"This is so boring," Ash complained. He didn't like being stuck with the rest of these kids. Especially when the adults were talking about how to catch the people that had caught Marlene. He wanted to know what they were talking about.

"So why don't you do somethind," Jet Highwind said. He appeared to be as bored as Ash. Jet wanted to be helping his father pilot the Highwind, or tuining the engins. But he was stuck here too.

Ash decided that he didn't want to sit around doing nothing anymore. "I think that I will do something," Ash said getting up.

Jet watched as Ash got up and started walking towards the Control room. "Hey. Where are you going?" he asked Ash.

"To find out what the parents are talking about. You wanna come?"

Jet shrugged as he got up to follow Ash. "Sure. But what about her?" he said pointing to the sleeping form of Aeris.

"What about her? Listen, she shouldn't come with us. She should stay here and sleep. Besides, she would probably get us caught."

Jet nodded and followed Ash to the locked door of the Control room. They squatted down and stared at the door handle. "So, what now?"

Ash reached into his jacket and pulled out what looked like a skeleton key. He smiled as the door unlocked. Then both of the boys crawled into the Control room and hid behind a counsle. When they found comfortable positions, the two boys listened intentivly to what the adults had to say.

"Do we know for sure that Vincent will want to help us?" That was Cait 's voice.

"Why wouldn't he want to help us? We're his friends." Cloud's wife Tiffa sounded a touch defensive.

"We don't know if he's changed since we last saw him. He might not be at all like he was when we knew him."

"Why would he change?" Tiffa asked.

"His life may have been too stressful for him," Nanaki said.

"What do you mean, Nanaki?" Cloud asked.

"Well, when we last saw him, he was trying to get Lucrecia to take him back. But with what the both of them have been through, it could create problems. Problem's that bring up a lot of 'What if's'. For instance, 'What if' Lucrecia hated him for helping to kill her son. He might have given up on life, and died years ago. Or 'What if' Lucrecia did take him back. Then his life might be so content that he doesn't want to fight anymore."

"Those are pretty farfetched 'What if's' you've got there," Reno commented.

"Yes they are. But who knows what happened to Vincent or why he doesn't answer our calls."

"@%^&! Why don't you people make up your minds? So do we go to try and find Vincent, or do we just go and kick some @#$?" Cid didn't like people being indecisive.

"I's alright Cid." Yuffie spoke with a a lot of sarcasm. "Nobody's trying to confuse you."

Cid glared at her. "Well, why don't I just take the Highwind here and do some stunt flying. Right now."

"Um, no. You don't have to do that," Yuffie gulped. Everybody knew how motion made Yuffie sick.

Just then the door squeeked open. All eyes went to the female form that now stood in the door. "Oops," Aeris said pitifully.

"How did you get in here?" her mother asked.

"The door was unlocked, and I heard talking. I wanted to listen."

The parents became quiet for a moment. "Someone else must have unlocked the door . . ." Ash became tense. Shit. They were about to search the room, and find them. He knew the stupid girl would get them caught.

Confirming his worries, Nanaki spotted the two boys. "I think that I've found the culprets," he announced. Everybody gathered around the boys, looking slightly angry. His parents in particular.

"This is not like you Ash," his mother scolded. "You should know better then this. I mean, what a crappy hiding spot. You could do better."

"Yuffie," Cloud calmly said. "I don't think that's helping." Yuffie shrugged.

"Why the Hell did you follow us!" Ash yelled at Aeris. Because of the blunder, they were now locked in the Operation room until they landed. normally this wouldn't have posed a problem to Ash, but Nanaki was guarding the door. So they couldn't get out without being caught.

"Sorry," Aeris said as she lay down in the tabel. "I didn't think it was that big of a deal."

"Well is is a big deal. Now we're stuck in here for another hour or two, until we land." Ash was loosing his mind.

Aeris, on the other hand, was calmly relaxing on the tabel trying to ignore Ash. Her only unplesent thought was that she would have to wndure Ash's prattel for the rest of the trip. She sighed as she redied herself for alother volly of Ashes insults. The trip would be over soon enough. And she had a feeling that hw would pay for this latter.

It was another 3 hours before the Highwind finally landed. The area around the falls was a lush and green forest. The cave behind the falls was furnished with the bare necessities. Fireplace, table, chairs and beds. There were only two beds and chairs. The group suspected that they were for Vincent and Lucrecia. But theyweren't were the group could see them. So they decided to break up into groups and search.

But soon the search ended. "I found something!" Aeris called. The group gathered around her as she showed her find.

It was a grave stone. There was no writing on it except for the single name; "Vincent".

"It looks as if this is the reason Vincent didn't answer us," Cloud remarked.

"But what about Lucrecia?" Cait asked. "Where is she?"

Nobody answered. "Mabey she left when Vincent died," Yuffie sugested. That idea seemed to satisfy everybody.

And they all went back to the Highwing to make camp, because it was getting dark. However, they didn't see the figure sitting ina tree, watching them.

It's small lethal figure draped in black was excelently camoflaged in the shadows of the branches. Those are the people my father was talking about he thought to himself. He knew that he couldn't trust them though. They were strangers to him, and he didn't know them.

So he decided to follow them and learn if they could be trusted.

It was late and Ash wasn't sleepy. Because he wasn't tired, he decided that his tentmate Jet shouldn't sleep either. So while Ash sat up and pouted with the light on. He wouldn't let Jet sleep.

"Go to sleep," Jet complained.

"No," Ash childly refused.

"You have to go to sleep some time."

"Yeah. But I dont want to go to sleep yet."

"So when will you go to sleep?" Jet was getting annoyed at his friend.

"Latter."

Jet was fed up. "Fine," he said. Jet reached over and turned the light off. "I wont let your winning keep me from getting any sleep."

Ash didn't know what to say, so he kept his mouth shut. Finally he get tired of sitting up and doing nothing, and tried to sleep. But it wouldn't come. Ash tried very hard to sleep, and eventually he was tired enough to begin to fall asleep.

Then he jolted awake again. He had heard a twig break outside his tent. His first thought was that it was someboby from their group. But he realised that it was too late and everybody else was asleep.

Ash reached over, and turned the light on. Jet stirred, but didn't awaken. He was in a deep sleep. So Ash got up and went outside to find out what the sound was.

It was dark and it took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the darkeness. He scanned his surroundings when they adjusted. He could see nothing. Ash took a little walk to see of he could stop something. He didn't.

Ash was about to walk back into the tent, when the moonlight glinted off something beside a tree. He walked over and took a look. It was a gun. But it was so small. And it looked familiar, almost. Ash picked it up, and regarded it for a few moments. "Death Penilty," he whispered. It was a miniature Death Penilty. Taking another look around, be walked back to the tent.

After a few failed attempts at asking Jet what he thought, Ash put the gun down beside his head, and tried to sleep.

Victor sat watching the black haired boy. The nosy boy had awaken when Victor had accidently snapped a twig beeneath his feet.

Victor's first concern had been to hide. And he had done that. The boy hadn't seen him. But the boy had his Death Penilty.

In Victor's rush to escape from sight, he had dropped his weapon. The weapon his father had given him on his sixth birthday. He smiled as he remembered recieveing it. He had been overjoyed. He had practiced untill his accuracy was 100% standing still and while he was moving.

Now the boy had his gun. And Victor wanted it back. So he wrapped his black cape around himself, and settled in to wait for the boy to fall asleep.

The light in the tent went out soon after the boy had entered. To be safe, Victor waited for quite some time before he dropped out of the tree, and went into the tent to get his gun.

The boy was asleep, and Victor slowly edged towards him. Victor stopped in his tracks when the nosy boy stirred in his sleep, but it was a false alarm. The boy was still sleeping soundly. Then Victor saw it; his weapon. It was lying by the boy's head. Victot reached for it, and the boy stirred again. But this time, Victor did not pause. He made a grab for his gun, and ran out of the tent.

Chapter 3