They continued back through the darkness; Suzu ahead of them, followed rapidly by the now elated Ryu, who was seemingly happy to be out of that situation. Next to her, and reassuring her without realizing it, was her boyfriend, Kayden.

She had killed people. Three actually. Three people who would never walk around and be there again. They were over; done and nothing left to mark their passage; except her memories. Ones she would never forget. Kaidia had to force herself to look in their faces, to see what she had done and to see their eyes staring back at her, as if accusing her of their death. When she looked into their eyes that is all she had seen; their lives; what they had, families, friends. Like her. The only difference was that they were on opposing sides. To them, SeeD and Dollet was the enemy. There wasn't much separating the two. They were people, had lives, had a family, had a job, lived, but now it was over. Soon, everyone would forget them and would go back to living their own lives and they would vanish, like they hadn't existed; like they hadn't mattered to anyone. They could have been walking around a town, hanging around… doing normal things people did. But they were dead, and their deaths had changed her.

She was not innocent, not by anyone's standards, but Kaidia felt as if she had lost something precious to her and would never get it back. Her hands were now stained with human blood and she had somehow kept herself together; had not fallen apart like she wanted too, in that moment. At that moment, she did not know where that strength had come from, but was grateful it had been there. 'There will be death when I'm a SeeD. But when does killing a human become mundane?'

'It shouldn't, love. You are stronger than what you think. There is a difference. The army they worked for wanted to enslave others. The sides may not matter; light or dark, right or wrong. But what matters is intent, and their intent was wrong.'

'But they had no training. They were innocent.'

'They were not. Even the lowest member of an army knows what they are fighting for, and believes in it to some extent. If the attack failed then those that they worked for would have killed many more that are more innocent than them. Like children and people who have not seen any war, and those that do not deserve any war.'

'How do I know what's right for me?'

'You will know when the time comes.' Bast whispered into her mind.

He almost gave her a mental lick before distancing the contact once more. She sighed as she was left alone with her thoughts. Bast had done what he could to alleviate her stresses but now it was up to her to figure out her own answer.

They continued, following Suzu's desperate run through the cave; following his directions given by a wave of his hand as they fell further and further behind their leader. He seemed to be speeding up the closer they came to escaping the dark chasm. She prayed that he was paying attention to where he was going and had not given into the panic that had struck him in the first battle against humans. Kaidia could not blame his shock as she had felt much the same when the rush of the battle ended. The only difference between the two was that she had recovered faster than he.

The winding tunnel continued around them, and as her sense of direction faded, she had to place all her trust in the 'leader', who did not, at the moment, inspire too much confidence from her. Kaidia knew that leading the Squad was a role he had not been prepared to accept, but his panic was doing nothing for her own emotions and especially Ryu's. The boy just ahead of them had changed his focus from trusting the leader and seemed to be glancing back in her direction every few minutes. Every time she sensed his eyes upon her she would mask her concern to try to control his.

As Suzu entered the next area of the cave, without looking or listening for any approaching enemies, the inevitable occurred, and to Kayden and Kaidia's ears they could hear the shouts of anger coming from the soldiers ahead. Ryu slowed at the entrance of the area and then began to fire at the approaching group.

As she and Kayden caught up to Ryu's side and observed the newest enemies, she was suddenly struck with something. These were not runners; they were fully armed and seemed to know how to use their weapons. Several guns answered Ryu's and he ducked back into the cavern.

"There's eight of them and Suzu's being pinned by two. I can't get them off of him." Ryu reported.

"Use protect…" Kayden suggested.

"They haven't seen us." Kaidia answered. "They know Ryu's here but no one else. Ryu… keep firing. Try to lure the larger number over here. Kay and I'll surprise them, like the other plan. Don't use offensive magic yet… don't let them know that we have it."

There was a second of silence as all three silently cast protect on themselves and Ryu began to return the fire that had spewed at them.

"Come on out. We have your leader!" One yelled. "Come out and we won't hurt you, little boy." The others laughed at the comment.

Ryu responded aptly by shooting him in the leg, barely missing the kill shot he had tried for. They were fast, and the man had just barely moved from his position when Ryu fired.

"Fuck… Damn kids. There's only two. They should be easy to deal with. Come on boys."

"We could have some fun with them first." One pointed out.

Kaidia did not want to find out exactly what type of 'fun' they meant. She tightened her grip on her gunblade and noted Kayden doing the same.

"They're SeeD kids. We don't want to fuck with SeeD! Better we kill them, before they kill us."

"There's only two."

"I've seen them fight. Two's enough compared to us. Did you see what that group did to the others! They slaughtered them. I say we get revenge."

"Why not have fun with them?'

"Because we're not like you." The first answered. "Besides, they'd kill us if we got that close."

"Eight against two or rather six against one?"

A spray of bullets embedded in one of the soldiers, and brought him crashing to the ground, bleeding from a spot directly between his stunned eyes.

"Good hit." Kayden approved. "I was getting tired of his form of fun!"

Ryu nodded in agreement.

"You fucking brat! I'll kill you." The obvious leader of the men exploded and without a thought charged with his team of four following him. Ryu took several more shots and then backed away, slipping behind the ready gunbladers, to offer them whatever protection he could.

There was not a moment to think, as the enemy charged towards; what they thought had been a lone SeeD and encountered an unexpected group. When they rounded the corner, both she and Kayden charged back, and, temporarily surprised, the group of soldiers was slow to react. Kaidia ran forward and sliced completely through one of the soldiers; his blood stretched out following the arc of her sword completely through her first target. Kayden completed the second part of the surprise attack and brought down the second closest of their enemies. His blood speared upwards and nearly coated her in a fresh wave. 'How much blood has spilt on me today?' She wondered to herself. 'How much more will it be?'

From the corner of her eye, she caught a motion and, half turning she swung her sword upwards and caught the spinning dagger just before it hit her back. They were trained; maybe better than she and Kayden, and the three that were left had the experience of fighting humans that she and her team did not have. As the cadets learned as they fought, the elders seemed to almost taunt them with their dodges.

"These ones are young boss!" One yelled mockingly. "Look at the cute one!"

She was going to get that one; no one, other than Kayden, was allowed to call her cute.

"They must be cadets! They're uniforms are different!" The one that answered to 'Boss' stated. "This could be fun. Aim to disarm only. The Commander will want them."

'How the hell did they know that?' Kaidia wondered to herself.

Beside her, Kayden was not having much success in holding off the two that were cornering him. Every motion he made, it was effectively blocked by the two, making him useless at the moment. If he let down his guard to cast magic, they would succeed in disarming him. All he could do at the moment was parry their taunting attacks.

"Give it up, Kid. You won't win." One near Kayden stated.

"Try me." He retorted angrily.

"You're not even a SeeD, little boy. You can't win."

Concentrating for a moment, she looked for an offensive spell she could use to deal with the one soldier who had backed away and was now targeting her with daggers at long range. He seemed to know that if he kept her at a distance, then her primary weapon was useless. He also seemed to know that if she made a move to grab a dagger, it would give him ample opportunity to harm her directly. He threw another dagger and she barely ducked its path, having it embed in the wall above her head. She barely missed contact the third weapon; quickly blocking with her blade once more. The tremor she felt due to the contact told her how close it had been and how fast the dagger had been traveling. Her enemy was tiring of trying to aim for an extremity and was now aiming to kill. If he continued to fire daggers at her, sooner or later he was bound to get a lucky shot that she would not be able to dodge.

Behind her, one of the soldiers who was on Kayden fell, due to Ryu. The dark-blond had been stalking around in the background, waiting until a clear shot. Having been freed from one enemy, Kayden surged forward and began a full out war with the lone man standing. Kaidia fainted backwards to miss the dagger that had been thrown at her head, and after a moment she ran into a spell that she was not looking for; one that would do no good in this situation, Quake. She dodged again and finally located a stronger striking spell. Quake would likely bring down the cave, with them in it.

She changed suddenly; flowing with the magic inside of her, and charged directly towards the surprised older man, with one spell focusing in her mind. All instinct said to gain the advantage by closing in, and dodging the shaky last dagger, she summoned one of her strongest level spells. A darkened cloud began to form above the shocked man's head and before he could guess on what was happening a single large lightening strike erupted from the inter-dimensional space above the cloud and hit him directly, sending slight shockwaves out several feet around him as the powerful thundaga spell wove out of existence.

The soldier, unprepared for the attack, barely dodged out of the descent of her gunblade, catching it with a longer curved sword of his own. He raised it, groggily over his head, stunned as the spell sapped at his strength and left him trembling as the electricity blasted through his defenceless body and left him prone to attack.

Kaidia leapt sideways to avoid the descent of the katana, and spun in a circle, using the momentum to carry her sword swing towards the shocked man. He barely rolled under the attack, and stumbled up to his feet, trying to regain his balance as she did not give him a moment's peace to recover. This man had tried to kill her, and would if she let him have the time he needed to get his head, he would finish her. She needed to finish him first.

He fainted out of her attack once more, blocking the brunt of the edge of the gunblade with his own sword. He stood and tried to force her backwards, by attempting to push upwards on her own sword. This was not an ideal situation; he was stronger in the upper body, and would eventually force her to release the weapon. She could see him beginning to smirk as his strength alone began to raise her sword above.

Without thinking about it, she dropped her weapon, and with it she too dropped to the ground and spun her leg out in a half circle ahead of her and kicked the legs out of the man that was taunting her with his laughter. He stumbled and fell at the speed of the attack and before he could to anything she rolled backwards and retrieved her weapon from the ground. He was just on his feet as she charged in once more.

She swiped him to the left, and he barely met her sword charging in from the right with his raised one. The expression on his face had changed; shifting from one of extreme confidence to one of slight panic. He was not sure, now, how much talent she had. Kaidia was smart enough to know that most that saw her did not think she was an experienced fighter, let alone how to fight at all, and that misjudge of her abilities is what made her such a dangerous opponent.

The strength in her double handed attack succeeded in knocking him backwards by several feet, and, before he could recover for another attack, she switched the angle of her sword. Just as the sword had swung left and upwards, it now descended upon his unprotected side and before anything could stop the powerful weapon, she embedded it in him and triggered directly into his stomach. Following through with the movement, the sword swung further into his armoured body and came to a stop. He stared shocked down at the gunblade embedded inside him, as if he could not believe he had been bested by a child, and when the light began to darken in his eyes, he coughed and a spray of dark blood erupted from his mouth and hit her in the face. Then he fell forward, dead, and with the added weight on her, he nearly took her down with him.

Kayden circled the final member of the team, moved to the left and guarded Ryu for a moment as he slipped forward to the mouth of their arena and to observe the last of the troops guarding their downed leader. When the boy was clear of the furious man's attack, he dove back into the battle; twisting sideways to avoid his answering attack with the sharp reaper-like weapon. Kayden had barely dodged that attack, and when he tried to swipe his gunblade left, it was met with the placed blade of the one he was duelling with. The man smirked into his face, showing a large amount of confidence for one about to die. At least Kayden hoped so.

The young male fainted left with his weapon, diving forward and then, at the last moment, circling backwards and swinging towards the right. He came out of the spin, but his try at the man had only met the amused man's sword instead. 'Hyne he's fast!' Kayden mentally complained. 'Why not slow him down!' his thought continued.

He needed a moment to find the spell; it always took him a second longer to locate the magic he wanted then it did his girlfriend. But he would cope with that now that he had a plan. If he could not outmatch him and the man was more skilled than he, then why not just trick him. It was cheap, but right now he would take cheap over an actual win. Especially as this man was way more experienced than he was.

Without waiting, Kayden began to sort through his barrage of stocked magic until he came across the spell he wished; sleep. He summoned the familiar energy to the forefront of his mind to prepare for the next action.

Kayden dropped that attack and jumped backwards to dodge the enemy's next assault, but from where he landed he caught the descending blade with his own and forced it upwards. With all the force he could call to him, and the momentum he had gained by swinging the gunblade upwards to catch the descending sword, both weapons were ripped from their wielders hands and both circled in a arc above the surprised fighter's head and fell, one striking the wall and his embedding into the floor of the cave.

Without waiting, he called the energy out and directed it at the man. The familiar sheen of golden stars circled his frame for a moment before diving forward and wrapping their confusing lights around his enemy. The stars exploded into a brilliant sheen of white and not a second later the man dropped where he was standing, and lay in restful slumber.

This was his choice, for when the man rested unaware of what was occurring around him, they could escape and he would have no knowledge of it. Also, when asleep, the more experienced fighter could not use an item or a spell to cancel the effects and he would only awaken when found by one of his team or by theirs.

He might not awaken at all, the boy realized. There were Anacondaurs and other scavengers circling around the dim caves, and they would certainly not ignore the chance of a free and easy meal.

The order to withdraw took precedence over everything else. If he couldn't kill him quickly then he had to get around him. Kayden stared down at his adversary, and Kaidia approached to his left. Without thought, both went to flank Ryu for the last assault.

"They're dead." Ryu announced, shakily. "I killed them. They were holding a dagger to Suzu's neck. The last one injected him with something from a needle, before I could kill him."

Kaidia nodded, and slipped around the boy to check on their leader. Something was wrong with this… every section of her being told her that the something horrible she had feared since before the SeeD exam had just begun.

As she approached him, Suzu raised his shocked features to her. Blood was dripping down from his nose and mouth, but the most frightening was the look in his eye. The entire ball of was a brilliant red, and it leaked out in tears that ran down his face, even has more blood fell from his ears. Suzu opened his mouth to scream and out of his mouth shot his darkened tongue and streamers of vile smelling blood.

Kaidia gagged at the smell and was barely able to swallow the disgusting mixture in response. Behind her, Ryu was not as lucky he sank to his knees and was nosily sick on the ground ahead of him.

She looked back, being drawn by his shrieks that could no longer form words; screams for the pain to end, to stop the horror that was his destroying his body and left no peace for his mind.

"Ryu… try items. Kay… magic…" she requested in short spurts; the sickening stench of the living decaying body breaking through her control. She tried to take a breath to calm herself, but it was too much and she retched to the ground next to her, shaking as the contents of her stomach exited to the floor.

'Bast, have you seen anything like this?'

'…No Child…' Even as her pet was not present she could sense his distress and disgust. 'Not in all my years…'

'Is there nothing that can be done?'

To her side, Ryu tried recovery items; all the forms of potions they had on them. It did nothing to lessen the effects of the disease eating the boy alive. While Kayden constantly cast his strongest curative magic, using up several Curaga's in an effort to stop the devastating disease.

Ryu then tried to curb the flow with status items, throwing an antidote, pouring it all over the dying boy's body, and finally their only remedy. There was no change in the progression of the menacing infection. As it ate away at Suzu's skin and internal organs, blood and other matter leaking out from the open cavities on his body, bleeding out as the disease ate away at him.

Kayden, in desperation switched to his last spell, and when the lights of Esuna died, there was nothing changed. Suzu's screams echoed through the cave and haunted all that listened who could not help. They were out of options. Kaidia did not have any other curative spell that Kayden did not have, and it felt as if hours had passed, but only seconds had, listening to his screams.

Down his body, his skin sank into itself as whatever was in the needle ate away at every section of his body. He reached, as if to touch her, begging for mercy from every hurt that was inflicted on his body. His arm as it left the ground, left skin and muscle, all that was reaching up to her was the dead arm of a skeleton. White fingers flickered in the light, as the skin fell off in a liquid mixture of death. He screamed louder and she flinched internally, as the image burned into her brain.

'There is something, Child…you know what I speak of. Do what you think is right.'

'It will kill him…'

'Mercy would not kill him; rather save him from suffering more. What do you think he wants?' Bast finally whispered in her mind.

She stared down at him, taking in his shrunken appearance, due to the infection. Then she looked right to his face and into his red eyes and she could see the plea as clearly as if he had spoken it. 'Help me…' it yelled in his eyes. 'Let this end. Please make it stop hurting.'

No one had been around to help her stop hurting when she needed them, and when seeing the same plea come from another's eyes, she chose what she thought was right.

A shimmer surrounded her; calling forth from her outstretched hand, and golden stars erupted surrounding the fallen fighter, and exploded out. She had not remembered even thinking as she summoned the spell, as the stars cleared from her vision and before Suzu closed his eyes for the last time, she saw gratitude echo from his red gaze, and then he closed his eyes in peaceful rest. For the rest, there would be no peace from the images and the nightmares that this would bring. It would be something that would haunt her for the rest of her life.