Chapter 3: Waiting.

Ifrit crouched down in the soft grass near the very back of the training center, creeping along the ground as conspicuously as possible. This place was empty, it always was at this time of night, or morning he should say, 4 am would qualify as morning, so he had the entire place to himself...well not exactly.

At times like this, Ifrit was keenly aware of his strong points, and stealth was not one of them. Griever, standing in front of him with his back turned, wiped his bladed tail outward, Ifrit blocked with his arm, leaving a large cut across just above his wrist. With himself discovered, Ifrit pushed upward with his arms and legs off the ground, ascending above Griever and kicked him in his back between his wings.

Griever flapped his wings together forcefully, smashing Ifrit in between and knocking him out of the air. With swiftness, Griever climbed on top of him and held him down, "Give up."

"No." Ifrit drove his head forward, slamming his horns into Griever and knocking him backwards, then he grabbed Griever by the shoulders and threw him off. Griever landed hard on the ground and slid back a few feet. Ifrit rolled on to his stomach and pushed himself up, Griever dug his claws into a tree behind him and climbed on his feet.

Ifrit took a step backwards, heat rising in distorting waves from his body. A low, rumbling growl sounded from his throat as he charged at Griever, the heat surrounding him burst into flames that until he couldn't be distinguished beneath the blazing fire. Griever stood his ground, holding one arm outward as he cast a spell "Wateraga!" A sphere of blue liquid surrounded Ifrit, extinguishing the flames though the fire GF managed to break through the bubble and continue his charge at Griever.

"Protect." A blue barrier surrounded Griever as the blades in his elbows came out and he folded his arms to block. Ifrit ran into Griever, blue horns broke through the protect spell and crashed into the red blades, stopping him completely. "Tch." Griever grabbed Ifrit by the horns and lifted him off of his feet, then slammed him down face first on the ground. Griever sat down on his back while he continued to hold Griever by the horns. "Give up."

Ifrit grunted from the pain, "Never." Ifrit reached forward, digging his claws into the ground and rolling over hard enough to drop Griever off of him. He lifted himself on to his hands and knees, "Firaga!" Griever's body erupted in an explosion of flames and heat, enough to make him stumble backwards. That gave Ifrit the opening he was waiting for.

Ifrit sprang forward, reaching for an off guard Griever, but Griever caught himself and went to incept him. Griever's fist caught Ifrit's and Ifrit's caught Griever's, both of them ended up dead locked, both trying to over power the other. Usually, Griever would have won quickly in a match of strength, but today, Ifrit seemed unusually determined through visibly struggling. Ifrit smiled impishly, leaning forward over their arms and pressing his mouth against Griever's ear "I won't lose to you again." Ifrit's hands became scolding hot, hotter and hotter until flames surrounded them, burning Griever's immensely. But Griever held on and kept pushing, even through the fire Griever started to force Ifrit back. 'What?'

"Heh." Griever smiled at the failing look on Ifrit's face, pushing harder and making Ifrit slide backwards. "Give up."

Ifrit was hesitant, but as soon as Griever forced him on to his knees he knew it was over, despite his efforts to get back up Griever was stronger. "I...I give up." Ifrit sighed as Griever let go of his hands, he dropped them in defeat. Unmoving as he felt Griever lean down and press their lips together in fierce kiss. He always felt helplessly weak when he lost to Griever, just like all of those other times before, he could never seem to win, though this time he lasted a whole hour, longer then any time before. 'Next time. I won't be so weak next time.' He said to himself, though losing to Griever wasn't all bad, he could say that much.

Griever grabbed on to the back of Ifrit's head and pulled him against his stomach. Ifrit gave a small grunt of acknowledgment, wrapping his strong arms around Griever's waist trailing down his stomach with small trail of warm kisses. Griever's hands ran down Ifrit's neck and coming to rest on his shoulders, his claws dug into to Ifrit's skin hard enough to draw blood on a normal person. Griever was always so squeamish during gentle treatments.

"...Uhaa..." Griever closed his eyes and fell back, landing in a sitting potion with Ifrit still holding his waist though now on his stomach. He crossed his legs and held on to the horns that extended down Ifrit's back, though Griever was able to contain himself for the most part he still couldn't keep his tail from whipping around excitedly behind him. And the fact that Ifrit was strong and he'd come so close to beating him made this all the more exhilarating.

The warm tongue made it's way teasingly down Griever's stomach and stopping at the navel. Ifrit had gained experience with what felt good and what spots were the most sensitive on the familiar body. He'd had 200 years to learn, that's when their constant continuation of fighting began. Ifrit ran his tongue around the navel, adding heat as his tongue slid from the outer ring to the inside and gaining that all too familiar deep groan and tightening hold around his horns from Griever.

Ifrit closed his eyes, drawing his tongue back and burying his face into Griever's lap where an erection made itself known from beneath the sheath. He wasn't too adverse to doing this to Griever, His first few losses he had been, now he'd grown accustomed, even liked it. Then he realized how much of a libido Griever had, they'd gone through this a lot, sometimes after a day, sometimes a week in-between, a few times it'd even been exactly 20 years until he saw the Lion GF again.

Griever pulled Ifrit in by his horns, prompting him to stop waiting. Ifrit complied, wrapping his mouth around the cock and sucking diligently, closing his eyes again as his hands slid down Griever's back with soft heat. His fingers pressed against Griever's entrances, but strong hands around his wrist made Ifrit open his eyes and prevented him from going any farther. He still had to beat Griever to even attempt that, that much was clear. Griever held his head down and let out a growl of contentment, and Ifrit could have swore he saw a faint smile across his lips. "Ifrit..."

Ifrit ran his tongue along the bottom of the cock, applying more and more heat to the already warm length. Ifrit suddenly pulled back right after, instead he blew a warm, humid breath over the head of the cock, it sent a shudder through Griever's body. He could feel Griever's tail moving around more anxiously with each administration Ifrit gave him. The Lion GF clinched Ifrit's horns in a tight grip and his eyes and whole expression clinched. One last breath from Ifrit was enough to force a loud roar from Griever, and send cum upward into Ifrit's mouth. Griever fell forward, his chest and head laying on Ifrit's back with heavy pants and a few soft growls that sent vibrations along Ifrit's muscles. Still clinched tightly as the rest of his seed emptied.

Both of them lay silently, Ifrit on his hands and knees with his head burred in Griever's lap, and Griever laying over the expanses of Ifrit's back. "Next time..." Ifrit said "I won't be so weak."

Griever smirked, He remembered those words well, even after all this time and seeing how strong Ifrit has gotten, he still could only see Ifrit as that small GF that chased after him especially when he said that. That wanted to be like him, that wanted him to stay, that was in love with him. "Hn."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"Aaahhhh." Seifer moaned painfully, lifting his hand to his forehead as he slowly opened his eyes "Aww Damnit. My head is killing me...what the hell happened?" Seifer found himself staring up at a ceiling that wasn't his own, finding a wall in his vision that shouldn't have been there. 'Huh?' Seifer lifted his head off of the pillow and looked around. He himself was laying in a bed wearing only his pants, his shirt was laying across a chair that sat at a desk that he knew he didn't have.

Shadow was laying across his waist with his head resting on his stomach, he looked so peaceful that it was kinda cute. And for some reason Cho was laying on the ground with his shirt open. This wasn't his room, it was Cho's. "What the hell am I doing here?"

Cho groaned and stirred in his sleep, "Owww, keep it down..."

"Eh? What's with you?" Seifer looked around until he found the clock on the wall, no wonder, it was 4:30 in the morning. It was pretty dark, the only light was that of the blinking green of Cho's alarm clock. "Oh...nevermind." Seifer laid back again, still trying to figure out why he was here in the first place. He found himself looking into glowing red eyes of an apparently awaken Shadow, "I never noticed you were a nightlight too spiky."

Shadow opened his mouth in a small yawn, "I'm not a dog, stop calling me that."

"Yeah, Yeah." Seifer rubbed Shadow's head, his hand was large enough to push his ears down. He made up for it by gently scratching behind the furry appendages and making the wolf's ears perk. "Now how did I get here?"

"You drank to much and thought this was your room."

Seifer laughed, getting another angry grow from a sleeping Cho. "I don't think I can go back to sleep with this headache. At least not right now." Seifer said with a shrug, "You sleepy?"

"Not really."

"Then lets get out of here, before Cho get's mad." Seifer sat up completely, Shadow was forced to get up though he didn't too much mind it. Shadow, though still groggy, moved agilely over Cho's body with out disturbing him, Seifer however stepped on the boy more then once.

"Aww, hey." Cho yelled out, before rolling over and going back to sleep. He seemed comfortable down there, and probably was since he was long used to sleeping on the ground from living in a forest most or all of his life.

Seifer gave a bare apology as he put on his shirt and opened the door to the bed room, Shadow following at his heels. They found Nida laying across his couch sloppily, it was obvious that he must have been very tired when he went to sleep since he was in such a disorganized manner. Nida turned his head and opened one eye "Finally woke up huh?" He called out sleepily "Where are you two going this early?"

"I'm taking spiky for a walk." Seifer said with a smirk, getting a growl in response from Shadow. Seifer lifted his hands in surrendering manner, as he opened the door to the harshly bright lights of the hallway. It was enough to make his pounding head worse. 'Damn, do they have to make these lights so bright, it's 4 in the morning!' That was the hang over talking, "Come, I need to change clothes."

! - ! - !

Zell lifted his feet over the side of his bed, feeling a small chill from being in nothing but his boxers as he reached around blindly in the darkness for the light on his wall. After a few seconds he just gave up and opened his eyes, 'Huh? Where did Bahamut go?' Zell looked back though he was barely able to see anything, he could easily tell that the dragon was gone.

Zell laid back down in is bed, his hands behind his head and his eyes falling closed. 'He couldn't have gone and done what I think he did, he's in no condition.' Bahamut was still injured from his fight against the shadows that had possessed the garden, and against Carbuncle who'd also been controlled at the time, and performing a complete Junction couldn't be easy on someone who'd just recently learned how to be a GF.

All of that was put aside when he heard Bahamut come through the door, Bahamut was never one to sneak around, he never did it well. A small smile appeared on Zell's face as he felt the GF climbing into the bed next to him and wrapping his arms around the boy. "Are you alright Bahamut?" Zell looked over at Bahamut, still bandaged over his torso, his forearms and shins, His tail was still healing, and Zell knew how sad Bahamut was about his tail. "How's the tail?"

Bahamut closed his eyes "I'm fine. And my tail is..." Which meant still not healed. Bahamut opened his eyes again and looked down, Zell was laying across him with a firm hold on his tail and had gotten in the position with out him noticing. "What are you...ahaaa..." Zell was rubbing his tail around the base area, working his fingers into the muscles in a massaging manner.

"Feel good?" Zell asked, laying his head on Bahamut's chest.

"Very." Bahamut smiled, resting his hand on Zell's head. "You don't have to do this for me."

"I don't mind, besides, you've been kind of out lately, and I really like your tail, it's cool." An impish smirk came on to Zell's face, "Besides, I miss those things you do with it."

! - ! - !

Seifer returned to Cho's room, fully clothed in his usual attire and Shadow walking behind him. All of the lights were on, and he smelled the scent of food in the air. "What the hell?" Seifer looked around, finding Nida in the kitchen cooking and Cho sitting at the counter in front of him. Both of them already dressed, noticeably much more casually then last night "You guys are aware that it's still 4 in the morning?" He said, watching Shadow walk over to the sofa and lay down as usual.

Nida looked up, then back at the pan below him. "Uh-huh."

Cho glanced back "Your up."

Seifer just shrugged and sat down next to them, "Any reason why we're all up this early."

Nida laughed "You woke us up. You move like your still drunk."

Seifer was tempted to throw something at him. "Whatever."

"Hey, I just remembered something." Cho said abruptly. "I heard something really weird in class a few days ago."

"This sounds bad already." Nida walked away from the stove and opened the refrigerator. "And what was this weird thing you heard?"

"I heard there was a monster lose in the Garden. Some people said they see it around this time of the morning." Cho told them, a little more excited then he should have been.

"Really?" Nida seemed a little more interested. "And what does it look like?"

Cho shrugged "I don't know, nobody really got a good look. Think it was another one of those things from before, those things that look like Shadow?"

"It's possible." Nida said with cautious agreement, "Anything's possible, they could just be seeing things, or making it up just to mess with you. You know people aren't too sold on Shadow staying, they could be using it as an excuse."

"An excuse?" Cho asked inquiringly "An excuse for what?"

Nida leaned over the counter to look at him face to face. "Think about it Cho, people don't like him. They could use this as an excuse to--"

"Why do you talk about me as if I'm not in the room?" Shadow called out, staring piercingly at the wall.

Seifer glanced back "Better get use it." He said plainly "It's gonna happen a lot."

"Well, there's only one way to find out." Cho pushed himself out of his chair, Nida immediately recognized that plotting look in his eyes. "Why don't we go and look for it?"

Seifer snorted "Does this sound useless and stupid to anyone but me?"

"Yeah let's do it, there's no way it could hurt."

"Expect for if it's real, and it kills you. You go ahead and do it if you want." Seifer stood up, yawning as he stretched his arms upward toward the ceiling. "I'm going back to sleep. Shadow, look out I'm crashing." Seifer turned around and fell backwards on to the couch, forcing Shadow to move before he was smashed under Seifer's weight. He just reconvened on Seifer's chest, uncaring of Seifer wanted him there or not, which he didn't really care about. It seemed the walk was enough to allow Seifer to get back to sleep. "Just save me some food will ya brat?"

"Oh come on, just a quick look." Cho said, But he quickly saw Seifer obviously wasn't going to move again and Shadow didn't look like he wanted to be bothered with it. So Cho turned to the only person left "Nida? It's not like we're going to do anything."

Nida shook his head. "I don't know Cho, you have a mission today, you should be getting back to bed and resting up..." He looked down and saw the pleading look in Cho's eyes, he knew the boy was faking it, but he just couldn't resist "Alright, but hurry up."

! - ! - !

It was amazing how a place looked completely different at different times, Cho was so used to seeing it filled with people that it was almost unreal, like this wasn't same Garden hall. The whole place was empty, the only sounds were from the barely noticeable fountains that surrounded this place.

"Hmm...This place..." Cho rested his hands behind his head and smiled "Is kinda nice when it's quite."

"I guess so, You'll never see this place more peaceful." Nida placed his hands in his pockets and followed behind Cho, glancing around lazily. He wasn't expecting to see anything, he didn't even want to be up right now, but he did enjoy the peace in a place that usually wasn't peaceful. It was a refreshing change, "So what are we looking for?"

"I don't know, but I'll know it when I see it." Cho was most defiantly taking this seriously, he was interested in things like this. "Where would something like that hide? In the training center? Maybe in the cafeteria where there's food?" Cho thought about that "Nah, it's locked, and I think I'd notice that."

"I don't think you've considered the idea that it could be fake." Nida commented.

"That's what we're going to find out." Cho walked past the infirmary, glancing down the hall inside towards the locked door. "Think somethings in there."

"If it was, then it would have been found when they were closing it for the night."

Cho shrugged "Alright." Nida was probably right, there were other places that something could easily hide. "So how are you feeling Nida? You were hurt pretty bad before." Cho knew Nida had suffered plenty of injuries when the Ragnork crashed last week. "How's your leg."

"It's alright." Nida said conservatively, truthfully it still hurt him a bit, especially when pressure was applied. It was going to be a week spot for a while. "If I can survive a heart attack then I can get over something like that."

Cho froze "What?" That's when Nida realized his mistake "You had a heart attack! And you didn't tell me?"

"It wasn't too severe." Nida lifted his hands defensively. "And I'm fine now, it was 4 years ago." He remembered it distinctly not because he ended up in the infirmary for a week but it was right before Squall's team went into time compression. And some how Cho went with them and made his way back safely.

"How did it happen?" Cho turned around grabbed Nida by the waist, pressing his head against his chest "Are you ok?"

"It was a long time ago Cho." Nida pushed him off and turned him around by his shoulders "I'm going to be fine, stop worrying."

Cho continued looking around, realizing they had reached the elevator but deciding to stay on this floor for the time being. And he was pretty sure the elevator was locked. "Nida, your 17, how does some one have a heart attack at your age?"

"I don't know." Nida shrugged indifferently.

Cho headed down the pathway that would have exited the Garden if they were rooted back in Balamb, Now there was a large metal shutter to block the doors off. "Seriously, it's gotta be like stress or something, I've seen the stuff you eat and that's not it."

"Cho stop worrying, I'm fine." Nida came to the turnstiles just ahead of the shutter, they were locked though people usually didn't come down here anyway since they have any reason to. No one ever barely gave this place a second look so even in the middle of the day this place was almost private. Nida jumped over the rows of turnstiles and sat down on one.

"You do a lot of stuff, I mean your a pilot, practically an instructor, and your in everything possible." Cho sat down and leaned against the same turnstile Nida was perched on, looking at the wall since he was too tired to strain his head unnecessarily. "Why'd you do so much stuff anyway?"

"I don't know, I was bored, lonely I guess." Nida said, though he wasn't nearly as involved in extra curricular things anymore "I was a little like you when I came here, I was, bored, alone and I didn't want to be anymore. So made my way here on a scholarship."

"Alone? You didn't have any family?"

"Nope, I don't even remember what I did for most of the earlier years of my life." Nida looked up in thought, trying to think "I barely know how I survived, I do remember coming to Balamb once and some how I was lucky enough to find Cid and I guess I made a good impression and it went from there. I also remember a strong feeling of loneliness, and constant boredom long before and even after I finally did get here."

"Wow, I remember a lot." Cho said, he was even able to recount one thing that happened to him when he was one.

"Well, I strived to get high marks, partly to maintain scholarship but mostly because it involved a lot of studying. If I was studying then I wasn't bored and I could forget about being alone. That worked for a while, but the more I realized how lonely I was the more I studied, and finally it didn't work at all. So I started joining a few clubs..." Nida paused, thinking again "It was similar to how some one buries themselves in work to avoid facing they're real life. That's what I did for a while."

Cho glanced up at him "I'm impressed, most people just deny their problems, you point them out."

"Yeah well I try to find and learn from my mistakes, denying things just wastes time. That's why I studied psychology and people, that's another thing I did when I was bored, I tried to figure out why people did the things they did. Over doing things just seemed to be a habit after awhile, I think I was happy when that happened, or at least contempt with my self. Till I met you that is."

"Hey Nida."

"Huh?" Nida looked down at him, there eyes meeting.

"Ever wonder if it's going to happen again? You know... If your going to be alone again? And things are going to be like they were before?"

Nida shook his head "Not really, why?"

"No reason...--Hey! Look!" Cho climbed to his feet excitedly, pointing towards the metal shutter where a large, passing shadow had been cast. "That's it! Let's go!" Cho crouched under the turnstile and ran towards what appeared to be some type of shadowy figure that they'd just missed.

"Hold on, wait!" Nida climbed off the rotary device and ran after Cho who'd already turned the corner.

Cho stopped and looked around, "It's gone, I know I saw something going this way...you saw that too right?"

Nida looked around "I saw a shadow." He told Cho uncertainty. "It could have been anything, like that." Nida pointed to a sheet of paper that had just fallen past one of the lights, particularly one that had been pointed in the area where they were sitting. "See, it was nothing. Who'd you hear this from anyway?"

Cho wasn't quite so sure, the look on his face showed that he wasn't going to give this up so easily. "Yeah, I guess so. I heard it from a few people, and Zell." he said defeatedly, "Wait, how did that paper get in the air?"

Nida rolled his eyes "Cho."

"No really, we're the only people up, and nobody's on the second floor, how would a piece of paper get into the air?" Cho asked, regaining faith in his suspicions.

"Coincidence possibly, your reading too much into this."

Cho looked up at Nida for a moment, then took one more look around "...Ok, We can go back to sleep now, I guess."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"Uhhaaaa..." Cho moaned sleepily, pulling the covers over his head.

"Quit being lazy." Seifer gave Cho a quick punch in the chest, hard enough to make the boy open his eyes and cringe "Get up already."

Cho blinked, before his eyes narrowed and he threw his pillow at Seifer "What was that for!"

Seifer grabbed the pillow and threw it back at him "Come on, hurry up or we're going to be late." He snorted, leaving now that Cho was finally awake.

Cho glanced over at Nida's alarm clock, it was 8 o'clock, Seifer was right it was time to go. 'Damn...It's like I just fell asleep five minutes ago.' Cho shook his head and climbed out of bed, he couldn't afford to sleep in today, he had his first mission! And he had to be in Squall's office in 15 minutes.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Squall leaned against his desk with his arms folded, looking over the group curiously. It was a very odd team, Seifer, his very presence in the Garden spoke for itself. Nida, who was responsible enough, and Cho, who should have still been a junior classmen. This was an easy choice "Nida, your team leader."

Not that it was a surprise to anyone. "This will be a protection mission, you will have to escort a client named Matthew...Doe--"

"Doe?" Seifer asked.

"He was rather paranoid about giving me too much information on himself. Doesn't matter through. You'll be his bodyguards while your transporting him from Dollet to Timber by train." Squall said.

"Wouldn't it be easier and safer to use the Ragnork?" Nida asked.

"Yes it would." Squall started, feeling annoyance spawning at the thought. "But the ship is missing for the moment (He felt one of his friends influences at work), so you'll have to stick with the original plan." Squall handed Nida a sheet of paper "This is a statement by Matthew, it'll tell you everything else you need to know."

Nida took the paper and looked over it carefully.

"I'm not sure of the nature of the threat, it's most likely minor but possibly severe but what ever it is make sure you protect your client to the best of your abilities...and Cho, Nida...you two don't have any weapons." Squall knew the story of how Cho became a SeeD and knew it didn't involve him pick one, he wasn't sure why Nida didn't "You'll have to pick one now."

Cho and Nida looked at each other, Squall was right, Cho never really trained with one and Nida never took a position where he had to use one since he wasn't the fighting type. And the three of them only had one GF between them, well Squall should say two since Seifer was strong enough not to need one. It was too late to get any defiant training for whatever weapon they choice so it would be best to pick something simple.

"I wanna use..." Cho lifted his hand to his chin and thought, simple? What he had in mind was very simple "A rod, I always wanted to try one of those."

Squall looked at him, he was sure Cho didn't know how to handle one of those effectively, but on the other hand Cho could do a lot of things. "Fine."

"Something simple huh?" Nida tried to think of something he could use easily, what could be more simpler then "A gun, something with out recoil."

"Ok then. And since we're at FH then your going to have to take a car across the railroad tracks and make it to Dollet." Squall said, "You can work out anything else among yourselves."

Cho and Nida nodded and turned to leave, Seifer was already halfway to the door by that time. Squall was use to Seifer's impatient manner since he had to deal with it most of his life, he

wasn't at phased by it anymore. Though it could be a problem during a mission, even through Seifer knew he wasn't a SeeD yet and this would just be a field test for him, Seifer still may try and do something reckless and stupid. Another reason Squall put him in this team, the three of them seemed to be friends, so there was a good chance Seifer would actually listen to Nida.

'Man I hope they don't end up doing something stupid, can Nida really handle those two?' Squall thought, Nida may have been the smartest and most able to command, but he was also the weakest. Cho had Shadow on his side making him a reconcilable force, but Cho was Cho. And Seifer was the strongest, but Seifer's previous actions spoke for themselves. 'I hope so, for his sake.'

With that in order, Squall had his own work to attended to.