'Ugh!' Reis cried, as she was knocked over by something fast and hard. Falling over into an entirely strange location, she landed hard on the paved sidewalk of a city.

'Drop your weapon,' A rough voice said to her.

Reis looked up, and found…a soldier with a blade held above his shoulder.

'Drop your weapon,' he repeated, lowering the blade slightly.

'No,' Reis said, feeling annoyed, 'I will not drop it. I have as much right to hold one as you do,'

'Insubordination will not be looked kindly upon by the Galbadian government,' he said, gritting his teeth, 'Drop your weapon. Now!'

'I have told you. No,' Reis said in her most dangerous voice, gripping her katana, 'You will leave me alone now, before I will tear your head from your body,'

'See-D! All soldiers to rally here now!' the man shouted out, waving his blade in the air. Immediately five soldiers ran to his aid, circling Reis.

'You—young lady, are about to learn what it means to fear Galbadia,' he snarled, licking his lips, before he brought down his blade, without warning, across her face.

Blood spattered onto the brick as Reis' face was sliced across the nose. A steady drip of fluid, staining the floor crimson.

Enraged at this unethical attack, Reis cleaved her attacker in two with her katana, spilling brains and guts onto the floor, before kicking aside the two halves of his remaining flesh and bone. The others cowered on the spot, a split second before Reis had their heads torn from their body. Letting the disfigured bodies lie on the ground, she walked on aimlessly through the city, blood still flowing down her slashed face.

Noticing that many buildings were destroyed, Reis began to wonder…was this world as war-torn as Ivalice? Or was it like this only in this area? There was no time for wondering now; a number of sirens blared and soldiers began to troop down the broad street. Hiding herself behind a number of crates, Reis looked on as they marched down the street in vast numbers.

'The See-D have begun to land. All soldiers to create defensive perimeter immediately. I repeat, the See-D have begun to land. All soldiers to created defensive perimeter around Dollet Beach immediately,' the siren nearest to Reis blared, causing her to jump.

Rushing out of her hiding spot, Reis was immediately fired upon by a number of soldiers. Deflecting the bullets with a wave of energy from her hand, she walked onwards, the katana trailing behind her as she walked in a non-aggressive manner, her body inviolate due to the force of the shield she had generated with the aid of her magical power. Licking the crimson liquid that flowed down her face, Reis turned around so that she faced the soldiers. They had stopped firing—noticing that Reis was obviously unaffected. A number of adolescent teenagers began to run up the street, towards Reis from behind. Holding a strange array of weapons from swords to knuckle-dusters, they appeared to be an ill-sorted bunch, in comparison to the organised army now facing them.

'Fire!' the leader of the soldiers roared, stabbing his curved saber towards Reis and the teenagers.

The soldiers' rifles blasted out bullets, speeding towards their opponents. Reis held all the bullets in suspension, to the amazement of everybody around her. Twirling them around, her face distorted in utmost concentration, she sent them all flying back at the soldiers, who in a fraction of a second lay dead, the bullets having raced through their heads, leaving nothing but a blood-spouting hole.

'Thank you for your assistance,' one of the teenagers said, one with short-cropped fair hair and holding a long, thin sword with what appeared to be a…gun mechanism where the handle should be? 'My name is Seifer, the leader of these mutts over here,' he said, pointing over to the other teenagers. One of them shrugged their shoulders, while the other shook violently, making rude hand gestures and shaking his fist at the leader.

'Come on, Chicken-wuss, bring your sorry ass over here. And you too, Squall! Don't get lazy 'cos of this lady here!'

Mutinously, the other two moved forward, muttering curses under their breath. Opening doors and examining if there were any other soldiers around, they moved cautiously through the war-torn city.

'Excuse me…' Reis said to the leader, 'What exactly are See-D? I have heard of them from the commander of that stupid army,'

'That would be us, missy,' he said, proudly pointing a thumb to his chest, 'At least, the graduated ones anyway. The See-D are elite mercenaries, those that have passed the years of education in the Gardens—they aren't the flower ones, by the way,' seeing the perplexed look on Reis' face, 'Gardens are, well, schools of fighting. Those that are gifted or have special abilities are inducted into the rigorous training, where they are conditioned for combat. Today, we're doing a field test, the final test before we are finally called See-D's, the fully-fledged mercenaries,'

'Oh…I see,' Reis muttered, taking all the information in. Something about a military academy…something about a final field test, and gifted warriors. Sounds like the military academies of Ivalice…

'Oi! Seifer!' the other See-D shouted, his wild blonde hair showing from behind a burned-up car, 'Come here, there's some more Galbadian wimps here,'

'Excuse me while I have to go… Yes, Zell, I'm going to trash their sorry arses. Don't you worry, chicken-wuss wimp, you won't have to fight. I will deal with them,'

Reis ran along with them, towards a central fountain with a number of Galbadian soldiers surrounding it.

'CHARGE!' Seifer shouted, dashing towards the nearest soldier and stabbing him in the chest. Squall slashed a gunman's leg, before kicking him to the ground and severing his head, while Zell raised his knee in between the squad leader's legs, causing him to buckle over in pain. Kicking him repeatedly in the chest, Zell finally punched him in the back of the head, knocking the leader senseless.

'Well done. I couldn't expect any better of you, chicken-wuss, you took so long to kill that wimp,' Seifer sneered, causing Zell to flush a deep red, 'Be grateful that I didn't have to come and finish your fight,'

'We will have to wait here and secure the area until further orders come,' Squall said, settling down next to the fountain, 'And…whatever your name is, you've sustained an injury. Come to the fountain, I'll wash it and cure it,'

Reis did as she was told, walking gracefully over to the fountain, wiping her hand over the stinging wound as she did so. Argh. I should have done a lot more to that man who did this to me…

Squall splashed some water over Reis' slashed face, rubbing away the dried blood and washing away the still-flowing blood. There was a deep cut left behind just above her nose and running down to her right cheek, on that once-beautiful beyond measure face.

'There, finished,' Squall said, splashing water one last time onto the cut, 'I'll take you back to Balamb Garden. Doctor Kadowaki should be able to fix you up,'

'Thanks,' Reis said, smiling. She looked on Squall's face, when she noticed that he had a similar scar on his face.

'Hmm…Hmm…Oh my god, I can't take this boring job anymore!' Seifer shouted, holding his head with his hands, 'I wish there was something to do!'

'Calm down, Seifer, we might fail the field test if we leave our posts,' Zell said, flicking stones across the paved road.

'Who gives about the goddamn test! I'm going to hunt for some Galbadian ass!'

He raced off, leaving Squall and Zell behind.

'Who gives if that jerk dies,' Zell said bitterly, kicking a rock.

'Yeah…' Squall added, sheathing his gun-blade (for that was the only name that seemed appropriate for the strange half-gun, half-sword weapon that he used).

Hours passed without much activity…

'Look, there's Seifer. And what's that behind him?' Zell said, squinting for a better look.

'It looks like…a giant bug?'

Whatever was following him down the street was definitely not friendly. Crushing vehicles and smashing windows, the large bug demolished its way towards Zell, Squall and Reis, intent on killing Seifer.

'Must kill See-D,' a mechanical voice said from within the metal shell of the bug, turning towards the group, 'See-D detected, initiating attack sequence. Engines powering up for battle mode. 3…2…1… Engines heated, charging laser cannons…'

'What are you waiting for, fools!' Seifer yelled, 'Run for your lives!'

'There is no way I will run against this thing,' Reis muttered, unsheathing her katana, 'I will destroy it. Trust me or not, do whatever you want,'

'Laser cannons charged, preparing to fire…'

'Die!' she grunted, slashing the metal blaster on top to shreds.

'Error, laser cannons losing charge…retrying charge sequence…'

There was no mercy by Reis. Eyes cold as ice, she lopped off each leg, cleaving apart wires and joints, ignoring the powerful strikes that it dealt against her body. With one final, devastating blow, she ruptured the main engine and its fuel tanks. Shaking, the metal construct collapsed, falling with a sickening crack on top of a dead Galbadian soldier.

'You've got to be kidding me…' Seifer said, open-mouthed, 'One woman, taking on a Galbadian prototype spider tank?'

'Are we dreaming?' Zell whispered to Squall.

'No, I don't think so,' Squall replied, after hitting himself over the head.

A company of Galbadian soldiers began to march down the road, preparing for an assault against the See-D, but were stopped in their tracks by the horrible sight of one of their spider tanks destroyed, chunks of it scattered all over the ground.

'COME ON YOU WEAKLINGS!' Reis roared at them, standing on top of the wreckage, 'PROVE YOUR STRENGTH!'

Yelling indistinct words, the Galbadian soldiers dropped their weapons and scattered. But this was not enough for Reis. Holding the two-handed blade in front of her, she gathered the force of ice from within her mind, focusing it upon the tip of her sword. Shrouded by a freezing aura, Reis dashed after the scattering troops, the blade leaving a frozen trail of ice behind in her wake. Slicing off each head neatly, she instilled fear into the remaining Galbadian army; the spirit of the legendary warrior Sephiroth had begun to infuse its skill into Reis' hands. After slashing the last running soldier down with the sharp edge, she observed the trail of destruction behind her; at least a hundred bodies lay mutilated and disfigured, some cruelly smashed against the walls surrounding the narrow road. There were no survivors of the Galbadian army; when the second and third group of See-D arrived, they only found the dead and a single woman standing framed in the destruction, her curved blade held over her shoulder, her blonde hair falling down in sheets to her knees.

Later that afternoon…on the cruise back to Balamb Garden.

'How many did you kill, Seifer?' a woman who was called 'Quistis' asked.

'Only a dozen or so,'

'That's strange of you,' Quistis said, raising an eyebrow, 'Normally you would slay all that you meet. Why is it this time you have killed so few?'

'I would have, if that woman over there next to Squall hadn't killed the entire Galbadian army,' he replied nonchalantly, pointing a thumb at the blood-covered woman holding an even bloodier katana, which could only be Reis.

'WHAT!' Quistis exclaimed, stepping backwards in shock, 'The ENTIRE Galbadian army? Killed by a single person? You must be joking,'

'He's not joking, Instructor,' the leaders of the second and third squads shouted back over the roar of the ship's engines as it jumped over a sand bar, 'We found that woman with countless corpses strewn all over the streets of Dollet,'

'Well…I guess this would be a special exception…I must see Headmaster Cid when we arrive back. Radio a message back to Balamb, Instructor Quistis requesting a meeting with Headmaster Cid,'

A/N

2Sidez: FYI there's been about 700 hits on this story.

There's been too much blood and gore for this story to remain in T, as it violates the rating guide. This is permanently being moved to M.