Helloooooo everybody! How've ya been? I've been stressed but I'm fine. Here's the monthly chapter!

I sincerely thank everybody for your reviews and advise. - And also your sympathy for my predicament…..yeah I still hurt from the extractions….the surgeon took out a lot of bone…..Anyway!- They always make my day and help me become a better writer. I hope you enjoy this chpter!

Chapter 11

There was only one week left And they would need at least three to get to Costa del Soll. By her means that is. So they were leaving the canyon tomorrow just to be safe and make sure that they had time to set everything up once they got there.

That meant that she had to wrap everything up with the actual purpose of her visit. Materia and the Planet. Time to pay a visit to Elder Bugenhagen.

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Finding the eccentric elder was not particularly difficult. It's just that, well, for a man of considerable age he sure was nimble. Every time she was close enough to talk to him he would suddenly put such a distance between them that she would have to run to catch up. Every. Single. Time.

Must be that green sphere of his… speaking of, hadn't he had a cane? And different robes when she first saw him? Should she ask?

Finally, finally having caught up with him Bella was able to hold a conversation for the first time since coming to the canyon, excluding the minor first exchange of words since they first arrived.

"Good morning elder." she greeted panting a bit from all the running.

"Why, good morning to you too, young lady. I haven't seen you since you first came here." the old nan smiled at her.

She gave a small laugh. "Well, a couple things happened and I've been quite busy. Before I knew it the time had passed and I realized I had to leave soon an I hadn't finished doing what I wanted." And no, she wasn't the least bit hysterical. The hitch was because she was still out of breath.

The elder nodded his head sagely. He had heard that the quirky young lady had fallen ill for about a week. That would throw a wrench in anybody's plans. "I see. You said that you were interested in the planet, correct?" she nodded in affirmative. "Then come this way dear. I'll be glad to tell you all I know. It's good seeing young people so interested about the world they live in." he said with a tinkle in his eye. 'Wai-what? That was just random word placement, right?'

"Back home, there are a couple of sayings we have. 'Knowledge is power' and 'Knowing is half the battle' and considering what kind of knowledge we're talking about here and what a scandal it would be if it got out, well, what can I say, I like having the upper hand." her smile was absolutely predatory, the one Andrew had so "lovingly" named the "Black Smile".

"Oh ho ho. Now what could you possibly mean young lady?" the old man lauged. He knew exactly what she was talking about.

"Well, don't you think that Shin-ra has been going a little overboard? And I happen to have proof that while the amount of energy generated from the reactor in Midgar is more than enough to light the city up like a Christmas tree only half of it is provided to the citizens. So where does the rest of it go? And this is only Midgard we're talking about. There are same sized reactors with identical output in regions with far smaller populations and still there are places that are without electricity. So what happens to the rest of it? Seems suspicious as fuck to me." She smirked as she brought her hands together in front of her joining the broad sleeves together. Andrew was such a dear for digging all that up. It also brought the so-called Promised Land higher on her list.

The elder looked at her in a new light. He didn't know that. Also what was a Christmas tree? "Oh ho ho. Now that's something new. And how did you come by this information if I may ask?"

She in turn giggled "I have a friend that's a very good hacker."

Bugenhagen laughed as well "I see, that explains it. Would you perhaps happen to know anything else pertain to Shin-ra's ambitions?"

"My you sure like gossip, don't you? I actually happen to know a lot of things." She snapped her concealed fingers silently, erecting a privacy ward around them. She had spotted a head of gelled back brown hair when she glanced a bit to the side. 'Suck on that, you sociopath'.

"Oh ho ho, such as?" the old man seemed oblivious to the subtle piece of magic happening around him.

"Well, I know that the lifestream consists of the souls of the dearly departed and that the President seems very keen on finding something called the Promised Land. That last bit I don't know what to make of." And she really didn't. It sounded very much like the Christian faith's tale of Moses, the land that Moses took the liberated Jews after they left Egypt. She thought it a bit too much of a coincidence. "I mean, I know what the Promised land is.-" she didn't this one "But I don't know what the Cetra are or how they play into… this."

The old man frowned in concern. "So they are after the Promised Land, eh? I should have known." He seemed grave for a minute. "Very well. We'll continue this more privately. I imagine you'd want to stay away from prying eyes." He gave her a knowing look.

Well, he only seemed oblivious…

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When they reached the planetarium Bella felt secure enough to dispel the privacy ward. She placed a silencing one on the room's entry points instead.

"O ho ho. You're a cautious one, aren't you." The elder chuckled and made himself comfortable near a panel.

She shrugged indifferently. "Nah, not really. But I am paranoid." She said making him sweatdrop.

"I see." He quickly cleared his throat. " Let's get to the point right away, shall we. I recognize that you have a lot of things to still do, right?" he smiled sincerely and she returned it. She had a crap-tone of loose ends to tie up. "That would be appreciated. Thank you for your consideration." She answered and did a deep bow, out of habit really.

Elder Bugenhagen raised an eyebrow in surprised intrigue. That was a particularly Wutaian practice but she couldn't look any more different from Wutaian. He coughed to clear his throat. "The Promised Land is a mythical location believed to hold infinite amounts of Mako deposits. I shouldn't be surprised that Shin-ra craves it. It is part of the Cetra legend. If you wish to know more about it though, you should see my dear friend Hargo. He knows more on the subject. As for the Cetra, they were an ancient race of people, a deeply spiritual civilization, who traveled the Planet, healing and cultivating it by guiding the flow of the lifestream."

Ok. That explained a lot of things. The Cetra obviously wielded a great amount of power over the lifestream and by extension the planet. It reminded her of Shamans, who were the link between the mortal and spirit realms and were practically tasked with protecting the balance. Actually…

"Where they protectors of the planet?" she asked the elder.

He looked at her, surprised by her leap of logic. "Why yes, young lady. They were. You're quite intuitive."

'Oh believe me. It's nothing of that short. I just have more context to work with.' She thought ruefully. Death did say that this was the world closest to her own but she did not imagine it was that close. Oh, the elder had resumed talking, better pay attention…

"They were able to communicate with the planet and that is what the calamity from the skies took advantage of when it came to the planet. It mimicking the voice of Gaia and turned them against each other until they managed to seal it away. At this point however their numbers were decimated. There are supposedly none of them left today." He gave her a knowing look. Goddammit! Did he think she was a Cetra too?

"If you're implying what I think you are, then no, I am not a Cetra." She decided to nip this one in the bud. At his disbelieving and still knowing stare, she decided to take a leap of faith. She had a good feeling and her feelings were rather accurate. Plus, she needed more people on her side that actually knew what was really going on. And Bugenhagen was a wise man. One who obviously loved his home and clearly wanted to protect it. So…

"I am not even from Gaia actually. I am a witch from another world, from a planet called Earth." So she proceded to conjure two perfectly comfortable armchairs, a small table and a tea set and took out some of the tea leaves she always carried with her. It took everything she had not to burst out laughing at the old man's face. She decided that she liked surprising people like tha-aaaww shit! She had spent too much time with Zelretch!

She shook herself mentally and sighed. They had a long morning in front of them.

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It was noon by the time she left the planetarium and she had all sorts of theories. Next stop was Elder Hargo's house to either confirm or invalidate her suspicions. Because the parallels were too close.

If you took into acount that the lifestream, something that the Cetra allegedly manipulated to some extent, were the souls of the departed waiting to be reborn, it drew a disturbing amount of parallels. It all depended on what Hargo would tell her about the Promised land.

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She wished she was more surprised and mortified when she finally departed. This was bad, Goddammit! At least this time she finished early as she had opted not to tell Hargo the truth about herself. If Bugenhagen thought it prudent he would do it himself.

Oh Merlin the situation was worse than she imagined.

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She arrived at Cindy's ten minutes later. The old woman was probably alone but she had taken care to carry enough for the entire cycle of ladies.

Quickly schooling her features to a pleasant smile she knocked on the older woman's door. Clattering and muffled voices and eventually approaching footsteps were heard and a mere minute after knocking, the door swung open revealing Cindy's kind visage. But she wasn't smiling.

"Are you leaving?"

She felt what hope she had that this was going to be easy wilting.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I am. Tomorrow morning, perhaps tonight if I can manage it. I need to be in Costa del Soll in a couple of days. How pray tell do you know? I'm not exactly advertising it and I was coming to say goodbye." She answered, almost nonchalant.

Cindy's lips raised in a smirk. Bella had the impression that she wouldn't like the answer.

"Oh you know, just that wonderful boy, Fuhito. He dropped by saying that he had overheard that you were leaving and he wanted to see you before you left." She threw back with just as much nonchalance, so intentionally fake that Bella felt that she should applaud the woman for not bursting out laughing halfway. She herself had trouble containing her snickering. "Come on in dear, Sheila is here and wants to talk to you also." Bella felt a shiver in her spine.

The witch stepped into the home and quickly headed towards the living room where Sheila was calmly sipping her tea in all her raptor glory. Immediately, her sharp eyes pinned her down with a scowl. Another shiver ran up her spine.

"I don't know what Fuhito told you but it's most probably a lie." Bella rushed to compensate but Sheila's scowl shut her down when it intensified. "Sorry."

"At least you decided to say goodbye." Sheila drawled. "I do hope you keep in touch." That was an order. For the umpteenth time that Bella's known her she fought the urge to stutter a habit induced "Yes, Professor!"

"I fully plan on sending letters. You've already seen Hedwig."

There was a pregnant pause before the old crow inclined her head in an affirmative gesture. "Acceptable." And Bella breathed again.

She moved to sit on the couch, propping on shoulder on the armrest "So what did Fuhito have to say about me? He practically ambushed me last night singing praise to AVALANCHE. I got the rather distinct impression that he was trying to get me to join" Well that was the intention behind the ambush. "Cut him down to size quickly though, yes I did! And it was glorious! Why, the look on his face would have made even our wallflower Anne cackle." Bella said giddily wit a self satisfied grin, perfectly fitting of a cat that not only ate the goldfish, but blamed it on the dog too.

"He mentioned you had a rather enlightening conversation. He "slipped up" though." there were air quotes on the 'slipped up' and Cindy rolled her eyes so hard she should have had peoblems with vertigo. "Apparently, "too bad you lean more towards Shinra policy"". Her voice deepened mockingly, mimicking the man's statement. " I wanted to slap that prik so bad! Thank Gaia Sheila was too far away or she would have. And then I would have had to clean blood off my walls!"

"Which beggs the question, what exactly did you say to him?" Sheila's calm, if strict tone at the comment, conveyed what both of the old women really wanted to know.

Bella relaxed even more on the couch and her smile morphed into the – by now named – "Black Smile". "I did nothing but point out a couple of flaws in his plans and expressed my opinion concerning the lack of efficiency and forethought in their actions. And also called him an incompetent buffoon before making a timely and spectacular exit while having the last word. It is no fault of mine if he can't take a little bit of criticism. I expected him to be used to it considering his line of work." She waved the hand not supporting her on the armrest to the side nonchalantly.

Cindy was chuckling while Sheila's cup was suspiciously covering her lower face.

"You must have made him feel threatened. This is a place staunchly against Shin-ra, he must have expected to be treated like a hero or something like that." Their host said as she deposited a tray with tea and some cookies for the witch an took a seat in an armchair to her right. Bella graciously thanked her and took a sip. Yep it was her tea.

Bella sobered up "To be honest Cindy, that was my intention in the first place" she lowered her cup from her face to her lap, a finger absent-mindedly tracing the delicate rim of the porcelain. Her reflection stared back at her. "That man makes my skin crawl."

The silence that followed only served to confirm her accusation.

Sheila placed her cup on the table with a light clink. "The others will be here shortly. You will stay to bid them goodbye, won't you?" the look in her eyes told Bella that it wasn't negotiable. She didn't mind.

"Of course, Sheila."

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An hour later she was leaving Cindy's house when a clawed hand stopped her.

Bella was startled as she turn to look at the austere woman, only instead of the ever present stern scowl on her face she was presented with an expression of pure worry. "I know very well that you can take care of yourself. I also know that you don't belong here." Bella stiffened in surprise "I'm not going to ask the why or the how, I just want to know that you're not biting more than you can chew."

It was so surreal, seeing the fearsome woman so openly worried about her, so reminiscent of her old teacher. She couldn't stop the warm smile that bloomed on her lips. She wanted to hug the woman, reassure her that it was going to be okay but she restrained herself. "Telling you to not worry would be useless. So I won't. Instead I am going to be completely honest and tell you that I am extremely aware of what I am up against and my odds concerning that. Thus, I have taken action to make sure that I am covered from all possible fronts."

Sheila raised an eyebrow, her expression reverting to her normal scowl. " I sincerely hope that this is not false bravado speaking."

Bella just laughed. "No, Sheila, it isn't. Are you going to tell me how you know I don't belong?"

She stiffened, if only minutely. So that was a "no". No matter. Bella could put two and two together. "No worries, you don't need to tell me. I think I have enough brains to figure it out. It's so nice to know that you actually have a heart behind all those bird of pray feathers." She winked at the old woman who just leveled her with an unimpressed stare.

"I see that there was no need for me to worry. Do whatever you want." And she turned around, walking away.

"Aw, Sheila!" she run towards the woman engulfing her in a hug from behind very briefly before ducking back to avoid the old woman's claws, laughing all the while.

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This time, when she spied a head of gelled back brown hair she didn't even bother to continue walking. Instead she ducked out of sight behind a house and apparated to The Tent. Inside, the occupants have been prepared for the move, as in prepared to spend the entire journey in the rooms in the trunk, because, somehow those two were plausibly connected.

As it was, Bella was perfectly content with not sleeping tonight just to get moving all that sooner. Not that her fellow residents knew that.

"Ok, people. Are we ready?" she pumped her arm up in over exaggerated enthusiasm.

A resounding "Yes!" had her smiling.

"Wonderful! Padfoot, you return to your post. Since the sun hasn't set yet, let's start moving. Please head towards the designated areas. Once the tent is packed the corresponding space will not be accessible so be sure you have everything." She recapped, ruffling Cloud's hair fondly when the adorable blonde gave her a playful salute. He would be flying with her until his bedtime.

Once everyone was properly stationed she packed the tent and shrunk it with a wave of her hand and mounted her broom along with her little passenger. She made sure to secure the blonde to her front with the strap of her trunk and, in a stroke of mischief, took out her wand and cast a communication spell with a twirl. It would be boring if she couldn't communicate with her passengers.

"Now, without further ado, I welcome you, Lady and Gentlemen aboard the Firebolt and thank you for choosing Potter airlines for your travels. The captain informs you that the flight from Cosmo Canyon to Costa del Soll is ready for takeoff and wishes you a pleasant journey." She jokingly announced and kicked off the ground in break-neck speed.

Cloud's excited whooping and laughter fueled her own just as excited laughter as she pushed her broom to even higher velocity, her eyes glowing with happiness.

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It was now two days before their meeting in Costa del Soll and they were hitting a bit of a hurdle.

How the fuck were they going to take the time off for all three of them? And for enough time at that?

Let's start from the beginning. Genesis was about to turn in for a glorious, and rare early night in, when the phone on his bedside table, the same phone given to him by Bella went of just as he was about to fall asleep.

Yeah. Awesome.

Turns out she wanted to tell him to book two weeks of vacation.

How? Just how was he supposed to do that? They were Shin-ra's top three SOLDIERs and war was on the horizon again. How?!

At least that's what Genesis voiced to the insufferable woman when she called, two days before the meeting.

Even Sephiroth looked incredulous when he heard that. Whose emotional range is so miniscule it borders on just shy of nonexistent. But then again, he's been seeing an entire new side of his friend thanks to the quirky lady. A side not even Sephiroth knew existed.

His friend had miraculously showed up on his door at that exact moment to ask to use the coffeemaker because his was busted and he was in for a long night of paperwork. Hell, his emotionally stunted friend snatched the phone and waltzed out of the room with it. When he came back he looked harrowed. Then, he proceeded to make three pitchers of coffee and left with a grunt of "Thanks".

Apparently, in the end, it was not that hard. At least for him and Angeal. Seph took the brunt of it.

Genesis didn't know, nor did he want to know what miracle Sephiroth pulled. Sephiroth didn't look too keen on repeating it either.

Mostly because it involved the woman's equally as insufferable owl.

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She hung up the phone giggling. Oh poor Seph. Having to deal with the board of old codgers. She would have to send him something nice and helpful.

Just as she was about to pocket it, it went of again, indicating an incoming call.

She looked at the caller ID. 'Oh boy. I don't know if I want to do this right now…'

Nevertheless, she picked up, brought it to her ear and braced hershelf. It would be worse if she ignored it.

"Hello there Nadeshiko." She greeted with trepidation.

"Hello there my ass! Where the fuck have you been?" Yep, she was angry.

"Well….it was mostly an accident…" she answered nervously "and I guess I just…forgot to call?" she immediately regretted saying that.

"What the fuck do you mean you forgot? The mansion blew sky high and you dropped off the face of the earth for almost two months and you say you forgot?" yeeeah…when put that way it did sound bad…

"And I had to learn it from the fucking fox too!" Oh yeah, because that was the worst of the whole situation…

"If it makes you feel better I didn't really call anybody to inform them about this…whole…deal.» she was pretty sure she was looking crazy right now, gesturing with one hand hand while balancing the phone between her shoulder and her face and holding the broom with the hand corresponding to that shoulder. Not mentioning the fact that it was a hazard. "Aside from Sei-chan. I really wouldn't have, but this was Zelretch's doing and the damn vampire has long since stopped answering my calls and he was probably my only way back. I didn't really plan for it to devolve into what it did. I'm sorry for worrying you and the rest of the team. I know that you all have your own problems and I didn't want to add mine on top." Her face dropped as her voice lowered. She hasn't been a very good friend so far, has she?

A sigh was heard from the other end of the line. "There you go again. How many times do we have to tell you that it is okay confiding in us because we like worrying about you in that case? That's good worrying. That's good team rapport and kinship. It's when you don't tell us about these things that we start worrying in a bad way. That is plain and simple "Is the girl ok or am I gonna have to bust her out of another stupidly self inflicted fuck-up again" kind of thing. See the difference?"

Bella laughed "Hello pot, my name is kettle. Ain't that a funny sentence, Miss I-Refuse-To-Give-My-Teamates-My-Family-Name? And I don't get myself in that bad messes." she teased.

"Fine. Whatever. Maybe I should have put Tsukiyo on the phone. See how you like her lectures, or perhaps Yuri's hellish guilt trips. You haven't had one of those recently, have you?" the other snarked back.

Bella just kept laughing "Thanks for worrying about me Shiko-chan."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyway, what do you mean by 'devolving into this'?"

"Yeah, about that…I was going to call you eventually. Long story short, Zelretch dumped me in a different world called Gaia, that's very close to our own, were the people are unknowingly using the planet's life force, consisting of the souls of the dearly departed, as an energy source, while at the same time there are people infected by the cells of an imperialistic alien bitch. Oh and there is an extinct species of human that I think were shamans originating from our world." She explained, halfway through realizing that she really had no place denying the situations she got herself in. "Saying it out loud it does sound bad."

"Ha! You think? What's up with you and these FUBAR situations? Anyway, explain in details and I'll call the other to schedule a video chat to see how we can all help with this new mess." At least she didn't sound pissed anymore. "I suppose you are helping the infected ones, right?"

"You know me so well." She giggled at her friend's long suffering sigh.

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With their speed, Bella and her party reached Costa del Soll a day early. More than enough time to set up shop and establish a cover.

Well, more like for the others to set up shop, because Mrs. Strife enlisted Vincent, who in turn enlisted Cloud's puppy eyes to get her back for the all nighter she pulled to get them there, and get her to rest.

So the Strife matriarch and the Chaos Vessel found a big enough hotel room and set up in accordance to the witch's orders, while said witch spent the day exploring with Cloud.

Since the Strifes' records were erased with Andrew's interference and they were living without relying on Shin-ra's electricity thanks to Bella, they were practically non existent. That meant that even if they were spotted, there was no name to connect to them so it could just as easily be considered a case of similar looking people. And because there's no such thing as overkill, a couple well places fidelio's made sure that nobody made that connection. And this is were Bella established her own cover, by simply changing her hair and eye color to match Cloud's. That way she could claim to be his sister. Both of them had great fun with that idea.

Of course, exploring didn't mean that they couldn't cram some lessons into it as well. That's why when it became evening Bella took her invisibility cloak, cast a notice-me-not charm on her and Cloud and set of to explore the back alleys. It's never too early to start on escape tactics, and spatial and situational awareness are never bad skills to have.

Hell, with how adamant Cloud was with joining SHOLDIER he was gonna need it. If her little brother wanted to be SHOLDIER then he was gonna be the best!

The smirk that found its way onto her face when she vocalized that was downright predatory and it had made Cloud shiver.

Perhaps the DA was right when they called her a slave driver...

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Soooooooo what do you think? Again, I like your honest opinions. If it feels rushed, I'm sorry but university's been crazy lately.

So I said this before and I'll say it again. I try to update monthly and if not then I'll surely update the next month. If I miss a month that means that I am busy with university. I think I can have another update in June but July is ambiguous because exams.

Also look forward to a couple of extras next chapter;)