Oooh, I love writing fight scenes! Please let me know what you think of this, if it's too short, not enough description, too much description, etc. :D

11

As desperate as I was to take a shower, the miniscule one I took between leaving the training area and arriving at the gym wasn't enough to relax me. It didn't help that I had the duel with Seifer in mere minutes, a situation in which I had shot my own foot. I could have sworn I'd been prepared for anything Seifer threw at me, but that one... I suppose he'd had a lifetime learning how to get the upper hand, and that I'd been naive to think I could outwit him in the insults department.

I was seriously tempted not to show up, but I knew I'd never do that. No matter if I had to lock lips with the devil himself (which, by all accounts, I was coming close), I've never backed down from anything I didn't have to and wasn't about to start now. But why on earth had Seifer decided on that form of payback? Unbidden, the "Quistis Almasy" memory wiggled its way to the surface; I quickly brushed it aside, loathe to dwell on it or its implications. He'd been delerious at the time anyway, he couldn't be held accountable for anything he said or did... Nuh uh, I was NOT going to think about it.

Dressed in my normal workout clothing, a sleeveless green top and some grey shorts, I headed into the gym, moving through the co-ed locker rooms towards the large room used for duels and one-on-one matches. In not-too-distant history, before I had become an instructor, this room had been a regular hangout for those interested in putting their skills to the test against fellow classmates. Cid had eventually banned the practice when several fights had gotten out of hand, injuring students and a few onlookers as well when duels began to be more the norm. Fights over the members of the opposite sex, over supposed tarnished honor, over who got which bunk - the list went on and on, some more absurd than others. The room had been given the nickname of the Dueling hall, and while duels no longer went on in it since Cid ordered it under constant surveillance, the name.

I walked into the room to see Seifer warming himself up with a few swings of the gunblade. Surprisingly enough, he looked as nervous as I felt, at least in the first instant I walked through the door; the minute he saw me his face shifted to the smirk he always wore and he gave me a mock salute.

"So Instructor, ready to duel?" he said grandly, bowing slightly with his arms outstretched to the sides, his eyes not leaving mine.

"This isn't a duel and you know it Seifer," I stated coldly, pacing the mat but not taking my eyes off him. I fingered my whip as if for reassurance that it was there, that I had some sort of defense or weapon for this. He looked much too confident and, despite my faith in my own skills, I couldn't feel quite the same. I had seen him wield that gunblade on several occassions; how we ever beat him when Adel and Ultimecia controlled him I'll never know, but that was with three of us working together, never one on one.

"And here I thought you wouldn't be showing, Instructor," Seifer drawled, resting his weight on the gunblade. "Did I tear you away from your daily primping, hm?"

I touched my hair, still wet from the shower, and glowered at him. "Let's just get on with this," I muttered, unslinging Save The Queen and moving onto the main mat.

"Touchy, Instructor," he taunted, clearly enjoying himself. "It was your idea, don't forget."

Was it just me, or was he being even more annoying than usual? Realizing that was impossible, as he was already as annoying as it could get, I unfurled the whip in preparation of the battle. Sparks flew off the tip as it brushed against the ground, as if Save The Queen was looking forward to more battle. Hyne knew, it hadn't seen any real combat in weeks.

We circled each other slowly, nobody wanting to give ground first. Seifer still had the smirk on his face but his eyes had changed, become more concentrated on my movements. He made the first move, slashing the gunblade with blurring speed. There had been no warning, no tensing of muscles or that tiny crouch before pushing off, but I was ready nonetheless and danced out of the way, lashing out with the whip as he passed. He spun about too quickly, knocking the blow away then again launched himself at me. I darted to the left, twirling and bringing the whip around to again hit him, and again missed. Less than five seconds after starting, we were again facing one another.

"Not bad, Instructor," he remarked. Neither of us were panting, we hadn't really begun to fight yet. I guess we each were testing the other, weighing them against a portion of our own skill. I, for one, hadn't even begun to really get into it - I highly doubted that was the best Seifer could do if he'd taken three of us on before.

This time it was me who went on the offensive first, lashing out with the whip towards Hyperion. He knocked that aside easily, as I knew he would, and lunged at me. He was quick, I had to give him that as I had to do some very quick gymnastics to keep from being sliced by the gunblade, leaping high in the air, recoiling my whip, and lashing out all before my feet hit the mat. As I had hoped he himself jumped away from the whip's head, giving me a chance to get my feet back under me. Unfortunately, I'd given ground to him, moving back towards my end of the room even though it had been me attacking first. I could see he'd noticed the same thing, his smirk had widened but he didn't say anything as he again rushed silently toward me.

The next minute of fighting was by far one of the most intense sessions I've ever had outside of real combat. Neither of us were especially vocal as we fought; the silence was eerie, the only noises being those of the weapons hitting one another or the walls. He was faster with the gunblade than I had anticipated, each hand equally powerful when he switched ambidextrously depending on my position. At one point my whip lashed around his ankle, sweeping his feet out from under him, but even as he was going down and I thought I'd won the first session his finger closed around the gunblade trigger and I had to dodge extremely quickly to keep from being shot. He landed heavily on his back, but before I could take advantage of it he'd thrown his legs into the air, arched his back and landed gracefully on his feet again. "Is that the best you can do, *Instructor*?" he asked again. He wasn't even winded.

I wished I could say the same.

We stared at one another yet again, then took action at the same time. My whip lashed out and he knocked it sideways, just as I'd been hoping he would. He moved forward yet again and I yanked back on my weapon, making it come screaming back to meet him. Seifer must have seen what I was intending to do because his eyes widened, but he'd barely begun to dodge when the tip hit him in the back and exploded. I had to move out of the way as he was propelled forward and onto the ground behind me.

It was my turn to smirk as I watched him get agilely to his feet, turn and look at me like he'd never seen me before. "I believe that was one win for me," I said, watching him closely in case he tried to do anything. "And, one answer from you."

His face again became inscrutable, although his brow was furrowed just a bit. I half expected him to refuse, but not taking his eyes from me he muttered, "Ask."

"Has the reaction for everybody been as bad as it was at the train station and with Marcus since you arrived back?"

His eyes winced ever so slightly at the question but other than that there was no outward reaction. "Yes," he said darkly, his gaze never leaving mine.

"Why didn't you ever say anything?" I asked, frowning.

"Nope, that's two questions," Seifer replied and immediately attacked again. I was ready and danced out of the way, lashing out with my own weapon. Another two minutes passed, in which we parried, thrust, slashed, flung - very intense, believe me. Both of us were good with our respective weapons, it just remained to be seen who had more aces up their sleaves. By the time the two of us paused again we were both sweating, Seifer as much as me. It amazed me, quite frankly, what he could do with that gunblade of his; the thing had to weight at least thirty pounds, but he just twirled it about like it was a twig. The training for use of a gunblade was intense; I had been required to read up on it to get my teaching credentials, and it had given me new respect for both Squall and Seifer. Ninety percent of those who took it up eventually chose something else, unable to handle the rigorous training and manipulation of the heavy weapon.

The smirk was gone, his concentration completely on the fight - never a good thing when you were his opponent. I attacked first this time, lashing out even as I dove sideways to keep from being skewered. Save The Queen snaked inside his guard, wrapping around his arm and neck before he could dodge it. He slashed at it with Hyperion but it would take a great deal more than a sharp surface to sever my whip, and before he could aim the gunblade at me I yanked hard, rushing in at the same time to go after his lower body.

It worked, much to my surprise; his legs swept out from under him and he landed on his shoulder, getting immediately to his hands and knees. He stopped there though as I snapped the whip an inch from his face. "My second victory," I said smugly. He said nothing, just stared at the whip's tip on the ground before him as he stood up the rest of the way. I recoiled the whip back, intent that he not grab it.

"Why did you come back to Garden, Seifer?"

I could see his jaw clench and his eyes burn as he turned his gaze to me. The question hadn't been expected - good. Perhaps that would elicit an honest answer from him.

That hope was dashed when he smirked and said, "Because I could."

"Tell me the truth Seifer," I grit out, annoyed.

His eyes suddenly hardened and narrowed in anger, but as to why I had no idea. "Maybe that *is* the truth, Trepe." And with that he again launched himself at me.

If he had been holding back at all before, he wasn't anymore. There was no more room for me to attack anymore; all my concentration was focussed on defending myself from the slashes and blasts. Whips were not made to be close-range weapons, but I could no longer get the distance I needed; he kept invading my space so that none of my strikes, when I could fit one in, hit him. Whenever I did strike he dodged it easily, leaving me open and forced to do some very risky moves to avoid being slashed. He also started using his ammo, which had me leaping to and fro to dodge it. At one point I felt the bullet graze the calf of my left leg and I knew he wasn't just playing anymore. Maybe we never had been; I certainly hadn't held back any blows after the first bit. Watching him now though, I had the sinking suspicion that he might have been doing just that.

He was crowding too close, and I needed room to maneuver. It was time for something risky, and I leapt back to put distance between us. My back was less than two feet from the wall and I knew I was trapped, but I sent my whip high into the rafters above us. Not even tugging to make sure it was attached, I threw myself sideways as hard as I could. I heard the metallic sound of the gunblade slicing through the air where I had just been as my feet were lifted off the ground, the whip pulling tight and making me rise sideways up in the air like a pendulum. My feet connected with the wall briefly, barely a toe-hold, but it was enough to get me the forward momentum needed to swing the rest of the semi-circle and back to the ground. I whirled around to face Seifer, only to be stopped short before taking another step.

Panting slightly, I stared up the gunblade into the cold blue eyes of the winner of this match. How on earth had he managed to move so fast across the room? He was breathing hard, sweat pouring down his face just like mine, a couple of small scratches along his cheek and neck from where I had caught him unawares. I had similar scrapes all over my body, times when the blade came too close or the bullets had nearly struck home. Neither of us spoke, and only one thing was going through my mind.

I had lost. Oh Hyne, I had lost.