Sorry this one took so long. Nobody wanted to cooperate with me. :Þ I don't own most of the characters, just Instructor Snow. Square owns all the others. And since I've never explained before, thoughts are in italics, GF's voice is bold italics. Everything else should be pretty straightforward.

Wishes on the Wind

Fujin stood on the cliff side, enjoying the breeze coming in from the ocean. Yes, this was the perfect place. Taking the coin from her pocket, she spent a moment in thought. She knew she should free the GF inside, but was afraid of what it might do. She also didn't want to destroy something that had been her father's. 'I'm sorry, papa. But I have to do this. Forgive me?'

Instructor Snow had told her the coin had to be broken cleanly. If it was shattered, the GF would be destroyed. He hadn't been able to find any way to permanently draw the Guardian, so she had decided to break the coin immediately. Feeling responsible, Snow went as her backup, since Fujin had been insistent that she handle this. He just hoped it wasn't more than he could handle.

Looking at the coin one last time after checking her weapon, Fujin thought to the GF 'I hope this doesn't hurt.'

"I'll be fine, child," was the response. "I know you can do this. It's time."

She took a deep breath and nodded to the teacher. Handing him the coin, she stepped back about 10 feet, closed her eye for a moment, then readied herself and nodded again.

Snow hesitated a moment, unsure of what they were unleashing. Fujin yelled "DO IT", and with a heavy sigh and a wish, Snow threw the coin straight up.

Taking quick aim at the small glittering target, Fujin unleashed her chakram. It hit the coin, dead center, and the world blew apart in the roar of a tornado …

Suddenly blinded by the dirt and rocks that were flung around, Snow tried desperately to see Fujin. 'Hyne, what have we done? Where is she?' There was still too much debris in the air, and the wind was picking up speed. "Kazeno!" he yelled, "Where are you!" He forced his way through the torrent to where he last saw her. There was no sign of the silver-haired girl that he could find … "FUJIN!"

Fujin felt nothing, saw nothing, heard nothing. 'I … I'm dead?' She was surprised. She had expected not to know when she was dead; she wasn't ready for an eternity of nothing.

A chuckle in her mind. "Child, you're not dead. You're with me for a moment."

'Not dead? Then where?'

"Between your world and mine."

'And you are … ?' she still couldn't see or feel anything.

The name came on a sigh of wind. "Pandemona." Then her vision cleared a little to show this 'Pandemona'. "YOU!" The thing she saw was the 'spirit' that had scared her out of the tree. This … this thing was responsible for her life going to hell! "WHY?" she demanded of the newly freed GF.

"My intention was never to harm you. I was curious, child. I wanted to meet you."

"NOT!" she screamed, cutting it off. "NEVER AGAIN!"

"I had to meet you. I did not know your father hadn't told you about me I never would have spoken to you if I had known. I was supposed to protect you when you got older, never to hurt you."

Ignoring the despair in the GF's 'voice', Fujin pulled her own emotions back under control. 'I've got to get out of here,' she thought. 'But how?' She tried focusing on the cliff she'd been standing on, the smell of the ocean, the warmth of the sun, the look of doubt on Instructor Snow's face … "SNOW?" she asked the wind GF.

After a long moment, the answer came on a whisper. "He's fine. He's still in your world."

"BACK" she demanded, and suddenly found herself dropped onto the rocky ground. She glanced around, feeling panicked, and collapsed as the wind died.

When Fujin's slight form appeared out of the air, right behind Snow, he almost attacked. He checked his actions at the last second and caught her as she fell over. "Kazeno!" He quickly checked her pulse and breathing, both of which were uneven. "Sorry, kid, but we gotta get outta here," he told the still figure as he threw her over his shoulders and headed back to Garden.

Encountering nothing on the way back, he ran straight to the infirmary and yelled for Dr. Kadowaki. "She's not here," Zell said, coming out of the supply room. Looking at the teacher and the unconscious girl, he pointed to one of the beds and went into action. "Bandages, potions … What happened?"

"Long story," Snow told the young man. "I'll tell you once she's stable." He laid her on the bed and checked her over for any injuries. Finding no blood or spots that caused any reaction indicating pain, he stepped back as Zell administered the potion.

Zell sat on the bed, and sat the unconscious young girl up so she was leaning against his shoulder. He got the potion in to her, one tiny sip at a time, and laid her back down when she began breathing deeper. She still hadn't woken up, but he thought she seemed more comfortable, more like she was just asleep. So he stood and turned to Instructor Snow. "Your turn. I'll page the doctor to come look at her, but for now that's all I can do."

Snow looked down at himself, covered with dirt, cuts and bruises from the windstorm tossing everything around. With a weak laugh, he told Zell, "Nothing here I can't fix with a hot shower and a lot of salve."

"You sure?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "Page the doctor, so I can tell her what happened, would you please?" He followed Zell out to the main part of the office. After the doctor was paged, Snow asked Zell about the tattoo, which was new enough to still be a little red around the edges. "I know SeeD doesn't mind what you do, but your face? And why such a big tattoo?"

Hanging his head a little, the young man sighed. "I know, it was dumb. My ma's having fits over it!" He smiled and looked up. "It's supposed to give me focus. Ma says all it does is show everyone how focused I am on being stubborn." A self-mocking laugh escaped him. "Maybe she's right …"

Snow chuckled and looked at his student. "We'll have to find out in your next training session."

Their conversation was interrupted when the doctor arrived. "So, what happened? Who needs help?" All business right from the start. She looked at Snow. "What did you do, fall off a mountain?"

"I'm fine, doctor." He shook his head. "I brought Kazeno in, she needs help." He followed the doctor in to where the young girl lay, still senseless, and stood off to the side. As the doctor examined Fujin, he explained what happened. Dr. Kadowaki glared at him several times, but said nothing until she was finished with the examination and had shoved him out of the room.

Closing the door, she whirled on the teacher, anger flashing in her eyes. "Are you a complete moron?" she asked coldly. "You and that child both could have been killed! Did that never occur to you? And where is this … this thing, this GF … where is it now? What if it's taken her over? What if it fried her mind? You do know, don't you, that she may never wake up? And you," she nailed him in the chest with her finger. "You went out to help her free a potentially dangerous GF without backup and without a GF of your own? Idiot!" She slapped him, hard enough to make his eyes water.

Zell went in to check on the girl. He heard Instructor Snow's cold reply as he closed the door. "Yes, Doctor, I did. If I hadn't gone right then, she would have gone out alone." Zell admired the man's control – he never raised his voice, even though most people would have yelled right back.

Grabbing down a cloth and wetting it in the sink, Zell wrung it out and turned back to the bed. He gently removed her eye patch, wincing a little at the scars crossing her face, and wiped her face with the cloth. "I hope you're okay in there," he said softly, replacing the patch and folding the cloth across her forehead. "Dr. Kadowaki might kill Instructor Snow if you're not."

He thought she'd smiled a little, so he sat by the bed and kept talking. "Gotta tell ya, that was really pretty noble, freeing a GF like that? I never knew they could be captured. I'm sure it didn't mean to shut you down like this." He reached over and brushed her hair out of her face, and she did smile a little this time.

Fujin felt someone's hand across her face. Opening her eye slowly, she squinted to focus on the young man looking at her, concern written plainly on his face. She tried to ask what happened, where she was, but no sound came out. Then all her thoughts snapped into focus. "SNOW" she demanded, sitting straight up and trying to ignore the dizziness that hit her in a wave.

Zell gently tried to push her back down. "He'll be fine, once he's done arguing with the doctor. You're in the infirmary. You freed a GF and got knocked out?"

He sounded impressed. Fujin lay back down, which helped ease the dizzy spell. So, she did survive it. So had Instructor Snow. But what had happed to the GF? Was it Pandora it said its name was?

"Yes, child. Pandora. You freed me. I am here when you need me. For now, just rest." The voice was soothing, and Fujin was too tired to argue. She smiled and closed her eyes. She could feel Zell wiping her face off again and was almost asleep when Seifer barged in with Raijin.

"Fujin! What happened? You alright?" He shoved her caretaker out of the way just as Fujin opened her eye. "We heard you were carried in! Are you okay? Why didn't you tell us you were going somewhere? "

She knew he was worried, but right now, he was just too noisy. "LATER" she told him, smiling to soften the harshness of her voice. She smiled at Raijin, too, who was standing in the corner silent and obviously uncomfortable.

Then Dr. Kadowaki came in, grabbing Seifer and Raijin by the arm and hustling them out the door. "She needs rest now. You two need to go!"

Seifer turned to lock eyes with Zell. "You better take care of her! Or I'll settle with you later. Got it, wuss?" Then he let the doctor drag him out.

Zell sighed and shook his head, unclenching his fists. "Why you running around with him?" he asked Fujin. "It's not like he's all that charming."

Fujin took a deep breath. How could she explain? She owed Seifer her life. He was more than a friend to her and Raijin. But what was he? After a moment's thought, she closed her eyes and smiled. "BROTHER"