AN: Just want to thank all the folks who have favorited and reviewed. I hope you enjoy the twists and turns the story takes. Also, apologies for the long delay between updates. I've been extraordinarily busy, and it probably won't let up anytime soon, but I will still try to update as often as I can.

Gift of the Goddess

Chapter 10

After leaving Kalm, the two groups briefly discussed their routes, and had decided on Cloud's group following the mountains on the north side of the pass past Kalm, while Sephiroth's would head south. They would rendezvous at the Chocobo Farms to likely obtain chocobos to cross the infamous marshes to the south.

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"Gods damned it... it's hot..."

Barret Wallace was miserable. The Grasslands east of Midgar, while far more flourishing and full of life than the Midgar Plains' dry and desolate wastelands, were still quite hot during the day. The man had lived in the hot and dry climate of Corel for his entire life, but life under the plate of Midgar had spoiled him to its relatively cool climates, even in the summer, as the daylight rarely penetrated very far under the plate. Suffice it to say, he wasn't used to the humid heat of the open Grasslands.

Cloud's Mako-enhanced body was able to withstand fairly severe temperatures, so he was entirely unaffected by the heat. Tifa also, being a trained martial artist, was able to withstand the humid temperatures without any complaint.

"Here, have some more water, Barret," Tifa called back to the struggling AVALANCHE leader as she tossed back another flask of water, which he deftly caught with his good hand and expertly unscrewed.

"Ugh... thanks Teef," he panted as he guzzled back a good portion of the flask. "We gunna have enough to last the trip, ya think?" he asked.

Cloud stopped and flipped open his phone, and called up the GPS. "We should have enough, if we're good about conserving what we have left," he answered after a moment. "We'll have to camp out for the night after we clear the Kalm Pass, and then head for the Chocobo Farms while trying to keep a good distance from the main roadways. With any luck, we'll make it there by noon tomorrow."

Barret's head hung a bit. "Shit man... that's an awful lot of walkin'... can't we jus' get a car or somethin' and drive the rest of the way?"

Tifa smiled sadly at Barret but shook her head. "You know we can't," she said kindly. "ShinRa would be able to track us far too easily, and mako fuel is too expensive for us to afford."

Barret shook his fist at the sky at the mention of ShinRa. "We shoulda just stuck with coal and petrol instead of killin' the planet by suckin' out mako!" he bellowed angrily. "Goddamn ShinRa..."

Cloud shook his head, and began walking again. "We won't have to walk the entire journey, Barret," he called back as he walked. "We'll rent chocobos wherever we can. It's a great way to travel!"

Barret shivered, despite the heat.

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Sephiroth's group was also having slight difficulties, although the problems arose with monsters. The twisted spawn of the Planet were tormenting the group on a fairly regular basis, although they were absolutely no threat to the skilled ex-General, the intelligent feline, and the natural master of materia. Still, Sephiroth sensed that something odd was going on, as the monsters appeared to be actively seeking out their group.

"*huff* I... I think I need to sit down for a few minutes," Aerith wheezed apologetically after their latest encounter with a rather large group of Kalm Fangs. Although being able to channel the powers of the Planet naturally, and having an extraordinarily large spiritual pool to draw from, she was nearly spent after having done so much casting.

Sephiroth gazed over the battlefield littered with corpses and nodded as he turned back to the group.

"Very well, we will take fifteen minutes," he agreed as he pulled out a vial of blue liquid and handed it to Aerith, who looked at him quizzically.

"What's this?" she inquired as Sephiroth handed her the bottle.

"It's a bottle of Ether," he explained as she twisted the top off. "It will assist in regenerating your spiritual reserves. Letting them regenerate naturally is usually the best option, but we cannot risk you being unable to defend yourself if we are surrounded or ambushed in the future."

Aerith nodded gratefully, and took a swig. Her face turned sour as she managed to coax the concoction down her throat.

"It's... nasty."

Sephiroth gave a ghost of a grin at her humorous reaction, and then turned to Red who was padding up to him, concern burning in his good eye.

"Sephiroth, I believe it would be wise to set out as soon as possible," he told the ex-General in a low tone. "I am sensing an unnaturally large amount of monsters from the way we came, and they seem to be coming straight for us at an alarming speed."

Sephiroth turned and closed his eyes for a moment. Indeed, he could sense an abnormally large amount of lifeforms some distance away, and they did seem to be coming straight for them.

"Indeed. Let us make haste," he told the feline. He then turned to Aerith.

"Aerith, we need to leave right away. We will be needing to run. Can you keep up?"

Aerith stood shakily, and gave him a weak smile. "I'll try my best..." she managed.

Sephiroth shook his head as he saw her condition. "I do not believe you will be able to," he responded to her. Hesitating for only a moment, he proceeded to hoist the flower girl in his arms and put her over his shoulder.

"Ahhhh! Sephiroth, what are you doing?" Aerith squealed as the remaining party members began to run at great speed.

"There is no time to argue," Sephiroth responded to her objections as he ran. "We must make it to the marshes quickly. The monsters following us will not come after us if we make it that far."

"What of the Zoloms?" Red asked after a moment of silence.

Sephiroth's eyes narrowed as he increased his pace even more, but said nothing. If his instinct was correct, the Midgar Zoloms were the lesser of two evils...

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As dusk fell, Cloud's group reached the end of the Kalm Pass. Before them was nothing but open fields and rolling hills for as far as the eye could see. Beyond here, there would be no mountains to follow, and no possibility of cover.

Cloud turned to the exhausted pair behind him. "Let's set camp here," he told them. "I'll take first watch so you two can get some rest. Tifa," he turned then to the brawler, "you take second watch so Barret here can get some extra rest for last watch."

Tifa smiled tiredly at her childhood friend. "Okay, that's fine with me," she replied.

Barret, too exhausted to even answer, unhooked his pack and dropped it on the ground.

"I'll go find us somethin' to make a fire with, I guess..." he told the pair, who were setting up the two tents the trio would be using.

Cloud looked up at Barret. "Make sure you don't take long," he told the older man. "If you aren't back in ten minutes, we'll come looking for you."

Tifa simply smiled. "Be careful, Barret," she told him.

Barret waved at them with his back turned as he went.

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Around the same time Cloud's group was setting camp, Sephiroth and Red had miraculously ran for nearly four hours straight, and had reached the East Midgar Marshes in record time. Even with his superior conditioning and enhanced strength and stamina, Sephiroth was visibly winded, and Red was also taking a long-needed breather.

"I believe... they have stopped pursuing us..." Red panted out. "It is as if... they know they cannot... follow us any further."

Sephiroth had dropped the shaken, but no worse for the wear, Aerith to the ground and was generously gulping down a flask of water. As he finished, he shut his eyes and listened to his keen senses. Indeed, it appeared the huge mass of monsters that had been unrelentingly pursuing them was finally retreating.

"I hope we never have to do that again..." Aerith mumbled to herself, brushing off her muddied pink skirt. The long run for survival had been made in complete silence, with Sephiroth and Red not stopping or slowing even once. Aerith had even sensed the Planet crying out in what it felt like fear and anguish. She somehow knew that whatever had been after them was related to the Planet's distress.

Sephiroth turned to the frazzled flower girl. "I apologize for my rough handling, Ms. Gainsborough," he told her. "It was a matter of urgency and had to be handled with haste."

Aerith blushed slightly but smiled brightly at the silver-haired ex-SOLDIER. "It's fine, really," she replied. "I knew you were only doing what you thought was best."

Sephiroth turned away and nodded. "Very well then," he replied, accepting her reply. "Let us take thirty minutes to rest and recuperate. We will need to proceed across the marshes on foot swiftly and reach the Mithril Mines before dark."

Red's good eye narrowed. "It is common knowledge that it is incredibly dangerous to cross the marshes without a well-equipped military grade vehicle, a helicopter, or a chocobo," he warned. "Are you sure we will be able to cross safely?"

Sephiroth turned his green eyes towards the marshes, the orange glow of the sun as it began to slowly set on the horizon giving them an odd shimmering appearance.

"We have no choice."

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As the sun sat low on the horizon, casting long shadows of the tents and few trees scattered in the clearing below the mountains, Cloud's team sat before a brightly burning fire as Tifa tended to a large pot filled with stew cooking over it.

Cloud opened his phone. "I'm going to call Sephiroth," he told the others as he flipped through the menus, looking for a number. "I'm a bit worried that we haven't heard from them yet."

Barret sighed tiredly. "They's an odd bunch, 'specially that talkin' cat, but they know what they doin'," he said. "I ain't too worried 'bout it."

Tifa's brown eyes looked at Barret curiously. "I thought you didn't trust General Sephiroth, Barret," she mentioned.

Barret stared into the fire. "I met him once, ya know," he said quietly. "Was a good six or seven years ago now, I guess."

Tifa's eyes widened a bit. "Really? What happened?" she asked.

Barret's gaze never left the fire. "He was escortin' some ShinRa suits with them Turk monkeys. Was somethin' about the reactor site in Corel," he explained quietly. "He was a creepy lookin' guy, even for one of them SOLDIERs, with his freaky fuckin' glowin' cat eyes... funny thing was, unlike them jackass Turks, ya could tell jus' by the way he carried himself he was more than jus' some assassin-fer-hire. Had ta' respect that, I guess."

Tifa looked down. Barret rarely mentioned Corel. It was something that had severely impacted the big man's otherwise normal, happy life, and turned it into something far from it. She had heard the stories about Corel's demise on more than one occasion, and it never was any easier to swallow.

Their somber discussion was interrupted with Cloud suddenly bellowing.

"ARE YOU INSANE?"

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The irony of Cloud's loud outburst was not lost on Sephiroth as he held the cellphone away from his ear. He had almost lost his grip on sanity on more than one occasion over the last five years. He returned the handset to his ear.

"Let me explain, Strife," he began calmly.

"You better have a good explanation," Cloud warned.

Sephiroth smirked slightly at Cloud's threatening tone. "I do. We were being pursued by a unnaturally large amount of monsters and had to retreat to the marshes to elude them," he explained.

"Why didn't you engage them?" Cloud inquired.

"We had already encountered over a dozen separate packs of monsters since departing, and Aerith's spiritual energy had run low," Sephiroth answered. "In addition, she is not accustomed to long periods of combat, and judging from the sheer number of monsters that had been coming towards us, it would have been very unwise to stay and attempt to slay them while keeping her safe from harm."

Cloud was quiet on his end for several moments. "If you encounter a Zolom, will you be able to handle it, Sephiroth?"

Sephiroth closed his eyes.

"I will."

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Barret and Tifa watched Cloud with concern as he finally finished his conversation and returned to the campfire.

"What tha' hell happened, Spikey?" Barret asked the blond.

Cloud sat and gave a long, worried sigh. "Sephiroth, Aerith and Red were forced to cross the marshes on foot."

"That's crazy!" Tifa exclaimed as she stood, shock also present on Barret's face. "Why would they do something like that?"

Cloud shook his head. "They were being chased by a large pack of monsters, and Aerith was apparently too tired and weakened from other monster attacks to be able to fight, so they had to run for several hours straight to the marshes to escape them," he explained to the worried pair as he looked down, confusion riddling his face. "What makes no sense to me is why we were only attacked twice the entire journey..."

Tifa sat back down slowly and glanced at Barret. Cloud brought up a good point. With the distance they had travelled and not taking established roadways, the chance of monster attack went up greatly, however only encountering two small packs of Kalm Fangs had been incredibly lucky, in her opinion. Why then, had Sephiroth's team been attacked so severely they had needed to find solace in the comparatively dangerous East Midgar Marshlands really confused her.

"I jus' hope Mr. SOLDIER knows what he's doin'," was all Barret said.

'So do I,' Cloud thought. 'So do I...'

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Notes: I haven't had a chance to proofread this thoroughly, but it seemed to be in good order. If you come across any grammar or spelling errors glaring at you, please PM me or leave a review and I will gladly fix it up.

With that said, please review!