He reached his destination, and searched for his gunblade handle purely for comfort, as no-one was yet there. It was again nearing midnight, and Squall shamefully felt his blood lust rising, as he remembered the previous night's dream when he died, and Seifer's intrusive arrival. How long had he been there, anyway, was he watching him? Something stirred in the darkness and broke Squall's train of thought.
A shape appeared out of the wispy mist, which seemed to part to allow the shape passage, which then took on the form of Seifer. "You came." He said, grinning like something out of a nightmare.
Squall's grip tightened on Griever. "What do you want Seifer, why drag me back here?"
"You came of your accord, did you not? It's been far too long since we've both fought as mortals, Squall. I now no longer have the power of the sorceress to rely on, and you don't have your friends to back you up."
"What do you want with me, Seifer?"
"No more fun? Fine then. Fight me!" at that, Seifer rushed at Squall, who only just managed to dodge his attack. "You're getting slow!" Seifer taunted, all smiles. Squall remained on the defensive, trying to gauge Seifer's strength, which was lessened, as he said, without Edea's help, but Squall's lack of recent experience had made him far weaker than he should be. It eventually dawned on him, after suffering the relentless blows of Seifer, cackling like a madman, that the openings he saw were purpose built, meant to taunt him into attacking. Squall took his chance and lunged towards him, only to see Seifer dance away past him, slicing along his leg, obviously having it all planned out beforehand. All his moves were being dictated by Seifer's actions, he was like a string puppet, and Seifer was controlling the strings, meaning he could dodge every blow.
"You're getting slow Squall, you're losing it."
Squall knew that he was. His skills were rusty, and it had been a long time since he'd experienced the exhilaration of a limit break. Seifer rushed forward again, and Squall raised his gunblade to meet it, the two weapons, extensions of the owners' bodies, clashed together and the sparks blinded him. He could feel the immense pressure of Seifer's strength – since when had he been this strong? - and so as to avoid crippling under his blade, as he was sure he soon would, the wound in his leg was aching, Squall twisted his body, and pushed Seifer away, and Seifer... Stumbled? He charged, beating away Seifer's flailing defence, and slashed his side, sending Seifer spiralling to the floor. He retreated a few steps, to allow Seifer time for recovery, a sign of honour that reflected Squall's unrequited respect for him.
Seifer pulled himself to his feet, seemingly unperturbed by the gaping wound in his side. "Not bad Squall, could've been deeper, but do you honestly think that you can beat me?" It was now obvious to Squall why Seifer had invited him here tonight. It was to prove that he was strong. Seifer had obviously been feeling otherwise since the defeat of the sorceress, and now wanted a chance to show Squall the he couldn't still push him around.
Seifer leapt at him once more, and Squall could now tell the seriousness of his expression, the murderous glint in Seifer's eyes meant that this was no longer a game. Squall's poor defence was blown away in one move by Seifer, and in one strike, he slashed across Squall's torso, sending him flying backwards across the ground, trailing blood, into the a pillar of rock behind him. Squall fell into a mindless daze, focusing on not just stopping the world spinning, but disappearing completely from his concious mind. He managed to stop his mind falling into unconsciousness, although he could feel darkness gnawing at the edges of his vision, and saw Seifer strutting over to him, holding both gunblades in his hands.
"Well then. It seems that someone's a little bit out of practice." He announced unnecessarily, every syllable escaping his mouth was like a slap in the face for Squall.
Twice now, Squall had lost his pride in this place to Seifer. He knew that this time, it would be difficult, if at all possible, to face his friends and promise to protect them again. He quickly changed his mind, when he saw the condition he was in. He expected Seifer to kill him. Quickly and painlessly, if the honour shown was a mutual occurrence, but he could no longer deny that it's embrace felt warm. Squall was amazed then, when Seifer placed the two weapons on the floor, and squatted down next to him. "You're weak". More of a statement then a taunt, the truthfulness of it still enraged Squall as he lay helpless in the dirt. "Come find me, Squall, when you've learnt to fight again." With that, Seifer disappeared back into the enveloping darkness from which he came.
It was all over ion a short time, but it took Squall over an hour of trying not to black out to become aware of his situation. The was a pool of blood around him on the floor, emanating from his leg and chest,. He felt the air sucking away the heat from the burning core of his heart through his wounds. Squall, hindered from fatigue and pain, slowly dragged himself to his feet. He almost collapsed to the floor once again, from a coughing fit that tasted strongly of his own blood. Squall leant against the pillar of rock he had been thrown into, and reached for his gunblade – God knows what might attack him in his state. It was an effort to even pick up something like that, but he eventually managed it. He looked around desperately, thinking someone was behind him, paranoid already from his easy defeat. Squall glanced back to where the Garden should be, and limped towards it, every step dragging behind him, and sending shock waves of pain through his body. This was the pain and fear he missed. Though he looked dead, he had never felt more alive.
A/N: Awww, poor Squall. Hehe, dont worry about him, he wont die yet, or maybe at all o.0 This chapter took me far too long to type up, but I enjoyed doing so. The first two paragraphs of the next chapter were take off from the end of here on recommendation of a friend, Steven Kemp, who I'd like to thank for proofreading it. I's also like to recommend Hand of Ice: Pride of rat, which is a dark FF8 fic that I liked. There is a sort of guarantee now, that chapter 4 will be up a week on monday (or on monday 16th, same thing) because I enjoyed doing this one, it helped me get some motivation back. Remember, reviews keep me going!!