"Yeah," Terra choked. She tried to blink back tears, but she was so tired and this had been long coming. "I'm sorry," she shook her head. "I'm so sorry."

Edgar cleared his throat.

Terra grabbed the ring with shaking hands. She twisted it off and palmed it into Edgar's hand. "I can't. I would have loved to become Mrs. Edgar Figaro, but I cannot be queen."

Edgar stared at the ring in his hand. He swallowed the knot in his throat and placed the ring in his pocket. "Would things have been different if I gave up the throne?"

"Could you give up the throne?" Terra looked at him, her eyes glassy with tears. "Would you trade the throne for me?"

Edgar's heart pitfalled. He couldn't answer her. "No," he finally replied.

"Good," Terra responded. "You are a wonderful king, and I love you dearly. But I cannot be your wife. You will always have my loyalty and friendship. I'm so sorry." She turned to leave.

"Terra, please, just a second," Edgar stopped her. "I don't want to make this any more painful, but if I could do it over, and if I wasn't the king."

"Edgar, you are the king. Remember that, always," Terra stopped him short. She put her arms around his neck and raised her lips to his cheek. She kissed him lightly. She dropped her arms to her sides and managed a small smile. Edgar nodded back and looked down. "You have to be a king right now, to these kids. You and Leo have to address them."

Edgar looked up at her, "of course, I know my duty."

Leo hobbled over to them with the help of Sabin. "General Leo, errr. I mean Leo. I must thank you for taking care of Terra on this mission," Edgar said.

Leo chuckled, "She is the one that saved my rear, Edgar."

"Gentlemen," Terra addressed them, "you have an audience." Terra pointed out to the people, the children surrounding the fort, staring at them.

Leo glanced over the crowd of children, approximately 2,000 from what he could tell. Sabin urged him forward to a mound in the center of the field. Leo gained his footing and stood on his own, nodding his assurance to Sabin. "I realize that all of you are very confused and hurt right now. In fact, I would think that you have been confused for the past 5 years. I understand, I've been in your situation. But now, it's time to turn your back on the past.

"The things Douglass told you were wrong. The empire was evil. Gestahl is dead. He, nor the empire will come back." He looked over the confused looks. "You were being mislead, and for this reason and this reason alone, you will not be incarcerated for your sins against Figaro. You must turn in your armaments, swear loyalty to King Edgar, and go home. If you don't have a place to go we will help you. But your first step is to acknowledge your king."

Leo looked around him and saw Edgar walking up to him in a very regal fashion. When Edgar reached Leo, Leo knelt on knee in front of him. The soldiers came by one by one tossing down their swords and bowing to the king. Leo looked out among them, still knelt. "You can get up know," Edgar muttered softly as he was acknowledging each of the people one by one.

"I can't." Leo responded and promptly passed out.

* * *

"What did I say? Did I not say he needed rest? I tell all you warrior types you need rest, but noooo, you ignore me. Here I am doing the best I can, and I'm ignored," Leo overheard the nurse muttering. He heard a woman giggle.

He recognized the giggle, "Terra?" he whispered softly. He tried to sit up but felt a forceful hand against his shoulder pushing him down.

"No! You lay down, you hear me?" The nurse commanded.

The pain radiated horridly from his wounds that he almost didn't comprehend what the nurse said. So, he agreed. He acknowledged her by giving a soft nod of his head.

"Good, I don't want to have to patch you up again," he heard her footsteps as she walked out the room.

Leo turned his head to the side forcing his eyes slightly open. He saw the blurred image of a woman with green hair walking towards him. He blinked several times, "Terra?" he asked meekly.

Terra softly ran her fingers through his hair, "shhh, just wanted to check up on you."

"What's going on?"

"We are headed back to the castle. Everyone swore their fealty to the king, and they are being divided up into groups, going home or elsewhere. They need some guidance."

"Yeah, I can probably help on that," he murmured.

"That's what I figured, we can work on those details later, you, however must rest. You don't look so good."

"I'm sure I've been worse, I just don't remember when," Leo murmured in agreement.

Terra bent down and kissed him softly on the forehead, "I have some things to take care of. So, I won't be around for a while. But you see me again, I promise."

Leo whispered an okay and fell back to sleep.

* * *

Two weeks later, Leo found himself taking a familiar walk around the castle, the same walk he had taken to recuperate from his injuries. The walks weren't fun at first, but as he was healing, he found a great peace and solace with walking around in the desert as he was. The guards were always very friendly to him as he passed them by. Sometimes they accompanied him with a story or two, hoping Leo could remember one from his days as a general.

Leo walked into the castle and headed towards his quarters. Edgar had intercepted him, "May I have a word with you?"

"Of course, your majesty," Leo replied.

"I understand that this will be your last day with us," Edgar started.

"Yes, regretfully. I have enjoyed my stay here," it was mostly true, but there was a slight bit of a falsehood, nothing that Edgar could have fixed, anyway.

"Are you sure you are feeling up to it?"

"I appreciate your concern, but it is unnecessary," Leo smiled meekly.

"You know, Leo, I'm fairly sure of your answer, but I will ask anyway. I could always use a general."

Leo chuckled, "Thank you, again, your highness. But my General Leo days are over. My Bladesmith Leo days are over as a matter of fact."

"I figured as much," Edgar replied. "You have a rich talent, though. What are you planning to do?"

"I'm thinking I'm going to check on the kids. You know, the kids from the empire. I feel I owe something to them, although I'm not sure what I can do. I can probably help them integrate back into society. Teach them a trade or two, or perhaps hook them up with a trade master."

"You will do wonderfully, I'm sure, and it would be a great service to the kingdom. Please, anything that you need, let us know. We will gladly fund your journey. I insist," Edgar nodded with determination.

"Yes, and thank you, your highness." Leo bowed.

Edgar acknowledged the bow. "You will see her again."

Startled, Leo looked up at the king leaving, "what?"

"Terra, you will see her again," Edgar replied while walking away.

Leo looked after the king. He smiled inwardly. For some reason, that reassurance gave him a glimmer of hope.

* * *

Leo had finished packing his belongings and was loading up on rations for his journey. A stable boy was helping him back the chocobo, "So where are you headin' first?" the boy asked.

"I guess east."

"Narshe?"

"Sounds good to me."

"You know, you'd get there faster by airship," the boy offered.

"Yeah, but I can't fly one of those things. There's also just something about spending the night under the stars, you know?"

"I think I do know what you mean, sir," the boy smiled. "You gonna take good care of her?"

Leo patted the chocobo on the neck, "I'll treat her like she's my mother, I promise."

The boy frowned up at him, "well, if you insist."

Leo chuckled at the boy's reply. He turned around and stopped dead in his tracks. A woman, no, the women with green tresses pulled back into a ponytail, wearing brown riding clothes, and a beautiful smile caught him off balance. Leo stumbled forward and fell at Terra's feet.

Terra cocked her head to the side and bent down, "are you okay?"

"Are you a ghost?"

Terra pinched her arm, "nope, looks like I'm real."

Leo scrambled up to a sitting position meeting Terra face to face, "Where were you?"

"I had to take care of some business," Terra bit her lip. She placed her hand over her heart, "some emotional business."

"Oh." Leo replied.

"If you have me, I would like to come along with you," Terra asked.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, and I made sure," Terra replied with a nod. She reached out to Leo's cheek, softly stroking it with her fingers. She placed her other hand on his other cheek and pulled him close to her. "Don't die on me again," she murmured softly and brushed her lips against his.

Leo wrapped his arms around her pulling her closely, "never," he kissed her firmly. He held onto her tight. He lost himself in her scent, her arms, just her essence. He had found what he was looking for.

The stable boy cleared his throat, "if you won't be needing me. and it looks like you won't, I will be leaving now." He turned and ran.

Leo stopped the kiss to chuckle and look after the boy. Terra pulled his chin back to her, "don't get distracted that easily," she teased as she pulled him into another blessed lingering kiss.

* * *

Edgar was in his favorite part of the castle. He stood on the highest point, in the highest tower. He could see for miles and miles out into the desert. As a boy he felt he could flip a coin all the way over to Narshe if he wanted to.

He leaned over the edge of the wall, instead of looking into the distance, and thinking of all of the wonderful things out in the world, he found himself melancholic, staring at the happy couple. He rested his chin into his palm, every once in a while non-chalantly scraping off a tear or two, as he couldn't break his gaze.

"That's not very regal looking," the voice of his brother startled him. He straightened up instinctively. He gave Sabin an expressionless sidewise glance, and looked back down.

Sabin edged closer to Edgar, "Was she really the one?"

Edgar inhaled deeply and sighed, "I guess not, well, especially now."

"Think about it, Edgar, it was almost expected that you two would get together. I mean the king and this brave woman. I'm wondering if we bought into that as well.

"You know, being trained to be kings we often do what is expected of us. We do things to please the people. I mean we rule for the best of the people, but then we do a lot for show. 'To build confidence in the monarchy' as dad would say," Sabin said.

"Perhaps it wasn't all for show." Edgar said softly.

"I guess it can be confusing," Sabin stood next to his brother. He mildly punched his brother's arm, "but the show must go on. I could say stuff like there is more fish in the sea and what not, but frankly that's just pointless right now. Anyway, she wasn't the one for you."

"I bought into it, Sabin. I figured we could be married, I could have a wife 'worthy of a king' as the people would say, serve the kingdom, do all these wonderful kingly things. But I did something stupid," Edgar said sadly. "I fell in love."

Sabin scoffed, "what kings don't fall in love?"

Edgar glared back at Sabin. "No," he said softly. He turned walked towards the stairs, Sabin followed closely.

"I'm sorry, Edgar." Sabin descended the stairs with Edgar, searching for the right words to say. Edgar waved him off silently as they kept downward.

Edgar watched his feet to keep from tripping from his cloak as they descended the last flight of stairs. As he was nearing the last step, he was knocked to the floor from the fierce force thrusting forward. Angrily, he looked up and saw an apologetic Realm with her hands on either side of her face. "Oh gosh! I'm so sorry, Edgar, err. King,. or your highness. ah!" She fumbled her words finally offering her hand to him.

Edgar smirked. Politely refusing her hand with a shake of his head, he stood. "What are you in a hurry for, my dear?"

Realm blushed, "I was kind of looking for you."

"Well, you found me. What can I do for you?" Edgar grinned slightly.

Realm bit her lip. Her face flushed, her eyes lowered, she sighed. "I want you to notice me!"

"What?" Edgar's brow furrowed in concern and confusion.

"I want you to notice me! Here, look at me!" She stamped her foot.

"Okay, what is this leading too?" Edgar crossed his arms in front of his chest. He felt Sabin stifling a chuckle behind him.

"The timing sucks, I admit. But I've wanted you to 'notice' me for a long time now. I've always been the kid of the group. You know, the one that has to go to bed before everyone else, too young to understand anything. Well, that's no longer the case!"

Edgar noticed her. He looked at her and found that nature has treated her well as a developing woman. She had given up the scarf look and allowed her dirty blond hair fall in curls down past her shoulders. Her face showed the maturity she faced when she was but 10, but it expressed youthful enthusiasm. Her bright blue eyes shined with her fierce determination. Determination or stubbornness, it was considered admirable by Edgar.

Edgar smiled gently. He touched her cheek slightly. "How old are you Realm?"

"Uh." Realm cleared her throat, "16, sir."

"Edgar," he corrected her. Edgar bent down and kissed her forehead, "come back in two years, Lady Realm."

Realm's smile spread cheek to cheek. "I'll be even more beautiful in 2 years!" she turned and ran out of the room.

Sabin busted out in laughter, "women are throwing themselves at you! But seriously, will you want to be with her in two years? Or are you setting her up for a heart break?"

Edgar turned and faced Sabin, "Two years is enough for her to figure out if she truly wants to be with me." He turned to walk out of the room, "I learned to love one woman, and I can learn to love another. But for now, I have a kingdom to attend to."