Draco: Protip, ice milk is not just a bland-name version of ice cream. Overly dramatic disgust in an empty house like a boss.

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

There's Nothing Like Flying

Setzer arrived at the interior of the Blackjack without too much trouble. He had set up his escape rope to release all the rope it had and then draw back on a pull trigger, but there was also a crank to hasten the process, which he quickly advanced to and started pulling. "Come on," he insisted, "tell me that creep didn't get at her..."

Whirr whirr whirr whir-clank!

The connection of metal on metal, and the clatter of several pieces of metal against each other, preceded his rope's advancement slowing significantly, and he paused. "What the...?" He resumed cranking after a moment, but it continued to remain slow; there was a further clattter, just briefly, before the rope sped back up.

A figure dressed all in black shot out of the escape entry, landing on the railing with a massive bag in hand.

Setzer released the crank, going for his cards. "What the-!?"

The cowled figure quickly hopped off the railing and towards the gambler. "Sorry about that," he mused, "the thing's full of armour." He quickly tossed the bag to the side before drawing a knife.

"You're Shadow," Setzer mused. "The blade for hire."

'Shadow' broke out laughing. "No, sorry," he insisted, reaching for his cowl. The thing was pulled off, revealing a head of light brown hair and an amused smirk. "Locke Cole, treasure hunter."

Setzer rolled his eyes. "You must have been with the stagehands," he realized. "That's what the impresario was talking about." Pointing at the escape entry, he demanded, "Did Maria grab the rope?"

Locke shook his head. "Nope."

Then a figure in dress and ribbons with blonde hair emerged, grabbing the railing and pulling herself up. "I told you to put my armour in a case!" she snapped at Locke.

"A case would have just made it heavier!" Locke protested. "I almost dropped that thing on the way up, if it had been in a case I never would have kept my grip on it!"

An irritable groan. "Whatever," she muttered, stepping towards the dismissed bag.

In Setzer's mind, Maria didn't talk like that, but he'd never actually spoken with her in person. However, he knew for a fact that Maria didn't own armour, which meant- "You're not Maria," he realized.

"Lady of the Frost, Celes Chere," the 'not-Maria' introduced, pulling the bag open and digging through.

"The Imperial general?" Setzer cried out.

"Former general," Locke corrected. "She ditched the Empire."

Setzer glanced at Celes. "Then why does she still introduce herself as-"

"Did you seriously cut yourself with your cards?" Locke interrupted, pointing at Setzer's leg.

"Ah, hell," Setzer groaned, folding the hand. "Is it bleeding?"

He was interrupted when the cut in question froze, causing him to pull his hand away; astonished, he turned to Celes, who had one hand extended back towards him.

"That's why," Locke replied.

Celes pulled away from the bag, turning to Locke. "Where's my sword?" she demanded.

Locke blinked. "I put it in there," he insisted. "Why isn't it...?"

Both of them realized it at the same time. "Terra."

+x+x+x+

"Hold still, sweetcakes!"

Terra, still in the Opera House, was having trouble. Ultros had definitely stepped up his game since their last meeting; he didn't have the water to protect him from the dancer's flames, but he was arguably better without it, weaving around attacks and lunging his tentacles after her. She couldn't get close enough to try and strike his body with another shock, and if she tried to do it to his tentacles it would only trap them around her.

This left her dancing away from the kraken, not daring to turn her back to him, as she made her way further backstage. The stagehands and actors had long since fled, which left no one for her to risk being harmed as Ultros rampaged towards her. "Come on, pretty thing!" he taunted. "That all you got? Show me something new!"

"You're one to talk!" she called back, scanning the area; she knew it was around here somewhere. "You're just a fish out of water!"

There!

Ultros lashed all the tentacles he had towards her, and Terra quickly arced into a spin, leaping away from the concentrated strike. She landed with a slide, grabbing her weapon - Celes' rune-engraved sword, which she had meant to throw to its owner when Setzer dropped in at the end of the show. The blade was pulled from its sheath; then she turned the sheath in hand, gripping it like a blade itself as Ultros turned to face her.

"Now, showtime."

One tentacle flew forward, but she stopped it on the sheath before cleaving the tip off with the blade. Another grabbed the hold and tried to pull it from her grip, but her firm hold meant it only drew her away from another two that tried to crush her between them. She quickly pried it free, spinning to strike away the next two that tried to grab her and landing right before him.

The last two tried to grab her by the legs.

She only leapt into a backflip, throwing a bolt of fire that slammed into his chest; she moved forward at the peak of her jump, landing with a pointed kick on his back that sent voltage racing through his form, and Ultros shouted in pain as Terra leapt away, landing with a skid and sheathing Celes' sword as the kraken struggled against the shock.

And this time, he won.

Terra stepped back when Ultros whirled around, grinning. "Did you really think the same attack would work?" he taunted.

Four tentacles went for a direct hit; the other four spread out around the blow, so she couldn't leap away.

And she didn't.

She raised one hand before her, and chill spun before her, forming a spiral of icy wind that threw Ultros' tentacles aside; then she lashed her palm forward, and a huge chunk of ice flew forward, slamming into his shoulder and sending him spinning away.

"Where the hell did that come from?!" the kraken demanded.

Terra shook her head. "No idea."

Then she drew Celes' sword and danced forward as he tried to lash at her, blade and sheath striking the attacks away, before arriving immediately before him and raising the blade's tip to his neck.

"This is your last chance," she swore. "If you attack us again, only fortune will keep you alive, for we will not do so willingly."

Ultros gulped, his tentacles retracting into his back; then he took off with his hands above his head. Terra promptly sheathed Celes' sword, stepping away with the intention of getting outside where Setzer's airship could see her.

+x+x+x+

"Why the hell would you impersonate Maria Benett? And in a farce like that, no less?"

Setzer irritated demand drew Celes and Locke to turn away from one another, seeing the gambler having spread his hand of cards again. Celes only rolled her eyes. "I didn't realize what a farce it was until two hours before the show, and by then it was too late to demand a rewrite."

"That still doesn't explain why you were there and she wasn't," Setzer reprimanded.

Celes shook her head. "You have an airship, we have business in Vector, and Jidoor doesn't actually have Imperials patrolling its streets," she summed up. "This was the fastest way to get your attention."

The gambler gave her a look. "You're not seriously going to ask me to fly into Imperial territory," he snapped.

"You're not scared of the Empire, are you?" Celes taunted.

"It's not a matter of my nerves," Setzer retaliated. "Give me one good reason why I should help you."

The former general chuckled. "So you are scared of the Empire," she mused.

Setzer threw his cards.

Celes lashed her hand forward, and ice wrapped itself into claws around her hand, impaling each of the cards before it could connect. Locke acted while his back was turned, kicking his shoes off his feet and into Setzer's stomach; his feet became blades as he cracked his knuckle against the handle of his knife, and he shot forward before the gambler could turn. His hooked fingers hooked through his jacket, overshirt, and undershirt as he raised his knife to Setzer's throat.

"Come on," Locke insisted, "two can play at that game."

The ice wrap on Celes' hand shattered, and she let the cards fall to the floor, swinging her hand like she had gotten it wet with something unpleasant. "I hate doing that," she muttered. Turning to Setzer; "Take the cards out."

Setzer reached into his pocket, drawing out a still-boxed deck of cards and throwing them to the floor.

"All of the cards."

The gambler sighed tightly, lashing his arm down as a long series of cards scattered to the floor.

Locke stepped away at this point, skating away as Celes stepped forward. "We want to go to Vector," she told him. "What do you want? I'm certain we can come to an agreement."

"What do I want?" Setzer mused. A hum passed through his lips as he glanced between the two of them. "Come with me."

+x+x+x+

The gambler let the two of them to what looked like a full-fledged casino - blackjack, roulette, craps, everything. One blackjack table was slightly isolated from the others; Setzer walked around and took the dealer's seat, prompting Celes and Locke to take two of the player's seats.

"Why do you want to go to Vector so badly?" Setzer asked.

"Prisoners," Locke answered. "Monstrous prisoners. And their blood being used."

"A rather impersonal cause for which to risk your lives in enemy territory," Setzer observed.

"We have questions," Celes insisted. "And we have it on good authority that those prisoners will have answers."

The gambler snickered. "So, that's it," he mused. "You would march into the Imperial capital on the off chance that their prisoners have answers to questions from people that they don't even know."

Celes shook her head. "You'd know all about off chances, wouldn't you?" she mused.

Setzer sighed. "Do you know why I wanted to capture Maria?"

Locke realized what he was saying in an instant. "You aren't seriously implying-"

"Don't," Celes warned, seeing the treasure hunter start to rise from his seat. Locke fell back into the chair as she turned back to Setzer. "That's it, then?" she mused. "You'll take us to Vector, if I..." she fished around for words before finishing, "take a victory flight with you."

A light chuckle. "If this is urgent," he promised, "if you're... looking for some healing technique for a dying friend - I can wait until you come back alive." Before Locke could speak, he raised a hand and added, "And your opinion of urgency might be different from mine, so I'm not going to demand that you explain what your urgent business is."

Celes sighed. "You're willing to take a chance to have time with a lady, huh?" she inquired.

Setzer beckoned to the card-suit pins on his jacket's shoulder. "You're talking to the guy who pilots an airship named Blackjack," he reminded.

Locke turned to him. "Celes..."

"Then why don't we leave it to a lady I know you'll listen to," Celes offered, drawing out a gold coin and bracing it between thumb and index finger of a closed fist.

The gambler raised an eyebrow. "You'd decide it all on the flip a coin?" he inquired.

"Heads, you take us to Vector," Celes mused. "You drop us off south of the city with your phone number, and when I call you, you drop your escape rope and pick us up without slowing down. Tails, I take a victory flight with you, no strings attached. Either way, you drop us off at Zozo when we're done, and you do what you want."

Setzer chuckled, bowing his head. "Alright, then," he mused. "Let it hit the table."

Celes braced the coin and flipped it, the ting of nail against gold echoing in their ears as it turned in the air; it clattered softly against the felted table, coming to a stop with much more haste than it would against the floor.

Gazing up at the gambler was a clean, handsome face befitting royalty.

The Lady of the Frost breathed a sigh, raising her gaze to Setzer. "So," she mused, a light smile rising on her face, "are you a man of your word?"

Setzer chuckled, raising his gaze to Celes. "I'll let Lady Luck decide my course of action," he insisted. "Can you honestly say that you are so willing?"

Celes' smile faded. "What?"

The gambler lifted the coin upright and spun it, letting it twirl on the felted surface, and his voice was slow as he spoke. "The two-sided mint is the rule, not exception / And would you not feel quite the fool of deception / To find the same face on both sides of the coin?"

The gold came to a stop - and Setzer's brow furrowed when he saw a much rougher face looking up at him.

"Should have seen that coming," Celes reprimanded of herself. "Of course a gambler's going to call off a deal if he finds he's been cheated.

Setzer picked up the coin, looking over it. "Two faces... but not two of the same face," he observed. "Who's coin is this?"

"It belonged to the former king of Figaro," she replied. "That's King Edgar and his twin brother Sabin."

"That's... rather heartwarming," Setzer admitted, getting to his feet and pocketing the coin. "Now, I believe you were in a hurry?"

Locke turned to him. "Wait, what?"

The gambler chuckled. "Whenever you think you're right, you're wrong," he reprimanded. "And that is a big mistake."

"Hold on," Celes insisted. "You're going to help us?"

"If a coin is not standard, the prettier side is always heads," Setzer insisted, making his way around the table. "I'll lend you a hand."

Celes grabbed his jacket before he could depart. "Stop by the opera house first," he insisted. "We need to pick up Terra."

+x+x+x+

Terra was waiting for them outside the opera house when they landed - it didn't take very long, for the ship had not been moving when they had boarded. They didn't quite touch down, but it dropped low enough that they could have jumped down safely. They instead opted to extend a boarding plank, which Terra quickly made her way up.

Waiting there already were Celes - who had changed back into her armour - and Locke - who was currently re-tying his bandanna. The cloth stubbornly refused to conceal his hair again, leaving him to bind it like a headband so that it would just keep his hair out of his face. Upon arriving, Terra handed Celes her sword. "Sorry I took this out of the bag."

"You were going to hand it to me before the last act so I could threaten Setzer, weren't you?" Celes mused.

"Something like that," Terra admitted.

The three of them drew in the boarding plank; then Celes and Locke left Terra to change and made their way up to the deck. "We're good," Locke prompted. "Take off."

"Excellent," Setzer mused. "To Vector, then!"

"South of Vector," Celes correct. "We can't let the Empire notice you."

The gambler turned a small crank next to the helm, and a sequence of groans from within the ship turned both of their heads as it started moving again. "That didn't sound good," he mused. "You keep this thing maintained, right?"

Setzer angled his head. "I imagine it's about due time I look her over," he admitted, "but we can worry about that later."

"You're sure about that?" Locke inquired.

"Life is a game of chance," the pilot insisted. "You play your cards, and Fate plays hers."

Locke blinked. "Um..."

It was too late for second thoughts; they were already over the water, en route to Vector.

Draco: Alright, I'm going to call it here. There's a track I put off using and I think it'll work well for next chapter.