Chapter 2

Where two worlds meet

To a suburban kid who rarely had the chance to experience power, this was definitely a chance to start ordering people around. Whatever was there, he just knew two things. First, he was the Grand Lord. And second, he is going to use that power. As for the party, Worce ate his fill, and then ordered some of his men to help him upstairs into the room he would from then call his. He was sure to have a great dream that night.

But just when he was about to doze away, he started to see things once more. This time, it was not the Heroes Master any more. Out of the blues, in the middle of his room emerged a very vague image of a young lady in blue armor, with two shining swords in her hands and a soulless look that nearly was dreadful to look at. Not accounting for her nearly soulless pair of eyes, she was quite pretty, with shoulder-length raven hair, and a pair of supposedly-cute puppy eyes, which remained dreary during the whole encounter. She looked at Worce half in animosity, half in doubt, or what could be translated to be an emergency signal, whatever. It looked as if she was about to say some thing, but at the very same time her own force was working against that will, resulting in the lady saying nothing after all.

She stayed there in the middle of the room for some time, during which time Worce dared not draw breath. The two swords flashing in her hands were especially intimidating, though it was rather unlikely that she would use them to slice Worce in half. The confrontation seemed to have lasted forever, for during the time she was there Worce didn't dare to do anything, and the lady wasn't about to move. Finally, she looked at the teen straight in his eyes, only mumbling some words "I …am…Rinoa" and then vanished into thin air, leaving only two contrasting colored brink of light in her wake. The sudden appearance of this strange woman had diverted the boy from any thought of self-indulgence of power and wealth that had reigned in him over the last few hours. It seemed that he was sent there on a mission, as the Heroes Master had suggested very important and difficult. Fortunately, someone of his age would quickly forget about wealth and comfort when it came to excitement.

"Okay, I have made up my mind" thought Worce "mission comes first, next come fun". Thinking so, he sat up straight, thinking more of what he could do to this simple Academy town, what other sort of improvement could he make, what could he do to greet, and then, to aid the VIP. He couldn't help wondering what kind of business was waiting for him. Yet, from the look of things, he was sure it was something special, as much as he believed he himself was special.

"Next week's gonna be a busy week"

At the same time, in the semi-military SeeD training center called Balamb Garden, everything was in a mess. Squall was not there to see to anything. Since the beginning of the war against Ultimecia, Garden students and even SeeDs had gotten so used to seeing Squall doing everything that now without both Squall and Headmaster Cid (probably still with his wife, the ex-sorceress Edea, in their old home at the Cape of Good Hope) everything seemed to be broken down. If it hadn't been for Quistis and Xu who tried whatever they could to get things back in order, things would never get going.

But Quistis wasn't that enthusiastic about taking over Squall's position, even just for an hour. Neither were the rest of their friends at rest. For the Legendary Couple of Balamb, Squall Leonhart and Rinoa Heartilly had both gone missing, one after the other. First, Rinoa left Balamb Garden on that fateful rainy day for Deling City, probably to pay her father a little visit, and never came back. She probably was not dead, for intensive searching operations carried out by both the Galbadian army under the command of General Caraway, the unfortunate father, and the SeeDs Surveillance Team led by Nida had only been able to come up with corpses of nameless monsters, and no trace of Rinoa anywhere. Extremely worried about his future wife's safety, Squall secretly left Balamb not long after the news of the mysterious disappearance reached Balamb. Since then, Squall, too, had disappeared. The disappearance of two among the Mighty Six who had ridded this planet of the evil sorceress called Ultimecia some time ago was more than a shock to anyone who knew them as well as those who didn't.

And yet their friends had no time to just do something. After all, the Garden needed to continue existing, with or without Squall and Rinoa. Various contracts had been sent and conveniently signed by Squall, who were at that time too overconfident about his and his peers' ability to get things sort out, just shortly before it all began, and now the Garden was just short of cadets or even lower ranking SeeDs to carry them out, so the task was passed on to the already busy higher ranking SeeDs. And now Selphie, Zell and Irvine were swimming in work all over the world. Also, the recent appearance of strange beasts never seen before roaming around the world was also a point of great interest, which was just too good a factor adding up to the SeeDs' field work. Quistis was a bit freer- still being able to stay in Garden, but the fact that ALL of Squall's paperwork was passed on to her was more than enough to incapacitate the blonde's all other abilities. Needless to say, the other three also felt that they were working in a sweatshop.

Finally came the one day when they all couldn't take it any more. Without any sort of appointment, the four assembled in the cafeteria that evening, eyes sore from lack of sleep and constant, prolonged anxiety, backs bent down due to extreme fatigue, and whole bodies aching because of heavy physical working. And they were on the brink of snapping.

"THIS IS ENOUGH!!!" Zell yelled. Apparently he couldn't take it more.

"Yeah… right" Selphie asserted "We are to do all sort of odd jobs and knowing that Squall is out there somewhere… maybe even needing our help!"

"Guys, I suggest quitting" Irvine dropped his usual joking-around manner "We don't need Garden. Sure we don't. Why do we have to stick to this job doing all sort of freaking things for those we hardly know…"

"…when our best friends are missing, and may have even died?" Selphie continued, ranting.

"Honestly" Quistis also stated her point "Everyone knows how important Squall and Rinoa are to us all. If this stupid job" she slung her file across the table "should deprive us of our chance to do up what should be done…"

"Bash the hell outta it!" Zell growled in absolute dismay.

"Hey Quisty" Irvine addressed "Any chance that we drop all this and get out to find Squall on our own?"

"…"

"No answer, instructor?" Zell addressed sarcastically "Is the Garden more important to you than Squall?"

Quistis' face turned red with disagreement

"Not a chance, Zell" she countered "We are good friends, and good friends don't leave one another in needy times. OK, I will quit too"

"Then it's decided!" Selphie stood up all of a sudden, startling all the rest "We shall go for Squall, and we are NOT going to care about the Garden, and NOT even about those crappy pile of contracts we have got out there!"

The four of them nodded to one another, saying nothing for some time. Certainly what they were about to decide had such a weight that they simply couldn't just shout out loud without thinking a bit over. But what should come would come, and finally, the four friends stood up, blinked at one another, and without a word, left the cafeteria, and finally, each went back to their dorm to pack things up and prepare,, and, shortly later, left the Garden itself. They were going for Squall and Rinoa. Wherever they might be then…

As for Worce Castle the newly appointed Grand Lord of Castle Agoura, the rest of the week was pleasantly spent on exploring the castle and the area around it. The Grand Lord was impressed not only by the wealth of his city, the beautiful scene outside his base, the supportive weather all around, but also by the awesome shipyard that his town possessed (quite a rare treat in any Heroes scenario, III and IV all alike). It looked as if his city was located at a very good location, both offensively and defensively. The teenage lord also paid visits to his barracks, visiting all those who had provided him with support (or, rather, applause) during his inauguration ceremony, from the rickety rank-and-file dwarves to the mighty Titans, from the short, small and zealous Halflings to the mischievous yet crafty Red Dwarves. He also went around the places to check his town's mines, HIS mines to be precise, as he was a king then, and made sure things that should be checked and guarded well were so, especially gold and gem mines- they were the lifeblood of his prosperous town.

"This place is PERFECT for an empire to begin!" Worce thought to himself many times yet before his sleep. His wealth, his kingdom army strength, his town construction… all what a Heroes IV player- though it was typically boring- could wish for. But the very next moment Worce would rather find himself lost amongst his doubts and random thoughts. What was he supposed to do there? Who was the Heroes Master? Who was the VIP he was supposed to provide aid, and what sort of trouble was he supposed to lead his army into battle and conquer? And most of all, who was the young lady who had appeared in front of him on that night, what was she about to do? What about her? Worce's heart began to twitch. If what the Heroes Master told him was the truth, that something horrible was going to happen soon, that he would soon be discovering such a sort of undeniable destiny, that he was the key point in a sort of anti-evil campaign, then what had he done, and what could he do to prevent the worst from happening?

"Duh, I don't even know what the worst can be yet" the young man would think, and then would sink into his sleep again.

The time soon came for the event to take place: the distinguished guest with a scar face, a lion locket and a gunblade was about to arrive. Worce wondered what kind of guest this person could be. Could he be a mighty Life-aligned Knight whose Tactics and Leadership skills were beyond legendary? Or could he be a dark-bound Death-aligned Death Knight whose Necromancy was the sole proof of evilness? Or in any case, could he be a sly Chaos-aligned Thief ready to break laws at anytime and get away with it with his extensive Scouting skills? Worce was not to know yet…

Whoever he was, be he a guest he should be greeted with the utmost solemn diplomatic procedures. That was why Worce had ordered his men to stand in battle-ready formation, weapons held upright, facing the welcoming drawbridge, in the same way that he had seen diplomatic protocols being carried out on TV before. Anyway, all what they had to do then was to wait for the distinguished guest and greet him like a political leader deserving good honor.

By noon, no one had come yet to his castle

By the middle of the afternoon, there was yet a sign of the distinguished guest.

By sunset, still no one had arrived.

At this time Worce had gone so irritated that he was about to throw the tantrum and quit it all, letting the distinguished guest out of the castle for being unpunctual. He wouldn't even mind if he was not doing his part well. What's the point? He knew too well that he was just in an alternative world, and even if it had gotten shredded and blown up by mysteriously evil forces, he wouldn't care. It wasn't any of his business, and it would be the Heroes Master's fault for leaving such a great duty in the hands of just a young caretaker. And damn this guest! It was traditional for a host to wait for his guest, but it would be hard to believe that a host must wait for his guest for THIS long! There were two possible explanations, first, the guest was unable to come, or second, he was way too rude. And judging from the fact that the Heroes Master even appeared to him the night before just to remind him of what was supposed to take place today, it seemed that he would have given him further notice should things go awry again. So the first choice was out. The only remaining explanation was that the guest was too impolite to come on time. "Well, being impolite to a king isn't anything good, my guest" Worce thought to himself. So he moved up the observation tower, ordered his troops in formation to dismiss, and was about to lower the drawbridge, of course against the wish of both his "aides" who would rather him waited some more, when …

As the bridge was being drawn up, suddenly Worce saw a small shadow- actually a very deformed shadow- of a man who had been doubling and running at the same time, leaping over the drawbridge, landing right at the front of the rank of gold golems ready to dismiss themselves. As the gold golems mechanically moved to give way, thus forming a large empty circle around this strange man, the newcomer suddenly went down on his feet and then collapsed on the ground face-down with a loud THUD.

However busy one's mind could be, such an instance would always be a magnet, especially to the curious kind of people like Worce. He immediately led a team of field medics down to the clearing that the gold golems had created, approached the man and inspected him. Upon inspecting, the team found the man still breathing, though severely wounded, with several horrible cuts, stabs and nasty burns leaving him nearly dead. Immediately the genies went into work, and did what they should to make sure the poor man did not die… at least on the castle courtyard where ceremonies of the orderly Academy would be held. The motto of genies in such cases was always "Save anyone so that they don't smudge our Academy". And they succeeded. Though they were able to make sure the poor guy didn't stop breathing, they weren't quite capable of bringing him round just yet, so they just advised the Grand Lord to ship him into a first aid tent to spend the night.

After all had died down, Worce watched as the genie-medics brought the poor suffering man into medical attention, and was about to reorchestrate the dismissal of the Guards of Honor when he saw something falling from the poor wounded man's possessions. It fell on the ground with the distinctive sound of a silver artifact clashing against the hard ground. Immediately Worce dashed to the scene, and from the granite-paved ground he recovered a shining silver locket with the symbol of a lion head on it as if some sort of insignia. Startled, he ordered the wounded man to be thoroughly searched once more, and from his garment his genies soon recovered something that resembled a pistol, but had a sharp, blue blade to top it with, besides the ordinary bullet chamber and handle. And that was not all; a large scar was also identified right across the bridge of his nose! Immediately he realized what it was all about and why his guest of honor was so late for the ceremony. The wise boy at once ushered his best genies to come round and help with the recuperation of this man and see to his being safe and sound- HE was his guest!

Now the King's sense of duty came back. Deciding that no king should ever let his distinguished guest die within his own domains, and also by the commands of the mysterious Heroes Master, Worce decided that he should really do something about this.

His genies immediately went to work, sending into the medical room as much rare medicinal herbs and magical healing scrolls as they could find all over Castle Agoura. Ingham lent those medical amateurs a hand too- he used to be a very educated abbot in Erathia before. That whole night, flashes and flames burst out everywhere within the clinic, the flare of the process could have been seen a mile away. Worce knew nothing about practical magic except ordering his trusted genies around to do this and that for him, without even paying attention to how they did it, and so this time all what the Grand Lord could do was to pray that the poor guy survived the ordeal, for yes, genies were a kick in combat, but in treating wounds and healing a person? You gotta be kidding. If the genies did not mistakenly cast an Ice Bolt instead of a Heal on the poor guy, good for him. If not, mission failed. And so, Worce spent the rest of his night twisting and turning, worrying about the fate of the poor man in the hands of such amateur medics…