“Well, well. You’re the last one, number four. Your name?”
The man panted in the dark, trying to recover from Wedge’s tackle. “Vargas. My full title is Vargas the eighth.”
“Hmm. Long family ancestry. You will have to explain it to me on the way back to camp.” Tseng could not hide his curiosity, not necessarily about his history, but the fact that Wedge had knocked this man out cold for several hours. “Hmm,” Tseng thought to himself. “I hope Wedge does make it into this spot. I wouldn’t want to be on the side that he fights against.”

Aeris stopped in her tracks when she saw the man that came out to meet her. His graying dark hair covered half his face from view, but he quickly pushed it backwards to reveal his hard face. It matched the rest of his body: his whole form seemed almost sculpted to accommodate his bulging muscular figure. He wore only brightly colored silk trousers and pointed leather shoes.
“Who are you and what do you want?” The man stood in Aeris’s way.
“We just came to say hello. We’ve been traveling from Narshe.”
“Why? We’re all dead anyway. Go away.”
“But, we didn’t do anything! We’re just visiting!”
“If you won’t leave here on your own, then I will have to remove you.” The strongman moved to grab Aeris-
-and wasn’t there. Wedge had anticipated his attack and charged at him, knocking the man to the ground. He rolled a few feet because of Wedge’s momentum, and slowly got to his feet.
Wedge yelled at the man that he had crashed into. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but leave her alone! She’s just a traveler! Is this how you always treat your visitors?”
“You’ve got a lot of nerve, tackling me like that. If you want a fight, then so be it!”
The man went into a full sprint toward Wedge, who had attracted his attention away from Aeris. Just as he was about to throw the first punch, Wedge quickly sidestepped the blow and brought his elbow down on the back of his neck, pounding him into the ground. Wedge jumped back as the man kicked up. “You are becoming an annoyance,” the man growled at Wedge.
“Maybe we got off on the wrong foot,” Wedge called back to him. “We didn’t mean any harm.”
“Trespassers!” The man had started running toward Wedge again, not even bothering to punch. His plan to bowl Wedge over at full speed failed on impact, as Wedge braced himself and simply raised his elbows. The man was knocked in the face by Wedge’s large arms and glanced off, landing on his back in the dust behind Wedge. He tried to get up, but he went back down, Wedge’s boot pressing his neck.
“Now, like I was saying, would you please let us introduce ourselves?”
The man wasn’t in any position to complain. “Go right ahead,” he weakly croaked.
“My name is Wedge Palmer, and that poor girl over there is Aeris. I believe you owe her an apology.”
Wedge pressed the man’s neck until he consented. “You win, you win. I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Wedge’s foot relaxed a bit, but still kept its position on his neck.
“Now, would you be so kind as to tell us who you are?”
“I’m called Vargas.”
“Vargas?” Wedge reflexively pressed harder, almost choking him. “Which one? Tell me!”
“I’m just the first! I swear!”
“The first?”
“I-” Vargas began to gag under the pressure. “-I named my kid and grand kid Vargas, but I’m the first!”
Wedge was satisfied with his answer and released his hold. Vargas quickly swept his legs, knocking Wedge down onto his back. Vargas seized Wedge’s legs and pushed them to his head, pinning him.
“You fool. Now you are at my mercy.” Vargas took a rope out of his pocket with one hand and squeezed Wedge into the dirt with another. “Well, now that you are here, you’ll be my guests until the Master returns. I have no problem with the girl staying.” He quickly bound Wedge’s arms and legs with the rope, rendering him helpless. Vargas stood up and looked at his prize. “As for you, you aren’t going anywhere until the Master sees you. You are strong, but very stupid for releasing your hold.” Vargas gave Wedge a small kick, knocking him unconscious. “I’ll hang you up somewhere in the meantime,” Vargas snickered, dragging Wedge into the cabin. Coming back out, he asked Aeris, “Aren’t you coming in? You must be hungry. I’ll put on some tea.”
Aeris wasn’t sure what to do, but she wasn’t about to leave as long as Vargas had Wedge. “Coming,” Aeris called out nervously.

Elena woke slowly, remembering the man that had saved her the previous day. “Wedge...”
She wasn’t expecting a response. “Yes? You up already?”
Elena opened her eyes and screamed to find Wedge in her tent, setting up a small table he had stowed away in his pack. Without thinking, she dealt him a deafening smack to the face.
“Ow.” Wedge rubbed his now tender cheek. “Good morning to you, too, Elena.”
Elena suddenly remembered who she was with. “Sorry.”
“We have to stop meeting like this, Elena. Here, I brought you some breakfast.” Wedge set up a tray for her on the table, bearing a sandwich, an apple, and some steaming tea.
“Breakfast? Have you eaten yet, Wedge?”
“I saved mine. Yours was getting cold, so the cook gave it to his dog. Here, you can have it.”
“You’re giving up your breakfast?”
“I don’t really need it as much as some people do. There’s some people in parts of the world that never get a good meal like this. Anyway, I imagine you would need it more that I would. You looked really tired after the race.”
Elena stared at Wedge, who had now put on his bandanna and undershirt to shield himself from the sun. “Thanks,” she mumbled to Wedge, sitting down beside him as he looked outside. She still wondered how he could be doing this for her.
“You’d better eat up. Today’s contest will eliminate two people, so you need the energy.”
“What is it?”
“Survival. We need to navigate across this island.”
“Oh. So that’s why we got new uniforms today.”
“Speaking of which, we should get changed. The race starts at noon.” Wedge left Elena to his breakfast.

Aeris looked at Vargas in wonder as she sipped her tea. He had captured Wedge, but only put him up on a hook. He had even been gracious enough to serve her tea, and didn’t look very threatening anymore. Still, she had to do something about him.
“So, Aeris, was that your name?”
“Yes.”
“I must say, you have very good taste in traveling companions.”
“Thank you. But, what exactly are you planning on doing with him?”
“Oh, Wedge? Feed him and clean him until my master arrives.”
This was a very strange plan he had, if any at all. “Just how are you going to do that if he’s tied up?”
“Depends. If he’s cooperative, I’ll untie him once in a while.”
“If not?”
Vargas cracked a sly smile. “I guess he’ll have to work for your rent, then.” He thought he was joking around, but Aeris took this as a real threat.
“Is that how you are?” Aeris raised her voice, looking very sternly at Vargas.
“Relax, just watch.” Vargas stood from his chair and brought it over to Wedge. He looked ragged and dusty as he hung by the rope binding his wrists. Vargas double checked the ropes on his arms and legs before taking Wedge’s chin in one hand.
Wedge stirred and groaned. “Wha- You..” Wedge mumbled weakly as Vargas stared into his eyes.
“I don’t think wriggling’s going to help you much.” He patted Wedge down and removed his pocketknife and blaster. Setting these weapons on the chair, he prodded Wedge a bit to awaken him. “Wake up!”
“What do you want from me?” Wedge regained his bitter look.
“Personally, I don’t want anything from you. Don’t worry about the girl, she’s right here.” Vargas turned Wedge’s head toward Aeris, who waved slightly.
“Don’t worry, Wedge, I have a plan,” Aeris mouthed silently to him.
“Why did you tie me up? I’m a civilized person!”
“Hmmph. You’ve got a lot of energy. That’s good.” Stepping back to the chair, he grabbed Wedge’s pocketknife and turned to Aeris. “Don’t worry. I won’t hurt him,” Vargas reassured Aeris. Turning back to Wedge, he felt the blade. “I doubt that I can even keep you here..”
“What?”
“You said you knew you were tied up.”
“Yes.”
“That’s not going to stop someone like you.”
“It sure looks like it.”
“Try to break the ropes.”
Wedge wasn’t going to argue. He pulled at the ropes with all his might, stretching the taut fibers until his muscles bulged. He was exerting himself so strongly that he didn’t notice a few fibers snapping. He could finally pull no more and stopped trying.
“Amazing,” Vargas thought to himself as he inspected the rope holding Wedge. A third of the fibers had fallen to the floor, along with Wedge’s hopes.
“I-I can’t do it.”
Vargas thought for a moment at what this could mean, and decided on a course of action. “Pity. You looked like the one. Well, I guess it’s time for plan B.”
Vargas set to work tearing Wedge’s old pirate shirt apart at the seams with the knife. Wedge gulped. “Plan B?”
Vargas lifted Wedge from the hook and put him down on his knees. He had cut the shirt into strips, which he swiftly tied around Wedge’s lowered chest and arms. “If you won’t break the ropes, I won’t waste the labor. You’re going to help me plow.”
Wedge called to Aeris as Vargas picked him up in one muscular arm. “Aeris! Help!”
“Don’t!” Vargas flashed Wedge’s knife in his other hand. “He’s paying your rent.” He left, leaving Aeris alone at the table, crying into her tea.
Vargas had taken Wedge to a hidden room in the back of the cabin. It contained two large round stones stacked on top of each other. Metal bars protruded from the top stone.
Wedge flinched as Vargas grabbed him by his neck. “You just wanted slave labor?”
“I wanted you to break the rope.”
“Why didn’t you just untie me?”
Vargas brought out a leather harness and started to wrap it around Wedge’s bare chest. “You don’t get it, do you?” He noted Wedge’s size and took a small plow and chain from a nearby closet. “I guess you should think about it while I make you work. That poor girl wanted you to listen so badly-”
“Leave her out of this!” Wedge thought of the things this man could do to a girl like her. “I’m only going to let you order me around because I know that if I don’t, she’ll get hurt.”
“Right.” Vargas latched the chain onto the harness and pulled Wedge and the plow to his field.

Tseng gave one pack to each of the three soldiers at the wooden arch. “Let’s review the rules, then.” He revealed a typed sheet of Shinra stationery and began reading. “This will be a different type of race than the one we had yesterday. Your flags have been distributed along the eastern coast of this island. You task is to find and retrieve the flag that matches your number on the shore and bring it back here. I suggest you ration your energy wisely. The packs that have been issued to you contain maps, compasses, ropes, and a few liters of water. There are also enough rations for two meals, flint, and a Shinra all-purpose pocketknife packed inside, little gifts from me that you can keep even if you lose. You can go now, but don’t rush yourself too quickly. It took me about nineteen hours to complete this course when I was a trainee.” Tseng, having nothing more to say, turned away with a twinkle in his eye. The four soldiers had already run away in different directions.

“That’s very interesting, Miss Aeris.”
After Vargas had dragged Wedge off to the field, she had looked up from her cry to see a mysterious bearded man look down at her. Since then, Aeris had explained everything that had happened to her and what happened to Wedge.
“Are you this master Vargas keeps talking about?”
“Heh-heh. Yes.” The old man looked down at her tea, which by now had become cold and salty from her tears. “You know, there was a point when he didn’t even want to study under me.”
“You’re a martial arts teacher?”
“Right again. Now, there is the matter of what to do about Wedge when he comes back.”
Aeris was shocked. “What?! Vargas kidnapped him!”
“Vargas is stupid if he thinks he can try to pull a stunt like that again. In fact, Wedge should be arriving about now-” At this point, Wedge showed himself in the doorway looking somewhat scratched. Steam rose from his sweaty frame, his chest bearing the red marks of the tight harness.
“He should also be bringing Vargas in.” Indeed, Wedge had to use all his might to hold him, but he dragged an unconscious Vargas into the cabin, tied up the same way he had bound Wedge just an hour before.
“Am I not correct?” The old man had made his predictions without even looking back at the door.
Wedge had burned all of his frustration into his fight with Vargas, and saw that an old man now arrived and was comforting Aeris. He took a look at the man and strangely lost his original impulse to fight. He stood in the doorway, breathing heavily and dripping sweat.
“You must be this jerk’s master.” Wedge gave Vargas a kick of his own.
“I’m also his father, but I can still understand what he has done to cause you so much trouble. You must be Wedge.” The old man turned slowly to face Wedge, his massive form and the prize he had brought in testifying to his strength.
Wedge caught a glimpse of the old man’s eyes and suddenly averted his own. He felt a powerful warmth emanate from this old soul, probing, and sensing all that was within. Summoning up his mental energy, he managed to slow and calm the waves of energy washing over his bare body and stared straight into the man’s eyes.
“I am Duncan. You may stay as long as you wish.”
Wedge felt an urgent need to find out more about this man. “Thank you,” he replied without moving. “You...must be a very good teacher. I had trouble with your son here.”
“I know. I sensed your aura approaching the cabin and left him to greet you.”
“I broke the ropes, like he told me to.”
“Very impressively, I might add.” He stopped for a moment to sense further into Wedge. “He tried to use you.”
Wedge hung his head and knelt. He felt almost powerless to stop the influence he was exerting now. “That was my mistake.”
Duncan ceased his probe, leaving Wedge bowed. “You possess great strength, Wedge Palmer, and someday it might save us all, if used correctly.”
Somehow, Wedge got the message Duncan had sent into his brain. He had to accept. He had no choice. “I have to be your new student, master.”
“Hmm? Do you really want to do this? I wont be as easy on you as Vargas.” Duncan had implanted the thought into Wedge’s mind with a purpose. “If this man is indeed the one,” Duncan thought to himself, “he’ll have to considerably increase his power.”
Wedge felt Duncan release his mental hold on him, and stood up. “What did you just do?”
“Nothing. You just offered to become my new student.”
“Well? What do you say?”
Duncan was astonished. Wedge was one step ahead of him; he seemed so sure of this. He really wanted to do it. “Why do you want to do this?” Duncan had to know how Wedge had decided.
“If you are really as powerful as I think you are, then this dead world would be a bit safer when I finish learning from you.” Wedge suddenly tensed and flexed his muscles and started to concentrate his own energy. The energy he gave off was extremely perceptible to Duncan. His aura gave off waves of energy that wore away at Duncan’s mental defenses. Duncan staggered, feeling the sheer force Wedge gathered into his mind. The energy flow stopped as suddenly as it started, and Duncan strained to stand. Though he was still physically the same, Wedge looked visibly larger to the old man. “It’s not a matter of choice. It’s a matter of destiny.”
“Wedge?” Aeris was puzzled. She had failed to notice the small power struggle that had just happened between the two men. “Why are you just standing there?”
“Aeris? Oh, it seems that we are going to be staying here for a while so that I can learn from Mr. Duncan here.” Wedge suddenly regained his presence and took Vargas into the house. He reached for his shirt and weapons, but Duncan stopped him.
“If you’re going to be my student, you won’t really need those. Just bring the gun.”
Wedge found himself obeying. “What do I do with him?” Wedge asked, pointing to Vargas, bound with the rope.
“Bring him with us.”
“Fine. Oh, Aeris. Thank you.”
“For what?”
“This guy would have caused a lot of trouble if you did the wrong thing.” Wedge looked at the marks on his wrists and on his bare chest from the ropes that held him. “He almost killed me again. That’s why.” Wedge left her to think about this while he dragged Vargas by his own chain.

Wedge ran toward the desert at a moderate pace, he knew that Tseng hadn’t given them a false warning about overexertion.
“Wedge!” Biggs had run up right behind him. “Stop!”
Wedge didn’t stop. He didn’t want to or need to.
“Wedge! Listen!”
“We’re not going to be able to be partners this time, Biggs!” Wedge called back suddenly. As if punishing himself, he failed to notice a stone in the dust and tripped forward, scraping his stomach.
“How can you be so cold?!”
Wedge realized the gravity of what he had just told his best friend. He looked up from the dirt to see that Biggs had stopped running to make sure Wedge was okay. Wedge couldn’t bear to look at him. “I- I’m sorry, Biggs. I didn’t mean it.”
“Look, just let me say this, okay? When I said we were in this together, I meant it!” Biggs dealt a savage kick across his friend’s unprotected ribs.
Wedge rolled over onto his back and clutched his side. He tried to hold back the painful tears that rose from his eyes. “Biggs! I know, I deserved that.”
Biggs kicked his other side, causing Wedge to wrench again. “You deserved that too! And even if it takes a hundred kicks, I’m going to make you get up and bring that flag back here, even if I have to push you the whole way.” Biggs reached out his hand to pull Wedge to his feet. Wedge instead rolled over onto his stomach and crawled up by himself.
“You’d probably get arrested.”
Biggs gave Wedge a hard punch to his already scraped breadbasket, doubling him over. “I know that! But unless you get through this, it’s not going to mean anything when I do. Now come on and run!” Biggs pulled Wedge to his feet and half-ran, half-shoved Wedge forward until he caught his breath again. “I know I’m being hard on you, but as your best friend, I can’t let you lose! It’s tough, Wedge, but that’s what I have to do.”
“Biggs!” Wedge had grasped the meaning of what Biggs had told him as he ran ahead. “Let’s finish this race together!”
“Now then, this should be a good spot. Wedge, take a look at these trees.” Duncan had led Wedge to a pristine forest, filled with thick maple trees.
“They’re beautiful, master.” Wedge had already begun to call Duncan by this honorific title. “But why did you want me to bring the blaster?”
Duncan moved to stand between Wedge and one of the slightly larger maple trees. “Are you good at using that gadget?”
Wedge didn’t have to answer by telling him so. He took aim at a small dead branch hanging from a tall tree and split it cleanly with one shot. As it fell, he broke it in two with another shot. It landed in two loud thumps on the forest floor.
“I see. Now, let’s see if you can hit the trunk of this tree with a shot from that device of yours.”
“Master? You want me to shoot for something that large?”
“You won’t be able to hit it.”
“Why not?”
Duncan pulled his long, tangled hair forward and unsheathed two short but brilliant metal swords. “You won’t hit anything but these blades. Don’t set that gun to a powerful setting now, you might hurt yourself.”
Wedge didn’t have to give any warning as he shot several balls of energy around Duncan. However, the old man was surprisingly fast. He was like a blur, batting several shots away with each slice of his two swords. The shots were then sent back toward Wedge’s direction, forcing him to stop firing and dodge in five directions at once. He ended up sliding through the loam, barely dodging a shot deflected toward his head.
“Is that all you’ve got?” Duncan seemed that he had never really moved at all. “You’re not really trying, are you? Get up!”
Wedge quickly did as he was told. “That wasn’t very nice,” he said, rubbing a few singed hairs on his head.
“You started it. You didn’t even tell this poor old man that you were going to start. Your second mistake was that you stood still. You have to keep moving, Wedge.”
Wedge reflected on this. The brooding student then broke into a full run, circling the tree. Duncan kept up with him easily and was able to stay between him and the tree. “How’s this?”
“Stop talking and shoot!”
Wedge fired off several volleys, not pausing to aim but instead concentrating on the large trunk of the tree in the center of the circle. Duncan ran with him, easily deflecting each shot as it was fired. Wedge was so busy aiming and shooting that he was clawed at by several low hanging branches, scratching his arms and ribs. He learned to duck and weave with the pattern of the circle as he shot, and was then able to focus most of his energy toward Duncan. “This isn’t working,” Wedge thought to himself as he ran. “I’m not getting one shot off!” Thinking quickly, he stopped and changed direction, now running counter-clockwise around the tree.
“Very clever,” the living blur called out to Wedge. “But you’re still not hitting the tree!”
His answer was punctuated when Wedge caught a deflected shot square in his chest, stunning him enough to make him fall on his face. Wedge struggled to crawl back to his feet His skin felt numb and his pectorals ached when he moved them. Still, he managed to get up.
“Was that just a lucky shot?” Duncan laughed at Wedge from his place beside the tree.
Wedge was so furious, he barely heard it. He took his blaster in both hands and glared at it. Wedge’s gaze burned into his gun and his arms as he focused all of his energy into his weapon. “No, that’s not it.” Wedge realized that this was his mistake and pushed all of his energy into himself, drawing it away from the gun and into his being, his body.
Duncan felt Wedge’s overwhelming presence again for the second time that day. His focus began to draw energy from the surrounding area, causing his aura to become an energy vacuum. It sucked energy from the trees, the ground, the sky, he even stole a bit of Duncan’s power, which Duncan was straining with all his might to protect. Duncan then felt a tangible snap in the energy around him as Wedge released it.
“YAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHH!” Wedge’s shout caused the earth to tremble as he ran at an amazing speed around the tree. Duncan was hard pressed to deflect the shots coming at him from odd angles. Wedge changed direction once, then twice, then three times, and ran straight on a collision course with a small sapling. Wedge easily splintered it as he ran, not looking back at the damage he had caused. Wedge then constricted his running path, circling closer and closer to the tree until Wedge and Duncan were only several feet apart. Wedge shot at point-blank range and Duncan deflected all that cam his way. Suddenly, Wedge leapt into the air with a great roar and focused all his energy into firing the gun. He let loose with a large, luminous blast at the trunk of the tree that Duncan could not have possibly deflected. Duncan quickly dodged the salvo as it split the trunk with a deafening crack. Wedge tumbled onto a high branch of a nearby tree and watched the trunk break into splinters, toppling the tree. Wedge paused on the branch to catch his breath and recover from the stress. He saw that he hadn’t been scraped too badly, but dust from the forest floor had combined with the sweat on his trunk, making him slightly grimy to the touch. He had to shake his hands to relieve the great tingling sensation he felt as he calmed down.
Duncan took one look at Wedge up in the tree and one look at the fallen tree. He walked over to where Wedge has charged up and knelt at the crater he had made. Picking up what looked like a charred piece of wood, he held it up. “Missing something?”
Wedge’s first impulse was to say no, but he put his hands to his uncombed hair and noticed that there was.
“I don’t have my gun.”
“You dropped it when you yelled.”
“But, how did I shoot and break the tree...if I wasn’t holding the gun?”
Duncan turned to retrieve Vargas from a high branch. “Heh, he, he. That’s nice little toy you were playing with for a while, there.” When he got to Vargas, he found that he was wide awake and had seen the whole thing; he was stupefied with terror at the massive amount of power behind the man he had tried to enslave.
Wedge jumped from his perch and landed in front of Vargas, who was still bound with Wedge’s former shirt and the broken rope. “Now, what about him?”
Duncan was indifferent. “Eh, do what you want with him. He’s yours.” He left after handing his chain over to Wedge.
“Vargas, what should I do with you?”
Vargas gave Wedge a look of dread. He was sure that he had this man down, but he had underestimated the smaller and less defined Wedge. “If you’re going to kill me, do it now,” Vargas told Wedge.
“I won’t kill you. You’re the son of my master, and I couldn’t do that to him. So let’s try plan B.”
Vargas gulped. This was worse than death. “Yes, sir.”
“I guess now you’ll work for Aeris’s rent then. You seemed so gracious about it when I was your slave. Maybe you can help with the millstone.”
All he could say was a small, “Yes, Wedge, sir.”
 

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