Yes, Jason is a bit too powerful, isn't he? I'll tone him down a bit, plus he's going to have really crappy defense and stuff like that... besides, imagine that he starts at level 7 instead of level 1, and it seems to make some sense. So, here's chapter two.

Jason couldn't sleep at all, but he did figure a lot out. He tried to reach out to his brother telepathically, as he had always been able to do, despite the space between them, but he couldn't hear a thing. That made it far less likely that he was actually in a game, and that this was actually an alternate reality of sorts. It was even possible that Jason might have inadvertently created this strange world, and then placed himself in it. It didn't really matter, though. What Jason needed to figure out was if he could and how he would get home, and what to do about his situation if he couldn't. Since the latter seemed more likely, that dominated most of his thinking.

At that moment, Steiner decided to retire from his guarding duties, and so Jason got up to take his place. He paced around the camp slowly, then became aware of a powerful presence in one of the minds near him. Ah, it was the princess. He looked down at her softly, and saw that she was not sleeping. Well, he sensed it actually, but her mind was too active and her thoughts too coherent for her to be asleep. Yes, she seemed to be missing home a bit already, and worrying about her mother.

Jason felt a pang of homesickness. Normally he never even concerned himself about it, but what would his mother think about his mysterious disappearance? She'd probably think that he ran away for some training purposes or something... and that wasn't too far off from the truth. Well, there really wasn't any point in worrying about it. He'd just have to find someway back home, if possible, and if not, then oh well. So Jason just continued his vigil, on through the night. Zidane even woke up, offering to switch with him, but Jason knew he wouldn't get any sleep any way. There was just too much to think about. He knew what RPGs were like, and that meant this was going to involve a lot of fighting. He would have to make sure he knew everything about his powers.

He had a goblin form attack, but he hadn't been able to try out a plant spider form attack. Then again, he was very tired, and didn't know if he'd be able to use it now if he could at all; but what the heck? He thought about the form of the plant spider, its many legs, and the way it could grip a person and never release that person, and the Mist began to swirl a bit. Surely enough, there was the creature, and by Jason's command, it was silent. Realizing the creature's ability to see in the dark, he sent it out to go scouting. It could move very fast, and covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time. Fortunately, nothing came near the camp until the spider came back, and all of the knowledge tucked itself safely into Jason's head. Suddenly, though, there was a bit of problem.

What was Jason going to do with this creature? If he let it go, would it run amuck? Well, never mind. If it did, Jason could handle it. But what if it didn't? Knowing how RPGs worked, it would probably fade out of existence. Then again, there was no proof that this was an RPG at all, so who could tell? Only one way to find out. Jason relinquished his control of the beast, and sure enough, it sat down, then died. Jason felt a bit of regret, but the creature never really had a life to begin with; it was just a tool of Jason's.

Now, though, Jason was really tired. So he nudged Zidane awake, and the odd thief with a tail took over. Jason actually managed to fall asleep, and never had another problem until sunrise the next morning. That problem? Breakfast.

Zidane yawned. "Morning, everyone!" he said, grinning in the way he enjoyed, stretching his arms out. Vivi got up and moaned.

"I'm hungry," he said weakly. Steiner, who had been taking the last shift, agreed.

"I too could use nourishment," he stated. Even uptight knights needed breakfast. Garnet came out of the tent and looked around glumly.

"Food..."

Jason was up as well. He had a solution, though it was a somewhat grizzly one. It was better then nothing.

"Everyone? I know what we can have for breakfast," he informed them. Many pairs of hungry eyes followed him. Then Steiner saw where Jason was going, and started to loose his lunch from the day before. He had seen that dead plant spider body earlier, and was not looking forward to eating it. But sure enough, Jason showed them the ugly thing. The response was unanimous.

"EWW!"

"Aw, come on. Just pick around the organs and stuff. It's not poisonous, I know. I ran around in its body all last night scouting out territory, and I didn't feel a trace of an instinct suggesting anything lethal. Just eat!" Jason urged. Vivi's black face became rather gray as he considered this.

"No way, I'm not cooking that thing! I'd rather eat grass!" Vivi said defiantly, though with an obvious tone of sickness in his voice. Jason couldn't help but laugh a little, though it was probably more out of an attempt to make himself feel better then anything else.

"Well, does anyone have a better idea?" he wondered. Garnet regarded the creature, and decided that there really wasn't anything else.

"Very well... I suppose I shall try one of those legs... Vivi, would you please heat it up for me?" Garnet asked. Vivi nodded reluctantly, and set a burst of fire upon the leg. The skin sort of peeled off in the process, exposing some meat. Slowly, carefully, she picked a small portion of it, and chewed on it. Her expression changed from revulsion to interest. As she finished her bite, she smiled.

"This is actually very good! Thank you, Jason, Vivi," she announced. Steiner was dumbfounded, but Zidane needed no further reassuring.

"Awesome! Cook me one of those legs, Vivi!"

"Okay."

Eventually, Steiner gave in, and within about half an hour they had eaten their fill. Then it was time to head out; Jason could have given instructions to everyone, but somehow he felt it better that Zidane do so.

"According to this map, there's a place called the Ice Cavern near here that can get us up above the Mist," Zidane informed the group.

"Oh! I've read about the Ice Cavern. It's supposed to be a very beautiful place," announced Garnet. Steiner decided he had nothing to say, and Vivi really didn't. But Jason was curious about a few things.

"Zidane, how are we all going to get there?" he asked.

"What do you mean, Jason?"

"Well... um..." Jason tried to think of how he could explain this. He knew that there was a maximum of four people to a fighting party, so one of the group members was going to have to travel by his or her self. But that didn't make any sense...

"Jason, are you feeling okay?" Vivi wondered. Jason did look a little pale.

"Never mind. Let's go," he said, dismissing the subject. Everyone eyed him suspiciously, but they had come to expect weird things from him. Steiner was much more interested in Jason's oddness then the others, though.

"I shall be keeping an eye on you, Jason. The others may trust you, but I am not so sure," Steiner assured him as they all walked on. Jason thought about proclaiming innocence, but realized it wouldn't work. Steiner was quite the immovable person.

The group explored most of the available area, gathering items and slaying beasts. Through some quirk, all five of them were able to fight at once. Jason tried acquiring some new beast forms, but didn't have any luck. Perhaps he might get some later, but for now it didn't really matter. What did matter was the fact that Jason kept feeling as though something bigger then the game was coming. He was so right.

The fact was, back on Earth, Jason was not the only person with psychic powers. There were a few others, though most of them didn't know how to tap their abilities. One of them, however, had been monitoring Jason for some time. And when all of the sudden Jason disappeared out of his psychic range, this person knew something was up. So, he took it upon himself to get a plane ticket to Jason's home, and do a little investigating. This would lead to many things, but most certainly none of them would be good.

When Jason and the others reached the Ice Cavern, he started shivering.

"Man, it sure looks cold in there," he commented. Vivi nodded a bit, while Zidane chuckled, and Garnet moved forward to investigate a frozen flower.

"Princess! I urge you not to touch anything," Steiner bade. Garnet retracted her hand, then nodded at him.

"You're right, I probably shouldn't."

"Hey guys, can we get going? I'm freezing my tail off here!" Zidane exclaimed. Jason nodded in agreement, and they were off. As they moved through the cavern, Jason thought he felt a strong presence in the area, but decided that he would be better off keeping the idea to himself. He didn't need everyone thinking that he was crazier then they already thought he was. It would turn out that he was right, though, once again.

With Vivi's help, they were able to gather all of the hidden items behind the ice. In particular, Jason acquired a hat, and not only did it make him warmer, but he also felt as though he had some new ability. Indeed, he gained the Alert ability, and that helped quite a bit as they progressed through the cave. What took everyone by surprise the most, however, was not Jason's strange new capacity to tell when things were sneaking up on the group. Rather, it was the moogle towards the end; it called them 'bastards'. And they all thought that moogles were supposed to be such friendly creatures!

When they reached the snowy cliff, Jason was more certain them ever that something was watching them, trying to put them to sleep. When his comrades started falling asleep, there could no longer be any doubt. And he certainly wasn't happy when he fell asleep himself. But instead of freezing to death, as he expected to, he managed to wake up with Zidane.

"Ugh... what happened?" Jason managed. Zidane stood up and shook the snow off of his tail.

"I'm not sure. But hey, do you hear ringing?" he asked. Jason nodded slowly, and headed off in the direction of the bell.

"Hey, wait for me!" Zidane called, coming after him. The two headed on towards the Black Waltz's cavern.

"Hey, why aren't you two dead yet? The blizzard should have finished you!" it cackled. Jason felt waves of darkness emanating from the creature, and tried to stand firm, but Zidane did a far better job.

"So then, you're the one who caused this blizzard?" he demanded. The Waltz cackled and nodded.

"So what are you gonna do about it? Ha!"

Then it attacked.

Well that's chapter two. Whaddya think? Regardless, I'm continuing. Peace.