"There are no settlements on this side over, no one lives here, it's abandoned farmland and nature," remarked Xu but followed Zell nonetheless, climbing over rocks and large tufts of turned sod and, of course, ice. They would climb and then they would sink up to their knees in mud. Xu lost one shoe to this mud and resolved to carry the other.

"It's here," answered Zell and then, casually: "Good thing I don't need a weapon, eh?" He looked at her, "My fists can do all the talking if need-be." He was all bravado although he was hungry and his knees were bloody under the mud.

"We may need something still," she answered.

"My pal has his."

"I didn't know you had a –" She stopped herself, thinking better of it, but he understood her meaning and glanced back at her and then straight ahead and she spoke again, "I've never seen you with friends outside of work-related .. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. You said it, good one," he grinned but it was a sad grin, the kind reserved to humor young children at funerals. "I know I'm kinda loud and not that smart, I know I get shit-fucked on missions because I'm a fucking impatient 'tard. I know, I'd like to be friends with guys like Squall or something, but it doesn't really work out like that. We work okay together, but it's not personal. But what can I do? I'm not all that interesting and no one seeks me out. What can I do?"

"Nothing," she agreed. Then she touched his forearm compassionately. "It's hard .. I've seen the Disciplinary Committee harass you –"

"Them?" he appeared surprised for a moment. "Nah, at least .." his voice lowered and he shook his head side to side, recollecting times past. "They're alright. No matter how bad, they're still alright."

There was silence for some time and then Xu, curious and feeling guilty, asked, "Do I know this friend of yours?"

"No, not really," he answered. "But you've met."

This revelation cheered up the former instructor and almost made her forget that she was only wearing one shoe. And when she fell in the mud and it got in her hair, she did not complain or mind it too much.

They progressed slowly. All around them the country rose and fell. Although they only walked for three hours it had seemed like a full day.

By what had once been noon they came to what had once been a decrepit house on a decrepit lot with a car that did not run beside it, a shed and a pond that merged into a lake out-back. In present time it was all that except that two of the house's walls had collapsed and the car was mostly in the pond which, no longer merged, had become a large lake the color and consistency of spoilt chocolate milk. The shed was gone. Yet it was all very tranquil and civilized.

"Here," said Zell and as they neared what was left of the structure, the sound of creaking wood and falling stone and shattering glass could be heard. With it came the sound of swearing. Zell took Xu's empty hand and all but pulled her around the only corner of the house. "Hey, man," he announced his presence loudly.

Seifer was standing on a ladder with only three remaining steps. He was tearing off pieces from the collapsed roof. They fanned the dirt at the base of the ladder. There was a dead raccoon amongst them.

When Seifer saw his visitors he ceased moving for a second. His expression was unreadable. He was deliberating his own sanity but as no one but him knew that, Xu interpreted it as hatred and Zell as annoyance.

"Well holy shit," Seifer finally spoke. His eyes were on Xu. He hadn't seen a live woman, except for Fujin, since the trials.

Xu stood transfixed. Zell released her hand and nudged her with his elbow instead. "Told you he's alive," he said to her and then extended his freed hand out to Seifer, who jumped down from his one-time ladder. They shook hands the way old army buddies do.

"Is Squall dead?" Seifer asked hopefully, knowing there was no need for false pleasantries.

"Who knows, possibly," was Zell's nonchalant answer.

"Excellent."

Then there was a silence and everybody found a place to sit.

"I went to Balamb when the storm broke," finally said Seifer. "It's under water. All of it is under water." He was addressing Zell solely and not mincing words or wasting time in delivering the news. "Only one vessel left the harbor afterwards. That's all I know. The rest is a floating graveyard." He made the gesture for the reconnaissance signal for a river with no bridge. He knew it although he failed most exams.

Zell rose without a sound and turned away from the triangle he was previously a point in. He walked away over the craters, to where the chocolate milk lake was and sat down at its edge, facing away with his head between his knees and his hands in his hair. Xu stood up, intent on following, but Seifer checked her. This was none of her business.

"But I should do something," she started and threw her shoe on the ground out of frustration.

"In that case, feel free to suck me off," was the answer.

She glared at her companion. Seifer no longer looked like the Sorceress' Knight or a SeeD for that matter. He was wearing a yellow t-shirt and jeans, both a little worse for wear but relatively clean and presentable. He had his old black gloves on, now white with drywall dust. If it wasn't for his tell-tale scar he could have passed for anyone. Anyone, however, would not be so interested in who was dead as he was. Although he had barely spoken to Xu during his time at the Garden, he had started adamantly quizzing her soon after the initial awkwardness passed.

"Is Cid dead?" he asked.

"Maybe," she answered.

"Is Quistis dead?"

"She's on a mission."

"Is the Doctor dead?"

"Maybe."

"The rest?"

"Maybe."

"I bet Rinoa is alive, nothing gets to that one," he laughed. "But I bet that dog of hers is dead."

"In all probability."

"No big loss on all counts."

"Don't be such a jerk."

"Hey," he looked her in the eye. "I couldn't help by notice your palms aren't callused. Did you bury any of your students, instructor, or did you simply pick their pockets?" He pointed to her partially-open backpack, currently resting between her feet, and all manner of junk and food in it. "Who are you to judge me?"

Xu looked down, at the junk and food. She did not reply nor did she protest when Seifer rose and joined Zell at the waterfront. She watched the two men's backs and wondered what they were talking about. She forgot to recall the war, the battles and the traversing Garden, the deaths and the absurdity of it all. She felt excluded.

At the shore there were no words passed for some time.

Zell wiped his eyes for the last time and, having gotten himself under control, said, "Thank you."

"No problem."

"Thank you, still."

"I never saw her, so you know. I waded in as far as I could, but I'm no strong swimmer and it was black besides. The water was up to the second floor, the stairs collapsed .."

Zell turned so they were facing each other. "You did more for Ma anyone else did. You don't know how much this means to me, man."

"No problem." Seifer took a deep breath, closing his eyes and the topic with them.

Zell was examining his surroundings now; the decrepit house, the water and the soup of ice and dirt. "How'd you get through this?" he gestured to the landscape.

Seifer opened his eyes and looked to the shed which was no longer there. "There's a well in the shack," he said. He took off his dusty gloves with his teeth. His palms were red with clotting blood, the skin torn off and raw meat exposed. "Hung in there a while."