Author's Note: And so, as I promised with Jade, I have returned, and before Jade wrote any more chapters of this story too! That's a start, huh? And I come to you with something that some of you may have forgotten, but others have been pretty hyped about. The fabled Crystal Tower mini-arc continues!

This chapter goes on to fellow Author Michael Mario. It's his Birthday… well, it's 30 minutes late, but cut me some slack here. Happy Birthday!

An Unfinished Scrapbook

The Ninth Picture

The First Wave

Part 2: The Crystal Tower

"Is that all? Because if it is, our little partnership has come to a sudden stall…" Shantotto stated from the other side of her desk, staring at Fay with a glare that could, as far as she knew, very well burn a hole in her.

"I'm sorry Professor, but I can't understand half the questions you ask of me. Aetheric levels, synchronization, it's not something that I've covered in my studies yet. I can only explain how I feel when I join with them and what changes they bring about," Fay explained, doing her best to keep eye contact with a clearly annoyed President. The diminutive Tarutaru was the most terrifying being she ever had the discomfort of facing, even in her adventures with Cuore's group. "They don't exactly talk either… so I can't ask of them much more,"

"Ever since you barged into my laboratory and took that spirit, I was kind enough to give you a chance to repay for it. A debt you seem to have become lax on, or would you say I am in the wrong?" Shantotto prodded, hopping off her chair and waddling around the room, hands on her back. Fay couldn't disagree. She had become more and more engrossed with her own studies and her escapades with her friends, she had all but forgotten Shantotto's task a lot of times. "Your silence has it all but spelled. That fire spirit of yours should have stayed shelled,"

"You can't mean that!" the girl immediately exclaimed, Ellylldan taking over as her main spirit, her wings flaring up into a flame-like color whilst her emotions soared. Shantotto stood there, looking unfazed, if a bit amused.

"I do not, hence why I did squat. You need to understand, I am not unknown to mercy, unless it interferes with my grander plan," she exclaimed, walking over to her and poking her now fiery wings. "Interesting changes… for now, this will suffice. However, next time, bring some more spice," she said dismissively just as Fay's cellphone began to ring.

Fay looked at it, then back to Shantotto, who just motioned her to go away, but not before leaving her with one final advice.

"Remember, I expect answers my girl, or your efforts to save that little spark will be flushed down the swirl! Ohohohoho!"

And with that last, chilling laugh, Fay left the office wondering just how this woman was ever considered a heroine.

The ringing of her phone began anew as she exited the room, however, just as she was preparing to answer it whilst turning, she hit something. She stood her ground in order not to fall, but, once she looked up to see what she had hit, she fell down, redder than her wings.

"Ah, there you are," Sky said with an apologetic smile on his face, completely ignoring Fay's utter bafflement and lack of words. "Aeolos was thinking Shantotto had eaten you or something. Honestly, none of us could disprove it so I came to pick you up personally," he explained, calm but with positive. Extending his hand, he offered to help Fay up. She clumsily took it without even a word of thanks and mumbled an okay when he asked her if she was ready to go.

It would take a few minutes before Fay could even speak. Not that Sky ever stopped trying to make her speak. Eventually, he finally did manage to though.

"So, what did the Diminutive Devil want of you?" he asked, reminding Fay that she had not told the group just why she had gone to meet Shantotto before their leave.

"She wanted a report on how my connection with Elly was going," she explained, manifesting her fiery esper for a few moments before having it fly back into her.

"That's the one you… found in her lab, right?" Sky asked. A child of the most illustrious euphemist for a thief ever, he was primed for excusing Fay's behavior.

"He had been calling out for help, I just ha-"

"Don't worry Fay, what you did was amazing! Steal- I mean, procurin' treasure from Satan's Den and coming out with only your soul legally bonded to a contract? Not bad, not bad at all!" Sky exclaimed patting her ontop of the head. Fay was left speechless yet again for the rest of the walk to the airship hangar as a result.

Fay couldn't help but be surprised at the kind of things that this educational complex housed from time to time. The airship hangar was here for the people studying mechanics and engineering, but it honestly felt more bustling than a lot of smalltime airports with all the experimental airships leaving and the docks whilst students, teachers and researchers alike worked together or alone on their projects. It was here that the rest of Fay's usual group of friends was waiting for her, save for Cuore. Kefka was leaning on an abandoned stall, apparently asleep, while Kaze was busy keeping Aeolos from breaking something, or himself.

"She's here! Thought that giant potato had gotten to you big sis!" Aeolos exclaimed, his theatrics as over the top as ever as he embraced Fay's waist. She had still not taken to his habit of being called big sis by the boy very well, but she was happy that he had accepted her so well.

"Now now Aeolos, don't call her that, remember, she's always listening…" Fay wished she was joking. She wished she was like one of those mothers telling tales of boogeymonsters to her children. She wasn't though. As far as they knew, Shantotto was always listening.

"Glad to see you're okay," Kaze told her, Fay feeling a strangely large amount of relief emanating from him. Did he trust her so little? He would never learn. She didn't even dignify him with a response, instead heading to wake up Kefka from his trance.

"So, where's Cu?" she asked him, knowing full well she could have asked Cuore's brother instead.

"She's getting our pilot," Kefka explained, cracking his neck and then his shoulder. Fay sighed, he had actually slept standing! "Lenneth knows where we're going though…" he said while rolling his eyes.

"I did neglect informing you of our destination, haven't I?" Cuore questioned herself, as usual appearing in the middle of both Fay and Kefka. They weren't even startled anymore. "We are heading towards the Crystal Tower, just south of Saronia Castle in the current Geography," she pointed out as a matter of fact, raising Kefka's eyebrow, but making Fay take a more vocal stance.

"But that's in Pulse! Another Planet! I didn't tell my parents I'd be gone for more than a couple days, this may take more than a week!" she exclaimed, frustrated at Cuore's lack of communication. For a teacher, this was Cuore's single largest downfall. She never felt like she needed to give all the info because she was never in the position to receive and learn. The apathy was frustrating at times. And considering that traveling to the farthest planet away from Fantasia took around 2 days on a normal ship, not even mentioning the massive wait times or the time to move to Saronia and then the Crystal Tower, this would be a massive undertaking.

"Weeks? I'll get ya there before tha sun rises tomorrow…" a heavily sea-accented voice said from behind Fay as she felt the bump of a fist on her shoulder. Turning back she saw an older woman in her early forties, yet with the charisma that betrayed her years, her long flowing purple hair covering one eye and then passing by her waist, and her sailor roots not forgotten on her clothing.

"That's why I the best of the best I could for our pilot. Fay, meet Faris Gabbiani, her husband wasn't available, and admittedly, he's not as good when it comes to raw speed, so might aswell not be. Everyone else, I trust you've met," Cuore explained, introducing the woman to the girl, who offered a strong handshake.

"Nice to meet ya lass. Don't ya worry 'bout it, time isn't what 'ta gotta worry when it comes to ridin' on the Syldra. Yer bowels would be your prime concern, advice from yer capn'!" she told Fay nonchalantly before heading off to meet an excited Aeolos, who went on to ask for advice for when he'd try to be a Red Samurai.

"I know that look Kefka. The debriefing will happen onboard the Syldra. With an ample voyage on our future, it is illogical to rush this information," Cuore told him. The teen groaned but nodded, following in the girl's footsteps. The group was lead to the Syldra, a massive, violet airship with a clear blue underbelly, it's wings designed like fins in memory of Faris' departed companion. Working on it was an equally large crew, a dedication matching any normal engineer, even though it was obvious to any these were your run of the mill pirates.

"I'm surprised you got them all to run this and make it work," Kaze told Faris, a familiarity that came from the multiple times they had met on royal meetings. While Faris hated the thought of being a Queen, she didn't slack from the more casual parties of royalty. She wasn't that stiff.

"Nothin' ya can't fix with a lil' elbow grease and some hammerin' on some of skulls," Faris assured, rubbing her right arm's muscles before heading in. Kaze laughed nervously. He almost felt sorry for her crew at times. And Setzer, but he had dug his own grave, and the crew was reaping what they had sown.

As they moved through the airship, Faris began explaining:

"As ya can imagine, since my husband had some sayin' makin' this ship, there's some of dem gamblin' tools on the bottom floor. Not as many as he'd like, but enough to pass the time. They are good to kill the boredom, as much as I hate ta admit it," she told them, basically telling them that they had a way to make the trip less boring. "When ya feel like eating, ask the crew, when ya feel like restin', ask the crew to lead ya to yer rooms. I'll be busy flyin' the girl meself," she pointed out. "Also, ye only got two rooms with one bed each, so get to decidin' how ye'll share that," she dumped that info on them before stopping at the entrance to the bridge. "Now, get to someplace safe before ye insides wish ya did!" she told them with a sly smirk, entering the bridge and leaving them behind.

"The gambling room is safe. It's isolated from the pressure," Cuore pointed out, leading them swiftly down the staircase and into the room before closing the door to depressurize the room before departure. As a result, it was barely felt by them.

"Finally, your big brain was used in a way that didn't screw with us!" Aeolos exclaimed, jumping on a nearby couch. Cuore turned her head sideways.

"You have to admit sister, you are always twenty feet ahead of all of us…" a cough from Kefka caught Kaze in his tracks. "Okay, five ahead of Kefka. My point is, we're now on a ship going to another planet to a place we didn't even know we were going to go to, to do…"

"I see your point Kaze. And I apologize. It is legitimately hard to… how do you say it… put myself in the shoes of people with mind states I never shared," Cuore pointed out, admittedly looking disappointed in herself enough to get her message across even to the non-empaths. "In any case, this is not such problem. The reason you know nothing is because I chose not to disclose the information. You see, if I did… it is very likely they would not let us take this trip,"

"Cuore, what kind of mess did you get us into this time?" Sky said, he clearly meant to sound completely exasperated, but there was a bit of amusement in it, something Fay loved.

"Very well, here is what I found," Cuore said, taking a projector and creating tree images in front of the group. "There has been various fluctuations of mana on the past year or so, where some mana particles would just appear and… disappear. Repeatedly. This happens with subatomic particles, but never with something bigger than that. The fact that this was happening with magic was highly troublesome. Then, it started happening in mass. Around the Crystal Tower. Look. These are all the same tower, taken over the space of a week," she pointed at the images, the first of which showed the well-known monument of Saronia, the Crystal Tower, the second one showing a stranger, more twisted version that seemed to be closer to an amalgam than its own thing, the final one, well, was its own thing. It was still a tower made out of crystal, but much more jagged and less refined than the one before.

"And exactly why are a bunch of students taking on this job?" Kefka asked, slowly becoming more and more aware of what this could represent.

"Oh that. Well, we could not risk it escaping to the masses-"Cuore began, a bead of sweat escaping down the side of her cheek. This was one of the few times Fay could get a read on Cuore's emotions. She was nervous. And that meant one thing. She was lying.

"Normally I'd attribute this to your greed for knowledge, but you may be many things, stupid is not one of them. Us actually being here must mean one thing. This hasn't been a singular occurrence," Kaze interrupted before Fay could. She actually was going to accuse Cuore of just wanting on the phenomena, so in a way she was glad Kaze had interrupted her. She was still semi-annoyed at him though. "You're awful at lying Cuore,"

"What you said is true… A lot of these mirages have been popping up here and there across the world, and the various schools is busy keeping up a face of working as intended and dispatching researchers to the spots. Shinra has begun helping us yes, but on the past few weeks, the number of these anomalies is just enormous," Cuore explained, shutting off the image.

"Mirages? So they aren't, ya know, actually there? The CT is still the same?" Aeolos pointed out, sharp as ever. Cu nodded at her student with a smile.

"That's right. These are just mana particles. They don't affect the actual structure of matter. If they did, we'd be having a much worse problem altogether. That being said, we still have to make sure it is one…" Cuore said, pulling out a pair of wristbands. "The mission tomorrow is simple. You go to Crystal Tower and activate this locator once you're inside the main hall. If the map matches with the one in here…" she began explaining, a square entry hall appearing on the air in front of them. "Then everything's dandy. Just explore the tower and report any anomaly instantly. If the map changes in any way, then… these anomalies are getting worse,"

"You mean, the map is scanning the physical parts, right? If it detects something different…" Sky began, not liking the sound of it.

"Indeed, it would mean not only the aesthetical structure, but also the atomic structure has been compromised. Were that to happen, report back immediately. I am not joking when I say the possibilities of what could be in there would be limitless if that were to happen," Cuore confirmed.

"This doesn't feel like something some students should be handling…" Fay commented, feeling a bit unsure, even with Wisp's help.

"You kidding?! This is awesome! We get to be real heroes!" Aeolos exclaimed, leaping from couch to table to another couch before getting hit in the back of the head by a scroll thrown by Kaze.

"No heroes today. We're here to scout. And Fay, don't worry, as Prince of Eblan, it's my duty to take care of everyone here… well, besides my sister," Kaze said with a smile that only further angered Fay.

"Some of us can take care of themselves…" Fay muttered, ignoring Kaze's requests to speak louder.

The rest of the trip went by relatively eventless. Fay and Cuore had no problem sharing the one bed in their room, even if Cuore did get a mouthful of feathers more than once. The boy's room was far more… chaotic. Even if at the end of the day it was just Aeolos and Sky fighting for the bed. Kaze slept on his own futon that he summoned while Kefka just fell to the ground asleep.

Eventually, as the clock rang for the 6th hour in the morning, Faris forced herself into their rooms. In one of them she found Cuore already awake, while Fay was easy enough to awake.

The other one…

"The hell kind of men are you all?!" She screeched as all men but Kaze remained motionless in their sleeping positions. Whipping out her bow, it took a lot of convincing for her to not shoot them awake right there and then.

Eventually, the group found themselves, if half barely awake, on solid ground, the morning sun illuminating the jagged extremities of the Crystal Tower. Kefka looked up and scoffed. It felt like it had been built like a spear towards the heavens. As the structure as crude as the civilization's motives he assumed.

"I mean, it doesn't look like a mirage…" Aeolos said, everyone looking at him sideways.

"That's the point of one," Kefka simply stated, turning his attention to Cuore. "So, where to, brave leader?"

"Oh, I am not accompanying you," she said, much to everyone's surprise.

"What?!" everyone, including Kefka, blurted out.

"Don't joke like that Cu, you're by far the most capable of us all. What if we're attacked by the ghosts of the Dragons from the time Luneth was here?" Sky said, exaggerating like always, but he had a point in both ways. Cuore had indeed told them that the possibilities were limitless if worst came to worse, and the heroes had fought weirder stuff in the pre-Rebirth times.

"And that is exactly why I have asked you to retreat immediately if the structure has changed at all. As it stands, we have a trustworthy report that the Crystal Tower had been cleared out of threats. The path to Eureka, however, less so, Eureka itself much less. Me and Faris will assess the changes in Eureka, you, on the other hand, have a much safer undertaking," for once, Cuore's completely logical take on the situation was completely sound and reasonable even for them. If anything, she was in more danger than them.

"Alright, if you need anythin' while I'm gone, ask the crew. Them be some filthy landlubbers but they got a good heart… if swindled by some gold," Faris told the group, nudging Cuore to go to the east, where the cave towards Eureka would be.

"Take care lil' bro!" Cuore exclaimed, pinching Kaze's cheeks before leaving in a hurry.

"What? Nothing to see here, we're wasting time!" Kaze exclaimed, clearly flustered by the looks everyone was giving him, racing towards the entrance of the Tower.

With a uncharacteristic chuckle, Kefka strapped the Cuore's mapping device to his wrist and started moving after him:

"He's right, let's get moving. I want to be back by lunch," And with that, the group headed up the stairs towards the tower.

Arriving at the entrance, they were met with Kaze looking on as the colossal stone doors opened up in front of them. Not knowing much of the Crystal Tower, as even Shin's tale of the adventures of Luneth was among the least well known, they turned to Aeolos.

"Wait, you expect me to know if it's supposed to do that?" he asked, shaking his head violently. "Hey I'm smart, but I've never been here before! And does Luneth or Refia look like the kind of people that would tell a story straight?"

"Point taken, let's keep going," Sky said, shrugging the happening off. "If we're scared by something as basic as doors opening, we really should reconsider our hobby,"

The entryway was a massive room of obsidian and golden flooring, gently illuminated by the pulsing blue of the crystal that ran through both the walls and the middle of the tiles. Pillars of the room were both made out of gold and crystal, and, at the opposite edge of the room was a twin set of staircases, in a giant floating crystal beset by a monument, a floating golden and blue cube slowly rotating at around the shoulder height.

Everyone took in the sights, mesmerized by the beauty. Be it a mirage or not, the Crystal Tower had lived up to its tales as one of the wonders of the Post-Rebirth World. All but Fay. A strange, buzzing on the back of her head kept interfering with her thoughts. Was she getting a headache? It is only fitting that Kefka, having left the mapping function working since the start, had to be the one to deliver the news.

"People, this room was supposed to be round. It's… square. Also, it wasn't supposed to have any pillars," he said, quickly dispelling any sort of wonder in most of the group as they stared back at him and the images he was projecting. As they overlapped you could see that they clashed and did not fit with each other at all.

"We need to go," Kaze said, looking around to see if everyone was there. "Where's Aeolos?!" he exclaimed, looking around the room frantically.

"Aeolos, don't touch anything!" Fay exclaimed as she had been the first to see him, the orange haired boy quickly approaching the monument and the cube. He payed her no heed, as he simply said:

"I'm just going to bring something as a souvenir!" he shouted, jumping to grab the cube which was easily almost as big as he was. As soon as he made contact… he was gone.

"Aeolos!" Fay cried out, the entire group breaking into a sprint, some desperate, some exasperated.

They searched the room, calling out for him as they did, hoping this wouldn't be a sick joke, all but Kefka, who had sat in front of the crystal and closed his eyes.

"This is a teleporter," he announced to the already despairing Fay. "His mana signature is here, but it's also faintly felt in several places upwards. Meaning he got teleported somewhere into his tower. Where to, I doubt even the most skilled mage would be able to pinpoint with ease,"

"So you're saying we have to go find him," Sky didn't question Kefka, he was making a statement.

"Sister sai-"

"He can die if we wait for Cuore!" Fay exclaimed at Kaze before he even questioned what Sky had said, unsure of why her voice came out so loud, but she paid no heed. She had to find Aeolos, right now.

"Do we even have any idea where to begin loo-"a large, deafening roar interrupted Kefka. Followed by a large, shrill cry for help. Both from up the stairs, at a surprisingly low distance of the group if their ears were to be trusted.

"Well, that's an answer if I ever heard one," Sky stated already mid sprint. Fay took flight and skipped most of the stairs, but even flying wouldn't help her outrun Kaze. Sky and Kefka were left behind, Kefka far more so than Sky.

Fay arrived at the top to see Kaze restraining a Dullahan's Blade from hitting a downed Aeolos with a garrot wire, as a large, quadruped Dragon slowly inched towards them. Her eyes were so focused on Aeolos, that even when he cried out:

"Fay, watch out!" she didn't even see the large violet sea serpent-like creature bite at her wings. Thankfully, instead of her feathers, it instead tasted an electrified boomerang as Sky arrived at the scene. With a shrill hiss of pain, it squirmed and contorted before falling into the ground, it's body filled with muscle spasms. "Good one Captain Boomerang!" Aeolos cheered as Sky waved at him, recovering the projectile.

"It's not down yet," Sky told Fay, readying himself for more. The snake's spasms had ceased, and it was no doubt readying another assault.

"Things aren't looking that well, I see," Kefka stated, catching up to the duo. Meanwhile, Kaze had successfully repelled the Dulahan's blade, disarming it. Now, the disembodied suit of armor attempted to crush the young ninja with its own fists. Aeolos himself had tired from simply sitting on his butt and had now taken up arms, standing defiantly against the encroaching Blue Dragon.

"You two get Aeolos, I'll handle this one!" Sky exclaimed, producing a chakram from his left pocket to match the boomerang in his right hand. Fay wanted to tell him to be careful, but couldn't work out the nerve too.

The duo dashed across the room, trying to get to Aeolos before the dragon did, and they would've, as the dragon was stalking its prey, not chasing it. That is…

"Ha, you come at a good time beast! You shall become a taste tester to my glorious Doman Steel! Behold, the Red Samurai's Flash!" Aeolos gloriously proclaimed, charging the dragon by himself. Fay gasped, Kefka was honestly expecting this, he just started racking his brain on how to salvage the situation however it may end. The Dragon, almost as if insulted by this whelp in red's insolence to charge him, raised its head, opened its nostrils and then thrust it forward, breathing freezing air towards the youngster. A smile crept up Aeolos' face, he was ready. Leaping far above where the wind would take him, he unsheathed his katana, now cackling with lightning, and cried out: "Tachi: Goten!" as he swopped down on the dragon's neck, slicing into it… barely. "Oh. Oh boy…"

Aeolos pulled the blade, but he soon realized that it had struck deep enough to get stuck, but not deep enough to cause relevant damage. It only got worse as the Blue Dragon's icy blood started coagulating into a freezing ice blob around the blade. Still, he had hurt the dragon. Enough so that it had roared in agony, taking off into the air immediately. As an involuntary reflex, Aeolos held on to the blade, leaving him an unwilling prisoner of the dragon as it soared around the building.

"Fay!" Kefka exclaimed, a plan immediately being concocted on the fly as adrenaline finally started to rush into the teen's body. "Can you keep up with it?!"

"Somewhat… he's better at maneuvering than me, but I can match its speed," Fay explained, lifting herself off the ground.

"Good enough, go, I'll cover for you. When you see an opening, aim for the webbing on the wings and tear it open! We can crash him if we hit those soft spots!" Kefka explained, removing his mother's Enhancer from its sheath. Fay nodded back and, readying her spear, flew towards the escaping dragon. Before she even got near it though, Kefka was already on it in his own way. "Blind!" he chanted, summoning a cloud of darkness to hover on the dragon's irises for the next few minutes, severely limiting its maneuverability and flight speed.

"Hang in there Aeolos!" she shouted while drawing near the confused wyrm. Aeolos didn't look as bad as he should though, instead exclaiming back:

"Don't worry about me big sis, I'll show this guy who he's messing with soon enough!" while still pulling at his sword. Fay payed no mind and dodged the creature's flailing tail before taking aim, beating her wings fiercely and ramming her spear through the dragon's right wing, sliding it across the bone until it gashed the entirety of the webbing. Unfortunately, the wing was divided in three by bone junctures, so while this would certainly cause the dragon pain and difficulty steering, it wasn't enough to knock down it from the sky. Worse yet, it gave away Fay's positioning.

The wyrm didn't need sight to know where it's attacker would be, even midslice it was already preparing its counterattack. Just as Fay removed her spear from the wing, she was faced with a sphere of ice, coming right her way. Changing to Ellylldan, she prepared her fire magic, unsure if she could make it in time… when a shuriken hit the side of the ball and combusted into flames, taking the ice with it.

Looking down, Fay saw Kaze, standing over the dismantled remains of the Dullahan, still in throwing form. Normally, even she'd be thankful. But the buzzing was getting worse. She couldn't help but scowl.

"Tachi: Kagero!" a wyrm's cry shook the walls of the tower, the winged girl turned to see a rare sight, Aeolos, his eyes completely devoid of any playfulness, had just sliced through the bone juncture of the dragon's left wing with his burning blade. Without any control over its left wing, the dragon began to divebomb towards the ground.

"Aeolos!" Fay called out, and Aeolos responded according, leaping into her arms, both watching as the lizard fell into its doom. Before it even hit the ground, Kefka's Firaga, Sky's burning Boomerang and Kaze's exploding Shuriken's catapulted it horizontally, hitting the ground even harder than it would have, rolling through it before stopping abruptly in a crash against another, larger staircase on the end of the room opposite where they had entered.

The three older teens looked at each other and, in a rare show of comradery from Kefka's part, they pumped each other's fists together.

"Yeah, act like you did aaaalllll the work! Forgetting someone?!" Aeolos exclaimed as he and Fay landed, pointing to himself and the girl. The group shared a laugh at the boy's antics. He may have proved he could handle himself, but he was still a kid.

Said laughter was ill-fated, as the walls of the tower trembled with a cacophony of roars.

"Oh what is it now?" Kefka groaned, looking around to see what was going on.

"Whatever it is, I'm not saying to find out. Let's get to the…" as soon as Sky pointed towards the stairs, on each of them fell a dragon, of the same shape, but each of a different color, one red and one yellow. "Stairs…"

"Crystals… What now?" Aeolos cursed under breath. Kaze then chimed in.

"We could take the staircase behind us," they looked back, fully intending on doing so… only to find the dragon they had hit to be slowly standing upright. Unable to fly, yes, but standing all the same.

"Any more bright ideas?" Kefka asked, exasperated with it all. He didn't hide the distaste towards Aeolos in all of this. He had gotten them into this mess…

"As a matter of fact, I do!" Aeolos exclaimed, a figurative lightbulb turning on in his brain. "See the cube? Near the stairs?"

"Yes, I also see dragons near the cube. Not as bad as Dragon Ghosts, but still bad," Sky pointed out, but Kefka had all but understood.

"How do we know that just because it brought you here it will bring us to where you came from?" he asked, too which Aeolos shrugged.

"Got any brighter ideas?" he said with the most puncheable face in the whole wide world.

"Kid's got a point. Everyone ready to go for it?" Kaze asked, received mixed looks.

"But the dragons…"

"I got that…" he said, summoning spheres circling out of him: "Kiton…" Mist Dragon appeared momentarily, coiling its neck around Kaze as he took a deep breath. "Fuma Kiri!" with a mighty exhale, Kaze spewed out a massive amount of mist, being added by his Grandmother as it rested its head on his shoulder. In mere moments, the room was filled with mist. However, as it was characteristic of this kind of mist, its summoner was able to perfectly see through it, and just like that, following Kaze in a single line, the group slowly, but surely, made to the teleporter, jumping into the unknown.

As the tingling feeling from dematerializing and rematerializing vanished from Fay's stomach, she felt the four sets of emotions that were her friends around her. A good start. However, a look around and they soon realized that they weren't at the entrance. No, they were on a simple junction of two staircases, one going downward and one going upward, and one large doorway.

"Does that thing work at random?" Aeolos groaned, kicking the cube, which proceeded too… go dark. And fall to the ground. "Oh. Oh no!"

"Chill, I'm pretty sure those things were already malfunctioning if it started sending us randomly through the tower," Sky comforted Aeolos, patting him on the back. Fay wish she could have done it, but for some reason she felt so… very… irritated. It hadn't coalesced into rage, not yet, but it was getting there, she couldn't help but be annoyed even at Aeolos, the boy she pampered!

She tried to get her mind off it. How could she do it she asked herself. How could she get them out of this mess. Then she remembered, she still had her phone. She quickly took it out and started dialing Cuore's number. If she couldn't answer, she'd just call Shantotto and she'd call for help!

"I'm afraid that won't be happening Fay," Kefka interjected, showing her his bracelet. The images on it projected were barely recognizable as shapes, much less good representations of the floors they were in. "The mana concentration here is massive. It's causing interference for sure. Your phone likely doesn't have a connection, does it?" she looked back, and he was right, the line was dead.

"Damn it," she hissed, raising even Kefka's eyebrow. Fay? Cursing?

"Fay… are you alright?" Kaze asked, worried to the core, Fay could feel his emotions, she knew. Yet…

"Worry about yourself!" she yelled, pushing him back as he tried to check on her. Then, she paused. As she took a moment to realized what she had done, she begged Wisp to get her emotions in check, changing to him as her main esper. It helped a bit. But not too much. "I'm sorry. I just don't know what came over me…"

"We're all a bit on edge, this isn't looking good for any of us, don't worry about it," Kaze said, completely sincere.

Then, a roar.

"That came from below. Think they found us?" Sky asked, looking at the group.

"I don't wanna stay here and find out. Where do we go? Up or through the door?" He questioned, evaluating his options.

"Well, if we could reach the top, then we could come down with a Float spell, or ask for help with some flashy spells…" Kefka hypothesized. Just then, stomping could be heard. They looked up stairs.

Green scales, far up the stairs, made their way down. A fourth dragon. This one green, acid slithering from its jaw, slowly stalked its prey.

"Door it is, door it is!" Aeolos exclaimed, rushing towards the door. The group did the same. As they approached it, much like what had happened at the entrance, it simply opened wide in their presence, letting them in the large, imposing room ahead.

However, as the dragon went from a stalk into a full on gallop, as soon as it came into a few meters of the door, it reacted poorly, immediately closing with a large crash, the impact of the dragon on the gate being immediately apparent afterwards.

"That was convenient," Sky gasped, a bit out of air from the sudden sprint.

"You tell me," Kaze added, barely affected himself. "Looks like we ended up on an interesting place," looking around, while the architecture was consistent, the group realized they had ran into an enormous library, shelves with hundreds of books each as far as the eye could see, all piled up into several floors connected by smaller staircases.

"Doesn't seem like one with an exit though," Sky said, less impressed than Kaze. A second bang on the door was heard. This one soon followed by a third and a fourth. "The rest of the party is here. Wonder how much that door will hold…"

"Let's see if we can't find a hiding place, or just something useful in general…" Aeolos suggested.

As the three teenagers talked, Fay was silent. There was something strange in this library. A feeling that she had only felt hints at during the entire stay, but was all but prevalent here. She could feel emotions. Emotions that weren't her's, Kaze's or anyone else she could see. And they were all of pain and melancholy. Sadness and tiredness. She looked at Kefka, and saw it in his eyes. His eyes were moving, fixating on things. Things that she could not see. However, they fixated on things that she could feel.

"Kefka, what are you seeing?" she asked him, not mincing words. Everyone stopped talking. Kefka sighed.

"I never got around to telling you this but… Me and my younger sister… we have some kind of enhanced spatial awareness. We can see into things that are just past our realm of existence. Cutting to the chase, this library, no, this whole tower, it's full of ghosts," Kefka confessed, flooring everyone but Fay. This only made sense to her. That's what she had been feeling. Their emotions.

"You saw ghosts and you never told us about them?!" Aeolos exclaimed, feeling more insulted than he should. He was angrier at how much coolness they had missed per say.

"They aren't exactly common, unlike what most people would believe. And I only saw one or two in this tower, and only at a glance, while we were doing… other things. This library though? Oh, it's full of them. And I'm pretty sure none of them know they are dead," he added, his eyes surveying his surroundings.

"How can you tell?" Kaze questioned, seeing this as an opportunity, just as Kefka did.

"All of them seem to be following their everyday lives. They just wander around, go through motions that seemed preprogrammed in their brains before, but they never affect the real world with it. They aren't strong enough to do it," Kefka explained, stopping to rub his eyes for a while. "This strains the eyes a bit. Trying to find one that can give us some clues. They are all wearing strange, futuristic fabric through. I'm not sure what civilizations this one is supposed to be…"

"I wouldn't question anything at this point, if Cuore has no answers, we're just going to be raking our brains uselessly without any hints on the matter," Sky told Kefka, knowing how much being compared to Cuore hurt him. It just had to be done.

"I supposed you are in the right," Kefka replied as he opened back his eyes and surveyed the room again. Another beat. And another. And another. A giant roar came before a final, stronger impact. The door started to crack.

"Hurry it up Kefka!" Aeolos exclaimed, pulling on his arm.

"Don't rush me, I can't- wait a minute! That's it!" Kefka's eyes stopped at one point specifically, a certain bookshelf. "There was a guy with an overly designed dress snooping around that bookcase. He made a motion as if he was pulling this book from it…" Kefka started, pulling on the aforementioned book. As he expected, the bookcase sunk into the ground, revealing a secret passage. "And he went through it," Kefka finished, extending his arm, as if leading them inside.

"Do we have any idea where this would lead?" Fay spat in an irritated tone, knowing full well this hadn't any guaranteed of safety.

"If you want to stay out here and become dragon chow, be my guest. I'll be in here trying to find an exit, or just hiding out form those carnivorous reptiles. Like a sensible person," Kefka retorted, staring at Fay right in the eyes as he did. He was tired of her shit, and he wanted her to know that.

"Fay, let's go, he has a point," Sky told her. The only person that could calm her down in her current state. With a deep breath, Fay took a step into the crystalline tunnel ahead. As soon as the final person had crossed, the bookcase closed behind them, and with it… all emotions, all of Fay's irritation, just… stopped.

"Kefka, is it just me or…" Fay began, but Kefka shook his head in return.

"No, you're right. This place is completely isolated from the rest of the tower. This… isn't a way out," Kefka deduced, drawing the Enhancer.

"This was made to store something, is what you're implying, right?" Kaze asked, his tools already at a ready.

"It's just a guess, but proceed with caution," and with that, they stalked into the depths of the crystal lit tunnel of blue. They walked for a few good minutes before a faint voice came in the distance. "Oh, damn, it's a prison. Was hoping for a treasury…"

"Should we proceed, or?" Fay asked, honestly unsure of what to do.

"We may be stuck in here for quite some time. We should make sure we're safe," Kaze stated, leading the way. The voice became louder and louder. It was only one, and it seemed to be babbling. Ramblings of a madman talking to itself.

"Why yes Voidsent do enjoy the dark, but that doesn't make them aligned with the Dark, we went over this!"

As the voice came into hearing range, so did the source. A floating, large crystal on the center of a gaping hole, housing two strange figures, with only a panel in front of it.

The figures on the crystal were all but human. One Fay recognized instantly as being like her spirits, but of a dark coloring. It didn't take long for her to realize it must be of the Dark element.

The other one… well, it was a floating book. A light brown tome filled with intricate silver designs, one of them being a face emblazoned on both sides of it. The group was as in awe of a talking book as it was confused, so much so that, when they arrived, he had the first word, quickly noticing them even in the midst of his rant.

"Oh, visitors. Terrific, has Amon finally found a use for us?" it questioned, all the disdain in the world being felt in each of its words. The group just stared at each other, even more confused.

"Amon?" Kefka asked, actually curious as to who it might meant. Could that have been the ghost he had seen? If so… how long had this tome been here? All these questions flowed in his mind.

"That's a riot, the Emperor has discarded him? Thought only he was worthy of Eternal Life? I honestly can't say I am surprised," And with that answer, the torrent of questions that plagued Kefka and the group erupted into a tidal wave that knew no end. Were these the ramblings of a mad man… or book? Or was there method to the madness?

"Look, you aren't making any sense here, Emperor? Emperor who?" Sky asked, being pretty sure he paid enough attention in history class to know that no one in Saronia's region should be talking about Emperors.

"Likewise. You mean to tell me that you are not Emperor Xande's courier boys and yet you found your way into our cell?" Al the questions ceased. All but one.

"Emperor…" all of the group in unison began, their shock and awe knowing the same culprit.

"Xande?!"

To be continued in;

Part 3: He Who Runs From Death

Post-Author's Note: Honestly, this chapter was going to have the entire CT in one go, but as you can tell… it's way too big for one chapter. Half of the next chapter is already done, so expect a semi-swift update! I won't leave you hanging. Can't let Jade be the only consistent person, heh?!