XVII
"You must fight to the end, even though it may bring tragedy to others."
--Edea

Even Dyne stopped to stare at the intruder, a look of horror mixed with contempt shining in his eyes. Seifer looked around slowly, taking in everything around him. Squall couldn't see very well from where he was standing, but it looked as if Seifer's jaw tightened when he saw the carnage. "Is this it, then?" he asked nobody. "You dragged me out here?"

"My comrade," came a deep voice that seemed to shake the earth itself. "My kind have fled in despair. Yours are withdrawing as we speak. Neither could have combated this. It is fitting that we must."

Squall looked around. Evedently, it was true: the SeeDs were retreating, many bearing bodies. No one noticed the few stragglers who kept fighting. Or the dead, who were being slowly buried in the great mudflow.

Seifer lifted his blade. "Well, then. Don't suppose we should get to it?"

Dyne, trembling, backed up so that the tip of his tail was actually inside the vortex. Reaching a hand in as well, he waited as a black sheen began to form inside the Pillar. Pulling his hand out again, Squall was surprised to see a black sword almost exactly like the masamune, constructed out of the same material as the erstwhile Lieutenant's staff. Seifer, extending his arm into his classical fighting stance, faced Dyne squarely.

Dyne charged, and for a second everything was lit up by a flash of lightning. Squall watched, unable to move, as Seifer and Dyne fought. There was something familiar about the whole scene...

...realization hit him like a blow to the heart. My dream... his dream had happened here. And he had been Seifer. Seifer, talking aobut something that Squall couldn't understand. Two dreams, really--the one on the Horizon Bridge and the one from which he had awaken, screaming. Which meant--

--which means something terrible is going to happen--

Hardly knowing what he was doing, Squall took the gunblade and tried to run up the hill. But the mud was slick--the faster he tried to go, the further he slid downwards.

Seifer was fighting Dyne well, showing all the skill he ever had. Feint, parry, thrust, parry, parry, thrust--he ducked in as Dyne raised the Masamune, scraping the Hyperion along the black scales. Sparks actually few as Dyne slid backwards, so that his shoulders and back were inside the vortex. Looking around, silver hair whipping through the air, Dyne realized how close he was to being wiped out of existance. "NO!"

Seifer raised his gunblade, poised to strike the killing blow--

The Masamune cut downwards, striking Seifer across the neck. Seifer fell backwards, landing on his back in the muck. He shuddered, sliding downwards.

No, Squall thought.

A blue-green halo of light surrounded him as Seifer cast a Curaga spell on himself, struggling to his feet. The wound didn't heal, though--it stayed, oozing blood. Drawing the back of his hand across the gash, Seifer stared at the red liquid. Squall, pulling himself out of the mire, tried to move towards him. A blast of strong wind caught him, and he slid down the hill several meters. Looking up again, he saw Seifer falling forward to land in the mud. Faint trickles of blood were beginning to wash down in the mire.

Somehow, Seifer got up again. Clamping a hand to his throat in an effort to staunch the wound, he took a step forward. The Hyperion was clenched in one hand, ready.

He can't possibly-- Squall thought, as Dyne slithered forward a couple of meters. His tailtip was still inside the pillar, flicking spasmodically. He lifted his bade in his hands, watching as it exploded into a concussion of magical energy that caught Seifer full in the chest and sent him flying backwards to land almost halfway down the hill.

"I will never yeild," Dyne hissed, stretching out his hand ans watching energy wreath around it. The same energy began to wind around his tail, advancing up the pillar of scaled muscle. "You shall die here, interloper."

Squall watched, unable to do anything, as Seifer struggled upwards in the mud. Suddenly, he slumped over.

No...

The power began to crawl over every inch of Dyne's frame, a glowing shield that couldn't be penetrated. He weilded the power as if he was born soley to do so.

"This is where you watch your friends and comrades slain," Dyne said, putting both arms out by his sides. "And then there shall be no one to threaten me, ever, ever again."

"Sorry, but you're wrong," Seifer said. He sounded as if he was choking on his own blood.

"Fool." The voice rasped out of the shell Dyne had made around himself. "You cannot kill me without a price I do not believe you wish to pay. I am a power, and in this world what power is there to combat me? I shall live until the stars themselves die."

Seifer opened his mouth to say something, but a noise from above stopped him. It was a voice, deep and rich, but infused with some great sadness Squall couldn't begin to comprehend. Dyne halted abruptly, staring up at the clouds as if he saw impending doom written in their darkness.

"This is the need which has forced me to bring you to this desolate land," Bahamut said. "I regret deeply that we must do this. It should never have happened. And Naja... my comrade in the days of ancience, I am sorry. Had I been less of a coward, I would have aided you." There was a pause. "I am no Guardian. I am a force, but I could never fufill my purpose. And for that, I am sorry. And because of that, I am ready."

"Well," Seifer said. "Let's--go."

"Let us. Gone from this world, but--"

"Hey!" There was a pause. "I don't plan on... d... dying here."

Dyne was actually shuddering.

Laughter from above. "Then plan to survive. Just as I am sure you planned to catch many fish at Balamb."

"...shut up."

There was a chuckle. "Ah, my comrade, we have come at last to the end of our journey. And who can say? Perhaps we shall be remembered in spite of all."

"This is it, then," Seifer said. "Funny. Never expected it to t... turn out this way." He coughed, and blood dripped to the ground.

The light surrounding Dyne faded breifly, then solidified into a bright, silver shell. Dyne was motionless inside it, as if he was afraid that by moving the shell would be broken.

Bahamut sighed. "I shall open the way, my friend. I wish I had your strength, but it would not have mattered. It shall be you who must complete this deed."

"I've been looking forward to it all week," Seifer said with a sort of dry, morbid humor. Dyne was staring about himself as if he couldn't believe where he was. Then he was shaking his head, trying to deny the whole thing. The barrier around him fluxated wildly with his movements.

"No," he whispered. "Please..."

"My friend," Bahamut laughed. "On occasion, death is only the beginning."

"Beginning?" there was an edge of fear to Seifer's voice, but he was evidently disregarding it. Fighting his way through it, and winning. "I doubt it."

"Then prepare for the end, my final comrade," Bahamut said, his voice seeming to increase in conviction as well as volume. There was a flash of light from above, and the dark form of Bahamut plunged through the lightning-split clouds, straight towards Dyne himself.

There was a roar as the GF rammed into the barrier surrounding the sorcerer, and a scream from Dyne. The GF was burnt into nothing but ash as power flowed into him form the Crystal Pillar, and the sorcerer staggered backwards as well as he could for a creature with no legs.

Dyne was only centimeters away from the Crystal Pillar, and offbalance as well. Within a second Squall, Seifer and Dyne had all realized that it would be easy enough to kill him--a simple, childish push, and he would fall into the Pillar. A simple shove, bloodless and easy...

Seifer stepped forward. An irrational thrill of hope flashed through Squall.

Dyne thought quickly. Within moments a new black blade had formed from within the swirling energies, and he raised it menacingly. But not to strike--he held it as if it was nothing more than a giant throwing knife.

In the same motion he turned, pointing it directly at Squall.

"He dies if you move," Dyne hissed, voice shaking. Seifer froze, turning to stare down at Squall. Squall himself was frozen in place like a rabbit staring up at a hawk.

Seifer took a single, staggering step forward. So close...

Dyne drew his arm back.

Squall's mind was racing. Seifer isn't going to survive any time at all with that cut unless we can get him to the infirmary, he thought. Which means we have to end this--one way or the other--now.

There was a slight flicker in Dyne's eyes, somehow visible from where Squall was standing despite the rain and darkness. Dyne's wrist angled backwards the tiniest bit--

An instant too late, Squall saw what was going to happen. God-- he thought. He's going to kill me anyway. And by the time Seifer gets over his surprise Dyne will be ready to kill him too...

And there was no way to warn him in time. Knowing full well that he was too late already, Squall opened his mouth to yell at Seifer--tell him to kill Dyne, forget about him, so at least one of them would survive--

--faster than the eye could trace, Dyne's arm drew back and launched the blade forward. It traced its way through the air--

--an instant sooner, Seifer steeled himself and lept forward--

There was a silent collision as the two met, the black material sprouting from Seifer's back like some obscene weed. Before the blood could even begin to stain his coat his momentum had carried him on into Dyne--throwing them both into the raging storm of the Crystal Pillar itself.

"No!" The scream ripped across the landscape, the epitome of pain and terror itself. Dyne's voice throbbed in the night air, only amplified by the raging pillar that consumed him.

"NO!" The yell tore itself out of Squall's throat, and he tried to scramble upwards. Slipping and falling countless times, he struggled up the hill.

The tip of the Crystal Pillar shook, splintering. Soon it was nothing but a falling hail of silvery-clear shards, tearing at him like thousands of falling knives. Squall, bleeding from this new, implacable assault, struggled through mud that reached almost up to his knees. Wind tugged at him as if it was trying to throw him off the edge of the world. He put it all out of his mind.

Then he saw the bodies.

Dyne was twisted in pain, eyes open wide, staring into the darkness. But Seifer's eyes were closed, face set in a shallow grimace that was the closest thing to true peace Squall had ever seen on him.

But that didn't matter.

What mattered was that Seifer was dead, and that Squall had no idea why it hurt so much.

Phoenix Down. Full-Life. Anything... Even as he racked his brain for something he could use, he knew it was hopeless. Phoenix Down could wake someone up from unconciousness, Full-Life could heal injuries as well. But nothing, nothing could bring back someone who was dead.

You reached the goal, Seifer, Squall thought as a chunk of the Pillar rammed into the side of his head, driving him into the ground. Mud filled his nostrils, and he pulled himself upwards to snort it out. Someting warm and sticky was flowing down his face--blood. It was washed away almost as soon as it appeared. You've done something big. But... but why now? Why, just when I was learning to accept you?

And why death?

He could find no answer as the main bulk of the Pillar shattered, hitting him with unimaginable power--power that engulfed him, swirling around him like a holocaust.

Then, there was nothing.