Author's Notes: Since my updates in November and December were a bit off, and I cut my January update short because I didn't want to break up the battle, I present you all with a bonus chapter. Can you believe it?

Hyne's War: Chapter 17

By the time he made the end of the corridor that connected the training center to the rest of the Garden, Nida no longer had to question what was going on. While there had been no announcement on the PA system it was hard to question the situation when the first sight he was granted out of the corridor was a man in the tell-tale red uniform of a Galbadian Elite Soldier. In fact, questions completely evaporated as the soldier in question was raising his gun to point it at Nida. That sight was enough to wash away any lingering rational thought that the alarms hadn't managed to dispel in Nida.

Something must have spooked the soldier. Maybe the idea of an enraged SeeD bearing down on him, maybe the undeniably familiar faces of Selphie and Seifer behind him, or maybe just shock at the idea that there were people still running at him despite the gun in his hands. Whatever it was, the shock was enough to make the soldier's finger to hesitate on the trigger of his gun, it was enough for him to give Nida all the time he needed. One tambo flashed out, knocking the barrel of the gun up and away from any possible targets, and the other smashed full force against the side of the metal half-helmet that the Galbadian soldiers wore. The sound of metal on metal was almost enough to make Nida flinch, and it was more than enough to be heard over the continuing alarm. More important was the fact that the blow had done what it was meant to do, stun the man. The soldier crumpled beneath the blow, and while part of Nida was satisfied to see the dent he had left in the man's helmet, another part of him was sure that the man was only out cold, and a third part—the one dominated by training and fighting instinct—cautioned him that if he could pick the sound out over the alarm, there was a more than fair chance that any other nearby foes would as well.

As much as Nida wanted to continue forward indiscriminately, throwing himself at the invading force, he ducked down, gesturing for the others to do the same. Though low, the railings on either side of the small bridge over the Garden's encircling water fixture would provide some meager amount of cover provided none of the Galbadians came from the direction of the garage and dorms, or had made it up to the higher level which circled the elevator. It was all the cover they could hope for while they figured out what happened next.

Sure enough, Nida heard someone coming up behind him slowly, with the exaggerated care that always seemed to come when someone was crouching and sneaking forward at the same time. The sound was hard to pick up, but with his senses enhanced by Siren and the odd shiver that went up his back—a hard won unconscious reaction of his body to someone coming up behind him quietly—Nida was sure that it was the heavy boots of Seifer, rather than the far softer ones Selphie wore or the canvas shoes that Veringas had chosen for tramping through the Training Grounds.

"I guess this is what you guys must see as deja vu," Seifer said, his voice in a whisper just low enough for Nida's enhanced senses to pick up.

"Not exactly," Nida responded, unable to keep his voice from betraying his anger. This was undoubtedly alike in some ways to the battle between the Gardens, but Nida hadn't been involved in that. He'd been occupied at the bridge, focused on ramming into Galbadia Garden, and maybe wishing a little that he could knock Seifer off the thing. All the memories around the thing made him angry, perhaps in part because he'd lost friends like everyone else, but unlike them Nida hadn't been there to try and protect them.

"I was up on the bridge, ramming the Garden down your throat," he explained, more to explain than outright accuse Seifer, though he knew that the accusation would still be there. "But we had warning then..."

"Well, just so you know, this one isn't my doing," Seifer whispered back. "I'd like to think I had a bit more of a controlled confrontation."

Seifer followed the words by tapping Nida on the shoulder, and when Nida turned he could see that Seifer had raised himself just enough to glance over the edge of the barrier that was serving as their cover. What was more, Seifer was pointing at something, and Nida obliged him with a quick popping up of his head to look at what the other man had seen. It was easy enough to pick out what he was talking about, for no sooner had Nida taken a glance than he saw one Galbadian soldier looking around in a sort of shock as the two nearest him turned their guns to point them at a SeeD cadet who was rushing towards them with an oversized chakram.

Quickly Nida reached for the gun that the soldier he had attacked had been holding, only to find Seifer had already picked it up and was pointing it in the direction of the Galbadians. Before Nida could so much as breathe, Seifer had squeezed off a quick shot, and to Nida's surprise, one of the soldiers which had looked ready to shoot the SeeD cadet fell lifelessly to the floor. The second didn't have a chance to show more than the briefest dismay before the girl was upon him, her chakram easily opening his throat and leaving the man to scrabble and try to keep himself from bleeding out. The third soldier, the one who seemed utterly bewildered, took one look at his fallen companions and at the angry, chakram wielding girl and threw his gun down and arms up.

"Something's wrong here," Nida couldn't help but observe, which earned him a sarcastic chuckle from Seifer.

"You really think so, Nidulus?"

"You ever find the Galbadians you commanded hesitant to attack whatever you pointed them at?"

Seifer's question had been ironic, but Nida's wasn't, and he could see the reluctance in the man's face to admit how right Nida was. Normally soldiers just followed orders, relying on the fact that they would be punished for not doing so to protect them if they were asked about it later. Soldiers, and some mercenaries, could get away with not having to figure out whether their orders were right or not. SeeDs, on the other hand, were expected to question not only the methods, but the morals and ethics of what they did. A SeeD might hesitate about killing—usually after the fact—but a soldier tended to embrace the point-and-shoot interface of their lives from Nida's experience. They only hesitated like this when they really couldn't be sure if their orders were right, or if they weren't sure where the orders came from.

"Best thing we can do now is play on the confusion," Seifer said after a moment. "Selphie..."

"I'm not staying here," came Selphie's scathing response, before Seifer even had any chance to say anything to her. "I've lost more friends to Galbadians and you than anyone else here, and I've got rank over the both of you. So don't think you're going to pull some chivalrous bullshit, because we all know it doesn't suit you."

Nida resisted the momentary urge to chuckle at the expression on Seifer's face. Obviously the blond had yet to be on the receiving end of a deadly serious Selphie, and still likely knew nothing of just how cold and calculating the little lady could be. In fact, few people outside of the inner circle of the high level SeeDs knew that Selphie was one of the three people in charge of tactical design on missions these days, proving herself the equal of Squall and sometimes even Xu's superior. Even Quistis bowed out when Selphie offered herself up during the planning phase of some operation. It had been as shocking a revelation for Nida as learning that Zell was actually a crack shot with pretty much any firearm you placed in his hands.

"What do you think, Selphie?" Nida asked, ignoring Seifer and the growing tension in his own body. He wanted to be out there, fighting, not holding back in thought. Normally he wasn't this eager for a fight, but there was something about what was happening that just tore apart the best of his patience.

"There's no guarantee they haven't come at us from multiple angles, meaning we can't throw ourselves at the front doors with no regard for what is behind us. Seifer, you're the best solo combatant among us, you head back towards the garage and dorms. Gather what people you find and deploy them as you see fit, but focus your attack on clearing out the central hub. We need to secure the elevator so that we've got a withdrawal point, so that will be your central focus. Once that is done, you're to move with whatever people you manage to get under your control to clear out the dormitory area and get what students or cadets that are battle ready together. From there continue around the hub clearing out sections in a clockwise fashion. Nida and I will head for the front. As for you, Doctor, when we move you are to slip around the side of the bridge, duck down into the waterway and hide under the bridge itself. No one will look there until all other areas are cleared out, so you'll be safe from all forces unless all is lost. Now, when I give the signal, move."

There was a powerful commanding edge in Selphie's voice, one that Nida had seen her use to get men twice her size to snap to attention, and this time he couldn't resist a smirk at the grudging respect plainly written on Seifer's face. Yet that passed as Selphie quickly flashed off a hand-sign that signaled commencement of attack, and instantly Nida was up and advancing quickly and silently towards the entrance with Selphie at his heels. They moved together with all the confidence of two people who had fought and trained together, Nida absolutely trusting her to protect his back, and awed by the fact that even with all the doubt surrounding him, she would trust him with any chance of him using the confusion to 'escape' to the Zebalgans.

As they ran another soldier sprang before Nida, sword in hand, but again Nida found the man before him freezing for one critical second, allowing him to slam one of the heavy metal tambos into the man's arm. Another crack came with the contact of metal to enemy, though this time Nida was certain it was because he had broken the man's arm with the attack. And yet, even as the man stumbled back in shock, dropping his sword to cradle his injured arm, there was no killing intent in the man, at least not any that Nida or Siren could read.

It's almost as if he were afraid of hurting you, little hawk, Siren observed as Nida pivoted on one foot and delivered a sharp kick to the soldier's gut. The soldier doubled over at the blow, going down at last on his knees and then collapsing fully as a sleep spell from Selphie settled over the man. What man puts the health of his opponent higher than his own?

No one sane, Nida responded, moving forward as soon as Selphie's spell took hold, not even acknowledging a SeeD cadet that fell in beside Selphie as they finally came in sight of the directory and the churning mass of Galbadians and SeeDs locked in combat. Quickly Nida's gaze flashed over the group, picking out the worst points of combat, and his eyes lingered for a moment on an area that was free of all but two bodies: Zell and a uniformed woman. It only took another moment for Nida to pick out the clear symbols that marked the woman as a moderately high level General in the Galbadian army. Yet there was something else that made her stand out in Nida's mind, some unreadable warning in the back corner of his mind that sent chills up his back. It could easily have been the fact that the woman was commanding from the center of her troops, or the fact that she wasn't dealing with those who were obviously hesitating against their enemies, but more likely than any of that was the easy way that the woman was handling a fist fight with Garden's best martial artist.

She holds Zell off well, Siren whispered, and Nida could feel her awareness brush against his own, purposefully drawing his attention to the signs of fatigue already claiming Zell.

How does a general have that kind of combat ability in an army that rarely promotes from the enlisted population?

Then there was no more time to think, because the world around him seemed to slow down as the familiar tingle of magic washed over his skin. Hyne bless Selphie and Haste spells, Nida thought as he lunched himself into the side of the combat, coming up behind a soldier moving so slow that it seemed to Nida that he was moving in the vacuum of space. It took nothing more than slamming both tambo into either side of the man's torso to knock the man out, leaving a cadet facing Nida, obvious relief in her too-wide eyes. Still, Nida didn't pause long enough to take a breath, but let the Haste spell push him forward, dropping his tambo as he moved so he could snatch the perfectly serviceable quarterstaff from the gaping cadet, at the same time pushing the girl behind him as he continued forward, knowing that Selphie would send the obviously in over her head youth off to safety. In the meantime, though, Nida would have a weapon he far preferred to fight with—his training with tambo only meant to help him through situations when his pole arms were broken into pieces and he was left with nothing else to fight with.

The next soldier went down just as quickly, this time only needing his feet swept out from under him and a sharp blow to the head once he hit the ground, freeing up another cadet who had desperately been defending himself with a fluffy, blood-stained towel. Nida almost wanted to pause to yell at this boy for not running, not finding a better weapon, until he recognized the youth as the one who frequently jogged around the Garden this time of day, and what was more, the reason that he hadn't searched for a better weapon. Three children, no one older than nine as likely as not, were huddled behind the bloody cadet, protected by a barrier at their backs and the towel-wielding cadet before them. Before turning away from the small group, Nida cast a quick cure over the group and made sure to memorize the face of the cadet with the towel, intent on having someone recognize him for his bravery.

The whole thing took no more than a half a minute, and yet when Nida turned his attention back towards the better part of the battle, he could see that it had changed massively in his moment of inattention. And the reason was more than clear, as it sent a rallying cheer up from the Garden forces. After all, who wouldn't feel comforted to see Squall suddenly among their ranks, to find a crossbow bolt sprout from their opponent's eye, or to hear the rapid cracks of thunder over the alarm that promised that Irvine had taken up a sniping spot on the second level? Still, even though it was clear the battle was going to go their way, Nida wasn't about to let up now. Every one of the Galbadians taken down by a senior SeeD was one that didn't fall to the cadets, was another life of their own people saved, was another second of bloodshed spared. So Nida threw himself back into the thick of the fight.

Still, Nida couldn't help but notice the hesitation in his enemies the further he found himself carried into the fight. Five more had fallen to him before he had taken so much as a scratch from a Galbadian blade, and while two of those could easily be explained by Nida having come upon them unawares, the other three had seemed reluctant to face him. Attacks that hadn't been held back against those other SeeDs or cadets they found before them always seemed to fall apart when the soldier turned and saw Nida coming at them.

The answer came suddenly, and from an unexpected source. Even as the first Galbadian blade barely scratched across his shoulder, Nida saw another soldier turn to join his companion. Yet the second the new comer saw the blood welling up through the t-shirt Nida was wearing, the moment his gaze likely came to rest on Nida through his helmet, the soldier turned to point his gun at the soldier which had hurt Nida. There was just enough time for Nida to see the word 'heir' on the gun-wielding soldier's lips, and then Nida was moving, hardly believing it himself, to knock the gun's aim towards the ceiling.

In shock the man whose life Nida had just saved stumbled back a step, leaving Nida with enough space to bring the quarterstaff down upon the arms of the man holding the gun. Nida ignored the sickening crack of bones, instead focusing on sucking in as much air as his lungs could hold and reaching out for the second GF that had been given to him through Veringas: Pandemona. With all of the force of the wind GF behind him, Nida roared out something that could change the flow of the battle.

"The Heir has fallen!"

There was a reaction the likes of which Nida doubted even the fog dreams couldn't have predicted. The air was filled with noises that didn't have any place in battle, confused and questioning exclamations from scattered members of the Galbadian force, and equally confused questions hissed out by those members of the Garden force who recognized Nida's voice and didn't quite understand the reason for the shout. Yet more important than that was the almost piteous moans of sorrow that came from other Galbadians, mixed with shouted vows of revenge and unbelievably colorful curses.

Altogether it gave Nida confirmation on the one ultimate truth that he had feared he would find here: at least half of the force they were facing now was comprised of loyal Zebalgan troops. This was no betrayal by an allied force, this was subversion of that force from within. Nida wanted to curse Hyne for the truth of it, but there was no time. It would take only a moment for one of the Zebalgan higher-ups to realize that not only was Nida still standing, but that their own men had given them away. All Nida could hope to do was take advantage of the short confusion, to direct all of his attention on those Galbadians nearest him who seemed driven to grief or rage by his proclamation, and pray that the other senior SeeDs would understand the importance of what had just happened.

He didn't have to wait long for a sign that he'd been understood by his allies, for no sooner had the protests of the Zebalgans cleared the air than Nida heard a familiar voice behind him cry out in anguish.

"Hyne, no! Stay with me Nida! I need an elixir over here!" Selphie shouted from somewhere beyond the edge of the fight, the anguish in her voice almost enough to convince Nida that he was in fact hurt. It was a nice touch, really, and enough to let him know that she, at least, has understood the meaning of his shout and the response of the Galbadians.

"For Nida!" Seifer's voice shouted from somewhere on the other side of the fight, giving away his own acknowledgment of Nida's message, and betraying the fact that he hadn't been able to obey Selphie's orders, something he'd have to answer for later.

Confusion was still spreading through the enemy ranks, and Nida couldn't help the sigh of relief that came to him as he heard the third call, the only one that mattered.

"We won't fall to Zebalgans! For Garden!"

Squall's shout was met with a roar of agreement from the Garden forces, and a surge of energy from those who were obviously already getting tired from the fight. And, more importantly, it was met with all the confirmation that any Garden fighter, or loyal Galbadian soldier needed to understand that they had a single enemy which wasn't each other.

"For the people! For the Boyce! For the Heir!"

"Don't worry, Doctor Kadowaki will get you fixed up faster than you would believe," Nida reassured the young Galbadian soldier as two relatively uninjured SeeD cadets lifted the stretcher they were using to carry him to the infirmary. This was one of the few who hadn't been carried off as soon as the battle had finished—neither dead nor mortally wounded—and he'd been left in Nida's care until Kadowaki and the casters she had commandeered had enough people back on their feet so that she could spare a bed for him. After all, a broken leg wasn't as bad as an arterial bleed, and Nida knew enough of field medicine to start dealing with the limb. It was only fitting as well, for Nida had been the one to break the boy's leg when he'd been too foolish to realize that it had been the soldier next to him with a gun that had been the real threat, not Nida. Breaking the leg and forcing the young soldier to fall had been the only way for Nida to keep the kid from getting shot by the person he thought was his friend and ally.

"Thanks," the young soldier gasped out, a grimace of pain on his face as the cadets carrying the stretcher accidentally shook him and thus his injured leg. "I can't believe someone as nice as you is supposed to be some kind of weapon."

Nida didn't bother to correct the boy, what use was it for him to know that the Zebalgans didn't see him as a weapon, but as a means to gain a weapon. There were other things he had to get to doing, things he had put off claiming he needed to look after the soldier, that could be delayed no more. So, with a sigh, Nida turned and headed towards the entrance, and the place where the other senior SeeDs had assembled, blocking their juniors and the survivors of the fight from the one kill that had won them the battle.

When Nida limped up, Selphie and Seifer unconsciously moved apart to give him a place to stand, which made him smile a little to himself. Better to be between these two, who he was sure now would protect him from the wrath of any of the others if they chose to blame this all on Nida, than near someone who might be less understanding. Yet the smile was instantly wiped away as he was presented with the sight of the woman he had seen fighting Zell crumpled up on the floor. Looking at her now, she didn't seem to be quite worthy of the chill she had given Nida when he had first seen her. The woman was small, maybe Selphie's height, though it was clear even without removing her uniform that she likely had all the muscular build that Zell maintained for fighting. Her hair, brown and dusted with silver hairs, had been pulled into a tight bun at the base of her neck, but now stray hairs framed her face. They almost softened the sharp angles of her face, the square jaw, the overly pronounced cheekbones, but it did nothing to distract from the odd bulge at the back of her head, or hide the fact that her neck seemed to be at an inexplicably odd angle.

"Clean kill," Squall pronounced from his place squatting at the side of the dead woman.

"Yeah," Zell agreed, sounding unbelievably tired, and perhaps a little regretful for the likely painless death that breaking the woman's neck had granted. "She nearly won. Had me in a headlock. I guess she expected me to go quietly..."

"You never were the type," Seifer said with a sigh, taking a step forward to crouch by the body. Thankfully the place the large blond chose was enough to block Nida's sight of the broken neck that had held his gaze since he had noticed it. "Let me guess, you figured it was easier to try to get her to let you go of her own accord rather than use force to get free."

Nida could see Zell nodding out of the corner of his eyes. "Could have gotten free with time, I've got the strength junctions to do it, but there wasn't time. I just reached up and..."

Zell trailed off, not wanting to explain though Nida at least was able to supply the rest. It didn't take much to guess that Zell had simply braced himself, gripped his attacker at the base of the chain and the back of the head, and twist. For most people it wouldn't have done much, but with the strength of Brothers behind him, it wasn't really a shock that Zell had managed to break the woman's neck even from such an unlikely angle.

"I'm glad you're okay," Selphie said, placing a comforting hand on Zell's shoulder. "I saw her fighting, she was good."

"She got sloppy when she heard Nida's shout," Zell admitted, though there was a reluctance to it that made Nida wonder whether the woman had gone into an unthinking rage at the shout, and thus made it possible for Zell to win. "It was a good plan."

"And got the information we needed out," Irvine agreed. "Thanks."

It was more than he really expected from anyone other than Selphie or Seifer, so Nida just nodded in acknowledgment and returned his attention to the body that Seifer was obscuring.

"Lieutenant General Macken," Seifer said, and there was a barely suppressed rage at the name.

"Three star General in the Galbadian Army," Quistis supplied, slipping easily into what Nida thought of as her information retrieval mode. "Graduated top of her class at the military academy, and was one of the people instrumental in starting the policy of hiring Garden graduates into the military. After the policy started..."

"Enrollment nearly tripled," Irvine supplied, shaking his head. "Probably mostly Zebalgans. Shit."

"I knew her."

That returned everyone's attention to Seifer quickly enough, including Nida's.

"Ruth Macken was one of the few Generals that was willing to refuse my orders when I was the Sorceress Knight," Seifer continued, as if knowing he was going to get questioned at some point. "Was the head of SpecOp for the army. Special operations, for those of you not in the know. Most of her units are elite level fighters, the kinds that even SeeD would have trouble facing a company of without at least a platoon of their own. Let's consider ourselves lucky that she didn't even bring a full battalion with her, much less the whole corps that she's responsible for.

"I guess this explains why she was such a popular officer with her men, though. They were doubly loyal to her. I didn't even risk replacing her back when I was in command, for fear of mutiny. She supposedly had the ears of several of the top brass as well... Hyne, I'm starting to think that Ultimecia and Edea's paranoia over the Zebalgans might not have been misplaced, even if we missed a threat of the size we did..."

"I don't understand," Selphie finally said, causing Seifer to stop spilling every bit of information he could think of about the fallen general. "What was she even doing here?"

It was Squall who answered, a dark look on his face as he slowly got to his feet. "Xu received a message this morning from President Caraway that he had deployed a portion of the army to Balamb, to serve as backup for any actions SeeD might take against the Zebalgans. They were supposed to help us deal with what we discovered on Centra."

"And that was?" Zell prompted, proving to Nida that he was far from the only one not informed of this development.

"The Esthari air force thinks they found the main base of the Zebalgans," Xu offered, winning the first silence that lasted more than a pair of heartbeats from the group.

"So we're moving on them?" Irvine asked, his voice so monotone that Nida didn't even know what to make of the gunner's response to the news.

"We don't have the men," Squall admitted, shaking his head and crossing his arms over his chest. "This whole situation proves we can't trust the men other countries might offer us, and a good deal of our own fighting force is now injured. And we don't even know who gave this general her orders to attack, because I doubt it was Caraway. He was as furious as the rest of us when the Zebalgans tried to attack the Sorceresses."

"Who could blame him?" Seifer asked, standing as well. "Even if him and Rinoa have never had a good relationship, he's still her father. I'd put even money on Macken not having acted on his authority, possibly even on his communication to us being faked."

"Then who sent them?" Xu asked, frowning.

"Megill, who else?" Nida said, an odd chill running down his back once more. "And something tells me that she wasn't just some pawn of his. I wouldn't be surprised if this Macken was a member of their council."

"A dream?" Quistis asked, but all Nida could do was shake his head.

"Just a hunch, and a chill whenever I look at her."

"I think I have to agree," Squall admitted, though he obviously didn't like the idea. "We'll have Kadowaki look her over, and see if we can't get Caraway to send someone we can trust to search her residence in Galbadia. In the meantime, though, we need to..."

"Check her for a GF," Zell cut in. "She was stronger and faster than any reasonable amount of training could have caused."

"And see to your wound," Quistis added, turning her full attention onto Squall, clearly concerned.

Nida, and a few others he was sure, gaped in surprise at Quistis's words. It was only now that Nida could pick up on the little signs that proved her words to be true. Squall's posture, for instance, was a little more slumped than it should have been, and his face looked a bit pale now that Nida was looking. But what really gave it away was the fact that Nida could now tell that Squall hadn't really crossed his arms as Nida had first assumed—Squall was prone to crossing his arms over his chest when he was in thought, so Nida hadn't thought anything of the gesture until now—but rather had folded them across his chest, with his right arm clearly helping to hold up the weight of the left.

"What happened?" Selphie, Seifer and Nida all demanded as one, earning a faint smirk from the normally stoic gunblader.

"Stray crossbow bolt," Squall offered, turning just enough that Nida could see the bolt that was still sticking out of Squall's back.

"Again, I'm sorry," Xu quickly said, her voice filled with regret. "I wasn't expecting you to plow through them both so fast. I thought I was helping when I fired at the one..."

Squall held up his right hand to silence Xu, saying nothing but with a kind of silence that seemed to carry a weight of understanding.

"Let's get him to Kadowaki before she has all our heads for leaving him like this," Seifer said, crossing behind his rival and offering him a shoulder to lean on. Squall stood there for a moment, utterly quiet and devoid of expression save for a single raised eyebrow—this silence filled with a questioning amusement—before taking Seifer up on his silent offer.

Nida and a few others moved aside as the pair slowly advanced, Squall trusting Seifer to carry part of his weight without being to annoying, and when they were fully past Nida, all he could do was stare at the wound.

If the bolt had gone in any deeper, it would have pierced a lung. If it had gone any further right, it could have damaged his spine and paralyzed Squall. And had Squall been standing at any real angle to the shot other than straight on, the bolt would have found his heart. It was hard to think they had been that close to losing person who was holding Garden together in the face of all of this, and the only thing that has likely saved Squall's life was pure and simple luck.

Another chill went down Nida's back, and this time he didn't know quite what to make of it.