Ch-- 11

They hiked over the mountain top for hours and Skye didn't say a thing the truth was she didn't know how. She was too afraid to open her mouth and confess that she was the reason why the world might becoming to an end.

"It's always something isn't it! You would think that they wouldn't have thought about cloning Rufus... Or that good Ol' Sephy boy wouldn't be able to come back I mean it's been a year! And here he is back wanting his daughter to join up with him while ShinRa just got back on their feet with a brand new Rufus to lead them along with Gya-ha-ha-ha and Kya-ha-ha-ha by his side... So there for the planet is in danger again and yet again as our duty always has been we have to save the world yet again" Yuffie said as she leaned against Vincent the long walk was starting to take a toll on her body.

"Why don't we make camp?" Skye said smiling as she sat down on the ever so dry dirt.

"I'm all for it!" Tifa said as she pulled her tent out of her bag.

"Cloud I don't have a tent can I share with you?" Skye said looking up at him he nodded and everyone set to work while Yuffie continued complaining.

"At least you got to do something... While you guys were off saving the world do you know where I was? I was sitting at home with the flu all year long I had the flu..." Skye said as she took out her water bottle and sipped it.

"You were sick for a whole year?"

"Yeah... I never had a break from it either... people thought I was going to die what's funny is when Weapon was destroyed I got worse also when ShinRa basically went belly up I go better.... I found that kind of odd" She said shaking her head.

"Hey guys come look at this" Cloud said standing at the edge of the cliff looking off into the distance. As every one gathered around to look at the Crystal Palace. Skye kept still not facing it.

"Wow... It's so beautiful" Tifa said as Barret wrapped his arms around her waist.

"What is it?" Yuffie said squinting. Skye stood up and walked over.

"It's the Crystal Palace... The one from the legend about the Ancients how it will rise and with it the Cetra... Or was it the Citica..." She said as she shook her head. She had never paid attention too it when she was younger all the talk about prophecy and legends, it never interested her and even now she still wasn't interested.

"What's a Citica?" Cloud said facing her. She smiled.

"A better question would be WHOM... It's basically an evil ancient... They broke away from the Cetra shortly after they were shunned... The Citica went underground literally and built the Crystal City... That's all I really know... Enoma told me about it when I was little... I never really paid full attention so..." She trailed off and looked at the horizon the palace was nothing but a faint pink glow among the darkening sky. She did know more but she just didn't want to tell them maybe the fact that the Crystal Dragon and it's many flunkies would be released with the raising of the palace along with according to legend several unsavory characters that according to what Enoma had told her could be her relatives.

Cloud looked at her the way that she held her self reminded him of Aeris. He sighed he missed her and if what she had said was true there was now the possibility of losing her too and he didn't even want to think about it but it kept invading his thoughts like an army of invincible warriors.

"Is there anything else we should know? Like is this some big ol' fucker gonna fly out the top of that thing as want to start a fight?" Cid said looking at Skye. She didn't even turn to look at them she just started to walk back towards where they had started to make camp. She covered her face with her hands and walked out to the other side materia caves littered the landscape like trash on the streets of the slums in Midgar.

"Look I'll talk to her tonight and see what I can find... and I'll tell you guys in the morning but I think we should leave her alone right now" Cloud said as he stared at Skye who had just swung her legs over the side of the cliff. The others nodded and went back to setting up camp for the night. Cloud started to pitch the tent. Skye looked back at him and smiled.

"Do you need any help?" She said looking at him work the truth was that she just enjoyed watching his muscles flex while he put the spikes in the ground.

"No I'm fine" He said as he put the rods in place. With in minutes they had a tent theirs was the first one done. Skye walked over and crawled in the small opening.

The tent wasn't that big it was only meant for one person and probably one small person at that so placing a full grown male in it was a stretch but adding a short small boned girl to it didn't make it any more comfortable either. She took her sword off and pulled her sleeping bag out of her pack.

"So... There's more to that whole Crystal palace thing isn't there?" Cloud said as he laid across his sleeping back watching her. She stopped straightening it and just laid across it she didn't say a word.

"Why won't you tell me... is it that bad?"

"It's worse" She said studying his face.

"I'm sure it's not as bad as you think it is..."

"Hmmm.... No I'm pretty sure I'm right" She said as she sat up and zipped the opening to the tent closed.

"Alright then tell me"

"Fine if you really want to know... It's the end of the world well possibly... There's this big white dragon with blue eyes called the crystal dragon and it is said to live in the foyer of the palace... It is worse than weapon when it comes to it's powers of destruction... it has little dragon friends too and then there's the King and Queen who if there is such thing as mercy are still asleep..." She said smiling.

"So basically nothing good can come of this"

"Not unless you're Sephiroth or Aloria... they want something in the palace I can feel it in my bones... There's something of great importance in there some where that if it falls into the wrong hands can cause the destruction of the planet and life as we know it" She said as she closed her eyes.

"and it's all my fault" She said as she took a deep breath and faced Cloud.

"No it's not... We can stop all of this if we go in there and kill The king and the queen" She cut him off.

"no because if we kill the king and the queen we're just making it easier for Sephiroth and Aloria"

"Alright so we won't do that but what do you think we should do?" He said as he reached over and touched her hand.

" I don't know" She said shaking her head shortly after she fell asleep. To dream of the room's in the crystal palace and a glowing crystal box.

BANG! BANG! BANG! Gun shots. They shook Skye from her lazy slumber. She looked next to her Cloud was deep in sleep so deep he didn't even hear them. She shook him awake.

"Cloud... did you hear that?" She whispered. Bang! Bang! Bang! there they were again

"It's just Vincent... go back to sleep" He said closing his eyes again.

"Just Vincent? doing what??"

"Shooting breakfast... now go back to bed"

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Whoosh.

"last time I checked it didn't take fire to kill breakfast"

"They're cooking it"

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Crack.

"Oh and I suppose they're Electrocuting it too" She said as she sat up and grabbed her sword. She opened the door to the tent to find their camp being attacked by rather large dragons.

"So they're not so little after all" She said as she ran over to join the fight.