"I've lived on this ship for the last twelve years," Ellone sighed.

Laguna nodded. "It's not too hard to imagine living here for years at a time," he commented. "You guys all seem pretty close."

"Yes, we all get along well."

The ocean's surface undulated in the ship's wake.

"You look worried," he said.

She took a deep breath. "How bad is the damage?"

He scratched his head uneasily. "Well… the Presidential Palace is still standing, and the middle floors are intact. So that's where we'll be staying." He paused.

"And?"

"Hm?"

She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "So most of the buildings are still standing, then?"

"Oh yeah, yeah, they're holding up," he added hastily. "But some people did die."

She nodded silently, then turned to face him. "But we shouldn't be entering the city! You're the president! It's too risky!"

"No it's not. The monsters are out."

"What? What happened to them?"

He stared down at the rippling waves. "It was pretty complicated, but we rounded them up and isolated them in the Trabian Mountains."

"… I see." She paused. "It's the same thing you did with Adel."

He looked taken aback. "Whaddaya mean?"

"It's just a thought, but the whole idea just… worries me somehow."

He took a deep breath. "There's more."

"Okay."

"After clearing his throat, he said, "Kiros picked up a rumor from Trabia. They're saying that Seifer was there recently.

"Does it mean anything to you?"

"… No."


He nodded appreciatively at what he saw. "We really did it, huh?"

His fellow field researched muttered, "Well, I'll concede to that much."

"Why the grumpy attitude?" He moved to the side and started snapping shots with a digital camera.

"Look, I know containing and observing them seems like the most logical thing to do, but this is a special situation."

He raised his eyebrows in mild interest. "How so?"

"You know the Islands Closest to Heaven and Hell?"

He nodded again. "Yeah?"

"Why are the monsters there so strong?"

"… Because there are no weak monsters to stabilize the genetic pool," he supplied slowly, already able to see where the discussion was going.

"Exactly," he muttered. "Here on the main landmasses, the genetic pool has attained and maintained equilibrium. You can't stop these Lunar Cries from coming. We should be keeping them out of the city—"

"—which we are doing—"

"—and letting them assimilate into the mainland genetic pool! If these monsters spawn and become stronger with each new generation, we're not gonna be able to contain them forever!"

He rolled his eyes, clearly overruled. "Then go take your little theory up with Doc Odine! He's the only nut job on this continent who'd listen to that. And I happen to not be him. So shut it."

"Anal-retentive bastard," he grumbled under his breath.

"Hey, what is that?" He pointed to a stranger shadow in the background of one of the shots he had just taken. "… A humanoid monster?"

"Looks like a… person. Maybe that's what it is."


Alternate World: Snowflakes (Part II)

Fujin hugged her knees.

"You're acting so strangely. You're not acting like yourself at all."

"I think it's because the past 'me' wanted to be alone."

"… You didn't want me to find… that version of you?" she asked.

He didn't answer.

She exhaled heavily. "What's happening to you? This isn't like you. You speak differently… you even look different."

He raised one eyebrow. "You think so?"

She nodded.

"She's sucked the life out of you," she murmured. "You look so tired…. Idiot," she sniffed.

He tilted his head. "What?"

"Yeah!" she yelled suddenly, flying into a rage. "You heard me! All of this comes back to you! And the worst thing is that you chose it! You actually wanted this to happen, you started it! And we had to chase after you to try and fix what you did—everybody had to!"

There was a long pause in the conversation, which Seifer used to regard her curiously.

"… And?"

Fujin scoffed. "What's that supposed to mean?" she shrieked. "Are you saying you don't care?"

"No," he replied calmly. "I'm saying I already know that."

"… Oh," she mumbled, feeling both surprise and embarrassed. "But then, what are you going to do about it?"

He nodded knowingly. "I have some plans."

"Can you tell me?"

"No."

She rolled her eyes.

"Well, I have an idea," she said, catching some snowflakes in her open palm. "Maybe it would be good for you if Raijin and I gave you some space for a while. I mean, as it is, you're already starting to," she paused as if about to utter a painful truth, "drift away from us." She drew her knees in closer still. "I wish it weren't happening, but it's obvious that it is."

He appeared to be listening intently, contemplating her words very seriously indeed.

"If we all take some time off, I think that things will eventually go back to normal between all of us," she continued. "Once you're apart from us, you'll have some time to yourself to th9ink things over and figure out if you miss having us around. That's what Raijin thinks, and I think he's right."

There was the strangest expression upon his face. He looked as if he wanted to laugh, but his gaze was far too serious to suggest it.

And, leaning in, he picked a single snowflake out of her hair. And that was when he finally smiled, if only just a little.

Feeling uncomfortable, she lifted her hand to brush his away, but for a moment, their hands touched.

He suddenly stood up, beckoning with his hand for her to do the same. She got to her feet without assistance.

"Go on ahead of me so we don't run into each other," he said.

Her eyebrows knitted. "… So that's it? You're just walking away, no questions asked?"

He shook his head. "There's nothing to ask. I understand."

She nodded once and took a step back.

"You'd better come back eventually, though, okay?"

"Yeah, don't worry about me," he assured her. And suddenly, the right words to say disappeared in the silence that hung between them, strangely separating them.

"I'll… I'll see you soon," he finally added.

Soon. Vague at best. But there was no need to elaborate. Somehow, they both understood perfectly why it was better, in this circumstance, to lie by not saying any more than that. She knew that "soon" was a lie—they might very well be parting for several years on end—but sometimes lying was really just easier, if only to herself.

"Soon…."

And before she could change her mind and ask him to come back, he was already gone.


The phone rang from atop the bed. Selphie looked to Fujin for silent advice; Fujin nodded.

"S-Selphie here."

"Are you still getting a feed from our camcorder?" Zell asked.

"Uh…."

Fujin stood up, brushing her tears away as she did so. She promptly left to go to the other room through the open doorway.

"Well, I haven't been getting any footage… my computer shut down just a minute or two ago," she explained carefully.

"Okay… are you turning it on right now, then?"

"Yes, yes, hang on a sec."

The laptop didn't respond at all.

"My laptop's dead," she murmured.

Zell chuckled a little on the other end. "Eh, it's just as well, 'cause I sorta smashed up the camcorder."

"You what?" Selphie sat up quickly. "But is your tape still okay?"

"Yeah, it's okay. Hey, what are you—"

"Did anything happen to you guys?" Squall asked quickly. "Did anybody show up in the room?"

Selphie got to her feet and found Fujin in the adjacent hotel room, kneeling next to Rinoa, who was still unconscious. Selphie opened her mouth to ask where Rinoa had been, but Fujin answered by pointing to the closet.

"Squall's asking if anything happened," Selphie hissed urgently. "That means those people ran into Squall and Zell before they came here, right?"

Fujin paused. "Just—Just say that everything's fine," she decided. "There's no need to worry them."

"We're all okay," Selphie told him, "but I don't know where the intruders went—"

"Make sure they don't come back here until they finish their job!" Fujin hissed back.

"Okay!Look, just keep on doing what you were doing, and you don't need to come up to check on us."

"… Are you sure?" He sounded unconvinced.

"We're fine, nobody's hurt…."

"Esuna!"Fujin said, and Raijin softened back into flesh.

"And… yeah, nothing to worry about."


He trudged on through the will grasses without bothering to take in the scenery. He wanted to move as quickly as possible, and he had to do it in broad daylight: time was now more important than stealth.

A quick burst of wind buffeted his face; he looked up.

"Where are you going?" Her voice shook with ill-disguised rage. Her reddish-blonde head shone brightly under the midday sunlight.

"To Esthar," he replied matter-of-factly. He did not seem surprised to see her.

"Why?"

"… To find Ellone."

"And?" she shrieked. "You're not supposed to be in contact with these people; you're not even supposed to be here!"

"Yeah? Well, I can explain, so will you shut up and let me talk?"

She shot him a very filthy, disapproving look and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Okay," he began, "I didn't intend to go anywhere else. Uh, someone… kidnapped me and brought me here with her."

"'Brought me with her'? Who's the 'she'?" she asked sharply.

He exhaled slowly. "She didn't say, but I think I have some idea of who she might be."

"And she's the one who brought you here?"

He scrutinized her carefully.

"What, you don't believe me?"

She avoided his gaze. "I don't know what I'm supposed to believe anymore," she muttered wearily. "Think about what just happened, Kaze. You told me that somebody trashed the Sorceress Memorial, that you were going to go see if it was safe—"

He stared back at her, the most wretched, painful expression upon his face.

"A-At first, I thought it might've been you staging a break-in so you could take it away…" she mumbled, quickly turning pink when she realized how mistrusting she had been.

He took a deep breath. "When I arrived, she was already waiting for me. And then she took me here and left. I can't get out of here without Ellone. And… that's why I'm going to Esthar."

She nodded once, then looked up again. "But can I ask one thing?"

"Yeah?"

"Why did you do it?"

He broke eye contact, realizing what she was trying to do.

"You did it just now, before you started walking here, didn't you?" She was no longer scolding; perhaps it was resignation?

"I'd rather it was me who'd tell her, rather than letting her find out by some accident."

She sighed heavily, apparently accepting his reason.

"You know… she went to Rinoa. And asked her for help." Her voice sounded cold and brittle. "That was a long time ago, when she did that, but in this time period, it only happened recently."

His head lifted the slightest bit. "We're not thinking about the same person anymore, are we?"

"I know we're not. But you know who I'm talking about now, don't you?"

"… Yes."

"So, did you run into Rinoa at all?" she asked.

He shook his head.

"If the transition had been any greater," she added, "Rinoa would have died."

There was a horror-filled silence.

"'Transition'?" he nearly whispered.

"But I had to end it before things went too far."

Finally, he turned around to fully face her. "End it how?"


Alternate World: Glass Wings (Part II)

The Odine… Bangle…?

"No," the girl said suddenly. She released Rinoa's arm gently; the fingernail marks left behind began to bleed.

Rinoa stared.

"Well, go!" the girl shouted, flapping her arms. "Get it and put it on!"

W-What? Her mouth hung open, and her other hand was wrapped around the fingernail wounds.

"Agh… she's not… thinking rationally right now. She's scared. But don't think too badly of her. Put it on, it'll a-artificially suppress your brain waves and she won't have access to you anymore. Okay?"

She grabbed Rinoa's wrist and pried her fingers away, exposing the fingernail marks. "You think this is all in your head? It's all real, I'm telling you! Everything that happens here affects the real world!"

The girl fell to her knees.

But who are you? You're a different person?

"I can't explain it," she snapped. "But after you put it on, you'll probably black out. So be prepared, all right? But I don't think you'll die," she was careful to add. "I don't know exactly how, but you will wake up!"

Rinoa's gaze was steady and clear. And how are you so sure of that?

The girl began to laugh.

"Come on, Rinoa. Do you really think that Squall would allow that to happen so easily?"

So I'll fall asleep, she thought. The Odine Bangle was cupped in her palms. Even as the moments ticked by, the pain in her head began to mount.

I don't know what to do! Why should I believe either of them?

"Do you really think that Squall would allow that to happen so easily?"

She turned her back on Selphie's bedside dresser. If she was found in Selphie's room, then nobody would realize that she would somehow need Squall's help to wake up. But if she were in Squall's room, then it would only bolster the concerns she had expressed to Dr. Kadowaki earlier that very same day.

"What a coincidence!" the girl inside her head exclaimed.

Rinoa rendered Selphie's door intangible and slipped through it.

"How so?" the "other" girl asked.

"We're not so different at all," she mused to who was supposedly her other self. "You want to suppress her brain waves; I want to suppress my powers, and you've just told both of us how to do it all."

There was nobody in the hallway. She broke into a run, but stumbled; she felt increasingly dizzy.

"Coincidence," said the other girl, her voice cold. "Got it? We're separate entities. I know you don't want that to change."

She passed through the door to Squall's dormitory with a single step. If ever there had been a time that she wanted him to be able to read her mind, it was at this very moment.

As she slid the Bangle onto her wrist, her wings were rent apart, shattering like glass. She hadn't even realized they were there, a part of her that had followed her into the real world.

The nearly identical voices inside her head had ceased abruptly. Reminded of the other girl's words, she held her arm up to glance at it in her last moment of consciousness.

"Everything that happens here affects the real world!"

Bloody, half-moon fingernail marks blighted her forearm, the shadow of something much more sinister.


The phone rang.

"Balamb Garden, SeeD special forces, this is Headmaster Cid speaking," he rattled off.

"Hello, Headmaster," a pleasant female voice replied. "My name is Shizuka, and I'm calling on behalf of Galbadia Garden."

Cid compulsively sat up a little straighter in his char. "Oh, I don't believe I've spoken with you before."

Shizuka cleared her throat. "Yes, about that. My sources tell me that Balamb Garden has Irvine Kinneas, two messengers, and three SeeDs deployed in Deling City at this time. Correct?"

"Yes." Rinoa had not been included, which was good news: nobody had found out where she was.

"Forgive me for jumping to conclusions, but am I also correct in assuming that the two messengers in question are Fujin and Raijin?"

He nodded. "Also correct."

On the other end of the line, Shizuka took a deep breath. "Is it possible for you to send them to Galbadia Garden as soon as possible for questioning? I'm afraid they must show up in person."

He leaned back in his chair. "Well… may I ask what this is about?"

"You've heard the rumors about Seifer being in Trabia?"

"Yes." Laguna had told him this before he had left with Ellone.

"Well, if Fujin and Raijin can come in and confirm something with us, then you and I will know whether those rumors are true."