Interlude: Dragonslayer

Laguna tightened the straps around his backpack one last time, thoroughly securing the gear on his shoulders. He jostled his backpack, making sure nothing rattled or tinkled within, and once that was secured, he scooped up his rifle. The former soldier, then freelance journalist, and now hapless explorer began to inspect the rifle when a light knock came on the door.

"Hey," he called as he checked the sight, and then belatedly realized he had left the safety off. The explorer snapped the safety on as a large figure entered the comfortable, cozy dome-shaped house. Its light blue and purple robes swished along the floor as it straightened, standing a full eight feet tall, with pale yellow-white skin and thick, fatty cheeks and a lipless mouth.

"It is time for you to leave?" the Shumi Elder boomed, seeming sad. Laguna couldn't really tell from its expression, even after spending a couple of months in this village of the reclusive northern people. Their eyes were always wide open and entirely black, making it difficult to tell what they were feeling at any given moment.

"Yeah," Laguna replied, a bit disheartened too. He was happy for spending his time out here in the hospitality of the Shumi, even if it had been unintentional. It was better to spend a few months letting a broken leg and a million other injuries heal than die freezing and bleeding to death after falling halfway down a mountain.

"Hate to go, Elder," Laguna continued, finishing his check of his weapon. "But I can't stay any longer. Gotta get to Esthar. My little girl's waiting for me." He slung the rifle over his shoulder as the huge Shumi sighed, a deep exhaling noise.

"I wish that you would be able to stay," the Elder said after a moment. "Our conversations were most enjoyable, as was the time you spent with us teaching us of the ways outside our enclave. But we all understand why you must go. Family and community are two things we Shumi treasure most dearly."

"Like I said, really not happy about leaving," Laguna added. "But the wild brown yonder calls for me."

"Brown?" the Elder replied, and Laguna blinked a few times.

"Jeez, been down here too long," he said after a moment, smiling. He extended his hand toward the Shumi Elder, who glanced down at it, confused momentarily, until he came to understand. The Elder, too, extended his hand and grasped Laguna's, the huge, elongated fingers wrapping around the soldier's wrist and partway up his forearm.

"We knew you would be leaving," the Elder continued after the handshake ended. It gestured outside. "So we have prepared this for you." The tall figure moved out of the dome-shaped house, and Laguna followed. He opened the door from the cozy, yet modern, home, and stepped into the wide cavern that housed the Shumi village.

The ceiling arched far above Laguna's head, nearly two hundred feet above. In the center of the cavern's roof was a single powerful ultraviolet light, simulating sunlight perfectly, shining down upon the underground village. The cavern itself, composed of a smooth, blue-gray stone, was shaped and hewn into a multitude of terraces and paths, with hundreds of dome-shaped homes dotting the area in no real orderly fashion. Lush plant life, green grasses, ferns, and trees, overflowed in the spaces between the structures, and a wide clear lake teeming with fish formed in the center of the cavern, fed by icy waters pouring down from the south end of the cavern. Birds could be heard calling in the dense plant life, and thousands of insects and butterflies flitted about among the flowers and reeds surrounding the lake. Everything in this place had been constructed as a paradise, an oasis of warmth and life.

It was rather ironic that, only another hundred or so feet above that cavern roof, was one of the coldest and most inhospitable places in the world, the northernmostTrabian snowfields at the end of winter.

Dozens of Shumi were gathered outside Laguna's door, though none of them were the same height as the human. In fact, they were barely over four feet, clad in thick purple and blue robes much like the Elder's. With the exception of their height, they were virtually identical to the Elder. Ringing the Shumi were an equal number of the small but strong orange-furred Moombas, who were much more animated and playful than the relatively lethargic and laid-back Shumi. Two of the smaller Shumi flanked an object swathed in folded cloth, and as soon as Laguna came out into their cavern, they hefted it.

"We understand your needs and your haste, Laguna Loire," the Elder explained, and it reached out to the cloth and, with surprising deftness, pulled the layers of cloth away to reveal a trio of folded coats, made of thick white and gray material, and with light blue lacing running all along their lengths. The lacing seemed to almost glow with an inner light.

"Thus we have prepared these," the Elder continued, holding one of the coats up for Laguna to see. "Laced with a special mineral filament that we prepare here. These coats are laced with the energies of cold and frost, and will ward you from those effects. Far more efficient than any form of cloth most humans make." The Elder held the coat out reverently toward Laguna, who took it with equal reverence. This was no small gift; Laguna knew the Shumi rarely gave away items that they had made with their own unique knowledge and innovation.

"Thanks . . . ." Laguna managed to say after a few moments. "you don't have any idea how much this means to me! But, uhh . . . ." Laguna paused. "Why are there three coats?"

"'Cause you got three people on your quest, you big knucklehead!" came a shout from behind the Shumi crowd. The familiar voice instantly brightened Laguna's face as he saw two familiar figures come move through the crowd of Shumi and Moombas. One was slender and lithe, and the other was huge and hulking, both bearing massive grins and heavy, thick winter clothing.

"Kiros, Ward!" Laguna exclaimed in joy. He rushed forward, hugging both of his old friends, who returned the hug with equal enthusiasm. "Wow! What are you guys doing here? How did you guys even find me way out here in the middle of nowhere?"

"Well, when you write for a major magazine about the places you've been traveling to, itssimple to keep track of where you're going," Kiros replied. "Been quite the adventure following you around. Back to Timber, then to Galbadia, then Dollet, even way down south in Centra. You get around, my man." Ward nodded and pointed to the ground. Kiros glanced at him and nodded, and Laguna could see the nasty surgical scar across his old friend's throat.

"Ward says that when you wrote an article about how the Shumi were treating a visitor so well, even when he was injured, then we knew you'd be holed up here for a while. And by the way, you have got to tell us how you hurt yourself." Ward tapped the smaller man's shoulder, and Kiros looked up to see Ward shaking his finger at Laguna, with a mock expression of anger on his face.

"Ward says that we'll find out after he gives you the cuchi-cuchi for running off without telling anyone. At least you could have invited us."

"Sorta slipped my mind, guys," Laguna replied. He turned back to the Elder. "Elder, your generosity is unappreciated more than you can imagine."

"Uh, Laguna . . . ." Kiros said quickly. "No 'un' needed, man."

"Wha?" Laguna said, confused, and then his face exploded in red. "Oh, wait, yeah!" He scratched the back of his head as a ripple of amusement moved through the crowd of Shumi and Moombas.

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"Those Shumi sure do know their stuff," commented Kiros, sitting in the passenger seat of the rugged, treaded all-terrain transport. The white-painted metal of the vehicle blended in well with the snow, making the transport hard to see as Laguna maneuvered it across the rough terrain of Trabia.

Ward grunted in the back seat, sitting beside their gear. Kiros nodded.

"Too bad our heater went out," Laguna said. "Glad we got these coats, though. They'll really take the bite out of a cold summer n- er, winter night."

"See that, Ward?" Kiros exclaimed, slapping Laguna across the shoulder as he rose over a hump in the rough snowy path. "Managed to catch one of his screw-ups! There's hope for you after all, Laguna!"

"Aw, shut up," Laguna muttered as he drove. "And check that map, will ya? I think we're coming up on the Damascus Outpost. I wanna get this thing fixed and grab some chow."

"With what money?" Kiros asked. "You spent the last of our reserves renting this old clunker." Ward grunted again and stomped a booted foot into the floor in the rear of the all-terrain vehicle. "And I think Ward agrees."

"Bah," Laguna replied. "We'll find a job. Besides, I finished writing up my article about the Trabian forests and the Bika Snowfields. Once we get to Damascus I can type it up and compress it and radio it to Timber Maniacs. That should get us a bit more spending money." Ward frowned and rubbed his index and middle fingers together with his thumb, a universal sign for money.

"Yeah, I can't get how we lost all that cash you got from your series about the Shumi village, either," Kiros agreed.

"Winter gear ain't cheap," Laguna replied with a shrug.

"By the way, how did you end up with those oddballs?" Kiros asked, and Laguna glanced at his friend, surprised.

"'Oddballs'?" he answered. "Never heard the Shumi called that before. Well . . . If you want to know, it was kinda my fault. Got turned around wandering the mountains and ended up on the northern region of Trabia, about two weeks off-course."

"That's an understatement," Kiros replied. "You ended up on Winter Island itself. I don't even know how you got that lost."

"Bad information," Laguna admitted. "Thought that the little sea between northern Trabia and Winter Island was just a gap between two areas of Trabia, and I hitched a ride on a freighter running up their way. Well, turns out I still have a bad sense of direction. Couldn't even find the Shumi village when it was only a few miles away from the dock. Started wandering around those mountains northwest of their village, and I spotted those steam clouds coming from that environment dome they have around their elevator. Started heading toward it when my boot found ice and then my face found an incline that ran all the way down the mountain. And on the way was a few rockslides' worth of boulders, which I think I managed to hit all of before I stopped."

"Laguna Loire, Hero and Adventurer Extraordinaire, strikes again," Kiros commented, and Ward laughed.

"So, some Shumi were out wandering around, looking for a good spot to set up observation posts to warn them in case Esthar troops came around, and they found me in the middle of a snow slide. They dragged me back to their village and put me back together. While I was there I wrote my series on the Shumi and their society."

"And that's how we found you," Kiros concluded, and Laguna nodded. He glanced down at the map, and looked out into the white expanse all around their vehicle, before spotting a distant cluster of buildings far to the east.

"Hey there it is," Laguna commented, nodding toward the distant Damascus Outpost. He accelerated as he spoke, and the distant outpost started to grow.

"Last bastion of civilization in eastern Trabia," Kiros said. "Surprised Esthar hasn't destroyed it or taken over."

"Esthar doesn't really care about Trabia," Laguna replied. "No way to get in there from the north. Or at least, no way that the Galbadian armyknows of."

"You think you'll be able to find a guide that can get us past the Trabia Crater?" Kiros asked, and Laguna shrugged.

"We'll need to get some more money," Laguna said as they drew closer to Damascus. "There's probably plenty of guides here, what with winter already passing. But if they're going to take us near Esthar, its going to cost us quite a bit of gil."

"You even have a plan once we get inside Esthar?" Kiros asked after a few minutes. "They aren't the most tolerant of nations. We'll get shot first and not questioned later."

"We'll figure something out," Laguna replied as they pulled into Damascus. "It all depends, really. But I can't just sit here, not when Ellone's in trouble." He parked the all-terrain transport near a line of similarly designed vehicles and opened the doors. The trio clambered out into the cold spring Trabian weather.

Damascus was still referred to as an outpost, but it had become something of a small town, with a total of about a thousand people, mostly hunters, guides, explorers, and the like. There weren't very many permanent people there, especially during the winter months, and lately the town's populace had been shrinking bit by bit due to the ever-present threat of Estharian invasion. Still, the place was lively, despite being on the far end of western civilization. Laguna, Kiros, and Ward moved through the dozens of well-made log cabins and structures, homes and businesses catering to the needs of anyone who wanted to come out this far from the rest of the world. They passed one building, a sizable restaurant, and the mouth-watering scents of freshly cooked meat and hot coffee and chocolate reached out to the group. As one, the trio stopped and, after a quick glance to one another, they ducked inside.

A few minutes later, the last of the cold was being chased away by the toasty interior of the restaurant and mugs filled with steaming hot drinks. The three comrades sat together in a booth, enjoying comforts they thought that they'd left behind at the Shumi village a fewweek ago.

"So, you going to tell us what happened?" Kiros asked after a few more minutes. Ward nodded from beside his lithe friend, looking at Laguna concernedly. Laguna was still for a moment, before sighing and nodding.

"It was a couple of months after the wedding," Laguna said. "About a week after Raine told me she was expecting. You guys had been gone from Winhill for a few months. They came at night, right about the break of dawn, when the Galbadian soldiers were least expecting it. They were using that damned active camouflage, new models, so they were almost impossible to see." Laguna shook his head.

"Probably were cyborgs," he continued. "Elites. They slipped in and took out the entire Galbadian command post first, before anyone even knew they were there. I was out on patrol. I saw some Bite Bugs getting to close to Miss Arnay's fields the other day, so I was trying to get their nest. I heard the gunshots when the Galbadian sentries managed to figure out what was going on, and started to run back, but by the time I managed to return to the town plaza, all the soldiers were dead. I heard Raine crying, so I ran inside the bar, where she was sitting on the floor, sobbing. She told me that the Estharians had grabbed Ellone right from her arms and disappeared in the night.

"Well, a couple of days later was when I left. I promised Raine I'd chase the Estharians down and get Ellone back. Been doing that for a few months now, and this is the closest I've gotten."

"Well, we can't stop here," Kiros replied as Laguna finished. "I'm sure that these folks could use some skilled monster hunters around here. In the meantime you should be sending off that article you wrote, remember?"

"Whoops, almost forgot!" Laguna exclaimed. He started to stand but then paused, before dropping back down into his seat. "Not yet, though. Still have plenty left to drink!"

Ward grunted, and Kiros chuckled.

"Ward says that wasting good hot chocolate out here is a crime against humanity," the lithe man said. "Speaking of which, I'll go get some more."

"Kind of you," Laguna said with a grin, sitting back as Kiros rose and crossed the room. He and Ward continued to drink, watching their friend go up to the counter and order another round. As the bartender moved to grab some more, the smaller man paused and glanced at a bulletin board on the wall next to the bar. After a moment, he reached up and pulled a paper down, and once the bartender returned with fresh mugs, Kiros returned to the table. Ward arched an eyebrow curiously as Kiros tossed the paper to Laguna.

"What kinda melee weapons were you trained in back in basic?" Kiros asked as he pushed Ward's mug across the table. Laguna furrowed his brow as he glanced over the paper.

"A lot, I suppose." He paused as he spotted one line. "What? They need melee specialists? Come on, you know I'm no-" Laguna froze, and suddenly a grin formed on his face. He glanced back up at Kiros. "Gunblade? They prefer someone who knows how to use a gunblade?"

"Pay looks pretty good, don't you think?"

"Seems kinda amateurish," Laguna replied, going back over the advertisement. "Never tried out my acting skills before. But hey, why not? Lemme write down this guy's number . . . ."

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"You know, there's one thing worse than being on a cold, empty Trabian mountain," Kiros commented.

"What's that?" a shivering Laguna replied as an icy wind whipped past, not slowed at all by the barren, black stone of the mountain range.

"You wearing that freezing-cold armor suit," Kiros answered, grinning. Ward chuckled. Laguna frowned and spun toward them, the shining armor costume rattling as he did so.

"Oh, ha ha," Laguna replied. "Laugh it up. While you guys are sitting over there in your warm coats, my face is going to be appearing all over the movie theaters in Deling City!" Ward hooted.

"He says you're the bit actor in the first five minutes who gets eaten by the dragon," Kiros explained.

"Still!" Laguna replied, putting his hands on his hips. "I'm in the movie, you guys aren't. You should be glad they got someone who's actually trained with a gunblade!"

"That was how many years ago?" Kiros asked, and Laguna snorted. He reached down to his side, where the weapon was sheathed, and drew the light, rapier style gunblade. He waved it around like a fencing blade and made a couple of deft thrusts. His armor squeked a couple of times as he did so.

"Easy money, this job," Laguna said. "Thirty thousand. Not to mention they brought us all the way across the crater in those helicopters. Once we get done with this we're right on Esthar's border."

"We don't even need to stay on the team," Kiros commented. Ward nodded. "Why stick around to film this part?"

"Hey, I don't back out on my promises, okay?" Laguna replied. "Director needs a gunblade guy. I'm it. We stick around for a few more days, get paid, and head on out." Kiros sighed, and Ward shrugged.

"Hey, Laguna!" came a shout from down the slope. Laguna turned to see the movie director jogging up the narrow trail, clad in a thick warm jacket and with a heavy film camera balanced on his shoulder. He paused and appraised Laguna in his costume. "Hey, the armor fits you pretty good! Okay, we're getting ready to start the scene! Everyone else is ready down below, we just need you to go down there. You know your lines, right?"

"To perfection," Laguna replied, grinning. "By the way, I like this gunblade. Looks almost too real."

"It, uhh, is real," the director commented. "Belongs to my brother, out in Dollet. Okay, so, you know how the scene's going to work, right? The dragon comes down, starts attacking, and you fight it. Just, Y'know, make up whatever moves you know, and then, when you get the signal, the dragon's going to leap at you. That'll be it for the scene. Got it?"

"Bingo!" Laguna said with a thumbs up. "I'll head on down!"

"Okay!" the director said, grinning. Laguna bounded down the trail past him, and the man turned back to Kiros and Ward.

"Hey, you two!" he said quickly. "If you guys need some extra cash, the guys who were going to use the dragon animatronic are sick. Its real simple to operate, its right down there around the corner on the slope."

"Sounds easy enough," Kiros said, and Ward nodded.

"Great! Just guide it around the cliff face. When you get the signals, have it attack and lunge. The buttons and levers are already labeled. Got it?"

Ward grunted, and Kiros nodded. The two quickly followed the director down the slope, where the rest of the film crew, about twenty people, along with Laguna and the woman who was starring in the film, dressed up like the Sorceress she was going to portray.

"Okay, people, places!" the director shouted, and the crew scrambled around, setting up and checking the lights and cameras. Within moments, everything was set up. Laguna took up a spot across from the Sorceress actor, and Kiros and Ward moved out of sight, around the side of the cliff face. The pair could hear the director call for the beginning of the scene as they came across the animatronic device, and paused.

"They want us to use this thing?" Kiros muttered, looking at the rather small dragon puppet that, in all honesty, seemed rather shabby and poorly built. Ward shrugged and moved around behind it, before stopping and laughing.

"Wha?" Kiros asked, and Ward pointed. Kiros rounded the shabby puppet and grinned.

"Oh, I get it. That's the one were' supposed to use." He moved down ledge, where a much larger and far more realistic dragon puppet lay along a wide portion of the cliff face. "Looks like the power's on. Wow, I didn't know these guys had the budget for something so realistic. Its even got breathing movements." He looked over the machine, noting the long neck, narrow face, wide body and slender but strong wings, and the black horns cresting the top of its skull.

"Now, where' the controls?" Kiros asked, sticking his head behind the still dragon puppet. He paused when his hand touched the thing's skin, and noted the odd warmth.

Ward managed a yelp of surprise, and Kiros looked up at his friend, to see the big man pulling his harpoon off his back. The smaller man was confused, up until the dragon's head rose of its own accord, and then the thing pushed itself up to its full height, stretching out its neck. Kiros bolted away, spinning back to see the dragon finish rising, blinking its eyes and then looking down at the pair. It snorted once, and opened its mouth, showing rows of razor-sharp fangs.

"I don't think this is a puppet, Ward," Kiros said the dragon took a thunderous step forward. He glanced back, to see Ward already running. The smaller man agreed with Ward's idea and bolted as well.

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They were already halfway into the scene, and Laguna's leg was starting to cramp up again. He gritted through it, however, and tried his best to continue his part in the scene.

"Don't worry, my Sorceress!" he proclaimed, brandishing his gunblade. "I'll defend you from the dragon!" He suppressed a grimace at how campy the dialogue was. "The beast shall sample my blade!" Behind him, he could hear a dull rumble, and turned as he had been told, expecting Kiros and ward to come around with the dragon puppet. He readied his gunblade as he heard the dragon approach.

Jeez, how big is this thing? he wondered, and then, the ledges above where the scene was being shot rumbled. Laguna glanced that way, to see a massive dragon puppet moving quickly and fluidly down the mountain. The former soldier blinked and silently applauded the director for coming up with a dragon the realistic, but when the work crew suddenly scattered and the director let out a scream of terror, Laguna knew something was wrong.

"Uh, wha?" he asked in confusion as the dragon opened its mouth and roared, a thunderous sound that reverberated and echoed along the cliff faces and walls. An instant later, Kiros and Ward bolted around a corner along the ledge, and came to an abrupt halt upon seeing the dragon.

"How did-" Kiros asked, and spun around. "Oh, holy hell! There's more than one of them!"

"What are you guys talking about?" Laguna asked as the dragon above him advanced down the ledges above, eyeing the armored human with hungry intensity. Laguna froze as his mind caught up with the events. "Wait! That's a real . . . ." Laguna let out a panicked scream as the dragon rushed down the zig-zagging ledges above, and started running down the mountain trail after the movie crew. Kiros and Ward were already ahead of him as he fled down the mountain face. The dragon followed as quickly as it could, before finally stopping and just leaping down the side of the mountain.

Laguna ducked through a narrow passage, where two walls rose up on either side of him, and bolted toward a more open area. Then the dragon landed right in front of him, blocking the exit from the narrow path. It spun and let out a bone rattling growl, before its head snapped toward Laguna like a striking snake. The ex-soldier skipped back, the teeth snapping right in front of him, and more out of desperation than any real intent to fight the dragon, he thrust forward with his gunblade. The slender blade stabbed into the dragon's nose, and the creature snapped its head back, roaring in outrage.

The head came back in right away, however, and Laguna fell back, pressing his back to one of the close walls as the dragon's head flew past. He smashed the gunblade down on the beast's head, the blade cutting into the back of its skull but deflecting off the hard skull. The dragon withdrew again in outrage, but its black crest caught the gunblade's edge and tore it from Laguna's grasp.

Without even really thinking, Laguna dashed outside, chasing the dragon as it retreated, and ducked around its legs. The maneuver was insane, but then, so was the situation, and it seemed to be working as Laguna somehow managed to avoid a third snapping strike by the dragon. He spotted the gunblade as it clattered to the ledge about twenty feet behind the dragon, and ran for it. The beast spun around, chasing after Laguna, its claws digging into the stone as it came about. Laguna barely managed to reach to gunblade, scoop it up, and spin around when the dragon lunged.

The creature's huge jaws closed around Laguna's left shoulder and bit it, punching through the metal armor and closing around his bones. Laguna cried out in pain as the dragon shook him ferociously, and slapped the side of the beast's head with his gunblade. Only the flat hit, however, and as the dragon shook him again, Laguna swung his arm out wide, angled the blade toward the dragon's face, and thrust. The gunblade dove in and stabbed deep, diving into the dragon's unarmored eye and into its brain. The creature shuddered and cried out in suffering, and released Laguna. However, rather than fall free, Laguna retained a death grip on his gunblade, and somehow managed to squeeze the trigger. There was an explosion inside the dragon's skull, and the beast went limp instantly. Laguna flopped to the ground, his armor costume rattling as he did so. He managed to sit up, breathing heavily, and looked over the dead corpse of the dragon.

"Phew," he managed to gasp, and looked down at his armor. He blinked in confusion. The armor around his shoulder, where the dragon had bit him, was rent like wet tissue paper. but underneath, though bloody and torn, his flesh and bone were largely intact. Scratched and damaged, yes, but intact.

"The faeries," he muttered, shaking his head. "The faeries were watching over me." Laguna shakily rose, and stumbled over to where the dragon lay, he saw his gunblade sticking out of the dragon's skull, and tore it free, shaking his head again as he did so.

"This thing was loaded?" he mused. "Not very smart for a movie set, but it saved my ass, that's for sure."

"Laguna!" came a shout from behind, and Laguna spun, to see Kiros and Ward rushing up, both fully armed, and Ward bearing Laguna's backpack and gear over his shoulder.

"Where were you guys?" he demanded. "Had to kill this dragon all by myself!" Still, he wasn't mad, and in fact was pretty glad to see them there. Ward managed a concerned grunt and grabbed one of the potion bottles off his belt and tossed it to Laguna. The ex-soldier caught it and quickly poured the contents over his wound, which mended swiftly.

"Did that thing take a bite out of you?" Kiros asked as Ward handed Laguna his pack. Laguna nodded as he reached up and unfastened the armor's straps. The gear clattered to the ground as he stripped it off, and replaced it quickly with his traveling clothing. Once Laguna had put on actual warm clothes and had fastened his grenade and ammo bandoleer around his waist, he felt much better.

"Yeah," Laguna said as he fished his rifle out of his pack. "But I think the faeries were watching over us today."

"Damned lucky, too," Kiros added, grinning. Ward chuckled. "Come on, man, let's clear out of here before the other dragon catches up." Laguna nodded and, almost as an afterthought, wiped the bloodstained gunblade on the ground and slid it and its sheath into the straps of the backpack as he put it on. He adjusted the straps when another roar reverberated around them, rattling the stones.

"Ahh," Laguna said, looking up. "Let's get the hell out of here!"

"Won't dispute you on that!" Kiros replied, and the trio began to flee down the mountainside.

The dragon itself was not particularly dogged in its pursuit, and broke off after a few minutes of chasing the trio through the mountain trails. That didn't stop Laguna, Kiros, and Ward, who kept running as fast as they could. A few times this was a little too fast; Laguna tripped over a few rocks along the way, but Ward and Kiros were there to pick him right back up and keep fleeing.

It was perhaps an hour later that the group finally came to a stop, and Laguna let out a gasping breath, shaking his head.

"I think we lost him," he said, and Kiros nodded. Ward made an affirmative grunt, and then paused. He tapped Laguna on the shoulder and pointed.

"Huh?" Laguna said, and looked in the direction Ward was pointing. "Hey! We're . . . We're on the south side of the mountain!"

"Which means," Kiros added. "That we're looking at Esthar."

Laguna nodded, looking out across wide, rolling plains of green-blue grass below, as far as the eye could see. He stopped his survey when he spotted something in the distance, what looked to be a massive blocky shape on the horizon. He couldn't tell what it was, but it had to be massive to be visible from this far away.

"What is that?" he asked, and he glanced to his friends. After a moment, Laguna hefted his rifle. "Guys, this is what we came for. My little girl is in there somewhere. Let's go get her."

"Right behind you," Kiros replied with a firm nod. Ward's chin dipped in assent as well, and the three adventurers set out down the mountain and into Esthar.

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Emptiness. It was a void, a dark place without anything, not light, not sound, not even flesh. He existed within a vacuum, floating on nothing but confusion and questions. He didn't even have a body, it was only his mind and emotions suspended and drifting across an endless expanse of nothing.

"I can't disconnect."

The voice reverberated upon nothing, but it was existent within the void, and he reached out, clinging to it, grasping to the words with all his mental might.

"What . . .? What is this? Where am I?"

"Squall? You can hear me?"

"Ellone? What is this? Where are we?"

"You're still asleep. I'm sorry. I don't know why I can't disconnect . . . Oh, wait, I think I understand. I'm asleep too. This . . . Hasn't happened before, though, but I think that's why I can't control it. Let me focus."

"Connect?"

"It what I call it, Squall. My power. How I can send others' spirits back across time."

"How did you get it?"

"I don't know. There's nothing like this in any of the literature about Sorceresses, so its not that kind of power. I don't really understand it."

"Why? Why me? Why send us back?"

"I have to see. I want to see him again. I want to see how he was when I couldn't."

"Laguna?"

"Yes. Hold on, I think I'm ready. I'm sorry, Squall, I need to use your spirit a little longer. I'm going further back . . . ."

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Thick sheets of rain poured down from the clouds above, but Laguna was already ready to move on, despite the weather. He stood near the marble overhang, ready to move on, and turned to the woman he had been speaking to.

"She's not here either," Laguna said after a moment, shaking his head. "Sorry to bother you, Ms. Kramer."

"It was nothing," Edea replied, smiling. Her expression shifted slightly. "But why are you searching for this girl, Ellone?"

"Esthar soldiers kidnapped her from my home," he replied after a moment. "I thought that they might have let her go or someone had rescued her, and she might have come to your orphanage, but no luck. If she's not here, then the only other place she could be would be in Esthar itself."

"Adel seeks a successor," Edea mused, and Laguna nodded.

"Yeah, which is why I have to save her!" Laguna said emphatically.

"She is your daughter?"

"Well, not quite," Laguna replied. "Not biologically. I've got one of them on the way, though. Heh. But Ellone is . . . Oh, I need to hear her voice again! She's not mine, but she's like a daughter to me. I'm sorry I wasted your time, ma'am. I need to get moving!" Edea opened her mouth to protest, but Laguna had already ducked back outside, into the driving rainstorm, not letting a little thing like the weather stop him on his quest.

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Squall felt a sudden empathy for Laguna. Like the soldier in the past, he wanted to hear the voice of someone he cared for, but for him, it was Rinoa. He didn't care if it was in the past or not. He just wanted to hear her, to see her eyes again.

"You can't change the past. I learned that the hard way. When I was kidnapped, Laguna went on a journey to find me, but because he did, he wasn't there when Raine died."

"Raine is dead?"

"Yes, she died after she gave birth to her baby boy. She kept calling out to him, even at the end, and all I wanted was for him to go back, to be there for her when she died. But I couldn't. I couldn't do anything to change the past. I can't even make it back to that moment in time. Squall . . . I'm sorry, I can't keep the connection any longer. I'll try to talk to you again this way later."

"No, wait! Sis! Ellone! I . . . .

"Ellone, I need you. I need you to send me back to when Rinoa fell! Please!"

There was no answer in the void, and Squall felt the darkness lightening, heralding his return to the real world.

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Ah. Completed! Merry Christmas to all of you guys! I apologize for the delay in getting this chapter out, but finals sucked to ever-living existence out of me. This may have updated late (or maybe early, depending on how you view it)

This chapter was enjoyable to write. I apologize for the small battle scene here, but I'm still not up to writing a major battle like before. That and, well, these chapters aren't all that heavy on combat. It'll be a while before a real battle scene begins. I'm probably not even going to have the Abadon encounter. But I've got ideas for a wild Laguna flashback battle for after that.

Hm. What else? Not much, really. I had fun writing the banter and conversations between Laguna and his buddies here, but writing the movie scene was difficult for me. I was dreading doing that, but I'm glad its past. The rest of the fic should be smooth sailing, but the emphasis is on "should." XD I also enjoyed adding in the extra stuff too, like Damascus and the Shumi village. I wanted to include the part of the game where Squall and the others go to the Shumi village and find out about Laguna's stay, but I figured a bit on him actually being there worked even better.

Slight Halo references in this chapter. Damascus was the name of a research facility in the Halo novel The Fall of Reach, and the all terrain vehicle is the arctic Warthog that I think you find in the multiplayer map Sidewinder. I think.

It may take some time for the next chapter to emerge. Even though I'm on break, I'll be a busy man this Christmas. One of my Marine buddies is off on special leave for three weeks, as he's heading to Iraq (lucky bastard XD) in March, so we're going to paint the town red, then scrape that paint off and paint it all blue. And I've got a writing tournament I'll be in from the 27th to the 4th, so I'll be busy with that, too.

Oh, and all you that are in my C2? Start cracking! XD Don't worry about any kind of approval from me, find what you like and put it in there. I've already put The Omega in my list, too, so if anyone wants to read it, go for it.

And now, for our ultra super mega spectacular fruity-but-with-less-filling-and-fattening flavor, the shout-outs!

-Kaiser-kun: You've got point, though I always viewed Ultimecia as the true enemy. Once I'd played through the game, whenever I replayed I always thought "Hey, this is Ultimecia, using Edea like a puppet."

Arg. I still haven't done anything with the MGS novel, have I? I'm still just at the beginning of the nuclear building. Interesting translations, by the way.

Spike-strife: I like writing Squall as a bit more casual, though maybe that's just me and my writing style. I always wanted to make him much more human, and I think that my showing him warming up gradually to Rinoa helps ease the relationship along a bit. I don't like portraying him as a very cold person.

I figured you'd at leats know "semper fidelis" I know "siempre" means "always" but I'm not sure what the Spanish word for "faithful" is.

-Kimahrigirl: Well, I got one vote for the Halo 2 novelization! XD

-DBZ Fanfiction Queen: I hate it when people kill off Laguna. Laguna is cool, dammit!

Seifer's hand will get fixed, also. Maybe not becoming a full-on cyborg person, but he will have a robot hand.

Oh, shid, I forgot about Carbuncle, didn't I? XD I was originally going to have him be a GF for Xu and her give it to Squall.

I may actually use that suggestion for Bahamut, but then again, maybe not. It depends really on how I want this to progress. You never know.

Yeah, writing Squall's speech was one of the best parts of only a Plank Between One and Perdition. I had a lot of fun with that, and rereading it made even me tear up.

I actually did rather well on my exams. Well, most of them. My Japanese exam was hard as heck. But now I'm done studying, so its time to rest and kick some ass!

-Daniel Wesley Rydell: Huh. I'll try resending it. Sorry about Xu, again. XD

-Akira Stridder: When I first heard "Cold' I was all "Dude, this is SO Squall!" So, naturally, I had to include it.

Lizardios: I'm not divulging any details about Lionheart. Its very important that I don't, because, well . . . I'm not saying anything. XD It will be there, though in a rather surprising way.

-Ark: Thanks for the support. You actually do a better job tracking fics than I do. I barely read any myself!

-Rusty Knights productions: I will admit, a lot of my inspiration for that chapter came from a fic called "Falling Forever" I read waaaaaay back on IcyBrian. (check profile for link) It was pretty good, I forgot the author's name. Puts my work to shame, though the angst is practically dripping from it.

Wolf of light: Let me know how you love Synthesis. XD I could use more reviews for it, would make me actually get back to work on it.

-Knightowl2425: those are some interesting ideas. Not so sure about Cloud, though, he seems a bit to far from the one in the game, though that may not be a bad thing, seeing as how I really don't like that bland DBZ rip-off. I'm being a bit harsh there, but I really don't like him at all.

-Shootski: A lot of people are telling me it does a lot to calm things down. I didn't realize it, but that part of the game really does do that, doesn't it? XD

Virulent Emnity: Yeah, that was part of the reason why I used Cold. The acoustic version is even better.

A couple of you guys didn't get shout-outs this time, mostly because your reviews were a little too short for commentary. I may be a good writer, but I can't put down a paragraph in response to a one-word review. XD

Peace out, all you guys! You probably won't see me again until after Christmas. So, enjoy your reading and don't get killed or anything silly