A/N: Thanks for the reviews everyone. They mean a lot. Anyway, this chapter is just about Squall and his friends trying to find each other after getting separated. Now, in my fic, the spells will be used for different things, instead of just attacking monsters and so on.  As will a few other things as well, but I won't spoil it.  Enough of my useless chatter, here's chapter two.

Summary: Squall and his friends were called back to Balamb Garden during their holiday. While travelling back on the Ragnarok, they are caught in a thunder storm. The ship is struck by lightning and sinks into the ocean.  They all managed to escape but don't know that. Now they are trying to find each other.

Chapter 2 – Finding Our Friends

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"Squall?  Wake up!"

This was what Squall heard as someone shook him.  He groggily opened his eyes to see Rinoa kneeling beside him.  He started to get up, his arms barely holding him.  He felt Rinoa's arms go round his waist to help him stand.  His legs felt weak and he was freezing.  When he was finally up, he felt like he was going to collapse again.

"Squall?  Are you ok?" Rinoa asked.

"I'm…alright." He said tiredly.  He looked around him.  He knew they had landed somewhere near the Centra region, but the landscape around him surprised them.

The Centra island was usually rocky and had lots of quicksand.  As he looked around him, he saw nothing but plains of grass and some forests in the distance.

"Where are we?" he asked.

"I don't know," Rinoa answered, "There doesn't seem to be any towns nearby and I couldn't find any of the others."

"They might be in danger, I don't recognise this place.  We had better find them before someone else does."

So they set off looking for their friends, both of them praying that they would find them soon.

* * * * *

Selphie woke up, feeling the sun's heat beat down on her furiously.  She sat up and shivered.  Even though the sun was out, she was freezing.  Her clothes were wet but were drying up in some places.  She looked around and saw Irvine lying nearby.  She crawled over to him and shook him awake.

"Irvy, Irvy, please wake up!"

He slowly opened his eyes and looked at Selphie.  He then remembered what happened and sat up.

"You alright, Selphie?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Where are the others? Do you think…" he trailed off, not wanting to finish his sentence.

Tears suddenly welded up in Selphie eyes.  Did the others get out? What if they didn't?  That would mean…

"Oh, no." she said sadly.  She stood up and looked out at the sea.  There was no sign of the Ragnarok.  It had obviously sunk.

The tears Selphie had been holding in, now streamed down her face.  Her friends were gone.  And she didn't know where she was.  Irvine walked up to her and hugged her.  She held on to him and sobbed into his chest.  Irvine desperately tried to think of something that would comfort her.

"Listen, I'm sure they're alive.  Squall would have gotten them out.  I'm positive."

"You think?" Selphie asked, wiping away her tears.

"Definitely!  Squall wouldn't let anything happen to us.  He cares about us to much."

"I guess you're right."

Irvine suddenly got an idea. "Selph, remember what Squall told us to do if we got separated during missions?"

"Yeah, he said to send up a flare.  But we haven't got one."

"Oh yeah?" Irvine said with a smirk.

He let go of Selphie and concentrated.  He felt what magic he had inside of him and found what he was looking for.  A Flare spell.

He fired the spell into the air and it exploded, like it did when he used it against enemies.

He waited for about a minute until he sent up another one.  He was positive that the others would see it.

What he didn't know was that someone else saw it as well.

* * * * *

Quistis, Zell and Angelo gaped up at the sky.  They knew that was one of their friends.  Squall had told them to send up flares when they had gotten separated.  Angelo barked loudly and ran forward.  She them turned round and barked at Quistis and Zell, as if telling them to hurry.

"What do you think Zell?" asked Quistis, "You think it's one of the others."

"Yeah, I think its Irvine.  Squall gave him all the Flare spells we had drawn."  With that he started running after Angelo, Quistis right behind him.

* * * * *

Squall stood on a bit of the land where it rose higher than the area around it.  He was hoping that he would see any sign of someone.  He didn't.  But what both he and Rinoa saw, was a flare spell, being shot into the sky.

"Squall! Look!" Rinoa yelled at the top of her voice.  She sounded excited.  She was jumped up and down, clapping her hands at the same time.

"I know.  It must be Irvine.  He's the only one with Flare spells."  He saw Rinoa starting to run towards where it was being fired from, and was about to follow, when something caught his eye.

He looked to a large hill, north from the beach.  He saw a lone figure standing on the cliff, having come out of the forest behind them.  He couldn't make out who it was, the hill being about a mile or two away, but they were looking in the same direction as the Flare spell.  Squall started to get worried.  What if the person would go and attack his friends.  He was about to head up there instead, to attack them himself, but he saw them go back into the forest and out of sight.  Squall stood still for a moment, before Rinoa's yelling brought him back to his senses.

"Squall, c'mon!" she yelled.

"Yeah, coming." He took one last look north, past the hill.  He saw, what looked faintly like buildings, a couple of miles away.  He looked back at Rinoa, then back at the town before sprinting as fast as he could to his friends.

* * * * *

"It's not working Irvine." Selphie said sadly.

"Of course it is.  It has to!"

"Maybe it's not working because…" she dropped her head and started crying quietly.

"Selphie…" Irvine stopped shooting up the spells and went over to her.  He hugged her and kissed her on the forehead.  She stopped crying and looked up at him.  The tears had stained her face. "We can't think like that.  We have to believe that we're all alive. Isn't that how we got through time compression?"

Selphie nodded her head and put her arms around Irvine.

"Thanks Irvine."

"That's okay. We'll find them."

She looked up at him and nodded again.  Just then they heard a very familiar voice.

"Yo, guys!"  It was Zell.  They also heard a bark that would be from none other than Angelo.

Selphie ran up to Zell and practically tackled him.  She hugged him tightly, making Irvine slightly jealous.

"I thought we would never find you guys!" she said, crying in happiness.

"We were worried about you too!" Quistis said coming up to Selphie, earning her a hug as well.

"I'm glad you're all safe," Selphie said after letting Quistis go.  She then looked around and started to look worried again, "Where's Squall and Rinoa?"

Zell and Quistis looked at the ground.

"We were looking for them before we saw the flare.  We couldn't find them." Quistis said, still looking at the ground.

"We're sure Rinoa got out, but Squall stayed behind.  We don't know if he got out in time."

"Then where's Rinoa?" Irvine asked.

As if on cue, they heard someone shout, "I'm right here!"

They all looked up with wide eyes as the saw Rinoa running towards them.  She stopped and looked at them.

"Hi guys!"

"Rinoa!" they all said in unison

She stood there smiling while someone came up behind her.  It was Squall.

"Squall!" they said together, again.

Selphie, who was almost hysterical from being so happy, ran up and cuddled them both. Squall was also relieved.  He was afraid that the mysterious figure on the hill had attacked them.  He couldn't help but wonder who that was.

"Squall? Are you alright?" asked Rinoa, seeing the worried looked on his face.  Everyone else was watching him as well.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm…I'm fine."

Everyone else seemed satisfied, but Rinoa knew Squall was shaken up about something.  What that was, she didn't know.

Quistis decided to change the subject.

"Well?  What do we do now?  All our clothes and food went down with the ship."

"Not exactly." Squall said, surprising everyone, "Our clothes were in the watertight container.  If we can just get it up here, we can easily change."

"Oh and how do you suppose we do that? You could always dive down there and see if you can survive. Though I doubt it." Quistis said sarcastically.

Squall just smiled and walked to the shore.  He looked out at the ocean and sat down on the sand.  He pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, he was slightly cold.  He then shut his eyes and concentrated.

"What's he doing?" Zell asked.

"You'll see." Rinoa said. Everyone looked at her, then at each other, and then back to Squall.

Squall slowly let his eyes open and smiled again.  The rest of his friends, except Rinoa, gasped in shock, as Squall's GF, Leviathan, came to the surface.  Leviathan looked at Squall as he nodded.  The GF then dived underwater and swam away.

"What the HELL!?" Zell shouted.

"Squall, how did you do that?" Selphie asked him as he stood up.

"Rinoa taught me." He answered simply.

Everyone looked at her, and she nodded.

"I could teach you guys if you want?" Rinoa said happily. She instantly knew the answer.

"YEAH!!!"

Rinoa smiled at Squall. He smiled back and turned round.  He hoped that Leviathan was okay.

He suddenly saw the water starting to ripple, as did the others. A moment later, Leviathan's head popped out of the water. In its mouth was the watertight carrier.

Squall grinned and walked into the shallow water where Leviathan had swum to.  He took the carrier out of its mouth and dragged it to the shore.

"Thanks, Leviathan."

The GF made a sound as if saying you're welcome before disappearing back into Squall's mind.  He dragged the carrier back onto the beach and looked at his friends, who, except Rinoa, all gaped at him.

"What?" he asked them with a confused look.

Rinoa grinned and walked up to Squall.  She opened the carrier and took out the bags and weapons.  They both looked at their friends who stood staring.

"Well? Do you want your bags or what?" Squall said. The others then smiled and collected their bags and weapons.

* * * * *

After getting changed, loading their weapons and GF's, they set off to the town Squall had seen earlier.

"Squall?" Irvine started asking a short while later, "Are you sure it was a town you saw?  I mean, we're supposed to be in the Centra Area right.  There are no towns anywhere near there."

"Irvine, does this look like the Centra Area to you?" Squall asked back.

Irvine gave in. This obviously wasn't anywhere near Centra. There was too much grass and too many forests about.

"Then where are we?" Zell asked.  Squall stopped and almost glared at Zell.

"If I knew where we were, I'd tell you wouldn't I?" he said seriously.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Listen, if we go to the town ahead we might be able to find out some information."

Squall would have stopped before that, if he knew he and his friends were being watched.  He would also have noticed that they were directly beneath the cliff, where Squall had seen the mysterious figure earlier.

Squall saw Rinoa look up at the top of the cliff and gasp.  He was about to ask what was wrong when he heard a voice from where she was looking.

"Well, well…who do we have here?"

A/N: Well, there's chapter 2. Hope you liked it. I made the GF's a bit different. They are now able to take physical form and do more than just attack enemies. Flame me about it if you want, I don't mind. And who is this mysterious person? Is he friend or foe? You'll find out in the next chapter.