~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Dream Within a Dream

Hikaru heard some sort of noise. "What was that?"

"Sounded like an explosion," Clef replied.

"Was there supposed to be an explosion?"

Clef shook his head. "We'd better go check it out," he said. "Hikaru, Hayase, come with me."

"Why me?" Hayase whined.

"Quit your whining. We may need your help, worthless as it is," Hikaru replied. She was quite sick of listening to Hayase whining as Clef tried to explain everything to him. What a stubborn, arrogant, annoying, spoiled son-of-a-brat!

They followed Clef in the direction the blast had come from, into a large formal garden.

"Oh my god," Hikaru said, the first to find Ascot. She covered her mouth with her hands. He lay in a pool of blood and shards of rock.

"There was a boulder here," Clef said, frowning. He looked down at the body. "Ascot..."

"He's breathing...barely," Hayase observed.

"But I think it's too late...he's lost a lot of blood," Clef said, tears coming to his eyes. "Poor Ascot..."

"Healing Wind!" Fuu and Ferio arrived on the scene. Fuu's magic lifted Ascot off the ground, curing the many bruises and lacerations.

"Fuu, you were just in time!" Hikaru cheered.

"We thought he was a goner," added Clef. "What happened?"

"We've got to save Umi!" Ascot shouted.

"What? Where's Umi?" Hikaru demanded.

"Two men came and took her away," Ascot replied, running towards the door they had taken. "I tried to stop them, but they threw some sort of grenade at me."

Clef picked up a shard of rock and sniffed it. "Powdered Lillis," he said. "You're lucky it hit the rock and not you. You'd have been blown apart and nothing could have saved you."

"Ascot, wait!" Ferio took off after him. "There's nothing you can do now. They've had more than enough time to get away."

Ascot clenched his fists. "Why Umi? What'd she do to anyone? Why couldn't they have taken me instead?"

"Good question," Ferio replied.

"What?!" Ascot gasped, turning his anger on Ferio.

"Er, why they took Umi, I mean," he amended quickly.

"Oh." Ascot looked somewhat subdued.

"Yeah, why kidnap Umi?" Hikaru said.

"Because she's pretty?" suggested Hayase.

"Pretty isn't nearly the word..." Ascot sighed, drifting off into fantasy-land. "Beautiful...gorgeous...stunning..."

"Hey, wake up, you." Ferio gave Ascot's head a good-natured whack. "You have no idea why they took her?"

He shook his head. "Nope. Oh, wait--I think one of them called her a princess."

"One of them? How many were there?" Clef wanted to know.

"Just two."

"What did they look like?"

"Well, one of them was rather tall, kinda muscular, with blueish hair, and the other was a little shaggy-looking blond," Ascot told them, still looking rather shaken.

Clef shook his head. "Don't recognize them."

"I still don't understand. Why Umi?" Fuu said.

"Do they know something we don't about her? What if she really is a princess!" Hayase suggested.

"Of what?" Clef replied sternly.

"Never mind. It was just a thought," Hayase sighed. "You are all so closed-minded."

"Who are you calling close-minded?!" Hikaru snapped. "You still think this is all a dream, don't you? Ferio, why did you have to summon him?!"

"Sheesh, I couldn't afford to be picky. All I had the power for was to just grab in your general area and pull you back--and I'm damn lucky I lived through that." He frowned, looking away and muttering to himself. "Damnit, I'm a swordsman, not a frickin' delivery boy."

"So now not only do we have to find a new pillar, we also have to find Umi?" Fuu said. "Could the two be connected?"

"What do you mean?" Hikaru inquired.

"Well, if someone didn't want us to find the pillar, kidnapping the Magic Knights would be a good place to start, wouldn't it?"

"But Umi's a match for anyone!" Hikaru protested.

"In a confining wedding dress, unarmed? Against two? Probably not."

"And I didn't even have time to get a spell off before they nearly killed me," Ascot added. "We've got a serious foe here."

"But why wouldn't he want us to find the Pillar?" Hikaru said.

"I'm not certain, other than to weaken Cephiro for an outside attack," Clef said. "Or maybe it has something to do with who--or what--the Pillars really are."

"Not this again," Ferio groaned.

"I think we need to find this Cathedral," Clef announced.

Ferio looked down. "All I can say is I'll know when we're near it. I might be able to find it, but...I'm not certain."

"Right now, I think what everyone needs is a good night's sleep," Hikaru said. "We'll be able to see this much more clearly with fresh minds in the morning."

"Suppose whoever it is that kidnapped Umi comes after the other two in the night?" Hayase put in.

"Then we won't let them sleep alone. Fuu can stay with me..." Ferio began. Fuu turned a brilliant red.

"Excuse me?" she squeaked.

"No, not like that! You can stay in my room, I'll sleep on the floor. Is that all right?"

"I...guess so," Fuu replied.

"Hikaru can stay with me," Presea said, coming into the room.

"What about me?" Hayase said.

"We'll set up a cot for you somewhere," Clef said.

"A cot!? You expect me to sleep on a fricking cot!? What kind of palace is this?! Don't I at least get a suite?" He kept yelling as Clef led him away.

"See you in the morning, Fuu!" Hikaru said, walking away with Presea.

"Um...yeah, good night," Fuu replied, still feeling just a bit uncomfortable.

"Kill me now," Umi told her captors. "Just get it over with."

"Kill someone as beautiful as yourself? I don't think so," Camry replied.

"We need to hold you for ransom. Don't listen to this insolent twerp," Camaro said.

"What do you want?!"

"Cephiro," Camaro replied, rubbing his hands together with an evil grin.

"Girls!" Camry replied at the same time.

"For now, take the princess in the back with the others," Camaro groaned.

"Princess? What princess?" Umi said.

"Don't play stupid with me, Princess," Camaro shouted. "I am Camaro, future ruler of your world! You will bow to me one day!"

"But I'm really not a princess!" protested Umi.

"Don't speak unless you're spoken to! Camry, take her away."

Camry led her down further into the spaceship, fumbling with keys to unlock the door to a large room filled with girls.

"Here's your new home, Princess," he told her. "Try not to be too uncomfortable." He led her in, left, and locked the door behind him.

"I swear he overcrowds us in here!" a girl with blond pigtails held in place with little buns whined. "It's so hot!"

"Shut up, Usagi, you haven't even been kidnapped before," a girl with short blue hair replied. "Sheesh. Why does every kidnapper who thinks he's worth his salt go after me? What's so special about me? Where's that idiot Ranma to rescue me?"

"Calm down, Akane," Usagi told her.

"So, what's your name, newcomer?" One of the women walked up to greet her.

"Ryuuzaki Umi," Umi told her quietly.

"I'm Aerith. A pleasure to meet you."

"Though the situation is anything but pleasurable," Umi muttered. Aerith giggled.

"You'll get used to it."

"I don't really care."

"Why? What's wrong? Other than that you just got kidnapped--I can see it's more than that."

"I...oh, you wouldn't understand. I just want to be left alone for a while, okay?"

"I think I should sleep on the floor," Fuu said.

"No, that's okay. You're my guest, you can have the bed." Ferio arranged the extra blankets on the floor at the foot of the bed. "Besides, I should be between you and the door."

Fuu shrugged and got into the bed. Ferio made his way into his own little nest.

"I've slept in much worse," he assured her.

Fuu was lulled to sleep quickly, probably due to the comfort of Ferio's bed. Well. It only made sense, since he was a prince and all, that he would have a very comfortable bed. Ferio, a prince...the idea took some getting used to. But as sleep overtook her, she found herself thinking that the bed was more than big enough for two...and blushed furiously at the very idea.

Ferio awoke and looked up to see Fuu's bed empty. He looked around, but she was nowhere in sight. "How did they get her without waking me?" he wondered, but for some reason, he didn't really care all that much. He left the room to walk to the garden he had shown her that day, with only a vague feeling of direction. Inside the garden Fuu knelt in prayer, just like Emeraude had so many years ago.

"You're all right!" he cried, running towards her. Things seemed to be changing around them, until the garden became a snowy valley. The wind blew furiously, but he felt no more than a vague sensation of cold. Fuu stood before him, looking down, avoiding his eyes. Her hands were folded calmly in front of her, her expression showing no emotion.

"You must lead them north," she told him, her tone authoritative. She sounded like Fuu, and yet nothing at all like herself. She seemed to be--shifting, between herself and another woman who was in a way more familiar to him than Fuu, though he was certain he'd never seen her before in his life. "What you seek is here." She swept her arm around to show a wall of mountains.

Ferio awoke with a start. The first thing he did was make sure Fuu was still in her bed--which she was, curled up in the blankets and looking more like a child than she had five years ago.

Just a dream... Though not one to simply discard. At least now he had a direction to find this cathedral. But...did he really want to go?

Every time he even thought of it, something tugged at his identity, something it took all his willpower to resist. Suppose he got too close and it sucked the very soul out of him? Was this mission important enough that he could sacrifice not his life, but his self?

He looked at Fuu again. Was it worth giving her up? He tried to think rationally--on a global scale rather than a personal one--but his emotions got in the way. He didn't know all the people he might save, but he did know her, and that made all the difference. Selfish that may be, but it was the truth.

But what of all the unanswered questions? He'd repressed them, but they nagged him at the back of his mind. Who were his parents, and what made pillars so different from everyone else? And what made him different from both pillars and regular Cephirans? It was obviously a time of change, with the arrival of the Magic Knights and the war for his sister--rest her soul, wherever she is. Normal pillars didn't--but who was he to say what normal pillars did or didn't do? No one remembered the one before Emeraude!

Emeraude said I had to know...I should have listened. Damn, I wasn't cut out for this!

"Ferio..."

The voice shook him out of his trance. "Eh?"

"You should get some sleep. Who knows what will happen tomorrow..." Fuu sighed.

"Then shouldn't you follow your own advice?"

"Can't. I'm just too nervous to stay asleep--excited, maybe."

"Probably some of both. They say one of the worst curses is 'May you lead an interesting life.'"

"I suppose so." Fuu looked up at the ceiling--though it was too dark to see much. "Did you miss me?" she asked out of nowhere.

"Huh?" Ferio fought his urge to doze.

"These last five years, did you miss me?"

"I--what kind of question is that? Of course I missed you. Did you miss me?"

"Yes, very much so." Ferio could barely see her smile. "I think I feel better now. Good night, Ferio."

"Good night."

Part Four: The Journey Begins, coming soon!