Disclaimer: Still don't own it.

A/N: Arriving when you least expect it… chapter 10!

Thank you everyone for the reviews and follows! Even a review as simple as "I liked the chapter" means a lot to me and I love hearing what people think is going to happen.

OOO

Chapter 10 - Connections

OOO

"How can something so big move so fast?!" Snow threw his hands up in exasperation.

"It takes big steps." Cloud walked past him to examine the area.

They had just seen Titan there that morning, making creatures, or doing whatever it was the fal'cie did in its spare time over where he had seen it digging that one morning. By the time they arrived, the fal'cie had moved on.

Deep gouges that were as large and deep as ditches scarred the landscape, exposing the strange crystal. One gouge into the side of the mountain had exposed a whole cave of the stuff and a …spring? Fountain? Snow headed over towards the fountain, a puzzled frown on his face. Had this been what the fal'cie was looking for, or had it uncovered it by accident?

The fountain was little more than a deep puddle no more than a foot deep, but it glowed with a gentle blue-green light. Geometric crystals like those that dotted the walls decorated the bottom of the pool, obscured by the rippling of the surface. Two green splotches of color hid beneath the surface like someone had lost them beneath the surface. Curiosity drew him closer.

"You shouldn't touch it." Vincent's voice made him jump.

"Make some noise next time would you?" If Snow didn't know better he would have thought Vincent looked amused.

"It's a natural mako spring. It'll burn you if you touch it." Vincent waved his gauntleted hand towards the surface.

"There's something in the water. Maybe we can fish it out with a stick or something." Snow glanced around, hoping to find a large root or tree branch.

"It's probably materia. You can find it in natural springs like this."

"You never find more than one materia at a time." Cloud had joined them by the edge of the pool. "Someone left it here for us."

Who would know they'd come this way? And where would they have found materia? He hadn't even known the stuff existed until recently. Something else was going on, but he didn't have a clue as to what.

Cloud stripped off his right glove and took a deep breath, as if bracing himself before plunging his hand into the pool to remove what looked like a deep green marble. A second grab produced another. Pulling out his canteen, Cloud rinsed the glowing liquid off both himself and the materia before replacing his glove.

Vincent picked the one of the orbs up and rolled it around in his palm before repeating the process with the other. They glowed slightly at his touch. "Barrier and cure. Still at the first level."

Cloud and Vincent exchanged a look. Vincent shook his head. Snow had no idea what the exchange meant. He had never quite mastered condensing a conversation down to a look and he didn't know either of the two well enough to hazard a guess.

Cloud turned to Snow. "Interested in learning to use materia?"

OOO

While the others had been drawn into the cave, Lightning busied herself with scouting the area outside. There was no indication of what Titan had been looking for. And the gouges seemed to travel up the valley. A trail of what could only be the tracks of the massive fal'cie led north. Off to one side of one of the gouges lay a dark heap. She worked her way across the uneven terrain towards it to investigate.

The body of a man lay still, limbs bent at unnatural angles, face slack with death. Bone lay exposed to the air, tooth marks scraped across them. Beneath dark sticky blood was the logo of the Guardian Corp. Lightning hadn't known the man, but she had seen his face before. He had gone missing after a skirmish only days before.

A Guardian Corpsman that had been taken by the mutated monsters, mutated monsters that appeared from nowhere and were infected by Jenova… a fal'cie that created strong monsters…

A horrible realization struck.

Lightning strode over to the cave that the men had gone to investigate, only to find them looking over what looked like green marbles. "Titan is working with Jenova."

"What?!" Snow looked about appalled as she felt at the idea. "Why would a space alien work with the fal'cie?"

"To injure the Planet and call forth the lifestream." Vincent looked grim. "Both Jenova and the fal'cie have tried create large impacts on the planet's surface before. It's not impossible to think they may have decided to work together this time. "

Cloud tilted his head as if listening to something only he could hear. "We need to follow the tracks."

Lightning's eyes narrowed. "How do you know that?"

"Why else leave such an obvious path? Titan wants us to follow." Vincent swept out of the cave. After a moment, Cloud followed.

Lightning couldn't help but feel like Vincent was covering for Cloud. This was the second time Vincent had cut in after Cloud had done something strange. Was it really just that they didn't want to talk about the side effects of whatever had been done to them? Or was there something else?

Lightning shook her head. It didn't matter. She didn't have time for this.

"What is it, Sis?" Snow was looking at her with a concerned expression.

Lightning frowned at the nickname. "Nothing. Let's go."

They'd need more supplies if they were going to take a longer trek. Should she have Sazh meet them somewhere he could land or head back for the night to protect the city? Lightning warred with the decision. They would keep going. After placing a call with Amodar to inform him she would be gone for longer than planned, she called Sazh. There was a field a couple hours hike away he could meet them at. Lightning gave him a list of supplies they would need.

Exiting the cavern Lightning passed the others, heading north along the fal'cie's tracks.

OOO

The scientists' eyes widened when they saw the footage Hope showed them of the Sister Ray in action. They all exploded into a ruckus of comments and one of them rewound the footage to play it again. This time they paused it and pointed at various parts of the screen.

"We've found some partial schematics of how it was attached to the tower. It makes a lot more sense after seeing this." A scientist tapped his clipboard while another took notes.

Hope listened and watched, unsure that we would ever get a word in edgewise even if he could think of something to say. While part of him wanted to let the excitement of discovery carry him away, Cait Sith's words dampened that feeling with an edge of unease. The robot itself lingered near the back of the room, watching them and frowning.

"Look at this glow over here, I'm sure we could find a way to insulate it and focus even more power into the canon." The scientist pointed to the ripple of energy that crossed the canon. "There's so much power loss here compared to the manadrives we use."

Mako had nearly destroyed the world, but what other kind of power could keep their world running if they gave up the manadrives the fal'cie provided? Was everything the Shinra created evil and destructive? There had to be something they could salvage.

Their choices couldn't be limited to killing the planet or continuing to be the pets of the fal'cie. There had to be a third option.

There had to.

OOO

Vincent frowned at his phone. He had slipped away from the others when he had seen who the caller was. Despite Cait Sith's personality, he wouldn't have called if it wasn't important. The robot had just finished telling him about the ideas people were getting from the video footage of the Sister Ray. Hope hadn't been the only one to think of reviving the canon against the monsters that threatened New Bohdum after seeing the footage. Cait Sith had managed to distract Hope, but the scientists would take more work to discourage.

"We can't let them revive the Sister Ray. I mean, I think I talked Hope out of it but these scientists… they're already trying figure out how it worked!" Cait Sith's voice was frantic.

"Is their any way you can get their data?"

Cait Sith huffed. "Of course I can."

"Do what you can to stall them. Delete data if you have to." Vincent sighed. "I had hoped that after all these years the mistakes of the Shinra would not longer be tempting."

"That's about as likely as seeing Hojo in a miniskirt."

Vincent hid his face in his hand and groaned. "More nightmares will come to me now, more than I previously had."

Cait Sith laughed.

OOO

The second time Lebreau saw the woman it was in a quiet little neighborhood that had been so far spared from the monster attacks. It was early enough that the streets were empty. People didn't usually emerge until the daily monster report was aired for the day. The woman was sitting on a bench outside of one of the small buildings, staring up at Cocoon, with a sad, wistful expression on her face. Lebreau's steps slowed, before turning and heading towards her. The woman gave a sad small smile when she noticed Lebreau.

"Did you find your son?" Lebreau joined her on the bench.

"Not yet, but I will." She turned her gaze back up towards Cocoon. "I fear he's left the city."

"Has there been any sign of him?"

She nodded. "One group saw him. My son fought them and ran when they tried to bring him back. I think he blames me for what happened in the past. That's why he won't come home."

"He blames you for his brother's death?" Lebreau's heart went out to the woman.

The woman nodded. Lebreau put a hand on the woman's shoulder, who looked surprised by the touch.

"It's not your fault."

"You don't know that."

"I've seen your expression. That's enough for me." Lebreau shot to her feet. "I'll help you look for him."

"Would you? Really?" The woman's face shone with gratitude.

"Of course I will! Helping people is what NORA does!" Lebreau declared.

The woman stood and pointed down the street. "Let's start in this direction."

They amiably walked along the empty streets, their footsteps sounded like thunder in the eerie silence.

"I should have asked yesterday, but I'm so used to just striking up conversations with people in the café that I forget sometimes. We never exchanged names. I'm Lebreau."

The woman blinked in surprise, obviously expecting a different question. Then a slow, unnerving smile spread across her face. "People have called me many things. But my favorite is Jenova."