Celes looked back and smiled.  "That bastard finally got what he
deserves."  She smiled again.

Since she was still looking back, she didn't see where she was going and
tripped.  Her weight and the shaking of the fortress was enough to make
the platform fall out from under her.

"I've got you, Celes," came Locke's voice as Celes suddenly felt a tight
grip around her arm.  Locke heaved her up and smiled.  "I couldn't let
that happen again," he said, his grin becoming bigger.

********

Celes walked quietly in the garden.  She had somehow felt at rest after
the airship crashing and her coming to Kohlingen.  "Kohlingen is such a
beautiful place," she thought.  "If I'm ever going to grow old, it's going
to be here..."

Terra, walking beside her, asked, "What do you plan on doing with the rest
of your life?"

"You know, Terra, you must have some mind-reading abilities nobody knows
about yet, 'cause that was just what I was thinking about."

"Well?"

"I guess I'm going to keep fighting.  That's the only thing I know how to
do.  Besides, this old arm," she patted her shoulder, "has gotten me
through two ends-of-the-world, and I don't think it's going to give out on
me yet..."

*****

"Hey, Wren?  Master Wren?" Celes called as she stepped into the darkened
house.  "Nobody came to the door so I let myself in.  Master Wren?"

Suddenly a ninja, garbed in black, landed right in front of Celes.  In the
blink of an eye, her Scimitar was in her hands.  She smiled.  "I've gotten
stronger.  Do you think you can take me on?"

The ninja jumped in slashing with his daggers.  Celes dodged right and hit
him with the blunt end of her scimatar.  She backed off.  "If I still had
my magic, you'd be dead already..."

"One does not learn the secrets of fighting by letting some other force do
the job for them," the masked being said as it moved in to attack.  Celes
slashed.  CLANG!  The swords held fast against each other.

Celes smiled against the hooded person.  "Let's see if Wren hired a man or
a woman to protect him these days..."  She kneed the ninja between the
legs, and he bent over moaning.

"Man."  Celes smiled.  She slashed again, but the masked man threw a bag
right at her face.  "Sting Powder!"  She ducked her head and leapt at the
man, pinning him to the floor.  She dropped her sword, swung one leg over
the guy, and pinned his hands.

"Looks like I got you..."  She ripped off his mask to reveal a brown-haired
blue-eyed man underneath.  Clapping and laughter came from the other side
of the room. "Good to see you again, Celes."

Celes jumped off the man and ran to an old man.  "Poppa!" she cried
happily, hugging him.

"You know I'm not your father."

"You were as much of a father to me as my real one was."

Master Wren looked Celes up and down. "You've grown in the past... how long
has it been?  Four, five years?"

"Six, actually."  She remembered back to the days when she was thirteen,
and had just recieved a black belt in swordsmanship from the most respected
swordfighter in town, Wren Caligraven.

"Come," said Wren, "we have many stories to tell each other..."

*****

"... And so I came here, to see if there were any jobs that would require
fighting for me to do..." Celes finished her story.

"Ah, my child, you always have been the eager one, haven't you?  But it is
very fortunate that you should come now.  For the world is in great peril,"
Wren said.

Celes got up from the couch.  "I hear that's happening a lot these days."

"This is serious, my child.  For it is not now that the world needs
saving -"

"But you just said -"

Wren cut her off.  "The reason it is not now that the world needs saving is
because it is literally not *now*. You have to save the past!"

"THE PAST?!"