Welcome to the longest chapter in this story and BY FAR my favorite! I never really intended for it to be this long, but I just kept writing and writing and writing. Besides, mostly everything is explained in this chapter...well, obviously the truth about Xane. (Hence the title of the chapter) Oh, for those of you who love Locke's Scenario...notice anything here? (I also refer to it in the chapter about Locke's scenario...but that was chapter 13, so I doubt you remember!) Okay...read!

35. The Truth About Xane

Locke blinked his eyes open and squinted in the bright sunlight. He looked at his watch and saw that he was only unconscious for a short period of time, and that made him feel relieved. He also knew that by the way his head was pounding, he would have a bruise later in the day on the spot where the soldier struck him.

"Oooh…" He muttered as he slowly sat up and put his hand on his head. He looked around and realized that he was in the wooded area not far from Jidoor. "What a bunch of idiots. They knock me unconscious then drag me to a spot not far from where Xane is. Did they honestly think that I wouldn't go back?"

With a chuckle, he rose to his feet and brushed the dirt and dead leaves off of his clothing. Placing his hand back on his head, he blinked several times to find his equilibrium, then started on his way back to Jidoor to assist Xane in escaping.

When he arrived at the edge of the forest, he looked toward Jidoor and realized that the number of guards didn't diminish. Now there actually looks like there are more guards on duty…He thought as he moved a few branches out of the way to get a better look. As quietly as he could, he stood up and decided to use his original plan that he thought up for he and Xane; take the risk of just walking into town and pretending that he was in for supplies.

"Halt!" Locke froze in his steps when he heard a gruff voice behind him. A subtle but familiar 'click' proved that the man cocked his gun and had it pointed directly for Locke. "State your business."

Locke slowly turned around on his heel to face the man. He was in heavy Imperial armor, and like Locke suspected, had a huge machine gun aimed for his chest. Without taking his eyes off of the large gun, he nervously managed to say, "Uh, I would like to speak to the prisoner."

"What the hell for?" The soldier demanded as he motioned his lack of patience with his gun, Locke's eyes following its every move. "I'm not permitted to let you see him without a damn good excuse."

"He owes me money?" Locke raised the pitch of his voice at the end of the statement, transforming what was supposed to be a convincing lie to a question.

"Ha ha ha, nice try," the soldier said sarcastically as he put his gun down by his side. Now he was more amused at the situation than anything. "The prisoner has something very important to us."

"And what may that be, pray tell?" Locke asked, narrowing his eyes. He couldn't tell if the soldier was telling the truth or just trying to throw him off guard.

"Look, pal, I'm sworn to secrecy." He shrugged his shoulders as he spoke. "So what that basically means is that if I told you, I would have to kill you."

"Well, I'm insanely curious," Locke challenged in a chipper tone as he crossed his arms. "Therefore, I'm going to take my chances and give you permission to kill me after you tell me. That way I'll be able to quench my curiosity and then take my new knowledge to the grave."

"You're nuts!" The soldier laughed and Locke nodded honestly.

"I prefer to call it a moment of temporary insanity, but you can call it whatever the hell you want." He motioned with his fingers for the soldier to keep talking. "Come on, let's hear it. I don't have all day."

"Well, I don't know all the details," the soldier began as he moved in toward Locke a little bit. After a dramatic pause, he punched Locke in the stomach with all of his might. "And even if I did, I sure as hell wouldn't tell you!"

With a grunt, Locke gripped his stomach and blinked as he tried to regain his footing. The soldier got out his gun and aimed right for Locke's head again. With lack of ideas, Locke kicked the soldier's feet from under him, causing him to fall on his back and his gun to slide across the ground.

The soldier slowly got to his feet, giving Locke enough time to recover and grab his dagger out of the holster. The soldier flashed Locke a frightened look, for he was unarmed, and Locke simply chuckled. An idea sprung into his head, so he looked around and when he realized the coast was clear, he struck the man across the temple with the hilt of his dagger, knocking him unconscious.

Locke picked up the man and hid behind a clump of bushes to remain unseen. He quickly stripped the man out of his Imperial attire and tried it on for size over his own clothing.

"It's a little big, but I'll get over it," he said under his breath as he shifted his shoulders around inside the heavy armor. He glanced at the unconscious man and figured he couldn't just leave him there, so he picked him up, walked deeper into the forest, and threw the man in some heavy shrubbery. "A soldier knocks me out, then I knock out a soldier. I think that only seems fair."

As stealthily as he could, he made his way back out of the forest and started to walk toward the main headquarters in Jidoor. Realizing that he didn't look as convincing as he had hoped, he grabbed the gun that the soldier dropped and held it in the correct Imperial way.

"Hey, you!" Locke froze again, hoping that he wasn't caught. A soldier ran up to him and patted him on the back. "There you are! I've been looking all over for you! I was wondering what happened! You better be careful or else Leo's gonna be pissed that you walked away from your post."

"Uh, yeah, I just had to stretch out my legs." Locke had to lower the pitch of his voice slightly so his real voice wouldn't be revealed, and the other man fell for it. "I'm going to see what's going on with that prisoner."

"I wouldn't worry about it if I were you," the man said as he looked around, obviously to make sure he wasn't caught being off his post either. "General Leo's got it all under control. However, even in prisoner status, it's good to have Xane back. I missed him."

'It's good to have Xane back?' What the hell is going on…Locke knew he had to get more information out, so he said, "Xane? Hmm. The name doesn't ring a bell. How come I don't remember him?"

"How can you forget General Xane?" The excitement in the young soldier's voice made Locke bite his lip. "Damn, he was the most amazing soldier aside from General Leo. It's funny too, because he was just promoted to general before he just left us."

"What happened to him after he left?" Locke asked as the soldier sighed. "That good, huh?"

"No, it was just that he was called a traitor for quite a long time because he 'stole' something that the Empire gave him," the soldier explained.

"What did he steal anyway?" It was the same thing that the other soldier said to me…there's no way two soldiers would lie…

"Ya know, I'm not even sure to be honest with you."

"Does anyone know, or is it just one of those huge secrets that Gestahl is trying to keep from all of us again?" Locke couldn't help the heavy sarcasm that was in his voice, but the soldier found humor in it and chuckled.

"I think it's one of those things where Gestahl would be afraid for us to find out what it was," he admitted as he looked around. "I guess I should shut my yap though. I don't want one of the generals to come out and find me loafing around."

"All right," Locke stated as he motioned toward the mansion at the northern part of town. "You better get back to your post then. I'm gonna go see if I can get some information out of Xane. I'm pretty damn curious."

"Good luck, man," the soldier said as he patted Locke on the shoulder again. "Be careful though! You don't wanna be seen off your post!"

"Thanks for the warning, but I'm sure I'll be okay." The soldier nodded as he walked to his post and Locke walked up to the entrance to the mansion. He gave the guards the proper salute, and they opened the door.

When Locke walked in, he had a good look around. The place was crawling with Imperial soldiers, and that made him very nervous. He didn't want to get caught in a place like this for there was nowhere to run and hide.

He made his way around as nonchalantly as possible, nodding to soldiers every now again, and finally found the staircase that lead to their makeshift temporary prison. No one was around so he walked down the stairs, but stopped when he heard someone talking.

"Xane, I can't believe you." It was a female voice; gentle, but at the same time had a sharp edge to it. Locke looked around the corner of the wall and looked at her profile carefully. It was the woman that discovered them on the outside of town.

"Celes, come on," Xane said as he scoffed and slightly banged his hands against the metal bars. "You know I don't deserve to be in here. Let me out."

"As much as I would love to, I can't, Xane," she replied with a sigh. "You shouldn't have even left in the first place. You're very valuable to the Empire."

"You are too," he snapped back at her, causing her to let out a short laugh. Okay, what's going on? Since we first saw her, they've been talking as if they've known each other for years…Locke thought as he tried to get a better look at what was going on.

"I'm also a General now, so I'm even more valuable to the Empire." She took a few steps away from him, her heels coldly clicking against the stone floor. "They, heh, pretty much doubled my training when you left then gave me your job."

Xane shook his head in disbelief and looked at her closely. "Celes, look at yourself. You're barely 18 years old and you're already a general of the Imperial army."

"I know, isn't it great?" She giggled and spun around like a little girl, ignoring his disappointed tone. "I'm just moving my way up in the world. Much like you did before you decided to turn traitor."

He ignored her snide remark and crossed his arms against his chest. "I didn't mean that as a compliment." Her smile faded, so he continued. "You're growing up too quickly. Think about it, you didn't even have a childhood. You went from a baby to a woman in the matter of a heartbeat. Slow down and live a little."

"No time for that," she said as she turned back to him. "I have way too many things to do before I take a sabbatical. I mean, I was just stationed in Maranda and now I'm here. I'm a busy girl. At least I'm making something of my life instead of prancing about like you're doing."

"You don't know anything about my life anymore, Celes Chere, so you better knock it off." His voice was harsh and it was obvious that he hurt her.

"Look who's talking, Xane Riley," she snapped, emphasizing his last name. "Ugh, why did you even change your last name anyway?"

"It's not that I changed it, I just dropped the last part and used my middle name," he explained as she made a face at him. "Besides, if I remember correctly, I didn't ask for your approval. I just needed something that was confidential." With a shrug, he leaned against the back wall of his cell. "Just let me out, Celes. It's not like I'll leave. I just hate feeling like a prisoner."

"The only way I can let you out is if you come back to us." She quickly walked up to the cell and put her hands on the bars. "Xane, I miss you. You could be standing next to me, you know."

"Yeah, stabbing Gestahl through the heart at the same time?" Xane questioned as Celes let out a gasp in horror. "Don't even give me that reaction, Celes."

"You could be given the death sentence if you talk like that!" Locke moved back against the wall to remain hidden as she looked around. Turning back to Xane, she resumed speaking. "You're lucky that I'm very forgiving and I won't repeat what you said to anyone else in the Empire."

"Like you guys are gonna let me go anyway?" He asked as she tapped her toe on the ground.

"We won't kill you unless you keep talking about the Emperor like that," she started as she tossed her blonde hair out of her face. "The worst thing we're going to do is leave you in this cell and let you contemplate everything for a while. It would be better if you gave up and took back your role in the Empire."

Xane walked back up to the front of the tiny cell and put his hands back on the bars. In a fierce tone, he whispered, "My role with the Empire now is to stop their insanity. You know just as well as I do that Gestahl is going to try to take over the world with everything he's got. He's not going to stop until everyone worships the ground he walks on. Who knows what he's going to do to achieve his goal."

"How dare you say things like that! Emperor Gestahl is an excellent emperor, and you know it!" She protested as Locke shook his head. Yeah, 'excellent' my ass…He wanted to get Xane out of there, but the conversation between Xane and Celes was just starting to get interesting. "He would never abuse his power that he was rightfully given."

"Oh really? And what about Kohlingen and Maranda? All those people that were killed under Gestahl's orders? What would you call that?" He hit the bars with his hands again, causing her to take a few steps backward in surprise. "If you were wise, you would get out of the Empire's thrall before it's too late. Actually, now that I think about it, I did catch wind of what happened in Maranda, Celes. It might be too late for you to realize what you've gotten yourself into."

She quickly stomped back over to the prison cell, leaned over and held onto the bars as her eyes flared up. "You wanna challenge me, Xane?"

"Celes, that's not even a remote threat to me," he said in annoyance as she huffed. "It would be an equal battle with the two of us and you know it."

"It's because we were made to be by each other in the Empire!"

'Made?' Locke thought to himself as he listened carefully. Did she mean 'meant?' If she didn't, what did she mean?

"No shit, Celes," Xane replied with a slight laugh. Uh oh…she did say that correctly…Locke thought in confusion. "However, from what I've heard, that…witch, or whatever the hell she may be, is taking over my spot rather quickly."

"She's different," Celes said quietly. "There's nothing…artificial about her. She was born with her skills. It's strange to think of…"

"Yeah." Xane's tone was just as small as Celes'. He whipped his head up as the young general started to walk away again. "Please, Celes."

Without breaking her stride, she threw back, "I'm not letting you out."

"I know you aren't, but that's not what I meant." Locke heard her stop in her tracks as Xane continued. "Don't let yourself get caught up in this fucked up mess. The Empire is full of cowards, Celes. Don't deny that. I'm just looking out for you. It's my job."

"You don't know what you're talking about." Although she tried to sound confident with her statement, there was an obvious trace of doubt in her voice. Without another word, she turned the corner and almost ran into Locke. Luckily, the soldier's helmet that he was wearing covered his eyes, so she wasn't able to recognize him. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Uh, General Leo told me to watch over the prisoner," Locke fibbed as he looked away from Celes' burning eyes. She was the same height as he was, so eye contact was inevitable if he looked at her. The resemblance…He thought as she scoffed.

"Fine," she said as she crossed her arms and stormed past him. "Be careful with this one. You have no idea what he's capable of."

"Yes, ma'am," he replied with a saluted. After she was out of sight, he ran up to the prison cell. "Come on, Xane, let's get you out of here."

"Locke!" He exclaimed when he recognized who it was. "What are you doing here? H-How the hell did you get past all the guards?"

"Can you not see the Imperial garb?" Locke stated as he pointed to himself. "It was simple after that."

"Did you…overhear the conversation I just had?" Xane asked sheepishly as Locke nodded. "Oh, I hoped you wouldn't have."

"What did she mean, you were 'made' to be together?" Locke demanded as he searched through his armor to find his lock picks that were attached to his regular clothing. He looked up and saw Xane turn his head and shake his head. "Okay, if you're not going to answer that question, answer this one. Why the hell didn't you tell me that you used to work for the Empire?"

"What was I supposed to say?" Xane asked as Locke shrugged.

"I don't know, how about something like, 'hey Locke, I used to work for the Empire.' You didn't need a monologue written out." Xane remained silent as Locke found the picks and protested when he started to work on the lock.

"Don't!"

"What are you talking about?" Locke asked in question as he looked around. "I gotta get you out of here somehow and since I don't have the keys to the place, picking the lock is the only option."

"No, leave me here," Xane said as Locke gave him a quizzical look. "Seriously, get out of here."

"Not without you!" He snapped as he continued working with the lock.

"Locke, you just don't understand." There was harshness in Xane's voice that surprised Locke and made him look up from what he was doing. "They won't kill me if that's what you're worried about."

"How do you know?"

"I'm important to them." His simple statement only caused Locke to be more confused. "Besides, you heard Celes say it herself."

"I don't get you," he said, putting his arms down. "I can't leave you here, Xane. I don't trust the Empire."

"Don't worry about me," Xane replied with a smile. "They just want me to give in to them."

"Will you?" Locke asked, slightly afraid of the answer.

"Of course not. I'm not a fool," he replied with a chuckle. "However, I need you to do me a favor."

"What's that?"

"Tell Vaughn what happened. He'll understand what's going on." Locke whipped his head up again. "Like he said before we left, if something happened to one of us, the other had to go back to him and let him know."

"Does Vaughn know about how you used to work for the Empire?" Xane looked down and nodded. "Oh. Well, that makes some sense. Actually, it makes a lot of sense."

"Now get gone," he said motioned toward the door. Locke stayed in the same spot and Xane walked right up to the bars and motioned Locke to come closer. He obeyed as Xane whispered, "I need to do a little reconnaissance with the Empire right now. I need to see what they're up to, so maybe I can squeak some info out of Celes. She'll listen to me."

"Why's that?" Locke asked as Xane tapped his fingers against the bars. "You're being very quiet about her. Are you hiding something else about her? What, was she a past girlfriend while you were in the army together or something?"

"What? No!" He exclaimed as he made a disgusted face and groaned. "Dating Celes? Hell no!"

"Okay then, I'm glad we have a strong opinion about that," Locke said as he gave a half hearted laugh. "If it's not 'that bad,' I think you can tell me. What are you hiding?"

"Celes and I have known each other for a very long time, so I know that I can get information out of her," he replied simply. Locke wasn't satisfied, so he put his hands on his hips and motioned him to go on. "Hmm, not good enough?"

"Not a chance," Locke stated with a shrug of his shoulders. "Now's the time to come clean to me."

"Fine," he said with a sigh. "I just don't like to talk about this, but I know I can trust you. Celes, she's…my sister."

"That's not that bad of a thing to share. However, now that I think about it, you've never mentioned that you had a sister," Locke said as he narrowed his eyes at him.

"I know I haven't. I do that for her own protection. It's a long story." By the look in Xane's eyes, Locke could tell that it wasn't a happy story, so he kept a confused look on his face. "Fine, I'll summarize it for you as succinctly as I can. When I was about nine years old, my mother and father moved to Vector, which is obviously where the Imperial base is. When Gestahl met my mother, he fell in love with her, and even though she was married, he pursued her anyway. He sent her flowers, notes, and sometimes even threats daily if she didn't leave my father and marry him. My parents were happily married and in love, so she obviously stayed with my father. Goddesses, I remember the arguments my parents used to have saying that they should leave Vector. My father wouldn't though because he had a great job there. Hell, that's why we moved there in the first place.

"Anyway, after a few months, Gestahl stopped wooing her but forced my father to be in the Imperial army, completely against his will. Not only was he leaving his family, but my mother was now pregnant…with Celes. The very next day he joined, we received a telegram saying he was killed in battle. It was too coincidental if you'd ask me. I was devastated because my father and I were very close, not to mention that my mother was ruined from the news. She swore to wear black for the rest of her life and…she was just different. She never laughed, her eyes never sparkled like the used to, and she coddled me more than ever. I have been told that I have a very close resemblance to my father, so I know I was the closest thing that she had to him.

"The next week, Gestahl began to pursue my mother again. Knowing that we didn't have anything left, including money to survive off of, my mother accepted his hand in marriage so we would have the money to eat and whatnot. Shit, I'll never forget that wedding. It was…a nightmare. She walked through the day without any form of emotion on her face. She was barely a human anymore; she was an empty shell. When dad died, she lost her will to live…" Xane looked off to the side in pain of the memory. Locke felt pain in his heart because he understood what she went through because that was a good explanation of what had happened after Rachel died.

"I…think I know where you're coming from," he mumbled under his breath as Xane gave him a sympathetic look. With a sigh, he looked back up at Xane and could tell that his story wasn't finished. "Go on though. I'm still listening."

"When she married, Gestahl was terrible to her. Although he claimed that he loved her, he would beat her, rape her, scream at her, and rarely let her see me. Nine times out of ten I was confined to the basement and that's when Cid found out about me and took me under his wing. He was like my makeshift dad.

"About two months later, my mother was so persistent on seeing me that Gestahl let some of his soldiers abuse her to the point of knocking her unconscious. Although I was still very young, I stormed up to Gestahl and gave him a piece of my mind. Instead of getting pissed, he was actually very intrigued at my bold behavior and told me that I would be very important in the army. Then, he knocked me out.

"I woke up about a day later in the presence of my mother. She was crying as she told me that I was infused with magic and then she said that she would never be able to see me again. I was to be sent off to start training for the Imperial army as soon as possible to learn to hone my magic skills."

He paused again, and Locke didn't realize just how enthralled he was in the story. The secrets that Xane were holding were far deeper than he could've imagined, and he knew that Xane was having a difficult time explaining.

"I can tell you're getting overloaded, so basically what else happened is that Gestahl killed my mother after Celes was born and infused her with magic as well when she was a baby. Then we both grew up together as important members of the army. In other words, we were trained to become weapons." Locke gave him a confused look and expected him to go on, but Xane shrugged his shoulders. "The end. That's the gist of it."

"Wow," Locke said as he exhaled. "I…had no idea."

"I know you didn't," Xane stated with a shrug of his shoulders. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but I didn't really want to. No offence, but they're stories that I'd rather deal with myself."

"No, man, I completely understand," Locke said with a wave of his hands. "I'm glad you were able to tell me though. But, um, I take it Vaughn doesn't know that Celes is your sister, does he?"

"Call it the big brother instinct that I have, but he doesn't even know that she exists," he explained as he rested his hands on the bars of his cell. "Knowing that she can use magic, she's a major threat to the Returners and I don't want anything to happen to her. She's my baby sister and I love her to death, but we live in different worlds now. She's a smart girl though, so I know she'll break out of the Empire's thrall eventually."

"Oh." He felt uncomfortable all of a sudden, so he took off the soldier helmet and ran his fingers through his short blonde hair.

Xane sensed Locke's nervousness, so he reached through the bars and patted him on the shoulder. "I'll be fine, Locke." He could tell that Locke wasn't won over, so he added, "Even if you dragged me out of here, I would come right back."

"Why?" Locke demanded as Xane chuckled. "I have a bad feeling about leaving you here in the hands of the people who killed Rachel."

"Just go," Xane repeated as they heard the door open from the top of the stairs. Locke jumped in surprise and put his helmet back on as quickly as possible so he wouldn't be revealed. "Shit! Get outta here!"

Locke remained silent as Xane's gaze burned into Locke's eyes. The sound of footsteps clattered down the stairs and Locke turned to see General Celes and General Leo standing there.

"How's our prisoner doing?" General Leo asked Xane pleasantly as he and Celes walked closer to the cell.

Locke gave a pleading look to Xane, who smiled pleasantly at the two generals. "I'm fine. You know, if you consider 'fine' being locked up in a cell. So, Leo, we didn't get to chat when you ordered Celes to drag me down here. How have you been?"

Xane's right, they're not going to kill him…I think it hurts them to have to do this to him…He thought with a heavy heart as he looked between the two generals and his friend, seeing the maudlin look on Leo's face. If I stay here, I'll only get caught…"Well, I think it's time for me to take a break. I'm gonna go check out the dancers at the café."

"Nice work, soldier," General Leo stated with a smile. "If you have been able to keep a close eye on this man without getting hurt, that's a personal accomplishment. Your commander will be proud."

"Thanks," Locke muttered as he saluted. He took one final look at Xane, then walked past General Leo and General Celes, and walked up the stairs.