Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VI.

Again, ditto with the last chapter...

Enjoy!

Chapter 3

There was nothing she could do. It was like trying to contain a river of water inn her small palms. Everything was getting worse no matter how where she looked - first Jake, the youngest was convulsing, then Aria, then Andrew and Luca - even Katarina the oldest was chocking, chocking on the air, and then heaving and then she was bleeding and bleeding and bleeding. A piercing laugh menaced her ears. It cackled away in her mind and she couldn't get away from it, couldn't run couldn't hide couldn't cover her ears. It etched away, seemingly biting at her eardrums and scrubbing away her brain. All she could do was scream and cry and thrash around, but it didn't change anything. The floor was pasted with the still, cold, rotting bodies of her children, and blood and bile and saliva and all other manner of bodily fluids. And poison. Water that flowed like a snake, shimmering purple like a slick of oil on a puddle of water. It seemed to laugh at her, tease her through the cackling madness.

She felt hot, and clammy. The air seemed to constrict at her throat and she was chocking, chocking on air and she couldn't breath - couldn't couldn't couldn't. Then a gust of stale oxygen flew down her throat. And she couldn't scream but she was choking and retching and gasping and spluttered and the laughing. Wouldn't. Stop.

"Thought you'd be a mother, did you?" The voice pulled out of cackles to taunt her.

And it was like she was opening her eyes for the first time as that clown climbed over the bodies of her children, and she heard the crunching of their small bones under the red velvet of his shoes, stopping to kick their faces when he possibly could.

"You failed. You'll always fail. You can't win." He threw his head back and laughed and laughed and laughed.

Terra cowered, and clawed her hands over her ears and sunk back onto her haunches like a wild animal.

Kefka launched close to Terra and grabbed her by the hair, his rough gloved hand pulling at the matted strands, dragging her up to his face. The white make up was cracking and flaking, there were grey, faded tear trails from his thickly lined eyes and the rosy blobs on his cheeks shone was a strange kind of grease. His lips were wonkily lined with something she couldn't be sure wasn't blood and the eyes, his bloodshot, haunting eyes pierced her soul and seemed to drive a dagger through her mind. She screamed in pain and tried to shut her eyes but she just couldn't look away from those nightmarish eyes.

"You will always fail. You are nothing without me. I will always be a part of you."

He laughed right into her face and she could see nothing, nothing but his cruel imitation of a clown mask, and smell the metallic stench of blood from where she couldn't be sure.

She was chocking, and screaming and crying and all she could hear was the laughing, the endless laughing.

Screaming erupted from the depths of the airship again. There was an echo of footsteps hammering down the airship to reach that room - and they all knew which room it was going to be.

Edgar was the last there - Celes, Sabin and Setzer had beat him to it, with a newly reunited Gau and Relm holding each other up just outside the door. They watched him as he stormed past, but no one said anything. Even in Terra's room, no one was speaking. She was usually just shrieking and writhing, but today she was crying. On her porcelain white skin were shimmering tear tracks, illuminated as she struggled by the moonlight pouring in through the window.

Edgar caught his brother's eye, who shrugged. They looked at each other for a moment and communicated in silent understandings only possible from years and years of silent company. Neither of them knew why this was happening, and both of them were desperate for it to stop. It was like an eternal struggle that neither could vanquish; for Terra, the biggest struggle would be the one in her mind, not the one outside it.

Celes finally managed to calm the girl down, and Terra took a deep breath and lolled her head to the side, her breath settling back down to a normal tempo, not the harrowing, stuttering mess it had been before.

"I've put a sleep spell on her. She shouldn't wake for a day or so, and she will sleep peacefully - but we'll need to keep watch over her just in case. Last time we were too lax, and this is where it got us." Celes guestured fondly but defeatedly to the small girl lying prone on the bed. She looked far too small, far too skinny and delicate. "Somone will need to volunteer for the rest of the night… any volunteers?"

"I'll do it." Edgar stepped forward without even a thought.

Celes eyed him narrowly as Sabin and Setzer filed out of the room, each clapping him on the back and muttering their thanks. They were all so tired, so drained from trying to adapt to fighting back in this new, destroyed world. "I'm watching you, your Highness." She looked at him with a disgustedly appraising look. He couldn't blame her.

Once she'd left, taking keen attention to leave the door slightly open, he noted with no real hint of surprise, he retook his seat at Terra's bedside, as he'd done before. These new cabins on the Falcon were bigger than those on the Blackjack, but this entire ship was. So large in fact, it could perhaps rival an entire wing of Figaro Castle. Well, the small one, perhaps.

He traced the tear tracks on her face. They were sticky, but once he'd wiped them away with a little bit of water, he found the skin of her face underneath to be so soft it could rival that of a peach. She certainly looked older now, after those traumatic two years. Her body had undeniably changed from that of the awkward 17 year old girl he'd first met. It was softer, curvier, and more like that of the women he was used to at court. But she was still so small, so thin, and looked to fragile. He knew she was far tougher than that on the outside but he wondered how true that was on the inside.

He took her hand in his, and warmed it between his palms. His heart seemed to hammer as he resisted the urge to gently push the jade hair that had fallen over her face, away. She finally looked so peaceful as she slept. No hint of torment, but for the hollow purple bags around her eyes. There was even a hint of a smile over her lips.

He knew what this was. He'd felt like this once in the past - just once. It had ended in pain, and endless nights spent out in the dessert sands, moping around. Sabin had had to punch him, just to knock him out of it, and back into reality.

As he stared at Terra's softly breathing form, he could imagine a happy future where he didn't have to pretend that he felt anything other than brotherly concern for her.

Getting more intense! Anyway, please follow for more and review if you've got time. Thanks!