There was no need for a real meeting. Garnet, who had been watching the skies anxiously with Doctor Tot, saw the dragon land, it's presence made even more obvious by the moonlight reflecting off the dragon's silvery feathers. She rushed downstairs, with Tot following at a much more sedate pace behind. Her face fell when she noticed that Mikoto was missing.

"Zidane? Didn't you find Mikoto?"

Zidane's face sagged awkwardly. "She's gone, Dagger." he said, reverting to Garnet's alias. It had taken him a long time to get used to saying 'Garnet' again after their adventure, and he often used it in times of great stress. Garnet was never sure if this was a comfort thing, or whether the pressure made him forget about trivial things such as that.

"Phiran took her?" Garnet asked gently.

Zidane leant against Garnet for support. "Yeah. She's gone."

"There is a chance." Kuja said, stepping forward. Garnet looked up. "I can search for the Redwing on my dragon. Mikoto may be there.

"But we have no idea where it is!"

"Phiran mentioned that the Soroyan village was in the north. We shall start there. I have put my faith in my dragon before and I am prepared to do so again."

"Can't someone else go? Phiran knows you, and- "

Kuja cut her off with a wave of his hand. "You know that I am the only one that can fly my dragon." And no- one wants me in the castle anyway, he thought. "Besides, we shall not be noticed. We shall keep at a distance and observe the movements of Phiran and the Soroyans, then report back."

Garnet turned to Tot. "What do you think?"

Tot nodded slowly. "I think... that this is our best plan at the moment. Whilst Kuja is gone, we may devise a better one."

Kuja leapt back onto his dragon. "If I am not back in... a week, don't bother looking for me."

Garnet nodded, understanding the meaning of his words. "Come on, Zidane."

She turned and headed back up to the Palace with Doctor Tot, Beatrix, and Zidane.

Your dragon, Kuja?

Kuja turned to see the dragon looking at him with an amused expression on its face.

What was I supposed to say? 'It'?

I belong to no- one!

With that, the dragon took off with a glorious sweep of its wings.

Where are we headed first?

Check the snowy northern regions around Esto Gaza.

Stretching its wings to their limit, the dragon swooped so low that Kuja could caress the silky ocean surface with his fingertips, and so rose high that the land lay in front of them as if it were just a map, and the stars seemed just an arm's length away. Kuja felt that familiar sensation in the back of his mind he always felt when he was flying, as if he could hear a song that some caring woman had sung to him since he was a child, some sweet lullaby. But of course, there was no such song, and there was no caring woman.

How could you live in that city, Kuja? The air... it is so hard to breathe...

Kuja was taken aback. He had never noticed it. I... don't know... I never realised... I have been away from the skies so long...

You have changed, Kuja. Can't you remember?

Kuja shook his head.

Remember Kuja. Please remember... for the sake of all our years in flight...

Kuja shut his eyes tight, trying desperately to remember what it was like to fly so fast, breathe so freely, do all that the dragon spoke of. The dragon itself was silent, knowing the concentration Kuja needed for this task.

Focus... Kuja thought to himself. Shut everything else out...

Kuja felt his entire body devoting himself to a single task in a way it had not done for years. His insides started shutting down, to devote more energy to Kuja's memories. His stomach stopped digesting food, his lungs breathed more shallowly, and even his heart slowed until it hardly beat at all.

Kuja waited.

And waited.

And waited.

After what seemed like a long while, Kuja opened his eyes. "I don't think it's going to-"

He stopped.

Everything had disappeared. The dragon, the stars, the ocean, everything. All around Kuja was nothing but blackness.

"What's going on?" Kuja's voice echoed around the void.

Suddenly, a pinprick of colour appeared in the distance. Kuja couldn't make out what it was, but the general colour was white. Gradually, the speck got closer and closer until Kuja could tell what it was. At first he didn't believe it. But as it approached him, he realised he had no choice.

"No-"

It was a young Kuja, perhaps only eight years old. Tears streamed down his face and he kept tripping up, as if his eyes were too blurred with tears to see where he was going.

Kuja collapsed on his knees and, with trembling fingers, reached out for the boy in front of him. But the boy didn't see him. He was much too preoccupied with the figure behind him, which Kuja only just noticed. Standing up, nostrils flaring and fists clenched, he stared at the newcomer.

"Garland!" he hissed.

Garland, too, paid him no attention. Instead, he spoke to the boy. "You brought this on yourself."

With Garland's words, the blackness around them exploded into blue. They were on Terra, not in Bran Bal, but in the wastelands of the planet, where monsters roamed freely and the blue light pulsed less harshly.

"Please... don't..." the boy sniffed.

"You deserve to be punished!" the old man roared. "A disobedient Genome must be punished!"

With one hand, Garland plucked the small boy up off the floor by the scruff of the neck and carried him away at arm's length. The boy did not struggle. Kuja thought that Garland had cast a Sleep spell over him, but he was not sure.

Kuja followed behind Garland, uncertain of what he was seeing.

Soon they reached Garland's 'palace', though it could hardly be called one. They came to a room which Kuja thought he had never seen before but distantly recalled, as if he had seen it in someone else's photograph. The only furniture adorning the room was a large table with chains over it and a large, comfortable chair in the corner. Onto the table Garland dropped the young Kuja and chained his wrists and ankles down.

Garland sat down in the luxurious chair and clicked his fingers. Instantly the boy awoke, looking around him wildly.

"Wha-"

Garland stood up and peered over the boy. "It is time you paid for your mistakes." He slammed a fist down on the boy's stomach, strengthened by magic.

Kuja felt a sudden pain in his stomach. He gasped and fell to the floor. Grey ate away at the edges of his vision. It felt as if his stomach had been ripped out, and it was completely unexpected.

Please, just end it... kill me now...

But instead of the pain ending, it only intensified, and Kuja fell to the floor, unconscious.