Crono, Lucca, Robo, and now Ayla were on a train to Central within an hour of being woken up. Crono and Robo sat across from Hughes and Armstrong, while Lucca sat with Ayla and tried to keep her under control.

Crono rubbed his eyes, then yawned. "So... what's the deal?" he asked.

"From what I've been told, the alchemist in question was Giolio Comanche, the Silver Alchemist," Hughes answered. "The circumstances of the disappearance are still unknown. Still, I have a hard time believing it's Scar. I'm not sure he would be so bold after what you put him through only a week ago. Scar's kills usually turn up a body, too."

"What was his last known location?" Robo asked.

"Supposedly, the command center," Hughes answered. "Apparently he left to go home and disappeared somewhere along the way."

"Sounds like we have a place to start, at least," Armstrong said.

"I already have my men scouting the area, actually," Hughes said. "We'll hear the full situation when we arrive."

A few hours later, they disembarked the train in Central and hurried to where Hughes's men were: a seemingly normal city street.

"Alright, fill me in," Hughes asked one of the men.

"Yes, sir," the man responded. "We've been conducting a search of Comanche's route. No clues have turned up so far, unfortunately."

Hughes nodded. "Keep at it, and tell me right away if you find anything."

"Understood," the man said, before returning to the investigation.

Hughes put his hand to his face and sighed. "This country's a real mess lately, huh? I hope we can get this all sorted out quickly."

"It is concerning to have three separate cases of state alchemists vanishing, all of which have seemingly nothing to do with each other," Armstrong said. "Perhaps there's a connection here we're not seeing."

"Sir! We've found him!" one of the soldiers shouted from a nearby alleyway.

"What?" Hughes said.

The man gestured into the alley, and a rotund, sharply dressed man walked out. He had a white mustache and a peg leg, and was wearing a suit and tall tophat.

"My goodness, it is him!" Armstrong said.

"Major Comanche, where were you?" Hughes asked.

"I'm sorry to trouble you, gentlemen," Comanche said. "I just had some personal business to attend to. I suppose at a time like this that I should have left some kind of notice."

"Well, I guess that the military's been on pretty high alert lately," Hughes said. "Hey! Someone alert command! False alarm!" he shouted at his men. "So, are you done with this personal business of yours?"

"I'm afraid not, my good sir," Comanche said. "As it happens, I only came back to clear up this issue. I really must be going as soon as possible."

"I understand, sir," Hughes said. "Don't worry, we'll get all this cleared up for you."

"My thanks," Comanche said. "Farewell, then. I hope our next meeting is on better terms." He turned and walked down the alley he'd originally come from.

Hughes motioned for one of his men to approach, then whispered in his ear. The man nodded, then went back and started giving orders.

"Well, I'm sorry to have dragged you four out to Central for nothing," Hughes said, turning to Crono and the others. "Would you like to go get lunch? My treat."

Later that night, they had gotten a few hotel rooms, and were all sitting in Crono's room, and Hughes had been looking out the window for almost the whole time.

"Hey, Hughes, don't you have a house in Central? Why are we doing this?" Lucca asked.

"This is work related," Hughes said. "Ah, there it is now." He picked up a pair of binoculars and a flashlight he had next to him and peered through them. He flashed the light a few times in the direction he was looking, then waited for some time, then flashed a few more times before putting the binoculars down.

"What was that about?" Lucca asked.

"I was contacting one of my men," Hughes said. "I thought today's events were a bit odd, so I had Comanche trailed. It seems my suspicions were warranted. He went to the abandoned fifth laboratory."

"Curious..." Armstrong said.

"What's that?" Crono asked.

"There are four alchemy labs currently in operation in Central which have ties to the government," Armstrong explained. "A building was built for a fifth lab, but was deemed structurally unsound, and classed off limits. Not even state alchemists are supposed to have access to it."

"And besides that, what kind of 'personal business' could the Silver Alchemist possibly have in an unused building?" Hughes added.

"Do you want us to go check it out?" Lucca asked.

Hughes shook his head. "I'm going to spend a bit more time looking into this."

Armstrong nodded. "We shouldn't be hasty. This could be more dangerous than we realize," he said.

"Ayla go," said Ayla.

"...what?" Hughes said.

"Ayla go lab. Ayla fight."

"I appreciate the enthusiasm, but this is a very sensitive issue. One wrong move and the major and I could be court-martialed. Especially if there's really nothing suspicious going on," Hughes said. "We need to be absolutely sure before we do anything."

"Fight! Strong live, weak die. Rule of life. No can change rule."

"You're not gonna change her mind," Crono said. "Besides, if we decided to go rogue and break in against your orders, that's not really your fault, right? We've already proved that we might be able to overwhelm a few troops."

Hughes and Armstrong glanced at each other.

Not long afterwards, they reached the fifth laboratory. It was surrounded by a high concrete wall topped with barbed wire, and the only gate had an armed guard, one of the military police who wore black uniforms.

"It's odd to post a guard at an abandoned building," Lucca said.

"Go fight?" Ayla asked.

"No, we'd better not. We don't even know if he has the key," Crono said. "Alright, Ayla and I will jump over. Lucca, you and Robo keep watch out here."

"Understood," Lucca said.

Ayla jumped over the fence in one go. Crono followed, though he didn't make it as high, and had to grab the edge and boost himself the rest of the way over. On the other side, the actual laboratory building had a small yard around it. There was a large double door, which was covered in wooden boards and blocked by metal poles.

"Ayla break?" Ayla asked.

Crono shook his head. "Let's look for another entrance first."

Ayla looked up the side of the building. "Climb?"

"Sure. I'll look around down here."

Ayla started crawling up the wall, and made it to the top in no time. Crono started walking around the building's perimeter, but then he heard a noise from above, and a large, bulky figure fell off the roof, landing on its back with a clank.

The figure stood up. He seemed to be a large man in a suit of armor, with the front of the helmet shaped like a skull. He was holding two knives, one large and rectangular, and the other a more traditional kitchen knife. He was wearing a tattered yellow coat as well, and his eyes had a red glow. "What the hell," he said, in a somewhat high-pitched voice, then quickly stood up. "Oh, well! I guess I'll settle for chopping you up instead!" He pointed the larger knife at Crono, who drew his sword.

"Crono!" Ayla said, looking over the edge of the roof. "Door on top! Ayla go?"

"Yeah, go ahead. I'll deal with this guy," Crono said.

Ayla disappeared from view.

"Big words. For your sake, I hope you live up to them," the armored man said.

"Who are you, anyway?" Crono asked.

"I'm Number Sixty-six. Or at least, that's the name they gave me when I came to work here. Why don't you just sit back, and I'll cut you up nice and neat."

He bolted forward and started swinging and stabbing with his knives. Crono deflected or avoided the attacks with relative ease, then thrust his sword into a gap in the arm's armor. It didn't hit anything, though, and the lack of resistance made him stumble. Sixty-six stabbed with the shorter knife, and Crono twisted out of the way, prying the hand off the armor in the process. He rolled backwards, then looked up to see that there was nothing in the armor.

Sixty-six screamed. "You cut off my hand! How dare you?! I'll get you for that, you—you—"

"You're hollow," Crono said.

Sixty-six laughed. "There's a bit of a story behind that. Would ya like to hear? It's a pretty good yard. You probably already know it, though. It all starts with a man by the name of Barry."

Crono considered interrupting him, but decided this would be a good opportunity to learn about what was going on in the fifth laboratory. "Go on," he said.

"Once upon a time, right here in Central, there was a butcher named Barry who loved his work. His favorite part was cutting up the meat into little tiny pieces. But one day, Barry found that cutting up beef and pork wasn't enough anymore, so he took to the streets, and began cutting up people instead. Night after night.

"In time, of course, Barry was caught. But not before twenty-three victims had fallen prey to him and his knife. Naturally, after terrorizing Central for so long, Barry was sent to the gallows for his wicked deeds, and the world was happily rid of yet another evil man.

"At least, that's what everyone out there believes, but our story isn't over yet. We haven't even reached the good part. Barry isn't actually dead, you see. He's very much alive, and charged with guarding a certain place. Only without his body."

Suddenly, Sixty-six started spinning while holding his arms out. "Yes, that's right! He's standing in front of your very eyes! I am the infamous serial killer Barry the Chopper!"

"I see," Crono said.

Barry looked offended. "Hey! Shouldn't you be at least a little scared?!"

"Never heard of you, sorry. I'm not really from around here," Crono said.

"Well, shouldn't you at least say something like 'What happened to your body?!"

"I've seen stranger, but I am curious about how that happened."

"I don't know, some kind of alchemy. What's it to you, anyway?!"

I'm sure Lucca will want to hear about this, Crono thought. He raised his sword.

"Ah, whatever," Barry said. "I'm about to cut you up anyway."

"With one arm?"

"Shut up and sit still!" Barry yelled. He rushed at Crono, who used the same armor gap to sever his other arm, then jumped up and started climbing the building.

"Sorry, but I've got to catch up with my partner," Crono said. "You can wait there."

After moving through the lab for some time, Ayla found herself in a large, open room, with a ceiling high enough to need support pillars. There was enough light to see by, and a pedestal in the center of the room was surrounded by a transmutation circle with a hexagonal pattern within. There were bloodstains on parts of the circle.

"Strange..."Ayla thought aloud.

"Yes, it is rather strange, isn't it?" came a deep voice from the other side. An armored man with light blue sleeves and white cloth around his waist and face stepped forward. He was holding a thin, curved sword with a guarded handle, and had a red glow in his eyes.

"Who you?" Ayla asked.

"The one in charge of guarding this place from curious fools. For the moment, let's just say my name is Number Forty-eight," the armored man said. "My orders are to dispose of anyone who wanders in here, poking their nose where it doesn't belong. Try not to take it personally."

Ayla went into her cat-like fighting stance. "You want fight?"

"Getting straight to the point, are you? I can respect that," said Forty-eight. "Very well, let's see how long you last."

He closed the distance between them in an instant, and swung with his sword. Ayla ducked under it, then pounced, latching onto him and trying to claw at him, but finding no purchase on his armor. Forty-eight knocked her off, then continued his sword assault. She was fast, though, and ran circles around him before jumping up and kicking him in the head.

His head went flying off, but he turned and slashed at her regardless, landing a cut on her leg before she bounced backwards.

Forty-eight laughed, his voice still coming from the helmet on the ground. It was plain to see now that the armor was empty. "Surprised?" he said, the body moving to pick up and replace the head. "I have to give you credit. You're the first one to survive this long."

"What you?" Ayla asked, grimacing as she wiped the blood from her leg.

"I suppose I can reward your prowess with an explanation," said Forty-eight. "In truth, Forty-eight is the number I was assigned when I was on death row. Back when I still had a living body, I was better known as Slicer. I was a mass murderer, you see. The people here recognized my skills, gave me this body, and made me their trusty guard dog."

"You ghost?" Ayla asked.

"That's one way of putting it, I suppose. Much like a ghost, you have few avenues of defeating me."

"Strong live, weak die. Ayla just fight."

"Very well, then let us continue—"

"Ayla!" Crono shouted as he came sprinting into the room, sword out.

"Friend of yours?" Slicer asked. Ayla nodded.

"Another one?" said Crono, upon seeing Slicer.

"I'm assuming you've already defeated number Sixty-six, then."

"Yeah," Crono answered.

Slicer looked between the two of them. "Perhaps I'm out of my depth," he said.

"My, my, Number Forty-eight, where did all your enthusiasm go?" came a woman's voice from the darkness. The three of them turned to see a tall, slender woman in a red dress walk into the room. Crono recognized her as the one who'd attacked him in East City's sewers.

Another person appeared behind her, a short man with long, green hair that came down in multiple large strands. He was wearing a dark red headband, tight crop-top, and shorts. "Well, well, would you look at that, what are they doing here?" he said.

"Come on, now, Forty-eight. Your orders were to eliminate any intruders, weren't they? This boy has been very troublesome to our plans. We need him eliminated, sooner than later."

"I see," Slicer said. He turned back to Crono, but before he could attack, the woman's claws extended.

Knowing how sharp they were from the sewers, Crono did his best to avoid them, but Slicer was soon on him as well. Under normal circumstances, Crono was the better swordsman, but the woman's attacks tipped the scales.

Ayla saw this, then turned towards the woman with a scowl. "You, stop!" she said, running toward her.

"Not so fast," the man beside her said, stepping between them. Ayla threw a punch at him, which he blocked with his hand. Ayla growled.

Crono concentrated just long enough to call a bolt of lightning down on the woman, who screamed in pain but stayed standing. He dodged another attack from slicer, then yelled "Ayla, we have to go!" He sprinted toward the nearest door. The woman shot her claws back out at him, and he barely avoided them by sliding onto his knees. He made it out of the room and started running through the building, hoping that Ayla had made it as well. He heard slicer chasing him as he made his way back to the roof.

"I have you cornered, boy," Slicer said.

Crono glanced over the edge of the roof. Barry was still down there, leaning against the wall and crossing what was left of his arms. A window shattered as Ayla came flying out of it, landing on all fours in the yard. Crono turned around with his sword raised. "Are those other two behind you?" he asked.

"No, this is between you and me. I want to see what you've got."

They prepared for battle, but then the building started shaking. Crono tried to regain his balance, and noticed that parts of it were beginning to crack. He quickly jumped off the edge of the roof, landing with a roll that lessened some of the impact. Ayla and Barry were still there, with Barry now having stood up to look at the building.

"Crono okay?" Ayla asked.

"Yeah," Crono grunted.

"I know what this means!" Barry exclaimed, as the building started to collapse. "Time to get outta here!" He turned and started running towards the gate, passing the guard who had come to investigate. The guard gave chase.

Crono pushed himself to his feet. "He's right, we have to go."

Part of the surrounding wall burst, as Robo's fist came crashing through.

"Crono! What's going on?" Lucca said from behind him.

"Later. We need to—"

The building's wall behind him burst as well, and they all turned to see the short, green-haired man walk out of the rubble, followed by the woman. "Don't think you're getting away that easily," he said.

"That was a neat trick you pulled back there, boy," the woman said.

"Crono, what's going on?" Lucca asked. "Is that the woman from the sewers?"

"Yeah," Crono said. "Whatever you do, don't let her claws touch you."

He stepped back toward the hole in the wall, but the woman's claws shot out, cutting the wall above the hole and collapsing it.

"Sorry, but you've caused too much trouble for us to let you get away again," she said.

Lucca drew her gun. "Looks like it's a fight then."

The man grinned, then cracked his knuckles. "This should be fun. Hey Lust, I call dibs on the blondie. We didn't finish earlier."

"Go ahead," the woman said.

"Good..." He ran at Ayla and they began exchanging blows. His attacks seemed to have a superhuman strength to them, but Ayla was able to quickly regain her balance.

A barrage of claws shot out at Crono, Lucca, and Robo, who barely dodged out of the way. Lucca shot the woman several times, causing her to flinch, but before Crono and Robo could get in close, she began attacking again.

We've got to find a way to keep her distracted, Crono thought. "Lucca, your magic!"

Lucca nodded, then charged and fired a jet of fire at the woman, who began screaming and writhing in pain.

"Keep it on her!" Crono said, moving forward.

"I'll run out of energy soon!"

Crono didn't answer, instead jumping into the air, using the force of the fall to cleave the woman straight down the middle, cutting through her head and most of her torso.

"Lust!" the man yelled. Ayla used the distraction to kick him hard, knocking him back into a tackle from Robo. He plowed through the ground where he landed.

One side of the woman disintegrated, while the other started regrowing, centered around a glowing red stone in the middle of her chest. Crono also noticed for the first time that she had a strange tattoo above her breasts, depicting two triangles surrounded by a dragon eating its own tail. He tried to crush the stone, but it wouldn't give.

"Get away from her!" he heard the man shout, before he was struck in the side, hard, knocking him onto the ground. His head started swimming, and he was having trouble seeing as the man approached, about to stomp on his chest. Ayla and Robo intervened, though; Robo threw Ayla at the man, delivering another devastating kick. They then stopped and faced each other, Ayla standing between him and Crono.

Crono stumbled to his feet at around the same time the woman finished regenerating. They stared each other down for a moment, then both lunged. Crono managed to avoid being fatally injured, getting stabbed twice near his left shoulder, but his sword impaled the woman in the chest. Grimacing, he called down a bolt of lightning. The woman screamed, retracted her claws, and fell onto one knee. Crono stood across from her, his footing unsteady, but still on guard for another attack. It never came, however. The woman scowled in pain, and sparks of red electricity shot out around her. She fell onto her back with a blank expression.

"Y-you've used up your body's regeneration..." the man said. He suddenly rushed toward Crono and the woman. Ayla tried to stop him, but this time he simply barreled through her. Crono jumped back from him, losing his footing in the process. The man picked up the woman, placing her over his shoulders. "This isn't over," he said, turning towards the outer wall. Ayla and Robo moved to stop him, but he started sprinting, crashing straight through the wall and into the city.

"Ayla follow?" Ayla asked.

"No... Leave it," Crono grunted. "They're dangerous."

"You need medical attention," Robo said. He knelt next to Crono and began using his cure beam. It was a somewhat slow process, but it began helping almost immediately.

"Thanks, Robo," Crono said. "Those people might be with the government. We should get back to Hughes before someone comes after us."