Hello everyone welcome to the eighteen chapter of SSI.

Sorry, I believe I promised this chapter a month ago two months ago. I feel really bad about that. It was a lot of school though and assignments and stuff. Though I was doing a lot of procrastination (on both this and my assignments for that matter.) so I probably could have had this out possible three weeks ago if I wasn't such a lazy idiot. Sometimes if I'm taking too long to update a story feel free to PM me, chances are I'm actually procrastinating. But for the next three weeks I need to work on finishing my assignments asap.

Also you'll find if there's anything stopping me from writing I've put a message up on my profile, so feel free to check that too.

Anyway hope you enjoy the chapter, and please review. I've had a terrible week and since Naruto's finished I no longer have the weekly updates to cheer me up. Seriously, you have no idea how much your reviews make me happy, they brighten up my entire day, and I really need that happiness right now.

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy, Square Enix does.

Turn around

Snow whistled in disbelief, that story had been a big one. Beside him Serah twiddled her fingers shyly, unsure whether or not he would believe her.

As it stood Cocoon and Pulse were the two biggest names in the world, everyone grew up viewing their existence as a norm. Hearing this dark truth may have been hard to take in. But if Snow chose to believe her, the destruction zone around them would serve to her advantage and reinforce her story's truth.

"Secret agents." He said finally, still questioning the term as he said it. He rolled the word through his head but it wouldn't seem to sink in.

Serah wasn't sure what to think of this reaction so she tried to provoke another one, "We are anything they need us to be, spies, guard, assassins."

Snow's reaction was slow. He stared at the dark ceiling of the pantry as if analysing its every age worn mark. Eventually he turned to her, "And you?" His eyes were worried.

Serah shook her head, "I'm no Assassin if that's what you're worried about. I was a spy."

"Worried about you being an Assassin?" Snow shook his head, "No Serah I was worried about you. A spy, think about how hurt you could have been if you were caught, they might have even killed you. At least an Assassin gets out of the danger zone, you'd have to stay there. Serah I don't even want to think about what might have happened to you."

Serah's eyes widened. 'Worried for her' had said. She smiled. She had been so scared for a second there that this truth would make him turn away from her. This loyalty made her love for him grow.

"Thank you." She said.

"For worrying? Serah that's just my duty. If I didn't I'd be a pretty bad boyfriend wouldn't I?" He told her smiling.

She smiled too, encouraged by his cheerfulness. "I still think it deserves a thank you. Also knowing you, I think you'd be worried about me even if I was a stranger. No girlfriend title needed."

Snow scratched the back of his head, "You'd probably be right about that." He admitted.

Things were silent for a while until Snow finally saw reason to ask. "What about you then? How'd you end up in this situation, like why were you at the school?

"The school?" Serah took a moment to formula her answer. She paused shyly before answering, she didn't see him loving the answer. "I got caught once when I was on a mission, a really important mission. Someone found me out. Fang saved me, but Cocoon were after my blood afterwards. Pulse put me into hiding and inserted a chip into my head which made my brain mimic the symptoms of amnesia."

Snow eyes widened on the reveal on this little factoid but Serah just gave a look that said, 'yes, I just said that, you are not having auditory hallucinations.'

The look toned down some but he still blinked his eyes not particularly able to swallow that fact.

"So," Serah continued choking down a laugh that look brought out in her. "When you met me not even I knew this stuff. They gave me a fake name, a fake background story, and a fake caretaker. I dyed my hair blonde at this caretakers 'light-hearted' suggestion, and I curled it out of boredom. And as the random Cocoon agents stationed in the school didn't have a detailed knowledge of what I looked like this was enough to pull the wool over their eyes. Fang and Lebreau were also sent to the school to watch over me, soon even one of Cocoon's top agents was stationed there when they began to suspect that I was there."

"Who?"

"Rosch." Serah pronounced, "If you've taken note he's since disappeared from that school along with me, Lebreau and Fang.

"But apart from that there's not much else to tell you. Cocoon narrowed down who I was and attacked, Pulse reacted and I was brought back to the HQ. The chip was taken out of my brain and well, here I am. I was spying on a Cocoon executive who just happened to be in this square yesterday at the wrong time. You were too I suppose?"

Snow sighed, "Yeah Maqui told me it would be interesting, bored the hell out of me though."

"Maqui? Was he here with you?" Serah asked suddenly panicking.

Snow nodded sadly, knowing its possible implications. Serah was too scared to ask if he knew if he was alright, but as Snow was unconscious when she found him it wasn't like he'd know anyway.

This put a dampener on their conversation for a time and neither of them spoke further on the subject.

They were quiet for possibly another fifteen minutes more when Snow asked, "So, what are we going to do now?"

Serah thought about her answer, "Well I think we should probably try getting out if here, but first," she said gesturing to the stocked pantry around them, "let's eat breakfast."

…:...

Fang opened her eyes. She'd fallen asleep sometime during the night. Adjusting her position, she snuck a glance at the Cocoon agent beside her. He was quietly dozing with his eyes closed. She returned her gaze to the front. So far it looked like it hadn't been bad to fall asleep next to the stranger. She was alive at least and the rest received would be useful for the day to come. Chances were she was going to have to traverse a fair distance within the day.

Sitting back she ran some situations through her head. She didn't know the extent of the damage dealt by the bombs or what was going on with Pulse at the moment. This blurred whether or not returning to HQ was a plausible idea. Likely it wasn't as this was an opportune moment for Cocoon to attack Pulse. If the planners of this bombing had any brains they would have double played their advantages and killed Anima and attacked Pulse with the same stone.

That thought was worrying even to Fang. She scrunched up her hand, Fate was still at HQ. If someone so much as laid a hand on her they'd lose it along with their head. Not that Fate couldn't take care of herself, but the height difference between her and many members of their line of work was troublesome in fights. She'd learn that head on back when she was young.

So, one would hope that maybe the HQ wasn't in the bad, but logic dictated otherwise.

With that off the board there was the other option was skipping town. Finding some way out onto the highways and hitching a ride to the closet town with a Pulse HQ. Harder and more time consuming, but the more likely option if Bodhum's HQ was down and out.

Fang ran the numbers through her head. It took roughly six hours to walk the width of the city. She was somewhere around the midway mark, the HQ was two hours walk away from here, the highway three. All well and good on a normal day, but those times were only if you walked a steady pace on a straight path.

With the bomb damaged town, fallen debris everywhere and Cocoon agents out to kill you that wouldn't happen. If she was lucky she could get to the HQ by dark, but the highway was out of the question.

Fang purged her lips. She couldn't leave here without even trying to ascertain Fate's condition. She wouldn't forgive herself if she tried. So that left her a rough time of two, maybe three days to escape this city. Her eyes sought out the sleeping man. He looked fit enough, but she didn't know for sure how he'd hold up. The question persisted whether he's slow her down or keep up.

Unfortunately Fan didn't have a choice but to wait until he woke up and they made their way out of this bank. She tapped her fingers on the surface of her jeans. This was going to be a long day.

The man woke not so long afterwards. He wiped the sleep from his eyes and sat up lazily. He looked to Fang with tired eyes, "Seems you didn't kill me in my sleep."

"Seems you didn't kill me either."

The man watched the room tiredly for a little while longer before he went on to shake himself awake. He rubbed his eyes again as if his first attempt at clearing them hadn't been especially successful. "So, what's happening today?"

"You have no intention of returning?" Fang clarified.

The man shook his head, "Not in a million years."

"Kay then. We'll try and head for the highways hitch a ride to another town. You can go into hiding, though they're going to kill you."

"Don't I know it." The man grumbled.

"Oh, and most likely that son you mentioned before too." Fang added.

This caught the man's attention and he gave Fang a warning look to tell her to stop that line of thought there.

Fang didn't overly care, instead she told him in a dark tone, "Don't worry, if Cocoons attacked the Pulse HQ my friend's daughter is probably dead as well."

"Isn't the same." The man muttered.

"Is when I'm the only mother figure she's ever had." Fang murmured bitterly.

The man seemed to hear it but didn't respond. At the very least it shut him up.

The two exited from the safety deposit box room and closed the door behind them. As they were walking down the hallway which led back to the front room Fang thought to ask, "So am I going to get a name out of you?"

"Sure." The man drawled lazily. "The name's Sazh."

"Well then Sazh, where are we heading today? We can take any number of paths, which one do you think will be the least infested with people with shot guns?" Fang queried sounding much like a circus presenter.

Sazh scoffed at her tone, obviously finding fault with it. "If we're gonna get anywhere we'll need food, people'll drop if they're forced to walk the length of this town on an empty stomach."

Fang hummed. On this he was right, she realised as much earlier. Dropping her jovial tone she grew serious once more, "That would mean going to the closest shops."

Sazh eyed her as they exited the bank, "Not a fan of meeting an agent hiding away in a house are you? The chances are much slimmer of running into one in a house than that shopping centre. There are much more houses, too many for agents to hide in all of them."

Fang took up a quiet step behind Sazh as they grew wary of the outside world. Her hand wandered down to the gun on her hip, "I'd rather open space than the chance of an agent jumping out of a room and getting the drop on me before I even knew what hit me. If they're anything like me, Cocoon would have taught them to fight in close quarters; I'd rather give none of them the advantage over me."

"Fair enough." Sazh conceded.

They passed by the five blocks between them and the shopping centre at a gradual pace. They kept on their toes about any odd sound, ready to pull the trigger if an agent did in fact pass their way. Stepping over the debris littering the ground their path took them towards the shopping centre.

The car park was a harrowing sight. Dead bodies as far as the eyes could see. The needless slaughter even bothered Fang in its uselessness. Sazh eyed the bodies almost forlornly. He too seemed to revolt in Cocoon ardent slaughter fest.

They left the site behind them and entered the shopping centre. Inside wasn't much better, but they had known to expect it this time. Walking towards a pair of escalators Fang gestured to the man behind her, "You check down there, I'll look up here."

"Sure." The man shrugged, he didn't seem like he'd thought much of her company to begin with. The two parted ways there. Fang ascended the still escalator with soft steps. She didn't want to make loud sounds on the tough metal beneath her feet.

She paused once at the top. The escalator ended facing a line of shops, so, one end of the upstairs. She rounded the Escalator, before her was a long hall of shop on either side of her. She scanned it quickly. She couldn't see anyone up here. Looking harder she tried to see if there was a shop that sold food. She looked all across the long hall. Her eye twitched once she spotted a shop which fitted right into that exact category.

At the exact opposite end of the centre.

Fang resisted the urge to sigh. It would have made more noise than she cared to make. But the goddess most definitely wasn't looking on her with favour today. Not that she ever did.

Fang pulled the gun at her side free and held it at the ready. She couldn't see anyone at the moment but she didn't doubt someone was hiding in one of the stores.

She passed clothing stores, jewellery stores, shoe stores, sport stores, all the while watching frantically for any sudden movement. She cursed the long time it took to reach the shop at the end of the hall.

The wide entrance to the food shop reared its ominous head, it arched over suspiciously as Fang passed the threshold. Once into the store Fang picked up on the feint sounds of movement randomly sounding off somewhere in the distance. She held her gun tighter. Walking up to the aisles she lifted her eyes to read the signs above them. Her best choice would be to go with canned foods. She retrieved a grey canvas bag from under on the counters and began heading for the aisle she needed to go.

The sound of a shoe hitting lino. A man stepped out from one of the aisles. Seeing her he levelled his gun at her. She ducked into the aisle beside her without a moment's notice. She backed up against the shelves. She looked around her. Her eyes caught sight of a little mirror, part of some childrens toy hanging from the shelves. She picked it up and used it to see the man waiting for her to appear again. His gun was still levelled to hit her.

She waited. He didn't move so she silently picked up a food item from behind her and rolled it along the aisle. The man's eyes moved to the side to follow the sound. She took her chance.

She jumped from her hiding spot and shot the man in the chest. He blew backwards. His blood spurted from the wound and pooled around him. Fang retreated into the aisle. Where she was standing left her too open for attack.

At the end of the aisle she got low and checked for anyone else. No one. The canned food aisle was still two aisles ahead. Staying low she crept towards it. The noise of a conversation hit her ears. Stiffening up her eyes sought out the source of the sounds. There was three men standing around the deli thirty meters away. They hadn't seen her so Fang slipped into the canned food aisle. Gradually she snuck a look in their direction again. They were too far off to hit with her handgun. She would have to coax them to come closer. She picked up a can and threw it two aisles diagonal to her. It made a loud bang and three men dashed to the sound. A stupid move in Fang's books. She rounded the corner and shot twice. Two of them went down, but the other reacted and she had to duck her head back into the aisle. He continued to fire at her and rushed to the head of her aisle.

He was a kid, and that was a rookie's mistake. She looked up to him where she sat on the floor, his gaze landing far above her head. She shot him in the chest and his blood splattered over her face. He fell to the floor.

Wiping the blood off indifferently she got up and began collecting cans.

…:…

Sazh wondered down the line of shop, ears open to the world around him. It was quiet. Though he wasn't sure whether or not to call that a good sign or not. Anyone could be hiding around the corner, hidden in one of the shops. He didn't let his guard down.

Occasionally he came across a fallen body gone cold. There weren't many inside, though store products littered the floor caused much mess. There were evacuation notices still on the big TV screens on either end of the shops, so he guessed that people had been trying to get out. Going by the number of bodies inside he guessed that they must have been shot later on trying to avoid the disaster. The bodies on the outside had looked to be in a worse state.

After reaching the end of the store he reasoned that whatever food store that was here must be upstairs. So he back tracked a bit to a fountain further in. It was near an escalator so he could also signal that Fang woman as she was walking back. Hopefully with food and luckily with no gunshot wounds.

He stood by the fountain waiting patiently. Yet for all his watchfulness, he still didn't predict the bullet that whooshed past his head until it was already past. "Fuck." He swore spinning on his heel to see a group of five men jumping over a barrier surrounding the little circular space that housed the fountain. He fell to his knees to avoid the next slurry of bullets as he hid behind the stone structure in front of him.

Peering over the edge he shot off a couple rounds. One grazed one of the men's shoulder but the rest missed their mark. He ducked back behind the fountain. He swore under his breath. They were good shots. Seemed like Cocoon had actually put some men down here that weren't simple rookies. Silent as hell too they were. For all his trying he hadn't remotely heard them advancing.

He tapped his finger against the weapon. That left the question of what he was going to do. Sure he was a better shot than anyone of them, but one experienced gunner against five good shots wasn't an equal equation. He was still outgunned.

He risked shooting off another couple at the group. One took a shot to the chest. Sazh savoured the feeling of victory, but the remaining four had begun to slink closer. That and the fifth man hadn't taken a serious shot. High chest, by the shoulder, he'd be out an arm, not even a lung. Lucky that for now he was preoccupied with stanching the wound.

Sazh felt a sense of panic building up. What was he to do? He could charge them, or try and retreat maybe, but all increased likeliness of getting hit as much as they could have helped him. He grit his teeth.

"You can't…"

Sazh jolted to awareness. Somewhere behind him he heard the sound of shuffling and people talking.

"I… too"

He listened harder.

"It's… don't go."

"I must." A last voice said with finality.

Sazh jumped back to awareness of his current fight, a bullet had flown scarily close to his head. He jumped back up and shot off another few rounds with not so much effect.

Another gun went off behind him. He freaked out that one of the men had got to his back without his notice. Sure enough when he looked around there was a bullet coming right at him.

A wind gust passed by his head.

Wait. He realised, not at him. He turned around to see a second man get blown off his feet a clean shot to the heart.

Past him.

A second bullet blasted off the head of the already injured man. The three men left took flight to the pillars surrounding the circular room for protection and watched intently.

Sazh too turned his gaze to see a young girl with black hair tied at both sides and dark murky coloured skin. Her eyes were bright yellow and her face painfully familiar. He returned his eyes to the remaining enemies. Familiar or not, if she was going to help he wasn't going to question when there was still trash to take care of.

Within a moment she was by his side at the fountain. She rose her head over the fountain and helped him shoot down the hiding men. Sazh marvelled at her control of her weapon, her steady hold and exact aiming. But she took a dangerous half a millisecond too long to ready her shot. Which if her reaction time hadn't been as fast as it was, would have gotten her head blown off long before now.

Sazh reloaded and continued his assault. Slowly they made head way. They began to win against their enemies little by little, making them cower back. Soon their numbers was reduced to a lone agent as his mate was taken down by a well-aimed bullet from the gun of the black haired girl.

The man grew rash, scared. He betted his all on one last mad man move and dashed into the firing zone. It took them both by surprise and neither had time to react as he used the girl's slow draw time to his advantage and levelled his gun almost point blank to her head.

'Bang!'

The man fell dead, falling into the fountain before them with a loud splash.

Both stared at the body in disbelief. At the sound of metal hitting floor Sazh rose his eyes to see Fang standing along the edge of an opening between the first stories and second. A grey canvas bag rested by her feet and her gun rested in her hand.

The girl at Sazh's side stepped back. Behind them he could hear shuffling, the other person whose voice he'd heard before he figured.

Meanwhile he saw looking back up to Fang that her eyes were locked solely on the girl at his side, her gaze incredulous beyond belief.

The girl at his side fled.

"Wait!" Fang yelled urgently. Dropping even her gun she grabbed the railing and jumped down to the lower story. She landed hard on tiles and winced. "Wait." She reiterated growing frantic.

She dashed after the black haired girl, "I said wait god damn it!"

Easily catching up Fang snatched her arm, "Zhdat!" she screamed.

"Ya ne mogu!" the girl screamed in what was a clearly accented voice.

Fang breathed in a breath, "Turn around please." She pleaded desperately.

"No!" the girl denied.

Tears welled in Fang's eyes, "Please…just please, turn around, Vanille."

And fun.

I was really worrying about botching this chapter so can you tell me of it's alright. Simply telling me your enjoying the story or something simple like that would be fine as well. As I mentioned in the too authors note, I just need some reviews so I can be happy about something, my home's a little depressing right now. Anything you guys have to tell me would be welcome. Even if its complete nonsense, my reviews get like that a lot anyway, it'd probably make me laugh.