(3,800 words) this wasn't very long, goman ne. I finished it around midnight on saturday, I was distracted by Porcco Rosso and Chao karate. I was trying to cheer up my friend, she was being depressed. Don't know what porcco rosso would have done but Chao karate would help because at my house, we're very compeatitive over chao karate, it's hilarious.

My little pony friendship is magic is a popular cartoon series enjoyed by many teenage boys. True fact.

I may or may not take awhile to get the next update up because after the next two chaps I finish (for two of my other stories) I'm going to do my goddamn assignments. Ones not due to next term and the other is fine as long as I give it in this term, but theres no problem getting started early.

disclaimer: I don't own this, I'm just going to go up to Tetsuya Nomura and ask him for the legal rights to Serah. I know that's not gonna do anything, it's even asking the wrong person. But I love Nomura-san and I must try.

20) No!

Tidus breathed out a harsh breath. He'd found the perpetrators in a disserted hallway, whilst behind them he'd stolen a broom from an empty classroom and quiet as a shadow attacked them with it. He checked each to find that they were all unconscious, and also found an ID from one when he'd kicked him on the side – his wallet had fallen out. He didn't know that he should have been surprised that he knew the name.

A member of Mech's gang, so presumably so were all the others. The best prediction for why they were here would be they've been given some kind of lead, and if Paine knew who they were as well more than likely she'd drawn the same conclusion. REI kept their information tight, so for multiple enemies to have such information as REI agents stationed here, something was up. Something was seriously up.

Just another goddamn thing to piss him off.

He did his best for the moment to push any personal opinions out if his mind, he needed to rid the scene of the evidence he'd been here. Starting with the wallet and broom for having touched them with his bare hands.

…

Paine watched as one of the men outside shut the small phone in his hand and pocketed it before yelling to his surrounding accomplishes. He was angry, even that was clear from her position. Something had happened inside for sure, because less than a second later all men were scrambling for the exit. Abandoning their comrades, it wasn't below them.

"Looks like the idiot did something after all." It had to be him, who else would be nuts enough to cause trouble with guys like that?

"You 100% sure it was because of him?" Gippal asked; he had hints of doubt in his voice, but nothing major.

"It had to be him." She repeated what she'd told herself in her head, "Who else is crazy enough?"

…

Most of the students took their time to calm down after the lockdown was over. It had lasted for half an hour in all. School never got back to normal for the rest of the day thanks to it; no one would be able to concentrate after something like that.

Yuna didn't manage to find where Tidus had gone off to, he didn't return after having left. If he had tried the lockdown ended before he made it back. She listened into a conversation that a couple of his friends were having she found out he had ditched the school altogether near the end according to a call he'd given one of them.

Well at least he wasn't in any trouble; she wasn't overly concerned about his well-being considering how calm he'd been earlier but how he'd up and left would make any one want to worry.

She found Rikku and Lenne fairly easily and told them how a boy had pretty much made her go into a supply closet because she wasn't anywhere near a classroom at the time the lockdown occurred; they flipped at the knowledge. But luckily they did not ask for who the boy had been – she really didn't want to have to answer that.

When she got home it was worse because she did happen to have to tell a six months pregnant woman whose emotions were all over the place what had happened today. It turned her into a mess for sure; Wakka had been pretty bad himself but he wouldn't have been able to compare to the way his wife acted.

At least it was over and done with. She had to hope nothing like it would occur again anytime soon. She had been so scared knowing that bad people had gotten into the school. Having Tidus there hadn't helped very much; she had still felt so unsettled. She had to wonder still why he could stay so calm and collected throughout that silent torture, what on earth was going on in his life?

…

Paine walked through the doors of REI's headquarters. It was in a simple part of the city made to look just like all the other apartment buildings in the surrounding area. The inside was quite different, and even in saying that it felt like an understatement. Sure some of the rooms were bedrooms and the like but most were anything but. They were large meeting rooms and sound-proofed training chambers where newbies and older agents could go to train and better their skills.

She, for this visit, was heading for one of the many meeting rooms to tell what she could of when Mech's henchmen had invaded the school her and Tidus were attending. For surely the best reason was because of a lead telling of them being there. What other reason could the villains have broken into a perfectly average high school for?

As she strode through the silent hallway she rounded a corner and stood in front of an elevator, waiting for it to open. She tapped a booted foot on the ground, becoming inpatient. It was an hour past sunset and a common time for agents to be at HQ, so the elevator would take it's time. Humming the tune to a song she'd heard earlier and had promptly gotten stuck in her head, she zipped up her red jacket's partially broken zipper. The jacket had seen better days and it took a couple attempts to get it to go all the way up, but she'd been stubborn with it. Too bad, she'd have to throw it out soon; Gippal had gotten it for her a year back.

She tried not to shiver against a cold wind hitting her; she started to think someone on the same floor had opened some windows. It was a cold night so why on earth had someone that idea?

The elevator in front of her made a loud 'bing' noise and opened not a second afterwards. She hid any surprise she felt when she saw Tidus on the other side of the door.

'Right,' she thought to herself, 'he was actually in there, of course they would have wanted to talk to him.' Apparently he'd knocked out the ones inside which led to them being arrested thanks to the police finally getting there. The other members had run off, she'd seen them do it herself.

"Well hello bastard, you're looking well." She chuckled sarcastically. He shoved past her, rolling his eyes at her greeting.

"Blah blah blah, can you stop being such a stupid retard?"

Paine shook her head with a sly grin.

"Only if you'd stop." She folded her arms, grin still planted on her face.

"And can you stop that?" He paused and looked back at Paine, who was herself facing the opposite direction. Her face was turned just to the right so he could see her grin.

"Stop what?" She asked sounding almost clueless. He knew it was faked.

"Acting like that! Don't you know it's so goddamn annoying!" He yelled; his usual poisonous tone came in full force. "And all that shit you go about saying? That's bloody stupid as well."

She wasn't looking in his direction but she felt the glare burning into the back of her head.

"Get a brain and stop acting like I'm holding up a sign saying 'Help for sale'!"

He merited nothing but a chuckle from the silver haired girl as she walked into the open elevator.

"She told you my deal did she? Thought she would, just seems like her." She pressed the button to send her to the right floor before looking back up and the scowling blonde, pissing him off with a smile.

"What the hell Paine!" He cried with clenched fists.

Her expression didn't falter, and when the doors started closing she ended the conversation with one sentence she knew wasn't going to help his mood.

"A tortoise has eight eyes, tell me what that means and we'll talk. Till then, goodbye." The doors shut and he was left alone in the hallway, growling to himself.

'A tortoise has eight eyes'? That was total gibberish! What is wrong with that girl?

He unclenched his hands slowly; they'd dug into his skin and left reddish crescent moon marks on the palms of his hands.

He had talked to Yuna about it; she seemed almost just as confused as him. Did she actually want to help him or did she just want to rid herself of a nuisance like him? He didn't know, but it felt like it would be the latter. It had to be; surely she had enough of a mind to know he wasn't worth her time.

'An outsider can see in a greater light.' She had said that hadn't she? Is that why Paine wanted her to help, because she wasn't caught in the same darkness as them? Because she was different? But would that really alter her thoughts on it all, wouldn't it just make it worse? She'd hate him more than she already did, because…because he was a monster. A monster lost in life's great darkness.

Did her being an outsider have anything to do with that comment Paine made? But what does being an outsider have to do with tortoises of all things?

Stupid Paine.

…

Paine exited the elevator and walked straight out, with a specific destination in mind. It was one of the meeting rooms, the same one as always. These grey walls were so familiar to her now. She'd first seen them at the age of nine, when she'd been forcibly brought into this world of shadows and lies.

This was like a second home to her; one horrible, horrible second home.

Paine stopped at a large door; which, just like everything else on this floor, was a deep grey. She knocked and waited for another agent to open it. Those inside seemed to be in a heavy discussion, she didn't feel like she'd be noticed any time soon. If they really made her wait she would start to knock harder and harder until they noticed. She could have no one go off at her for disrupting them as it was they who summoned her here. She was right on time to boot.

After taking a look around, to which all that greeted he eyes was the endless shades of grey and rushing members, she turned back to the door and knocked again. Much louder, just like she had intended.

It took a minute, but this time the door was opened. She faced a small black-haired woman that only came up to her chin. If her memory served her correct she was the younger sister to the woman that always wished to cause her hell, the one that had answered the phone when she had called yesterday. This girl, though she didn't have a bad personality like her sibling, still looked down on Paine in her own way. Not like she could literally do it but she was nevertheless older, at the age of nineteen.

"Paine, it's good to see you on time. That boy came half an hour late; you may have passed him on the way." It was spoken politely as possible but held tones reminiscent of a teacher explaining complicated subjects to one of their 'special' students. This was how this woman showed she saw herself as better. How stupid, she was not much older; she had no right to act that way.

"I did actually, in a sour mood as always." She rolled her eyes. "Didn't say anything to upset him did you?" She mimicked the petite woman's tone. It did not go unmissed, and for a second annoyance flashed in her dark eyes.

"He is the one that upsets himself, we did nothing. You shall go in now and talk about yesterday's little happenings if you wouldn't mind." She commanded with the hints of displeasure her eyes showed before. Paine of course noticed but knew picking a fight would get her nowhere, she chose to ignore it and simply push past this woman and do what she came here for.

"What do you expect me to say exactly? I wasn't near them at all." She had her arms folded with an irritated expression, nothing about her mood came out in her voice but everyone present saw it simply from her stance.

She hated them, and they all knew it.

"Whatever you can," a chubby man sitting on a chair at the end of a long table spoke up first. She had barely noticed his presence until he vocally made himself known. Most here sat on the opposite end. The woman who had greeted her had already gone back to her seat, surrounded by two tall men well into their twenties. Most here were members who all had made a name for themselves, and the reason them being here was because they had a serious matter to discuss; a possible traitor, a double agent. But despite the obvious difference in status, Paine didn't have any unworthy feelings for being amongst them; after all, these were hated existences for the teenager.

"All I actually saw was a group of three men outside the building's door. On first sight I could see they were people to be suspicious of, just from how they were acting. It was soon after that that I recognised them as criminals I'd encountered before on missions." She shrugged; barely knowing where this would get her. They already talked to Tidus didn't they? Couldn't that be enough if he was the one actually in the bloody building?

"Right, and were you sure that they were indeed part of Mech's group of bastards? From the sounds of things it seemed like you were pretty far away," one of the younger males inquired, doubting the juvenile agent. He didn't see her scowl at him thanks to the dark room. The light came from only the dull blue lights and bright computer screens.

"They were easy to recognise. I'm sure you've encountered criminals before who are thoughtless enough to give them very different types of hairstyles, which in turn, makes them extremely easy to recognise despite any possible distances between onlookers?" she retorted smartly. It was his turn to scowl now. And to make it worse for the man the small woman by his side put in another sentence to flame his irritation,

"The other agent stationed at the school, who we spoke to before did take one of the men's wallets. His ID was there and it confirmed him as one. Wouldn't it make sense for the others to be ones as well?"

The man didn't make another noise after that besides growling.

"Enough of that now, Serenity," The whale of a man on the other side commanded. "We already knew that. What we are here to discuss at the moment is what this agent knows about the situation." He nodded in Paine's general direction.

The slight woman, Serenity, nodded in silent understanding.

Eyes went back to Paine who obviously wanted her to continue. She sighed, scratching the back of her neck. What else did she have to say? Not much, that's for sure.

"I don't have much else to say. I checked no one was looking and tried getting a signal so I could call HQ and when I did I simply told who had answered what was going on, that's that. After some time the men all made a run for it, abandoning the ones inside." All eyes were still on her, some looking down on her for her lack of speaking. Well it wasn't like she could say much, she wasn't exactly there. Was that really something to look down on her for? Did these people actually have to wonder why she hated them so?

"Hmm. That's all I presume?" the fat ass questioned. She gave him a look like he was stupid but in the darkness it went unseen. So instead she had to settle for a humble "Yes."

"Okay then Miss, that leaves only one more matter to discuss with you but before that. Robert?" He addressed the lanky man on the other side of the lengthy table who had been mute all throughout.

"Yes sir?" He stood up straight in his chair.

"I need you to investigate more thoroughly. Use 'Jace', infiltrate one of Mech's hideouts and see if you can get any information of the current activities. If there is the chance of a double agent we need to know, stat. I'll give you a day to prepare yourself. Leave now."

"Yes sir." The man, Robert, stood up, kicking his seat back, and left without another word.

Paine watched him go. His stiffness annoyed her greatly, how could he be so unaffected by this kind of life?

"Paine!" A voice pulled her back to reality. She eyed them with animosity, she was plenty aware they could barely see it but from the mood of the room she knew they felt it. The man to whom she faced dead on half stumbled over the words as he tried to speak, causing them to come out in a gargled sound.

He shook his head, regaining concentration and stopping the girl's angered expression from getting to him. He just wished that what he had to say next didn't have to be another thing to send that flicker of anger into a flame.

"We do have one last thing to talk to you about kid," he reminded her sternly, having noticed her lapse in concentration before.

"And what would that be, fat ass?" She asked almost innocently but the last part more than hinted her agitation of being stuck in this place with them.

Everyone present looked at her dumbfounded having heard her speak to her superior in such a way. None of them would even dare.

The man in particular showed no signs that he had been offended, he'd lived his life faking every emotion he felt, and hiding what he knew weren't allowed to exist at all. He was blank.

"If it's possible that Mech and his cohorts has caught on to the fact we have members situated at that school it may be dangerous to keep them there." He informed her, a sinking sensation developed in her stomach.

"What do you mean?" she asked in alarm right after the words left his mouth, hoping to God he wasn't meaning what she thought he did.

He slouched in his chair, uncomfortable under her gaze.

"It means that we want to take you away from there, as it's too dangerous for them to get a hold of you. Inexperienced as you may be our young agents are valuable in missions." He was stern, and dead serious. But he'd just said one thing wrong that certainly further pissed the teenager off.

"'Take me away?'" she screamed in fury. She stamped her foot on the ground hard, letting a loud bang resound around the room.

"But that's what they want you to do! They expect it!" she yelled again. No one gave much of a response; she had no idea if anyone did agree. Would it even matter if they did? An order's an order, they had to follow it. Personal opinions didn't come into account.

"This is an order straight from Jecht. You must do as we say, understand?" The dugong of a man spoke without a hint of emotion, as always.

"Yes, I understand. But it's wrong and that's what counts!" Her hands were clenched tightly, eyes aflame.

"But listen…!"

"I don't care! Shut up! If you make me leave and they learn of it they will know that I'm a REI agent because they expect you to do just this! Don't you see!" Her stance was strong; her hands brought up still in fists to her chest.

"But it's an order!" Screeched a woman previously yet to speak.

"And I refuse to listen to it! Talk to me when you get your heads on straight!" she stamped her booted foot on the hard ground again, making another 'bang' sound in the silence she had caused in her rage.

Everyone looked to her dumbfounded, they knew she hated them and was disrespectful to them aplenty but they knew she wouldn't ever dare to disregard an order. So the fact that she was meant something had to be up. Did she really disagree that much?

She gave them no time to make any response to her actions, for she stalked out the room ready to explode.

They were all beside themselves; she was in for trouble this time.

…

Paine stormed home, visibly exerting her agitation.

Those morons, they were going to fall into Mech's hands if they made her leave the school. It was what they expected, what they wanted! Why couldn't they see that!

She slammed the door to her apartment shut and, caught in the same anger, stomped past her lounge-room into the kitchen. Pulling out a can of spaghetti she poured it into a bowl and shoved it into the microwave. She couldn't be bothered to make anything special; she was too tired and frustrated for it. She hadn't even been bothered to turn the lights on, the one light she had was from the microwave.

When it was done she placed the bowl on the table less-than-gently and ate in complete silence. Something was wrong with those idiots. She knew refusing the order would get her into real shit, but doing it would end up with a similar result. The only difference would be that each option she had switched it between Mech's entire bunch of crooks and REI. She didn't know which was worse, REI was skilled but so were some of Mech's guys. That was way they still survived.

Jeez, what on earth was she meant to do? Her possible options didn't allow for much.

Her eyes lingered over to the blank looking couch against the wall. She blushed at the memory when she'd fallen asleep on it in Gippal's embrace. She slept a night full of sweet dreams and not a single nightmare, it had been so peaceful.

Paine finished up her crappy dinner and shoved the plate in the sink without caring to clean it with any water. She tiptoed over to the couch on her mind and lied down on it, closing tired eyes. It was still early, but she wanted sleep. She needed Gippal so badly tonight; he was the only one that could calm her down. But for now she was alone and she had to deal with that. She hoped, though, that having him on her mind could maybe rid herself of traumatic nightmares, if only for the night.

My entire class is starting to all play tetris, slowly but surely,and it's all my fault. I'm addicted, sides Fanfiction it is one of the things that takes up most of my time. In fact I'm so good at it one game took 26 minutes (Yes I was counting), how the crap I do that? By getting up to level 41. Most people don't even get past level 3.

Well that was compleately irrelavent.

Thanks for all the reviews I've been given so far, any more shall be highly appreciated and I shall love you or maybe even give you a (virtual) cookie!

Jya ne!