Squall listened to the entire episode in silence. Once Dominic and Jessica finished explaining Squall rubbed his head thoughtfully for a few seconds.
"So it just turned around and left the two of you?" he asked.
"Yes" said Dominic "I couldn't understand it either"
"The dragon could have done what I saw" said Squall "But it would have left much bigger injuries"
"So what happens now?" Dominic asked
"Firstly I'm going to get some Garden Faculty to search the area for this dragon; we need to make sure it doesn't hurt anyone" said Squall "And you two need to find something more constructive to do than hunt around; especially you Dominic, no more hunting down monsters"
"Yes, sir" said Dominic nodding.
"Alright, you can leave" said Squall. Dominic and Jessie both thanked him for his time before leaving the office and taking the elevator down to the first floor and they both went to Dominic's room.
Dominic sat on his desk while Jessie lounged on his bed
"So what do we do now?" Jessie asked
"I don't know" said Dominic. Dominic walked over and lay on his bed next to Jessie and they both lay there looking up at his ceiling.
"We could go for another walk" said Jessie
"And run into more monsters?" he said looking sideways at her "I'd rather not"
"We could go find that dragon" she said with a smile as she looked over at him.
"No" said Dominic
"Oh come on" she said "Imagine what people will say when they hear that we killed a dragon"
"Probably; you're expelled" said Dominic
"You're no fun" she said
"I'd rather be no fun that expelled" he said.
"Have you got a GF?" she asked him
"Guardian Force or girlfriend?" he asked
"Both" she said
"Neither" said Dominic
"Do you want to go try and catch a GF?" she asked
"I doubt the other girls in the garden will enjoy being lassoed" said Dominic. Jessie laughed as did Dominic.
"Not those GF's you idiot" she said "Apparently Squall and his friends set the GF's free, except for Eden, when they came back to Garden so that other SeeD's could capture them"
"And?" Dominic asked
"Come on" she said "No one in our year has a GF; we could be the first to capture one"
"Or be killed by one" said Dominic
"Are you always this pessimistic?" she asked
"Yes" he said but then smiled.
"You are so annoying" she said elbowing him hard in the ribs. Dominic laughed and then sat up
"We could go for a walk outside" he said "I'm not saying we're necessarily looking for something"
"Finally" said Jessie getting to her feet and picking up her bag. Dominic got to his feet also
"So where to?" he asked
"Just outside" she said opening the door "Dominic, why don't you take this sword with you?"
"I never use it" he said "I was never very good"
"And you don't where the coat either" she said
"I don't think it suits me" he said.
"Okay then" she said. Jessie left first and then Dominic. Before he had left Dominic had looked at the coat and sword momentarily; he had more important reasons for not using the sword or wearing the coat but those were his reasons alone.
The two of them stepped out, again, into the bright sunlight of the day. Already the Garden Faculty were moving out towards the cavern and so Jessie and Dominic were stuck.
"I thought Squall told you two to stop hunting?" Zell said. Dominic and Jessie looked to their left and saw Zell who was sat on a wall.
"We're not hunting" said Jessie
"We are walking" said Dominic nodding.
"Right" said Zell "Of course you are" he said getting of the wall and walking over to them "I never really had much regard for rules when I was learning here either"
"We're not breaking any rules" said Dominic
"Yeah right" said Zell who put his hands behind his back "So what you really up to?"
"Looking for that Dragon" admitted Dominic. Zell smiled
"I guess I can help there" said Zell "It's been too long since I had a decent brawl"
"What about Squall?" Jessie asked
"Exactly" said Zell "What about him?"
"Where should we start?" Dominic asked
"Wanna try the trees over there?" Zell thought.
"Better than nowhere" said Dominic. The three of them set off down the grassy plain towards the large clump of trees.
The three of them pushed their way through the thick branches that littered the ground and grew from awkward places on the trees.
"So tell me how ya found this dragon" said Zell "Squall jus said 'they found ruby dragon blah di blah' and he kinda carried on for a while"
"We were in the Cavern" said Dominic "And it must have come in behind us, it sort of looked at us for a bit then walked away"
"Did ya see Ifrit?" Zell asked
"Who?" Jessie asked
"Ifrit; the GF who lives in the cavern" said Zell
"Nah, no GF" said Dominic
"That's weird, GF's tend to attack anyone who goes into their place" said Zell "You two have a weird luck"
"Apparently" said Dominic. Suddenly a crashing noise emanated from their far right.
"Sounds like we found our dragon" said Zell crouching slightly as he moved through the tree's followed by the other two. Again Dominic charged his magical powers; ready for the fray. The three of them crouched near the edge of a circle of grassland that had been cleared of trees directly in the centre of the forest. The Dragon was sat in the centre its paw was flattening a fiend which was ripped in half and eaten. The dragon swung its great tail which took out another group of trees.
"What do we do?" Jessie whispered to Zell who shrugged
"Attack it" said Zell. Jessie drew her silver pistol again and fired at the dragon's hide. The flash and the bang startled all three of them and the bullet caused no visible damage. The dragon raised its head and turned around to face them.
"We need to get into the circle of trees" said Zell it will be very difficult to fight here"
"What if we get fried?" Jessie asked as the dragon took a deep breath and fired a spray of flames towards them. Dominic raised his hand and the flames hit a barrier.
"Nice one" said Zell who stepped into the empty grassland. A gold circle of energy appeared in front of them. The dragon fired its flames again but this time the flames were absorbed by the ring of energy.
"Carry on firing at it" said Dominic "It won't be able to get through the barrier" Jessie raised her pistol and continued to fire. The bullets passed through the barrier and hit the dragon but caused no damage at all.
"Its bullet-proof!" said Jessie lowering her pistol.
"You got any offensive magic?" Zell asked
"Yes" said Dominic "I have a good one" he said with a smile "The dragon has to keep attacking though" Suddenly the dragon pulled its head back and brought it forwards and tried hitting them with a cloud of gold mist. The mist was pulled into the barrier yet again. The dragon tried hitting the barrier but the kinetic energy was absorbed. The disk of energy changed colour signalling to Dominic that it was fully charged. Dominic brought his hand back and the barrier vanished. The dragon ran forwards and brought its massive clawed foot down on them. A white flash emanated from Dominic's hand as he hit the dragon's foot with his right hand. The dragon was sent crashing back through the trees in a roaring squeal of pain. They watched as the dragon tried getting back to its feet but it died before it could.
"That was impressive" said Zell "What the hell was that?"
"Royal Guard" said Dominic blowing the smoke that now surrounded his hand "A move given to me by my father"
"It was impressive" said Jessie "You're like better than everyone in our year with that move"
"I don't usually it usually" said Dominic "It makes me feel funny"
"What do you mean?" Zell asked
"I feel like I want to fight more" said Dominic "Like I want to defeat more fiends"
"That's just because of the fight" said Squall walking through the tree's "It's the excitement from the battle"
"Squall" said Zell surprised "We though we'd come see if it was in here"
"I'm not angry" Squall reassured him "At least they had adequate protection"
"Yeah" said Jessie "We killed the dragon!"
"I noticed" said Squall looking at its body which was wedged between a few trees.
"Did you see his power?" Zell asked Squall "He should be getting lessons from Edea"
"I already asked him; have you changed your mind?" Squall asked him
"No" said Dominic "I don't want any special treatment just because I'm powerful"
"You should at least speak to her when she comes to the Garden next" said Zell "She'd give you some tips; not that ya really need them"
"No" said Dominic.
"Alright" said Squall "Let's get out of here, the Faculty will come and dispose of the body"
Jessie and Dominic returned to their rooms to get ready for the next day while Squall called a meeting in his office for him and his friends.
"What's this all about?" Selphie asked as she sat on the side of Squall's desk
"It's about one of our students" said Squall "His name's Dominic and he's just joined"
"He's pretty darn powerful" said Zell "Saw it with my own eyes today"
"How powerful?" Quistis asked
"The other day he blocked a direct hit from a T-Rexaur before I had even moved and today he killed a ruby dragon with a single strike" said Squall. Irvine whistled
"Pretty powerful for someone who's just joined; how old is he?" Irvine asked
"Seventeen" said Squall. Quistis raised her eyebrows
"Imagine what he could do when he gets to our age" said Quistis
"I'd rather not" said Squall "He doesn't really abide by the rules of the Garden and I can't expel him as he is a very promising student and I think he knows it"
"So what do you want us to do?" Quistis asked
"Make sure he doesn't break the rules" said Squall. From his desk he took pictures of Dominic that were taken when the students first entered the Garden.
"This is him" said Squall.
"He looks strangely familiar" said Irvine looking at the picture "Like someone we've met before"
"I know" said Squall "I haven't been able to figure it out either, he's an orphan"
"So we have no idea of who his parents were?" said Selphie
"He mentioned his father when we were in the forest" said Zell "Right after he blasted the dragon, he said 'I got it from my father' so I guess he knows who his parents were"
"Just be careful guys" said Squall as they got up to leave the room.