She woke up in the same numbing white room that had housed her since the fall of Balamb Garden. White walls, white floor, white ceiling, white fluorescent lights that never dimmed. The detention facility had battered the psyche of lesser individuals into submission, but not Fujin.
She rose from her cot and started her morning scan of the room. She looked around the room slowly, with great purpose, her eye searching out every detail, seeking even the smallest flaw. Always, her mind returned to the inevitable question.
How had he done it?
Seifer's ability to escape from the detention facility confounded her. No matter how often Cid had locked him up, Seifer had proven able to vanish from within the room like a phantom. What sorcery had he worked? How could he just walk out of the room, time and again, despite the best efforts of Garden's headmaster?
The sound of the food tray opening marked the beginning of her day. She moved over to check it.
"LEFTOVERS?" she asked.
"You got lucky today, sweetie," said her guard from the other side of the door. "I had ribs last night."
"JOY."
"Hey, this is your doing, remember. The General has given orders that as soon as you're willing to behave yourself, you'll have normal meal privileges restored. Until then, you get whatever scraps I have left."
Wordlessly, Fujin took the tray and slammed the feeder shut. She'd subsisted on leftovers for the better part of a week now. The indignity would not break her. And more importantly, she finally saw her chance.
She took one of the ribs and attacked it, stripping the meat from the bone ravenously. Her hunger, though, came not from her stomach, but from a deeper place. When she'd laid the bone bare, she set it on the ground, raised her boot, and brought the heel smashing down, splintering the bone into several pieces. She chose the largest and set to work on it, fashioning it into something she could use. After several hours of concentrated effort, she had exactly what she needed.
"OUT," she said, pounding on the door.
"Okay," the guard outside said. "Stand away from the door, and don't try anything, or I shoot you where you stand."
"UNDERSTOOD."
The door slid open and she saw her captor, standing in the doorway with his gun trained on her.
"Come out, slowly."
She moved towards the door with her arms raised in front of her, palms up. He never lowered his weapon. As Fujin neared him, passing the threshold of the room, she dropped one arm, causing the bone-dagger she'd stored in her sleeve to drop into her hand. She slid underneath the gun and came up low, driving the sharpened rib into the soft tissue in his throat. Fujin grabbed his weapon, left the man gurgling on the ground, and took off at a run.
"Hey! Stop her!" someone yelled from over her shoulder, and the next thing Fujin knew, the concourse of Balamb Garden rang out with gunshots. A guard dashed out in front of her and Fujin kicked him hard in the stomach, using it as a point to launch off his body. In midair, she whirled around and brought the weapon down on his skull, piercing his brain with the curious pickaxe blade common to rifles from Adel's regime.
She kept running, hoping to make her way to the Training Center. From there, she could access the secret area that, in turn, opened onto the outside world through a little-known path.
As she rounded the corner, General Mallis suddenly loomed large in her path, emerging from the library. She raised the weapon and fired blindly at him, emptying it of bullets in his direction.
He turned, slowly, almost painfully so, and Fujin thought, for a moment that she'd succeeded. Then, as she watched, unbelieving, the bullets turned to drops of water and splashed harmlessly on the ground.
As Mallis watched her running in his direction, his face contorted into that hideous skull-like rictus that haunted her nightmares. In the span of a few heartbeats, she'd reached him, swinging the weapon directly for his head. The blow never connected.
One moment, he stood in front of her. Before she could blink or follow through on her swing, he appeared behind her. She never even saw him move. As she raised her arm again, one hand grabbed her wrist, lifting her off the ground by it. He squeezed, painfully, forcing her weapon to go clattering to the ground.
He released her, but she never touched the floor. She hung there, in front of him, magically suspended in the air.
"You are becoming problematic," he said. "If you think I won't kill you simply because you're my daughter, I suggest you reconsider your position."
Fujin glared at him.
"TIRESOME."
"Follow me," he said. "I have something to show you."
Mallis led the way to the cafeteria, Fujin floating helpless behind him. In front of her, she saw a host of her comrades, bound and assembled before her. Mallis extended his left hand and an aide presented him with Fujin's chakram, Zan.
The General stalked to the center of the room and grabbed the cadet nearest to him. With his right hand, he tipped the cadet's head back, the chakram in his left hand slicing through the victim's throat in a flash of light. The cut nearly severed the head from the body, the arterial spray striking Mallis in the face. He smiled as he killed the boy.
Mallis plunged one hand into his victim's throat, bathing his hand in the gore. He returned to Fujin and smeared the blood on either side of her face. It felt sticky on her cheeks, and the heady smell of it threatened to drown her.
"Let there be no mistake. His death is your doing. If you do not believe I will take your life, you may certainly believe that I will take the lives of your comrades. Continue to defy me and more deaths will follow."
* *
Tia made her way through the dense undergrowth of the Grandidi Forest into a clearing, moving as quietly as possible. Seifer and Quistis, following behind her, made no noise at all. Paths seemed to form around the experienced SeeDs, only to close behind them after the warriors passed. Tia envied their skill.
An unexpected sound caught Tia's attention. Quistis snapped her fingers again, calling for attention. Tia turned to face Quistis.
Quistis showed a hand with all the fingers spread: the signal for enemy, target, or suspect.
She pointed off to the group's left, indicating the creature's location.
Seifer touched his hand to his ears, palm open: I hear.
Quistis tapped her hand on her right arm to signal Leader, and nodded at Tia.
Tia's mind raced. The creature had started stalking them. She'd known that the team had entered its territory, but she had no idea that the monster had come so close to them. She needed to make a decision, and fast.
Tia flashed an okay signal.
Then she pointed to Seifer and made a fist, holding her arm so it formed a right angle: you – freeze. He returned an "okay"
She pointed to Quistis and held her arm straight out, fist clenched, and opened it into a spread palm. Magic. She raised her arm directly over her head. Cover this area. She then pointed to a destination and pumped her fist once, Hurry up.
Instructions given, Tia moved away from Seifer as well – waiting.
They'd barely had a chance to take up positions when the forest exploded. The creature erupted from behind its cover of bushes, sending wood splinters flying everywhere.
Its appearance had not improved since the last time Tia saw it.
It stood just shy of two meters tall, and had ruddy red skin. It had a humanoid cast about it, with the exception of the oversized, pyramidal head. This singular apparatus lacked any visible sense organs or any other recognizable features, but somehow, impossibly, the creature could see, for it moved towards Seifer with absolute certainty. In one great hand, the thing wielded an enormous sword, the blade of which stood as tall as Tia herself. Despite the weight of this massive weapon, it still moved incredibly fast, lifting its weapon to strike Seifer.
Seifer turned to rise, Hyperion seeming to materialize in his hand as he did so. He rolled to one side, a burst of fire scorching the air above his head, striking the creature in the face. Seifer moved with unerring precision: had he dodged one heartbeat later, the creature's blade would have bifurcated him; one heartbeat sooner and Quistis' spell would have burnt him alive.
Quistis' spell had as much effect on the creature as a sneeze: startling, but otherwise harmless. Still, it provided the SeeDs with the opening to turn the battle in their favor. Before Tia had a chance to asses the situation, she plunged forward, her kama – twin hand sickles – drawn.
Seifer sliced at the monster's legs from his vantage point at the ground. One knee buckled with the impact and Tia leapt to strike the creature as well, one razor-sharp sickle slicing a long gash along the thing's sword arm. It responded by awkwardly whipping its arm back around, hitting Tia in the side with the pommel of the sword. The blow didn't have the creature's full strength behind it, Tia knew, but would still leave a bruise.
Seifer had regained his feet by this point, darting inside the monster's reach. His gunblade bit into the thick hide of its stomach. A muffled report sounded as Seifer squeezed Hyperion's trigger, compounding the blade's damage. Even though the creature lacked a visible mouth, it managed to roar at the pain, the noise somehow echoing inside their heads.
"Everybody down!" yelled Quistis. She stepped forward out of the forest, weaving her arms in an intricate pattern, tracing a magical design in the air. At the end, she clapped her hands together, and spread them apart quickly. When she did, a row of gleaming crystal daggers hung in front of her. She gestured at the monster, and they flew forward, imbedding themselves deep in its skin.
"Don't kill it!" Tia shouted, trying to keep the mission's goal in mind. She chanted a spell of her own, and watched as the air around the creature started to ripple and shimmer. The monster went to swing at Seifer but it could not move at full speed. The magic spell, intended to stop it, merely slowed it down. Relentless, it pressed on, continuing its swing, shaking off the spell.
"Sorry, kid," Seifer said through clenched teeth. "Time to end this."
He leapt at the monster, inserting his blade in the creature's larynx. Seifer twisted his body powerfully, pulling the trigger of his gunblade at the same time, so Hyperion tore out one side of the creature's throat. Grievously wounded, the creature dropped its massive sword, clutching at its neck as it fell to the ground.
"Kill it," Seifer instructed.
Tia looked to Quistis, who merely nodded.
Tia walked over to the monster, still writhing on the ground, grasping at its partially severed throat. She raised both of her kama high in the air and brought them down quickly, piercing its heart in one clean motion. The creature's flailing stopped instantly.
"I wanted to capture it," Tia said.
"I know," Quistis replied, "but you saw how that thing shook of your spell. We wouldn't have been able to bind it magically."
"And we don't know how it would react to chemical tranquilizers," Seifer chimed in, "which is why we didn't pack any."
Tia asked Quistis, "Why wasn't it immune to your second spell? The one with the daggers?"
" The summoning of the daggers was magical – the daggers themselves were not."
"Yeah, about that spell," Seifer said. "How come I've never seen it before?"
"I'm a woman of many secrets," she smiled.
"I guess so," he answered. Then, looking at the corpse at their feet: "Anyway, we'd better figure out how we're going to get this thing back to Garden."
"Think there's enough space here for the Ragnarok to land?" Quistis asked.
Seifer glanced around the clearing. "Yeah, should be. I think Nida could land it."
Tia looked aghast, her mouth hanging open. "You can't seriously be thinking of calling in the Ragnarok just to pick us up for the mission. And to get Captain Nomura to fly for us personally?"
Seifer laughed. "What, you want to carry this corpse all the way to the coast so we can call for a boat? How much longer do you think that will take?"
"But it seems so... wasteful."
"Privileges of rank, kid."
"Really, Tia, we could haul the body to the coast and pick up a boat there," Quistis said. "And we'll do it if you decide that's the best thing. However, Seifer and I are telling you that we can pull rank and get the Ragnarok to pick us up. If we do that, we'll be back at Garden before dark. This is your mission, so you make the call."
Tia paused for a moment, thinking. "Okay. Let's fly."
* *
The arrival of the Ragnarok and the loading of the monster's corpse passed without incident. Nida relished the challenge of landing the ship in the small space provided by the clearing, and welcomed the warriors aboard with all the bonhomie of an innkeeper greeting weary, paying travelers.
As they flew back to Garden, Tia said, "Boy, am I glad we took care of that monster. I feel like some of the failure from my first mission has been wiped away."
Quistis frowned a little. "Tia, I explained this before: your first mission isn't measured in terms of success or failure. It's about a lesson learned. There was no money at stake, and no one got hurt, and you certainly learned from it, so it was an unqualified success."
Tia shook her head, long red hair moving in a cloud around her. "Yeah, but compare it to your first mission! Your squad killed what, 80 monsters?"
Quistis paused for a long moment. One long moment passed into several long moments. Several long moments lapsed into an uncomfortable silence before Quistis spoke again. "My first mission was... an exceptional situation. Don't use it as a basis for comparison."
"Why not?" Tia asked. Quistis had no expression on her face. Tia turned to Seifer. "Why not?"
"Sorry, kid," Seifer replied. "Vow of silence."
"What? 'Vow of silence?' What's the big secret?"
Tia looked from Quistis to Seifer and back again. Finally, Quistis spoke.
"Okay. I'll tell you," she said. "But you're oath-bound not to repeat it."
"Understood," Tia said, nodding, eyes wide.
"My first mission took place," Quistis said, "when I was..."
* *
...thirteen years old, Cadet Quistis Trepe sat in class, waiting eagerly for homeroom to end. The youngest cadet in Balamb Garden's history, Quistis planned to petition for the right to run her first mission. If she succeeded, it would add to her already impressive academic record. But Quistis had a much more personal stake in this mission.
Finally, the bell rang.
"Dismissed," said Instructor Alekhine. Quistis rose and approached the Instructor's desk, taking a few deep breaths as she walked.
"Yes, Quistis?" the Instructor asked as he saw her approaching.
"Instructor Alekhine, I'd like to run my first mission."
"Quistis, don't you think you're a bit young to run a mission?" She hated the question, and she hated the Instructor's tone: both patronized her.
"Age has nothing to do with it," she said firmly. "I'm more qualified than most cadets older than I am. I'm ready for this. I can handle it."
"Assuming I let you have this mission. What would it entail?"
"Twenty-four hour monster crawl into the outlying forests around Garden. I'd go with one other person."
"It certainly sounds like you could handle that," Alekhine admitted. "Have you selected your other person?"
"I have," Quistis nodded.
"And it is?"
"Junior Cadet Leonhart."
The crux of Quistis' plan: to spend a full day, away from Garden, with Squall, just the two of them. Of course, they'd spend the time fighting monsters, but for a student at Garden, you didn't get much closer to a date.
"It must be your lucky day, Ms. Trepe," smiled the Instructor, "because you've sold me on the idea. But I'll do you one better. You plan to be an Instructor someday, don't you?"
"Yes, sir," she said, unsure of his intent.
"Well, then you'll have to get used to dealing with squads. You can run this mission, but I'm modifying it."
Quistis stammered, "How... how so?"
"Take junior cadet Leonhart, but take junior cadets Almasy and Dincht, as well."