Disclaimer: Same as last time. The plot belongs to me. I own nothing else in this story.

Chapter VII

The Showdown

Would you like to try a duel- or is that too quiet for you- at any rate I shall kill you- and you may dispose of your affairs with that end in view. -Emily Dickinson

XxXxX

Why do you even bother to ignore me, child? I am not one that someone kan get rid of that easily. Ask that man named Squall, when the woman said his name, there was much hatred in her voice. You are going to go with him this morning, anyway --might as well ask him about me; if you have the guts to.

Paine shot up in her bed; she was covered in sweat. That voice…again… She slowed down her heavy breathing and quickly went to go take a nice, warm shower.

It didn't take her long to get dressed afterwards. While she was leaned up against the wall in her dorm, fully dressed, she thought about that voice. Why does she continue to speak to me? It can't be a dream. Dreams don't talk to you like that. And what did she mean when she said "You are going to go with him this morning,"

She narrowed her eyes. "Where would I be going with Squall? I haven't seen him since yesterday, and he never mentioned anything about going anywhere with him." She shook her head. "I'll get answers sooner or later." I hope, she quietly left the room and headed in the direction of the cafeteria. Hopefully they have some good food for breakfast, she had forgotten to check the clock machina next to her bed to see what time it was, so she guessed it was early enough for breakfast.

"Did you sleep well?"

A grin appeared on her face. Sneaky bastard, she turned around and saw Seifer. "Yes. I had the most amazing dream about you. Quite pleasant, might I add."

"Oh really?" His eyebrows raised. "And what was this…dream about?"

"Me kickin' your ass." Getting a surprised look from the man, Paine smiled. "And I did a good job at it, too."

"Why you little- Don't you know who I am? How dare you speak to me like that?"

She could tell he was angry. Short-tempered, aren't you? "Your name is Seifer Almasy, and you are the biggest bastard of them all. It's quite easy to speak to you like that, actually. I simply open my mouth and the words just come out."

In one quick movement, Seifer grabbed Paine's arms and pinned her to the wall. "You don't want to mess with me, sweet-heart."

"Is that a threat?"

"What do you think?"

"I think you're a little boy who liked his mother too much." In response, his grip on her arms tightened.

"Who do you think you are?" He obviously did not like her talking to him like that.

"Last time I checked my name was Paine."

"Smart-ass."

She glared at him with those red eyes of hers. "I suggest you let me go before someone gets hurt."

Seifer chuckled. "And who may that someone be? You couldn't possibly hurt me."

Without wasting a second, her head collided with his and he stumbled back; his grip loosened. She didn't even let him recover from that hit as her hand balled up in a fist and went up against his jaw hard --hard enough to send him down to the ground on his back; a thin line of blood coming out of the corner of his mouth and down his chin.

"Paine!" Squall ran up to her and stopped, surprised to see Seifer Almasy on the ground. "What happened?"

"What does it look like? I hit him." She rubbed her right hand. "I warned him first, just in case this is going on my record." She had a smirk on her face.

Seifer slowly rose to his feet, rubbing the blood off his chin with the back of one gloved hand. "I suggest you leave, Seifer." Squall told the man.

Glaring at Paine, Seifer turned and left, muttering underneath his breath.

"I told you he would be lucky if I didn't hit him the next time I saw him. Guess today just wasn't his lucky day." She moved her eyes to look at Squall. "Did you want to speak with me?"

"Yes," Squall answered, just now remembering why he had went looking for her. "I was going to ask you if you would like to come with me to Deling City to eat some breakfast."

So this is what she had meant… How did she know…? "Do I have a choice?"

"Yes."

"I need a good breakfast anyway." She crossed her arms.

She followed Squall to the Parking Lot and it didn't take them long to get inside a car machina and drive off.

XxXxX

"Two tickets to Deling City, please," Squall handed the right amount of gil to the lady and she handed them two tickets.

"Have a safe trip!"

Paine followed him past the woman and up a short flight of stairs. Her eyes were wide as she looked at the strange machina in front of her. What is this machina? She had never seen such a thing as that. It was long, had a lot of wheels, and made of what she had guessed was the same metal the car machina was made of. It looked like it was a great deal stronger, though. She should have known to expect such technology in this world.

"Paine?"

She looked sideways at Squall, the surprised look gone from her face. "What?"

He shook his head. "Nothing." She wasn't sure of what this machina was, so she just followed him inside. She watched as he took a card and opened up a door to her right. That door let to a long hallway with windows on the right and rooms on the left.

"It shouldn't take long to get to Deling." She heard Squall say.

Simply nodding her head, she walked down the hallway and to the first door. Finding it locked, she turned her head sideways to look at Squall, who was just now coming toward her. He unlocked it and she walked inside.

Inside was a long couch up against two of the walls. She moved to the couch and sat down. There was a ding sound and a female voice saying something, but she didn't pay too much attention to what was said. She was more interested in finding out what this machina was called as it started moving; but how could she find out without asking the man she was traveling with? If she asked, then he'd surely find out that she was not from this world. It will just have to wait then, her conscience told her. Yeah…How unfortunate for me, she thought sarcastically.

XxXxX

Squall had taken a seat on the right side of Paine. He was a couple feet away from her, but could still hear her steady breathing. That's how quiet it was. He had a feeling it was going to stay this quiet the entire time they were here.

Remembering back to when they first got on the train, he wondered why she had looked surprised for a split second. She did a great job of hiding it when she looked at him, but he still saw the way she looked at the train. It was like…she hadn't ever seen a train before… But he thought that was impossible. If she lived in Deling, she surely would have seen a train.

He looked sideways at the woman in black and saw her just sitting there, legs and arms crossed. She quickly realized that he was looking at her and shot a glare in his direction. He turned his head to look straight forward and crossed his arms over his chest. This was going to be a long, quiet train ride…

XxXxX

They stepped off the machina and hopped on what she learned was called a bus. It didn't take long for the bus machina to stop and for them to get off. She looked upwards at a sign and saw that they were at the restaurant already. As they stepped inside, a woman greeted them.

"Table for two?" She asked.

"Yes."

She looked around as she followed Leonhart and the woman to a booth. They both sat down and the woman gave them two menus. "What would you like to drink?" She heard the woman ask.

"Water's fine."

"I'll have some water, too." Paine said, opening up her menu and reading it.

"Right. I'll be back in a sec." The waitress quickly walked off.

Scanning the menu, trying to find something that may sound good to her, Paine finally decided that she'd try the pancakes with apples.

"While we're here, we could stop by your home."

She looked up, her eyes were narrowed. "What makes you think I want to go back there? If I was found in Esthar, obviously there was a reason as to why I was all the way over there and not in my home."

Squall was a bit surprised by her answer, but recovered quickly. "And I suppose you know that reason?"

She shrugged. "I must've hit my head or something. I don't remember much."

"Here's your waters." The waitress returned and placed a glass of water in front of Paine, then another in front of Squall. "You ready to order now?"

"Yes. I'll have the omelet with bacon."

"And you?"

She looked up at the waitress. "The pancakes with apples."

"All right, I'll be back in a few minutes." The waitress took the menus and walked off.

"Don't you remember what you were doing at least a few hours before you showed up in Esthar?"

"Yes."

She could tell her answer shocked Squall. "Really?"

"Yes." She repeated.

"Would you mind telling me?"

"I woke up, left my bedroom, and everything else is a blur." She shrugged one shoulder. "Maybe someone kidnapped me. I don't know." By the look on his face, she could tell he was wondering why someone would want to kidnap her. She understood why he was thinking that. She herself didn't understand why someone would kidnap her; they'd have to be incredibly stupid to do such a thing.

"Did you have a job?"

"No. I was living off the money my parents left me." Seemed like a reasonable lie. It'll have to do for now, she looked out of the window to her right. Deling City seemed to be rather quiet this early in the morning. The sun was just coming up in the distance, and she thought it was quite peaceful to watch. She continued to stare at this city that amazed every inch of her mind. Such a place did not exist on Spira. Not one that was around when she was there, anyway. When she was in her early teens, which was as far back as she could remember, she remembered someone telling her stories and showing her pictures of Zanarkand. Now Zanarkand was just…ruins…

Were there more cities like this and Esthar? Did every place here have such technology? These questions and more ran through her mind as she continued to stare at the city outside. She was certain that a look of amazement was in her eyes, though, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't hide how amazed she was right now. Being drug out of her deep thoughts by the man in front of her, she turned her head to look at him, the look of amazement finally went away.

"What were your parents names?"

I don't know. I never knew my parents. They were killed before I was old enough to remember them, she silently answered him. Her mouth opened to speak yet another lie, when she felt that sick feeling come back again.

"Paine?"

I haven't even eaten anything yet! She screamed in her head. So why do I feel like puking?

"Are you all right?"

She opened her mouth to say 'yes', but after finding no words wanted to come out, she closed her mouth and nodded.

"Don't lie to me."

Opening her mouth once more, she found that she could now speak, but only in a whisper --and barely even that. "Dizzy…" Was all she could seem to say, for it was how she felt right now. Dizzy and felt like puking.

It is almost time.

Almost time for…what?

You'll see in about…a minute.

"Paine? Paine!" She felt her body fall over to the left and could hear someone moving to catch her before she hit the ground. They succeeded, whoever they were. She recognized the voice, but she couldn't quite place who it was.

"Call a doctor!" screamed the voice.

A…man… She tried to think of who it could be, but came up blank. His arms were around her and she felt the cold floor beneath her legs, her upper body was leaned up against the man's chest; his heart began pounding hard and fast. That's when she heard the scream. A loud, high-pitched scream. You could easily tell it was a woman who did the screaming.

XxXxX

He held her against him, his mind racing. What's wrong with you? He silently asked Paine. When he heard the scream, he began to look around for the woman who was screaming. He quickly found her; she stood in front of the glass door, a terrified look on her face. "What's wrong?" He asked the woman, hoping she would stop her screaming and at least tell him why she was screaming.

From where he sat with Paine, he couldn't see out the window to see what was out there and he didn't want to move Paine.

"A…a…a…dragon!"

A dragon! His eyes widened, confusion plastered all over his face. He felt Paine stir a bit, and slowly sit up. "Paine?"

"I'm…fine… What's this about a dragon?" She asked.

"I don't know. She says there's one outside." He answered, looking over at the woman who had finally stopped screaming and hid underneath a table, and then back at Paine.

"Then let's take care of it."

"What! You almost passed out, Paine! I don't think-"

"I'm fine now. Let's go kick some dragon ass." She had a look of confidence in her eyes, and he sighed.

"If anything ever happened to you…I…"

Raising an eyebrow, she looked at him. "You what?"

He shook his head. "Fine. Let's get rid of this dragon problem." He helped her stand and they quickly left the restaurant to see what they were going up against.

XxXxX

The huge Ruby Dragon looked down on the city --his eyes quickly found what he came for. A female human stood with a male, both looking up and watching him. Deciding that he could take both humans with him and eat the male for supper, he let out a low growl, anxious to taste human flesh.

Lowering, he kept his gaze on the two humans. When they started to run, he followed them out of the human-populated city. They now stood their ground now that they were out of the city. He didn't mind that they had left the city; as long as he got what he came for and some supper. Letting out a fierce roar, he dived down at the humans.

XxXxX

Paine took a couple steps back. Seeing the flying fiend suddenly dive down at them, she ran through their options. They didn't have many. "Run," she said, her voice loud enough for the man beside her to head. Keeping her voice calm and steady, she turned her head to look at Squall. "Run fast." Knowing he would listen, Paine quickly turned round and started running. Behind her, she heard Squall running, trying to catch up to her. He succeeded, and the two ran side-by-side. She didn't need to look back to know that the dragon was closing in on them and fast; the sound of its wings flapping was good enough.

She purposely let her feet slip out from underneath her as she grabbed Squall's arm, making them both fall flat on their stomachs. Instinctively, her arms covered her head as the dragon flew above them --close enough for her to feel the heat coming from its body for a spilt second.

She heard the unsteady breathing of Squall and opened her eyes, automatically looking up. Those red eyes of hers went wide as she saw the fiend quickly turning around and coming back at them. This time, there was no doubt it would get them. Rising to her knees, she fell backwards. What to do? What to do! Her mind shrieked, realizing there wasn't any time to do anything as the dragon was too close.

The warrior wasn't even thinking as she pulled out her sword that had been by her side and raised it. The sword collided with the underbelly of the fiend as it flew right above them. She knew sparks had started to fly when the sword scraped across the hard scales. Though she couldn't tell if she had caused any damage, she still held onto the handle tightly --until the force got too strong and the sword flung out of her hands. Now on her side, she looked up to find her sword a few yards away.

Glancing back at Squall, she saw he now sat straight up. He nodded, obviously knowing what she was thinking. Rising to her feet, she began to run towards her sword, also in the direction of the dragon who was now turning around and coming straight for her. Gun shots from behind her slowed the dragon down as each bullet hit its scaly form. Silently thanking him for backing her up, she reached down and grabbed the handle of her beloved sword.

Her mind automatically remembered a skill she had learned several months ago as she raised her left arm in the air. It didn't take her long to realize her Ice Brand attack was ready. The ground beneath her went blue as ice shot up and surrounded her --only to disappear half a second later when she raised the sword in her right hand, spun around and charged at the fiend with amazing speed. The blade connected with the skull of the fiend and sent it flying backwards.

As it lay there, motionless, the warrior knew her attack had done a significant amount of damage, being that it was weak to ice. But what she didn't expect, was for the dragon to rise to its feet and turn to face her. Before she knew it, it was back up in the air, circling her. As it came back down toward her, she saw a strange look in its eyes. It didn't want to hurt her…but looked like it…wanted to be gentle with her. It didn't have that angry look most fiends have, you know. A fiend's natural instinct is to survive and attack anything that threatens it and she defiantly threatened it. If attacking it with an ice attack and nearly killing it wasn't enough to make her be a threat, she didn't know what was. It was as if someone had programmed it to…capture or rescue her.

She didn't even realize she had just been standing there until someone tackled her to the ground. "Diamond Dust!" a familiar voice shouted. She didn't even bother to look up as the ground beneath her went cold. The sound of ice breaking then something or someone powering up an attack found its way to her ears. Before she even had time to look up, she felt someone extremely close to her, their arm over her --probably protecting her from the thousands of sharp pieces of ice that flew everywhere a second or two later.

As she felt the arm around her leave, she opened her eyes and twisted her body around to see in front of her. Instead, to her left, she saw Squall sitting there, but only broken ice on the ground in front of her. "What just happened?" She found herself asking the man beside her.

"I just saved your ass." He said rather harshly, Paine noticed. "What were you doing just standing there? Did you not realize you had a dragon coming toward you, about to kill you?"

"He wouldn't have hurt me." She was shocked at her own answer. Where did that come from? I wasn't going to say that…

"What do you mean he wouldn't have hurt you! He would have killed you!" By the tone of his voice, she could tell he was angry with her. Like she cared.

"Did you notice how his claws weren't even pointed at me? His mouth was closed, and he showed no sign of harming me." She found it odd that she knew the dragon was a male, as it could have easily been a female. "Besides, he could have easily attacked me from the air using some kind of fire attack, so why didn't he? Because he didn't want to hurt me."

"But…why…?" He was obviously confused. Who could blame him? She was too. About the strange behavior of the dragon, and about the way she seemed to know more about this situation than she would have liked. "This is all so confusing…"

She looked up at him as he spoke. There must be a reason to all of this. All I have to do is find out what it is. But how the hell do I do that She rose to her feet, keeping her eyes on him. "We should go back to the restaurant."

"And why?"

"Because I never got my pancakes and apples," she said that with a smile, and in return, Squall smiled and even chuckled a little.