Tifa grimaced as Lyra threw up in the garbage bin. Tifa suspected that nothing came out as the girl probably hadn't eaten in a while, but she gave the girl the box of tissues to clean her face.

Lyra took the tissues and wiped her mouth. Her face turned red and she was shaking as she sat back in the plastic chair.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I just got really nervous."

"It's alright," Tifa found herself saying. Lyra's large green eyes were wide as Shalua brought the empty syringe closer.

"I'm just going to draw a little blood from your arm," Shalua explained. "Try to relax and this should go smoothly."

Tifa watched the girl closely as Shalua went about drawing blood and checking blood pressure. Shalua had Lyra spit into a small glass vial and she went off to a table of machines. Shalua explained that she needed to separate the blood and spit hopefully they would know who Lyra was soon.

Tifa couldn't shake the feeling that she knew Lyra from somewhere. Maybe not by name, but she could just somewhat imagine the girl's face, just much younger. Something in her voice was familiar as well. It was clear as a bell and had a whimsical tilt to it. A large group of freckles covered the left side of Lyra's face and across her nose while just six freckles were grouped together on her right cheek, and her black hair was a long, tangled mess.

Yes, Lyra was familiar but Tifa couldn't place where she knew her from.

"Do you remember where you live?" Tifa pulled out a chair next to Lyra and sat in it. Lyra squirmed and inched herself away from Tifa. She seemed confused for a moment but then her face brightened.

"I think so. But I don't remember what it was called," she said. Her voice was quiet and she started shaking again. "I just had it and it left my memory."

"Do you live in the Icicle Area?" Tifa asked, hoping that the name would jog her memory. Lyra stared at her.

"The what area?"

"It's the area the Northern Cave Crater is in. Where you woke up."

Lyra shook her head. "I don't recognize those names."

Tifa listed off other towns, Kalm, Costa Del Sol, Junon. None of them seemed to be familiar to Lyra. She had to come from somewhere. Maybe she was from one of the smaller, lesser known towns?

Lyra seemed more confused as Tifa listed off the smaller towns. Finally Lyra cut her off.

"These names sound made up," she said. "What town are we in?"

"Edge," Tifa answered. "Are you sure you don't recognize-"

"No. I don't know what those towns are. I've never heard them in my life," Lyra insisted somewhat angrily. She hit the seat of the chair with her hand, leaving a melted handprint and smoke. The smell of burning plastic wafted from the handprint. Lyra's large green eyes widened, and she stood.

"You okay?" Cloud asked. Lyra shook her head and she halfheartedly glared at him.

"In what world is any of this okay?" Her voice shook, and her face turned gray. Tifa stood and handed her an unopened bottle of water that she had brought.

"Here. You're probably thirsty," she said, hoping that the girl would take it. She hesitated, but she reached out to take it. As her fingers touched the bottle, frost shot from her fingers, coating the bottle. Tifa jumped back and Lyra dropped the now frozen water bottle with a yelp. Lyra cradled her hand to her chest and stared at the bottle as if she'd been burned.

"Does that happen often?" Vincent asked dryly from the corner of the lab he'd been standing. Lyra feebly shook her head.

"No. I've never done that in my life," she said. She was completely panicked now, hyperventilating and shaking like a leaf. Ice started to form under her feet and the ice followed her as she backed away from it. Cloud reached out to her to stop her and Lyra smacked his hand away.

"Don't touch me!"

Cloud raised his hands and took a step back. "You need to calm down."

Tifa ran to find a fire hydrant as flames covered Lyra's arms. Lyra screamed as Tifa ran back, but the fire was gone and the ice was melted. Lyra was crouched on the floor whimpering.

Her arms were unscathed. No burns, just streaks of ash. Cloud was still standing away from her and his eyes were wide with shock. Vincent looked almost indifferent, but still bothered by Lyra's outburst.

Shalua inched away from her machinery. "I know that now might not be the time, but where's she going to stay?"

Tifa arched an eyebrow. She glanced at Cloud, who didn't say anything, still staring at Lyra. She turned back to Shalua.

"We have room," she said. "Since Shelke has moved in with you. I haven't told Marlene or Denzel yet, but I'm sure that they won't mind."

Shalua grimaced. "I'm only asking because of, um, all of that." She waved her hand at the puddle of water around the crying girl.

"We'll figure it out," Cloud said, finally lowering his arms. He helped Lyra stand. Her legs were shaky, but she could stand without help. "Is she okay to leave?"

"Well we aren't going to get anymore answers from her right now and I'm still working on everything, so…" She shrugged and went back to her work. Vincent nodded 'goodbye' as he left to do who knows what and Cloud led Lyra out of the building.

Lyra wasn't exactly thrilled to be riding a motorcycle, but they eventually made it back to the 7th Heaven. Tifa helped Lyra climb off Fenrir and they waited for Cloud to park it. As he came back, Lyra scrunched up her nose and giggled.

"Do you guys have a pet?" She looked up at them with a shy half-smile on her face.

"No. Why?" Tifa looked around to see if there was an alley cat or stray dog that was wondering about, but she saw none. Lyra pointed down the narrow street and nodded at Cloud.

"There was a wolf following you," she said. She cocked her head to the side and continued staring down the street. "It's gone now, but it seemed friendly. I think I like animals."

Cloud seemed disturbed by the mention of the wolf, but before he could say anything, the door to the 7th Heaven swung open.

"Hey, I thought I heard something," Yuffie said with a playful smile. "What are you standing outside for?"

Tifa smiled as she pushed Lyra forward, getting her to walk inside the bar. Marlene and Denzel were sitting in a booth with a deck of cards scattered in front of them. They smiled when Cloud and Tifa entered, but the smiles melted when they saw Lyra.

"Who's that?" Denzel asked, looking tense. His hands curled into fists. Yuffie shut the door and snorted.

"Yeah, who is this?" She echoed. Tifa pulled Lyra towards the booth.

"This is Lyra. She's going to be staying with us for a while," Tifa explained to the kids. They seemed to understand, and Marlene smiled wide as she reached out and grabbed Lyra's arm.

"We're playing Goldfish," she said. "Wanna play?"

Lyra awkwardly sat in the booth. Her hands were placed in her lap and she looked nervous and sick. Still, she accepted the offer to play.

Tifa turned to Yuffie. Yuffie looked as confused as everyone felt.

"We'll explain, but maybe not in front of the kids," Tifa said quietly. Yuffie's eyes widened slightly and she followed Tifa to the bar's kitchen.

Yuffie immediately got to the point. "Alright, who's the kid?"

Cloud shrugged and proceeded to wander around the kitchen. "We don't know yet."

Tifa almost rolled her eyes. She sighed. "You know that disturbance in the Northern Cave Crater?"

Yuffie nodded. She jumped to sit on a counter, much to Tifa's annoyance. "Yeah. Anything come out of it?"

Tifa jerked her head at the half-closed kitchen door. "She came out of it."

Yuffie's jaw dropped and she slid off the counter. "Wait, really? Is she dangerous? What do we know about her?"

"Hey, slow down," Cloud muttered. "So far, no. We don't know anything. She doesn't remember much of anything. What we do know is that she can summon fire and ice without Materia."

"She almost gave me a heart attack in Shalua's lab," Tifa added. Yuffe looked back and forth between them as they talked.

"What else? How'd she pop up?"

"She was sleeping in flowers," Cloud said, emphasizing just how weird it was to see a teenaged girl sleeping in a patch of flowers in a frozen cave. "Just a bunch of wildflowers. Some were even in her hair. The were taken out and were preserved for evidence in case we come across anything bad."

"That all?" Yuffie asked, eyeing the door.

"Other than that, I swear I know her from somewhere," Tifa said. Cloud fell silent. Then he nodded.

"Yeah. Me too."

Yuffie's frown deepened and she looked back at the doorway again. "So she's not dangerous? That's all I want to know, 'cause we just left her out there with Marlene and Denzel."

"Aside from the whole ice and fire thing, no. She's not," Cloud said. He peeked through the half-open doorway. "And if she tries running, she won't get far. Vincent shot her in the leg with a tranquilizer and it'll leave a bad bruise."

Later that night, Lyra was shown to a bathroom, where she was given a toothbrush, a towel, and a pair of spare pajamas. Tifa said that she had gotten her clothes and toiletries from the WRO. They apparently had all sorts of clothes and things donated for people who were homeless or refugees.

Lyra was exhausted as she fell asleep in the small bed that Tifa had in the small spare room. She had eaten supper with Cloud and Tifa and those kids and the new girl, Lyra found out her name was Yuffie, had talked her ear off the whole time. Question after question, and Lyra couldn't answer much of them.

Then when she got ready for bed, she changed the bandage on her thigh. It wasn't gross, but a black and purple bruise the size of her head surrounded a small puncture wound. The good news was that the puncture wound was already almost fully healed, but the bad news was that the bruise was horrible. It was giving her the most grief.

She didn't expect to fall asleep. She could hear Cloud pacing the hallway and the patrons of the bar downstairs. And she had spent an entire day comatose already, so sleep didn't feel like a real thing. She was surprised to feel how exhausted she was. She was even more surprised that she could dream. Lyra felt like wherever she lived before, she didn't have many dreams.

At first it was random pictures.

Fire.

The smell of acid.

Flowers.

People's faces. All of them familiar but they flew too far past her for her to recognize.

Voices. Some were comforting. Others frightened her.

Her head hurt.

Her shoulder blades hurt.

Her heart hurt.

Gunshots. Then the sound of blades clashing against one another.

Voices in the wind and the ground comforting her when she was scared.

Then she found herself standing in a daze. She blinked the pictures away. The ground was hard and dark. The sky was pitch black and full of galaxies and faint stars blinking around her. Hills of dirt and mud covered the endless landscape. Lyra blinked at the pits and craters that dotted the ground. They were filled to the brim with nasty tar. Or at least it seemed like tar. It was stinky and looked sticky.

She looked down at the pit before her.

"Reach in. You need to help him."

Lyra looked around, but she couldn't see where the voice came from. It was quiet, feminine. She heard it again, and she could almost see something in the tar. A hand limply reaching up to her and a face that she could barely see.

"Reach in."

She woke up.