazy for whatever reason, got to be Colene's partner.  A shadow of anger crossed his face briefly before he was able to get it under control, and laid his head back casually, closing his eyes in a show of nonchalance.

            But Fox had noticed the fleeting expression, and figured that Mark was the most likely reason.  However, recalling what his thoughtless banter had caused earlier, he kept his mouth shut and copied his friend's pose.  After a few minutes they arrived in Balamb, and as they got out of the vehicle and headed for the Esthar train station, Matt resolved to not try to get near Colene at all.  'Who knows?  Since I've tried to get near her the entire time, and it's only worked once, perhaps nearly avoiding her will get me next to her.'  He crossed his fingers for luck and boarded the train, Fox following close behind him.

            Perhaps he should have crossed more than just his fingers…his whole body, maybe.  Since they had been in the front of the transport vehicle, they were the first on the train, and Colene in her friends had been in the back, so they went to the back of the compartment on the train.  All the seats were filled near her, so Matt and Fox were forced to stay where they had first sat down: in the front row, far from Colene.

            "Sorry, Matt," was all Fox said before a curt shake of his friend's head cut him off.  Matt closed his eyes, willing himself to forget about that girl—he would not even call her by name, not even in his mind—and used a technique his father had taught him years before: the ability to slip into a light sleep almost immediately, yet be awakened easily and be fairly alert.

            Fox stuck his tongue out at Matt, fully aware that the young man could not see it, and then did his best to copy his friend's action.  Even though Matt had painstakingly spent hours trying to teach Fox how to fall asleep like that, he had never been able to do it half as well as Matt could.

            A few hours later, the intercom came on, announcing the next stop to be the city of Esthar.  Matt snapped awake immediately, and a nudge for his friend woke Fox up as well.  "Not bad," Matt told him.

            Fox flashed him a grin.  "I knew I'd get it one of these days."

            "Um…I don't know if you've completely 'gotten' it, but you are closer than you were before…a little bit, anyway," Matt said, his bantering tone giving away the fact that he was teasing.

            The redhead glared at him.  "Thanks ever so much for your confidence in my…"  His face took on a sheepish expression.  "…in my sleeping skills," he finished, bursting into laughter before the entire sentence was out of his mouth.

            Matt joined him.  "I think you need help."

            "You think I need help?" Fox exclaimed incredulously as the train came to a stop and they began to get off.  "And what about you, mister?" he asked, lowering his voice somewhat.  "You think mooning after a girl isn't grounds enough for aid?"

            Matt tried to stifle his laughter, but ended up snorting in spite of himself.  "Since when did you become eloquent?"

            "Since a friend of mine started spending half his time dreaming in class rather than talking to me, keeping my vocabulary at its standard low."

            The brown-haired young man stopped in his tracks, causing Fox to run right into him.  "I did?"

            Fox nudged him back into walking.  "Sort of, yeah.  Come on, we have a mission—you know, our SeeD exam—to think about here," he reminded his friend as they got off the train and headed for the waiting car near the station. 

            "Right," Matt agreed, shaking his head and willing the thoughts of Colene—no, just that girl—to vanish.  They got into the vehicle, and once all cadets were inside the three-hour drive to Tears' Point began.  Matt and Fox spent almost the entire time with their heads together, first being silly by talking about all the impossible things that could happen at their post, then by outlining different plans, based on the fact that they would be patrolling a tower outside of the city and its walls—walls that had been built after the last Lunar Cry—and would also be exposed to the rumored monsters living near the town.

            All too soon, they arrived, just east of the city.  Getting out of the car, they could see smoke hanging over the city of Tears' Point like a cloud and the orange flickers of fire below it in various places. 

            "All right, everyone—listen up!" Kira Westin, the instructor in charge, called out to the ten cadets.  "Get to your posts as soon as you can, and remember to not stray from your orders!  Also, order to withdraw takes priority—come back to this point if you receive such an order.  Okay, head out!"

            Some cadets hesitated; others headed straight for their posts as if arrows shot from a bow.  Matt and Fox were in the latter category, and soon reached the South Tower.

            "Matt!" Fox hissed.  "Soldiers—four of them!  Near a door to the tower!"

            His partner set his jaw, all thoughts of that girl and fears gone from his mind.  All he thought about now was taking out the small group of soldiers nearby, their backs to the pair.  "You take out the left one, I'll get the right one, and then we'll have to face off with the remaining two."

            Fox nodded, relieved to see the battle side of his friend come out to play.

            Stealthily, using the skills they had acquired from years of sneaking past the Garden faculty after curfew, they slid up behind their targets, and with one blow from Fox's fist and one slash of Matt's blade, two of the four soldiers lay dead.

            "What the—" one of the remaining soldiers exclaimed, swearing when he saw the dead bodies of two people he had seen living just a moment before.  He and his partner whirled around, their guns blazing, and Fox and Matt ducked barely in time.

            "You've got those attack spells ready, right?" Fox whispered as they dashed around to hide behind a nearby rise.

            Matt nodded.

            "Well, now might not be a bad time to use one!"

            Closing his eyes briefly, Matt mentally went through his magic inventory.  Fira, Blizzard—he immediately shook his head at that option—Quake, Meteor, Ultima, Full-life, Cura, Holy, a single Water, Thunder, Thundaga, and…'Wait a minute—I think I have a few Firagas, too.  But I'll save those for an emergency…since I like fire and that's the most powerful fire spell out there.'  "I'll use two thunders, and you go take them out—they should be fairly shocked…or their guns should be out of commission, at least."

            Fox nodded.

            "Where are they?"

            "About ten feet from where we are, directly behind us, with their guns pointed somewhat near us."

            "Got it." 

            "Matt…how are you going to get both of them when it takes two spells?"

            He grinned at his partner.  "You'll see."  In one smooth motion he stood, turned, and cast not one but both spells—one spell from each hand.  In unison two bolts of lightning arced out from his hands, hitting the two soldiers at the same time.  Their guns exploded from the electrical force and they both fell to the ground, dazed more from the explosion than from the lightning.

            "Dang it!" Matt hissed as he dropped back down next to his partner.

            "What?" Fox said, his eyes wide from seeing something he thought was impossible.  'I didn't think anyone could cast two spells at the same time like that!'

            "I only hit their guns.  They exploded, so the soldiers seem dazed, but still alert.  Come on, let's get them before they recover!"

            As one the pair stood, vaulted over the rise, and dashed for the two soldiers, who were busy trying to stand up.  Matt slashed at one with his gunblade, but hit only armor.  Fox became engaged in a fistfight as soon as he reached his target.  Forcing himself to place all his attention on his opponent, Matt barely avoided a controlled punch and brought his blade up, slicing neatly through the man's gap in the armor at the elbow.  Blood spurted from the wound as his forearm fell to the ground, and the man cried out in pain.

            'I hate killing men,' Matt thought as he grimly drove his blade through the man's chest.  The soldier fell limply to the ground as blood poured out from the heart's last few beats, leaking through all the kinks in his armor to form a puddle in the grass.  'Give me a monster any day—not this.  But he knew what he was getting into, as I did.  War, being a soldier, being a SeeD…death is always around us.'

            "Yo, Matt!  Are you all right?" Fox called into his thoughts, bringing him back to the present.

            "What?"

            "You were just standing there, staring at nothing."

            "Oh…sorry.  Just got lost in thought, I guess."

            Fox frowned but refrained from commenting.  "Come on—let's go finish securing the tower."

            Suddenly a comm squawked.  "Tunner, Gerdant, are you there?"

            Fox swore.  "We don't have much time before the whole lot of them is down on us!"

            "I know—wait a minute, I have an idea.  We're going in."

            "What?!?  Are you crazy or something?  That tower has got to be full of these guys!"

            "Who will be down on us all at once from the absence of replies from these four in a few minutes…or we could attack each small group one by one."  Without waiting for an answer, Matt broke open the tower door a few paces away from the dead soldiers and headed inside.

            His partner shook his head, but followed him anyway.  "I just hope he doesn't get the two of us killed," he muttered as he headed inside.

            The two found themselves inside a newly made, somewhat haphazard control room.  "What the…" Fox wondered aloud before a guard entered through the opposite door.  When he spotted them, the guard demanded, "Who are you and—"

            They never knew what he was about to say.  Matt moved faster than either of them had previously thought possible and neatly sliced the man's throat, blood spraying everywhere, especially onto the young man who had just killed him.

            "You are going to be some sight with all that blood on you," Fox told him with a shudder.  'I've never seen this side of him…'

            A shiver slid down Matt's spine.  "I've never…I didn't think…"

            Realizing that not even the guy himself had realized he was capable of such actions, Fox interjected gently, "It's war, remember?  Besides, just think of what they've done to the city.  All the burning…the destruction…what if this was…"  Fox almost choked on the thought.  "…what if this were Balamb?"

            A gleam suddenly came into Matt's eyes.  "They would pay."

            An echoing gleam leapt into Fox's eyes.  "Let's go."

            Entering the room the guard had came from, they found three more.  Before any of them could speak, Fox had taken out one, Matt another, and the third was burned by a Fira spell from Matt.  "You have a few spells, too, don't you, Fox?" his partner queried, breathing a bit heavily after the three guards had been killed.

            "Yeah—some Waters, Aeros, Tornadoes, a few Thundagas, and a Curaga or two.  I don't have any spells that attack more than one target at a time, though."

            "That's all right.  I have a few of those, I think.  Come on," Matt said as he pointed to a nearby stairwell.  "I think we'll find most of the guards up there."

            However, as they climbed up and up and up, they found no trace of guards.  'Heck, we haven't even found a trace of life,' Matt thought, a bit nervous at the idea.

            "Dang, I haven't even seen as much as a bug on these stairs," Fox noted aloud, shaking his head.

            "Creepy, isn't it?"

            His friend nodded his agreement.

            A few stories later they reached the top of the tower.  Apparently expensive equipment took up the entire center of the platform, including radar dishes, scanning equipment, and a lot of wires that ran down the outside.  "What are they doing here, surveying the area or something?" Fox wondered aloud.

            "Something like that—either that or this is an observation tower."

            "Does this…remind you of anything?"

            Matt frowned.  "It does.  It's kind of like…what my dad went through, about twenty years ago.  Is that what you were thinking of?"

            Fox nodded. 

            "Then I wonder what might be causing this—wait a minute."  Both of them froze when they heard an odd flapping noise.

            "This can't be good…" Fox said worriedly.

            "I know."  They glanced up to see a huge, winged beast coming down toward them.  Without thinking, Fox cast Tornado while Matt cast Meteor.  Immediately a great wind began tugging at the pair, and soon it concentrated into a whirlwind around the creature.  It squawked as it realized it could not escape the sudden gale it found itself in and then succumbed to the strength of the twisting wind as it was whipped around and around.  Just as it began to do so, giant rocks appeared above it and fell with as much force as possible.  By the eighth and final one, the whirlwind had ended, and the monster fell to the ground twenty stories below, lying still on the grass.

            "I think it's dead," Matt said once he had found his voice.  "Dang, we sure took that thing out!"

            "Yeah.  Think it was why we haven't seen anything for a while?"

            His partner nodded.  "I think the tower is secure.  Let's examine this equipment, see what it's for, then go down to the base again and compare it.  I think all those terminals down there are where the information is processed."

            "Right."

* * *

            He could feel the life leaving him, but the heat of his anger allowed him to remain alive for just a little while longer.  With only the strength of his will he forced one blood-soaked hand to reach over to his other arm, wincing as the movement pressed the edges of the gaping wound in his chest together.  Closing his eyes against the pain, one rebellious tear squeezed out between his tightly shut eyelids.  Forcing them open again, he typed in a command on the keypad on his arm.  He shuddered, taking his last breath as he fell back down to the ground, and the blackness that had been eating away at the edges of his sight was finally allowed to take over as death embraced him…

* * *

            Almost giddy with excitement and relief, the two half walked, half slid back down the stairs to the base of the tower.  Once back down on the ground, Fox started looking over the monitors they had seen earlier, while Matt tried to trace wires from place to place.  "Yup—look here, Fox.  All these wires lead upward," he told him, holding up a bundle of wires tied together, leading from the back of two of the largest monitors upward, through the ceiling.

            "Right.  So I guess they were surveying the area…that or at least gathering data of some sort."

            Matt nodded, and knelt to put the wires back in place when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye.  "I'm…I'm gonna move those…behind the stairs…or something…" he said hoarsely, having seen once again the atrocity he could commit—the bodies still lay there where they had fallen, two in pools of their own blood and one with his neck at a grotesque angle.

            Fox swallowed hard and glanced away.  "Good idea."

            After the gruesome task had been performed, Matt returned to the front of the room where all the equipment was located and sat down in a chair heavily, rubbing at one hand with a piece of cloth.  "I hate war, and fighting, and killing."

            "Me too.  Come on, Matt—let's think here.  If we can solve some of this stuff, we could possibly be working toward a day where there won't be any more battles."

            His partner perked up at the thought.  "That is definitely a pleasant prospect," he agreed.  "So…I wonder what kind of data they were trying to gather, and what they were trying to gather it fo—" Matt broke off suddenly as the ground shook and a giant thud was heard. 

            "That was…really close by…" Fox breathed quietly.

            "I know—let's go check it out."  Opening the door and walking through the outer room, they stopped at the door, glanced at each other, and with a sharp nod to each other opened the outer door.

            Stepping cautiously outside, the two peered out, and almost fell backward at the monstrous thing that came stomping into view from the north side of the tower.  "What the…" Fox exclaimed, too stunned to even swear.

            "I—oh no," Matt began.  His heart sank.  "It's a giant assassin robot, like what my father fought before, at the Dollet communications tower…"

            "Well, whoever orchestrated this has a love for history…or something…"

            An odd sound was heard then, similar to the sound one would expect when a laser was powering up.  "Duck!" Matt ordered just as he dove for the ground.  Fox followed him down a fraction of a second later, and even so both of them nearly received buzz-style haircuts.  A bright orange laser beam flashed overhead, panning the area just above their heads.  Rolling away from the X-407 type machine, they both found themselves just past the charred black line the beam had written in the grass.  With a start Matt realized what that meant, but he was too late.  The ground began to shake, and suddenly both of them were launched up into the air about ten feet, along with a goodly amount of grass, dirt, and rocks, and then, once gravity regained control, fell back down to the ground hard amid a rain of soil and organic material.

            Fox was able to roll away from most of the shower with a groan, but Matt was not so lucky.  He was hit three times in the head with larger rocks that had been lodged in the dirt, and by the third time could feel his body wanting him to pass out.  'No…I've got…I've got to stay awake!'

            Through a sheer act of will he forced himself to get to his knees and glance over to where Fox also was struggling to rise.  "It's…a machine…" Matt got out between gulps of air as he tried to recover from the wind being knocked out of him from the fall.

            His friend nodded.  "So it's electric…"

            "So we need…thunder…and water…attacks…"

            "Right."  Standing up, Fox tried to clear his mind enough to cast Thundaga, and even through his daze managed to hit the robot on its front left leg.  The sizzling thunderbolt arced down beautifully from the cloudless sky to hit it just in the joint, and amid a grand display of sparks the leg snapped off.

            However, since it had three more legs, X-407 did not go down.  Instead it charged with a lumbering gait at the young redhead and knocked him down to the ground, hard.  Since Fox did not move after his fall, the assassin machine thought he was dead, and turned its sights toward Matt, who was still on his knees.

            With a painful push he forced himself to jump to the side as the robot charged toward him with the same move it had just used on his friend.  Using his gunblade for leverage, he stood, and concentrated his only Water spell on the tip of his blade.  I won't have to touch it, at least.  Light shone in on the tip from a dozen different angles to form into a large drop of water balancing precariously on the end.  With a loud cry he charged at X-407, and since the thing had been unbalanced by its recent charge, it was unable to respond quickly to Matt's attack.

            A loud grating noise echoed against the stone of the tower's walls as he made contact with the back of the robot, and he neatly sliced a narrow gash in the armor on top of the machine.  The water spell made it possible for his blade to do so, and as the liquid magic made contact with the water-sensitive innards of X-407, sparks and electric lightning flashed everywhere.  Matt jumped down off the thing after he had finished his cut and whirled around wearing a hopeful grin.

            However, X-407 was not quite defeated yet.  It slowly began turning around to face Matt, and in a matter of seconds would face him once again.  The brown-haired young man could hear the laser charging, and with the little strength remaining to him realized he would not be able to take a blow of that magnitude.  Recalling how much damage the Water spell had done to the robot, he reluctantly pulled out a tiny green orb from his pocket.  'Here goes…'

            Closing his eyes, he used the orb to summon Leviathan, the Water elemental guardian force and the only GF he had.  'I guess my love for fire makes me dislike water or something…ice, too…oh, well—here goes…'

            He felt himself become distanced from the battlefield, as if he were somehow there yet not there at the same time.  Gazing down from above, he watched a giant blue sea serpent—Leviathan—appear from nowhere, hovering in the air twenty-five feet above the robot.  Suddenly the earth shook, and above it emerged a giant pillar of rock.  Leviathan moved to a point in midair just over this new formation, and with a convulsive shake produced an incredible amount of water that immediately began a rampage down the side of the monolith, a huge waterfall heading directly for X-407.  The GF then paused, glancing at its work, and then vanished along with the rock formation.

            However, the water did not vanish.  X-407 was engulfed by the torrent, and as the water dissipated Matt became his normal self once again.  As the water level sank below the level of the slash on the robot's back, sparks flew everywhere and the great machine gave one last spasm.  One of its remaining arms shot out and sliced at Matt's face, leaving two deep, thin gashes about a half-inch apart on his right cheek.  He cried out in pain, a hand flying up to his face as the robot crashed to the ground and died.

            He then pulled his hand away and was stunned to see it completely covered in blood already.  Staggering from the fiery agony of the gashes on his cheek and the multiple injuries he had suffered earlier at the robot's hands, Matt slowly made his way over to his fallen friend's side.  With an effort he cast Cura, which healed Fox enough to snap him out of his unconscious state and give him the strength to rise. 

            "Whoa, buddy, you don't look so good," his friend exclaimed after seeing the condition Matt was in.  He then glanced over and saw the junk heap that was once X-407 lying on the soaked grass.  'Soaked?'  "Matt…did you…did you use Leviathan?"

            He nodded, but involuntarily shuddered at the same time.

            Fox noticed it and frowned.  "If I didn't know any better—and I do!—I'd say you have an Affinity for fire, with how much you hate water and ice magic."

            "Yeah, well, I can't manipulate it worth spit, so I don't, ok?"

            Knowing this was a soft spot of Matt's, his partner decided to change the subject.  "I think we've now taken out all of the enemies in our area."

            "Right.  Now, since we've done that, I say the two of us go sit in that shade over there under the tower and rest for a few minutes before we finish investigating the equipment inside."

            "Good idea," Fox agreed.  The two slowly walked over to the spot Matt had just indicated and sat down.  Before long, however, both of them had found out how weary they were and drifted off to sleep.

            About two hours later a loud noise woke them both up.  With a start they both stood quickly, then instantly regretted it as the world spun about them.  "What was that?" Fox wondered aloud.

            "I have no idea.  Let's go see."  Just as they rounded the tower to the north side, they saw three Garden air transports settle on the ground and their instructor, Kira, came running out of one of them before the coils had even been shut off.

            The redhead pumped one fist in the air.  "All right!  We're done!"

          Matt grinned.  "Yeah!"  Then he sobered as a thought came to him.  "What if…what if this doesn't mean we're done?  What if it means…" he trailed off, unable to voice the thought.

            Fox winced, realizing what it was his friend was about to say.  "Oh, come on!  We did everything right—I'm sure it's because we're done."  Before he could say more Kira arrived.

            "Well, how did it—oh my gosh, what happened to you two?"

            "We were fine until that happened," Matt said, pointing to the junk heap after he had led their instructor around the tower.

            Her eyes widened.  "And you two took care of that completely on your own?  Well, that will definitely have to be mentioned.  And the tower is secure?"

            "Yes," the pair said in unison.

            "Good.  Anything unusual?" Kira asked as she led them back toward the waiting air transports.

            "Yeah—a bunch of data-gathering equipment is installed inside.  We were just investigating it when you came along," Matt finished lamely, not wanting her to know that they had fallen asleep on their SeeD exam.

            "All right—we'll have to look into that."

            "How did…how did everything else go?"

            "We've taken care of most of the renegade soldiers, and the city has been secured.  They are gathering up the other students as we speak.  Now, come along—we need the medic to take a look at you."

* * *

            Fifteen minutes later all the students had been gathered and loaded onto the airlifts.  "What time is it?" Matt heard one of the others ask as a medic was cleaning his facial wounds.

            "About 1700 hours," the instructor replied.

            "All right, SeeD cadets," Kira interjected, calling all attention to herself.  "We will arrive back at Garden at 1900 hours.  At 1930 hours meet in the quad and you will learn whether you passed the exam or not, and then if you passed you will have half an hour to clean up and get ready for the SeeD inauguration party.  For now, get some well-earned rest.  I know you all are battle-weary, and some of you have sustained fairly extensive injuries..."

            Matt missed the rest of her little speech, since the medic had just applied a cleaning solvent to the gashes and the pain washed out anything else she might have said.  Then the medic gave him something to let him rest, and he drifted off in a painless doze for the rest of the ride.

            Back at Garden, they all got off the airlifts, and no one wanted to talk about the exam.  So a silent little group entered the huge structure of Balamb Garden, and not one person took much notice of any other.  Since Colene had been on a different lift than Matt—and Matt had barely even noticed her absence—she had no idea of what had happened to him, and vice versa.

            He slowly made his way to his room and, once there, sat down on his bed heavily.  A knock on the open door jerked him out of his thoughts.  "Still worried about falling asleep?" Fox asked him, no trace of his normal teasing tone to be found.

            "Yeah."

            Without an invitation the redhead sat down on the other bed in the room.  "I think you'll be fine—Kira was sure impressed by you taking out that robot."  Fox sighed and glanced down at the floor.  "Me, on the other hand…I fell asleep, and I didn't take out the robot."

            Matt looked up sharply.  "What are you talking about?  I never would have been able to do what I did if you hadn't zapped off its leg—man, that really slowed the thing down."

            "Really?"

            He nodded.  "Really.  Now, did you tell them anything more about it?"

            His friend shook his head.  "No—they were too busy attending to my injuries, which apparently would have been much worse without that Cura you gave me."

            "I'm glad it helped.  Now, I didn't say a thing either, so as far as they know we took it out together and investigated for the rest of the time.  They have no idea how long it took to kill all the soldiers and the robot, and we never even told them about that flying monster.  So I think we're fine."

            Fox let out a sigh of relief.  "I'm glad you think so.  Why don't we go get something to drink and then head for the quad?  It's almost 1930 hours, so…"

            "Sounds good to me."

            Both of them smiled for the first time since before getting on the airlift and headed off to the cafeteria together.

* * *

            Promptly at 1930 hours Headmaster Barnett arrived in the quad, and all ten students who had taken the exam were there.  "I hold here the name of each person who successfully completed the exam.  If your name is not called, you did not pass.  There will be no discussion of the results.  This is final.  If you did not pass, you will have to wait until the next exam to try again."

            He handed the clipboard he had brought to a nearby faculty member, who then began to simply read off names.  "Carter, Ria; Danes, Fox; Devenfield, Mark; Elnara, Colene; Leonhart, Matt; Wells, Ferran.  That is all."

            Cheers erupted from each new SeeD member, and sighs of disappointment from each of those who failed.  Matt tried to go over to congratulate Colene, but others beat him to it.  Feeling a bit defeated, he headed back to the dorms so he could change into his uniform and try to clean his face up a bit more for the party.  Fox quietly followed him, a bit worried at his friend's obsession with the girl.

            Back in his room, Matt dejectedly stared at his reflection in the mirror.  No matter what the medics did, the gashes retained the tender, ghastly puffiness that had appeared shortly after he had received the wounds.  'She'll hate it, I'm sure,' he thought for the tenth time in about half as many minutes.  He barely even noticed the fact that he was finally wearing a SeeD uniform, or the fact that someone was watching him.

            "Just tell her what happened and I'm sure she'll be cool with it, bro," Fox advised from the open door.

            "You really can read minds, can't you?" Matt accused.

            "No, just faces I know well…and you I've gotten to know well enough that you can be an open book at times…yet at other times be as expressionless as…well…as that chair over there."

            His friend stared at him for a moment, and then burst out laughing.  "You…I don't…oh, boy…Fox!  You need help!"

            "Didn't we go over that earlier?"

            "I think we did…though we never got any further."

            Fox chuckled.  "And that is because there is no need to.  Now, why don't we go down and check out that party?  I don't know about you, but I'm hungry."

            "Fox, you're always hungry."

            He shrugged casually.  "I'm always hungry when there's good food around, you mean.  And I'm sure it will be good here.  So let's go."

            As Matt allowed himself to be led out of the room, he asked his friend, "Where do you put it all, anyway?"

            Fox shot him a lofty look and said, "It's a talent."

            Matt snorted.  "Right."  As they left the dorms the pair just looked at each other, and then burst out laughing.  Their banter continued all the way to the ballroom.  However, the sight of the double doors sitting wide open, and the sounds of laughter and music floating out from the room, jerked Matt back into reality.  She's in there…

            "Go on," his friend said with a gentle nudge toward the doors.

            He took a deep breath and, with as much dignity as he could muster, walked inside.  All the decorations and bright lights, as well as the table full of food, was completely unnoticed by the young man with a single thought in his mind.  Matt soon spotted her and walked toward her.  For the first time that day his maneuvering went unhindered, and soon he found himself standing next to her, making sure she only saw the left side of his face.

            "Hey, Colene," he greeted her.

            She turned toward him, her blonde hair flowing gracefully with her movement to settle back down again, lying in shiny waves just on top of her shoulders.  "Hello, Matt."

            "How…how did your mission go?"

            "I passed, didn't I?"

            "Yes, yes you did."

            She smiled, dazzling him as she always did.  "Then that's all there is to it!"

            "Right…of course."

            Suddenly someone bumped into Colene from behind and startled her, causing her to drop the small wallet she had been holding in her hand.  Immediately Matt bent down to get it, and inadvertently allowed the right side of his face to show.

            Colene gasped.  "Matt!  What…what did you do to your face?"

            He cringed as he stood back upright to look down on her and hand her the wallet.  "Battle injury, Colene," he said simply.

            Then Mark walked up from the buffet table with two glasses of punch.  "Here you are, my dear," he said, handing one glass to Colene.  Glancing over, he noticed Matt standing there, and frowned.  "Dang, what did you do?  Get into a fight with a sword or something?"  He snickered.  "I bet it was your own sword, too."

            Matt's mouth became a thin, angry line.  "I don't think—"

            "You're right—you don't think."  Everyone in the group joined in Mark's laughter—including Colene.  "Now, buzz off.  We all know you made it to SeeD level just by the skin of your teeth, so you don't deserve to be around talented SeeDs like us."

           Rage threatened to boil over, but Matt somehow kept it under control.  "You're entitled to your own humble opinion, I suppose, but opinions are not truth, and you know it.  Besides, having to insult others in order to raise one's own status is a mark of insecurity and immaturity, and it also proves that the person being insulted is better than the one dishing out the insults."  He shrugged.  "In plain English—you know, the kind of language you can actually understand—that makes me better than you by a long shot.  See you later, Mark."  With a headshake of pity he turned away from the group and walked toward the buffet table, leaving behind him four mouths gaping open at his retreating back.

            Fox walked over to Matt's side and stared at him.  Once he had his friend's attention, he whistled with a shake of his head.  "I've never seen anyone get looks like those guys before—what did you say?"

            "Oh, Mark decided I was somehow inferior to him, so I told him the truth, and I had to say it more than once so they would understand."  He proceeded to relay the entire conversation to Fox.

            His friend whistled again.  "You sure let 'em have it."  Then he hesitated.  "Are you…are you all right?  I mean, with Colene going for Mark and all."

            Matt tried to act unconcerned and shrugged.  "Sure—they're on the same level, about, as far as immaturity and insecurity are involved, so I guess they're a good match."

            Fox saw right through it.  "Whatever, buddy.  If you need to talk to someone about it, just give me a ring, ok?  'Sides, with all this food about all I can do is listen, since I learned a while back one is not supposed to talk with one's mouth full."

            Matt chuckled.  "Good point."  He shook his head.  "Nah, I think I'll be fine.  I'm going to head over to the training center and work out a few kinks, all right?"

            His friend frowned.  "Avoid the T-rexaurs, all right?  I don't want you trying to kill yourself or anything in there."

            "I'll be fine—don't worry about it," Matt reassured him, waving him off.  "Now, go have some fun.  Why don't you go dance with Ria over there?  She's been looking at you a bit and I doubt she'd mind at all if you asked her for a dance."

            "Think so?"

            "Oh, yes.  Now go."

            "Yes, sir," Fox said with a mock salute, and then turned to head over to where Ria was standing.

            Matt shook his head at his friend as he left.  'He's so odd—fun, though.'  However, his lighter mood left and his dark feelings returned once he exited the ballroom through the double doors.   He headed directly for his new room, since SeeDs did not have to share a room with another person, and there changed out of his SeeD uniform into his normal clothing: jeans, t-shirt, and a jacket.

            With one last glance in the mirror at his face, Matt grabbed his gunblade and headed with purposeful strides toward the training center.  He clanged open the outer doors, and then headed for the right set of doors, waiting to open them until after the outer doors had swung shut. 

            Glancing around, Matt surveyed the now-familiar surroundings.  A stream flowed nearby, only a few feet into the training ground itself, and a small, narrow bridge spanned it from bank to bank, allowing the path to continue from one side to the other.  Palm-like trees dotted the area, giving the training ground a jungle atmosphere.  Large fallen logs were found every now and then, more of them further along the path as it grew wider the further in it went. 

            'Enough of that.  I need to fight.'  Drawing his blade and holding it at the ready, he jumped at every small sound and minute movement of leaves, branches, or anything else.  Within the frame of an hour he had fought and killed nineteen Grats, plantlike creatures that roamed the training ground and liked to cast Sleep on unsuspecting victims—of which Matt was not one—and he had also taken out three Granaldos, large monsters akin to dragonflies.  Pausing for a moment, he sat down on an obliging fallen log and went over his new inventory of spells: seventy-two Sleeps, forty-one Silences, sixteen Cures, twenty-six Blinds, and thirty-seven Shells.

            Then he heard a bone-chilling roar not far from where he sat.  'Oh, no…not one of those…please…' he pleaded silently to no one in particular.  Setting his jaw, Matt stood and held his blade ready, bracing himself for the monster that was surely about to attack him…