Chapter the Tenth - The Duel

The Imperial Palace was a molten sea of lava and even the flawless black stone of its walls were beginning to melt. However, that inferno was nothing compared to the rage simmering beneath Celes.

Emperor Gestahl looked unharmed, having miraculously walked out of the fires of hell. His layers of silk robes were intact, as was the finely groomed white beard that ran halfway down his chest. Not even a flake of ash could be seen upon his royal clothes.

Celes sneered at Kefka. The snivelling coward stood his ground for once, a smile on his face that irritated her to the very core. She responded with a confident grin. "Of course."

A burst of blue light struck Kefka, and as quickly as the spell had blasted from her finger, so too did it shatter upon a thin green aura about him.

"You knew all along," Celes accused Gestahl with frigid glare.

"I suspected," the Emperor sighed. "I truly wanted to believe in you, Celes -- you are like a daughter to me -- but you have betrayed my every confidence."

Celes folded her arms. "When?" her icy voice demanded.

"I grew more confident as time passed, more and more details that stuck out as unlike you. But when Leo made his accusations, that was when I knew without a doubt. He was a fine general, loyal to a fault, but we both knew he was a gullible one. That he would say such things," Gestahl's hooded eyes lowered to the frosted ground. "I will miss him."

"You heartless bastard. If you cared, why'd you wait so many weeks?" Celes demanded. "Leo confessed ages ago."

Gestahl's chuckle was low and in many ways, more condescending than even Kefka's. "You're a smart one, Celes. I raised you to be nothing less."

She scoffed. "So you wanted those bootlickers gone just as much as I did."

"You outperformed my every expectation," Gestahl smiled with a hint of pride. "I watched your plan unfold and really, I am impressed. The Returners were a masterstroke, I have no doubt you had your hand behind that affair as well. You slaughtered all your enemies and twisted the chaos to your benefit. Unfortunately, you made one critical error."

Celes glared at her only mistake.

"Now I have complete authority. No more politics, petty scheming or even dissent. Never again will I have to host banquets to convince my own generals to follow me; you saw to that. I should thank you."

"So all you have left is him?" Celes pointed at Kefka.

"He never betrayed me."

Celes laughed. "Old man, this is why you're unfit to rule. Putting the army in the hands of a clown like him-"

"Why you miserable blockhead!" Kefka snapped.

"-makes you the biggest fool of all."

Gestahl straightened, his imposing stature magnified by the blood-red silks that cloaked him. "It's over, Celes. Even with all your scheming, do you really think slaughtering your own men, the Imperial Guard, and summoning an Esper will endear you to the people? My people?"

"Yeah, that was a good play," Celes' skin turned pale. "Only one problem, old man."

"What, child?"

From between her hands sparked a spiralling blue flame. Celes spun around, an unholy wave of blue inferno blasting forth and engulfing Kefka where he stood. A shockwave threatened to tear her off her feet as light shot into the sky, mixing with the thick swirling dark clouds. Wave after wave of icy stones battered the ground as a blizzard swallowed Vector whole.

"You can't kill me."

Out of the corner of her eye, Celes saw Kefka dash aside. No matter, he was insignificant in comparison to...

Red silk slid off his arms and into fresh snow. Gestahl was not a small man; he maintained the shape of the fighting general he once was. Muscles rippled as the Emperor flexed.

He sneered.

Snow evaporated into a fine mist as an inferno flared through the Emperor. It rose into the sky, a wall of liquid flame that came crashing down.

Celes' eyes glowed with power. Come to me, she commanded.

Spikes exploded through the waterfall of hell, icicles as large as Armors ripping through the ground as they bore down upon Gestahl. Air wavered with heat as hellfire licked at Celes' arms, liquid flames splattering off the frosty cobblestone. Steam turned to ice in mid-air as the blizzard intensified.

A column of fire tunnelled through the waves of snow, breaking upon a thin yellow shell encompassing Celes. Through the space it left behind, Gestahl's laughter beckoned.

The runes woven into her blade glowed with a bright blue aura. A cluster of flying icicles forced Gestahl to the ground.

And then Celes was upon him.

---

Lungs burned with every gasp, his muscles threatened to seize up as his feet nearly pounded through the thin floorboards. With a cry, Locke kicked open a flimsy wooden door.

A fireball spiralled through the window.

He slammed the door shut as glass exploded, diving just out of the way as the door blew off its hinges. Flames licked at his rear as he took off once more.

The building was trembling.

"Oh yeah, find a high perch for a better view. Brilliant thinking," Locke growled. He lowered his shoulder and burst into another room. Like every other window, this one was covered in frost. Broken panes had let in the storm and snow had piled all the way to the ceiling.

With a curse, Locke turned away. He slipped on a patch of ice.

A spray of glass shards flew over his head as the windows exploded. It rolled through the snow, talons tearing through floor and ceiling as it finally came to a stop at his feet.

Locke gaped at the bird, it was almost the size of the room. He picked up one of the blue feathers -- it was as large as his arm! The red and white ones were no different.

A hideous shrill brought Locke to his knees. His trousers were instantly soaked, not from melted ice, but from warm lifeblood.

His teeth were chattering from the chill as he looked into the eyes of the Esper from Narshe. Its beak was open, its last breath expelled in defiance.

Locke glanced hesitantly into the storm.

---

Columns of fire twisted above them, sprinkling ash beneath as it blazed a trail through the thickening blizzard. Rain and hail fell into a sea of liquid flame, only to rise back into the sky as scorching clouds of steam.

Gestahl stood amidst the pits of hell -- his feet resting upon molten cobblestone -- and with a sigh, backhanded a cluster of icicles away.

"You and your kind are nothing to me," the Emperor shouted. Not that he thought her spirit could be broken by words, but her pride was what he sought to injure.

The churning magma hardened in a flash, fires fed from power unimaginable fanned away. A chill breeze washed over him.

A distraction.

Gestahl spun around as Celes exploded through a wall of flame. He gripped her sword by the blade, flames erupting from his palm as he held her at bay with a single hand.

"Before I kill you," he hissed, "I want to know why. Why betray me, Celes!"

Her skin was ashen and her hair equally so. Her breaths sapped the warmth out of the air. "Don't you dare call me that!"

Gestahl twisted away from a blast of sapphire flame. His fingers sank into her sword and with a grunt, tossed them both into the nearest building. She bounced off the wall with a sickening thud, twisted blade clattering off the ground as she willed herself to stand.

Celes was at her limit, but Gestahl knew that he was close as well. It was time for things to end.

"I raised you with all my heart. This Empire, I would leave in your hands. Why, Celes?"

Her eyes blazed with energy. "Because you raped and pillaged my brethren! Because you stole me out of the arms of my dying mother, and because you killed my father, you godless bastard! "

Blue flames rippled from her hands to be pushed back by Gestahl's crimson power. Gouts of fire burst away from the clash of elements, effortlessly tunnelling through building and ground alike... just as he planned.

"I always feared you were too smart for your own good," the Emperor shook his head. "I love you like a daughter, Celes."

Celes' skin was now completely white and her hair a frosty blue. With a chilling laugh, Gestahl could hear the wave of icy spikes behind him.

"My father named me Terra!"

With seconds before his doom, he pointed behind her.

An explosion erupted, steel supports already burned away by the clash of elements. Celes turned around in horror as the shadow of a building loomed over her lithe, pale body. Even though she had no recourse, even though it was clearly over, she did not accept her end.

Celes' hand extended into the heavens and a wave of energy blasted into the falling debris -- one final act of rebellion. Then thousands of tons of stone and metal fell upon her, tearing through her thin shields of magic and breaking her body beneath. Flames roared over the still-falling rubble, a funeral pyre amidst a frozen Vector.

"Ding dong, the witch is dead!"

Gestahl silenced Kefka with a deadly glare. He fought to stand upright despite total exhaustion, for Kefka was a simpleton who only understood strength.

"Gather the Imperial Guard and find me the Returners."

"Not much of them left," Kefka chuckled.

"Just do it Kefka. I will not tolerate losing the rebels."

Gestahl watched Kefka leave, and then turned back to the funeral pyre.

"I have already lost enough today," he whispered.

---

Locke rolled from beneath the protection of a steel beam, bandana over his mouth as he struggled to crawl out of the collapsed building. Flames licked at his bruised and battered body, but he refused to give in. The smoke was getting especially bad now, there must have been quite a fire burning.

And he was stuck beneath it.

His bloody palms stung, having been cut apart by metal shards sticking out of the debris. The rest of his body seemed to be fine, though he could not feel his legs. But he was moving, so Locke put that thought out of his mind as he continued to crawl. Pebbles, red-hot metal, bricks, supple skin-

Locke blinked.

It was her, eyes closed and lying upon her back. Her face was matted with blood and her leather vest was in tattered pieces. Fresh blood dripped down to her clenched fists.

Celes was dying.

Locke fortified himself with righteous indignation -- the moral high-ground. He put her out of his mind and continued to crawl towards the chill of fresh air.

Every second that passed was filled with doubt. Every foot he crawled was plagued with contempt. He sighed.

"Damn you."

Locke turned back.