Chapter 10: Attack on Balamb Garden

Seifer laid his head on the kitchen table and yawned, it was much too early for him, it felt like they'd woke him up at the crack of dawn. And since he didn't know what time it was they may very well have. "Damnit, can we get this going?" He groaned sleepily.

Seifer's eyes rolled over the room that he hadn't seen so clearly last night, he still couldn't believe it took hi so long to find this pace. The car was larger then it seemed from the outside, there was plenty of room inside for everyone not to mention every appliance that anyone could want lining the counter. Most likely Watts was the one that got impulsive and bought them, and if Seifer was right about Watts being like Nida, he was probably the only one who could cook.

Everyone was awake, beside Seifer to his left at the round kitchen table was Cho, Shadow laid lazily on the ground inbetween them. Watts leaned against the wall near the door, his hat shrouding his closed eyes. Matthew sat to the left of Seifer, and on the other side of the table Zone sat with Enix in his lap. "..." Seifer scratched his head sleepily and watched the two with slight interest, it was strange how Enix just took to him the way he did.

With a small clammer Nida walked into the room with a folder under his arm, a rather thick one. He didn't seem nearly as tired as everyone else, which seemed odd to Cho and Matthew. "For Hyne's sake, what time is it Nida?" Seifer asked, clearly aggravated.

"About 6." Nida told him plainly, he leaned beside Watts and opened the folder, quickly starting up their own conversation. It wasn't a long one, within a few seconds they were finished and Nida was ready to tell them why he'd woken them up this early in the morning.

"Come on Enix." Zone pleaded softly, a bowl of applesauce sat on the table in front of him and Enix was perched in the chair beside him still wrapped tightly in the bandages placed on him last night. It had taken a while for Zone to get him to stop trying to scratch his way out of them, and now they'd come to t his. Zone held a spoonful of the only soft food he could find in front of Enix, trying really hard to get him to eat. "You gotta eat."

Enix only tilted his head away from the food with soft whines.

"There's nothing wrong with it." Zone told him, "See, watch." Zone opened his mouth wide and ate the apple sauce on the spoon convincingly. Enix watched, but he still refuse to eat anything. "It's good see." Zone dipped the spoon onto the bowl and took a small scoop, holding it temptingly in front of Enix. Still Enix just whined and looked away with a depressed attribute to his eyes. "I don't get it, he's starving, so why doesn't he want to eat?"

Cho, who'd finally realized that Zone wouldn't be able to get Enix to even look at the food, decided to try his hand at it, he'd learned a few tricks. "Zone." Cho looked at him with a seriousness that was still unusual for him, when Zone saw it he handed him the spoon and allowed him to try with out a word.

Cho slowly rested his hand on the baby Chocobo's head, causing Enix to look up questioningly at Cho. He trusted Cho to some degree, when Cho used his hands he always held the right places or touched them in the right way... "It's alright..." He cooed softly, gently digging his fingers into the small feathers behind his neck and rubbing him with air soft touches. Enix's eyes slowly drifted closed and his body started to relax, Cho seemed to know what he was doing. "It's fine..."

A small smile crept on to Cho's face when Enix started responding, he gently slipped his hand from Enix's head and his finger found it's way under the bird's chin. "I know your hungry..." Cho glanced up at Zone with a quick look then turned his eyes back down to Enix. "He really does want to eat, he's just afraid..."

Cho sighed inwardly and looked down with forlorn eyes. "He really couldn't eat, he couldn't trust the food, Hyne knows what they were feeding him." Cho said softly, his fingers gently stroking the sensitive area below Enix's beak. "He probably got sick a lot, and all those guys kicking him around..." Cho swallowed hard, narrowing his eyes a bit. "Those guys hitting him didn't help."

Everyone watched curiously as Cho spoke, Seifer in particular noticed the way he smiled at Enix, even he noticed the hollow look in his eyes. As if he was thinking of something important while talking of something mundane.

"He doesn't trust people." Cho's smile faded, replaced by a more strait jawed, serious expression. Enix leaned closer into Cho's finger, trying to get more of the feeling. "The only thing humans have been to him was hurtful, all his life they ignored him and kicked him around... He's been alone, never seen his parents, he never had any body...completely alone..." Cho held the spoon in front of Enix, bringing it slowly closer to his beak. "Probably been in cages all his life..."

Cho shook his head, a realizing expression coming on to his face as if snapping out of a deep thought, and looked up at Zone acknowledgingly.

"I don't know why..." Cho waited patiently as Enix stared at the spoon, then the baby bird slowly but surely inched closer and closer until finally the small tongue flicked out and took a small taste of the contents. Cho rubbed Enix's head lightly. "Yeah, it's good you see... I don't why but he seems to like you Zone, and he has a lot of bad tendencies, he doesn't trust anyone. So your gonna have to be the one that teaches him out of it." Cho dipped the spoon into the bowl and held another spoonful of the applesauce in front of Enix, who hesitated again, but eventually starting eating. "Just make sure you take care of him."

Zone nodded silently and took the spoon back from Cho. "A-Alright." He said, delicately picking up Enix and setting him down in his lap again, "Ok little guy, ready to eat?" Zone asked hopefully, Enix let out a small, reluctant almost squeak like sound, almost as if he was ashamed or unsure of excepting this. Zone was a nice man, and it didn't taste bad , so he'd try it... "Great..." Enix looked up at the man, he seemed happy enough and when Zone was happy Enix felt kinda happy too...Enix tilted his head to the side and looked up questioningly when Zone's smile faded and his expression started to drop. "Ow!" Zone suddenly cringed and clinched his stomach. "Cramp!"

Seifer sighed and lifted his head off the table. "Nida, if your going to say something do it now, or else I'm going to bed."

With Seifer's prompting Nida leaned over Matthew's shoulder and dropped the binder down on the table in front of Zone with a loud crash. "I got in." He stated simply.

Zone looked up with one eye forced open, "W-What? Really?"

"Yeah, I finally decrypted the backup drive around one last night." Nida said. "I figured I'd wait a few hours before waking you guys up, try to go through what I could."

Watts picked up the folder and began skimming through it, "This is amazing, look at all of this. Weapon blueprints, systematics, there is even stuff about Gcom."

"Gcom?" Matthew looked back questioningly at Nida, "You didn't tell me there was anything in there about Gcom."

Nida only shrugged, "I hadn't found it at the time, I still don't know about everything that's in there. But I did find something really important that we may need to deal with right now."

"Uh-oh..." Watts shifted his hat upward, his eyes showing every bit of how awake he'd just become. "Are you talking about these memos?"

Nida nodded. "Yes, that's it."

Zone patted his stomach slightly as the cramp faded and he sat up strait with a sigh of relief. "What about them? What's do they say?"

"It's not just memos, it's maps too." Nida told him.

"Maps..." Watts glanced up at Nida and began shifting through the pages. "Oh, these maps... Wait, I must be missing something, everything is in blue and green, what does this mean?"

"Even though nobody's heard of them, apparently Gcom is more of a threat to Galbadia then we thought." Nida explained. "From what I've seen they're going on the defensive, Galbadia's next move is a campaign to gather territories, they split up the world map in into places that Galbadia thinks they can take control of and places they couldn't win against Gcom if they should decide to go on the offensive. At lest not with out too high of a cost."

"Wait...so they're going to invade cities?" Cho asked. "Again?"

"They think this Gcom group might be planing to do the same." Nida nodded. "These guys must be pretty powerful."

"It sound almost to me like they're gearing up for a war." Seifer said inquiringly.

As much as he didn't want to, Nida nodded. "Unfortunately they are. And there in lies the problem, everything I've read suggest that both sides are starting their territorial campaigns soon. "

Now Seifer was interested. "How soon is soon?"

"Really soon. Galbadia is waiting for Gcom to make the first move." Nida sat down beside Cho and looked around at the group with a sigh. "You see, Gcom wants GF's for some reason, I haven't learned why yet but they do. So they're going after a place were there would be multiple GFs."

"Are you saying what I think your saying?"

"I'm not sure about this but to me it sounds like they'd go for a Garden, I'm not sure which or even if that's true but everything suggest they're going to make a move really soon."

"So they could be coming after Balamb ?" Cho asked reluctantly.

! - ! - !

"Hey get up!"

"Uuhaaa?" He was uncomfortable, he felt hot and sticky, and that's was the first thing he noticed when he was stirred into consciousness. Alex ran his hand through his short white hair with a small groan, opening his blurry eyes to the vision of green ones looking down on him. "C-Carbuncle?"

"Know any one else green and furry?" Carbuncle was standing on his chest after running into the room with a child like excitement, he knew Alex was a sleep but he just couldn't wait any longer. '?' Carbuncle looked down at the surface he was standing on when he realized his paws were getting wet.

Planting his hands on the bed behind him he pushed himself up, causing Carbuncle to slide off of his chest and into his lap. Alex looked around, how did he get here? One minute he was in the training center and the next... 'Great, I fell asleep.' Alex vaguely remembered Squall carrying him back... He rubbed his head and sighed in frustration, "Aw man! I can't believe I fell asleep!"

Nothing he could do about it now.

Alex laid on top of the messy dark green covers covering his bed and finally noticed he was completely naked, and drenched with sweat. He didn't get it at first, but he did find himself often sweating like this at night, so this probably wasn't so unusual. 'I must have gotten hot and taken them off.' "Hey wait!" Alex blushed in embarrassment and looked away, he couldn't cover himself, Carbuncle was already in his lap. "I don't have have any clothes on!"

"Calm down, it's not like It's something I haven't seen before." Because of memory loss, Carbuncle barely understood humans and shyness of being naked, but trying to comprehend it wasn't important right now. "Guess what happened last night!"

Alex forgot his embarrassment for the moment and looked back down at Carbuncle curiously. "What? What happened?"

"We found the monster." Carbuncle smirked, holding a teasing look that showed every bit that he knew something Alex didn't.

"What!" Alex shouted in excitement, "Why didn't you wake me up?"

Carbuncle jumped off of Alex and landed on the ground beside his bed. "Because we were too busy fighting it."

"You fought it!" Alex sprung out of the bed in a blur, hastily on his feet in front of Carbuncle with an excited expression, as if he was hearing the most excited thing he ever experienced. "What did it look like? Was it big? Was it really strong? What it a GF?"

Carbuncle looked up at Alex, smiling impishly as he turned his eyes around the familiar room. "Geez, there's a lot of green in here." Mostly everything was green, from Alex's covers and sheets, to his messy clothing halfway hanging from the open closet, from the posters on his walls to just about every random thing scattered about. "You must really like this color?"

"Carbuncle! Tell meeee!" Alex pleaded.

Carbuncle turned away and began walking off, an amused look on his face. "Nah-uh, You should have stayed awake." He teased.

Alex immediately ran after him, he couldn't believe Carbuncle was doing this to him! "Come on! Tell me, tell me!"

Carbuncle lept forward, out of Alex's grasp and landing intentionally in front of the door to the bed room. "You really wanna know?"

"Yeah!" Alex nodded.

"Too bad." Carbuncle quickly slipped pass the door and dragged it closed.

Alex dropped his head in frustration and laughed to himself, Carbuncle wouldn't make this easy for him. "Come back here!"

"You should probably put on some clothes." Carbuncle laughed from the other side of the door.

! - ! - !

"Geez, what a night." Zell scratched his damp head, still wet with a recent shower, he shut the door behind him, entering the dormitory hall. 'How do you do it Bahamut?'

(Do what?) The GF asked, junctioned to Zell.

'You stay up all night and you can still be still wide awake in the morning.' Zell lifted his hand over his mouth with a light yawn. 'It's amazing.'

(I don't know, I guess I have always needed little sleep.)

Zell lifted his hand to his head and paused when he came to Alex's room, hearing an odd host of sounds coming from the inside. 'Huh?' Zell leaned to the side to press his ear against the door in hopes of identifying them, but before he could get close the door burst open and Carbuncle darted out, right past Zell. Right behind him was a half dressed Alex chasing after him.

"Come back! Tell me!"

"No way!"

Zell scratched his head, if he thought hard enough he could probably figure out what Alex was yelling about but it didn't matter. 'They seem happy.'

(Yes, Carbuncle has been doing a lot better.) Bahamut agreed. (He's not depressed anymore.)

The bell rung behind them and classes began emptying, only a few seconds after words the halls began filling with students and the noisy clutter that came with them.

'When you look at him...' Zell smiled to himself as he watched Alex and Carbuncle running out of the dormitory wing playfully in a series of pleads and bantering. 'He seems completely normal, I keep forgetting he's not the same...'

(Zell?)

'It's just that sometimes when I talk to him I forget he lost his memory and I say a lot of stuff he doesn't get it or remember.' Zell sighed and dropped his hands to his sides, a disappointment coming in to his words. 'And he just looks at me.' When Carbuncle gave him that look that he didn't understand, he could tell the GF was sad, it made him sad, and that he was beating himself up inside because he couldn't understand anything. And Zell immediately felt bad for making him feel that way, it was painful to watch.

(He's a different person now.) Bahamut said, his voice holding it own solemness to it when he spoke this time. (Do not dwell on the past, focus on making new things for him to comprehend and remember.)

Zell rubbed his head and shrugged. 'Yeah, your right.'

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"Are you sure that is a good idea?" Ifrit stood idly against the wall of Squall's office. Watching as his charge locked the elevator door. "What if some one needs help?"

Squall turned a key mounted in a small panel in the wall and pressed a few buttons until he heard the satisfying click of the locking device. It blocked the elevator from coming up to his office. "They can wait."

"What if someone has some type of information about the monster?"

"If they did-" 'Which I doubt.' Squall fell into his chair and laid his head back against the comfortable leather. A deep, relieved breath forced it's way out of his mouth and he closed his eyes, he wanted nothing more then to be allowed to sleep. "Then they can go talk to Zell."

Ifrit smiled to himself in amusement, Squall was still tired, and he got annoyed easily when he was tired. Ifrit always found it funny to watch Squall deal with people when he was annoyed. "What about the Garden? Your not going to move it?" It had been a while since the Garden had moved from the spot it was in, there hadn't been a need too.

"Nah..." Squall shook his head, Nida had been the pilot and he'd sent him on a mission which he had yet to return from. Squall really didn't trust anyone else to do it, Alex was training to be a pilot but Nida had been the one teaching him. Needless to say Alex's training slowed down substantially since then, Squall really didn't trust Alex enough allow him to attempt to move the Garden. "I'll just wait for Nida."

Ifrit nodded, folding his arms and standing silently with a statue like firmness. If Squall didn't want to do anything them he supposed there was no reason in asking.

Though the silence didn't last long. "...?"

Squall peeked one eye opened and looked towards Ifrit. "What?"

"Griever."

No more then a few seconds had passed before Griever faded into reality in front of Squall. "Squall, I have been looking for you." His voice was more serious then usual, if that was possible.

"Griever? What? What is it?" Squall's first instinct was to ask where he'd been the last 3 days, but it sounded as if now wasn't the time to, and besides, he'd reserve that question for Ifrit.

"There is something coming this way, three groups of human machines, the formation they're in and their speed suggest they might be attacking."

"Attack?" Squall pushed himself up out of his chair and walked over to the lift mounted in the center of the room. Ifrit and Griever junctioned themselves to him as the machine ascended to the cockpit and Squall quickly crossed the small area to the throttle. "Where is this?" Squall began peering out of the windshield that comprised the ceiling.

It didn't take him long to find what Griever had been talking about, there were 3 groups of 4 armored SUVs coming towards the front door, the quad, and the training center. He wasn't sure at first, but Griever was right, their speed and formation was that of an attack. But...Why would anyone be attacking them? "Damnit." Squall picked up the microphone resting near the throttle and turned on the intercom.

'I count 12 vehicles, so at about 4 men apiece there are 48 of them...' He didn't have time to waste. "Attention all Garden students, this is an emergency so listen very closely, time is short so I will only say this once. SeeD teams A and C take defensive positions at the front gate, SeeD teams B and E take position at the Quad. Team D take position at the rear of the training center, and Zell, meet me at the front gate." Zell was the only person he was sure was awake and alert. "Upper classmen and instructors, stay with with the junior classmen in the 2 floor classrooms."

Squall turned off the intercom and took quick steps toward the lift, he had to get down there, he had to see who this was, why would anyone be attacking anyway? (Griever?) Ifrit asked. (Where were you?)

(Thinking.) Griever said plainly.

(...) Ifrit didn't respond, though from the way he simply and abruptly dropped the subject it was clear he wanted to say more. Griever knew Ifrit better then he knew himself, and Ifrit never dropped the where were you subject.

Griever wanted to ask about what he was thinking, but he wasn't too strong on conversation. Despite they're strong familiarity with each other it was with Ifrit especially that he had the hardiest time talking to, not that he'd tried to talk to a lot of people. Maybe it was because Ifrit still felt like just a kid to him, that much he told Ifrit so, he was 200 years older then Ifrit and maybe that was the reason. Though Ifrit had a long number of years behind him, he was a far cry from a child. So what was it that made Griever view him that way... (...)

Squall quickly pried himself through the elevator and bolted down the platform's stairs, finding himself in the middle of an organized chaos. There were students everywhere, running around in a half panicked mass trying to get from their class to acquire their weapons to get to their posts, all of them knew when Squall said something like emergency he meant it. They were surprisingly focused considering they didn't know what the threat was, what were they suppose to be defending against?

"Squall!" The familiar voice of Zell called out to him and the other boy meet up with him just as he descended down the last stair into the main hall. "Squall, what's goin' on around here?"

"We're under-" Squall didn't even get to finish explaining before 3 loud, simultaneous explosions erupted around them at the same time. A burst of smoke plowed through the wide hall leading to the main gate and washed over Squall and Zell. "We're under attack!"

"Attack? By Who?" Zell demanded angrily.

'No, it's too soon!' Squall looked around, it had been less then a full minute since Squall had seen the on coming force and now. People still hadn't reached their post! "I don't know." Squall grunted, charging forward in a flurry of other SeeDs running to the front gate. Zell followed, in the same confusion as everyone else.

'What the hell is going on around here?' Zell lifted an arm over his eyes as he passed through a thicker area of the smoke, it burned his eyes and forced them to close, he stumbled forward with out sight. But he was suddenly surrounded by the sounds of battle between the SeeDs and unknown attackers, upon emerging he and Squall were confronted by two men in Green jumpsuits, both wearing head sets, and the name Gcom in white letters across the left sleeve. "What the hell! Who are you and what the hell do you think your doing?" Zell shouted angrily, he charged forward aggressively but Squall grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him back.

"I'm sorry but we have to do this." The first man on left said."We need your GFs."

"No." Squall didn't ask why they came literally busting in or why they wanted what they did, he didn't hesitate to decline. "Leave, now!" Squall shouted, drawing his Lionheart and holding it readily.

"I apologize but we can't." The second man on the right shook his head. "We don't want to hurt you but this is too important, give them up now and we can leave with out any trouble."

'I don't know who these guys are.' Zell gave a side ways glance to Squall as he lifted his fist, placing one foot back for leverage for a take off. 'The hell if I'm gonna let um' do this!' Zell scuffed to himself and charged forward. "You break in here trying to do something like this and and you don't want any trouble!" Zell drew his fist back and threw a hard punch into the first man's face, knocking him back on to the ground.

"Flare!" The second man lifted his hand outward towards Zell with a casting, a rush of crimson energy erupted outward on to Zell's, placing him in the center in an explosion. Zell was thrown backward as the energy imploded, but he landed on his feet and took a few steps back to realine himself to a safe distance. Squall didn't hesitate, he immediately retaliated as soon as Zell hit the ground. Squall lept into the air, drawing the powerful sword over his head and slashing it down on to the man upon decent, knocking him to the ground on his stomach.

The first man staggered to his feet and quickly regained himself, noting how hard Zell hit. These really were the two people who helped defeat the Sorceresses, fighting them one on one probably wasn't a smart idea. Realizing this, the man pulled the microphone on the headset closer to his mouth. "GS 3, 23rd infantry, Going off line."

"Are you sure about that?" The second man asked.

"We're losing time." The first man held one arm outward and closed his eyes, casting a spell. "Sleep!"

"Yeah I guess... GS 34, 23rd infantry, Going off line." The second man nodded and cast the same spell. "Sleep."

Much to Squall and Zell's surprise, they cast the spells on themselves. 'What are they doing...?' Squall thought with growing confusion. 'Ifrit, Griever, do you guys know what they're doing.' Squall was hesitant to attack, why would they be doing something like this?

(I don't know.) Ifrit replied with the same confusion.

(Maybe it's some type of healing technique?) Griever didn't know either.

'What is going on?' Zell was confused all around, he didn't get anything that happened today.

(Maybe a strategy to through you off of some-) Bahamut's voice abruptly cut off in mid sentence and he watched with his own great deal of surprise as the two men's bodies began changing. Their arms, their legs, their torso's grew larger, the first man's muscles bulked up with great speed and his skin changed color, soon the sleeping form wasn't human anymore, it took the form of an Wendigo, though considerably larger then a normal one.

Purple fur grew from the bulking second man, black horns grew from his head, fangs and claws from his mouth, hands and feet turned paws. By the time it finished, he was a very fierce Behemoth.

"Holy shit! What the hell was that?" Zell took a flinching step backwards when he saw this, he could barely believe his eyes.

(A transformation?) Ifrit realized in bewilderment. (From a sleep spell? How is this possible.)

"We've got bigger problems to think of..." Squall lifted his sword again and took another step backwards "If all of these men could do something like that then all of them must be able to." Squall grabbed Zell by the arm and abruptly pulled him in the opposite direction. "Come on! We don't have time for this!"

"Squall what are you doing!" Zell shouted angrily.

"We have to focus on damage control."

This decision was one more of today's confusing happenings. (Damage control?) Ifrit asked with uncertainty. (Why are you giving up on attacking?)

(Because he has to.) Griever sighed, he was surprised that Ifrit didn't understand a move like this after all of this time of being with Squall. (These people made a surprise attack on the Garden's three weakest and most open points before a complete defense could form. Any attack effort against a skillful offensive such as this now would be disorganized and in-effective at best, and with an ability like that it is inevitable that they will leave with something, so minimizing that is a central priority.)

Ifrit was surprised Griever thought so much like Squall. (You picked up on that quickly.) Ifrit never realized it but when ever he said something like that, he always sounded younger then he was, he almost sounded child like in admiration. Something Griever always noticed.

! - ! - !

"Here goes nothing!" Alex took a deep breath and struggled not to cough out the smoke dusted air, then with his eyes pried open he bolted out of library door and charged into the main hall. Carbuncle trailed just behind him, forcing himself to lag behind slightly, he was so tense it was the only thing he could do to keep from dashing out head and leaving Alex behind.

"Follow me!" Alex ran through the curved hall that resembled more of a battle field, weaving narrowly through the fights, barely avoiding being caught in the crossfire of weapons and attack. Alex crouched down slightly and pushed his way past two advancing SeeDs, then slipped beside another one of the men in the green suites, making sure he kept an eye on Carbuncle while doing so.

"Alex we-"

Carbuncle didn't even have time to speak before Alex cut him off with a sharp and forceful response to make sure he listened. It was imperative that Carbuncle did. "No! Just follow me!" Alex slid to a stop, looking around as if he was trying to find someplace specific. 'There!' Alex abruptly turned around, back tracking a few feet past the still forward going Carbuncle and rushing into the dormitory wing, pausing only to shout back, "Come on!"

Alex finally stopped about halfway down, and with tired breaths he let his body fall against the wall.

Carbuncle nearly ran in to his leg when Alex stop, "What's going on out there!"

Alex's back fell against the wall and he allowed himself to sink to the ground, his hand resting on his pounding heart and heavy breaths. "I don't know."

"You can't sit here." Carbuncle prompted with haste. "Come on, we gotta go!"

Alex shook his head and let it fall lifelessly back against the wall. "No, it's fine."

"What are you talking about, are you blind?" Carbuncle nearly shouted, he jumped into Alex's lap and gave him a sharp headbutt to the chin, growling at him with a hard look. "Have you seen what's going on!"

"Don't worry, it's alright." Alex closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead with his arm, now he wished more then ever then he would have gotten to take a shower before he left. "It's safe here."

Carbuncle's ears twitched uneasily, he didn't know what was going on, he didn't know half of the stuff he'd seen, even more of a reason he didn't like just sitting around."Safe? How do you know it's safe?"

Alex abruptly opened his eyes and he mumbled nervously for an answer, "Uh...L-Look around, there's no one back here." Alex said. "It's safe."

Carbuncle looked around, he was alright, there was no one around here, no sounds of fighting near by. "I guess." Carbuncle dropped his head and let out a tense breath, he felt so jumppy... "What were those things they were using, I've never seen anything like it." Carbuncle was indicating the weapons he'd seen on his brief run through the library and main hall.

Alex snorted "You've never seen anything." ...On second thought, "You probably don't remember old man."

Carbuncle narrowed his eyes at Alex, leaning forward with another growl."Old man? Who are you calling old man?"

"Your like 400." Alex laughed, "Sounds old to me."

"Whatever!" Carbuncle looked away with a grunt. His eyes found their way to the dormitory entrance and his ears tuned themselves into the sounds of fighting again."If your gonna stay here, I gotta go find Zell." Carbuncle sprang out of Alex's lap and landed on the ground beside his leg.

Alex's eyes widened and he flinched at the words, but he didn't say anything... He tried to stay quiet, he knew it would be for the best, but something wouldn't let him. Blame it on being young and impulsive. "No wait!" He shouted out.

Carbuncle glanced back. "What?"

"Stop, don't go." Alex slowly reached out and wrapped his hands around Carbuncle then pulled him back, moving slowly so that he wouldn't be alarmed at his sudden actions.

Carbuncle watched in slight confusion as Alex picked him up from under his arms and held him up so that they were face to face. "What do you mean? I gotta go find Zell."

"Carbuncle just trust me on this, Zell will be fine, just don't go out there." Alex tried not to sound desperate, but he really wanted him to stay. He needed...

The sound of hard footsteps came pounding closer to them down the hall and a loud growl forced Carbuncle and Alex to look to it's source. They both flinched when they saw it, a Behemoth came charging horns first down the corridor headed right towards them at a frighteningly high speed. '!' Carbuncle clinched his eyes shut and reacted in the best way he knew how. "Diamond Shield!"

With a flicker similar to a quick reflection of light off of a shinny surface a thick barrier appeared like a wall between them. The monster ran unexpectantly into the sudden shield at full speed, it's horns bucking into the shimmering wall with a hard force, enough to send it bouncing backwards in a spray of diamond shards with a sound that resembled air being forcefully expelled from it's lungs.

"Whoa! What kinda monster is that?" Carbuncle shook his way out of Alex's grasp and walked curiously over to the shield that was slightly damaged at best. The horns made deep holes, breaking off large chucks of diamonds. "How'd a monster get in?"

Alex tapped the shield, looking unthreatened through the fading, half distorted shield of diamond at the Behemoth. He watched as another man in a green suit peeked down the hall, and with a startled gasp ran down the corridor toward the beast. "Goddamnit..." He fearlessly ran up to the monster who was still struggling to get to it's feet, "Geez, why are you back here? Wake up you moron!" The man clinched his fist and jabbed it hard into in the beast's head. Then with annoyment he pulled the microphone on his head set closer to his mouth. "Base this is GS 11, 23rd infantry, GS 17 is coming back online."

The Behemoth's body began to shrink and the fur, horns and claws started to retract. Slowly but surely Carbuncle watched in amazement as the beast reverted into a naked, sweaty, tired human. The man looked up at the fully uniformed one, "Did you just call me a moron?"

The dressed man scratched his head and sighed."Did I say moron?" He said sarcastically. "I meant idiot!"

"Are you alright?"

Both men flinched from the unexpected voice and looked over their shoulders to the source. There stood another man who seemed to just appear, a tall one, with a broad, firm back and torso, with strong, muscled arms that came from years of work, he seemed to be in his late 30's. He had slightly ruffled brown hair and matching eyes, a strong jaw and a firm, but almost at ease demeanor about him, as if this was just another day for him. He wore the same green suit as everyone else and held another one under his arm which he tossed to the newly transformed solider with one.

'He looks...familar.' Carbuncle could only stare at the man, there was something about him that he'd seen before, he reminded him of some one...

"For Hyne's sake General Allan do you ever make any noise?" The dressed and standing man said with a sigh of relief. "You scared me." This obviously wasn't the place to be scared.

"Sorry." The man deemed General Allan took one more checking glance at the solider quickly getting dressed, before stepping forward and turning his eyes to Alex and Carbuncle. "Well, the GF Carbuncle. Not-"

"No Wait!" Alex quickly stepped in front Carbuncle, objecting before the man could say anything, he seemed to know what he was talking about before he spoke of anything meaningful.

Allen rubbed his thick brown hair and looked down at him with a perplex expression on his familiar features. "What?"

"Not him." Alex shook his head, keeping his eyes out of the man's view.

Allen's expression became firmer."Excuse me?"

"You can't take him."

Carbuncle looked up at Allen, then at Alex, and got an idea of what was going on. "Alex no!" Carbuncle shook his head protestingly, "What are you talking about, get away from this guy!" Carbuncle attempted to get in front of Alex but the boy just pushed him back with his foot.

"Not him! Just leave him...please. "Alex pleaded, he looked up at the man hopefully, giving the sense that he'd beg if he had too.

"Are you serious?" Allen's voice tented with a hint of annoyment and frustration, why was this kid standing in his way? He wasn't trying to fight, he wasn't concerned of his own safety, he was just begging for him not to do this.

"I'll do anything, just leave him alone!"

Carbuncle shook his head frantically and growled. "Alex! What are you doing, I can take care of myself! Are you blind! Didn't you see what these guys are doing?"

Alex just ignored him, and instinctively jumped forward just as Carbuncle set up a barrier to try and keep him back. Alex swallowed hard as he was brought face to face with the man's stomach, only a few inches away yet still keeping his expression steady. The tall man sighed, he could see the boy was determined. "If your seriously going to stand in my, and probably going to keep standing in my way-"

"I won't stand in your way anymore." Alex said desperately, begging him to understand.

Allen only spoke louder, forcing to boy to be quiet and let him finish talking. "Then you can't stay here." He said firmly. Alex didn't say anything, he just dropped his head disappointedly. "I can't risk you getting in the way, It's you or him."

"No!" Carbuncle quickly raised another barrier between Alex and the man, a green tented one that was a thick as the gap between the two. Surprisingly the man lifted his hand and gave a sharp knock to the barrier, shattering it easier. '...No!'

Alex took a deep breath, glancing back at Carbuncle once and nodded. "Fine."

"No!"

! - ! - !

Zell nearly fell to the ground but managed to knell down with his arm grasping the edge of the fountain for balance. He panted heavily trying to catch his breath, he couldn't run anymore, at lest not yet. (Zell, are you alright?) Bahamut asked.

'I'll live.' Zell had no idea what damage control would entail, but he'd just ran around the complete garden twice, giving directions, jumping into every fight they saw even if only for a few second. They had to do it that way because the Garden was grossly under prepared and caught of guard by these transformations, so they had to help even the odds a bit. He'd just gotten off of the elevator from the second floor and just barely managed to get down the stairs.

Squall came from behind and grabbed Zell by his other arm, pulling him to his feet. "Come on, just a little bit longer." He said, just as out of breath as Zell was. He began digging around in his inventory as he trudged forward and dragged Zell along with him. "I told you to take it easy and conserve your energy."

It had been about 5 minutes since the attack began, and the tide of the unexplained battle was slowly but surely starting to turn. "Easy for you to say." Zell forced himself to stand up strait and raise his pace.

Squall found what he was looking for, withdrawing a mega-potion from his inventory and quickly drinking about half of it. It was more then enough to cover what injuries he "Here." He passed it to Zell and released his arm, pausing to allow Zell to ingest it with out the risk of him choking.

Zell halted his heavy breaths to drink the bitter liquid with quick gulps and tossed the bottle aside. "Tha-"

"Zell!"

The two of them stopped when a familiar voice called out for Zell, Squall and Zell looked back and saw the voice's owner, Carbuncle, running toward them as fast as he could, every bit of his haste showing on his face and in his movements. "Zell! S-Squall!" Carbuncle slipped past the two and slid skillfully to a stop in front of them. "They got him!"

"What?" Zell knelt down and picked up Carbuncle, looking him in the eyes. "Carbuncle calm down, they got who?"

"Alex!" Despite Zell's call for him to calm down Carbuncle still shouted frantically, this was no time to be calm. "I don't where these guys came from but they took Alex!"

Zell and Squall gave each other a quick look with shared concern. "What did they look like and which way did they go?" Squall asked. If they wanted to find him they had to move fast, it wouldn't be long before these men were forced to retreat with everything going the way it was now.

"H-..." Carbuncle's voice trailed off just as he was about to speak and his eyes grew wide with surprise.

"What? What is it Carbuncle?" Zell asked, worry and impatience making his voice harsher then intended.

Carbuncle narrowed his eyes and forced himself to speak. "I-It's...That's the guy!" He pointed over Zell's shoulder with his paw and Squall and Zell both immediately looked back. And there he was, Carbuncle couldn't have been talking about anyone else since there weren't anyone else in green jumpsuits behind them. Three men were preceding with a since of haste down the left side of the main hall, one man in particular, that Carbuncle was pointing out, was tall and had brown hair and eyes. Carbuncle quickly jumped out of Zell's hands and on to Zell's shoulder.

Squall aliened himself in their way and lifted his formidable gunblade, forcing them to stop. "Who are you!"

The three men looked at each other and then back towards Squall, "You guys can go ahead." aside from that command, General Allen didn't hesitate to step forward. "I'm sorry about all of this, I guess the lest I can do is introduce myself." Allen didn't expect them to take his apology nor anything else he may say to them but still... "My name is Maru Allen, I'm the head of a Galbadian resistance group called Gcom." He watched as the two men that had been with him ran past Zell and Squall and toward the Garden's exit.

(T-That man...) Bahamut's voice suddenly erupted, though he'd only said two words any one could see that he was unnerved.

'Bahamut? What? What is it?' Zell asked.

(That man...That place...)

Carbuncle glanced one eye back at Zell then fixed it aggressively back on the man, he could see something was wrong. "What?" He whispered.

"I don't know." Zell whispered back. "But Bahamut's freaking out or something."

"Galbadian resistance." Squall had no idea of the internal conflict going on with Zell. "So what does that have to do with us?"

"We need your GFs." Allen responded.

"No."

"Thus the problem." Allen sighed. "This need of ours is more important then you know of at the moment, and I guess you could say we're pretty desperate, that's why we came in like we did. And being the famous Balamb Garden we knew you wouldn't give them up,at lest not right now, But I assure you we did everything we could to keep injuries to a minimum and there were no casualties. I know that doesn't really make up for anything but..."

"Where's Alex?" Carbuncle shouted. But unfortunately Allen completely ignored him, that was until Squall emphasized the question with his sword.

Allen smirked. "Don't worry about him, he's fine, I assure you."

Squall took a step forward and held his sword in a ready position, that wasn't the answer he was looking for. Though he couldn't displace the nagging feeling of familiarity. 'This man, have I seen him before? He looks familiar...' "Where is he?"

Zell continued to call out for Bahamut who still hadn't answer him for a few seconds (...) Then a sharp charged ran through Zell's body and the distinct feeling of something else taking over washed over him as Bahamut began summoning himself

"Bahamut! What the hell are you doing?" Zell shouted in surprise.

"Bahamut?" That name immediately run a bell with Allen and he looked over to Zell and saw the invisible signs of summoning, it was like a sense he'd acquired. Zell must have been summoning Bahamut. Allen abruptly lifted his hand. "Sever." From thin air, a ray the color of the sky at sunset shined down from above towards Zell.

"Zell!" Without hesitation Carbuncle lept off of Zell's shoulder and junctioned himself to the boy, mainly to his defense. He couldn't describe it but something about trying protect Zell, even impulsively, felt right...

"Carbuncle No!"

The feeling was short lived, because what Carbuncle failed to realize... what he failed to remember was that that ray wasn't attacking Zell. "!" Carbuncle felt the full force of a blow intended for Bahamut, the GF death blow knocked him out almost instantaneously.

As soon as Squall saw this he charged at the man with his sword drawn back, he'd seen enough. "Where is he?"

With a blur of skillful movements, the man reached behind him and drew a sword that had beens strapped to his back and completely hidden from the front, quickly lifting it above his head and blocking Squall's blow. It was an a gunblade and one that seemed just as odd and dynamic as the Lionheart, it was the Ultima weapon, and it looked just like the sword the monster Ultima weapon wielded, only a gunblade. "I am sorry to do this too you." Allen said, "But you will understand it later."

Squall took no heed to his words and quickly drew sword back and thrust it forward with all of his considerable strength. A much more agile and faster Allen took a step to the side and thrust his blade down with one hand into the top of Squall's gunblade, knocking him off balance. Then with his body almost a blur with speed he stepped behind Squall and slashed the Ultima Weapon downward across Squall's back.

'!' Squall was immediately dropped to his knees and fell to the ground per the hard blow, a stream of blood seeping out of his back.

(Squall!) Ifrit immediately realized the extent of the man's strength and with that one blow he knew Squall's wasn't enough. If anymore proof was needed, the answer lay in how much damaged was caused with that one strike.

Zell came from behind and sprang into the air, thrusting a hard kick into the back of Allen's head, Allen stumbled forward and quickly wiped the sword around in a slash as he pivoted to face Zell. Zell agilely crouched beneath the sword, evading the attack, then took a step forward and thrust his fist into Allen's stomach, making the man stumble back even farther. 'Bahamut, who is he?'

(That's the man...who experimented on me.) Bahamut admitted, a growl in his voice when he spoke.

'What!' Zell's eyes widened in surprise, but even with that shock he was able to spring backwards to avoid Allen's sword being brought down from above his head. 'This guy is fast!' He could barely avoid his now aggressive attacks, his reflex's were pushed to their limits just to avoid being cut in half by Allen.

"Dammit." Squall clinched his teeth and pushed himself up to his feet, lifting his sword again. He didn't try to attack directly again, not yet. "Flare!"

Allen was suddenly knocked backwards in an explosion of red and energy, giving a fleeting Zell a chance to regain himself and go on the offensive. Zell drew his fist back and threw a quick jab at Allen, the man reached out with same quickness and caught Zell's arm by the wrist. "Sorry." With with a swift speed and an apology he lifted Zell off of the ground by the arm and slashed the weapon deeply across Zell's torso and tossed him painfully aside with one hand.

"Ughaaa!"

Squall drew his sword over his shoulder and slashed Allen across the back just as he finished with Zell, knocking Allen forward with more strength then Zell could throw in his hardiest punch. Allen thrust his foot backwards and kicked Squall in the stomach, then with his speed he turned around with sword raised and thrust the blade down at the high ranking SeeD. Squall, keeling over, barely managed to lift the Lionheart above his head and block, but he was pushed down to his knees by Allen's strength. What made it worse that the man was doing it with one hand.

'He's stronger then me...and too fast.' Squall grunted, pushing futilely against Allen's strength.

"I wished it hadn't come to this." Allen sent a swift kick into Squall's stomach, hard enough to make him drop his Lionheart and force the air from his lungs with a blood filled cough. Then he reeled his Ultima Weapon back over his shoulder-

(No!) With out hesitation Ifrit took over for Squall, just as Allen dragged the blade across the ground and drove into Squall in a hard uppercut. Ifrit had to admit, Allen was strong, even if he was trying to take it easy. (He's too strong for Squall) Ifrit mentally winced from the blow.

(Ifrit! Don't!) Griever found his words were too late, before he could stop him Ifrit had unjunctioned himself, he was smart enough to know he'd never get a summoning off on this man. (Damnit!)

Ifrit appeared suddenly in front of Squall and before Allen knew what was happening, a burst of flames was being spewed from Ifrit's mouth. Allen stumbled backwards with his arm drawn over to his face, attempting to block it from the fire. '...' Allen glanced back at the half unconscious Zell laying in a pool of his own blood and the fully conscious Squall behind Ifrit. With a simple assessment of how much the sudden flames had hurt and what he heard of Ifrit, he knew what he had to do, there was no way he'd beat Ifrit like this. "I was wishing it wouldn't come to this. Sleep."

"?" Ifrit was forced to take a step back as green tentacles burst out of a unconscious Allen's back and his body began to grow. Blue scales grew over his body and from his lower back protruded a blade, more of those green tentacle's grew from his arms and legs... when the mutation was finished, he looked like a cross between a blue dragon and a Marlboro, standing about 7 feet tall at full length. His transformation was much quicker then his solder's had been.

"Squall!" Ifrit turned back and pushed Squall out of the way as a mass of green tendrils shot out of the transformed Allen like projecting spikes and into stabbed into Ifrit's back like blades. He roared in pain.

"Ifrit!" Squall picked up his gunblade and dashed forward to help, only to be pushed back by Ifrit again, narrowly missing a more of the green appendages whipping outward as he tumbled backwards off balance.

"No!" Ifrit commanded promptingly, he grunted loudly as a few of the tentacles burrowed in his back pushed their way out of the other side. Burning hot blood spewed it's way from his mouth as 3 stained appendages protruded painfully from his chest. "Bastard..." Ifrit cringed slightly and through some power his blood ignited into a powerful flame, hot enough to melt the tentacles wavering around in his chest. Then he cringed even tighter and a burst of fire and blood shot out of his back, sweeping across the mass of appendages like a wildfire through a dry forest.

In an instant the blue dragon creature with a dagger like tail was ignited in a haze of flames, causing it to howl out in pain and drop to the ground, the green and blue form now a blazing orange and red. Smoldering, the creature fell on it's side like an injured dog, but it still had plenty of fight left, Allen open his fang lined mouth and blew out a blast of opposing blue fire. A much slower Ifrit was caught in the quick counter attack, his body was washed over in bust of freezing cold, causing the most damage to his exposed internals that froze over on contact. "!" Ifrit fell face first to the ground, too weak to move.

He was so quick, and he hit hard, really hard.

Allen's body began to shrink, claws, fangs and tentacle's retracting as he slowly awakened and returned to normal human size, reverting just as quickly as he'd transformed. "Geez..." Allen rubbed his head and reached over to pick up his discarded gunblade, Though he had a noticeable limp, and was much more bloody then when he first started. He could still fight, though in this condition he wouldn't want to. "I should really find something that stretches." He said that because he no longer had any clothing, and he began digging through his inventory for another set he customarily carried around for such an occasion.

"Ifrit!" Squall ran over to the barely conscious GF and fell to his knees above him, staring in horror at the bloody form laying weakly bellow him, his eyes immediately set themselves on the holes stretching through Ifrit's back.. Forget barely conscious, he was barely alive. 'N-No...' He couldn't believe someone could do this to him, so quickly...

Though to be fair, Ifrit did to his share of damage.

"S-Squall." Ifrit looked up weakly at Squall from the ground, unable to move, barely able to breath.

"W-Whoa." Zell finally managed to stumble to his feet, one arm clinching his stomach where a large gash now stood, he was sure their would be a bruise on his neck after this. 'Bahamut, are you alright.' He asked, ignoring his dizziness.

Bahamut only growled, his anger growing substantially after what Allen had did to Zell, and Ifrit and Squall.

Zell rubbed his eyes and place one foot back, it wasn't like he hadn't fought in this condition before. 'We gotta stop this guy!' Zell charged forward, slowed down but still keep a good pace as he dashed towards Allen who was finishing redressing. Squall, with a tight grip on his Lionheart, pushed himself away from Ifrit and rushed forward at the man with every bit of his furry burning inside of him. He would have been on Limit break if he had took the time to let it take it's course.

Allen, quickly zipping up the jumpsuit, took a step backwards and evaded Squall's first slash. Just as he lifted the Ultima Weapon to block Squall's second, Zell came from behind and thrust his fist into Allen's back, giving Squall enough leeway to slash Allen across the chest, and Zell finished it with an even harder punch to the back of his head.

Allen fell to his knees, but quickly shot forward as Squall tried to drive his sword down in to him. With a much superior speed he pushed past Squall's side and quickly pivoted around to face his opposition, dragging his sword with him and slashing Squall across the back for the second time, harder then the first. "!" Squall was knocked off his feet and thrown to the ground in a splatter of blood.

Then with nearly inhuman reflexes he stepped forward and slashed Zell across the chest just as the other boy attempted to attack. "!" Zell was halted mid-step and dropped to his knees, his lower body covered in blood now, then Allen gave him a swift kick to the face, knocking him out...or almost doing so at lest, either way he wasn't fighting anymore.

"I didn't think it would be this much trouble... "Allen rubbed his head with a pang of guilt and a lot of physical pain when he saw what he'd done, but knowing the famous Squall and equally famous Zell would survive he finished with his work.

He had to admit, they were pretty strong, though the fight hadn't lasted long they did managed to do a lot to him.

Allen drew a spare headset from his inventory and placed it on his head, just in time to hear the retreat announcement replaying. 'Great, I guess I only have time for one.' Allen thought to himself, still digging into his inventory as he trudged forward towards Ifrit.

"N-no..." Squall weakly managed to cry out, trying with all of his willpower to pushed himself up with out success. Every time he tried he fell uselessly to the ground.

"Sorry Squall, I have to do this." Allen lifted his hand... 'Sever!' And from above another sunset orange ray streamed down from thin air, striking Squall just in case he had another GF... striking Griever.

'No...Griever?' Squall called out desperately, only to get no answer, he could only miserably remember that was the same attack just about every sorceress he'd ever fault had used. So he knew how effective it was. "No! Leave him alone!"

Squall could only watch as Allen reached Ifrit, "You'll understand this someday, I just don't have time to explain this now." Allen regretfully drew a small, smooth steel cube from his inventory and held it tightly in his left hand while he extended the other. Ifrit opened his eyes and looked back, only feeling a sense of dread because he wasn't able to do anything more. He didn't care what happened to him, Squall...

Allen was suddenly thrown backward by a sudden and hard force, a blow that knocked him to the ground with a spray of blow pouring from his chest. "Don't...Touch him." The thunderous, growling voice of Griever said with the commanding tone. He stood over Ifrit, limping slightly, covered in sweat, his breathing heavy, this was what was left of him after Allen's attack had struck him through Squall's junction.

'Griever...' Allen flipped on to his feet, his sword still held tightly in his hands, 'One of them has Griever?' He didn't expect to find this GF here, but this was even better then Ifrit.

"G-Griever?" Ifrit clinched his hands into fist, biting back the pain as he forced himself to lift his head.

Griever smirked, closing his eyes and letting his rigged body relax. "I told you not to run out here like this, You are such a kid..."

"Griever...You...You-"

"Just don't die." Griever cut him off, speaking as if Ifrit was just an annoyance.

That voice...he was always talking to him in that voice, like he was just a child, just an annoyment. Ifrit shook his head as best he could, Griever was too weak right now, Griever couldn't... "Don't...Griever! You can't..."

"I know what I'm doing." Griever kept both eyes on Allen, his tail whipping around uneasily behind him. Every muscle in his body reeled with the pain of that previous Sever ability used on him, any normal GF couldn't stay conscious, let alone conscious after it. That type of attack forcibly killed a junction. But he wasn't a normal GF, still even with his super imposed power he couldn't last long like this. "Just...Just don't die."

"Griever...!" Ifrit cringed and his body convulsed when he felt something strong pulling him, drawing him. He roared in pain.

Griever knew that pull as soon as he saw it, he'd experienced it himself, it was the pull of being forceably junctioned. Griever looked back to Ifrit, then at Allen who was holding out that steel cube he'd gotten before, which was currently glowing. "Damnit!" He knew what this would mean, but he didn't hesitate for one second.

With a fierce roar Griever crouched slightly and sprang into the air, half floating he came down on Allen with hard slash, swiping him across the chest with his claws. Allen winced with a pained grunt and fell to his knees 'Damnit...I shouldn't have tried to get them both...' He couldn't fight Griever, not like this, he'd be killed. With no other choice Allen turned his focus to Griever, forcing a Junction to the steel cube that held special purpose.

"G-Griever!" He didn't know what it was, but something gave Ifrit the strength to climb to his feet, maybe it was adrenaline, though he couldn't do much else.

"!" Some invisible attack came from Griever, a strong force that struck his injured chest like a blow, knocking Ifrit back down. 'No! Why are you doing this!'

Griever didn't have the strength left after that to break free, and for the second time in his life his body was forced into a junction, a physical one with the cube Allen held, and then repressed. Allen let out a deep breath, wiping the blood from his chin where Griever's claw had grazed the flesh. Looking around with more guilt he pushed the microphone closer to his mouth. "Base this is Maru, I'm pulling out, heavy one objective."

Allen pushed himself on to his feet and turned around, then with a deep breath he ran towards the front gate to catch up with his solders. He had to leave now, he couldn't keep fighting, he didn't want to keep fighting.

But he didn't get far before a loud roar forced him to stop, powerful enough shake the ground beneath him. Allen knew what it was, the sound had become second nature to him after some odd years of hearing it every day. '...' He turned around and saw the source, Bahamut, standing over Zell. 'Bahamut.'

Bahamut grew even angrier at the silence. "Don't do that!" Bahamut growled, watching Allen stare at him like he was some stray dog. But his anger of that was overshadowed by the greater need. "Let him go." As angry as he was, there was some fear in his voice, his green eyes trembled when he looked at Allen... "Give him back!"

Allen didn't have time for this, his solders were leaving. "I'm sorry Squall, Zell, I know I've caused you a lot of trouble but maybe I'll get to explain it to you one day." Allen apologized before running off.

He didn't even address Bahamut.

And for some reason, Bahamut froze, when he looked at the man something wouldn't let him get near the human ...by the time he could push himself out of it the injured man was too far gone. "Dammit." He couldn't go after him, he'd be captured for sure by the soldiers, and that was the last thing he wanted. He couldn't go through that again.

Besides, he had two injured humans and one injured GF laying unconscious around him.