A while later we waited in the second level of the waiting for the announcements of who would be the next group of SeeDs. I glared at the elevator and crossed my arms. "Leonheart's fault," I snapped.

Raijin looked over at me and blinked. "What is, if Seifer doesn't get into the SeeDs?" I nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right, ya know?" As we waited, that freak Dincht did nothing but pace back and forth, obviously driving Seifer nuts.

"Stop that," he hollered.

Dincht stopped for a second, smirked and paced back and forth again. "Free country, Seifer. Just try and stop me." I knew Seifer would have tried, if there wasn't staff watching our every move.

A moment later Squall entered the hall, and talked a while with Zell and the others. The dork Raijin told him exactly what I had said about his responsibility in getting Seifer into the SeeDs.

One of Cid's goons came in, and announced three names; Zell's, Squall's, and another student's. I never did get his name. We watched them disappear, and then reappear thirty minutes later, followed by that damned brunette. I wish I had given her the swirly when I had the chance. We watched them walk out and then, following Seifer's example, we clapped in congratulations to the four new SeeDs.

I had planned to meet with Raijin and Seifer later that night, but I found out that Cid had confined Seifer to a detention room for his "reckless" actions in the field test. My heart sank, and I felt a bitter taste of hate filling my mouth. Rage burning in my heart, Still I knew that I would feel he'd be out the next day. We'd talk and then decide what to do then. I fell flat on my bed, blocking out my obnoxious roommate's rattling on about which cute boy of the day looked at her during class. After she left, I could hear the sounds of laughter and music above me. I knew that they were celebrating the success of their precious four new SeeDs. Rage continued to grow in my body until I felt worn out. An hour later, I slept into a deep sleep.

Ten o'clock in the next morning, Raijin began banging on my door. Gritting my teeth, I rose to my feet and opened up the door. "What?" I roared at him, making him twitch as he stared.

"Um, uh, it's Seifer, ya know?" he gulped.

I held my breath, watching him for what seemed like an eternity. "Continue," I said, still loud enough to make him flinch, but a bit quieter.

"He's raising holy hell, he broke out of detention and is trying to get to Timber, ya know?"

My mind was racing now. Timber? Why was he trying to get to Timber, the city was two hours northwest of Balamb, and could only be reached by an underwater train tunnel. It was controlled by the dictatorship of Galbadia. A flash bulb flashed. That had to be it, yesterday the field trip had been at Dollet, where the small dukedom had tried to fight off Galbadian forces invading, and had called in the Garden for help. Seifer must want revenge, for some reason the Galbadian forces wanted a satellite dish that had been resting in Dollet. Had Garden not issued that retreat, Seifer was determined that he would get everyone of the Galbadian soldiers out of Dollet, and find out what the conspiracy with the dish was.

"He's mad that they sent Squall, that Zell guy and the little brunette on a mission to help the Forest Owls, ya know?" he said sheepishly.

Now that caught my attention. The Forest Owls meant Rinoa Heartily. My heart began to ache. For a moment the year before, he had left the Garden, in the summer; to Timber. There he met a young raven haired woman, whom he clamed to be the one. That broke my heart. I secretly hoped to be the one.

Still it made sense. Now I knew what was going on. Seifer spent a year trying to get Cid to send forces to help the Owls. But politics and greed got in the way. Now for some reason, he had relented. And he had sent Squall.

I kicked his ankle, and rushed to the detention room, dragging him along. My heart pounded in my chest as I glared down at all of the injured students lying on the floor. Blood was everywhere. The fourth SeeD, the one who I didn't know attempted to run by me. I clutched his jacket and spun him around.

"Seifer," I roared, "Where?"

"Gone, he leapt out of the window when Instructor Trepe tried to restrain him," he said, his voice shaking. I had to laugh. Here this boy had seen action just yesterday and yet was terrified of one man and a tiny bit of carnage. Clearly the Garden needed to increase their regulations for who could be a SeeD.

I grabbed Raijin and rushed passed everyone else and headed for the entrance of the Garden. We were nearly there when an annoyingly familiar voice stopped us in our tracks. "Just where do the two of you think you are going?" it snapped.

I swirled on my feet and narrowed my eye, daring Cid Kramer to stop us. The dark brown haired man pushed his glasses up his face and sighed. "I suppose there's no stopping you." He looked down at his hands and fidgeted with a piece of envelope. He looked up and walked up to me. "Who knows, you two might actually calm him down, you have before." He jutted his hand out and placed the envelope in my hands. "Since you'll be going, I have a mission for you."

A lackey of NORG, the Garden Master, rushed up and tried to snatch it away. Not many in the Garden knew who he was, or that he even existed. To this day I'm not sure if even Seifer knew about him. I followed one of his goons one day, about three years before the whole Timber Incident, and caught my first glimpse of the bloated, yellow skinned Shumi. He looked like a big bowl of lemon gelatin, with sunken black eyes, and wearing long purple robes.

"You can't trust them," the teacher snapped, glaring evilly at us under his straw yellow hat. "They're not SeeD's, and they're thugs."

"That's enough of that," Cid snapped. I blinked and looked up at the old man. I would have never thought he would have defended us. "They know Seifer, they know how to calm him down, and besides that, all SeeD's that we have are out on missions, or have been injured."

"You're telling me to trust you?" the faculty member asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm telling you to trust them," Cid snarled. "I do. That should be good enough for you or any of your 'interests'." His body began to shake, and I thought I could see tears of frustration begin to form.

"This is not following, protocol," the other man said, his voice laced with ice.

"Damn protocol," Cid snarled his jaw growing tense. "I want them to go, I am the head of this Garden, and what I say is going to happen." The teacher blinked for a second, studying each student that watched what was happening.

"You are going to regret this action," the younger man snapped. He turned around and stomped off, stopping at two girls sitting on the fountain in the middle of the Garden floor. "You two, get back to class," he snarled after looking at their id numbers.

I looked at the envelope, and then at Kramer. "Give the letter to whom?" I asked.

"To Martine, he's the Headmaster of the Galbadian Garden," he said with a smile.

"But we're going to Timber," Raijin said, frowning as he looked between us. I kicked him in the ankle and nodded at Cid. After all, he had given his trust in us, something I had never thought I would see. The least we could do was a little errand for him.

I convinced Raijin to drop off the letter first, and then we could look for Seifer. Knowing him, he would be able to look after himself. It took three kicks to his ankle, but he finally relented. It was one of the few times I wished I had listened to him. Had we looked for Seifer first, things might have turned out differently.

Galbadia Garden was much different than Balamb; however I had spent two days here last summer. Unlike Balamb, it was red in color, and shaped almost like a dragon, where Balamb was shaped like a bunker. It was much more into military uniformity, and sports. I was quiet a fan of the Galbadian hockey team. Right before entering Martine's main office, I could have sworn I had seen Instructor Trepe walk out, her head hung low, and tears welding in her eyes. I thought about stopping her, clearly she had not seen us, but then it was our turn to see the headmaster, and we were ushered into Martine's office, where I handed him the envelope. He thanked me, blandly and we were ushered out just as fast as we had arrived.

On the way out, Raijin squawked and pointed towards the balcony area. "It's Squall," he called out. The big lug rushed toward the balcony and called out to him. Squall stopped in his tracks, and looked up, frowning as he looked down at us.

The next thing I knew, Raijin grasped my hand and we were rushing down the steps toward him.

"What are you two doing here?" he asked, true emotion filling his voice.

"Cid asked us to deliver a message to the headmaster of the Galbadia Garden." Raijin said, pride filling his tone.

I looked around and frowned. "Seifer, where?"

"Isn't he with you?" Raijin added. "I thought I saw him on television with you in the headmaster's room."

"He's been arrested for trying to kill President Deling," Squall answered emotionally. "They executed him."

My heart sank into nothing. Before I could stop myself, my arms were flying, and my head began to pound. "Lies," I roared.

"Yeah, Seifer wouldn't even put up with a trial, let alone being executed, ya know?" Raijin snapped behind me.

"Search for him," I demanded, my larger partner. He nodded and rushed off after me.

Two days later we returned to Balamb empty handed, just as chaos began to erupt. Somehow NORG had learned from Martine that the strike force the headmaster of the Galbadian Garden had ordered Squall and his group to execute the new sorceress of the Galbadian government. It didn't take long before Raijin and I realized who she was.

"Isn't that Cid's wife?" the big lug asked, eyes wide open. I nodded and felt my blood chill. I had met her once before, but had no idea she was a sorceress.

Now, trying to play politician that he was, NORG was ordering the arrest of Cid, to hand over to Edea for his attack. Students and SeeD's were rushing over the place, their voices screaming as they battled one another. The blood of Balamb Garden ran thick through the floors. Dr. Kadawaki had her hands full taking care of the injured.

Just as I thought things couldn't get any more insane, Squall, Instructor Trepe, and the leader of the Forest Owls rushed forward. Squall seemed a little shaken, and wanted to know if we knew what had happened. Raijin told him what we knew. He then told us that Sorceress Edea had fired missiles at the Garden.

"What! We, we've got to get out of here, ya know?" Raijin gasped, his eyes growing with horror. I kicked him in his ankle and snapped at him to stop being a coward.

I looked at Squall and assured him that we would go to Cid and tell him about the missiles and help with any kind of evacuation that needed to be done.

Right before he turned to leave with his small group, he stared me straight in the eye and asked, "Whose side are you on?" Meaning, were we with Cid or NORG.

"Neither," I said blandly.

"We're on whatever side Seifer is," Raijin continued for me. I nodded in agreement. We rushed off to find Cid, but for a moment, I saw a glimpse of distrust in his eyes.

Last we knew, the Garden transformed into a flight mode, and flew off into the distance.

A week later, I realized why. As Raijin and I were in Galbadia we ran into Seifer, ordering some guards around. He looked at us for a second, and then that familiar smirk which I was so fond off broke across his face.

"Long time, no see," he said. He finished ordering the guards and then motioned with his right hand for us to follow him. The massive size and splendor of Deling City was astounding. "You guys still with the Garden?"

"Not if you're not, ya know?" Raijin said quickly.

"I just might have a job opportunity for the two of you," he said with a chuckle.