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Slyvalee strode quickly along the road, her right arm limp by her side. Up on a hill ahead in the distance she could see the lights of Delling. Sudenly a large blaze shoots up before her. starteled she runs the other way. A feeling of cold takes her over. Partilces of ice begin forming above her. She rolls to the side as it drops down, shatering beside her. Cold shards of ice fall on her, adding to the pain of landing on her arm. Two angy races surounded by a blade float infront of her. The Belhelmel spun around, so the red face was now on top. It began flitting around wildly. Sudenly it spun towars her. The blade sliced into her legs as she tried to kick it away.

Weakend she thought she only had one option left. Syl pulled a deck of cards out from her pocket Carefuly she took the top card form the deck and looked at it. The 3 of attack. A yellow energy swelled around her. Lying on her back she loaded the pinwheel on to her arm. She fired at the monster, the blade cutting into it and quickly returning itself to her arm. She fired it again, it's arc too wide and missing. It returned again and fired. This time it shot straight into the Belhemel, slicing it in half. Syl cast her last cure spell on herself and tried to stand. With more energy, but still injured she began limping towards the lights of Delling, hoping for no more incidents.

Squall made his way swiftly down the road between Balamb and Garden, a flashlight in his left hand lighting the way between him and the town, and helping to ward off nocturnal monsters.

Raven threw his helmet off and continued walking towards Timber. He hadn't slept in days, and had traveled with barely any stop. He bitched under his breath about all this s**t happening. If he ever got ahold of that kraken, it wouldn't be pretty.

Every place in the world has a little town here and there. Most people don't even care about their names. Sometimes, it's said that there's no way any place can get noticed unless it gets burned to the ground or takes over a nation. Perhaps this is true..perhaps this is why today, a small town will get recognized.

Too bad it wasn't doing the conquering.

Women screaming..children crying..the scent of blood and fire..the sound of gunfire and blades cutting into flesh and bone. In a small namless little town in Galbadia's territory, destruction was being wrought..and it was being wrought by an unknown man who wore an unusual uniform. A company of mercenaries had come to this town to burn it..paid by someone unknown. Perhaps its own benefactors and trainers. Whoever this man was he was a decent fighter..better than the soldiers that had guarded this area for certain.

He wielded a katana and a gun, standard multifire, and used magic and a Guardian Force. He'd summoned it, a golden and green bird of lightning, and used it against the town. He gazes down at a man cowering and laughs..shaking his head..

"Don't hate me. I'm just a mercenary..it's what we are..We're SeeD..we do anything for money. That's the way life is."

All the man saw after that was the flash of the gun as bullets penetrated his brain..and death was dealt all around. Not a life spared..then retribution. The group the man had brought with him in similar but different uniforms..a flash of gunfire from another position as some of the company fell. Real SeeDs wouldn't be caught that off guard but..who in this little town would know? Two shots..a perfect set of gunfire that put a bullet in the mercenary's head and chest..he never even got to blink as he died. The cloaked man stepped up then, touching the dead 'SeeD' 's neck..nodding..

"He's dead. Call headquarters and let them know we have a problem. It seems SeeD has turned renegade..and has targeted Galbadia."

The soldier that had come with the man salutes..as the man rips the SeeD pin off of the dead body, and tosses it to the soldier..nodding. He knows that the soldier knows what to do with that. And the report that's to be made. Turning, the cloaked man leaves the village burning as the rest of his company does what they came to. Make the G-Army look damn good..by putting out the fire and helping the survivors.

Oh, what a great game this would be!

Dante was in full gear traveling the outside, and looking for particular markings... he was hunting it was clear. The young man wanted something, he was searching hard... and finally about a mile and a half away from Balamb Garden he stopped into the forest off the road...

Shifting his way through trees and walking near a small river bed, he followed the scent. He could feel it, there was something near... Gripping his hands into the trees, he climbed higher, and higher, from tree to tree, like some kind of a forest stalker, he watched and waited... a good hour passed, Dante sipped on some water and ate a little bit of trail rations... waiting.... It was quite now, the forest had grown too quite...

Standing up from his day dream Dante looked about, he was prepared this time, and there he saw... A large beast, a dinosuar, as it turned from below and looked in the direction of Dante, he made eye contact with it, with it's grim teeth drooling it stared at Dante, but Dante was staring at the scar in his chest... "I knew I'd fine you... we have a score to settle, and this time..... I will not fall..."

Dante closed his eyes for a moment and then reopened them, with a strange stare much like before a predator attacks it's prey... He waited he knew the Rex would be dumb enough to chrage him, and sure enough it was heading his way with jaws wide open, and razor sharp teeth ready to tear Dante apart. But, Dante was ready now... He had his blade lifted high into the air and used one hand to casts a spell, he began calling fourth the slumber of rest... and a zoning cloud of dreams appeared around the Rex's body, soon the Rex was defensless and fell asleep standing his position... Dante climbed even higher now, gripping his blade with one hand, dragging behind him, and climbing higher now...

Finally at his peek, Dante was a good 80ft. From ground, nearly 40 below him was the Rex who was beginning to wake... The Rex looked around confused, surely it could sense Dante, but not see him... however...

"AHHHHH!!!!!!!" The sound grew increasing louder as it neared the Rex... Before the reptilian king could lift his gaze far enough, Dante, holding hid blade straight down with both hands and joint locked forward slammed his boots upon his face, and with the impact, thrusted the sword into the skull, not hearing any reaction except... *THUDDD!!* It was all so quick, Dante lifted his blade which was now embeded into the ground, and the skull of this reptile, out and back to its sheat.... with a great deal of blood covering his blade... The dinosuars body looked as if a bullet has shoot straight down at his face, and slammed him into the ground, however, that must have been one giant bullet.

Dante, looked back as the blood dripped from his blade, and smiled at the dinosuar. "Never let your guard down, you shoulda learned how to junction... hehehe..." Dante swung his blackcape over his shoulders, with his greatsword latched to his back and began exiting the forest...

Dante sat on the shore, and pulled his large blade out in front of him, the blood from the Rex had dried by now, and he was getting ready to clean it. He pulled out a large white towel, that was half blood red, and he knelt down by the coast soaking the water up. He sat down, and srcubbed the blood from the blade, then with another cotton woven towel, he placed some rubber glue on the edge, and wafted it up and down the metal... It was the hardest metal in the world... never could it be broken easily.

He continued to shine the blade until the reflection of the sun showered all over... He smiled a bit as he looked at his reflection and sighed a bit, as he picked up his sword and gear, replacing them on himself, he walked out towards Balamb Garden.

About almost 3 quarters of the way Dante stopeed and looked out in the distance noticing some kind of a cave, and immediatley he knew... "That must be where the trainee's turn into SeeD's?... the beginning of the field exam?..." He thought... he didn't really have any agenda at the moment so he walked back to garden yawning and stretching a bit.

(Back to the Garden)

Squall was jolted into wakefulness by a ringing sound. He sat up within the cave he'd taken shelter in after his slaughter and looked around. Directly beside him lay the Revolver, positioned so that he could quickly and easily scoop it up and defend himself against attack.

Further away, his cell phone sat on a rock ledge, the screen and buttons flashing white as it continued ringing. Reaching over, he picked it up and stared at the face. There was no name accompanying the numbers, signifying it wasn't anyone on his call lists, but he recognized the area code. Galbadian. More specifically, Deling City.

Blinking, he pressed the green connect button and lifted the phone to his ear, pulling out the antenna as he did so.

Hello?

"Leonhart! What the hell is going on!? I come back from a vacation and discover that the Galbadian Army has taken over Balamb Garden. What the hell did you SeeDs do and where the hell is Rinoa!?"

Wincing slightly, Squall held the phone away from his ear so as not to damage his hearing for the duration of General Caraway's screaming into the phone. Once certain that the general was through, he finally returned the phone to his ear.

I don't have much more information than you do, sir. All I was told was that Balamb Garden had been invaded and taken over, and that survivors had escaped the island.

He knew better than to tell Caraway that the survivors were all probably holed up in the mountains. Because despite the fact that Caraway was Rinoa's father, he was still a Galbadian officer and was likely to pass that little bit of information along to the Galbadian occupation force.

And...from what I've been told, Rinoa has not been accounted either dead or captured.

"And reports indicate that she was never seen during the fighting. Leonhart, you find my daughter. Do whatever it takes. I will not accept failure. If you don't find her, I will allow the army to hunt you down like the murderer you are for your little escapade in Timber."

Sir, I-

"No excuses, Leonhart. The fact of the matter is, I do not think that my daughter should consort with a murderer such as yourself. The only reason why I'm telling you to find her is because you know the likely places where she'll be. But so help me, Leonhart, should you fail, you'll never even hear the shot."

And before anything else could be said, the general disconnected the call. Squall sighed and laid his head back against the cavern wall. As if he didn't already feel bad enough for brutally slaughtering those soldiers, now he had his love's father calling him a murderer.

"So much for getting his approval........."

Glancing around, his eyes fell on the face of his phone, which displayed that he had a voice message. Picking the phone up, he put in his security code and listened to the message, which was from Hiro, and told him more about the situation, and that they needed provisions and ammunition.

Right away, Squall knew where to go to get the supplies. The president of Esthar would be all-too-happy to loan the supplies to SeeD's use. But that could wait until tomorrow. For now, he needed sleep.l