AN: Oh my. I'm SOOOOOOO sorry guys. I've had horrible writer's block for the longest time and it's taking me forever to get most of this part out. It's mostly just the minor details that I have to write at the moment, so none of it has been interesting or inspiring me to continue the story. I do promise that I will finish this story someday, even if it takes me another year to get the next chapter out. ^^;; I apologise for the delay.

-Rhyein

***

Squall picked his way carefully through the rubble of Edea's house once again, making his way toward the beach. He turned the corner of the house and saw Edea sitting on a rock, looking out across the sea; Cid was no where in sight. Squall took a few steps forward and kicked a small rock. The sound made Edea look up from her thoughts and smile at him.

"Hello Squall… I never did get a chance to thank you for saving my life," she told him. Squall shrugged.

"You're welcome," he replied.

"…Was there something you wanted to say?" she wondered. Squall nodded. "What is it?"

"Where is the White SeeD ship?"

"Those children are... They are very cautious," she began. "They would never remain in one place for long. However, they seemed to have taken a liking to Centra's landscape." Edea pulled a letter out of Cid's coat, which was wrapped around her shoulders. "Take this letter with you, they won't trust you otherwise." Squall came forward to take the letter, but Edea held it back. "I wanted to talk to you more… Alone."

Squall let his hand drop and he raised an eyebrow. "What did you want to talk about?"

"…You."

"I'd rather not."

"I won't give you the letter until you and I have a nice conversation."

"…Fine."

"How did you learn the Resurrection spell? I never taught it to you," she inquired. Squall leaned against a nearby boulder and tapped his forehead.

"…Her."

"Her?"

"When you first inherited your powers, wasn't there a bit of the sorceress left behind?" he asked. Edea thought for a second.

"Yes… Yes, there was."

"And she helped you learn magick right?"

"Yes, she did, but she went away after I turned 14… Something about puberty…"

"Well, I have a bit of the sorceress I inherited my powers from up here too," he said.

"I see."

"Does that answer your question?"

"Yes, it does, thank you."

"Can I have the letter now?"

"No. I want to ask you some other things."

"Like what?" he asked, becoming irritated.

"What are you going to do with Seifer when you get him?"

"…I don't know."

Edea sighed, at least he hadn't decided completely on killing Seifer. "Cut him some slack, alright? He… He took care of you, you should return the favour."

"He took care of me?"

"When you were younger. Right after you inherited your power. He used to go out of his way to be nice to you, to include you, to make sure you were comfortable… He was very fond of you… I don't know what happened later to change that."

"He forgot."

"What?"

"The GFs, they make people forget things. Irvine and I were the only two that remembered you were Matron. I bet Seifer forgot that he liked me."

"Possibly. Promise me you won't kill him."

"…I promise."

"Good," Edea said, and held the letter out to Squall. Squall took it and turned to leave. "Be careful, Squall."

***

Squall was getting bored, they'd been circling the Centran continent for hours, and there was still no sign of the White SeeD ship. He leaned his head against the glass of the bridge and sighed.

"Stop!" Squall cried suddenly, scaring Nida to death.

"What?!" Nida exclaimed, still trying to breathe. Squall pointed to the left.

"Over there… I saw something glinting in the sunlight over there…" he replied, moving to the other side of the bridge to get a better look. Nida shrugged and moved the Garden in that direction. They soon came upon a small natural harbour, and anchored, in the middle of it, was the slightly damaged White SeeD ship. "Pull up next to it, and make an announcement for Quistis, Zell, Irvine, and Selphie to meet me on the second floor observation deck," Squall ordered Nida as he left the bridge.

Squall waited impatiently for the other four teenagers to arrive, he had already asked for permission to board the White SeeD vessel, and was only waiting for them before going on. A few minutes later, they arrived and Squall turned to the White SeeD ship.

"We're going onboard," he said, making his way down the make-shift plank and onto the deck of the ship. The others glanced at each other and followed quietly behind. They were met on deck by a SeeD that Squall recognised from the last time the White SeeD ship had interacted with Garden.

"...We meet again," the White SeeD said.

"My name is Squall. I'd like to speak to your leader," the Commander informed him.

"My name is Josh, I'm in charge. State your business and depending on what you say, we may ask you to leave immediately."

"I need to see Ellone." The White SeeD seemed surprised at this request and scowled at Squall. "We pose no threat. Edea told us that you would be here."

"Edea...how...?"

"She is no longer under the control of Sorceress Ultimecia. There is no reason for you to hide Ellone's whereabouts from us. We want to take Ellone back to protect her from Ultimecia," Squall said. Josh inspected him for a moment, he didn't seem like the type to lie, but there was something about him that Josh just didn't like.

"…Thank you for coming... But we have no reason to believe you. Please leave," Josh finally said, and walked away from Squall.

"Squall, are you sure this is such a good idea…?" Quistis ventured, glancing around at the people on the ship, all of whom were giving them very unwelcome looks.

"Go back to Garden if you're that worried, I'm going to get answers," Squall replied. There was something in his tone that told Quistis that Squall would only leave this ship without Ellone if they killed him first. She watched him stalk after the White SeeD leader and grimaced slightly as small children were running to get out of his way. He was definitely in a dangerous mood today. She hurried after him, after sending Irvine, Selphie and Zell back to Garden, hoping to keep Squall from getting them into too much trouble.

Squall stalked toward the captain's cabin, but his way was blocked by two men.

"Wow! Long time no see, sir!" said the first teenager.

"Whoa! Look who's here! How's it goin', Squall?" the second asked. Squall blinked and looked at the two of them, realising it was Watts and Zone.

"Can't believe you're here! Everybody doin' good, sir?" Watts asked.

"After you guys left, the Galbadian buttheads came after us, and we barely escaped to this boat," Zone explained, not really noticing the annoyed look on Squall's face.

"I was sure we were goners, sir! Zone went nuts and was thinking about swimming across the sea to escape!"

"Hey, it was a plan. All you were doing was whining like a big baby. 'We're gonna die, we're gonna die!' And look who jumped in first! You, you idiot!"

(...I don't see how these dumbasses keep surviving.) Squall thought in irritation. Finally he just glared at Zone.

"Move," he said. Zone's eyes widened a bit and he nodded nervously, moving to the side and clutching his stomach. Watts waved cheerfully at Quistis as she and Squall entered the Captain's cabin.

The cabin was small, but serviceable, Josh was sitting in the corner, writing something in a journal. He looked up as Squall and Quistis entered the room.

"I thought I asked you to leave?" he said. Squall walked toward him and threw the letter Edea had given him on the desk next to Josh. Josh picked it up and opened it. "This is Matron's handwriting… She really gave it to you?" he asked.

"Yes."

"It says here that you're looking for Ellone... I'm sorry, Ellone's not here. After we picked her up from you guys, we headed east to get away as far as we could from Edea and Galbadia. Before long, we encountered the Galbadian fleet. The outnumbered us badly, obviously, they were searching for us," he explained. "Luckily, we were able to escape but, our ship was damaged and we were stranded. Eventually, the Galbadians caught up to us and we had no choice but to prepare for battle… But then an Estharian ship appeared. A battle began between them and Galbadia, and we were caught in the middle of it… Then something strange happened," he stopped for a moment, collecting his thoughts.

"Suddenly, another Estharian ship came up beside us and Esthar soldiers came aboard. They told us to get aboard their ship... It sounded like an order to evacuate. Of course, we refused. We didn't trust them just as we didn't trust the Galbadians. As the Esthar soldiers were trying to convince us, the battle became more intense, soon they were forced to leave our ship. As their ship was pulling away, Ellone yelled out something… it sounded like… 'Uncle Laguna', but I'm not sure… Anyway, then she jumped onto their ship. I don't understand why she did it, but after that, Esthar's fleet withdrew from battle and fled. After they left, we... well, it's a long story. When our ship is fully repaired, we plan to go to Esthar. I'm sorry, Squall. We couldn't protect her," Josh concluded, sighing.

"So she's in Esthar?"

"That's what we believe…"

Squall turned to Quistis. "We're going to Esthar."

"Squall-"

"No 'buts'," he snapped. "We're going to Esthar and that's final."

***

Garden had arrived in FH that night, it was as close to Esthar as they could get. Squall had gone to talk to Mayor Dobe, and found out that the only way into Esthar was to walk the train tracks, which was a full day's walk. They had all sat in Squall's make-shift office; throwing ideas back and forth of how to get there quicker, but nothing seemed like it would work. Quistis was the last to leave Squall sitting silently in his chair, staring out the window, thinking.

Quistis awoke the next morning to a loud pounding on her door. She pulled herself out of bed groggily and wrapped a robe around herself as she walked to the door.

"Who is it?" she asked irately, she didn't enjoy being woken up at 6am.

"Irvine," said the voice on the other side. She opened the door and glared at him.

"What is so important that you're pounding on my door at 6am?"

"Squall's gone."

Quistis felt as if she'd been slapped awake. "What?!"

"So is Rinoa. Dr K came in this morning and Rinoa was gone, so she went to talk to Squall about it and no one can find him."

"Do you think he…?"

"Knowing him… yes."

"Shit. Gimme a minute to get dressed. You go get Zell and Selphie and meet me on the second floor observation deck, okay?"

"Yes'am," Irvine nodded and walked off toward Selphie's room. Quistis closed the door and got dressed in a hurry, she ran out of her room, not even bothering to put her hair up. She found Selphie, Irvine and Zell all where she had asked to meet them and nodded to each of them.

"Well, we obviously know where he's most likely gone…"

"Esthar," Zell said.

"…Yes, Esthar… Xenophobic, Anti-Sorceress, Esthar… Of all the places-" She shook her head. "All right, we're going to have to go after him, unfortunately he has a large head start, and we have no way of catching up."

"What if we float Garden along side the bridge and jump off at the end and wait for him?" Selphie suggested. Quistis remembered discussing that possibility last night but she couldn't remember why they had decided against it.

"I guess that's as good a chance as any…" she replied. "Let's go get Nida to do that."

***

Squall figured he'd been walking for almost 5 hours, it was nearly sunrise, and he could see the Estharian Mountains looming closer. Rinoa was still unconscious on his back. He couldn't believe that he cared enough about someone to actually carry them this far, just to talk to her again.

(...It's still pretty far...) he thought. (Didn't think it would be this far. What am I doing? Going to Esthar to find Ellone, to talk to Ellone... But there's no guarantee that everything will be resolved if I talk to Ellone. Even so, I'm still gonna try…) Squall stopped walking and set Rinoa down against the edge of the bridge. He thought he could see something floating out at sea in the distance, it looked a bit like Garden, but he figured it was just the morning light playing tricks on him.

"I sure have changed," he said quietly, sitting down next to her. (I wonder what everyone's doing...? They're probably laughing at me. Or maybe they're angry...?) he thought, sighing.

"What do you think? To tell you the truth... I worry too much about what other people will think of me," he said to Rinoa. "Cid's right… I am selfish. I only think of me… of what will happen to me if people find out… I'm tired of worrying about that. I wish I could just be normal and have regular friends and not have to worry about what they'll think… Then they all found out, and they still think of me the same way. I don't get that. I preferred being the unfriendly, introverted guy. It made it easier for me when people perceived me that way. But now…" he glanced at Rinoa's sleeping face. "That's changed. My world is different now, and it's mostly your fault," he laughed bitterly.

"I'm sure you have no idea the way you've turned me upside-down. You keep trying to find everything out, figure me out, and make me come out of my shell. And I can't be angry with you for it, I don't know why, but when you're around I feel calm… I feel as if everything will be alright…" Squall's voice faded off and he looked back out at the rising sun. He stood up after a second and picked Rinoa back up. "I promised you that if you stayed near me, everything would be alright… I need to keep that promise."

***

"Well? Where is he?" Zell wondered. He had stopped pacing and turned to face Quistis.

"He'll be here," she replied, staring into the distance.

"It is very dangerous for you to have lost him," Edea's soft voice said from her seated position on the platform. The abandoned Estharian train station had been the point that the SeeDs had decided to wait for their leader. Quistis closed her eyes and sighed. She already felt bad enough that Rinoa was in a coma, but to "lose" Squall was unforgivable. It only reminded her once more of her inadequacies. He was her commander and her friend, and she sometimes forgot that he was also an extremely dangerous sorcerer.

"There he is!" Selphie cried out, bouncing up and down. She pointed as Squall trudged into view with Rinoa on his back. Quistis opened her eyes and smiled at him as he approached.

"Took you long enough…" she said when he was close enough to hear her.

"Is the princess still asleep?" Zell inquired, peeking at Rinoa.

"She might wake up with a kiss from the prince," Quistis teased, grinning at the Commander.

Squall scowled at her, obviously unamused. "Is that why you came all the way out here? To tell me that?" he snapped.

"You're going to Esthar, right?" Quistis said, getting to the point. "We're coming, too."

"We're Edea's escort," Irvine chimed in. Selphie nodded as well. Edea stood and moved away from her place on the platform, toward Squall.

"Let us be on our way, Squall," she said softly.

"What business do you have in Esthar?" he asked in a caustic tone. He was tired of the way everyone treated him and Matron was no exception.

"I must go see Doctor Odine," she replied. She blinked a few times, as Squall's tone only reiterated the fact that he had changed much since she'd last seen him.

"Why do you need to see him?"

"Because Sorceress Ultimecia is still alive," she began, eyeing his reaction carefully. "I still have a little bit of residual power left, and I fear that she may take control of me again and use that small amount of power to her advantage."

Squall looked unconvinced, but said nothing. He shifted Rinoa's weight on his back and turned. "Let's go then."