Chapter 9

Ratchet gasped. "Wait'a'go Squall you got him." Squall looked at the blood dripping down Seymour's chest. Seymour himself was in a panic.

"No, no, how is this possible? I'm immortal!"

"But not anymore." Squall said. "When you saw me fall you presumed I was dead, you gave up your reason to stay alive."

"No matter, I'll just stay if I die again.

"You can't. You can only stay on once."

"No." Seymour muttered. "No!" He put out his hand and a jet of lightning shot out. It hit Ratchet in the shoulder. Ratchet swore and let go, before Squall could fall he pushed off from Ratchet and just caught the side of the basket. He looked over at Ratchet, who was flying all over the place. He crashed into a large tree and Clank slowly had to take him down to the ground. Squall was alone. He pulled himself over the side of the basket and withdrew his gunblade; he couldn't risk hitting the fire above their heads that was keeping them airborne. Seymour however didn't share his worry. He pulled out his spear from within his cloak and held it as best he could; the shots had made him very dizzy. He swung at Squall who pushed the spear aside Seymour was slow and weak now. Seymour lunged round but Squall leant back and avoided it. Seymour brought the spear round again, this time Squall grabbed it and pulled Seymour over his shoulder and to the ground. Squall let down his guard and went to punch Seymour but Seymour was ready and kicked out. He hit Squall squarely in the chest; Squall was sent flying out of the basket the wind knocked out of him. Without thinking he did the only thing that jumped to mind. To stop him falling he pulled out his gunblade and stabbed it into the side of the basket. Seymour withdrew as the sword near missed his head. Squall pulled himself up so his feet were on the basket. He then withdrew his sword and quickly leapt up to try and swing back into the basket. He completely miss-angled his shot. He made it into the basket, but to high. He heard a large ripping and a loud clang sound as he came in. He looked around and saw he had made a huge rip down the side of the balloon that was widening out and he had hit the fire that kept the balloon aloft straight over the side. They both looked at each other and grabbed a side of the basket each. The rip had suddenly ripped straight through the whole balloon and split in half, there was no longer anything holding them in the air except the basket under their feet. Squall watched as they shot nearer and nearer the ground spiraling around. Seymour jumped over the side and pointed his hands downwards he muttered something and he slowed down and gently hovered down. Squall cursed, he had never payed attention in magic class. All he knew was basic Aero magic. But maybe that was enough. He jumped over the side like Seymour had and pointed his hands downwards he muttered the name Aero and felt a huge gust of wing star blowing up against him. It was slowing him down but not fast enough. He raised his hands up slightly and got the timing just right the blast shot him into a tree behind him. He dropped the spell and landed comfortably on a branch. He looked up and saw Seymour floating down gently. He slowly started to descend from the tree. He still needed to finish this.

Seymour landed in a clearing. He looked around for Squall incase he had survived the fall but realized it was impossible for him to have survived. He turned around to leave and saw himself looking at the blade of Squall's gunblade.

"Miss me?" Squall said and jammed the blade forwards straight through Seymour's head. Seymour yelled. He had never known so much pain. Squall then slid his finger over the trigger and fired. Seymour shot off the sword leaving a red stain. Squall wiped it off on his trousers. He saw hundreds of multi-colored pyre-flies lifting up from a still corpse in the bushes until it finally disappeared. He turned around to leave and heard a scream. He looked around and saw a face formed by the pyreflies heading towards him screaming. He smiled jumped up over the face and slashed down cutting the face down the middle. It dissolved and disappeared up into the sky.

Vincent was bored. There was a Scrabble set sitting on his lap, he was playing with Cloud and so far they were equal. Vincent put down R-A-L-S. "Rals isn't a word!" Cloud complained.

"It was the name of one of my Turks missions." Vincent said. Cloud sighed. Vincent had used to be a member of an organization called the Turks. They dealed in mostly dirty stuff like kidnapping. Cloud had just introduced Vincent to Scrabble and was finding it difficult reminding him of the rules all the time.

"Well you can't play it, it's against the rules." Vincent grumbled and picked up the pieces. He looked at his letters and suddenly saw his opportunity. He smiled and put down: A-R-M-L-E-S-S. Vincent chuckled.

"With triple word score I believe that's 27 points!"

Ratchet opened his eyes. Rinoa and the others were standing around him.

"Finally you are awake." Clank said. He had his heli-pack open cooling Ratchet with his fans.

"I was worried about you." Ratchet turned his head and saw Squall limp into the area they were waiting at.

"Squall!" Rinoa cried. She rushed over to him and hugged him she looked at the leg he was limping on. He had a large gash on his leg.

"Seymour slashed me before I got into the balloon. He felt his pocket vibrate. He pulled out another one of the strange computer things, Cloud was on the screen.

"Hey Squall, tell Vincent Erdider isn't a word."