AN: Apologies to everyone who read the original version of this, but after the long hiatus whilst I worked on Hyne's Return (which is now finished! – shameless plug ;;), I've now come back and decided that I ~really~ need to work this one out because plot wise, now it's getting into the third 'book', it is really crappy and full of more holes than a bloody Swiss cheese!!  So, that is why the whole thing is being re-vamped and re-posted.  Gomen to all those who liked the original version, or are pissed that they have to now read it again, but like I said, it was getting impossible to write anything without contradicting something that was probably already contradicted elsewhere...feh, deal with it @_@

Oh yeah, and I'm changing the arc name from 'The History Repeating Arc' to 'The Sorcerer Arc' :)

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this chapter *sighs wistfully* wish I did, but then I'd be too busy with 'other things' to write this fic *leers evilly* - and yes, I may be too lazy to alter disclaimer, warning and AN text from the old versions, so don't use them as a guide to which chapters have been edited.  ~All~ chapters have been edited, just to varying degrees.

Warnings: Language, although I think there's an equal amount of swearing in the AN and the fic ";; oops... oh well..

Book One of the Sorcerer Arc ~ History Repeating ~ Chapter One ~ Two More Scars

Seifer Almasy's fiery gaze met its exact opposite and equal, the ice-cold gaze of Squall Leonhart.  How many years had passed since they last faced off like this?  Three?  Four?  He couldn't remember exactly - thanks to the GFs.  Sure they'd fought, no 'trained' together in that time (however long it was), but he could feel the tension that had been there that morning when it all began.  He could see that Squall could feel it too, could see the memories, like his own, lurking at the back of the brunette's mind.

But neither of them would back down for a feeling, not this time, not after the words that had been exchanged.

It had begun, as most arguments with Squall did, innocently enough.  And any other time Seifer would have been on a high from getting Squall to lose his temper as he had.  But...for some reason, he felt guilty.  Almost as if...well, as if what he didn't know, but he still felt goddamn awful.  He hadn't even meant things to get that out of hand, only, it seemed, after all these years, he had finally managed to strike a nerve.  The words he was saying had twisted, become sharper, uglier.  Fuck.  How different would things have been if he'd known all those years ago that yes, Squall was gay? 

Well, he knew now.  Along with the rest of garden...  Their ~very~ public argument in the quad had ensured that.  So now they were back where it had started before.  Back in the private training ground that they'd discovered together in the Balamb mountains.

Memories of that fateful day travelled idly through Seifer's mind as he absently blocked Squall's first testing, probing attacks.  Then the real attack started, and all thought was gone as the two SeeDs fought viciously back and forth across the bare mountain top.

There was a flash of lightning, a crack of thunder, and the downpour came from nowhere.  Seifer froze, memories suddenly cascading through his mind...

***FLASHBACK***

He could see the sudden storm had unnerved the younger teenager, who backed away as he pressed home his attack.  He almost laughed as Squall tripped over a rock and landed hard on his ass, almost.  Hyne, but the brunette had to be really freaked for that to happen. 

Seifer smirked as the younger teenager rose to a kneeling position.  Devilment flashed through his mind, and as Squall looked up, Hyperion flashed down...

As a line of blood suddenly welled up and ran over Squall's face, Seifer realised his error.  A few millimetres...  how the hell had he come so close?  He'd intended to miss by a good ten or fifteen centimetres - scare the boy, not scar him.  The sudden fear as he wondered what aiming closer might've done held Seifer motionless for the time it took Squall's lionheart to come flashing up...

***END FLASHBACK***

Squall's lionheart came flashing down...

The gleaming blade, glowing its usual eerie blue in the storm's half-light, sliced cleanly through cloth and skin as though they didn't exist.  Seconds later, eyes fixed on the dark trail of blood snaking down his opponent's blade, Seifer felt the burn of the wound.  But even as one hand, unbelieving, lifted to his throat, he was spinning, flinging his arm out so that, had Squall not swayed backwards, the brunette would have been decapitated by the bright blur of Hyperion's steel.

In the vacuum of silence that fell, a look of bewilderment spread across the SeeD commander's face as he too lifted a hand to his wound.  Bright red, even in the darkness, the blood spilling freely down his chest was slowly dying the white top a gory crimson.  Squall didn't seem to notice either the wound or the blood, his fingers instead flying to the Griever pendant that had, somehow, escaped the blade unscathed.

There was a sudden flash of lightning as the storm broke, and Seifer knew his wound was more serious than he had first thought.  His head was spinning and his vision blurred, and he could have sworn in that flash of lightning that he had seen shadowy wings wrapped around Squall.  The thunder rolled, loud in his ears, and Seifer saw Squall starting to cast a spell.  Then everything faded into darkness...

AN: Much better *grins*