Chapter Four

I trudged up to the office the next morning without being told because I knew that I would get paged again, and even the simple idea of this didn't really appeal to me much. I opened the door and smiled tiredly. It was way too early for any sane person to be up, but here I was anyways…

"Good morning, Commander Leonhart!" Sayaki smiled cheerfully.  "Martine and Cid went away today!  No SeeD uniform for me! Yeah!" she was reading through files with interest.

"Good morning Sayaki." I smiled. "Whatcha doing?"

"Reading through the file of Sei-fer Al-ma-sy," she struggled to get the name right but managed to screw it up anyway.  "I had no idea you could get in trouble this much without being expelled!"

"He's a... an idiot." I struggled to keep myself from calling him something I shouldn't. "And a jerk." I added.

"I'll cover my ears if you wanna call him something else," she offered.  "Anyways, who is this guy anyway?  Apparently he's in detention all the time...wow...that's a lot of detentions...I don't even think I've been alive that many days..."

I grinned, laughing. "He's definitely a moron. He's always been sorta like an archenemy of mine. What is mine he wants, and what he can't have fairly he steals." I got serious. "He helped Ultemecia rise to power."

"Seriously?" she looked up.  "Wow...I guess that's back here on page 294 somewhere..."

"That doesn't surprise me... his file is probably twice as thick as any dictionary. I dunno how the scum got back in Garden after that..."

"Wow, I take it you really don't like him," Sayaki lifted an eyebrow.

"Absolutely not." I shook my head. "He's just... I dunno... imagine the biggest jerk you know and think about 20 times worse and add a huge ego problem, and you get Seifer."

"Sheesh..." she trailed off, shaking her head.  "Well...you up for learning this?"

I nodded. "If it'll get things back to normal, definitely."

"I...was thinking about teaching the other students this, but..." she shook her head.  "It's a dangerous weapon.  When used incorrectly, it can hurt more than just GFs...it can hurt people too.  And when you chant the words, if you get the wrong beat or anything..." she sighed.  "It is like a gun that shoots at both the enemy and at you if you pull the trigger at the wrong speed.  So even though it would help for the other students to know it, I don't think it's such a good idea for me to teach them.  Just for safety.  Even you've gotta be really careful when learning it, that's why we'll practice it before we actually use it."  She warned me.

          And for the next few hours we recited words I'd never heard of, much less translate, to certain rhythms.  She wouldn't let me stop until I'd perfected it. That was kinda hard, considering I only knew plain English. It was like learning a new language in 3o minutes... but I knew it would be worth it.

"Do I have it yet?" I asked.

"Pretty much," she nodded.  "The thing you just have to remember the most is that it's more the rhythm than the words.  Saying it too fast or too slow can cause major problems.  Stupid ancient Trabians...they have to make everything harder than it should be," she sighed.  "Just make sure that and you've pretty much got it.  Follow me, um, please," she said, standing up and walking outside.

"Okay." I was worried about remembering the rhythm, but I would probably get over it... I hoped.

"Now when we do this for real, it won't be such a big deal because I'll be doing this with you," she said.  "But I'm gonna have you practice by yourself first just to see how you're doing.  This works with monsters too.  It doesn't, uh, send 'em to time compression, but it kills 'em, which is good enough.  But for this spell to work on -anything-, you have to get rid of most of its health."  She blinked, looking at me.  "I think one hit from you will kill this bite bug so..."  She fired a few shots at it from her gun.  "Okay, now try using it on it!  Mess up and you're stuck with three more hours of me, get it right and I'll leave you alone the rest of the day," she grinned.

"Empty threat." I shrugged and started before she could say anything else. It was harder than it seemed, and I was nervous, but apparently I'd gotten the hang of it, 'cause I didn't do good but I didn't mess up either.

          It fell to the ground, dead.

"Excellent," Sayaki commented proudly.  "Now when we fight the GFs, we might have to repeat it a few times.  Just go until it dies.  That was really good for your first time!  I ended up KO-ing my instructor the first time I tried.  Luckily I still had magic back then, so I was able to bring him back."  She paused.  "There are a lot of other things you can do with this magic, like summon without junctioning and the like, but the GF has to be willing to help you.  I could summon Bahamut Zero at any given time, although I never junctioned him to me.  I could use it's abilities and everything, but I can't now that this has all happened.  So there isn't really any need for me to teach you that branch of this magic," she shrugged.  "If the situation ever arises where we'd need it, which according to legend it never will in our lifetimes after we seal all the GFs away, I'll teach you, but yeah.  In any case," she shrugged.  "You did that just fine, so you get the rest of the day off.  Great job," she smiled, walking back into the Garden.

I followed her, hesitating to see if she'd stop me. "Ya need any help in the office or anything?"

          She looked back at me, a slightly miserable expression on her face.

"Seeking permission to take the rest of the day off too, sir," she pleaded.

"As long as you don't call me sir." I smiled, and then frowned. "Are you okay?"

"I'm exhausted.  I've spent the last two weeks in an office memorizing student files and I just don't wanna do it anymore.  I'll work twice as hard tomorrow to make up for it if you just let me have the rest of the afternoon off, please."

"Sayaki, whenever you need a break, don't hesitate to take one, okay? And it's not your job to memorize files. There must be thousands of students in the Gardens. No one could ever do that. If you're still tired tomorrow, then take off then to. I want you to feel better, alright?"

"You're too nice to this worthless vice-commander," she smiled sadly.  "Thank you, in any case," she smiled, retreating to the dorms.

I smiled and went down to the cafeteria, even though some of their food tasted like cardboard.

"Hey, man!" Zell plopped down in front of me.  "How's our entire GF-fight goin'?  We makin' any progress?"

"I just got a little further, but I have a lot to research... There's a textbook thing I have to read with some information I need." I smiled tiredly.

"Well that's definitely good.  How's your life going?"

"I'm alive." I shrugged. "Yours?"

"Yeah, it's pretty good," Zell nodded.  "We don't see too much of ya anymore....'slike you live in that office.  Is it that interestin' up there?" he grinned.

"I guess. I mean, sometimes it's really annoying, but I've sort of... I guess I've learned something about myself." I said thoughtfully.

"What did ya learn?"

"It's like... I dunno, I've learned who I really am again... I've learned how to be happy again." I myself, who was apparently to busy to notice anything, realized just then that I had started enjoying my time up in the office. I found myself smiling and laughing a lot more than I ever had before...

"Well I dunno where y'learned it from, but I'm glad y'did, man.  We were all startin' to worry about ya."

That was what friends were for. I had great friends under my nose the entire time, and I hadn't realized it.... Stupid, stupid Squall....

"Thanks." I smiled.

"So, um, I've got a question...is it true that there's a co-commander from Galbadia who's actually the granddaughter-in-law of Ultemecia who's threatening to kill us all working with you?"

"Rumors are so stupid in this place." I rolled my eyes. "There's a co-commander, yes, but I know very well she has no relation to Ultemecia and has nothing against us. Her name is Sayaki. She's actually quite nice."

"Guess you'd know that very well too, y'know, after all that time in the office, eh?" Zell arched an eyebrow, trying not to laugh.

"Oh shuddup." I smiled.

"Aha.  I see why it's kinda fun stayin' up there, eh?"

"Zell..." Now that I thought about it, the office would be pretty dull without her. I definitely wasn't looking forward to the next day, assuming she would take off. "Well... hey, she's nice, is there anything wrong with that?"

"Nope, man, not at all," he shook his head happily.  "She the one with the reaaaaallllllyyyyy long hair?  The one with all the files who's always reading something??"

"Yeah." I smiled. Like she said, she had always liked reading, but I didn't think she meant files.

"Hm..." Zell nodded.  "I've seen her a few times.  She's always stressing about something.  I told her to get a hot dog, it'd make her feel better.  She didn't laugh, though, which was kinda surprising since most people do.  They just don't understand," he shook his head. "She did take my advice, though, so she can't be that bad."

I laughed. "It's sad that it takes getting a cafeteria hotdog to get on your good side, Zell..."

"Oh, geeze, don't make me sound so stupid."

"Sorry." I dug through my pockets for my lunch ticket, which was in the pocket I looked in last.

"Aw, no problemo," he shrugged, then grinned.  "Soooooo, I take it you're gettin' to be pretty good 'friends' with this girl."

"And you're not with Quistis?" I smiled evilly at him. If he tortured me, I could torture him back.

"That's not what I asked."

"You didn't ask a question."

"That's not the topic I started."

"Then what do you want me to answer?"

"Nuffin," Zell stood up, smiling.  "I'll figure it out in my own good time...'course next thing you know the rumor'll be that the co-commander's actually an alien from the lunar cry and is attempting to pull Commander Squall's brains out, so yeah..."

"Hey, don't resort to rumors! I'll answer ya, okay?!"

"Oh c'mon, you not into hearing things through the SeeD grapevine around here?  It's always more interesting this way."

"It's definitely more bull than truth." I replied.

"I'd say," Zell laughed.  "Dang...some of it's just so funny though...yesterday I heard the Trepies were planning on taking over Galbadia too and appointing Quisty in charge of us all, so yeah..."

I laughed. "And you wouldn't mind, wouldja?"

"Nah, I don't want her in charge.  Probably too stressful and I wouldn't know what to say to make her feel better," he shrugged.  "The Trepies plot my death as we speak.  Just consult any of the main gossipers.  'Course, I just might believe that..."

I grinned at him, shaking my head. "Gossipers are just trying to cover things up about themselves, so... yeah..."

"Well, speaking of things that are true..." Zell smiled.  "You met any of the Ghosties yet?"

I raised my eyebrows in amusement. "So Quistis isn't the only one with groupies? Now Sayaki has 'em too?"

"Yeah...they're from Galbadia, so they're the Trepies arch-rivals.  It's hilarious.  They finally met Ghost or whatever her name is...Sayaki, right?....well, they met her about an hour ago.  They were all like, 'I'm your biggest fan!  You're doing great!'  And she just stared at them and practically killed herself just trying to politely get away.  It was hilarious.  They chased her back to her dorm.  Maybe they'll plot your death next."

I rolled my eyes. "That's what the vice-president system is for..." I said more to myself than to Zell, because he was fortunate enough not to know what I was thinking.

"Okay?" he looked a little confused, but said nothing.  "Ah, well, here comes Quisty...I'll talk to ya later, okay man?  Don't stay up in the office too long and forget about us," he grinned.

I smiled. "See ya Zell."

          I got up and walked away, not even being able to identify the weird feeling that seemed to be washing over me. Zell looked so happy with Quistis, and I was glad they were happy together, but... All the feelings that I had originally when Cid forced me into the job bubbled to the top again. Who was I kidding? Sayaki had probably had enough of me, and besides, she probably had a boyfriend. Another thing was that my heart still belonged to Rinoa, and it seemed that every time I saw her with Seifer that the knife dug a little deeper.

          I was barely aware of locking my dorm door and sinking down on my bed. I was alone, and it was stupid of me to think otherwise. I leaned back against the wall. Thinking back, I didn't remember a time when I wasn't an outcast. For a while I thought I had Rinoa, but I don't. There wasn't anything left for me. I knew that, and when I closed my eyes it felt almost as bad as time compression. But in time compression, I still had hope. I had Rinoa. Now she was gone...

          I stared at my gunblade like I had done just a few weeks ago. The feelings were stronger now than ever before. The gunblade was looking pretty tempting, yet... I dunno why, but I decided to hold if off, at the most until tomorrow afternoon... I nodded, not really knowing what to do and sitting down with the textbook Sayaki had let me borrow. I had nothing better to do, and it was better than letting my mind wander back to Rinoa and Seifer. That pretty much took the rest of my day, and at about eleven I turned off the lights and tried to get some sleep.

a/n: I swear it will get more interesting next chapter…I promise…all this was just to finally get to the storyline, and I hope you all like it so far…please review if you do, because I kind of need Sefie's help to redraft some of these chapters and the more reviews we get the more likely she is to want to help -  Knowing my luck she's gonna come read this and totally kill me if I ever get to see her again .  Stupid exams that I'm supposed to be studying for right now…

          …thanks to Valec and Ultrabeing…gosh…I can't remember how to spell your names and my sister just stole the papers I wrote it down on!  Well, your nicknames will just be V and U now since I can most definitely remember how to spell those.  Anyways, thanks for the reviews and go read their stories.  I can't remember if V's written any (???) but I know U has and the one I read was good so go read it.  Whoo!  …y'guys don't mind me calling you that, do you? …ah well.

          Anyways, I pick a bad time to type these up since Law and Order comes on in precisely three minutes and I don't wanna miss the beginning of it this time so…hope you all enjoyed the chapter and the next one will DEFINITELY be better! I promise!  Seriously!

Love and Peace,

Xifa and Sefie Lynne

Oh yeah, and we still don't own FF8.  But I did by a used copy of it, and one of these days I'm gonna buy the strategy guide so I can get to watch all the scenes I missed.  Go Squenix!