(Author's Note: I realized that some of our viewers may not be totally familiar with all the characters, so I am attempting to clafiry. The reason 'chaos' is never capitilized is because in the game he comes from (The Xenosaga Series), it's never capitilized. There's no accounting for why this is, it just is. Xenosaga is more science fiction than fantasy, and does actually take place in our Universe, just four thousand years in the future, but this little fact can be largely ignored. That's all for now.)

Paine stumbled back to her chair, shell-shocked.

How could it just be gone? An entire planet?

And the most frightening question of all:

Did he get off it in time?

Vincent and chaos gave her a time of respected silence before chaos gently laid his gloved hand on her bare shoulder.

"Paine." No answer.

"Paine," his voice never raised, though he spoke more emphatically. She heard him, but it sounded like his voice was coming from a great distance.

"What do you want us to do now? There is another habitable planet in this system that we could check, if you would like."

Eyes unfocused, Paine replied, dazed: "Another planet? That wasn't in the archives before…"

She felt numb, nothing was registering. None of this made sense, and what's more, it wasn't FAIR.

chaos glanced at Vincent who just nodded. Returning to the cockpit, chaos turned the ship towards the unknown planet. Vincent knelt down in front of Paine and waited till he had her attention. Finally, her eyes lost their glazed look and she blinked at him.

"So your search will take a little longer than you had thought. That doesn't mean it's over or that you should give up. But what you do have to do is pull yourself together, or you will accomplish nothing."

A ghost of a smile played across Paine's face.

"You sound like you know what you're talking about, old man."

His expression mirrored hers, as he stood up and returned to his seat. Once again, Paine joined chaos in the cockpit, this time to get a good view of their new destination. chaos was reading something on a screen in front of him.

"There's definitely life down there, but it's hard to pin down its precise type."

Paine's fine brow furrowed as a thought came to her.

"Tell me, chaos…was your world affected by the Heartless Wars?"

He half turned and looked at her blankly.

"The what?"

"Never mind," she said quickly, and motioned that he should stay focused on flying. The planet was mainly brown in color, light, implying that it was dusty, water scarce. The atmosphere was obviously thin, but breathable. Paine's first thought was: Hey, at least there won't be any killer storms.

Descent was quick and uneventful. Paine kept waiting for some unforeseen force to knock them out of the sky, but no such malignant hand was present.

They set down on the surface, kicking up a tornado of orange-brown silt. The boarding ramp descended with a mechanical whir.

Paine first noticed the strange smell in the thin air. It didn't smell like dust. Actually, it didn't smell like anything Paine could place her finger on. It was fairly open, only a few pillars of boulders littering the ground.

In the distance, though it was impossible to calculate how far it truly was, a few buildings were visible.

Paine put a hand against her forehead to block the sun.

"It looks deserted," chaos observed. Paine nodded in agreement. She felt very uneasy in front of this ghost town.

"What could have happened here?" Vincent asked, his voice muffled by the scarlet scarf tried around his face. Paine didn't want to stick around to find out.

Just then, a shriek split the air. Immediately, the three were on guard, weapons and fists raised in defense.

"Whatever that was, it wasn't human," Paine barked, back to back with chaos.

There was a skittering off to the right. As one, they all turned. The creature before them was completely black, shiny chrome and obviously ticked off.

The metallic looking plates that made up the armor of its back glistened in the harsh sunlight. Compared to its length, its head was relatively small and largely dominated by a set of huge mandibles. It was at least twelve feet long, with a massive abdomen help up by six skinny legs that certainly didn't look strong enough to support its weight. At its rear, a huge tail curved up then over, with a talon of bloodred at its end. Any question as to its intentions was answered as it reared up on its two hind legs and let out an earsplitting shriek. Obviously, it was hungry.

"Is it a fiend?" Vincent asked, fingering his pistol.

"Or a gnosis?" chaos countered.

"Gnosis, heartless, fiend, who cares!" Paine growled, "Just hurt it."

The world splintered as the three took on their giant insect-like foe.

Vincent, crackshot, sent a bullet right into the beast's left eye, half-blinding it, and making it convulse and roar in pain. chaos dashed forward, punching the creature once across the head, then with a fast uppercut (accompanied by what seemed like a power boost, visible by blue light) knocked the creature onto its back.

Paine was on it instantly, slashing at its soft underbelly. Dark blood, almost black, came out in spurts, but Paine dodged them, having no interest in being coated in sticky fluid.

She had thought it was down for the count, when it surprised her by using its tail to flip itself upright, and bore down on top of her. Its razor jaws snapped towards her neck and there was no doubt in her now frantic mind that it could easily snap her head off. She pulled her sword up to her face, and the creature bit down on it instead. The blade sparked, and immediately after yelping, the creature let go. It came at her again, now too enraged to notice pain or discomfort, wanting only to destroy.

Vincent was still shooting at it, but his bullets just ricocheted off the beast's thick armor. chaos was rubbing his hand where he had attempted to punch the creature in the side, and his hand had bounced off. Now, seeing their companion in dire straits, they returned to the fight with renewed vigor. chaos jump side-kicked the beast, shoving it sideways just enough that Vincent was able to let loose a barrage of ammunition into its stomach. It staggered to the side, to weak to keep itself upright. But it had one last offensive. With suprising dexterity, its stinging tail swung around. Lucky for chaos' head (and obviously the rest of him) it caught him sideways, only sending him sprawling to the ground and knocking the wind out of him. Next it swung at Vincent, stinger headed straight for his chest. He tensed, crouched and as the fatal blow hurtled toward him, he jumped straight up, twisting in the air, landing a perfect backflip a good three feet away from his original location. The creature shrieked in frustration, attempting to scuffle, pushing itself on its stomach as its lifeblood trailed out behind it.

With the weight of the creature off her chest, Paine had to take a few moments to retain breath. She rolled as the stinger came snapping down on her, and it harmlessly gouged a hole in the soft ground. It tried again, and again she rolled out of the way, though this time it almost snagged on the thin cloth that covered her armor. The next time it raised, shining and ominous, she rolled the other way, finding herself yet again looking up at the creature's underside. Carefully pointing her massive sword up, she trhust and buried it in the place right behind the beast's head. Her eyes widened as she realized the flaw in her plan and she had to scurry out quickly before the hole thing finally collapsed, crushing everything beneath it, which almost included her. Gingerly, she removed her sword, and the creature didn't even twitch, a final testament to its demise.

Vincent wasted no time in reloading his pistol, before giving it a fancy spin and returning it to its holster. chaos picked himself up off the ground, brushing off his flight suit and wagging his head to shake the red dust from his white hair. Paine wiped blood from her forehead.

They were all breathing hard, but they were alive and intact.

"Well, I guess that answers the question as to where the last denizens of this world are," Vincent stated the obvious. chaos looked down and closed his eyes sadly.

"Poor innocent souls. May they all rest in peace."

Paine was less concerned about that just now. If Leon wasn't on this world, then where was he?

Meanwhile, on another world, still safe:

"You can't stop me from going."

"Oh, yes, I can."

"I can help them!"

"And you could get yourself killed, and I just can't allow that."

"You're not my mother or father, you have no authority over me."

"Please, I'm asking you as a friend, don't do this. They can handle it…"

"But this is bigger than we though, and someone should warn them. Besides, if they find him, I'm sure Leon would like his ship back. I can take it to them."

Long silence.

"I don't want to see you hurt."

"You are a good friend, the last thing I want is to cause you pain. But this is too important. I HAVE to do this, Cloud."

"Be careful, Tifa."

Vincent and chaos were worried about Paine. They hadn't known her long enough to be able to read her constantly hard features, but both new the heavy silence was not a good omen.

chaos had tried to be comforting: "It's just another step. No need to be disappointed."

Paine had just stared past him, a bleak darkness in her eyes. The months of searching were obviously beginning to take their told, but she was strong, Vincent said, and she would hold up just fine.

She was just thinking, he said. But chaos, who was more perceptive than most, could see that he was concerned, too.

But whatever deity they believed in, It chose to smile on them then, for at that moment, just as chaos was preparing for takeoff, his ship gave a chirp.

It was like she had just woken up.

"What is that?" Paine demanded, pointing to the 'blip' on chaos' nav-screen.

"There's a large concentration of life, just on the other side of this colony," came the quick reply. All was hushed for a moment.

"Well, what are you waiting for!" Paine exclaimed in a 'Let's get going' tone of voice. chaos looked at her blandly.

"Because the computer says it's almost exclusively those things we just fought."

Paine didn't miss the discrepancy.

"Almost?"

chaos nodded acknowledgement of her wish, and the ship rose off the ground. They kept close to the surface, skirting the boundaries of the town.

chaos 'hit the brakes' as they came around the last tall building to a monstrous sight.

There were dozens of the black beasts, all swarming to one area. In the center, the focal point of this pandemonium, a lone figure slashed and hacked, fighting desperately for life.

"What is it?" Vincent murmured, obviously shocked. Paine already knew, and had known from the moment she'd seen the gathering creatures.

"It's Leon."