"It's good to see you again, Xu."
"Yeah. You're never around anymore." The Diamonds, together, chimed their greetings to Xu. Inseparable those two were.
The triad started walking out and towards Balamb, their mission was supposed to be quite simple; retrieve some stolen item from Winhill's western beach and return it to the town. It appears that some thief had stolen the item, and after reaching the beach was knocked unconscious, apparently he had a ship their, but hadn't made it back before the monsters got him. Actually it's amazing that he got as far as he did. But after he came to he'd bolted back to his ship, but leaving the stolen goods upon the sands in his haste.

The train ride was actually quite enjoyable; the three played cards all the way to Timber, even though the Diamonds knew they had almost no chance of winning. Together they had beaten Xu twice actually, but during those games they had been using Random, and the best cards Xu had were an Anacondaur once and a Grat the other. After they reached Timber, a car rented from Deling was waiting their, left by the last group to be sent out that way. That was normal among procedure, the first group would rent a car, then leave it near Timber and pass the keys on to the next team going off the island. Unfortunately many teams are often out at a time and a few of those groups must walk to the nearest rental agency, unless their orders take them to a nearer location.

The car ride was enjoyable too, they spent the time talking about cards, mostly the new cards becoming official, including the Guardian now assigned to the second Diamond, Lugus a recently discovered Holy-Guardian. These events had taken Xu's mind off of Zell, it had taken a bit of time for her to stop feeling awkward about leaving Zell just sitting on that bench. But now the distractions were high and her mission was about to start.

The group entered Winhill and saluted the SeeD on guard there.
"You're here." He said, "Have you been briefed on the mission yet?"
"Yes, but we're not entirely sure what it is that was stolen yet." Xu replied taking charge instantly, it must've just been instinct, it didn't matter though, she was the highest ranking SeeD there, technically.

"The store owner here is the one who was robbed, I suggest you ask him about it."
"Thank you," They all saluted each other and the group proceeded into the small shop.

"Ah! There you are!" Before them stood an old man with a grumpy voice, "Why are you just standing there? Shouldn't you be searching the beach or something?"
The scowling man before them was actually surprisingly menacing, it's amazing that anyone would have attempted to steal from him, "Uh, could you maybe, tell us what we're supposed to be looking for first? Sir." Hastily Xu added the formality to her query.
"What!? Didn't anyone tell you before? Hrmm, maybe I didn't... What?" The man seemed to be a nervous wreak, and Xu's patience was swaying with him, "Oh, right, yes... Well it was a family treasure, uh... I suppose you could call it an amulet, if you wanted to."
"Uh... yeah, okay, we'll just go, get right on that..." Xu quickly ushered the team out of the hovel.

"Wow. That was terrible wasn't it?" The first Diamond had said once outside.
"Honestly. Well I suppose we should get on it, right?" replied the other Diamond. The team quickly left the small town and drove down to the beach, still not entirely sure what they were looking for.

The girls stepped out of the car, slipping their Guardians into junction as they did. Iouga, Lugus, and Sirona, which is a Guardian that had been with the Garden nearly since it was established, specializing in Curative Magic, strengthened their assigned SeeD.

"So, where should we look first?" asked one of the Diamonds.
"Seriously. Like there's a whole beach with one little amulet somewhere in it." replied the other. It was true though, it wasn't going to be particularly easy, especially since Winhill's beach was covered with some of the shiniest shells in the world.
"Well I suppose if we can find evidence of were the thief's vessel was, then the amulet would probably have been dropped on the beach between there and Winhill." Xu said. It made sense to her but she didn't really think about it, just happened to say it on impulse.
"Yeah okay! Uh... Hmm.."
"Oooh! There!" cut in the other Diamond pointing towards a slightly darker patch of sand nearest to the water itself.

They began to move over to the dark patch, Xu saw a fastitocalon starting to rise from the sand near her. An arrow came from over her shoulder, digging into the sand right were the fish's was.
"Nice shot." Commented Xu to Lugus' Diamond as the fastitocalon collapsed. Xu stopped, realizing that there are occasionally full fastitocalons here, they would be large enough to eat something such as the amulet, and it wouldn't be that unlikely since it was just lying in the sand.
"Junction Death to you weapons if you can. A fastitocalon may have swallowed the amulet, and it will be a lot easier to find if their bodies disintegrate." Xu said doing the same. It wouldn't be a problem yet, but once in the area it would be very convenient.

They reached the area of interest without any trouble, and started looking. Yes, this was definitely were the vessel had been. They turned around, lined themselves up with the town and started walking towards it. Sirona's Diamond struck the first fastitocalon with a crushing blow from her quarter staff laced with Deaths, causing it to dissolve into red powder. After quick inspection she kept walking all the while keeping a look out for the amulet on the dunes as well.

As the squad reached the edge of the beach they still hadn't found anything, but they weren't going to give up, nor could they really, it was their job and they had to finish it before they left. Another arrow twanged from Lugus' Diamond's bow striking what had already turned into dust from the slightest touch of the blow. Nothing, again. Then something interesting appeared, a Visage along with left and righty was rising from the sands. Xu had forgotten that they could be found here, but there they were.

Their Death attacks were ineffective and the Protects that had been built up were starting to annoy Xu. These guys just didn't want to die. Suddenly she was feeling sluggish, looking around Xu noticed the others had a greyish tinge to their skin. Looking down she say the same grey skins on her hands, they'd been cursed. Xu felt the adrenaline that had slowly been building in side her leak away, but she couldn't stop, maybe it was time for a Guardian.

Forcing herself upright Xu called to the Diamonds, "Start summoning Lugus, we'll cover you, 'kay?" the Diamonds nodded, Sirona's began to construct a Protect around the other Diamond as Lugus' eyes glazed over and stood perfectly still. Xu whipped herself into a frenzy attacking all three enemies in sequence, distracting them from their fate. After about half a minuet Xu felt her body stop on its own accord. She drifted away from herself and watched as the sky began to darken, Lugus was here, time to see how Holy this Guardian really was. A single beam of light broke through the heavy cloud cover that had just formed. The enlightened sand began to rumble and a stone pyramid erupted from it. Each side of the pyramid had its own face. Anger, Fear and Joy. The top point of the pyramid sparkled and emitted a pure, white light as the eyes of each face did the same.

The pyramid began to spin, slowly gaining speed, faster and faster until it was nothing more than a blur of white light. The three beasts before it were getting pummelled by the light and began stretched backwards. An explosion followed after the pyramid had reached top speed. Everything went white, once vision was capable again Xu found herself back in her body and could see three corpses before her.
"Well done." said Xu, panting a little herself as she walked towards the visage's gaping mouth.
"Are Visage's usually that hard?" it was Sirona's Diamond.
"No," Xu pulled a small shiny crimson disk from the Visage, "That'll be it."
"That's what we came for? Hyne it's small."
"Yeah but it must have loads of power." The Diamonds continued discussing the Amulet as the group headed back to the car, and even once in the car they hadn't stopped till they reached at Winhill.

"Got it-"
"Yup there it is-"
Xu sighed, "Yeah that's what you wanted right?" they were back in the old man's shop.
"My amulet? Yeah that's it! Aha-ha! Well done kids." said the man as he took the disk from Xu.
"Uhm, if you don't mind me asking," started Xu, surprised by the kindness in the man's voice, "Uh wha-"
"Mine! That's what!" Snarled the man reverting to how Xu had expected to hear his voice. Oh well.
"Hrm. Well our orders said that we were to collect the pay after completion of the mission so..." Xu trailed off.
"What? You're gunna pry the only remaining Gil I have from my hands? No, no it's mine!" Xu looked over the man's shoulder to see a bag tied up; bulging in the way only Gil could make it.
"Could you just pass that bag over and we'll be on our way."
"What this? Ah what D'yknow huh? Fine take it!" He stormed off into his back room. Xu shrugged and picked up the sack, and opened it to check its contents, exactly the right amount.

The team turned to leave town, stopping only to salute the SeeD on guard, and proceeded to drive the car back to Timber in silence. On the train back to Garden Xu started thinking about Zell again, she'd go talk to him once she got back, see if everything was okay. But now she was confused too, there was something in her. Feelings for Zell? She shook the thought from her mind and tried to listen to the Diamonds conversation, but she wasn't hearing a word.