Like a choir the voices screamed in her head. Speaking in a language she did not know. It drove her mad, it made her angry. Her face twisted into that of rage.

Excitate vos e somno, liberi mei
Cunae sunt non
Excitate vos e somno, liberi fatali
Somnus est non

She flew at the garden, her anger rising. With a screech filled with anger and horror she flew. The voices screaming inside her skull, making it throb. Oh, the pain. So unbearable, yet sweet, for it made her stronger.

Surgite
Inventite
Veni hortum veritatis
Horti verna veritatis

The power woke within, and the face of the once beautiful girl twisted to that of a mockery of what it once was. The power, it was strong, and what was left of the rational mind shattered.

Ardente veritate
Urite mala mundi
Ardente veritate
Incendite tenebras mundi

Darkness, sweet darkness. The powers grew rampant and the sweet seduction of the mind and body took control. What was left was only evil. A great evil, in control, at last.

Valete, liberi
Diebus fatalibus

Flying with black wings feathers falling like dark death, she grew closer to the two people that would pay. Oh they would pay, with their lives. Revenge! Revenge would be hers! After centuries of tamed, and timid use, the world would finally be hers!

Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec
Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec
Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec
Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec

The couple, unaware of what would happen were startled when Rinoa, her face a massive complexity of emotions and powers flew at them. Her eyes a blaze with inner hate. The impact was hard, and when the two friends recovered from being brutally tossed aside by the small fast body their minds screamed horror.

"What the!" Zell said getting up and pulling Xu up with him. "Rinoa?!"

Xu was speechless.

"Not Rinoa.. Rinoa.." The girl chuckled darkly, "is gone." With that the girl stood up, the black wings fading away with a burst of feathers.

Zells mind screamed at him. ‘Run you damn idiot! She’s insane!’ That is exactly what Zell did, kicking open the door to the training center, and dragging Xu with him.

"Zell!" Xu screamed at him as she stumbled along behind him. "What’s going on!?"

Zell ran faster, as he rounded the corner. "I don’t know, but my gut says we run. Or die!"

"Oh god Zell!" Xu said as she trained her eyes on the now looming door to the rest of Balamb Garden. "Was that really Rinoa?"

Zell grunted as he kicked the door open to the long hallway, to the rest of the Garden and then turned to close it, after they ran through while Xu keyed in a override to lock down the entire center, all the while screaming at Zell for answers.

"Damn it Xu! I don’t know! It looks like her, but that’s not how she acts! This is bad, real bad!" Zell said slapping his hand on a large glass case, the force of the blow shattering the glass. Frantically he slapped the large red button, signaling a garden wide alarm. This was an emergency, and he thought it would be best to alert the entire garden.

Xu and Zell then looked at each other, and nodded. "The Bridge!" They said at the same time. "Gotta warn Cid!"

****

The garden was in a panic, as Irvine, Selphie, and Quistis took charge and readied the other SEEDS, in designated areas, waiting for the word from the bridge. The same thought on all their minds.

‘What is going on?!’

It was only a matter of minutes when Zells voice rang over the communication system. "Okay people, we have a situation on our hands! We are under attack. Those who aren’t going to take the exam, I suggest you escape the Garden with the younger new students. That is a priority! Selphie, Irvine, Quistis, get your troops to the training center! Pronto!"

On the bridge Xu took over, flipping on the laptop that she used to set up communications between each and every SEED issued headset. Quickly she informed the leaders of the troops what had transpired.

"What!" Quistis screamed into her headset as she led her troops of SEEDS to the training area, "You cannot be serious!"

"I am serious! It was a positive ID. Zell says it’s Rinoa, and she looked ticked!" Xu answered typing madly on the keys monitoring the wave lengths of communications. "I’d be ready for anything." She added.

****

Four students who were ready for the SEED exam, didn’t listen to Zells instructions. They were all in the same class, with Quistis Trepe as their instructor. They stood ready in the front lines, standing tall and at attention. It was Quistis who finally noticed them as the SEED’s under her command readied for anything.

"You four! What in the name of Odin are you doing here!" She barked walking over to her students. One she recognized as the new fan club president. "You heard Zell! You’re supposed to evacuate!"

"I’m sorry Instructor Trepe." The president, a young girl with large brown eyes, and dark brown hair pulled into a ponytail said. "This is as good as a chance to test our abilities then anything."

"Hyne!" Quistis said slapping her forehead. "Fine. This will be your Exam. Andrew Bird, you’re the Squad leader! Crystal Gail, you’ll be in charge of the tactical communications. Devin Jones, you’re in charge of technical equipment. Amalia Mustermann, you’ll be defensive support magics. Junction your summons, and report to your stations!" Quistis barked and then saluted raising her hand to the side of her face. "Get a move on!"

"Sir! yes sir!" The four students barked as Crystal looked to her three friends.

"Well. You heard her." She said looking at Devin. "Get to the bridge! Xu’s the one with the tech. Andrew, Amalia and I make up the Squad team." She said as Quistis turned and pressed her hand to the headset she wore.

"Good luck guys!" Devin said as he turned and jogged back the way he came, heading towards the elevator at the front of the lobby.

"Good grief." The voice of Jay said as he stepped out of the shadows. "Nice that I finally get let out of the damn hole." He muttered.

Andrew turned his head and looked at Jay, and then back to his two friends. "Who’s this brat?"

"New student." Amalia said as she stretched her arms and nodded at the others.

"I don’t believe this!" Andrew said with a sigh. "Look kid, you got to evacuate!"

"No."

" Andrew, we don’t have the time, we have to focus on the Ex.." Crystal trailed off as the doors to the training center blew open, shrapnel flying everywhere.

"PROTECT!" Amalia screamed throwing up her hand as she pulled Crystal and Andrew down, casting the spell on Jay, who stood there with an odd look on his face.

"What the.." Jay said as he too finally ducked to the ground. "What’s the situation!" He barked at Crystal who scowled at him. For a twelve year old, the kid was a jerk.

Crystal turned on her headset and tuned into Xu’s frequency. "Training Center Gate has been by passed. Whatever it is, it’s powerful!" She answered.

Andrew nodded and assessed the situation. "We’ll have to withdraw. We can’t do much with this kid hanging around. We’ll have to get him to an escape hatch."

At that moment the very floors shook and cracked open, swallowing the Balamb Garden SEED cadets and Jay.

****

"Xu! Come in!" Quistis screeched into her head set. "The training center hallway has been damaged. There’s a huge hole in the floor, dropping into the lower depths of the Garden."

"What caused it?" Xu asked as she nodded to the Cadet that had arrived to help monitor the frequencies.

"It was a powerful Earth attack. Of the ‘aga’ level. Xu, we lost some students, they were cadets, and Jay’s missing too. The SEED I sent to get him evacuated said he wasn’t in the brig."

Xu cursed loudly into the headset making Quistis wince. "Okay. I’ll get Cadet Devin to check the frequencies to try and find the missing Cadets. In the mean time, try and stop that woman!"

****

The lower depths of Garden. A working of pipes, and tunnels, and wires. Dark, and only lit by small red lights that cast an ominous glow. They flickered with electricity.

Crystal was the first to wake, her head set broken. Sitting up she rubbed at her arms which were bruised. Groaning she moved to check on the others.

Andrew was first. He was lying on his side, his large spear, his weapon of choice lying on the ground not far from him. Carefully Crystal slapped his face to wake him up.

"Hey, Andrew. Wake up." She whispered lightly slapping his face on each side three times each. "Come on, you got to get up."

Andrew groaned and rubbed his forehead. "What the heck happened?" He asked sitting up and checking himself for injuries.

"Guessing by the big gaping hole above us, I’d say we fell into the restricted areas of Garden." Crystal answered as she moved to wake Amalia up, and then Jay.

"Hyne." Andrew said as he stood up and went to grab his spear. "How the heck are we going to get out of here?"

"There’s a ladder over there. Looks like it leads to a hatch of some sort." Crystal said pointing to the right. "Hey you have Ifrit and Fire magic junctioned right?" She asked a bit nervously.

"Yeah, why?" Andrew said as he walked over to her to help her wake Jay, who refused to get up. He seemed to be knocked out cold and a large gash on his left cheek was bleeding quite a bit.

"Because I remembered Instructor Trepe telling us the story of when Irvine, Squall, and Zell went below the main floors of Garden, as a last ditch effort to save everybody from those missiles. This area is infested with monsters weak against fire." She answered as she used a curaga spell on Jay to heal the cut which quickly turned into a scar.

"Glad someone remembered." Andrew said gruffly as Jay started to wake. "Hey kid, you able to walk?" He asked.

"I think so." Jay answered his voice weak. "What happened?"

"Fell through a big hole." Andrew answered. "Crystal, what’s communications like down here?"

Crystal stood and walked back to where her headset was and held it up. "Don’t know. Thing’s busted." She said showing that the wire had been pulled out of the headset itself.

Andrew cursed. "Guess the only way is up." He muttered walking over to the ladder and placing his spear in a holding case on his back, then testing his weight on the ladder. "It seems sturdy enough. However I am not taking any chances. Amalia got any float spells?"

"Yup! Sure do! I stocked up on them last week." The young girl said as she idly waved her hand four times. In a matter of seconds the group was floating several inches above the ground. Jay only ever having had a bad experience with it, grumbled when his balance was upset and was reduced to flailing his arms around wildly while he turned upside down.

"Easy there!" Crystal said as she swam through the air and grabbed him. "It’s like swimming. You just need to relax first." She said turning him up right and guiding him to the Ladder with a push. "Andrew, catch!"

"Okay," Andrew said when he had caught Jay. "I’ll go first, then the kid. Amalia you follow behind us. Crystal will take the rear." He explained as he grabbed one of the rungs and pulled himself up with ease, starting the long trek upwards towards the hatch.****

Devin Jones was beside himself. He had scanned every frequency there was, and there was only one that wasn’t answering. It had already been a half hour since the floor in the hall way outside of the Training Center had been destroyed by the enemy attack. He could only assume that his friends, had fallen through the hole, and the one frequency that wasn’t responding was theirs.

With mixed feelings he kept trying them over and over, and all he got was static.

Meanwhile Xu was frantically issuing orders to other tactical com units with their respective groups, as they fought the monsters that had suddenly gotten lose in garden after the sealing gate had been blown off.

Things really didn’t look good.