Now this, this was a challenge. Before, with simply his rapier, everything had been so easy, just a simple recitation of his own abilities, almost. Now, with this added difficulty, this extra dimension which the magic added, everything was difficult again. It was anybody's battle to win. He pumped his hand, whipping out thrust after thrust rapidly. His foe, one quite like himself in that she relied on her fighting skills more than magic, managed to bang each one away, then held forth her hand. Energy crackled from it, smashed into him, sent him flying. He pulled a full backflip in the air, landing on his feet and holding his own hands out. Flames leapt from the palms, catching his opponent as she charged. They missed her for the most part, however, they did slow her up and knock her off-balance enough for him to rush in with his rapier and touch—

He felt himself double over as pain exploded through his stomach. Why were they doing this? He'd promised them that he would fight without complaint, and he was doing it, so why did they beat him still? One threw both of their fists at him in a great swinging punch, knocking him off his feet and spinning to the ground. He moaned in agony, trying to push himself back up. They stomped on his back. He lay there for a moment, wheezing and getting ready… he felt the displacement of air as a hand moved slowly towards him, then he lunged, grabbing it between his teeth and ripping through to touch—

He stood, holding his heavy weapon in his hand, looking down at the man standing beside him. The man nodded, and they started moving again. He could see the power with which he walked; the well-earned confidence, total steadiness, and absolute lack of fear. He saw this in his companion, and feared him. However, he knew that this other also feared him. His growing power was impressive, and he'd now learned to focus it with greater precision. He could it pulsing through his veins as he walked, gathering in his mind as he thought, burning behind his eyes as he stared. Before, he'd been trying to identify it, unsure of what that power was, but now, oh now, he could literally touch—

And now, he was there himself, next to this one who he had been mere moments before. He stood, seeing only the power, yet he, Isaac, could also see the one the other had been looking at. And Isaac, as Isaac, saw more than he had as the other person. He saw the quick, furtive glances he kept casting about him, and the nervousness he actually exhibited. Watching his eyes, Isaac saw them linger a bit too long in a certain direction. Isaac whirled in that direction, and saw a small light flash from a mirror in another direction. Then, there was somebody behind the other person next to him, the powerful one, and that somebody raised something heavy, preparing to bring it down on the powerful one's head. Isaac cried, out, lunging forward to touch—

………………………………………………………………………………………………

"EILEEN!" Isaac screamed, sitting up from his sleep. He whipped his hand out to grab his blade which was laying on the floor next to him. His entire body was soaked in sweat, all of it dripping down in rivulets across his face and ears. He could almost feel the adrenaline running through his veins.

"Isaac? What the hell's going on?" Ben said tiredly as he sat up from his bed. "I don't like getting woken up by a screaming moogle, you know."

All of his exhaustion was swept away when he sat up and saw that Isaac had grabbed his haversack, and that he was packing the few personal effects he possessed which hadn't been destroyed in his fall into it.

"Isaac, what are you doing?" he asked cautiously.

"I'm leaving, kupo."

"What, why?"

"They need us."

"Who needs us?"

"Um, who the hell do we both know in this world, kupo? Eileen, Maxwell and Jacqueline."

"What did you see, Isaac?" Ben asked, rolling off his bed and grabbing the two belts which held his sabres. "Tell me exactly."

"I don't quite know myself. Jacqueline and Max are fighting in rings, kupo, one for money and pleasure, the other one is being forced to fight and gets tortured when they don't. Or when they do, kupo. I can't tell."

Ben was quiet. He just kept wrapping on his many layers of clothing and equipment.

Once Isaac had his ammo belt, sash, and blade attached, and he'd thrown on his hat and his shirt, the badge on the sleeve displayed broadly out for the world to see, and Ben had put on all of his effects, they left. Topier padded softly behind them, keeping his eyes open to everything about them.

"You didn't mention Eileen," Ben said softly.

"She's in much more immediate danger, and I get the feeling that she's somewhere nearby. That's the only reason that I'd get such a clear feeling from her."

Ben noticed the lack of kupos in his speech, and assumed that that meant he was scared. He'd known Isaac back in the real world, and even though he was against people getting hurt, he was no coward. Seeing him this frightened was bad.

They walked on through the darkness for maybe an hour, without speaking to each other. Finally, something somewhat important occurred to Ben.

"Hey, Isaac, where are we going?"

"Kupopo?"

"I mean, how do you know what direction Eileen's in?"

"Uh, well, kupo," Isaac stammered, as though the idea had just occurred to him. "I don't quite know. This direction just feels, well, right, kupo."

"Great, so I'm following a moogle who just woke up in the middle of the night screaming, to someplace that he doesn't even know exists but for a feeling. It feels just like back home."

"Hey, shut up, kupo! Most of those paths I tried when we went hiking were right!"

"What are you talking about? You and Max nearly fell over the edge of a waterfall that one time!"

"Which time was that, kupo?"

"That was the time before Eileen started plotting out the paths in advance and I started leading."

"Oh, right, kupo. Well whatever, I know where I'm going this time, kupo." To accentuate his point, he put his left foot into a large pit, which made him trip over and fall to the ground.

"You always do that, too."

"What, kupo," Isaac sputtered, picking himself up, "trip after sticking my foot into a hole in the ground?"

"That too, but, well, you always stick your foot in it. You just did it a bit more literally this time, and, hey what are you doing?"

"Here, you're a better tracker than me, kupo," Isaac told him, leaning over and staring at the hole where he'd just fallen into. It had an acrid smell to it. "What do you make of this?"

"That, uh," Ben leaned in close, sniffed, felt the ground, "I think that that's a crater."

"Kupopo?"

"A crater. Fresh one, too."

"You're kidding, kupo. Please tell me that you're kidding?"

"I wish I was. Hey, Topier, get over here," he ordered. "I need you to find where this leads."

The cat leaned in and sniffed at the charred earth, his nostrils flaring slightly in disgust. Then, he stalked forward and sniffed a nearby tree. The panther looked back at the two friends, and gestured with his head in the direction he was headed.

"I like that cat, kupo," Isaac muttered, and they started following him.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

They journeyed on for maybe another hour, before Topier stopped and looked back at them, a low growl in his voice. They could see a light up ahead, likely caused by a campfire or a torch. Ben nodded to Isaac, and then slowly and silently drew his two sabres, holding them loosely in his hands. Isaac took the hint, and drew his own blade from its sheath in his left hand, and unholstering his loaded gun. The two then made their way slowly forward, Ben leading, and Isaac using his steps to make as little noise as possible.

At one point, they saw a guard posted just outside the camp. Ben looked over at him and nodded in a direction which would take them around the guard in a wide arc.

Soon, they were just outside of the circle of light. They could see that there were about ten people in the camp, not counting the sentry and any others they might have missed. All of them held differing weapons, ranging from swords to knives to bows. One very experienced- and dangerous-looking man stood at the centre of the ring, waxing the string of a greatbow with careful precision. He wore a large, yellow hat, the symbol of a ranger, and his clothes looked dirty and travel-worn. A small skinning knife was stuck into his belt. The other main thing that they noticed was a figure, bundled up with a sack over their head. It looked like a nu mou, the only one in the assembled group. Both the moogle and the human instantly knew that this had to be Eileen.

Isaac looked over at Ben with a questioning look. Ben pointed at Isaac's gun, then pointed at the nu mou, mouthing the word, Ropes?

Isaac looked over at the ropes, back at Ben, and cocked an eyebrow, a, You've got to be kidding me, kind of look.

Ben shrugged, and looked again. There wasn't anything that he could see at first, but soon a plan began entering his mind. He looked at all the shorter trees in the area, and checked their position in relation to the bundled up captive. Just about right, he figured.

He turned back to Isaac, and muttered to him in a low whisper, "Here's what I need you to do. I'm going into the trees, and I'm going to try to drop down as close to Eileen as possible. What's your best status effect shot?"

Isaac thought. "In this situation, I'd say that confuseshot's the best bet, kupo."

"Alright then, cause as much chaos as you can, I'll get Eileen, and then we can get out of here as fast as possible."

Isaac nodded, and watched as Ben jumped into the nearest tree and began scaling it. He grabbed his gun and held it ready to fire, getting out a couple extra bullets at the same time. One thing he'd learned from Clay's instruction and his battle with Thomas was that you could never have enough ammo actually in your hands.

Soon, Ben was as high from the ground as he could get, and looked easily within range of leaping down to Eileen's side. Taking a deep breath, Isaac leaned out slightly from his cover to watch, and picked out his first target. It was due to this position that the could see what happened.

Suddenly, the ranger in the centre of camp tensed, for no reason at all it seemed. He leaped up and grabbed his greatbow, pulling an arrow from a quiver at his side and putting it to his string in one smooth motion. He whipped around, pointed high into the trees, and let loose.

Ben cried out as the arrow grazed his side, knocking him off his balance and careening to the earth below. He smacked the ground next to where Eileen lay and groaned loudly. Instantly, two of the others around the campfire pounced on him and tied him down to the ground with thick ropes. A bangaa came up to the bound captive, and grabbed his face with her large strong hand.

"Who are you?" she asked.

Ben bit her finger.

She smacked him across the face, then kneed him in the crotch.

Ben began issuing a long line of rather harsh words as he crouched up as much as his bonds would allow him.

"Shit, kupo." Isaac muttered. "Well, I'm quite screwed now, kupo."

"You have no idea."

Isaac spun around, just in time to see the fist of the second sentry, the one they hadn't seen, coming in at his face. Then there was an explosion of pain, and then darkness, and then nothing more.