Part Three

Figaro Castle gates swung open heavily and Sabin entered his childhood home with a small twinge of regret. He was back at the place that he had fled from twice. But he also felt hope. He had come home to see Terra and tell her about how he felt. He thought about how he was going to greet Terra when she saw him. It had been six months since he had seen her. He wondered if she was going to be happy to see him. If she would smile the secret smile she only showed when she was very happy. He smiled broadly at the thought.

The courtyard of the castle was a bustle with merchants and tradesmen as usual. They all shouted over one another in the mid morning sun. Sabin, used to the scene, tuned them out and marched through the crowd to the strong medal doors that lead into the castle itself to find Terra. But Edgar stood before the door shouting orders at soldiers who scurried about in different directions.

"What's going on?" Sabin demanded as he saw the chaos before him.

"Terra's been kidnapped," Edgar snapped with out so much as a welcome to his twin brother. Locke and Celes ran up at that moment. "She disappeared sometime last night."

"Cyan said that there is a chocobo missing from the stables," Celes announced. "But the stable boy didn't hear anything last night."

"We have to go after her," Locke stated and Sabin looked at him in mild surprise. Sabin hadn't expected to see Locke or Celes for a long while. And Celes was very pregnant.

"Count me in," Edgar said as he clapped Sabin on the shoulder.

"Then lets go," Locke chimed. Locke looked at Celes but she shook her head and patted her stomach. Locke smiled and kissed her, then took off after the twins already half way to the stables.

"Why would anyone want to kidnap Terra?" Sabin demanded as the stable boy ran forward with three chocobo in tow. The boy bowed deeply to Edgar.

"There are chocobo tracks headed north, your majesty," the boy said while still bowed. With out a word, the three men mounted the chocobos and headed north at a dead run.

"I don't know," Edgar yelled over the wind, wisps of his blond hair flying into his face. Sabin could tell that there was something on his brother's mind. But that would have to wait. They needed to get Terra back at the moment.

After a few minutes hard riding, they came upon the missing chocobo tied to a steak in the ground.

"Damn it," Edgar spat as he pulled his chocobo to a stop. The other two did so too. They looked around but saw no more tracks. Just a strange pattern in the sand.

"This looks like an airship take off," Sabin said as he examined the pattern.

"Setzer?" Locke asked with concern.

"No," Edgar denied as he shook his head. "Setzer may be a gambler but he's not a kidnapper."

"Edgar," Locke warned. "Did you forget how we got onto his airship in the first place? He kidnapped Celes right in front of a live audience."

"Setzer wouldn't kidnap Terra," Edgar reiterated. "He's too smart to try it."

"But who?" Sabin asked as he searched the early morning sky for an airship.

"I have no idea," Edgar replied.

"Do you know where Setzer is?" Sabin asked as the group started walking the chocobos back to Figaro.

"I have flares to signal him, but that's it," Edgar replied.

"Then we will have to do that," Sabin resigned as he turned his chocobo back toward the castle. Locke untied the abandoned chocobo and lead it behind him.

* * *

The flare shot up in the night sky in an arc of red flame and shattered into a million shards of light. The group of heroes stood on the tower and heard the crackle of the flare as it burned in the midnight air.

"I hope that he sees this," Celes remarked as she put her arm around Locke's waist. He hugged her close. She watched as another flare was shot into the air, this time a brilliant green one.

"If he is in the area," Locke muttered quietly. Edgar and Sabin watched the flare shoot and illuminate the sky. Sabin kept checking the sky for any sign of the airship. The third flare shot up, a dazzling orange color. And again Sabin watched the sky for some sign.

Celes watched as Sabin tried to light a fourth flare and Edgar argued against it. And Sabin shoved his brother aside.

"Surely wasting the flares isn't going to do any good," Celes uttered.

"I don't know," Locke replied as he let go of Celes and mumbled: "Better stop these two up before they break something."

Celes watched as her lover dodged punches and got the two men settled down, and wondered what had crazed Sabin. He was normally more level headed then Edgar. She had never seen him like this before.

Celes sighed and felt the wind pick up from behind her. She turned and saw lights in the sky outlining a large blimp-like airship. From behind her, she heard a whoop that could only have been Sabin and people running down the stone steps to greet their old friend. Celes gingerly followed feeling more tired then she had been in a long time.

Celes got to the courtyard just as Setzer set his airship down outside the front gates. Sabin, Locke, and Edgar all waited there for him. Setzer jumped over the railing and to the ground to greet them all. He hadn't changed a bit.

* * *

Blackness.

The last thing that she remembered was seeing Sabin in the dark hallway on the way to her room. But Sabin had been gone for six months. How could she have seen him? That didn't make sense. Terra tried to remember what happened but she didn't remember getting to her room or to her bed.

Her head was reeling. And her stomach didn't want to stay put. She knew that very soon she was going to lose her dinner. Or maybe she already had. Her mouth tasted awful.

Then she heard something. Voices. But she didn't recognize either of the two voices. She tried to focus.

" . . . come after her," a female voice was saying. "Not worth the trouble."

"You worry too much," replied a second deeper voice, a male. "We'll get paid, what more do you want?"

There were some muffled words that she couldn't understand.

"1,000,000 gold pieces!" the woman's voice shouted in surprise. "For her?"

Ransom, she thought. That was a lot of money, even for the King of Figaro. Would they pay it? She tried to shake her head but it barely moved. But her stomach protested and she vomited. Then wished that she hadn't tried to clear her head.

"Did you have to use that stuff to put her out?" the female voice asked. "She already started to vomit."

"It was the only thing we had to put her out quickly," the man's voice said. "You forgot to restock the ship before the mission."

"Not my fault," the first voice protested sarcastically as it grew feint and disappeared.

"Sure," the second voice mumbled close to her ear. She would have jumped at the sudden nearness of it if she could have gotten her body to respond any other way then vomiting. She felt her head being lifted from the floor and heard the person wipe clean the floor beneath her. And then her mouth was being wiped clean.

"Who are you that you are worth 1,000,000 gold pieces, Terra Branford?" the voice asked quietly. And then she heard boots walking away.

* * *

"So you want me to follow some psychopath to god knows where because he kidnapped Terra?" Setzer asked like it was the most normal conversation topic in the world while the band of heroes stood in the parlor of the airship's spacious hull.

"Yes," Sabin replied while staring intently at Setzer.

"Just like old times," the rogue laughed to himself as he flipped his long white hair out of his face. "I'm game. Who's with me?"

"We should leave as soon as possible," Sabin urged.

"The Falcon here is always ready," Setzer cooed as he touched the hewn wood of the airships hull.

"Good, then we can leave now," Edgar smiled. Setzer nodded and reached behind him to a dangling rope tasseled at the end. He pulled down and a whistle blew. The heroes heard racing footsteps and shouted commands.

"It's taxing being a hero," Setzer chuckled as the ship lurched free of the ground and became buoyant. "Everyone wants to work for you."

Locke rolled his eyes.

"You better get some sleep," Setzer told the group who all nodded wearily. "My boys will keep an eye out for the other airship. It can't be that hard to find. There are, after all, only two." Setzer caught Celes' eye and winked at her with a sly smirk on his face. Celes rolled her eyes and followed the others out of his parlor. He was left alone with his thoughts.

* * *

"Patriot!" Granger shouted as he stumbled up onto the airship deck in a half waking state. "What the hell are you doing?" He steadied himself against another hard course correction, the wind berating his large frame wildly.

"We are not alone," the young woman spat back at him as she held the wheel, turning the airship, then letting go letting the wheel spin back to its resting position, straightening the course. "It looks like another airship."

"How far from the ocean are we?" Granger asked as he gazed behind them to see the lights of another airship on the dark horizon.

"Half a day at least," Patriot replied. "I don't think that they have seen us though. Do you think that they are trying to rescue the girl?"

"Possibly," Granger agreed. "Find a clearing in the forest below to land and shut everything down. We'll spend the night here. Head out in the morning for Vector to deliver the girl and collect our gold."

Patriot began the landing procedure by bringing the airship to a stop in midair. It hovered for a moment; its helium filled balloon holding the wooden ship aloft, and then began to sink into the lush forest beneath it and into the clearing Patriot had guided it to. There was a final jerk as the airship contacted the earth. The engines powered down until all was quiet.

"Go to sleep," Granger said to Patriot as she stepped away from the helm of the ship. "I'll check on our guest and batten down." Patriot nodded and walked around him to the wooden step that led down into the bowels of the ship.