1 Chapter 3

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Wasn't it always supposed to start in sunshine. the books she read quite often did, and those were always the worst.

"Why the hell for. my wha?" She mumbled getting a mouthful of quilt.

Usually because it gave the shit that came later something to compare against.

She rolled over from the pitch blackness behind her eyelids to the pitch blackness outside them, somehow it seemed darker. Bleary eyed, it actually took the pain of cracking her lids to convince her she'd actually opened them at all. She couldn't remember exactly why she'd woken up, but here she was, just ready for a day of.

It hit her then, that she'd somehow managed to get herself fired, or at least unable to return to her oh so thrilling career in the defence force.

She just couldn't remember why.

Although the dim red lights that now swam into view couldn't possibly have had anything to do with alcohol consumption, they were nearly as unwelcome.

O4 : 22

It came into focus along with the various silences of the room, nothing but darkness and silence- like the inside of a tomb and not even close to the half light and snoring of the barracks house. A tomb yes, but with cushy, fluffy quilts.

She was still a little addled, felt like someone had a drill to her forehead, and .drills didn't start until six. But then, she didn't have to do drills if she was fired, so why?

In fact, it was almost as if she'd woken in a hotel room.

There was that ever helpful voice of low-fact reason, all the blatantly obvious but only half the rationale. Stupid brain. Why the hell was she in a hotel? One of the less fancy ones of course, cut deep into the stone of the canyon. No windows, that's why it was so dark. The only sound was that of her heartbeat, unbearably loud even through it's wrapping of flesh and eiderdown. Did that mean she was alone?

"Good morning."

It was a quiet voice, from the other side of the room. A soft, male, voice.

She bit down on her pillow to suppress the urge to scream more than anything. There was a feint recollection of the evening, nothing embarrassing, other than having lost her job without even insulting the commander. and gawking way too long at that pretty boy when he slopped out of the shower half dressed, the old Gener. al.

A pair of sparkling blue eyes, two burning slits watched her from across the room, piercing the inky blackness as they widened to larger than average proportions. She realised that he was waiting for some sort of answer.

"Shit! Your eyes man." She gasped eventually, latching her own eyes onto the only thing she could see. It was really, really eerie.

"Yeah, I guess they don't build 'em like me anymore, huh?" Whispered the boy, she couldn't think of him as anything else for some reason, his voice was still kind, but slightly bitter. Couldn't he find something to be happy about?



"They only managed two real monsters even then. come to think of it." He added, "by the way, I'd keep the shouting to a minimum if I were you. Vincent's an old man, he gets a little cranky if you disturb his beauty sleep."

Carrie giggled despite the warning, struggling through the thick coverings to surface. Her eyes didn't hurt any more, but it was still impossible to see anything besides those other eyes.

The dark never bothered her, really, only when the lights were turned on, and the door opened. And she was never going home.

But neither of them moved to do so, and it made her wonder a little more about those eyes.

"You can see me, can't you." She stated, "And what do you mean real monsters? There are thousands of the things swarming around outside the city limits. That's what the research lab's for, to figure out why they still exist."

She knew she was beginning to whine, and quickly shut up. Turning toward where she remembered another bed to be, but it seemed Vincent was still dreaming whatever kind of dreams a vampire had.

And when he'd said Monsters, just who did he mean? If they weren't the beasts that attacked you on the road or the man with blood in his eyes.

It was tempting to join them, if they could bear to allow her, just to see exactly what was meant by 'monsters'. Of course, if last night was anything to go by, she'd end up dead.

But wasn't that exciting? Fun even, it wasn't as if she had anything going for her here. Not since her mother died, the last lady of Wutai, and the last of Leviathan's true children. She'd never even seen her homeland, perhaps if she travelled with them, she would.

"Shut up."

"I didn't say anything."

Only then did she realise she'd said anything herself.

"Oh, sorry. I was um. talking to myself." Carrie muttered, hoping he couldn't see what kind of colour she'd turned. "So, what're you going to Midgar for?" She enquired, hoping to find out at least a little of what she was getting herself into.

It was decided then, as long as they didn't drop her or kill her, she was going.

"Do you talk with yourself all the time? I just know that's where I have to go, that's all." He answered in reply to her silent scowl.

"Do you always have to know things?" She sniped back; "I just wondered what there was over there at the garden that you were so damn interested in."

"The garden?" He sounded as though the words Midgar and garden were mutually exclusive terms, but for as long as she'd known that's what everyone called the place.

"Yeah," She said, forgetting her annoyance completely with an opportunity to impart her own hard earned and invaluable knowledge. "I've never seen it myself, but that place is like a jungle. There's a study group that travels across there sometimes, with Nanaki-san." She said the name almost reverently. "Hey! Maybe there's a way you could talk to him." She yawned, rather unexpectedly and threw her hand over her mouth.

"Maybe I will." He agreed, flopping back onto his own bed. But there was no chance he'd sleep again that night, not after the dream. Oh, but what a dream, a message really, they were more frequent now, taking over from those of death and pain and experimentation at Hojo's hands. Though they, still, would never go away entirely, staining the nights in scarlet and sterile white...

"You'll be lucky, he's kinda hard to just talk to." She informed, "Anyway, you can't just stroll around out there lookin' like that. The cops'll recognise you from last night."

"Hmmm, you might actually have a point."

"Glad you agree, Spike." Came the terse reply, Carrie was beginning to think the guy was stubborn, arrogant and cold. But then, hadn't he been nice before? If there'd been any amount of light left now he'd closed his eyes, she might have caught a sly half-smile.

"I've got a few tricks left."

"Huh? Could have fooled me." She yawned again, "What about Dracula over there?"

"What do you suggest?"

"That we get some more sleep, and work it out later."

"I'm not stopping you."

There it was again, logic. cold, damn impossible irrefutable logic.

And she hated the way it made her feel, like needles under the fingernails. Because although she barely knew him, there was something not right about it. Something that would have normally seen her taking the first fire escape out of there.

"I can't now." She grumbled, the noise of her insight and her own stubbornness, completely misunderstanding each other, slightly too much to sleep over. "Why are you up so early anyway."

"I had a dream."

If she heard one more simple statement, she'd yell anyway and let Vincent gut her in pity. well, not quite that drastic, and where on the planet did the idea he'd do more than shout at her come from? If she wasn't completely sure about joining this little excursion she'd have bailed long ago. Wouldn't she? Of course, and if she did, where would she go.?

"Yeah, I get them sometimes. Nasty huh?" She sympathised quietly, putting her temper down to tiredness; it would start much better in the sunshine.

"No, but I'd rather not talk about it."

A cheeky grin found its way across her face, perhaps she'd get a reaction if she were to tease him. even if it was just to find one of those knives too close for comfort.

"Oh, well, if it wasn't a nightmare. it wasn't too nice, was it?" She chided, rewarded by a small, feral, chuckle.

"You ever hear of 'the line'?" He growled, though no menace was implied. Unfortunately, that was a slight error in judgement on his part as far as she was concerned.

"Crossed it, right, Spike. Heh, in that case, it must have been hot n' horny!"

"I doubt you would have the slightest idea, I have a singularly creative imagination." He teased back, the hint of dark suggestion in that confession more than enough to disturb her own dreams for the next month. It wasn't as if she didn't know what went on.

"I was in the. the army too. y'know."

"So why are you awake then? Is it something to do with why you can't go home?" He asked, sounding concerned.

"No, but I'd rather not talk about that." She mumbled, using his words as a reminder that he wasn't the only one with secrets. "I think I musta had a nightmare too, or something." When she tried to remember, she just drew a complete blank. So she lay in the darkness and tried to imagine what Cloud's great mission might be, and what hers could be.

"I could help, if you want to sleep." He offered, eventually. "You really should get some rest, and a sleep spell is harmless enough."

Carrie shook her head vehemently. "No chance! I don't want to sleep for the next week solid or anything." She protested, magic was not something she wanted to discover just at this moment, she wanted to be around to see it. "I've heard stories. Anyway, what about you, you can't just sit here in the dark all night. What about. a bedtime story?"

"Oh, come on." He groaned, "another one?"

Disappointed, Carrie slipped down further, wrapping one corner around her shoulders. "I like stories, and you're nice to listen to; you have a nice accent."

"Thankyou, it was my mother's."

"Was that a joke?" She had to ask, because it was a surprise to get an obliging answer for once. "It sounded almost as if you were trying to be funny, but, naaa it couldn't be."

"So what would you like to hear about now?" Cloud sighed, beaten. "Anything in particular? Dragons, fairies, how to decapitate a hundred men in two minutes. compromising and embarrasing sex stories, the meaning of life. that's always good for putting me to sleep."

Carrie turned Cheshire cat, certain that her teeth were the only thing more visible than the slight blue aura across the room. So, this was what the guy was like if he lightened up a bit. Pretty much like he was when pissed off, only sardonic instead of sarcastic, a slight but notable improvement.

"The sex thing sounds interesting." She mused, "But you know, I think I'd like to hear about the Cetra. the Promised Land that everybody started talking about after the Meteor, y'know?"

"Ah, going for original." He drawled, taking a slight peek at the clock. "How about I tell you the truth, it makes a pretty fairytale although it's more accurate than the old Shin-ra records."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"The Cetra were not always a nomadic race, but they were scientists, and developed some of the first technology on this planet. They originated on a world much like this one, in cities like Midgar used to be, and were a lot like the people of a hundred years ago. Part of the technology they developed was space travel, in fact, it was their obsession with space which first alerted them to the presence of a meteor in time to escape. Believing it to be just an unfortunate incident, they built ships called arks, and set off in search of a new home; their Promised Land."

"This planet, is the Promised Land? And you know this how?"

"Like you said, I just know things." Cloud shrugged, a useless gesture in the dark, but fitting. It was also easier lying down than one would imagine. "Yeah, at least most of the Cetra thought it was when they finally arrived. None of the arriving team had lived on their home planet, they were descendents of the escapees and had only computer records and the planets they rejected to go by. Their objective was to find a planet capable of supporting life, with either no indiginous intelligent peoples, or a civilization willing to accommodate them. This planet was the latter." He curled a lock of hair around a finger, the girl was still awake, he could tell from her breathing. She was listening intently. "The people they found appeared similar to them, and at the same time, some were completely different, and they had no machines. They were warrior tribes capable of things the Cetra only dreamed of, and while they had magic and art, the Cetra offered technology in exchange for knowledge which these people were happy to give. This included the ability to hear the planet and to a small extent, use healing magic. They weren't foolish enough to share black magic - and never told the immigrants more than they needed to know about themselves. Of course, this made a few of the Cetra suspicious of them; they wouldn't trust anything but their own technology and became even more planet-deaf than they were to begin with. Those are the humans, who now are reaching the level they were before the Exodus. Instead of shunning them, the people of this planet took it upon themselves to protect the Cetra. They were the first to sense the arrival of Jenova in the wake of their new allies, and managed to convince the humans to hide in their cities of metal while they fought Jenova. The Cetra, misled, and feeling some portion of the planet's pain decided to join with the warrior tribes and fight. But as they were killed they started to come back, walking corpses; to infiltrate the rest of the Cetra civilisation. They came, Jenova spawn in the guises of friends and loved ones. The only survivors were the humans and a few protectors who exist past their own extinction, only to fight the same war until the end of time."

Carrie yawned, it wasn't that the story was that boring, but something in his tone that was irresistable. "That was a happy ending." She smiled, "Who are the protectors then?"

"Some other time maybe, unless you figure it out on your own."

She finally felt herself losing the battle, sleep bearing down at last, relentlessly. Her long forgotten nightmare, which suddenly threatened to remember itself, disappeared altogether with his last indecipherable whisper. Then the darkness came, enveloping her once more.

There was something about the blond, she thought, that maybe he wasn't all himself. It was like gazing up at an azure sky and seeing nothing but stars.

Funny, the things one thought when semi conscious, she thought further, with only the merest hint of amusement, he wasn't half as strange as Vincent.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"It will never work." That was Vincent, humour almost seeping around the corners of his stoicism at some earlier suggestion.

"Well what else do you suggest? I can't honestly see a choice." Cloud argued, though somewhat unenchanted with the idea himself. Carrie rolled over to get a better view of her new companions, and hit the floor with a bone-jarring thud.

"Ow."

"You expect our friend to be even slightly helpful?" Vincent frowned as she crawled onto hands and knees across the rug, kicking the blanket away in utter disdain. The blond had his hair pulled tightly back to keep unruly strands from sticking every way but where he wanted, even then, there was the odd escaped spike.

"Still no good." She commented, ignoring Vincent's incredibly rude, in her opinion, judgement on her usefulness. "It just makes your eyes show up more."

"I know. And if I wear shades I'm likely to end up looking like a Turk." He agreed; pulling the leather band off and retying it so that half fell around his face, and the rest did as it pleased. On him, it looked cool. "We're gonna have to go with plan B."

"What's a Turk?" She asked, hopefully not appearing too ignorant, and definitely not keen on finding out just what 'plan B' was just yet.

"It was a division in Shinra," Vincent replied, as apathetic as his friend had been. Obviously something to do with himself then. "They were the spies, assassins that sort of thing. The best, most cold hearted killers in the world."

"Really? Worse than 'The Generals'?" She grinned, firstly because she had seen Spike flinch at that particular statement, some little show of humanity maybe, as Vincent merely turned away.

"I was one, once."

She'd managed to piss them both off at once. oh, very clever.

"Look, guys I'm sorry." She flustered, the smile falling from her face instantly. "Whatever you wanted me to do, I'll do it okay?"

She stood, hands clasped behind the back of her trooper uniform which looked no worse off for being slept in. Sweeping her helmet off the floor, Cloud threw it at her. She barely had time to notice, but still managed to catch it and put it on.

"You just have to find Nanaki-san, go straight there, and don't look back."

It sounded easier than it had to be, and why shouldn't she look back? It wasn't as if they'd melt if she did.

"Why not?"

"Because you'll probably fall on your face." Vincent explained, just as she narrowly avoided the pile of bags beside the door. "We'll be following, don't worry."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~



"What if everything were to die out all at once then?"

A rather robust and entirely unashamed voice rang through the dining hall of First Cosmo university campus. It's owner, a tall, olive skinned and moderately good looking student, readjusted his glasses with a chopstick and shot the table's other occupant a smug grin before deftly spearing an unlucky pickled onion.

"There will always be balance." The girl replied softly, scraping an armful of unruly black hair behind her back. She perched on the bench as if she would bolt at any moment, and already her arms were wrapped around a pile of work books which she guarded like a dragon's hoard. "Only the descendents of the Cetra would be removed, since you aren't really part of this planet."

He left his concentration on the meal for a second to gauge the wisdom of sitting through the same argument yet again. Well, he preferred to think of it as a friendly discussion, since it was impossible to tell what his sparring partner thought behind those amazing blue eyes. She always managed to make her point sound absolutely irrefutable and he didn't want to lose all the time, so it was definitely not an argument. She was smiling, not smug, but slightly arrogant. It didn't matter though, since she was very pretty.

"There you go with that 'you' word again Liliyan, It's like you just decided you aren't going to be human or something." He laughed, knowing she'd never respond to his teasing. He'd begun to believe it himself lately.

"Whatever." She chuckled, with enough enthusiasm to finally lift herself completely from the bench. "And if you call me that again, it'll be mezzo soprano."

"It's your name, Lil-ly." He drawled at her rapidly retreating back, extending the two syllables twice as long as necessary. "Or would you prefer 'Ice Queen of the Angels'?"

Her response to the last overused title was an oft applied and well applauded middle finger as she reversed through the swing doors, gracefully using her backside to open them since her other arm was loaded with books.

"She loves me really." He laughed, returning to his salad with unabated devotion. Oh, but she was so shy! It was amazing she didn't spend all her spare time locked in their dorm studying. He'd have to find out where she did disappear to all the time, some day. They were just roomies really, and he figured a girl like that was probably too good for the likes of him, if she knew it, he wasn't sure. But she'd talk to him, and Nanaki-Sensei if it was anything to do with the planet. She never talked about herself, or her family, even though he'd met a half sister or something, once, on a visit.

"Are we musing on the finer points of life-form development, Naethan?"

The voice startled him back to reality, low and growly, but agreeable nevertheless. "You could say that, Sir." He muttered, as the fiery Lion warrior alighted the opposite bench. "It's that girl again, she makes my brain ache."

He put his hand to his forhead in overdramatic demonstration that gained a laugh, or purr, from his teacher. He supposed that Nanaki would know a little about women, being what, a hundred and forty something? But then, they'd never found another of his race, so he'd probably not be much help with his particular problem.

"As far as I can surmise, that is your normal state of existance."

"Not always!" He defended, the occasion demanding he think of an exception quickly or look foolish. "Sometimes I'm great. Usually when I'm drunk, granted, but for a few blissful hours now and then, my brain neglects to remind me of it's presence."

His defence hadn't turned out quite the way he'd intended, and managed to degrade to an embarrassed mumble, his fingers tangling nervously in short, fading purple spikes. "Yeah, well I managed to dredge up a little more on Materia, if only there were some to really test my theories on. I was gonna ask around, or check the 'net sometime but I don't think I'd have any World Shattering Sucesses there."

Nanaki shook his head, beads rattling in the ornate headdress he always wore. "You wouldn't, it was only produced in reactors."

"Which were dismantled eighty years ago." Naethan sighed, on one hand it was a good thing there were no more Mako reactors, but he couldn't help thinking that a little Materia would be very useful. He'd studied the theories of magic practice, mainly to figure out why Lilly was so interested and, perhaps, get invited to wherever she spent so much time practicing, and knew that there was a little still in existance. Which would no doubt be out of the purchasing power range of a student grant and Saturday job at the cinema.

"There's natural materia, it's rare, but I bet if I could find some." He dug a chopstick right through a leaf, lifting it, but not really in the mood to do anything more. It fluttered a little in the draft, as someone opened the doors. A small red-haired girl he'd not seen before. She looked lost.

"You'd be no better off than you are now." Nanaki insisted, resting his head on the table to look under the lettuce which was threatening to come between him and his wayward trainee. "Materia and magic are not toys. Hello miss Kisaragi, were you looking for me?"

The last comment was directed toward the readhead, who had been hovering silently in the background for almost five minutes. It appeared she'd been attempting to communicate through telepathy, or at least bore a hole through the back of Nanaki's skull.

"Um, Yeah Jijii-san. sorry, Nanaki. I know I'm not supposed to interrupt you here, but." She turned as if expecting to see something over her shoulder, Naethan couldn't see anything, but Nanaki seemed a little on edge too.

"I do not mind, what is it?" He asked kindly, moving to let the girl sit down. She turned again, scanning the edge of the room.

"I asked Carrie if she would show us where to find you."

The voice was new, and as the words were spoken, crystallizing the edge of reality a little, the air just behind her took on human form. It wasn't as if he'd appeared, but more like he'd been there so long they hadn't seen him, which just made Naethan's head hurt more. The man who logically, didn't appear out of thin air, was quickly joined by a man who hadn't just stepped out of a shadow.

"Sorry if we're disturbing anything," he added, sitting on the other side of the bench with more elegance than Naethan would have thought normal for a teenage boy with wild blonde spikes, silly earrings and a lopsided grin.

"Cloud!" Nanaki seemed completely overwhelmed by the sudden appearance of the two, admittedly, Naethan had found it disturbing, but the way his teacher was acting was a new experience.

"Vincent? It is so good to see you!" He gasped, "Please, we should go to the observatory. You too Naethan, if that's alright Cloud?"

Naethan was now completely lost in migraine territory, it was almost unheard of to be invited to Nanaki's private study, and even less so for the distinguished elder to be nervous in front of anybody. But here he was, asking the newcomer for permission to allow him into the observatory.

"Sure, do you think I could get something to eat though? I'm starved." Cloud inquired, already standing and halfway to the serving counter as the others stood to leave. Naethan quickly grabbed his books and bag, this was not an opportunity to pass up or be late for, whatever it was, was probably important. He really ought to stop thinking about it too, right now, his ever so helpful brain cautiously reminded, since the blond had already raided the food counter and was leaving with his teacher, and the others.

"Hey, wait up!"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~



The moment the door closed to Nanaki's private chambers, all sense of tense decorum completely disappeared and three completely bemused onlookers witnessed the flying tackle which had Cloud on the floor in a matter of seconds.

"Cloud! You came! Is it time?" Yelped the fire lion as he reverted to a mere thirty years old and sat on the swordsman's chest. Sandwiched between a two hundred pound warrior and an uncomfortably positioned claymore the blond nodded, slightly struggling for breath. After a few attempts to ask the creature to get off, he simply flipped him through the air with a well placed boot. Safe to say that Nanaki recovered more quickly than the spectators, laughing wildly as Cloud sprang to his feet and a relaxed fighting stance. "How long has it been, old friend?" Nanaki asked cheerfully.

Dropping his hands, the swordsman took off his sword and leant it against a wall. The private rooms, Nanaki had explained on the way up, hadn't been altered except for adding a voice control to the equipment .and a lot of upgraded technology.

"Thirty years, give or take a couple."

His sadness descended once more, those who understood what had just been said were reflecting on the implications of such an absence, while those who didn't were still trying to work out why the air temperature had lowered almost ten degrees.

"Marlene." Sighed Nanaki, first to break the silence and add a tangible explaination for it. Cloud went further by actually smiling as he dropped to the carpet, landing between his legs in a bemused puddle.

"There are probably more dead people in my head than in the lifestream." He laughed, but without much conviction, leaning back and pulling his legs to his chest as they all found places to sit.

The room was hardly furnished for guests, the only chair being used as a makeshift filing cabinet. All took their cue from Cloud and Nanaki, sitting Indian style around the edge of the thick rug. The blonde pulled an orange from his pocket, which had luckily survived the recent wrestling match intact. He'd have trouble explaining the sticky pockets away at the dry cleaners. Digging a fingernail into the tough peel, he began flaying the fruit as he spoke.

"I guess it was time for a visit, then."

"Long past, and Vincent, do you keep well?"

The dark man smiled an ironic smile, and absently licked one of his pointed fangs. The move made Naethan cringe inside. He'd yet to hear this shadow speak, and imagined it to be somewhere between a hiss and the sound of coffins slamming shut.

"As well as could be expected Red."

He didn't fail to notice the relieved sigh as Naethan's fears were proved unfounded on at least one point. "Although it seems your student is having a little respiratory difficulty."

"Am not." He choked, "I just don't really know what I'm doing here."

He directed the end of his sentence to Nanaki, not prepared to stare this new peculiarity in the face. It had to be the fangs, or the eyes, or perhaps a combined effect that served to scare the poor boy spineless. He was damned if he'd admit it though.

"You're studying Planet life, Naethan. I thought perhaps this would be an opportunity." Here Nanaki smiled and turned his one amber eye from the student toward Cloud. "To learn from a real expert."

Naethan turned to watch the diminutive blond, curled up in his black coat and licking orange juice from his fingers. "Who, him?"

Cloud tore another segment from his eagerly awaited breakfast, "Who, ME?" He echoed with an arrogant flick of frosted fringe, resting his chin on his knees as he chewed. His piercing blue eyes flickered in amusement as they came to rest on the nervous student. Naethan suddenly wished he'd kept his mouth shut, and wondered if he'd scream or get some aspirin any time soon.

"I don't see why not."

The orange peel flew straight and true over a shoulder and into the bin, narrowly missing Carrie as she tried to decipher one of the readouts behind her on the screen. "I have all the time in the world."

Funnily though, the offer seemed perfectly genuine. Even funnier to Neathan though was how he'd completely forgotten everything he ever wanted to ask about such things, and stammered out a pathetic "R, really. I don't know what."

"He's studying magic." Nanaki stated matter-of-factly, finishing his student's stilted utterance with the good humour of a teacher over his protégé. "He'd like to know what he's wasting so much effort on."

"It is not wasted effort! There was magic not so long ago, and even some materia in museums."

His nervousness and temporary selective amnesia were not enough to silence an enthusiastic defence of his pet subject. Naethan ignored the amused aloofness in the blonde's eyes as he continued the rant. "It could be such a benefit to humanity, healing magic in hospitals, fire spells, even the support magic was used less than fifty years ago. I'm sure that if we could figure out how to use it again."

"There was a reason, you know, why materia was abandoned." Cloud rocked back on his heels, "Did you ever hear of the battle of Dragon pass?"

"Of course I did! It's seventh grade history. Wutai was the centre of trade in Materia at the time, and because of its wealth Junon felt threatened. Along with poor government making things worse and the rumours that Wutai was raising an army with the strongest warriors at it's command, it was inevitable that there would be a war." He paused to take a breath, "So?"

The swordsman broke into a smile, then soft laughter as everyone turned to face him. "Is that the way they tell it now?"

His voice and eyes were empty of the humour his actions betrayed, as if they hadn't quite got the joke.

"It's the way I heard it, although I have to admit, the teachers tell it better."

Carrie had paused in her in-depth study of the weather in Costa del Sol to watch Cloud's laughing fit. A quick glance around the room showed that both Nanaki and Vincent were very close to joining him.

"The war was over the materia." Cloud pushed himself back up, but did not stop until he was standing. Leaving his explaination for the time being he disappeared through a door at the side of the room.

"Oh." Naethan was not completely out of smug intellectualism, not that he'd really had much of the intellect to begin with. "And that was enough to make materia no-go? I know a lot of people died an' all, but I hardly think."

"You are entirely correct. You hardly think."

Nanaki growled at Vincent for his unnecessary interruption, but stopped as the man indicated a desire to continue. "A lot of people died, but think, if either side had really won, why did they lay all the blame on the thing they were after in the first place?"

"Huh?" Naethan and Carrie both struggled to comprehend the ambiguous logic of Vincent's rhetoric. Unable to answer, when it was obvious their version of events was different from the other's, the version that had to be true considering the amount of bullshit suspected in the system of new governments, that quickly forgot things if they were deemed unsuitable for people to know. Whole half centuries had, in that way, come to be suffering continuity problems. Besides, after a few subtle references to time, and the common knowledge that Nanaki was easily old enough to have been there, it was quite possible all three had.

"Because when it all ended, it was already gone. Did you get a nice sanitised version of the massacre too?"

"Massacre, you mean when General Strife slaughtered half the Junon army and dissapeared into the sunset." Naethan snapped, Carrie's face turned a distinct shade of pale green. "You mean, he took the materia with him?"

"That is exactly what he means." Cloud reappeared around the door, carrying something that was impossible to make out as it was so small. "I took it for a purpose, apart from the obvious, it was payment for a service I requested years before."

"You?" Nathan's eyes bugged, "You're General Strife.? But he, you, that was ninety years ago! People do not come back from the dead!"

Cloud sat back down, becoming distinctly averse to the constant stream of witless mumblings. Unfolding his fingers he revealed a single green sphere, translucent, and glowing with the same inner light as his eyes. "Well, here I am, and I think I'd know if I'd died anytime recently. You wanted to learn about magic, and I assume it is the mundane technical use of the word that you are referring to. Here you are, materia."

Mundane? Technical? The sphere that lay across the small, scarred palm was anything but those things to Naethan, and even to a lesser extent, Carrie. "I've never seen anything like that." She whispered, her own muddy green eyes locked onto the smooth orb. "And you're saying that you took all of it."

The familiar glazing of the eyes when confronting the potential of things less familiar, not to mention a, well, a famiy tradition, had fully enveloped the redhead's expression. The boy too, seemed unnervingly focused. One whisper, he knew, one slight touch of that small crystal could give him the chance to prove his theories on magic use. His hand was quite possibly exercising it's independence in that direction as bony fingers snapped the thing away. He realised then, that the gutteral snarl was his own, and the smile on his tormentors face a little too sharp. Naethan almost fell backwards in panic, his breathing all of a sudden not a problem. He'd lost control of something in that moment and disgraced himself in front of Nanaki, as well as two strangers professing to be only slightly less than mythical by way of their still breathing, and coming quite close to proving it.

"As far as I know, yes. I took it all and with my own good reasons, as he has just beautifully demonstrated."

The word beautiful when uttered in such a fashion took an unpleasant tinny quality at the corners of his teeth, how could anybody consider it their right to 'protect people from themselves,' for that was obviously the noble intention inferred, no matter how important they might have been at the time. "Who died and made you god." He spat, only barely regretting it. There was something in the way Strife held himself which might have acted as a warning, and something in his smile that could have been a challenge, but his eyes were a void. Vincent followed the unfolding and possibly fatal scene with mild concern, poised to diffuse anything that approached animosity. The others were similarly taut, lending the atmosphere a touch of the uncertain explosion. One that never came, luckily, as the blond seemed totally unmoved.

"Don't try and help my conscience, you couldn't hope to compete." The whisper came, accompanied by the anti-noise of four other screaming minds. Naethan backed down willingly, without reasoning why.

"What type is it?"

"This? It's a master, one of only two in existance." The orb was again unveiled and tossed whimsically into the air, shimmering briefly before it landed unchallenged in the hand that threw it. "Two sets of materia that allow the user knowledge of every spell mastered by it's creator."

"Creator? I thought materia were made by Mako reactors, or found naturally, not made. Wouldn't you need to have a lot of power just to make a simple single elemental?"

Cloud continued to juggle the Master Magic, adding to it a red and a yellow. "Yeah, I suppose so. That's why there are only two sets, one is about two and a half thousand years old, probably created by those who tought the Cetra when they crash landed here."

"There were people here before the Cetra?"

"Records do indicate such a thing, Naethan, did you study those texts found in Midgar?"

"Um, I might have. Weren't they about the first landing team to this planet or something? there's only so much you can figure from three references in Cetra." He was mumbling, wishing he'd never been asked since it seemed he knew nothing of real use. Languages were not his favourite subject. "Old Cetra at that, I dunno, I thought we were gonna get an explainaton on magic?"

"I find it rather fascinating that there could be older races. I don't even really have anywhere near full records on my own tribe, the Gi, the Cetra, Leviathan's people, or the Jenovans. Humans aren't even that well recorded until the fall of Jenova over two thousand years ago." Nanaki had begun to pace, but soon settled at Cloud's side when he realised. "I'm sorry, I guess excitement has made me ramble a bit."

"That's okay, Red." The swordsman dropped the materia and gave his mane a ruffle, something Carrie and Naethan would have expected could get a hand bitten off, though they weren't about to change or test that particular view. For the first time in almost half an hour Vincent lifted his voice from the shadow of his tattered old cape."Perhaps you should finish your explaination before we go off on any more tangents, Cloud?" He said softly enough for it to sound affectionate, and the blond boy tilted his head to return the hidden smile, sending a waterfall of gold tumbling from his shoulder.

"I tend to think in tangents Vincent." the sentiment was weary, in a sort of dreamy singsong that could spread tiredness like a yawn.

"So, what about the other set, was it a secret project in Shinra or something?" Carrie grinned, watching the crystals nestled between thick strands of carpet. It wasn't as if they did anything, but if one paid attention it could be seen that they had dulled a little since Cloud put them down. Nanaki was quick to coorect her assumption. "Oh, no. Shinra would never be able to do that, as you said, it takes someone with a whole lot of power, which is rare enough." Rare indeed, when the attempt had been made by others to create masters since the second set, none had been even slightly sucessful. Even other members of Avalanche with their unique magical experience had been unable to work out what to do, and as for asking the one person who could he'd simply stated he couldn't explain if he wanted to. "But as well as that you need an innate knowledge of magic and the planet, you have to be in a place with enough resonance, and you need the raw materials," he finished.

"Raw materials?" Naethan suddenly regained interest, directing it solely towards Nanaki, since something made just looking at the Ex-General feel like acid on his eyeballs. Nanaki was happy to oblige though, he knew enough of the basic facts besides which, he had the distinct feeling someone small and unpredictable was falling asleep with an arm draped over his back.

"Well, Materia. Masters and Huge Materia, we collected enough."

"Enough? I knew that it was more common back then, but. how common?"

"Cloud decided it was against his beliefs for us to carry more than two hundred, most of those were mastered and well, disappeared after the battle in the crater."

Even Naethan knew which battle was being referred to, but it was the way Nanaki made such an amount of materia seem insignificant, that Cloud had thought it a small number. How could that skinny, childish little smartarse have been allowed to make so many judgements. What made people trust him so strongly, well, he wasn't going to just follow anyone without question. He wasn't even sure if all those old stories were even true anymore. Especially now that the man was using the guardian of Cosmo Canyon as a pillow.

"Two Hundred!"

Cloud never bothered to open his eyes, just answering quietly enough for the others to have to come closer.

"This is the other set, the one I made." He pushed them with his spare hand towards Carrie, not Naethan to his chagrin "I don't really need them though, after all, to create something like this one must already have the knowledge and skill to be implemented, to know how to do it properly." She picked them up, not bothered in the slightest about the fact her new leader was acting rather perculiarly.

"Or else it doesn't work?"

"Yeah, unless you've got the power without the information, then you're lucky if you just blow yourself up." He chuckled, making her wonder what happened to the unlucky.

"The alternative is much worse."

"So you can use magic without Materia?" Naethan asked, a look of quandary creasing beneath his glasses. "I don't suppose you could do anything for a headache?"

Although he'd asked as a joke, Cloud kneld forward, his palm outstretched toward the forehead of a now uncertain Naethan. With a small subvocalised utterance in some language impossible to lipread, Naethan's head was completely clear. He blinked a couple of times to get used to the slight tingling sensation, and muttered a brief disbelieving thankyou.

Hovever, a spell as basic as that should not have caused a reaction in it's caster, at least, not one sufficient to floor them.

"Cloud?"

Vincent was beside his friend before anyone else could move, it appeared from his demeanour that this was not a regular occurance.

"Cloud!"

This time, everyone heard the scream. Two voices, no three, joining thousands in chorus. Only two of them were in the room, the rest seemed to reverberate around the small space, loud and shrill enough to turn their blood to ice.

"It Is Time."





~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Author's rant: This week, I shall mostly be making lame excuses for my poor storytelling. And yes, I do ramble on don't I - Expect that to change soon enough.

Sorry guys! I know this chapter has been short and confusing (To me anyway), but see, I'm an artist. I have all the pretty, dramatic things already thought out in my admittedly overactive imagination, and I'm sorta using the bits inbetween as a way of figuring out how things worked. Like how come Cloud had a much higher magic stat than any other character -- including Sephiroth -- (Yes, I admit getting them all to level 50 before the keystone episode just to work it out.) And how come he just seemed to know how to do so much weird shit after he found himself in the lifestream. By the way - I wanna PS2 version of FFVII, with FFX graphics and voices and lyrics and a decent dialogue translation, who's with me? - (Resounding indifference from the hordes)

I guess my biggest excuse for why the conversations are all business, is 'cause I'm boring MYSELF here trying real hard not to give too much away and all. Shit, too much ranting, must pop off, cheery ho, all that jazz.

Sayonara, for now.

~Stormy~

P.S, Thanks for the reviews. all two of them @_~ The pics are in my Loth And fanquarter Galleries