As the new day breaks over the horizon, Urema's eyes snap open. He dresses and heads to the window, first looking out to the forest, then to the military base in the distance, and then finally to a gothic-looking building to the east, that reaches higher than anything else around it. Planning his next moves, Urema heads downstairs and takes a seat, awaiting the others to join him.

Urema hears an excited scream coming from the outside of the inn followed a soft thud. Steev walks in, brushing the dirt off of his clothes, and grins at Urema before sitting down at the table.

Ace takes shelter underneath a tree. She slumps down against it and sighs.
'Not again.'

Aruun spent the night battling through the storm-ravaged forest, looking for who or whatever it was he had heard. Drenched and cold, he reaches the tree with the young girl sheltering under it.
'Um... hello? Are you ok?'

Ace looks up at the strange little man with two antennae. At first she felt scared, but as she looks at him carefully she senses that he means no harm. She smiles a little and replies.
'I'll be okay.'

Aruun wrings the water out of the bottom of his robes.
'You're soaking... so am I actually... We'll catch our deaths of cold. Are you lost? There's an inn not too far from here where I'm staying. I could show you the way, if you want.'

Back at the inn, Kuja has since woken up and is sat at a table, somewhere near Urema.
He is sat, brushing his pretty hair but doesn't look like he intends to tie it up today. There is a cup of tea on the table near him.

Steev moans. 'Pah, where's that bug boy gone, I wanna get out there and have fun! Not just sit around with you two bores.'

Kuja sighs. 'How should I know? He wasn't around when I got up. If you're bored, you could always go away?'

Ace nodded and followed him. Thoughts buzzed through her mind like, 'Should I tell him about this? If I do will he get mad at me?' In the end she decided now is not the best time.
Aruun leads the way through the forest and towards the inn. He looks shyly back at the girl every so often.

Ace looks at him and replies.
'I am Princess Alicia Castille, but you can call me Ace.' She now feels quite safe now Aruun has introduced himself.
Urema looks a little distracted.
'Well, when everyone's here, I can tell you all what we're doing next.'
Mystyk has been by the bar listening to the conversations going on in the inn. He looks round a few times at Steev and the others. He gets the feeling that something is a bit off with that guy. But he sits there, trying to avoid talking to anyone, thinking that this scene is really starting to become not worth it.
'Where's my treasure?' He grumbles to himself.
Aruun and Ace arrive back at the inn, dripping water all over the threshold. Aruun steps forward and introduces Ace to the others.
'Hi everyone, this is Ace. I found her lost in the forest.' He continues to point everyone else out. 'Ace, this is Urema, Kuja, Mystyk and Steev.'

Ace does not know what to think to these men, they all kind of creep her out. There is a young one in black who looks around Aruun's age, one in drag and looks like a woman, an evil looking one with scary grey eyes and one holding a pictograph. However she feels that she can trust Aruun, and if these men are friends of his then she can trust them too. She steps forward and greets them.
'Pleased to meet you.'

Aruun takes his staff from inside his robes and chants a spell, drying himself and Ace off.
'I'm sorry for running off in the night like that, but I could hear someone was in trouble.'
He turns back to Ace.
'What are you doing now? Do you have somewhere you need to be?'
'Phroaw, she needs to be with me, haha! All right lass, Steev Hoskins's the name.' He winks.
Steev performs a surprisingly elegant bow and spins his guns around on his hands.

Ignoring the drooling pervert, Ace replies to Aruun,
'My ship crash landed here, so I don't know where to go.'

Aruun looks concerned.
'Oh dear, that's not very good. Maybe... maybe you should come with us for a while?'

Ace felt quite honoured to be invited into a group.
'Sure,' she replies with a smile, 'I've got nothing better to do. So where are we headed?'

Urema steps forward.
'I've been thinking. I want to go to the University and inquire about a few things by myself. After that, we can go. I think you should go back to the airship and wait there for me, I shouldn't be long.'

'Um, ok. Are you sure you don't want us to come with you?' Aruun asks.

Kuja looks at Ace as if he is making his mind up about her.
'Nice to meet you. Are you sure you want to come along with us? You'll be the only girl and we seem to keep encountering Demons and things along the way.'
[Not just physical Demons, but ones of our own too...]
He turns to Aruun.
'If he wants to go alone, let him. I'm sure he can look after himself.'
[And if he has some private things to deal with, it's not fair to intrude.]

'I think it's for the best.' Urema replies. 'So, we'll meet up back at the airship.'

At this, they leave the bar. Urema heads into the town while the others start to trek back to the Destiny. It is quite a short trip as there are few interruptions. They soon reach the confines of the base and head towards the airship. Suddenly, they are surrounded by a large number of guards, all pointing powerful-looking weapons at their heads.

Ace whispers to Aruun 'So what's the plan? Are we going to fight?'

'Ha I was right you guys do lead to danger!'
Steev's fingers twitch above his guns, ready to draw.

Aruun draws his staff and the end of it glows with power.
'I don't want to fight, but it looks like we may well have to...'

Kuja looks rather annoyed at the sight of the armed guards and sighs.
'Oh, how lovely, they've sent the welcome party out to see us.'
[I knew landing in the army base was a stupid idea.]

The guards look a little confused. Their leader steps forward and talks to them.
'There will be no need for fighting and no one need get hurt, just state your business. Were you escorted here by someone?'

'We're just going to the ship and then wait for our friend.' Ace explains to the leader.

'We just want to get back to our ship to wait for Urema. We don't mean you any harm.' Aruun says.

'Urema?' The guard exclaims. 'Hmm... We'd better take you inside.' He points with his gun towards a large building in the centre of the complex. 'Come on, the Colonel will want to see you.' He and the rest of the guards begin to escort the group towards the building. When they reach he taps into a keypad next to the door, allowing him to open it. He leads them into the base and to a large, oak door, on which he knocks.
'Who is it?' Calls a voice from the other side.
'Sergeant Rebello, leader of J Squadron. I have some civilians here who mentioned the 'Urema' virus. I assume you wish to speak with them?'
There is a short pause.
'Yes. Please bring them in.'
The sergeant opens the door and pushes the gang inside, before saluting and closing the door. The Colonel is an old man, who is wearing a neat uniform with several medals. His office is fairly small, but old fashioned and tidy. There are many black and white photographs of people on the walls, as well as a framed picture of a young Colonel and his family on the desk.
'So...' He says, as he leans over the desk towards them. What do you know about the Urema virus?'

'Excuse me? I know Urema can be trying at times, but I wouldn't have described him as virus.'
[Wait… unless...]
Kuja looks at the Colonel.
'No, this isn't about him, is it? Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is about those strange ESP powers of his, isn't it? I would guess too, that people were involved who shouldn't have been, or something happened that shouldn't have..'
[The way those soldiers were acting, I would guess that there was a considerable amount of cover-up and that people who had a part were executed or sworn to secrecy...]
'We know nothing about this 'virus' other than we know Urema himself. Now really, I see no reason for you to keep us further.'

'I'm pretty sure Urema is a bit too big to be a virus, a LOT too big!' Steev laughs.

'Tell us more about this virus, what exactly is it?' asks Ace.

'Is it dangerous?' Aruun asks, looking concerned.
'I think a more important question would be 'is it contagious?'' Kuja asks.

Mystyk looks at the Colonel and says coldly:
'I suggest you let us leave. Unless you have something to offer us, I know I won't be helping you.'
He moves back and leans against a nearby wall, looking quite calm and confident.

'Hold on, hold on...' The Colonel exclaims, bewildered. 'Are you telling me you know a person called 'Urema?' He leans back in his chair a little more and places his fingers to his lips. Could you describe him?'

Aruun holds out his hand.
'He's about this tall, slightly tanned, with red eyes and red and black hair.'

'Alright, now that we've answered your questions, why don't you start answering ours?' demanded Ace. 'Tell us about this virus!'

'Hmm. Well, okay.' Says the Colonel. 'It seem the Urema you've been in contact with is the same Urema from... well. Right... I'll tell you everything. Urema... was a special child. He had powers beyond any human. He was taken in by the Gygalian army, under the guiding hand of me, and a professor called Soumei Urema. Now, the young Urema you know unfortunately lost his mind when he used his powers too much, and he saw fit to take the name of the professor, but he has it back to front, if you will. Anyway, we helped Urema build his identity again... and, well, that was the last we saw of him. He left to travel other worlds. So I suggest you find Urema and take him away. This planet might give him bad memories. Now, I'm a very busy man, so if you please...'
He gestures towards the door.

Bewildered, the gang leave the office and start to head back to The Destiny.

Meanwhile, across the city, Urema is waiting outside the office of a man he is very interested in. 'Professor Soumei Urema' is the name that is written on the door, which after a while, opens. Standing there is a very tired, old man wearing a suit and tie. His hair seems to be greying out of stress and he is also wearing a solemn frown. 'Come in.' He calls, as Urema jumps of his seat and heads into the office.

The professor sits himself down at the desk and gestures for Urema to do the same.
'I assume you have a lot of questions, Urema.'
'Yes...' Urema replies, while stroking his red and black hair behind his ear. 'Your name is the same as mine, but reversed.'
'That question is not so easy to answer...' The old man sighed as he leant back in his chair and closed his eyes for a brief moment. 'Fine, Urema. I think it's high time I told you everything. Well, it all started seventeen years ago. I was working on a project with the Gygalian army Colonel, it was a sort of virus. Something that, when injected into a living human, would give them incredible power. I intended it to be used to help patients recover and disabled people to become stronger, but my... colleague thought differently. he wanted it to be used to create living weapons. I had no choice to comply... He would have killed me if I hadn't.'

He paused to wipe beads of sweat from his temple with a handkerchief he had taken from his pocket. 'So I helped him mutate the virus. But it was too strong. Anyone we injected the virus into either died or went insane within 24 hours. Then one night, I'd been working all evening, when I heard a large amount of fuss coming from this University's reception. A baby had been left on the steps, but with no name, no note… no nothing. I took it upon myself to look after that baby, but it had serious mental problems. He couldn't seem to establish a sense of identity. But the Colonel saw him as an excellent test subject when he went into his teens, because his brain waves had started to develop in ways we had never seen before in a human…'
'Okay, I understand,' Urema muttered, impatiently. 'But… that wasn't me, was it? I…'
'Do you remember your childhood, Urema?'
Urema had started to look nervous.
'Do you remember your parents?'
Urema shook his head violently
'Do you remember anything, Urema?'
'Stop it! What are you telling me, that I was just an experiment? No… I remember my life, I was a professor, and I worked in the army, and…'
'They were our memories. We implanted them into you. I believed you would have more control over your powers if you had an identity, so he gave you ours.'
There was a long pause, broken only by the sound of Urema's heavy breathing.
'So… who am I?'
'Urema… don't…'
'Don't call me that! That's not my name! I have no name!'
Urema's eyes flickered a bright red, and the office started to shake.
'You took my life!'
The professor was lifted off of his feet by an unseen force.
'And now…'
Some large windows behind the professor flung open.
'I'm going to take yours!'
All of a sudden, the professor was flung back, straight through the open windows, from which he fell a very long way, out into the streets below. Urema closed his eyes, and he too, started to hover into the air. A large amount of red energy started to flow around him, before he shot up through the roof of the University, out into the open sky above. His mission was not over yet…