Chapter Thiry-Eight: Tainted Faith: Shadow

"This is a dinosaur?" Celes asked, pointing to a crude drawing. Gau nodded, and began moving his hands like wild, fluttering birds as he tried to explain. The creature scraped into the wall of the cave had a big head with even bigger teeth sticking out of the sides of its mouth, short arms, and thick hind legs followed by a sweeping tail. She had never seen such a thing in her life, and narrowed her eyes to investigate the other drawings, some of which were similar, and others very different. The light in the cave was extremely dim, and the Returners all had to strain their eyes.

"They almost look like giant lizards." Cyan said. "Their features in these pictures appear to be greatly over-exaggerated though."

"No!" Gau exclaimed. "Teeth larger than Gau's arm!" Cyan and Celes looked at each other. At this point in their adventures, who were they to dictate what was real and not?

"Look at this picture of a person riding one of these." Setzer said, gazing at the wall in front of him. "Maybe back in the day, Dinosaurs were friendly?"

"A lot of bad things have happened since the world came undone." Celes commented dryly. "The behavior patterns of animals and humans alike have undergone a drastic change."

"Imagine what would happen if these creatures came under Kefka's control." Edgar said nervously. "We'd all sort of be screwed over then."

"But didn't you listen to Gau on our way through here?" Sabin interrupted. "He said the Dinosaurs never left the forest. So it's not like they would come out to do anything."

"But they did still drive these people in this cave out of their homes." Celes sighed. "They have nowhere else to go. We really should help them, when we find the others."

"Sure, let's add that to the list." Edgar said sarcastically, pretending to hold up a sheet of paper and check things off. "Find the rest of our friends, who have literally disappeared, convince Terra to join us again, defeat Kefka, and save the world. I think we can squeeze Dinosaur Extermination in there somewhere."

"Shut up!" Celes suddenly hissed, covering Edgar's mouth with her hand. "I thought I heard something!" The others kept quiet, even Gau. There was the sound of a low moan, somewhere off in the distance, followed by a growl.

"Let's go check it out." Setzer whispered.

The Returners slowly crept forward through the tunnels of the cave, but Celes let out a slight curse when she nearly tripped and fell over something on the cave floor. Bending down, she picked it up, trying to investigate the slight gleam that it gave off in the minimal light.

A dagger, of some sort.

Sheathing it in her belt, she got back up to her feet, motioning to the others that she was ok. At that moment, a shadow slithered past in front of the group, revealing an open area that was empty except for the battered body in black sprawled on the ground.

"What the hell is that?!" Edgar demanded, and together they moved towards the body, which turned out to be that of a human. Kneeling down, Sabin brushed back some of the dark hair, and gasped.

"It's Shadow!"

"What?!" Celes gasped and took a look for herself. Yes, there was no doubt. The clothing, the form, it was all the same. However, there was no Interceptor. "Unbelievable! What is he doing in here!?"

"Look at those wounds..." Cyan trailed off, gently peeling back shreds of fabric that had settled over large gashes and scratches. "He got attacked, brutally."

"Here's your crown, Miss Queen of the Obvious." Celes snapped impatiently. Her worry had furrowed into anger that they hadn't been able to save their friend. She worried even more about the fact that they might be too late to do anything at all. Shadow was still breathing-- but his breath was shallow, and labored. Suddenly, Celes felt the hairs on the back of her neck stick up. Something in the air had changed...had gotten heavier and hotter. They were no longer alone.

Whatever had gotten Shadow had come back for them.

The young girl yawned sleepily and nearly fell forward off the staircase she had been sitting upon. She had been waiting all day, it seemed, for this Owzer guy, whoever he was, to get home. She was starving for a good meal, and her dull blonde curly locks were screaming for a thorough washing underneath her beret. This place was her last hope, before she moved on to yet another city to seek out help. There had been a rumor going around that Owzer had been seeking out someone with skill to do a particular painting. When she inquired about it, she was shocked to learn from Owzer's housekeeper that he had, in fact, been searching for her to undertake the task of the painting! What luck! Owzer looked like the richest bastard in this town, and that would mean a nice place for her to stay until she could get back on her feet again and continue her search.

But she wasn't going to get anywhere if she was locked out.

"Relm Arrowny?"

The girl lifted her head, and let out a slight gasp. She could tell by the filmy feeling in her eyes that she had fallen asleep, and by the slightly disgusting crust she always got at the corners of her mouth from drooling. Rubbing her mouth quickly, she looked up, pushing her hair away from her cerulean eyes and narrowing them.

"And just who the hell is asking?"

"GAAAAAAAAH!" Celes shrieked, whirling around just in time to see a heavy purple paw swipe at her head. Falling backwards, she rolled next to Shadow's idle body and felt her head smack against something hard. Edgar had rolled out of the way and lifted his crossbow, letting an arrow fly into the side of their attacker. The beast let out a howl and reached down, grabbing the iron arrow and snapping it in half with his paws, which were studded with gleaming claws.

"It's a Behemoth!" Cyan cried. "This must of been what hurt Shadow!"

"It's not gonna be much of anything once I get through with it!" Sabin snapped, snapping on his own claws. "He's not the only one who can fight like an animal." Celes moaned as she tried to pull herself up, turning pale when she realized she was covered in Shadow's blood from the puddle next to his body. The damp, salty smell was nearly enough to knock her out in itself, not to mention the throbbing pain she felt in the back of her head.

Sabin dove onto the Behemoth, taking a slash at its legs before leaping up and ripping open its throat with one fell swoop. Dark blue blood began to gush out of the creature's neck, and with a snarl, it rolled its eyes back into its head and collapsed to the ground with an earth- shaking crash. Sabin panted out as she watched the creature die, and Celes stood up, shivering slightly and licking her lower lip.

"G....Good job, Sabin...." She reached up and caressed some blood- soaked strands of hair, still too stunned to know what to do next. She felt sickeningly warm.

"Celes!" Setzer cried. "What the hell...?!"

"It's Shadow's blood." Celes gasped. "We...we...must get him to..." She took a deep breath and inhaled more of the scent, moaning out and feeling her head swim. "Ugh...." She collapsed to her hands and knees and saw that her eyesight was fading into soft black. The pain in her head began to throb so deeply, she thought something was trying to burst from her skull. Some of her wet hair fell over her shoulders and brushed her cheeks and lips. The salty taste of blood nearly made her throw up. As she lifted her gaze from the ground, she saw the Behemoth stir, and open its eyes. She couldn't tell if it was her fading vision or not, but the creature no longer had any color to its eyes-- they were just pure white. The blood had ceased draining from his body. Something was terribly wrong.

"Look...look...out...." Celes croaked and suddenly fell forward flat on her face. She heard the others gasp, and Sabin shout something about the creature becoming undead. Someone rolled Celes onto her backside and gently tipped her head back, her eyes rolling up just in time to see Setzer toss a vial with red liquid phoenix down at the Behemoth's head. There was a flash of light, and Celes' world fell black.

The man looked up when he heard the familiar padding of four feet. The dog bounded toward him excitedly, yipping and gently tugging at his bootlaces with his teeth. The man sighed and kneeled down, embracing the dog gently.

"You've come to fetch me..." He sniffled and felt his eyes water. "But I won't be coming back. I want you, and the girl, to live in a peaceful world..." The dog looked up at him sadly, but at the same time, knowingly. The man somehow knew that the dog could understand his pain, and knew, deep inside, that this was truly the right thing to do. If it hadn't have been for him being in town, they wouldn't have found him....wouldn't have attacked the house...wouldn't have killed Katia....

The man stood up, rubbing his eyes and turning away. As he began to walk down the main street that led out of town, he heard the dog follow. Just as he reached the end of town, he looked back, and saw the doorway to the house open. The old man was there, staring at him with a burning hate in his eyes that he could feel as if he were being stabbed with hot pokers. He felt that burning sensation bore deep into him, until suddenly, he couldn't feel a thing at all. As if his insides had suddenly gone numb, the man flicked away his final tear and turned, leaving the village.

Let them all hate him. Let -her- especially hate him, after she realized he was gone. As long as she hated him, she would have no desire to find him.

That was the way it should have been.

"I don't know what came over me." Celes moaned, rubbing the back of her head. "I'm really sorry."

"Well, you did get a pretty nasty bump back here." Edgar said, leaning in and putting his lips a little too close to Celes' ear for comfort. "Shall I kiss it and make it better?"

"Kicking you between the legs would make me feel A LOT better." Celes snapped, and Edgar quickly pulled away. Setzer handed Celes a cup of tea, and she took it gratefully, leaning back in bed. "I'm grateful you guys carried me here, but isn't it a little rude using someone's house when they aren't home and have no idea that you're in it?!"

"Strago surely wouldn't mind." Cyan said, looking over from a bookcase full of the old man's lore literature and Relm's art books. "Although I am sad to say that the inches of dust we found covering everything here goes to prove that our friends have not returned home any time recently..." Celes nodded in sad agreement, and looked over at the bed next to her. Shadow was still lying down, passed out cold. Her gaze suddenly fell on something she could not believe she had not noticed before- the slim gold band around Shadow's finger on his left hand. It was surprisingly dainty and feminine, and so beautiful. Suddenly, Shadow's hand gave a jerk, and he moaned, his eyes shooting open and his bright blue orbs widening as they quickly searched the room.

"Shadow!" Everyone cried, gathering around the bed, including Celes, who managed to pull herself out and pad over in her bare feet.

"Sounds like you were having a nightmare." Celes said softly, and Shadow looked over at her.

"Where am I?"

"Thamasa."

"Huh." Shadow sighed and let out a deep breath. "I can't remember too much..." Cyan opened his mouth, but Shadow raised his hand and interrupted. "...And I don't want to know."

"We should rest here for a while." Edgar said, Sabin stepped up.

"Are you ok, Shadow?"

"No need to worry...it's just a scratch..." Shadow chuckled dryly at his wrapped wounds. "Besides, he's gonna stand guard, so you just relax."

"Who is "he"?" Celes questioned, and the Returners turned to see Interceptor standing in the doorway, wagging his tail eagerly and running over, leaping onto Shadow's bed.

"Interceptor!" Setzer exclaimed. "Welcome back!"

"I guess he was waiting here for you the entire time." Celes smiled. "Although I wonder why he picked here, of all places...."

"Well, we were separated here." Shadow said gruffly, hugging his dog. "Back in that blow out with Kefka."

"Oh, right." Celes nodded and looked to the others. "Well, we know that Shadow is safe and sound..." She trailed off. She didn't think it was appropriate to ask Shadow now how he felt about joining up with the Returners for good. Maybe if he had a few days to heal, and think about his rescue...

"Let's go back to the airship." Setzer suggested. "Shadow, we're coming back to check on you, ok? And we'll bring medicine."

"I don't need no medicine." Shadow snapped. "That Tonic everyone likes to take tastes like shit."

"Well, they make it in bubblegum flavor now." Edgar lectured. "For big boys!"

"Ok, enough harassing Shadow." Sabin said, dragging Edgar away from the bed. "But really, we'll be back really soon, ok? There's a lot of stuff we need to talk about."

"I'm sure there is, if ya'll are all together." Shadow said grimly. "Unless you guys are still hanging together for some sort of bizarre psychological reason."

"Byeeeeeeeee, Shadow-man!" Gau drawled, and bounded out of the room. As if to prove his point, Shadow rolled his eyes and turned over on his side. The rest of the Returners followed Gau outside of Strago's home, and walked back to the airship, which was parked just on the outskirts of Thamasa.

"I'm still feeling kind of out of it." Celes moaned, sitting down at a Blackjack table and rubbing her eyes. "I don't want to go anywhere until Shadow recovers."

"There aren't many places to go, exactly." Setzer said, sitting down across from her. "We had a lead from Cyan about finding Gau, but now we're totally stuck. Tonight, I'm going to install an electronic navigation system into The Falcon, so that we can digitally map the world and figure out where there is and isn't civilization. That should help a bit."

"Sounds good to me." Edgar sighed, slumping down next to Celes. "I hate this feeling...knowing that there isn't much we can do right now."

"We're not ready to fight Kefka yet." Celes said firmly. "And he hasn't attacked any cities lately, so we're still ok. We just need a little time to find the others so that we can all strategize together."

"And if we aren't all together?" Sabin questioned, and Celes looked up at him. She knew that he was talking about Terra.

"...We'll do our best."

That night, before the Returners all settled in to go to bed, Sabin decided that he would go into Thamasa and check on Shadow for the night. When he reached Strago's door, he tried opening it, but was met with a lock.

"Hey!" Sabin cried, and rattled the knob again, to no avail.

"What are you doing?" A man asked behind Sabin. Sabin jumped and turned around, seeing a younger man in a vest and nice pants standing behind him. "I know you don't live there."

"I don't, but my friend was staying here, sick." Sabin explained.

"If you're looking for the man dressed all in black, he said he was going to the Coliseum. A dog was with him, too."

"...You've got to be kidding me."

So, with that, Sabin ran all the way back to The Falcon with the not- so-good news. Setzer had already retired to the engine room to work on the new navigation system, and Celes and Edgar and Gau had gone to bed. Sabin told Cyan, and Cyan sighed, leaning back against his chair.

"Well, at least we have a lead."

"Yeah, for someone we already supposedly found!"

"It's better than nothing."

After explaining the situation to the team the next morning, Setzer put his new system to the test, and after typing in a search request for a Coliseum, one result was returned, for a point that was in the very northern part of the world.

"I didn't even know we had a coliseum." Celes said.

"I once knew a crazy guy that wanted to build a monument to war that lived up north around here." Edgar said. "I have a funny feeling he had something to do with it."

"According to the history feedback I'm getting on this place..." Setzer trailed off and then spoke again, "...The old man that founded the coliseum was so ecstatic about its opening that he told fighters far and wide that he would participate in the first battle ever held, and give a prize to his challenger that was one of a kind."

"So, what happened?" Celes asked.

"Well, the guy died of a heart attack as soon as he stepped into the arena." Setzer said dryly. "So much for that little legacy. Now it's owned by a small group of people that just happened to be there when the death occurred. Apparently, people can go there and bet prizes or money, and if they win their battle, they get even more money or more prizes. Sometimes the battles are set against certain monsters, and at other times you can fight against other people. It seems pretty safe...there has never been a fight to the death except for the case with the old man."

"We should go and try to find Shadow." Celes said worriedly. "He is too weak to be fighting."

"We'll leave right now." Setzer said, punching in some coordinates. "All I have to do is tell the ship where we're going, and...." Suddenly the ship lurched forward, causing everyone to go flying on their faces and clinging on for dear life. "....HERE WE GO!"

The Coliseum was a huge, pale, marble building, decorated with beautiful Ionic and Corinthian columns that lined along the front porch and protected the rich and tall oak doors that stood front and center. As the team entered, they were more than a little shocked to see a familiar face working at the receptionist desk-- none other than the annoying bastard himself, Ultros. However, Ultros didn't even notice the team as they walked by, as he was busy typing something up with one tentacle, and talking on some sort of remote with another. The team climbed up some more stairs to get to the main part of the arena. They climbed to an open area, which had different doorways going off on each side with signs over them, such as one for the local Inn and another couple that indicated training rooms. In the back center were two more sets of double doors that led into the main arena, where the battles took place. It was guarded by a man dressed in scarlet. A counter on the side was taking and distributing bets, and wide screens hanging in different corners that were similar to the screen Setzer now had for his navigation system were displaying the different parts of the arena, where battles were taking place. A few stragglers were just pacing around in the main hall, one of them an Imperial Soldier.

"How are we going to find Shadow?" Cyan complained, and Gau bounced up and down, excited at all the different people.

"I'm not sure." Celes admitted, and walked up to the scarlet guard, hoping he could help them. "Excuse me sir, but..."

"Oh!" The guard exclaimed, clapping his hands together. "You have the Striker!"

"..." Celes stared at him blankly. "What?!"

"The Striker." The guard smiled, and pulled open one of the doors behind him. "This guy in here has been refusing to fight anyone without it, and finally, along comes someone, and a pretty gal, no less! I'm sure he'll go easy on you cause you're so gorgeous, but he is here to win, you know."

"No, wait, I don't know what you are talking about!" Celes cried, but she was suddenly given a push forward, and stumbled into the arena. She heard the others calling her name in confusion as the door was slammed behind her, and when she looked up, she could see a formidable crowd of people in the stands, mostly standing and cheering as she saw who was entering the arena across from her. She felt relief wash over her when she saw who it was.

"Shadow!"

Shadow looked up from the ground and blinked, stopping a few feet in front of Celes and staring at her blankly.

"Uh...Celes...what are you doing here?"

"We came to look for you." Celes said, ignoring the boos of the crowd when they realized they were probably not going to get a fight. "But when I came to ask the guy out there for help, he pushed me in here saying I had some thing called the Striker."

"The Striker is a dagger I've been searching for." Shadow explained. "I thought the easiest way to find it was to put in word here that I would challenge someone for it. Fighting is the only thing I know how to do. I had found it a few weeks ago, and became very attached to it...but I'm afraid I lost it in one of the many caves I had been spelunking, so..."

"Is this it?" Celes blinked, reaching down to her belt and pulling out the dagger she had found in the dinosaur cave on the Veldt.

"...It is." Shadow said, crossing his arms over his chest. "But I will not fight you for it. I respect you as an ally, of sorts. Besides that, I know you are one hell of a soldier."

"I don't want to fight you either." Celes explained. "But Shadow, if you are up to doing some real fighting, why don't you join us? We're going to gather everyone together again and fight Kefka, and finish him off, once and for all."

Shadow sighed and looked down.

"Please." Celes said. "We do need your help, whether you want to believe it or not. Besides that...I will gladly give this back to you. It was yours, after all, and I have a weapon of my own." With that, Celes withdrew Atma Weapon, which was shining brighter and stronger than ever. Shadow looked up at the blade with intrigued eyes.

"It seems to me that with the power you have now, you do not need my assistance." He said dully. "However...There are some amends I need to make." Although Celes had no idea what he was talking about, she had a feeling that it was the closest to "Yes" she was going to get.

"So you'll come with us?"

Shadow walked by her silently, pulled open the doors of the arena, and stepped out. Celes blinked, sheathing Atma Weapon, and followed him outside. She watched him walk up to the group of Returners, and extend his hand. Sabin, smiling, turned to him, and took his hand firmly.

They shook.

FF6 The Novel Trivia: As of the end of this chapter, FF6 The Novel is exactly 444 pages, written in 12 Times New Roman font.

....Holy shit.

-Angie