They all sat in the thrown room of Lindblum Castle. Kuja had been silent the entire way here, not saying anything to anyone, unless asked a question. But even then, he only gave one-syllable answers, then went back to his own thoughts. By the time they reached Cid's, even Eiko was beginning to feel sorry for him. Vivi brought him something to eat when he didn't move to get it himself, but he only placed the plate in front of himself and stared off into space.

"It sounds to me," Cid began after hearing everything that had happened, "that we have quite a problem. We have to remember that Kupo said Miraina was very powerful, and if Garland has a way of controlling her, we could well all be in grave danger."

"But she didn't even know how to use her power." Freya pointed out.

"That's quite true. He may then only be keeping her as some sort of hostage then, waiting to see if we can catch up with him." Cid turned toward his adopted daughter. "Could you possibly ask Kupo if any of the moogles have seen them? Perhaps he could also answer if she could be using this power he said she has."

"I can go and ask one of the moogles here in Lindblum." Eiko said. "Try to remember Father, Kupo is in Alexandria." She got up and ran out the door, hoping she wouldn't miss anything important.

"We can't just sit around and do nothing until we have an idea where they are. We should be out there searching for them." Garnet got up and began pacing.

Zidane got up and stopped her pacing by wrapping his arms around her waist. "We all feel the same Garnet. Unfortunately, we can't just do that. We might not be where some really important piece of information came in, and then it could be too late."

In Treno, City of Perpetual Night, a man made almost entirely of metal walked beside a young woman in a black outfit. Around her head was a gold coronet, the red gem in the center glowing a dull red. They stood near the center of the city, most people keeping their distance from the pair. The woman seemed mildly curious about everything she saw, and the man seemed delighted and what might be interpreted in another as giddy.

"Well, my dear, the city is just waiting for your first performance. You shouldn't disappoint them." Garland folded his arms across his chest.

"Yes, yes, I am aware of that master, sir." Her voice was bored and cold, seeming to now be disinterested in what they were doing there. "Just be sure you stay out of my direct path." A ball of black light formed in her hands, its center a deep violet. A smirk crossed her face as she let it fly randomly in front of her and the screams began.

In the thrown room, they were still discussing possible courses of action when a soldier ran in. He was out of breath, and had obviously been running for a while. He waved away a seat and drew in as much breath as he could. "Forgive…the interruption…your Lordship. Treno is…burning. Must come …immediately." Now he sat down, having relayed his message.

"Treno?" Garnet asked in disbelief.

Cid stood up immediately. "We must go now. We'll see for ourselves what is happening. To the Red Rose II!"

"I think we figured that one out Father." Eiko said as she walked in. "Let's go everybody! I'll update you on what the moogles said on the ship." With that, she ran out, followed by, well, everyone.

The ship was waiting for them, as Cid had given orders to have it ready at all hours. They quickly boarded and as soon as they were underway, they all turned to Eiko. She fidgeted nervously for a moment before sitting down on the steps to the piloting platform.

"Well, the moogles weren't much help. To be honest, they were really alarmed at the news of her being with Garland, and they left in a big hurry."

"Did they tell you anything useful at all?" Zidane asked from the controls.

"Well, they said it was possible she could be using her full powers, but they thought it was probably unlikely." Eiko shrugged helplessly.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Freya's voice held a hint of fear and awe in it. They all turned to ask what she was talking about, but they quickly saw for themselves.

The City of Perpetual Night, Treno, was a blaze with fire. The whole of the city seemed to be burning. The white and purple flames illuminated everything around it. The center of the city was the only place where the fire seemed to not be burning out of control. As they got closer, they could see below them two people standing in the very center. One was obviously Garland; the other was Mira, wearing a black pants outfit, her hair held back by the strange coronet. As they watched her, she shot out a blast of black and purple energy, destroying one of the remaining buildings. She seemed to be enjoying herself.

"I'm landing us near the city." Zidane said quietly. "The flames are too intense, so we have to." No one made any comment as they landed. They all got out of the airship quickly, anxious to see if their eyes had deceived them, and Mira wasn't destroying everything.

As they reached the outskirts of the city, they saw that people were still fleeing. Zidane split the group up to help those who were running, those who might be trapped, and the others were to go with him to deal with Garland. Kuja had been silent the whole time, his face pale and drawn. Zidane moved over to run beside him as they made their way to the center, avoiding the worst of the destruction.

"You holding up?" He kept his voice low, so that Garnet and Freya wouldn't hear him.

"I have to hold up. I can't believe he could get her to do this, to go so far against her nature." Kuja looked briefly at Zidane. "She loves life Zidane, she would never do something like this."

"I believe that." Zidane wondered briefly at the look in Kuja's eyes. Had he seen fear, or desperation? It was too hard to tell. "Garland is pretty resourceful though. He could have found a way to completely control her. We can't rule out that option." Kuja nodded briefly, and increased his speed. They soon found themselves in the center of the city. Before them were little twisters of flame, black as the night sky. Standing behind the twisters was Mira, a cold smile on her pale lips, Garland not far from her, watching the destruction with a mild detachment. They both turned as the group came into the cleared space.

"Well, well, well. Looky here Master Garland, we have us some fine visitors. " Her voice was mocking, but devoid of any other emotions.

"Indeed. This is a nice little surprise. Zidane and Kuja, with your little friends. Where are the others? Off doing the hero thing, saving petty Gaian lives? How useless."

"It is not useless, Garland." Zidane, leader and hero extrordinare stepped forward. "What have you done to Mira?"

Mira laughed slightly. "The name, deary, is Miraina." She turned away from him and randomly shot at another building that was still standing.

"Stop it! Don't you remember who you were?" Freya gripped her lance, trying to restrain herself from attacking this woman who had seemed so innocent.

Miraina turned back toward them with a frown on her face. "Who I was? Am I supposed to care? I certainly didn't have this sort of freedom before this, so why do I want to remember?"

"What about your feelings for Kuja? Wouldn't you want to remember them?" Garnet's turn to add her two cents.

"Feelings? For Kuja?" Miraina began to outright laugh, the sound sending chills down their spines. "Why how quaint. My dear girl, all I feel is contempt for you silly little children. How could I feel otherwise?"

"That's not true. You're being controlled by Garland." Zidane took another step forward. Maybe if he could tackle her and get that coronet off her head…

He waited too long. Miraina lifted her hand and moved it in a sweeping gesture. The four of them went flying backward ten feet. Garnet hit a pole in the ground and was knocked unconscious. Freya was the first one up, and she used her Dragon Crest skill, regretting the fact that it came to this. Miraina smiled and raised her hand, blocking the attack without difficulty. She flipped her hand around, palm up, and raised it. Freya was raised in the air at the same time and was flung backwards, her shoulder impaled on a jagged piece of pipe that had been forced out of the ground. Freya cried out once before loosing consciousness. Zidane was up next; angry at the way his fiancé and his friend had been hurt. He charged at her with his Ultima Weapon. When he was just a few feet from her he swung it, and she caught it. A single drop of blood from her hand fell to the ground, before her other hand swung up under his abdomen. It stopped before hitting him, but then a blast from her hand launched him at one of the remaining walls of a building. He lay there groaning in agony.

"Is this all you have?" She shook her head in mock disgust. "Such a pity. Well kiddies, I'm done here for now. I'll tell you what, though. You really want to fight me? Try and stop all the delightful carnage? Then keep your eyes on the ocean between the continents my darling dears. There will rise a great temple, its creation signifying your end, and new Terra's beginning. If you can get through the place, and then beat me, well then, I guess you'll have saved the day." She turned away from them and began walking after Garland who had already turned and signaled for their airship to come and get them. "Of course, you know you'll never win. Oh well." Her mocking laughter stayed with them even after she had boarded.

Kuja had been frozen the whole time after being knocked backwards. Now he began to move as he heard Zidane coughing violently. He attended to Zidane first, using the best healing spell he could think of. Next he moved to Freya, blasting the pipe to get her off of it easier. Garnet had by this time woken up and stumbled over to where he was, using her own magic to heal their friend. As Freya began to regain consciousness, the others got to the scene; not sure what to make of the state their friends were all in. Eiko set out to help Garnet get them back to working order, and Vivi worked at putting out the last of the fires where they were. Steiner left to get the airship, feeling he wasn't helping much any other way. Everyone was sitting around dejectedly when he got back.

"I can't believe someone could change so drastically." Garnet sat next to Zidane, his arm around her waist.

"It has to be Garland's doing." Freya was looking at her lance. "The only thing now is, how do we stop her, she's very powerful."

"No kidding. My Ultima Weapon didn't hardly scratch her. She didn't even flinch when it hit!"

"Don't tell me you're giving up." They all turned as Amarant jumped down from some rubble.

"Where in the world have you been?" Freya stood up and glared at him.

"Thinking." He replied shortly. He turned back to Zidane. "I saw the whole thing, from start to finish. That's one nasty girl there."

"Why didn't you try to stop her?" Eiko glared up at Amarant.

"And get fried like you guys? I'm not that reckless." He folded his arms across his chest.

Zidane stood up as well, helping Garnet to her feet. "Will you help us fight her now? Everyone is in danger, not just us."

"I'll help you get to her, at least. The question to ask is what will you do once you get to her? You seem to like her, and you need to know what you are willing to do, to save the world."

"We'll have to kill her." Kuja finally spoke up, making everyone turn to look at him. "We don't have a chance of getting close enough to do anything else."

"Are you sure?" Garnet asked in disbelief.

"I'm sure."

"We should go and keep an eye on the ocean then. We can form a plan while we wait for this 'temple' to appear." Zidane started toward the airship, the others following. Kuja was the last to board, and he did so only after looking around at what used to be Treno. The whole city was decimated, people lying dead in the rubble. Even he had never done destruction on this scale, except on Terra when he'd gone mad from being told he was going to die.

'And now I have to kill the person who saved me. Doesn't life make just so much sense?' He thought to himself bitterly before going on the ship.

They were nearly to the center of the ocean between the continents. Everyone had been silent up till this point. Zidane set the ship on autopilot and made it stay stationary. He hopped down off the platform and stood looking at his companions. No one was particularly in a good mood. Eiko was still depressed about the deaths of the moogles, as was Garnet. Kuja was in who knows what condition with his wife/lover going around destroying everything and saying she cared nothing for him. Vivi was never happy when his friends weren't happy. Steiner didn't know what to do to help anyone. Amarant was his usual quiet self, and Freya seemed to be worrying about what was going to happen. Only Quina seemed its usual self, sitting quietly eating some sort of sandwich it had made herself.

Zidane took a deep breath. "So, what's the plan?" They all looked up at him.

"We can obviously guess that this temple will have a lot of traps." Kuja's voice was calm and controlled. "Miraina seemed to imply that we could never make it through to where she will be, which will probably be near the center." He smiled slightly. "Of course, Garland may have designed the place, and he loves mazes. We'll have to expect anything and everything."

"That's great." Was Eiko's sarcastic reply.

"Let's not argue amongst ourselves. We have to get along if we're going to win." Freya scolded the two of them as they glared at each other.

"That's right. We have to work together." Zidane said everything slowly to emphasize his point. "We will all need to go in I think. We stand a better chance that way, right?" Kuja nodded in agreement.

"Someone should stay here and keep an eye on the ship, though. In case we need to get picked up in a hurry." Amarant said.

"Yes, you're right." Zidane stood thinking to himself. Finally, "This is how I see it. We'll split into two groups. Amarant, Vivi, Steiner, and Eiko will form one group. Garnet Kuja, Freya, and myself will make the other group. Quina will stay here and keep the ship waiting for us. That work for everyone?" They all nodded, with Quina happy since it got to stay where the food was. "Then all we have to wait for is the temple to show up."

"How long do you think it will take for the thing to be ready?" Vivi walked over to the window and looked around. He saw no disturbance anywhere.

"Who knows? If she's using magic, could be just a few minutes, or a few days. We'll just have to be patient." Zidane came over to the window to watch with Vivi.

'It's interesting how they can all plan this out. No wonder they beat me, they act as a unit, not doing anything that everyone doesn't agree with.' Kuja leaned against the wall, watching everyone. He was still fairly numb from the decision of killing Miraina, and he didn't want to feel anything. 'Who knows, maybe we will win. We certainly don't have any worse of a chance than they did when they fought Necron.' Kuja sighed, thinking about everything he had done. There was a sudden sensation in the back of his mind, and he walked over to the window with the others. As soon as he did, there was a giant disturbance in the ocean.

Huge bubbles, like some giant monster was drowning came to the surface. Soon they saw a black spire rise out of the water, followed by green and gold spires on either side. The building kept coming up, larger than they had imagined. It was black, green, and gold. Water spilled from the windows, running down jagged spikes that ran the whole length of the building. There would be no climbing this thing, not if they wanted to arrive in one piece. When it stopped surfacing, there was a platform large enough for the airship at the bottom. It even had a landing sign, as if Miraina and Garland were taunting them to come and try their luck. Well, Zidane was more that willing to oblige, as he went to the controls and landed carefully. Nothing had come out yet, but they were still cautious. There were two entrances, one with stairs leading down, one with stairs leading up. Zidane and the others stood looking at the stairs, everyone trying to decide which way their main goal would be located.

"Well Kuja, which way do you want to go." Zidane asked as Kuja came up behind him. Quina took off in the airship, on orders from Zidane to keep a reasonable distance.

Kuja looked up at the top of the temple. The whole place had a dark feel to it, like the stones themselves were trying to suck the life from the group. "I think we should go up. Garland will probably be at one end, and Miraina at the other." He kept his gaze on the top spire. "I think she is up."

"All right them people! My group will go up, the rest of you go down. Take care of yourselves, all right? I intend to see everyone when I leave here." He smiled at them as they all went to their respected doorways. The entrances closed once everyone was behind them, meaning there was no turning back now.

High in the top spire, looking down at the silly people who looked like ants from there, stood Miraina. She watched them from a window, amused at the futileness of their actions. "Such fools." She muttered to herself. She turned from the sight as they all went into the building, looking towards a crystal in the middle of the room she occupied. It was purple, with glowing strands of red and green running through it. At a wave of her hand, she saw the two groups making their way to death. Each group would die in different ways, but they would all die, she was quite sure. Master Garland had said so, after all. She smiled to herself as the group going down into the depths of the temple found their first monsters. It wouldn't take long at all, before everyone was dead, and then all of Terra would be restored.

A sudden pain in her chest knocked Miraina to her knees. The pain sliced up through her head as images flashed through her mind. She screamed loudly, and in a moment, everything ceased. She sat there gasping from the agony, her vision blurred. What had caused that? But it didn't matter, the pain was gone, and she had work to do. Miraina stood and left the crystal. She could check it any time she wanted, there was no hurry.