Excerpt: Broken Lives, Shattered Dreams

Selphie watched as Squall's eyes hardened slightly. She had never really talked to him about her feelings on being sent on all those diplomatic missions. It was true, they were all sick of the fighting but at the end of the day, they were still SeeD. There were no longer any Sorceresses to fight but that did not seem to stop petty disputes between towns or monsters from attacking. They would do what they could and hope beyond hope that for now, that would be enough for everybody affected by any situation they were called out to contend with.

They were SeeD and at the end of the day, that would have to be enough. The beeping of an alarm brought Selphie's attention back to the monitors in front of her. The houses were more pronounced and larger as she brought the Ragnarok to a stop just on the outskirts of the town. From the monitors inside the airship, Kamin seemed to have taken a larger amount of damage than any of them had previously thought. There appeared to be blood staining everything in the village. Whether it was human or beast Selphie and Squall would not be able to tell from the grainy images displayed to them. The Commander leaned over and grabbed the last headset from the charging station before sliding it over his ear.

“All SeeD to the Cockpit as soon as possible,” he announced. “It is show time.”