Terra removed the stopper and took in a deep breath as she prepared herself for the super-sweet taste of the herbal potion, as well as the bazaar effects that would linger for several moments afterward. With a last hesitation, she swallowed the thick, greenish-blue liquid and grimaced as she handed the glass bottle back to Edgar. The liquid slid down her throat slowly, causing her whole body to shiver as it’s healing effects tingled and warmed her insides. The burning in her brain receded a bit, making it easier for her to ignore, and the sparks that had begun to cascade through her body from toe to fingertips all but disappeared. She swallowed several times, desperately trying to clear the remaining sticky substance from her mouth as her limbs began to feel a little heavier than normal. The heaviness was due to the effects of the potion and would pass quickly.

“Better?” Edgar asked.

Terra gave Edgar a small nod. “Better.”

“Good, because our company is getting closer,” Locke warned.

Terra sent them a look, carefully gauged the challenge, and decided that there really wasn’t any. “Nothing to worry about.”

Setzer smirked and lightly fingered his deck of cards. “Well said, but a challenge nonetheless. We have, after all, been out of the fighting business for quite a while.”

There was a brief tingling at the base of her skull followed by a pop in each of her ears that quickly faded. Terra sent Setzer a smile. “Come on, gambler, are you telling me you’ve forgotten how to use those cards of yours?” She slowly pulled her sword from it’s sheath and sent Edgar a wink. “Come on, let’s show them how it’s done.”

“Terra! Wait!”

Edgar tried to grab her arm, but she took off with a war cry that scattered the less assured ruffians while causing the more arrogant ones to gather around her. Their move blocked any avenue of escape she might have had. The trio stared after her with shocked gazes.

“What’s gotten into her? She’s never been this way before,” Locke said in confusion.

Edgar holstered his chain saw and hurried forward after her. “It’s the potion,” he shouted over his shoulder. “It has to be!”

“What kind of potion did you give her,” Locke asked as he followed. “Have you had that thing in your pocket your whole life or something?”

“No,” Edgar shot back. “It’s reacting to whatever is causing Terra to be ill.”

Locke grit his teeth. “Remind me to tell you---”

“Save the Philosophy lesson. We’ve got work to do,” Setzer said calmly as he palmed at least 5 cards. “She may be a good fighter, but she’s not as powerful as she used to be. Not only that, I believe 5 or 6 Zozoians would be too much for any woman.”

Locke’s gaze followed Setzer’s and he groaned. “Man, we can’t take her anywhere without some kind of trouble.”

Setzer shook his head and sent Locke a smirk. “What are you saying? Leave her home? That would go over well.”

“It’s a thought, okay? Take her flank, Setzer. Edgar, take the--- Edgar!”

Edgar had already begun hacking his way through the closest residents in order to attempt a clearing of Terra’s right side. Setzer flung his razor sharp cards at the Zozoians attacking her rear and they whistled through the air with a high-pitched whine before hitting their mark with a thud followed by a pain-filled cry.

Locke grinned. “Show-off!” He made his way to one of the last shrouded figures and readied his Gradius and Swordbreaker. Before he could attack, though, he was disarmed and staring stupidly at the black figure that had done the deed. “What the---”

“You need practice,” the dark figure said to Locke.

Locke could hear the familiar cool detachment in the voice and sent the figure a shocked look. “Shadow, what are you doing here? I thought you were dead.”

“Death and I have an arrangement.” Shadow returned Locke’s weapons and silently dispatched the last Zozoian with a shuriken to the throat. “Interceptor smelled trouble."

“Oh wonderful. Now we’ve got a psychic dog added to this crazy bunch.”

Shadow was silent a moment and knelt down to retrieve his shuriken from the gurgling throat of the barely conscious victim. Locke cringed and looked away.

“I suggest you go home to your woman, Locke,” Shadow finally said. “Your mind is anywhere but here.”

“My mind is just fine,” Locke said as Setzer came to stand beside him. Edgar, on the other hand, was desperately trying to calm Terra down. “I knew it was you all the time.” Setzer raised an eyebrow with a chuckle and Locke continued. “So, where’s your dog?”

“He picked up a strange trail and decided to investigate. He will know when he is needed.”

Locke shook his head before turning to check on Edgar’s progress. Terra was still anything but her usual self.

“There is evil at work here,” Shadow told them in his usual somber tone. “The people of this town are uneasy and prone to fights amongst themselves.”

“Aren’t they always?” Setzer asked.

“Not like this. People act differently when here. I haven’t yet been able to determine the reason, but it’s evil. Of this I am sure.”

Locke looked over at Terra and rubbed at his scalp before sending the ninja a probing stare. “Have you noticed any kind of symptoms?”

“Of medicines I know little. All I know is what I see and what Interceptor senses. Things are not right here.”

“How come Setzer and I are okay then?”

Shadow was silent for a long moment before answering. “Are you?”

Locke and Setzer exchanged a glance. “We get your point,” Locke said.

“We have been a little more short-tempered than usual, my friend.” Setzer offered.

“Yeah. It’s just that I hate the fact that some low-life took Terra’s kids, Setzer. It makes me feel helpless, useless, and generally hopeless because there wasn’t anything we could do about it. I don’t think it has anything to do with Zozo or whatever ‘evil’ is here.”

“Perhaps it is reaching outside of Zozo,” Shadow said.

“Doubt it. Terra was fine until she stepped inside here. Then, wham, heart beat going like mad and temperature through the roof.”

Again, Shadow was quiet for a long time. “There is a connection between this evil and Terra.”

“Then what’s the connection between it and the people who actually live here?” To that, Shadow gave no answer. He simply turned and made his way to Edgar and Terra. Locke followed with a slow exhalation of breath. “Didn’t I say it before? A walking freak show, that’s what he is,” he grumbled.

Setzer smirked and pocketed his cards with a shake of his head.

“What is the matter with you,” Edgar asked harshly. “You scared me to death with your foolhardy charge into those brigands. Are you mad, woman?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Terra said, her voice edged with annoyance and anger. “I’ve been in tougher situations than that when I was on my own and lived through them just fine.”

“Terra,” Edgar said through clenched teeth. “You’re not alone anymore. When will you finally realize that?”

“Well maybe if you’d visited me once and awhile I wouldn’t feel as if I were,” she shot back. “You ever think of that?”

Edgar pressed his lips together and let out a slow breath. The guilt he felt at the truth of her last statement helped him get his temper back under control. “We are not discussing me---”

“Of course not,” Terra cut in sharply. “We can never talk about you. Something might slip out that would give us a clue as to what you really think about anything or anyone. We couldn’t have that, could we?”

The venom in her tone shocked him and he flinched.

“I mean, after all, if you started talking about yourself you might need to actually trust someone with something and that just isn’t acceptable for King Edgar of Figaro Castle! He has to be a mystery. He has to be a stranger to everyone who cares!”

Setzer, Locke, and Shadow had gathered around her by this time and they stared at her flushed face and wild eyes in amazement. Edgar was speechless, not even really hearing the insults being hurled at him because of the hatred that made her eyes burn. Had he ever seen her like that before? “Terra,” he asked slowly, “what’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing,” she snapped. “I am getting so sick and tired of you people running around under my feet like little bugs trying to figure out what’s wrong with me when nothing is. Edgar, what do you take me for? Some kind of weakling? Some waif bawling for a handout?”

Edgar blinked. The calm, compassionate, overly sensitive woman he had known for -- what was it? Years? Months? -- she was gone. Vanished. Disappeared without a trace to be replaced by the seething, glassy-eyed, flushed-faced woman now before them. Edgar was at a loss for words, as were the others. “Terra---” Edgar attempted again.

“No,” she snarled. “No more, ‘Terra, what’s wrong?’ No more ‘Terra, don’t cry.’ I’ve had it up to here with your smooth talk and flirting. It’s all lies and you know it! Just leave me alone and quit babying me!”

With that, Terra turned with a rage-filled screech and ran into one of the many dilapidated buildings that the citizens of Zozo had the misfortune of calling home. Edgar watched her go with a dead weight in the pit of his stomach. He felt more alone now than he ever had as a young king of Figaro. All the secret feelings and doubts he had ever told her had been thrown back in his face as if they had been lower than imp slime. It hurt. It hurt a whole lot and she seemed to like it that way.

Locke broke the shocked silence. “Who was that? It wasn’t Terra, that I know for sure.”

Setzer nodded and fingered his cards in thoughtful silence.

“I don’t know,” Edgar said in a quiet voice. “I don’t know anything anymore.”

“What made our dear Terra go off like that? I didn’t think she had a hostile bone in her body,” Setzer said calmly.

Shadow knelt down and studied the ground in silence.

Edgar shook his head. “She doesn’t.”

Setzer hesitated. “I believe you should re-think that. Apparently, she does.”

Edgar looked off in the direction Terra had taken and narrowed his eyes. “Was it her,” he asked, almost to himself.

“What do you mean: ‘was it her?’ You heard and saw her with your own eyes. We all did,” Locke said.

Edgar shook his head. “It wasn’t Terra. I don’t know who that was.”

Locke’s eyes opened wide and his mouth gaped in shock. “Are you on something?"

Edgar turned his head to meet Locke’s wide-eyed gaze and then threw his arms up in the air. “I don’t know, Cole. I don’t know. All the time I was trying to seduce her on the ship I didn’t feel a thing. Not a spark, tingle, or blasted bit of warmth!"

“Pardon me,” Setzer interrupted with a hand on Edgar’s arm. “Seduce? What sort of game have you been playing with Terra’s heart?”

“We’ll tell you later,” Locke mumbled.

Setzer raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms in silent protest.

Edgar’s hands dropped to his sides and his eyes glazed with a faraway expression as he went on. “Before... Before there was light. There were flames. Passion. Everything I had searched for and never found. Terra and I didn’t need to touch for the spark to be there.”

“Maybe you’re just getting over her,” Locke offered.

Edgar gave Locke an incredulous glance. “Getting over Terra is as likely as getting over living or breathing. My friend, it simply does not happen. When I went to visit her for the first time since the battle with Kefka, my breath nearly left me completely when I saw her resting so innocently on the grass. The desire to spirit her away nearly overcame my reason. You remember how it is, Cole, don’t you? Just being by her side set my skin on fire!”

Locke turned his head away. “I remember.”

“Even at the castle I was tempted to have the Chancellor put me in chains so that I would not give in to temptation.” He turned away. “Terra felt so good in my arms...”

“And on the ship?”

Edgar sighed. “As I told you before, on our way to Jidoor she opened up to me. She talked about how she felt and why.”

“So, when did it change?”

“When we left Jidoor,” Edgar said miserably. “I wanted to kiss her so bad, Cole, but I’ll be hanged if I felt a blasted thing when I touched her face or kissed her hand. There was nothing! Not a single spark!”

Locke turned to Setzer. “Was she in your sight the entire time that Edgar and I were in Jidoor?”

Setzer thought about it for several moments as he absently shuffled his cards. “Terra came aboard and immediately went below deck.”

“Drat,” Locke mumbled as he rubbed his scalp.

“I don’t know what to think, Cole,” Edgar went on. “Is it her? Is it me? Was it my imagination?”

“That tongue-lashing certainly wasn’t,” Locke reminded carefully.

“So what am I to think? It’s almost as if someone had Berserked her, but magic no longer exists. According to Strago, anyway. The statues were magic and we had to destroy them in order to battle Kefka. Conceivably, magic no longer exists. Is that correct?”

Setzer put a hand on Edgar’s shoulder. “There are many things we don’t understand about magic and Espers, my friend. Who’s to say that Terra hasn’t drawn a bad hand?”

Edgar clenched his jaw. “Don’t you think I am well aware of the kind of hand she’s been dealt? Her father an Esper and herself captured by the Empire. Her mother murdered by Gestahl. Terra didn’t even know to which ‘race’ she truly belonged: human or Esper. To make matters worse, she never learned how to care for someone because of being raised by the Empire - the details of which still remain a mystery to us because of her memory loss - and then wearing that accursed Slave Crown most of her life---”

“Edgar.” Locke gestured to the top of a building. “Edgar, what’s that?”

A strange, purplescent glow lit up the sky and burned their eyes if they tried to examine it for longer than a mere moment. Edgar pounded the ground with the haft of his spear in thought and then strode toward the building. ‘I want some answers,’ he thought harshly. ‘I’m bloody well going to get them!’

“I believe it would be safe to assume we’re soon to find out,” Setzer offered.

“No kidding.” Locke followed Edgar with a shake of his head. “This whole thing just keeps getting weirder and weirder. Kidnapping, strange lights, stranger women.... I should have stayed at home and helped Celes make those blasted garlands for the wedding.”

“How charming. Locke weaving flowers.” Setzer chuckled under his breath and palmed a couple cards. “I would pay money to see that.”

Shadow followed silently behind them, his eyes searching the alleys for danger.

Locke caught up with Edgar. “Do you have a Remedy you could give her?”

“No. I never cared for that powder. It always caused me to sneeze. Plus, it was always so expensive.”

“Edgar, who cares? It might help better than that potion you gave her, or whatever it was.”

“I have one,” a voice said from behind.

Locke gave a start and sent Shadow a glare. “Don’t do that! You’re going to give me a complex!”

Shadow ignored him. “If it will help her, I will give it to you.”

Edgar sent the ninja a reluctant smile. “Thank you, Shadow, but before we give it to her I’d like to know what’s causing the problem in the first place.” The others nodded. “It’s just so strange,” Edgar continued, almost to himself. “One moment she’s fine and the next she’s going wild-eyed crazy and taking off for the hills. It couldn’t be anyone but her because she’s not been out of our sight long enough to do any kind of switch, or whatever they would attempt.”

“I cast my vote for Esper intervention,” Setzer said.

“Espers are dead.” Locke paused and sent Setzer a strange look. “Aren’t they?”

“Don’t be so sure,” Setzer said in a lazy tone of voice. “Like I said before, we don’t know a lot about them. Maybe they just... I don’t know, warped to a different dimension and now they’re calling to her. It could be anything.”

“Then why only the people of Zozo?” Edgar asked.

“Maybe it has nothing to do with Zozo,” Locke insisted. “These people always were on the darker side of insane. Besides, living in a hole like Zozo the way the world is now? It would drive me insane.” Locke sent Setzer a look. “Don’t say it.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“I hate to argue with you, Shadow,” Locke went on, “but I really believe I’m right. I’m not saying there isn’t anything ‘evil’ going on in Zozo. There always is. I just don’t think it has anything to do with Zozo. Maybe that’s why the guy doing that freakin’ light show chose Zozo in the first place. Cover.”

Shadow nodded and Edgar was surprised. “Locke, old boy, you must be on to something if Shadow doesn’t argue with you.”

“I try,” Locke said with a grin.

Setzer smirked. “Try harder. Maybe we’ll solve this before the day is over and get to go home to wine and women this evening."

“Here, here,” Locke agreed.

‘I only wish to return home with Terra,’ Edgar thought to himself.

They entered the building into which Terra had disappeared and Shadow froze in the dark hallway. He crouched, 3 shuriken in his hand. Edgar didn’t even hesitate before readying his spear and checking to make sure his chain saw was prepared for a quick change. Setzer was absently shuffling his razor-edged cards as his eyes narrowed to scan the distant shadows and Locke was nonchalant as he pulled his blades free.

“What is it?” Edgar whispered. His eyes strained against the dimness of the hallway, but his untrained eyes couldn’t even detect movement. “What do you see?”

“An old friend,” came Shadow’s stealthy reply.

Edgar, Setzer, and Locke exchanged raised eyebrows and then turned to again search the shadows. What they saw made their hearts freeze in their chest. The man was tall with eyes so evil they seemed black and endless when Edgar looked straight into them. He wasn’t muscular by any means, but there radiated such a power from him that the group took a step back before they realized what they were doing. All but Shadow. A firm determination emanated from him that heightened when the figure stepped from the blackness that he seemed to create by his mere existence.

“Ledo,” Setzer and Shadow said at once.

“We meet again.”

The voice was strange in that it didn’t seem to fit with the rest of his body. It was almost as if the deep rumble came from the air instead of the man in front of them. Edgar didn’t like it and sent Locke a glance that conveyed as much. Locke simply grimaced and adjusted his grip on his daggers.

“This is my home,” he continued. “I don’t take kindly to people barging in with weapons drawn.”

Edgar took a step forward, carefully adjusting the grip on his spear. “As we ‘don’t take kindly’ to people kidnapping children.” A chuckle rumbled deep in the floorboards of the building and Edgar’s stomach twisted. “Where is Terra and where are her children?” The chuckling began again and Edgar clenched his jaw to control his rising anger.

“Please, please,” Ledo said in a sarcastic sneer, “let’s not waste this precious time together by speaking of them.”

“Then you do have them,” Locke said sharply.

Ledo chuckled. “I didn’t say that. You assumed that I knew whom you happen to be searching for.” He changed his gaze to Shadow. “It’s been so long. What have you been doing with yourself.” Shadow didn’t speak and Ledo appeared annoyed. “Come, come. Are you still angry about that woman? It’s been years. Let bygones be bygones.” Again, Shadow was silent.

“Mister,” Locke spoke up in a careless voice, “we don’t give a fig about your ‘bygones’ with Shadow. All we want is our friend. Tell us where she is or...” He lifted his blades with a smile. “Or face the consequences.”

“You have the nerve to threaten me in my house,” Ledo asked in an angry voice. “You should quake in your shoes at the sight of me, little man!”

Locke’s cold gray eyes looked the man up and down before he adjusted his grip. “Sure, at first glance you’d curdle cream, but I can assure you we’ve seen worse. Beaten them too. My friends and me will give you one more chance. Terra. Where is she?”

There was a bright flash, several shouts as the group’s eyes reacted violently to the sudden change, and then all was dark silence.

Locke sheathed his blades with a sharp motion and put his fists on his hips. “What a freakin’ pansy! I was looking forward to poppin’ the guy once or twice.”

Shadow was still cautious, but his stance relaxed somewhat. “Ledo is a techno-mage. He has never failed to see the importance of a well-timed retreat.” The ninja knelt where Ledo had stood and touched the ground with a few fingers, then his palm. Edgar and Locke came to where he was while Setzer hung back.

“What is it, Shadow?” Edgar sounded as if he were wary of the answer. “What’s wrong?”

“He was never here.” Shadow straightened, his eyes searching the dim hallway as his sensitive senses tested the air.

Locke slapped his leg with his cap. “I thought so,” he mumbled.

“Locke?” Edgar asked the question with a raised eyebrow.

“I don’t know how to explain it. After I got over the initial shock of the guy’s ugly face, something wasn’t right.” Locke shrugged. “I don’t know what it was. Maybe it was the way the shadows flickered on his armor or something. It’s an instinct, Edgar. That’s what I get for how I’ve lived my entire life. A sixth sense.”

“It would have been nice if you’d let us on to it before challenging him in our name, my friend,” Setzer told him. “There are still many women I have yet to make love to.”

Locke actually smiled. “Hey, Setzer, I’m not exactly in a big rush to check out either, you know. Celes would kill me if I missed our wedding.”

Edgar had been watching Shadow as he examined the foreign technology in the room and didn’t like the look on his face. When the ninja was in the far corner, Edgar left Setzer and Locke to their jovial discussion and followed him.

“Shadow, is this techno-mage responsible for the kidnapping of Terra’s children and her own strange behavior? Or even of that purplescent glow we saw on the roof?”

Shadow paused his examination of some strange wires and pierced Edgar’s eyes with his own. “Ledo is capable of much, Edgar. He seeks power and will do all possible to receive this power.”

Edgar knelt down and continued to hold the ninja’s gaze. “But Terra and her children? Why?”

“We have not actually seen proof of the children’s disappearance,” Shadow reminded, “and Terra was much feared and hated by the Empire. He who controls her, controls much power.”

“The Empire no longer exists and her power left her with the disappearance of magic.” Shadow turned away and didn’t respond. Edgar took in a deep breath and nodded. “All right, Shadow. All right. I understand. Rebel forces always exist, whether evil or good. Unfortunately, it’s a fact of life. One cannot have good without the presence of evil. As for the reality behind the lust for her power... Terra’s Esper power was never understood. Who are we to say it still doe not lay dormant? Hidden for safekeeping until it was once again needed.”

Shadow stood. “These wires lead upstairs,” he observed.

“Then let’s go.” Edgar returned to the others and tried to keep thoughts of Terra well hidden.

Terra cowered in a corner of a dingy room, her nose burning at the stench as she dropped her head between her knees. Her arms tightened around them and she stifled the sobs. Memories hit her like bombs of light. Memories she had buried long ago. Terra felt herself slipping beneath them. Losing her identity in the bombardment of images from her time with the Empire.

Droning tones of people telling her how to make every blow count.

Mysterious voices filled with hate accusing her of murder and acts too numbing to recall, even now.

Times on the battlefield defeating yet another hopeless cause.

The charred bodies and spilled blood of innocent soldiers at her hand.

Thousands mutilated and tortured at the simple request of a mad man.

Screaming children crying in the darkness of her mind. For their parents long dead. For their homes long since burned.

The memory that hurt her the most, however, was the one of Edgar.

What is wrong with you, he had snarled and his eyes had held such anger. ‘But why wouldn’t he listen to me? Why did he keep accusing me of things I didn’t do?’ She had desperately tried to hold back the tears, but she hadn’t been that strong. They had come and Edgar had launched a fresh attack. ‘No more “Terra what’s wrong?” No more “Terra, don’t cry.” Stop expecting me to baby you all the time!’ He had yelled at her. And he had said so many things, the others just staring at her in silence as if they agreed. ‘What went wrong? What happened to the Edgar I knew before...’

Her kids were gone.

Her friends no longer cared.

And Edgar...

Terra wanted to die.

She moaned, the pain beginning again. Throbbing, streaks of fire and ice. Bright light. Voices. Pain. Terra gripped her head in her hands and screamed, her lungs and throat burning with the intensity of it. Even the crumbling walls seemed to shake with the vibration of the agony.

“Stop! Stop!”

Terra screeched, but the pain went on, growing in fury as she attempted to fight it. The voices didn’t stop. The volume grew and Terra fell to her side, tucking her knees to her chin as her hands tightened their grip on her head. Voices. Whispers. Screams. Laughter... Terra screeched and screamed until her throat was raw and bloody.

She blacked out.

Edgar looked up sharply, his eyes narrowing. “What on earth is that?”

Locke and Setzer exchanged a glance, but Shadow examined Edgar’s face and began to listen.

“What’s what?” Locke asked. “I don’t hear anything.”

Edgar continued to listen and his face went pale. “It’s Terra.” He turned to the others and his eyes were desperate. “We must find her,” Edgar insisted. “They’re torturing her!”

“What?” Locke listened again. “I don’t hear anything, Edgar.”

“You can’t hear that?” Edgar gestured wildly behind him at the ascending stairs. “Locke, she’s screeching loud enough to wake the dead!”

“No, I can’t hear it,” Locke said again. “Where’s it coming from?”

Edgar looked a little green by now as he looked around the building. “I don’t know... It’s all around---” He broke off and his eyes glossed over with terror. “It stopped.”

Locke cringed. “I hope she’s okay.”

“What now,” Setzer asked softly.

Shadow stepped forward, his gloved hand resting on the massive head of the beast he called Interceptor. The dog’s black hair was bristling and the growl that rumbled deep in his chest was threatening.

“Interceptor has found something.”

“Don’t stand there, man,” Edgar said harshly. He gestured at the stairs behind him. “Where is she?”

“There is a trail leading out of Zozo---”

“No,” Edgar cut in. “I heard Terra here. In Zozo. I shall not leave to wander after some mysterious trail!”

“Edgar,” Locke reasoned with hands outstretched, “we don’t know that she’s even still here. We can’t search each building hoping we’ll trip onto something. This is the best lead we’ve had all day!”

Edgar strode up to Locke with such a look of rage on his face that Locke actually took a step back. The treasure hunter, in all the years he had known King Edgar of Figaro, had never seen him like this. ‘Well I’ll be,’ he thought suddenly, ‘he really does love her, doesn’t he?’ And that shocked him. How many times had Edgar told him of his most recent conquest, all the while chuckling at the naïveté of the woman when she believed his ‘I care for you’ line.

“Cole, it doesn’t matter to me if this is the only lead we receive,” Edgar was saying. His tone was a harsh whisper. “I shall not leave Zozo without her. Leave me by myself, it won’t matter. I’m bringing her out alive and in one piece.”

“We can’t leave you in a place like this on your own! That’s a suicide mission!”

“So you would leave Terra?”

“I didn’t say that,” Locke protested harshly. “Don’t twist my words.”

“Then you better say what you mean, Cole, and quickly for I’m leaving with or without you.”

Locke glanced over at Setzer, who shrugged and turned away, and then changed his eyes to Shadow and Interceptor. Shadow seemed withdrawn, even more so than usual, and that made Locke uneasy. “What do you say Shadow? It’s your dog. Do you think the trail is bogus or the real deal?”

Interceptor grumbled and sat on his haunches as he licked his chops, his black eyes pinning Locke’s gray ones.

“It is real,” Shadow said.

“Will it still be there, say, in an hour’s time?”

“That I cannot say, but to risk it could mean losing the trail permanently.”

Locke nodded absently and turned back to Edgar.

“You know I cannot leave her,” Edgar said. He was more controlled and the hands gripping his spear were the only indication of his struggle. “I must find her, Locke. I must.”

“Yeah,” Locke agreed reluctantly and reached out his hand. “Yeah, I know.”

Edgar took hold of Locke’s outstretched hand. “I have cheated death many a time, Locke Cole. Do not be sure you have seen the last of me yet.”

Edgar turned away and ascended the stairs, his cape fluttering in the breeze giving him a melodramatic appearance. When he disappeared around the corner at the top of the staircase, Locke finally turned away.

“Smug old scratch,” he mumbled.

Setzer chuckled and followed as Locke led the group back out into the rainy afternoon. When Shadow took the lead, Locke glanced over his shoulder at the building once more before following them. Locke clenched his jaw. ‘Good luck, my friend.’

“She’s rejecting it. I told you this would happen!"

“She is rejecting nothing. Be patient and have faith. Her body is adjusting. It takes time.”

“We don’t have time!”

“Procedures such as this cannot be rushed. She is a unique specimen and must be handled accordingly.”

“Unique specimen....” The voice grumbled.

“Have I failed you thus far?” Silence. “Then leave her to me.”

Blood trickled from Terra’s ears and she awoke with a groan. The pain had faded, but she could feel it waiting, perched at the outer edge of her brain biding it’s time. Patiently gauging the appropriate instance to renew it’s presence and power. Terra stared vacantly at her hands, unbound, and numbly wondered why she didn’t flee. ‘Flee? Am I in danger?’ She wasn’t sure. She wasn’t sure of anything. Disjointed images, blurred memories, and jumbled emotions were the only thoughts that greeted Terra. The effort required to make sense of them caused a muted throbbing behind her eyes.

Terra struggled to her feet, leaning almost her entire weight against the moldy brick wall. Rats scurried from under her and she moaned again, the sound of rushing blood all she could hear. ‘Where... Where am I?’ She tried to remember and the pulsating in her brain stopped her. It hurt too much. ‘I need to get out of here...’ However, she suddenly didn’t know why. When she had first awoken, there had been an underlying sense of fear and desperation. Now it was replaced by a strange sort of calm. Peace. Belonging. Terra rubbed at her forehead with a frown of mild confusion. Something wasn’t right. She felt disconnected and numb for brief moments and then a drug-like feeling of peace followed.

Something warm trickled down her jaw and she rubbed at it with a cringe. When she pulled her hand away from her face, it was smeared with blood. She wiped the liquid on her leggings with an absent motion and took a few steps forward. A strange longing to be outside kept pulling her forward. ‘Outside. I must get outside. Everything will be alright once I am outside... Fly.’ The thought struck her as familiar, and yet it seemed odd. ‘I can’t fly in a building,’ she finally reasoned. ‘I would hurt myself---’

Pain seared through every corner of her brain and Terra screeched in terror, her hands grabbing fistfuls of matted hair as she collapsed to the floor. Sewer rats clambered up and over her, sniffing, scratching, and biting at her, but she could only feel the burning in her head. The melting... The boiling... The agony... She screamed again and the rats scurried away when she began to thrash.

Then was still.

“Ledo, what have you done?!” A voice screeched. “You’ve killed her! What good is she to me dead?”

Ledo turned from the massive array of machinery and crystals with a dangerous gleam in his black eyes. “Terra Branford is an Esper, you fool. Espers do not die.”

The short, fat, balding man pointed a chubby finger at the glass tubes that held moving pictures of the cells in Zozo. “What did I just see then?” He pointed at more glass tubes and then wagged his finger in Ledo’s face. “Even your precious demon-machines say she’s dead,” he snapped. “You failed and you’re through in this ‘industry’ of yours. You’ll never---”

Ledo struck out with a gargantuan hand, blue-white sparks leaping from his gloved fingers to the fat man’s chest. The man fell back, his eyes permanently open in a shocked gaze of death as Ledo turned away.

Edgar rounded the corner and flinched at the repulsive odor that nearly made his toenails curl. He coughed a couple times, brought a kerchief up to his nose and mouth, and then fumbled around in his pockets for a match. ‘Blast! Never a light when you need one---’ His foot rubbed against something and he knelt down to touch it as he squinted in the blackness. It was cold to the touch and Edgar shook his head. ‘Another body,’ he told himself as he straightened. Edgar had found three already: two men and one woman. All of them had held such an expression of agony on their faces that it had nearly turned his stomach.

Edgar turned and left the room, closing the rickety door softly behind him with a sigh. ‘Poor soul. To die in a place like that...’ He hoped he wouldn’t find Terra in such a position and his mind steered away from the possibility. But Terra persisted in fluttering in and out of his mind like a determined butterfly. Teasing him with memories of touches and laughter that he dreamed meant more than they probably had. Then there was the strange reaction he had felt toward her while on their way to Zozo. Feelings could not disappear in less than an hour, that he knew, but he also knew that his reaction couldn’t be logically reasoned away. It was frustrating and did nothing to alleviate his growing rage. Terra wasn’t to blame, but someone was and they were going to pay with their life.

There was a slight scratching to Edgar’s right and he turned sharply, his spearhead instinctively poised at the point of origin. It was a door. The scratching sounded again and Edgar stepped closer, lifting the bar across the door with his spear. It dropped away and the door swung open, the hinges screeching in protest. Edgar rushed forward, dropping his spear and chain saw with an exclamation as he knelt down by the bloody figure of a young woman. He pulled her into his lap and wiped the blood from her face and eyes as well as he could. Her opened eyes didn’t react to the movement and Edgar dug in his pocket for everything he owned. Potions, Eye Drops, Antidotes, Echo Screens, and many others.

Edgar carefully measured two drops of the eye salve into her eyes and watched as they began to track motion and sound. He sighed, but didn’t dare let himself relax. Instead, he popped the cork from the potion and gently lifted her higher to ladle the honey-like mixture of herbs and roots into her mouth. Minutes passed and he continued his gentle ministration of the potion, keeping his eagle eyes on her staggered breathing that rattled in his ears and on the ghostly whiteness of her clammy skin.

“Come on, Terra,” he whispered close to her ear. “Fight this thing. Fight it like I know you can.” He gently massaged the liquid down her throat with a finger lightly stroking her neck and paused long enough to wrap his cloak around her when her light tremors began to worsen. “I will not leave you,” he promised softly. Edgar ladled more of the potion into her mouth and caressed her cracked lips with a finger. “I will not leave you ever again, Terra. You have my word.”

When the last of the potion had finally trickled down her throat, and her breathing had become less of a struggle, Edgar carefully lifted her into his arms and stood. ‘If there is a God in charge of this detestable planet we live on, then let me get out of this hell-hole without a problem.’ He didn’t think it was too much to ask, but then again, what did he know of God and His time schedule. Edgar pressed his lips together and stepped into the hall, not caring that his spear and chain saw were still lying on the bloody cell floor.

He would be hanged if he let anyone stop him from leaving Zozo.

An odd sound gurgled in Terra’s throat and Edgar looked down at her pasty white face. The healing effect of the potion wasn’t working on her internal bleeding. She needed an alchemist or someone more knowledgeable than he, at least. Edgar was at a loss as to what to do to keep her from drowning in her own blood and that feeling of helplessness quickened his step.

“Where are you off to in such a hurry, mister?”

Edgar halted mid-step, his jaw tightening. “That is none of your affair.”

“Well, well. Ain’t we the King of Figaro with your high-falootin’ way of yammerin’.”

Edgar didn’t turn, nor did he think it wise to own up to how close the hoodlum was to the truth.

“Ain’t you a pretty sight,” the man sneered. “I’m thinkin’ I want me some of those pretty clothes of yours.”

Edgar gently laid Terra on the floor and shrugged out of his deep purple cape, his richly embroidered vest and jacket, and took off the gem-encrusted cufflinks on his white silk shirt. He put them in a heap beside him, still without turning, and then lift Terra into his arms once more.

“Well I’ll be,” the Zozoian cooed. “That was easier than guttin’ a stuck pig.”

“If that is all...”

“Now don’t be in such a rush there, mister. I sure could use a new pair of boots.”

Edgar finally sent a look over his shoulder at the haggard, half-starved ruffian and raised an eyebrow. “If you keep me one more moment, I shall give you a boot directly in your ass, you swine. I have given you more than you deserve and I shall take it back if you ask for more.”

The Zozoian was so shocked at that response that Edgar was able to exit the building before he was even able to stutter out a reply. Edgar listened for his footsteps and let out a thankful breath when there were none. ‘Now for the final walk through Main Street,’ Edgar muttered to himself. He knew that he didn’t have enough to bribe the entire city and, unless he found a weapon on his way out of town, he was defenseless as well. ‘I’m a fool for leaving behind my spear.’ But he knew that he wouldn’t have been able to carry Terra and the weapon.

Terra moaned and began to thrash. Edgar increased his grip on her as he continued to stumble forward.

“Do be still,” he mumbled. She proceeded to unknowingly hit him on the side of the face and neck. “Stop it, woman. You’ll hurt yourself more than you have already.”

Terra groaned and whimpered, her arms still flailing while her upper and lower body twisted and writhed against Edgar’s grip. He stumbled to a halt, barely 0 yards from the exit of Zozo, and desperately attempted to adjust his slipping hold.

“Terra, if you don’t quiet down we’re going to have a lot of unwelcome visitors.” She cried out and arched her back, her arms and legs suddenly going rigid. Edgar staggered to keep his balance under the sudden change. “What is it,” he asked as he slowly knelt.

Her eyes drifted wildly, not focusing on anything, and her body remained stiffly arched. Edgar repositioned her in his arms, his eyes continuing to search for danger in the surrounding buildings, and gently began rocking her back and forth. He pressed his lips against her forehead. ‘What do I do? Is she dying? Is she still under the influence of that blasted craziness? Is it me? Is it Zozo?’ Edgar couldn’t keep up with the questions and they were beginning to make him feel an odd sense of paranoia. An urge to flee and leave Terra to the mercy of the residents nearly overwhelmed him.

“No,” he snapped. “I will not leave her.”

Edgar stared down at her contorted, pale face and pressed his lips together as he pulled his arms out from under her. He took a firm and gentle hold of her face, took in a slow, deep breath, and lowered his head to press his lips against hers. There was nothing. No response. No spark. No emotion. Edgar continued to kiss her in the only way he knew how. Passionately. Thoroughly. He kissed her the way he had dreamed of kissing her for so many months. Her lips were cold, unyielding, but he pressed on. His mouth became more coaxing as he desperately attempted to persuade the Terra he loved to come back to him.

Her body remained rigid, her back arched in protest. He used it the only way he knew how. Edgar wrapped his arms around her and pressed her closer against him until he could feel the steady beat of her heart against his chest.

Then it happened. Her lips began to move against his.

Sparks burst behind Edgar’s eyes and his lips turned to fire, the molten passion running a trail of ecstasy through his entire body as her response continued to grow. ‘She’s back,’ his brain shouted. ‘Terra’s back!’ Her arms wrapped themselves around his neck as her fingers buried themselves in his hair. Edgar’s scalp tingled as his mouth trailed down her neck. He pulled her so tight against him that she cried out in pain.

“Thank God,” he said against her neck in a strangled voice. Terra began to sob and he scooped her up into his arms, holding her against him as he strode forward.

75 yards.

“Edgar,” she sobbed in a rough voice. “Edgar, where am I? What’s going on---” She broke off with a shudder and Edgar picked up speed. “It hurts... My head is on fire, Edgar...” Terra breathed in sharply and shuddered so hard Edgar’s teeth were nearly jolted from his head.

“Hold on,” he whispered between deep puffs. “Hold on, Terra. We’re almost out of here.”

50 yards.

“Why is this h-happening? Wh-why me?” She convulsed, throwing Edgar off-balance for a moment, and a sharp cry was ripped from Terra’s throat.

“I’m sorry,” he said through clenched teeth as he regained his footing. “Did I hurt you?”

“N-no. It’s m-my---”

Terra broke off with a strangled scream as she began to claw at her face and ears. Panic made Edgar’s heart skip a beat and he began to run toward the exit of the dark city, her wails of agony ringing in his ears. When she went limp in his arms, Edgar could feel the blood drain from his face.

“Terra?” She didn’t stir and when he jostled her slightly, her head and arms fell back with no resistance. “Terra? Terra, do you hear me?” His voice sounded panicky and his mind somehow forced himself to continue forward. “No,” he said sharply as his eyes drifted to her body again and again. “Don’t you die on me, Terra Branford. Not now, blast it all! Not now!”

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