3:00 am Half Way To Balamb

Cerberus and Shiva carried on travelling towards their destination, towards Balamb. Cerberus was moving quickly across the land, his mouths drawing in as much air as possible, before a stich or pain attacked the worn out spirit. His legs were aching from not just running alone but from carrying Shiva and running at the same time.

Shiva had fallen asleep upon Cerberus' back, even worse she spread herself out upon the spirit dog's back. Extreme cold shivers crossed through his back to his heads. It felt like his blood was freezing as Shiva just lay, sound asleep. From time to time, he made sure that the crystals of his trapped friends were still in her possession as she was sleeping.

"She gets to sleep?!" The right head asked infuriated, just keeping his voice soft. "Why is it that we are carrying her and she gets to sleep when we are the ones who are tired?!"

"Because we are the only ones who can make the distance! She'll take too long if she walks!" the middle head explained, trying not to get into an argument at this point in time.

"Were taking too long ourselves!" the right head rebutted.

"Please… don't start arguing… its hurts," the left head pleaded, yawning just after he finished.

The came a silence, the three heads calmed themselves and focused on their running. The right head glared forwards, mumbling words of hatred no doubt under it's breathed. The middle head kept its head forward, but his eyes were fixed on his counterpart on his right, wondering why they always fought each other. The left head gazed down at the water they were passing over; their feet touched the water surface, just like they would on solid ground.

"The wonderful fishes… the sea is calm tonight," the left head thought.

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After thirty minutes of travelling over water the two spirits docked at the Balamb docks. Cerberus sway side to side, his legs lack the strength to continue even on ground or over water. All three heads; their tongues hanging from their mouths and their legs shaking just from standing still. Cerberus lay down on the cold wet floor, he knew that delaying was only going to get him killed; he needed to continue even if he was all out of breath.

"Just… a little bit…further…" the middle head mumbled out, breathing in between.

"We can't…just sit here…we need to move, now!" The right head try to shout but he wasn't able to with the lack of air.

"Can't we just…lay here? Please" the left head pleaded, but he already knew the answer the other would give him and it was exactly what he got.

"We can't… we must go!" the two heads replied, pushing off the ground and continue onwards to their destination, jogging at first and then slowly gained what strength to sprint the rest of the distance.

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Balamb Garden 3:45am

Squall was half in and out of sleep. Latterly he had trouble sleeping ever since he sign the reinstate paper for Seifer. He didn't really care about his decision on the matter, but he couldn't help but think what other people would think of him.

"This sucks…" Squall thought, turning in his bed. "I hate what other people think" with a sudden displeased look he arose from his bed. He sat on the edge of his bed, his head hidden in his hands. He sighed aloud and arose, turning on the lamp on his desk. As Squall's eyes adjusted to the light, he stared at his reflection in the mirror. He stood wearing his blue boxers shorts, white Singlet and his lion head necklace. He stood there for a while before an impulse in his head told him to move to the bathroom.

The warm water splashed Squall's nearly cold face. Steam started to rise from the basinet and fog the window, Squall continuingly had to wipe it clean just to see his face.

"I need some exercise," Squall decided, shutting off the hot and cold water taps. Squall shut off the light in the bathroom and grabbed his leather jacket, pants and his black gloves. Squall went to the cupboard and revealed a case in the lower left corner; the black case had a lock on the handles. Unlocking the case, an extreme blue light filled the room. There Squall look at his 'Loin Heart' gunblade, the blue blade gleaming at him. Squall grabbed the handle and placed it in its holster. "Time to play…"

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Training Centre 4:15am

Squall pushed open the steel doors to the training centre, the scenery changing from cold steel surroundings to a jungle type arena. Already Squall could see most of the jungle move, not just by the air vents but also because of the Grats in that area. If it was one thing that he hated about Grats it was that they were very weak… but they were able to camouflage themselves into their environment. Squall could also see a few T-rexs in the back before the bend, the only good creature they had at the school.

Squall could tell the Grats were going to get in his way, so he decided to try and get a trio to attack him instead of a single. Even though they were still weak, it was better than nothing. Squall aimed to get maybe one or more T-rexs to attack at the same time; other times he had tried but only got a Grat and T-rex together.

Squall closed the doors behind him and grabbed the gun handle, slightly lifting the blade out of the holster. Squall took a deep breath, narrowing his eyes while tightening his grip on the gunblade.

"Twelve Grats, maybe more around the bend…" Squall thought calculating his plan of attack as he was now made to do as commander. "Seven T-rexs…at most" Squall suddenly smirked and a small smile appeared on his face. "Lets me see how my new 'speed and clean' attack plan works" Squall remembered headmaster Cid always giving a plan or attack plan a nickname, even though they were kind of dumb.

Squall gave another quick deep breath before running towards a group of Grats. Squall removed the gunblade from its holster and held it out (both hands griped on the handle) to his left. The Grats turned their eyes towards Squall and the blue glowing blade from his Lion Heart.

As soon as Squall was in range of the nearest group of Grats, Squall tighten his grip even harder on the gunblade's handle while he sliced at the first Grat. He then leaped into the air and 'jumped slashed' the next in line, then twirled around like a tornado, slicing the last three in that group.

The 'speed and clean' attack was to make a speedy attack before any enemy could attack and clean the area of enemy personnel in a short amount of time. Squall spare time was either spent in devising new tactics, looking over new recruits or signing new papers on his desk. He had no time for a social life anymore, only when there was nobody to fight in which case he spent with his friends or outside in the world.

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Squall cleaned his Lion Heart blade after that little on slaughter, he made note that the tactic was very effective against weaker enemies, but was unsure it could be done against larger and more powerful foes, like the T-rexs for example. Squall smile briefly before he frowned. He realized that the tactic was a bit unfair for lower level students, his level was the highest in the Garden and the tactic was most effective for higher skill levels. He again made note to find students with medium levels and test the tactic with them, to make sure it was affective against all enemies and with any skill levels.

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Squall eyed another group of Grats that started to close in on him. He lifted the blade so that it was almost resting on his back then charged the attacking Grats. One Grat stop in mid-attack while waving its tentacles, trying to perform a sleep spell on Squall. The star shape attack surrounded Squall but didn't cause him to sleep.

"Sleep? You think I'm that dumb to allow you to cast that on me?!" Squall shouted, slashing and dicing through the crowd of Grats, slowly heading towards the group at the back that was trying to cast Sleep on Squall. Finally reaching the spell-casting group Squall narrowed his eyes and slashed one of the Grats before side swiping another; Squall dancing about the Grat's attacks and round the Grats themselves, slashing each one in the back.

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After taking down two groups of Grats, Squall was calmly phasing his next plan of attack against a T-rex. Squall could tell his planning was going to be cut short, hearing the soft growl of a T-rex hiding in the jungle surrounding him. Squall didn't have to wait long for the T-rex to make itself noticed. To Squall's left, the T-rex poked its head slowly out of the jungle surroundings, almost grinning at its new prey.

"Hmm…" Squall grunted lifting his Lion Heart on his shoulder. The T-rex peered at the blade them slowly back off into the bushes. The jungle turned quiet at that point. Squall's eyes began to wonder around the surrounding for any signs of movement.

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GGGRRRRRAAA…

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Squall spun around suddenly, only to be knocked back by a charging T-rex. It was uncommon for a normal T-rex to surprise attack their victims, but these weren't normal dinosaurs either. Squall grabbed his Lion Heart from off the ground and jumped to his feet, pointing the powerful blade at its opponent

Squall grin his teeth and charge the T-rex like it had done to him, except that he was much faster then the giant Dino. The T-rex turned its head slightly, thinking of what possible action would stop this attack or maybe what action could even get it a free feed. The T-rex slowly lowered its head to ground level so its bottom jab was touching the ground and opened it gigantic mouth. Squall could tell at his speed he would have no time to stop, he was too close too fast to make any major detour.

"Think, think, THINK!" Squall shouted at himself, staring down the gigantic rows of teeth. His eyes sped around the area examining his options, but for this situation there was none. Squall bit down on his lip and held the gunblade over his head, leaping towards the T-rex's opened mouth.

Squall was sweating widely as he could clearly see down the dinosaur's throat, but more so at the razor sharp teeth he would pass if he happen to fall in. Suddenly the worried expression disappeared as Squall cleared over the opened mouth, the sweating stop and was replace with a wicked smile on Squall's face as he was now directly over the T-rex's head.

"ARGH!" Squall screamed, thrusting the blade with both hands into the mighty T-rex's head. The T-rex gave a mighty roar before the rest of the body just collapsed. There came a soft painful growl from the T-rex then silence. Squall examined the now defeated T-rex, the body was ever so still and the heartbeat was gone. Squall removed his blade and rested on the top of the Dino's head, giving off a sigh of relief.

"That wasn't too hard" Squall thought, laughing at the every thought, even if was an inch close to death.

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Main Hall 445am

Squall finally emerged from the training centre, his exercise over and his body finally ready to take a long nap. Squall rubbed his forehead, feeling a slight headache but ignored it as nothing else. Squall pass by the Car park, the Garden Guards standing at its entrance, his face almost completely hidden.

Squall peered at the Guard and paused just a bit further down the hallway. Squall narrowed his eyes and walked back towards the Guard, moving his face unclose to the Garden Guard. Through the large hat and high up clothes, Squall could see The Guard eyes closed and could just hear his faint breathing. Squall shook his head. He had always thought the Guards were always awake during night duties; after all they were their protectors and caretakers and they couldn't even stay awake.

Squall moved away, gave a sigh and continued on walking to the Dorms, the sound of the water making him even drowsier.

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…Squall…

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Squall paused turning around and peering around the Hall. There was nothing except the Garden Guards and so far they were still asleep. He moved to the centre railing towards the elevator and looked down at the water, making sure nobody was playing tricks on him.

"What was that?" Squall asked himself. "Did someone call me or…" Squall thought a second before giving of a yawn. Squall began nodding as though he found his answer. "Yes…that it, I'm just tried and this is my minds way of saying I need sleep" Squall nodded again and walked down the pathway to the Dorms.

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…Squall…

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Squall paused. There came a faint sound of feet pounding on the floor and his name continuingly echoing through the Hall. Squall narrowed his eyes and reach for his gunblade. Squall knew how to faint, he didn't care who it was, but decided to give whomever it was a good scare.

"That's it! Come a bit closer…you want to scare me? How bout I scare you" Squall seized his gunblade in both hands, his finger finding the small trigger. The sound drew closer and his name became louder and louder.

Squall bit his lower lip, springing his Lion Heart from his holster and forcing his body to spin around with his gunblade by his side.

"Got ya!" Squall shouted as he body began to spin round. Squall narrowed his eyes, a wicked smirk appearing on his face as he turned to face…

A Sliver Light? Squall eyes became wide as the strange light flew towards him, flying from through the elevator wall, across the water and straight at him. He swung his blade as the Sliver light was close but went straight through it and crashed into Squall. The force knocked him back, his head hitting the hard floor causing him to quickly lose consciousness.