People rushed out of their homes to see what all the noise was about. There was a hut on fire! Crystal Meyer, who moved to Kilika a little over a year ago, lived there…or had lived there. Now the sudden question on everyone's mind was: Was their friend still alive. The Praetor of New Yevon and his guards were trying desperately to put out the fire, and had successfully prevented its spread to other houses, since she did live rather far away from anyone else. But they knew that if Mrs. Meyer had been inside when her house exploded she was dead for sure. And they hadn't seen her leave.

"Sir, how are we going to get information on the Al-"

"Keep your voice down!" Baralai hissed.

"Sorry Sir. How are we going to get information on the 'suspect' if her only friend is now dead too?"

"I'm sure we can find someone else who knew this Rachel woman," he answered. "If not we'll just have to wait."

"Until another mur-!" Baralai now covered the soldier's mouth.

"There is no alternative; though I do not wish to put anyone in danger," he said solemnly. "If you can think of a better plan-"

"No Sir, sorry Sir. I can not."

"Wait…she was apparently talking to someone before we arrived. Maybe there's a chance a passerby heard parts of their conversation!"

"What makes you think the conversation was relevant to our investigation."

"Why else would she have shot her computer but to prevent us from finding out to whom she was talking." Baralai said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. (And it kind of was too.)

Baralai asked the crowd who lived next door to Mrs. Meyer. Two people raised their hands and he asked that they come with him. They did and he went to a secluded part of the town away from the large crowd of people. "What is it you be wantin Mr. Baralai Sir?" Said a young man about Baralai's age. The other one was an elderly woman, who didn't say anything at all.

"Did either one of you overhear a conversation inside Mrs. Meyer's house before the fire?"

"Oh no Sir, I don't go 'round eavesdropping on peoples Sir."

"I-I heard an argument going on young man." The old woman said in a croaky voice.

"And you are ma'am?"

"This is my grandma Sir-OW!" The boy yelped as his grandmother hit him over the head with her cane.

"I am perfectly capable of answering myself." She said irritably. "Yes I heard an argument coming from her house; it sounded like her and another young woman."

"Did you hear anything about a girl named Rachel?"

"Why yes…yes I believe that name was mentioned."

"Anything else you can tell me?"

"No that was all I could make out."

"We're very sorry, Mr. Baralai, that we can't be more help to ya." The man said.

"That's quite alright." He replied a little disappointed that he didn't even have a name, just the description 'young woman'. That really narrows it down. He thought bitterly.

Something wasn't right, Paine knew Crystal pretty well from when she was little, and by the looks of things her attitude hadn't changed much. She was always rash, stubborn, and loyal. When she promised she'd keep Paine and Rachel's secrets safe no matter what the cost…she meant it! Crystal was also very smart and had talents in many things and could probably set a very interesting trap in less than half an hour.

An interesting, yet dangerous, trap that could probably put Crystal's very life in jeopardy.

But Paine was smart too, she wanted to go see what was going on at Kilika, but she knew better. If there had been someone murdered by an alchemist then Yevonites would be flooding to Crystal's house, and where alchemist hunting Yevonites were, was the last place Paine should be.

Paine walked down to Besaid village and saw a blond headed young man emerging from Lulu's hut. He spotted her and waved. "Hi Paine!"

"Hey Tidus." She said with a halfhearted wave.

"What's up?"

"Nothing," Paine sighed. "Where're Yuna and Rikku?"

"Inside of course."

"Of course." Paine walked past Yuna's boyfriend and into the hut.

"Hey Painey back so soon?" Rikku asked happily. "What important thing did you're friend want to talk about?"

"Oh…nothing really important." Paine lied. "She thinks some things that are so stupid to be important…it's really quite annoying actually, just like you." Rikku just pouted as always.

"Meanie."

"So who is she exactly?" Yuna asked.

"Crys? Just someone I knew when I was a kid."

"Oh ok."

"So…what do we do now?" Paine asked. "I mean we have the sphere, do we just go back to the Celsius?"

"Yeah sure why not."

Reaching out of the water a hand grasped a leafy vine that hung over a foot high grass covered cliff. Another hand reached up and grabbed onto the edge. Using all the energy she had left, a young woman pulled herself up.

Crystal dove head first into the hole in her floor just as the flames reached the can and exploded. There was another set of boards about 15 feet under her house and she crashed though them and hit the water soon after. The blast caused her to do numerous flips in the water and she sank deep into the depths.

She broke the surface as debris from her hut fell around her. Faintly she heard people screaming and footsteps somewhere above her head. Diving again, she swam towards a far side of the forest, where she wouldn't be seen from the village.

"I-I made it-WOAH!" Something grabbed Crystal's leg and began pulling her under! Down, down, and down she went, unable to shake the fiend that had bitten onto her leg. She was going to die this time! She couldn't breath! She needed air! The dark blue water became darker and darker as she was dragged deeper down.

There was a flash of bright blue light above her, and Crystal felt the fiend die and the pyreflies disperse. Back on the surface a girl with dirty blond hair and deep purple eyes slipped her glove back onto her right hand before standing up and diving down to retrieve Crystal's still sinking body.

She stopped beside her and, grabbing Crystal by the shoulders, she kicked and brought the woman back up to the fresh air and pulled her to the land. "Who…" Crystal looked into the girl's eyes. "…Rachel…is that you?" The girl looked fearfully at Crystal, looking her up and down, before running off into the trees.