"Morning sunshine."

Quistis opened her eyes to see Irvine standing over her, a smile on his face. She quickly got up pulling the covers over her and sliding away from him on the bed. Little pervert snuck into her room without her noticing, and she didn't have any cloths on under the sheets surrounding her body. He laughed standing there with his arms crossed and leaning against the wall.

"You little..." she stopped, figuring it was useless to argue, "Next time knock before you enter. Leave so I can get dressed."

"Oh I don't mind, you can dress." Irvine said, with a smile.

"Irvine!" Quistis shouted

"Fine, fine! We're meeting in the same room as last night, so hurry up." he said, walking out of the room, "Oh, and I could see through the covers."

Quistis' eyes widen as she pounded her fist into the bed. She just couldn't understand how Selphie dealt with him, with his smartass comments and pervertedness. As soon as the door shut, she got up and got dressed. After she was done, she ran to the room to meet with everyone else. When she entered, she saw everyone around the same circle of chairs. Garnet saw her come in a flashed a smile towards her about to say something when Quistis sucker punched Irvine in the face, knocking him to the floor. Quistis then took his seat and smiled back at Garnet.

"Don't mind him, he'll be ok." she said, "She'll we get started."

"Uh, Sure." Garnet responded, her eyes on the dazed Irvine lying on the floor.

"Getting to the point, we're gonna head out as soon as possible. To make a brief explanation short, our friend Vivi disappeared about three years ago. He said he saw shadows matching the description of the heartless you told us about. He was last seen at Madain Sari where we hope to find some connection or clue about the heartless, Vivi and possibly your friends." Zidane said.

"Understood." she replied, "Good luck."

Zidane nodded and started out of the room, Freya and Steiner following behind. Irvine finally came to his senses and got up rubbing his sore face. He looked at Quistis and stuck his tongue out at her before hurrying off after everyone else. Quistis sighed, not knowing what to do with that boy. She focused her attention on the matter at hand, coming up with a plan just in case the heartless were to show their faces. The only ones left in the room were Garnet, Eiko, Beatrix and herself. Something told her this was going to be a long day, with Irvine getting the better part of it. While the rest of the group began their discussion, Zidane led the group down to the hanger. There stood the biggest and most fastest ship ever built, the Hilda Grande X.

"That's one big ship!" Irvine remarked.

"Yep, this is the most powerful and fastest ship on Gaia. The Hilda Grande X, built by Regent Cid of Lindblum and Zebolt, is the best steam-powered ship of today. It runs at a speed of eight hundred miles per hour; you could circle the whole entire world twice in one day with this baby. The engines are of a 32SP, or 32 steam pressure meaning she can run for 55 hours straight without needing refuel. There are more schematics, but I'd be here all day explaining it so I'll just skip the rest." Zidane explained, "All you need to know is that she is one hell of a ship."

"She looks like one hell of a ship." Irvine responded.

Zidane smiled turning to the ship and climbing on board with the others. The engineers and workers ran around getting ready for the ship to take launch, as everyone took their positions on the bridge of the ship. As soon as clearance was granted, the restraints holding the ship down were released and the ship began to float upwards into the sky. As soon as the Hilda Grande exited the harbor, it slowly made its decent over Alexandria headed for Madain Sari. As soon as they were clear of Alexandria, the steam engines were started up and at an incredible speed, took off for the Outer Continent.

"Madain Sari is located on the Outer Continent, on the far North-western side of continent. " Zidane explained, as Irvine listened, "Originally, it was home to now extinct race called the Summoners. Though both Dagger and Eiko are Summoners, they are the last of their race."

"So why do you think there might be some clue or connection here?" Irvine asked.

"As Zidane said earlier, a friend of ours named Vivi disappeared from Madain Sari. For some reason he claimed to have seen shadows and said they were following him. However, none of us ever witnessed any of these shadows." Freya said, "Vivi apparently followed the shadows to Madain Sari, and that was the last we had heard from him. There is a possibility that these shadows are heartless, and we'll just see what leads on from there."

"I'm sorry to hear about your friend." Irvine commented, "I feel your pain, someone dear to me out of all my friends is missing too. Her name is Selphie, quite a cute little gal."

"Girlfriend?" Zidane asked.

"She's my gal if that's what you mean, and I wouldn't trade the world for her. I miss her more then anything right now, would give anything to see her again." Irvine said with a smile, "She disappeared right before my world was destroyed by the darkness. Bad timing too, I wanted to pop the question to her seeing as how we're adults now."

"Yeah, I know how that is." Zidane said with a laugh, "You've got my regards when you two meet up again."

"Thanks!" Irvine replied.

The Hilda Grande continued on it's course over the ocean and towards Madain Sari, where they hoped to find some clues to what was going on. Meanwhile, two figures appeared out of dark portal near the North Gate. The two men, the same ones as before, stopped and glanced around the area. The cloaked man pulled out a device and looked at it, a red dot blinking and moving upward across the screen. He sighed and looked over to Xigbar, who had a huge grin in his face as if he couldn't wait for the fight to begin.

"They have split up, take this and follow Irvine Kinneas north to their destination. Once you make contact, kill him and then get out of there as soon as possible. If anyone gets in the way, you are allowed to kill them as well." the hooded man, known as Xaldin, spoke, "I will continue on to Alexandria and meet up with Quistis Trepe. Once I have killed her, I will return to our world so finish quickly."

"What, no time to play?" Xigbar laughed, raising his arms and shrugging, "I guess that's the way its got to be then, just don't get yourself killed."

Xigbar laughed and walked away from Xaldin with the tracker in his hand, disappearing into the dark portal once again. Xaldin sighed once more, wondering why he got stuck with such an ingrate like Xigbar. He should have been the one to hunt down Rinoa, not killing off her precious little friends who were more than weaklings to him. He did however look forward to paying this Beast person a visit when he was done here, a mission that was already assigned to him since day one. Right now, he had to focus on getting rid Quistis Trepe. He too continued on to Alexandria, with Quistis unaware of what danger lurked after her.