At first light, Lucian, Terra, Locke and Celes, armed to the teeth and maps in hand, hiked back to the pretty clearing where the cave leading to the underground stood. Lucian led the way into the cavern, and following the lefthand wall, began to climb a natural ledge whose top was lost in darkness. They came to an arched hole in the rock wall, a kind of natural doorway, and twenty steps beyond it, a massive metal door, the entrance to the stronghold. Locke shook his head and whistled.
"If we had explored this cave, I don't think we ever would have found this. The ledge leading up to it isn't visible from the entrance, and even if we had seen it, I don't know if we would have associated it with the doorway we were seeking. I think we are all very lucky you came along, Lucian." Terra took Lucian's hand.
"When we get through this door, Locke, you and Celes bear left." Lucian said. "The third doorway on your right is a storeroom that serves the lab. You can find clothing there to wear into the lab. It's a service hall and not very busy, so you probably won't be seen. But if you run into anyone and they look at you twice, kill them, don't fool around. They will raise an alarm before you'll have time to get away. Remember that. And the lab itself is dead ahead. Use your own judgment, but my advice is, as soon as you get a fix on the machinery, smash away. Just blast it, with that Air Anchor and Chainsaw that the King lent you. That will bring Adolfus running. He never leaves the lab, even sleeps there. You should be able to dispatch him one, two, three. Then, get out, back the way you came. As fast as you can. General Arian will be on his way, and believe me, you don't want to run into him. Better to let me take care of him, when he's alone and unarmed, in his quarters. Any questions? It's now or never." Locke and Celes looked at one another and nodded.
"We're ready to go." answered Locke.
"And you," Lucian said, looking down at Terra. "You stay right behind me. Hang onto my coat if you have to." He bent to kiss her. "I love you." he said, and turned to lead the way in.
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Setzer cruised as low as he dared over the mountain that he and his fellow Returners had been exploring. The half who were lost had to be around here somewhere. Unless, Heaven forbid, they were stranded in some underground cave-in, he would see them. Setzer was scaring himself with the prospect that his friends had been buried alive when he did see them, on a mountain ledge some five miles from where they had started the previous day. From where he was, he could tell that there was no way off that ledge, and he wondered how they got up there in the first place. The band on the ground saw him as he passed overhead, and they jumped up and down. I see you, said Setzer to himself. You hang in there. Help is on the way. There wasn't sufficient room to land the ship on the ledge. He slowly banked the Falcon, turning her back to get Edgar and Gau. They would have to figure out together how to retrieve their friends.
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Locke and Celes crept along the hallway that led to the lab. They counted the doors on their right, one, two, three. Unexpectedly, the one they wanted was locked. Locke winked at his wife and quickly jimmied the door, stepping aside with a sweeping gesture and ushering her into the storeroom. They found white lab coats and caps. Celes twisted her long hair up on top of her head and pulled her cap over it. They both carried bags that held their weapons and tools. They didn't know whether those would attract attention, but they would have to take the chance. They didn't need to remain incognito very long anyway. They planned to take Lucian's advice. They would get into the lab, get a fix on the machinery in question, and start pounding and smashing and melting it out of existence. Locke peeked out into the hallway and, assuring it was empty, took Celes by the hand and led her out toward the laboratory ahead. Two technicians were leaving as Locke and Celes reached the big double swinging doors that were the lab's entrance. The technicians never looked up, brushing past them as though they weren't there. Locke held one of the doors and he and Celes entered.
The lights were exceedingly bright in the lab. There were no shadows to get lost in. They would need to work fast. Celes looked up and around, and touched the sleeve of Locke's lab coat. He nodded to her. This was going to be easier than they thought. The big energy conduit, and the weapon it was intended to run, were both exactly as Lucian had described them, and they were both right in the middle of the huge lab, taking up most of the middle of the floor. Locke gestured with his head toward the opposite side of the room and Celes gave him a single nod, watching him move smoothly around the central machinery. When he reached the other side, he removed Edgar's Chain Saw tool from his bag. Celes, on her side of the lab, hoisted Air Anchor from hers. Celes aimed her weapon at the conduit and fired a steady stream of energy at the generator. Locke lithely climbed up the side of the Empire's new weapon with Chain Saw and began tearing away, cutting great chunks off and sending them flying with blue sparks in every direction around the room. The eight or so technicians inside the lab stopped at the sudden deafening noise, stunned, watching the destruction as if it weren't real, frozen in their tracks and unsure of what was happening or how to react.
Celes' weapon was wreaking havoc on the conduit, which had begun to melt from the inside out, turning itself into a great, molten lump of useless metal. As Lucian had predicted, Adolfus did come running, screaming, arms flailing, up behind Celes. She was blasting away at the conduit, watching it turn into a glowing, dripping mess, and did not see him. Locke did, however, and had jumped down from his perch on the weapon. He judged that he could not reach Adolfus before Adolfus reached Celes. Drawing Graedus, he threw the weapon with both hands and it hit its mark, squarely in the center of Adolfus' back. Adolfus stopped in mid-run, shock written on his face, arms out at his sides, looking like he was preparing to swan dive into a pool of water. He dropped straight down on one knee, mouth moving, eyes bulging, hands gripping air at his sides. Then he fell face down and moved no more. Locke walked quickly up to him and pulled his sword out of the dead doctor's back, wiping it on the man's lab coat.
The technicians were screaming and crowding the doorway to get out. They had no way of knowing that Locke and Celes had destroyed what they had come to destroy, and that they were finished.
"Let's get out of here!" shouted Locke above the noise. Celes grabbed his hand and they made for the door. Suddenly, the frantic technicians ahead of them stopped shoving at the doorway and began to edge backward. They parted in two directions, and General Arian stepped between them. A dozen Imperial guards rushed in around him and surrounded Locke and Celes. Arian walked slowly forward, stopping in front of Locke, who was now being held by two guards.
"We will repair what you damaged, Returner. I do not think the same will be said about you when I am through with you." Arian's gaze moved to Celes. "Well! What have we here! Is this yours? You have very fine taste, Returner!" Locke strained at the bonds the guards had put on his wrists. Arian moved in front of Celes. He reached forward and pulled Celes' cap off, smiling as her golden hair tumbled down her back. "My, but you are a beauty." he said in a low voice, almost to himself. He put out both arms and grabbed handfuls of her hair, holding it to his face and breathing deeply. "M-m-m-m. Like a summer's garden." Locke strained and swore through clenched teeth. Smiling at him, Arian grasped Celes by the back of her neck. Roughly drawing her to him, he crushed his mouth onto hers. Suddenly he yelped and drew back, blood dripping from his lip where Celes had bitten it. Arian grimaced, and drawing back his hand, slapped her hard across the cheek, knocking her backwards into the two guards who were holding her. Locke pulled forward so hard his own guards stumbled and had to strain to hold him. He had murder in his eyes.
"I'm going to kill you, Arian, that's a promise. Do you hear me? I'm going to watch you die!" Arian smiled again, one hand wiping blood from his lip.
"You're in a rather difficult position to be threatening anyone, Returner." Arian nodded to the guards. "I want you to lock them in adjoining cells." To Celes he said, "I want the Returner to hear everything when I come tonight to visit you, my dear." Arian grinned cruelly, and gestured for the guards to take them away.
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Edgar and Gau had walked perhaps three miles when they saw Leander and Relm shouting and waving and running toward them. Breathlessly, the teenagers related to them their misadventure in the cave with the great chasm. Edgar and Gau began to follow Leander and Relm back to the place where their friends had been stranded. Relm looked up.
"The Falcon!" she cried. They stopped and waited while the Falcon landed in the clearing where they stood. Setzer disembarked and ran toward his companions.
"I saw them!" he shouted. "They're stuck on a ledge!"
"We know," said Edgar, when Setzer had caught up to them. "We're on our way now." As they walked, Setzer asked the question that had been puzzling him.
"There's no way off that ledge they're on. How in the world did they get out there?" Leander told him about the passageway and the cave-in. Setzer nodded. "Thank goodness we kept you here, Edgar. I don't think anything but your drill could break up a rock as big as the one they're describing." The five were still a distance from the stranded Returners. They boarded the Falcon and found a landing place as close as they could, and walked the rest of the way in silence.
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Locke and Celes were being prodded along by their guards, one each now, into the adjoining cells Arian had ordered. Locke had calmed down, and his guard was grateful. This prisoner wasn't a large fellow but he was rather strong and the guard didn't need the trouble. The man sat him down on the cot, and then made the mistake Locke had waited for. He turned his back to leave. Like lightning, Locke leapt off the cot and looped his bound wrists around the guard's head, bringing his bonds up against the man's neck and pulling with all his strength. The guard hadn't seen him coming, and by the time he realized what was happening, his airway had been cut off and he was unable to make a sound. Minutes went by. Locke didn't let up. Slowly, the man stopped bucking and began to fall, his tongue protruding from his mouth and his eyes bulging. Suddenly, Locke felt the full weight of the guard. Locke held him another full minute, then released him, allowing the guard's head to drop between his arms. Locke bent over the man, fishing keys out of his pocket. Undoing his own bonds, he drew the guard's weapon and silently peeked out the door. Celes' guard sat slumped on a stool outside her cell, unaware of his associate's death. Locke held the weapon with two hands, then jumped quickly out his cell door and drove the blade into the guard's neck. This one too had been unable to utter a sound before his throat had been cut and flooded with his own blood. He struggled, gurgling, reaching out to grab Locke. Locke stayed just out of range, and pulling his leg up, shoved the guard off the stool and away from the cell entrance. Locke opened Celes' door and rushed in. Celes went weak with relief to see him. Kneeling before her, he quickly began unlocking her cuffs. Turning so he could reach behind her, Celes smiled.
"This is a familiar scene." she said. Locke worked at her restraints.
"Name's Locke Cole" he joked, lifting his head up to kiss her. "I'm with the Returners." He kissed her again. Removing the last of her bonds and standing, he said "Let's go!" She batted her eyelashes.
"You'd take me along?" He smiled and grabbed her arm, lifting her off the cot.
"Cute, but no time. We gotta get out of here." Locke handed her the second guard's weapon and they headed for the door out of the cellblock.
They made the main hallway without incident, but just before they got to the one that would lead them out of the stronghold and back into the cavern, they saw one of the doors standing open, light spilling out into the hallway. Locke grabbed Celes' hand and pulled her behind him. Pressing them both against the wall, he held up his hand, signaling her to stay put. He edged the short distance along the wall and cautiously peered around the edge of the open door. There was Arian, alone. He was well into the room with his back turned, and was looking down at a sheaf of papers. Locke knew that he and Celes could get past the room without Arian hearing. And they were very close to the exit. But all Locke could see in his mind's eye was this slug grabbing at Celes, slapping her. He felt an icy calm settle over his heart. I made you a promise, Arian, Locke thought. Time to pay up. Locke looked back at Celes and pressed a finger to his lips. She nodded understanding. She was not to make a sound. Locke drew his sword. On cat feet, he slowly approached the General. Celes leaned up to the doorway and watched from behind. Locke's weapon was a blur as he whipped it in front of the unsuspecting Arian and drew the blade across his throat. Great gouts of blood spurted everywhere. Locke held the dying man across the chest and forehead to prevent him from falling. To Celes' eyes, it appeared that Locke bent his head toward the General's ear and whispered something to him. Then he held both arms out at his sides and stepped back, letting Arian crumple at his feet, his throat slowly pulsing blood, the gory redness pooling thickly around his head. Locke bent down and wiped his sword on Arian's tunic, then gave him a hard shove with his foot. Backing out of the room into the hallway, his face expressionless, Locke held his hand out to Celes. She blinked at the sight of Arian's life's blood spilling out all around him, then looked up at Locke, and reached out to grasp his hand. Celes watched her husband in wonder as he led her through the hallways and out of the facility. She had seen him kill before, many times, today as a matter of fact. But it had always been in the heat of battle and in self-defense. Before now, she had never seen him kill this way, in cold blood and, she thought, with relish. Who was this cold stranger who lived deep inside her sweet lover? She didn't know, and she was a little disconcerted to find that he excited her. She wasn't sure what this said about her character. Her eyes glowing, she watched Locke's back as he held her hand, leading her out to safety.
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Edgar examined the great boulder that had fallen in on the passageway between the cavern and the mountain ledge where the lost Returners waited for deliverance. He couldn't rightly tell its thickness, but he was sure his Drill tool could break it up enough so that the pieces could be moved out of the way. The question was, how stable was the structure of the passage itself? If the movement of people crawling through had caused this cave-in, what might the vibration of the Drill do? What if there were another cave-in and it sealed the passage even more tightly? What if the cave roof here where he and Setzer and the three kids stood were to fall in? Edgar would not let himself think about this any further. There was no other way to get through this rock. He would have to risk the Drill. Holding it with both hands, he pressed the bit against the rock's side and started the mechanism. After several minutes, a sizeable chunk of stone dropped off. Edgar reached in and pulled it out, tossing it behind him. Drilling into the broken rock, more chunks fell and he removed them, continuing to drill away and break up the stone. He was beginning to see daylight peeking through from the other end of the passageway, when he felt, rather than heard, a low, rumbling vibration. It seemed to him that the vibration was in and around the passage where he was drilling, but he couldn't be certain.
"Kids," he said to Leander, Gau and Relm. "I want you three to go and wait outside the cave now."
"We want to help!" argued Leander.
"Yeah!" agreed Gau.
"You are helping," said Edgar. "If anything happens in here, I'll need you out there to go get the rest of the Returners."
"Awww!" whined Relm.
"Okay, kids, that's enough." said Setzer. "You heard what His Majesty said. Do as he tells you or it's off with your heads. Let's go." He began to herd them along the walkway toward the other side.
"Ohhh, ALL RIGHT!" cried Gau. "We're going!" The youngsters dutifully headed out of the cave. Edgar turned his attention back to the passageway. He ran the drill into the rock again, this time using shorter bursts of power. He satisfied himself with making slower progress, with smaller bits of the stone coming off at a time, but the vibration he had felt seemed to have stopped. Little by little, bit by bit, the rock fell apart, becoming smaller and smaller. The passageway slowly cleared, and the way to the other side became clearly visible. Finally, Edgar could see his lost friends waving and shouting. When he had widened the passageway enough, he gestured for them to start coming through. Each of them climbed in and crawled forward in turn, Rowena, Strago, Mog and Sabin, with Edgar and Setzer helping them down to the floor. Presently, the Returners' four lost souls, grateful and happy, were reunited with the rest of the world.
"We'd better move out," observed Setzer. "Things aren't too sound in here." Edgar nodded agreement and they all exited out the front of the cavern.
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Lucian quietly lowered himself down the short ladder into the subfloor of the underground stronghold.
"Arian's not here," he whispered to Terra. "He's way overdue. Something's wrong." The two had crept along this sub passage that contained water pipes and wiring. It was the service area for the New Empire's secret fort. All the rooms above were accessible by short ladders, and Lucian and Terra had gone room to room in the army barracks searching for and dispatching select officers, those who held the secrets of the Empire's new weapon and its power source that would have required Terra's perpetual enslavement. There had been six; the Empire was cautious with its secrets and operated on a need-to-know basis. Five had been found and now lay dead in their bunks. The sixth and last man was General Arian himself, the head of the New Empire Army and the man who was responsible for the laboratory and its work. But Arian had not come to his room during his off-duty hours. A man of discipline and habit, this was more than unusual. It was cause for alarm. Lucian sat beside Terra in the sub level and thought. "I suppose it's possible that he's in his office. With the crisis we've caused, he may be working late. We can check. If he's in the command center, though, we're cooked. Too many people. I could never get him in that place. We'll have to sit it out until he gets to his room. I can only hope that he gets there before the time that the ones we've hit are supposed to report for duty. When they start finding bodies, it's all over. They'll lock the place down and we'll never get out." Lucian looked at Terra. "Scared?" he asked.
"Not with you." she replied. "Let's check his office," she said. "Maybe we'll get lucky." Lucian nodded. The two stood and Lucian began leading her to the area just under Arian's private office.
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Gau looked up and shouted.
"It's Locke and Celes!" The King's party of Returners was now reunited with Sabin's party outside the cave leading to the underground stronghold. They looked hopefully at the cave entrance. It was indeed their friends, looking not too much the worse for wear. They couldn't help but notice that Locke's clothing was bloody. As the pair neared their comrades, Setzer called out.
"That's not yours, I hope! Are you all right?" Locke looked down at himself.
"Oh, this. None of it's mine, don't worry." Setzer looked relieved.
"Well, you'll have to tell us as soon as you catch your breath." Celes wondered how Locke would relate the story of the General's demise.
"Did you see Lucian and Terra in there?" the King asked. "Do you know where they are?" Locke and Celes both shook their heads.
"But the weapon's gone, and it's power source," said Celes. "And Adolfus too. You should have seen Locke with Graedus. He pitched it all the way across the lab and hit him dead on."
"Nice choice of words, Celes." laughed Locke. "Do you realize that we've lost Graedus and Runic Blade? They're gone forever." She put her arms around his waist and hugged him.
"We got out with everything that matters, darling." she replied. Edgar looked worriedly toward the cave entrance.
"I'll feel a lot better when...there they are!!" Lucian and Terra came walking quickly toward them from the cave, hand in hand.
"Locke!" called Lucian. "I see you paid a call on the General before we had a chance to get to him!" When Lucian and Terra had caught up to the rest of the Returners, Locke answered him.
"I had a little debt to pay. Hope you didn't mind too much." Lucian shook his head.
"Obviously he didn't see you coming. What a mess!"
"Thank you." said Locke, darkly.
"Are all the key players...gone?" asked Edgar. Lucian nodded.
"To the last. Our Terra is safe now. They won't be rebuilding anything. While we were in Arian's office, we rifled through his files. Here are the plans to the weapon system, Your Majesty." Edgar took the folder, and without opening it, tossed it into the fire the group had going. He watched as it burned to a black ash. Terra held another file.
"Locke, Celes," she said. She held the file out to Locke. Its label read 'CHERE, CELES: MAGITEK KNIGHT PROTOTYPE.' "I came across it looking for the plans to the weapon system." Locke looked at Celes with questioning eyes, but she knew immediately what it was and flushed.
"It's..." she began. "it's my genetic blueprint. What was it doing down there?" she asked, her voice rising. Locke put his arms around her.
"Do you want this to go into the fire too?" he asked soothingly. "I'll dump it this second."
"N-no," she said. "I want to read it. I have children now. It affects them as well." Locke hugged her.
"My genetic makeup equally affects our kids, and it's not an issue."
"But, you're normal." Celes said tearfully. Locke looked into her eyes.
"Celes, honey, don't torture yourself over this. It doesn't matter how you came into the world. You're wonderful, the best thing that's ever happened to me, and I love you more than I've loved anyone in my life. As far as I'm concerned, if the Empire knew what a good thing they had and planned to make a million more just like you, the world would be a better place, and with a lot more scenery." Locke laughed and hugged her again. "There's only one Celes Chere Cole, only one in the universe. And I get to go home with her!" Celes laughed through her tears.
"What would I do without you?" she asked. Wiping her face, she said, "Let's keep the file. Let's just keep it. Like an old family photograph. With you, I can accept this part of myself." Edgar spoke up.
"Well! We all have adventures to relate to one another! I propose that we catch up aboard the Falcon over a hot meal. What do you all say to getting underway?"
"Here, here!" the Returners cheered. Setzer sprinted over to the airship to prepare her for their journey home.
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