Setzer had objections to Celes’ accusations. Apparently he was offended. Celes let his justifications and pleas for understanding slip off her like rainwater.

’You know that i risked my life right alongside you and the other Returners.’

’How many hardships did we face, all of those and you only choose now to doubt me?’

’ Why did you come to seek me if you were going to judge me so harshly?’

Celes rolled her eyes. ”Oh, get off it,” she said, sweeping her hair back in the same motion. ”I’ve found you like this before and you weren’t exactly jumping at the bit to take action. I’m here because I want to be and because I thought I’d be the one to get you moving.” She shook her head. ”I guess you beat me to it.”

Still, what was it Setzer had said last time? That he might as well because he was feeling lucky? Setzer was a man of alternating despair, hedonism, and action. Part of her had always wondered if he’d just joined the Returners for the thrill of it.

But Setzer accepted her terms just like he had twice before. Just like before, he’d grant her the use of his airship. She supposed it did a woman well to befriend a pilot.

“However this is where I will put my own stipulation in place,” he added, and Celes glanced at him cautiously. ”Once the Blackjack is repaired and we reunite all of our friends, you will never call my character or intentions into question again. That should be a simple thing right?" It was all so ridiculous that Celes laughed at what she could only assume was a joke.

”Oh, is that all? Never question you again?” Celes shook her head and shot him a playful look with a raise of her eyebrow. ”I promise that I’ll only call your character into question when you deserve it.”

That was something she felt she could promise well enough. If he proved himself. If he came through (like she supposed he usually had before) then she’d only criticize his actions and not what she assumed his intentions to be. It was more than fair if she said so herself, though of course, she hadn’t taken him seriously.

”Do you have a place to rest during your stay in town?” Setzer asked, and Celes blinked at him. ”I shall offer my own dwelling if you need somewhere to stay. And to dispel any worries you may have, I shall surrender my own bed to you and shall accommodate myself in the main room on a couch. The room I would be surrendering has a locking mechanism on the inside that you may lock if you wish."

”Oh.” Celes blinked again, uncertain. ”Thanks,” she said before she thought better of it. The offer was generous, if not unexpected. She’d stayed on the Blackjack before after all. Several times before, and it only made sense to stick together. The offer was appreciated. Relieving, really, when she’d been on her own for so long sleeping in tents and rented rooms. But that second part…

”Do you think I haven’t slept on a couch before? That couch? I think I took the floor a few times when all of you would stop clamoring about honor and putting women first.” She shook her head again. Locke and Cyan had been particularly bad about it. Locke because he was too kind-hearted for his own good and Cyan because of his antiquated sense of duty. Even Edgar and Setzer had gone about it before, though theirs had always seemed a tad more motivated than the others. Only Sabin -- as meat-headed as he was -- never seemed to give a rat’s ass where she or Terra slept, mostly because he’d always been just fine propped against a wall. ”I was a soldier, Setzer. I think I can handle a couch.”

It was a familiar chide. A comforting one, almost. Like no time had passed between them at all. Like she’d open the door behind her to a dozen determined faces talking battle strategies, telling jokes, or practicing martial arts in turn.

The thought wrenched somewhere deep in her chest. There wasn’t anything out there but broken gears and oil cans. Maybe one day. But not this one.

”But that aside. Thanks. I mean that.” Celes couldn’t bring herself to look at him directly, so she took to watching his desk instead. ”And I’m happy to see you. Sincere or not, your plan isn’t a bad one.” It was more than she’d managed in three times as long. Was this how the others had felt running into her after a year spent in ruin? She’d nearly given up hope. ”I’ll warn you though, I don’t know how much my help is worth. I’ve never fixed anything more complicated than a rifle in my life. Operating magiteck isn’t exactly the same as refurbishing an airship.” Celes glanced at him quickly, the ghost of a joke on her lips. ”I’ll try though. What was that you said before? I’m starting to feel lucky?”

She laughed a little despite herself. ”Well then, Captain Setzer, I suppose my life’s a chip in your pile now. Just don’t let it get to your head.” Celes looked at him straight on then for what felt like the first time in ages. ”What do you suggest we do now?”

ulla

The rain was like a beast unto itself -- solid, vengeful, and alive. It roared with crashing thunder, and it was all Celes could do not to square herself against it. They’d said the Reignstorm had ended. That days like these were of the past, but words like these did little to ease her nerves anymore. They’d said that this world was immune from vengeful gods scorching fire from the sky. They’d said that she didn’t have to worry about being alone again. And now they said that the storms had passed.

Celes stood in the rain and raised her eyes to the sky. So much for empty promises.

This sector of Provo was known for its thieves, street gangs, and the shady deals that went on under bar tables, but Celes hardly cared. If anything, it felt good to have a reason to carry her sword in public again. Setzer had sent her here for a few of what he called “favors to new friends,” but which she took to mean “bribes with smugglers,” and she hadn’t yet been proven wrong. It wasn’t exactly her cup of tea, but she was hardly in a position to complain. Setzer let her stay with him, after all, and she’d have paid off half a million criminals before she even thought of parting ways with someone she knew from home.

Still, why did it have to be Provo?

This was a place brimming with memories, but where wasn’t in this world anymore? Here, she’d had her first run-in with police. Her first friend too, and eventually, something that could have been more. She knew these streets better than anywhere else on this impossible dimension, but she didn’t think to wander them as she waited for whatever shady, back-alley deal Setzer had arranged for. No, instead she simply watched the storm and let the warm rainwaters seep into her hair, jacket, and boots.

She stood still and breathed slowly, listening to the sounds of the city. Thunder, distant and echoing. A door slammed shut by the wind. Footsteps in shallow puddles. A scream-

Screaming. Strangled, desperate cries for help. Celes stiffened and then took off running towards the source. Her breath was tight in the back of her throat. She’d heard that sound before, too many times to count. That was the kind of sound you only heard on battlefields or at the hands of soldiers too merciless to know the difference between civilians and rebels. Her heart was pounding before she turned the corner, saw the blood, heard the murmuring of the crowd, and spotted a hand, wrist, and half an arm pooling blood in a puddle nearly two feet from its wailing owner.

The man was still screaming, even after the remaining stump of his arm had been healed shut with magic. There were murmurs from the crowd about a woman with a sword. Short hair, golden armor, a pink skirt, gone fleeing down a back alleyway. Celes glanced in the direction the woman had fled before darted backwards and down a nearby street. She’d wandered this city too many times to count, and she knew where that alley led. If she could head off the attacker from there…

...Then what? A woman like that could only be another like Celes. A stranger from somewhere else lost and abandoned in this place that shouldn’t exist. Hadn’t Celes done worse when she’d been cornered and confused on these very streets? Then again, she knew all too well that not everyone brought here was so well-intentioned.

What would she do? Celes didn’t quite know yet. Just that if the woman was only startled, she’d need protection from the city guards soon or they’d have another massacre on their hands. And if the woman had acted intentionally…

Well, then someone needed to stop her.

Celes charged into another alleyway, the only exit of the one that woman had fled into. They had to run into each other eventually, and when they did, Celes would head her off the only way she knew how -- with a stern look and a sword. The rain pounded heavy against her shoulders as she ran. The chill of it bit into her skin like something alive.

Far away, the storm gave an ominous bellow.

ulla

Setzer didn’t seem to notice her discomfort or perhaps he just didn’t care. Regardless, he gave her an oddly cheerful affirmation and told her to follow him. Not that she needed to. She’d spent weeks on this airship and could have navigated it walking backwards. Still, she let him take the lead. He was the pilot, after all.

He was happy to see her. He’d questioned if any of them had survived. Celes wondered vaguely how long he’d been here. To Edgar, it had had only been a few months since they’d last seen each other, and he’d only found himself in this impossible place a few weeks ago. So how was it with Setzer? Could she have failed to notice him for long before this? Somehow she doubted it, but he would have needed time to set up all of the glitz and glamor she walked past now. She still couldn’t say whether it was a better use of time than her own or a fabulous waste of it.

The engine room was a wreck to say the least. Between the shattered wooden shards and the bitter slick of oil, Celes would have called the ship as good as dead if stray tools hadn’t littered the floor. ”Well that explains why you’re not in the sky,” she said, wrinkling her nose as her boots met grease. Still, she wasn’t about to complain that the airship was busted. The last she’d seen it, it had broken completely in half and crumbled into the sea. All things considered, it looked downright pristine.

Setzer ushered her through the door his back room as though she needed the guidance. ”I know, it brings back memories for me too, but that’s not what’s important right now,” he said as he held the door open and gestured for her to step inside. Celes eyed him carefully before striding through, keeping him constantly in the corner of her eye. She could never be too careful with men.

The room was just as she’d remembered it. Half industrial with wooden panels and steel cogs -- now eerily silent without their engine. Half gaudy and plush with blue suede armchairs and an oak-polished table. Celes’ lips pursed as he pulled out a chair for her. She chose to remain standing.

Two months. He’d only been here for two months. Just like Edgar, really. It was impossible, and yet, she doubted he was lying. His voice was still too hopeful. His drive still too strong. The pointlessness of this place hadn’t beaten him down yet. Not like her. As he spoke, she found it hard to even recognize him as Setzer. He certainly looked the same with his same garish coat (now removed and folded over the hook of a coat rack) and the pallid make-up. His hair was just as wild, his scars just as jagged, but his eyes had lost their shrewd edge. He didn’t move with the caution of one who’d known complete despair. No, Setzer -- this Setzer -- seemed more like some kind of festive archetype in an old fable. He brought with him a spirit of revelry and cheer with no hint of needing it just to keep sane. It seemed a return to civilization had done Setzer well.

Too well. Celes watched coolly as he sipped something mysterious from a mug. How could he stay so jovial when nothing made any sense? He’d set up his airship as a casino. He wanted to watch people and gather information, but to what end? Celes wondered if even he knew.

”And I see you found my....beacon.” His voice came a little slower as he set the mug back in place. His words held a sliver of what might have been caution. ”I figured if you were here, or even alive you would be the first to find me, you always were the most clever of our little band.”

”Me?” Celes blinked, touching at her chest in surprise. Was that just flattery, or did he mean what he'd said? Certainly, he must have meant Edgar with all of his inventions and his charisma or even Locke with his roguish wiles. Celes had battle strategy. She had common sense and she usually had a sense of dignity, but was she the most clever? The thought heated at her cheeks as he continued.

”I chose this name for one reason,” he said. ”If any of our band still drew breath, they would find me here. Afterall who else would name a place after two of our friends?"

”Ah,” was all she could manage in response. She’d guessed as much, of course, but it had all been so obvious, so gaudy, so excessive that she hadn’t much thought to admire his strategy. It had worked, of course, so she couldn’t deny its merit, but if it had worked it was only in the stupidest way possible. ”Well,” she said. ”Here I am.”

It felt weak even to her, standing here in this impossible room in front of this nearly impossible man. She’d longed for something familiar since the moment she’d woken up in this bizarre place. She’d dreamed of friends and reunions and old places she’d once known, but now that she stood here -- almost literally like a walk into the past -- she didn’t feel joy or relief or anything she’d imagined.

In fact, she didn’t feel much of anything at all.

”Your desk’s clean.” She didn’t know what made her say it, but it was true. His papers were neatly stacked, the corner’s all aligned. Not like the man she’d found slumped over a bar table in Kohlingen. Not like the hedonistic pilot who’d been willing to risk everything on a suicide mission just because nothing had been valuable enough to hold onto. He’d thrown his life like a chip in her pile yet here he was, standing solidly on his own two feet with an almost ambitious gleam in his eye. It wasn’t something she’d ever seen before. She wasn’t sure if she liked it.

”Setzer…” she tried before she lost her words to a sigh. She didn’t know where to start except for ”What are you doing?” but of course, he’d already told her what he was doing. He’d turned his wrecked ship into a casino so he could maybe learn something, maybe run into people he knew, and maybe fix it, but that didn’t matter much to her. ”No, not what are you doing, but why? Don’t you think this is all a little…?” She paused, searching for the word before she shook her head and looked right at him. ”Completely ridiculous?” She gestured vaguely above her though whether it was at the casino or the world at large, she wasn’t sure.

”You brought me here. That’s a step, but what happens next? There’s no...Well, there’s nothing to stop here! There’s no sign of where we came from or how we got here. There’s no clues at all, and not much point to anything that I can see. Say everyone sees your little flyers and you manage to get every last one of us through those doors -- what then? Why all the excess? It’s all so…” She let out a short breath. ”Silly.”

She could hear the footsteps of the crowd above them. The laughter muffled through floorboards. It was a sound she hadn’t heard in a long time -- something that blissful. Who was she to judge how someone else rebuilt and made meaning for themselves? Of course it all meant nothing. But she’d once made meaning by gathering everyone she could, and that had only been for a suicide mission.

Still. It had been something. For something. Why did the thought of settling down here -- even with the people she’d missed so terribly -- churn her stomach?

”I found Edgar.” The words came almost emotionless. She didn’t know what else to say. ”We ran into each other a few days east of here. He should be somewhere in the city now. Probably flirting with something.” Her lip twitched into something that wasn’t quite a smirk and wasn’t quite a scowl. ”I’ll bring him by tomorrow morning. I don’t think I want to walk in on whatever he's planning to do tonight.”

ulla

For a moment, Setzer barely acknowledged her. Their eyes met. He knew she was there, and still he continued with his game. Celes’ eyes sharpened as the game’s players glanced back at her awkwardly. ”Setzer, I’m right here,” she tried again, but still, his game was apparently too important. So she crossed her arms and waited, letting him bear the weight of her glare until he deigned it a good point to wrap up his little game and speak with her. She’d been on this world alone for two years at least and this was how Setzer acted upon seeing her again? Part of her wanted to turn around and walk right back out the door, but the other part -- the part she refused to show -- couldn’t stop watching him. He had one of those faces that was impossible to forget with its distinctive scars and ashen complexion. It was the kind of face she could recreate perfectly even with her eyes closed, and seeing it again in person…Well, it was familiar more than anything. And seeing it in the halls of the Blackjack made it feel like nothing had changed between them at all.

Setzer called over another dealer and slipped to the side, motioning for her to follow. Celes hesitated, glancing at his replacement before starting after him. There wasn’t much space to meet and every corner felt crowded, even as they turned to face each other. Still, she supposed it couldn’t be helped, and honestly she wouldn’t have minded if the surrounding clamor had completely drowned out what he said next.

”Celes! Mon cherie! My friend, you live!"

Celes blinked without comprehension, wondering where he’d gotten the sudden enthusiasm or the accent. He spread his arms in an almost welcoming gesture before going on. ”You have the wrong idea, my dear, I assure you, Allow me to get you a drink,” he said. ”If it would please you, I can take you to my private office where we can talk in peace and at length! As for what I am doing, I promise if you give me a chance to explain, I shall tell you everything I have been up to.”

He spoke so much all at once that Celes found herself being swept away in it all, and at first, she could only stare. She didn’t know what she’d been expecting from him, but it wasn’t this. When she’d first found him after the catastrophe with Kefka, he’d been an utter wreck half drinking himself to death in a bar somewhere -- completely unwilling to help and not particularly happy to see her. She knew the situation was far less dire now, but part of her had expected something of the same. Without something to strive for, of course he’d wallow in his own grievances. Of course she’d have to wrench him from his own lethargy. It was so much a given that she hadn’t even questioned it until the contrary stood to face her.

Then again, maybe this was exactly Setzer’s cup of tea. A world without ruin where no one knew him and he could slip in and out of his wild schemes at will? That didn’t sound unlike him at all now that she thought about it.

”I’m fine.” Celes voice came sharp and impatient. She glanced at the bar only because he’d gestured to it, and her cheeks heated a little at the thought. She’d never really drank before, not even when the others had offered it to her and not even after civilization had collapsed. She hated the idea of it, honestly. Of losing control of herself. With everything that had happened, she couldn’t think of anything less appealing. ”But if you want to talk…” she started and then paused. She wanted to speak with him somewhere quiet, but asking to be alone in Setzer’s ‘private office’ felt like it was just asking for trouble. After all of their time together, they never really spoke of Celes’ kidnapping anymore, but it only took one time being locked unwillingly in an engine room under threat of forced marriage to be a little uneasy alone with anyone.

No. She couldn’t think like that. She’d let herself get kidnapped, and if he tried anything now, they both knew how easily she could overcome him in a fight. In fact, there hadn’t been a moment of that whole ordeal she hadn’t been completely in control, but still…

Setzer had proven himself to be the type to kidnap young women. Celes could never unknow that.

”Fine,” she said again. ”Your office sounds fine.” It wasn’t like she’d never been in there before. ”And then you’ll tell me everything you’ve been doing. Deal?”

ulla