Marin opened her eyes in the dark room. She had no idea how late it was.

Danny snored softly behind her.

He had fallen asleep on top of the blankets, they had talked late into the night. About Home, what they missed, what they didn't. Marin had tried catching Danny up on Gaia and what was coming, but there was too much to cover, and they had both fallen asleep.

It was a good thing the nights were becoming longer, this time of year.

Danny was asleep facing the wall, his snoring skipped a beat when Marin got up. But he didn't wake up.

It had felt like a forever ago, not five months. When her and Danny had shared a hug, or watched TV together on the couch. She had missed his hugs, or just sitting nearby in each other's company. It was a forever ago when she felt safe next to another body.

Her and Danny, and later Jamie, had reached that level of comfort with each other. Pulling a sweatshirt on over her night shirt, she missed Jamie.

Taking her key, she locked Danny in her room to use the shared restroom on that floor, coming back to her room she heard movement on the stairs heading up from the lobby, to creak on the ceiling over her room.

Whoever they were, they were not thumping up the stairs. She did not linger and quietly closed her room's door behind her. Locking the door again, as if that would really stop anyone who wanted in.

The stairs that wrapped over her room, creaked and bowed under several pairs of feet. Whoever they were, they were being quiet. But the stairs were her ceiling, so there was no avoiding the noise. Or the dust to shake onto the bed.

"Huh? What?" Danny spoke, as the dust landed on him.

Marin went over and clapped a hand over his mouth. "Cover your eyes" she whispered, as the dust landed on her head and shoulders.

"MM-hmm" He grabbed her wrist in a hard grip.

She hissed at him, "It's me, be quiet." she tugged gently on her arm, asking for it back in the darkness.

He mumbled back, "Marin." Letting her go.

The stairs stopped squeaking.

Marin cocked her ears, listening. She could tell that there was movement upstairs.

Danny moved to sitting up, he bumped her, moving in the dark.

"What are you doing?" she whispered.

"Looking for my boots." He whispered back.

"Be still, I'm listening."

"My friends are upstairs."

"Can they take eight people while they sleep?"

She couldn't make out anything before they talked anyway.

"Someone will be on watch. Ow, my knee."

"Shhh! I'm trying to listen." Marin hissed.

They heard a thump, then a thump-thump-thump. Like someone was punching the walls above them, somewhere on the floor above.

"Are they fighting?" she whispered.

A hand was over Marin's shoulder, Danny. "No, those sound like silencers."

Marin placed a hand over his, squeezing.

"I have to… where's the light switch?" Danny cursed in the darkness.

'I am a coward,' She thought to herself, 'a selfish coward.' She thought to herself. As she did the math in her head. There were five upstairs versus eight or more, the five had been caught asleep. Except for the one on watch, unless they had dozed off.

There would be six upstairs, but that sixth was in this room. Danny was here and he was alive.

There were more thumps from upstairs. Followed by a loud silence.

"Ow." Danny hissed, more quietly, he was stumbling around in the dark.

"Danny." she hissed, heading to the window with the curtains pulled shut.

"What?"

"Danny."

"What?"

"Do the math Danny."

"They need me."

"Danny, there's two trucks outside." She pulled the crack in the curtains shut, there was no light to show between her curtains.

"Where? Let me see." Danny came up behind her.

Marin peeled back one of the curtains to make a crack for him to see. "they look like unmarked military vehicles. Friends of yours?"

"We're just doing recon to Rocket Town..." He whispered.

Marin shook her head and closed the curtains again, she spoke when she realized that they stood in the dark. "We need to get out of here."

"This place is swarming with ShinRa."

"Yeah." Marin looked at the curtains. They could both make it out the window. But it went into the street into sight of anyone out front. "Wait. None of you were carrying bags."

"We have a couple cars parked just outside of town." Danny swore. "And the keys for them would be upstairs."

"You wouldn't happen to know how to hot wire one of them, would you?"

"Yeah." Danny told her. "But we have to get to them first."

Marin ran her fingers through her hair. She didn't want to stay another second. But if they happened across any soldiers between here and those cars. They could be overwhelmed in a second. "Fuck. I don't know what to do."

"Here, sit with me."

Marin sat on the bed next to Danny. They could hear movement and shuffling upstairs. The ones upstairs weren't walking softly anymore. Marin hugged Danny closer. While they could both hear more feet carry something heavy down the stairs, over and over again.


Danny peeled of Marin's white parka and snow pants. His hair was too dark, curly and short, to be plastered to his face. But the thin sheen of sweat showed that even in the more southern October weather. He had been sweating in clothes for the north pole.

At a glance, they had been able to pass for a pair of travelers walking through the industrial shipping town.

Marin was curious where all the industry was producing the rocket parts. Where ever it was done. Kuar-glen was where the parts were assembled further, some goods were even manufactured on site. Then shipped to Rocket town for final assembly on the launch pad.

The bustling economy meant that there were a great many traveling workers. Only the remoteness of the North Pole had left Marin, and supposedly Danny, as the only ones coming from the north.

"Shit, the keys." Danny reminded himself, to the locked car doors.

Apparently ShinRa's intel had been so good, that they had known exactly which rooms to strike. They left the other people in the inn undisturbed. Then upon check-out, Marin had been refunded her room fee, after the attendant had 'apologized' for the noises a 'nuisance' patron had made in the night.

Danny and Marin had spent a tense few hours sitting on the bed. Waiting for someone to knock on their door, or batter it down. When neither happened, and the trucks outside left by dawn. Marin had suggested that Danny, with a similar height and build as Marin, put up the smoke screen of her Icicle Inn clothes. And not the ones he had been seen wearing with his AVALANCHE friends.

Marin was not slight, at first glance she was the height and breadth for some of the guys at school, though her curves would never be mistaken for that. Danny was not gangly himself, he just did had a flatter profile. But that meant he could wear her clothes, he just needed a belt for the snow pants.

Thankfully, Kuar-glen was not swarming with officers or check points. ShinRa had come in and out in the night, with most people none the wiser.

Danny kept to himself as they walked across town, sweating, weaponless. Marin had no apparent weapons herself. Something she had to work on, on top of learning to use Materia better.

Now the next obstacle was getting into the cars Danny spoke of, where his people had left no one to watch.

"These things, do they have car alarms?" Marin asked Danny.

He snorted, "What, you gonna ask if they have security or gps tracking next?"

"In other words, they don't?"

"Nope."

"That makes this easier." Marin put down her pack and pulled out the steel rib that ran along the back of the traveler's pack, resting along her spine.

"What are you up to Marin?"

"It's a little long, but." she found a place on the bumper to put the little bend in the bottom she needed. "Just keep an eye out for trouble."

"All right." Danny placed the winter clothes on top of the pack that was now resting on the ground.

"Don't you know how to open a locked car door?" she asked him while she fished down the driver-side window and door.

"Usually there's a key."

"Huh."

"Besides, when did you learn how to hack into a car door?"

"Since, aha!" the door creaked open. "Since I ended up in a world with antiquated car designs, that don't block this sort of thing yet." She pulled out the piece of steel. "Do you need both cars open?"

"My bag is in the other one."

"'Kay." Marin got to work on the other car, leaving Danny to deal with the bags. "You know how to unlock a car door, but you don't know how to hot wire a car?"

"I'm good with locks, electrical is a different matter."

"That doesn't answer the question. And simple 'hacks' only seem easy after they're learned."

"Nope. I didn't answer the question." Marin finished with the other window, unlocking the second car.

Danny whistled. "That's a nice skill to have."

Marin shrugged, "it depends."

"On what?" Danny started jiggling the dash of one car, to start hot wiring it. They were parked just off road behind an outcropping of rocks. No one on the road would see them. But they would also not see anyone until they were on top of each other.

Marin was on watch now. "On how much lock designs have changed, and whether everyone uses the same cuffs or not. It's like, how much tech has ShinRa held back from people? Do they have laser lock cuffs in Midgar or some shit? I dunno how to pick electronic ones that haven't been invented on Earth yet."

"ShinRa doesn't have laser-shielded locks on their cuffs."

"Well, that's a relief. They wouldn't happen to leave any lying around, would they?"

"Nope."

The small talk died away while Danny took the minutes he needed to get the ignition started. Once he did, they piled all six bags and weapons into the one car.

"So, don't get pulled over in a traffic stop, I guess?" Marin said, as they shoved the weapons under all the bags in the back seat.

"Yeah, that's something I don't miss about earth." Danny said.

"Oh, whys that?" Marin asked.

Danny gave Marin a look like she was being an idiot.

Marin looked back, nonplussed. She took a second look at Danny, his black, curly, hair. His dark skin. And the history of Gaia, that as far as she knew, didn't have a history of slavery and all the racism problems followed after. "Oh, right."

"Thank you." He rolled his eyes. "It's been a few months. I've lost-" He cut himself off. "But other than that, it's better here. Haven't you noticed no one make fun of your eyes."

Marin shrugged, "hardly anyone on earth can tell I'm part Japanese."

"I guess. But you understand now."

Marin wanted to apologize, but she didn't. She had done nothing wrong intentionally, she still struggled against her own assumptions. That was all Danny had asked for from her. They had both known each other so long, Marin had caught hints of the life Danny had lived compared to her own. Marin's goal had to not make the day longer for other people, including Danny. Especially Danny. But apologizing for something she might fuck up on him again, even unintentionally, felt like a waste of breath.

"So, Gaia is like a vacation, for both of us I guess. Thought my baggage is not as much as yours."

Danny shrugged, "You know me better than think I'm going into the oppression Olympics with you." Danny had known Marin long before she had started spending some days as less than feminine. And had always accepted her for who she was on any day.

"Fair." She went to close the door on the now empty second car. "What do we do with the other one?"

"Leave it, my people will figure it out, or they won't."

"So, where to next boss?"

"I'm not your boss."

"Well, yeah. But you're the one that has a decision to make."

"What?" Danny was halfway into the driver's seat of the 1950's looking car.

"Do you go back, a sole survivor..."

"What are you on about Marin?"

"ShinRa scorched earth back there. Maybe this is your chance out from, you know."

Danny shuffled the rest of the way into the driver's seat, staring at the wheel and didn't answer.

Marin got into the passenger seat. It was a big ask, she knew. She told herself that she was going to follow Danny where-ever he led. Even back to AVALANCHE. She wasn't going to let herself get separated from him again.

The name Shears, that he had mentioned last night, didn't mean anything to her, but Elfe finally trickled back into her memory. Some muckety-muck in AVALANCHE, that was unknowingly in service to Rufus. As well as some sort of involvement in one of the ways the planet could get destroyed. Marin was fuzzy on the finer details.

She trusted Danny, but not AVALANCHE, not these AVALANCHE anyway. Except for the singular one in the city of Midgar. As that cell appeared in the game. And even then, if she ever crossed paths with them, Marin would be nervous about earning their trust. Just in case her actions endangered them saving the world.

Danny tapped out an unknown tune on the steering wheel. "I need to think about it. In the meantime, do you wanna see a rocket launch?"

Something rang in Danny's pocket.

Marin jumped out of her skin, hearing the victory tune from the game in the ring tone. "What?"

Danny shook his head, "what's wrong? it's just my phone."

"Don't answer that."

"What?" He had the phone in his hand, he hadn't answered it yet.

"You might have to decide right now."

Danny and Marin stared at the old-time cell phone.

Danny chucked it out the window.

"Danny!"

"What?"

"Don't leave it here!"

"Oh, yeah." He shifted the car back into park and picked it up. It had stopped ringing.

"Is there any data on it you need?" She asked him.

"It's like a burner phone. What I need is up here." He tapped his temple.

"OK, we can get new phones. Now that it looks like we won't get pulled over by a cop."

"Sure, but if we keep going south, the back roads under the mountains get practically no signal. Once we get far enough."

"Let's worry about that after we make it that far."


Going back through town took longer, despite the car. Marin had wanted to pawn whatever they could. Danny didn't want to paw through his friend's stuff. Especially now that he had made his decision to not go back. Nor did he want Marin to go through the bags yet. After the night the two of them had had, she couldn't even remember their faces.

When the two of them had pooled all their Gil together though, and Danny told her how much replacing their Mako 'batteries' might be between Rocket town and the distance between recharging stations. He listened to reason. He still needed time, so Marin balanced their necessity to put as much space between this town as possible. While trying to give Danny something to do until they had enough of a stretch for him to mourn.

Their Gil included what they could get for pawning all of Marin's north pole gear, to the town outfitter. There were a row of shops, as well as a reseller for people whose last stop was Kuar-Glen, K-town to the locals, before going up north for tourism.

Danny was even able to find a place to trade in the six-seater car for something a little older and more efficient on power, with keys. Danny's time on Gaia had seemed to teach him a few things on spotting gray and black market types, at least they would be named that if this was Earth. Around here it was just business.

"Yet you still don't know how to jimmy-open a locked car door." Marin teased as they drove away. Looking every bit like traveling tourists now. With weapons in the back seat under a blanket. Or smaller ones hidden on their person. There was no such thing as a gun license, what with so many people needing guns for self defense from bandits or roaming monsters.

The extra bureaucracy from ShinRa, while at the same time many places felt like the Wild West for regulation. It was strange to Marin. She could lean on Danny to teach her how things worked when ShinRa was or wasn't around. As well as take all the weapons they had now and show her how to shoot them.

"I'd rather learn how to swing on something up close." Marion spoke of the close-range weapons they had, mostly knives.

"Ha, not once you come across things that will get close enough to bite you. Besides, noodle-arms, you wouldn't be able to swing hard enough to do any real damage."

"Yet."

"Maybe. But we have guns, and I know how to teach that. So that's what you're gonna learn."

"Fine." Marin patted the pocket that had her new phone. And the tools she had managed to get from the pawn shop. People really didn't care if people went around with guns or make-shift lock pick sets. As long as they didn't make trouble for the locals or for ShinRa. People were pretty much left alone.

On the drive down the paved road to Rocket Town, Danny started up, "Suddenly have no honor, now?"

"Mm." Marin grunted. Danny had been digging at that sore spot for her ever since they both learned Dungeons and Dragons together. They still debated the alignment system, even as rules changes left it behind. "Yeah, well. I guess I'm not 'lawful' anymore. I'd be an oath breaker if I lived way back then, fortunately for me I don't."

"It doesn't bother you? To break your word so easily?"

Marin shrugged "I'd rather not make promises, than break them later. And I don't want to break the promises I made to myself, but it happens anyway." Usually she wasn't a living example of law versus neutral versus chaos. Even as that game left it behind. They hadn't had this debate in over six months. Marin hadn't seen Danny alive for five of those months. "those in glass houses-"

"Don't." Danny warned her. "I made a snap decision to not drag you into that world. Just don't."

"Sorry."

"It's not-" Danny started to say it wasn't her fault.

Marin interrupted him, "But it is my fault."

"Yeah, and I'd be dead if it wasn't your fault. How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"You usually swing things around to make it about you. But this time you made it about me."

Marin shrugged, "I don't 'make it about me.' I try to relate by pulling out an example on how I can empathize with the person I'm talking to."

It happened all the time. It frustrated Danny and Jamie to no end. But Marin seriously tried to explain to people how she had been in their shoes by pulling up examples. They were the ones that would dig into Marin because she was talking about herself, or get offended.

Marin was a terrible explainer, sometimes, and people would take her attempts at empathy the wrong way. She just shrugged at Danny again while he drove down the road. He moved over to let another truck convoy pass them, slowing down enough that they would blow past. He didn't want big trucks right behind or right in front of him as they drove down the wide road between the two towns.

"Anyway, I choose life over rules or dogma."

"Still an atheist?"

Marin rolled her eyes, "Please."

"So is that a yes or a no?"

Marin jangled her materia bracelet over the dashboard.

Danny quoted her, " 'The existence of magical powers does not automatically prove that there is a god-like being on a planet'."

Marin sighed, "I tend to forget how much less other people know than me about this planet."

"So?"

"Gaia is probably real, the Lifestream is a real force. But even if Gaia is a real god. Prayer and all isn't necessary for Her survival."

"That is a bunch of words that doesn't answer my question."

"People talk about the soul of the Planet, virtually nobody names her, but She has a name around here. And it's 'Gaia'. It's the planet's name too, even if people take it for granted around here."

"And?"

"I think the Planet is what they acknowledge as all the collected life, and power, of the planet. But she's not a 'capital G' god. She doesn't require worship to exist."

"So she's a powerful being?"

Marin shrugged, "I'm not really sure. But respect of the planet, and all life on it, is required to ensure that humans will continue to exist on it."

"Which ShinRa is definitely not doing."

"Nope. Different DJ, same shitty music."

"The more things change, the more they stay the same." Danny mused. "On Earth or here."

"Yep."

"So, is Gaia a god or not?"

"Lower case g, god. If She's a god at all, and not just the collective of all the life here. But..."

"But what?"

"There are, or will be some complications."

"What kind of complications?"

"It's why I want my bearings. I need to know, so I have a better idea what's coming up."

"What sorts of things?"

"Maybe a virus in the Lifestream, humanity destroying plague. Ya know, the usual."

"God-dammit." Danny cursed. "We're stuck in one of your Dungeons and Dragons campaigns! All this weird shit trying to destroy everything."

"Video game franchise of a Japanese Role-Playing Game. So pretty much the same thing." Marin told him.

"That's not reassuring."

"Nope."

"So, this plague..."

"I don't want to talk about it, yet." Marin slumped into the car seat. "I don't think it's due for a while anyway."

"And yet Rufus is a safe topic?"

"That's already happened, just hardly anyone knows."

"He's not that much older than us either."

"Why? How old is Rufus?" she asked.

"Late teens to early twenties? Does that help?"

Marin tried to do the math in her head, but she didn't know his age in relation to her notes. "Nope. I don't know everything. I don't even know if his age was known on Earth."

"Dammit. What about rockets?"

"Why? What number are we up to?"

"The next launch is in a few days. It's rocket #21."

"I know about #25, but not when or anything before that."

"Dammit." He cursed again.

"There are some news articles I'm keeping an eye out for."

"Oh, like what?"

"Wutai ending the war. Some 'heroes' of ShinRa being killed in action, officially."

"And by officially?"

"As in probably actually dead."

"Probably? What does that even mean?"

Marin looked out the window, "It depends on your definition of alive, conscious, or an immortal soul."

"Is that the virus in the life stream you were talking about?"

"No, and it's complicated."

"We have a while until we get to Rocket town."

"I am terrible at explaining things. I have no idea how many hours it might take you to understand the ins and outs. And a lot of it involves events that haven't happened, yet." she patted the pocket her notebook was in. "Besides, I don't want to endanger that future from happening."

Danny rolled his eyes "You don't want to prevent a virus and a plague?!"

"If that's the price of saving the world years before that. Then YES!" she told him, anger in her tone. "One of those 'they saved the world, but at what cost?' Pyhrric victories."

"Pyhrric victories suck. What about your D&D dreams of a third option? The one where everyone gets the best happy ending, and not a Pyhrric one?"

Marin had spent the last 2 years of role-playing games, and reading books. Searching for a 'better' option than the bad or worse ones the heroes were presented. Technically three terrible options, if one counted 'do nothing'. Marin had called that happiest ending the 'Magical Third Option.' And Danny had picked up on the term.

Usually the heroes were presented with one of two bad choices, and had to live with the consequences. Marin was an idealist, searching for a happier ending. An ending where the book characters, or her Dungeons & Dragons group, could find the third option, where the consequences weren't so dire.

Marin sighed, "I have to be in the thick of it, with the other people trying to save the world. Then I'd have the least amount of info I need to search for 'third option.' And right now, I'm worried about where I'm going to sleep tonight and what I'm going to eat tomorrow."

"But the plan worked, we got away from ShinRa, we're together. We didn't really have a plan, but it worked. We're free."

Marin shook her head. "there is a single flaw in this plan of us getting away."

"What now?" Danny exclaimed.

"Everyone thinks you're dead. But you're not."

Danny was disbelieving "How is that a flaw?"

"The flaw is that someone could figure out that you're not dead. And depending on who figures that out, we're both in trouble."

Danny tapped the steering wheel. "I guess that's a flaw. I still don't see how..."

Marin shrugged, "As long as we don't meet anyone who knows you. We'll be fine. And we're going to Rocket Town anyway."

Danny shook his head, "My boss knew who we were going to get in touch with. Hardly anyone knows anyone in AVALANCHE. You have nothing to worry about."

"I just hope you're right."

Danny tapped out a rhythm Marin didn't recognize on the wheel again. He asked, "So, the war ending and some heroes killed in action? Like who?"

Marin shook her head, "Just keep an eye on headlines for me, OK?" 'He probably doesn't even know who Sephiroth is.' She thought, 'well, maybe he does. As an AVALANCHE member.' She thought that loads of people knew who that one was. Either way, she wanted to butterfly effect the time line as little as possible. That meant that she had to share the minimum amount of info for the maximum effect. Something she was terrible at, but the consequences were dire.

"Can I take a nap until we get somewhere you can show me how to shoot?"

"Yeah." Danny glanced at her before going back to check the mirrors. "Do you have your driver's license yet?"

"I was months away from my final road test. But I haven't driven my dad's car since I visited him six months ago"

"Well, just as soon as we find a road that's not full of trucks. We can get you practicing."