Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters likely belong to Square Enix

-orring so much, Terra.

-ight here, Terra.

Terra.

Terra.

Terra.

The name echoed through Kuja's head as he teetered on the edge of consciousness and unconsciousness. Was it his mind's warped way of making him feel guilty? Ridiculous. Of all the things he'd done, of all the things he should regret…Terra was nothing more than a barren world waiting to die. The people of Terra wished to defy nature…

And yet, as hard as he tried to block them out, the hallucinations continued, until he wished for nothing more than to fall into the darkness, rather than be trapped in this limbo. The darkness, however, seemed to have other plans. It gradually faded away, the whispers of his home soon joined by other unintelligible sounds, and before long, the darkness had given way to a soft, warm light. For the first time in what had to have been ages, Kuja could feel his eyelids twitch, his heart beating. And then came the dull ache all over his body and the sharp pains scattered in so many places, he couldn't even pinpoint them. He wanted to writhe, but moving only made it worse.

So he lay still, and as he did so, he quickly came to the realization that he was very much alive. He squeezed his eyelids tighter together and cursed whatever being had left his worthless existence intact, much less in the wretched state.

Terra pushed her bedroom door open, arms laden with rolls of fresh bandages. A young, blonde girl tottered in behind her, carrying a pot of warm water. She slid the pot onto the little table next to the bed, careful not to overturn the candle.

"Thank you, Cassie," Terra whispered, stacking the bandages next to the pot. Cassie nodded and hurried from the room to finish her chores, closing the door softly behind her.

Terra looked down at the man in her bed and frowned at the grimace on his face. It was worrisome that he was in so much pain that he would frown in his sleep, but it did mean that he was becoming more aware; perhaps he would wake soon.

She brought her gaze from his face to his arms resting atop the blankets. The one nearest her was wrapped from wrist to elbow in bandages. She reached for that arm, carefully slipping her hand beneath it and lifting it from the bed.

Kuja was ripped from his pain induced stupor by a sudden touch on his right arm. His eyes snapped open and he snatched his arm away, hissing at the pain the movement caused him.

"Oh!" Terra gasped, flinching a bit. "So, you are awake."

Kuja cut his eyes at her, his neck too stiff to move easily. His eyes adjusted quickly to the candlelight; he could clearly see her soft features in the dim room. "Where am I? Who are you? And why—" he lifted his hand to rub his face and groaned "—are you touching me?"

"I need to change you bandages, that's why," she said firmly, reaching for his arm again, even as he tried to pull it further from her grasp. "You're in Mobliz." She gave up on reaching for his wrist and took hold of his bicep instead. "And my name is Terra."

Kuja halted his motions long enough for her to tug his arm down and get a good grip on it. There was that name yet again. Perhaps it wasn't his conscience that had tormented him, after all. Surely she lived with others; it must have been their voices speaking her name he'd heard in his semiconscious state.

She began unwinding the bandage on his forearm, and Kuja tugged his arm again, but found himself too weak to break her surprisingly strong grip. She removed her eyes from her work only for a brief moment and shot a glare at him. "Hold still."

"I don't take well to being given orders," he said flatly, returning her hard look. "And you waste your time."

"Hm, you seem to be healing fine to me." She finished removing the bandage and turned Kuja's arm to show him the gash running up it, still open but shining the pink color of healthy tissue rather than oozing red blood. "And you seem pretty alert, too."

She turned a bit and reached for the pot of water, lifting a cloth from its depths and one-handedly wringing the excess water from it. Kuja saw this as another chance to reclaim his arm and tugged once more, but Terra simply draped the cloth over the side of the pot and, with a loud smack, brought her hand swiftly down on the back of his. Kuja sunk his teeth into his bottom lip to keep from screaming at her. Far he may have fallen, but if he was going to be forced to stay in this world for even just a short amount of time, he'd maintain any dignity he could. He made an attempt to lift his other arm, to bat her away, but found it far stiffer and far more painful to lift than most other parts of his body. He glanced at it; and splint was secured to his forearm.

"Stop squirming," Terra sighed, lifting the cloth again and dabbing Kuja's wound. "Your injuries may be healing well, but they still need to be cared for."

"I prefer not to be touched," Kuja protested.

Terra paused to look at him, raising an eyebrow. "Oh? And I suppose you think you can do this yourself."

"I have my ways."

Terra sighed again, closing her eyes for a moment before slowly reopening them. She held Kuja's gaze. "You can't even pull your arm away from me, and you expect to be strong enough to use your magic?"

He frowned. How much did she know about him? If she knew he could use magic, she'd certainly have to know who he was, and if that was the case, why would she…

Kuja suddenly thought of Zidane, of how his brother had come back for him, even after all that he'd done. He wondered if he'd managed to make it out of the Iifa Tree, which then raised the question of how he'd gotten out himself. There was only one explanation.

"Where's the person who brought me here?" he asked quietly, no longer looking at her, but into a dark corner on the other side of the room.

"There was someone else? Was he injured, too?"

The fear in her voice made him glance at her, the desire to see it on her face nothing more than habit, now, but he looked away almost immediately. She was like Zidane, it seemed, intent on helping others.

"Relax. I doubt he was."

Terra reached into the pocket of her apron for a tub of ointment, struggling a bit to unscrew the lid with one hand. "If there was someone with you, why would he have left you in the woods in your condition?"

Again, Kuja looked at her, this time rolling his head over on the pillow and looking at her fully, his face hardening. She had a point, a better one than she knew. Zidane had risked his life to reenter the Iifa Tree and had somehow managed to escape with him in tow. There was no way Zidane would have just left him in the woods to die, and if he'd just left for a few moments, surely he'd have found Kuja by now.

Then Zidane hadn't carried him out of the Iifa Tree. He couldn't have. And now that he thought about it, Kuja had ever heard of a place called, what was it…Mobliz? Was it possible he was no longer on Gaia? But how had he been sent to another planet? And what had happened to Zidane, then…

Kuja closed his eyes. All of this was starting to give him a headache. He didn't even have the energy to protest against the woman touching him anymore, even as she finished with his arm and pulled back the blanket to start elsewhere on his body. He lifted his (finally) free arm and laid it across his forehead.

"I need you to sit up so I can get this one," Terra said, patting his ribs so gently, Kuja barely felt her touch at all.

Kuja peeked at her from under his arm, considering, and then, with a groan, removed it from his head and offered it to her. She took it, gripping just above the elbow; she slid her other hand under his shoulder. It was easier to sit him up when he was conscious, Terra noticed, even if he could only help a little.

"You know, you still haven't told me your name," Terra pointed out, leaning in close to unwind the bandaging while allowing Kuja to lean against her shoulder.

"How rude of me," Kuja said through a stiff jaw, still bothered by the contact. "But my name really is of no importance. I told you, you're wasting your time."

"Don't give me that," Terra chastised, leaving one arm across his chest to keep him upright and she straightened and reached for the cloth in the pot again. "If your wounds get infected, you'd never regain the strength you need to heal them yourself."

"That's not what I—How is it that you know I can use magic?" He hissed when she pressed the cloth to his wound, this one deeper than the one on his arm.

"Tell me your name first."

Kuja pursed his lips, a growl threatening to rumble from his throat. He did not like her bargaining, but curiosity tore at him, and he'd have liked to have been certain of at least one thing in this situation in which he knew nothing. "Kuja."

"Was that so hard?" She smeared the ointment across the wound and began wrapping the new bandage around him. "I can feel it in the air around you," she answered.

"What a peculiar ability."

"Not as peculiar as being able to use magic."

"Hm, I suppose that's true," he admitted.

"No, it really is odd." She secured the bandage and stepped back, keeping her hands on his shoulders. "Magic completely disappeared from the world a year ago, when the source of it was destroyed."

Kuja arched an eyebrow. That was all the proof he needed. This was most certainly not Gaia. He shook his head. "I really don't feel up to talking anymore, Miss Terra."

She smiled gently. "Right, I've probably worn you out. I'm sorry." She helped him ease back down on the mattress. "I'll just finish changing your bandages and let you go back to sleep."

Kuja didn't respond, but turned his head away from her and stared at the wall. He hadn't meant that he was tired when he'd said that, just that the thoughts buzzing in his head put him in even less of a mood to talk, but as soon as is head was on the pillow once more, he'd suddenly felt so tired, he'd almost been able to fall asleep despite Terra's tending.