Hello again, readers. I'm afraid it's just Schism this week, as I've written three times the length of a Clash of Heroes chapter in academic writing this week and am not yet done. I'm also sorry this is late; see the above. Our normal programming should resume next week.

"Absolutely not," Brother said. "I'm not taking the Celsius up with a hull breach. We will keep her moored here until Buddy can repair the hole."

The airship was still and silent, floating on the surface of the Moonflow, lashed to multiple trees to keep it from drifting away.

Rikku's expression was a mix of anger and impotence. "It's only a few miles to Djose!" she protested.

"The same could be said of our walking there," Auron told her. "We must respect the wishes of the Celsius's captain. We will walk."

Tromell, who had woken up none the worse for the wear, nodded when the party's gaze moved to him, the eldest among them. "I can manage. A short walk will be good for me, at any rate."

Bidding Brother, Buddy, and Shinra farewell for the time being, the party set off down the Djose Highroad. The road had changed little, Auron noted, in the time he'd been away. There were more bandits on it than he remembered, which did not come as a surprise to him. In the absence of an all-encompassing threat such as Sin, Spirans return to preying on one another.

It was a pleasant enough walk, since no bandit would be stupid enough rob such a well-armed group. From where he stood toward the rear of the party, Auron could see the definite changes in their formation. Cloud and Tifa walked closer together, Vincent and Paine remained in step with one another, and more surprisingly, Reno and Yuffie had struck up a conversation that sounded only mildly sardonic. Rikku had latched onto Rude and was trying her best to make him laugh, which he steadfastly refused to do. Lulu and Red XIII were conversing quietly at the edge of the group, and the scraps of their conversation Auron could catch centered around the relationship between magic and materia in Cloud's world.

"I am glad to have been useful at least once before I die," Tromell said to him.

Auron blinked out of his reverie and looked at the old Guado. "Pardon?"

"I served Lord Jyscal for many years as his chief retainer," the Guado elder explained. "When he died, I was deeply stricken with grief, but when Lord Seymour assumed the title and demonstrated his capabilities, I thought, 'Here indeed is a master I can serve to the fullest of my abilities! He has a bright future!'" With a hoarse, sharp laugh, Tromell gazed at his feet as they continued down the road. "What a fool I was, to not have recognized Lord Seymour for his true nature. In my vain hopes, I dismissed all possibility that he was capable of any wrong. I did a great disservice to Lady Yuna and you, as well as the rest of your companions, when I declared you enemies of Yevon. That is why that I am glad to be able to help you in this, so that my life might not be an utter failure."

"Don't talk nonsense," Auron said sharply to him. Tromell looked up from his feet to meet the old guardian's gaze, surprised.

"What do you mean?"

"Your life was not a waste in any sense of the word. You served both of your lords to the best of your ability, dutifully and loyally. Their role in the world was completely irrelevant. What matters is that you remained faithful to them, even after their respective deaths, and acted in a supremely honorable manner befitting your station. You did us a disservice, true, but you were only acting in the service of your late master. There is no shame in that."

Tromell continued to hold his gaze for a long while before returning his own to the road ahead. "I sincerely appreciate your kind words, Sir Auron, as well as your forgiveness. However, I cannot agree completely with you. The duty of the vassal to the master must be superseded by what is morally correct. Would you serve a master who went against everything that is right?"

"I did," Auron replied. "I served a fallen summoner, a disgraced man, who had wedded an Al Bhed and conceived a child with her. He had broken every code of our world and had good as wallowed in his own filth while he was at it… according to Yevon." He adjusted his sunglasses. "Tell me, Tromell, is Yevon generally considered to be a paragon of holiness and morality in this day and age?"

The Guado elder laughed. "No, I suppose not. I must thank you again, Sir Auron. Your words are a balm."

"Think nothing of it. I… Do you hear that?"

A general silence descended upon the group as everyone listened intently. A strange, high whistling could faintly be heard, and with every second its volume increased slightly.

"What is that?" Tidus asked.

Cloud abruptly noticed the shadow spreading on the road ahead. "Everyone back up! Something's falling!"

They backed hurriedly away, the shadow now growing rapidly. The whistle rose to a fever pitch a moment before something dropped out of the sky, landing with a thunderous crash.

When the dust cleared, Cloud carefully approached the thing.

"What is it?" Yuna asked.

"It… looks like a musket ball, or a bullet," Cloud replied. "But it's huge!"

Everyone moved closer. Embedded in the earth in the center of a large crater was a metal sphere, about the size of a grown man curled up into a ball. Steam rose from it, and Cloud felt the First Tsurugi being pulled toward it, even from where he'd sheathed the sword in the harness on his back. Whatever purpose the ball served, it was obviously related to magnetism.

"Do you think it was Sephiroth?" Lulu asked.

"No," Cloud replied. "He'd have attacked with JENOVA cells, nothing this obvious. Someone else fired this – and not necessarily at us, I don't think."

"The Djose Temple could be in danger," Yuna exclaimed. "Rikku, the Machine Party still has a base there, doesn't it?"

"Yeah. Maybe they were test-firing a new weapon, but you'd think they'd have the sense to fire it out into the sea and not towards the Djose Highroad. They might be under attack!"

"Hurry there, then," Tromell told them. "I will catch up with you later – I'll only slow you down."

"We can't leave you alone on the road with all these bandits around," Tidus refused flatly. The words were barely out of his mouth when the air a meter in front of him erupted into a fiery explosion, scattering sparks everywhere and making him jump back.

Tromell lowered his upraised hand and said, "I appreciate the sentiment, young man, but Tromell Guado is not so helpless that he cannot deal with a few bandits."

Chuckling, Auron nodded. "He meant no disrespect. We'll wait for you when we've determined the situation. Let's go!"

Even from a distance, they could see smoke rising, and something seemed very wrong.

As they got closer, the two sharpest-eyed members of the group – Vincent and Red XIII – both stopped running and stared in surprise at the same time. Cloud kept running, wondering what was going on; when he saw what had happened, his face went white.

Stone was scattered everywhere, and what had probably been a temple had been completely demolished. Out of the rubble protruded the front end of the Shera, now sporting a monstrous cannon along the chassis. Cloud assumed it was the source of the projectile. Even as they drew nearer to the scene of the disaster, the Shera gunned its engines and burst free of the rubble to hover above the ground.

They finally came within earshot, and even over the low whine of the airship's engines, they could hear a familiar voice.

"…the hell do you mean, we wrecked your base? You shouldn't'a built a goddamn base over a dangerous portal to another world, sonny! No, don't go talkin' in that weird language! The hell? Are you disrespectin' me? Shut the hell up, I'm askin' the questions here!"

"Cid," Cloud muttered as he ran. "He of all people would take the Shera into the portal."

"So that giant ball that dropped on us was from that new cannon?" Yuffie asked. "Damn, what is it?"

"Looks like a gauss cannon to me," Reno ventured. "I felt my riot prod being pulled towards the projectile – it was really magnetic. Gauss cannons use magnetism to fire bullets, but this one… it's huge."

"I said shut the hell up!" Cid continued. He was standing beneath the bridge of the Shera, arguing with several hostile-looking Al Bhed standing around him. Cloud had to assume Barret was at the ship's controls. "Take off those damn goggles while I'm talkin' to you, boy! And what the hell's with that mask of yours? You some kinda gang?"

"Cid!" Cloud shouted.

The grizzled old pilot looked up from the Al Bhed he was cowing and exclaimed, "Cloud! 'Bout time you showed up! Another minute and I'd have been worried!"

Cloud, who had drawn up to within an arm's length of Cid, resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "What the hell is going on? How did you get the Shera through the cave into the portal?"

"Long, bad story," Cid replied. "Let's get inside away from these weirdoes so you can fill me in and I can tell you what's up."

Yuna came to a stop behind Cloud and stared at the temple, her face a study in shock. Finally she managed, "The Djose Temple… Created almost a thousand years ago… destroyed…"

With a grin, Cid stepped forward and shook her hand vigorously. "Pleased to make yer acquaintance. The name's Cid."

Aboard the Shera, in her recreation center, Cid massaged his jaw. "You didn't haveta hit me so hard, kid. A slap on the hand woulda done just fine."

Yuna just gave him a look. Cloud resisted the urge to whistle at the intensity of it. They'd apologized to the Al Bhed assigned to look after the temple until the Machine Party had a use for it again, and had told them if their superiors wanted someone to compensate them for the temple, High Summoner Yuna would take full responsibility.

"He could just as easily have come out in Guadosalam," Auron pointed out to her. "It would have been much harder to explain away than the destruction of one temple that only the Machine Party uses – and very little, at that, or so it seems."

After another moment of the look, Yuna turned her gaze to Auron. "You're right, of course. I just wish that Djose Temple hadn't been destroyed."

Cid shrugged. "I coulda left the Shera stuck in there, but I love her too much. That, and I wanted to test my new toy. Is it really my fault that the temple went down?"

"The projectile nearly damn well hit us," Reno growled. "If I didn't know better, I'd say it was purposeful."

"Kid, I wouldn't waste a shot from this baby on your skinny ass."

"Say again, old man?"

"Calm down," Cloud ordered brusquely. "Now."

Reluctantly, Reno sat back in the chair he'd grabbed for himself, and Cid resumed his insolently relaxed posture on one of the couches. The rest of the party stood or sat around the room.

"All right. Cid, you were saying that Emerald and Ruby – who Reno and Rude conveniently failed to mention until very recently – opened up the portal and must have gone through?"

"Unless they just felt like wreckin' shit," Barret rumbled, "I'd say that's what happened." Cait Sith was no longer on his shoulder; just as Reeve had predicted, he'd lost his signal when the Shera went through the portal. The mog sat, lifeless, on the low coffee table, looking forlorn in an amusing way.

"We know these things didn't come out here or in Guadosalam," Tidus said. "We also know that Tromell closed the portals in Besaid and Kilika." The Guado elder nodded gravely. "That leaves us with these places to visit: Bevelle, Baaj Temple, Remiem Temple, and the Sunken Cave in the Calm Lands. There's also Macalania, but…"

"But?" Cloud prompted.

"The temple was stone suspended in a giant frozen lake," Yuna said. "Without the Fayth, the temple… well. We couldn't get to it where it is now. Not even with this weapon your airship has."

Cid barked, "Fine. No idea where the rest of these places are, but the Shera'll get us there lickety-split and then some."

"What about the Celsius?" Lulu asked. "Should we tell Brother that we don't need him anymore? And in that case, what about Rikku and Paine?"

"We'll stay with you if you decide that you don't need the Celsius," Paine immediately spoke up. "We've come this far, right?"

"Agreed," Rikku added.

Leaning forward in his seat, Auron said, "That's out of the way, then. Now, before we talk about our next move, we need to discuss Sephiroth's interest in getting rid of Lulu." His statement was met with general murmuring and nods of approval, so he continued. "First, he tries to seduce her with a false image of Wakka's younger brother, Chappu, and get a promise that she will no longer help us out of her. When that fails, he defaults to attacking her, forcing JENOVA cells down her throat in a surprise attack, obviously in an attempt to infiltrate her system and kill her that way. The rest of us, with the exception of Cloud, have been ignored by comparison. We have also seen that Lulu's magic is particularly effective against JENOVA cells. I conclude, therefore, that Sephiroth sees her presence as a very serious threat to his operations."

"Makes sense," Yuffie agreed. "Why, though? Any of us can take down a JENOVA copy. Lulu can just do it better and faster."

"That's what bothers me," Auron said. "Considering the effort Sephiroth has expended trying to kill or otherwise negate the threat Lulu poses, it has to be more than the fact that she's a black mage. Yuna and Tromell are also accomplished practitioners of magic. Sephiroth only targeted Tromell on the one occasion, I think, because Tromell can close Farplane portals. Also note that the only time Sephiroth actually ambushed all of us with the intent to kill was when Lulu was not present – namely, when she was standing guard outside Besaid Temple."

"So you think Lulu poses some special danger to him?" Cloud asked.

Auron nodded. "And we need to figure out precisely that is and how to use it to our maximum advantage. When we're ready to get through the rubble here and close the Farplane portal, let's see if we can't coax Sephiroth to send out some JENOVA cells. If he refuses to, then we'll know we're right."

He was going to continue, but to everyone's surprise, Rikku started beeping. She started, giggled nervously, and hit a concealed device on the inside of her claw-glove.

A rough voice squawked out at her in Al Bhed. "Rikku! Oui drana?"

Cid groaned loudly. "More of that?"

"Quiet," Cloud told him.

"Oac, vydran. Fryd tu oui fyhd?" Rikku asked.

A minute of incomprehensible Al Bhed followed. Rikku, clearly uncomfortable under the force of the entire party's collective stare, ended it quickly before looking up, embarrassed.

"Well? What was that about?" Reno asked.

"Apparently, one of Rin's travel agencies in the Calm Lands has reported trouble," Rikku replied. "Dad said he's going in his airship and that he wants me to come along. I've told him where I am, and he says he'll be here in ten minutes."

"Cid's coming with the Fahrenheit?" Lulu asked. "Interesting."

Cid looked confused. "Who's coming with what?"

"Funny coincidence, really," Rikku said. "My dad's name is Cid, and he found himself an airship back when we Al Bhed were just machina scavengers. He named it the Fahrenheit."

"You'd think that airships were something you just tripped over in the street, what with the accounts we've heard about where you get them," Tifa observed drily.

Tidus countered, "Oh, no. It was a pain. Back when I first came to Spira, I helped Rikku with that. Had to swim down to some ancient ruins and start up the dock's power systems again so we could find the ship itself. Very annoying."

Leaning forward slightly in his seat, Cloud said, "Well. Let's go."

Lulu had excused herself to view Wakka's CommSphere transmission. The little devices had become extremely popular, and many people kept in touch with their distant relatives through a rapidly expanding network. She'd sent Wakka a message telling him she would be aboard the Celsius and to forward his messages there. As they were leaving the Celsius, she'd had Shinra give her a blank sphere onto which she moved Wakka's transmission.

Now she stood on the bridge of the Shera, which was deserted and seemed like a good enough place to watch Wakka's message.

Lulu hit the button on the sphere's casing that it rested in, and it began to play.

Wakka's image blossomed above the sphere, wearing his usual goofy grin. "Heya, Lu. I got a blitz game in ten, so I have to keep this quick – sorry. I know you won't hold it against me, ya? Hope you're having fun doing whatever it is you're up to. Wish I could be there, but we're in the tournament finals. Vidina's doing well, though I bet he'll be happy to see you again when you get back, eh? I found this nice girl, professional babysitter, to look after him while I'm blitzing. She works for a company and everything – can you believe it? All sorts of weird companies keep popping up since Sin went down." He grinned and added, "She couldn't make it today, though. A guy showed up and said she'd come down with a little cold. Funny-looking guy, too. Grey hair, real pretty features. Bet he had a rough childhood."

Lulu felt her blood turn to ice.

"He asked me to tell you Vidina's safe with him and that he'd contact you if anything went wrong – weird-looking, but nice, eh? Well, hope this gets to the Celsius and everything – I gotta run. Love you."