Duel of Fates
By Omega Gilgamesh
Disclaimer: I don't own the FFVIII world. Wish I did, but I don't. However, I do own Hideo; don't use him without my permission, which I will give out like a hot potato. Please, just ask first.
Note: Well, this is my first fanfic, just rewritten. For a little history, I was at 195 pages with my first draft, that's 10 chapters, and I had one left to go, and the Mighty Clown of Destiny screwed me over and made my computer die. I had less than half the story posted, with no backup. Why I'm now rewriting it, I have no idea. Probably because I'm still ashamed of how much I was power-playing.
Prologue:
He fell to his knees, shock overriding his senses. He put his hand to his chest, and saw blood oozing through his fingers. This isn't happening. He prayed.
The sorcerer stood before him, laughing, mocking his weakness. He truly was weak, and only now, as his lifeblood left him, did he understand it.
Off in the distance, he heard screams, cries for help, cries of pain, cries of desperation. Cries that he could not make, now, with a shard embedded in his lung.
His head sagged, his body convulsed, and blinding pain shot through him as he coughed up blood to mix with the crimson of hundreds of humans and monsters that covered the fields. All around him, the bodies of SeeDs, soldiers, and monsters lay lifeless, mutilated, their faces carved with submission to hopelessness.
It truly was hopeless, only a fool would dare hope, and he had been such a fool. Here, on this field, he was going to die. How could he have thought he had a chance, against one powerful enough to destroy a GF? Now, he had nothing. His guns were empty, he had exhausted his magic stock, and now, his sword was shattered. How fitting that his first weapon for taking life would now claim his own.
"Hmm." The sorcerer mused. There was a shallow cut on his cheek from when he shattered the other's sword. "That was careless of me."
I'm going to die. He realized. Suddenly, all his fears ended. All the pain he bore since his birth, all the hatred and suffering he endured throughout his life no longer existed. He never knew, until now, just how afraid he always was. For the first time in his life, he was content to be where he was, dying here on this battlefield, all fear gone.
He sensed the man charging his power to deliver one last blow, one that, he knew, would incinerate his body. Fine by me.
As the last few seconds of his life, each feeling like hours, ticked away, Hideo wondered how everything lead up to this point.