Several butterflies fluttered around the flower beds in the grotto.  One landed on Viki's hand, which she held up to her face.  The butterfly flew away as Lord Riven entered the flower grove and knelt by Viki.

    "So, I see you're awake.  I was worried."

    "Huh?  What?  Worried?"  Viki stared at him.  "Why did you attack me?"

    Lord Riven backed up in shock.  "Attack you?  I did no such thing.  You simply zonked out.  You must have had a rough night."

    Viki put her hand against her cheek and it still hurt.  "Er... are you sure about that?"

    More butterflies flew in and began fluttering around the flowers.  Riven put out his hand and began to help Viki to her feet.  "Don't worry.  These flowers are exclusive to the lands of Nadastuff.  We're almost there.  Just walk a little longer with me."

    "Oh!  If we're that close, I'll teleport us there."  Viki replied.

    "NO!"  Riven quickly screamed, accidentally losing his grip which caused Viki to fall back down.  Riven quickly regained his composure.  "Er, that is to say, we should walk.  It would be a shame to miss out on the wonderful scenery."

    Viki sighed.  "I hope McDohl doesn't mind me leaving..."

    Riven slapped her.  "Dammit!  I told you that McDohl isn't coming!  McDohl will NEVER come!  He's probably stewing in some top security prison cell by now!"

    Viki put her hand against her cheek and glared at Riven.  Riven quickly backed up.  "Er... I apologize.  I'm a bit tense today.  Look, why don't you forget about McDohl and um... enjoy the authentic scenery or something."

    Viki glared at Riven again, then turned and attempted to pick one of the flowers, but her hand went right through it.  More butterflies fluttered around, but none of them landed on the flowers, either.  They continued fluttering until a few more arrived, then they all began to flutter around Lord Riven.

    Hmm... I don't think I like Lord Riven much anymore.  He sure became a lot wierder than when I last saw him.  Where's McDohl?  At least I'm pretty sure McDohl isn't a wierd scary person like Riven now is.

    Lord Riven waved his hands in an attempt to shoo some away.  "What on earth are all these butterflies doing here?!?  Levinne!"

    One of Riven's guards ran into the grotto.  "Yes, m'lady?  ACK!  Lord!  LORD!"  The guard quickly corrected his mistake.

    Fortunately for him, Riven was too distracted by the butterflies to notice.  "Why the hell are all these damn bugs here?  Someone turn up the butterfly factor on the spell or something?"

    Several of the butterflies landed on Riven as the guard stuttered, "Um, I don't think those are illusions."

    The rest of the butterflies landed on Riven and there was a loud chomping noise.  Riven screamed in pain as all of the flowers in the grotto dissappeared and Viki found herself staring at the vast plains in between Radat and South Window.  The guard slowly faded away to reveal a somewhat high-upper middle-aged blonde haired woman in a red robe, then the butterflies flew off Lord Riven.  Instead of Lord Riven standing there, Viki found herself staring at a black haired woman wearing a red robe.  Some of her hair was grey.

    "HUH?"  Viki screamed.  "Lord Riven is really a girl?!?  Now THAT'S wierd.  And a he's a pretty old one, too..."

    "OLD?!?"  Lady Riven quickly took out a mirror and looked into it.  "AAAAH!!!  Another wrinkle!  Levinne!!!  Where's my skin lotion?"

    The guard woman stuttered.  "Er... I don't know.  But Nikki, don't we have more important things right now, like these.... things?  This area was supposed to be free of all monsters and I never heard of such a thing as cannibalistic butterflies.  I'll take care of it!"

    Levinne was about to cast a spell when a flying squirrel slammed onto her head and knocked her down.  Nikki glared at her.  "Levinne, how am I supposed to weave another decent youth illusion spell if you can't even hold off the monsters for more than two seconds?"

    Levinne stood up and rubbed her head.  "I'll get rid of them right away, Nikki.  Guards!"

    Several more red robed magicians charged into the area.  Almost like how saying the name, Beetlejuice, three times over has a magical effect, on the third time of hearing "Levinne," Viki realized something.  Viki looked at Levinne as more squirrels swooped in and the butterflies gathered.  "Mom?"

    Before she could see if Levinne even heard her, there a few transform rune symbols appeared above the butterflies and there was a big puff of smoke.  When the smoke cleared, most of Nikki's magicians were transformed into frogs.  Nikki the frog croaked something which sounded like a frog attempting to curse.  The frogs, butterflies, and squirrels stared at each other for a few tense seconds, before they all roared their various animal roars.

    "MU MU MU!"  The squirrels screamed.

    "Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiibbiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!"  The frogs croaked.

    The butterflies wanted to scream something too but they couldn't figure out a way to make any noise so they just flew around in a couple circles.

    Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, Lightning, Blinking, Blue Gate, Darkness, Ressurection, Transform, and a variety of other runic symbols appeared above all the animals' heads right before a rather large fireworks display of all the magical nukes of Suikoden went off.  And Viki was in the middle of it all.

    "Medicine!"  Viki cried, after the blinding lights of so many spells in unison finally discipitated.  Viki stumbled to her feet and found herself staring at Nikki, Lohark, and Blargo.

    Nikki could barely contain her anger.  "So... transformed yourselves into butterflies and flying squirrels, I see.  Ambushing me and ruining my hair to boot, huh?  Don't think that you were able to trick the mistress of illusion so easily.  The girl is mine!"

    "I found her first!"  Blargo bellowed.  "I have reinforcements coming, so ha!"

    One of Blargo's blue robed magicians slowly got up.  "Sir Blargo, Sonya and her crew left."

    Blargo raised an eyebrow at the magician.  "What?"

    "She... said you could take your star dragon sword and Sindar relic and shove it."  The magician weakly replied, before losing conciousness again.

    "Eh?"  Blargo looked around.  "But we had a deal!"

    "You fools!"  Lohark replied.  "Is this how you repay me for giving you those blinking crystals?"

    "I never got any blinking crystals!"  Nikki yelled.

    Nikki, Blargo, and Lohark all pointed their wands at each other again.  Deciding that it'd be much more interesting to watch instead of simply running away, Viki just stood there and took some medicine as the three threw a variety of runic spells at each other, until Levinne yanked her away from the battlefield by the arm.  "Come on, we're leaving."

    "Huh?  What?  Leaving?"  Viki stared at the three magi masters blasting each other with spells.  "Aren't you abandoning your boss or something?"

    Levinne continued to drag Viki away.  "It's okay, that's just an illusion.  It'll take those two morons at least a few hours to figure out that Nikki's spells aren't doing any damage to them.  And even then, the two will probably argue with each other all day.  Now come along quietly and don't say a word."
 

***
 

    It was nearing nightfall by the time Viki and Levinne reached a small forest next to the river leading south from Radat.  With a wave of her hand, Levinne dispelled the illusion and the trees all transformed into tents.

    Levinne peeped into one of the tents.  "Nikki?  I have her."

    Nikki, who looked noticeably younger, had smoother skin, and no longer had any bits of grey hair, exitted the tent.  "Well, now we finally have the one that Grundge has been hunting for twenty years.  Shows how competant he is."  She studied Viki from head to toe.  "Twenty years?  How did she do it?  How did she manage to stay so naturally... young for twenty years?  Why can't I stay young like that?!"

    "Huh?  Naturally young?"  Viki asked.

    Nikki clenched her fist.  "She must have a true rune.  Stupid cheater!  That's also probably the reason why she's the secret Weffi component!"  Nikki grabbed Viki's right hand and looked at it.  "It's just a normal blinking rune...  Loharke's latest version.  A blinking mage.  No wonder why Grundge had so much trouble catching her."

    "Oh!"  Viki looked at her blinking rune.  "Actually, I was able to cast blinking magic without this for quite a while now using my wand.  This rune just lets me do stuff like this."  Viki waved her wand and Nikki dissappeared.  Viki and Levinne stared at where Nikki was standing for a moment.  "Whoa!  Oops... did I screw up again?"

    "Emergency!"  Levinne shouted.  "Nikki dissappeared!  Everyone search out and find her!"

    "It's late!"  One of the red-robed magicians replied.  "We'll find her in the morning!  Right, guys?"

    The magician was promptly answered with a loud snoring from each of the tents.  "Don't look at me, I'm asleep."

    "Me too!"  Came a voice from another tent.  "Asleep am I!  ZZZZZ I say!"

    "Can someone at least get me out of this stupid tree?!?"  Nikki yelled from above.

    Levinne looked up at the tree that Nikki was stuck in.  "Nikki, we don't have a ladder or anything like that."  She then glared at Viki.  "YOU!  This is your fault!  Do something!"

    "Huh?  Oh!"  Viki pointed her wand at Nikki and the tree Nikki was on exploded, sending Nikki crashing to the ground.  Viki stared at the beat-up Nikki.  "Wow!  I didn't expect THAT to happen..."

    "Ugh... I think it's about time to turn in for the night..." Nikki groaned, before losing conciousness.
 

***
 

    Viki was unable to get much sleep that night due to the fact that Levinne was watching her like a hawk.  That and Levinne's constant complaints about how she was "too old for this sort of thing", how Nikki was evil for forcing her to watch Viki all night, and how she should have been the master of illusion instead did their number on keeping Viki awake via the uncanny ability of noise to prevent the REM sleep stage.

    Viki finally decided to start a conversation.  "Um... hi there!"

    Levinne didn't reply.  She just looked at Viki again, then sighed and went back to sulking.

    Too bored to do anything else, Viki decided to continue the conversation.  "Read any good books lately?"

    "For Love of an Empire."  Levinne replied.  "Pretty stupid book, though."

    The two waited for a few more moments before Viki popped another question.  "That's an awfully big sword you have there."

    Levinne looked around the tent.  "Sword?!?  What sword?  I don't have a sword..."

    "Oh.  Well, I was just commenting on the awfully big sword which you might have had.  That's all."  Viki replied.

    Levinne glared angrily at Viki.  "Can you just shut up, you stupid girl?"

    Viki blinked.  "Huh?  Stupid?!?  This can't be right!  Mom would never call me stupid, either!"

    "Your mother... was an idiot!"  Levinne answered.

    A question mark appeared above Viki's head.  "Huh?  You're an idiot?"

    Levinne was extremely frustrated.  "Dear god, you're dense!"

    "Huh?  What?  Dense?"  Viki looked down at herself.  "But I try my best not to get overweight."

    "Forget this."  Levinne stomped out of the tent, leaving Viki alone to herself.

    "Forget what?"  Viki looked outside of the tent as Levinne stood at the bank of the river.  "What's this wierd bizzarro effect I'm getting?  Did I remember my past all wrong?"
 

***
 

    Viki got up really early the next morning and yawned.  She was still extremely sleepy due to Levinne keeping her awake most of the night.

    Well, better get back to Radat in order to start waiting again.  Besides, I'm not enjoying being with Riven's and Levinne's evil twins.  Finding out that all this time Lord Riven was really an evil old woman and that there's an evil doppelganger of my mom that looks much older than how I forgot she looked is really disturbing.

    Viki waved her wand and in a flash, the entire campsite and all its occupants was gone.  Viki stared wide-eyed at the empty plot of land in front of the river.  "ACK!  This is what happens when I don't get enough sleep!"

    Figuring that attempting to teleport to Radat while the world looked like a big ball of fuzz was a bad idea, Viki decided to walk back to Radat.  By the time she was near the town, she was awake.  Loharke, Blargo, and their men were still fighting each other in front of the town but by now they were out of magic power and had to resort to battling each other via Star Trek trivia.

    "I tell you the greatest klingon was Captain Spock!"  Lohark yelled.

    "You're an idiot!"  Blargo bellowed back.  "Everyone knows that the greatest klingon is Chewbacca!  DUH!"

    "Huh?  What's a klingon?"  Viki asked.

    Renal looked at her.  "Oh, you wouldn't know that.  We got it off that wierd box thingy we looted from a Sindar ruin."

    Metry quickly shoved Renal aside and glared at Viki.  "It's her!  Let's get her!  Enough of this stupid trivia crap!"

    Renal stood up.  "But Metry, we're all out of magic power."

    "Damn!"  Blargo commented.  "Just my luck to be out of MP when the Waffles component gets back here!"

    "Well..."  Lohark looked at all the magicians.  "How do we get our magic power back?"

    All of the blue and yellow robed magicians began to discuss the finer points of recovering magic, and eventually after an hour they all agreed that staying the night at an inn to recover all your MP was greatly preferred to running all the way over to a blacksmith, attaching magic drain crystals that they didn't have to their weapons, then smacking each other around until all their magic was fully restored.  Less painful, too.

    "To the inn!"  Lohark yelled.  In a flash, Loharke, Blargo, and all their men were gone.

    Once again, Viki found herself staring at a vast empty plain.  "Gee, they could have been nice enough to at least teleport me to the inn, too..."

    Blargo, Lohark, and their men quickly appeared in front of Viki again.  "Wait a minute!  Nightfall just passed only a few hours ago!"

    Metry slapped her forehead in disgust.  "We wasted the entire night arguing with each other!"

    Renal rubbed his forehead.  "Well... we could all just smack her with our wands, rods, and staffs."

    All unanimously agreeing that this was a good idea, all of the magicians simultaneously whacked Viki with their weapons, knocking her down, and inflicting a rather large amount of pain.  They then proceeded to smack each other around as Viki tried to crawl away from the battle, but was quickly yanked back in by a random hand reaching out of the big puff of smoke and various "POW!", "BLAM!", and "BLARG!" letters.

    Still wondering why her camp was north of Radat instead of south when she woke up, Nikki and her own magicians stopped in front of the grand very very epic battle occurring in front of them (very epic).

    "Take that!"  Renal yelled as he smacked Metry with his rod.

    Nikki looked at Levinne.  "What's this?"

    Before Levinne could answer, she, Nikki, and all of the yellow robed magicians were yanked into the battle.

    "I have to get out!!!"  Viki yelled.  Desperately beating or teleporting away anyone who assaulted her, Viki eventually managed to fight her way out of the big puff cloud of fighting people and swatted away the arm that tried to grab her back in.  After she stumbled a small distance from the carnage, she collapsed.

    Viki looked up and back at Nikki behind her.  "Enough!  You're coming with me!"

    Viki stood up and looked to her left and saw Blargo approaching her.  "You're supposed to be with me!"

    Viki looked to her right and saw Lohark coming towards her.  "The power shall be mine!"

    Viki looked ahead and saw Vincent in front of her.  "Lady Viki!  What a surprise that I should find you here!"

    Evil multisexual boy hag behind me.  Fat disgruntled santa to my left.  Crazy dog harassing man to my right.  Whosawierdoschmidt right in front of my face!!!

    "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"  Viki screamed.  "JUDGEMENT!!!"

    Whether it was because of Viki's rage, newfound experience, or the fact that a certain Soul Eater rune was in the near vicinity, the spell actually worked this time.  Angels of death teleported above everyone and said surprised angels fell and crushed them all.

    Viki slowly crawled out from underneath the pile of unconscious magicians and angels.  Leaning on her wand for support, she slowly began to painfully limp away from the pile and towards Radat.

    Please... no more... I have to get away...

    Viki stumbled into Radat and fell, barely supporting herself by holding onto the doorknob to Yoshino's house.

    Three years ago in real world time, he promised to protect me!  But... I must wait for McDohl just a little longer.  Better late than never...

    After she knocked on the door and waited, no one answered.  Viki waved her wand and dissappeared, then re-appeared inside Yoshino's house.  "Lady Sonya!  I'm back!  And I have some wierd crazy people after me!  Could you just help me for a little while and... huh?"  Viki picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table and read it.  It was a note from Yoshino saying how she left to visit a friend.  Viki put the note down and left the house, figuring that without Yoshino to cook a meal for her she'd have to stay elsewhere, unless she wanted to get poisoned by Sonya's cooking... or was it Cleo's cooking that was poisonous?  Still, she wasn't in the mood to take any risks.

    Just wait a little longer... he'll come...  Riven couldn't have been right...

    Viki slowly turned the doorknob to the Radat inn, opened the door, then entered.  She stared at the innkeeper and smiled weakly.  The innkeeper sighed.  "Let me guess.  You still don't have any money."  Viki nodded.

    Finally, no more corpses, no more deaths, no more arrows pointed at my face, no more concushions, no more narcisisists, no more slaughtering of defenseless people, no more things randomly punching me in the head, no more second-rate damage sponges, no more rabid dogs biting me, and no more constant pain...

    The innkeeper sighed again as he handed her some keys.  "Well, at least you don't have that damn flea-bitten mutt with you anymore.  Lousy beast ruined my carpet last time.  How long will you be staying now?"

    And of course, the long term effects.  No more hiding, no more memorizing a near completely new stone tablet every time, no more figuring out the spells of a new region for every single locale, and no more loss of my favorite memories...

    Viki smiled and was just about to answer when she heard some noises outside.  She quickly looked outside the window and saw Renal and Metry knocking on houses asking the people inside if they saw her.  Blargo lifted up a rock and looked underneath it while Nikki called out for Viki babbling something about how her mom wanted to see her, even though Viki knew that the Levinne working for Nikki was an evil clone.  Viki nearly burst into tears.

    It's... hopeless, isn't it?  They'll always be after me forever...

    "Well?"  The innkeeper looked at Viki.  "You could at least tell me how long you're staying so I can know how much total money I'll lose this week.  I'm sorry if I sound blunt but I'm already taking care of another poor beat-up fellow for free and I really can't afford to keep up the charity for long!"

    Viki looked out the window again, praying that she'd finally see McDohl outside.  All she saw were a bunch of robed men and women searching for her so they could blood-sacrifice her for their stupid time travelling ability.  Viki wiped her eyes and looked at the innkeeper again, then slowly replied.

    "One day...  I'll only wait for one more day.  Then I'll leave here forever, and I'll never come back."
 

***