It was a frosty spring morning on the Acauld Plains. Squall and Seifer were supposed to be training for the preliminary SeeD test. Instead, they fought. Seifer was stronger than Squall. But Squall was fast and smooth in his movements. Seifer charged at Squall with full force. He missed, churning a rockface into dust. The rivals were evenly matched: Seifer's hyperion model gunblade was powerful, but rather heavy. Seifer had the strength to wield the blade quickly, but Squall's movements were too fast. They parlayed with their swords for a while, taking the fight to the grey mountains above the stone-speckled hills north of Balamb Garden. Seifer kept being hit by glacial eyes and Squall dodged them.
It was GFs like Shifra and Queztacoatl that made battles like this possible. They gave protection and increased offensive capability. They allowed magic to be drawn and cast. It was in this way that Seifer cast a fire spell that brought Squall to his knees. Seifer made his move. He charged at Squall again. Stunned, Squall could feel warm blood trickling down his face. Enraged, Shifra gave her master's gunblade all the blizzard power that could be mustered. Using all the might that he had left, Squall lunged at Seifer...
Squall could see nothing after that. Blood splattered everywhere, and turned into feathers; black feathers from Seifer and white from Squall, and the scene blanked out for him. Then he had a dream. He travelled the earth, passing oceans and wandering through deserts and plain, maintains and forests. He eventually stopped in a field full of flowers similar to the one he had walked in that morning. The only difference was that there was a dark haired woman there. Then the dream switched to a dark and grand hall. The infamous sorceress glowered over her solemn dominion. Then images came thick and fast; they all showed people and events that seemed familiar yet distant to Squall.