That night, "klek," the room door was opened by a soldier. Cole, Celes, and Cyrus walked in. Celes asked to share a room with Cole and Cyrus, and Bradley let her, so Celes was moved to their room. After the door closed and they sat on the edge of the bed,
"Commander Heindrich said we can leave tomorrow, but I have this bad feeling in my gut, I don't know why," Cole said.
"I don't feel anything weird. They seem nice enough to me, even letting me share a room with you guys because I didn't want to be alone," Celes replied.
"I don't know anything about human relationships because I've never had them and I don't know anything about people, but... this smell won't go away," Cyrus said.
"It's too easy, but I'll trust it for now. We can't do anything as long as we wear this choker," Cole mumbled, grabbing his iron collar.
"Yeah, that's right, we can't do anything now. But if we go home, they should take this choker off, right?" Celes asked.
"They better! We need our powers out there," Cyrus added.
"But Cole, are you really going back to our school?" Celes asked.
"Huh... why are you asking that?" Cole asked, confused.
"You just used the school as an excuse before, right, when we asked to leave?" Celes asked.
"Oh, that... I just said it as an excuse. What else could I say besides school? Of course, I have no plan at all to go back to school. I'm going to our foster mom's villa up north by the mountains. I hope Calista, Calvin, and Charlotte are already there," Cole answered.
"Oh, I thought you still wanted to finish school," Celes replied, relieved.
"Blugh," Cole and Celes looked over to see Cyrus collapse on the bed. Then they smelled a strange odor besides the draugr smell and quickly covered their noses with both hands. Cole immediately stood up to check on Cyrus lying on the bed.
"Cyrus is passed out. Hold your breath, Celes. We didn't notice the gas because we could smell the draugr," Cole said.
"Ugh... I don't feel good, Cole," Celes said, already swaying.
"Those jerks! (He looked at the central air vent above them that was pushing out the strange air.) They're gassing us," Cole realized.
"Sorry... Cole,"
"Blugh," Celes fell down too, asleep on the bed. Cole started to stumble. He walked to the door, hoping to shock himself awake on the doorknob, but "blugh," his head suddenly felt heavy, and he fell in the hall. He tried to crawl to the door, "bluk," and his arm stretched out but fell weakly to the floor.
"I shouldn't have trusted them... darn it... what a total screw-up," Cole thought to himself before passing out.
After Cole passed out by the door, "klek," the door opened. A few soldiers came in, checked things out, and put on gas masks. A moment later, a soldier and a man in a doctor's coat walked in.
"Okay, Doctor Michael, the rest is up to you," Bradley said.
"Alright, thank you. I'll be sure to take care of them well," Michael replied.
***
"Bzzzzzzzzz," "kresssssssk," "Hey, give that back!" "Wheeee! Get it if you can!"
A little boy, about four years old, was seen grabbing a doll from a little girl, three years old with long blonde hair, in the orphanage backyard. The little boy ran fast, and the little girl chased him.
"Give it back, Cole!" the little girl shouted.
"Take it, Char, come chase me!" Cole shouted, looking back and teasing her by holding the doll high up.
"Cole, don't be mean to Char!" shouted a girl who was four years old, sitting on the edge of the yard, holding a small boy who was probably only two.
"Big Sister Celes, what are they doing?" the little boy on her lap asked.
"They're playing tag, Cyrus. Do you want to join?" Celes asked.
"No... tired," little Cyrus answered.
They went back to watching Charlotte chasing Cole, running and yelling in the yard.
"Cole... give it baaaaaaack!" Char yelled.
"Whee! Come get me," Cole said, turning to run backward and sticking his tongue out.
"Give it baaaaaack!"
Without knowing it, Charlotte changed. Both her arms turned into cracked stone statues, her skin turned blackish-gray, and her eyes turned red. She stuck out her hand, and there was an eye in her palm. "Krrrrrk," suddenly, Cole, who saw the eye in Charlotte's palm, instantly turned to stone, and "braaaak," Charlotte ran into Cole and they both fell.
"Ouch... it's your fault, Cole... wait. (Charlotte's face looked like she had just seen a horror movie when she saw Cole turned to stone, with his tongue out and frozen running backward.) Oh... Cole... why... is he stone... oh no... this is bad... this is bad... help!" Char screamed in a panic.
Celes and Cyrus saw it and quickly ran over to Charlotte, who was still on top of the stone Cole and had changed back to her human form.
"Huh... what happened?" Celes asked, surprised.
"Big brother... Cole became stone?" Cyrus asked, confused.
"Oh no... this is bad... this is bad... this is my fault, I didn't know I changed and he saw my eye... what do we do... I can't change him back... I'm scared, Celes, Cyrus," Charlotte cried in a panic.
"Move aside, let me try," Celes said.
Celes changed. Her arm suddenly became a black, scaly snake arm, and she immediately shot fire at Cole's body. But Cole stayed stone; the stone just turned red from the high heat.
"Oh... that didn't work, huh?" Celes asked, confused.
"Oh dear... what do we do, I killed Cole... I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry," Charlotte said, holding her bowed head with both hands. She was really scared and didn't know what to do.
"Krrrk," suddenly, a cracking sound was heard. "Big Sister Celes, Big Sister Char, look," Cyrus pointed at Cole's stone statue on the ground. They both looked at the cracking statue. Suddenly, "craack," the cracks got bigger and bigger, and finally, "pyaaar," Cole jumped up and stood.
His skin was blackish-gray, his eyes were red, and both his arms had changed into frost giant arms. He dusted himself off while changing back to his human form.
"Hey, Char, don't do that! What if I died, huh? That was lame," Cole said, giving her the doll back because he was annoyed.
"Blugh," Char caught the doll but fell down sitting on the ground, "hik... hik... hik... huaaaaa... huaaaaa," and immediately started to cry hard.
"Wait, why are you crying?" Cole asked, scratching the back of his head where it didn't itch and feeling a little bad.
"There, there," Celes said, kneeling and hugging Charlotte.
Finally, Cole and Cyrus also came closer and helped Celes comfort Charlotte, who was crying tears of relief that Cole was alive and fine.
***
"glug...glug,"
Cole opened his eyes. He saw himself inside a large tube full of green liquid. Bubbles came out of his mouth, but strangely, he could breathe in the liquid. Cables were stuck all over his body, and his arms and legs were chained inside the tube.
He looked over to see Celes in the tube on his left and Cyrus in the tube on his right. But when he looked straight ahead, across from him, he saw one more tube with a beautiful girl inside. She had long, wavy blonde hair floating in the green liquid and looked sexy with a big chest.
Cole's face was instantly shocked, his eyes wide at the girl in front of him.
"Cha... Charlotte... she's... she's here," Cole thought to himself.