The junior officer nodded to the bored looking guard sitting outside the little cell. The guard quickly unlocked the cell door and stepped aside. The officer had to duck to enter. He had complained about this duty, feeling that it was beneath him to take charge of a female prisoner. But his commander had explained that this was a very important prisoner and merited the greatest attention. Do not underestimate this woman, he had warned, she is a powerful magic user. And her security is crucial to the highest echelons of the Empire. Your work will be noted, he had been told. Lucian Avalonius was young and ambitious, and he recognized an opportunity when he saw one, and so here he was, to assess the situation and to take charge. Lucian did not know what he had expected to find here, but certainly not this. Not this tiny thing, sitting on the stone floor hugging her knees, head bent, long black hair obscuring her face. This was the fearsome Returner? This was the hope of the Empire?

"Look at me, Returner." Lucian said in a cold voice. Terra slowly lifted her head, fixing ice-blue eyes on the jailer. Lucian found himself startled. Here was this small, wretched girl; he could snap her neck like a matchstick. And there was no fear in her eyes. The girl regarded him with detachment, he thought. Peculiar, given the circumstances. Well, she would fear him soon enough. "Stand up." he ordered. Terra put her palms on the floor and lifted herself, unbending painfully. Her abductors had been rough. Lucian could see scrapes and bruises all over her. The chains on her wrists and ankles may have weighed more than the woman herself, and they left abrasions. Without turning, he put his palm out to the guard, waving impatient fingers. The guard laid keys in his hand. Lucian unlocked and removed the chains that had been on her nearly from the time she had been taken from the streets of Mobliz. Terra rubbed her sore limbs, wincing. Lucian returned the keys to the guard and nodded to him again. The guard motioned to someone waiting in the hallway. Another prison guard came in with an unlit torch and bedding; a third carried a tray of food.

"I'm not hungry." said Terra, sitting down on the edge of the cot. "You may as well take it away. I won't eat it." The jailer crouched in front of her.

"Listen to me, Returner. I will tell you when you are hungry and when to eat. I will tell you when to sleep, when to wake, when to wash up and when to pray. And believe me, you will want to pray a great deal before we are done. Tonight you will eat and you will sleep." Lucian looked around the cell. The torch had been hung in the wall bracket and lit; the bedding had been bundled with extra blankets. "This isn't so bad. You will have food and warmth here. But I can make it worse, if you like. We have accommodations to suit every purpose. Do not test me." He straightened and pointed down at the tray of food. "Eat." Terra looked up at him again, appraising. The coolness of her look disconcerted him and he became angry. "The tray had better be empty when we come for it in the morning. Tomorrow, you will be brought a wash basin and grooming materials. Get some rest." He turned and ducked down, exiting the cell and slamming the metal door behind him. Terra was alone again. Ignoring the food tray, she crawled onto the cot. She was shivering. Pulling a blanket over her, she turned onto her side and began softly weeping. Outside the cell, Lucian watched her through the small barred window, his face in shadow.

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"No, no, nope, no." Gau continued to shake his head at the questions being fired at him by the Returners. They were aboard the Falcon, high above the sea, on their way to Tzen. They were exhausting all the possibilities for an entry to the fort. Over the months he had spent in and around Tzen, Gau had been looking for an above-ground meeting place, but in those efforts, he had checked all of the places the Returners were suggesting and had come up empty. Yes, Setzer, I have gone inside every building. None was only a facade that could be hiding a large doorway. Yes, Locke, I checked blueprints against actual building layouts to be sure there were no hidden rooms or passageways. Yes, Sabin, I have been in all the basements. And yes, Strago, I have checked out all the large trees for doorways to hidden rooms. There were none, so there could be no doorways leading underground, either. The Returners stood together on the Falcon's deck, stymied.

"Well," said Edgar with a shrug. "We'll just have to go over it all again. We'll have to recheck everything. There's a way in somewhere and we have to find it, that's all." Relm's eyes lit up. "Locke, do you remember telling me one time that, when you were a th..., uh-h-h, a treasure hunter, you knew that when somebody wanted to hide something really valuable, they hid it in a cave?" Locke nodded, understanding.

"Yes, I said that I never got anything really worthwhile in a building. The great stuff was always in a cave somewhere."

"And there is a small range of mountains just at the north of Tzen!" Strago added.

"A place with all sorts of caves!" Sabin continued.

"Has anyone considered the size of the job we're talking about here?" asked Rowena. "A mountain range! It could take us twenty years just finding all the caves, not to mention exploring them."

"She's right," said Celes. "Does anybody have any idea of where we could even start such a project?"

"I do." said Setzer. "I have a device aboard this ship, a sort of emitter. It's really a device for use in night landings. It sends out a ray of energy that tells me what's beneath me, if it's flat land, or deep water, or if it's a hollowed bit of ground, with a covering too thin to bear the weight of the ship. I've never used it in the daylight, but I suppose it could tell us where the mountains are hollowed out."

"Caves!" exclaimed Leander.

"Exactly!" answered Setzer. Locke pulled a map out of his pack. They would have to record every place that looked promising, and those would have to be explored on foot. They had their work cut out for them.

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Carrying a tray of food, Lucian approached the hallway leading to the Returner's cell. She had skipped most of her meals, including dinner last night, and breakfast this morning. He understood that she was undergoing a frightening experience, and she had told him that she was worried about a group of orphans she had taken in, but he would be held responsible if she became ill. He was determined that she would eat this noon meal, by the stars, if he had to feed it to her himself. She wasn't a difficult prisoner, but she was very stubborn about anything she didn't want to do. And she apparently did not want to eat. Well, things were about to change on that score!

Almost from the moment he entered the hallway leading to her cell door, he heard a loud scuffling and muffled cries from the Returner. Alarmed, Lucian dropped the tray with a clatter and broke into a run. He nearly ran past the cell. The guard was gone. The door was ajar. Peering into the relative gloom of the little cell, he saw that the guard was bent over the girl, struggling with her. What was going on here? Terra's muffled sobs of "No! No!" told Lucian everything. Quickly bending and entering the cell room, Lucian grasped Terra's attacker by the hair and the back of his shirt. Lucian was a much bigger man than the guard. With a mighty heave, he threw the surprised guard hard against the wall. Before the stunned man could recover, Lucian spun around and, grabbing the guard by the throat, lifted him four inches off the ground and brought his face nose to nose with the attacker's. The guard choked and gasped.

"I ought to kill you," Lucian spat between clenched teeth. Then, loudly, he called "Guards!" and a half dozen men came running from both ends of the hallway. Lucian dropped the attacker, who lay on the cell floor, writhing and grabbing his throat, desperate for air.

"Lock this man up," Lucian said to the new men who now crowded the little cell door. "He's under arrest. I'll deal with him later. You and you," Lucian pointed to two of the new guards. "You two are now assigned to this watch. Step out of line once, and you will share this man's fate." The two new assignees nodded, their eyes very large. This big, black-haired man was an officer, and that commanded respect. Yet the two guards' eyes did not register respect, but fear. Lucian was young, just twenty-four, but he had a reputation. He meant what he said. He was not to be trifled with. The new guards looked at the prostrate man, then at each other. They would not be this man for all the gold in the universe. Two of the remaining guards bent to pick up the attacker, who was still fighting to get a lungful of air. They dragged him, still choking, out of Terra's cell.

After the men had cleared the cell room, Lucian turned to Terra.

"I'm so sorry," he said, reaching to touch her face where the guard had viciously slapped her. "I'm so sorry. I would not have had this happen for anything. Did he...did he hurt you?" Lucian took off his cloak and gently put it around Terra's shoulders.

"N-no," she replied. "Not as badly as he could have. Thank God you came in when you did." Lucian felt a rush of relief. Then, suddenly, Terra began to tremble uncontrollably. Lucian realized this was a delayed reaction to the trauma she had undergone, but it dismayed him. He felt helpless watching her. He didn't know how to handle this, what he should do. He found himself putting his arms around her, and he continued to hold her as she cried it out. What am I doing, he asked himself. What am I doing?

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The Falcon's emitter had done a better job than anyone could have guessed. It not only clearly showed where the mountains were hollow, but it showed the relative sizes of the hollow areas, so that the group didn't have to waste its time exploring gopher holes and rabbit warrens. They also decided to begin with the area close in to Tzen, assuming that the users of the underground stronghold would not place the entry very far away from the main facility. The trouble was, they had no idea as to the structure's size. It could be immense, for all the Returners knew. These Imperial sympathizers had had five years to build it. It might extend underneath the mountains themselves, putting the doorway much farther into the range than they were looking. Still, they had to start somewhere, and they decided to begin at the point at which the mountain nearest to Tzen became cavernous.

Locke proved to be an invaluable time-saver in their search. No one in the group was as expert as he was in cave exploration. He even had a respectable knowledge of geology, knowing that some kinds of cave walls were more drillable than others. Some were too porous; attempting to carve a doorway into them would only result in the surrounding rock falling in and refilling the hole you just created. Some were just too hard and no drill bit was equal to them. He was able to step into an otherwise promising-looking cave, train a light on the wall and run his hand over it, then shake his head and move the group onto the next candidate. All the same, on their first day, the Falcon took off and landed seven times. The Returners walked miles onto their boots just checking cavern entrances, and wherever Locke found possibilities, whole caverns as far back as one could still walk erect. Two caves had huge "rooms" beyond their narrowing points. Leander and Relm crawled through the low-ceilinged connections into the wider areas beyond, but saw nothing in either place that would suggest a doorway. The group explored without resting, but came up empty. Finally, when the sun sank low on the horizon, they shook their heads and reluctantly gave up for the night.

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Terra, feeling calmer, sat upright.

"I think I'm okay, now. Thank you." Lucian sat where he was, unsure he should leave her alone. "What made you choose this line of work?" Terra asked him, wiping her eyes. She studied his roughly handsome face. "I believe that underneath your stern appearance, you must be a very kind person."

"I am an army officer, not actually a prison guard," he explained. "You are a special prisoner. They want to take good care of you."

"Why?" she asked. "They're only going to kill me anyway."

"No," he replied. "They are not."

"What do you mean?" Terra said. "I know why they've taken me. It's for my Esper energy. And I have seen what they do to Espers." Lucian couldn't look at her. He fixed his eyes on the wall ahead.

"They know there are no more, that you are the last, that they cannot use the old machinery to tap your energy."

"You mean, they've developed something new, something that can tap my energy without killing me?" Lucian unwillingly looked into her eyes. Terra looked back into his and read her fate in them. What the Empire had in store for her was worse than death. She covered her mouth in horror. "You...you're talking about a living battery! Oh, my God! Will I be conscious?" Lucian looked down.

"I don't know."

"Tell me!" Terra pleaded. "I want to know!" Lucian looked at her again, this time his eyes full of, she didn't know what, pity?

"I don't know, Terra." he said softly. "Really." Terra sat for a long moment in silence, absorbing this new shock.

"When?" she asked finally. "When will they take me?"

"Well, they don't have their...device...perfected yet. It could be tomorrow. It could be a year from now. They think that they are close, but they just don't know yet." Terra looked at him, then stood and began to pace the cell room.

"What is your name?" she asked. He looked up, surprised.

"Lucian Avalonius." he answered.

"Where are you from?"

"Vector." Terra nodded.

"My friend Celes is from Vector." Lucian gave a short laugh.

"Celes?" he said, smiling.

"Yes," said Terra. "Why?"

"Celes?" he repeated. Terra nodded, confused.

"Well," Lucian began, shrugging his shoulders as if she couldn't see the obvious. "Celes, as in celestial. Terra, as in terra firma. Celes and Terra. Heaven and Earth. You're a matched set. No wonder you two are friends." Terra smiled at him.

"That never occurred to me. But it's true, you know. You should see her. She really does look the way you'd expect an angel to look." Lucian was watching her intently. Terra stopped pacing and looked back at him.

"What?" she asked. Lucian blinked and looked away.

"What were you doing, to get yourself caught by them?" Lucian asked her. "They said they traced a magical energy signature back to you. What were you doing?"

"A friend, someone I love, someone to whom I owe a great deal, was dying. He would have died. I just, well, I did a Life spell on him."

"Someone you love?" asked Lucian. Terra smiled.

"No, not that way. He's the angel's husband."

"Oh!" laughed Lucian. He again began looking at her as if he were trying to read her thoughts. Abruptly, he rose. "You seem well enough, now. I've tarried too long here. My superiors...I have to go. Let the guards know if you have need of anything." Lucian bent to exit the small doorway. "Good evening, Terra." he said over his shoulder.

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The shadows of night were deepening on the mountain ridge. The band of Returners had eaten their evening meal aboard the Falcon, but the ship lacked sleeping space for everyone. Locke and Celes had erected their tent and unpacked what they would need for the night and the next morning. Locke poked his head outside the tent flap looking for Leander. He found him sitting on his pack over where Relm and Strago were setting up. Oh, no you don't, thought Locke. He strolled over to the two teenagers, who were too wrapped up in one another's conversation to notice him. He cleared his throat. The two looked up, startled.

"Leander?" Locke said. "It's late. Don't you think you should be setting up your bedroll?" Locke gestured with his head to where his own tent stood. "Over there?" Strago walked up next to Relm and threw down his own bedroll with a decisive thud, then put both hands on his hips and fixed Leander with a stare. Leander looked from Locke to Strago and back to Locke. He was outnumbered. He shook his head at Relm and shrugged. She giggled.

"See you in the morning, Leander," she laughed. "Sweet dreams!" Leander shook his head again and reluctantly followed Locke to a grassy piece of flat ground that lay between Sabin's and Rowena's tent and the one that Locke shared with Celes.

"This is a nice piece of ground, Leander," Locke said. "There's nothing better than sleeping under the stars. See you in the morning, kiddo." Unrolling his bedding, Leander sighed heavily.

Smiling to himself, Locke reentered his tent. Celes was fully dressed, lying back on her bedroll, an arm behind her head, her long legs stretched out and casually crossed at the ankles.

"Aren't you getting undressed?" asked Locke.

"Too cold." answered Celes absently. Locke laid down alongside his wife, propped up on an elbow, regarding her.

"You know," Locke began, an innocent look on his face. "I've always wondered."

"Wondered what?" asked Celes warily, her suspicions aroused. She was well-acquainted with Locke's innocent looks. Keeping his voice down, he continued.

"Well, how these laces work. On this charming get-up of yours." He lightly prodded at her hip and shoulder with his finger. "They're very strategically placed, you know, and when we were traveling together in the old days, I always used to wonder but of course, I wasn't interested in getting a taste of good old Runic Blade for my trouble." He was grinning evilly as she felt one of her laces loosen.

"No, stop!" whispered Celes, playfully struggling with him, trying to keep her laughter down. Locke had lied to her. Her laces presented no puzzle to him and he had them all completely undone before she knew it. "People will hear us!" she gasped as he tickled her. But they were parents, and expert at keeping quiet when they needed to be. No one outside the tent heard a sound.

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Lucian stepped into General Arian's command chamber, and waited quietly while his commanding officer finished some business with another soldier. Looking around, he noted signs of high activity. Something was up. Before he could begin to speculate, General Arian gestured him forward.

"Lieutenant," the General nodded.

"General." answered Lucian.

"We've had some luck, Lieutenant. The scientists think they have perfected the energy conduit. They are ready to try the Returner on it. If it doesn't work, she won't be harmed too much. If it does, well, we're underway!" Lucian smiled with the enthusiasm his commanding officer would expect. "You will go collect the prisoner first thing in the morning. Bring her to the lab. Stay until everything is hooked up and running. I know you didn't want this detail, soldier. But it looks to be just about over now, and you'll be on to bigger and better things. You've done a good job, especially with that moronic guard trying to attack her." Lucian nodded.

"Yes sir. Thank you, sir. That guard, what he did, tried to do, he deserves to be in prison."

"Yes, my boy, he certainly does. He might have damaged the goods, eh, boy?" Arian laughed and lightly punched Lucian in the arm. "That's all, Lieutenant. After the prisoner is installed in the lab, you take a couple of days for yourself. You've earned them. Your new orders will be down soon."

"Yes, sir." answered Lucian, but Arian had already turned away.

Lucian sat up in the darkness of his room, sleepless. He was about to receive a big promotion, but no soldier deserved it less, he thought. He had made a basic mistake, a mistake that went against all his training as a military officer and as a citizen of the Empire. Terra was a Returner. Terra was a magician who would soon be nothing more than the source of energy for the weapon that would spell the final destruction of her world. Terra was the enemy. And he had allowed himself to see her as a human being. As a woman. He had lent aid and comfort to one who opposed the Empire. He should never have even called her by her name, nor allowed her to call him by his. He had held her in his arms, and had marveled that one so tiny as she was could make him feel so filled up. And she did. He felt a kinship with her such as he had never known. He had found himself wondering if she could even see him as a man under her present conditions. He had found himself wondering what she might be like, in a real relationship. In another reality, he felt, he might even have loved her. But not this one. No, certainly not this one. In a scant few days, from the moment he had first looked into her haunting eyes, he had lost his discipline. But no matter. He was an Imperial soldier, and what must be, must be. Loyalty to his superiors was paramount. He would make himself do what had to be done. He would be at her cell in the morning, he would see her to the lab, and as he had been ordered to do, he would watch as they hooked her up to the conduit. The Returner, he told himself. The Returner. The Enemy. Terra. You can't change it back, Lucian. It's too late for that. She is Terra, now. You will have to watch as they destroy Terra.

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The Returners were beginning to worry. These mountains were honeycombed with caverns. They began to fear the possibility that they might actually not find the doorway to the underground stronghold. Impossible, they said to one another. We will not allow ourselves to think it! But they had had two fruitless days, and they were moving more slowly than they had hoped they would. They had split up into two groups. Locke, Celes, Edgar, Setzer and Gau made up one, and Leander, Relm, Strago, Mog, Sabin and Rowena made up the other. Leander had, by association, learned some of Locke's trade, having gone along with him on more than one archaeological dig. He could pretty well tell the quality of the rock, and so by splitting up, the group felt they might cover more ground more quickly. They were desperate to make headway. They could only begin to imagine Terra's plight, and now they wondered if they would be able to get to her in time. The band of Returners was not used to failing, and they were determined to get their friend out of harm's way before it was too late.

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Lucian, in the company of one jailer, walked resolutely to Terra's cell. He carried chains and leg irons in one hand. When he approached her door, he curtly dismissed the two guards standing at either side of it. When they had disappeared from the hallway, Lucian directed the man who assisted him to unlock Terra's cell door. The guard entered the cell ahead of Lucian. Lucian stepped inside and threw the chains at Terra feet. She jumped as they landed with a loud metallic rattle. Lucian looked at her.

"It's time, Returner." he said. She looked up at him with wide eyes.

"Now? Already?"

"I told you it could be any time," said Lucian. He could see a glimmer of fear in her blue eyes. He remembered that, not very long ago, he had determined that he would make her fear him. Now that it had happened, he felt no satisfaction. He felt shame, and...something. Lucian turned to the guard who awaited his order. He nodded toward Terra.

"Lock her." he said. The guard stepped forward to where Terra sat on the cot, and bent to put the leg irons on her. Lucian quickly moved forward, drew his blade and forcefully brought it down broadside on the back of the guard's head. The guard dropped the iron in his hand and fell over on his side. Lucian reached his hand out to the stunned Terra.

"Come." he said.

"Wh-what..." Terra began.

"We have no time. Come." Lucian repeated. Terra looked up at him, afraid and confused. "Will you trust me?" he asked, and again held out his hand to her. She grasped it and Lucian led her out the cell door and down the hallway. Ducking into a small supply room, Lucian began to collect the accoutrements of an Imperial guard.

"Why?" asked Terra. "Why are you doing this, Lucian?"

"No time to talk now," he said. "Here. Put these on."

"I knew it," she said, smiling as she struggled into her new uniform. "I told you, you are a good and kind man." When she had finished dressing, she appeared for all the world to be a very small guard of the Empire. Her hat somewhat covered her eyes and she had to set it back a bit on her head. Lucian bent to roll up the leggings that were dragging on the ground.

"Well, it will have to do," he said, shaking his head. "Try not to trip." She took his hand as they headed for the door to the storage room. "No, Terra," Lucian said, smiling. "Imperial guards do not hold the hands of their superior officers."

"Oh," said Terra, reluctantly dropping his hand. She grasped her waistband and shuffled behind Lucian in her too-big boots.

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