That night, Lina slept soundly. The abrasive day had brought her nothing but fatigue and she was too exhausted to question any ongoing situation with the mysterious weapon. Besides, she'd left it out there in the desert, there was no way it'd be able to get back here without someone literally picking it up and bringing it back into the city, but why'd anyone do that?
Lina awoke late in the afternoon with a bit of a headache, but perhaps her thoughts were just heavy like any day one wakes up late in the day. She laid unmoving for just a bit longer, trying to think to herself what she had to do that day. She flipped herself around, tugging at the blankets to fold up above her shoulders when she saw it plain as day: the very pink bladed sword from her dream and the day before, sitting upright in a hotel provided chair just by the door.
"What the hell!?" Lina muttered to herself as she sat up and stared at it. Bad move. The moment she did, she could feel herself getting dizzy again. The focus of her eyes completely left her and it seemed that the numb from the day before that had just recently abated had returned in all its grandeur. Her nerves preceded her as she snatch the sword up, her pupil dilating to a milky raven black. She headed down for the lobby where Irvine had unexpectedly been waiting for her throughout the majority of the entire morning.
"Lina!" Irvine yelled at her immediately. "How'd you get the sword again? I thought you said you never wanted to see it!" He reached out to snatch it from her, but she dodged him and ran back up to her room, knowing there would be only one way to lose him this time. She locked the door behind her and opened the window. Looking down at the street, Lina grew even dizzier, but she couldn't think for herself anymore. All that was left with her was inclination to obey the object in her hand and to fulfill its every whim. Irvine grabbed the doorknob, but it wouldn't budge, "Locked!" he mumbled. He took Exeter out and shot at the keyhole, aiming at the ground to make sure he wouldn't hit Lina. The door swung open. "LINA!"
Lina was already halfway out the window. "Lina you're on the FIFTH floor!" Lina didn't care, Lina probably couldn't tell. She jumped. "Damn, she's going to die!" Irvine rushed down the stairs and searched for her outside of the hotel. He jogged out to the outskirts of the city, but she was nowhere to be found. "She'll turn up..." Irvine reassured himself. He returned back to the hotel and waited for her. Soon he realized that all three of the girls were missing. What was he going to do?
"Don't panic, don't panic," he kept telling himself, but he was still panicking! He waited for Lina in the lobby for two days now, further delaying the need to make the phone call that could ultimately send his ass straight to Zell's wrath. Eventually, he gave in. There was no use in further delaying it--actually, the longer he waited, the worse the consequences. "Okay... just call Zell and it'll be okay," Irvine said, hesitant.
Irvine picked up the phone and dialed the numbers as slowly as he could, mentally preparing himself for what could be a traumatizing conversation. "Hello?" he heard from the other side and took a deep breath before replying.
"Zell... it's Irvine..."Irvine started slowly, took another gulp of air down his system and continued on, "Zell... Um... well, you see... Lina's missing. She's been missing for two days."
"WHAT!?" Zell screamed into the phone. "What the HELL do you mean 'she's missing'!? I told you that if anything goes wrong, you call me. Why the hell didn't you call me the first day!?" Irvine had the pull the phone away from his ear in fear it would permanently damage his hearing abilities. Still, he could hear Zell's bellowing when the phone was arm's length away from his ear.
"Well she jumped out of the fifth floor window and obviously, I didn't want to follow..." He hesitated. Maybe it wasn't the best thing to mention the whole putting-her-life-in-danger thing at a time like this. Irvine quickly finished up before Zell could start yelling at him again, "So I went down to look for her, but she was gone and she's been missing since." Much to his surprise Zell was silent after that remark--most likely thinking about what to do next.
"I'm coming over now," Zell hung up with that. Irvine looked at the phone in his hand with dismay, then drooped his head. He packed up Exeter into his belt and headed out to the outskirts of the city to wait for Zell. It wasn't even five minutes before he caught a glimpse of the Ragnarok approaching at a very quick pace. Zell surely didn't waste any time in getting down here; usually it was about a half hour ride. Zell dropped the Ragnarok right down in front of Irvine, threatening the living daylights out of him, then jumped out, demanding at once, "Where did you see her last?" There was no "hello, how are you"s or "it's not to see you again, Irvine". Nope, none of the sugarcoat, just straight to the point. Irvine saw Squall follow down out of the Ragnarok on the ramp a few seconds later, holding his forehead in his palm and almost toppling down to greet Irvine.
"Well um... she's been acting real weird lately," Irvine explained. "She got a sword too, a pretty pink one, but she chased me away with it. All the way out to the edge of the city. But then, she walked out into the middle of the desert, that way... but I stopped her before she got too far, or too lost to come back. She said she couldn't see the city though... it was right in front of her, so I got kind of freaked out."
"Wait, she went out there somewhere?" Zell beckoned in the direction Irvine had pointed. Irvine nodded.
"What the hell are we waiting for then? Let's just go," Squall said, who had been listening patiently up until now. They decided that the girls couldn't have traveled too far and pursued them by foot, running out for the desert without considering that they were two full days ahead of them.
By the end of a half hour, they were about to turn back and grab the Ragnarok until they saw a strange thing occurring right in front of them: a bright light shining down on three vague figures in the distance.