A man walked silently through the corridors, straight towards the elevator in the center of the main lobby. He reached the elevator and hit the button.

"Excuse me," said someone behind him. The man turned around. It was one of the Garden Faculty, one of the people who frequently patrolled Garden against intruders and students breaking curfew. "What are you doing here?" The man grinned.

"I know you," he said in a raspy voice. The Faculty member looked closely at the man, then a flash of recognition passed through his face.

"You!" said the member. "You—." The knife flashed out and caught the Faculty member in the throat. The force of the man's attack threw the Faculty member halfway down the steps in front of them. . The elevator chimed, and the man turned around. Smiling, he stepped in and pushed the button for the third floor

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"What makes you think they're not alone?" asked Jace, standing up and checking his sword.

"As a sorceress I found out that I had the ability to sense people. It's not just my husband and my daughter out there." Jace nodded.

"Okay. I'll go check it out."

"Thank you, Jace." Jace turned and walked out the door. Rinoa lay down on the bed again when she heard the door open again. "Jace?"

"Not quite," said a raspy voice. Rinoa stiffened.

"I know that voice."

"I know you do," said the man as he came into Rinoa's field of vision. "A memory from long ago." The man stepped forward, and grabbed Rinoa's wrist tightly. She looked up into the man's eyes.

"Siefer."

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Jace opened the door to the deck and stepped outside.

"Hi Jace," sad Sonya, turning around. Squall turned around too.

"Hey, Jace."

"Hi boss," said Jace. "Who else is here?" Squall frowned at Jace.

"What do you mean, 'who else'? Me and Sonya are the only two people here." Now it was Jace's turn to frown.

"But Rinoa told me that there were a heap of people here..." Jace turned and looked over to the side of the deck. "Sonya, Squall. Get inside now." Squall started moving, bu Sonya stayed.

"What's wrong, Jace?"

"Just move!" commanded Jace. Squall grabbed Sonya by the elbow and dragged her inside.

"We can't just leave him out there! Something's wrong!" shouted Sonya when the thick steel door closed.

"I know. Are you any good at strategies?" asked Squall. Sonya nodded. "Then you should know that I don't plan to go away. I'm waiting here as backup in case Jace needs me. I know how skilled you are at fighting. You should probably do the same as me." Sonya nodded and flung her arms out to the side, bringing her daggers into view. She then transferred both daggers to one hand and grabbed her phone in the other.

"Irvine? Yeah, it's Sonya. I have a question for you. No I don't care what time it is. Just go check on my mother for me! I think she might be in trouble! Thanks, Uncle. See ya." She put the phone away and turned to face Squall again. "Ok, I'm ready now." Squall nodded and turned to the door. A loud thump sounded from the other side, and Squall got out his gunblade.

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Jace stood silently in the center of the deck, waiting for a threat he wasn't sure was even there. Suddenly, he heard a slight bang off to the side. He moved backwards a bit and drew a dagger he had placed in a hidden pocket at the small of his back. Suddenly, a small cylinder came flying up over the fence and landed at Jace's feet. He looked down at it, and saw the markings on the side of it. "The Flash-Bang grenade explodes with a bright light and a loud bangs to incapacitate the opponent temporarily." Jace knelt down and grabbed the Flash-Bang, then threw it back over to side and blocked his ears. A loud thump echoed from below, accompanied by many grunts. Suddenly, grappling hooks shot up all around Jace and attached themselves to the fence of the deck. Soldiers came climbing up and jumped over the side, attacking Jace head-on. Jace threw his dagger at the first one as he came up, knocking him back down to the ground far below. Then one knocked into him from behind, ramming Jace into the fence. Jace kicked his legs out, and sent the person soaring backwards. Several attackers came at him at once, knocking ace into the heavy iron door leading into Garden. He lashed his fist out at one person smacking him in the face, then dropped ad swept the legs out from under a few of the others. Then another caught him in the face, making him hit his head hard against the steel ground of the deck. Jace was starting to get angry, and he could feel the flames leaping around behind his eyes. He leapt back to his feet and started attacking full on against all of his assailants. He grabbed his sword and tried to attack with that, but found he had too little room. He was hit brutally in the stomach, and fell to the ground, all the air driven from his lungs. Suddenly, the flames burst from his eyes again, and Jace felt himself gain an incredible amount of energy. He leapt up and pushed his hand right through one man's throat. He then threw the man into several others, while at the same time moving around behind another and snapping his neck. He moved backwards and raised his arms.

"What the hell is he doing?" asked one soldier uncertainly when they had all stopped. They heard him mumbling word while a red glow appeared in his hands.

"He's using Para magic!" yelled another Soldier. "Firaga!" Jace's mumbling grew louder, and the red glow in his hands quickly changed into flames that grew more intense with each passing second, his eyes mimicking them. The soldiers started for the door, but never made it. Jace finished his muttering, and the flames in his hands flared out in all direction, enveloping him and the soldiers, filling the night sky with a bright red glow.

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Irvine walked through the corridor towards Squall's bedroom, wondering what Sonya thought was so wrong. The night was not to hot, yet not too cold, with a nice breeze flowing through the gigantic building. He sniffed the air, drinking in the scent of the flowers growing inside Garden, and turned to Squall's door, his eyes closed. He reached his hand up to knock on the door when it opened suddenly.

"Oh, hi Rinoa," he said, opening his eyes. "Hey! You're not—!" Siefer's gloved hand flashed out of the darkness of Squall's room and caught Irvine full in the face.

"Evening, Cowboy," he said, walking out into the corridor. Irvine got up off the floor and faced off against Siefer. Siefer moved forward, feinted left, then dropped Irvine with a kidney punch. "Not very good at this, are you Cowboy?" Siefer walked over to Irvine, who was lying on the floor, and kicked him repeatedly in the stomach, driving all the air from his lungs. Irvine muttered something, and Siefer leant down to listen. "Something you want to tell me?"

"Why...why are you...here?" asked Irvine in a quivering voice.

"Revenge," said Siefer, punching Irvine in the head once more. "Give Squall a message for me," he said, thrusting an envelope into Irvine's arms. "Don't forget." With that, Siefer grabbed his Hyperion gunblade and slashed it across Irvine's exposed back, making him cry out in pain.

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Squall opened the door to the deck after the redness had disappeared from the steel, and walked into the hot air outside.

"What the hell happened to you, Jace?" asked Sonya. Jace got up from where he was kneeling amongst a pile of charred bodies and move over to her, hugging her tightly. "Hey, I'm happy to see you too, Jace. What happened?" Jace let go of her and moved back.

"I have to tell you something," he said quietly. "Tell both of you."

"Then tell us in a minute," said Squall as his phone started ringing. "Yeah?"

"Squall," came Zell's voice from through the phone. "You have to come down to your room."

"Why?" asked Squall, an all too familiar frown coming back to his face.

"Just get here now," said Zell. The phone cut off with a faint click. Squall looked at Jace, and the trio ran into the corridor towards Squall's room.

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Zell stood waiting at the edge of the corridor for Squall to come down.

"Oh shit," he muttered when he saw Sonya and Jace running alongside Squall.

"What's wrong?" asked Squall when he got to Zell.

"Why are you all the way up here?" asked Sonya. Jace stood behind the two, completely silent.

"Squall, I want you and Sonya to prepare yourselves. Neither of you are going to like this." Sonya reached forward and grabbed onto Zell's shirt.

"Just let us see what happened."

"Alright." Zell turned and walked down the hallway, with the other three in tow.

"Irvine!" shouted Sonya, running up to her godfather. Jace reached the two and saw the full extent of Irvine's injuries. His face was torn and bleeding, his let arm looked broken, and it looked like half of his ribs had been crushed.

"Who did this?" asked Jace to Zell. The other man shrugged helplessly. Jace looked down again and saw Irvine cradling something in his arms. "Irvine? What's that?" he asked, kneeling to take the thing. "Where'd you get the envelope?" asked Squall.

"Irvine. It's got your name on it," replied Jace. He handed the letter to Jace. Squall ripped it open and read the letter. As his eyes went down the page, Jace noticed Squall start to shake more and more. Suddenly, Squall threw the paper down onto the ground and launched his fist through a wall. "Hey, Squall! What's wrong?"

"That bastard's back," said Squall quietly.

"Who?" asked Zell.

"Siefer. He did this to Irvine, and now he's taken Rinoa." Jace walked over to the discarded letter and picked it up.

"Hello Squally," he read. "I hope you like what I did to your friend. I kind of hoped it would be Chicken-Wuss, but oh well. By the time you read this, Rinoa will be far away from you, and I with her. Now, don't get me wron, I'm not really that interested in her, so don't worry about that. Al I want, is a chance to fight you one more time. Now don't think I'm going to make this easy on you. You have to find me. You can even enlist the services of your criminal friend, and he can even help fight me, but you have to find me within a week, otherwise, Rinoa is as good as gone. Have fun. The Sorceress' Knight."

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I'm sort of running out of ideas for what could happen in later chapter, so if anybody reading this has any ideas, then please feel free to put them on the review board, and I'll check them out.