The next morning, they were pulled up by the side of the road. Waiting for the ten-thirty am launch of Rocket #21. Danny had the radio on to listen to the pre-launch chatter from some ShinRa mouth piece.

Marin tolerated ShinRa for that. She wanted to see the launch with her best-friends, and Jamie's brother.

Ten minutes before the launch, the news was interrupted.

"We're just getting in a report." they cleared their throat. "Breaking news, due to unforeseen consequences, the Reactor in Kuar-Glen has been put in shut-down mode. The town has no power. If you are in and around Kuar-Glen, ShinRa emergency workers have been dispatched to bring the reactor back online. Please be prepared to receive aid inside the city proper-"

"Reactors don't explode when they go into shut-down mode." Danny intoned.

"Shush." Jamie told him, "We're trying to listen."

The radio continued. "Non-essential travel to and from Kuar-Glen have been suspended. Please wait for the all-clear before entering or leaving the area."

"So they can gather up all the surviving witnesses." Danny said again.

"Quiet!" Jamie said.

Though after Danny's commentary. There was nothing new or useful in the report. Before the channel switched back to the Rocket Town Launch Count Down. Which was just in time for the group to hear that it would be scrubbed for the next window in two weeks.

"Dammit!" Marin cursed. "Does anyone even know that a reactor blew?"

"Maybe they do in Rocket Town." Danny said. "Where everyone works for ShinRa, in a ShinRa funded Rocket program."

Jamie shook her head, "What is wrong with those people?" She meant ShinRa.

Shawn pulled his sister into a hug.

They stood in resolute silence. A concussive blast that reached that far, would have put the people of K-Town in a bad way.

Marin felt helpless. All they could do, was stand in silence for a while, after whatever had happened near the reactor. Then they could move on, further away from trouble.

Not seeing a rocket launch on this planet was small, compared to what K-Town had lost.


A little levity found them later that day.

"Look, balloons!" Shawn said from behind Jamie and the road map.

Down a road from the next pit stop were a couple of temporary stalls between several farms. The locals appeared to be having a fair in early October.

"I don't know the name, it's not on the map." Jamie said.

Marin felt guilty for wanting to check out the county fair. The world would be hanging in the balance one day.

"How much smaller than Nibelheim would they have to be to not be on the map?" Shawn asked.

"I dunno," Danny said. "But as the only person here I trust to drive is me. And your driver wants to stretch his legs." Danny turned down the paved road and looked for parking.

"I can drive." Shawn told him.

"Oh yeah? And did you get your license back on Earth?"

"Well, no, but it's not that hard."

"Hmm." Danny made a non committal noise, he also did not tell Shawn yes.

"C'mon," Shawn pleaded.

Danny cut him off. "It's more than driving. How is your defensive driving?"

"What?"

"Have you ever been in a car chase?"

"Uh, no?"

"Did you know how to sneak around in a car while driving?" Danny continued to hammer Shawn as he swung into a parking spot.

On some level, Marin figured it was possible to sneak while driving. But she had no idea how to do it.

"Is that even possible?" Shawn asked.

Danny turned off the engine and twisted around to face Shawn, slowing down his words from the hammered questions. "Look, Shawn. I have a history with some people."

"What kind of people?"

"The kind of people that would not give any of you a chance if you were just learning to drive."

"Danny?" Jamie asked, looking worried. "What kind of people?"

Marin sighed.

"Don't tell me Corneo reached this far from Midgar?" Shawn asked.

Danny said, "Who?"

As Marin said, "What? No."

"Then it has to be AVALANCHE." Shawn said. "Surprised Danny? I didn't figure you for a corporate type."

"What's AVALANCHE?" Jamie asked.

"Later." Marin said.

Everyone turned to look at Marin.

"What? While Danny stretches his legs, lets have fun." Marin looked out the window. "Maybe walk around a bit." The Fair didn't look very involved.

It was also a chance to get away from practicing with guns. Or listening to five bodies being dragged out of a hotel, a few feet over her head. Or think about how K-Town had blown up and was in the process of a cover-up.

"Ask me later." Shawn told Jamie.

"Danny drives until the rest of us get our license." Marin told Jamie and Danny.

Shawn rolled his eyes.

Marin tried to remember how many years older he was than Jamie. But the youthful look to his face made it hard to pin it down. He had graduated college and moved out on his own for a couple of years before dropping off his parent's radar. Jamie had been a go between so that they wouldn't worry.

"Let's have some fun." Danny pocketed the keys and got out of the car.

The four of them surveyed four different directions.

Marin noticed people watching them back, most of the fair were tables and stalls of one of the last harvests of the year. There was mostly things for sale, fresh food to eat and things for the younger kids to do in the middle of the field everything was set up in.

"Looks to be just a market." Shawn said.

Shawn and Jamie had arrived with the clothes on their backs. They had not yet told Marin or Danny where their packs had come from. Even so they barely had anything to their name. Marin was tight with her own Gil, but Danny was tighter with his.

Danny was the youngest, by weeks. But his time here had shaped him into even more of a leader of their little trio than before. As well as trainer and quartermaster, on top of driver.

Marin tried to make a guess that a jar of jam would not be as expensive as a room in K-Town. She passed out 50 Gil to the others.

"Stay in pairs, don't get separated."

"What are you worried about?" Jamie asked Danny smiling. "More of your AV-"

"Shush." Danny cut her off. He came around the car to talk quietly to Jamie.

The people that had been watching the four of them leave the car now looked bored.

Danny spoke quickly and quietly to Jamie. "If you go off somewhere you don't have a phone. Shawn doesn't have a phone. It's that there are no pay phones. None of our parents. None of our friends, teachers, relatives. The only people accountable for the four of us. Are us."

Danny Looked between Main and Shawn. "Shawn, you seem to know what's what. Let's go for a walk."

"I can watch my sister." He told Danny.

Marin stepped up. "And I can't?"

Danny shook his head.

Jamie stepped in, "Shawn, please."

Shawn sighed and eventually agreed to walk off with Danny.

"Wow, Danny sure is taking charge." Jamie told Marin.

"He's seen a lot since he got here."

"Like what?"

Marin shook her head. "When he wants to talk about it, he'll tell you."

"Wow, you'd think somebody you knew died..." Her words trailed off at the look on Marin's face. "Oh."

"Please don't, Jamie. It's literally been days. And I think those're just the most recent ones."

"Oh no," Jamie took Marin's hand. On a planet with none of their parents, there was no need to hide their public displays of affection from anyone. There was no one to tell Jamie's parents something they weren't ready to hear yet. "Why didn't he say something sooner?"

Marin shrugged, "We just need time."

Jamie stopped and gave Marin's hand a squeeze. "We?"

Marin shook her head. "I didn't know them, I just..."

"But Marin," Jamie pulled Marin a little closer. "But you were there."

Marin felt a tear well up. "I almost wasn't. Danny-" she choked and shook her head. "Look, let's just walk around a bit. See the sights. Maybe buy some jam or something."

"OK, Marin moneybags."

"This can't happen every time, or we won't have any Gil." Marin looked around as they got closer to the line of stalls. "We're going to need jobs."

"Yeah," Jamie massaged her back. "The ground is more comfortable than the car seat at this point."

"The car is warmer though."

"Yeah, I guess. If you like curling up into a tiny ball."

"But I do, Jamie."

Jamie shrugged and started browsing the food stuffs and preserves.

Marin wanted to edge towards the sweeter and calorie heavy foods. With no nutrition labels, they couldn't count calories. But operating out of a car limited their options to what they could buy.

Marin cocked her head at the sound of a commotion further down the line of stalls. And smashing pottery.

"No! No, please! I made those myself!"

"Get your Wutai trash out of here old man!" More sounds of smashing pottery.

"Jamie…"

"Yeah, I hear it too."

Several stalls down the line, An old man bent his back over the fragments in front of his booth.

"Hey!" Jamie said.

Some man, with an angry look on his face, was about to dump a box of objects onto the ground in from of the booth. "What do you want?"

Jamie kept going. "Why are you picking on an old man for?"

He looked them both up and down, his light skin and dark hair of a farmer's physique. Stood over the two teenagers that exercised in gym class every other day. When neither of them had been to gym class in days. In Marin's case, months.

"Please," the old man begged Marin, "I don't need the help." He looked old, old enough to be her great-grandmother's father. His face could have been Ayame's uncle.

Marin held back from helping the man up, to save his pride. "I'm here if you want anything." Want not need, when he needed her help. Marin waited for the man to ask for help. While Jamie continued with the aggressor.

"Only patriots, loyal to ShinRa can sell here." The man dumped the box in front of Jamie's feet.

The first few potato and bottle-shaped objects bounced on the grass, more ceramics tumbled out. The next ones landed on top, smashing what had landed on the grass without breaking. Nothing out of that box went without cracking or shattering. "Nobody's selling anything made like Wutai does."

"What are you talking about?" Jamie told him, "He said he made those himself!"

"Yeah, like they do in Wutai. We're at war! We don't want that shit here!"

"Jamie." Marin tried to take her hand.

Jamie shrugged Marin off, building her anger. "So what is he supposed to do? Sell plates?"

"Yeah!" the man leaned in.

The older man was standing straight now, he had found an unbroken object. He held a round ocarina in his hand, glazed gray and full of holes. More to it even Marin knew how to play yet.

Marin caught Jamie's anger. "Hey."

"Now what?" The angry man looked at Marin.

Marin's hand was perfectly still, her heart leaped to her throat, but building off of Jamie's confidence. Marin's braver words were out of her mouth before she knew what she was saying. "Thanks for redecorating his stall."

The angry man looked puzzled.

"I'd like to help redecorate yours." Marin flicked her hand, going halfway through casting her weakest fire spell. "Is it made of wood?" Her right hand was now wrapped with licking flames that didn't burn her.

"Yo, you crazy or something?" He did back up a step as well.

Marin leaned in, not seeing Jamie's reaction to the magic equivalent of leveling a loaded gun at someone, safety off. "Crazy, and something." she tried to make a trickle of magic make the fire glow a little brighter. She was still learning to control it, her hand blazed, the fire felt like it wanted her to release the magic.

"Go." Marin said quietly.

"Fuck this, I'm out." the main scrambled out the back entrance, knocking one of the displays, causing a fancy plate to topple and crash on the floor inside the stall.

Marin dismissed the magic without completing the spell. The fire dissipated without burning anything. She could feel the spent mana drain out of her. The magical version of un-chambering a bullet that was never fired. Her hand started shaking as she came down from her anger. Her heart was pounding and her stomach filed with butterflies and regret.

The words could not go unsaid. The magic could no go uncast, even with nothing set aflame. She needed to sit down, calm herself. That she was aware of herself in this moment, told her she was not in a blackout.

"Marin, what the hell was that?" Jamie asked her.

"You didn't need to go that far," the old man said gently.

Marin leaned against the front of the stall, shaking her head at Jamie. "Sorry, I don't know what got in me." That was half a lie. She could feel it as that weird energy had filled her, it reminded her of the last thing she tended to remember before a black-out. But her control had slipped. She took off her Materia bracer and slipped it in her pocket. 'I am not safe,' She reminded herself.

"Marin?" Jamie was full of concern. "Are you OK?"

Marin shook her head. "No, but I will be." 'I hope I will be,' she thought.

The older man tottered into his booth, where two chairs sat around the broken plates. "Take a seat, young one. Looks like you need it." He was old, his remaining hair was white wisps around the edge of his head, which was covered with liver spots.

There were onlookers to the incident, but no one had gathered nearby. No one had lifted a finger to help the 'unpatriotic' old man. ShinRa owned most of the world and was at War with what little they didn't. A corporation versus a country. But all the usual us vs them was at play here.

The sort of thing that Marin had casually read about in history books. Now her regret dialed up another notch. In an hour or less, Marin and Jamie would be gone. But this man would have to live with the consequences of what Marin had done today.

"Come, child, take a seat. I don't think my apprentice will be coming back with water anytime soon. Or I'd offer some."

Marin tottered into the booth, stepping over broken pieces of decorative plate.

"Where's your apprentice?" Jamie asked.

"Your friend just scared him off." the man said with a smile, despite the circumstances.

"Oh no," Jamie started, "but-"

Marin shook her head. "He did what he did because he had too." Marin said softly.

"What? What do you mean Marin?" Jamie came around to stand in the booth with them, instead of talk over the counter.

Marin only shook her head, she was trying to breath slowly and calm herself down, than try to explain it. Things her great-grandmother Ayame had told her, when people acted out during a war, to protect themselves and the people they cared about. From within Marin's symptoms, it was too much to explain to Jamie right then. The lessons that Ayame had ground into the family for years, about living during a war.

"He had his reasons," the old man said. "It's all right."

"We don't know your name?" Jamie started picking up pieces of broken pottery on the floor of the stall.

"Roceler." He made it sound like Ross-eh-ler.

"Nice to meet you Roceler." Jamie stuck out her hand. "I'm Jamie, and this is Marin."

The man shook their hands one at a time tentatively, showing his age.

Marin gave a half heart-ed wave. Her heartbeat was still fast, but her hands were no longer shaking. She looked over the edge of the front of the stall, she didn't see trouble coming for them. "Hi. Sorry, for making trouble." she looked down at the ground. She was afraid of a black out at any moment. Her mental illness had found her on this planet.

Roceler asked "So, the two of you are just passing through?"

"Yeah," Jamie told him. "We wanted to stretch our legs after a long drive."

"Huh. Sounds like a plan." As tired and sore the man looked, he had a look on his face that Marin couldn't read. The man looked full of questions as well, but he didn't ask them yet.

"How much?" Marin asked Roceler.

"For which, Marin?" Jamie asked.

"For the ocarina?" Marin asked again. "Is that a double-chamber?"

"Oh, the instrument. Do you play?" Roceler held up the gray, shiny, round instrument. Shaped like a gray sweet potato with a stem for blowing into it.

Marin admitted, "a little, I've never played on a double before."

"Oh, you do know it. Are you from...?"

Marin shook her head. Her features took after her grandmother, an immigrant from Japan. "No. I'm not from there." she was afraid to say the word Wutai out loud. Though Marin looked more like any resident of the planet Gaia, and not particularly from Wutai. Though it would be better to not associate with a country that was at war, much safer.

"Huh, my apprentice might not believe you, if he comes back."

Marin shrugged. She slipped her bracelet back on. "Hopefully, my friends and I will be long gone by then. I never wanted to make trouble."

"But trouble found you, it seems." the man held the ocarina up. "It's not my last one, but it's my last double."

"And you made all this yourself?" Jamie asked, gesturing at the remaining intact ceramic objects in the stall.

The man shook his head, "Not anymore. I'm getting to old to throw the clay. My apprentice usually helps me."

"Oh, that's too bad." Jamie told him.

The man help the ocarina carefully in his hand. It was just large enough that Marin was going to have trouble fitting it in her pocket. "How long have you played the ocarina?"

"About four years."

"Uh huh."

"I was taught..." Marin cut herself off. 'By a youtube video series. But you wouldn't understand that.' She kept that thought to herself. "I was taught by a man, I don't know where he was from." Another half lie. She didn't know what particular American state he lived in, but she knew his name. "By someone who had traveled a long way."

"Well, I don't think anyone else will buy one. So I can give this to you at a discount."

Marin shook her head, "Don't worry about a discount, I have the Gil."

He shook his head and tugged a bag from under the front of the stall. "Not Gil, just entertain an old man with some trivia. Answer some questions, tell me a story. Maybe play me a song?"

Marin tensed a muscle in her elbow, her arm resisted the bracelet of Materia. The man was harmless. But between his charity and his apprentice coming back, maybe with friends? She was still riled up. "Okay, but we really should go soon."

The man pulled out a black, padded leather, bag from the bag at his feet. It looked was for carrying the ocarina. "Just entertain an old man for a bit. And consider it a trade."

"All right." Marin agreed.

He handed over the gray-glazed ocarina, "Do you know any songs?"

Marin took the instrument and twisted her lips. "I lost my old music notes." They were on another planet. "Give me a moment." Marin pulled out her other notebook, thumbing to the right page.

"Then take a moment." Roceler looked up at Jamie, "How about you? I don't want to pry about where you're from, or coming or going to. But call me curious."

"What else did you want to ask?" Jamie asked Roceler, she was catching onto the strangeness of the man. She kept to herself about where they had just come from, and the planet before that.

"How about your family? Nothing personal. Is there anyone you miss?"

"No, no one I miss." Jamie told him.

"So eager to see the world? Maybe you'll miss them when you get older."

Jamie doubled down. "I highly doubt that."

Marin doubted that Jamie's parents would approve of her secret girlfriend. For that matter, Marin wasn't going to hold her breath on how her own parents might react. Their true relationship had to be a secret from everyone, to stop Jamie's parents from finding out too soon.

The man shrugged, "Well, how about you? Anyone you miss?"

"My great-grandmother. My father's grand-mother." Ayame didn't have the stink that Marin's mother's mother had cast over Marin's family before any grandparents had died. Marin missed the woman that had led to making her father into the man he was. Marin didn't miss the woman that had made her mother into the woman she was.

"What was her name?"

"Ayame."

"Hmm." Roceler finally had a readable look on his face, a look of introspection.

"Mmm." Marin held up the ocarina, it had been months since she had played any of the ones that were currently on another planet.

Marin bent back over her book, she was looking for a particular song. She frowned, there was nothing here that was playable in this state. Everything was crib notes for sheet music she would have to re-write to make it something she could practice from. The songs she had memorized had gone unplayed for months. At this point, she was lucky if she could play 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' without sheet music.

"I have to say, I have never heard a name like that before." Roceler finally concluded.

"But it was her name. Please don't forget it." 'I know I won't.' Marin promised herself.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that." He gave a small smile. "I'm sorry child. Don't take me for being dismissive. I'm sure you miss her very much."

Marin nodded, closing her notebook. "I'm never going to see her again." She thought, sadly, 'We are never going to hold each other in our arms again. Even if I go home.' Instead, Marin ran what she could remember of 'Aerith's Theme' through her head. She had an ear and a mind for music, but her reading was still lacking and her writing by ear was worse.

Marin imagined the song as well as she could, but writing it would never be the same.

Marin felt a hand on her shoulder. Jamie had been there for Ayame's funeral, as Marin's friend. Her great-Grandma Ayame's house had been a sanctuary away from Marin's mother's temper. Ayame shared the house with her daughter, Marin's grandmother. But Ayame's death had taken that sanctuary away from Marin. Her grand-parents were still there, but their relationship was different. With them, it was just visiting relatives.

Marin had latched onto Aerith's song in her mind, running that through her head. After finishing most of Final Fantasy Seven the first time, the song always reminded Marin of how Aerith's story arc made her feel. Fictional though she had been. Between Ayame, and standing on the same planet Aerith lived on. It was too much.

Marin sat with her loss. Cradling the ocarina in her hands, she felt numb. Marin's toe twitched in her boot, to the beat of the song. She sat in silence for a little longer. Jamie knew Marin well enough to know where Marin's head was. Jamie sat silently while Marin grieved. Roceler also left Marin to have a few moments, just trying to remember what she could of that song.

After Marin thought of what she could, she raised her head.

Roceler spoke up. "Are you looking for anything, while you're here? Maybe I could help the two of you."

Marin shook her head. "I don't want to ask any more of you." Marin move around her notebooks so she could fit the ocarina in her largest pocket.

Jamie answered. "No, I"m going to find the others. Will you be okay Marin?"

"I'll be right here." Marin told her girlfriend.

Jamie stepped out the booth to look for the other two. "Oh, there they are. Be right back, Marin."

Marin was alone with Roceler, mumbling, "I wouldn't mind knowing how we all got here."

Roceler made a considering look with his face, "I don't believe I have a satisfying answer for that."

Marin blushed, not realizing she had said that aloud. "I didn't, I'm sorry-" she cut herself off.

Roceler shrugged off the apology, saying kindly "I may be old, but my hearing is just fine, young lady."

Marin scratched her arm, her stomach and heart had finally calmed down. "There's a lot I could ask. But I don't think I have the time to ask them all."

"Well, what would you want to know. If you could just pick one thing?" He leaned a little back. "Not that I know much. Maybe you'd fell better if you said it aloud."

Marin looked down on the floor, "I dunno. I've had bad experiences with voicing what I want." Ardyn had hinted that she could have whatever she wanted. So much so that whatever his game was, people asking Marin what she wanted got her back up. Just in case Ardyn was listening. "I'd rather have just what I need. As long as the cost wasn't too high."

"Hmm, I know people older than you that don't grasp the difference between need and want."

Marin quickly ran through the number of things that had tried to kill her so far, or drive her mad, on either planet. "I don't think age has anything to do with it."

"I guess not, Marin. But would you entertain an old man with an answer?"

Marin quirked her lips to the side, considering. 'I know what I want, but what do I need? What do other people need from me?' She said, "I guess if I had to choose one thing. I'd want a better memory, remember what I need to know. I'll figure out the rest." She looked away then back at Roceler, "I won't ever forget the Wound at the North Crater but-"

"What way do you mean?" Roceler interrupted.

Marin sighed, "The Wound? It's just..." Marin rubbed her face and sighed, 'too many things trying to kill the planet, and I can't afford to forget about a single one.'

Roceler replied. "The Wound is not something I hear many people talk about. Are you a Planetologist?"

"No, um. Yes? Maybe? I've never read books about it. Or been to Cosmo Canyon. I just..." Marin started searching for the words.

Cosmo Canyon was where the doctrine of Planetology had been founded on this planet. Marin could not recall the exact doctrine. Other than it included the origin of AVALANCHE, a group that wanted to save the soul of the Planet from corporate interests. Which meant ShinRa. Though it came full circle with who funded ShinRa, a member of that same company.

Marin found her words "I've been to the North Pole. The lights are beautiful, until you know where they come from." Marin shrugged. "but it's slowly killing Her. I'm worried about missing something that might come up in the meantime." Marin became exasperated, "Besides. There's nothing about the Wound I could do now anyway. So I'd rather find something I can help with."

Roceler considered her, studying her face. "May I ask a question?"

"You kinda did." Marin chuckled, "Sorry, bad joke. Ask."

"Where did you learn about the 'Wound' of the North Crater?"

"It's complicated. I don't-" she shrugged. "I read a second-hand account about it from someone else." She kept to herself who and how, 'Technically, I read Bugenhagen's words, when I got to the Cosmo Canyon part in the game. But Roceler wouldn't understand that.'

Roceler considered her, "and how complicated would the whole truth be?"

Marin figured that whatever he assumed filled that gap with, he was wrong, she would not elaborate. "It's complicated. But." Something Roceler had said tickled something in her brain. "Where did you hear about the Wound. Roceler?"

He gave a small smile, "It's complicated. I don't believe you would believe me."

Marin reappraised Roceler. Aerith and her mother would be the last living Ancients on the planet. One of the Cetra that could hear the planet and the recent dead. The Ancients, as a people, had stopped an asteroid from killing all life on the planet Gaia, sacrificing themselves so that there would only be a crater and the Wound up north. So that the rest of the people continued to live on this planet.

Or Marin was way off and Roceler was only a Planetologist. Some of the text from the game floated up to her mind. 'As far as we know, the last living ancient.' As far as anyone knew.

"Um," Marin started, "I don't think we have the same complication. But-"

"But?"

Marin leaned close, speaking quietly. "Does the word Cetra mean anything to you?"

Roceler's grandfatherly smile slid away, looking even older than before. "Now that's a name I haven't heard in a while."

Before he could continue, Marin spoke up, "I'm very well read." Not a lie, "and my story is different. But if you-" she trailed off.

Roceler still looked more his age, very old, "It's not so common a name anymore."

"Unfortunately." Marin sighed.

After whatever had happened at the North Crater. Marin didn't know what had been happened to the Cetra since, or how many other Cetra remained. Other than the man in front of her, Aerith and her mother. And ShinRa would want any alive they could find.

He nodded sagely, "Nor is it a name that's been safe for people to claim for themselves, not for a long time."

Marin nodded back, sighing. "No, it isn't." She noticed that he had not confirmed that he was one. She may had found one of the few other Ancients, alive on the planet, right here.

He asked another question, looking very old. "When you leave here, Marin, what are your plans?"

Marin shook her head, "I don't know enough to have any plans. I've just been trying to keep out of trouble and live vicariously. Terrible plan by the way."

"You seem troubled, for someone so young."

Marin shrugged, "I over think everything. From what to buy at the next stall, to more serious things. I know it's not helping." she buried her face in her hands. "I want to help, but I'm just making it worse."

Roceler leaned forward enough to pat her on the shoulder. "It's all right. I'm sure you're doing your best."

Marin bit back something insulting to Roceler or self-effacing to herself. "My best isn't good enough."

"It's okay." Roceler's chair creaked.

Marin looked up from her hands.

He had taken a step closer to Marin. It was all he needed in the small booth.

"You don't need to get up for my sake." Marin told him.

Roceler offered to take Marin's hands in his own. "It's also okay to take help when it's offered."

Roceler had not confirmed that he was a Cetra. ShinRa called them Ancients. But as he offered comfort to Marin, she didn't want to ask too much of him. ShinRa didn't have an open bounty on 'Ancients.' but he was in danger from them, if the company found out he existed.

"I guess. Thank you?"

Roceler took Marin's hands in his own, by cupping his hands around hers.

Marin closed her eyes, taking in a slow breath the moment. Aerith's song, from the game, came to mind again. The music in her mind would come and go without notice sometimes. She never actually heard music, just like she never actually saw a scene from a book play out in her mind's eye. She felt those things more than saw or heard them. But she could remember them, in pieces.

Right now, in this moment, she could imagine the song, with more clarity than she had in months.

Along with the music came the memories of the sights and scenes that came with the most impactful moments that went with the music. The music reminded Marin of seeing those things, of playing them herself. Music quieted her nerves and made it easier to remember. Practicing her music made it easy to not over think and remember things she had associated with that melody.

Another moment rose in her memory. Associated with the FF7 movie that had come out years ago. Marin had tracked down an illegal copy a little while ago. She remembered the moment in 'Advent Children' when the Remnants, a certain three people, walked through that pool of water. Staining it black. She had been so angry to see that, just recalling it. That black and poisoned water.

"Shh, shh, let it go."

"Let what go?" Marin asked.

"Your anger."

Marin lowered her head further. "Sometimes anger is useful." Most of the time it wasn't. Marin's mother was the perfect example of that.

"Anger is like fire," Roceler said. "Too much can get out of control. Same as fear, or worry."

Marin sighed, she pulled her hands out of Roceler's. "Thanks. I have someone I usually talk about these things with. But I haven't seen them in months." She was between therapists when she had left Earth.

Roceler slowly lowered himself back into his chair. "You have someone to talk about Ancients and Wounds with?"

Marin smiled a little, "No, my worries. They don't know about the Cetra."

Roceler cocked his head, hearing something. "Perhaps you could learn a thing or two about your worries if you listened to your friends more."

"I don't see how that works." Marin admitted. "But I know I could always be a better listener."

"Something I would hope everyone would strive for."

"We can hope." Marin agreed.

Marin held the gray ocarina in her hands. "I think…" she gave a test blow of the first chamber. The large round instrument could be played like one of the ocarinas she had left on Earth. And in ignoring the other chamber, she could whistle a song she was familiar with.

After a shrill note, "Sorry." Marin apologized and licked her lips. Trying again she heard the first few bars of Aerith's song, her hands finding the right holes on the clay-whistle easily.

Roceler nodded his head along with the song. "Thank you."

Marin stopped mid-note, "That's not the whole thing…"

Roceler shrugged, "I've done all I can for you. All I we have time for. I believe now is a good time to join your friends."

Marin reached for her wallet. "For the ocarina-"

Roceler put out a placating hand, "No need, please. Your words and song was payment enough. Though I do have one last request, if you are willing to pay for it."

Marin had stood up while he had spoken, looking concerned at the word 'payment.' "Uh, what is it?"

"Just some free advice. It will only cost you to use it."

Marin looked at Roceler with trepidation.

Roceler gave a small smile, "Follow your heart. Young one, you are a gift, fallen from the sky."

Marin looked at Roceler in confusion. Only half of that made any sense. "What?" She remembered the crater in the snows that Harold had told her about. The day after her appearance in the snows up north.

"Be at ease, young one." Roceler smiled warmly and a little wider. "Go join your friends. Quickly now."

"Marin!" Jamie came in front of the stall, stepping around the broken pieces of ceramics.

Marin stowed the ocarina in the black padded bag. "What is it?" Marin hadn't noticed Jamie leave.

"Trouble, come with me." Jamie started hustling back to the car.

"See you later, Roceler." Marin told the older man.

He shook his head sadly. "I don't think so. But be safe on your travels Marin, you and your friends."

Marin shrugged while she stepped around Roceler to leave. " 'See you later' is just something I say in case it comes true."

"Then see you later, Marin. Tell that to your friend for me too."

Marin nodded and went after Jamie.