Marlene watched the wasps crawl slowly over their fallen hive. It was the first morning in three weeks that it did not rain. The wind had blown the hive from its position on the overhanging roof of her home down to where it now lay, on it's back on the concrete. It was large, about the size of both of her fists put together. When it had fallen, half of the wasps had flown away. Of the half that remained, most stayed with the fallen hive, trying to make due with what they had. A few huddled where the hive had once been. It was too late into autumn for them to build another hive, but they were trying.

Marlene clutched at her mother's pendant. She was afraid of the tiny insects, but they were so interesting to watch. The pendant comforted her. She felt a shadow fall over her.

"Whatcha doin'?" asked Yuffie. She had moved to Coral recently after some trouble at home, though she visited Wufei whenever she had the chance.

"Watching," Marlene whispered, afraid to distract the wasps from their intent work.

"Watching... what." Yuffie leaned down a bit and peered at the patch of ground that Marlene was watching. "Is it a rock? Or, no, it's a--" Yuffie straightened suddenly and screamed, grabbing Marlene by the collar and dragging her away from the hive. When they were a safe distance away, Yuffie began to scream again. "What did you think you were doing?! Are you crazy?"

"It's cold," Marlene said simply, "Wasps don't move much when it's cold. Anyway, they were too busy to bother with me."

"Barret!" Yuffie cried as she walked to the back door, carefully avoiding the wasps, "You're daughters a freakin' psycho!" The screen door slammed shut. Marlene was alone again with the wasps. She was edging back towards them when her father called her into the house.

She gave the a last look toward the wasps and ran inside.

"They're all coming to visit? Wow! How cool!" Yuffie was saying when Marlene entered. "Yup," said Barret, "The whole friggin' lot of 'em."

"Who?" asked Marlene. Barret smiled warmly at his daughter and patted the chair next to him for her to sit down. "That's why I called you in here. Cloud and the gang are comin' to visit us. Even that Turk that controled that walking ball of fluff and the cat. What was his name?"

"Reeve," said Marlene. She had heard the story of their conquest a thousand times from everyone that participated, except of course...

"Vincent. Will Vincent be coming?" asked Yuffie.

Barret snorted, "I wouldn't get my hopes up. They don't make no mention of it in the letter, but knowin' him, I doubt it. I don't think anyone's even seen him since we all split."

Yuffie sighed irritably, "Oh well."

"Why are they coming?" asked Marlene.

"Well, come Tuesday it'll be three years since we defeated Sephiroth."

"That long?" said Yuffie, "Seems like yesterday. I actually kinda miss fighting all the time. At least it was something to do."

"We're safe now," Barret put a hand on Marlene's shoulder, "That's all that matters to me."

"I'm not old enough to be thinkin' that way yet!" said Yuffie with a laugh.

"Ain't smart enough, ya mean."

"You wanna fight old timer?" Yuffie jumped up and began to playfully punch at Barret's arm.

Marlene snuck away from them as they continued to play at arguing. Something felt wrong. She clutched her mother's pendant, but she still didn't feel safe. Something was going to go wrong. It was just a matter of time.