Here's chapter five... may you thoroughly enjoy.

Steiner woke up early to look for some way to get Dagger back to the castle. Vivi got up slightly later to check out the windmill, and Dagger woke up out of pure instinct, and decided to go exploring. None of them registered the fact that Jason was nowhere to be seen.

Zidane woke to the sound of Dagger's beautiful voice and decided to look for her. When he saw Jason leaning idly against the wall on the outside of the inn, though, he decided to initiate some conversation.

"Yo, Jason. What's going on?" he asked. Jason sighed and shook his head.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. I've been standing here thinking for a few hours," he said. Zidane was definitely surprised by that, but he didn't let it show. Instead he just leaned against the wall next to him.

"Try me," he challenged. Jason chuckled a bit.

"That is one of the things I've been thinking about... whether the universe would crumble if I told you. But, judging by the fact that Megan never saw me in the game... that means this isn't the game...unless she transported us both..."

Zidane stared. What was Jason babbling about now?

"Gaia to Jason? Do you read?" he asked. Jason snapped out of it.

"Sorry. Okay, I guess I can tell you. But you won't believe me. You see, I'm not from this world," he said, plain as day.

"Right, sure you are. Some inter-dimensional mix-up, right?" Zidane replied. Jason nodded.

"And where I come from, this world is part of a game."

Zidane laughed out loud.

"You're right, I don't believe you. Do you realize that you are crazy?" he asked, looking him in the eye. Jason stared back, his face stone serious. That really irked Zidane.

"Okay... logically speaking, this gives us two options. Either you're telling the truth, or you're stone-cold crazy," Zidane determined. Jason chuckled a bit.

"It's possible that both of those are true. But the fact is that this isn't a game anymore. And, I have some rather important information concerning Vivi," he said. Zidane wasn't really in the mood, though.

"Hey, I appreciate the offer, but I've heard enough. Why don't you go find yourself a sensible girl to straighten you out, okay? I have to go look for Dagger," Zidane said, ending the conversation. Jason just sighed softly. What would Megan's next move be?

As Zidane left in search of the Princess, Jason thought over what he had been told. Black mages were being mass-produced in an underground facility beneath Dali. They were being made of the substance called Mist, and were most likely designed to be tools of war for Alexandria. He knew it wasn't lies, because he had seen the facility for himself. Right now, Megan was going through a series of processes that would land her in control of the Black Mage Army, or at least part of it. That was what she said she was doing, anyway.

Jason didn't know how many people she could control with her psychic abilities at once, but she would probably need to control just one. Yes, it made sense. She would control the foreman of the operation, have him tell anyone else that she was an apprentice, and then redirect the production of the Black Mages. Perhaps she could inform them that their funding had been cut, but they were still expected to make the mages. As a result, they might burn down the cargo ship in an act of revolution and commandeer the things. But how would they control them?

There were other possibilities, but Jason really didn't have time to think them over. What he needed to do was figure out how he would respond to whatever it was that Megan was trying to do. Last night, she had left him with the proposition that together they could take over the Black Mages and conquer the planet. Of course she didn't expect him to answer immediately, but she didn't stick around and wait. Rather, she headed back down into the facility, possibly to set up a base of operations. Jason wasn't concerned with that, though. What he wanted to know was why a fourteen-year-old girl wanted to rule the world. What could she possibly gain from it?

Maybe it had something to do with returning home to Earth. His mom really did miss him...and though Jason didn't really miss her, he didn't like the thought of his mother in agony. Then again, he had no assurance that Meg could successfully conquer even the mages, let alone the planet. And if she did, could she really get them back to Earth? And there was another thing he had to consider; why was she so interested in him? After all, she was looking for him, even if he was still on Earth. Could her ultimate goal be to conquer the Earth? Once again, the question was why she wanted that. There was no personal gain, really, and Megan did not strike him as an altruist looking for peace and love across the globe. No psyker was.

There was one last thing Jason needed to consider. This was a four-CD game, and there was no way that a single continent with only three powerful nations could take up the entire game. There had to be endless other places to explore, people to see, and enemies to defeat. Surely the ultimate evil of the game was not Queen Brahne and her mages. So, what was?

"I'll have to figure this out later...I need to pay attention to the here and now. If Megan gets too powerful, then my group will just have to defeat her. If not, then so be it. I don't have any way of getting back to Earth, so I'll just go along with the others, and see if I can help them in anyway, I guess. Maybe I should take Zidane's advice and look for some company... I could be here for a long time..."

With that, he pushed himself off the wall and headed for the pub. It was the only place that he had any chance of meeting someone, really. The facility was supposed to be off-limits. When he entered the building, he was surprised to see Steiner present, and stacking wood no less. But what really caught Jason off guard was Megan was sitting next to the tender, right there behind the counter! He quickly assumed that Megan was, for some reason or another, pretending to be the tender's sister. He placed himself down at the bar, forgetting about Steiner, and questioned her.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were off trying to conquer the planet?" he asked. Megan smiled at him.

"Speaking of which, have you come up with an answer yet? By the way, I'm here because I've already initiated phase one of the plan. Now all I have to do is wait for the airship to show up, and I'll have a supply of soldiers all nice and ready for me. Then I can move on to conquer other areas. Isn't that nifty?"

Steiner was completely unaware of the conversation. That was because, multitalented as she was, Meg had switched the conversation over to telepathy. Jason kept his head down, and Steiner never noticed him. Soon enough, the tender saw him out, and it was just a chat between Megan and Jason.

"Listen, I don't want any part in your bid for world dominion. You can beg all you want, but I have a sneaky suspicion that you want something more than that. You would have sought me out even if I had still been on Earth, so obviously your goal has something to do with our very own planet. But I see it this way: if you can get us back there, then you'll just have some evil plot in mind after taking over that place, the same one for this place. Whichever one you decide that you want to take over, I don't want any part in it. I know that you have more in mind than simple dominion. I just want to find a way back home, nothing more, nothing else. And unless you can give that to me in a simple package, I want nothing to do with you. Got it?"

They stared at each other for a while.

"Wow, you've certainly thought this over, haven't you? You really shouldn't lie to me, though. You know I can tell when you do. You want more than to be back on Earth. Even a regular human could tell that you didn't walk into a pub without a reason. You're lonely. I can definitely satisfy that craving, but there will be a price. You'll have to help me in my campaign, and if you really wish, I'll send you back home when it's all over. But somehow, I doubt that you'll want to."

She winked at him. He responded with a low growl; he was not going to fall for this.

"I can find a girl anywhere. I don't need you. Good luck," he said sarcastically, ending the telepathy and getting up to leave. Megan quickly changed tones and called after him.

"Wait a minute, Jason. I want to make something perfectly clear."

He stopped and turned around.

"Make it quick. I've got a mage to rescue," he announced, remembering Vivi and the Black Mage program.

"If you're not with me, you're against me. As a fellow psyker, I see you as a threat if you aren't my ally. I will have to destroy you eventually if you don't join me," she said. Jason chuckled.

"Once again, I say good luck. You'll definitely need it."

And with that, he was gone. Megan smiled softly; the poor boy had no idea what he was getting into. At this rate he would be dead even if he did ally himself with her. But she had more important things to busy herself with. She pulled a picture out form her small handbag and gazed into it. It was a picture of her brother; she hadn't even known of his existence until a few years ago, when her caregivers stumbled across some old information left behind by her parents. She found out soon enough what had happened to him, and what she would have to do to rescue him.

"Soon, brother, I'll have everything ready."

He couldn't hear her, but she didn't care. She placed the picture back in her bag and left the pub, returning the tender to a state of self-control. With that done, Megan headed out past the small farm to the cargo-loading spot, and disappeared beneath the surface to oversee the production of her army.

Still liking? I hope so.