"Rin! There you are! Have you seen him yet? Or found his body? Maybe a bloody trail?"

Rinoa and Squall entered the cafeteria to find Selphie and Irvine seated at their usual table. Irvine was eating a sugary chocolate cereal, while Selphie checked items on a clipboard.

"What is all this stuff, Sef?" Rinoa picked a radio from the jumbled pile of equipment on the table. "Why do we need radios? And what can we possibly do with rubber gloves and ski masks?"

"Good Rin. That's my girl. You're on top of things. Question everything! You can't be too careful. Okay, let's see… you are Blue Beaver and Squall can be Big Chief. Those are your new handles. We may need to separate at some point before we find the target, so I've fought those AV bastards again to get these radios." Rinoa looked at Squall. He was pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head. Selphie didn't seem to notice. "Now, Hot Dog is currently establishing a perimeter and Pigtail is trying to contact forensics."

"Handles? Selphie, have you been watching that movie again?"

"No, it was the sequel and it sucked. But that doesn't matter right now."

"Why am I going to be…"

"SHH! Hush, Blue Beaver. I'm trying to think. Now, if we're looking for a body, we'll need a canine unit. We might need your dog. He can track, right?" Rinoa thought to herself that Angelo would never again be allowed around Selphie. She wasn't sure if dogs could lose their minds, but she didn't want to risk putting her poor puppy away in some doggy nuthouse.

Pacing in front of her assembled troops, General Tilmitt issued her orders. "Okay everybody. We'll rendezvous back here at 0930. Check with me at the top of every hour. I don't want to lose another man. It's gonna be a long, tough battle. I want to find Zone as much as any of you, but we can't deny the fact that Quistis might have throttled him. Or that this Moe guy has taken Zone to sleep with the squid."

"It's fish, Selphie. Not squid."

"What movies have you been watching, Squall? Sleeping with the fish doesn't even make sense. Yeesh. How do you put up with him, Rin?"

"Anyway. Don't get your hopes up. However, if you do locate the target, aka Zone, radio back with the code, Rooster is in the Henhouse. But if you see Quistis, the code is Ice Queen Descending. And if you see Quistis tearing his lungs out with her teeth, the code is… what do you want, Irvy?" Tapping Selphie on the shoulder, Irvine interrupted her battle speech. "Hold on, Cowboy. We're gonna get to your role as a deep cover agent in just a minute."

"No darlin'. Quistis is heading this way right now." He gestured to the door. "See? And she doesn't look like she's killed anybody."

"I'm sorry. I can't hear you. We are supposed to be using the system, Cowboy."

Irvine tore his hat from his head and threw it on the table. He picked up a radio and held it to Selphie's handset. The resulting feedback made everyone wince. "Breaker, breaker. Rubber Duck. Do you copy? This here's Cowboy. We got an Ice Queen Descending on our fucking heads. What is your genius 125 now?"

"125? Cowboy, that's a purple umbrella. What the hell kind of good is that going to do when Quistis is flossing bits of Zone out of her teeth?" Irvine dropped the radio and resumed eating his cereal. It was pointless to try to cooperate with Selphie some days. Leaning back in his chair, he prepared to watch the fireworks as Quistis advanced on the group. Well, at least this'll be fun to watch. Quistis is hot as hell when she gets mad. And she won't be mad at me this time. Whoo Hoo! Wish I'd thought to call Zell. He'd get a kick out of this.

"What am I doing with my teeth, Selphie?"

Selphie bit her bottom lip as she spun around to see Quistis joining them. Oh shit. "Umm… HI QUISTIS! HOW ARE YOU THIS FINE MORNING?

Quistis sat beside Irvine and raised an eyebrow at Selphie's odd behavior. "I'm very well this morning, Selphie. Thank you. And how are you?" She noticed the X47TM model radios. "What is the purpose of this reconnaissance equipment? This particular radio is excellent for undercover work. Which of you is lucky enough to be assigned a stealth mission?"

"Oh Quisty! There is no mission. Zone is missing and there's this vampire gangster out for his blood, so we have to find him. This is the search party. We gotta get you a radio and a handle." Selphie looked at Quistis' hands to see if she could find blood under her fingernails. She was disappointed when her hands appeared as clean and perfect as ever. "Have you seen Zone lately, hmm, Quistis?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, he was right behind me when I entered the cafeteria. I believe that he stopped to say hello to Zell. Ah! Here he comes now."

Zone had barely sat down when Rinoa began screeching at him. "Where have you been? I was worried sick. You didn't call, or leave a note, or anything! I thought you might have left and been shot or stabbed…but you're not even hurt!"

"Jeez, Rin. Was I supposed to go out and get myself killed? I've not heard you scream like that since Watts started smoking those funny Chocobo greens." He was surprised that Rinoa was so angry with him. He admitted that neglecting to call was thoughtless, but he had been happily occupied. "Why are you so mad at me? You knew where I went last night. Squall practically shoved me out of the door so you could go on your date. I did what you wanted me to do. I went to see Quistis and we…talked."

"All night?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Zone, I've known you for years. You are not a big talker. What could you possibly talk about for so many hours?"

Zone started to panic. He didn't want to reveal the previous evening's activities and risk embarrassing Quistis. "We talked about, oh, we just, oh, my stomach, oooohhoowwww!"

Rinoa next focused her anger on Quistis. "What did you do to him, Quistis? His stomach hasn't bothered him for a long time!"

"Me? You're the one interrogating him!"

"Why is he holding his belly like that? Did you kick him or something else?"

Quistis slammed her palms on the table and stood to face her companions. "Okay. That is enough, Rinoa. If I desired to hurt him half as badly as the rest of you want me to, then I would have done it by now. No amount of effort on your part could prevent it. I assume that his stomach is upset because he is hungry. We were up most of the night and now you insist on questioning him without giving him the opportunity to even eat! As it so happens, we had a very lengthy conversation and reached several critical conclusions."

Her voice softened as she looked down at Zone and studied his face. Running her fingers through his hair, she gently asked him if he was ill. "Are you okay? Can I get you anything?"

"No, I'm fine. I just get nervous when I'm put on the spot like that. Thanks." He chuckled at the shocked faces surrounding them. "Why do you all look so surprised? Quistis really is wonderful. None of you give her enough credit." Zone had to grab the edge of the table to stay upright as Quistis lunged and wrapped her arms around him.

Selphie sprayed orange juice all over Rinoa when she saw their lips meet.

"Pfffftt! Whoa, whoa, whoa! Just how many of these 'critical conclusions' did you reach last night, Quisty? When the hell did this happen? How much coffee did I drink yesterday? Is the sky still blue, cause I am really starting to question the order of the universe right now." Running to the nearest window, Selphie satisfied herself that the sky was as it should be and the world had not yet spun off its axis. Plopping back down next to Quistis, she had a revelation. "Hey Irvy! Why don't you ever do that for me? You know, the whole multiples thing. Should I start hanging out with Zone? He is a cutie."

Irvine ignored Selphie's question and squinted at Zone. "Hold on one damn minute. Just how 'lengthy' of a discussion were you talkin' about, Quistis? Did you mean what I think you meant? Hot damn, Zee. You should have called me. I could have filmed the two of you!" Zone laughed, but said nothing. He simply extended his middle finger to the cowboy before pulling Quistis down for another kiss.

Reaching for some napkins, Rinoa giggled at the whole situation. Her worry and anger evaporated when she saw that her friends seemed so happy with each other. Oh, this is wonderful. They'll be so good together. When I asked him to cheer her up, I thought he'd tell a joke, or play Triple Triad. Quisty has always been the best at that game. Maybe they played cards for each other's clothes. She poked Squall in the ribs. "Hey honey. That must have been some pep talk. What did you tell him?"

"………."

"Oh, never mind, Mr. Crabby. Go back to bed if you're going to act like that today."

Irvine knew a moneymaking opportunity when he saw one. "Zone. Please. Let me get the camcorder. We could make a fortune off the Trepies alone. They'd pay anything to see Quistis naked. Really. Just three weeks ago, I had one of Quistis' little stalkers offer me six hundred gil and his immortal soul to set up a surveillance system in the locker room." Quistis pulled her gaze away from Zone long enough to glare at Irvine. "I didn't do it! Like I told you, I get waivers signed and it's all voluntary. I'm not a sicko. But come on, Quistis! You could single handedly save Garden. You'd just have to, umm, you know what, never mind."

"Kinneas. Don't ever ask me to do anything like that again. If you do, I'll demonstrate exactly how much force is required to emasculate a certain Galbadian cowboy. Understood?" Afraid to open his mouth, Irvine simply nodded. "Good. Now, come on Zone. I'm famished and those bagels on the cart look absolutely divine. You are still hungry, aren't you?"