"Elena, Reno," Rude called, starting towards them as the sounds of boot-steps came closer, "Let's go." They ignored him, Elena trying unsuccessfully to kick up the water into Reno's face before he managed to submerge himself again. "Reno," Rude tried again. "Elena. We have to go."

Reno perked up, following Rude's gaze, and in the process, intercepting the barrage of water that Elena was splashing in his face. "Pfft," He muttered, spitting out the saltwater all over the edge of the beach in front of him. "What? What's going on?" He came halfway out of the water, and then turned around, offering a hand to Elena to help pull her out of the waves. "Hey, Rude says something's up."

"Listen," Rude insisted, as Elena and Reno joined him, dripping all over him as they strained to hear what he was indicating. "Someone's coming."

Reno shook his head. "That's it? Someone's coming?" He rolled his eyes, and put one wet arm around Rude's shoulders. "You've been in the business of running away too long. We're at a beach, of course someone's coming. It's a damn resort town. There are people everywhere, no hopes of being alone here."

"Those are not," Rude tried again, eyes narrowed beneath his sunglasses, "beach shoes." He gestured in the direction of the Inn, and Reno obligingly gazed off into the distance, trying to see what it was he was supposed to be looking out for. After a moment, Rude asked, "Well?" Reno frowned, raising an eyebrow, and shook his head.

"Look, I don't hear anything," He said. "I think you desperately need a vacation, more than any of us knew." He turned around and made as if to head back into the water, but Elena, looking thoughtfully off towards the Inn, didn't follow. Rude and Elena heard Reno splash back into the waves as Rude sighed, frustrated. "Hey," Reno called, "C'mon, Rude, it'll do you good."

"Maybe I'm crazy," Rude muttered, rubbing the back of his neck where the sun was beating down on to it. Elena shook her head, focused on the Inn again, and then abruptly realized that she was still standing around on the public beach in her underwear. With an embarrassed little squeak, she dropped to her knees and started to pull on the shirt and pants that she'd left lying on the sand.

"What did you hear?" She asked Rude, as she struggled into her clothes. "What are we looking for?"

"Nothing," Rude muttered, embarrassed. "Nothing."

Not long afterwards, Reno, Elena, and Rude trudged back into the Inn, rented towels wrapped about them as they pushed open the door. They tried to look stoic and unimpressed as Tseng, not having moved, apparently, from the spot in which they had left him, glared them down, one by one, as they entered the room.

"Have fun?" He asked, sweetly. Elena looked at Rude, who pretended to be intently studying the walls. "I hope you did, because every sacrifice you make should at least turn out well for you in the end. So I hope you had fun, I hope it was worth it."

"C'mon, look," Reno muttered, stepping forward, "What's this all about, no taking chances. Guys' got to have a little time off, or he goes crazy." He gestured vaguely in Rude's direction. "Like Rude. He's totally

Lost it, jumps at every sound, probably hearing voices in his head, you know?" He shrugged. "Not that you can blame the guy after having lived alone all that time in the Fort, but-!"

Tseng cut him off abruptly. "What? What did you hear?" He walked over to Rude, who shook his head, looking to Elena for support.

"Nothing," he said, "Just on the alert." He paused. "Thought there was someone following us." Reno opened his mouth to say something, but Tseng shot him a look to cut him off. No one s poke for a long time, and Rude shifted on his feet, looking unhappy. "Just been a long time, that's all," he said. "I'm fine. Just. You know."

"I know you're fine," Tseng said. "You'd be better off still if you didn't doubt yourself." He glared at Reno. "What did you hear? Why do you think someone's following us?" He waited, and after a moment, Rude nodded, and looked him in the eye for the first time.

"Heard boots following us around after we left the inn." He stamped one foot down on the ground, and it made a cracking sound against the floorboards of the Inn. "Like that." He paused, and Tseng nodded, encouragingly. "Stopped when I said something." He shrugged. "Wasn't you, then it wasn't good."

Tseng nodded again, and stared resolutely at Reno, eyebrow raised, as if to say "I told you so." Reno glared, but bit his lip. "Look," he said, "That doesn't mean a thing; there are people all over the damn place here, it's impossible to tell if we're being followed, it's impossible to pick out a face in a crowd. Not ours, not anybody else's. It's a lost cause either way. We can't find them, and they sure as hell can't find us."

"Beg to differ," Tseng murmured. "Look what I found in your suitcase while you were out enjoying the warm weather." Rude leaned forward to get a better glimpse of the blinking, circular object that Tseng had picked up from the table next to him. "What do we suppose this is?"

"Stop patronizing us," Elena muttered. "I've never seen anything like that in my life, what the hell are we supposed to think it is?" She stepped forward, and took it out of Tseng's hand, holding it up to the light. "It's not our technology."

Tseng shook his head. "Wrong again," he corrected, and, taking it back from Elena, he turned it over in his palm, exhibiting the "SHINRA" stamp of craftsmanship on the bottom. "It's our technology all right. Well, no, it's not ours, but it would have been if we'd lasted long enough to see it through." The others stared at him, and Reno inhaled sharply. "That's right," Tseng said. "It's nothing good. Any other guesses?"

"We're being fucking cloaked," Reno exclaimed. Tseng smiled morbidly. "I remember, I found that on the floor of the cabin on the ship, thought it belonged to somebody, threw it back into Rude's bag." He looked horrified, then sheepish, then staunch, trying to regain his composure while all eyes in the room rested on him. "But it was already on the cabin floor, I'm not cloaking us. I mean, I'm sorry. Look, how the hell was I supposed to know it wasn't one of your gadgets?" He tried to glare at Tseng.

"So, there really is someone following Rude," Elena sighed. "Following us," she corrected after a moment. "Someone with access to never released Shinra technology. Great, fantastic." She stalked to the other end of the room, where the door lay that joined her room to Tseng's. "And Reno's right about one thing. We can't find them."

"But they can sure as hell find us," Reno muttered. "Not right about everything." He hurried over to Elena, opened the door and pushed her through it. "We have to pack."

As Elena left the room, they heard her say, "Aw for heaven's sake…never a dull moment."

"That's for sure," Tseng said to no one, as Elena and Reno disappeared around the door into their own room. He stared angrily at the floor for a moment. "Some vacation spot, huh, Rude?" Looking up, he tried to catch Rude's eye, hard to do under those sunglasses. "Let's get rid of that thing."

Rude picked up the tracking device, and without so much as looking at it, lobbed it out of the open window, watching it glint in the sun as it plummeted down to the beach below. There were a couple of audible startled cries as the round metal ball hit the sound, but nothing loud or frightened enough to imply that anyone had been hurt. Quickly, Rude shut the window, and retreated back into the room, away from the view of any curious onlookers. "Not crazy," he said, "after all."

"Nope," exhaled Tseng, "not at all." He crossed to his bed, and sat on the edge of it, burying his face in his hands for a moment, as Rude stood by, almost at attention, watching with one hand on his hip. "Im sorry that it ended up in your suitcase," Tseng said. "I'm sure that wasn't what was meant to happen."

"Hey," Rude said, "In this together, right?" He shrugged. "Who knows where it was meant. Ended up there, just as much of a problem for the rest of us." He reached out to open the window again, but Tseng shook his head.

"Scarlet's cloaking us," he said suddenly. "Or somebody who bought her, anyway." He spat the words out as if he had to say them before anyone noticed that he was the one who'd spoken. "She must have cloaked it on me that night I went to talk to her aboard ship. I don't know how I didn't see it."

"No idea," Rude insisted. "Bygones be bygones, or whatever."

But Tseng wasn't having it. "Elena was right," he continued. "I should never have gone, I have no idea how a person in my position could take that kind of a risk with someone they barely knew. It was honestly one of the most idiotic-!"

"Shut up," Rude suggested. Tseng sunk dejectedly backwards on the bed, staring at the ceiling, leaving Rude to pace around the perimeter of the room, not so much anxiously, as in anticipation of whatever it was this new development would bring.