Irene was just as distant that evening as she had been on the first night. She silently gazed into the crackling flames of their campfire, tuning out the bickering voices of Joy and Yeri, and whether or not she was aware of Seulgi’s eyes upon her, she gave no indication.

It wasn’t that Seulgi meant to stare. Irene was just sitting directly across the fire from her. Or at least, that was as much thought as Seulgi’s weary brain was willing to put into it. She did have to admit, now that they were out of battle however, that Irene was quite beautiful - the cold shadow of death perched on her shoulders aside, yes, she was very pretty.

Seulgi hadn’t missed the way Irene rarely joined in Yeri and Joy’s conversations, and she wondered why she should be thinking of something like that now, on the last night they would see each other, perhaps forever. The goddesses knew she had plenty of other things to think about after these past two days, but here she sat, wondering about this mysterious girl on the other side of the campfire. Maybe it was her tired brain looking for a distraction, something to focus on that wasn’t thoughts about her brother, or the conversation she would have to have with her parents, but she found herself on the verge of asking question after question as it popped into her head.

Where did you learn to fight like that?

Why did Joy call you ‘general’?

What do you have against chocobos, anyway?

Yeri fell silent, as Joy rambled on about a new modification she was planning on adding to her crossbow once they reached ‘civilization’ again. She was busy watching Seulgi absently stare at Irene, and after a moment, she nudged the redhead and nodded at their two companions. Joy was silent in turn and shared in Yeri’s observation.  

And now that all conversation had died out, the myriad noises of the Veldt crept into their camp. Beyond the rustlings in the grass and the far-off howls and shrieks of the night, however, was the faint, high-pitched chortle of a seagull.

+++

They made it to the coast before midday, but a peek over the cliffs - “get back from that edge or so help me…!” - revealed nothing but miles of featureless ocean stretching from horizon to horizon. There were no ships, and no obvious way down to the shore from their elevated position.

Seulgi didn’t want to be the one to say it - that perhaps their friends had already left to their next destination… or that they may not have made it to the southern edge of the Veldt in the first place. But as she looked up and down the jagged coastline with the crashing of the waves far below them, she wasn’t exactly sure what their next step should be.

“What a view though, huh?” Joy mentioned pensively as she stared out at the horizon in thought.

“The sky is so big,” Irene uttered quietly, drawing the attention of the other three girls.

Yeri raised an eyebrow and was about to comment but Joy suddenly kicked her in the shoulder. “That- ow! What’s the big idea?!”

Instead of answering, Joy turned to Seulgi. “Alright local yokel,” and Seulgi tossed aside the sprig of grass she had been chewing on, suddenly on the defensive, “are there any landmarks along the coast here? Like… a cape, or a lighthouse… something?” Something their friends might be waiting for them at.

Seulgi pushed her hat back away from her face, still put out by the form of address, but she was already sharing in that heart-sinking feeling that the other Returners weren’t here waiting for them. “No one lives out here; it’s way too dangerous this far south.” She thought for a moment. “I don’t know what the capes are called, but there is a mountain a little farther to the east, Crescent Mountain. That’s the only obvious landmark that I can think of.”

“What about West? That’s closer to where we came from, isn’t it?” Yeri asked, but Irene spoke up.

“We’re not trying to get closer to where we came from. For all we know soldiers started tracking us from the falls back near Doma and followed the river to the ocean. They’re probably scouring the coast to the west as we speak, looking for us.” That’s what she would have done, anyway. “We’ll head to the mountain.” And without waiting for a response, she put a hand on Boko’s back and began walking east along the cliff.

Seulgi watched in shock as Boko actually followed the petite girl. She might have felt betrayed, if it weren’t such an oddly heartwarming sight. As she trailed behind, watching the three Returners abscond with yet another one of her birds, she began thinking about the logistics of getting home. Would it be entirely out of the question to ask their boat to take her up around the east coast back to Mobliz? Boko had been mostly walking this whole time, so in the event that they would need to make a run back up through the Veldt, they could probably cover the distance in a day in a half at a canter.

But what if there was no boat? What would the girls do then? Where else could they go? Back to Mobliz with her? She had the sudden errant thought of these three characters helping her on the ranch while they made their next plan, and there was something about the idea of the Queen of Figaro trying to help her corral chocobos that set her to laughing.

And it felt good to finally laugh again, even as the other girls looked back at her in confusion.

+++

Crescent Mountain loomed to the East as the girls picked their way along the rocky coastal cliffs. Seulgi didn’t know much about the peak, except that it was the only easily recognizable feature along the barren shore. It stood alone without any other mountains around it, fringed by a narrow coniferous forest. They finally reached its base just as the sun was setting, and decided to try following its slopes down to the beach while that sliver of daylight remained.

There were certainly worse ways to spend an evening, as Irene and Seulgi helped guide Boko down to the water. Yeri glanced back up at them occasionally as she leapt from rock to rock, snickering as Joy struggled to balance on the chocobo’s back on the steep incline. The threat of attack was finally removed as they slowly made their way down to the beach, the narrow strip of sand blissfully free from the menagerie of horrid creatures that resided up on the Veldt.

In between glances at the rocks to make sure she wouldn’t lose her footing, Irene couldn’t help looking back out at the horizon, admiring the unadulterated view of the sunset with its pale pink and orange hues stretching up to a dizzying height above them. It was so different from the smog-choked skies of the Gestahlian capital of Vector. There was something strangely analogous about it, and she couldn’t help but glance across at Seulgi, supporting Boko and Joy from the other side.

She didn’t mean to assume, but Irene was fairly certain they couldn’t have had more different life experiences. Seulgi probably grew up with views much like this one, since Mobliz was such a quiet village, relatively unchanged by the innovations in technology. Seulgi's reaction to her brother’s death suggested her family had never been touched by grief before, and the fact that she had chased them all the way into the Veldt dressed in simple work clothes and ratty sandals evidenced a certain naivety that was almost endearing.

And so entirely unfamiliar.

“Wait,” Yeri hissed back to them.

Seulgi urged Boko to a halt and his neck, watching the blonde in concern. She was impressed with Yeri’s agility as she soundlessly scaled back up to their position from the beach where she had been scouting ahead.

“There’s a cave at the base of the mountain. The ocean goes right in- and there’s a ship in there,” Yeri relayed to the girls.

“Really?” Seulgi said, excited for the Returners.

But Joy didn’t share in her jubilance, seeing how cautious Yeri was acting. “But…?”

Yeri stared up at her on the back of the chocobo with a dark look. “But it’s crawling with Imperial soldiers.”

“How many?” Irene cut in.

“A lot. I counted at least a dozen,” Yeri reported.

“A dozen,” Joy scoffed.

“Those were the ones standing around in the cave. There were more on the ship.”

“Is it an Imperial ship? Or…” Irene ventured.

Yeri turned back towards the cave. “I think it’s ours. It’s… it’s just a small cutter, not a military transport.”

Irene carefully scaled the last of the rocky cliff and snuck her way over towards the littoral cave to judge for herself. Out of the corner of her eye, Seulgi could see Joy already winding the crank of her repeating crossbow. Were these girls planning on fighting? But Seulgi opted to keep shut for now and wait on Irene’s assessment.

Irene crept towards the mouth of the cave and peered inside. As Yeri had described, there was the cutter, moored to a rock jutting out of the shallow water, and it was indeed crawling with Imperial soldiers.

“That’s the last of the crew,” she heard one of them say from up on the deck, and there was a splash as another soldier tipped something heavy over the railing and into the water below. “What should we do now, Sarge?”

“Scupper her,” a brusque-looking man waiting down by the mooring lines ordered. “We’ll comb our way up the Veldt, but in case they sneak around us, I don’t want them escaping in this.”

“Yes, sir!”

And as the body of one of the awaiting Returners floated out of the mouth of the cave, past her and into the expanse of the sea, Irene saw red.

Down a little ways on the beach where Seulgi and Boko with Joy had alighted, there suddenly came a gust of bone-chilling wind from the cave, and a rapid thunk thunk thunk, followed by chaotic shouts.

“Irene…!” Yeri cried, rubbing her hands on her arms at the sudden cold. She took off towards the cave and Joy urged Boko to follow, though the bird was reluctant to do so without Seulgi’s consent.

“Come on, Boko!” Seulgi cried as she sprinted after Yeri, and Boko needed no further encouragement.

They rounded the edge of the mouth of the cave and bore witness to a gruesome sight: bodies of soldiers bobbed in the shallow water, with large shards of… ice jutting out of their chests, and ahead, Irene was surrounded, pivoting back and forth as she dodged and parried blow after blow. More soldiers charged down the gangplank from the ship and entered the foray, and then Seulgi saw the source of those large ice shards, as Irene twirled and flung more at the oncoming foes, like a fistful of knives. Thunk thunk thunk, and their bodies joined the growing number of corpses in the sea.

But the dark-haired girl was still outnumbered and Yeri raced in to help, daggers drawn. Seulgi found herself splashing through the shallows after Yeri as well, and she pulled her sword from her belt, feeling its engraving dig into her palm as she adjusted her grip.

Yeri leapt and pounced on the back of a soldier, burying her blades in his shoulders and he screamed as he went down, but when it was Seulgi’s turn to raise her weapon, she hesitated.

These weren’t monsters from the Veldt.

These were people.

“Seulgi!” Joy shouted, barely loosing a bolt in time to fell a soldier who had been about to attack her. “If you’re not going to fight, get back here!”

Seulgi looked at the soldier whom Joy had just saved her from, watching the blood from his neck wound mix and wash away in the saltwater.

“Kill or be killed?” she whispered to herself with a dark laugh as she raised her eyes again to the group slowly closing in on Irene.

How many Imperial soldiers had her brother killed before they got him?

She raised her sword and charged in, bringing it down across the back of a soldier, and she was vaguely aware of how similarly the edge of her blade stuck in his severed ribcage the same as if she really were fighting some beast on the savanna. How familiar it was to have to push his bleeding corpse off of her sword with her sandaled foot.

“That’s for my brother,” she muttered down to the body as it gently bumped into her shin in the rippling water.

And with a clang she barbarously brought the blade down against another soldier’s sword, knocking it out of his grip as he rushed at her. “This is for my brother!” she shouted again, and she kicked him away from herself. He stumbled back into the water and she swung, pulling the sword across his face, tearing right through his cheekbones and nose. And she hit him again, and again until the blood-saturated sea stained the legs of her trousers.

She hadn’t noticed that the rest of the fighting had stopped as she continued to mutilate the body of the soldier at her feet. Not until Irene came up behind her and wrapped her arms around her middle to pull her away.

“No! NO!!!” Seulgi yelled. “... no…” and she slipped out of Irene’s grasp and fell to her knees with a splash.

For several minutes after the battle, the only sounds in that littoral cave were the crashing of the waves and Seulgi’s wracking sobs.  

+++

Seulgi carefully helped Joy off of Boko’s back after she had convinced the chocobo to walk up the gangplank and onto the small ship. Joy had protested that she could walk, but the other girls had insisted she let Boko carry her at least these last few steps so she didn’t lose her footing and fall, possibly spraining her other ankle.

Seulgi was quiet while the queen used her shoulders to brace herself and hobble over to lean against the mast. She gave Joy a small smile and glanced at Irene and Yeri as well.

“Uh, I guess this is it,” she said in a hoarse voice.

Yeri gave her a bracing pat on the shoulder. “Thanks for leading us out here, Seulgi. Oh, and uh... sorry about the whole stealing your chocobos thing,” she added with a cheeky grin. "Old habits and all."

Seulgi’s smile morphed into a wry smirk as she shrugged. “No harm… no fowl?”

Yeri looked at her in disgust.

Seulgi felt her morale rise a bit at that. She turned lastly to Irene, who was giving her an unreadable look, and Seulgi remembered the way she had slain several of those soldiers with… ice. If she didn’t know any better, she might have thought it was magic.

But that couldn’t be. Only the Empire was stupid enough to try and use forbidden magic, and even then, Seulgi thought those were mostly rumors used to explain Gestahl’s advanced technology.  

She wasn’t exactly sure what else it could have been, but she was sure she must have been mistaken about what she had seen. “Thanks for… stopping me,” she said quietly to the dark-haired girl.

Irene simply nodded, unsure of how else to respond to Seulgi’s breakdown. She had seen it happen to lots of her soldiers over the years, but it was never an emotion she could empathize with. Perhaps it was different when you were born to the horrors of war. When you were born for it.

Seulgi nodded to herself and began walking back down the gangplank. “Come on, Boko. Let’s go home.” She hopped the last few feet into the water, trying not to look at the remaining bodies still bobbing around the hull of the ship, and instead turned her gaze to the mouth of the cave. Dusk had nearly turned to night, but they could camp on the beach and begin their trek back tomorrow.

“Kweh!”

Seulgi blinked and looked back up at the ship.

Boko hadn’t moved. He stood there next to Irene and tilted his head at Seulgi.

“Boko?”

“Kweh!!!”

“Quit messing around and let’s go!” she called up to him, but he stamped and scratched his talons against the deck.

Irene watched Boko in confusion, then carefully reached out to his neck. “He doesn’t want to go,” she stated with curiosity.

“Say, Seulgi,” Yeri began as she leaned over the railing. “Have you ever thought about becoming a Returner~?”

“I think a few lessons from Irene could help you put that sword to good use,” Joy added as she limped over to stand beside the blonde.

Good use? “What, like revenge?” Seulgi asked with obvious distaste, mostly directed at herself.

Joy shook her head. “No, to protect those who are left.”

And Seulgi remembered what Yeri had said on the Veldt yesterday, how they had all felt the pains of loss, and how even their friends who had promised to meet them here had been ruthlessly murdered by the Empire.

To protect those who are left. Like her brother had wanted to do for their family. He knew the evils of the Empire and had wanted to fight back. Shouldn’t she honor his sacrifice and finish what he started?

She slowly walked back up the gangplank and was helped on board by Irene and Yeri.

“Now we’re talking!” Yeri said, slapping Seulgi on the back.

“Welcome to the Returners, Seulgi.”