Disclaimer: I do not own this.

***

Seven Dragoons streaked out of the dimensional gateway into the skies above Gaia. I turned in midair, reveling in the freedom my crimson Dragoon armor provided. As far as I'm concerned, nothing beats the feeling of crossing the skies under your own power. I was especially glad in this case, because the ground looked less than inviting. It was covered by some sort of mist.

Laura voiced my thoughts. "Doesn't look very friendly down there."

Zack fished in his armor and pulled out the information packet his father had provided. "It's the Mist. We don't know much about it, but the locals don't like it at all."

"Give us the rundown, Zack," I said. "Where exactly are we?"

"Let's see." He flipped to a general overview. "The Mist Continent. Four countries: Alexandria, Lindblum, Burmecia, and Cleyra. Cleyra's surrounded by some kind of mega sandstorm, so nix that. Hmm…Alexandria. Militarily, they're the strongest nation. Run largely by women. In fact, their best fighter is a woman: General Beatrix."

"Sounds like a nice place," Dari said.

I gave her a brief glare. "Continue."

"Ruled by Queen Brahne since her husband's death last year," Zack went on. "She has one child, a daughter: Princess Garnet Til Alexandros 17th."

"The 17th!?" Chris repeated. "Long history behind that one."

No argument there.

"Lindblum," the prince continued. "Slightly smaller than Alexandria, but more advanced technologically. Their military consists mainly of an airship fleet, giving them some measure of parity with Alexandria. The city of Lindblum itself, like Alexandria, sits on a high plateau, well above the Mist. Ruled by Regent Cid Fabool 9th, a close friend of the late King of Alexandria and surrogate uncle to Princess Garnet. Home of the Tantalus Company, a band of actors/bandits. Their leader, Baku, is an old friend of the Regent. Other significant members: Ruby, a young woman with a strange accent; Blank, a guy who dresses like a caveman; Cinna, an expert on hammers, of all things; Marcus, usually the lead actor during their plays; and Zidane Tribal, a teen with a tail."

"A tail?" Indora repeated carefully.

"Yep, a monkey tail. Nobody knows what he is, exactly, but he's spent most of his life with Tantalus." Zack shrugged. "He's the best they've got, and he's an expert knife-fighter."

"Terrific," I said. "Next."

"Burmecia, the Realm of Eternal Rain. As the name suggests, the rain never lets up there. The only country directly affected by the Mist. The Burmecians are best described as humanoid rats, at least in appearance. Their best warriors are known as Dragon Knights, but they're not the same sort as we are," he said, gesturing to his armor. "Two in particular stand out: Iron-Tail Fratley, who left on a world tour of some kind about five years ago, and his lover, Freya Crescent, who went searching for him shortly thereafter."

"What about Cleyra?" Seria asked.

Zack looked it up. "Hmm, Cleyra. Ah, here we go. Originally settled from Burmecia. Severed ties a hundred years ago over a trivial trade dispute. The inhabitants created a magic sandstorm to seal Cleyra off form the outside world. Nothing has been heard from them since." He looked at me. "So, what do we do, Boss?"

"Don't call me that." I thought for a moment. "We split up. Laura, you and Indora make for Lindblum. See what you can learn about their technology."

"Got it," Laura said.

"Chris, Seria, I want you to check out Burmecia. According to our information, the king there is an old friend of Regent Cid."

"Right on, Jason!" Seria chirped.

"Zack, Dari, we'll head for Alexandria. I have a feeling something momentous is going to happen there is the next few days."

"He's right," Zack said. "The Tantalus Company is going to be performing a play for Princess Garnet's birthday. She turns sixteen in three days."

"Anything special about the play?" Dari asked.

The prince checked. "'I Want To Be Your Canary', by somebody named Lord Avon. It's a tragic love story, very famous."

"How delightful," I muttered. "'Tragic love story', indeed. There's no such thing as a good tragedy, they are mutually exclusive terms."

"Come on, Jason," Laura said. "Don't you like to get teary-eyed once in a while?"

I shook my head. "Laura, I'm a war orphan. I've had too much tragedy in my life as it is; I don't watch it for entertainment." I had a few images of what happened then, but nothing more; I was too young. "One more thing: do not use your Dragoon powers if it can be avoided. Now is not the time to reveal our capabilities."

Everyone nodded, and left for their respective areas.

***

The three of us made it to Alexandria by sunset, making sure to return to human form before entering the city. Alexandria was about the same size as Bale, possibly a little larger, and there was the inevitable castle, but that was where the similarities ended. Bale was populated mostly by Humans, along with a few Winglies; Alexandria had more different species than I ever knew existed.

"Jason, this place is incredible!" Dari enthused.

"If you say so." I didn't really care.

She glared at me. "What's wrong with you!?"

"Get used to it, Dari," Zack advised. "He's always like that."

The next three days went by quickly. I met people from all sorts of different races, including a youngster in a very bizarre outfit, whom I literally ran into on the third day. "Sorry about that."

The boy straightened his pointed hat. "It's alright."

I took a closer look. This was my strangest encounter yet. The boy, at least I assumed he was a boy, wore mostly blue, with yellow boots. What surprised me was his face: entirely black, except for his yellow eyes. I couldn't even tell if he had a mouth. What do we have here? I offered my hand. "I apologize for staring. My name's Jason."

"I'm Vivi." He sounded nervous. "You going to see the play, too?"

I shrugged. "Just out of curiosity. I'm not very fond of tragedies, though I hear this one's well-written." I looked around for my comrades, finally spotting them near a ticket booth. "Gotta run, see you around."

"That was weird," Zack commented.

"No kidding," Dari said. She looked up. "Is that the theater ship coming in?"

The prince saw it, too. "That it. The Prima Vista, Baku's ride and joy. She uses the best Mist engine money can buy." He frowned. "Why would they be here on the Princess's birthday, anyway? They're not the only theater company in the world."

"They are the best, though," I mused. Something about Baku's background. "They're here to kidnap Garnet. That's the only reason I can think of. The question is, which side do we come down on?"

"What do you mean, which side!?" Dari demanded, incredulous. "If Tantalus is planning a kidnapping, shouldn't we stop them!?"

Zack shook his head. "It's not that simple, Dari. Queen Brahne has become increasingly unstable since her husband's death last year. I'll be Garnet actually wants to be kidnapped."

"I wouldn't be surprised," I said. "Come on, let's go."

***

If I had any doubts about the play, they were soon dispelled. I hate tragedies in general; this was a tragedy featuring amazingly bad acting. We spotted Zidane right off; no mistaking that monkey tail. Marcus played the lead role, which had the same name, oddly enough.

"Hoo boy, talk about bad acting," Zack said, rolling his eyes. "They couldn't act their way out of a paper bag."

"So now you're a drama critic?" I asked mildly.

The prince was saved from the need to answer by a commotion on the airship's deck. Following a horrendous death scene, the girl playing Marcus's lover was shown to be none other than Garnet herself. As Zack had predicted, she aligned herself with her "kidnappers". Opposing them was a knight in rusty armor and a pair of his subordinates.

"Hey, Zack, who's Sir Rustalot there?" Dari asked.

Zack studied the man. "Adelbert Steiner, Captain of the Knights of Pluto and Garnet's personal bodyguard."

"I don't care who he is," I said, drawing my sword. "Let's give the Princess a hand."

It was hard to tell who was more surprised by our action, Tantalus, Steiner, the Queen, or the crowd. It didn't matter anyway. We assumed a standard trident formation, myself in the center, Dari to the left, and Zack to the right. Zidane and Garnet stood with Marcus and Vivi, the strange boy I'd encountered earlier that day.

"Who are you!?" Steiner demanded.

"That is not your concern," I said icily. I glanced at Garnet. "Your Highness, we are here to offer our assistance. I hope you don't mind."

"Of course not. Thank you."

"How dare you!!" Steiner shouted, lunging for me and chopping with his sword.

"Oh, please." I parried the blow and countered with six rapid chops. "Madness Hero!" Not my strongest attack, but Rusty didn't like it.

"Rod Typhoon!" Zack's rapid spinning knocked one knight clear off the ship.

"Hard Blade!" The Dark Dragoon sent the other one flying.

"How dare you abduct the Princess!!" Steiner tried for me again.

"Doesn't look like an abduction to me. More like a rescue." I dodged his attack with contemptuous ease. Chop, kick, uppercut, and he was knocked back. "Burning Rush!"

The knight hunched over, breathing hard. "Bah! Merely a flesh wound!"

Idiot. I turned to Baku. "I suggest you get moving. I doubt Brahne's going to sit still for this."

"I don't know who you are, but thanks!" He vanished inside, followed by a pair of vaguely doglike henchmen.

I relaxed my stance. Once we really get moving, we should be safe. Alexandria doesn't have much in the way of airships. I wasn't so stupid as to think the Queen would simply give up; I simply wasn't worried. The only way we Dragoons would be in any real danger was if General Beatrix came after us personally, and that was unlikely.

"Jason, look out!!"

Zack tackled me from behind, just before a giant harpoon could impale me. The source was right next to the Queen, in the form of the largest harpoon guns I had ever seen. Two more soon buried themselves in the deck. Adding insult to injury, a cannon directly above the Queen's box launched some sort of flaming monster at us. Despite the danger, my main thought was, Queen Brahne has got to be the ugliest woman I have ever seen.

"Surrender at once!" Steiner appeared to have regained his nerve.

"Sorry, I'm fresh out of white flags. Harpoon!" Zack's one-two rocked the knight back on his heels.

"Hey, look behind you!" Zidane yelled.

"I'll not fall for such an old trick!" Steiner snapped, trying and failing to strike the thief.

"Please Steiner, behind you!" Garnet pleaded.

"It's a Bomb!" Vivi shouted, smacking Steiner with a fireball.

"It's gonna blow!" Marcus warned.

Too late. The Bomb grew to at least three times its original size and detonated, severely damaging the Prima Vista and belching out a huge cloud of smoke. Coughing and trying to clear my eyes, I was just able to see the chains binding us to the castle snap, leaving the harpoons embedded in the deck. Then we were falling, falling, and the deck rose um to smack me in the face. The world went black…

***

"Jason? Are you alright?"

I squinted, trying to focus my eyes. "Dari? Yeah. Bit of a headache, maybe." I sat up, wincing. "Talk about hard landings. How long was I out? And where are we?"

"You were unconscious for about two hours," Dari replied. "And as for where we are, this is called the Evil Forest. From what the Tantalus guys have been saying, it sounds like the Death Frontier with trees. They say no one's ever made it out alive."

"Wonderful." My voice dripped venom. "What other bad news do we have?"

"Garnet's missing." Dari sighed. "She was thrown out by the impact, and some plant monster nabbed her. We're pretty sure she's still alive, at least."
"That's something." I stood and retrieved my sword.

"Steiner's furious," the Dark Dragoon continued. "He's saying that if Tantalus hadn't kidnapped her, she'd be safe now. He's threatening to hang all of them, starting with Zidane."

"And completely ignoring the fact that she wanted to be kidnapped," I growled. "Did he have any choice words for us?"

Dari laughed. "He's saying that if we hadn't interfered, he'd have stopped Tantalus from taking the princess. Again, ignoring the fact that she wanted to go. The idiot's saying he's going to have us burned alive."

I snorted derisively. "Burning would have no effect on me, and I somehow doubt he'd have much success against Dragoons in any event. Where's Zack?"

"Trying to talk sense into Sir Rustalot." Dari rolled her eyes. "Not having much luck, though."

"Of course not." I sighed. "We'll have to look for her ourselves. Come on."

"I am only going for the sake of the Princess!" Steiner was saying as I neared the exit. "When we are finished, I will have you hanged for kidnapping a member of the royal family!" He then caught sight of me. "And you will be burned alive!" Zack, a few feet away, groaned in despair.

"Spare me the ranting," I said coldly. "Zidane, we'll help you look for Garnet."

"Thanks." The monkey-like thief was clearly glad for the assistance. "Rusty here and Vivi are going along, but we could use some more muscle."

"Done. Let's go."

***

The forest proved to be little more than an annoyance. Zidane was just as skilled as I'd heard with his knives, Steiner, while something of a hardhead, was more than a match for the local vermin, and Vivi's black magic roasted some giant flowers before they got too close.

We got a brief respite at a spring. No monsters in the area, thankfully, just fresh water and a small, white creature with a red ball on its head. What in the world?

Zack pointed to the red-topped creature. "Zidane, what's that?"

Zidane looked. "He's a Moogle. They're found all over the place, cities, swamps, farms, I even heard one lives in Alexandria Castle." He looked to Steiner for confirmation.

"For once, you're right," Steiner said. "He spends most of his time in the knights' hall."

I stood. "We'd better get going. We're running out of time."

It wasn't much farther to the center of the forest. Within was an enormous plant monster, looking like a cross between a Venus flytrap and an oversized rose bush. Why is it Dragoons always get to fight the ugly ones? Why not just a normal soldier instead of a homicidal plant?

"Princess!" Steiner shouted. He shot a quick glare at Zidane. "You stay out of this! Alexandria would be disgraced if a mere bandit should rescue the Princess!"
"You think you can take it on by yourself?" Zidane shot back. "Come on, Vivi, let's take him!"

"Use your best attacks, guys!" I jumped in, slashed several times, and jumped out. "Blazing Dynamo!"

"Flower Storm!" An elegant name for such a devastating attack.

"Demon's Dance!" Eight separate gashes oozed plant juices.

"Looks like I got here just in time." Zidane's friend Blank had arrived. "Step aside. I'll handle this."

"Fire Sword!" Vivi charged Steiner's blade with magic.

So much for his problems with us. We fight well enough together. Maybe Steiner's not all bad. Tiring of the game, I raised my left hand, drawing on my Wingly power. "Time to fry, weed. Burn Out!" The fire attack practically incinerated its target.

Steiner cradled the Princess in his arms while Zidane gave her some kind of medicine. "Princess, please try to drink all of it." He glanced at me. "How did you do that? I have never seen such magic before." The ground began to shake as he spoke.

Not a good sign. "I'll give you the details later. For now, suffice it to say that I'm not entirely human." The ground where the giant plant had been opened up, and several smaller plants leapt out. "Run!"

It soon became apparent that carnivorous flowers weren't our only problems. With the Plant Brain's death, the whole forest seemed to be coming after us. Trees sprouted spiked tentacles, animals started chasing us, even the ground seemed to want us dead. Where's some weed killer when you need it? I thought plaintively.

"Hurry! The forest is turning to stone!" Zack shouted.

He was right. Risking a brief glance over my shoulder, I saw trees petrifying, flowers stopping in their tracks. "He's right! Don't stop for anything!"

Almost all of us got out safely. The one exception was Blank, who was caught after knocking Zidane out of a flower's grasp. Seeing that he couldn't free himself, he tossed a map, which Zidane scooped up on the run. As vines spread to bar his way, Zidane sprang forward, the last one out. The Evil Forest was now nothing but stone.

Zidane hammered the petrified vines with a fist. "Blank, you idiot!"

Just like Zieg, so long ago. I laid a hand on Zidane's shoulder. "Petrification can be cured. Don't give up on your friend."

His shoulders sagged. "You're right. Let's make camp."

Steiner gently laid the Princess on the ground, while Dari set up tents and Vivi started a campfire. I stood watch a small distance away, gazing into the Mist. Why is the Mist so persistent? One would think the sun would burn it away, if nothing else. Is there something producing the Mist? Something malevolent? I had an unpleasant feeling that I wasn't going to like the answer.

Vivi stared worriedly at Garnet. "Is she going to be okay?"

Steiner glared at Zidane. "This is all his fault. If he hadn't kidnapped the Princess, she'd be safe now!" He clenched his fists. "Have you nothing to say, you filth!?"

Garnet chose that moment to come around. "Oh…what happened?"

"Princess!" Steiner knelt.

She looked at him. "Steiner…you got me out?"
"It is my duty, Princess."

Zidane was having none of that. "What are you talking about? It was Vivi's magic and my dagger, not to mention these three," a wave to us, "that got you out of there."

Garnet smiled. "I thank you all."

"That monkey deserves no thanks!" Steiner snarled. "If he-"

"Steiner," Garnet interrupted. "I left the castle of my own will."

The young thief folded his arms. "What a coincidence, eh? We went in to snatch her, and she wanted to be snatched."

"Impossible!"

"It's true," the princess insisted.

"Why don't we just rest for now," Zidane suggested. "We can't go anywhere till Garnet recovers anyway, so why don't we enjoy it, like a camping trip."

Steiner reddened. "Camping--you imbecile! Surely even you must know something about the Mist! The abnormalities it spawns in mind and body-"

"Enough." I didn't raise my voice, but it wasn't necessary in any event. That single word cut through the debate like a frozen knife. "This bickering is pointless," I continued. "Zidane is right, we cannot leave until morning. The only sensible thing to do is get some rest."

There was a long silence. "You promised an explanation of what you did to the Plant Brain," Steiner said at last.

I nodded. "First I have to give you some background. My friends and I are from a faraway continent called Endiness." Faraway indeed. "I'm Jason Connell, from the village of Seles in the land of Serdio." I gestured to Dari. "This is Dari Allen, from Deningrad, the capital of the northern land of Mille Seseau." A wave to Zack. "And Zachary of Bale, Crown Prince of Serdio. As regards my little fire attack, I could do that because, as I said, I am not entirely human. My maternal grandmother was of an ancient race known as the Winglies."

"Why did you come here?" Garnet asked.

"Zack's father, Albert, King of Serdio, received word of impending disaster here," I explained. "We don't have any real details, so Albert dispatched us, along with a few friends, to find out what the danger was, and, if possible, stop it. When we saw you helping your ersatz kidnappers, we decided to lend a hand."

"That's Jason, boring lecturer to the last," Zack quipped.

"Shut up, Zack," I said, inadvertently giving Steiner something else to complain about.

"How dare you address your royal prince so disrespectfully!" he shouted.

I fixed the knight with a look Shana often refers to as my stormcloud glare, from the color of my eyes. "It just so happens that we've been best friends since we were toddlers, bonehead, so why don't you watch your mouth. And don't call him 'Your Highness'. He hates it, and would most likely kill you for it." I yawned. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sleep. I have a feeling I'll need it."

***

Author's note: Chapter 2 up. I apologize if the boss fights aren't that great, battle scenes aren't my strong point.

To Ye Say Ye Fool: Sorry for the review mix-up. I was not aware until you mentioned it that the default setting blocks anonymous reviews. That has been corrected. As regards how Jason found the other Dragoons, I'm still brainstorming on that.

Thanks for the reviews, and keep it up.