She stood and walked around thinking about what was happening. Four thousand years, orbs, crystals, the Big Whale, Celes, Cecil, FuSoYa...

Gradually the others woke up. Of course, Edge was the last to do so.

They sat around the remnants of the fire, talking, laughing, and eating again, like they had the night before, when suddenly the sun was blacked out.

"An eclipse?" Golbez was the first to wonder. The moon wasn't set for another eclipse for almost a month.

"I trust you all missed me?" called a voice from above.

"Who's that?" Golbez asked.

"Loudmouth Celes, that's who." Edge grimaced.

The airship flew half a mile down and landed. The others came to see. Edge and Golbez had their swords drawn, and even Rydia was a little more defensive.

Edge froze when he saw the airship. "My baby!" he cried. He ran up to the airship. "Falcon! You're back!"

Celes came down from the gangplank. "You were calling me loony, yet you are the one hugging an airship..."

Edge immediately lunged at Celes. "You're not getting the rest of the orb!"

Celes didn't have time to draw her sword; fortunately, Rosa had time to fire a warning arrow. Edge froze.

"Still the one to rush head-first into battles, aren't we, Edge?" Rosa smiled.

"Rosa!" Cecil cried from the group.

"Cecil!" They ran toward each other; Cecil picked up his love and swung her around. He dipped her and they kissed. "Good to see you again" was an understatement on Cecil's part. Golbez walked right past the happy couple to check Celes. She still had a piece of the orb around her neck.

"Hand that over!" The way he said it, Celes formed three quick opinions about the guy: loud, obnoxious, and rude.

"And who might you be?" She said it in an equally curt manner.

"I am Golbez, Chief of Lunarian Security."

"Then I must say you aren't doing your job. I snuck an entire starship in there without anyone asking me any questions."

"Don't play games with me, girl. I could destroy you with a wave of my hand."

"And I, you, Golbez." FuSoYa appeared above deck.

"FuSoYa, you are in league with this... thing." Golbez stopped.

"No offense, in case you were wondering..." Celes said.

"Stop this. We have much to do and little time to do it. Rosa, Cecil, I am very happy you found each other again, but we have to get to work."

*****

"Here's the plan." FuSoYa motioned to the maps on the table. "First, Cel...."

He was interrupted by a noise that sounded something between a 9.7 earthquake and a concert given by The Lunarian Metallics.

The Big Whale sat outside; another ship, obviously of the same basic planning as the Whale, sat next to it. A hatch opened, and Flemme stepped out.

He talked in English this time. "We found this floating near our planet, pretty well burned... care to tell us how it got there?"

*****

Flemme had left, leaving the Big Whale in their possession, as long as they didn't almost incinerate it again.

"We have an advantage now," Rosa said enthusiastically.

"How do you figure?" Leave it to Golbez to be doubtful.

"They have four airships, we have one and the Whale, that should about even it out. Now if we could only find a way to beat their ground forces, it'll be us on Edgar. He wouldn't have a chance."

"They still have chocobos, of three types, and have a huge army." FuSoYa said.

"Don't tell me we still need more people?"

"We still need more people."

"What about Edward?" Cid piped up.

"What?"

"Edward, you know, that minstrel guy with the blonde hair..."

"Discuss him later."

"Forget fighting them. We'll never win an all-out war. Here is how we win: we have Celes capture us," FuSoYa said.

"The old man has finally gone senile," Edge commented.

"I'll ignore that." The others were skeptical. "Alright, listen, if Celes goes to Edgar with us captured he's going to try and brainwash us, but he has to be in direct contact with us to do that. All we need to do is have Celes loosen our bonds beforehand and we can burst out fighting."

"With what? Our bare hands?"

"He has a lot of ceremonial swords hanging on his walls, we could use them. Other stuff we could sneak in."

"Right, and while we're fighting him the entire Figaran army slashes our heads off from behind."

"It's our best shot."

*****

That night they used Cid's crane to load the airship onto the Big Whale. "I'll stay behind in case..." Rosa started. "What the hell am I saying? I'm coming too."

"I'll stay behind," Cid offered.

"You won't be much help in battle anyway. I trust all of the usual secret passages are in place and all, right?" Celes adjusted her sword belt.

"Edgar hasn't done any interior remodeling, everything should be the same," Cid said.

Celes shifted the orb shard in her pocket and fixed the one around her neck. "Alright, I'm ready."

"Me too," FuSoYa said.

He turned to face the others. "Well, are you guys coming?"

*****

That night, the attack on Figaro began.

"Very good." Edgar seemed different since last they met. Very different. "Now I will kill you."

"What!" Celes dove, drew her sword, and cut her friends free.

"It ends now, Edgar," intoned FuSoYa.

"This world will not be destroyed. Nature will survive," challenged Edge.

"Your evil reign will not last," threatened Cecil.

"I'm sorry, Edgar, but you've gone too far," Celes told the King.

"For everyone, everywhere, we must destroy you!" shouted Rydia.

"I, the man of Darkness, shall bring you from your own, even if I have to kill you," Golbez spoke.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Maybe once you could have beaten me." Edgar drew the Orb from his cape. "STOP!" Everyone froze. "Ultima!" Blue light struck them all down. "Haste!" Edgar suddenly sped up. "Quick!" He began to move even faster. "Slow!" His foes, now moving, slowed to an absurd speed. "You see. And now, let us do battle!"

"B..a..h..a..m..u..t!" called Rydia. The King of Monsters appeared outside of the castle.

"Shadow Dragon." Edgar returned. The evil beast appeared and struck Bahumat from behind. And the Dragons made war.

"M..e..t..." began FuSoYa, holding the orb shard.

"Silence, old man!" shouted Edgar, and FuSoYa's voice disappeared.

"M..e..t..e.." Golbez tried. Edgar spun and shouted, "Break!" Golbez turned into a stone statue.

"An as for you, Caller. HAHAHA! Imp!" Edge watched in horror as his beloved turned into an imp.

"BLITZ!" he shouted, watching lightning slam into Edgar. Nothing happened.

"I'm too strong for you, Ninja. You'd best be frozen," he laughed, as Edge turned into an ice carving. Only Cecil and Celes and Rosa remained to fight him.

"WHI.." screamed Rosa.

"Oh no you don't," laughed Edgar, turning her into a statue like Golbez. "And as for you, King of Baron, Shadow Bind!" Pure cords of shadow grew from the floor and bound him. Edgar laughed maniacally.

"You're no match for me! None of you are! Good-bye, Celes. X-Zone!" Celes was engulfed in a cosmic fold, and disappeared.

"Oh yeah!" shouted a voice from above. It was Flemme, who had apparently been watching. He was in the Big Whale. He grabbed the party with a beam of light, and went speeding off.

Of Bahumat and the Shadow Dragon, nothing was seen. However, a piece of pitch black scale was found on the ground, where the Shadow Dragon was last seen.

"So... now what? We've assaulted Edgar, and he's proved much too powerful for all of us... What are we going to do? Did you see how long it took for him to take us out? He didn't take a hit!" she pouted. Everything had been fine, until they had decided to storm Figaro, she thought. Now, Celes was gone; their team had been decimated. She looked, expectant of a reply from her companions. They were all as confused as her. Before any of them could speak, she spoke again.

"I think we simply need more heroes," she said. "I intend to go search for more people." She slowed. She was thinking of leaving her companions again, to find other friends. She had done this once, unwillingly, and gained strength in her call magic. Perhaps it would occur again. She stammered out now, scared, "So... Who's coming?" She brushed her hair out of her eyes, which were starting to get watery again, and looked up. She was surprised to see FuSoYa speak first.

"She's right, you know, more heroes. And now that we have two airships, we can split up, therefore we will be able to find help more quickly."

Now Edge broke in. "Well, I'm going with Rydia, there's no way I'm splitting up with her again." He walked over to where Rydia stood, and embraced her in his arms... and they watched the others for their replies.

<Yes, you do. Now concentrate on the following phrases.>

<Lioset kairoy..>

"Lioset kairoy."

<Mulbesh tosal>

"Mulbesh tosal."

<Zarabek nahn.>

"Zarabek nahn." As Edgar finished the spell, he saw the orb glow. And then he began to scream.

From out of the shadows oozed a puddle of darkness. "Hello, Edgar."

"Get away!" he shouted. But it was too late. Livouf Takar leapt into Edgar and forced himself down Edgar's throat.

And then the true horror began.

And so she set out to observe the ancient warriors who had recently appeared, despite the obstacle of time. They had just been served defeat at the hands of Edgar, and now were attempting to find help. Lorrithan saw the perfect opportunity to observe them first hand. While she could lip-read to a small extent, it was easier to take her physical form, slow that speech may be. An encounter along the road might do... She would probably be slightly uncomfortable around Golbez, who was a powerful warrior of the Darkness. It might work to her advantage, though, because the more they associated her with the light, the more likely they were to trust her. She would be yet another warrior of light to add to their ranks, and would be a serpent in their midst. The thought made her shiver with delight. Now she just needed a name... Veradel would do.

And so she prepared herself, and took her physical form. If only she didn't feel so slow like this. She sincerely hoped she did not become overly bored. Even like this, she had to make a great effort to move at a normal speed. If she became too distracted, she would likely forget and zip around. And so she placed herself where the warriors of light would run into her, a tall, regal woman with silvery white hair and a white dress.

As she waited, she decided to create something. Kharazz took great pleasure in destroying things outright, but there were so many other ways to have fun. She cupped her hand, and within an instant a beautiful butterfly formed, white with pastel blue and purple spots. She smiled, for not only was it deadly poisonous, it was not brightly colored, so the birds would not be able to tell that it was poisonous until it was too late.