Chapter 6: 8:00 (40 hours remaining)

Vivi awoke with a start. He'd fallen asleep, head pillowed on folded arms and a tome on castles! He didn't even remember dozing off. Looking around, he saw that all the others, even Zentarou who could reverie, had succumbed to exhaustion.

"Wake up, everyone!" he shouted. "We fell asleep!" A bit groggily everyone awoke, then realized what had happened.

"How long did we sleep?" Turo asked blearily.

"I know I outlasted you," Sola said to his brother with a yawn.

"Seems to be about six or so in the morning," Beatrix said after a glance out the window.

"About eight hours, then," Orko moaned. "Trolly-Molly, we lost eight hours!"

"The problem lied in our strategy," Steiner surmised. As a Knight, this kind of thing was his specialty. "It's similar to how you would never have all the guards on duty at the same time. Sooner or later, all would be asleep. So, we must think by the same lines."

"Shifts?" asked Garnet. Steiner nodded.

"We alternately rest, eat, and search, so that at all times there is at least one person working on our problem."

"I'm awake now," Vivi said.

"How will we remember who is to do what?" Freya asked. Orko's eyes twinkled.

"Allow me." Everyone watched as Orko used his 'hat trick.' The top of his hat opened backwards, like on a hinge, and a third Trollan hand - obviously magic-made - pulled out a chalkboard on two legs that was much too large to fit naturally and tossed it to land nearby to the table. "There," he said as the hat closed, and he floated over to write out the shifts, starting with his own name. "I'm awake, so I'll start looking right away." He divided up the chalkboard into three columns.

"I'm awake, but I need to eat first," Dregan said, "so put me in the next one." So on they went, until everyone had a shift either to begin searching immediately, get something to eat, or rest.

"The airship is back!" Garnet, next to the window, suddenly exclaimed.

"I wonder what took them so long," mused Zidane as he peered out. "I see Cid, Dr. Tot, Kuja, and several Black Mages... Hey! Mr. 288!" He suddenly grinned. "Vivi, take a look!" Vivi came over, and was pleasantly surprised to see a group of four Black Mages following the Black Mage leader, and one, flanking him on the right, was about half a foot shorter, and completely unfamiliar to Vivi.

"Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?" he asked, smiling happily.

"Well, lets go find out!" Zidane raced down to meet them, the others in tow.

"Sorry it took so long," Cid apologized once they were all outside.

"Our delay was my fault," Kuja said. "I was out of the Village when Cid arrived, and they had some trouble finding me."

"It's okay, bro," replied Zidane, as Vivi greeted his kin.

"When we heard of the tragedy," Mr. 288 said, "we knew we had to help."

"We'll find him," promised No. 37. Vivi's eyes strayed to the new Mage. He couldn't help it. Mr. 288 noticed, and motioned for the Mage to step forward.

"This is my son," he said proudly, "Ethinnis." Ethinnis nodded a bit bashfully to Vivi.

"H - Hello." Vivi couldn't help but thinnk how much Ethinnis reminded him of himself not so long ago. they were even nearly the same size.

"Hi, Ethinnis."

"Our delay isn't exactly due totally to Kuja," Dr. Tot put in. "We researched through my library for a blue, before we came here. Nothing, I'm afraid."

"We might have had better luck, save for exhaustion getting the better of us," informed Freya as they headed to the castle library. "But we've solved that problem." As those awake explained about the shifts and led to the library, those on the first sleep shift went to bed, and the first meal shift went to eat.