Draco: Mulch, I forgot how huge the Cave of Shadows in the Eternal Wind era is.

Characters, weapons, origins, locations © Square Enix. Monsters © Akihisa Ikeda.

Slam Davis

Zozo was wrapped in a rainstorm when Terra arrived, not long after sunrise. Men's formal wear was not exactly well-suited to travel over long distances (and was uncomfortable against her bare skin), but she had managed to arrive without suffering any more than sore feet.

The city looked to be empty as she entered, her footsteps splashing lightly in a decent layer of water that seemed to indicate it had been raining for a good while. There was a tall building nearby - towering over most of the other buildings, and still a good story or two higher than the rest; reasoning that it would be her best option for hiding in case Imperial soldiers should come by, she approached the door and tried to pull it open.

The door was locked.

"Well, hey there, girlie!"

Terra turned, raising one arm before her. There was a trio of men approaching her who had most certainly not been there before. One of them had an empty bottle in his hand; the other two were holding switchblades, though the edges hadn't been drawn. The man with the bottle stepped forward. "What're you doing in this wonderful town?"

'Wonderful town' was not the word Terra would use to describe this place, but she reasoned that the inhabitants of any town would be inclined to praise their home. Nonetheless, their armaments told her that Relm hadn't been kidding when she'd called it 'full of pickpockets and cutthroats' "Hiding," Terra replied. "From the Empire."

The man on her left scoffed. "Well, that's a shame," he mused. "We're all good buddies with the Empire. Hell, Gestahl said he was coming over in a few days to pay the Boss a visit!"

"You're lying," Terra accused. "The Empire has never been here. They wouldn't waste soldiers on occupying a hive like this. Gestahl wants nothing to do with this place."

She stopped herself, gazing at the street below her. How do I know that?

"Come on, girlie," the man on her right insisted, "relax. We're all friendly here. We don't want to hurt you."

He flicked the blade of his knife out.

The drinker rushed forward, swinging his bottle at Terra, but the dancer only stepped to the left, prompting him to run his glass into the door that she had been trying to open - the shower of shards briefly found itself pinned between the door and his chest and face. The closest knifeman tried to stab her, but she grabbed his wrist and pried the switchblade out of his hands; he was screaming by the time she released his arm. The other lunged at her, but she tripped him with a sweep to the legs, causing him to hit the ground and his weapon to fall from his grip; the boss tried to swing his busted bottle at her, only for Terra to lash her leg forward and kick him.

And flames burst from the impact point as he was thrown back, slamming into the wall of the next building.

The knifemen were making no attempt to fight her; the one whose knife she had stolen was gripping his wrist, where burn marks were visible, and the other's leggings were smoking lightly. The moment Terra turned to them, they started taking off, shouting through the streets with what sounded like orders and/or calls for backup. Terra was in shock - she had not been trying to use her fire.

She glanced at her hands - the rain that fell on them was gone an instant after it connected.

Then, out of nowhere, something metallic slammed into the side of her head, catching her off-guard and knocking her to the wet streets. She was rising before ten seconds had passed, rubbing the impact point and looking around - she was confused to see a wrench sitting on the pavement.

"Who throws a wrench?" she muttered.

Her gaze went to a balcony nearby, where a man was running inside - it looked like everyone in Zozo was after her.

She needed to get somewhere safe.

In a moment, she was on her feet, and she turned to the door and kicked it - a bolt of fire flew from her foot before it had connected, and the barrier fell apart. As quickly as her feet allowed, she stepped inside, relieved to find it empty; the stairway was unobstructed, and she started climbing.

It was a short-lived joy; she had made it two floors before the people started hindering her progress. Iron barrels were thrown down the stairs (the condition of which indicated they had been used for burning wasted papers) as she tried to climb, and only the dancing fluidity Celes had praised her for stopped her from being knocked unconscious or knocked back down. Wrench-throwers joined in after a moment, but Terra had grown wise to their projectiles, and did not receive any further wounds.

She ran into real trouble when she was nearly at the top; rounding a landing caused her to run into someone who was decidedly built. She didn't have time to react before a hand closed on her throat, suddenly enough to choke her quite strongly, quite suddenly; before she even comprehended what was happening, she was thrown at a floor-to-ceiling window, slamming through the glass and landing on the metal roof of the building next door, rain still falling around her. A brief moment for her throat to recover; then she got to her feet, turning towards the window she had gone through.

Standing on the other side was her attacker - a very large man with very large muscles, skin that was most likely sunburnt, and a pair of baggy brown leggings with no shirt. Upon seeing she was still alive, he knocked the shards out from the frame of the window, grasped the edges, and leapt forward, landing at the edge of the building with enough force that Terra was surprised it held up. She didn't prepare herself to dance - at this point, she was worried what might happen if she tried. Her breath was strained as she tried to speak (the blow to her neck had been rather powerful).

"I don't... want... to hurt-"

"I call BS on anything that comes out of your mouth," the man retorted.

He charged forward with surprising speed for his frame; Terra couldn't react before he grabbed her by the arm and slammed a fierce kick into her side. She had hardly registered the blow before he raised her over his head as though a doll, throwing her into the rooftop on which they stood. Terra tried to rise, only to receive a nasty knifehand blow to the back; then the man drove his foot into her shoulder, grinding his heel into the plate.

Terra refused to cry out, but that only seemed to infuriate him further - for he quickly grabbed the wounded shoulder and raised her before him before driving a fierce punch into her face. When that still failed to induce her voice, he lashed out with another blow, this one knocking her jaw out of place; then he slammed a third punch into her eye. Still she did not vocalize her pain; he promptly turned her in his grip and slammed her against his knee. She could not act before a foot was set against her head.

Weight was placed upon that foot with intention to crush her.

The attacker received his cries of pain - and promptly wished he had not.

The moment Terra's voice broke through her lips, her entire body seemed to explode, throwing him from his stance atop her - though not with enough force to send him any further than the roof's edge. He recovered as quickly as he could to see Terra was wrapped in flames, her garments burning away. To his horror, she was starting to rise within the blaze; one hand was raised towards him, and he had no time to react before a bolt of flame surged from her palm, slamming into his chest and sending him back towards the building whose window she had been thrown through.

He did not pass through the window.

If he was still alive when he connected with the wall, he most certainly was not when gravity took hold of him, and dragged him to the pavement streets.

The flames around Terra began to shift, the crimson blaze turning hot pink, and the dancer glanced at her hand in horror; from the fingertips, her skin seemed to be lit with furious white fire that soon burned the flesh away from the fingertips down, leaving only the shining flame. Her other arm and legs were doing the same, and it didn't cease there; her entire body was becoming not but flame, burning away the rain before it could make contact.

Tears of fire blended with the inferno around her before they could part from her eyes, and Terra blinded herself to the world, falling to the surface beneath her.

Her screams of unparalleled sadness echoed throughout Zozo - and continued to do so for hours on end.

Draco: This is so short, I should have made it one chapter with 19. I got a review on 19 before I could do so, though, and I don't like to extend chapters after the fact.