Chapter One: Deja Vu

"So, what's next on the agenda?" Terra asked this question as they all sat around in the infirmary. Just about everyone had suffered a minor injury of some sort, or were waiting for the ones who had sustained major damage to wake up. Edge was still unconscious from Katra's brief but brutal assault. Crono and Cecil were barely conscious. Celes was still in bed, weak from the attack by the Calbrena.

"I don't know," Bleu spoke up. "There's still something out there, you know. Whoever was controlling Katra is still alive and after something. We have to find out who and what."

"Yeah," Marle said. "I --"

"Princess Nadia!"

Marle looked up to see a soldier standing there, looking slightly nervous. "Yes, what is it?"

"You have a visitor, your Majesty. A young lady. She did not say what her name was."

"Show her in," Marle replied with a slight frown. This was a little odd. The soldier nodded and left.

A minute later, a woman came into the room. She was short, with black hair in two long braids and dark skin. She smiled coolly at them. "Hello, everyone." Her voice was deep and breathy, almost eerie.

"Who are you?" Marle asked, confused. "Why are you here? And what do you want with me? I don't believe I know you."

"You know me not, but I do know you -- in a way." She chuckled. "One question at a time here, please. I cannot answer everything at once." She seemed amused.

"Oookay, then," Marle said, trying to be patient, "we'll start with who are you?"

The woman smiled. "My name is Ankara. Ankara DuFarr."

Everyone went extremely still upon hearing that name. Ankara seemed amused.

"Ah, afraid already, are you?" she chuckled. "You have no reason to be -- yet. Not until I reveal why I am here."

"Why, then?" Bleu asked, her mouth having gone dry.

"Patience, patience!" Ankara replied with a laugh. "First things first, after all. First of all, I am slightly irritated with your recent killing of my younger sister Katra."

"Slightly irritated?" Relm's eyes were about to pop out of her head. "What are you going to do, slightly kill us?"

"Ugh! No!" Ankara shuddered. "I hate killing. It's so wasteful!"

"There's something I've never heard before," Celes commented. "Usually they're all about killing."

Ankara smiled. "Indeed. But you will soon find that I am quite different from the rest. But first things first. Where exactly was I? Oh, yes, I am slightly irritated by your killing of my sister Katra. But not for the reasons you might suspect." She laughed. "There are so many surprises waiting for you all. I feel such a delightful rush of anticipation! It will be fun."

"What will be fun?" Lucca asked.

"Patience, patience." Ankara smiled. "If you are not patient, you will never succeed. Of course, I don't want you to succeed, but it's true nonetheless." She took a deep breath and let it out. "Anyway, I got quite off-topic, didn't I? I really must stop that. I am irritated about Katra's death because I hate it when people do my work for me. You spoiled things a bit there. That's all." She laughed at their stunned expressions. "Oh yes, quite right." She smiled.

"I see what you're thinking, the confusion and shock. It's true. I'm not mad because Katra's dead, I'm just a little disappointed and mad because I didn't get to do it myself." She laughed softly. "Let me explain something to you. My plans are far too intricate, too complex, for someone of Katra's intellect." Her lip curled in a sneer. "She was an idiot. Even before I drove her insane, she was an idiot. A tiny brain in a hideous body. I don't care what they say, she was ugly." She sighed. "But then, that's not the point, is it?"

"You... drove her insane?" Bleu whispered.

"Oh, yes." Ankara laughed. "She was my first. An experiment to see how far I could push a mind to the breaking point. I turned her into a pathetic shell of what she once was. Oh, she was always evil, but merely stupid, not stupid and insane." She smiled dreamily. "You see, that is my secret, one few have discovered. Real power lies not in destroying, not physically at least, but in creating. Insanity. Controlling the mind. Controlling everything. Why destroy things when you can torture and control them? There is no pleasure to be had in mutilating a corpse. I would much rather watch a person's mind completely unravel at my hands. So few realize this, and it is why I am the successful one and they are the dead ones." She smirked.

"But that is slightly off-topic. I have been planning since the beginning to kill Katra. Normally, I hate to take a life, but I view taking hers as an act of mercy. The poor, pathetic thing deserved to be put to sleep. I would have made it slow and deliciously painful and creative. I do hope that you were creative. Hearing that would help ease the disappointment."

"Oh, we, we were creative," Terra said. She didn't want to anger Ankara.

"Good, good!" Ankara rubbed her hands together, clearly pleased. "Glad to hear that, am I. Very glad." She laughed. "Very glad...."

Skye paused outside the door to wipe her red-rimmed eyes again. She'd just about cried herself out and was now almost ready to go back in. Sniffling, she pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and blew her nose. That's when she heard it. The laughter. Low, throaty, and cool, it had a distinctly inhuman sound to it. She'd never heard it before, but it chilled her down to the marrow of her bones. Shivering, she opened the door and went in, a sense of foreboding creeping over her.

"So, anyway," Ankara continued, "the reason I am here is to begin the next phase of my plan. I am so pleased with the way you all fell into my first phase so perfectly."

"What do you mean by that?" Terra asked, frowning. "Katra said we were ruining the plans."

Ankara started laughing. "Didn't I say she was an idiot? That's what she thought and what you were supposed to think. You were supposed to think you were winning when actually you were playing right into my hands. While you were off in the unimportant places and eras, I was consolidating my control of the important ones. All that you went through was merely a ruse to keep you fooled until it was too late for you to alter things."

Walking up behind her, Skye began to feel sick. They'd been tricked? They hadn't won after all? Oh, no....

Ankara was grinning now. "Oh, that idiot," she chuckled. "So stupid. She actually believed me when I pretended to be angry about her supposed 'failures'." Her face darkened slightly. "Though I was angry over what she did to Doma. Such a lovely castle. All those people I could've toyed with, and now they're dead. Oh, well, I can always rebuild it." She glanced around. "Nice castle. I must remember to change the decor in my tower. So gloomy."

"I thought you evil villains liked gloomy places," Bleu said.

"Not this one. I like nice decorations." She smiled.

"Your tower...." Edgar murmured thoughtfully.

Ankara turned to him. "What'd you say?"

"Your tower. Where do you live?"

Ankara smiled. "You know it well. The Tower of Fanatics."

"The Tower of...." All the blood drained from Edgar's face. "You! It was you, wasn't it?! The one reported being seen in the tower casting a spell!" He cursed under his breath. "I should have realized when I saw you! The hair, the skin.... hell, I should have remembered when Rydia mentioned a similar incident in her world!"

"Yes, indeed," Ankara laughed. "It was me, all right. I was so bored that day that I decided to put on a show for the subs. I nearly died laughing imagining their reactions."

"You'll die now, but it won't be laughing."

Ankara whirled to see Skye standing there. She threw her boomerang at her. Ankara ducked under it and punched Skye hard in the stomach, sending her flying backwards into a chair. Her boomerang embedded itself in the wall behind Ankara.

"If that was your idea of a surprise attack, you'd better go back to training," Ankara said in a voice tinged with mild disgust and amusement.

"Speaking of surprise attacks," Marle spoke up, "why'd you come in through the front door? Why not just appear out of nowhere, like Katra and many others always did?"

"First of all, I consider that rather uncivilized and stupid. I'd rather walk in and take a look at the place, relax. Second, who says those are surprise attacks anymore? We evil villains are expected to suddenly appear out of nowhere, usually in a flashy, wasteful display of pyrotechnics or some other such magic. It's not expected, however, to just stroll in casually."

"Okay," Skye said slowly as she got up, "that hurt -- a lot."

Ankara shrugged. "Just what I was aiming for. Good to know I succeeded."

"Ha ha ha." Skye glared at her.

"I didn't laugh." Ankara smirked at her.

Skye seethed. "Well, here's some pain right back at you!" She summoned Undine and cast Freeze. A large stormcloud opened over Ankara and chunks of blue ice rained down. And hit an invisible barrier. It glowed blue around Ankara briefly as the ice made contact with it, then faded away as the spell fizzled out and dissipated.

Skye gaped at the sight. "Wh...what?!" She gasped. "How did...."

Ankara rolled her eyes. "Isn't it obvious?" she asked witheringly. "I have a magic barrier around me. One that deflects and neutralizes any spells cast on me. It's powered by a secret device in my tower. I don't mind telling you where it is, because you don't have the slightest chance of getting there and deactivating it. And it's a fortunate thing I have it, because your magic is my only real weakness. If not for this shield, you could easily annihilate me." She smirked at Skye. "Oh, how good it is to be all-powerful." She paused and thought for a minute. "Hmm. It occurs to me that I never did tell you all what exactly the next phase of my plan involves, did I? No, I didn't."

"What's it involve?" Skye asked weakly, feeling even sicker.