"Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not.
Both are equally terrifying."

—Arthur C. Clarke

Chapter 3
Anomaly

"Are we there yet?"

Dust kicked up from the ground, as two figures hurtled across the barren Cosmo Plains, now painted bright red by the setting sun. Cloud skillfully handled the powerful motorcycle, deftly maneuvering past pillars of rocks, dodging gaps and craters in the ground without any apparent effort. By now, driving across harsh terrain had become second nature to him and if anything, he seemed to be enjoying himself as he sped through the rocky valley, amidst the large rock formations, nearing Cosmo Canyon.

Yuffie, on the other hand, was definitely not having a good time. She had been fine up until the moment they had left the main roads, and then her stomach had decided that it couldn't take any more, hence her terse question. It wasn't the first time during the trip that she'd asked, by any means..

"How many times are you going to ask?" Cloud replied, sounding slightly irritated.

"I'll ask until we get there." Yuffie answered, sounding a bit weaker than she had intended, due to her nausea. She lowered her head, kicking herself inwardly for thinking that it would be a good idea to ride on a motorcycle across the rockiest terrain on the western continent. The wind whipped at their hair and clothing, and she knew that if she let go, she would most likely end up as a neat red stain on the dusty ground, so she pretty much held on for dear life.

Cloud opted not to reply, but instead tilted his motorcycle slightly to the left, jumping down onto a lower level of the canyon floor. Yuffie's stomach lurched as they landed hard on the ground below, and the rear suspension kicked in.

"Did you have to do that!" she shouted over the wind.

"No, but wasn't it fun?" Cloud replied, glancing back at her for a moment, before returning his attention to the trail ahead.

"Speak for yourself" Yuffie said, lowering her head again and closing her eyes. 'Geez, when did you grow such a devil-may-care attitude?' she thought to herself. He did seem to be in better spirits than the last time they had seen each other. Maybe going away for a while had done him some good, she thought. However, it wasn't doing her very much good at the moment..

"Look." Cloud said, interrupting her train of thought.. Yuffie looked up to where he was pointing with his right hand. and saw the Highwind In the air, some distance away from them, closing in on Cosmo Canyon.

"Looks like they beat us." she remarked wryly.

"They haven't landed yet." Cloud replied, throttling up the gas, causing the bike to go even faster. Yuffie felt her stomach lurch again, trying to escape through her mouth. She braced herself, leaning her head down on Cloud's back, wrapping her arms tighter around his waist, and prayed that they would get to their destination as soon as humanly possible..

The Highwind had just landed some distance away from the village of Cosmo Canyon, its propellers still spinning down. Tifa, Cid and Barret were on the ground, making their way towards the gates that separated the isolated village from the rest of the world, shouldering their respective equipment packs, and Vincent and Reeve were coming down the landing platform, when suddenly they heard a loud noise in the distance, slowly growing louder.

The sky was turning black, with the sunlight now only a red line on the horizon, making it hard to see. Peering out at the horizon, they just barely made out a cloud of dust rising in the distance. The dust vapor slowly gave way to a familiar figure, racing towards them on a motorcycle.

"Heeey, look who showed up." Barret said, as Cloud drew up to the gates, where the rest of the group had gathered. At first it had looked as though he was alone, but as he drove up closer they all noticed a second figure sitting behind him, slumped over.

"We're here." Cloud said, turning to the worn-out kunoichi sitting behind him as he slowed the bike to a stop. Yuffie still had her head bent down, and for a moment he wondered if she had dozed off. Finally, she untangled herself from the ex-soldier's figure, and stiffly got up from the still-running motorcycle.

"Enjoy your ride?" Tifa asked amusedly, approaching the two of them, noting the weary look on her friend's face as she dismounted from Cloud's bike.

Yuffie retched. "If I never get on that thing again, it'll be too soon." she replied, pointing towards the motorcycle, which Cloud was busy towing off towards the entrance of the village. Tifa chuckled at her comment.

"Hey, man. Haven't seen you in a while." Barret greeted the spikey-haired swordsman as he put his ride away. "Where you been?"

"Just traveling. Keeping busy, you know?" Cloud replied. "You guys?" he asked in return.

"Eh, same old." Cid replied, putting out his cigarette and reaching for another one.

"It's good to see you again." Tifa said.

"You too." Cloud replied, nodding.

"Ah, you're all here." Nanaki's deep voice sounded above them, interrupting the brief reunion. The fiery-maned beast walked down the etched steps of the cliff to greet everyone. "Glad to see everyone made it."

"Hey, fur face." Yuffie replied, petting Nanaki on the head, feeling somewhat better. Nanaki grunted irritably at this and snapped at her hand semi-playfully. "Why didn't you call me?" she asked in a scolding tone of voice, placing her hands on her hips.

"Well," Nanaki began. "..the strangest thing happened." he explained. "I called your residence in Wutai.."

"...right."

"...and your father answered..."

"...uh-huh.."

"..and I asked him about his daughter.."

"..and?" Yuffie asked, exasperated.

"...and he said that he had no daughter." Nanaki explained calmly.

Yuffie sighed, shaking her head. "Typical dad."

"Must have been one hell of a fight." Cloud remarked. "What was it about?"

"Take a wild guess." Yuffie replied, walking up the steps of the canyon, making a dismissive motion with her hand.

"Tradition." The others remarked in unison, looking at one another.

"He wanted me to settle down and get married to some rich loser!" The Wutaian princess shouted from above. "Forget that!"

The others chuckled, following her and Nanaki up the steps. The village of Cosmo Canyon had changed little since the last time they had been there. Time almost seemed to have stood still for the small settlement, unlike nearly every other corner of the world, where people were frantically racing to expand and improve their surroundings.

The group arrived inside the first cave, by the weapons smith. Nanaki paused, turning around. "You all brought your weapons as I requested?"

"Yeah." Cid replied. "So what's this all about?" he asked, echoing the thoughts of everyone around him.

Nanaki shook his head. "Frankly, I don't know yet."

The others looked at him, puzzled.

"Come on. I'll show you." Nanaki said, motioning for everyone to follow him to the observatory. "You can leave your equipment here for the time being. We probably won't be in any danger for the moment."

"Probably?" Reeve asked, wondering why their four-legged friend was being so cryptic. Everyone removed their backpacks and most of their weaponry, leaving it on the floor next to the weapon maker's shop. Cloud knelt over his equipment pack, idly rummaging through some things in it.

"Cloud, you coming?" Tifa asked, as the others began to follow Nanaki up the second set of stairs.

"Be there in a sec." he replied, turning his attention again to his equipment.

Tifa shrugged, and joined the others.

"I've configured the Observatory telescope to give you all a good view." Nanaki explained as the Avalanche members climbed up the narrow staircase to the second floor of Cosmo Canyon's famed Planetary Observatory.

"Take a look." he urged. The others gathered around the device. Several viewpieces were fixed to the main telescope to allow multiple viewers at the same time. The Avalanche members placed their eyes to the viewpieces, some of them taking turns, as there were not enough pieces to accommodate everyone.

"Ah, will you be joining us?" Nanaki asked sardonically as Cloud arrived in the Observatory.

"Sorry." Cloud replied sheepishly. "Just taking care of some maintenance."

He joined the others in their observation. The telescope was set at a low magnification, and pointed towards Ajit, the lost city of the Ancients. The night air was still in the hallowed ruins, and none of them could make out anything of grave importance..

"Do you see it?" Nanaki asked.

"I can't see shit.." Cid muttered.

"Me neither." Cloud said.

"Wait for it." Nanaki explained patiently, lazily wagging his tail as the others huddled around the telescope.

Suddenly, a low burst of pale green light emanated from deep inside the ruined city. It lasted only for a brief second, and then faded again. Barely a minute passed, and then another, longer flash followed. The group gathered in the Observatory tensely waited for a third, which never came. Eventually, they gave up on waiting, and moved away from the telescope. Nanaki looked up at them expectedly.

"That's it?" Cid asked, breaking the silence, sounding rather unimpressed. "That's what you brought us all here to see?" He shook his head and reached for a cigarette. "Fuckin' tourists waving around flashlights.." he muttered under his breath, lighting up.

"Cid, I sincerely doubt that a group of tourists would bring a floodlight with them to the Ajit ruins." Nanaki replied admonished the pilot. Cid gave a nonchalant shrug, taking a drag from his cigarette.

"Also," Nanaki continued. "doesn't that colour remind you of something?"

Cloud instinctively knew what it was. It was the colour of the essence of everything in existence. Something only he and a few others had ever come into contact with. Something he'd never forget..

"Lifestream.." he said, to no-one in particular.

"Exactly." Nanaki replied.

"You think it's swelling up over there?" Reeve asked.

Nanaki shook his head. "I don't think so. We'd be seeing something other than just occasional flashes of light, if that were the case.." he sighed. "...It's strange. This has been going on for the past few days now, and I have no idea what it is or why it's happening." he looked up again. "That's why I called you all here." he explained, speaking up. "We'll need to investigate, and, if it turns out to be dangerous, we'll all be properly equipped and in numbers."

Reeve nodded. "Makes sense to me." The others nodded their agreement.

"You're all probably tired." Nanaki said. "Why don't we rest for the night, and leave in the morning."

"Good idea." Tifa replied, stretching and yawning. "It's getting late."

"Sounds like a plan." Cid answered, heading for the stairs.

The group, following Nanaki, wandered into Cosmo Canyon's common room. The small, circular chamber was essentially one large communal bedroom, filled with stuffed pillows and warm blankets, intended for groups to stay in for short periods. A cast-iron brazier hung from the ceiling, providing a sliver of light for the cavern room.

"Where do we put down?" Yuffie asked.

"Anywhere we like, apparently." Tifa replied, picking a spot near the far wall. The rest followed suit, settling down in one end of the room or the other. Most of them were pretty tired, and ready to simply drift off to sleep. Seeing as how the cold air flowed freely into the room from the outside, they decided to sleep with most of their clothes on.

After a half an hour, nearly everyone was asleep. Yuffie tossed and turned for a while, unable to fall asleep outright, even though she was tired. She looked around the room at the others. Cid had fallen asleep almost instantly, and was happily snoring away, loudly. Reeve and Barret hadn't had any problems falling asleep either. Nanaki turned over occasionally, subconsciously waving his tail.

To her surprise, Yuffie noticed that Tifa and Vincent were huddled together, in a more intimate way than that of just friends. She couldn't quite tell if they were asleep or not.

Did Cloud know? she wondered. If so, did he mind? Maybe he didn't..

"Wait. Why do I care so much..?" she thought to herself. She looked over to the swordsman who was lying down in the opposite side of the room. She couldn't tell if he was asleep or not, either.

She sat up, watching the soft light emanating from the brazier play across his features. Her expression softened. She knew the answer to her question, even though she had firmly tried to deny it..

Maybe he was past the point of caring, entirely. That might explain his impassive behaviour..

"Are you really that callous? Does nothing get to you?" she wondered, gazing at his still form. "Or are you just good at hiding it?"

Of course, there was no answer. Just silence. She sighed, shivering from the cold. Laying back down, the young ninja pulled the blankets closer to her body, closing her eyes, and fell into an uneasy sleep..

The morning after, everyone was gathered around the Eternal Flame, which had been kept alight by generations upon generations of those who lived in the valley. The group had just eaten breakfast, and was now preparing to leave for Ajit. Some of them were leaving for the Highwind, while others were making last-minute checks on their equipment.

"Damnit.." Yuffie grumbled, rifling through her equipment.

"What is it?" Cloud asked.

"...can't find my..." she muttered, not turning around.

"Hey."

"Hmmm?" Yuffie turned around, standing up.

"Here." Cloud replied, handing her a wide, thin parcel wrapped in plain brown paper.

"What's this?" Yuffie asked, puzzled.

"Open it." Cloud urged. Yuffie tore open the paper to reveal her missing shuriken. it had been polished to a fine sheen, and the edges were sharpened to perfection. In addition, someone had apparently made several intricate adjustments to its weight.

"I asked the weapons smith to make some improvements on it, based on your fighting style." Cloud explained.

"Why did..?" Yuffie started to ask.

"Just a little something for missing out on your big day." Cloud explained. "And, uh.." he continued, scratching the back of his head, looking somewhat discomfited. "for, you know.. patronizing you earlier."

Yuffie turned away, taking a few practice swings. "Whoa, this is great. So light.." she said to herself. She turned around again and gave the bashful swordsman a tight hug.

"Thanks. Thank you." she cooed.

"Happy belated birthday." Cloud replied, smiling.

Yuffie pulled away again, testing her new weapon some more. Cloud shouldered his backpack, and started to make his way towards the Highwind along with the others.

On the outskirts of Cosmo Canyon, the rest of the group was busy loading the Highwind with various supplies. Nanaki had also requested to take some of his grandfather's scientific tools and laboratory equipment with him for the purpose of analysis, and the villagers were engaged in moving it into the airship via its rear loading platform. Cid had just helped Cloud get his motorcycle on board, and the two of them were heading back inside the ship with a heavy crate containing various scientific instruments, when Nanaki came rushing through the gates towards the two men.

"Cid, how long will it take for us to reach Ajit?" he asked, excited.

"I dunno. About three, three an' a half hours. Depends on how hard I drive this thing." Cid replied, jabbing his thumb roughly in the direction of his airship. "Why?"

"The light fluctuations have stopped." Nanaki explained quickly.

"You mean the light is gone?" Cloud asked.

"No.." Nanaki replied. "it's on constantly now."

"The hell..?" Cid muttered.

"We'd better get a move on." Cloud said. The other two nodded, and the three of them hurried off towards the great airship as its engines revved up for the journey ahead..