The fire grew stronger, the heat was unending, and still Zack was nowhere to be seen. 

Celes stood in the middle of two rows of flame. Her lungs were already blackened and dry with heat, and the new atmosphere did her no favors. Smoke rose heavily through the air and swirled on hot eddies of molten ash. Celes coughed again, so dry that she was almost heaving. If she didn't leave now then she'd have a hard time of leaving at all. And yet, Zack had not answered.

Celes wondered if he was already dead.

The children were coughing now too. Celes glanced at them with their singed clothes, wiry hair, and ash-laden faces. They looked back with eyes like moons. Waking up surrounded in heat, smoke, and fire, it must have seemed like the pits of hell, yet they looked more shaken than afraid. Perhaps it was their oxygen-deprived delirium or just the shock of it all. They wound their fingers in the dog's fur. Maybe saving the damned thing hadn't been such a mistake after all.

"Can you walk?" Celes asked them. The two children stared at her uncomprehendingly. "Well, can you?" They jolted at the sharp look she gave them, and one slowly rose to his feet. He gave her a startled nod, and the other followed suit. "Good. I need you to get out of here. I don't care where you go, but you need to leave before-!"

There was a roar like the bellows of the earth from those flames. Celes grasped her sword and looked up in horror at that roar ('Not now -- anytime but now!'), but it wasn't a monster that greeted her. Celes' eyes widened. "Look out!"

The wreckage hit with the force of a meteor. Celes staggered against the sudden explosion of sound and debris. She raised a hand over her eyes as she was showered in pebbles, splinters, and ash. The flames gave a groan of approval and licked hungrily at fallen timber and wooden beams. "Hurry!" Celes grabbed a child blindly by the wrist and pulled it behind her. "You have to-!"

Celes was about to turn with the child, but something moved in the smoke. Celes eyed it briefly and then cursed beneath her breath. She saw straggled blonde hair and a short blue jacket.  It was that woman -- the one from before. She was staggering into the flames.

Celes grabbed the other child and pushed them together, further away from the inferno. The dog growled and snapped at her, but she paid it no mind, and it only followed the children at their heels. "You need to go. Run away, as fast as you can from here. Hurry!" Celes looked deep into their wavering eyes and saw something click there. The taller one (a boy of maybe six) took the shorter one's hand. He nodded, and then coughed. Celes thought he said something, but couldn't hear over the groan of another fallen building.

"Go!" she said, and with another stern look, they were gone -- stumbling as fast as they could away from the fire with their dog close at hand. Celes wanted to watch them and make sure they made it out alright, but she had bigger problems to care for.

Most importantly, there was the matter of a certain woman with a death-wish.

"What are you doing?" Celes tried to call out over the crackling of the flames, but ended up coughing. "Are you...Are you crazy?"

The woman almost certainly hadn't heard. She continued into the fire, jacket wrapped tightly around her, and some odd device held in her hand. As she approached the flames, she tinkered with that device, and then threw it heavily through a busted and fiery front door.

A few seconds passed and then the fallen house exploded in a field of snow. 

"What the-?" Celes muttered, but whatever the woman had done seemed to have worked. For that brief length from wall to wall, the fire was extinguished in a burst of cold. Was that blizzaga? Had the woman just used magitechnology? But all questions would have to wait. Clearly the woman had seen something inside that Celes herself had missed. As the woman beat and pulled at the wreckage, Celes placed her cape around her mouth and stumbled into the smoke after her. Her vision was cloudy and her steps trembled a little with every step, but Celes came as quickly as she could -- eyes watering, throat scorching, and head swimming with heat.

At first, Celes didn't see what the woman had uncovered. He was so blackened with ash and smoke that Celes' eyes skipped over him from burnt wreckage to burnt wreckage without noticing what lied between. It was only when she noticed that the strange relic in the woman's hand was glowing did she follow that light away from her and into the fiery blackness that Celes noticed had a face. It also had a leather harness, an ash-smeared turtleneck, and cinder-streaked hair. 

"Zack!" Celes gasped too sharply and was coughing again. The woman knelt by his side and touched gently at his face. 

"Hey, don't die on me now, okay! I haven't gotten to thank you... But I can't carry you out!" The woman grabbed his hand and pulled desperately, but failed to so much as budge the fallen man. "Why do you even have a sword that big?! It's unwieldy!"

Celes came up behind her and took the man's over hand. "Let me help! You've done enough!" she said and then grounded her heels into the wreckage and heaved with everything she had. Zack shifted in the debris, but stopped as that sword caught a fallen beam. Celes glanced from beam to sword and then to Zack. She grit her teeth. "Hold him steady! I need to get him off that thing!"

She made certain the other woman had a grip on the man before ducking down to eye the point where Zack and the sword connected. There was something on his back strapped to the leather harness -- a magnet? Celes tried to force her hand between the sword and the harness, but it wouldn't budge. Whatever she had to do to release him, she couldn't manage it while her hands were trembling and her head swam with smoke. All around them, she heard the roaring of the flames. They were creeping in now, melting the snow, and inching towards them across glowing embers. 

"Ugh! We don't have time for this!" Celes grabbed for the harness itself and unbuckled the front. Two leather straps slid off his shoulders, taking pauldrons and sword with it. Celes pulled on his arms again, and managed to heave him into a sitting position before he slouched there and would move no more. Another two straps connected the sword to his waist. Celes gave a hiss through gritted teeth and unbuckled these as well. Without the support, Zack slumped forward, face-first into hot ash. 

When Celes stood again, she found herself in a cloud of carbon monoxide. The world spun around her, and she tried to steady it. "Help me!" she said and then placed her hands beneath Zack's arms. She hoisted him the best that she could onto her shoulder and then began the slow, stumbling crawl out of burning wreckage laden with a man whose muscle mass might have rivaled Sabin. She managed with the woman's help until they'd dragged him away from the fire and down the street, just enough that Celes could gasp clean air. 

Then her knees weakened and Celes was falling. She barely felt herself hit the pavement. There was a dull scrape of her hands, a weak throb against her back, and then her face was flat against asphalt. Celes hissed beneath her breath and tried to lift herself, but her vision was muddled, her muscles were weak, and there was a great weight over her, pressing her down. Celes felt skin against her neck and touched a hand at her side. 

Zack had fallen on top of her. She gave a groan of frustration. "Get him off me! The fire! It's-!" Her throat gave a sharp crack and she was coughing again. 

The fire was creeping closer. Whatever had caused it wasn't stopping, and it leaped from building to building quicker than she could follow. If they didn't move soon, then they'd die. Celes grit her teeth against the tremors of her lungs and forced her hands together. Magic came with a sudden chill inside of her. Her stomach churned in protest.

"Life!" She sputtered the spell, directing her magic towards the unconscious man. "Cure!" She was coughing again now. The use of magic wasn't helping her strength, and her vision muddled to darkness. "Cure! Cure! Cure!" The ground was spinning. Celes let her head drop against the street. "Please get up..." she muttered. Between the smoke and the fire and the magic, it was all too much. Her ears rang with a muffled fog. 

"Zack..."

ulla

The devastation in Torensten was terrible. Whatever that monster had been, it had wreaked utter chaos on everything within a three mile radius. No one knew exactly where the beast had come from. Some stated the nearby Crystalus Divider as the cause and whispered that maybe the gods were to return once more. Others said only that it had fallen from the skies. Under normal circumstances, Celes would have thought both ideas to be ridiculous, but now she couldn't say for sure. She'd seen gated off worlds of magical beings as much as she'd seen horrific devastation reaped from on high. There was no satisfying explanation, and Celes didn't go looking for one.

The aftermath spoke for itself.

The streets were blackened and cracked. Buildings stood in charred husks while others had caved in entirely. There were casualties to gather -- or pieces of them anyway. It seemed all too familiar, and yet, Celes watched it as though for the first time. Her world had grown used to this sort of thing -- but these people had not. She saw raw devastation on their faces. They mourned without restraint, barely able to contain their grief without falling. Some wandered from place to place, unsure of where to go. Cold-eyed rescuers emerged from the wreckage unrecognizable from the debris and ash. There were children too -- perhaps the same ones that Celes and her allies had saved -- watching them with wide, wavering eyes. These people had lost everything. Celes did her best to help recover the pieces.

She'd tried to search like the others. Celes was certainly strong enough to lift the fallen beams and sift through the heaviest of wreckage. She had tried to search for survivors, but the smell of it had overwhelmed her. She had stood among the destruction, hot ash sifting through her fingers when suddenly the scent had choked her. She saw that light, the searing heat, and then the same smell -- vaporized wood, crackling embers, the disintegration of human flesh. Celes stumbled back away from the ruins, heart pounding and breaths gasping. A nearby volunteer stopped what he was doing and asked if she was alright. Celes nodded mutely and left before the visions could come back again. Her hands were shaking.

Celes hadn't heard from Terra since their parting in the Headstone Forest. Celes tried to tell herself that maybe Terra hadn't made it to Torensten, but she knew it was a lie. She'd heard enough rumors to know that Terra had been here -- for better or for worse. The few survivors who'd seen the battle first-hand spoke of a purple creature flying through the air and spewing magic. If that didn't spell Terra, then Celes didn't know what would. But the battle had come and gone, and Celes still had not found her.

The city was a sprawling, expansive place. Celes wondered if she'd ever see Terra again.

There was a noise up ahead -- swords clashing. Celes frowned and placed a hand on her own. People fled from the noise, too scarred to bother with curiosity so soon after the disaster. Celes forged ahead. This city didn't need any more violence.

There were voices now, though she couldn't understand them. As she crept closer, the swords stopped and then there were footsteps. Celes blinked as they came closer and then froze as a man barreled past a perpendicular street. The man didn't seem to see her in his distress. He just ran -- far faster than any man should -- with long strides and heavy boots. With his speed and momentum, he seemed more an image than a man. Just a streak of spiked black hair, belts, and a five-foot sword.

"Zack...?" The name came to Celes easily, but the man was already gone. She stepped into the street and blinked after him. "Where was he...?" She remembered the clashing swords and suddenly frowned. She had only gotten a short glimpse of his face, but she could have sworn...

No. She wouldn't assume anything, at least not until she'd seen him for herself. Still, with his urgency and the look on his face, Celes couldn't help a growing feeling of dread. She had seen that desperation before. She'd lived it, actually, and she knew that it couldn't lead anywhere good.

"I shouldn't do this," Celes told herself, but it was useless. Despite her better judgement, she was already moving.

Why did she feel like she had to go after him? Celes wasn't entirely sure. It seemed irrational -- stupid, even -- to leave so soon after the disaster. She knew that she should stay to help. She knew even stronger that leaving without Terra was foolish, and what business did she have following this man she barely knew? None. None at all, and yet...

And yet, she knew that Zack had a kind and helpful heart. She knew that he was the kind to run headlong into a burning building with absolutely no regard for his own life. She knew that he was the kind to help people and she knew that he was in pain.

Celes wasn't the type to worry about something as stupid as feelings when there were lives on the line, but with Zack, she just couldn't help herself. He was too good a person to face that kind of pain alone.

Though even she had her limits. As Zack led her out of the city, Celes wondered what on earth could be so important as to flee so far. When other travelers directed her into the farmlands outside it, Celes was certain she should finally turn back. When she heard that a man with a ridiculously-sized sword had entered Provo, Celes cursed aloud and decided that she'd done all she could and she might as well leave with only a waste of her time to show for it. But after two nights of sleeping alone on the roadside, eating nothing but monster meat and water she'd traded with vagrant merchants, she thought she might as well check to see if he'd come out the other side. After skirting the outer limits of Provo, she found a family of farmers who worked along the road. They said they'd seen a man with a sword come barreling through, and that he must've been popular because she was the second one to have asked. Celes blinked in confusion, and would have asked more if she'd thought it had mattered. As it was, she still had a chance to catch the godforsaken man. She thanked them and went on her way.

As the path led he back to the Headstone Forest, Celes knew two things for certain: One -- that the man must have been absolutely broken to have traveled so far, and Two -- that Celes must have gone absolutely insane to have followed him.

The Headstone Forest was just as she remembered it. Green, quiet, and filled with the chirpings of birds and small animals. Celes would be lucky to find her way out again among those dense trees, but she'd recently spent nearly a month wandering through it, and she knew it well enough not to be afraid. If Zack had wandered off from the main path, then there was no helping him and she'd return without him. If he remained on the path, then she was sure to find him eventually. Celes' boots tapped loudly as she entered the forest. Soon, the outside sounds had muted behind her, and she was left with nothing but her own breaths.

The forest seemed cloudier than usual. It was only a fog, and yet Celes felt something more sinister behind it. If she strained her eyes, she thought she saw movement in the fog. People, maybe, or monsters. She kept her hand tightly on her sword and magic close to her lips. It was foolish to think of it as anything more than a tactical disadvantage. Yet, as familiar as she was with these woods, she thought she heard something else within them. Footsteps, maybe. Or voices. Celes crept forward like a cat. If something was there...

There was sudden movement, a crash of boots, and then Celes saw it -- a streak of black in the fog. Her eyes widened. "Zack..." She was so surprised to find him, that she only whispered it. He was running -- running from her? Celes couldn't be sure, but she followed anyway. She knew better than anyone what kind of monsters lurked in these woods, and after all of the trouble she'd been through, she wasn't about to let him run right into the jaws of some minotaur. Zack was faster than any human should have been, but Celes wasn't exactly human either. She followed without really thinking, going off the path even as he darted deeper into the forest. Her boots crashed through foliage. Her cape caught in brambles. For not the first time, she found herself tripping through tree roots. And then, just as Celes thought she surely must have lost him again, she stopped.

In front of her was a man. He was the same man that Celes had seen amidst the wreckage and screaming. He leaned against a tree trunk, eyes almost closed, turtle-neck still dusted with ash and debris. Celes frowned at his disheveled hair, at the thin scar tracing down one cheek, and then crept forward, peering to get a look at his face.

Tears streamed down his cheeks. His shoulders were shaking.

Celes could only stare. She opened her mouth to say something -- anything -- but then closed it. She raised a hand and took a slow step forward.

Her boot caught on a branch and loudly cracked.

Zack turned towards her, a gloved hand wiping at his eyes. "Hello?" His voice sounded stuffy and miserable. "Hey, is someone there?"

Celes stared from where she still stood behind a tree. With the fog and the forest, he hadn't seen her. Celes wondered then if she should just leave him to his thoughts. Clearly, she didn't belong here, and what was she even supposed to say? Hi, I followed you for three days because I thought you might be upset? It sounded ridiculous even in her own mind, and yet after all of this time, she couldn't just leave him. Though she knew this would be awkward, though she knew she probably wasn't even helping, Celes took a breath and stepped out from the cover of the trees.

"Hi," Celes said stiffly. She took a few steps towards him and then crossed her arms and tried not to stare at his still very visible tears. "I, um. I saw you come in here. I thought that maybe..."

But what had she thought, really? That he needed help? That he wanted to see her of all people?

'That he might do something drastic,' came the answer in her head. But even that was insulting. Just because he'd proven desperate didn't mean that he was the type to hurt himself.

He was not as weak as she'd once been.

"Anyway. I wanted to make sure you were okay." Celes wondered if she'd always been so stiff, or if it was just the situation that brought it out of her. Surely she could have found a way to uncross her arms, to relax her shoulders, or to even look at him while she spoke, couldn't she?

No. As it turned out, she could not. Awkward tension engulfed her like ice water.

"So. If you want to talk about what happened..." Then what? Did he even know who she was? "I'm Celes, if you don't remember." Her cheeks flushed with heat. "From Torensten."

Celes suddenly wished that she was back in the city of ash and ruin. Or maybe that the ground would open up and swallow her whole.

ulla

[attr="class","itsover"]
The skies were dark over Torensten -- a sudden, stormy kind of black that swirled above the city and blotted out the sky. Celes could only stop and stare at the anomaly above her as she made her way through the outskirts of the city. In that moment, something clicked in her mind -- a freezing something that rose from her stomach to her prickling neck. The air buzzed with latent magical energy. It swarmed above the city in a great, foreboding cloud.

'The Light of Judgement.' The words came to her as naturally as breathing, but they were impossible. Not in this world of forests and cities which feared nothing. In this world, there was no Kefka. There were no gods, and they did not pass down mad and irrevocable judgment from on high. Yet, as Celes stared up at the swirling mass of darkness above her, she knew deep down that something terrible was about to happen.

She had seen this before. 

The clouds slowed over the ruined settlement of Tzen. There was a stillness in the air, and then a kind of vibrant buzzing. The people looked up in frozen horror. Magic dried the air with a prickling heat and then...

Red lightning flashed through the sky in great crackles of power. Celes' breath stopped. It was here. It was happening again.

Then, suddenly, she was running. 

Her boots hit the asphalt in heated clicks. The edges of her bracers rubbed hard against pumping arms and sharp wrist bones. There were people yelling now. Men and women scrambled past her in terrified swarms. This was just like before. Just like...

Light came in screaming bolts of heat and magic. It scorched through the air, through the clouds, until her vision was scorched with it. She put up a hand over her mouth -- coughing from the taste of ash and burnt flesh. There was a crash like fire and she stumbled back against its force. Helpless. They were all helpless as she steadied herself against a wall and waited for the end or death.

Celes had separated from Terra on their journey to Torensten. She had said that they would meet here, and yet, Celes had lagged behind. It hadn't been by much (surely no more than a day or so), yet that time could have separated them completely. Was Terra already evacuating the people here? Was she here at all? Why had they ever thought to separate?

'Terra...It's just been too much. I need time'

'I'm glad to see you. Really. I just...'

'Stay safe. I'll meet with you soon.'

Celes had turned her away. After all of this time. Just because she hadn't been able to handle her stories. Just because Terra had suggested what Celes had feared since the moment she'd woken in this place. That maybe none of it was real. That maybe Kefka had done something and now...

"Help me! Oh god, help me! My son, he's-!" 

The crowd was denser now than before. They were too big a target to miss, and all of them pushed against each other like cattle. All around, there was screaming, running, and pained cries. Celes tried to push past them, but their strength was too much. She found her way to the side and pressed herself against a wall. "Go! Hurry!" she urged them, but most didn't need telling twice. As she edged her way forwards, she heard that cry again. "Help! Please, somebody!" Her eyes caught another who had dragged themselves form the chaos. It was an older woman, hunched over on the sidewalk. Her gray-streak hair caught in wiry tangles around the rim of her glasses. Her hands were stained with blood. Beneath her was a teenage boy, shaking and pale on the concrete. Dark blood oozed from a slash across his chest.

The woman looked up at Celes. Her eyes were a wide, cloudy green lined in crow's feet. "Help me," she said again, softer this time. Celes bit back her panic and stepped forward.

"Hold him still," she said. The woman stared at her without comprehension, but Celes just knelt beside them and put a hand on the boy for herself. He shook in rigorous convulsions until she pressed him hard against the ground. 

Magic rose within her -- freezing, frigid power which flooded her blood like ice. She let it well there for a moment as she muttered her incantations and spells. It released with the calming lull of a single word: "Curaga." Her magic washed over the boy in healing waves of green and white. It seeped into open wounds and rejuvenated lost life. In less than half a minute, the boy had stopped shaking. In another half minute more, the wound had closed.

The woman stared at her son as though he had risen from the dead. When she looked at Celes again, her mouth was slightly agape. "What did you...?"

"I healed him. He should live, so long as both of you leave."

"I...How...?" The woman stuttered and then looked back at her son. She touched his face with shaking fingers. "That monster, it fell from the sky. It's-It's coming."

"Monster?" It was Celes' turn to stare. "What are you talking about?"

"It was huge. Flying. It looked like a demon. It came down and then..." The woman shuddered. "It's coming."

Celes frowned. A monster. It was only a monster. And yet, it had already caused this much destruction and panic. She stood. "Hurry. You'll want to evacuate," she said and then pushed on. If it was a monster, then she knew should rush ahead to stop it. And yet, for every step she took, she heard another cry for help. There were more bleeding innocents, more weeping children, and all of them too much for her to ignore. She kept her healing spells on the ready. 

Ahead, she heard roars and the clashing of swords. The monster -- whatever it was -- seemed occupied, and yet, its victims funneled through the streets in floods of the injured and shaken. Their evacuation took top priority now when there was so much potential for devastation. Should the monster give chase, these people would need someone to defend them. Even as Celes let loose wave upon wave of magic, she never lost sight of the sky.

And she always kept one hand clenched tightly on her sword.

ulla