The morning rays of the sun were just emerging. The little private kitchen area that the immediate family used for breakfast was quiet. Steiner stood on the kitchen floor with his mouth open and just ... shook his head from side to side, while the words he had just heard bounced around inside his head like bouncy balls let loose in a china shop. "Are... you ... certain? ... dear?" He managed to say. Beatrix nodded. Steiner's mouth was smiling but his eyes were screaming 'FOR THE LOVE OF GOD NOOOOOOO'. "Quite certain." Beatrix sighed. "Well... that's... nice... dear..." Steiner widened what he hoped was a convincing smile and noticed the glare that Beatrix had pinned him with. She huffed and turned to walk away, Steiner snapped out of his shock and grabbed at her arm, "No wait! Wait... it's ... wonderful." She turned and looked into his eyes, they seemed to have reluctantly accepted their fate. Beatrix leaned into his body and pulled him close, "I know it's bad timing and I know you're not ready but... these things happen." "Well... I suppose I would make quite a good father," Steiner kissed her hair and closed his eyes, content just to stand and hold her, "And we'll have everything sorted by then." "I know." Steiner smiled and imagined himself with a big cheesy grin, holding the little bundle in his arms. He felt a little happiness emerge just as something screamed in the distance. Beatrix pulled away and looked at the kitchen door, she opened her mouth and someone wailed again. It was Eiko. "Come BACK Here!" Garnet's voice sliced through the wailing cry. "YOU TOLD! WHY DID YOU TELL?! WHY DON'T YOU JUST TELL THE WHOLE WORLD!" Eiko yelled. "Oh Eiko! Come Here! Look... STOP THAT! GET BACK HERE!" Garnet's voice was intermingled with the echoey sounds of the both of them running around in the room just outside of the kitchen, "I had to tell someone! They have to change the sheets! And YOU need a bath!" "I DIDN'T! IT WASN'T ME!! IT was... it was... ... it was ... IT WAS A MOOGLE!" The kitchen door burst open and Eiko ran a little way into the room, noticed the couple staring at her and yelled, "IT'S NONE OF YOUR STUPID BUSINESS!!" before running back out. Garnet continued to chase after her as they ran yelling back up the corridor. Steiner winced at Beatrix, "How certain is certain... dear?" ---------- Rikku buried her head into the covers as she woke, aware of the morning light that had snuck in uninvited to their cosy room. The bed was warm and everything else seemed so alien now. Even the smell of the palace, the food and its people. She imagined the sounds of her friends and family talking in the distance until, as she drifted back to sleep, she could just about hear them. "Where have you been?" "I'm home! I'm really home!" "Wakey Wakey ladies!" Harriet yelled into the room and woke Rikku from her dream. Yuffie took a deep breath and groaned. "Got a lot to do today dears, show you all around your new unit. Nearly done it is. Then you go to your first training session and shopping for some nice new clothes okay? Well what an exciting day it is today. Yes it is!" Harriet chattered as she opened the curtains, allowing the full glare of the morning sun free reign. Rikku squinted her eyes shut and buried her head down even more. "Breakfast in an hour girls!" Harriet left the room. The sun, however, continued its onslaught until Rikku forced herself to pry an eye open. The blurry image of Yuffie's bed focused itself, Yuffie sat at the edge rubbing at her face. She stood up and stretched while Rikku spied from one half-shut eye. Yuffie ran her fingers through her hair and looked down in Rikku's direction. She watched for a moment and turned away, pulling her nightie over her head. Rikku noticed how skinny her little frame was, perhaps a little less so than before but... Yuffie turned around and Rikku closed her eyes. "You awake?" Yuffie asked. "Hmmm." Rikku mumbled. "You okay?" Yuffie walked to Rikku's bed and stood by it, watching down over Rikku. She smiled for a moment and walked away to continue dressing. Rikku stretched out. 'Nothing else to do but continue. Since we've been called to do something. Might as well find out what it is and do it. What else can we do?' Yuffie looked back at Rikku's bed again, the girl was still buried in the covers. Yuffie closed her eyes and sighed, strange feelings washing over and over. 'Alone. This is all I have now. And then not even that. This is all I have. This place, these people and... her.' The memory of cold hungry nights sleeping wrapped up in leaves under trees seemed so distant from this warm cosy place. Horrible sleepless nights scraping the last bits of food from stolen bowls. Stealing and begging on the city streets, unwanted, confused, angry. And yet this was the alien world. Home it was not. 'Funny word, home, I don't have one anywhere anymore.' ---------- The breakfast table that morning seemed more dismal than usual. Steiner, Beatrix and their crew had gone to the island for three days; his absence seemed to have left a hole in the conversations, stilted and brief though they were. Zidane was the only person who looked the least bit refreshed. Garnet sat with her head resting on her hand, plopping her spoon into her porridge without much enthusiasm. Eiko glared angrily at everyone else as she picked at her own breakfast. Yuffie stuffed as much as she could into her mouth, occupied with thoughts of getting fitter. Rikku's head was full of voices she missed. She ate with little care, not even tasting it. "I might have a shower, I'm not really hungry." Garnet got up and left. Zidane nodded as she walked from the room. He glanced up at Eiko, "Hey, why don't we spend some time in town. I think there's a fair somewhere ... might be fun?" Eiko gave him a glum pout and shrugged. "What do you say girls?" Zidane asked. "I have to train! And I'm gunna! You'll see how good I am!" Yuffie blurted through a mouthful of toast. "Thanks, but we really do have to train." Rikku smiled at Yuffie, her enthusiasm was catching. Garnet re-entered the room, paler than before, her skin shiny, "Oh I'm going to have to skip the police briefing... I really don't feel good at all, I'm going to get some sleep." "Of course, you do ... I'll be ... come on, I'll help you to bed." Zidane shot up out of his chair and walked with Garnet out of the room, he looked back to Eiko, "Hey kid, we're still on for the fair okay?" "Whatever." Eiko sighed. "Hey kid! Don't worry! We'll kick... whatever's butt good okay? Don't you worry!" Yuffie flicked her hand at the girl and winked. Eiko nodded, climbed down off her chair and plodded away without a word. "She's kinda depressed. Must be hard on such a young kid huh?" Rikku said to herself as much as Yuffie. "Yeh. Her olds are kinda weird too..." Yuffie reached for everyone else's leftovers, "But it's gunna be fine, since we're here... we rock!" Eiko ran back into the room and stared up at the two girls, "Do you think she has a ghost now?" Yuffie swallowed, "Well... they know the cure right? So don't worry!" Eiko nodded, "Okay," and walked away mumbling to herself, "Cure... they know the cure... they cured me and Rikku so it will work... it will work f..." ---------- Three hours into their training Rikku and Yuffie took a break, they sat at the edge of the mechanical array and drank from a shared bottle of water in silence. It was quite clear to the trainers that Yuffie was well below the strength she needed to be at. They chatted amongst themselves while the girls rested. Yuffie closed her eyes and rested against the wall, someone knocked at the door; one of the trainers got up to answer it. Two men spoke for a moment. She recognised Zidane's voice. "Excuse me ladies, it appears you are needed." Elke spoke, Yuffie opened her eyes. Zidane stood near the door, his face sullen and grey. Rikku jumped up and walked over. Yuffie took a deep breath and hauled herself onto her aching legs. They were weak from the effort she'd put them through. "I think I need you two to hear some of our police briefing. Seeing as you're both part of this... somehow. You might recognise someone." Zidane led the girls from the training area back to the main castle. "I wonder what happened?" Rikku asked Yuffie as they walked. Yuffie shrugged, her mind full of images she assumed the mystery person might be. A tall man with long silver hair? Zidane opened the door to the boardroom and turned to the girls, "This isn't going to be pleasant. I'm sorry." Around the long table were a group of random people from various towns. Most were either crying or the same pale grey colour as Zidane. A few of the palace guards and the newly formed country police, members from each town's force, were also sitting at the table. Yuffie was certain she knew who it would be. Rikku looked about at the frightened faces. 'Time to put my own worries away for now'. "Please take a seat. Maybe if Grandma Pickle starts, tell us what you saw." The three seated themselves opposite the old lady, wrapped in a shawl that her hands nervously wrangled. "Horrible! Horrible it was. Poor dear. Well it was last night see... and my card group were all going back from the bingo club to our hotel, seeing as we were in Treno for a bit of a holiday. Well we all saw it. So there's no mistaking it. We got to the wall and there's this girl, maybe your age, maybe younger... she's screaming and running toward us. She yelled at us to help her, she said she didn't want to die." Grandma Pickle stalled for breath and looked up at Zidane, he nodded. "Well... this ... shadow of a person, it just appeared out of nowhere and the girl took off again. It was after her so we tried to call out for help. In the end Mr Cambell ran after them but we're all old see and we couldn't get far. But we followed them. That shadowy ghost just pulled out a sword and... threw it at her. It hit her right in the chest, then she fell down and the shadow went to get its sword back. But then... but then... they both vanished! Both of them gone! Into thin air! We looked and looked!" Grandma Pickle eye's unfocused as she sighed. "I saw something like that too," A younger man called out, a chorus of agreement rang from the table. Yuffie nodded at them. She knew who carried a sword. "We have a strange situation here," Zidane turned to the girls, "I have asked all of the witnesses to describe as much as they can about the victims and the shadow they saw. It seems the victims are all identical. Clones perhaps." He picked a sheet of paper from the table and handed it to Rikku. It was a drawing of a young woman, a plain girl with long dark hair. Zidane held up the drawing of the shadow. Yuffie opened her mouth to speak. She then saw that the shadowy figure was nothing like the man she was certain of. The sword was short and straight, and black. The figure was indistinct but human, and female. "I don't know who either of those people are." Rikku mumbled, she looked from the drawings to Yuffie. "Me either." ---------- Eiko left her room and wandered down a random hallway, bored, she leaned against the wall with one hand, pushed herself off and landed on the other side. She was drained from the stress of all that had happened. The memory of little girl she had seen worried her. Eiko made her way to the storeroom with the mirror. She snuck past the various staff who had other things on their minds, rumours of the strange "murders" spread fast. The room had been locked up good. Eiko leaned against the door and sighed. She looked down at the floor, at the old floorboards. Some were so old they were rotting away. Eiko gasped, her chest tightened, she stepped backwards and stared at the floor. The floorboards had rotted away most near the gap under the door. She turned and ran. ---------- Zidane had been given a large world map that had a point on it for every occurrence of either someone going crazy or someone being killed by the ghostly shadow. There was no pattern. He and the various gathered police sat in silence while Rikku and Yuffie retold the story of how they'd come to be in this world. Eiko slipped past the grasp of the guard by the door to the boardroom and slid across the polished floorboards, "YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS!" Zidane stood up and watched Eiko pick herself off the floor. She stopped to catch her breath for a moment, "It's all rotting away! The storeroom with the mirror! The floors all rotted!" Everyone in the room stood as one. Eiko ran back out and skittered away down the corridor. Zidane sighed. No name, no reason. No face to pin the blame to. No cause and no solution. He looked at the two girls. It was all they had, "Come on then, lets see what's going on." As a group they walked toward the storerooms. Even the gathering of police and the two door guards followed along. By the time they reached the storeroom the group had been joined by some of the palace staff. Zidane spotted Eiko squatting by the door picking at the floorboards with a fork she'd nabbed from the kitchen. The wood was soft and black. It came away as easily as dirt. Zidane glared at the dark rim of mess under the door. He leaned over it and placed the key in the storeroom door, turned and pushed. The door slid open in a waft of stench, it was more than rotted wood. The room was dark. Most of the crowd placed their hands over their mouths; many chose this as a good time to walk away. Zidane squinted into the room. It was day and there was supposed to be a window in there, boarded up though it was. He turned to Eiko, "Go and fetch a lamp." The girl jumped to her feet, glad to have an excuse to run from the smell. Zidane leaned into the room a little way and pressed his finger into the floor. It came out covered in thick black slime. He wiped it against the doorframe and shook his head. The remaining crowd muttered to themselves. "I really don't know." Zidane said to himself. He looked over at Rikku and Yuffie; they just stared back at him with blank faces. "It wasn't like that before." One of the remaining palace staff whispered to the muttering crowd by way of some kind of explanation. "We were here just a few days ago. It was... just a room." Zidane mumbled. Eiko arrived with one of the police, Blutzen, who carried the lamp for her. He handed the lamp to the doorway and held it up as he lit it. The flame carried no further than the entrance to the dark room. He glared at the lamp a moment and then leaned further inside the room. The black was absorbing almost all of the light. Blutzen turned the flame up as far as it went and leaned further into the room. Eiko stood back from the door, behind Zidane's leg. She felt Zidane's hand rest on her head. Blutzen bent down to illuminate the floor. It was slimy but devoid of any reflective qualities. He swept the lamp across the floor as far as he could reach. The slimmest of reflections twinkled like a star from the dark; the crowd spoke as one, "Oh!" "Something is in there, I wonder if it's the mirror," Zidane said, he looked down at Eiko, "Go and fetch a broom handle... or any long pole." "Good idea!" Eiko scampered away through the crowd. Blutzen stood back up and gave the lamp to Zidane. He joined the crowd of rubbernecked onlookers and waited in silence. Eiko called out from the edge of the crowd, "I got one!" and pulled a long pole behind her. Zidane stopped for a moment and noticed how pale she was, her skin shiny with sweat. He took the pole in one hand, wrapped the other around the child's shoulders and held her close. "Eiko you should maybe go and check on Garnet." He added mentally 'I have a bad feeling about this'. Eiko remained attached to his side. She shook her head. Zidane sighed, as if anything could be worse than what everyone had already been through. However... he placed the lamp across the end of the pole and manoeuvred it into the room. He caught sight of the tiny reflection again and held the pole-lamp out toward it. What little light returned to the crowd carried more than enough information. Zidane's other hand held Eiko closer as he lowered the lamp down over the sword that reflected just a thin sliver of the light. It was standing upright, the lower end still hidden in the shadows. Zidane lowered the light further. The crowd groaned as one. The sword had been pushed not into the ground but into a person. The body was recognisable. "It's her!" Grandma Pickle gasped, "It's the girl!" Zidane felt the acid on the back of his throat. He tried to cover Eiko's eyes with his other hand. She pushed his fingers out of the way, her own hands shaking; something else had caught her eye. The girl was lying on her back, one arm outstretched, the other wrapped around a small pink object. Eiko remembered the plushie kitten. Zidane spotted the toy and moved the lamp toward it. It was the toy. It's fur still pink and clean. "That toy hasn't rotted and the body isn't too far gone either, yet the whole room..." Another of the police, Kohel, spoke. Blitzen held the picture of the victim girl up to compare it to the stricken corpse. The likeness was unmistakable. Eiko, stiff with fear, clenched her eyes shut against the scene. Rikku was numb; her legs were a world away and her stomach a small knot of pain. She closed her eyes and only then noticed the warmth of Yuffie's body as she hugged up against her. Yuffie was shaking too. Zidane pulled the lamp back from the room and lowered it to his feet. He shook his head and picked Eiko up. He stood in silence for a moment then carried the child from the room. The crowd followed without a word more. Eiko opened her eyes and stared over Zidane's shoulder. The doorway bobbed and swayed as Zidane carried her away. She rested her head down and closed her eyes again, just catching a glimpse of something emerging from the room. For a second she considered just screaming. She opened her eyes and looked up. Zidane felt her whole body stiffen in a sudden jerk, he swang around and saw the shadow girl as she emerged from the room; the sword in her hand was almost black. Her features indistinct and transparent, she walked toward the group. One or two people noticed Zidane had stopped walking and turned around, Grandma Pickle screamed, "ITS THE GHOST!" The crowd stopped and stared as the ghostly figure walked steadily toward them. They ducked and ran out of its way, however those who tried to stop it gasped as it walked right through them. Even her sword, as real as it looked, passed through their bodies like a cold breeze. Rikku had pressed herself up against the wall as the ghost passed by. Yuffie made a grab for its sword, her hand passed through it. The ghost seemed oblivious to the people it passed. "Follow it!" Blitzen ordered, the gathered guards and police began a slow moving chase. Zidane carried Eiko's shaking body back toward their room, the shakes seemed to reflect his own nerves, as much for her as the things that he had just seen. "We don't even know what it is, or what it's doing... or even why! How are we supposed to stop it?" Rikku was still pressed against the wall. "Can't kick its butt if we can't even touch it," added Yuffie. She closed her eyes and rested her head against the wall. An enemy with no body, no name and no story. A bunch of stuff that made no sense. People she didn't know and a girl she couldn't get out of her mind. A small thought occurred, "Well if we are here to stop it then shouldn't someone ... or something ... tell us what we are doing!" She waited, as did Rikku who had heard and agreed. No convenient persons emerged. Nothing. Not so much as a whisper on the breeze. The crowd had dissipated now. Yuffie reached for Rikku's hand, she stopped short for a moment but then just grabbed it and held it tight, "We're gunna kick butt anyway, anyhow, nothing ever stopped me before! Okay? You're awesome anyway... nearly as awesome as me... we're going to show that ghost a thing or two!" Yuffie clamped her hands around Rikku's and grinned through the shivering. Rikku nodded. The world floated away. Her hand, enclosed in those warm skinny fingers, was all that remained. 'If it could be like this.' 'I wish it could be like this.' 'But it never will be.' ---------- Garnet was awake when Zidane entered their room. He carried the now near unconscious body of Eiko, once again in shock. It seemed as though she was getting more and more sensitive to stress. "What happened now?" Garnet cradled the girl in her arms. She stared up, blank and unfocused. Zidane wondered where to begin. He pressed his hand against Eiko's forehead, it was cold and wet. 'The fair might have to wait,' he thought. "Something is ... something very odd about this. Why the same girl, over and over?" Zidane mumbled. "What?" "There's a ghost, it goes after this girl and kills her. Then they vanish. Then they appear somewhere else and it happens again. Over and over. But we found a body ... the body just appeared and ... it's affecting ..." Zidane stopped, his mind seemed on the very tip of something. The kind of something that turns out to be the iceberg that sinks the ship. "We need to send a message to the others on the island. I'll go and see to that, and I'll send the nurse up to see you both." ---------- Yuffie let go of Rikku's hand and watched Rikku hold it to her chest. Neither spoke. Rikku jumped a little as someone else emerged from the storeroom. It was a little kid. She had the toy cat in her arms and she left the room wiping tears from her eyes. "Hey...hey kid!" Yuffie called out to the girl as she walked past. The little girl stopped and looked up at her, she was all big brown eyes and curly auburn hair. "Are we going to die too?" Another child emerged from the storeroom. This one was taller and had long black hair. The little curly haired girl continued to look up at Rikku and Yuffie, "I don't want to die." "Me either!" the other girl called out and ran to catch up. "Who ARE you kids?" Yuffie yelled. The littlest one held the toy cat close to herself, "I'm just me." "Me too." The taller girl added. "Who is that woman in there?" Rikku pointed to the storeroom. The taller of the two girls looked back toward the room and took a deep breath, "That's me too." Rikku looked the two girls over; there was a certain resemblance between them. "So who is that ghost who killed her?" Yuffie asked. She almost anticipated the answer. The littlest girl closed her eyes, she swayed a little, "she said she was the con sun... shus.. ness". "Oh," Yuffie was wrong again. "Consunenshus you mean." The taller girl added with all the authority she could muster. "No that's not it... oh... we have to go." The little girl ran off down the corridor and the taller girl followed after her. "Wait!" Yuffie yelled as she and Rikku joined the chase, "Where are you going?!" They lost the two girls after just one corner. ---------- "Well does any of this make even the tiniest bit of sense?" Yuffie asked as they slowed to a stop. "No! I mean, did they say that woman was ... and..." Rikku shook her head. "Hello girls! Are you done training then?" Harriet spotted them and wandered over with a beaming smile. She noticed the looks on their faces and her own smile fell, "Oh dear, is something the matter?" "Did you see two little kids run past?" Rikku asked. "No pet. Why? Which two kids?" "I don't know who they are. Never mind. Um... we should go look for Zidane." Rikku didn't want to bother Harriet with details of murders and strange ghosts. "Oh dear he's busy at the moment... why don't I show you around your new unit. I shouldn't mind about kids, they're probably just friends of Eiko's." Harriet beamed at the girls and ushered them forward. Rikku shrugged and allowed herself to be led, grateful for the distraction. Yuffie sighed and followed along. ---------- "Everyone will have their own little place and then it will feel more like a home. Seeing as you are working with us we th..." Harriet opened the door to the courtyard alongside which the little units were being built for staff. She stopped talking and blinked, "Well... oh dear... that's no good." She bent down and picked a leaf off the gravel. The flowers in the gardens that lined the courtyard were all wilted; the large tree in the middle had dropped all its leaves. "Oh deary me. I do suppose someone forgot to water them perhaps... they do look in a bad way." Harriet fussed over a small shrub near the entrance to the courtyard, "This one was doing so well too... grew it specially I did..." Rikku felt her skin prickle and grow cold. She wondered if Yuffie was feeling the same thing. "Well that is a shame. Never mind, I'm sure the gardener will fix it. Yes a bit of water and it will be just like new. Never mind. Now dears, this one here..." Harriet stood up and pointed to the second little unit, none of which had been painted yet, "This one is going to be yours. It's ready to live in but we need to paint the outside. Isn't that nice!" Harriet crunched across the gravel toward the unit and stopped halfway, "Of course this will all be paved soon too." Harriet opened the door to the little unit; inside it smelled of freshly cut wood, fresh paint and varnish. Rikku was glad of the smell that washed away the scent of rot she'd carried from the storeroom. Yuffie just stared into the centre of the unit. Where the conjoined lounge room and kitchen converged, there was a mirror. The mirror. "Hey! Rikku! What's that doing there?" Rikku glared at it, "Is it the same one?" Harriet noticed the mirror and walked toward it, "Well fancy that. What a strange place for a mirror indeed. What were they thinking... oh look... there's a little note...its ... for you." Harriet looked down at the names on the note. She shrugged and handed it over. 'I rescued this for you.' Rikku read from the note. It had no other name on it. Yuffie took the note and read it again. Harriet smiled at them both, "Did someone buy you a present dears, isn't that nice!" "Um yeh... I guess someone did!" Rikku answered, she then whispered at Yuffie, "You think it was her? The one in the storeroom? Or the kids?" "How should I know? And why give it to us? Isn't it Zidane's mirror?" Yuffie whispered back. "Well then, there is a nice kitchen here. You have all the conveniences right here..." Harriet ambled around inside the kitchen opening and closing cupboards. The two girls watched their reflections in the mirror. It was, for now at least, just a normal mirror as far as they could tell. "There are two bedrooms, those two doors there... and that's your bathroom there..." Harriet walked past them and opened more doors. Yuffie looked at the bedroom doors with a disappointed frown, separate, apart, removed; now she couldn't watch Rikku sleep. Or dress. Or hear her breathe. "Well girls, what do you think?" Harriet asked. "Um... nice... nice! Yeh, it's nice!" Rikku put a smile on her face and looked about the unit. "Yeh, nice." Yuffie was less than enthusiastic. "What's the matter dear?" Harriet was quick to spot Yuffie's disappointment. "It's nice ... but how come we have different rooms?" Harriet let out a shocked little, "OH!" and clamped a hand over her mouth. She patted her chest and exclaimed, "Oh dear! We weren't sure so... Oh deary me indeed. That is a problem. We didn't know you see... you ... well that can be... I'll go and talk with the ... yes I'll ask them if there's something we can do! Oh do forgive me!" She hurried out of the unit and scampered back across the gravel, muttering and chastising herself the entire way. "What was that about?" Rikku finally recovered the power of speech, "Why wouldn't we have different rooms?" Yuffie sighed, 'why did I have to say a dumb thing like that?' ---------- Zidane was having no luck with sending a message to the airship. No moogle was prepared to go anywhere near the island now. From what little information he got it seemed the explanation was that the place had become unstable. They said, and Zidane found it hard to believe, that the water was red with blood. That the sky was black and that something was growing from the island. He hadn't heard from the airship, though they would arrive there sometime soon. He wondered if they would have to turn back. He sighed and stretched out. He got up from behind the desk and walked to the window. He froze for a moment as his breath left in one long gasp, he put a hand on the glass and whispered, "What... is ..." he looked out over the palace lawns, a jagged area of decay was creeping out over the green. It spread in a greyish brown carpet that crawled along at walking pace. The decay snaked as Zidane stared, up to another tree. It's greenery exploded in a burst of orange leaves that fell to the ground. Zidane turned from the scene and ran. ---------- "Well you know... the mirror must be important okay? That much we do know." Rikku broke the silence by changing the subject. Yuffie nodded. "Maybe... maybe ... maybe..." Rikku continued to try and solve the riddle. She and Yuffie watched their reflections and thought. Yuffie wasn't thinking of an answer. She heard the words she'd said to Harriet over in her mind. "I fall in love with girls!" exclaimed Rikku's reflection in the mirror. She was sitting on the balcony and Yuffie was there next to her. The reflection faded again until Rikku's shocked expression was visible. Yuffie was staring open mouthed. "Hey! It played a memory!" Yuffie pointed at the mirror. "I forgot I even said that." Rikku groaned. "So is it true?" Yuffie felt fire rush to her skin. She watched Rikku's gaze drift to the floor. Rikku shrugged, "Yeh." "So it wasn't just that ghost?" Yuffie found once her mouth had run away from her it ran a long long way. Rikku continued to stare at the floor, "No..." "You reckon... you reckon... you reckon like... uhhh..." Yuffie so wanted to ask. So wanted to know. She stopped and thought for a moment, 'Hey of course she'll love me. How could she not!' Rikku looked up to see Yuffie grinning at her, "Its not funny! It's horrible!" Yuffie's grin vanished. A concerned frown took its place, "How come?" "Because I'm alw..." Rikku started to talk and noticed the reflection in the mirror had changed again. All it reflected was a forest, trees drifted in and out of view. Rikku and Yuffie watched in silence. The reflection bobbed up and down, it appeared to be someone's point of view as they walked through a thicket of trees. "Just through here." A woman's voice spoke. Rikku's skin prickled hot and cold. It was Lulu. The view zoomed about the scene; Rikku knew it was her own memory. She had just enough time to remember what it was about before the reflection showed them both. "Um..." Rikku's voice emerged from the mirror and from herself. The image on the mirror showed a small campsite, a chocobo was haltered to a nearby tree. The view zoomed across the scene and stopped when it spotted two women, both of whom were pressed against each other and against the trunk of a large tree. They were kissing rather passionately. "Woah!" Yuffie blurted out. A voice blurted out from the mirror, "Uhhh woah! We should go!" It was Wakka's voice. "What are they doing?" Rikku's voice asked. "Well if you don't know that I suggest you stay and watch. You might learn something useful." Lulu's voice stated. "You what!?" Wakka yelled. "But..." Rikku remembered what it felt like back then. She hadn't understood what she was seeing. Even now it seemed to unreal to be true. "They're!... They're! ... check out where she's got her hand!" Yuffie cried out as one of the women ran her hand up the other's thigh. Rikku watched herself watching the two knights. She tried to remember their names. "I'm not looking!" Wakka's voice sounded quite shaky. The view switched to look at him; he'd turned his back and had his hands over his face. Lulu shook her head slowly, grinning. "Who're those dudes?" Yuffie asked. "They're friends of mine," Rikku managed to say through her shakes. "Who're the girls? Are they like...are they like... what are they doing?" Yuffie was on the verge of jumping up and down with excitement. The view panned back to the two women, Rikku could not help but stare, even knowing what she was about to see. One of the women was slowly kissing her way down the other one's stomach. "Um... we should ... leave..." Rikku's voice said from the mirror. "Do you get it now?" Lulu asked. "Get what? I don't get anything. I thought they were going to talk to me..." "Well they were. I guess they got distracted." Lulu laughed. "Distracted!?" Wakka choked. "WOAH!" Yuffie yelled as she ignored the speeches and happily watched the scene in the background turn from passionate to pornographic. It was then Rikku must have looked away as the view panned across the ground toward the way they'd come. "Awww hey!" Yuffie whined. The mirror faded back to being a normal mirror. Yuffie considered Rikku's shocked expression for a moment. "So who were those girls?" Rikku took a breath, it seemed to make less sense now than ever, "Two girls we met while we were travelling, they're ... they were with the Chocobo Knights. I think they ... one was Emma and I think the other one, Lucile, was their leader." Rikku remembered they were always together even back then. How many times had Lulu told her 'They're just like you' ? "They were all kissing and touching and stuff... like... like..." Yuffie stared absently at her reflection in the mirror. Rikku nodded. Her mind was blank. She was up against that wall again. "They fall in love with girls too?" Yuffie asked after another silent moment. The question exploded like shattering glass into Rikku's mind. She fell forward onto her knees as the world shifted. Yuffie watched Rikku slowly collapse to the floor. Her own body felt light enough to just float away. Rikku drifted into her own mind. Yuffie's hand landed like a butterfly on her shoulder and send a surge of lightness through her, she felt herself rise from the floor as she stumbled to her feet. "I never thought ... I never even thought two girls could!" Yuffie whispered. ---------- Zidane stumbled outside onto the grass. It was green. Green grass as far as he could see. He bent down and picked a blade. It was green too, as were the trees that were dotted across the lawns. He rubbed at his eyes. "I must be going mad." ---------- Harriet was still mumbling to herself as she crunched back across the gravely courtyard. She stopped and let out a mild scream, "OHMY!" The colours of the flowers had caught her eye. They swayed in the gentle breeze as new and fresh as the day they were planted. "Well that was fast I must say so... my... self..." she stared up at the tree in the centre of the courtyard. The canopy of greenery was as healthy as it had ever looked. She took a careful step away from it and glared at it from the corner of her eye. "Something very funny going on around here." "Um... well dears we uh..." Harriet was lost enough as it was, she watched the two girls stare at the mirror. Their reflections stared back. "Uh... it's all sorted pets. Just give the builders a day and ... are you two okay?" Harriet waved her hand in front of their eyes for a moment. Rikku blinked. Yuffie sighed, "Yeah..."
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