'I thought I destroyed this. Hmm...' she thought. She looked over the pendant and thought. Something about last night didn't sit right with her. Espers can't exist in this world anymore. Their ability to exist here was wiped out by the destruction of the Statues and Kefka. Plus, Esper Terra seemed... cold. Evil, almost. Not to mention this was definitely not her old Pendant. That pendant was purple, not blue. So who would be trying to con her into believing it?

Sighing, Terra put the pendant in her drawer. Maybe she could find someone who could help her. Until then, she needed a job or something.

At the Cafe, she looked at a small bulletin board for jobs. There was one about a delivery service for the Cafe. She had more or less no job skills, so she chose this.

"Sure, you're hired. Take this cider to the old man who lives-" the manager started.

"Oh, him? Okay," she said, and took the cider. It was an easy job. That one merchant had done it for a while until Locke had chased him away.

'Locke... ' she thought. She kept running until she got to the man's house. She knocked on the door, and when the man came, gave it to him. Easy.

She continued making various other deliveries until later in the day. She was running a bottle of scotch to some rich man when the earth suddenly shook. She fell over and the cider hit the wall. When she got up, the sky was clear and sunny. Unusual. But now she had to get another bottle of scotch. She had to pay for it herself.

The job otherwise went well. Life continued as usual. She kept seeing soldiers from somewhere other than Figaro come and go, though. However, she decided to keep away from it. Her adventuring days had come to an end. She was happy, yet she felt empty somewhat. Oh well.

This wouldn't last long, though. One afternoon as she returned from her deliveries, she felt a strange presence. It was like the feeling she had for the past weeks, but stronger. She felt compelled to take out the pendant.

When she took it out, it had changed. It was pure black. Unusual.

"Yes, but you don't have a very usual life, now do you?" came a voice from behind her. She whirled around and saw a strange black creature. It looked like a big ball, except with wings and a giant eye in the center. "That pendant you have is mine."

"Umm... I'll give it back?" Terra said, wondering what to say.

"No need. I desire not the pendant. Rather, I want you."

"Me?" Terra glanced around, wondering what this thing was. It rushed straight at her suddenly. She was right in front of it now. It stared her straight in the eye.

"I am Shade, Elemental of Darkness. I desire a human to imbue directly my mystical power into you. You see, I'm arleady helping two beings, but I desire a slave to overcome Sithon."

"Slave? Sithon?" She was too paralyzed with fear to react.

"Yes. You being once a powerful being of magic, you would be more susceptible to my control. Now, I need you to destroy a being of darkness so that my two masters can take his place. I tried to trick you, but obviously you are not so easily fooled. Now, if you do not succumb to me, I will be forced to..." Shade continued on, but Terra stopped paying attention. She had regained control of her senses, and was thinking of a way to break loose. This Shade was magical, no doubt. A being she had never encountered before. Now, it looked as if it would kill her. So, she could only think of one thing to do, and hoped these were something like Espers.

She quickly brought her fist directly into the thing's eye. Its wings covered the eye and it backed up. She jumped away and grabbed her bow and an arrow, nocked it, and fired it in the general direction of Shade in almost one movement. She missed.

"You will pay for that, green one!" Shade said, and suddenly a huge doorway of evil opened in the middle of the room. It was spinning, and she had to grab the edge of the bureau to keep herself from being dragged in.

"Shade! You never know when to back down!" Another voice said. Terra glanced but could only see a big fiery ball of light shooting a light beam. Suddenly, the force stopped and Terra fell. When she came up and glanced around, nothing was there. But she knew that evil still existed. Whatever this Sithon was, or these two "masters" Shade served, they were evil. She also knew that she could fight again.

'Let's review my life,' she thought, sitting down. 'I'm born of a human that was sucked into the esper world and an esper, kidnapped by a tyrant Emperor who abused magic, had my mind sucked away by a psychotic man who later destroyed the Earth, became amnesiac, met up with strange people who led me to fight for a cause I wasn't sure of, regained my memories after turning into a strange pink monster, opened the gate protecting my own kind from humans, watched as the Espers I unleashed were destroyed, watched as the madman who took away my life destroyed the world, lost my will to fight and lived with children - quite contently, might I add - was led again to fight for a cause I still was not sure of, destroyed the man who took away my life, and then watched as my father, my kind, and a part of me was desroyed. I wake up to find my closest friend was an evil emperor, somehow fell into the ocean, and woke up to stumble to a town that no longer existed. I go to another town, miss my friends completely, and show up here only to be nearly seduced by a strange magical being. Oh yeah, and my emperor friend is dead. Boy, I'm just your average twenty-year-old woman.'

Now what? Terra sat thinking of what to do now. Maybe she'd join the Domans in whatever they were doing. She'd talk to them tommorrow then...

"All right guys. Terra, Edward, FuSoYa, you're with me in the Enterprise. Rosa, Rydia, Edge, you're in the Falcon."

Rydia looked at Terra for awhile. Half-Esper, summoned monsters, how much different could they be?

"A little uneven for us, hmm, Cel? I like it!" Edge said, grinning.

"Very funny, ninja boy," Rydia commented. Celes was talking to Terra. She threw a small spurt of fire at his foot.

"OWW! That hurt!" Edge jumped up and grabbed his foot. The others broke out into laughter.

"All right, already! Let's go!" Celes shouted.

Rydia clenched her whip. She boarded the Falcon and waited. She entered the cabin. Always solitary, that was her problem. Staying alone all the time. Another fight would begin tomorrow, or at least soon, and Rydia intended to help win it. Her eyes flared as the airships took off.

Rosa took the beer that the waitress had just put down. "We don't have a clue to where Cid is so..."

"Cid? You mean the engineer?" the waitress interrupted.

"YES! You know him?" Celes said.

"Yeah, he's in cahoots with Sascha DelAubre and some other one named Akfek."

"Who?"

"You don't know who Sascha and Akfek are?"

"No."

"They're the people that took over this town..."

"WHAT!"

The waitress sat down. "Boy, have you guys been living under a rock for the past few weeks? Tell you what, you give me a HUGE tip and I'll tell you everything there is to know..."

*****

"So what do we do? They have an ARMY..."

"So what? Takar did too. We'll just get some people."

"Oh, great."

"No problem. We'll send the word out we're looking for fighters..."

*****

"Alright, now, while the people are coming to Kohlingen, we'll go around and see if we can get anybody else." Rosa smiled as the Enterprise flew into the air again.

*****

"Hey guys, an airship," FuSoYa called out.

"The Falcon! Rydia and Edge are sure to help us..."

They pulled up alongside. "Hey, you guys wanna save the world?" Celes called.

"What are you talking about?" Edge shouted back.

"Just land and we'll talk."

*****

The two airships flew alongside each other. Kohlingen, Albrook, and Nikeah we all controled by Sascha and Akfek, so it wouldn't be smart to go there. They flew around and finally decided to land right outside South Figaro. They walked though the streets, passing the word around. They checked into an inn and stayed the night.

The next day they were out again. Passing the word around.

"I'm beat. This is not how I pictured myself getting a tan." Celes walked up to the innkeeper. "Looks like one more night, Sam."

Sam handed her the keys and said, "Oh, there's someone waiting for you in the apartment."

"Who?"

"They didn't want me to say."

Celes walked quietly to the door, and flung it open all at once...

And leaning back in the chair by the table, was Terra Branford.

"Terra!"

"I understand you're looking for fighters, to shoo some flies away from some villages..."

*****

Celes looked at the complement of fighters. Rydia, Edge, Rosa, Edward, FuSoYa, they had saved the world from Zemus. Terra and herself had saved it from Kefka. There were only seven of them so far, but she knew their numbers would grow. The last time someone had tried to take control of the world, she had lost a close friend, and she was determined to make sure that that would never happen again.

"All right, guys. Terra, Rosa, FuSoYa, you're with me in the Enterprise. Rosa, Rydia and Edge are in the Falcon. Once we're in the air we'll figure out where to go."

Terra smiled. "Looks like I'm back in the action, huh, Celes?"

Celes smiled back. "Another crusader's quest, Terra. Another crusader's quest..."

She sat on one of the crates that were scattered around the ship to make it look like it had cargo or something. Her mind drifted to what she had learned. It was a lot to swallow. Elementals, Sascha and Akfek, Edgar's death, the Livouf Takar being. She had mentioned her encounter with Shade, and had heard about the many other elementals. When she had asked Celes about the Sithon person, she had just gasped slightly and shaken her head, telling her it wasn't important.

"I've been gone too long..." She murmered closing her eyes. Lightly amidst the winds she heard a faint melody. She opened her eyes slightly and glanced around. She caught a glimpse of the Edward person she had met, playing a harp and singing lightly. She got up and walked toward him.

"A kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a..." Edward was singing. Then he saw Terra and stopped.

"What was that?" Terra asked, sitting down in front of him.

"Song from a play I'm writing," Edward said, setting his harp down.

"It's so weird to see you. I heard stories about you when I was little."

"I hope they were all good. I've heard Celes mention you a few times. What are you doing out so late?"

"Look who's talking. I'm just meditating on life. I've been doing that a lot lately."

"Hm. It's good to do that sometimes. I come out here and sing."

"You sing beautifully, from what I've heard so far."

"Celes does too. Have you heard her sing?"

"No. I was... sedated, you could say, at the time." Terra's face became suddenly downcast.

"I know how you feel," Edward said, reading Terra's expression. "I once was too weak to help my friends. They almost died."

"You just feel so helpless, sitting there, unable to even get a grip on yourself..."

"Yes. But you must get over it. It's a lot harder when the person you love dies protecting you," Edward said, his memories of that fateful day drifting back.

"That's happened to me, somewhat.." Terra said. General Leo's sacrifice came to her.

"Looks like we're kindred spirits." Edward said, suddenly smiling slightly.

"Do you want to trade life stories or something?" Terra said grinning a little.

"Some other time, perhaps. I am tired." Edward said, standing up and stretching. He started walking by her, and suddenly swept down and kissed her lightly. He then practically ran down to the quarters, leaving a stunned Terra behind.

Terra looked up, coming out of her trance. "Did I just miss something?"

"You seem to be very popular among the royalty people, Terra."

Terra just looked at Edward's cabin. "He seems like a nice enough person..."

Celes just laughed. "I hope you find happiness, Terra. The goddesses know you need it."

Terra looked down. "I still don't understand..."

Celes smiled. "And when two lovers woo, they still say 'I love you,' on that you can rely..."

"What?"

"The rest of Edward's song." Celes turned to Terra and smiled. "I think you better think long and hard about what happened here tonight. Ed really seems to like you."

"What am I supposed to think about? The only way I've known him is in those books, and maybe for about half a day here."

"Just think about it."

*****

Celes took it all in. The air, the water, the light, the animals, the calm serenity. Walking was something she had little time to do anymore. When she was a child she would leave Vector and walk around outside it with her mother. She would play in the grass, talk to a friend, or just read under a tree.

She had little time for any of that anymore, and times like this were to be treasured. She bent and picked a wild flower from it's stem. She held it up to her nose and smelled it's wonderful aroma.

"Look at all I've been missing..." she whispered to herself. She couldn't help but smile. TerraTalk, the guys had dubbed it. Before Terra had rejoined the fight against Kefka, the others had merrily dubbed anything that spoke of hanging up your weapon "TerraTalk." She couldn't help but laugh.

She looked around. Where was everybody else? Locke and Setzer were the first two names to come to mind, but the others were there too. Cyan, Sabin, Relm, Strago, Shadow, Mog. She even wished for the companionship of annoying Gau, Gogo, or even - she had to shudder as she thought of it - Umaro. They had saved the world with her. It wasn't like when Edgar was controlled, because Edgar took care of it himself. It wasn't even like their current dilemma. Sascha and Akfek could try and take over the world, but they would never succeed. Figaro could stand up to them, as could some of the other larger towns.

Fighting against Kefka had been special. Now the world had just gone to hell. Towns were being destroyed. People were being outright slaughtered. Livouf Takar, Sascha DelAubre, and Akfek. Three people trying to take over the world in a short time. Towns were fighting amongst themselves, thieves, thugs, and other lowlives freely roamed the streets...

She looked around her again, here it was beautiful. Places that hadn't been touched by mankind had flourished, while those who had have withered and died...

She lay down and closed her eyes. "How could we have let it get so bad?" she whispered to herself.

She was surprised when an answer came. "Greed. That's how."

Terra sat down beside her. "Everyone wants more than what they have. Everyone wants a bigger piece of the pie. They won't settle for their slice."

Celes nodded understandingly.

"The people who are in complete power are happy. They don't care how many other people they had to step over to reach that position." Celes said.

Terra nodded. "Maybe it would be better if we all left each other alone."

"But people need to be together. There are towns because people want to trade and live an altogether better life."

"Really? If that's the only reason we need towns -" Terra stood and started to walk away. "- why do they have walls around them?"

Celes spent the rest of that morning and that afternoon trying to figure out an answer to that question.

She came to the conclusion that there was none...

*****

"So where to now?" Rydia called from the Falcon.

"Let's head back to Kohlingen and see if anyone has responded to our request."

As the airship flew on its way, Celes turned to Terra. "So, did you think about that kiss?"

"Yeah, I went to talk to Edward about it."

"And?"

"And we talked a little..."

"And?"

Terra smiled. "And then he kissed me..."