AUTHOR'S NOTES: I came up with this at 2am one night(morning?). Then I finished it up in a minivan somewhere in New York while listening to Liberi Fatali on loop for 2 hours. *sighs* This could have a moral to it but I'm too lazy to really try and think about it. Why do I write this kind of stuff? Boredom. Go ahead. Read. And Selphie is one my favorite characters. Really! That first line there is blatant quoting of The Patriot, which, BTW, was a pretty good movie. Even if it did have that scary scene with the two little kids repeating that line over and over. Oh well.
***
Aim small, miss small.
BANG.
The grat collapsed, a bullet embedded in its plant-like carcass. That's what they always said. Easier to kill that way.
Up in the trees, a lone sniper reloaded his rifle. Below, a t-rexaur wandered over to the dead grat hoping for a free meal.
Hit 'im. Right between the eyes.
The t-rexaur's eyes rolled back into its head, and it fell, sending a vibration through the ground on which it landed. Irvine Kinneas wiped the sweat from his brow with his right sleeve and waited for the next monster to come along.
Picking them off from the trees...because I'm too much of a coward to fight face to face. Shooting monsters in an outdated training center because I can't handle shooting real people.
Like Matron in Deling.
God. How do they do it? How can my friends be so cold-blooded? We're not so different. Why can't I be like that? Killing without remorse... Why did they put me in Garden? What did Cid and Edea see in me? Why can't I be the perfect soldier?
A pair of grats staggered over near the clearing, chirping quietly. Irvine had often wondered why there were so many grats in Balamb Garden. They were so weak a team of second-years could beat one. Every day they were slaughtered; taken to the classrooms as guinea pigs for the students to practice on. Galbadia Garden's training center's wendigos had all but disappeared for these very reasons.
The instructors taught us to kill. We started off on monsters and worked our way up to people when we began taking missions.
Two shots took care of the grats. The carcasses were beginning to pile up, but nothing looked particularly out of place. There were dead monsters all over the training center.
This is a place of death...
The stench was starting to get to him.
Why is so hard for me to kill a person? I could fight Ultimecia because she was about to kill us. Why is it so different from further away? Once I make SeeD, they'll use me as a sniper. What'll I do then? It's just not the same as shooting monsters in a training center.
But people can be monsters... Vinzer Deling was one. So was Ultimecia. Does that mean it's okay to take their life away like that?
Those grats...So blind to their fate. They never saw the bullet coming. Killed off from afar by someone they had no chance fighting against.
He spotted something coming from the corner of his eye.
Bright yellow...
How uncommon. Nature kept most of her creatures in dull attire for survival. Animals with flashy colors didn't last long. Irvine moved the crosshair over to it.
"Irvy? Irviiine... This isn't funny! Where are you?"
Right between the eyes....
He released the safety.
"Irvine?"
Two green eyes looked up into his.
Wait...that's...Selphie...Selphie Tilm-
His vision blurred and he closed his eyes. When he opened them, a grendel stood behind one of the grats. The crosshair of his sniper rifle was aimed right between its emerald eyes, which were now filled with fear.
So easy... to... just... point... and... shoot...
Now was his chance.
Just another monster.....
Irvine pulled the trigger.