“Troy, itss Ivalice. There is no Sssaint in the name.” Ariandel interrupted with a hint of confusion in his words. “You've got to tell uss what you are hiding... Sometime.” He continued in a solemn and paced manner.

A warm green hand latched onto the defenders shoulder. Zhai moved closer to the Bangaa, her grip loosening and releasing as she stood shoulder to shoulder with him. Her face was expressionless while she watched the two conversing before her.

Vince still held his wide mouthed stare at Troy. His arms weakly hanging at his hips and his head tilted partially to the side. The Moogle was in a trance.

“Vince?” Troy said sedately. He brought his arms to a cross, hands clenched, and he inched closer to the Moogle. “You aren't the only one.” Troy had trouble with the simple words. His mouth didn't feel right when he spoke them.

Without any verbal response, the Moogle turned his back to the black lizard and walked towards the large Chocobo-drawn cart.

The rickety cart creaked precariously as its thin wooden wheels trod over the slightly bumpy terrain that posed as a highway leading away from the outskirts of the city.

“I. Thought I was the only one in this...” Vince squeaked, his voice hinting the decaying initial surprise he received. His eyes were trained on his small fingers coated in a thick brown untattered leather. “Thing” He finished while bending and flexing his fingers quickly.

The long wire and ball that stuck out from the upper rear of his head bounced playfully while Zhai, Troy and Vince were rocked in the vehicle as it had struck a hiccup in the road.

Those were the first words he spoke since he had entered the lorry. And after which he remained generally silent.

Troy understood, that like he himself did at first, Vince wanted some time to collect his thoughts. Instead of focusing on the Moogle, he wondered what may have been going through the head of Ariandel who sat in the front of the cart, hidden behind a thick wall of brown painted wood steering the restless warbling Chocobos along the road. Zhai simply motioning him towards the drivers seat impatiently after the battle should have been enough to tell him something was wrong. “Why didn't he keep asking?” Troy asked himself.

The black Bangaa let his eyes wander about the moving room, most of its walls covered in thick black sheets and the only, but proud source of light being a strange yellow orb hanging by a roped netting around it from the low ceiling. Aside from the few strange cuts in the floor, the room was completely bare of any interest. Of course before the four had embarked, the cramped steel cage with its hinges blown off that was hauled away from the convoy did generate a rather interesting expression from Zhai.

“This vehicle is definitely property of the palace...” Zhai began, her voice trailing off into nothing while she attempted to ease the silence. Her pointed nose steered from side to side while she looked from her counterpart and the soft fuzzy gunman. She sighed and rested her arms on her crossed legs. The girl's green skin almost glowed in the eerie light that was spread all across her long face.

“Why is this palace so damned important?” Troy asked in attempt to revive the dead conversation and keep his mind occupied. Or at least off of more personal issues that would only bring him more stress and impatience. As hard as he did try though, he couldn't get his mind off his sister's name that had been scratched off the paper. A distorted feeling of grief fell upon him. He was starting to mentally lose it. “Why is her name on that list... Why did they kill my sister!” he yelled to his own surprise. Troy found his hands wound up into fists, pressing into his legs that also were crossed on the floor.

The moogle flinched. Though he only kept his focus on his tiny glove a few nearly silent words left his mouth. “What is this list?”

The girl sitting across from him responded with a brief sigh and let her figure relax. “Your sister. Thats.” She started calmly. “Tough. Listen, she isn't necessarily dead, who ever was after her may have-”

“They killed Ariandel in a heartbeat without any knowledge of it being just an engagement. We were just thieves to them. They would have killed someone they were after.” He whispered. The dragoon couldnt bear it, the transformation, the fighting, the death. All of the sudden, images of memories he had in St. Ivalice started appearing, time spent with his family, and more prevalently, his sister. The images seemed so far away, it was as if his mind's eye couldn't keep its focus on the pictures as they floated by. Everything seemed strange at first to him, he partially believed he could become accustomed to it, but he was in no way a match for his sisters death. The unconfirmed loss of his only sibling almost had him shaking.

Even as he calmed down from his burst of emotion his mind was still in disarray. In a faint gleam of hope, he momentarily remembered the alchemist talking about life. A heavy breath came from deep within his lungs. “If I found her, could Dia-”

The fierce penetrating force in Zhai's eyes focused on him told Troy to halt his speech. He continued. “Isn't there anywhere that we can go that isn't under palace jurisdiction?”

The girl was moved by the questions, her eyes tightening further on him. “No. Don't ever ask that again. And... Yes.”

“Then couldn't I just go there? I mean, it would be for you and Ariandel's better wouldn't it?” He questioned only thinking of himself as a burden on his allies shoulders.

“Because being hunted down and killed is a far better way of life than the spawn holes of the Jagds can provide.” She said with as if the words had left a horrible taste in her mouth

“Jagd?” He thought. The Bangaa was sure he had heard it before. “What exactly are these places? Jagds?” He inquired. The grip his hand held in his red gloves loosened.

The furry Moogle's head rose and he looked towards Zhai with a curious expression plastered on his face. “What list?” He said with a much more serious tone applied to his ignored question.

Again, Zhai sighed, this time responding to the Moogle's question. She reached within her robe-like clothing and pulled the familiar roll of paper from beneath it. Her arm stretched as far as it could towards the frustrated Moogle with and unrolled corner of the parchment held between two of her fingers.

In compliance the rabbit-like gunner leaned forward and pulled the list away in a single quick motion of his arm. “What is...” His speech died as his eyes fell upon the paper now spread on his lap. “And the ones with crosses...” Again his voice faded away. “Everyone on this list is from , rig-”

“Apparently. You four being on the same list coming from the same place... Its a safe bet, yes.” Zhai replied calmly. She held her eyes closed.

“Only five left. Me a Moogle. You Troy, a Bangaa. A Viera named Anna who came from Muscadet. Maria, from the Pal-... Louis. My brother, is. On this thing.” He breathed.

Troys eyes shot to the Moogle on his right. Suddenly Vince was much more interesting. He sprang easily out of the spot he sat. “Is he alive?”

“A human from... No location is listed.” A weak smile traced from one side of his face to the other. “Cant believe he got out of trouble scott-free. A very quiet but choked laughter erupted from within Vince. Seconds later it exploded into a laughing fit with his legs extended before him and his arms stretched backwards beneath him.

“H-how do you even find that funny?” Troy asked half kneeling down to the moogle who laughed hysterically in front of him. It was like the entire serious mood died like a soufflé at a metal concert.

“This is so cash. Here we are in damned Final Fantasy. And I was running around thinking it was some hallucination or something!” The Moogle continues with weak laughter cracking into his words every few seconds. “You aren't from there. St. Ivalice. Are you lizard? And four of us?” Vince was quite surprised by all this. “Why are you running around chasing people on some hitlist anyway?”

“No, I'm not. The four of you though. Well, its you two, Troy's sister. And Saul. Otherwise, I'm only helping Troy. Its not my duty or anything. And our armored friend... said you were like his brother. The Bangaa are quite loyal to friends. But, this Final Fantasy. You and Saul were talking about it earlier. What is it?” Zhai asked.

The moogle bit his lower lip to conceal laughter making his cheeks puff out. “Tell her. She'll never believe you.” He chortled while his head shook violently side to side as he continued to laugh.

Troy's mind considered dozens of things he could have said and was sure any one of them would have made no sense whatsoever. He still tried at one. “Final Fantasy, is, well. In a dream, you know how you can choose what you do right?”

The girl did not verbally respond, her intense eyes only pinned down Troy who was standing well above her.

“No, its. Like a book. No it is a book. One with crazy monsters, and moogles, and chocobos. Its... really hard to explain.”

“You mean the book you saw a Bangaa in before. Right?” She asked again.

“No, that was a different one. With a bunch of strange pictures and words in it.” Troy answered trying to get a grasp on the image of the monolithic book that lay on his lap only three days ago. He remembered just how heavy it was.

“You mean the big gold one. Right?” Vince asked seriously after he had managed to gain some of his composure. “It had a picture of me in it too. I think.” His face had transformed from one that belonged to a laughing madman to a quite perplexed, and aside from the partially mangy fur, adorable pet.

“You've seen it?”

“Yeah, a kid I know. His name is Mewt. He was showing it off to me... Before.” Again his expression changed, this time to one that was awe inspired. “You thi-”

In one action Zhai had uncrossed her legs and almost lunged across the cart towards the Moogle. “You mean you've met prince Mewt?” Her voice frantically interrogated.

Throughout this whole adventure, Troy had been trying to keep his mind in order. He had been trying to take things in small bites. This had failed on several occasions, and this time, it was a whole new level of insanity.