Someone Like Me

Squall watched the SeeD candidates run through a weapons drill. He was not impressed so far. Irvine and Zell grimaced as one student fumbled with a simple fire spell and got knocked on his ass. Quistis stepped in and eliminated the grat and helped the shivering student to his feet. Squall sighed and glared at the rest of the students. Most of them took twice as long as it should have to eliminate simple monsters. In a time of growing conflict, it was simply unacceptable to have below par SeeD. Everyone needed to be at their best. Anything less would get people killed and chaos would ensue.

“This has to be the most pathetic display of combat I have ever seen. Your skills will be improved in two weeks time or I will have the Headmaster expel you all! Everyone return to your class rooms. Weekend privileges are hereby revoked. Dismissed!” Squall said angrily. He turned to leave the training center when he heard a small cough from his second-in-command.

“Excuse me Commander but there is one more student.” Quistis said quietly.

“Whatever.” Squall turned around briefly. “I think I have had all the ineptitude I can stand for one day.”

“She the head of her class actually. She might have something the instructors can work with.”

“Alright, let’s get one with it.” Squall crossed his arms and sat down on a log looking for the stand out student. One girl was standing alone with her arms crossed and looking at the ground. Her dark red hair fell over her face hiding her features. She wore the skirt required by female student to wear but the rest of her outfit was her own. She wore a black sleeveless shirt and over that was a dark blue jacket and black leather boots encased her shapely up to her knees. A black fedora hat was at an attractive angle on her head. Her attitude was aloof and sullen, it reminded of him of someone…..oh yeah.

“This is Alexandra from Centra. She is a third year student who has already mastered the basic GF abilities. Go ahead Alexandra.” Quistis motioned her forward. A caterchipiller and two bite bugs were released and quickly circled her; they were particularly aggressive and made several attempts to strike her before she even had time to draw her weapon. Squall watched as she gracefully dodged the bite bugs and wondered if she even had a weapon. His question was answered when she reached under the back of her jacket and pulled out two short katana swords and made two quick slashes and the bite bugs fell leaving the nasty caterchipiller to deal with. Squall raised his eyebrows, impressed with her ability to dodge and attack quickly. Well this one might be worth looking at further he thought. Alexandra quickly drew fire and cast it at the enemy weakening it. She then attacked it with a series of vicious sword strikes. The caterchipiller attacked with ultra waves leaving her just weakened to use her limit break. She stood with her arms outstretched, a sword and each hand and leaned her head back and let out a piercing scream. Squall thought that her limit break had something to do with sound until he saw the red heart shaped mist forming from her chest. The mist then slammed into the caterchipiller and finished it off and then some. Squall looked over and saw that Zell and Irvine’s mouth were hanging open in shock. Apparently this student’s limit break was an attack called Heartbreak, an attack only seen from Creeps. Her attack seemed much more powerful and intense. Everyone watched as she cleaned her swords on the grass and went to stand by herself and await the ruling on her performance. Everyone seemed impressed with her ability but she wished they would stop staring at her. She disliked being around to many people and the attention was making her uncomfortable. If it was up to her she would have never joined SeeD but it was either that or be the subject of research for Dr. Odine and she would be damned to the pits of hell before she would be experimented on again. The questions would soon start flying about how was she able to perform an attack that normally only could be done by an undead creature. It was her own fault, she wanted to get through her studies as quickly as possible so she used whatever she had in her arsenal to make the highest grades she could and graduate quickly. She didn’t think that maybe her abilities would be seen as unusual and would draw attention. Oh well, Alexandra thought, she was used to making herself unpleasant so people would stay away.

“Well done Alex.” Quistis said proudly. She enjoyed seeing other females do well in SeeD training. The Gardens did seem to be male dominated so any female that excelled got a lot of encouragement from the former instructor. Quistis walked over to Squall with a smile.

“Well? What do you think?”

Squall stared at the girl who was leaning up against a tree looking unhappy. He could sympathize greatly. He decided to have mercy on the girl and end this quickly for her.

“Alright. Alexandra can accompany us to Galbadia for her field exam. My previous orders stand for the rest of the students though.” He looked to Quistis. “Are we finished now?”

“Yes.” She sighed. Squall really needed to have more patients for these students. He was being too abrupt.

Squall walked out of the training area with Zell and Irvine following him. Quistis walked over to Alexandra and patted her shoulder.

“Don’t worry about the commander. He’s really a lot worse.” She said with a smile. Alexandra shrugged and looked at Quistis, she unjunctioned the GFs Quistis lent her and returned them.

“I can understand his frustration. I’m going back to my dorm.” Alex saluted the second-in-command and began her way back. Quistis fell in step next to her and continued talking.