Patrol Abroad Chapter 8
By Captain Gaul
Captain Gaul instantly recognized the atmosphere of the place he was in—he was back in the city of the starless night, though he was indoors. He realized he was in a store of some kind, probably one that sold ‘materia’ judging by the signs everywhere.
“Can I help you, sir?”
“Yes, you may…what is materia?”
The shopkeeper chuckled. “Materia? Materia is crystallized mako energy.” He leaned over and whispered the next part: “Materia is the gift of magic in a gem.”
“The gift of magic?” Gaul started, thinking of what had just happened.
“Why, certainly. Here, let me see that nightstick of yours.” The shopkeeper examined the weapon, grabbed a glowing crystal, and popped it in one part of it. “There. With the crystal in the nightstick, you now have the power to summon everyone’s favorite bird. Now, will that be cash or check?” he said, handing Gaul back the nightstick.
Gaul was about to explain that he had no money the shopkeeper would accept, when a flash of blue light pulled him away again.
“Hey, where’d you—DAMN IT!”
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“Incredible….” Kefka and General Leo watched as Cid inserted the last few parts. “To think that Cid could build this in just a day, working entirely off the study of that stranger’s device.”
“Soon, Leo, the gate will be open, and we’ll have a whole new world to conquer….”
“All for the glory of the emperor, of course.”
“Of course.” Kefka snickered. Leo turned to glare at him, when Cid walked up.
“All tests are complete. It’ll take me about an hour to get the calculations done—the space coordinates that guy had were unstable, and I’ve got to find a safer zone for transit—but pretty soon we’ll be ready to go.”
“Excellent, Cid. You’re a genius.”
“I know. Now, if you’ll excuse me, generals….”
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Gaul reappeared in a world beyond his comprehension. All he knew was that everything here was either concentrated magic or a derivative of concentrated magic. A figure in the shape of a whale approached him.
“Hu—human?! How did you get here! You must not know the location of Esperville!” The figure fired a bolt of magic at Gaul, and the captain felt icy cold.
Gaul raised his hand, and muttered a few syllables. A beam of shadow struck his opponent, and then Gaul knew what a backlash of magic was.
Energies from different universes reacted negatively, and while the Esper Bismarck was reduced to a crystal of magicite, Gaul suddenly had a very good idea of what it was like to be four dimensional. The effect was staggering. When he recovered, he picked up the magicite, and then there was another flash of blue light.
Gaul was back in Magus’s castle. The magicite crystal broke down at once, and suddenly he felt a surge of power as the otherworldly magic joined his various other powers. Magus poked his head in the door.
“Gaul? Gaul? Oh, there you are. Good news, I think with all the magic build-up you’ve got now, there shouldn’t be anymore of those spontaneous timeshifts. Listen, why don’t you head back to Truce and let everyone know you’re all right? You wouldn’t want your fiancee to worry.”
Within minutes a flustered Gaul was on the way to Truce.
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The portal opened, a blue screen of science and magic, and hundreds of troops stood in column. “This is it, men. We go to a new world. There’s money and magic to be had, so don’t be afraid to pillage and loot! Let’s go!”
“HURRAH!” The men shouted as one, and then they began to march through the gate to worlds unknown.
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Gaul took the route through the caves, north across the continent, and into Truce—remarking all the way how small his world was and how much he liked it that way. The trip across the continents took less than an hour, and nothing attacked him. That was the last joy he was to have for some time.
Lucca, who had been walking back to her house, saw the captain and ran up to him. “Gaul! We’ve been looking for you! We’d heard you escaped!”
Gaul nodded and gave her a brief rundown of where he had been. Then he asked the important question. “How’s Li?”
Lucca blanched. “Oh, my God…she’s…dead.”
Inside the Captain his heart shattered, but outside only a brief glimmer of red in his eyes betrayed his emotions. “H…how?”
“Marle said…the chancellor killed her…go talk to her….” Lucca ran off.
And so Gaul went to see the princess, who had been at Crono’s house. She explained how she had been with Li, when suddenly she fell over dead. She described how she had seen the chancellor, or someone wearing the chancellor’s robes, running across the bridge right after she collapsed. And, since she had been killed with a piece of something the bridge was made of, thrown from a great height, it followed….
“The bastard. He wanted to eliminate any witnesses I had to my alibis.” The captain began to weep openly. “Damn you, Randini, you son of a bitch! Do you have to try and take away EVERYTHING that matters to me? My love, my joy, my job, my life?” He looked up again. A drop of blood ran down his face. “I’m going to kill him. I’m an Undei, I really shouldn’t, but dammit, I’m going to kill him.”
Nicholas pulled Ray’s gun out of his pack, and began to set out the door, when all of the sudden…“Attack! We’re under attack!!”
A blue flash of light shot through the area, and the air ripped open….
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