The chase.
Squall carefully removed his gunblade from its stand.
"His name's Griever, bitch" Then he leapt the table. Seifer's bodyguards surged to their feet, but Squall stepped past and punched Rinoa. He hadn't held back- Rinoa felt her nose break as she was knocked off her feet. In a sitting position, Rinoa scrambled backwards in the strange crawl of people unwilling to turn their backs while getting away as quickly as possible without taking the time to get up. Squall followed, but Seifer caught his wrist.
"I know how you feel, but your Garden is on galbadian soil, and I've a hard enough time repairing the countries' tarnished image without a murder being committed while I'm visiting. You could make her a martyr."
Squall nodded and carefully replaced his gunblade on its stand. In the meantime, Rinoa had scrambled into the lift and pushed down. In the lift, Rinoa cast a curaga to heal her broken nose before stumbling out into the lobby.
The lift moved back up instantly, and Squall came down almost before she'd got to the foot of the steps. He was composed and in no hurry. Rinoa sprinted towards the front gate. On foot, Squall was faster, but he thought she was cornered at the front door and didn't run. At the front door, Rinoa leapt up and caught the top of a ...bump in the structure of the Garden, at the base of a window pane. By the time Squall emerged, she was huddled in a crevice with her hands free and fumbling for her slingshot. The steel ball caught Squall on the top of his head, and he almost fell off the side. Clutching his head, trying to stop the blood flow, Squall cast a Cura and ducked back inside. Rinoa climbed further up the building.
Returning to the lobby, Squall shouted "Xu!" She appeared within minutes.
"Have we still got that galbadian flying machine I used during the siege?"
"No. But Seifer donated a couple for repair work. No weapons attached."
" They'll do." Squall floated out, searching for Rinoa. He found her not far short of the opening in the quad. He'd never dreamed she was so athletic, and was cautious in his approach. He heard her mutter "Angelo can't get up here." Then she appeared to grow angel wings. Knowing what was coming, squall shot forward, but she had already cast a Fire at the window above her, melted it, then cast another Fire at squall as she scrambled through. The spell hit the engine of the machine and Squall catapulted forward and fell off the Garden. In mid-air, he summoned Pandemona, who launched him back up to a window on the second floor. He had learned his lesson, and ducked while coming through to escape another steel ball. Rinoa was already near the lobby again, but Squall used his masterkey to get instant service in the lift. He caught her in front of the lift, and she turned. "Prepare to face the might of Alarea, whose mother you destroyed in the future."
Squall looked confused. "Ultimecia doesn't have any descendants. We checked. Dna scans, remember?"
" Really? Okay, prepare to face the might of another sorceress."
"But we found them all and none of them cared for Ultimecia and found time compression pointless."
"Oh." She rallied. "Prepare to face the might of Ultima!"
Rinoa cast a triple on herself. Squall took something out of his pocket and drank it.
"Potions won't save you now!"
She cast three ultima's. When the dust cleared, Squall was lying flat. He got up and broke Rinoa's jaw.
"Ever heard of a hero drink, Rinoa?"
Squall stalked off. Irvine sidled closer to the prone Rinoa and said furtively "You know what'd cheer you up?"
The motivation for this fic was: Rinoa irritated the hell out of me. You rescued her more times than Garnet! I never finished ff viii, because I couldn't get past Adel.
By the way, I don't own squaresoft