**The second part of the Confrontation! Ooooh! And trust me, this story is FAAAAAR from over. For those of you who like long stories, that's a good thing. Otherwise...yeh. Please don't get mad at my pacing. ^_^;;; Anyway, I hope you continue to like the story, and thanks sooo much for the reviews and IMs! I appreciate them so much! Keep 'em coming, please! ^_^ V And a late Happy B-day to Niet's real-life counterpart, Saito! ::cheers:: Happy Birthday--it was this past Saturday!! And on with the next chapter!!**

The girls had to jump away from one another again as Mariana threw another bolt of electricity at them. Niet pulled out her sword, considered it for a moment, but quickly sheathed it once more. She looked at Yueh across the hallway.

"She's too far away--I can't hit her with it!" she shouted out.

Yueh took a quick glance at Katy, who also shrugged. "I don't have anything to attack with..."

"...Arashi? Please tell me you have something to fight her with?" Yueh asked, gulping. Arashi didn't respond, and Yueh prompted her again. "Arashi? Arashi?"

Arashi never responded. Instead, she pulled out her jeweled belt and began to swing it around lightly, singing as she went. Yueh couldn't understand the song, except that it was in Japanese. Was she calling an aeon?

"Fine, then, I'll go!" Yueh shouted out. She gathered up a fire spell and heaved it at Mariana, screaming out, "This is for making my family think I'm crazy!" The spell spiraled in the air, and once it reached Mariana, it stopped dead. Mariana outstretched her hands and clapped them together over the spell.

It disappeared in a small puff of smoke.

"Not good, not good, not good," Yueh said under her breath. She looked at Arashi. "Still dancing..." She gave a sigh and grabbed her flute from her belt, hoping it would give her a stronger spell. Her melody fell in sync with Arashi's, and both started to dance around the other, dodging lightning from Mariana as they went.

"Stop--MOVING!" she screamed out from above. Yueh grinned mentally--at least they had managed to get some sort of verbal response out of her. But can't anyone try to attack her while we're doing this?

Suddenly, Niet smacked her forehead and pulled out her rapier. "I forgot!" She did a quick spin and flung her rapier high into the air, shouting out, "Boomerang rapier! Take that!" The sword flew through the air, spinning like an overly large throwing dagger. However, the one heavy end with the handle seemed to throw the spinning off kilter, and it clattered off the ceiling behind Mariana.

The woman laughed. "Nice throw."

Niet smirked. "Look again."

"Huh?" Mariana turned her head just in time to see the rapier fly at her waist. She couldn't move quickly enough out of the way, and it gave a good, deep scar on her back, finally returning to its owner, who grinned.

"I did say boomerang..."

And just in time... Both melodies and the dances ended as the earth started to shake. From the ground burst a super-powered Ifrit--Dante to Arashi. The aeon was now embedded in a constant state of flames, so it was good that this time, Arashi did not land on his shoulder. Instead, she landed cat-like only a few feet away from the aeon. Yueh landed on the opposite side, her flute tucked safely back in her belt.

"A fiery Ifrit--nice," Yueh commented, nodding her head.

"Ikimashou, Dante!" Arashi pointed to Mariana. "Get her, but please...don't kill her."

"Don't kill her?" Niet screamed out. "But--she's trying to kill us--"

"Think of the trouble we'd get in," Yueh pointed out. "We'd end up like Yuna and company..."

"Martyrs," Katy finished, nodding. "Right."

"Dante--attack!" Arashi shouted finally, pointing to Mariana once more. The aeon leaned back on its haunches and sprang forward at the flying summoner. Flying through the air in its flames, it came in contact with Mariana, only to be thrown back into the marble flooring and make a deep trench. Yueh winced and dodged a particularly large piece of marble that had been thrown up.

"I don't think that worked," Niet sang lightly. Yueh gave her a small look.

"Like we don't know that?" Yueh looked around for Katy, and found her in the corner by Genki. She was kneeling and working on something. "Katy! Hey!"

"Just a second!" She waved her hand loosely at the other three girls.

"Let's hope that's an overdrive," Yueh muttered under her breath.

"I'm not letting you go!" Mariana screamed from above. A small trickle of blood fell from the wound in her back, hitting the floor and splattering across the marble. She released a hoarse cry and threw down a group of lightning bolts. Niet and Yueh dodged the electric attack, but Arashi was hit full on and thrown into the same pit that Dante had fallen into moments earlier.

"Arashi!"

Mariana laughed and threw another wave of electricity into the pit.

Two arms, one human and one Dante's, raised slowly out of the pit. The lightning bounced off of an invisible power shield and rocketed back to the ceiling, straight at Mariana. She fell from the sky and hit the ground with a loud thud.

"Mariana!" Genki shouted. He ran forward, but hit another power shield, this time, around his wife. Yueh winced as he was thrown back into the wall and hit the floor next to Katy. She didn't seem to notice.

Yueh whirled her head around to see Arashi and Dante moving as one out of the pit and back onto the marble. Wind flew around Arashi and Dante, blowing the flames haphazardly off of Dante and harmlessly into the marble. Arashi's gray eyes were shining with the same fire. It was hard to recognize her as the laughing girl from just a few hours ago.

"Done!" Katy announced, standing up. She held up a small, spherical object that looked rather like an overly large bouncy ball. Yueh shushed her and watched Arashi and Dante approach Mariana, who remained face down on the floor.

"Mariana." The woman looked up at Arashi and Dante weakly, but with the same ice in her eyes.

Fire and ice...kind of ironic. Mariana stood up tall and reached Arashi's height. They stared each other in the eyes for a moment, neither one speaking.

Niet mumbled quietly, "What exactly is going on?"

Yueh shrugged. "I'm not quite sure..."

"Mariana, you know this isn't what you want," Arashi said. "This isn't how it's supposed to be."

"None of this," Mariana replied, "is how it's supposed to be. I never would have been here, never, if--"

"I know, Mariana," Arashi said quietly. "I already know."

Mariana's face turned foul. "You don't know anything!" She threw another charge of lighting, which simply passed around both Arashi and Dante's force field. Flying into the air with another grunt, she screamed again.

"I know enough!" Arashi yelled out to her. She began to gesture, and Dante mimicked her every move in an odd sort of puppet show. "Go ahead and try what you will, Mariana, it won't change anything! You can't change the past, but the future is up to you! Don't let the past rule your future!"

"I--no!" Mariana threw another bolt, which again flew around the force field and into the ground without a scratch.

"Fine then!" Katy stood up with her super ball-like weapon. She tossed it up at Mariana, shouting out, "You won't listen to reason, then listen to this!" The ball hit Mariana smack in the stomach and burst into a thousand little pieces, all of which let out an ear-shattering sound. Yueh fell to the ground, feeling weak. Mariana again hit the floor and fell at Arashi's feet. Arashi was the only one who, with Dante, remained standing.

Yueh could barely hear what was said.

"Mariana. Leave now, and keep going. I hope you can see what I mean..." Arashi trailed off and seemed to lift Mariana and Genki with a small gust of wind. "We'll explain what happened."

The ice in Mariana's eyes seemed to have melted finally. She took a dazed Genki's hand and almost floated across the floor. She took one sad look back at Arashi and left the grand hallway.

Arashi sunk to her knees and dismissed Dante with a small toss of her hand. Dante gave a small, respectful nod and hopped back into the nothingness that he had come from. Lastly, Arashi fell in a heap to the floor with a large sigh.

"Arashi!" Yueh shouted out. She ran to the summoner's side, along with a still slightly groggy Niet and Katy. The young priest came running back, his eyes trying to take in what had happened.

"This--where is Lady Mariana? And what--who--?"

Yueh looked down at the sleeping form of Arashi. She didn't want this fight. None of us really did, I guess. I wonder...

Standing up, Yueh said, "A sinspawn somehow managed to get inside the building. Lady Mariana could...sense it. That is why you had to leave."

Niet giggled lightly, trying to push off the memory of what had just happened. "Sorry about the floor in the hallway..."

Katy simply grunted, again going back to keeping her head down towards the ground.

"Can someone help us carry...carry the summoner to a room?" Yueh asked quietly. The priest nodded and ran to get another person to help the group out. Yueh let out a low sigh and looked again at Arashi, who seemed so peaceful compared to the fiery-eyed girl she had just seen minutes ago.

The past...I wonder what Arashi and Mariana were talking about? She sat down and waited for the priest to come back. A past that they know something about, but we...we're left in the dark. And how does she know?

Inexplicably, Yueh's gaze was drawn once more to the glasses falling off of Arashi's nose and the jeweled belt at her waist.

What aren't you telling us? And why?

*-*-*-*-*

Genki was being pulled down the road unceremoniously by Mariana. She was running blindly down the roadway to the next city, breathing rather slowly for the speed she was keeping. Genki couldn't even think clearly, everything had just happened so…so fast.

Mariana, meanwhile, was muttering under her breath.

"None of her business, the girl…" She spat. "Yueh…talking and saying…Sin isn't just a dream…Sin cannot be…cannot be killed…" Shaking her head, she pushed herself and Genki even faster. "Can't let her win…I can't let her win. I will…I will get the aeons."

Her eyes froze once more. "Get the aeons…and call upon Sin to do my will."

Genki stared blankly ahead on the road. He couldn't quite remember where he was going, or what he was doing. His mind was still in the past, still stuck at around a quarter of an hour ago. He couldn't quite figure out what had just happened, or why.

"Ma…Mariana…" Genki's voice stopped Mariana in her tracks. She turned around and stared the young man in his brown eyes.

"What?" she asked coldly. Genki flinched under her gaze, but didn't let go of his question.

"What…what past were they talking about?"

Mariana's left eye twitched. She had avoided talking about it so far…

"…I'm from Spira. I was born there and remained there until I was five, when my parents were killed by Sin and I…" She paused, thinking for a moment. "…and I was brought here. That is the past she referred to." Nodding to herself, as if this was enough, she walked on, tugging Genki further.

Yet, Genki wasn't ready to leave. "Isn't…isn't there anything else to it? I mean…how did you get here?"

One of Mariana's hands traveled to her collarbone, where her jewel rested in her skin. It seemed dull now, compared to the bright glow it had been before in the battle. She kept on forward, deciding to not say anything.

"Mariana--!"

"Before we must leave this plane, Genki," Mariana promised. "Right before we must leave this plane to finish Sin for a short time…I will tell you."

Genki swallowed hard and finally willingly followed Mariana at a quickened pace. Leave this plane…he didn't quite like the sound of that. Then again, he had married her…wasn't it his duty to do this now?

I'm in love with a very psychotic woman, I guess… He held on tightly to her hand, and moved his feet as fast as they would carry his weary self. But I'll stay with her…until…until…

His mind wouldn't let him finish the sentence.