Birds were chirping merrily around Balamb Garden, signaling the start of a brand new day. From the window of one particular room, the outside scenery of the grassy field surrounding the Garden can be seen. The sun was way up in the sky, shining down its golden rays, not a cloud was in sight. However lively the outside world it, inside a room Squall was laying down on a bed in the Infirmary motionlessly, like a corpse awaiting dissection in an autopsy room.
It was almost noon when Squall started to stir in his bed and regained consciousness. A middle-aged women clad in a white uniform immediately came to him and did some regular basis check up, leaving Squall totally baffled to the unfamiliar surroundings. As he tried hard to remember what had happened, he scowled as pain erupted inside him skull, spreading through his body like a menacing poison.
"Are you okay? You should take your training more easily. Next time you might not be so lucky." Doctor Kadowaki stated with an authoritive voice, while she was still searching for any more signs of injury or uneasiness from her patient.
"You tell that to Seifer."
"That Seifer, won't listen to anyone. Why don't you just ignore him?"
"I can't just run away." Squall said that matter-of-factly, for him running away from a challenge was just to damaging to his ego.
"You wanna be cool huh? Well, don't get hurt in the process. Your eyes seem to be focusing. Tell me your name."
Squall told her anything she needed to know quickly, hoping to be left alone to rest his pounding head. Soon Dr.Kadowaki left him alone and went to inform his instructor about his injury. However, his rest was short-lived, as he saw someone was looking at him from the tinted glass beside his bed. He knew he can't physically heard her from the other side of the glass, but there was a voice registering in his mind, while the woman in blue on the other side seemed to be saying something.
"Squall, so we meet again."
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The sound of the electronic door sliding came to his ears, followed by quick and light footsteps. A blond appeared in front of Squall's room, shaking her head slightly in disapproval when she saw Squall propping up himself form the bed. A few locks of hair framed her oval-shaped face, and her spectacles added to her air of professionalism. She was none other than the famous Quistis Trepe, on of the youngest Instructor in Balamb Garden that. Her popularity even earned her a fan club, the Trepies,
"I knew it would be you or Seifer."
"Well come on, today is the field exam." Quistis left, with Squall following her trying to clear his head of the constant headache.
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They passed through the walkway heading to the main building of Garden. Beside the walkway there was a small garden filled with people, who were taking a break and relaxing under the shady trees or wooden bench. Things seem quaint and peaceful, but with Squall and his foul mood around it was like having black ink drop on among a thousand smiling faces.
"Squall, is there something on your mind?" she asked in hope to lighten things up a bit, but truthfully she was just in the mood to tease her student.
"Not really." They both said in unison, and Quistis can't hold off the giggles that threatened to came out, quite amused by the fact that how predictable Squall was.
"What's so funny?" murmured Squall as people around started watching his hysterical instructor almost doubling over in sheer laughter. Quistis regained her composure, and after taking a few breaths to calm herself she answered.
"It's just that I think I'm beginning to understand my favourite student a little more, that's all." That remark caught his attention, as he stopped walking abruptly and turned around to face his instructor, with his usual nonchalant expression on his face.
"I'm more complex than you think." Quistis looked at him for a brief moment, thinking of a witty reply to give. "Then why don't you tell me about it?"
They continued to walk again, with Squall leaving Quistis's question hanging in the air. But she knew better, and waited for those words to come out of his lips…
"It's none of your…
"Business." Again, Quistis mimic him without any flaws, already knew the answer he would give. "Come on. We don't have all day you know."
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Squall was heading towards the elevator, Quistis had ordered him to meet her so he could take the prerequisite exam in Fire Cavern. His mind seemed to be elsewhere, pondering between thoughts of his earlier sparring with Seifer and the exam he was going to take. Usually something as important as the prerequisite exam wouldn't have fleeted from his thought, but Seifer almost managed to screw this up for him by knocking him out for the whole morning. He didn't notice someone was rushing down the corner, until he bumped on someone, sending a young woman crashing down the hard walkway.
"Ouch…" He immediately looked down at whoever that had stumbled upon him, and offered a hand to help her up.
"Are you ok?"
"There there… Tee-hee… I'm fine. Sorry, I was kinda in a hurry. Di you came out from that class room?" Squall nodded.
"Is… is homeroom over?" Squall nodded again, and her expression turned into one of disappointments.
"Sigh, this Garden is so much bigger than my last Garden. I'm just transferred here from Trabia Garden. Hey, do you think you can show me around?"
Squall pondered a while of her request, trying to come out with a good excuse to get him out of this, he hate for Quistis to wait for him all in the Front Gate for long. But with the petite little girl staring him with puppy dog eyes, he thought that he might as got through this fast enough…
"Sure."
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They set out towards Fire Cavern, drawing some magic to be junctioned like what Quistis had instructed him to. Upon arrival, they were halted by two Garden Faculty at the entrace of Fire Cavern.
"To obtain low-level GF, a SeeD member must support. Are you ready?"
Squall rose up his left hand and stood in attention post, giving them an official Garden salute.
"I'm ready."
"I'm his support. Instructor No.14 Quistis Trepe."
"Select a time-limit suited to your abilities. Challenging yet reasonable."
Squall chosen the least time, 10 minutes, as he was very confident because he once studied about the GF living inside the cavern. After rechecking their junctions, both of them entered the cave entrance.
They were greeted with a pungent smell of burning, lava was flowing freely and the whole place seemed to glow in red. There was only one path heading towards the end of the cave, which was narrow, causing both of them to watch their steps with care. One wrong step could mean falling into the sizzling hot lava.
"My job is to support you, everything else is up to you Squall." Quistis explained as they walked deeper into Fire Cavern.
"Fine."
"You know, the boys often choke when I come with them. I guess my charm makes them nervous."
'Whatever.' Squall turned around and raised his eyebrow in annoyance, but managed to keep his remark to his own, deciding that nothing could would come out of it.
"I'm just joking, trying to get you relaxed that's all."
They went further into the cave in silence, keeping their eyes on the tracks again.
"I guess I am right. You and Seifer are in a class of your own. Both of you have amazing strength and potential. This is it. You ready?"
Squall gave a nod, both of them waiting at the mouth of a fiery pit, waiting to confront the Fire God, Ifrit.
"You seemed confident enough."
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Ifrit appeared soon enough, both Squall and Quistis got ready in their battle stance. He was very strong, his large claws were damaging and depleted their HP in a fast rate. Squall concentrated on summoning the Ice Goddess Shiva, while Quistis help fend Ifrit off and distract the intimidating GF.
"Diamond Dust!"
A beautiful looking goddess appeared, encased in a large shard of ice. As her eyes fluttered open, her ice prison exploded, and she lifted her arms out, white glowing energy forming a sphere on her palms. She throwed the ball towards Ifrit, immediately a pathway of ice formed itself inside the cavern, and broke producing tiny shards of ice flying around Ifrit. Shiva delighted in the pain she delivered, retreated to the recesses of mind of her master.
Ifrit writhed in pain, and cursed out loudly, a slight tint of fear surfacing in his deep baritone voice.
"They have Shiva?"
This doesn't stop both Squall and Quistis to continue lashing out on the GF, while he was trying to recover from the initial shock from Shiva's attack. He grunted loudly, and with pure rage coursing through his whole body he leaped up high in the air, diving down at blinding speed towards Squall, who didn't saw Ifrit coming as he was busy summoning Shiva again.
"Impudent humans!"
With that Ifrit stroked down his claws, but Squall was unharmed. Quistis stood in front him, and the claws formed a big bruised on her left arm. Shiva was summoned, giving time for the Instructor to take a short well-needed breath and see to her wounds.
"Not bad for a human…" Ifrit said amazed by Quistis, as not many people could withstand his furious attack. But Quistis HP was alarmingly low, reaching the critical level.
Concentrating on all her anguish and pain, Quistis stood up after a while, and pulled out her Limit Break, Blue Magic. Her eyes glowed in an eerily golden glow, making her seemed ethereal with air rushing through them in ferocious speed, responding to the high magic energy within Quistis body.
"Laser Eyes!"
Two rays of laser came out of her eyes, and hit Ifrit directly on his body, sending him down with pain and agony. After a long while he stood up warily, eyes downcast as he knew he was defeated.
"For me to lose to you human… Fine, I'll join you."
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A/N : Thanks for all of you guys out there who read this fic, especially Fightingcomet & xoxTheAngelFromMyNightmarexox who were my first reviewers, I appreciated it. Don't stop reviewing please, hope to see some of your fics if you both decided to write some soon.