Squall turned his gaze to a fierce glare at Waruitenshi, "I didn't tell her anything." he muttered.

Zell, who was at the time preoccupied trying to avoid Selphie's attempts to pinch him for his earlier comment, heard the comment and narrowed his eyes at Waruitenshi, Why can't she mind her own business? Pinch. "Damn! Stop that!"

Squall followed Quistis out into the deserted complex. Most of the garden students and SeeDs did not bother with waking until at least nine. The former instructor had insisted that Squall, Selphie, and Zell all be awake at seven to start the day. That had been when there was lots of training to do for the battles with the sorceresses. Now, it was just habbit. Rinoa not a SeeD, and Irvine, from a different garden, had both only woken up as early to be with the rest of the group or, in Irvine's case, a little curly brown haired demon had threatened him so. Therefor the complex was completely devoid of activity.

Quistis turned to him, rage showing brightly on her face, "Out of all the people on the planet, Squall! You told her!?"

The ex-instuctor clenched her teeth.

Squall glared at her, "I didn't tell her anything."

Quistis narrowed her eyes even more, "THEN HOW DID SHE FIND OUT!?"

"I don't know!" Squall snapped, a glare firmly crossing icy blue eyes.

Quistis sighed, "We will have to keep an eye on her, and she can know no more about this."

Quistis Walked back into the cafeteria, and Squall followed.

Waruitenshi's eyes lit up, "So, Rinoa is missing? She left? Why!?" The girl was beaming with delight as question after question flowed from her mouth, like a river.

Quistis stared her hard in the eye, "As a SeeD and ex-instructor, I command you to leave us, so we may have our meeting. The topics are confidential, and could possibly put you in danger. This is classified and I must ask you to leave."

Waruitenshi rose from her chair, and leaned on her hip with a haughty expression, "Well, no wonder you're an EX-instructor." She strutted out of the cafeteria, on her way accidentally knocking Quistis to the side, on purpose.

Quistis stumbled and caught the table, she rolled her eyes, "This girl is a major problem."

Zell smiled at Quistis, "Classified? Confidential? Put her in danger?" He cocked an eyebrow, "Nice cover." he fell over laughing.

Everyone took their seats and Zell kept his eye on the door, in case she came back.

"Maybe she can read minds or something." She paused, "Just run away from her, and don't think about anything."

Everyone stared at her.

Selphie cocked her head, "Are you feeling ok, Quisty?"

Quistis frowned, "Back to the problem."

Selphie looked at the table, "Should we just wait for her to come back? Or should we go find her?"

In the background an announcer read about the discovery of a mail truck being blown to bits and all the mail destroyed, Quistis stared at the TV half consciously. The cafeteria ladies were watching the Timber news.

"We should divide, half of us stay here and half of us go look for her...in Dollet?" Quistis looked back at them, "If she's in Dollet..."

Squall nodded, "If she said she went to Dollet,we should check Dollet. But still..."

I think I used to have this idea, that everyone's voices would be all hazy and fade-y when someone was having a pensive moment (virtually all the time in this fic), and to symbolize this, I went sort of ellipse-happy. I really know no other way to explain the abundance of ...'s through this fic.

Quistis nodded, "We'll divide, Selphie and Irvine, stay here at the Garden. Squall, Zell, and I will go on the search." She looked around at them, "Do you think another enemy might have anything to do with this?...Are we sure Seifer and Edea are dead?"

Irvine's jaw dropped, "Stop thinking and go look!"

Quistis went to notify the headmaster of leave. The garden had been under strict guard sense the garden was last attacked.

Thirty minutes later, Zell, Quistis, and Squall left to Dollet.

Yumenegau kicked in the TV screen, "Gahhhh!!!!! I can't believe this!! The stupid truck blew up!!!" he looked at Rinoa, sitting on the floor in the barrier, she was playing a stupid game of solitaire! He walked through the barrier, kicked the cards out of order and walked back out. Rinoa gave him an icy glare.

"Hey!" He pointed at her and let his tome rise even more, anger filling his insides, "It's been two weeks and no one has come for you!! What is this!? Don't you feel bad that your friends don't even care enough for you, to come find you!?"

Rinoa, restarting her solitaire game, simply glanced up at him and continued her entertainment.

"You think I don't know what that note said!?" he shook his head slowly, giving her a look of disgust, "I have ways of finding out. Your friends are probably throwing a party! They're happy you left."

Rinoa frowned, it had been two weeks, she hadn't said a word for two weeks. She had been entirely silent. 'How unlike me,' she thought to herself. She realized, they weren't coming. It gave her a kind of sadness deep inside. She was glad they weren't going to be trapped, but she felt alone. Watts and Zone couldn't help her now. No one would. She looked up at Yumenegau again, only to say a few words, "I had no doubt they wouldn't."

Though she had said the words with the full force of her voice, they came out barely a whisper. She continued her game.

Yumenegau sat down and stared at Rinoa with an expression she couldn't place. Was it pity? He opened his mouth to say something, but the phone rang. Yume got up and walked over to the table the TV had been on, beside it, on the floor, the phone lay. he picked it up and pressed "talk."

Rinoa paused her game and watched the out of the corner of her eye. He had turned away so she couldn't see his face, but she could hear him talking.

"You're late..."

The conversation started.

"I saw the news report, to think these fools would report about mail trucks blowing up, how ironic..."

"The way the world works these day is very humorous..."

"You think she is the one getting in your way?"

"I know him better than you think, I don't know if you've gotten through to him, Trepe probably isn't the only thing standing between you and him..."

"They've left!"

"They are wasting my time! Why can't you-" Yumenegau threw a glance at Rinoa, and saw her shuffling cards.

"FOLLOW THEM, IDIOT!!"

"Wait! I didn't mean that. I'm sorry."

I just took FOUR ellipses out of that one line of dialogue right above this sentence! omfg!!!111one.

"Dollet is a waste of my time. Find a way and direct them here!"

"Why are you worrying about her father!? He has no matter in this! FOLLOW THEM!!" he hung up the phone and turned to Rinoa, muttering, "Stupid woman."

Rinoa couldn't help but wonder who Yumenegau had been talking to over the phone. He had mentioned 'Trepe.' Were they talking about Quistis? They are coming! Oh no.... They are going to Dollet, then? And they're being followed. They're going to be in danger when they finally get her... And it's all my fault.'

Rinoa looked up at Yumenegau, who had been watching her.

Yume smiled, "I see, by the expression on your face, you know that your friends are starting their search. They are going to Dollet...AND WASTING MY TIME!!!" Yumenegau sat down and groaned.

Rinoa stared at the ground, What have I done?

The train trip to Dollet had been, without remote pretense, dull and uneventful.

After hours of tiring and monotonous travel, the trio stood on a street corner in front of a cozy-looking used book shop. It was one of the few areas of the city remotely managable anymore.

"I'll check the hotel, Zell check the shops, Squall check the surrounding areas, streets, alleys, the likes." Her eyebrow twitched, "Now, we split up."

Dollet wasn't a big city or anything, it would be easily covered.

Zell had left, Quistis had left, and Squall stared at the street in front of him. An old car was parked not far from him. It had been crushed. He remembered the XATM092, he never had found out what happened to it.

The city was falling apart in many places. The buildings had all been almost entirely destroyed by the giant machine, or the SeeDs attempt at stopping it. Both had caused an rather equal amount of damage. Most of the shops and residences appeared as crumbling abandoned ruins, now.

The wind blew down the long, rubble-crowded street, rustling Squall's unkempt brown hair. After a moment of quiet reprieve, he began to roam the streets with a distinct absense of urgency. He knew it was useless; Rinoa wasn't here.

A nearby street lantern flickered before going out, it's dim orange glow fading gently into the night.