Okay, one of the scenes in here is my favorite part of the game...and I tried to capture the moment as best that I could. Lol. It's hard to kind of put certain things in ONLY Locke's perspective...Like, there are parts in the game that deal with, say, Edgar and Kefka and Locke isn't there...so you have to kinda make up some things. You'll see what I mean when you get to those parts. : ) Again, I have no idea how this chapter ended up so long...dear lord. Blame Gwen, my muse. It's all her fault! By the by, Rachel will actually enter the story in the next few chapters. (Either four or two...not sure of the order of the upcoming chapters, but the next chapter WILL be a 'past' chapter) Um, okay, that's it.

6. "Magic"

Locke woke up with a start and as he gasped, sat straight up in his bed. He gripped the sheets tightly between his fingers when he realized that his breathing was very rapid and he was covered in a light sweat. As his eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness of the room, he was able to remember that he was in one of the many guest rooms of Figaro Castle and not back at Kohlingen as his nightmare suggested.

It felt so real…He thought as he put his hand over his heart and laid back down to catch his breath. Although it was in the middle of the night, he was afraid to go back to sleep in fear his nightmare would reoccur.

The same nightmare had haunted him for weeks and he wasn't able to shake the horrible memory out of his head, and believed he never would. It was as he was being tortured by seeing his mistake over and over and not being able to change it.

I can hear the screams…Hear the soldier's mocking laughter…He continued to think as he ran his hand over his face and grabbed his lower lip with his thumb and forefinger. Preparing to stay up for the remainder of the night, he stood up and turned on the lamp that was positioned next to his bed. He slowly put on his clothes that were hanging over the headboard of the bed and shook his head at the nightmare. As his eyes wandered toward the ceiling, he tried to think of other things, but the dream was all that was on his mind.

He sniffed to prevent himself from crying and almost had to laugh at loud. Damn, I'm really losing it, aren't I! I can even smell the smoke! He looked toward the window and saw an orange hue rising and falling out of view. The sight caused him to narrow his eyes and walk closer to the window to get a better look. Wait a minute…

Inhaling again, he realized that he really did smell smoke and wasn't only imagining it. Following his instincts, he whipped around and looked back toward the lamp to see if that was the source. The light was dulled from being engulfed in smoke—smoke that wasn't from the lamp. Locke bolted to the window and gasped when he saw that the entire castle was ablaze.

"Terra!" He said out loud as he grabbed his dagger then began to run to her room to make sure that she was safe. The second he touched the doorknob, he regretted not thinking it would be extremely hot. He flexed his fingers, cursing at himself for being so careless. He took the bandana off of his head, wrapped it around the door knob, then twisted so he wouldn't completely burn his fingers.

Taking his bandana with him, he looked toward Terra's door and he could see that it was still shut. Most of the workers in the castle had woken up and were running through the halls to go to fresh air, so Locke was running against the flow as he made his way to where Terra was sleeping. He used his bandana method again to open the door and flew it open to see her still in bed.

As quickly as his feet would carry him, he went to her side and let out a sigh in relief when he saw that she was still alive and breathing. However, that wasn't satisfying enough for him, so he put his hand on her arm and shook her awake.

"Wha…" She muttered as she gently fluttered her eyes open.

"Terra, wake up!" Locke exclaimed as he continued to shake her. "Get up, get up, get up!"

"All right! I'm up, I'm up, I'm up!" She yelled, half mocking him as she smacked his arm away and sat up. "What's the big emergency?"

Locke ran to the other side of the room, grabbed her shoes then practically threw them at her. "Get dressed, now! Can't you smell that!"

The young girl gave him a confused look, but then her eyes widened when she smelled the smoke that was lingering in the air. "What the…" She coughed as she threw on her shoes as fast as she could. Locke also handed her her sword, which was lying across the table that was in her room.

"Take this, you're gonna need it! Now come on!" Locke shouted as he grabbed her by the arm and led her out of the confined rooms of the castle and toward the open level. As they were about to exit the main foyer, they saw the Chancellor.

"I was just going to find you two!" He shouted and ran closer to them. He pointed to the other direction and resumed speaking. "King Edgar ordered me to tell you to go to a different wing of the castle. It's still an open area, but he has a plan!"

"What's going on?" Terra asked, shouting over the sound of the flames and panicking people.

"It's Kefka's doing, are you surprised? He knows that we have you here and since we won't let you out of our sight, he decided to flambé the castle!" The Chancellor replied, coughing from the smoke. "Now, go to the eastern wing of the castle! Locke, you know where I'm talking about right?"

Locke nodded as he grabbed Terra by the wrist. "Good luck!" He shouted over his shoulder as he and Terra ran through the hallways, being careful not to touch any of the walls for fear that they were scorching hot from the flames.

When they arrived at their destination, they coughed and gasped for the fresh air before standing up straight and looking around. The sun was rising over the eastern border, so Locke was able to see the main level of the castle as he retied his bandana around his head. He frowned as he saw Edgar yelling at Kefka, only to have the man laugh right in his face. Terra gently placed a hand on Locke's arm as she noticed the sight as well.

"I'm sorry," she apologized as she brushed off some ash that was on her clothing with her free hand. "I didn't mean to drag you all into this mess."

"It's not your fault," Locke said as he watched Edgar walk up to one of the guards and whisper something to him. The guard nodded and ran inside the castle, just as Locke suspected he would.

"Of course it's my fault," she argued as she pointed to herself. "I'm the reason why Kefka is here anyway!"

"Terra, now is not the time to be talking about this." He put his hand up to stop her from talking so he could hear the signal from Edgar. She was about to speak again, but Locke clasped his hand over her mouth just in time to hear Edgar whistle. "There it is!"

"What's going on?" She asked, her voice muffled from Locke's hand as Locke pointed to three chocobos that were running across the side of the castle. The two of them watched as Edgar jumped on one of the creatures and led the other two to where Locke and Terra were standing.

"Jump!" Edgar yelled out to Terra and Locke when he was arriving under the bridge. Locke took his hand away from Terra's mouth and they both obeyed, landing on the two other chocobos and then followed Edgar around to the front of the castle. "Okay! Dive now!

"Yahoooo!" Locke whooped loudly in excitement for he knew what was about to happen next. The ground began to shake and Locke could only imagine the priceless look on Kefka's face. Too bad I can't see the bastard…He thought as he heard the soldiers on the castle shout orders to one another.

"Figaro Castle submerge mode engaged!" One guard yelled as the other soldiers began to cheer for they knew they were safe.

The castle fully submerged underground and Locke saw the look of amazement on Terra's face in the morning sunlight. She smiled and gripped the feathers of the chocobo's neck a little tighter causing Locke to laugh.

His laughter was interrupted when he heard Kefka let out a shriek then shout, "Go! Get them!"

All three of them looked over their shoulders in unison to see several soldiers in Magitek armor head their way. Even though they had a rather large lead on the Magitek armor, the machinery was able to move faster than the chocobos, so they were gaining on them.

"Uh oh, we have company!" Locke yelled as he held onto the chocobo with one hand and used the other to unsheathe his dagger. Terra looked at him in fright, yet nervously pulled out her sword as well.

"We can't fight on the chocobos!" Edgar announced as he brought his chocobo to a halt, Terra as well. As Locke tried to stop his, it halted so quickly that it threw Locke over its head and he landed in the sand with a yell. Ignoring him, Edgar shoved a few greens into Terra's hands. "Here, feed these to the chocobos! They'll stay put until the battle is over."

"Battle?" Terra exclaimed as she held out her hand and let the chocobos eat the greens. One of the chocobos gently let out a 'kweh' of gratitude and nuzzled the young girl as she watched the machinery come closer to them. "We're going to have to fight?"

"Telling them to turn around nicely isn't going to do the trick here!" Locke said as he stood up and ran back over to them. He felt something pull his bandana off his head and he instinctively ducked. He looked at his chocobo to see it drop his bandana, then reach out to nip at his hair in a playful manner. "Hey! Leave me alone! First you try to kill me and now you try to play with me, you vile creature!" He said to the bird as he swatted at it before bending over to pick up his bandana. He whipped his head over at Edgar as he stood in a fighter's stance. "What the hell was that shit you just had Terra feed them?"

"Gystahl Greens, it's a plant that calms down chocobos," Edgar explained as he pulled out his autocrossbow and loaded several arrows into the mechanism.

Locke rolled his eyes as he watched the soldiers come even closer. "Great, now we're going to be riding on drugged up chocobos," he muttered under his breath. He saw something shoot out of one of the Magitek weapons and he dodged it just in time. "Holy shit!"

"What the hell was that?" Edgar shouted as he shot his autocrossbow, hitting both guards. He made a face when he realized that the arrows didn't slow down the Magitek armor at all and simply ricocheted off.

"I'm not sure, but that was too close for comfort!" Locke yelled back as he attempted to strike at the guards. To his surprise, he hardly hurt the guard at all and instead hurt his own hand from the impact. He almost dropped his weapon from the pain, but walked back between Edgar and Terra instead. "What the hell! My blade isn't exactly being a help to me right now!"

"My crossbow's not doing too well either," Edgar announced in panic as he pulled out his Bio Blaster. "Maybe this'll help!"

Before he was able to use it, Terra performed a fire spell and it critically damaged both guards. It did so much damage that the guards were almost knocked unconscious and it stalled them for a second. Terra smiled at herself and Locke heard incoherent muttering from behind him.

Locke turned toward Edgar to see him pointing at the guards with his jaw dropped. He was trying form words, but nothing was making sense. "Edgar, what's the matter? You look positively spooked!"

"D…d-d-d-d-d-did you just see what I saw?" He asked as he slowly turned his upper body so he was now pointing at Terra. He tried to speak some more, but again, only babbling emitted from his lips.

"Yeah…" Locke said with a nonchalant shrug. Terra was sheepishly looking at the two men and Locke eyed her carefully before turning back to Edgar. "I noticed it as she and I got into several battles on the way to your castle. I see why the Empire is after her; this kid seems loaded for bear…"

Edgar rapidly nodded his head, his finger still pointing at Terra. "She's amazing! M-m-m-m-magic! She just did a fire spell! F-f-f-f-fire is magic! She just did a magic spell! That was magic! M-A-G-I-C!" To further his point, he grabbed Locke by the shoulders and shook him with every letter.

Locke turned toward Terra and gave her a gentle smile. "Would you please excuse us for a second?" The young woman looked confused but nodded anyway as Locke dragged Edgar several feet away and began whispering to him. "Knock it off! You're gonna scare her by reacting like this!"

"But, she just—"

"I know what she just did!" Locke snapped as he stole a glance at the guards to make sure that they were still halfway unconscious. "However, since you are suffering from the shock, let me remind you that Xane was able to do magic too!"

"You're right. I'm clearly overreacting aren't I?" Locke nodded and Edgar sighed. "I am deeply shamed." Although he shook his head calmly, Locke could tell that he was still unnerved from the spell. Locke turned him around so he could say something comforting to Terra. "Terra…where did you learn how to do that?"

Locke smacked his forehead with his hand, for that wasn't what he wanted Edgar to say at all. He watched as Terra looked down at her hands in embarrassment that she was receiving this kind of attention. "Sorry…I…um…"

By the way she was stammering almost as much as Edgar was, he pushed Edgar out of the way so he could get closer to her. Edgar let out a cry as he lost his balance and fell into the sand, but Locke ignored him and put his hand on Terra's arm. "Look, I didn't mean to make such a big deal out this…"

"Me either," Edgar said as he rose to his feet and walked over to Terra. "It's just that…even though I've heard about people doing it, I've never actually seen magic before! Where did you…?"

Terra kept her head down and Locke heard a slight moaning from the guards, realizing that they were starting to come to their senses again. He stepped in front of Edgar to quickly finish their conversation and get back to the battle. "Edgar, Terra can use magic and we can't. That's the only difference between us. The fact is…we could use her help!"

She brought her head up and smiled at the two of them as they got their weapons out again. "Thank you, Locke!"

"Hey, what about me?" Edgar asked, still trying to calm himself down.

"Thank you as well, Edgar!" She replied with a smile as Locke tried attacking one of the soldiers. The soldier's defense was down from being in such a weak condition that Locke was able to finish him off. Instead of using magic again, Terra attacked with her sword, killing the other soldier.

"Now let's get out of here!" Locke said as he ran back to his chocobo, Edgar and Terra not far behind. "Now, you behave, you bastard," he muttered as he jumped onto his chocobo.

"Yeah, smart idea, Locke," Edgar threw over his shoulder with a small grunt as he mounted his chocobo as well. "Start calling it names and then see if it'll obey."

"It's working so far," Locke stated as the chocobo dug at the sand with its beak. "Well, okay, so it's not really obeying me…but at least it's not trying to kill me! I figure that's an improvement."

"Hey, look over there," Terra said as she pointed to where Figaro Castle used to be before it submerged. Standing in the sand, mouth dropped, was Kefka in amazement of what happened to his two soldiers. "What do you think we should do about him?"

Locke chuckled in amusement and turned his chocobo around to face the man. "I think that we should ride over there and taunt him because there isn't anything he can do about it!"

"Will we get caught?" Terra asked nervously. "That's really not on my top ten things to do today."

"In case you haven't noticed, we're on chocobos and he's on foot," Locke clarified as he started to ride in Kefka's direction. Edgar let out an excited yell and Terra hesitantly followed as they rushed toward him.

"Bravo, Figaro!" Edgar shouted as Terra and Locke made faces at the man.

"Son of a submariner!" He shrieked as he began jumping up and down, causing the desert sand to form a cloud of dust every time his feet hit the ground. The three of them laughed, but under the laughter, Locke could hear Kefka shout to himself, "They'll pay for this…"

"Wha ha, this is great!" Locke exclaimed as he finally started to gain control of his chocobo without it kicking him off. "Chocobos actually behave when they're drugged up!"

Edgar shot a confused look toward Locke. "What do you mean? They usually behave when they're clear headed as well."

"Not for me!" He clarified as he petted the chocobo on the head. "Good little chocobo!" He and Edgar both laughed and when he realized that it was only the two of them, he looked over at Terra. The expression on her face was unexplainable and it was enough to strike fear into his own heart. "Terra? Are you okay?"

"Was that a bad person?" Locke knew that she was talking about Kefka, so he nodded his head sympathetically. "I…I'm scared…"

"Terra…" Locke sighed and Edgar directed his chocobo to ride next to Terra's.

"Terra, there's someone I'd like you to meet!" Edgar's voice was cheerful and uplifting, so Locke figured he better act the same way.

He managed to guide his chocobo on the other side of Terra and join in on the conversation. "Like I've said before, we're members of the Returners."

"Our mentor, Banon, would certainly like to meet you," Edgar continued to explain as blushed slightly.

"Why do all these people want to meet me?" Locke wasn't sure if she meant to speak loudly enough for he and Edgar to hear her, but her question still made his face fall.

"'Magic' is going to be the key to winning this war," Edgar said bluntly with a shrug. Locke knew that was not the right thing to say because it lacked subtlety, but it was the truth.

"'Magic…'" The look on her face when she repeated the word proved to both men that although she had the power, she didn't realize that no one else did.

"Terra has magical powers." Edgar was stating the obvious, but he more or less was trying to figure out what was going on by speaking out loud. "From what we heard from Arvis, that Esper seemed to…react to her. Can there be some connection?"

"I haven't the foggiest!" Terra exclaimed as she shrugged her shoulders. "I've been able to use magic since I was a baby. I think. I'm not exactly sure…I don't remember. It just seems natural to me that I have the use of this power…"

"But no human is born with the powers you seem to have, and…" He trailed off when he saw Terra slow down her chocobo to a halt in reaction to his statement. Both he and Locke did the same and slowly guided their chocobos to where she was. "I apologize. I should've thought that sentence through before I said it. It just slipped out."

Silence fell between them for a minute and Locke's chocobo started to act up. He tried his hardest to get the chocobo to behave, but it kept on walking around. Fortunately, it wasn't distracting to Edgar and Terra's discussion, so he just listened to them speak.

"What should I do?" Her voice was tiny and Locke couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

"I'm not exactly sure if there is anything you can do at this point in time." She bowed her head and nodded as Edgar tried to console her. "I'm sure the Empire is going to come after you, that's pretty much inevitable."

Locke chimed in when he finally turned his chocobo around to face the two of them. "But just remember that we won't let anything happen to you! We will protect you with all we've got!"

"Like Locke said," Edgar emphasized for agreement. "I hate to say this, but if they get their hands on you again, the world's finished." Terra whipped her head up in fear and Locke cleared his throat so Edgar would get the hint to change the topic quickly. "Terra, you want to understand your own powers right?"

"I never really considered it a 'power,' so I guess I need to understand what it's about," she replied as she stroked her chocobo's feathers so she wouldn't have to look at Edgar or Locke.

"All right, then I think we need to consult with Banon." Terra stayed silent and shut her eyes.

Locke struggled to move his stubborn chocobo even closer, then was able to put his hand on her arm. "Please…"

Hesitantly, she looked up and nodded at both men. "I guess I really don't have a choice, do I?"

"Of course you do," Locke stated, even though he knew that she didn't. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to do."

"I don't want to see the apocalypse because of me though," she stated and felt the tears spring up in her eyes. "I never want to be responsible for something like that. If they catch me, they'll put that slave crown on my head again and I won't even know what I'm doing. One day I'll just wake up and realize that there's nothing left of this world except Gestahl, Kefka, and the rest of the Imperial army. I never want to see that happen. If this Banon can help me, I want to see him."

"Okay!" Edgar said with a relieved sigh that she agreed. "Banon is at the Returner's Hideout. To the south there's a cave that leads to South Figaro. We'll stop there for supplies then make our way through Mt. Kolts to get to the hideout. How's that sound?"

Terra nodded and they started to make their chocobos trot once again toward the cave.