The instant they passed through the city gates, it was apparent something was wrong. There was something about the people carried themselves; hurried, hushed, as if to loiter or speak a single word out loud would cause some great hammer to crush them from the sky. And the sheer sparseness of the population throughout the plaza spoke volumes as well.

Fujin summarized.

Seifer half-reflexively scanned the area for threats. A flash of color, a single sound, anything. And even when he couldn't detect a single warning sign, the atmosphere of the city told him that if something hadn't snapped, it would soon. And considering the normally laid-back, festival atmosphere of the city, he could only think of one thing that could be causing this.

Looks like we're crashing the party, he said, softly.

Yeah, looks like trouble, ya know, Raijin agreed.

Almost instantly, he began to doubt the wisdom of coming here. But then, if he made wise choices, he wouldn't be in this mess in the first place.

Something's wrong, Rinoa said. You don't think we're going run into any trouble, do you?

Why should today be any different? Seifer nonetheless strode into the city, always searching the streets for the telltale flash of blue.

They want to rumble, he thought. Well, I'll give it to them.

With every step, he became more certain that the enemy was waiting just around the next corner, despite the fact that a half-dozen next corners' later, there was still no sign. Off to the left, he could see Lapin Beach, still adorned with shell craters and the burned, twisted hulk of the Black Widow. And to his right, the Main Avenue led into the heart of the city.

Barely a month ago, he had led two other prospective SeeDs down that road during the graduation exam. Then, there had been fighting all around them, and he hadn't needed to bother with all this caution and nerves. Then, he had been totally relaxed, in complete control of —

There was a flurry of motion; something was falling from the great arch they were passing under. Reacting instantly, Seifer had unhooked and cocked his gunblade, bringing it up in one fluid motion — and caught himself just in time to save the brown cat as it landed a bare meter away. Letting out a sort of squeak, it hurried away down the road. Growling at himself, Seifer reattached the gunblade and set off again down the road.

Rinoa asked from behind him. Are you sure we should be doing this? I mean, we could always go to one of the smaller towns.

He kept going. I have never run away from a fight in my life, and I'm not starting now.

Besides, I could use a good clash right about now.

He knew it was his imagination, but the street seemed to be narrower, and the number of dark side alleys multiplying. More places for the enemy to hide. Now, every shadow seemed to contain the glint of their armor, and beyond every corner beckoned the blue of their uniforms. As if they were waiting just for him, then disappearing through some form of core magic, just before he could find them.

Come on! he wanted to scream. Show yourselves and fight, you cowards! But he restrained himself.

There was not a single soul in the streets.

When he first heard the blast, it seemed to boom through the quiet streets, reverberating within his heart. Off in the distance, ahead and to the right, the faint but distinct popping of gunfire began to emerge. And perhaps it was his imagination, but he thought he could hear voices, too.

That's our cue, he declared. His gunblade was out an instant later, and he had broken into a dead run, not thinking if his companions could keep up. He reached the town's Central Square, but ignored the hotel that beckoned from the other side; the battle was calling him now. He pounded out of the city and across the bridge, and onto the stone path up the rising slope. He could hear his companions following behind, but all his attention was focused on the action above. He could make out the explosions of Fire magic, and could even make out the two different calibers of machine guns. The sounds weren't moving around, so he guessed that both sides had each other pinned down. But there was also another sound; a mechanical clank-clank-clank that Seifer could identify all too easily. He cautiously negotiated his way past a heavily scuffed part of the trail — where a part seemed to have fallen off into the sea below — and charged up the remainder of the distance onto level ground.

There was a full-fledged battle raging on the small plateau that overlooked the communications tower. On the near side, an array of green-uniformed Dollet soldiers was attempting to press an attack on a more distant number of blue-and red-uniformed Galbadians. Dollet was trying to fight their way down the winding path to the comm tower itself, but the Galbadians were creating a virtual wall of Fire whenever they came near, and the path was already lined with green-uniformed wounded and dead.

What's going on? Rinoa asked.

Looks like a revolution, ya know! Raijin offered.

The Galbadians were now advancing along the path, pushing the Dollet soldiers back to the plateau where the four of them stood. It didn't look like the small band of local soldiers would be able to carry the fight.

Seifer didn't consider for a second what to do. Thanks to his failure to pass any of his field tests, he had more SeeD training than any other student in Garden. Besides, if he'd had his way, he would have kicked those Galbadians out of there a long time ago. Instantly, he called on his GF, focusing his attention on the mass of advancing Galbadian soldiers. Under his gaze, a tiny sphere of blinding light emerged above the Galbadians' heads, a miniature sun that exploded into a burning nova. More than half the soldiers in the group were thrown to the ground, bodies blackened and unrecognizable, and the rest scattered in terror of the unexpected assault.

Seifer — Rinoa began.

Let's go. Seifer readied his gunblade, pointing straight at the Galbadian soldiers.



Yeah! Time to get it on, ya know!

Without waiting any further, Seifer charged. He was upon the Galbadians in an instant, launching a spinning attack that ripped through the front of one soldier's uniform, then spun himself to accommodate the weapon's momentum. Coming back around, he buried the blade in the staggering soldier's side, squeezing the trigger. The soldier fell, and Seifer stopped paying attention to him. Fujin and Raijin had joined the battle beside him, and he thought he saw the flash of Rinoa's Pinwheel as well, but all his attention was focused on one task, and that was to win the fight.

A Galbadian officer was readying his arm-gun, and a pair of soldiers were charging him, weapons drawn. Seifer enveloped the officer with the throes of a Firaga and parried the soldiers attacks with a forceful swing of his gunblade. He followed up with a sound kick to one of the soldiers, who was toppled over the cliff and likely would not pose anyone a problem again.

The second soldier was pressing the attack. He swung high at Seifer's head, attempting to catch him off guard, but Seifer countered with an upward strike that nearly disarmed the man. Shifting his grip, he brought the weapon down on the soldier's helmet before he could recover, and the Galbadian, dazed, collapsed to the ground. Just to make sure he was out of the fight, Seifer deployed a Fira before he moved on.

The Galbadians were backing off. The soldiers, leaving their fallen where they lay, were backing down to the curve in the path, apparently to regroup. The instant he saw this, he knew something was wrong; Galbadians were trained never to give their opponents time to breathe in the middle of a battle.

So he was not particularly surprised when he heard a loud thump behind him and a sort of mechanical roar. He spun just in time to see a giant metal spider standing not ten meters away, its sensor eye glowing a furious red.

The iron pincers of the Black Widow snapped shut bare centimeters above his head as he ducked the monster's advance. Reflexively, he struck his gunblade against the claws, but it simply bounced off with a loud clang. Cursing, he dodged again, but one of its pointed legs found his side, throwing him to the ground. He landed on a protruding rock, and pain flared up his back. He rolled quickly to avoid being skewered under the machine's claw-like feet. He emerged behind the machine, and immediately sent a pillar of lightning to spear through the monster. It froze for an instant, but it would obviously take far more energy than that to incapacitate it. Instead, it lurched backward, colliding with Seifer and throwing him off his feet. He lost his grip on his gunblade, and the weapon clattered to the path, out of reach.

RAIJIN, HELP! Fujin's voice exclaimed, and an instant later a shuriken glanced off the side of the machine. It halted in its course for Seifer and turned to assess the new threat. Making no mistake about the opportunity he had, he abandoned his dignity and scrambled for his gunblade. The weapon, he noticed, was already badly battered and scratched from the fighting.

All right, pal, he growled, cocking his gunblade. Let's see what you've really got.

His grip tightened around the gunblade, and his vision became tinged with red as he focused on the offending shape of the Black Widow. A puff of flame erupted as he prepared for the strike, and he knew he was ready.

Crucible....

He charged forward, and for an instant everything seemed to slow, as if he were trying to run at the bottom of a lake. But he pushed through the barrier, and exploded towards the Black Widow. He took two great swings at the machine's side, and this time, the gunblade sliced right through the armor, burning a crimson cross in the broken metal plates. He held the weapon steady, and the cross of fire began to glow more and more intensely, beginning to warp the space around it and envelop the machine in a haze of magical fire.

Then, the ground beneath exploded in a crimson pillar of flame, and he could hear the protesting of the machine as its innards were burned to ash by the inferno that engulfed it. The flame ran its course and disappeared, leaving the metal beast, scorched and twisted, lying beaten on the ground.

Seifer, completely drained, collapsed beside it.