Forever and always held in my heart Locke and Rachel

Locke opened the chest in front of him and lifted out the piece of magicite that it contained. Suspended insied the green stone was a phoenix. He knew when he saw it that he'd finallly found what he'd been looking for all of these years. It was the reason that he'd spent so much of his life searching out relics of the past. The stone that could bring Rachel back from her as-good-as-dead state. If only He had been there when those soldiers had come instead of off trying to get a ship to Figaro. If only he'd brought Rachel with him instead of leaving her there. Rachel . . .

Locke had just finished his shift working on his father's farm and was on his way home. The small village of Kohlingen was a quiet town, if it could be called a town it was quite small, this was mostly due to the fact that it was so far out of the way that no one ever seemed to want to visit it. There were no ports nearby for ships to land and there was only one road that made it all the way there. The only visitors that they ever got were peddlers and merchants, and all they ever wanted was to either buy or sell things.

Being so far from civilization, Kohlingen got very little news of the outside world. Not that any of the inhabitants really cared all that much anyway. The news that they did manage to receive by pigeon that had flown astray or brought by the merchants was usually a year old at least. So when imperial soldiers showed up one day and took the town for their own the town's people were quite surprised.

As it so happened the imperial soldiers took everything. Crops, money, homes, everything. At one time there had been a rebellion against the soldiers but it was quickly dealt with. Their still living bodies were hung by the arms in the town square. Their rotting corpses still hung there today, a year and a half later. After that the towns people grumbled about the soldiers but never did anything to stop them from doing what they were doing.

Locke walked home on his usual route, as far from the soldier's base camp as possible. When he reached the outskirts of Kohlingen he saw soldiers standing at the door of old widow Lannock. She was obviously crying, as she handed them a small pouch of gold and walked back into her house, slamming the door behind her. The lead soldier put the money into a pocket and turned away from the house. The soldiers had started enforcing the Empire's tax laws upon them shortly after they had arrived and many people barely had enough to feed their families. There was nothing they could do about it. Locke looked at the pompous soldier swaggering down the road towards him and got an idea.

Trying to look like he wasn't watching where he was going Locke walked straight into the soldier. He reached into the pocket and pulled out the money, before he fell on the ground with mock surprise. "watch where the hell you're going" the soldier yelled at him. "next time I'll kill you."

With that the soldiers left. Locke sat up and pulled out the bag of gold. He threw it up in the air and caught it again. "easy money" he said. Ever since he'd been little he'd had a talent for stealing things right out from under people's noses with out them noticing for quite some time. He'd gotten himself into a lot of trouble once people figured out that it was him doing it, but why waste a good talent was Locke's motto.

He walked up to Widow Lannock's house and knocked on the door. Mrs. Lannock opened it a few seconds later and Locke held the bag of gold out for her. She took the bag with a look of amazement.

"thank you" she said. "thank you so much Mr. Cole. At last you've found a use for that God awful talent of yours."

"God awful?!" Locke said indignantly " more like a gift from god." Locke turned and continued up the road and into the town square. He looked around for some more soldiers to steal from but didn't see any. "hey Locke." Someone called from across the square in front of the bar.

The bar, now there was a business that wasn't failing because of the soldiers. Cecil Barnes the bartender and owner had never had so much business in his life since the soldiers had showed up.

Locke wondered what Cecil could possibly want from him. He was too young to be drinking by three years. His curiosity dragged him over to the bar. "you need me for something." Locke asked running a hand through his shaggy dark blond hair.

"some soldiers stiffed me on their payment." Cecil said. "could you kind of. . . "

"oh sure." Locke said. "but it'll cost you."

"just like you."

"well?"

"OK you can have whatever is left of the money that you take from them after they 'pay the bill'"

"sounds good." Locke walked past him and into the bar. He'd never actually been inside of it and he wasn't particularly impressed with it. It was a small dark and smoke filled room, sitting at the bar were two soldiers so drunk that they could hardly sit up straight. "this is going to be too easy." He said to himself as he walked towards the soldiers.

He took money from one then the other without either one of them so much as noticing he was even in the room.

"I can't wait to get out of this hell hole next week." One of the soldiers said

"good thing we're leaving I hate this place." The other one said. His voice even more slurred than the first one, if that was possible "why was it that we were leaving again?"

"something about not having enough money. The general is coming to march us back down to Jidoor, where we'll get on a ship for home."

Locke was so excited that he didn't bother to wait for his share of the money. He just threw the two pouches at the bartender and ran out the door.

"locke" someone called behind him. "hey Locke wait up."

Locke turned to see his friend Rachel running up behind him. He waited for her to catch up.

"hey." She said when she did. "What were you doing in the bar."

"stealing." Locke answered. "what else would I be doing in the bar?"

"I don't know. I heard what you did for Widow Lannock."

"already?"

"you know this town."

"yeah I guess I do."

"so why you in such a hurry?"

"I Just heard some soldiers talking in the bar. They sad that a general is going to be coming in a week to lead them back to the empire."

"that's great news."

"yeah. I think Cecil is the only one that'll be sad to see them go."

"he's made a fortune off of them. God I've never seen people drink so much in my life."

"hey." Locke said as he reached into his pocketand fumbled around for a second. " I was having an idea a few days ago. You wanna join me?"

"this better not be like the last time locke." The last time she had ended up confined to her room for two weeks. But all of the ways she was planning to say no with suddenly disappeared when she saw what he was holding up in front of her. "is that what I think it is?" she asked staring at the ring he held with a large blue diamond in it.

"yup. I stole this ring off of one of the soldiers out there. Probably thinks it fell off of his finger or something."

Rachel stifled a laugh "a man was wearing this ring."

"yup. Can't say that I'd ever want to get near him again but it looked like your size so here it is."

"So what were you going to ask me." Rachel said as she put the ring on her finger.

"oh you're horrible" Locke started lauging.

"so when we gonna do it. Get married I mean."

"hey lets do it as a celebration for the soldiers leaving. Everyone'll want to party till they drop. It's the perfect time."

"sounds good to me."

As promised the general showed up a week later and all of the troops started packing up their camp. On the night after he'd arrived Locke and Rachel ran into him on the way home from a walk in the nearby forest that they'd played in together as children. The general seemed polite enough to Locke, maybe he was even halfway decent Locke was thinking, until he laid his eyes on Rachel. Then he slipped into the same category as the rest of the soldiers.

"well well." He said. "I think I'm going to marry you tomarrow." He grabbed her hand and started dragging her back the way he'd come.

"Locke." Rachel called. "Do something"

"Hey." Locke yelled after him. "keep your hands off of her."

The general turned around as if he had been startled, allowing rachel to break his grasp. "Are you talking to me boy?" he asked

"Isn't it enough that you take our money, our crops, our homes, and our lives. Do you have to take out women also?"

"are you two married?"

"we will be as soon as you leave our town."

"No you won't because I'm taking her tomarow as my wife. And there's nothing that you can do about it."

"What gives you the right to do this."

"the legion of armed, armored and trained soldiers just over that hill that follow my every order. You see if you do anything stupid I'll have them burn this retched little town of yours and hang every last one of you people."

The general took Rachel's hand again and started dragging her along again. Locke reached down and pulled out his long boot knife and ran after them. He raised the knife and was about to strike when the general turned and kicked the knife out of his hand. Locke grasped his smarting wrist as the general kicked him hard in the middle of his chest. Locke flew backwards a few feet before landing painfully on his back.

"no one crosses me and lives." The general bellowed as he drew his sword and laid the point against Locke's throat. "have any last words?"

"You can tell Satan to keep his hands off of you. You're mine."

"you act as if I'm the one that'll be dying here."

"you are." Locke said

Rachel, who had picked up Lockes knife and snuck up on the general now struck out with it. The knife plunged through the generals back until it protruded from his chest. She pulled the knife out and the general fell to the ground. She knelt by his head and jammed the knife into his left eye. And sat there watching him convulse.

"hey that girl just killed the general." A soldier yelled from a little ways away down the path. "get her."

Rachel looked at the blood that covered her hands and clothes. There was no way they could blame it on someone else. She looked at locke. "Locke what do we do?"

Locke grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. "we'll figure that out later. Right now we've gotta run."

Locke led the way as they ran down the path pursued by the soldiers. "We know the woods better than most anyone." He said to Rachel. "We'll lose them there."

He suddenly ran off the path into the thick underbrush, dragging Rachel along behind him. He pulled her back far enough so that they weren't visible from the path, the watched as a group of four soldiers ran past them, never looked in their direction.

"what do we do now Locke?" Rachel asked

"I don't know but we can't stay here." Locke answered. "they'll be looking for us in the town, we have to go somewhere far away."

"but where can we go? We don't know anyone outside of town."

"I do."

Rachel looked at him oddly. "you've never left town how do you know someone outside?" "Remember that peddler that came in last winter? The one that didn't seem to know much about peddling."

"oh yeah." Rachel remembered . "he was pretty young I just thought that he was new to it or something."

"Well that was Prince Edgar from Figaro. I kind of got to know him a bit, we were out in the woods we were attacked by a monster. I killed it and saved his life, he told me who he was and what he was doing there. Something like needing to get away from everything. He said if I ever needed anything to come to him."

"you want to go all the way to Figaro?"

"you don't have any better Ideas do you?"

"no"

"OK then. We'll wait here until Dark then we'll go as far south as we possibly can during the night."

"won't they be searching off the roads when they figure out they're not chasing us anymore."

"you're right. Lets find somewhere further off of the road"

They walked back into the forest a ways until they found a large tree and climbed up into it. "oh" Rachel exclaimed. "I'm getting blood all over you."

"don't worry about it." Locke said. "you know . . . stabbing him in the back probably would have been enough. You didn't have to stab him in the eye also."

"I just thougth about how many people he might have done things like this before. And how many times he might do it again if he lived. I couldn't let him have any chance of surviving"

"You sure didn't give him one." Locke said pulling Rachel up next to him on the wide branch he was squatting on. "You'd better get some sleep. We'll be moving all night long."

When it got dark they climbed down and strarted southward keeping well clear of the town and soldier camp. Each night they went farther and farther south. Locke was beginning to believe that the soldiers weren't even chasing them at all. They reached Jidoor around midnight one night.

"they probably sent word of us ahead of them." Locke said "We'd better not go into the city until morning to get onto a ship."

They found a nice place and soon they were both asleep. Locke woke up just before morning and started towards the City. The less time they spent in the town the better, plus Rachel's Clothing was still covered with blood. He didn't want to risk her standing out like that. He planned to buy her a new dress and ticket for the ship to South Figaro while in town. Then he'd return to Rachel and they'd stay out of town until the ship was ready to leave.

He bought the tickets for the ship the next morning and started on his way towards some of the stores In town when someone grabbed him from behind. "Come with us." Someone said "you're under arrest."

Locke broke free and started to run but then he heard something that made him stop in his tracks. Rachel's voice. She shrieked as if she was in pain. Locke spun around to see a soldier holding a knife to her throat. "come or she dies." He said.

Locke had no choice. He srrendered and soon found himself chained to the wall in a small cell on a ship. The boat seemed to be at sea forever. The only palce that it could take that long to reach was the southern continent. Which meant that they were going to Vector.

After what seemed like a month at sea they finally docked. Locke was dragged out of his cell into a freezing cold night and was chained to a soldier in Magitek armor. They walked all night long, Locke kept looking around for Rachel but didn't see her. He kept trying to tell himself that it meant nothing, there were so many people in the group he was traveling with that it would be easy to miss her, but as much as he wanted to he couldn't believe it there was something wrong that's why he didn't see her anywhere.

Finally they reached Vector Locke was chained again to the wall in a small cell high in the Imperial castle. One thing he noticed was that the empire seemed to have a thing for chains. Little did they know who they were dealing with. Not only could he steal anything but he could also pick almost every lock ever made. It'd only be a matter of time before he was free and out of this cell.

The next morning he had freed himself of his chains and figured out the timing on the change on the guards. Every eight hours there was a fifteen minute break between the guards' shifts. That's when he'd get out. He watched for the guard to leave and when he did, locke got up and quickly picked the lock on the door. Soon he was sneaking his way through the hallway looking for Rachel's cell.

He found it quickly. "rachel" he said quietly through the door. She didn't answer. "Rachel!" he said again a little louder. Then he saw the small pool of blood by her mouth, it was still running slowly over her lip and onto the floor. Locke quickly picked the lock and ran inside to her. She wouldn't wake up , she was covered in bruises as if she'd bee beaten.

He noticed that they'd left her unchained. Probably because they didn't expect her to be waking up anytime soon. Locke gently lifted her up, and was out the door as fast as he could move without bumping Rachel up and down too much. He remembered the exact route that they had gone through the castle for just this ocaision, and followed his memory as well as he could.

"The prisoners are escaping." Someone yelled down the hall. "guards"

Locke started running, and soon fond that he was surrounded. The only way out was a window, Locke hung Rachel over his shoulder and climbed up onto the window sill started off along the ledge. Voices behind him told him he was being followed. He saw up ahea that there was guards coming towards him also. He was definitely trapped now. Or maybe not there was a wire attached to the wall that spanned the distance between the castle and the next building over. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the sharp piece of metal that he'd used to pick the locks and sawed through the wire, Luckily there was no electrical current running through it at the time. He made sure that Rachel wouldn't fall off and jumped off of the ledge holding onto the wire for dear life.

As he swung out over the courtyard of the castle the guards started shooting at them. Lucky for him they seemed not to know how to aim. Soon he was standing on the castle wall.

After sneaking out of Vector Locke bought passage on a ship back to Jidoor. And started on the long trip back up to Kohlingen. Rachel didn't wake up the whole time and every doctor he'd seen had said that she never would, and probaly would die in a few weeks anyway. But Locke didn't want to believe them. There had to be a way to save her. He was welcomed a Kohlingen and yelled at for being reckless with Rachel at the same time.

The town doctor took her and started working inside his houde. He came back out the next day and got Locke. Locke followed him downstairs to a small room. Rachel lay on a bed in the center of the room.

"I used some of my special Herbs to save her." He said " but they have a side effect. She will stay in suspended animation forever sleeping."

"But she'll live?" Locke asked

"She will live."

"What if there were a way to call her back?"

"if you caould call her back she'd come."

And that was how Locke came to be in the cave holding the Phoenix Magicite in his pouch. "Locke" a familiar voice said behind him.

"Celes." Locke exclaimed. "I thought that yo were dead." He turned to face her. "when the airship broke apart I saw you fall."

"Locke I'm so glad you're alive."

Locke pulled the Phoenix Magicite out of his pouch "behold a legendary artifact that can restore life." He said. "it's pretty cracked, I hope it'll still work"

"Locke" celes said. "Is that for Rachel?"

"It's all my fault tht she's the way she is. Now I'm going to make it right."

"then will you let us take you as far as Kohlingen"

"The sooner I get there the better."

Locke walked down the stairs and found the room at the bottom exactly the same as the last time that he'd seen it. He placed the phoenix Magicite on Rachel's stomach and waited. But nothing happened, "if only it weren't so cracked." The doctor said sadly.

The Magicite began to vibrate then it seemed to sink into Rachel's body. She opened her eyes and looked at Locke. "Rachel" Locke said

"Locke th Phoenix has given us so little time together. Soon I must go again, this time for good."

"I have to tell you that I'm sorry Rachel. I'm sorry That I left you there alone."

"it's ok Locke the only thing that I could think about as they chained me up was what they would do to you. I'm free now because of you and now I'm going to free you. Today I set your heart free, never again think of me with remorse. I will always cherish the time we had together."

"but Rachel do you have to go."

"You don't know it yet but there is a woman upstairs that loves you very much, don't pass her by. You are free of the obligation to me that you've place on yourself."

"Rachel Don't go."

"I have to." She disapeared "phoenix be reborn again and give your power to Locke."

The Phoenix Magicte reappeared on the bed and then there was silence. Locke felt the best that he had in a long, long time. Hes heart was free of anguish for the first time in all the time that he had searched the world. He would hold Rachel's memory in his heart for the rest of his life, but he wouldn't let it get in the way of his happiness anymore.

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