Thanks for the support on this, reviewers! I would never ever compare this story to anything like Stephen king would write though. He is a god, lol! Um… more characters introduced and of course, lots more blood, killing etc. And Selphie's evil side shows its face!

Chapter three

– Transient Unity

Zell explained that he had been sent up to investigate the classrooms in search of Natala, who had become a dangerous threat to the SeeDs in Balamb Garden, killing twenty-three, as they knew it so far. He said that they weren't one hundred percent sure why she was doing it or what exactly her motives were; all they knew was that she had obviously gone quite mad during the night when 'all this' had happened. But, much to Selphie's dismay, Zell informed her that they knew as much as Selphie did about their haunting situation.

They were cautiously heading for the Quad where, Zell had told her, a group of SeeDs including Quistis and Irvine had congregated to try figure out what was happening. Selphie's heart leapt with knowledge of Irvine's safety and longed to see him.

'What about the others?' she inquired, keeping half an eye on Moeru and Aya trailing behind and the other half on their deserted surroundings. 'What about Squall and Rinoa?'

Zell shook his head sadly. 'No. Neither have been seen since last night. I'm guessing Squall's protecting her. I hope so.'

Selphie remembered the flash of black in the corner of her eye and didn't think that Rinoa was with him. Perhaps he was looking for her. Strangely, a part of her was angry; shouldn't he be in charge? He is the commander after all, it was his duty to put his SeeDs first and she was sure he knew they were dropping like flies around him, each dying their own nasty way by a psycho, and yet he did nothing. Yet a part of her couldn't be angry. He loved Rinoa, she was sure of it, and his first concern would be her safety. She wondered if Irvine had thought the same thing about her when all of this had happened.

Once again, the usually cheerful Quad provided no mental sanctity for the girl. The fountains had been turned off so the chatter of water had been silenced; now it just glared grimly at them from its marble prison. Even though they were in open air there was no wind. The sky was grey and dull and Selphie had no idea of the location of the Garden. It was slightly cold, the clouds sweeping past the sun in a constant rush to reach the other side, they let no warmth sneak through their wispy bonds.

Conversation had diminished before they had entered and Selphie supposed this was a 'secret hideout', though she couldn't phantom how it would be a safe – or secret – place to reside. The quiet made her arms prickle with a spiky fear that bit into the insides of her mind, making her jittery and paranoid. Her only comfort was the axe she had retrieved after her 'fight' with Zell, soothing her with its dark presence behind her back.

Yet as soon as she spotted the flowing, brown trench coat, the askew cowboy hat and dominating grin her fear passed like a breeze on a summer's day. He saw her too and relief expressed itself through his demeanour and eyes. They ran to each other and embraced, Selphie nuzzling his chest with her head fondly. For the first time that day she shed tears, they trickled down her rosy cheeks and dripped onto clothes.

'Selphie, I'm so glad you're all right,' he cooed in her ear, 'I was so worried about you.'

Selphie wiped her eyes and stared up into his face; to choked up to say anything so offered him an earnest smile.

'Yes. We're all glad to see that you're okay,' Selphie peered around Irvine's chest and saw Quistis. She looked fragile and gaunt, bags hung beneath her blues eyes, and Selphie could see that the killings and situation had taken its toll on her beauty.

'But,' the instructor continued, 'it's important that we find out what's going on here. I for one have not even the slightest idea of what it could be. Well I think that one thing is obvious: we are clearly being monitored,' she nodded to a camera, a spectator to the reunion, 'but for what reason, I don't know. We did discuss the matter but nothing seemed to add up. It's…just too sudden and so unexpected.'

Selphie surveyed the Lower area of the Quad where they were situated and took in several groups of SeeDs sitting around in clumps on the floor, each donning a face of sorrow, anger and bemusement. Aya and Moeru had rejoined their friends and seemed to be mourning their lost ones. Is it safe to have so many here in one place?

'We did think of one connection though,' Irvine remarked, his chest vibrating softly against her cheek, 'everybody here are SeeDs. It's clearly not the whole Garden here, is it? There aren't any SeeD candidates or juniors, only the people that have passed their exams and are fully affiliated SeeDs are here.'

Selphie pulled away from her boyfriend and twirled a brown lock around her finger thoughtfully, content with being reunited with him. 'So, you're saying that…perhaps, whoever's behind this, wants SeeD dead?'

'Balamb SeeDs to be precise, Selphie,' Quistis corrected, a tiny frown carved into her features, 'But, how exactly do they plan to kill us all? Using Natala?'

Zell crouched down and punched the floor. An outburst he boasts when he is frustrated with himself. 'No, that can't be it! How would whoever's behind this know that Natala would go crazy in a situation like this? And where the hell is everyone else? And why exactly did she go all psycho?'

Irvine adjusted his hat and shrugged. 'Maybe she witnessed what happened to the candidates and juniors.'

The thought was horrifying to the four of them and silence started to build a wall around them as they stared at the floor for a moment, each with their own images of what-might-of-happened racing before their eyes. Zell knocked down the wall that was enclosing them.

'That aint helping anything! Why'd ya have to say something like that, eh? What we need to think about now is not how the situation happened but how we gonna get outta it!'

The noise rang shrilly in the quiet air and it made each person in the Quad jump. It was the last sound they had expected to hear in this sort of situation and Selphie suddenly found her situation very surreal, as if it had transformed suddenly into a normal day in Garden.

Ting, Ting, Ting. 'Ahem… um…th-this is the headmaster speaking.'

Every single person in the Quad fell silent. Disbelief flooded the environment and they drowned quickly in it. They looked up at the speakers positioned around the area and waited for him to continue.

'Erm…you are, well, probably wondering what's going on aren't you?' he laughed nervously and Selphie thought she caught a manic note tinting his voice. 'My SeeDs, forgive me, but…I cannot tell. You are stuck in Garden and you must fight or organise and trust each other. For there is one escape pod available. That escape pod is made for one person and one person only. Once the escape pod leaves with the person it can never come back.'

'Wh-what's he talking about, man?' Zell was shaking all over. His eyes were wide with horror and anger. Quistis shushed him and listened intently.

'I…I'm so sorry; so incredibly sorry. I never wanted this to happen I-' Cid broke down into a sob and the sound became muffled. When he began again his voice was shaky and unsure. 'I had no choice dammit! Please. Forgive me. You'll have to figure things out amongst yourselves now. The escape pod is in the carpark. Th-that is all.'

Ting, ting, ting.

'What the fuck was all that about?' Zell screamed to the speaker, punching the air, frantically trying to relive the frustration and confusion that had been eroding him away to a whimpering core.

Selphie fell to her knees and pressed her blood-covered hands on the cool surface of the concrete ground. 'I…I just don't understand…why? What-what's going ON?'

Aya stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder and spoke with an assertive tone that made everyone turn and face her hopefully. 'I think I know Selphie! I think I understand what's go-'

At first the SeeD wasn't sure of what had just happened. Aya's eyes bulged and she opened her mouth wide in a silent scream, blood and spittle trickled from her lips, her tongue protruded and hung wetly on her chin. She fell on top of the stunned girl and that's when Selphie realised that she had been shot in the back. Right before her eyes. And she could see Natala now, a hideous grin marring her features, her eyes manic with insanity, a gun raised and still smoking. Her hair was chestnut brown but was matted with blood, her uniform was ripped in several places revealing her bare chest beneath, lacquered in crimson liquid. Both anger and fear battled inside Selphie as she felt the dead weight of Aya sprawled across her legs.

Somehow, something inside her clicked, an instinct emerged; one that had existed since the dawn of time. Have to survive. Have to live. Have to fight and live to see another day. Selphie felt this instinct surface in her just as she heard the gun shots cry out around her. Selphie grabbed the dead girl on her lap as fast as she could and used her corpse as a shield. No shame came to her. Must live. Must survive.

But she was slightly too late and she felt a bullet bite her left arm. The force of it threw her backwards, Aya's body crushing her own, Aya's blood spilling onto her skin, mixing with her own that was seeping from her bullet wound. Yet now Selphie could feel a fresh pain scorch her back and she screamed out. The axe was cutting into her, slowly piercing her flesh and almost touching her spine. In her haze of panic and pain she kicked Aya off of her and sat up reaching clumsily behind her to remove the axe and its one fang.

Now she heard more gunshots and realised how stupid she been sitting up and waited to die, expecting to see the bullets explode in her chest and head. But they didn't. The brunette realised they were coming from behind her and turned to see that some of the SeeDs had gotten their act together and were madly firing at Natala with handguns.

Selphie was right in their line of fire and tried to move away, but the axe was still digging into her lower back and her arm was bursting with an explosive pain. A wave of dizziness rolled across her vision as mist would roll off a mountain. If she moved anymore she was sure she was going to pass out but –

She felt two hands force her to her feet and she was being guided across the spinning Quad to a bush where she was left with nothing but a flash of a brown coat and an anxious look.

Irvine.

It took all her mental might to stay conscious as she twisted her arms into an awkward position behind her back and grasped the axe's handle. She pulled it out and realised suddenly that that is what she had had to do to the boy in the library. When the blade came loose the waves of pain that followed came with such explosive force she cried out in agony each time. But, she had to fight with the others. Besides, she was no safer than they were hiding in this bush and she could hear the screams as gunfire pleaded with her to join them.

She stumbled into the open, her eyes trying desperately trying to focus on her environment but had unsuccessful results. She looked around, light headed now from loss of blood, and saw from behind a thick veil the body of Moeru, the hilt of a dagger sticking out of her chest. Her head was turned slightly, her eyes bulging with shock, even in death unbelieving that her existence had come to such an ending.

And around Moeru, the bodies of her friends, of other SeeDs, laying in growing puddles of their own and others blood. And there was Quistis, fighting bravely on from behind a toppled bench, and there was Irvine, shooting from behind a tree trunk and there was Zell trying to collect a gun from one of his fallen comrades. And there was Selphie, standing to the side, looking around with a dizzy, unclear perspective, her axe quivering in her hands, blood gushing from her back and from her arm.

Must survive. Must live. Must fight.

So she ran at Natala in her cloud of confusion and disorientation that passed onto Natala as she felt the axe being driven into her side again and again and again and again and again and again. Before her soul left her body she looked up and saw a demon. A girl with blood covering every inch of her body, her eyes were mad with the lust to kill, her teeth were bared in a monstrous snarl, she rose her axe with unwavering determination and objective and brought it down to her once more before Natala fell on her front, her nose crunching against the ground. But she did not feel it. She had died long before she hit the ground.

Selphie stood over the corpse panting. The few survivors watched in fascinated horror as the blood drenched girl continued to chop away at Natala's dead body, severing limbs and causing great fountains of rose-red blood to spurt out over the SeeD's face, arms, legs and torso. She only stopped when the killer's head was rolling away over the ground, it's expression as horrified as the onlookers.

Irvine approached her warily and touched her shoulder. Selphie collapsed in a heap at his feet with only a sigh escaping her lips.

R&R is ya wanna find out what happens next