AN: Here we go, starting the second chapter in my chapter binge... warning to all authors, this is what happens when you end up on a cruise a week before you go uni with a fic so close to finishing it's not even funny @_@  *wanders off in search of muse* is there a record for chapters written in one day?

Rating: R maybe PG-13 (R in standing with ff.net's policy of picking the highest rating)

Disclaimer: SG characters are (c) MGM (thankie to Morrigan for that :p).  FF8 characters are (c) Squaresoft, original characters are mine – ask nicely and I might let you play with them, s'long's you don't break them... oh yeah, and the poem at the end is mine as well – hands off :p

Warnings: SxS Maybe angst (I do like to torture my characters sometimes :p), language (prob nothin u ain't heard b4, but still...)

~Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Duality of Hyne~

For a minute after Yarege's entourage had turned to fight their way back to the excavation site, and the G'ould, the two beings stared at each other.  Edea's watchful presence was forgotten as they closed the distance between them to only a few feet, just out of arms reach.  They circled, warily, eyes searching for that faint slip of their opponent's mask that might indicate weakness, or might merely be a feint.

"And even at the last, you still believe you can win."  It was Harena who spoke and, surprisingly, her statement seemed to surprise Yarege.

"Do you truly believe that you are stronger?"  Yarege asked with a frown.  This close the disparity in their strengths was clear to her, and Harena was much the weaker.  Well, maybe not that much, but enough to make victory in a straight fight impossible...  Harena smirked as Yarege realised the other's intent.  "No.  That is a violation of the combat."  The other laughed, never taking her eyes off Yarege's outraged countenance.

"Of course it is my dear sister.  You truly expected me, ~me~ to play by the rules?"  Yarege knew she had only herself to blame for the gross error that now threw everything back into confusion.  "In fact," Harena continued, "it is only thanks to you that there is an individual strong enough for me to do this."  Yarege's mind was racing, although her face reverted to a blank mask.  Harena tutted.  "Too late for regrets now.  Surrender to me, and perhaps I shall allow your little allies to return home unharmed."

"You lie."  Yarege stated coldly, knowing her words to be true.  Harena would spare no one if she were to win.  "Besides, now I have nothing to lose, and I have ~two~ knights."  Harena's lips curled upwards in a cold, cruel imitation of a smile.

"Yes..."  She purred.  "And they are the only ones who can defeat the G'ould."  Tricked and outmanoeuvred, Yarege had no option left but to bow to the inevitable.

"Very well..."  She whispered, so quiet that Harena frowned and leaned forwards to catch the words, thinking perhaps the other were trying to cast a spell, or summon help.  The shock as she discerned the capitulation in Yarege's face held her immobile too long, too close to the other.  There was a blinding flash of light as Yarege's hand touched her own, and then everything was suddenly different, the tables suddenly reversed in their new arena.

***

The world around them was frozen, or seemed to be.  They were no longer operating within the bounds of mere mortal flesh.  This was the battleground of the mind, and decades here were mere seconds in the world outside.  There was silence here too.  Pure, crystal clear silence.  Not even the faintest sound of battle drifted to them. 

The two beings stared at one another, seeing each other's true form for the first time.  They were both beautiful.  Two halves of one whole, but one with darker looks and aura than her sister of light.  They stared, weighing each other up, knowing, despite the disparity in their strengths, that there would be no easy victory.

***

Outside, in a world that was no more or less real than that which Harena and Yarege now fought within, Squall and Seifer stumbled.  They shared a look that was more of a grimace, but despite the urge to rush to their sorceress's rescue, they instead turned their determined blades towards more earthly foes.

Irvine and Quistis were left staring after the two knights in awe, watching as they worked in perfect unison.  The monsters before them never stood a chance and were left dead, or dying in pieces, as the two young men carved their way through to the excavation site.

The Ragnarok had done a good job, before its ammunition ran out, and they had returned to the excavation site.  Many of the monsters were fleeing now, and a handful of SeeDs were using GFs to 'encourage' the rest to follow.  As they passed through, Squall stripped the defenders ranks of certain, pre-arranged SeeDs, forming a column of twenty that descended into the maze of tunnels and rooms that comprised the old Lunatic Pandora excavation site.  Pairs of SeeDs split away down corridors, moving to a search pattern that they had used when they had first cleared the site for its recent use.

***

Now it was mind against mind, soul versus soul, and heart opposing heart.  Their mental forms swayed back and forth with the ebb and flow of their unseen battle.

In the real world there was nothing to indicate that they were locked in a life and death struggle.  Their two bodies, watched over and guarded from external harm by Edea, lay peacefully beneath the moon's rays as though they merely slept.  But within, where the battle raged, there was no pause for thinking a philosopher's thoughts.

Here in the mind there were no rules except those one created for oneself.  Physics was of no consequence, gravity did not exist, unless one wished it, nor did time and space.  A mind could be barely large enough to fit an atom, or it could encompass an entire universe and beyond, or any state in between.  Mental form was not fixed either, and as the two minds locked with one another in furious combat, both Harena and Yarege began to shift in their appearance.  Claws, fangs, armour plated hide, both fighting to adapt to the others attacks whilst shifting to find the chink in their opponent's defences.

Like the earlier fierce fighting between the SeeDs and the monsters of Harena's army, mental sweat and blood flowed freely from both combatants, and exhaustion began to creep up on them, weighting their thoughts and slowing their moves.  Still, neither was willing to back down, nor were they willing to ease up, lest they were thought – and found – weak.

And then, noticed first by Yarege, the revitalising presence of Hyne began to creep through their joined minds, the planet's mighty soul striving to free itself through whatever means available to it.  And with that presence came another source of power, one that could tip the balance of their fight in favour of either.  But Yarege was first to notice it, first to reach out and begin to gather it to herself, wrapping its power around her like a shield.

Too late Harena sensed the new power source.  Too late she tried to snatch it for her own, only to bounce off the thick shield of Yarege.  A calm settled on the two fighters.  The end was finally here, and it had fallen to Yarege to assume the black mantle of victory.

With a keening wail she struck the deathblow to her sister.  A cry of victory, and a cry of mourning and loss all at once.  The cry echoed within the minds that were now forever fused into a new creature.  One as old as time, and yet newborn.  Both Harena and Yarege faded from their single, small existences, leaving only eargarea, nothing, in their wake...

***

In the depths of the excavation site's tunnels both Squall and Seifer let out a victorious yell...

***

In the excavation site itself, Shara felt the planet's presence ebb and fade away, and was filled by relief...

***

Deep in a ventilation shaft somewhere in the excavation site Jack O'Neill suddenly had the impression that a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders, the feeling of danger vanishing like mist under the sun...

***

But on the other side of the excavation site, cornered by half a dozen Jaffa, and already hit once by zat fire, Daniel Jackson was in no position to feel anything except numb...

AN: ahem... *looks around nervously* well, I felt poor ol' Daniel was getting left out a teeny bit... and I didn't want to have everything suddenly going right... (cause like that ever happens!) so yeah, um, oh well, on to the next chapter! oh, unless you want to see the poem that the fight between Yarege and Harena is based on (cause after I'd written the damn thing I couldn't get a proper fight scene going *grimaces*) in which case, read on ;)

Back and forth they swayed and fought

Duelling with their minds

Soul to soul and heart to heart

Meeting no one's eyes

Beneath the moon, beneath the skies

Two bodies lay as though at rest

But 'twas all a thin disguise

For they fought without a pause

Neither bound nor held by physic's laws

Nor constrained by time's swift passage

Baring teeth, unsheathing claws

The mental duel was unrelenting

Outside the fights as unforgiving

Fang and paw 'gainst sword and whip

Blood and sweat, no time for feeling

No quarter asked, no quarter given

At last some blood-soaked hope is riven

Torn from the very jaws of hell

Fresh troops attack, unbidden

To sound the victory cry

Two lone fighters, but one must die

And the victory call is but a deathly keen

The winner lives, and yet doth sigh

For a sister's death signals fate's descent

The twain now one, as was meant

But victory's sweet taste is limited

Tho heaven on earth now be sent

Its time is swiftly over

*grins* reviews welcome :)