(A/N: Hey all. Slightly disheartened by the lack of reviews last chapter, but oh well. Maybe I just post'm faster than you guys can keep up...I dunno. But as always, I press on, few reviews, or no reviews. And now my peeps, READ ON!)
"…even the Bloodhounds have more sense than you!" Kadaj said in a tone nothing short of demeaning, "How could you find nothing after twelve hours of searching with our siblings aiding you? I swear you are just so useless."
Yazoo was choosing not to join Kadaj in berating Loz and was sitting back comfortably on his laurels, drinking in the scene before him.
The elder Remnant, while giving off the air of a doormat in the way he allowed Kadaj order him around, was actually the most cunning by far.
As such, he was able to read people quite easily and took great enjoyment of watching people. Take Loz for example – he had observed him over the last two years with great interest, taking in the looks of childish obedience and defiance.
Which is why Yazoo knew that Loz was only seconds away from exploding if Kadaj continued in the manner of a coffee hyped business man who was just informed his stock fell…which it appeared he would.
Yazoo had waited for this for a long time. He wondered what the outburst itself would look like. If it would end with Loz crying like a teenage girl or if it would end with Kadaj on the receiving end of a leather bound fist and a newfound respect for his elder brother.
It wouldn't be much longer. Yazoo could tell. Loz's fists were clenched in such tight fists that veins were visible through the gloves and…if he wasn't mistaken, that was most definitely blood he smelled.
There was also the added fact that a large artery was pulsing violently in Loz's temple, his eyes were squeezed shut and he was gnashing his teeth together in an attempt to hold his temper.
"T-minus ten seconds in counting." Yazoo mused with a smirk, "Nine, eight, seven, six, five four, three, two…"
"…and can't you stand up straight?" Kadaj said irritably as Loz's eyes flew open and he sent a fist crashing into Kadaj's bony cheek.
"One." Yazoo snickered to himself, watching with amusement as Kadaj picked himself off the ground, looking absolutely bewildered at the blood running down his chin.
"THAT'S IT!" Loz bellowed, storming over to his younger brother until he loomed over him intimidatingly, "I! HAVE HAD! ENOUGH OF YOU! I AM YOUR OLDER BROTHER AND I DEMAND THAT YOU TREAT ME WITH RESPECT GODDAMNIT! OR SO HELP ME HOLY I'LL BEAT YOUR SKINNY ASS INTO LAST YEAR! DO YOU HEAR ME?"
Kadaj nodded slowly, not moving from where Loz had sent him.
"Good!" Loz barked, storming away from him, "I'll go along with your plans Kadaj, lord knows your better at strategizing than me, but you ever toe the line with me again, and I'll send you back to the Lifestream so fast it'll make your head spin!"
As he stomped off into a ruined building, Kadaj thought to himself, "…well it's about time he grew some balls."
"We're back." Jayden called into the fathoms of the cave, startling the sleeping CG characters awake.
Vincent wasn't far behind, the box containing JENOVA's head in his clawed grasp.
"Shee'…whud time izzit?" Cait Sith asked, rubbing his eyes tiredly.
"I don't wear watches. They depress me." Jayden shrugged, striding past him to grab a water bucket, "I'll be right back. We're definitely gonna need water tomorrow."
"Why do watches depress you?" Reno yawned, leaning on his elbow to keep his head from hitting his makeshift pillow (wadded up jacket), "Y' always late or something?"
"Bingo." She called over her shoulder, not turning around or slowing her progression out of the cave.
Instead of going back to sleep after this, the Turks and AVALANCHE resistance uncurled themselves from under the animal hide blankets they discovered…okay, Marlene found, piled in the back of the cave, to congregate around Vincent.
"I'll be damned…that's JENOVA alright." Barrett whistled, eyes roaming over the container.
"Its location was…well chosen." Vincent said mildly, inwardly shuddering at the memory of the trip.
Swimming through an underground cavity followed by a two-hour trek across a very narrow, unstable rock path followed by swimming across yet another lake would be enough to deter almost anyone.
"We know." RedXIII said sleepily, shaking himself out and stretching, "We were watching for a little while."
"…is that so?" Vincent asked, eyes narrowing, having a vague idea who planted the camera on him, not that it mattered now.
"Yeah, but ont' other things. Like what we're gonna do 'bout you-know who." Cid said pointedly, "I mean, what if after all is said an' done and she's stuck here?"
"No…no. I know I don't belong in Gaia." Jayden said with a snort, scratching her right temple as she re-entered the cave, "Aerith made that fact very clear on my first trip here."
"You – you've spoken to Aerith?" Cloud barked, head snapping up from his sleep deprived stupor, "Why didn't you tell us? What did she say?"
"Because I knew you'd bust your balls over it that's why, Emo Boy." Jayden retorted irritably, "Besides, if you'll recall, the first time I was here, I wasn't exactly in the best shape. I dismissed it as a fever dream…until the sixth time around."
"So what did she say?" Cloud demanded, abandoning the idea of slumber entirely and crossing the cave to stare the disfigured woman down.
"Just that I didn't belong here." Jayden said calmly, holding Cloud's piercing stare evenly, "That's all she said each time we met in the White Place."
"White…Place?" Cloud asked slowly, looking bewildered at the name, causing the nineteen year old to merely shrug and switching herself around so her back was to him.
"What would you call a place where everything was all white and glowy?" Jayden asked blandly, "'sides, she was just parroting what I already know!"
She stared at the ceiling irritably, shifting her weight slightly as the load of the water bucket in her hand was beginning to stress her shoulder joint.
"Y'hear that Flower Girl? Y'could offer me a bit more insight!" Jayden said loudly at the stone roof, "How'm I s'posda 'not be here' if you don't tell me what I hafta do to leave?"
By this point, she knew everyone in the cave had to be staring at her like she was seriously lacking in gray matter. So she closed her eye and loosed a tired sigh, turning on her heel to hang the bucket over the still smoldering fire to boil away impurities.
"Is it really so irksome, otherworlder?" a vaguely familiar female voice asked from only inches away.
Jayden's remaining eye opened slowly, staring at the floor, not really wanting to see who was in front of her, but human curiosity eventually won out over fear as her head slowly inclined upward.
Aerith Gainsborough stood about half a foot off the floor, glowing faintly, smiling slightly and leaning forward with her weight…if spirits have weight…pressed on her knees, she herself only about half an inch away from Jayden's face.
Jayden had two impulses at that moment: 1) to have a total spaz attack, scream and hurl the water bucket in her hand skyward, which would inevitably mean her trudging back out to the river to get more; 2) to walk around the ghost woman, hang up the pail to boil, then walk back over to her, arms akimbo and ask her what the fuck took her so long.
Jayden opted for option one, loosed a short shrieked and lobbed the bucket over her head, which landed with a loud splash and clunk. By Rufus's loud indignant yelp and Tifa's infuriated shriek, they had just taken an unwanted shower.
Aertith just chuckled lightly as Jayden scrabbled away from her. Over the initial shock of being drenched, Tifa and Rufus joined Cloud and the rest of the assembled parties in gaping at the Cetra.
"Why so skittish?" Aerith's asked innocently, a loosely amused smile dancing on her lips, "You appeared so confident moments before when you were carping on my actions."
Jayden, who up til that moment had been trying to restart her heart as it had momentarily gone into cardiac arrest at the sight of Aerith…dead Aerith…consciousness of the Lifestream Aerith…appearing before Jayden in all her glowing ghostly glory, growled irritably and looked at the spirit, annoyance lining her entire face.
"Whyyyyyyy do you people always insist on popping up like that?" Jayden snapped, looking more than slightly pissed, "What if it hadn't been a water pail in my hands, huh, oh omnipotent one? What if I had been stoking the fire and had a piece of burning wood in my hands?"
That last remark made Rufus double check where that water had landed, and envisioned a scenario involving a very valued...assest that would probably haunt his dreams for the next week or so.
Aerith expression shifted to a rather sheepish grin, "I apologize. I just thought the dramatic effect was needed. You were being awfully disrespectful after all."
"Oh, fuck me." Jayden moaned, head dropping into her arms exasperatedly, "…this is too much." She lifted her face enough to peer up at the spectral Aerith from the corner of her eye cautiously, "Well…I suppose what's important is the fact that you're here now."
"Yes, watching you fight for Gaia's continued existence, while inspiring, has grown a bit trite." Aerith said, finally becoming serious, "I suppose I should begin by explaining why the world is in such a befuddled state."
"That would be a good place to start." Elena said shakily, eyeing Aerith warily, hand wrapped subconsciously around the handle of her gun as though it could save her from the specter in the event it decided eating their brains was a good idea.
"What you first must understand is that Gaia is a parallel world." Aerith said easily, holding her hands parallel to each other as she spoke, "And its correspondent is Jayden's."
"I…I guess that makes some sense." Yuffie said, trying to keep up as best she could, "But that still doesn't explain why everything's so messed up! And why we were thrown into her world in the first place?"
"I'm pretty sure she's comin' to that." Reno drawled casually, lighting up his second cigarette in two days. Except this time, his hands shook as he attempted to cause the lighter's flame make contact with the cancer stick.
Aerith smiled genially at the Turk in question, nearly making him drop the lit cigarette on his lap and continued.
"Now, something else you have to factor in is what ever happens in one world will drastically effect what happens in the other." Aerith said, arms folded comfortably across her front, "Like, if one world goes to war, the other may enjoy an extended period of peace and so on."
"Like if one side of the planet is experiencing daylight, the other is experiencing night." RedXIII said with a nod, "Makes sense to me." Cait Sith purred out sleepily.
"Well, what made things go so far off course was not an event in Gaia…it was in event in your world." Aerith said seriously, turning her green eyes on Jayden, still pressed against a wall, "In fact, it almost directly involves you."
"What are you talking about?" Jayden snapped irritably, switching from irritable to angry, "I don't know what the fuck happened to bring them to my world! I don't know why-!"
"Jayden…hear her out." Vincent said in a pacifying tone, eyeing the ghost of Aerith Gainsborough carefully as he spoke.
She twitched…then nodded, knowing better than to mess with a guy who couldn't die. Shifting her weight uncomfortably on the cave floor before looking belligerently at Aerith, who swiftly crossed the cave and squatted down so she was at Jayden's eye level.
"The reason why Gaia is in this state…are you sure you want to know the truth?" she asked quietly, watching carefully as the nineteen year old squirmed at the lack of personal space (just go through her! she aint exactly solid n'more!)
"Yes. For th' love of all things great and small, just tell me!" Jayden snapped, eye flashing in a mixture of aggravation and disconcertion.
"The reason is…because Dante Schwartz died prematurely." Aerith said gravely, closing her eyes so she wouldn't have to see the look of shock and pain wash over Jayden's face, "The one who caused his accident…it was his time to go, but…"
Aerith's semi-lucent hand hovered over the nineteen-year olds, unable to make any real contact, "I am very sorry, but if this offers any clarity as to why-"
"…so he died…pointlessly…and contributed to the destruction of a world?" Jayden asked, looking as though she'd been slapped as she searched the Lifestream Spirit's face for any semblance of hope, "What am I s'posda do with that knowledge?"
"Isn't there anything we can do to rectify this? Anything at all?" Tifa begged the shade of her friend and ally.
"Yes. There is." Aerith said calmly, before an infinitesimal coquettish smile appeared on her lips, "But if I told you, that might disrupt things further don't you think? I think it might be better if you figure it out for yourselves, hm?"
"What?" Marlene sputtered, looking very confused as to the sudden change of heart, "But sister, why wont you-?"
"We wouldn't want you all becoming to reliant on me…now would we? I already have too many overgrown children to deal with." Aerith smiled, gaze shifting back to Jayden, "However…"
She crossed the room again and reached under the fur covering the scarring on her face.
"I might be talked into doing something about this, though." Aerith said gently, starting the nineteen year old out of her daze to look at her, "As compensation for all the work you've done towards the restoration thus far."
Jayden looked as though she was considering it, then shook her head slightly.
"Not...right now." She said dully, looking as though she was trying to smile but forgot how to work the muscles of her face, "Wait until I can go home before restoring me…it really doesn't bother me all that much."
"Very well." Aerith replied, raising herself back up to her full height and giving Cloud a fond smile, "You'll be fine. I know it." She said quietly, walking towards the rear of the cave and fading into nothingness as she did so.
Nobody said a word for a while and after a time, Jayden stumbled to her feet and retrieved the overturned water pail by Rufus's knees.
"Better get…more water." She mumbled, looking slightly incoherent as she walked out of the cave.
"Someone…should go with her." Tifa said uncomfortably, the silence in the cave making her uneasy as she watched the nineteen year old weaving unsteadily down the cliff path to the river.
No one moved. Cloud stoked the fire idly, Rude coughed into his hand, Rufus started to dry himself off, doing his best to look busy.
Marlene fell back asleep, snuggling up to Denzel, RedXIII and Cait Sith, Barrett began picking at the edge of the tanned skin blanket he'd used.
Still no one made a move.
Elena started to clean her gun to relax her, Reno finished his cigarette and tossed the butt into the fire, making sure it bounced off Cloud's head.
Yuffie began counting materia to herself so she would be able to fall back asleep as Vincent had moments before.
Reno really didn't see what the big deal was. Jayden was just going to get more water. Nothing to it. Nothing remotely dangerous about the act.
The only reason he climbed to his feet now was to take a whiz. He had received a rather vicious beating earlier that evening courtesy of Barrett for exposing himself in front of his adopted daughter.
Hey, could a man help it when he had t' piss? And wasn't like he was holding the girl there and forcing her to look. He had wandered to the back of the cave to…well at any rate, the GunArm had threatened to neuter him if he did his business anywhere near the cave again.
And being very proud of his nine inches, Reno chose to wander down to the woods skirting the base of the cliff to relieve himself.
Suddenly, a rustle came from behind him and he whipped around, and while he didn't have his EMR on his person, he did have his gun, and he was more than ready to unload the clip of his pistol at whoever the unlucky idiot happened to be…only to end up staring down the barrel of Cerberus.
"What are you doing here?" Reno hissed, retracting his gun hand and holstering his gun, "Voyeurism get you off or something?"
Vincent crinkled his nose slightly at the vulgar remark and slowly withdrew his gun hand, making it pull a Houdini under his cape.
"Hardly." He replied calmly, "Tifa requested I go after Jayden. Were she not preoccupied with Cloud and Denzel, she would have gone herself."
"Huh…" Reno said, finding he couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for the bar maid, inwardly sighing, "Great. Emo Cloud rides again." as he shifted his weight slightly, "Which way is the river?"
Vincent paused, inhaling the air before pointing in the direction that had the dampest scent.
"Well then, I'll leave you to it." Reno said brightly, preparing to return to the cave and X-Rated dreams.
"There is safety in numbers." Vincent said evenly, catching Reno by the back of his shirt before he got very far.
"Dammitdammitdammit." He thought irritably as he walked along, the sound of rushing water reaching his ears, "I can never catch a break!"
(A/N: Jayden isn't taking Aerith's news well and isn't speaking to anyone. In the meantime, AVALANCHE and the Turks come up with plans of their own to make a trip to the Edge Catacombs...probably a good idea as the Remnants have unearthed a lead to their current local. R&R!)