Chapter 7, The hunt is on
It must have been quite a strain to move all of Vector onto the floating continent, but somehow they had managed. They had rebuilt the fortress too, to look more like a palace for the new world order. The pyramid form was still in there somewhere, but there were a few low towers and a thick wall around the whole thing. Most probably there were rooms even in the fortification, the common people might have their quarters there now.
The top of the old pyramid had been remodeled, quite a bit had been cut off and now there was a huge crystal bubble there. It wasn't hard to guess that there was where the goddesses were kept, the placement fit the continent.
This was the new capital of the whole world.
Four guards stood by the half open gate to the combined palace and city, sharing a bored look.
They were all dead within two seconds, tack stars neatly buried in their throats. Locke kicked them all into the creepy mouths flanking the building; what still could be seen of the living island.
He felt nothing as he killed. Never felt anything at all anymore, and he didn't care.
It was rather dusky inside, windows were rare and most places were lit by not too effective electricity. But the decoration was quite luxurious, red carpets on the floor and the empire's flag sharing the walls with impressive paintings and tapestries. Locke didn't even glance at any of them as he slid down the corridor, listening for the slightest sound.
Hearing footsteps he stopped by the entrance of a side corridor.
A servant about twenty-five years old came walking and yelped in fear as he found his back pressed against the wall and a knife at his throat. His eyes bulged in fear.
"Where is the empress?" Locke emotionlessly asked.
"Th-the northeastern tower… please… please d-don't…"
He died, and the murderer continued on as if nothing had happened after throwing the body in a dark corner.
Nothing.
Nothing at all.
The place was pretty badly guarded, and Locke just sneaked past the few guards and servants coming in his way.
It wasn't that he didn't care to kill them, he didn't want to waste his time.
He didn't care anymore who lived or died in his quest.
Not even himself.
With his sense of direction it wasn't much of a problem to find the way. Especially not since there occasionally was a map on the walls. The place was huge and even inhabitants must have problems finding their way now and then.
A couple more soldiers guarding the entrance to the tower, but not for long. They didn't have any better chance to alarm anyone than the others had.
The assassin moved up the spiraling stone stair without a sound, after dragging the bodies inside to make sure the revelation would take a while longer.
There were two more guards on the platform at the top. The angle was a bit more complicated and one of them had time to yelp before he too was silenced.
Locke calmly crossed the final steps and looked at the door.
He briefly reflected that it was strange that the lock worked from the outside and not the other way around, but didn't care further. As he didn't need to pick the lock it was easy to get in.
The door creaked a bit however.
Inside was a room in the form of a half moon, richly decorated with flowers and tapestries. It looked like a living room with the set of sofas and bookshelves. A door in the middle of the wall led to another room.
It opened and an elderly, gray haired woman in a black dress came out, her eyes shooting lightning bolts as she saw the intruder.
"Just who are you?" she coldly demanded.
That was the last thing she said.
"Lady May?!"
A slightly younger woman in the same type of clothing came out and almost stumbled over the body. Before the sight of the dead and growing sea of blood caused her to scream Locke made sure she wouldn't bring any trouble.
A piece of silky white cloth that the last female had held in her hand fell into the mess together with the lady and turned red with the mixing blood.
Locke stepped over his work and entered the inner chamber.
It was much alike the first room, only it was a bedroom. And the empress was there, dressed in a heavily exaggerated wedding gown with the veil hiding face and hair. One could hardly tell whether it was a man or a woman below all the flounces. Of her skin only the hands and lower arms could be seen; she wore a thick, white armband tightly around her right wrist.
They must have been working on preparing her for the wedding.
How suitable.
She was turned towards the door and the murderer, but made no attempt to back away. It was of course hard to tell her set of mind due to her clothing, but she was crouching slightly as she carried an immense weight on her shoulders.
Locke calmly took out another tack star from his belt.
It would be over within seconds now.
"Shadow?" the empress suddenly said, hesitatingly.
Metal hit floor as the star fell.
That… voice… it's…
At first both of them stood like statues.
Then slowly he began to move closer. She still made no attempt to move away.
"No, Locke…?" she whispered, her features now faintly visible through the thin cloth.
He suddenly couldn't breathe through the mask and tore it away from his face with a desperate gasp. His legs wouldn't carry him and he fell to his knees, his palms slamming into the floor before the white hem as he gulped for air.
The woman fell down with a violent whispering of moving cloth and caught his shoulders, trying to support him.
"Locke!"
He coughed, choking out Shadow and tearing back himself with every breath he took in.
'Goddesses, what did I become?! And you… you…'
"You…" he whispered, finally straightening up and almost trembling lifting the veil off the beautiful, tear streaked face, "you are alive…"
Her crystal blue eyes were reddish with new and old tears, but it was truly Celes.
"I'm alive," she whispered, "and so are you."
They stared at each other for a second before simultaneously pulling the other into a fierce hug of pure relief.
After a sweet eternity they pulled back to be able to see their dear friend's face again.
"What are you doing here?" Locke asked in a low voice, nimble fingers working on freeing Celes' blond looks from the clips of the veil while he didn't let his gaze leave hers for a second.
"Gestahl and Kefka caught me as I fell from the continent," she mumbled, her arms squeezing him harder in grief, "I'm to be their final triumph when they've imprisoned all the others…"
Locke frowned.
"Others?" he repeated.
She bitterly nodded.
"I would have found a way to kill myself to escape being empress, but they have Setzer, Sabin and Gau, Locke… they'd die if I… and this…"
She held up the armband.
"It locks my magic," she explained, "I can't do anything. I can't leave, they'll kill our friends, you have to get out of here…"
"Like hell."
Locke put his hand on her cheek, resolutely shaking his head.
"I'm not leaving without you, Celes, not ever again."
"Locke, I won't see you captured because of me!" she hoarsely said, the strong woman she truly was finally breaking through her despair.
"I'm not going to leave you here!" he countered, eyes narrowing in determination.
"You have to, if they find you there's no chance you'll get out! And what about our friends?"
"Celes…"
Locke suddenly smiled, a bit hesitantly but still.
"Terra, Strago, Relm and Shadow are around here somewhere together with some veiled fellow," he told her, "they'll try to save Edgar and the others I'm certain."
"Edgar too?! Are they out of their minds?" Celes croaked.
"Gestahl and Kefka sure are if they think they'll have the victory without us fighting back," Locke said with a grim chuckle, "it's now or never, Celes, we'll have to help. It's double or nothing."
She was silent for a moment, then looked him straight in the eye and nodded.
"You're right, Locke," she grimly said, "I can't just sit here and let everyone else become imprisoned too."
Locke widely grinned and nodded in return.
"I'll just need some other clothes, can hardly move in this damn thing," she growled as they stood.
"Don't you have anything simpler?" Locke asked.
"Gestahl has a twisted sense of humor," she said in disgust and waved at the big wardrobe beside the bed, "he seems to think it's funny dressing me up like a doll."
Locke glanced at the open door and saw the blood spreading over the carpet. Those dresses definitely wouldn't do either…
He inwardly groaned, trying to fight the nausea back as his own mind bombarded him with memories.
'How could I do all that…' he bitterly thought, knowing well that he had allowed his despair to turn him into a madman as well.
There were far too many of those in the world today, he wasn't needed as one.
"Locke, are you alright?" Celes asked, carefully putting her hand on his paling cheek.
"See that?" he said in a harsh voice and pointed at the door, "I did that, and I killed many more on the way here. And I didn't even care…"
He shuddered and turned away in self-disgust.
"I lost it completely, just look at me!" he growled.
Celes stood silent for a moment.
"I know about Kohlingen," she finally mumbled, "I'm sorry."
The treasure hunter rubbed his forehead, shaking his head.
"I failed Rachel, failed you… couldn't take it. Damn…"
She surprised him then by coming around to face him. The veil hung over the side of her head as he hadn't finished all clips, but she didn't seem to mind.
"It wasn't your fault, Locke, you couldn't do anything. I'm not blaming you and I can't imagine Rachel doing it either."
Her voice sounded a little strange as she spoke the other woman's name though, and he didn't miss that detail this time. Not really thinking about it he reached up to take care of the last hairclips.
"Rachel was… special to me, but I couldn't help her. I don't know what would have happened if I could have but…"
He trailed off and shook his head again.
"And then I couldn't help you either," he started again, "I've been a heartless demon these last few weeks…"
His hand ended up on her cheek again, and she put her own hand against the back of his.
They stood like that for a moment, until Locke managed to snap out of it.
"We can't just stand here…"
"Right," Celes grimly nodded, pushing the emotions aside.
She clumsily grabbed her skirt to avoid stumbling on it as she hurried to the wardrobe and opened it.
It looked more like a colorblind madman's flower garden than a closet. Celes looked around and helplessly shrugged at her friend's cringe.
"I think the only clothes I can actually move in are the slips," she grunted.
Locke needed a moment to swallow that one.
"I guess that'll have to do then," he finally managed, "better than those things."
"Definitely. Got any weapon I can use?" Celes inquired as she began scratching for the buttons on her back.
"Only a couple of daggers, and you'll be vulnerable without armor."
"It'll just have to do. Argh!"
She snarled as she couldn't get a firm grip of the pearl buttons. Looking around with a frown and hinted blush she took in a quick breath and said:
"You'll have to give me a hand here I'm afraid."
"Great, extraordinaire embarrassing situation in the middle of the enemy's lair," Locke forced himself to say as he crossed the floor.
His words had the desired effect to disturb the awkwardness a bit as he reached out.
Trying to think about that they had wasted enough time and not only on the fact that he was helping Celes get out of her clothes, Locke undid the buttons with a tad bit of uncharacteristic clumsiness. Below the white silk was something green, he guessed one of the slips she had mentioned. It was a bit of a relief for him; it was embarrassing enough.
Then again, as he thought it over he guessed that she might not have asked him to help if she had been wearing less.
"Isn't there any way to get that armband off?" he asked, trying to get a conversation going.
"Yes there is, but…"
Celes sighed and held up her palm, running her free fingertips over the pearly white surface. Numbers and mathematical signs appeared.
A lot of them.
"It's an equation," she explained, "solving it would release the damn thing, but I can't get through it."
Locke frowned as he took a closer look, getting lost somewhere around the fifth part of the complicated math riddle. He shook his head in defeat. Maybe Edgar could figure it out…
"Let's just hope that the others are doing alright," he muttered, trying to give them both hope again.
"Yeah…"
He finally managed the last button and turned away as Celes began to slip her arms free of the cloth.
But as he heard the cloth move and thought of what he had just done, a thought of pitch-black horror pierced his mind and he turned without thinking. She had let the dress fall and was stepping out of it, the green slip covering her body down below her knees but leaving her arms bare.
"Celes…" Locke began, a little hoarse as he feared the truth.
"Yes?" she said and looked up, worried over his strange voice.
"Did they… hurt you?"
She flinched at the mere thought but then calmingly shook her head.
"Strange that Gestahl would have that much honor, isn't it?" she dryly said as her friend let out a sigh of relief.
"I'm still going to kill him," Locke growled, "but I would have done more than that if he had touched you."
"Locke, I don't need a…"
She cut herself off as the fondness for his worry about her got the upper hand.
"Forget I said that," she continued much gentler, "thank you."
"You're welcome, any time," he said with a smile, "ready to go?"
"I won't get more ready than this in this situation," Celes said, pushing the fondness back inside to steel herself for the future.
People were still lingering in the Coliseum, enjoying the monster exhibition and the restaurants after the shows had ended.
But flanked by three soldiers lord Kefka was bringing a prisoner back to the palace, to make sure himself that nothing surprising would happen to the guest.
He was too gleeful to note that there were guards missing by the entrance of the city, and the soldiers were too nervous to displease their lightly said eccentric lord to keep their eyes on anything but the stumbling and chained king.
"Quite a lovely occasion, isn't it, your majesty?" Kefka cruelly chuckled over his shoulders as the gates magically swung open by a wave of his hand.
"Just do me that one favor and shut up, Kefka…" Edgar whispered in a broken voice.
Every step he took sent claws through his battered body and his head was so heavy that all he saw during the walk were the soldiers feet and the dancing hem of Kefka's robe. The only thing he still hoped for was a quick death, but he feared that it just wouldn't happen.
"Oh, but I just adore talking with royalty," Kefka smirked as he pranced on, "especially when they've thrown me in the sand of their worthless little rebellion kingdoms…"
Edgar groaned as the leader and the soldiers suddenly turned into a corridor to the left, tearing him along. The sharp clinking of the chains tore at his ears.
A blond figure carefully glanced around the corner of the right corridor ahead.
"That's not the way to the dungeons…" Clyde hissed, throwing a glance at the map they had ripped off one of the walls, "where are they going?"
"A hunch of mine would be the southwestern wing," Gogo muttered, reaching across the paper to point.
"But… that's…" the former ninja said with raised eyebrows.
"Why would he bring Edgar there?" Terra muttered, frowning.
"Whatever it means, we better move quickly!" Strago hissed.
Grimly nodding they left their hiding place and dived into the other corridor to follow their game.
