.:VIII:.

Squall twirled around his gunblade, silent, as Irvine and Zell chatted together.

"Man this sucks! Why can't she just GET here?" Zell grumbled. He stood up, and started practicing random punches in the air.

Irvine crossed his arms. "You know what, I think Seifer was right on this one."

Zell blinked. "Seifer? Right about what?"

"That punching thing IS annoying." Irvine said, sniggering slightly.

Squall looked up. "Train's coming. Get ready." He answered, standing up.

Zell shook his head. "Aren't you in the least bit worried?" He asked, stretching his arms.

He glanced back at him. "...Whatever." He replied, starting towards the platform.

Irvine chuckled. "Well, that's one way of handling it."

The boys ran up the steps, and up to the platform, of which the train came to a complete stop.

Trithonia stepped down from the train, raising a brow at them quizzically. "Three little SeeDs here to greet me. How sweet..." She crossed her arms. "Why don't you all go home before someone gets hurt."

Squall stood his ground. "We can't do that." He replied, Zell coming up behind him with Irvine. "And you're not touching the Guardian Forces. They are free beings, with their own minds."

Trithonia laughed. "Really? We'll see soon enough. Take care of them boys!"

Two guards came up, and they engaged in battle.

Squall shook his head, and ran up, pulling the trigger of his gunblade as the blade connected with the guard.

The guard staggered backwards, before attempting to shoot at him, and Squall ducked, wondering why the hell Galbadian guards were always so incompetent.

It only took a couple moves from the three of them before both guards were down.

Trithonia glared. "You dare to challenge me! Then this will be your end SeeDs!!!"

She whipped up some magic, Tornado, and threw it at them.

It was a direct hit. Zell took most of the damage, and had come to his knees.

Irvine glanced at him, and cast Cura, helping him back up, while Squall looked dead on, ill amused at this 'game' of hers.

After a couple more moves, Squall was ready. Though they were all severely weakened, he knew what to do.

Dashing forward, he engaged in his specialty move, and tried the best he could to pull his gunblade trigger on each of the hits he made on the Sorceress, finishing up his comeback.

She crouched, red eyes flashing. "...RAGE." She said, before standing up, and disappearing.

Squall blinked. Although he wasn't showing it, that last comment had quite disturbed him.

Zell and Irvine looked at each other, before Zell replied, "Did she say...what I think she said?"

Squall shook his head. "She probably muttered the rest of her sentence."

.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.

By the time both squads had returned to Garden, it was nearly nightfall.

The parties dispersed, Quistis going off to mark papers and sleep, Zell heading for the Cafeteria for dinner, and Irvine heading off to his dormitory room to polish his gun. Only Seifer and Lucrea remained.

"You use a crossbow. I prefer my gunblade myself." He shrugged, as they launched into a conversation."

Lucrea smiled. "Actually, I've always wanted to learn to use a gunblade. The instructor at my last Garden wouldn't let me though. Sexist prick." She grumbled.

Seifer blinked. "You really want to? I guess..." He hesitated. "...I could teach you...if you want to that badly."

Her facial features broke into a smirk. "Really? That would be great!!!"

Seifer shook his head. "I highly doubt anyone will ever get as good as I've gotten. But training you wouldn't hurt. In fact, since we have free time, I'll get another gunblade and we'll go now."

She nodded. "Alright. I'll be in the music room. Come and get me when you've got the gunblade."

She walked off, and Seifer watched her go.

It's hard to believe she's a sorceress. Heh, she's interested in gunblade too. Maybe I, Seifer Almasy, can fall in love.

Sorceress...I wonder how she feels about that? Does she like it? Another thought came up. I wonder who her knight is...Bah, whatever. I don't need to think about stuff like that.

He went to the Garden weapons room, and glanced through the gunblade row.

His fingers trailed over each weapon, until they stopped on another black one, similar, but not quite like his.

The blade was actually more like Squall's, he noted, but it was black, like his own. The handle appeared to be mahogany.

Placing the weapon back in the case, he carried under his free arm, his own gunblade in his other hand, and walked to the music room.

Lucrea sat at the piano, playing it. "It's alright, I won't bite you." She said, continuing to play.

He raised a brow. How did she know he was even there?

"Come in..." She repeated, continuing to play.

He came in, hesitantly. "How... How did you know I was here?"

Lucrea finished and turned around, on the piano bench. "I've been playing piano ever since I was a child. You see, my ears have become tuned to subtle sounds, mostly because a piano has subtle sounds. Not helpful that I trained myself to have stealth. People think I'm a bloody ninja."

He snickered. "Ninja? Wouldn't go that far. But you have a point. You do have some talent with stealth. Tell you what, I'll teach you gunblade...and you teach me your art of 'silence'."

She smirked. "Deal."


Ha ha! Another chapter up. Thanks for the review! Hoping for more! And YES, this story will continue! -; I try to get a chapter up everyday, but since school starts in two days, expect it to slow down to maybe once a week. Please, support and criticise; Read and Review.