It was decided. Garnet's new name would be Dagger.

Steiner was, of course, very upset.

But the group let it pass soon enough, and they entered the Village of Dali. (On the way, Jason acquired a new spell - Carve Spider form. To his slight dismay, it replaced the Plant Spider form, but it wasn't that bad.) The innkeeper stared at Vivi, but Zidane assumed that he was looking at Dagger. Jason could tell a few other things, though.

"Hey man, I know she's cute, but it's rude to stare," Zidane said.

"Oh... I wasn't staring at her. Uh, your room is right over there," he said, pointing to the room. With some thanks, they all headed in, though Jason gave the innkeeper a long, hard look first.

"Uh oh... only four beds," Zidane said somewhat suggestively. They all looked at one another for a while, and then Zidane sighed.

"Okay, I guess I'm sleeping on the floor," he announced. Suddenly, they heard snoring. Vivi was flat asleep on his bed. Jason smiled in Vivi's direction, thinking that he was a pretty cute kid. Then he decided to tell the others.

"Hey guys, I have something I need to tell you," he said.

"Yes, Jason?" Dagger asked.

"Well you see, um, I have a bad feeling about this town. Something wasn't quite right in that innkeeper's head... he seemed really paranoid, like he was afraid of something in the room. And call me crazy-"

"Crazy," Steiner said.

"Erherm. Call me crazy, but I think that it was Vivi," Jason finished. Steiner was appalled, Zidane became pensive and Dagger became worried.

"That's preposterous! What could possibly be the matter with Master Vivi?" Steiner asked. Dagger tried a calmer query.

"Jason, what makes you think that this is going on?" she asked. Jason decided to answer both questions.

"Steiner, Vivi is a black mage. Maybe that makes people in small towns nervous?"

"You will address me as Captain Steiner, Jason!" he demanded. Jason sighed.

"Whatever. Anyway, I am a psyker. That guy's thoughts were pretty muddy, but I know he was concerned because of Vivi for some reason or another."

There was a moment of silence as the people considered Jason's opinions.

"Look, I'm not so sure of myself to be honest. I'm going out for a walk; Zidane, you can have my bed. I won't be back for awhile," Jason announced.

"Hey man, are you sure? I mean, I'm fine sleeping on the floor," Zidane offered. Jason just shook his head and headed out. "You stay here. I'll be back after you all fall asleep," he said, leaving. The others all gave him brief good-byes, but they didn't stay up much longer. All of them were very, very tired.

"Wow... what a game," Meg said to herself. It seemed so much more real to her than other games did. Garry, fixed on the game as he normally was, didn't even notice when Meg disappeared. And Garry's mother didn't notice, because until Meg vanished, she just walked around placidly, not paying attention to anything. Once Meg was gone, she forgot that it had ever happened.

"Oh my God! What happened?" Meg shouted to no one. She was standing in the Mist-collection room for the Black Mage machine. She recognized the room soon enough, and nodded softly.

"So this is what happened to Jason, no doubt. Well, let's see if I can find him," she said to herself, closing her eyes and sitting down. It didn't take her long to sense him walking around in the town of Dali that she had been transported to. She stood up, and headed out. That was when she encountered a night shift.

"Hey, who're you? What're you doing here, girl? Shouldn't you be in bed?" he demanded. She just chuckled at him, which made him even angrier. But just as he was about to lunge at her in fury, her eyes flared at him and he stopped in his tracks.

"Move aside," she ordered, and he flung himself against the wall, getting knocked out cold. She walked past, still chuckling, though somewhat upset at her new outfit. She wore a white skirt that stopped just above her knees, rather girlish shoes, and a soft blue blouse.

"Actually, I could use this to my advantage," she determined, heading up to the surface. "I actually look pretty good."

Shortly after, she walked out into the night, and bumped right into Jason. They both took a step back, staring each other in the face. It was a typical psyker strategy for such encounters, in an attempt to scan for some sort of aggressive motive. They both found that they had run into a fellow psyker, and their stances suddenly changed. Meg stood casually and smirked, while Jason just looked at her awkwardly. This was the first time he had ever met another psyker.

"Mega?" he asked. She nodded. "Call me Meg, or Megan, though. K, Jason?" she responded. He wore an odd smile, then nodded. "Okay, Meg. Let's see... you were looking for me and got sucked in just the way I did?" he asked. A nod came in return.

"Indeed. You are a very special psyker, Jason, even more so now that we're here in Gaia. You are now the second most powerful psychic in the world," she announced.

"And what makes you the better psyker?" he asked. She glared at him, and he instantly felt her trying to control his movements. Of course, it was a test to see who had the stronger mind control ability, and it really wasn't something he practiced. His only option would be to use his psychic attack, but he didn't want to kill the only other person from Earth on this planet. So for a while he engaged in this psychic arm wrestling match, and held out for a while, but he started losing it rather rapidly. So he decided on another strategy. He knew that if he willed himself to do a particular behavior that wasn't what she wanted him to do, rather than directly fight it, he might have a better chance. So that's what he did; the problem was that the only thing that could come to mind was to kiss her.

Oh well, better than letting her have her way with me, he decided. When the kiss came so easy, though, and it felt so right when they wrapped their arms around each other, he knew he had been had.

"You made me kiss you?" he demanded. She smiled innocently and nodded.

"Yeah, I guess I'm more irresistible than I thought, huh? Come on... it's not like you didn't want to anyway," she said. Jason had to consider that for a moment.

"Fine. No point in trying to keep secrets from a fellow psyker. And I guess you are a better psyker than me, for now. I'm out of practice in mind control though. There are plenty of other things I can do, let me assure you," he said defiantly.

"Oh, I know! You could have fried my brain, or called upon some beast to attack me. But you wouldn't do that to me, cause I'm too sweet. Right?"

Jason didn't bother answering. This was ridiculous. It was obvious now that Meg had plans to use Jason in some plan or another, and he would have no part in it.

"Look, if you try to take control of me again, I swear I will fry your brain. I'm dead serious," he said, staring her in the eye. She knew that he wasn't kidding, but she wasn't deterred.

"You'll come around eventually. You can't afford to let me die. Because I am the only one who knows how to get you back home," she announced. Jason started scanning her mind, but he found that it was blocked off somehow.

"Another reason I'm a better psyker than you. I can block off parts of my mind from peering eyes. Now, do you want to get back to Earth or not?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes, of course. So what do you want me to do?" he wondered

"I'm so glad you asked me that," she said, putting an arm around his neck. She started whispering in his ear. What he would hear would totally change his perspective on this new universe that they had stumbled across.

Oooh... what's gonna happen? Is Megan evil, or is Jason a jerk, or are the BOTH evil, or just confused little kids? What do YOU think? It doesn't matter, because you'll find out soon enough. But I'd sure appreciate your reviews anyway! Thanks!