I've always been of the belief that Zio was an esper at one point, but perhaps dabbled where he shouldn't with their abilities, or didn't quite hold the beliefs of his fellow espers.
Anyhow, WAS Rune hunting Zio? DID he know him? When Alys asks him at their first meeting in the game, he claims he's not sure, which suggests one of two things: Either he didn't know Zio and may have just been hunting a rogue esper (if at all), or he was outright lying. One might argue that he was looking for the Motavians to recover the psycho wand to defeat Zio, since that's the only thing that could, but was that its only function? Perhaps he just wanted to claim a bit of his esper heritage as the new Lutz, and all the sh*t hit the fan. But this raises another question.
How did Rune know about Tonoe? If he'd been there recently, he would have gone to Dorin sooner about his wand. I can only guess that he knew the Motavians had a 'backup settlement' and he merely went to Molcum thinking it'd still be there.
Personally I'd believed Rune had some level of clairvoyance to tell him about the people of Algo. He knew Chaz was important but underqualified for the task ahead. He surveyed the damage of Molcum as if waiting for the group to arrive and point them to the northeast. He knew Alys and Chaz might go after Zio, and warned them against it. He wanted them to wait, I believe, until he got the wand, to ensure an even playing-field. He knew, moments before it was going to happen, that Alys was going to die, and there was nothing he could do.
One of the things Black Waltz mentioned struck me just now:
Simply put; who the hell is Zio? I know he's a dark evil magician who works for Dark Force but obviously there's got to be some reason WHY he's there on Motavia in the first place with Rune hunting him down.
It's obvious that Zio went to Motavia because it was the easiest place to begin destruction, having taken control of the planetary maintenance system and its control droid, and causing chaos by butchering cities and creating monsters (was I the only one that thought the blocks of scrap by Kadary were ruined cities?). What gets me is this:
I would assume that in his lifetime, Rune has been to Dezolis before, and in fact to the Esper Mansion, because the elder near the inner sanctum knows him by name, and even the higher-up guards recognize him. However, it seems he's also known by Alys and Dorin, who I believe have never left Motavia, and have known them for some time. Assuming Rune was on Motavia to hunt down Zio, and assuming Zio was in fact a rogue Esper, the simple question remains:
How the heck did they travel between the planets?
The only ships available exist on machine-stations which tend to remain hidden from the populace (with the exception of the plate system). Landing platforms are buried, factories are on islands or otherwise underground, so it's pretty obvious that no ships were used. The only way that were possible would be that Dark Force had arranged another alliance, instructed them to Nurvus, and sent a ship to obtain Zio. That still leaves Rune hanging though. So let's assume one of their abilities can do it. Why were the ships necessary, then? It's not Ryuka because you can't use it to go to Dezolian (Dezorian?) cities while on Motavia. (might have something to do with magical transport across vaccum-planes, but that kills the ability to travel between worlds.)
Any (serious) ideas?
