The sun dropped low when Fang slammed open the door to outside with conflicting anticipation and dread. People around her made way as she strolled through the streets and towards the south bridge, where she talked to Sazh that morning.

Now, she could think clearly. Now she could do this the right way. Now… where did Sazh go?

She got to the bridge, but Sazh was nowhere in sight. Fang stretched her jaw and took a moment to look around.

"Hey, Locke!" she shouted.

He didn't look up at his name from his place across the bridge. The crowd was too noisy.

Fang set her jaw and shoved her way through people to get to Locke. "Hey!"

Locke finally stopped and looked up at her. "Need something?"

"Yeah." Fang stuck her hand in the air. "Looking for a man, newcomer, named Sazh. About this tall. You know him?"

"Oh, uh, Celes was instructing a bunch of newcomers." Locke gestured out towards the field past the south bridge, wincing at the unintended motion of his damaged arm. "Might be with them."

She found herself impressed that he was already out of the hospital.

"Thanks." Fang raised a hand in appreciation before she strode away.

She didn't want to waste a lot of time hunting him down, but it wasn't like she was doing anything else. After the previous evening they wouldn't make her work again for a bit.

Fang crossed the bridge and blinked the last of the sleep from her eyes. She headed down to the fields. Found Celes leading a crew of stragglers back to town for the evening. They'd probably be out there first thing in the morning to revitalize the soil.

"Celes, you know where Sazh went?" Fang asked.

Celes gestured out behind her without breaking stride. "Back in the fields."

Fang broke into a run that way. It felt good to jog like this – she couldn't remember the last time she dashed through open plains. Made it through the thin paths between the dying fields before she found him.

Skidded to a halt and kicked up dust. Sazh stood out near one of the warehouses. A small one, little more than a wooden shack, and the man talked to some girl with blonde hair tied up at the sides.

"Hey, Sazh!" Fang strolled over and raised a hand in the air. "It's about time we have that talk!"

Sazh looked her way at his name and stuck a hand in the air. "Coulda had it sooner if you hadn't crashed!"

The girl glanced between the two of them with a curious look as Fang slowed down and stopped by Sazh.

"Are you like us?" she asked of Fang.

Sazh nodded. "Give us a moment?"

"Sure." The girl flashed a warm smile to Fang before walking away towards town.

Fang folded her arms and looked Sazh dead-on. "I had a long day, old man. Don't give me crap for sleeping."

Sazh whistled. "You sound just fine to me."

"Got me there." Fang blinked – now that he mentioned it, she did heal awful quick after the morning incident. "You have any lunch on you? I haven't eaten since I got all ripped up this morning."

"Yeah, but…" Sazh pulled out a pouch of his. "It might not be well suited to someone not natively from the Floating Continent."

"You came from the what?"

Sazh waved a dismissive hand. "Just something my world had. Floating, big island. Is that so hard to believe after Cocoon?"

"No, it's-…" Fang groaned. "Forget it. Just give me the grub."

Sazh held out a fruit-looking thing and Fang chomped down on it. The initial taste was sweet, but it gave way to a bitterness that stung her tongue. Then sweet again. The texture was an odd mix of soft and rough.

She forced herself to chew. "That's awful, Sazh. How do you eat that stuff?"

"With practice." He plopped one into his mouth. "But I'm running out."

Fang swallowed. "Speaking of – got any ideas as to how we could save this world? You know, as a newcomer and all that."

"I wish I did." His eyes took on a far-off gaze. "Soil isn't easy to revive. Manure can fertilize, but you want it from beasts - using people's dung is just gonna get you all sick. Store compost provided by bones or any other waste you can produce. Carcasses, fruit shells, all that."

Fang let her arms fall. "You a farmer, now?"

"Not quite." Sazh gestured. "But I know how to keep a garden."

"Sounds like you." Fang gestured. "Let's get that load of yours back to town and get it stored before it goes bad."

Sazh jumped and snatched up his forgotten bale. The two of them started on the way back and Fang remembered the stitch in her side but found that moving again brought no pain.

"I was gonna leave here again pretty soon." Sazh didn't look her way. "Wanna come with?"

"You bet." Fang looked around them. "Maybe we'll find something for these sorry blokes, eh?"

"Shouldn't be impossible to get them all moved off-world. I can talk to my connections and see what we can work out."

"Sure." Fang only hoped they would survive until then.

They reached the center of civilization and Fang prepared to send Sazh off, only for a girl with flowing, silver-blue hair to stop right in their path. She looked like a chocobo that just caught its first sight of an adamantoise.

"Something you need?" Fang asked, fingers twitching towards her spear. "We kind of have a schedule to keep, you know."

"Oerba Yun Fang." The girl looked at Sazh. "And Dajh's father."

Sazh quirked an eyebrow. "Where do we know you from?"

The girl glanced between them and Fang found something about her level voice familiar. "I am Paddra Nsu Yeul and from Gran Pulse, like you."

"Well, ain't this just a party." Sazh shifted his grip on the load. "Weren't you Noel's friend?"

"And the mythic seer." Fang swore under her breath. "If I didn't just fall into a children's story."

"Not just a story," Yeul said. "We met before the separation, but perhaps your memories are still mending."

"What's the seeress?" Sazh asked.

Fang shook her head and Yeul gave Sazh an appraising look before saying, "The Seeress was blessed with the eyes of Etro. She lived time and again, watching the possible futures and the true one manifest. She died within the first seventeen years of her life and was reborn each time. I am the last incarnation."

"Forget I asked."

Fang whistled and moved around Yeul. "You know, I'm guessing all I have to do to find Vanille is sit and wait for her. Shouldn't take more than a week, at this rate."

Sazh rolled his eyes and Yeul's face scrunched up in concentration. After a moment, she said, "I suppose the gates could all lead back here, but I didn't travel the Historia Crux alone and it seems odd for everyone to be drawn here instead of Valhalla."

"What is it with time travel these days?" Sazh muttered to himself.

"YO!"

Fang looked up to see a blond guy barreling towards them. Though he wore a uniform like Deuce had the first time that Fang had seen her, there was nothing about him that sparked familiarity.

Yeul jumped at the sight and took a step out of the way.

The guy skid to a halt beside Yeul with a growl. Several refugees looked their way with wide eyes. Fang waved them off. She could handle this.

"You got any idea how close we are to being the last idiots back?" he bellowed. "I'm gonna lose to freaking Deuce at this rate."

"Nine!"

Deuce came from the same place that the man had. She stopped beside him and glanced around at the troop. "I… Sazh, when did you get here?"

Sazh gave her a blank stare. "Oh, I get it. The two of you are Ace's friends."

"Ace?" Fang asked. "What, these bleeding flies followed all of us?"

"That isn't my concern." Yeul leveled a cool look Nine's way. "I can take care of myself."

Nine spun on his heel to face away from them. "C'mon, Queen, we got Ace's leftovers and the other two, can we go back now?"

"Nine!" Deuce hissed. "Watch it!"

Nine shook his head. "Why do I gotta – fine. Ace'll be sorry for losing you."

Deuce gasped. "No, that's not what I meant!"

"I guess I didn't get the worst of this lot." Sazh rubbed the back of his head. "Didn't think that was possible…"

"Someone want to tell me what's going on?" Fang asked. "Kinda still here, you know."

Deuce took a deep breath, visibly steeling herself. "I came here to guide you to Valhalla, where the friends you have forgotten now wait. You see-"

"Vanille's there?" Fang asked.

Deuce choked. "Uh, yes. Yes, she is. As are Snow, Lightning, and Serah."

Man, those guys finally got together. Maybe it would even last. "Great. I'd love to head out that way, but I've got things to do first."

Deuce twitched. "Even with your memories, you won't come?"

Fang shrugged. "Like I said, things to do."

"This world is one of many!" Deuce stepped in front of Fang, arms thrown at to the side. "There is only so much you can do for this one, but the many need you! How can you be see so short-sighted?"

Short-sighted?

"Beginning to think you have the wrong person." Fang tilted her head to the side, stifling anger. "You want someone with their eyes on the universe, then you'll have to go find them. I don't like watching people suffer."

"That's changed, then," Sazh said.

Fang ignored that.

Deuce dropped her arms. Didn't back away. "We don't get to choose. We follow our orders!"

"I'm not arguing this right now. You want me, you're going to have to be patient."

"But-" Deuce started.

"You guys know where my son is?" Sazh asked.

Deuce looked up at him. Took a breath. Regained the composure she had lost. "…No."

Sazh gave a resigned sigh.

"How about you stay with these two." Nine, Fang supposed his "name" was, pointed to Yeul, then Fang and Sazh. "And I'll go take a nap in Valhalla. Sound good?"

"That is acceptable." Yeul stepped closer to Sazh.

"Oh, come ON!" Nine squinted his eyes shut. "Deuce can just bring 'em all back!"

Fang gave up and got moving toward the dining hall. The other four just kind of followed her, with Nine continuing to shout and Deuce fighting back a little. "Mind keeping it down? Headed indoors, you know."

Finally, some quiet, though Nine growled under his breath. Fang caught a whiff of cooked meat floating their way. That had to be the behemoth, going by the mouth-watering smell.

"I spoke with Leonora." Yeul looked at Deuce. "It appears the gate didn't vanish on our exit."

Deuce gave a long sigh. "Disturbing though it may be, that comes as no surprise. We 've lost communication with one of our own and other gates released twisted creatures through time. It appears the paths taken by some travelers have corrupted those points created by Etro's own power and glitched them out."

"Great," Nine hissed.

Deuce gave him an odd look. "You knew that already."

"Am I supposed to like it now or something?"

"No, it's just… never mind."

"What about you, Sazh?" Fang asked. "You saw the same thing?"

"No, it's-…" He shook his head. "I'll tell you later."

"Gotcha."

"There's more?" asked Yeul. "That would explain much."

Nine growled, "Oh, yeah. It's a party. Damned kids going about and having fun for the sake of it."

Sazh cleared his throat and paused before the entrance to the dining hall. "I'm gonna go check on the… fields. You go on without me."

Nine harrumphed. "But we don't even eat. What are we going inside for, then?"

"I'm hungry," said Yeul before striding right in.

Fang followed right behind her. "So say we all, right?"

"Ugh." Nine slumped his shoulders when Deuce continued in. "But let's keep it short, alright? I hate the smell of peasant food."

"Oh." Deuce turned to Fang. "I almost forgot. We picked up a little something for you."

She dropped a glimmering, orange crystal into Fang's hand that looked a lot like some creature's tooth. "What's this?"

"It'll come to you." Deuce looked her dead in the eye, expression determined. "Call it a peace offering for now."

Right, but… "Thing feels broken."

"We're still working on getting them to react on command – give it time."

Fang up and left the hall, pulled a dagger from her waist, and held it to her own throat. "This world doesn't have time!"

"Whoa!" Sazh stopped short despite being yards away and yelled, "What are you doing?"

"If I remember right," Fang pressed the blade to her skin, "then these friends of ours react to stress. It's their job to bring us back from the brink, right?"

Deuce swallowed hard. "Yes, but…"

"Hey, Bahamut!" Fang held the crystal before her. "Get your butt on over here, alright? I'm about to kill myself because I'm so hopeless!"

Nothing for a moment. Fang pressed the dagger into her neck and it stung.

Then a great whooshing of air and storm clouds gathered. Exclamations of surprise and villagers paused to watch as magic coalesced.

Bahamut swept in like a tornado, the force of his arrival bringing trees to their knees whilst somehow leaving the village untouched. The thought came to her that she "taunted the servants of gods."

"But ain't that just the way we roll." Fang shoved her knife away again and pocketed the eidolith. "Not like I can sit around and wait for you all."

Sazh had only gotten a handful of feet away and wasted no time in returning.

Passers-by stopped and stared, some screamed and ran for the town hall. Bahamut, who landed in the town center and barely fit between tents and shacks, dipped his head. The state of the world was sorry, indeed, but that was no news to anyone here.

"And I'm not leaving until it's fixed." Fang put her hands on her hips. "You want me to join these guys? Save the World of Ruin first, then we'll talk."

It wasn't that simple. In order to bring magic to this gathering of humanity, they needed at least two of the Eidolons, and Bahamut needed time to seek out Brynhildr.

Sazh perked up. "My girl! She'll come, too?"

Quiet from Bahamut – a moment of hesitation. That was the hope, but in order to save the world as a whole, they needed all the Eidolons from the l'Cie's time and it would take a lot of searching to get to that point. Bhunivelze disrupted their connection some time before He took Hope.

"So, we need to stall." Fang looked toward the town hall. "From what I can tell, we've done plenty of that already. How many days do you need?"

Unknown, but it shouldn't be much longer now. As it is, he would take his leave and return in due haste to grant them life.

And then Bahamut leapt back into the air and wind gusted about the streets. Sabin and Edgar approached them and Deuce explained to them the gist of what happened.

Fang looked to the sky.

She could buy a little more time.

"Celes, you have the schedule for the next two weeks?" Edgar asked.

Sabin watched Celes hand a water-damaged paper to Edgar, who took it with trembling hands. They sat in the dingy council room, they being his brother, Celes, Terra, Locke, and Setzer.

It was rare that these schedules lasted the two weeks before something changed, before someone turned up sick or injured or worse. But it kept them on the same page and coordination mattered these days.

"The attack this past evening wasn't ideal." Celes folded her arms while Edgar examined the paper. "The meat will go far, but we lost use of one of our primary hunters. Even then, our new trainees entering rotation next week may be excessive."

"Less room," Locke mused. "Because of the dwindling numbers in the monster population."

"Less monsters," Setzer said, "which means less food."

Terra pursed her lips to reveal cheeks so hollow that it reminded Sabin more acutely of his own fatigue.

"How's the livestock doing?" Locke asked after a moment. "Maybe I should transfer out there."

"There isn't much of a need." Celes ran a hand through her hair. "The disease of the fields is spreading through the sheep and we've separated them out, which means clearing more deadlands and moving the healthy."

Locke dropped his gaze to the floor.

Setzer absently rolled two dice between his fingers. "Last I heard, Strago didn't expect the flocks to last more than another year or so."

And last Sabin heard, that was an optimistic projection.

"So," Edgar leaned back, "we ration out what remains. Stretch it out and preserve runway time or we risk falling into problematic territory."

"Aren't we already there?" Locke asked, maneuvering his bandaged arm to his side. "You know, with the dead world and us talking about this in the first place?"

"We don't need wit right now," Sabin said. "We need ideas."

Celes leaned toward them. Was it Sabin's imagination, or was she avoiding looking towards Locke? "Rainwater. If we distill what we collect, we can water down our meals and stretch out people's stamina with manageable aggravation of fatigue."

"Spread crops further." Setzer kept rolling that dice. "Or we can just keep our rainwater for the crops. Let's not overcomplicate things."

"It's not overcomplicating," Celes hissed. "The crops don't need as much as we give them."

Locke said, "The crops are already dying – why would we take away what chance they have?"

Celes looked toward Edgar, who Sabin could swear was paler than usual. "Because water isn't the issue – it's the soil quality. We're wasting water on dead ground."

"… Oh."

Celes relaxed a little. "Hydration will improve spirits and strengthen workers. In the time that we have, let's make it count."

"I agree," Sabin said. "Not a lot of point to prolonging our lives if we're too weak to make anything of it."

"Do we mean to condemn the weak?" Edgar asked. "What of those in the recovery tents?"

The door burst open.

Sabin jumped to his feet, fists at the ready, then paused when he saw the face of the intruder. What was Fang doing here?

"This is a private meeting." Celes's tone turned hard. "And shouldn't you be resting?"

"If he doesn't have to, I don't either." Fang strode forward with a pointed glance at Locke. Sabin raised an eyebrow. She didn't act hurt at all. "I've got some stuff you should know about."

"We're listening." Setzer never once broke rhythm with his dice.

Fang gestured outside. "We've got some outsiders and they've got some information we could use."

"And that's… news?" Locke winced. "We harbor the last remaining members of our race – most of us didn't originate here and our knowledge spreads what's left of the planet."

Fang rolled her eyes. "This is a little bigger than that."

"Please," Edgar said, "enlighten us." His voice shook.

Edgar was getting sick.

She pulled up a spare seat and flipped it backward before sitting down and resting her hands across the backrest. "You've got some travelers in your home that come from other worlds. Now, there's a few ways you could approach this-"

"If this is a prank," said Edgar, "then I would prefer you cease now and spare us the brain power."

Locke carefully shifted. "I don't know. I could use some levity right now."

"I don't do pranks," Fang said, "at least… I haven't done lately. But that's beside the point because you have an ideal situation here. The broken girl in the tent had magic from somewhere and there should be more where she came from. Deuce, she's on her way to somewhere inundated with the stuff. Now, I don't know that you all can go there, but no one's told you all that you have options."

Celes blinked. "… I don't understand. Does anyone else?"

"Are you saying," said Edgar between deep breaths, "that we should… leave?"

Sabin asked, "How would we go about that?"

Fang shrugged. "Ask Deuce. The details aren't my problem. But you don't have to sit here wringing your hands over this anymore if you want to hop over somewhere else for a bit. You know, save people's lives."

Sabin groaned and leaned back in his seat. "Like that's not what we're trying to do right now?"

"No, I trust you all to try your best." Fang stuck her chin on her arms. "But this is kind of a sticky situation you've got here, isn't it? We've been at it for a year now and it doesn't look like it's gonna get much better. Not any time soon without a heaping dose of injected magic, at least."

Sabin clenched his fists. She had a point, but…

Edgar fell into a coughing fit.

"Edgar?" Celes moved while Sabin felt frozen to the spot. Edgar threw his hands over the table and gagged.

Sabin managed a step forward.

Edgar retched blood.

All over the table.

Managed a deep breath, then did it again.

"Fang, get a medic!"

"Two steps ahead of you!"

He didn't see her leave. Couldn't take his eyes off that deep, deep red.

Edgar groaned, head lolling, and Celes held him away from the bloodied table. Setzer made his way over and slid Edgar's chair away from the mess.

Edgar looked around with dazed eyes. "Any other ideas?"

Looking at the sight, Sabin found that all he wanted was to get away.

"Nothing else from you." Sabin slowly sat down. "The rest of us, we can look into leaving."