Cloud fumbled through darkness. The waters turned to black depths in the night and he barely held to the edge of the cliff he climbed across. The edge didn't show the mist he saw earlier in the evening and he wondered how he'd get any further without—

He stopped and shook his head to himself. This was stupid.

Cloud hefted himself over the edge and into further darkness. On land, he saw nothing past the hazy shape of his own hands and the boots on his feet. He knew something similar from the Lifestream, but he didn't know it well enough to trust what he saw.

As murky fog licked at his boots, Cloud imagined giving in like he did with the Lifestream. It confused him and twisted his memories, but it didn't always. He etched toward understanding under the currents of life once and he couldn't imagine searching the world without it.

"Take me to her," he told the dead.

A resounding hiss and he felt something pull at his neck. He moved toward the mist and his fingers shook. Ghostly echoes and the faintest music reminded him of home. But not his.

Cold tugs guided his feet and he felt out the roiling chill for something to hold. His vision worsened the further he went, and the whispers grew harder to distinguish. But he followed that tug into the beyond.

Stuttering images of shrines, broken homes, crashing waves, and glittering lights formed about him. He didn't need words to tell him they belonged to rebel priests, shocked parents, fun-seeking children, and wise-cracking fortune-tellers. Burdened journeymen and confused summoners. He lost track of all the backgrounds that spoke to him.

He almost forgot about Tifa in the confusion.


She moved. Once she had a name and a purpose, but she lost those ages ago. What she held instead was the need to keep looking because she lost something here. Not a staff or a beloved friend but something dearer. And she lost it like she lost her shoes, though not like to death.

"Find us back home."

Something bright and warm and inviting drew her forward with the unsaid promise of finding what she lost.

"Tifa," said the whispers. They echoed the desires of another soul that searched for a wayward traveler from another world. She felt a bubbling resistance to finding them and yet she couldn't not seek that ringing familiarity.

"Back to Edge."

Mortal hands took hers and she turned warm at the reminder of her physical body. She had skin and eyes and hair like most mortals.

"Tifa."

Her neck felt stiff as lead and it took all her willpower to find a man staring at her as a lover longed for another.

"Cloud." The word—name—left her tongue against her will. "Where've you been?"

She spoke by habit. The patterns developed by this body took over despite the fog in her head and she wondered what would happen if she kept talking.

Cloud said nothing, but she felt his intentions to go… northwest. With the thoughts of Eternity, they knew where Denzel and Marlene waited. No—where they worked. Denzel and Marlene survived without them.

"I can feel them," Cloud said. "This way."

She wondered at his awareness. He must not have escaped when she sent him away. He acted sentient, but he had to dissolve like she did. They might only have moments.

"I should talk to you," she said as they walked.

"About what?"

"About…" Habit failed. She had to think about this part. What a shame—she loved to know what came next. Were these two siblings?

"Aerith needs you."

"It's because you're attuned to it," she told him. "That's why you haven't turned mad, yet."

He gave a noncommittal answer and she pulled tighter. The warmth of him drew her as a lure and she couldn't resist the scent of him. Like blooming things and dusted sugar, and like leaves infusing tea.


Wind bit her cheek and Marlene paused in her extraction of the dead vole. Twilight darkened the area into cool purples, but a red streak remained in the horizon. It sounded like Aerith whispered for her to join it. But that couldn't be right because Aerith wasn't on this world.

"This thing plays tricks on you, right?" she asked.

Denzel peeked out from his spot in the tree. "Why?"

"I think it'll take us home." She couldn't look away from that red streak. "Home's in trouble."

"Isn't that why we left?"

"Cloud's going back. He'll leave us behind."

"You've been down there too long. You should breathe and rest. And eat, too. I think I found enough berries for both of us."

Marlene forgot her fatigue as the mist took her. It grew dark around them, but a light beyond beckoned her. It knew Cloud and Tifa. And Cloud and Tifa were smart about the Lifestream because they were both infected once.

"Marlene!"

"You can't stay there anymore. Everyone belongs back on their world and that includes us."

Someone pulled her back and she felt Denzel's desperation. But he was conditioned. He could help her find Cloud. "He's in here."

"It's dangerous! Speaking with the planet can make you sick!"

"But Cloud…"

"And Tifa! They might be in there, but we don't know that!"

Marlene caught sight of their silhouettes. "We do."

Denzel stilled and his hand left hers. "But how?"


Tifa found clarity at Denzel and Marlene running to greet them. The deathly fog lost its meaning and Tifa stumbled through frozen flowers to snatch them close.

"I need to go," Cloud said. "But it won't be any safer out there than out here. I heard an airship earlier—you should start a beacon."

"Don't leave," Marlene said, skin glinting orange. "We just found each other again!"

Tifa gripped her closer. "Take Marlene," Tifa said to Cloud. "We'll work things out here."

Cloud would argue, but he just nodded. She wondered why. He took Marlene and they left.

Tifa hugged Denzel again before getting started on that beacon. They faded in and out of sentience, but they kept working.