Lucyfer
Said you'd die for me, well -- there's the ground
Sleep was for the weak.
Sleep was also for the sane, but Nadine Crux could never be called sane, and so the night before the SeeD exam, she snuck out of her shared dorm after promising Kyra she wouldn’t, and sneaking into the training center, and making her way to the ‘secret’ area, which everyone knew about. It was technically a rest area in the middle of the training center, supplied with some tables, healing items, and food.
Nadine was there with her cards.
They weren’t gambling cards, but instead, magical stones, gil, and other useful items. Nadine was in it to collect stones, that she could have converted to magic, and she’d amassed quite the pile by the time she heard, “Nadine! Shouldn’t you be sleeping?” from the one and only King of Hearts. Nadine lifted her head from her current game with a grin.
“I’m preparing. I was waiting for you,” she gestured him over as she laid down a hexadragon and won the game, taking three more stones into her pile, “Can you convert these for me?” the stones all glittered in the fluorescent lights of the rest area, the energy just waiting to be tuned. “Dispels,” she added, aware of the type of magic his guardian force let him convert.
She’d rather have curas to upgrade to curagas, but ironically it was Bahamut who was known for that, although she knew other guardian forces could become adept in atypical areas depending on the bond forged. Regardless, she didn’t know anyone who upcycled magic currently, and dispel was better than cura for what she wanted.
She’d cycled the math hundreds of times.
“Tch. Like you don’t have enough in your room,” even so, as the losing student moved aside, he stepped to the stones, “One stone, five gil,” he reminded, and Nadine took her phone out to forward the gil to him via the GilGo app. It wasn’t that bad, and he quickly set about channeling the magic into himself, and she pulled it out in the draw process, rendering the stones inert until they were charged again.
“Free stones!” Nadine declared with a bit of a laugh as she pocketed her cards, feeling the magic swim through her, replenishing her stores. She’d won more than she needed. The stones could gain power back, it just took a while, so they weren’t wholly useless. With that, she stretched up, uncertain if she’d head back or fuck around more – until there was a shriek.
Everyone in the rest area froze, except both Nadine and the King of Hearts, who bolted in the direction without any hesitation. There were many fiends that could cause such sounds, even the grats that were numerous, but the direction they ran in was not the rain forest like environment, but harsher. The training center had grown since Garden was established, and now had differing environs.
This one was a mix of forested and mountainous, although of course, an actual mountain could hardly be put into Garden.
There was one beast known in this area that even trained SeeDs avoided, though it was rarely seen. As luck would have it, though, it had ventured from its cave, and its black-horned head was lowered, a taloned foot holding down a very dead mesmerize, and looking at the students who likely only intended to fight that as its next meal. There were three of them, and one was severely burned. One student was trying to lift their burned friend up, while the other was currently shouting to get the dragon’s attention, and it was not working.
“Hells,” Nadine reached into the pack at her hip and pulled a grenade.
“What are you—” the King suddenly stepped back from Nadine as a flare of a blue-scale dome seemed to fall over her, before she whistled, a harsh, high-pitch noise, that drew the ruby dragon’s attention.
She pulled the pin and hurled it.
Unfamiliar with such things, the dragon snapped it out of the air, and suffered the consequence of it exploding in its mouth. Blood-spewed from its mouth as it roared its anguish, before turning its full attention to Nadine, not even bothering to swipe it’s tail at the others in its turn.
Nadine could see the King hurrying to get the others out of there, helping them heft their friend between the two.
Nadine had to jump back from a swipe, blonde hair fluttering into her vision. She was still channeling Bahamut forward as nails scratched stone, before flames burst in front of her shoes, and she jolted back again, and to the side, not feeling the singe at all as it struck Bahamut’s energy instead. “Is that the best you got? Come on down, darling, let me see your eyes,” Nadine taunted as she pulled her gunblade into hand and gestured with the tip of the blade at the dragon.
‘You’re fucked, you’re so fucked.’
A warning.
A hope.
If Nadine died here, no one could say SeeD rejected her. She’d be a hero to those stupid students. What a rush! She grinned into the promise of death as the students and King vanished to safety, blood still hitting the ground from the mouth of the dragon.
“Now’s not the time to be shy, love, I’ve already been inside you.”
Ruby dragons were smart. Almost humanly so. It seemed to understand, and she hated the gleam of intelligence in those yellow eyes. “Fine.”
She plunged forward, and aimed a cut at one of its legs, triggering at the moment to give her blade better odds of cutting through scale – and it did! – but it was still like a butter knife scraping a bone. She got a layer deeper and knocked a scale off, but there was little blood. No, she needed its face, with its soft eyes, to do real damage.
It did snap its jaws her way that time, but at her back. She could only evade and swipe air, as the spent bullet fell from the chamber. Blood painted her white coat, the dragon’s, thankfully. ‘Five more.’ She’d have to reload after that.
Suddenly, the blue dome burst around her, and Bahamut manifested in the shattered magic, hovering above the ruby dragon. Thoughts flew through her head, that connection shared as the living-magic awaited direction, though she didn’t have long to direct something.
It was a simple request: bite. Pin.
Bahamut flew down with a roar to match the ruby dragon’s and it snapped its jaws down on the beast’s neck, rolling it and snapping down, but even his teeth couldn’t breach the scales far. Not with how long Nadine could hold him, anyways, and he evaporated into magical energy all too quickly.
Nadine still knew to take the opportunity to run, previous death-chasing hopes forgotten in the opening, and she booked it, calling again on Bahamut as she heard the heavy stomps of the dragon following.
‘Fuck, fuck, fuck!’ A chorus of curses danced in her head, as the flames painted her vision at either side, Bahamut’s energy eaten away again until this time, it shattered.
The protection gained by calling on him was gone, but so, too, were the flames. In fact, so was the stomping. Nadine didn’t need to consider what it meant; the information clicked together with the shadow and the wind gusts. She didn’t need to look up.
She almost took a knee to prepare something reckless, but the sound of a single shot rang through the air, and the ruby dragon fell off-course. Nadine turned to look at it, and saw it swiping at its own, blinded and bleeding, eye.
“Come on, rookie!” someone shouted, and Nadine glared in the general direction – but heeded it, making it to the divider and slamming it shut behind her. She forced herself not to slump, but turned to look around wildly at the new area – she saw the King, ashen-faced, terrified, and a stranger in a Galbadian SeeD uniform with a sniper rifle on his back. “You okay?”
“You called me rookie?”
He looked momentarily startled, “That’s what you’re—ah. Hahahaha,” he started to laugh and shook his head, “You’re Nadine, aren’t you?”
She shifted, putting a hand on her hip, as the tip of her gunblade touched the ground, “And who are you?”
“Not important,” he said, “you don’t have much time before the exam. You shouldn’t be wasting yourself on ruby dragons.” He waved her off, “I’ll make sure the Headmaster is informed so we can get that thing dealt with.”
“Dealt with?” Nadine wanted to ask what he meant – it was here to be a challenge! If they just killed it, it wouldn’t be a challenge! It wouldn’t—
“You’re bleeding,” the King said as the SeeD left the area with a handwave.
“Huh?” Nadine looked over herself, then laughed and shook her head, “No, no, that’s dragon blood,” she clapped his shoulder and turned him towards the exit, “c’mon, let’s go get something to eat. You got the students out of here, right?”
“Y-yeah,” he stammered, “I’m not sure I could eat.”
‘Yeah…neither am I.’
The flood of adrenaline was fading. Nausea was setting in, paired with the exhaustion of not sleeping, and well, not eating dinner. Or breakfast yet. The energy drinks in the rest area probably weren’t helping that cocktail of terrible decisions.
~***~
Kyra Ronen had managed to sleep peacefully through the night, though it took a bit of meditation, and breathing practices. When she fell off, it felt like only a minute, before her alarm was blaring at her to wake up, the familiar guitar strings of the song causing her to grope around for her phone.
She’s totally committed
To major independence
But she’s a lady through and through
She gives them quite a battle
All that they ca—
Kyra found the phone and snoozed it – just in case – before groaning and sitting up on her bed, blinking blearily around her room. The moonlight was still pouring in from her window. ‘What?’ why was she waking up this early? She double-checked the alarm message and saw ‘SeeD Exam’ written.
“Oh shoot!” Kyra jumped from her bed and saw she had the uniform laid out on her desk already, so she stumbled into her shared bathroom and hurriedly pulled herself together. She didn’t often put her hair back, but that day, she quickly braided it and pulled it back to make it more manageable. She didn’t need her too-long hair to get her into a snag! She even wrapped it up into a bun at the back of her head from there, before changing into uniform. “Naaadine!” she called, hopping on one foot as she pulled her right shoe on, “Come on! We need to get breakfast,” she slammed her foot down a bit harder than needed as she got the shoe on.
Nadine’s door was open, so she looked in.
No Nadine.
Nadine’s uniform wasn’t out, though, so Kyra hoped she had just woken early and gone to the café. Without her. ‘Rude.’ Then again, that summed up a lot of Nadine’s behavior, though Nadine would argue she was letting Kyra get more rest.
Good intentions, poor execution.
‘Gunblade’s gone….’ Yeah, she had to be up and in the cafeteria. Trying to get the sausage pancakes that always sold out for breakfast, no doubt. ‘Oh please save me one!’ Kyra grabbed her katar and heel blades, but shoved them into a backpack before rushing out towards the cafeteria.
And then slowing to a walk, immediately self-conscious by how quiet it was in the halls.
There weren’t that many up for SeeD this time around. ‘Nine.’ If she had counted right. She, Nadine, Phoebus, and Vanessa.
Kyra’s heart fluttered at just the thought of both of them becoming SeeDs together. Of doing the field exam together. It brought a smile to her face as she exited the dormitories, walking on auto-pilot then towards the cafeteria. Vanessa could see her improvement in magic! Maybe she’d want to dance with her at the graduation ball? Or, well, okay, no that was way too fast.
But maybe she’d have something nice to say about the improvement.
Maybe she’d offer to help her further?
Maybe….
‘Oh!’
And there Vanessa was in the cafeteria! Beautiful, black hair, looking so prim even in her uniform.
With Phoebus, though he seemed anxious. He always was. He made Kyra anxious. How was she ever going to get close with him around?
“HelloOOOO?”
The Cafeteria Lady, Rina, was waving a hand in front of her face and Kyra realized she’d been staring. She blushed immediately, “You planning to eat, honey?”
“Yes! Um, but – has Nadine been by?” she saw Vanessa, of course, but as she skimmed the room, she saw no sign of her dormmate. Which was…worrying. And spurred a lot of terrible possibilities.
“Ugh, no,” Rina answered, shaking her head, “no sign of her.”
“She was supposed to be here…she was going to save me a sausage pancake.” Not that they’d talked about it, but if she was going to not be in her dorm, this should be the only place that she should be!
“We still have some.”
“How many?”
“Five.”
“I want them,” Kyra would eat them. Nadine got none when she showed up, “Oh, and um. Some fruit. Please.”
Rina nodded and gestured her down to the pick-up area, and Kyra followed the gesture, but stood shifting her weight, anxious as hell, until the blonde woman suddenly walked in with a SeeD. Kyra thought his name was Owen, but she wasn’t positive of that. Owen seemed fine, but Nadine’s coat was covered in blood, and seemed singed through where some of the bloodstains were, which caused Kyra’s eyes to widen in horror, though she and Owen just walked up and ordered as if nothing was wrong.
Nadine gave her a wave, and a wink, before patting Owen on the back and stepping to where Vanessa sat.
“Kyra, your food—”
Kyra was quick to snatch it, realized what she’d done was a bit rude, “Sorry – thank you –,” she turned to head to Nadine as the gunblade slinger took a seat right by Vanessa.
Why did she always do this? Kyra could already feel her face burning through her skin, and she wasn’t sure if it was anger or embarrassment, as she heard Nadine greet Vanessa.
“Good morning! So, you have plans for after the SeeD graduation ball,” she wore such a cheeky grin as she added, “because Kyra needs someone to go with her to get a new tattoo sleeve started, since—”
Kyra opted to interrupt, “Where is your uniform, Nadine?”
Nadine blinked at her a moment, then glanced down at herself, “Ah shit, I knew I was forgetting something.” She bolted up from her chair, “Grab my food when it comes out, would you, Phee-Phee?” Not that she waited for an answer, already bolting for the exit.
Leaving Kyra standing at the table with her food.
And her alarm, only snoozed, went off again.
--n handle
She'll bruise some, she'll hurt some, too
Oooh~
They love to watch her strut!
Kyra let her food rest on the table as she fumbled to turn the alarm off.
Sleep was also for the sane, but Nadine Crux could never be called sane, and so the night before the SeeD exam, she snuck out of her shared dorm after promising Kyra she wouldn’t, and sneaking into the training center, and making her way to the ‘secret’ area, which everyone knew about. It was technically a rest area in the middle of the training center, supplied with some tables, healing items, and food.
Nadine was there with her cards.
They weren’t gambling cards, but instead, magical stones, gil, and other useful items. Nadine was in it to collect stones, that she could have converted to magic, and she’d amassed quite the pile by the time she heard, “Nadine! Shouldn’t you be sleeping?” from the one and only King of Hearts. Nadine lifted her head from her current game with a grin.
“I’m preparing. I was waiting for you,” she gestured him over as she laid down a hexadragon and won the game, taking three more stones into her pile, “Can you convert these for me?” the stones all glittered in the fluorescent lights of the rest area, the energy just waiting to be tuned. “Dispels,” she added, aware of the type of magic his guardian force let him convert.
She’d rather have curas to upgrade to curagas, but ironically it was Bahamut who was known for that, although she knew other guardian forces could become adept in atypical areas depending on the bond forged. Regardless, she didn’t know anyone who upcycled magic currently, and dispel was better than cura for what she wanted.
She’d cycled the math hundreds of times.
“Tch. Like you don’t have enough in your room,” even so, as the losing student moved aside, he stepped to the stones, “One stone, five gil,” he reminded, and Nadine took her phone out to forward the gil to him via the GilGo app. It wasn’t that bad, and he quickly set about channeling the magic into himself, and she pulled it out in the draw process, rendering the stones inert until they were charged again.
“Free stones!” Nadine declared with a bit of a laugh as she pocketed her cards, feeling the magic swim through her, replenishing her stores. She’d won more than she needed. The stones could gain power back, it just took a while, so they weren’t wholly useless. With that, she stretched up, uncertain if she’d head back or fuck around more – until there was a shriek.
Everyone in the rest area froze, except both Nadine and the King of Hearts, who bolted in the direction without any hesitation. There were many fiends that could cause such sounds, even the grats that were numerous, but the direction they ran in was not the rain forest like environment, but harsher. The training center had grown since Garden was established, and now had differing environs.
This one was a mix of forested and mountainous, although of course, an actual mountain could hardly be put into Garden.
There was one beast known in this area that even trained SeeDs avoided, though it was rarely seen. As luck would have it, though, it had ventured from its cave, and its black-horned head was lowered, a taloned foot holding down a very dead mesmerize, and looking at the students who likely only intended to fight that as its next meal. There were three of them, and one was severely burned. One student was trying to lift their burned friend up, while the other was currently shouting to get the dragon’s attention, and it was not working.
“Hells,” Nadine reached into the pack at her hip and pulled a grenade.
“What are you—” the King suddenly stepped back from Nadine as a flare of a blue-scale dome seemed to fall over her, before she whistled, a harsh, high-pitch noise, that drew the ruby dragon’s attention.
She pulled the pin and hurled it.
Unfamiliar with such things, the dragon snapped it out of the air, and suffered the consequence of it exploding in its mouth. Blood-spewed from its mouth as it roared its anguish, before turning its full attention to Nadine, not even bothering to swipe it’s tail at the others in its turn.
Nadine could see the King hurrying to get the others out of there, helping them heft their friend between the two.
Nadine had to jump back from a swipe, blonde hair fluttering into her vision. She was still channeling Bahamut forward as nails scratched stone, before flames burst in front of her shoes, and she jolted back again, and to the side, not feeling the singe at all as it struck Bahamut’s energy instead. “Is that the best you got? Come on down, darling, let me see your eyes,” Nadine taunted as she pulled her gunblade into hand and gestured with the tip of the blade at the dragon.
‘You’re fucked, you’re so fucked.’
A warning.
A hope.
If Nadine died here, no one could say SeeD rejected her. She’d be a hero to those stupid students. What a rush! She grinned into the promise of death as the students and King vanished to safety, blood still hitting the ground from the mouth of the dragon.
“Now’s not the time to be shy, love, I’ve already been inside you.”
Ruby dragons were smart. Almost humanly so. It seemed to understand, and she hated the gleam of intelligence in those yellow eyes. “Fine.”
She plunged forward, and aimed a cut at one of its legs, triggering at the moment to give her blade better odds of cutting through scale – and it did! – but it was still like a butter knife scraping a bone. She got a layer deeper and knocked a scale off, but there was little blood. No, she needed its face, with its soft eyes, to do real damage.
It did snap its jaws her way that time, but at her back. She could only evade and swipe air, as the spent bullet fell from the chamber. Blood painted her white coat, the dragon’s, thankfully. ‘Five more.’ She’d have to reload after that.
Suddenly, the blue dome burst around her, and Bahamut manifested in the shattered magic, hovering above the ruby dragon. Thoughts flew through her head, that connection shared as the living-magic awaited direction, though she didn’t have long to direct something.
It was a simple request: bite. Pin.
Bahamut flew down with a roar to match the ruby dragon’s and it snapped its jaws down on the beast’s neck, rolling it and snapping down, but even his teeth couldn’t breach the scales far. Not with how long Nadine could hold him, anyways, and he evaporated into magical energy all too quickly.
Nadine still knew to take the opportunity to run, previous death-chasing hopes forgotten in the opening, and she booked it, calling again on Bahamut as she heard the heavy stomps of the dragon following.
‘Fuck, fuck, fuck!’ A chorus of curses danced in her head, as the flames painted her vision at either side, Bahamut’s energy eaten away again until this time, it shattered.
The protection gained by calling on him was gone, but so, too, were the flames. In fact, so was the stomping. Nadine didn’t need to consider what it meant; the information clicked together with the shadow and the wind gusts. She didn’t need to look up.
She almost took a knee to prepare something reckless, but the sound of a single shot rang through the air, and the ruby dragon fell off-course. Nadine turned to look at it, and saw it swiping at its own, blinded and bleeding, eye.
“Come on, rookie!” someone shouted, and Nadine glared in the general direction – but heeded it, making it to the divider and slamming it shut behind her. She forced herself not to slump, but turned to look around wildly at the new area – she saw the King, ashen-faced, terrified, and a stranger in a Galbadian SeeD uniform with a sniper rifle on his back. “You okay?”
“You called me rookie?”
He looked momentarily startled, “That’s what you’re—ah. Hahahaha,” he started to laugh and shook his head, “You’re Nadine, aren’t you?”
She shifted, putting a hand on her hip, as the tip of her gunblade touched the ground, “And who are you?”
“Not important,” he said, “you don’t have much time before the exam. You shouldn’t be wasting yourself on ruby dragons.” He waved her off, “I’ll make sure the Headmaster is informed so we can get that thing dealt with.”
“Dealt with?” Nadine wanted to ask what he meant – it was here to be a challenge! If they just killed it, it wouldn’t be a challenge! It wouldn’t—
“You’re bleeding,” the King said as the SeeD left the area with a handwave.
“Huh?” Nadine looked over herself, then laughed and shook her head, “No, no, that’s dragon blood,” she clapped his shoulder and turned him towards the exit, “c’mon, let’s go get something to eat. You got the students out of here, right?”
“Y-yeah,” he stammered, “I’m not sure I could eat.”
‘Yeah…neither am I.’
The flood of adrenaline was fading. Nausea was setting in, paired with the exhaustion of not sleeping, and well, not eating dinner. Or breakfast yet. The energy drinks in the rest area probably weren’t helping that cocktail of terrible decisions.
~***~
Kyra Ronen had managed to sleep peacefully through the night, though it took a bit of meditation, and breathing practices. When she fell off, it felt like only a minute, before her alarm was blaring at her to wake up, the familiar guitar strings of the song causing her to grope around for her phone.
She’s totally committed
To major independence
But she’s a lady through and through
She gives them quite a battle
All that they ca—
Kyra found the phone and snoozed it – just in case – before groaning and sitting up on her bed, blinking blearily around her room. The moonlight was still pouring in from her window. ‘What?’ why was she waking up this early? She double-checked the alarm message and saw ‘SeeD Exam’ written.
“Oh shoot!” Kyra jumped from her bed and saw she had the uniform laid out on her desk already, so she stumbled into her shared bathroom and hurriedly pulled herself together. She didn’t often put her hair back, but that day, she quickly braided it and pulled it back to make it more manageable. She didn’t need her too-long hair to get her into a snag! She even wrapped it up into a bun at the back of her head from there, before changing into uniform. “Naaadine!” she called, hopping on one foot as she pulled her right shoe on, “Come on! We need to get breakfast,” she slammed her foot down a bit harder than needed as she got the shoe on.
Nadine’s door was open, so she looked in.
No Nadine.
Nadine’s uniform wasn’t out, though, so Kyra hoped she had just woken early and gone to the café. Without her. ‘Rude.’ Then again, that summed up a lot of Nadine’s behavior, though Nadine would argue she was letting Kyra get more rest.
Good intentions, poor execution.
‘Gunblade’s gone….’ Yeah, she had to be up and in the cafeteria. Trying to get the sausage pancakes that always sold out for breakfast, no doubt. ‘Oh please save me one!’ Kyra grabbed her katar and heel blades, but shoved them into a backpack before rushing out towards the cafeteria.
And then slowing to a walk, immediately self-conscious by how quiet it was in the halls.
There weren’t that many up for SeeD this time around. ‘Nine.’ If she had counted right. She, Nadine, Phoebus, and Vanessa.
Kyra’s heart fluttered at just the thought of both of them becoming SeeDs together. Of doing the field exam together. It brought a smile to her face as she exited the dormitories, walking on auto-pilot then towards the cafeteria. Vanessa could see her improvement in magic! Maybe she’d want to dance with her at the graduation ball? Or, well, okay, no that was way too fast.
But maybe she’d have something nice to say about the improvement.
Maybe she’d offer to help her further?
Maybe….
‘Oh!’
And there Vanessa was in the cafeteria! Beautiful, black hair, looking so prim even in her uniform.
With Phoebus, though he seemed anxious. He always was. He made Kyra anxious. How was she ever going to get close with him around?
“HelloOOOO?”
The Cafeteria Lady, Rina, was waving a hand in front of her face and Kyra realized she’d been staring. She blushed immediately, “You planning to eat, honey?”
“Yes! Um, but – has Nadine been by?” she saw Vanessa, of course, but as she skimmed the room, she saw no sign of her dormmate. Which was…worrying. And spurred a lot of terrible possibilities.
“Ugh, no,” Rina answered, shaking her head, “no sign of her.”
“She was supposed to be here…she was going to save me a sausage pancake.” Not that they’d talked about it, but if she was going to not be in her dorm, this should be the only place that she should be!
“We still have some.”
“How many?”
“Five.”
“I want them,” Kyra would eat them. Nadine got none when she showed up, “Oh, and um. Some fruit. Please.”
Rina nodded and gestured her down to the pick-up area, and Kyra followed the gesture, but stood shifting her weight, anxious as hell, until the blonde woman suddenly walked in with a SeeD. Kyra thought his name was Owen, but she wasn’t positive of that. Owen seemed fine, but Nadine’s coat was covered in blood, and seemed singed through where some of the bloodstains were, which caused Kyra’s eyes to widen in horror, though she and Owen just walked up and ordered as if nothing was wrong.
Nadine gave her a wave, and a wink, before patting Owen on the back and stepping to where Vanessa sat.
“Kyra, your food—”
Kyra was quick to snatch it, realized what she’d done was a bit rude, “Sorry – thank you –,” she turned to head to Nadine as the gunblade slinger took a seat right by Vanessa.
Why did she always do this? Kyra could already feel her face burning through her skin, and she wasn’t sure if it was anger or embarrassment, as she heard Nadine greet Vanessa.
“Good morning! So, you have plans for after the SeeD graduation ball,” she wore such a cheeky grin as she added, “because Kyra needs someone to go with her to get a new tattoo sleeve started, since—”
Kyra opted to interrupt, “Where is your uniform, Nadine?”
Nadine blinked at her a moment, then glanced down at herself, “Ah shit, I knew I was forgetting something.” She bolted up from her chair, “Grab my food when it comes out, would you, Phee-Phee?” Not that she waited for an answer, already bolting for the exit.
Leaving Kyra standing at the table with her food.
And her alarm, only snoozed, went off again.
--n handle
She'll bruise some, she'll hurt some, too
Oooh~
They love to watch her strut!
Kyra let her food rest on the table as she fumbled to turn the alarm off.
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