Chapter 2
Terra leaned back against a tree, with a dreaming smile watching the sunset above the ocean. A few of her children were around too, but they hadn't time to sit still and enjoy the sight. Terra heard them wrestle and laugh somewhere behind her, in the grass.
Then suddenly, there was a happy shout.
"Shadow!"
It was one of the boys that yelled, but Terra wasn't sure who it was. She turned her head and stared into a wide-open mouth with fierce jaws and a tongue that hit her cheek. After fighting back the instinct of getting a heart attack, she realized that it was Interceptor.
"Hey, don't scare her to death..." Shadow said in his usual calm, almost bored way.
Interceptor moved away, allowing Terra to breathe and to see the visitor. Well, actually there were two of them. Behind Shadow was Gogo, veiled and clothed as always.
"Good evening, both of you," Terra smiled, a bit surprised to see them.
Of course her friends often came to visit her and the others in Mobliz; the destroyed town had been mostly rebuild. After Kefka's death one year ago the world had been steadily recovering, and the people had got to hear all about their heroes. In gratefulness to Terra and wishes to help, every town had sent a few workers to Mobliz to help out rebuilding. Merchants had shown up too, to sell stuff to the heroine and the carpenters... and so, one thing had lead to another and some of them had chosen to stay. Mobliz was no longer a town of children. Yet Terra was still the one who cared most for the kids, even though there were several other grown-ups that helped her nowadays.
It was always great to see her old friends again. Setzer came most often, since he had the greatest possibility due to the Falcon. The others came about as soon as they found some time, but it was actually the first time Gogo had shown up. Even Shadow had come more often. He usually just said "Hello, Terra" and then went away again, as if he just wanted to make sure she was still in one piece. The children sometimes made him tell them stories about his life, which, Terra hoped, mostly were fiction.
But not Gogo. Of course, he was even more mysterious than Shadow, and also even quieter. Shadow had often given suggestions in the darkness of deep caves about how the group should proceed, but Gogo just walked on with his companions, quiet and mimicking.
"The same to you," Shadow shortly said.
He turned his head swiftly at Gogo, as if trying to give the mimic a quiet order. Then he went to sit down in the grass, a few feet from Terra. He would always be the guy who didn't want human contact, if a miracle didn't occur. Interceptor lay down beside him. The kids went back to playing.
It seemed as if the whole world waited for something.
Finally, Gogo sat down in the grass, a few feet from Shadow. This was going to be a distant discussion, if any at all.
But for the moment, Terra wouldn't let a couple of half-mute, walking mysteries and a monster that called itself a dog mess with her peace of mind. She leaned back again and watched the golden and red silk sky.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Gogo, Gogo, suddenly said.
Terra jumped a mile. Gogo gave the sky a compliment? It was as if Relm had stolen Edgar's chainsaw and had gone berserk through a forest.
"Yes, it is," Shadow said, emotionless.
OK, so Relm had the chainsaw, and Mog had the Bio blaster... and Umaro walked after them, picking lilies in a neat little basket... yep, that would be just as weird. If Cyan danced after Umaro, dressed in a pink... maybe that was too much.
"It's moments like this that makes one happy to be alive," Shadow continued, and somehow it felt like the words were aimed at Gogo.
A pink dress. And a ribbon.
The image almost made Terra burst into crazed laughter. But she pulled herself together and looked at the two men.
"Alright," she said, "what kind of drug did they get you to drink?"
Two pair of eyes turned at her in surprise, then Gogo gave a short chuckle and Shadow waved with a hand, nodding.
"I guess you wonder why we came," the ninja said.
"Well..."
"Actually, I didn't come at all. I just brought Gogo here. Come, Interceptor. Good bye."
And so Shadow stood up and walked away. His king-size pet followed him.
"Bye," Terra said as they passed.
She turned to Gogo, who stared at the sunset.
"So, what is it, my friend?" she carefully asked.
Gogo picked a blade of grass and played with it, absentmindedly. The fingers of his bright yellow gloves became slightly greenish with the sap, but he didn't seem to care. It was impossible to tell anything from the look in his eyes.
"Well," he finally said after a long silence, "I just paid Shadow for forcing me here."
"Forcing you?" Terra blankly said.
"Yes. Was afraid I wouldn't dare if I didn't have him bringing me."
"Hey, you've got nothing to fear here, have you?"
Terra stood up and walked over to him. He didn't look at her, just kept working on the tiny green blade. It was mostly in pieces now.
"Is there something that you wanted to tell me?" Terra asked, tentatively.
Gogo took a deep breath and released it slowly.
"Yes, there's something..." he said, "I just don't know where to..."
He suddenly stared at the blade of grass, as if he was shocked about what his fingers had done to it. Now it was no longer a long, green stick, it was a torn net. With a growl, Gogo threw it away and shuddered.
"Damn..." he muttered and raised his hand.
The strange hat, helm or whatever one could call it moved drowsily as he rubbed his forehead. Then his hand went to his left cheek and he scratched the cloth hiding it, as if he wasn't thinking about doing it. Only making it by instinct or habit.
"Are you alright?" Terra asked and took the risk of putting her hand on his shoulder.
His head snapped in her direction and he stared at her hand, seemingly shocked by the fact that Terra dared to touch him. But as she hesitantly began to move it, he hurriedly put his left hand over her fingers, stopping the movement. She nodded, and he let go while she didn't.
"If you don't want to tell me right now, you can stay here in Mobliz for as long as you like," she kindly offered.
"That's nice of you, Terra," Gogo said after an hesitanting pause.
"Hey, you're my friend," she smiled.
He nodded, but his eyes wandered away to the sky again as if he was afraid to meet her gaze.
Terra thought about how they had found him down in the zone eater. Of all places one could dwell… but he was a living mystery. Only once had she and the others been close to seeing his face; during the final battle. Terra clearly remembered how Kefka had managed to hit Gogo with his steel wing, which had looked like it was made of soft feathers. Gogo had been hit in the face, and bleeding he had fallen and crashed upon the cliffs further down. His veil had been torn, but he had ripped off a piece of the rest of his clothing before Celes had jumped down to bring him up. The new veil had been bleed through, but he'd kept fighting with a fury that hadn't ceased the slightest.
Yes, as he now scratched his veil again, it must be the scar after that wound that he really worked on. It was beneath the cloth.
This walking mystery…
"Mama, I'm hungry," a voice suddenly groaned behind the two.
"Yes, yes," Terra said with a smile and turned around, taking her hand away from Gogo's shoulder, "you're right, Cecil." (Hey, why not? It's an FF-fanfic!)
She looked back at Gogo.
"Coming?"
"Of course."
The mimic stood up. As Terra began to walk back towards the town with Cecil's hand in her, the other kids assembled and followed too. There were still monsters around, so better not stay out of town without a grown-up, even though they could be so irritating sometimes...
"Mama, who's that guy?" Cecil asked, pointing at Gogo.
"One of my friends," Terra explained with a smile.
"Cool! What can he do?" the child gasped.
"Ah, I see the others have held demonstrations," Gogo said with an unseen smile.
Terra nodded, smiling.
"Well, why not?" Gogo said, "I haven't been practicing in a while, anyhow. Go on, Terra."
"Back off a little, children..." Terra said and waved with her hands.
The kids moved away, with gleaming eyes. Their mama's friends all had some cool things to show, like cutting off leaves from a distant tree with playing cards, making perfect imitations of any attacking animal and stuff similar to that.
"Ready, Gogo?" Terra smiled.
"Whenever you are."
The woman with green hair nodded, and Gogo did the same. Then Terra began to jump around like mad, standing on her hands and wheeling. And whatever she did, Gogo did exactly the same. The kids watched with wide eyes and open mouths as their mama danced around with a brightly yellow, green and red shadow. Finally Terra fell down in the grass, laughing and gasping to regain her breath. Gogo kept mimicking her; he was just as tired.
"Great!" the children cheered, and the four year old Lia even rushed over to Gogo and hugged him, with her typical lack of shyness.
Gogo stared at the small, blond girl that held her short arms around his neck (well, where his neck probably was below all the cloth). For a moment Terra almost feared that he would push away, but then Gogo patted the girl's back, with a smile in his eyes.
"Liked it?" he said.
"It was so cool!" the small girl grinned, "mister, why do you wear that veil?"
Gogo cleared his throat, as if trying to win some time for thinking.
"I... well, it's the only way that I could be just as mysterious as Shadow," he finally said.
"Oh. OK," Lia merrily said.
A moment later they were walking towards the town again. As they reached their goal it had begun to get dark, and there were candles being lit in most of the houses.
"Run along now," Terra said, "dinner is probably served already."
The kids shouted "good night" and ran over to a big building in the center of town.
"The eating house," Terra explained to Gogo, "we take turns cooking. Come on, I'll see if I can cook us something without poisoning us both."
"If you cook half as good as you fight, I have nothing to fear," Gogo said.
Terra glanced at him as they walked.
"Excuse me, Gogo," she carefully said, "but you talk so strangely much today..."
He nodded.
"Yeah, I know. After all those years in the zone eater, well... I hadn't so many people to talk to. So I'm trying to get back now. Think it's about time."
"As long as you're happy, so..."
Terra smiled and opened the door to the house that was her home. It was pretty small and neat, with a kitchen, a living room, a toilet in the back and two guestrooms just in case. She slept on the second floor's only room herself.
"I'll see what I can mix..." Terra said and waved at a chair by the table, "if you sit there you can at least help me fast in case something should catch fire."
"You can't be that bad at cooking," Gogo smiled, "didn't you take care of all these children by yourself before you got help?"
"Yeah, but I could use magic in case something went wrong back then..."
She fell silent and sighed. Rather lazily she picked with some vegetables in a bowl.
"Hey, Terra..." Gogo said after a long silence, scratching his cheek, "does it pain you terribly that magic is gone from this world and that the espers are all dead?"
She turned around, rubbing her forehead.
"Sometimes I miss it like mad," she admitted, "but that's plain egoistic. I don't really need it anymore... and the times when I long for it are getting rare. I'll survive."
"Good to hear," Gogo slowly said, "but the espers... I sometimes think about that... we maybe could have saved them."
"It wasn't your fault, my friend. We couldn't have done more than we could, I'm afraid."
Terra smiled.
"And you know what, they aren't dead."
Gogo looked up, rather surprised.
"What? But I thought..."
"As the magicite disappeared from this world, it returned to the world of espers," Terra told him, "and there the other creatures could use the power of the holy phoenix that was left there to revive those who had died. Father often speaks with me, in my mind."
Gogo seemed to frown, concerned.
"But if they are alive, isn't there a risk that...?" he said.
"No," Terra said and shook her head, "now that the statues are gone, an esper entering this world would be immediately teleported back. They can't stay where there's no magic. There's no risk that the foolishness will repeat again."
She smiled.
"I meant to tell you sooner, but it seems like we never met again before now."
"Ah, my bad..."
"No, no, I didn't mean it like that," Terra hurriedly said, "tell me, what have you been doing since we parted?"
"Oh, not much. I bought a chocobo and rode around the world a couple of times. Then when I was in Maranda for a while I met Shadow. We talked a little, and... well..."
Gogo took another deep breath and released it slowly.
"What I came to tell you is... something... that I believe only myself and Shadow know about."
Terra looked at Gogo in surprise. Shadow knew something about Gogo? Had they known each other before all the battling had begun?
"And it's... something that..." Gogo slowly continued, almost stuttering and forcing the words past his lips, "that... is very hard for me to explain. The thing is..."
He fell silent and shook his head.
"Ever since we won, even before that, I've been trying to think about how to tell you and the others," he said in a miserable way, "it's just that I've been alone with it for so long..."
"Look, Gogo," Terra kindly said and sat down in front of him, "you're not lonely anymore. All of us, me, Setzer, Sabin, Edgar, Locke... we are your friends, even though you never really opened yourself to us. We trusted you anyhow."
There was a careful smile in Gogo's eyes.
"And," Terra continued, "if you're not sure that you're ready to unveil yourself just yet, then you're welcome to stay here until you are. I won't push you, you just take your time."
Gogo looked her straight in the eyes.
"Thank you, Terra," he said with such honesty that it almost was painful to hear.
A while later she cooked some dinner and gave him a plate which he carried into one of the guestrooms and emptied alone. He had always eaten alone, since he would have to remove the veil to do so. And he wasn't ready yet.