"Poor Squall." Tidus stood beside Seifer as he leaned against the wall next to the entrance of the base. Tidus was attempting to make conversation while Squall and Yuna were talking to the others near the large table in the middle of the room. "Sounds like Terra hit him pretty good. He always seems to take the brunt of things, huh?"
Seifer turned toward Tidus with a disgusted look. "That's adorable that you're so worried about him. But I don't think he's looking for a girlfriend."
"That's not what I meant," Tidus replied indignantly. "And I'm not a girl."
"Coulda fooled me with that haircut."
"What's your problem with me?"
"You remind of someone who irritates the crap outtta me."
Tidus knitted his brows as he looked up at Seifer. "You're starting to remind me of someone too."
Seifer ignored the comment as he looked coolly across the room with arms crossed.
After a moment, Tidus continued casually, "It is interesting that you bring up Squall's girlfriend. Considering I'm not the one wearing his necklace." Tidus wasn't one-percent sure Seifer was wearing the pendant Squall had given Rinoa, but he'd caught a glimpse of the chain tucked beneath Seifer's shirt and he thought he recognized it.
Seifer scowled deeply at Tidus. "Mind your own business, Pretty Boy."
"Oh, I like that!" Tidus grinned at Seifer. "I don't care for a lot of your nicknames, but you can call me 'pretty boy,' all you want."
Seifer's only response was a glower as he stepped away from the wall.
"I'm sorry," Terra sobbed into Yuna's shoulder.
"It's okay. You didn't hurt me. Really. I was wearing the Shell Ring."
Terra clutched the folds of Yuna's top and continued to sob. Yuna looked around at the others, seeking guidance. The scene reminded her of the many times growing up when she'd been scared or worried and had buried her face in Lulu's skirts for comfort. Only this time she was the one doing the comforting. It was strange, both because she was used to playing the role of the little sister in need of support, and because she didn't know Terra very well. Not to mention Terra was much more powerful than Yuna, and Yuna thought she was older as well.
"I really didn't hurt you?" Terra looked up at Yuna. Terra may have been older than Yuna, but her big green eyes surrounded by wet lashes radiated the innocence of a small child.
Yuna put on her most comforting smile. "Not even a little bit."
Terra nodded carefully, as though slowly absorbing this information. A moment later she spun around toward Squall. He tensed as soon as he saw her attention was on him.
"I didn't mean to attack you." She threw herself at Squall and his eyes widened, his stoic features suddenly filled with panic.
"It's...okay..." Squall looked desperately at Yuna. His arms were crossed tightly in front of him, even as Terra sobbed into his sleeve. Yuna could tell he wanted to push Terra away, but was doing his best to resist the urge. She could do nothing but offer a sympathetic smile.
Locke had a deep frown as he approached. He set a hand on Terra's arm. "Don't worry about it. It's not your fault. Everyone understands you weren't in control. None of us were. I mean, Mermaid attacked the new guy, do you think he would normally have done that?"
Terra turned to look across the room to where Tidus and Seifer were bickering. Locke followed her gaze.
"Okay, bad example," Locke continued, returning his gaze to Terra. "But even I fought Celes. I didn't mean to, but I could have really hurt her. Right, Celes?"
"Sure… You almost hurt me bad." Celes started with a straight face, but she couldn't hold it. She broke into a smirk as she continued, "You came really close to making me break a nail."
Locke made a face at Celes. "But you see? It's over. Everyone's okay. A little fire just rolls right off of Dragon-Bait." Locke slapped Squall on the shoulder. "Right?"
Squall stared at Locke without comment.
"Let's just forget it ever happened."
Terra watched Squall closely, waiting for his reaction. Apparently realizing it was now up to him, he said, "Forget it. It never happened."
Terra nodded. "Okay." Then, unable to resist, she threw her arms around Squall in a final brief hug, before retreating back to Locke's side.
Locke nodded his approval. "Good. Now we can move on."
"So we can get the heck out of here?" Seifer asked from across the room.
Squall nodded and headed toward the entrance. Yuna felt like there should be more to mark the occasion, but Squall and Seifer appeared eager to get going, and Locke eager to see them gone. She'd already thanked the hosts for taking care of Tidus—in fact, that may have been what set Terra into tears—but she desperately wished there was more she could do. An idea struck her as she started toward the door, and she slipped off the Shell Ring and set it on the table. It wasn't much, but hopefully it counted as a rare relic that would be worth something to the treasure hunters.
The others were already out the door, but Tidus had waited for her by the doorway. He put his arm around her as they stepped outside.
"Home at last," he murmured into her ear.
She smiled and interlaced her fingers with his. They may not be heading to Spira just yet, but she already felt she was home.
Zell raced along the road from the town of Balamb to Garden on his turbo-board.
His jumbled thoughts spun in his head and he felt if he could just travel fast enough, maybe he could catch up and begin to sort out the swirl of confusion.
Yuna was gone. How could they have let that happen? They still had no clue how to find Squall, and now they'd lost Yuna too. Who would be next? Would Quistis and Rinoa be gone when Zell arrived at Garden?
No, Yuna's disappearance may have been sudden and unexpected, but it was not random. As unsettling as it was, there was no reason to believe anyone else would disappear. There was a reason for her leaving, even if Zell was not certain what it was. Although he could not pin down a reason with certainty, there were several plausible theories.
The initial panic had been that she might be injured or lost. However, she didn't seem like the type to wander into danger without telling anyone, and several thorough sweeps of Garden and the surrounding wilderness—including many hours of Zell himself trudging through the Training Center—had mostly convinced Zell that she was not hurt, but well and truly gone. Not necessarily comforting, but it did narrow the possibilities.
Perhaps the GFs were more serious than they had realized about forbidding the interaction of worlds, and had swept Yuna back to Spira. Or perhaps Yuna had gotten lonely or scared and found a way to get back there herself. Spira seemed a reasonably likely location for Yuna to have ended up, and it would have been prudent to check there. Except for the possibility that they went to Spira and she wasn't there. If that happened, Zell was quite confident that the lady with the long black braids would kill them for losing her friend.
Where else could Yuna be? There was one other disturbing fact that Zell didn't even like to think about. No one had seen Seifer since Yuna disappeared. It seemed not unlikely that wherever they were, they were together. Had Seifer convinced Yuna he had a way to find Squall and Tidus? Why wouldn't Yuna have told them? Surely she realized by now he was not to be trusted. Had he forced her along? Why? The possibilities were unpleasant.
As Zell entered the front yard of Garden, something caught his eye. On the other side of the yard, a group of people was walking toward Garden. Normally a group of students returning from a morning training session would not be remarkable, but one of the students was wearing a long purple skirt, along with long pink and white sleeves. That was not something he'd ever seen a SeeD cadet wear.
YUNA?!
Zell made a hard turn and raced toward the group. He barely got the t-board stopped before leaping off it and running up to her. "Yuna?!"
She turned with a kind smile on her face. It was her! He was tempted to hug her, but was so relieved and confused to he just stared at her.
Then, as Yuna's companions turned toward him, something familiar caught the corner of Zell's eye. He focused on the companion that caught his attention. He was too stunned to react for a long moment.
Finally, his brain clicked and his body unfroze. "Squall!" he cried. He stepped up to his friend and embraced him in a bear hug, knowing Squall would hate him for it. But he didn't care. "Where have you been?! How…?!"
A new thought struck him—Squall didn't come all this way to see Zell—and he released Squall and turned back to his t-board. "I know you want to see her! I'll go get her!"
He zoomed into Garden, not caring in the least that it was against the rules to ride his t-board down the hallways. Rinoa couldn't be far and he was determined to find her quickly.
"Nice to meet you, too!" Tidus yelled after the spiky-haired guy tearing away on his hover board. Then he turned to Squall. "I take it that was Zell?"
Squall nodded, still looking a bit dazed by the encounter.
"Ugh," Seifer groaned as he lowered Angelo to the ground. He'd been carrying the dog across his shoulders since they'd arrived on his homeworld a few minutes ago. Tidus didn't know why—Yuna had healed the dog's burnt paws earlier—but it had been an amusing sight, the fluffy dog chewing Seifer's ear and Seifer trying to snap his head out of reach of the dog's tongue without much success.
"Think you idiots can make it the rest of the way without me holding your hands?" Seifer didn't wait for a response before trotting away.
Tidus, Yuna, and Squall were just outside the gates of Garden when Tidus heard the zing! of the hover board returning. This time it was not Zell riding the board, but Rinoa. She leapt off the board without ever slowing down and launched herself at Squall. She hit him with such sudden force that he stumbled backward into Tidus. The three ended up in a heap on the ground, Tidus face down on the bottom, with Squall's back against his and Rinoa straddling Squall. Angelo tried to wriggle between Rinoa and Squall as Rinoa rested her face against Squall's chest.
After several seconds, Squall asked, "Are you going to let me up?"
"No. I'm never, ever letting you go." Tidus could hear the smile in Rinoa's voice.
Tidus twisted, trying his best to see Rinoa despite being pinned to the ground. "Hi, Rinoa."
"Tidus!" She looked up. "And Yuna! I've never seen you two together!"
Before Rinoa could continue, a young boy approached. "C-Commander…?"
Tidus could just see Squall starting to flush out of the corner of his eye. This was probably not the entrance he'd intended to make as the returning Commander.
"Move along! Nothing to see here." Two people in uniforms appeared and placed themselves in front of the boy, using their bodies to shield the sight of the Commander in the middle of a dogpile. Once the boy had passed, the uniformed individuals pulled Rinoa off of Squall and then helped Squall and Tidus to their feet.
The two in uniform saluted Squall. "Welcome back, Commander."
Squall returned the salute, Rinoa clinging to his arm.
Zell returned, along with a slightly older girl who Tidus assumed must be Quistis.
"Squall! Yuna!" Her relief was palpable as she embraced each in turn. Then she turned to Tidus. "And you must be Tidus. I've heard quite a lot about you."
"Suggestion, Commander," the female in uniform addressed Squall. People were starting to gather, despite the admonishments of the two in uniform. "Perhaps we should move this reunion somewhere a little more private."
Squall nodded.
"Suggestion, Commander!" Tidus mirrored. Squall turned toward him. "Maybe somewhere with food?"
"We'll clear out the cafeteria," the male in uniform declared, as he and the female in uniform jogged away.
Tidus had a tray in front of him with more food than he'd seen in months. All thoughts of manners and etiquette went out the window as he dug in.
"Please don't choke," Yuna giggled from beside him. He smiled at her and tried to slow down a little.
Across the table, Squall also had a tray full of food, but he ate it sedately, his eyes looking glassy, like he might fall asleep at the table.
"What are you wearing?" Rinoa tugged on the sleeve of the green tunic he had on.
Squall looked down at his shirt and shrugged. "I had to borrow something."
"Where's your jacket?"
"I don't know."
When Rinoa narrowed her eyes, silently demanding a better answer, Squall looked questioningly at Tidus.
Tidus swallowed his current mouthful of food. "Oh, uh, well… I guess your jacket must be back in the cave. I kinda lost track… But I don't think you'd want it anyway, it was pretty shredded and bloody."
Rinoa gasped a little. "Shredded and bloody?"
"Er, I mean…" Tidus looked around the table. Everyone looked a little horrified at his description, and he wished he'd chosen his words more carefully. He'd forgotten how little they knew about recent events.
"Maybe you should start at the beginning," Quistis suggested.
Tidus nodded. "Okay." He looked to Squall, expecting he might prefer to tell the story to his friends. But he was now leaning against Rinoa, his head resting on her shoulder, sound asleep or close to it. Squall wasn't much of a talker anyway.
"Start from where I left you," Rinoa suggested.
Tidus took another bite of food before starting, "So we found ourselves in this cave, it was dark, and wet and slippery…."