"Will I ever get off this island?" he thought as he put yet another mark, marking the beginning of another day, on the lone tree on the island.

Several times he had considered swimming towards the tower in the distance, but he could see no other signs of life in that direction, and the beams of deadly looking light that reached out from the tower from time to time had deterred him.

This morning, like every other day, he picked up his makeshift fishing pole and walked down to the beach. "Pickings are gettin' to be slim," he muttered as he looked for fish. As he baited the hook he glanced towards the tower in the distance. For a second he thought he saw it shudder.

"What the ....?" And that's when it happened. With a flash of light, the tower seemed to come apart at its seams as it crumbled to the ground.

"Now that's something you don't see everyday," he said with a laugh as he let out the line into the ocean. After half an hour he had caught several nice-looking fish and carried them back towards his lean-to. Gathering up a few pieces of driftwood, he quickly started a fire and was soon cooking the fish.

While he sat there, eating the fish, he stared towards where the tower had once shown up on the horizon. Every now and again he could see flashes of ruby colored light go lancing into the air and then fade out.

After finishing the fish, He crawled back into the lean-to and retrieved his sword. Just as he was about to start his morning exercises, the island was struck by an earthquake. At first, Hao paid no attention to the quake, there had been many such quakes in the past 500 days. Suddenly, the ground lurched severely, throwing Hao to the ground.

Once the shaking had subsided, Hao stood up, and his mouth fell open in amazement.

When the water was nearly waist deep, Hao began swimming towards the new island. Approaching the new island, Hao noticed that it seemed be glowing. Seeing that the water was not getting hot, he decided that the rock of the island must be glowing with some other energy other than heat.

On the shore of the island, Hao noticed that, interspersed among the fine sediment of the beach, there were several small glowing red crystals. With a second glance, Hao realized that the crystals were shrinking!

"How weird," Hao muttered to himself as he watched the crystals, one after another, disappear. "This is turning into a very weird day."

After most of the crystals had disappeared, Hao began to walk around the island on the beach, hoping to reach the north side before noon. He had no idea the exact size of the island, but he did not think it was that big.

A couple hours later Hao had reached a little out stretched "arm" of the island and, gazing off to the north intently, he thought he could see land, but it was difficult to tell. Just then he realized he was getting hungry, and that he had left his fishing pole back on the other island.

Uttering a string of curses, Hao headed back the way he had come.

Twenty minutes later Hao was crossing the narrow strip of water between the two islands. "This is odd," Hao thought as he was still walking on the ocean floor halfway across to the island. "I'll have to remember where this spot is, the floor is much higher here."

An hour later Hao was enjoying a fish dinner when he noticed another bright flash of that ruby light go lancing into the air and fade out again. "Something very weird is going on over there," he said. "Of course, it's not like nothing weird's going on over here."

Later that night, Hao went to sleep after taking a brief swim. It seemed to him that either the islands were rising, or the ocean was shrinking. Before going to sleep, he decided that he was going to have to explore the island more tomorrow.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed as he stood up. After picking up his fishing pole, he jogged down the now 100 feet wide beach to the ocean. "The water even looks bluer this morning."

Quickly he baited the hook with a grub, and stopped just short of casting it out into the ocean. "A grub? I haven't seen grubs in a long time."

With a shrug he cast the line out into the ocean. With in seconds, he had caught a fish and was pulling it in. "I think I've caught a shark," he muttered as he pulled on the taunt string. Suddenly the string snapped, sending him somersaulting backwards.

"Great, no breakfast," he said as he looked out towards the ocean. "Oh well, I was getting tired of fish anyways." Turning around he started back up the beach, stopped for a second, and then ran towards the tree, which had leafed out over night.

When he reached the tree he noticed even the marks he had carved into the tree were almost completely gone. Looking up into the tree he could see little fruits. "This isn't possible," he thought as he climbed up the tree.

Grabbing a fruit, he tasted it. A little bitter, but not too bad. Gathering up a few more he started down the tree. Once back on the ground he ate the fruit and then fastened his scabbard and sword around his waist.

"Now to explore the other island, er, this island," Hao said as he started out across the beach. This time he decided to go around on the east side, to explore the part of the island he hadn't seen yet.

For the next hour Hao stumbled up the mountain of rocks, before he came upon a well concealed path leading up the side of the mountain. "Wish I had know this was here," he muttered as he looked at his cut and scratched arms and legs.

As Hao continued up the path, the humming became louder and louder, almost to the point of being unbareable. And then, as he neared the top of the mountain, the humming ceased. Bewildered, Hao stopped for a moment, making sure his ears were not deceiving him, then continued on.

At the top of the mountain, Hao found a small opening, leading at a steep angle, down into the mountain. "Sure is dark in there," Hao muttered.

Almost as if a response to his voice, a light glow filled the cavern, illuminating step like structures into the cavern. With a shrug, Hao headed into the cave.

"Damn," Hao muttered. But as he had nothing better to do and he was curious, he started to work on clearing the rockslide.

* - * - *

Finally, after several weeks of work, Hao had made it through. To his surprise, above the crumbled ceiling of the tunnel had been metal struts of some sort. Proceeding onward past the area of the slide, he stumbled, quite literally, into a huge room. All around him were shattered glass tubes, about seven feet long, that had the crumbling remains of something in among their rubble.

"This place feels like a graveyard," Hao muttered as he involuntarily shivered. Carefully he continued across the room, pausing here and there to examine some of the tubes. In one of them he found a skull, in another several more bones, all of them human. "This is a graveyard," he sighed.

Suddenly, the urge to flee this room came upon him. Spinning around towards the passage way, he spied an intact tube between two boulders. His curiosity over coming his fear, Hao moved towards it. Carefully he skirted around the debris until he was right in front of the tube.

Inside was the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen. Of course, he hadn't see a woman in over 500 days. But there was something else about this woman, something that Hao wasn't quite sure he liked. The urge to leave came back suddenly again, but Hao suppressed it and began to examine the tube more closely. On the side it had several knobs, and some sort of readout that he didn't understand.

And then, as he was kneeling beside the tube, a snap-hiss came from with in it and the top of the tube came open like a door. Hao immediately leapt back, tripped over some of the debris, and landed hard. But he never once took his eys off of the tube. As the door came fully open, he noticed that the woman still appeared to be asleep or dead or whatever she had been while in the tube.

Hao stood there, mesmorized by fright and awe, as the woman's eyes fluttered a few times then snapped open.

After staring back at the strange human in front of her for several seconds, the woman finally spoke. "You're not Messatii, are you?" she asked in a strange accent.

"I thought you were dead like the others," Hao managed to reply.

"They're all dead?" the woman asked as she sprang from the tube.

"Yes," Hao answered as he watched the woman circle the room. "I was just about to leave when I noticed your tube was still intact."

"My tube?" the woman asked. "Oh! You mean the stasis chamber."

"Stasis chamber?"

"Haven't you ever heard of a stasis chamber?"

"No. What does it do?"

"Why, it keeps a body in stasis. Don't tell me, you don't know what stasis is either, right?"

Hao simply nodded his head.

"Stasis is a process by which body processes are slowed, if not completely stopped. It is supposed to keep a person from dying indefinitely, but something went wrong here. For some reason all of the other stasis chambers have been damaged. You honestly have no idea what stasis is?"

"No," Hao answered. "Nor do I know what causes the walls to glow around here."

"Those are plasma lights," the woman answered, "They are activated by either voice or movement. By the way, I am Maru, General Maru of the Messatii. And you are?"

"Hao," Hao answered, "I've never met a general before."

"Well, don't start saluting me, Hao. It appears my army is dead and I am the only one of the Messatii left," Maru replied.

"There may be some left somewhere," Hao said. "You'll just have to go and look for them."

At that Maru began to giggle. "Trust me, Hao, if there were any Messatii left, you would have known about it. We lived to explore and conquer."

"What were you doing here anyways?" Hao asked. "Trapped in stasis, I mean."

"This is, er, was Masettii outpost Omega. We had just completed the construction when a terrible storm struck the island. All of a sudden, the island began to sink. You could feel it literally dropping out from underneath you. I gathered as many of my soldiers into these caverns the had the entrances sealed as the island continued to drop. After several days and the island was still underwater, we entered the stasis chambers and hoped that someday other Messatii would come to rescue us."

"How long had you been in stasis?" Hao inquired.

"That's a question I too would like to know the answer to," Maru answered as she approached one of the walls. After searching for a moment she pressed against the wall and part of it slid open. "Come on, Hao."

"It's a computer," Maru answered. "The power is very low though, it won't work much longer."

"A computer? What kind of magic is that?"

"THE MESSATII DO NOT NEED MAGIC!!!!!" Maru shouted and took several steps towards Hao. Even though Hao had made no move towards his sword, Maru stopped as she realized she had no weapon. "I'm sorry, I had forgotten that you have no knowledge of the Messatii. We Messatii have no need of magic. In factm it was our Emperor's goal to destroy magic from this world. As it is still my goal."

"Magic is very powerful. How do you expect to overcome it?"

"With technology," Maru answered.

"Technology?" Hao questioned.

"Yes, machines, man-made things, things that are not powered by magic," Maru answered, a hint of frustration in her voice.

"Oh! You mean science!" Hao exclaimed.

"Yes, in a way," Maru answered. "Technology is the what you get from applying science."

"Oh, so this computer is a piece of technology?" Hao asked.

"Yes," Maru answered. "And it says I was in stasis for 1368 years."

"Whoa! That makes you old!" Hao exclaimed.

"Don't remind me," Maru muttered. Then her tone changed. "Follow me." Then Maru slid open another panel and disappeared. After a moment of consideration, Hao followed her.

"Take these and fill them with grenades," Maru ordered.

"Grenades?" Hao asked.

"Those," Maru sounded irritated as she pointed to the little round things with pins in the corner. While Hao filled the backpacks with grenades, Maru went around searching the rest of the room. Over and over again Hao heard her complain about "low power" and other nonsense he didn't understand.

By the time he had filled the backpacks up, Maru had returned with a belt and several other things. As she handed him a belt, Hao sat the backpacks down on the ground and then fastened it around his waist. Then she handed him a pistol.

"What's this?" Hao asked.

"It's a plasma pistol," Maru answered. "You just point it at what you want and pull the trigger. But we'll have to use them sparingly, cause they're almost out of power."

Ten minutes later, after they had gathered a few more supplies, including pouches full of recharge clips for the pistols - it had taken them most of that ten minutes to find 20 clips that were 1/4 full or better - they returned to the main room of the cave. Now Hao noticed that Maru had also added a fairly huge sword to her arsenal of grenades and a pistol.

Going over to the computer, Maru picked up a small object and studing it for a moment. Then smiling, she walked back to Hao. "It's low on power, but it will get us to this small town on the main continent. And maybe another gate after that," Maru said.

"Gate?" Hao asked.

"You'll see," Maru answered, then address the computer. "Set auto-destruct sequence."

"Auto-destruct sequence set," a pleasant voice ansered.

Auto-destruct. Hao didn't like the sound of that, but before he could protest, he was jerked through a portal.

"It's okay, I'm okay," Hao replied as he struggled back to his feet. "It was just the shock of being one place one second, and then another then next. Where are we anyways?" Hao scanned his surroundings, and noticed buildings to the southwest.

"I set us down a little to the north east of the town," Maru answered. "I didn't want anyone to see us."

"Good idea," Hao said as they started towards the town.

While they were still on the way to the town, the auto-destruct sequence detonated, collasping the cave in upon itself. The only thing that Hao noted was something like thunder to the south.

Fifteen minutes later they were approaching the town. The closer they got they could hear the shouts of children playing and other sounds associated with a busy town. In a few minutes they strolled through the city gates.

"Where to first?" Maru asked.

"Let's stop by the inn and see if they serve food," Hao suggested.

"Hmm, food does sound good about now," Maru replied thoughtfully. "The inn it is."

Fifteen minutes later, Hao and Maru were eating a hot meal.

"I'm not sure," Maru replied. "I just sensed something was watching us."

"Where?" Hao said as he leapt out of bed and reached for his sword.

"I'm not sure," she answered, turning from the window.

In that instant she was turned from the window, a crossbow bolt slammed into the window jamb, passing right through where her head would have been.

Racing across the room, Maru grapped a bag of grenades from off the table and fled from the room. Following suit, Hao grabbed his bag and belt and followed her. Seconds later several more crossbow bolts rained in through the window.

On the stairway leading to the lobby, Maru stopped so fast that Hao slammed into her. Coming up the stairway were two shadowy figures. In the darkness it was impossible to make out anything other than the vaguest of shapes.

Regaining her balance, Maru shot Hao a angry look and they hurried back up the stairs. Stopping at the top, she pulled the pin on a grenade and tossed it back down the stairs. Seconds later it exploded.

Coming back around the corner, Hao and Maru saw the remains of the creatures mixed in with the remains of the stairs.

"Oops," Maru muttered. "Guess we have to jump."

"Guess so," Hao said with a shrug as he leapt over the banister. Once they were both in the lobby they glanced quickly around for a back entrance. Finding one, they quickly fled through it.

"I'm not sure," Maru answered. "But I'm positive there were more than just those two."

"Then they're probably looking for us," Hao muttered as he shuddered in the cold. "As many other things probably are," he added as he looked around.

"Don't worry," Maru replied. "It seems the monsters have regressed as much as the humans around these parts. Come on, I want to try to find some shelter." Saying that, she headed north. Quickly Hao followed.

"Tell me more about the Messatii," Hao said. "And their quest to eradicate magic."

"Our race is basically a warrior race," Maru started. "We have always relied on technology more than magic because, for us, technology has always been more reliable.

"Shortly after King Uxis took the throne, bad things began to occur across the vast Kingdom. Even our technology had a difficult time coping with it. One day, a strange man from the mountains on the western edge of our Kingdom came to visit the King. He told the King that an evil magic rising in the North was to blame for all the troubles that had befallen our nation. Right then and there, the King ordered the destruction of all magic.

"Only a few soldiers of the first expedition force returned from the northern continent. Enraged, the King sent his entire army and navy to attack the magic across the Sea to the North. The plan was that we were to attack from the South, East, and West, but I don't know how it ended, my forces were trapped in the island cave by the storm."

"Almost sounds as if that storm was magical," Hao replied.

"I thought so too," Maru answered.

By dawn, Hao and Maru had reached the southern edge of the field of destruction caused by the collaspe of Kefka's Tower. Here they rested while they ate breakfast.

"Are there any edible animals around here?" Maru asked.

"There used to be, before Kefka came. Now I don't know if there are or not."

"Well, if things get really bad I guess we can gate to Tzen, but the gate device is about out of power."

Suddenly a shriek arose from somewhere within the debris field. It was followed moments later by another, this one closer.

"I don't like the sound of that," Maru muttered and seemed to pick up her pace a little. "In fact, I don't like this area a bit. It reeks of magic."

"I'm not too fond of it either," Hao replied as he stepped up his pace with her.

Suddenly, off to their right, a Weedfeeder appeared.

"What's that?" Maru asked.

"A weedfeeder," Hao replied. "They usually won't attack if they're by themselves, so don't worry."

"Well, there's a few more with it now," Maru muttered.

"We could be in trouble now," Hao answered. "Just keep walking, maybe they'll decide we're not worth it."

"I don't think so, they're coming this way," Maru said as she stopped and drew her sword. At the same time, Hao drew his sword, and stepped to the left of Maru. In the distance, more weedfeeders suddenly appeared over the debris.

"I think we're in trouble," Maru muttered.

"I think you're right," Maru answered as she grabbed her pistol and aimed at the advancing Weedfeeders. Slowly she squeezed the trigger. Immediately a pulse of light almost a foot in diameter shot from the barrel. "That's not supposed to happen," she thought and then screamed as she dropped the pistol. It was glowing bright red and caught the grass on fire as soon as it hit groud.

Dropping her sword Maru grabbed her wrist and grimaced at the pain. Looking over she saw that Hao's sword arm had come to his side and that he was standing, mouth gaping, staring towards the enemy. Looking up, she saw why. Apparently, as the pulse went farther and farther it had widened. Enough so that it had nearly wiped out all the Weedfeeders. The rest were quickly retreating.

"Grab my sword," Maru ordered.

"What?" Hao asked as he came out of his stupor. It was then that he noticed the burning grass around that pistol and that Maru herself had been burnt. Grabbing her sword he turned back to her to see that she was adjusting the gate device carefully. Suddenly, we was jerked through the portal again.

When they landed, they were in the middle of the Tzen square, and many of the townspeople were staring at them anxiously.

"He was killed by the Light of Judgement from Kefka's tower," one of the older ladies said. "My daughter, Circe is training to take his place, but since magic is gone...."

"Magic is gone?" Maru asked suddenly. "What do you mean?"

"With the destruction of Kefka and the Statues, all magic has ceased to exist on this planet," the old lady replied. "In my opinion that's how it should be. People have just gotten too greedy when magic was around."

"Where is your daughter?" Hao asked, bringing them back onto the subject.

"Oh, yes," the old woman replied. "Follow me."

With Hao helping Maru they headed for the old woman's home. In the back yard, they found a young lady, girl really, tending to some herbs.

"Circe," the old woman said. "This lady needs your help."

"Yes, mother," Circe replied as she stood and came towards them. As Maru extended her arm Circe took it and examined the burns on her wrist. "Hmm, these are mighty nasty burns. Come into the house and I'll see what I can do for you."

Once in the house, Circe began rummaging through many diferent vials. Finally, she picked up one containing a yellowish liquid. "Now this may sting a little," she warned as she pulled off the stopper. Grabbing Maru's arm she began to pour it into the palm of Maru's hand.

As soon as the solution had hit her hand, Maru winced in pain and instinctively tried to pull her hand away, only to find that Circe had a firm grip on it and wasn't intending on letting go. In just a few seconds the pain had subsided and Maru was amazed to see that even the blisters had began to go down.

"Wow!" Hao gasped. "That stuff works fast, what is it?"

"It's a secret of Tzen," Circe replied. Then she turned to Maru, "You'll find that that will be all healed up by tomorrow."

"Thank you," Maru replied. "Is there an inn in the town where we can spend the night?"

"Why not stay the night here?" the old lady suggested. "I've not had visitors from the outside in a long time."

"We wouldn't want to impose," Hao began.

"It's no bother," the old woman assured him. "In fact, I'm quite sure it'll cheer me up to have more young people around here, even if it's only for one night."

"Okay," Maru said. "We accept."

"Cirrrceee," a voice echoed out of the mist.

"Who are you?" Circe asked as she spun around looking for the owner of the voice.

"It's time, Circe." The voice was closer now. Some where off to her left.

"Time for what?" Circe asked as she spun in the direction of the voice.

"It's time for Tzen's secrets to be known." The voice was right behind her now and the sound of it caused her to jump in spite of her self. Turning, she saw a hovering Orb. "Follow me," it said. Obediently, Circe followed the Orb.

******************

"Wake up," Hao heard a voice commanding him out of the darkness. Slowly, he came awake. Circe was standing beside him. "Come on," she said. "It's important."

"What about Maru?" Hao asked as he turned towards the other bed.

"This doesn't concern her," Circe said as she lead Hao from the room. Seconds later they had left the house and were walking towards the north side of town. As they left town it occured to Hao that he hadn't even thought to bring a weapon with him. But something seemed to tell him that he would be okay as he neared the mountain.

As they approached the solid wall of the mountain, it suddenly seemed to shift its shape, revealing a path winding up it. Without pausing Circe headed up the path, and after a moment's hesitation Hao followed.

"Where are we going?" Hao asked.

"To see the secrets of Tzen," Circe answered in a flat voice.

An hour later, when they reached the summit of the mountain, the sun had just begin to rise in the east. Down in Tzen it had been cold, but up here it was freezing. Even as he stood shivering, he was amazed that Circe seem to be unaffected by the cold, even though she was wearing scarcily more than Hao.

Suddenly, Circe began chanting. So loud that Hao thought she would wake the dead. And just as suddenly, she stopped. Then, the surrounding seemed to go fuzzy, and with a bright flash of light, Hao and Circe vanished from the mountain.

***************************

"Where are we?" Hao asked.

"You are in the Chamber of the Tzen Orbs," a voice answered before Circe could. "He have summoned you here, Hao."

"But why?" Hao asked as he looked at the orbs curisously.

*****************************************************

"Have you seen Hao?" Maru asked the old lady, Lucy, as she walked into the kitchen.

"Not this morning," Lucy answered. "Perhaps he went to look around town."

"Yeah, that's probably what he did," Maru answered. "Probably thought I needed to rest. But I feel much better this morning, and I can hardly tell that my hand was burnt."

"Really?" Lucy asked. "With a burn as bad as that one was, I wasn't sure the lotion would work."

"Well, lucky for me it did," Maru replied. With that she sat down at the table and began rummaging through there supplies. Picking up Hao's pistol, and taking a small screwdriver from her pouch, she began to work.

"This one's shot too," she mumbled to herself as she looked at the circuitry of Hao's pistol. "Hmm, I wonder." Then she picked up the gate device and began to examine it closely. With a smile she went back to pistol, and after removing its power supply, began to disassemble it.

Thirty minutes later she dumped the pouches carrying Hao's pistol and the used up energy cells into Lucy's trash, and went back to wait for Hao.

"You have been brought here because an evil worse than Kefka has appeared on the earth. An evil that can only be stopped by harnessing our powers," the orb answered. "We will give you our powers. Then you must go to Figaro."

"But why me?" Hao asked. "I don't want to be a hero, I'm just glad to finally be back to the mainland."

"Patience, my friend, all things will be answered in time," the orb answered. "First, you were chosen because you want to live in peace. You know as well as I do that there can't be peace until the evil is defeated, and since you want to live in peace you will not be tempted over to the evil side as some of the other warriors have been."

"Okay, why must I go to Figaro?" Hao asked.

"Because that is where all evil is amassing." the orb answered. "The final battle will be fought at Figaro. But that is not your concern at the moment. You must rescue the King of Figaro, before it is too late. His mind is possessed by the Demon, and he must be freed before it kills him. After he is freed from the evil of the Demon, he will be able to help you defeat it. Without Edgar, I fear it will not be possible to do it."

"Okay, what if I don't want to do this?" Hao asked.

"Then many shall perish, not only on this world, but many others," the orb answered. "Including you and your friend."

"Maru?" Hao asked. "I can't be responsible for her death," he thought, "and I won't be." "I accept."

"Good," the orb replied, "then I and the other orbs will give you our power."

Suddenly Hao noticed that the other orbs had moved forward. "I am the orb of wisdom," the first one said as it moved up to Hao. "I will now give you the power to see the weaknesses of monsters."

With that the orb seemed to turn to mist and encased Hao; seconds later, the mist was gone. The second orb, the orb of Strength, came to Hao and it too encased him in mist, giving Hao the Armor of Justice, light- weight yet very strong. The third orb, the orb of Agility, granted Hao the Shield of Justice, a mighty shield capable of deflecting almost anything, yet lightweight and not bulky because it was endowed with the power of the orb of Agility. And finally, the final orb came forth.

"We are counting on you, Hao," it said before transforming into the Sword of Justice, a mighty sword that can cleave through solid steel. After taking a few practice swipes with the sword, Hao turned to Circe.

"Let's get back to the town," he said.