Quistis put down two mugs of hot chocolate on the stained coffee table. The janitor on the last shift probably didn't do a very good job. Quistis made a mental note to speak to the Housekeeping Officer later when she had more time to spare. She figured the ship was in a very bad interior condition. Whenever there was a situation the ship staff would take the
opportunity to skive. Quistis pulled out the plastic chair, and sat next to the seated figure clad in blue. She motioned towards the steaming hot chocolate. The figure reached out for the handle lit, and pressed it to her lips. She sipped a little.

"So what happened? How did you resurrect?" Quistis asked. Rinoa set down her mug with both hands. She wiped the foam off her mouth using a piece of tissue. Rinoa cleared her throat.

The seconds soon ticked away into minutes, before hours. The deafening silence of the panty room plus the insane ticking from the ancient clock hung above accompanied the duo throughout the night, leaving the entire ship by itself. The staff personnel took shifts, and took turns to man the ship. Quistis got up slowly after a long while, and grabbed the cups. She
came back a minute later with another bout of hot chocolate. She sat back onto the chair. Rinoa continued.

Squall tapped a small button immediately after the Annihilator sped up. The tail thruster nozzles clicked into submission. The nozzles released a trail of black smoke with evolved into fog. Following, small shiny dust particles flooded the area, instantly jamming any sensory device operating in the area. Pulling back the flight stick hard, the nose of the Annihilator pointed up, and the rest of it followed it up.

Xclaiver shunned away the instant he saw smoke eject from the craft he was chasing. The Chaser took a hard right turn. The anti-grav engines protested, and he silently prayed that they wouldn't die out on him, not at this moment. With his view of the craft impaired, he reached for a small control panel above the LCD radar panel. He flipped a red switch. The radar took on a new view. This one followed the infra-red heat signals omitted by the craft, rendering it useful against sensor jammers. He smiled with satisfaction. At least he could still see by radar what was happening in front of him.

The chase continued. The Annihilator accelerated madly after that in a series of fakes and dodges, but somehow the dull craft behind him held its steady distance no matter how hard Squall tried to escape. He figured that the craft could still detect him even with cover. Squall frowned. He glanced at the onboard screen. The front view of the dull but nonetheless impressive Chaser with its name proudly emblazed across it homing on close behind him. Squall shifted a little to the right, and was duly surprised that the craft slowly but swiftly adjusted its orientation to match his. He then accelerated again, which by now had already gone into the thousands of kilometers per second, which was nothing normally, but something
to behold in atmosphere travel. Surely but slowly, the Chaser matched his speed with frustrating ease. Squall frowned harder. He strayed onto an unused keyboard on the control panel. He pressed the on button.

"Emergency system overwrite. Please input password..." Squall pressed a series of keys. The computer flashed once. Squall then shut down all manual systems.

"Total automatic control initiating. Please stand by..." The buckles of Squall's safety belt tightened. He winched. The cockpit glass reinforced, following by new additions of fresh armour. The warp drives hummed louder by the second, until the noise reduction filters kicked in. He could hear no more then, just what was happening outside. The HUD activated, and
all around the cockpit was a 270 degrees screen. He could no longer see outside the glass. He glanced to his right, and saw that the speed of the Annihilator was approaching that of light. Not wanting to be undone, the Chaser matched speed. Its engines protested. The Annihilator then launched a volley of spread missiles. The Chaser smartly dodged the missiles, while
returning cover fire from its roundmillimeter Gatling gun. The Annihilator then had to do its version of dodging, which Squall decided was more impressive of the two displays.

Xclaiver gritted his teeth in frustration. The craft ahead of him suddenly had seem to take on a new style of evasion. Like a brainwave had suddenly dawned upon its pilot. Surely and smoothly, the craft was establishing a sizable distance between themselves. Xclaiver reached for the NOS gas switch, and flipped it hard. The red blip above it lit up.

As if powered by plutonium, the wretched hostile craft Squall has been trying to escape from suddenly had an infusion of speed and neckbreaking velocity. Squall glanced at the brightly lit screen. He tapped his head tiredly. He pushed the stick down.

Quistis placed a hand around the tear-stained Rinoa. Rinoa had finished, but not without succumbing to emotions. Both her hands were still wrapped around the now empty mug of what used to be hot chocolate. Quistis still had a near full mug.

"Hush now, Rinoa dear. We're on our way to get Squall. He had risked everything by going to the other world to attempt to get you back. He has killed Alexandria in a bid to get her powers to open the Gates of Heaven." Rinoa looked up. A single tear fell towards the cold steel platform. Quisitis got up and straightened her uniform. She extended her right hand.

"Let's get you changed and warm first. The rest can wait." Rinoa nodded, and allowed herself to be let away by her close friend.