Squall awoke in darkness. The last thing he remembered was falling asleep. He had trained hard all day with friends and sleep had come easily. Now he lay on a smooth surface that gave under him. He stood. The air was thick and heavy, fogy, but not wet. Waving a hand in front of him reviled dark clumps of thick, dark... something floating in the air. They moved gracefully out of the way when he tried to move them, yet blocked all vision.

"Perfect" he mumbled to himself

"Sq-Squall?" Zell's voice called questioningly from a few metres away

"Yeah, it's me," Squall offered into the dark "I guess you can't see either."

The ground sank beside him and hands gripped him arm tightly.

"I don't think I like this place," Zell mumbled to no one in particular. The dark shapes swirled to enclose them both without touching them. "I want out."

Slowly the others discovered their location. Irvine, Quistis, Selphie and Rinoa immerged to stand within the floating dark shapes, awaiting orders from Squall.

"I'm not really sure what to do," He admitted "But I do know we can't stay here. Normally, when you're lost, you wait to be found, to avoid getting more lost. I don't think we can count on a rescue at this point. We don't know how we got here anymore then they'll know how to find us." Dead silence fell. Finally the ultimate question was asked: "what'll happen?"

The dark shapes collected behind Squall, making one giant black splotch, which stretched and formed a ring. Light shone through, revealing behind it a room flooded with morning light and a tall, blond girl in a tunic and boxers asleep on a couch. Squall reached toward her but was repelled by an unknown force. As they watched, confused, she stirred and sat up slowly. Eyes still closed, she grabbed an amulet off an end table and pulled it over her head. It hung down to her stomach because of the chain so she tucked it into her tunic. She was average height, just an inch shorter then Squall maybe, with very short white-blond hair. Her build was that of a fighter, but not a serious one. It was obvious she could handle herself well, but she was not trained.

"Good morning" a gentle male voice sounded as she stumbled into the kitchen "And how did we sleep last night?"

"Shut up," the girl said making herself a bowl of cereal "I've no interest in hearing your sarcasm" she seated herself on the couch again "And badly. I had terrible dreams because of your prophecies of doom."

"It's not my fault," the voice defended itself "they put the calling up yesterday. You should be looking for the others right now." She removed the amulet and placed it on the table as she left the room once more. It seemed familiar, but not enough to recognize.

The girl returned in black double layered pants and a think, soft, brown shirt. She pulled the amulet over her head once more, doubling the chain so it hung more reasonably around her neck.

"You're sure it's me?" she asked the voice coldly "The last thing I want is to get to the city and have my head lopped off by the real boy or something."

"Yes" he replied "It has to be you."

"I hope you're right," she said, pulling on a short, light traveling coat "or this is the last time I trust you, Griever."

Squall could only examine his own griever quizzically. It had never spoken to him in the past. Was this the same guardian? He felt compelled to keep watching.

The girl and Griever stood outside in the early morning sun now. She turned, not onto the road, but into the forest behind her house.

"Ugh," she groaned "I should not have had cereal for breakfast. It does not a nice workout make." She continued to stumble and crash through the forest for about half an hour until she finally asked "Griever? How about some better details on what I'm doing? You've told me almost nothing so far."

"Just go along with it," he dismissed as she untangled her short hair from a twig "Why don't you explain why we're walking through the woods right now? Doesn't your kind have cars or planes?" she scoffed

"We have cars and planes, yes, but I have no car of my own. Nor do I have the money to even look at a plane, so we're walking. Having a car wouldn't help inter-city travel anyway. Around five hundred years ago there was this storm. It sucked up a huge amount of water from a swamp or river or something and dumped it all around this province. Now the ground is so fertile we're losing our roads and even edges of cities. Planes prices have shot up hundreds in the past few years."

"You miss a lot trapped in a box for a few hundred years." Griever growled

"I pity you." She stated.