Once Terra, Vicks, and Wedge reached the Esper, it reacted with Terra. But sometimes the canon shatters, and people fall through the holes…

Rydia stumbled out of the bed. She felt cold… like the peak of Mount Hobs had been cold, those ten or so years ago – or that was what it had been to her, at least.

“Already awake!?” A middle-aged man rushed over to her. “I’ve never heard of someone recovering so quickly.”

“Where am I..?” Rydia rubbed her head. It hurt so badly that when it pounded, the world around her blurred to a smear of colors.

“This is Narshe. It’s alright if you don’t recognize the town’s name, though; people who have the Slave Crown removed don’t remember much of anything for a long time after. Damn Imperials…”

“Remember? I remember everything. My mother dying… my village burning down…” She swallowed a sob. “All the time I spent in the Feymarch, and helping Cecil defeat Zeromus…”

The man looked incredibly confused.

After a few seconds of him standing there in pure bewilderment, he said, “I’m sorry about your loss, but remembering your name is more important than remembering places that don’t exist-”

Someone began to pound on the door, interrupting him. The person was a man – multiple men, actually – who were shouting something about a girl being some sort of Imperial soldier, or Imperial witch.

The man cursed. “You have to get out of here,” he whispered urgently.

Rydia nodded and, before leaving, checked his house. The bookshelf didn’t have any books worth reading, which was odd, as they usually did, but there was an Elixir in his clock for some reason.

She ran outside through the cold – the mountain was covered in snow, unlike Mount Hobs, so she really had no idea where she was – and past a few town guards who didn’t look particularly strong. If it came to it, she could paralyze them with her whip, since they didn’t seem malevolent…

Wait.

Her whip was gone. In its place was a mythril knife. Rydia didn’t even know how to use knives except to chop vegetables with them, and she could hardly do that.

She’d have to learn quickly, as it seemed…

Rydia made a mad dash for whatever direction seemed to be the right one. She ran away from monsters in the mines, and she somehow managed to escape all of them without losing any gil. It was a bit strange, but she couldn’t complain.

She ran straight into one of the city guards. She brandished her knife, but with no idea how to use it, she found herself backing away slowly. Backing herself into a corner, probably, although in the low light she couldn’t quite tell…

What was she doing? It wouldn’t be optimal, but she could cast Stop on all the soldiers and run. Rydia whispered the arcane words, yet… nothing happened. The guards were still backing her into a corner, which she knew to be a corner when she hit the wall.

Then the floor crumbled beneath her.

~meanwhile~

Arvis knew as the girl ran away that she’d need some help getting around and away, so he sent a pigeon to ask the Returners’ main base for Locke to come. He waited and waited, but nobody came.

When his back door burst open, he was prepared for the thief to come in. As the guest’s footsteps pounded on the floor, arvis started, “How goes the robbing and-”

But the young man who stood in front of Arvis’s fireplace was not Locke in the slightest. Instead of a blue bandana, this man wore the brown helmet and goggles which were standard gear for anyone in the Returners (although it wasn’t a uniform, and many Returners chose not to wear either).

Arvis had no idea who this man was beyond the fact that he was almost definitely a Returner.

“I’m sorry, you were expecting Locke. He’s, ah… not available right now… Something happened to him, and nobody’s quite sure what it is. So I’m here. I’m Ale-”

“There’s no time for introductions. Go into the mines and find a green-haired woman, and get her out of Narshe.” Arvis stared out the window. He hadn’t seen any city guards dragging her through to the small guardpost, so they hadn’t caught her, at least. “Quickly, now…”

Alec rushed through the mines, but he didn’t find the girl. He only saw a hole in the ground which occasionally emitted heat and light.

Wait a second… The Empire had a green-haired witch who could use magic. And that would explain why the girl needed to get out of Narshe.

Why did Arvis need him to help an Imperial, of all people?

Whyever it was, he was supposed to trust Arvis, so he jumped in.

Rydia was burning the last of the mammoths and wolves when she heard a thud. She finished her Fire spell – it was all she needed to kill these, but she had a sinking feeling the rest of her magic had vanished like her whip – finished the spell, and rushed to where the thud had come from, right where she’d fallen on the ground in the cave.

There was a young man standing there, staring at her with wide eyes.

“Magic..?” he whimpered. “But that’s… you can’t have magic… Nobody’s had magic for a thousand years…”

“What are you talking about? There’s a whole city of mages, and magic is taught in Baron besides. My mother taught me.”

“What..? There isn’t… What’s Baron? I’ve heard of Banon – I know Banon – but he definitely doesn’t know magic… that’s…” The man stared at the ground for a while. Rydia cast Fire on some monsters that approached thile the two of them idled around.

“Please stop doing that… It’s terrifying…” He looked up at her. “I need to take you to Figaro.”

“Where’s- …It doesn’t matter. First, can you deal with the guard captain over there? I don’t want to kill anyone…”

“I can’t just kill a-”

“Kupo!”

“Kupo”? What had that come from? Humans never said “kupo,” (for that matter, neither did any inhuman creature which spoke the human language), and the Hummingways only hummed.

A little furry white creature with a hair ended by… a red pompom?... which had tiny pink demonic wings dashed out from further in the caves. It did a little dance, and the ground underneath the guard captain collapsed. The hole closed after he fell in, muting his screams.

“Kupo… Kupoppo kupo-kupo,” it said solemnly. “Kupoppo kupo.”

“A moogle just… Woah. If only it spoke human… Thanks, moogle! Whatever your name is!” the young man called after it as it ran off.  He then looked at Rydia. “Ah… We haven’t introduced ourselves. Sorry about that… I’m Alec… What’s your name..?” He still looked worried when his gaze landed on her, although slightly less so.

“My name is Rydia. It’s good to meet you.”