"Terra! Wait!"
Edgar reached for her arm, but she easily dodged, charging forward with a war cry which scattered the less assured ruffians while causing the more arrogant ones to gather. The trio stared after her in shock.
"What's gotten into her? She's never been this way before," Locke said.
Edgar holstered his chain saw and hurried after her. "It's the potion," he shouted over his shoulder. "It must 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?"
"Don't be ridiculous. It must be reacting to whatever is causing Terra's illness."
Locke grit his teeth. "Remind me to tell you--"
"Save the Philosophy lesson. We've got work to do." Setzer palmed at least five cards. "She may be a good fighter, but she's not as powerful as she used to be. Not only that, I believe five or six 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 lips twitched upward. "What are you saying? Leave her home? That would go over well."
"It's a thought, right? Take her flank, Setzer. Edgar, take the--Edgar!"
But Edgar had already begun hacking a path through the closest residents, a somewhat vain attempt to clear Terra's right side. Setzer flung his razor sharp cards at the Zozoians attacking her flank. 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, he was disarmed and staring stupidly at the black figure who had done the deed. "What the--"
"You need practice," the dark figure said.
Locke heard the familiar cool detachment in the voice. "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 knelt to retrieve his shuriken from the gurgling throat of the barely conscious victim. Locke cringed and looked away. Edgar made his way to Terra where she stood about twenty feet ahead of the trio.
"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. A quick glance toward Edgar and Terra's position revealed a slight altercation between the two. It seemed Edgar was having a bit of a problem calming her down. "I knew it was you all the time." Locke shifted his focus back to the ninja. "So, where is 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 a 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'm sure."
Locke glanced over at Terra while rubbing at his scalp. He sent the ninja a probing stare. "Have you noticed any kind of symptoms?"
"I know little of medicines. All I know is what I see and what Interceptor senses. Things aren't right."
"How come Setzer and I are fine then?"
Shadow was silent for a long moment before answering. "Are you?"
Locke and Setzer exchanged a glance. "We have been a little more short-tempered than usual," Setzer offered.
"Hey. I hate the fact that some low-life took Terra's kids, gambler. 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's 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 remained 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 began making 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 on my own, and I lived through them just fine."
"Terra," Edgar said through clenched teeth, "you are not alone anymore. When will you finally realize that fact?"
"Well, maybe if you visited me once and awhile I wouldn't feel as if I were!"
Edgar pressed his lips into a thin line. The guilt at the truth of her statement helped him wrestle his temper back under control. "We are not discussing me--"
"Of course not," Terra cut. "We can never talk about you. Something might slip out that would give us a clue as to what you really feel about something or someone. We couldn't have that, could we?"
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 by this time, staring in shock at her flushed face and wild eyes. Edgar remained speechless, unprepared for the hatred burning in her gaze. Had he ever seen her like that before? "Terra," Edgar began slowly, "what is wrong?"
"Nothing! I am so sick and tired of you people running around under my feet like little bugs trying to figure out what's wrong with me. 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 years had vanished. Disappeared without a trace to be replaced by the seething, glassy-eyed, and flushed-faced woman now before them. "Terra--"
"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!" Then Terra turned away, a rage-filled screech splitting the air as she charged into one of the many dilapidated buildings.
Edgar stared after her, a dead weight settling in the pit of his stomach. All the secret feelings and doubts he ever confessed to her had been thrown back in his face.
Locke broke the silence. "Who was that? It wasn't Terra, that I know for damn sure."
Setzer nodded, fingering his cards in silence.
"I don't know," Edgar said in a low 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, studying the ground in silence.
Edgar shook his head. "She doesn't."
"I believe you should re-think that." Setzer gestured after Terra's route of escape. "Apparently she does."
Edgar's eyes narrowed. "Was it she?"
"What do you mean by that?'" Confusion twisted Locke's features. "You heard and saw her with your own eyes. We all did."
Edgar shook his head. "It wasn't Terra. I don't know who that was."
Locke's mouth gaped. "Are you on something?"
Edgar met Locke'
s wide-eyed gaze--he threw his arms up in the air. "I don't know, Cole. Do you hear me? I don't know! All the time I attempted to seduce her on the ship I felt nothing. Not a spark, tingle, or blasted bit of warmth!"
"Pardon me." Setzer placed 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, crossing his arms in silent protest.
Edgar's hands dropped to his sides, his eyes focusing inward. "Before . . . before there came light at our touch. Flames licking my fingers. Passion threatening the very beat of my heart. Everything I searched for and never found--Terra and I didn't need to touch for the spark to come."
"Maybe you're just getting over her," Locke offered.
"Are you mad? That is as likely as no longer needing to breathe in order to live, my friend. It simply does not--and will not--happen in this lifetime." He shook his head, shifting his gaze to the void that was the entrance of the building serving as Terra's retreat. "When I visited 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 know how it is, Cole, don't you? Just being by her side set my skin aflame!"
Locke turned his gaze away.
"Even at the castle I battled with the temptation to order the Chancellor to lock me in chains so I wouldn't give in to--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. The passion and fire were still there, threatening to consume me."
"So when did it change?"
"When we left Jidoor," Edgar said miserably. "I wanted to kiss her with every fibre of my being, Cole, but I'll be hanged if I felt a blasted thing when I touched her face or kissed her hand and cheek. There was nothing! Not a single spark!"
Locke focused on Setzer. "Was she in your sight the entire time Edgar and I were in Jidoor?"
Setzer absently shuffled his cards, his eyes recalling each moment. "Terra came aboard and immediately went below deck."
"Drat." Locke rubbed his scalp.
"I am at a loss, Cole," Edgar said. "Was it my imagination?"
"That tongue-lashing certainly wasn't of anyone's imagination," Setzer stated.
"So what am I to think? It is as if someone Berserked her, but magic no longer exists. According to Strago, in any case. The statues were magic and we destroyed them in order to battle Kefka. Conceivably, magic no longer exists. Isn't that correct?"
Setzer rested a hand on Edgar's shoulder. "There are many things we don't understand about magic and Espers, my friend. Who's to say Terra hasn't simply 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 captured by the Empire. Her mother murdered by Gestahl. Terra didn't even know which race to call her own: 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, burning their eyes if they examined it for longer than a mere moment. Edgar absently pounded the ground with the haft of his spear before striding toward the building. I want some answers, he thought harshly, and 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, 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 would like to know what is causing the problem in the first place." The others nodded. "It is odd," Edgar continued, almost to himself. "One moment she is fine and the next she is wild-eyed crazy and escaping for the hills. It could be no one but her because she has 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 cast 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 simply . . . 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 this the way the world is now? It would drive me insane." He shot Setzer a frown. "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 who's doing that freakin' light show chose Zozo in the first place. Cover."
Shadow nodded. Edgar's eyebrow twitched upward. "Locke, old boy, you must be on to something if Shadow doesn't argue with you."
"I try," Locke said, grinning.
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 want only to return home with Terra, Edgar thought to himself.
They entered the building into which Terra had disappeared, and Shadow promptly froze in the dark hallway. He crouched, three shuriken in 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 absently shuffled his razor-edged cards as his eyes narrowed to scan the distant shadows. 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 detect movement. "What do you see?"
"An old friend."
Edgar, Setzer, and Locke exchanged glances before again searching 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. He wasn't muscular by any means, but there radiated such a power from him that the group took an involuntary step back--all but Shadow. A firm determination emanated from him which heightened when the figure stepped from the darkness his mere existence seemed to create.
"Ledo," Setzer and Shadow said at once.
"We meet again."
The voice sounded 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."
&
nbsp; 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. Edgar clenched his jaw to control the spike of rage.
"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 I knew whom you happened to be searching for." He shifted his gaze to Shadow. "It's been so long. What have you been doing with yourself?" Shadow didn't speak. "Come, come. Are you still angry about that woman? It's been years. Let bygones be bygones."
Again, Shadow remained 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 friends. Tell us where they are or--" He lifted his blades with a smile. "Or face the consequences."
"You have the nerve to threaten me in my house!" Ledo's voice boomed, rattling loose the boards of the walls to each side. "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. "What a freaking pansy! I was looking forward to popping the guy once or twice."
Shadow remained 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 and then with his palm. Edgar and Locke came to stand beside him while Setzer hung back.
"What is it, Shadow?" Edgar asked, wary of the possible 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 mug, 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."