Author's Note: Parts of this story were inspired by Jonatha Brooke's song, "West Point", so that's where the title came from. I encourage everyone to check out her music: she's extremely talented, and you can listen to it for free on her website.

Dedication: To Elessar, for giving me the idea to do the Thamasa sequence from Celes and Leo's perspective. It made more sense to me to stick with Celes, but hopefully you'll like it anyway.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Final Fantasy VI.

West Point

I watch Locke and Terra wander off toward Thamasa ahead of us, in the company of Shadow and his dog. Beneath the boat's low railing, water strikes the hull with a force that seems unusual to me in the context of the soft breeze that touches my face as I stare down at my rippling reflection. For a moment, I wonder if this might be an omen, perhaps even some sort of warning that we are not to be trespassing on this ground: immediately, I put the thought from my mind.

I have a job to do, and no mere force of nature will stand in my way.

A rustling of fabric on armor alerts me to Leo's presence beside me, and I feel his weight join my own on the railing. "It must be difficult for you," is his greeting.

"What do you mean?" My voice is soft, as though I'm attempting to convey a dreamer's tone.

"Seeing them again, for one thing. Changing sides again, for another." He turns around so that his back is against the railing, and I feel his gaze on my exposed profile: my hair is already pinned back. "I'd remind you that you can come and talk to me about anything if I thought you would ever feel the need to."

I smile. "Is that not itself a reminder?"

He chuckles. "Still as sharp as ever, I see."

"Always." My smile fades, and I try to will his image from my peripheral vision. Suddenly, the sight of him is painful, though I have no idea why.

As though he senses my sudden unease, he moves away from me and clears his throat. "Shall we get going? Crescent Island isn't very big, but since I don't think it would be a good idea to split our forces any further, it'll probably take more than a day to cover."

I glance at my reflection in the water once more before I turn toward him. "As you say, General."

He chuckles again as he begins to walk toward the shore, but he says nothing more.

-----

I tear my sword from the flesh of a green insect as the last reverberations of Leo's Shock are absorbed by the mountains around us, and the carcass of the armored monster with which he was just engaged falls to the ground, still smoking. "Are you alright?" he calls, and I nod.

"None of the monsters here seem capable of magic," I say as he comes up beside me and begins to inspect what's left of the insect at my feet. "In fact, they seem more vulnerable to it than to conventional weapons." I point my sword at the frozen remains of four of the insect's brethren. "Some types seem unique to this region, but there is no evidence that their development has been accelerated or influenced in any unnatural way."

Leo sheathes his sword, and returns my nod. "Agreed," he says.

"Then why would the Espers come here?" I look at him, using his expression to gauge whether I'm overlooking any obvious facts. "If they are in fact attracted by concentrations of magical energy, as the attack on Vector would lead us to believe, why would they not have continued on to Narshe, or simply returned to the Sealed Gate? What drew them here, of all places?"

Leo looks around, as though he expects the mountains to hold the answer to my question. "I don't know," he finally says, "but I see little point in going any further. We've spent most of the day wandering the island, and have little to show for it: hopefully, Terra's team has managed to gather some information from the residents of Thamasa. We'll rendezvous with them tomorrow." His gaze settles on me. "What do you think?"

"I think that you're in charge of this mission, which makes my opinion unimportant." I look back over my shoulder as I put my own sword away. "Where should we set up camp?"

"Celes." The heaviness in his voice is so unfamiliar, so unexpected, that I turn back to look at him immediately.

"Yes?"

"Have I ever led you to believe that your opinion is not important?"

I swallow imperceptibly. "Never. I only meant…" I meet his eyes, and his gaze is suddenly so intense that I feel as though I might be consumed in his… what, exactly, is that emotion reflected in his eyes? "If I disagreed with you, General, I would say so. Since I do not, however, I see no reason not to defer to the authority which His Excellency has given you."

He looks away, and I feel relieved until he says, "Why do you call me 'General'? We are equals, Celes."

I blink confusedly. "Though we may be of the same rank, you are still my superior officer. Your experience—"

"—is not balanced by your mastery of magic?" He sighs, and then I am once again caught in the glare of his gaze. "There are many in the Imperial army who would call you my superior, because you have been infused with Magitek and I have not." He pauses. "There are nearly as many who would call me a coward for refusing it."

"That's ridiculous," I reply immediately, and a flash passes over his irises. "The infusion was forced upon me: I did not choose it in an attempt to prove my courage. If I had been given the choice, I would have refused it as well." I look away from him, into the dimming sunlight. "Magitek is the domain of cowards. Your skill, your honor, your grace…" I look back at him. "Only a true warrior could embody such things."

He is silent for a time, and just as I am about to turn and walk back toward the plain, he says, "Thank you, Celes. I… You were the last person I would have expected to say such a thing."

"I understand," I say, and this time I do turn away from him. "I never expected to say it."

We descend the mountain in silence.

-----

By the time that we reach Thamasa, it is midday, and Leo turns to me as I glance at our reflection in the Armor Shop window. "We should probably get something to eat before we go looking for the others," he says. "I'm not sure of your feelings on the subject, but Dried Meat is not exactly my definition of a satisfying meal."

"No, it isn't." My voice is unusually quiet: we have barely spoken since the previous evening, and then only when necessity made it impossible to avoid. "Do you see an Inn?"

He points to my left, and I can just barely make out the faded sign hanging outside a well-maintained but still decayed building. "That's it, isn't it?"

"It looks like it," I say, and we begin to walk toward it.

On the way, we pass two women, and I make out enough of their whispered conversation to discern the words "fire" and "strangers". Immediately, I scan the surrounding buildings, and my eyes find the burnt-out shell of a mansion easily. My mind flashes back to a similar scene in Kohlingen, and I remember the fury of Terra's power. Perhaps they found the Espers, and when they did, she reacted the same way she did in Narshe. I stop walking. I wonder if Locke is alright.

Leo's voice breaks my trance, and I realize that he's several steps ahead of me. "Is something the matter, Celes?"

"A fire seems to have broken out here recently." I know that he will guess the rest.

The noise of his boots on the gravel road tells me that he's walking back toward me. "The Espers would have caused more of a commotion if they had come here," he says, nearly in a whisper.

"Yes," I reply, "but Terra might not have."

He inhales sharply, and I see him examining the building more closely in my mind's eye. "It could have been an ordinary fire," he says, but I can tell that neither of us is expected to believe that.

"Shiva and Bismark could have put out an ordinary fire in seconds, even without the help of Shadow's Water Edges." I shake my head. "I find it hard to believe that they wouldn't have helped."

"They may have decided against using magic." Leo folds his arms over his chest. "What's more, if Terra did lose control of her powers again, I would think there'd be more damage. She wouldn't have stopped at a single house."

I examine the house again, and put the women's conversation from my mind. It was probably just gossip. I shouldn't even have been paying attention to them. "You're right. I'm sorry for alarming you."

"Don't apologize." Suddenly, Leo's hand is on my shoulder, and I start visibly. "I appreciate your vigilance, Celes."

Part of me wants to shrug his hand off and continue towards the Inn: another part tells me that I should accept his compliment gracefully, and think no more of it. In the end, I merely turn toward him and nod deferentially. "Perhaps next time, it will be justified," I say.

Leo frowns. "Unfortunately, it is always justified," he says.

-----

I hope to see Terra, Locke and Shadow waiting for us at the Inn, but of course, the common room is empty when we enter. Leo motions for me to find a table, as though they were in short supply, and returns minutes later with a tray bearing two mugs of thin ale and a plate of hastily-made sandwiches. "It doesn't seem that they get many customers here," he says, almost jokingly, "but it's better than Dried Meat." He raises his mug to me, as though we are at a banquet, and I raise mine to meet it detachedly.

Halfway through the plate of sandwiches, which both of us devour too ravenously, he looks at me over the rim of his mug. "I've been thinking of what you said yesterday," he confesses.

"I apologize if you lost sleep over it."

"Not at all." He sets the mug down. "I do regret, however, that I did not respond properly."

I meet his eyes, and take comfort in a sip of my own drink. "What do you mean?"

"When you spoke of Magitek as being the domain of cowards…" He pauses to glance out the window to his left. "I have always respected you, Celes, even more so in light of recent events."

"I see very little in recent events worthy of your respect."

He looks back at me, and his confusion is evident. "Of all of us, you were the first to realize the idiocy of the war. You were the first to turn against what the Empire had become, to take steps to mend the damage that Kefka wrought. Is that not worthy of the utmost respect?"

I stare into my mug, and swirl the remaining ale absently. "It would be, if it had happened as you say."

Now, it is his turn to ask, "What do you mean?"

"When I left Vector, it wasn't to defect to the Returners. I just…" The ale stills, though my eyes do not leave it. "I needed to get away. I didn't intend to stay away forever, or even for very long... I just…" My eyes snap up to his once more. "I no longer knew what I was fighting for."

"But you wound up with the Returners. Kefka said that you were part of the resistance in Narshe during his operation to seize their Esper."

I nod. "Yes, but I only joined them because I had no other choice. I was captured in South Figaro, and Locke freed me, so I went with him." I remember seeing him for the first time through my blurry vision, and the sudden sense of relief that accompanied my fall from my shackles to the bare floor. Despite the pain of contact and the continued bleakness of my situation, it seemed as though I had found some shard of hope among the dirt and rat droppings on those prison flagstones, and I felt as though, somehow, at least some things might turn out properly. "The rest… it all just happened. I never planned to go against the Empire. I was fighting to survive."

"And do you think that makes it any less heroic?" He leans across the table. "We spend our lives fighting to survive, Celes. Of course, we call it more attractive things: patriotism, idealism, guardianship. In the end, though, we are all fighting for survival, whether it be our own, that of those we care about, or that of the ideas we believe in." He sits back. "It's not what put the sword in your hand, but what you do with it once it's there. You showed our entire nation the error of its ways." He smiles so benevolently that he almost seems like an animated representation of a god. "You may be the greatest hero the Empire has ever known."

What can I answer to this? Words fly through my mind: I want to tell him that he's wrong, that he is the very definition of 'hero', and that I will never become such a thing. I want to tell him of all the times when the idea of him, Gestahl's right hand man, was all that kept me swinging my blunted practice sword, was what got me through the next page of Magitek lore. I want to point out that, even now, I would be lost without him, to let him know how necessary he is not only to the Empire, but to me.

As I open my mouth, however, a scream comes from the town square, and I hear a voice that sounds like Terra's saying, "Please, don't be frightened! They aren't dangerous!"

Leo cranes his neck to look outside, and rises from the table immediately, leaving our meal half-finished. "It looks as though Terra and Locke found the Espers," he says.

I nod, and rise. "Let's go."

-----

I trace the designs on the hilt of Leo's sword as I sit on the pile of stones that was our best effort at a proper tomb. Everyone else is already on the Blackbird, but I cannot leave yet. There is so much left to do, so much left to say, that I simply cannot join them in silence.

"Even then, you were a hero," I whisper, though there's no one left to hear me. "You must have known that you couldn't defeat him, but you still tried. You were so heroic that you became stupid." I exhale in a soft snort. "It was terrible to see him, to know that the Emperor had betrayed us again. Of course, he's going to pay… both of them will pay." I do not mention how I plan to fulfill this promise when Gestahl and Kefka are floating in the sky with the source of all magic at their disposal, but I fully believe that I will. I must.

"You know why he couldn't tolerate you, didn't you?" I continue. "You were all that he can never be. Your power was your own, not stolen from another species: you came farther than he could imagine, all on the wings of your innate justice, all while following the rules of honor…" I trail off, and sigh. "If only you hadn't been so honorable, just this once, you would still be here, and I would be able to tell you these things." I slide from the tomb, down to the grass around it. "But of course, I wouldn't have. The only reason I can now is because you're dead. Even if you had lived for decades longer, I would have still have waited to speak to your tomb."

I kneel in front of the gravestone, and trace the hastily-etched markings. "I'm going to make it all right," I murmur, and my fingertips brush the section of rock warmed by my breath. "I'm going to stop it, and when I do, I'll come back and tell you that it's done. I promise." I stand, and salute. "Until then, rest well, Leo."

Like so much else, he is behind me too soon.