Please note that none of the characters/locations/creatures are mine; they all belong to Squaresoft.

Author's note: for those of you who wanted more dialogue, I hope this chapter satisfies your longings!

Chapter 7

Those final yards passed in a blur. Cid and Edea both found a well of strength within them that they had believed was exhausted. In no time at all they were treading on grass instead of toiling across sand. The air that they breathed in carried a thousand different scents instead of sand. And just ahead of them lay a smooth patch of water, the lifespring of the oasis.

Laughing and cheering like children, Cid and Edea raced to the water, dropping their packs as they ran. They plunged in up to their waists, then sat in the shallows, and finally dipped their heads right under. The water washed away the sand and grit of the desert, refreshing their minds and their bodies.

At last Cid stood, shaking water from his hair in sparkling drops. Edea looked at him critically. It was the first time she had seen him clean and in daylight, and the effect was not a bad one. She smiled up at him, relaxed and happy. Cid caught her eye and smiled back.

'We did it, Edea, we finally made it to the oasis!'

Suddenly Edea felt something snap inside her. What was she thinking, smiling up at this man who was the cause of all her current problems? Look at him now, crowing in triumph, as if he had got them here all alone! If it wasn't for him.......

'Yes, we've made it – no thanks to you!'

Cid reeled back in the water as if she had struck him with her fist rather than her voice.

'Wha – what do you mean?' he stammered.

'Do I need to spell it out for you?' she threw back, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

'Edea,' Cid began, keeping his voice as calm as he could, 'I really have no idea what you are talking about.'

'No, you wouldn't! I mean, I am tired, aching all over, my skin almost flayed off by the desert sand, and it's all your fault!'

'My fault?! How do you work that out?'

'Whose idea was it to travel across the desert in the first place? Who dropped a full water bottle in the sand? Who let the chocobos run away?'

The questions hit him, one after another, with no chance of responding to them. The unfairness and injustice of her accusations raised his own anger. She had done nothing but snipe and grumble at him since they started, and all he had tried to do was help her.

'Those things were no-one's fault,' he replied, amazed at how even his voice was.

'Yes they were – they were yours!'

'No. If you have something to accuse me of, go ahead. But make sure I deserve it.'

'Make sure you deserve it?!'

'Yes. Look, think about it, Edea. When we left Winhill, what other direction could we have taken?'

'When we left Winhill,' she mimicked. 'Why did we leave Winhill? Remind me.'

'Well, as I recall, the townspeople were about to shoot you for being a witch,' he replied, now thouroughly confused.

'Yes, they were going to shoot me – so why did we leave?'

'I was trying to help you.........'

'And a lot of help you've been!' she exclaimed triumphantly, as if her unjust accusations were now thouroughly vindicated.

Cid shook his head. His anger was slow burning, but once well alight, it was hard to keep in check. Edea had unknowingly just added paraffin to the blaze.

'Look, I could have left you there,' he shouted.

'Well, why didn't you?'

'I thought you needed help.'

'Not yours!'

'And how far do you think you would have got without me?'

'A lot further than I am right now! I could have got to the sea, and found a ship. I could have been in Deling right now! But where am I? Stuck in the middle of the desert – lucky to be alive – and with you!'

'Yes, you might have made it alive to the sea. But how would you have had to wait for a ship to pick you up? The townspeople would have found you in no time, and still killed you!'

'Not necessarily. They didn't follow us into the desert.'

'Probably Raine put them off our trail.'

'And she would have done the same for me, if I was alone.'

'Well, it was your friend Raine who sent me with you.'

'Yes, I'll be speaking to her about that!'

They each fell silent for a moment, breathing hard, trying to work out the next move. They stood facing each other across a few feet of water, both standing now, both with fists clenched, both faces contorted with anger.

Cid found his voice first.

'What about your famous magic?' he asked.

Edea blinked at him in surprise.

'What?' she snapped.

'Your magic. Oh, it's all very well to kill a few fastitocalon, or even an abyss worm, but how about doing something really useful?'

'Like what?'

'Like transporting us straight here, without having to toil over miles of sand!'

'It doesn't work like that!'

'Oh, of course not!'

'You couldn't have killed that abyss worm on your own!'

'And you couldn't have found this oasis on your own!'

'Look,' she said, speaking slowing, emphasising each word, 'if it wasn't for you dragging me out into the desert in the first place, we wouldn't be in this mess!'

They were back to square one. Neither was willing to give any ground to the other, each wrapped in their own personal misery and anger.

Cid took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

'This is hopeless,' he said eventually. 'You aren't even willing to listen to reason.'

'If anything you had said so far made any sense, then I might have listened,' she threw back.

'I've been making perfetct sense. It's you that's unhinged.'

'Oh, so I'm mad now, am I?'

'Maybe you are! For some reason, I've spent the last few days risking my life trying to save yours, just for you to abuse and insult me at every step! On second thoughts, maybe it isn't you that's mad – maybe its me!'

Just as suddenly as it had begun, Edea found that her anger had spent itself. She was still unwilling to give Cid any credit, she still blamed him for their current predicament, but somehow she couldn't feel any anger towards him.

When she spoke again, her voice was cold, and each word cut through him like an icy knife. She looked at him with contempt, but there was also pity in her eyes.

'The real question, Cid, is this; what – in the name of Hyne – are you doing here?'

Cid opened his mouth to speak, but no words came to him. He looked down into the water, as if the answer might rise up from the depths, but nothing came. He raised his eyes to hers, but soon dropped them again. There was no answer he could give her to that question; there was no answer he could give himself.

He heard her splash back to the shore, and looked up in time to see her stalking away through the lush vegetation which grew around the oasis.