Rinoa stared out through the window over the curved form of Balamb Garden. She sighed, and rubbed her head tiredly.

They had discovered Tharria missing three days ago. It was no trouble to guess that she'd sneaked onto Ragnorok somehow to be with Laguna. Squall had spoken to various people working on the ship and a few had given accounts of a girl of Tharria's description getting onto the ship dressed as a worker.

Rinoa glanced out of the window again, as if she expected to see the Ragnorok land and Tharria to run out and greet her mother like she'd never been away.

Rinoa stood up abruptly, and wiped her wet eyes. The Ragnorok wouldn't be taking off from anywhere for a long time. They'd found it crash landed on an unpopulated area of the Esthar continent. There had been no survivors.

They'd found the body of the pilot. It looked like he'd stayed on to the end with the failing ship. A few of the personnel had also been found, dead. But there was no sign of the SeeDs, Laguna or the guards.

Rinoa walked steadily down the corridor towards the lift, her heels clacking on the floor. Squall had been working non-stop since they'd heard about the accident trying to find out exactly what happened. It looked like a terrorist attack on the ship had gone wrong. They'd found the last remnants of what could have been some kind of controlling device. It looked like it had caused the ship to dive for the ground when it had been tampered with.

She was nearly at the exit now, she noticed that the noise was unusually subdued for this time of day. The whole of Garden was mourning. President Laguna had been fairly familiar face at Balamb. Kieren, Hallie and Lars were young SeeDs who had disappeared on their first mission, and then there was Tharria. Most had not met her, but the sadness that must have shown on Squall and Rinoa's faces affected the cadets too.

Slamming the door of the car behind her, Rinoa started up the engine of the car, and drove out of the car park. There was another thing too. Some of the parachutes had been used, but when properly investigated it had turned out that they had been deliberately tampered with. Anyone using them would drop to their death. The number of parachutes missing from the cargo bay and bridge had equalled the number of missing people.

The sun shone down onto Rinoa's dark hair as it was whipped about by the wind. Rinoa put her foot down onto the gas and the car jumped forward. She hadn't been so reckless since she was a little bit older than Tharria, but still it wasn't like she had much left to worry about anyway. Tharria was gone, and it seemed as if Squall would spend the rest of his life scouring the Esthar continent for her.

It was late afternoon by the time Rinoa reached her destination. The white house shone nearby, it's dark vines covering the old building like a blanket.

Rinoa knocked on the door timidly. A tall dark-haired woman answered, and the sound of many children playing could be heard.

'Rinoa!' Said the woman, she saw tears well up in Rinoa's eyes. 'Oh, what's wrong my dear? Come in, don't stand there on the front step.'

Rinoa stepped into the main room. About 7 children were sat around playing various different games, most of them loud, and boisterous. Tharria had never played like that. She'd always been training with Squall or quietly working away at something. The thought of her daughter only made the tears come faster, and a sob tore from her throat.

'Oh Edea…sh..she's g-ggone Edea. My little g-girl's gone…and Squall t-too.' She felt Edea's arm around her shoulders and she turned and wept on the woman's shoulder.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tharria opened her eyes and wondered where she was. The sky above was a deep, velvety blue that was speckled with glittering stars. Sitting up she peered at the two recumbent figures around the dying fire they had made earlier.

Kieren was curled protectively around Hallie's sleeping form. Tharria smiled to see the two of them snuggling up to each other to keep warm. She stopped smiling abruptly when she realised that the fourth member of the party was missing. Lars hadn't awoken from his fall when she had gone to sleep. It had made it easier for her to re-set the bone in his arm, although luckily the only damage to his legs seemed to be a bruised ankle, so he'd probably be ok to walk, if he was careful.

Standing up, Tharria gasped as she looked out over the bay. The moon was huge here, and a beautiful pearlescent white. Low on the horizon, it reflected pale white light across the ripples, giving the whole area a glow. Tharria spotted a dark silhouette in the water and made her way down to the beach.

Warm sand filtered between her tired bare feet, and Tharria wriggled her toes in delight. She sighed happily, it was so beautiful and peaceful. Her step became bouncy and half-skipping as she headed for the figure in the water. Tharria grinned to herself, and viewed the panoramic scene once more.

*I could stay here forever…*

The reality of the situation hit her as she realised that this thought could very well come true, although not in the way she hoped necessarily. She stopped her bouncy walk as she noticed the figure walking through the surf on the beach. It was Lars.

Tharria's jaw dropped open as he stepped onto the damp sand. He was totally naked. His well muscled body shone in the glow of the moon, and tiny droplets of water in his hair, each one reflecting the moonlight. Tharria noticed he was staring at her with a mixed look of surprise, embarrassment and something Tharria couldn't recognise.

The spell broke and he turned trying to cover himself up, whilst Tharria slammed her eyes shut and gabbled apologies. Finally, Lars informed her that he was dressed, and she could open her eyes. She opened her eyes, and there was an awkward silence, during which Tharria began to blush a dull red. Lars coughed slightly and tried to walk over to her. He put his foot down and made a sharp hissing noise between his teeth, bringing his foot up and rubbing his ankle.

Tharria was kneeling in front of him as quick as a flash, supporting his foot and frowning at the large purple mark staining his skin.

'You need to rest this,' She said reprovingly, 'What the hell were you doing coming down here for a quick swim with no-one else awake to help you if you got into trouble?'

Lars scowled at her, 'I woke up and everyone else was sleeping. Since I thought that you might need your sleep, I came down here by myself. I can swim perfectly well using only my good arm, and it took away some of the aching ok? Sorry for not first consulting your Majesty…'

'Hey that's not fair! If it weren't for me you'd still be lying half-dead in some long grass, with your chances of surviving about as much as a rabbit that stumbled into a T-Rexaur nest!' Tharria snapped at him, 'I carried you up to the camp, and then tended to your wounds, and the thanks I get is that you run off and ruin all my good work by drowning yourself.'

His face mollified a bit and he said, 'You saved me?' His scowl deepened again and he pulled his foot from her grip, 'Hah! Like hell you could carry me. You aren't even a SeeD? I don't know who you are and I don't like your high and mighty attitude, so you can just get lost and leave me alone.' Turning he attempted to stride off up the beach towards the camp. After a few steps his ankle gave way, and he fell heavily onto the sand.

Tharria turned her back to him angrily and stared out over the sea. She heard him breathing heavily behind her as he tried to get himself up again only to collapse back to the sand. The scowl faded from Tharria's face, and she felt ashamed that she'd let this….this boy make her angry. She'd been taught from childhood never to let her temper take over.

Turning, Tharria walked over to Lars' prone form and hauled him up, taking care to support him. She could see how pale his face was from the pain and how hard he was trying to fight the urge to scream.

'I think I can cast another Cure on your ankle, although you know it will only take away the pain. Your ankle will still be weak so your in danger of forgetting and doing yourself more damage…' Lars nodded tersely, and Tharria closed her eyes and concentrated on the spell. When she opened her eyes, Lars was looking much better and the blue sparkles of light were fading.

'C'mon, I'll help you back to the fire.' She said, placing her arm around his back and helping him carefully towards the others.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'Sir! Where are you going? We'll have to warn security tha…' The man stopped short as Balamb's renowned leader turned and glared at him.

'I am going somewhere, alone, and I don't wish to be disturbed by anything, least of all by that bunch of bumbling idiots that call themselves security.'

The man gulped nervously, and scurried off towards the wreckage of Ragnorok where people were still working to discover exactly what had happened. Squall watched him go, before turning and striding towards the nearby trees.

Once confident that he was a safe distance from the terrible scene, the disapproving frown he usually wore, slid from Squall's face, and he sat on a moss covered rock, rubbing his head tiredly.

He'd been working non-stop since the accident had been reported. Leading every search team through the wreckage personally, helping the research and forensics team. And all for what? They hadn't discovered the remains of Laguna, the three SeeDs or Tharria. They had discovered parachutes missing from both the cockpit and the cargo bay, and also that all the remaining parachutes had been tampered with, suggesting that whoever had used the missing ones had had their lives significantly shortened as a result.

Squall put his head in his hands as the tears began to fall. The thought of Tharria plunging to her death, all the time knowing that soon she would……she would…And the alternative, being crushed or burnt to death as the Ragnorak careened into the ground. Rinoa was far away, safe in Balamb Garden but how he missed her. She was the only one, the only one who he could truly talk to. He told her everything, safe in the knowledge that Rinoa would never judge him or push him away.

The lack of radio coverage here meant that he hadn't spoken to her for days, or anyone from Balamb for that matter, and now he felt more alone and helpless than ever before. Tharria was….gone. Lying dead out in the middle of unpopulated land. His only child, the only one he cared for as much as Rinoa. The only one he had ever….cried for…

*Yeah, but you got caught up on that didn't you Squall? You realised her potential and forgot about why you were teaching her in the first place. You taught her like she should be glad of getting your full attention, be glad at having her full potential fine tuned by you. You never bothered to ask her if there was anything else she wanted, you never showed her you were proud. You forgot to be a father, you forgot to show your love…*

Squall raised his head from his hands slightly and stared sadly into the trees ahead, 'And now it's too late…' He whispered, and sighed sadly to himself. Standing, he tried to dry his wet face on his sleeve and sniffed.

*Time to go and face the troops again I guess*

Squall turned towards the camp, and something hit him across the head. The world went dark, as he fell backwards onto the soft forest floor. The woman standing over him smiled cruelly and lowered the rock she'd used to hit him. Turning away contemptuously, dark figures swarmed from the trees and picked up Squall's unconscious form. The woman tossed her head, causing flame coloured curls to fan out behind her.

'Bring him. Next we'll fetch his lovely sorceress wife and the one they call Matron, ' She smiled cruelly, her violet eyes as hard as agates, 'And then we'll have a full set.'