Author's notes: Welcome to what will in all probability be the final tale in this series, right on schedule. I barely made it in time, and these past two days I was writing up a storm, producing a third of the story. It's wonderful how an impending deadline can inspire one's best writing, and I'm pleasantly surprised at how good this tale turned out, if I do say so myself. That said, in general my Nostalgia writing skills have dulled over the past year, and I've been having problems remembering details of the game world. So it does seem like now is a good time to take an indefinite hiatus from writing for this particular fandom. Thanks to everyone who's been reading this fic, and most especially those who have reviewed. Enjoy this climactic tale!

- Tale Number Ten: Pursuit -

"It's just not like her," Eddie said, folding his arms. His brow was heavy with worry. But at least he'd stopped his pacing around the room, for the moment.

"It's exactly like her!" Pad returned, with a shrug that was both dismissive and somehow frustrated. "She always does her own thing and never gives a damn about what other people feel about it. She was like that the day we met her, an' she's never been any different since!"

"No. She isn't like that anymore." Eddie's posture and gaze hadn't even flinched. "I don't think she ever was, really... It's just that before we came along, she didn't have any friends that she could care about. If she wanted to stay here longer, she'd have come back and let us know. Something's wrong."

"I'm telling ya, this is nothin'! She prob'ly just found some specimen to catch or something."

"That wouldn't take her this long."

"Yeah, but by the time she caught it she probably saw something else ta do."

"That's not true. Melody may be a bit odd, but she's not easily sidetracked."

"Sez you!"

"Excuse me." Fiona stepped into the room and held out a piece of paper. "While you boys were standing around arguing, I found this in Melody's room. Take a look at it, Eddie."

Eddie took the paper from Fiona and read over it. "Oh..." he said, his face suddenly sad.

"Hey, lemme see that!" Pad snatched it from him and read. It was a short note:

"It was fun hanging out with you losers for a while, but you don't need me any more, the Ancient Father's Cabal is all taken care of, and frankly, I've gotten a bit tired of having to drag you guys around with me every time I go on an adventure. So I'm off to doing my own thing now, and you guys can keep doing your thing. You'll probably find you have more fun without me. Anyway, this is goodbye.

love,

Melody"

Pad was still staring at the note when Eddie cleared his throat and managed, "I guess she didn't want to say goodbye in person because she was afraid we'd argue with her not to go... I know I would have. I guess we have to respect her decision on that, since the note doesn't say where we might find her." He sighed. "I guess that much is typical of Melody... she doesn't like to follow social norms."

"What are ya talking about?" Pad burst out, waving the note at Eddie. "Ya don't actually believe this is real, do ya? Someone's got ta have kidnapped her!"

Eddie shook his head. "The note's in Melody's handwriting, Pad. Don't you recognize it?"

Pad's face went red. "Well, uh, how am I supposed ta know her handwriting?"

"Well, first of all, she makes her 'a's kind of flattened, with a loop that's -"

"Anyway!" Pad interrupted. "That just means whoever kidnapped her musta forced her to write the note!"

"Pad..." Fiona said softly, laying a hand on his shoulder. He jerked it off.

"Think about it, Pad," Eddie said. "If someone forced her to write the note, Melody would have put something in there to clue us in that she's in trouble... Some phrase she'd never use, or something."

"But she did! Lookit how she signed it: 'Love'. Now since when has Melody ever said she loved us, huh?"

"Oh, Pad," Fiona sighed. "It's just a traditional signature. How else would she have signed it?"

"Well, the whole thing's fishy anyway. Besides, even if ya think maybe I'm wrong, can ya really take that chance? With Melody's life?"

"But why would anyone kidnap her anyway, Pad?" Eddie pointed out. "If it were a ransom they wouldn't have tried to hide it. And nobody has a grudge against her that bad, right?"

Pad turned and strutted out of the room.

"H-hey! Wait a second!" Eddie ran up and caught Pad by the shoulder.

"Look!" Pad snapped. "You can make whatever excuses you like, but I'm going to find her! Are you with me or not?"

"That's not a great idea. If Melody didn't even want to say goodbye to us in person, she might get really mad at us for chasing after her."

"Then again..." Fiona said mysteriously. "...it might be exactly what she wants..."

"I don't care what she wants," Pad shot back. "She might be in trouble, and I'm not gonna just sit here while... while some blackguard does whatever ta her. I'm goin'."

"Okay," Eddie sighed. "Then I guess we're going with you. Right, Fiona?"

She nodded. "Now that Melody's gone, it's more important than ever that we stick together."

"Well, yeah. But we support Pad anyway, don't we?"

Fiona's mouth quirked. "This is more than just supporting him."

"Huh. Uh, thanks," Pad said awkwardly. Truth be told, he had been sort of looking forward to going after Melody on his own. Still, there was at least one advantage to having Eddie on board. "Um. So where do we start looking?"

Eddie held up his middle and index fingers. "There are two logical places. One, Merveille Village. It's too obvious, since that's where we left her, but Melody isn't necessarily trying to be clever about leaving us behind. Two, the airship port. If she was kidnapped they'll be wanting to leave as fast as possible, and it isn't Melody's style to do traveling the hard way. Besides, there aren't many places you can travel to from Merveille if you stay earthbound. I'm sure somebody at the port could tell us where she hitched a ride to. Melody already has a lead on us, so we should split up to cover both possibilities. You two search out Merveille; stick close to each other in case there's trouble. I'll investigate the airship port."

"You really shouldn't be going through her things," Fiona protested as Pad jerked open drawers in Melody's old house.

"Look, we already looked and asked around all over town, and we couldn't find nothin'. Unless Eddie turns up somethin', this is the last way we have left ta find her."

"Is that really it?" Fiona said, her voice sharp and remonstrating. "Or are you just venting your anger at her?"

"I ain't angry with her!" he snapped, pulling books off a shelf and dumping each on the floor as soon as he'd glanced at its cover. "She's in trouble and we gotta find her fast!"

"She's not in trouble. She just decided to leave us, that's all."

"Shut up, willya?" He looked around the room in all directions. "Geez, is that it? There's hardly anything left in here."

"She probably brought any items that were important to her onto the Maverick. There was nothing left for her here after the elder died, after all. Just like with you and me." Fiona sighed. "I wish we all could have homes of our own to go back to, like Eddie does."

"Yeah, yeah... sucks to be us," Pad said, rolling his eyes. "Let's go meet up with Eddie. Hopefully he found somethin'."

They met with Eddie at the Maverick II. He looked cheerful.

"We're in luck," he said. "Someone saw her rent a spot on a small passenger craft. So that means we can rule out the kidnapping theory and be on our way."

"Not so fast," Pad said, catching him by the arm. "Um. ...Even if she hasn't been kidnapped, there's still somethin' fishy about this. Why wouldn't she just buy her own ship? Ya can get a single-person craft for small change."

"A one-way ticket on a passenger ship is still cheaper."

"Yeah, but would Melody really be pinching pennies like that? It sounds like someone's coercing her ta go somewhere... that's why she couldn't tell us."

Fiona spoke up, "Pad, I think you need to -"

"Okay," Eddie interrupted. "Okay. It doesn't sound likely, Pad, but your theory makes at least a little sense. We might as well follow Melody to the end of the trail."

"So ya found out where the ship was headed?"

He nodded. "Uh huh. In fact, if we hurry, I bet we can intercept it."

A few hours later the Maverick II sailed into Lisbon's harbor. It was an old port, built more for aquatic craft than airships, though the beginnings of modernization were in place. A tower was built upon the docks, at the top of which was perched a docking area for airships. Looking over the airships docked there, they spotted one which matched the description. Eddie beamed.

"See? I knew they'd stop here to resupply. Now we can -" Before he could finish that thought, a small figure came scampering up the tower steps. "Hey, is that...?

"Definitely!" Pad said. "That's Melody! Why's she in such a hurry?"

As they stared in bewilderment, Eddie still absentmindedly steering the Maverick II towards a free docking area, Melody ran to the ship she'd come there on, dove in, and began frantically sawing at the anchoring line with a knife. Pad's eyes widened even further. "Oh, no way. Not even she would..."

A sailor came up from the lower decks of the passenger ship and yelled something at Melody. While still sawing away with one hand, she snatched out her wand and fired an Aeria spell at him, lifting him off the deck and sending him flying onto the docks, where he landed on his hindquarters. By the time he got to his feet, Melody had cut through the rope and was sailing the ship free of the dock.

"Oh no. Oh no."

"What is it?" Eddie asked. "We're too close now for me to see what's going on without leaving the controls."

"She's stealing the ship she rode in on!" Fiona exclaimed.

"Correction," Pad said. "She's stolen it. She's only got a lead of a couple hundred meters, though. We can catch her, right, Eddie?"

"You bet we can!" Eddie gushed. Then, belatedly realizing just what was going on, he stammered, "Um... But what're we gonna do when we catch up to her? I mean, she's probably spotted us by now..."

"Of course she's spotted us! That's why she's makin' a run fer it!"

"Okay. So if she knows we're here but she's still absconding with that ship, she's probably not going to listen to us when we tell her to take it back. So what do we do?"

"Don't got much choice, do we? We have ta hop on board, knock her out, and bring her back!"

Fiona shook her head. "You can do that part by yourself, Pad. Eddie needs to steer the ship, and I'm not performing acrobatics at several hundred meters up."

"Yeah fine, whatever," Pad said, leaning over the rail, his eyes following Melody's ship. "Just get me within jumping range, okay Eddie?"

Eddie assented, and pushed the Maverick II's engines as close to full power as they could safely go. Within moments, they were pulling up alongside their quarry. Suddenly, an explosion shook the Maverick.

"The heck?! She's firing on us!" Pad shouted.

"Damn! Fiona, put a shield up around us!" Eddie ordered. "Pad, I'm bringing the Maverick as close as I possibly can without ramming her. It's now or never!"

Pad nodded, and stepped up onto the bulwark. The passenger ship was a good 20 feet below him, but it was as directly below as one could ask for. With the bravado of desperation, he jumped.

Melody's gaze was fixed on the Maverick II's hull as she readied another spell to fire at it. Thus, she missed Pad's leap, and did not notice him until his hands landed on her shoulders. She fell to the deck of the ship with a loud crash and a louder yelp. When she reopened her eyes, she saw Pad squatting on top of her pelvis while his hands held her wrists firmly against the deck.

"Get off of me, you fat lard!" she shrieked.

He lowered his face until they were almost touching noses. "Not until I know what the heck's goin' on and why ya left us!"

"Didn't you read the note I left, dummy? I'm sick of you guys and I want to be left alone!"

"That ain't true! I want ya ta be with us, and I know you feel the same!"

"Oh, quit dreaming!"

"Yeah? Yeah?! I'll prove it!" Before she could guess what that might mean, his lips were on hers.

Pad had forgotten two very important things. First, Melody Farklight was the descendent of a long line of magic users, and had spent much of her young life practicing her inherit abilities. Moreover, her strong emotional fiber had already proved capable of letting her, on occasion, tap into abilities that even she didn't know she had. In short, Melody Farklight was quite possibly the most powerful witch alive. And while anger was for her a common and fairly harmless mood, making her genuinely furious was one of the most dangerous things you could ever do.

Second, while he was holding her hands down, Melody still had her wand securely clasped in one of those hands.

Melody's face went beet red with fury and indignation. She head-butted Pad in the forehead, breaking their kiss, if not his grip on her hands. Then she twirled her wand between her fingers, screaming the words of an arcane incantation. Gale-force winds swirled about them, shoving Pad off of her, and off of the ship. On blind instinct, he reached out and grabbed hold of the bulwark with one hand. The spell winds were still so strong that it felt as though holding on was pulling the muscles in his arm apart.

"Damn," he grunted. "I really know how ta put myself in a dangerous situation."

"Pad!" he heard Fiona cry out above him. "Melody, you've got to help him!"

"I know, I know!" Melody shouted to Fiona. Then to him, "Why the heck did you do that, you stupid jerk?!"

"Me?!" he exclaimed as she grabbed hold of his arm to pull him up. "That was your spell which almost knocked me inta oblivion!"

"You shouldn't have kissed me!"

"You kissed me back! Don't lie, I felt it! That's what got ya so angry!"

"Nnnnnyyyghhh!" she grunted, reaching out to grab hold of the shoulder of his jacket. "Don't you see that this is why it's all wrong for me to be with you? I just keep on doing bad things to you!"

"Like nearly gettin' me killed? That's something that ya never woulda done if ya hadn't run away from us! Everyone was fine and happy before that!"

Melody strained and groaned. "I can't pull you up... You're..."

"Too heavy?" Pad sneered.

"Shut up! Can't you even understand how bad I feel about myself every time I do anything like... anytime I do anything with you!"

"So ya got guilt issues! Big deal! Woulda been nice if we coulda just talked 'em out instead of you runnin' out and making me be the one who feels horrible! Yer problem is ya just don't think about other people's feelings before ya act!"

"Well, I was trying to do better! I -"

This time they had both forgotten something very important: no one was at the ship's controls. Left to drift, it had been tilting at an angle and slowly but surely descending to the ocean below. Eddie and Fiona had been calling out warnings, but at that distance they could not be heard over the sounds of Melody and Pad's argument. At last, that argument was broken by a tremendous splash as the ship hit the water on the side opposite the two struggling adventurers.

The force of the impact hit their arms first. They cursed in unison at the shock and pain, and their grip was broken. Pad fell, and as the ship righted itself in the water, its hull cracked against his skull, shoving him under the water.

Melody, meanwhile, tumbled across the deck and fell off the other side. Her fall plunged her under water. She'd been too surprised to hold her breath before going under, so once she'd swum back to the surface, her first act was to retch out a mouthful of seawater and gasp for breath. Only once that was done could she turn her attention to calling for Pad.

There was no answer.

She swam around to the other side of the ship, still calling his name. Before long, she spotted him. He was facedown in the water, and blood was running from the back of his head.

"Pad!" She swam towards him as fast as her limbs could push her through the water. Once she reached his side, she pulled his face out of the ocean and turned him so that the back of his head rested on her left arm. She clutched at his shoulder with her other hand. "Pad, wake up!" Blood dripped from his head, down her arm, onto her hand.

Eddie landed the Maverick II in the water near his companions. Fiona had inflated one of the life rafts, and upon their landing she put it in the water, hopped in, and rowed out to Pad and Melody.

Melody was crying now. "I killed him, Fiona."

"No, you didn't," she said, reaching down to tend to Pad. "He just took a knock on the head."

"I killed him!"

"I've healed his head wound. He'll be fine. I'm sure that when he wakes up he'll just be happy that you're safe and back with us."

"He did all this just because he was worried about me, and I killed him!"

"Melody, come on. Help me get him into the lifeboat, and we'll take him back to the Maverick II."

"I killed him!" she sobbed, her tears now mixing with mucus, as well as the seawater still dripping from her soaked hair. Her whole body shaking with anguish, she buried her wet, tear-streaked face against Pad's vest.

"My fault?! You're the one who ran off in the first place, all because ya assumed stuff that I was perfectly fine with was makin' me miserable!"

"Yeah, but I wouldn't have even done that if you hadn't -"

Eddie sighed at his companions' bickering. "Let's get out of here, Fiona."

She nodded, smiling, and they left the room where Pad and Melody lay abed. Eddie shut the door behind them.

"I can't believe it," he groaned. "They're arguing worse than ever."

"Well, that's because they're actually talking about their feelings with each other now," Fiona smiled. "I think it's wonderful."

"Wonderful? Wonderful?! Listen to that noise they're making!"

"They're both very passionate people. And they care about each other." She pondered. "In a way, it's like making out, except that the communication is a bit deeper. Maybe the trouble with arguing isn't when people are yelling, but when they aren't listening. Pad and Melody yell at each other a lot, but they're always listening to what the other one is yelling." As Eddie stared at her in disbelief, she giggled. "And isn't it sweet, how they both ended up bedridden? Melody would have been just fine if she'd just changed out of her wet clothes when we asked her to, instead of clinging to Pad like his life depended on it for hours on end."

"Sweet? It's a disaster." Eddie shook his head. "This is hands down the worst adventure we've ever had. The only good thing to come out of all this is that now if Melody ever disappears again without talking to us about it, this time we'll know it really was a kidnapping."

"Yes, I'm sure Melody won't want to repeat the experience of fearing Pad might be dead. But as for the rest of it," - she glanced back at the room where Pad and Melody lay, and smiled again - "...I really think this worked out very well."

Mutely agreeing to disagree on that point, the two of them walked out into the sunset.

END