Terra dreamt again.
No. She knew what it was now. She remembered.
She was in Vector, in what she recognized, with an almost instinctive pang of terror, as her old quarters. The room was spare, the bed and a desk with a silver mirror sitting on it were the sole pieces of furniture.
She felt the breath catch in her throat as she saw the reflection of her dream-body - no, of herself - in the polished metal; her skin was caked with heavy white paint, her eyes were darkly-lined in green and black while thick red paint covered her lips. The slave crown glittered darkly at her brow.
A quiet whimpering drew her attention to a Lobo pup lay curled against the far wall. She shuddered when she saw the puckered tissue where its eyes should have been. She wanted to reach out to the animal and comfort it, but knew that it was her own hands, her own abilities that had wounded it so.
She thought could almost feel her body begin moving toward the scarred Lobo when the door behind her flew open. Terra and the Lobo both flinched as a tall, slim young man - Terra felt a wave of nausea as she belatedly recognized a younger Kefka - entered the room.
Kefka grinned, the dry white paint on his face cracking and flaking with the movement. "Hello, my dear," he said, his voice menacing despite its strange, shrill pitch.
Terra wanted to scream at him, to strike him, to weave a spell and burn him to ash, but instead she stepped toward him and smiled almost affectionately. "Hello, my love," she purred back as he pulled her into his arms. "Has the Emperor told you anything yet about what I am to do at Maranda?" she asked. Kefka did not respond, simply shaking his head before leaning in to kiss her, his hands roaming across her body.
She fought back a scream as their lips met. She tried to force herself to push Kefka away but to no avail. She could feel his hands moving further down her body and was revolted by the way it reacted to his touch.
A cold hand caressed her hips and she shuddered as her dream-self pressed closer to him, how she sighed as his hand moved toward her thigh. She knew that there were tears of anger and fear and hate on her pillow at the thought of how her body wanted what was coming next. Of how, she realized as a wave of nausea threatened to overcome her, that this had happened, and it was not the first time.
Kefka's hand paused beneath her dress as the door slid open again, and turned as he heard a sharp intake of breath. An older man, his blond hair sharply cut in an Officer's fan, stared at the two of them, his face contorting in confusion and rage as the dossier he carried fell to the ground. Behind them, a blonde girl no older than Terra mimicked her counterpart's reaction, a mix of pity and disgust in her eyes.
"What in the Goddesses' name are you doing, Palazzo?" the older man roared as crossed the small room with a single quick stride.
Kefka was barely able to shout a strangled cry of surprise before the newcomer pulled him off of Terra and threw the younger man against the steel wall.
The blonde girl shook her head sadly as she put her arm around Terra and led her to the bed.
"I'm sorry," she said quietly as she sat Terra down onto the plush mattress "It should have been me with him, not you."
Terra tried desperately to remember who the young girl was, to say something - anything at all - but to no avail. Instead, she could feel the familiar tingle of power in her fingertips as tiny flames began to dance around them. She cried out, knowing that the sound would send Edgar and Locke charging into the tiny room, hoping that they would wake her before she recalled casting the spell that killed these people, whoever they were. They were, she knew, good people. The last, she was sure, that she had met before Locke, Edgar, and Sabin. She didn't want to remember murdering them.
The heavy sound of a fist connecting with flesh caused both girls to look up at the two men. Kefka was holding his face, stunned. Defiantly, he spat a stream of blood and fragments of tooth toward the older man and grinned. Terra felt herself stand, felt the energy flow through her, collecting at her hands and streaming out in a jet of flame toward the other man. A flash of blue light pulled the fire toward a smoking sword that had suddenly appeared in the blonde girl's hand as her older companion struck Kefka again.
"You sick bastard!" the older man shouted as he continued to beat Kefka. "How many times have you done this? How many? She doesn't even know what's happening! You animal!"
The girls stared at the two men as the beating continued, stunned by the savagery of the assault. Kefka slumped to the ground, curling into a foetal ball as the sound of his whimpering played a counter-point to the heavy blows raining on him. The older man stopped after a moment and spat at Kefka as he bent over him. He pulled a short, broad-bladed dagger from it's sheath and put it against Kefka's throat.
The blonde girl leaped to the General and latched herself onto his arm, pulling it back from Kefka's throat. Terra, though, was only peripherally aware of the struggle as she knelt beside Kefka's bloodied form.
He was whimpering, mewling like the maimed puppy in the corner of her room, his knees pulled to his chest, his face swollen and bleeding through the smeared paint. She leaned over him as he whispered to her, nodded her head and held her hands over him. A green glow suffused the air as his flesh knit itself together and new teeth pushed through his gums while the other man and the blonde girl shouted at her to stop. As the last of Kefka's wounds closed, Terra stood and helped him to his feet. She did not make a sound as he shoved her roughly to the ground.
"You idiot, bastard, moron, Leo!" Kefka sputtered, his hands glowing darkly with magic. "I will have you dead by my hand, you treasonous dog! I will kill you myself! Your soul will be my plaything! Your skin will be my banner! I will destroy everything you ever cared for!"
The man, Leo, spat at Kefka and fell into a knife-fighter's loose-limbed stance. "Then do it, Kefka, if you've got the spine. I warn you, though; this'll be an actual challenge - I'll fight back."
Kefka grinned as flames filled the room.