"You're highness, Locke Cole is here to see you."

"Ah yes, send him in right away!" Edgar called looking over some kingdom tax forms. "Locke! I am so glad to see you again. It's been nearly two weeks!"

"Three weeks to be exact." The life and excitement in his friends voice was gone.

"You look terrible! When was the last time you ate something!" Locke could only shrug half-heartedly, although in truth he really didn't know when was the last time he ate. Edgar raced up to him, placing both his hands on Locke's shoulders, although the treasure hunter couldn't look him straight in the eyes. He bowed his head to avoid the king's glare. "Look… I'm sorry about what happened. I want to do anything I can to help. That is why I sent the herbalist. I wanted to save Rachel for your sake."

"Why did you let them do this!" Locke finally whispered under his sobs. "How can you keep friendly ties with that nation of evil. That country of monsters."

"Locke! Please don't think I would have let this go on unopposed if I had known what the Empire was planning. If they were after a criminal, I would have suggested sending in a small party to take him away without harming anyone. Please do not think that it is the Figaro way to send in armies for mindless massacres."

"You are in allegiance with the Empire and yet you did nothing!" Locke finally looked up, his extremely pale face starting to flare up again with the rage Edgar had seen when Locke first arrived with the dreadful news.

"What makes you think that I haven't done anything? Don't you dare make a connection between the ways of Figaro and the ways of the Empire! There is much I have to tell you."

----------

Night had fallen over Figaro, the bright beacon of light in an ocean of darkness from the barren desert. Locke sat on the highest ramparts of the castle gazing out into the nothingness while Edgar sat behind him, looking at his friend with concern. "Funny, this is the exact same spot I was when my brother left our kingdom for good. That was the night my father died. Sabin looked so very much like you do right now, I'm only praying that you aren't to leave me for good as well."

Locke didn't bother to turn to Edgar has he spoke, "Your father wasn't the victim of a crime against humanity that only this Empire of evil could commit."

"Don't be so sure of that my friend."

This perked Locke's interest. He turned to look at the king, "What do you mean? Figaro and the Empire have been allies since the days of your father. Everyone knows that! Why would Gestahl do anything to harm the good king Figaro."

"His death was no ill-timed virus," Edgar's voice became flat again, but unlike his normal flat tone to try and calm his company down, this time it became flat with a hint of anger behind it. "The Emperor poisoned him. My father didn't like the way Ghestal wanted to expand by force. Gestahl didn't like the way my father stood up to him, but he couldn't all out invade. That would be too devastating to both sides, so he assassinated my father figuring he could over power the two young princes that would be left. I knew I couldn't fight the Emperor, he and the Empire were too strong even for my father let alone me, so I kept the alliance and played dumb, but I'm waiting for my time."

Locke let out a slight gasp, speechless to what Edgar had just told him. "Why doesn't any one know this! This is a travesty!"

"Because I don't want anyone to know," now it was Edgar's turn to look away. He gazed out over the entire kingdom that was in his trust. "If the Emperor knew what I knew, he would not trust me and most certainly would not have allowed me to live and rule. Of this I am certain. So Figaro and the Empire remain allies on the surface, but behind the curtain I am doing everything I can to stop this evil."

"But how?"

"I have begun collaborating with a group known as the Returners who have emerged from the Doma area."

"I have heard of the Returners before, they seek to oust the Empire from what they perceive is world domination," Locke reeled off what he knew of the group. "But they are just minnows. What can they do against the shark that is the Empire?"

"They have been growing Locke, and with the Figaro funding that I have been slipping them under the table, they have been able to arm themselves and spread their cause. We now have informants in every major city, including Vector."

"Won't the Empire just find out about this little group when it gets big enough and squash it?"

"Not if it can't find us," Edgar finally broke out into a smile. "They've been trying to find our informants for months now without success. They have been trained so well, only us Returners can pick them out."

"Anti-imperialist revolutionaries spreading their message to the world? Sounds like they would stick out like a sore thumb in society."

"You failed to notice Arvis."

"Arvis?" Locke raised an eyebrow.

"Not only is he one of our top informants, he's also one of our best tailors." Locke looked surprised, while Edgar could only laugh slightly. "He was giving me my monthly report while measuring me before we were rudely interrupted by one of our newest recruits."

"Newest recruits? What the heck are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about you Locke. How does it feel to be working for the Returners?"

"Whoa… slow down there! Look, I hate the Empire but I am not a Returner. I was

nothing but a common criminal when I came back from South Figaro remember? Plus it was a matter of Figaro security. If anything I figured it was a group like the Returners who were the thieves in the first place, which is why I am still surprised you never called in the Empire."

Edgar laughed again, now returning his gaze back to his friend, "Oh it was a matter of Figaro security, but I never mentioned anything about the Returners or who were the thieves. My father had been working on plans to submerge Figaro castle into the sands, and hide it should and when war with the Empire broke out. My father knew we couldn't stand a chance, so using our supreme technology, he developed a way for us to move the entire castle below the surface and to move it under the mountains safely."

"Are you kidding me!" Locke burst out. "I've heard rumors of technology like that, but only a crazy man would ever believe it."

"Well consider yourself crazy because it can be done. The Empire always knew my father was up to something but never knew what. Those papers I sent you after were stolen by an Imperial spy. They are the blueprints to one of the main engines in the submerging process. Should the Empire have seen them, they would have been able to figure out what the engine was going to be used for and what we would have been up to. So now you see Locke, why those documents were so important, why no one could know about it, and why I couldn't call the Empire to help because it was the Empire that stole the blueprints themselves."

Locke couldn't believe what he was hearing. For the past couple of weeks he had been considering never to show his face at Figaro ever again, unable to visit a place so closely tied to the killers of Kohlingen. Instead he was now face to face with the man who could lead the force against that very Empire itself. "So again I'll ask, how does it feel to be working for the Returners?"

"Submerging and hiding is all fine and dandy," Locke finally got the words out, "but what can you do against the Empire? What can the Returners do? They are just this tiny unfit group."

"Our time will come, don't you fret," Edgar flashed his trademark smile. "In the meantime, I get my own measure of personal revenge in little bits. While I wait for the day we can do battle with Gestahl, I play my own practical jokes on him. Those soldiers at the royal ball…"

"No you didn't!" Locke looked at the king. "Not those poor fellows who got sick. You claimed they had sun poisoning!"

"Sun poisoning… soup poisoning… what's the difference?" A devilish grin crept over the kings lips. "That's just one of my many tricks. I figured it was only fair the way they killed my father."

Locke suddenly tensed up, his world spinning around him. He struggled to try and get the words out, but with some forcing, they finally came. "Is that why you sent the herbalist to try and save Rachel? Was this another one of your acts of revenge? Is that all she was?"

"No Locke…" Edgar's voice flattened out again in the dramatic tone. "Seeing you on the floor before me in tears, I realized why you have a heart of gold. I seek the world for women and a love that never in my wildest dreams will ever come half way close to the love you and Rachel had. And all this I could tell simply by the man who sobbed before me. I wanted to save Rachel not as revenge to Gestahl, I wanted to save Rachel for one of the kindest men this world will ever know. I'm only sorry we couldn't bring her back." Locke hung his head, thinking about his love lying on that bed, forever to be lying there, never again to wake up, never able to hear him say how beautiful she is, and never to tell him how much she loves him. "This world is a wild and magical place my friend. I'm sure somewhere out there, there is something that can revive her, something that only the world's most premier treasure hunter could find."

This time Locke was able to keep his emotions in check, except for a single tear that escape his eye and left its trail of moisture down his face. "Thank you Edgar. I will do whatever it takes to bring Rachel back. And for starters, I have to bring her murderers to justice."

"So you're a Returner?" Edgar questioned.

"You can count on me!"

"Trusting you was never an issue my friend."