By Ramsey Anderson
All characters in this fic are property of Squaresoft and were not created by me.
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Chapter 1
My journey had been so long and agonizing. I'd endured so much pain, to my body and to my soul. But it was over. The final strike to Ultimecia, defeating the demonic sorceress and thereby returning time back to the way it was and canceling everything she had done. I would start a new life, with my friends and with Rinoa. We had all suffered so much, and now we would all live happily ever after.
All of us stood and watched as Ultimecia roared and collapsed in her final moments of life, her plans in ruin and everything she had hoped for suddenly coming to an end. Her future would be cut short while ours would continue on. Her ten-foot conglomeration of a body began to dissolve, slowly, drifting away into nothingness, fading…fading…then gone.
I felt my heart beginning to swell with resolve, the end of my quest. Everyone else stood in silence, a sense of pride and finality showing in their tired and worn faces. We were all ready for it to be over, to get on with life free of time compression.
I was so sure that everything would be fine after she had been defeated, but it wasn't. Because the moment Ultimecia was gone, the strangest and unimaginable of things happened; I found myself staring at Seifer Almasy, his blade pointed straight at me from afar.
I couldn't move, I was so completely bewildered at what could have just occurred. Once I finally gathered my thoughts, I looked around at my surroundings. They were the rocky plains of Balamb, not the endless space I had just but a few seconds ago witnessed the final battle with the sorceress from the future. All my companions were gone, Zell, Irvine, Quistis, Selphie, and Rinoa were not by my side as before. I was alone, except for Seifer, who was beginning to look impatient. I looked down to observe my gun blade. While I had been fighting Ultimecia, it had been the stronger weapon, Punishment, but now, it was the original Revolver that I so remembered. My clothes were not torn and stained with blood, and my body had no recent wounds.
Astonishment could not nearly describe what I had felt then. I knew that there was a possibility that something strange would happen with time once Ultimecia had been defeated, but this wasn't right. I knew what this was; I had fought and lost to Seifer in this very place and at this very time only recently near the Balamb mountains, before I even became a SeeD.
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Squall was standing there, poised for combat, but for some unexplained reason, he froze, a look of confusion so apparent in his face as he looked around, then at his weapon and his body, like he had never seen them before in his life. This could be some kind of trick to catch me off guard, I thought. Nice try, Squall. Strange, he usually doesn't use tricks when fighting... Squall and I had been fighting for years, but this time was different. Very often, we would pick a fight in the hallways or outside, hand to hand, but this time, I wanted blood. I needed the practice of fighting with my gun blade if i were to become a SeeD, after all. This time, someone could get hurt, and this time, someone would get hurt, and it would not be me, that's for sure.
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"Hey, quit playing games and lets do this thing!" Seifer yelled.
I looked up just in time to see Seifer lunge at me with his gun blade that i instinctively dodged and quickly countered with my own. I needed time to think about what was happening, needed to consider what was going on, why I was here and where all my friends were, what I would do, and how I would get through this, but I was being rushed and had no choice but to fight and get this over with. Seifer and I attacked and parried as the battle raged on. But I had the upper hand here. I had fought with Seifer so many times that I had learned his attack patterns and fighting style. He could not land any blows to me while I defended and attacked, landing a hit whenever I got the chance. Seifer began to get inpatient, however, and stepped back to prepare a fire spell. I knew this attack was coming, so I rushed him with my elbow, landing it square in his gut before he could cast. He fell the ground while I loomed over him, my gun blade pointed at him, signifying my victory. Staring at Seifer, I noticed that he was missing the scar on his face that I had once given him. I felt my face for any scars, but I did not feel that familiar mark that Seifer was supposed to have given me. That's when things began to make some sense, maybe…
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Squall knocked me down before I could cast my fire spell which surely would have gotten me the upper hand in the fight, but here I was, staring at him from below, he had won. I could try to attack him, he seems hesitant after all, and why the hell is he touching his face? Maybe he's dizzy or something; now's my chance...
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Right before I could pinpoint what was going on, Seifer reached for his blade and swung it at my face, slicing me just to the left of my nose. My blood flew through the air, my face covered in crimson. I was knocked backwards, but retained my balance and I countered with my blade, cutting Seifer just to the right of his nose, knocking him down, his blood splashing to the ground. I don't know if it was because I felt that I had to defend myself or if it was some unknown force altogether that caused me to cut Seifer then, but we were both left with permanent scars, once again.