Rinoa stared out at the ocean as the craft travelled the final leg of the journey to Fisherman's Horizon. No-one spoke a word, and the interior of the ship was deathly silent.

She couldn't take it anymore. She stood quickly and walked out, aware of everyone else's face on hers, but avoiding eye contact. A suddenly breeze swept over them, and they shivered.

Squall didn't wait. He stood and walked out after her, and closed the hatch after him. He found her standing looking out at the water in the front of the boat

"Rinoa, are you OK?" he asked as he reached out a hand to rest on her shoulder.

She shrugged it off quickly and turned slightly, and Squall could see she had been crying. She quickly brushed the tears away. "What do you think?" she demanded angrily. "Cid's… he's…" he sniffed and then wrapped her arms around him fiercely and wept into his jacket.

Hew wrapped his arms around in reply and placed a hand gently on top of her head, soothing her. "I know, I'm loved him too," he said, and then frowned slightly as he realised he hadn't been lying. Cid wouldn't be there any longer to give him advice about how to get rid of paperwork, or those small talks on morality he always gave when one of the gang was having trouble with something. "I'll miss him too," he said.

Rinoa pulled away and looked at him. "What are we going to do?" she asked.

Squall looked out into the distance. "We're going to find whoever did this, and they're going to answer for their crimes," he said calmly.

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"They gotta pay man," Zell said, glaring into the middle-distance.

Seifer turned to look at him. "Hmm?"

Zell looked at him, fire burning in his eyes. "They gonna pay for killing Cid," he said again.

Quistis glanced up at him. "We don't even know who did it," she said. Ever the practical one.

Zell glared at her. "So you're saying we should do nothing? " he demanded.

Quistis shook her head, and her eyes hardened. "No. I'm saying we need to figure out who these 'they' are before we can make them pay."

Zell stood and started shadow-boxing, to Seifer's annoyance. "Ain't gonna help, chicken-wuss," he said, and a second late cursed.

"What did you call me?" Zell shouted, rounding on him.

"Guys, chill," Irvine said calmly.

Zell turned. "The hell with you! Cid's gone and they're gonna think we did it, you telling me to be calm!"

"Zell?" Quistis asked tiredly.

"What?"

"Sit down and shut up."

For want of a miracle, he did. Quistis looked at them all in turn. "We have to figure out what to do, so shouting at each other isn't going to help." She looked at Zell pointedly, and he shivered slightly as ice-cold eyes scrutinised him. "We're all pissed, but turning on each other won't help."

Zell sat back on the small bench/seat and stared at the wall.

"What are we going to do?"

The question, surprisingly enough, had come from Selphie. Seifer steeled himself, and gave his ordered answer. "I think we should turn ourselves in," he said.

"What?"

"Huh?"

"Seifer?"

"No way man!"

Seifer sighed inwardly. "They'll know it couldn't have been us. We should go see Dobe and tell him what happened, he'll understand," he said.

"We're not going to do that."

All of them looked around as Squall and Rinoa came back into the cabin and looked around at them all. The SeeD Commander spoke again. "If we do that whoever did this could be gone. We owe it to Cid and all those people to find out who did this, no matter who tries to capture us," he said. "We head for FH and stock up, and then we go back to Winhill when the authorities have cleared out."

Selphie shuddered. "Why do we have to?" she asked, knowing full well why.

"Because whoever did this has to have left something behind."

Seifer didn't look up at them. You won't get that far.

"Where do we go in the meantime?" Quistis asked.

"Watts and Zone," Rinoa piped in. "The Owls'll still help us, they'll know we didn't do it."

Quistis nodded and sat back, satisfied. She looked towards the front of the cabin at the screen, and suddenly stood.

"We're here." She walked out of the cabin, and stopped. "…And we're not alone."

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Squall was the first out after Quistis, Rinoa still hanging onto his hand.

Xu stood on the dock of FH, with a line of SeeDs to either side. However, instead of looking pleased to see them, she was staring at them from the centre of a line of rifles, all of them pointed at the three on deck.

"What's up Xu?" he said calmly, as if discussing the weather.

"Squall," Xu acknowledged. Her face showed neither anger nor relief, just… nothing. "You're under arrest," se said next.

"What for?" he shot back.

"You know damn well what for. Are you gonna come with us quietly?" she asked.

"We didn't do those terrible things!" Rinoa shouted.

"Guys, don't make us-"

"You're not going to shoot us Xu, it's us," Quistis said.

Xu shook her head. "I have to carry out my orders," she said.

"You take orders from Squall."

"Not any more. You've been officially thrown out, as of one hour ago, all SeeDs report to Martine now, as the last Garden Commander."

Squall was taken aback. Martine? He opened his mouth to complain and took a step forwards to do so, but stopped when the rifles all swivelled to point at him.

"No!" Rinoa shouted, and half the guns turned to her.

"Come on Squall, don't do this!" Xu shouted.

"Wasn't us, we didn't do it, and we're going to prove it."

For the first time, a smile graced Xu's lips. "How? With seven SeeDs and a single assault boat? Please."

Squall shook his head and gripped Rinoa's hand, whispering to her. "Get back down, please, yes, we are. You're not doing this to innocents," he said.

Rinoa turned and walked down back into the boat. Xu's eyes flashed but she let her go. Quistis looked at her in puzzlement, then nodded at Squall and walked back down. She moved forwards and asked Selphie to power up the boat.

"Then I'm sorry, we'll have to shoot- HEY!"

Water splashed around them as the engine of the craft roared to life again, and Squall turned and ducked, throwing his arm n an arc, and a small cylinder flew towards the group of SeeDs and Xu. She looked shocked and ducked away as the canister exploded, tear gas covering the area.

"GET HIM!" she shouted at the soldiers, but they were all coughing, and Squall jumped down into the boat with being shot at, closing and locking the hatch behind him.

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"Time to go," Squall said, as he slammed the hatch shut and spun the wheel to lock it.

"Gotcha!" Selphie shouted, and started hitting buttons. Seconds later they heard muffled gunfire ricocheting from the hull of the boat, and Xu's voice screaming at them to stop.

"At least she doesn't want us dead," Irvine muttered.

"Probably just doesn't want to hit her own guys," Seifer replied, exactly right.

The boat lurched, and then the sounds of gunfire faded as it raved off away from Fisherman's Horizon. Squall alone waited until the sounds of weaponry on the hell f the craft faded before breathing a small sigh of relief and falling back down onto the bench.

"Great, so now we're fugitives, now what?" Zell asked.

"Zell, we went over it," Squall breathed, a definitely edge to his voice.

"…Sorry."

"That's alright. We try and think of what we need. We can't go back to Balamb, or Galbadia as Martine is there, or FH, not after that little display."

"Esthar," Rinoa said instantly.

Squall scowled. "Too risky."

Rinoa shook her head. "Laguna will help us! He'll know we didn't do it!"

Squall stared into her wide and pleading eyes, and lost. "Esthar then, after we know it's same, and we have something from Winhill. We wait with the Owls until it's safe, then we move."

Everyone murmured their assent, except for Seifer, who just nodded, and stared into nothing. Now that I know where they're going, how am I going to le Xu know?

"Seifer, you OK?"

Seifer looked up and stared into Quistis' eyes. "Fine," he said.

"You seem kind of zoned out," she commented.

Seifer chuckled darkly. "I have good reason to be." If only you knew, you'd throw me off this damned boat instantly. Later I may ask you too. He sighed. "Never thought this kind of thing would happen," he said.

"Me neither." She rubbed her eyes, and he realised how tired she looked. "We saved the world and now we're running from it." Her eyes went wide as she realised what she had said. "Oh, Hyne Seifer I'm sorry, I forgot-"

Seifer waved a hand at her. "It's OK, I deserved it."

Quistis shook her head and stared intently at him. "Not any more. You changed, we all know it. We're in this together now."

Again, Seifer's conscience hit him with a stick. Ah Trepe, if only you knew. If they catch you they'll kill you all, and probably I'll watch, and stare at you as they gas you all or shoot you or whatever, and your eyes will haunt me until I die. "Yeah, we are, aren't we?" he said quietly.

Quistis smiled slightly. "I could think of worse people to be hunted criminals with," she said.

Irvine snorted, and tipped his hat over his eyes. The gesture wasn't lost on the others, but he said it anyway. "I'd rather not be hunted at all, or be alone with-"

"If you finish that sentence I will have to hurt you!" Selphie shouted from the cockpit.

Irvine tipped his hat at her. "You know you'd think the same!" he shouted back in return,

Rinoa snuggled up farther against Squall and yawned. "Time is it?" she asked sleepily.

"Past your bedtime," Zell muttered, still staring moodily at everyone and thing.

Rinoa stuck out her tongue at him, and Squall smiled slightly as she tried to fall asleep against him. He gently stroked her hair, and she smiled slightly, looking for the entire world like she had just come back from a mission, and not a suddenly declared wanted fugitive.

Quistis smiled at the couple and leaned back against her corner of the bulkhead, using her arm as a pillow, and the others tried to do the same.

Seifer stared at them all in turn, and then did the same, knowing that he would get no sleep tonight. Or any night.