Chapter 17: Let's Work Together!

Author: Suzaku no miko

Disclaimers: I do not own Final Fantasy or its characters...I do own Angela, however...

*NOTE* Hey, readers! I'd just like to say that I think I'm finally getting on with the story! Sorry it took so long, but now I think I can finally finish it. But hold on, this isn't the last chapter! No sir! I still got a few ideas up my sleeves. So sit tight and I hope you enjoy! Don't forget to R&R! Thanks!

After hearing the explanations all that has happened thus far, from each group's point of view minus the Turks, it was Reno's turn to explain what the Turks had been doing all of this time. Everyone else sat down on what used to be chairs and looked up at the leader of the Turks.

"Like we said before, we saw Sephiroth in the Shinra mansion looking through some of those old notes that were left by the scientists. The creepy thing was that when he was looking through the books, he had too smug a smile on his rotten face. It made me want to puke." Reno began.

"Did you get to see what he was reading about?" Rinoa looked up at the Turks's leader.

"Actually, I did. Reno and Rude went to follow Sephiroth while I stayed in the mansion looking through all that Sephiroth had seen. Then after I got a good idea and made copies of everything with my spy camera, I joined up with them in Midgar." Elena proudly stated.

"Speaking of that... Let me see the pictures..." Reno held out his hand.

Immediately obeying her leader, Elena went deep into her coat and pulled out a small envelope and handed it to him. Reno then opened it and took out the said pictures. After some time of looking them over, Reno placed a hand to his head and looked quite confused...

"What's wrong?" Lulu asked.

"Yes, speak." Steiner added, quite impatiently.

Looking up to the large group that stood before him, Reno's eyes suddenly became wide with what seemed to be shock. "I have no idea what the hell I'm reading. Look for yourselves..."

As the young man held out of the pictures, each person of the group examined them as closely as they could. The pictures were clear as crystal, not at all blurry, nor were the words on them illegible....

"What is that? Is that even english? Are those even words?" Rikku scrunched her nose.

"It doesn't look it to me." Vivi shyly spoke up.

"Great, now what are we supposed to do?" Seifer crossed his arms.

"Wait a second...Hey, Garnet, you know how to read different languages... Wanna' take a look?" Zidane turned to face her.

"I guess I can give it a shot." the young queen took a picture.

"By the looks of it, it could be an ancient form of writing..." Quistis also examined one.

"You spend a lot of time in the library at the Garden, don't you?" Zell looked at her.

"Well, at least I don't go there just to flirt with the librarian at the front desk." she smirked.

"Hey!...This is not the time nor the place for that!" Zell huffed.

This made some of the group members laugh and chuckle, some just rolled their eyes...

"Understand?" Kimahri looked at Garnet.

"It recipe?" Quina asked, excitedly.

"Not everything is a recipe, Quina." Freya chuckled.

"Is that all s/he ever thinks about?" Seifer looked at the Qu nervously.

"Can you read it?" Cloud ignored the rest of the group.

"I think so... I don't remember exactly what language or what civilization it's from but it's definitely a language written in the history books." Garnet looked over the documents once more.

"Do you think you can decipher it?" Vincent spoke.

"Let's see....oh my...." Garnet began.

"What? Something wrong?" Rinoa asked.

"Yeah, what does it say?" Zidane peered over the Queen's shoulder.

"These are notes about the Lifestream and the Space-Time Continuum!" Garnet exclaimed.

"What? Are you sure?" Freya looked at the young woman.

"What does it say?" Squall stepped forward.

"It says '...Experiments continue and we are almost there. As we try to link the Space-Time Continuum to the Lifestream, we keep finding more and more clues...' The next paper is a few days later...'When there is a tear in the Space-Time Continuum, it is in fact true that the Lifestream glows a deep green. With the sense-data that our computers pick up we can find the tears and conclude that the color change and the tear occur at the same time. Could the key be...the... ..materia... we have obtained...from..." Garnet read aloud.

"What happened? Why did you stop? My pictures are perfect, tell me you can't read it..." Elena frowned.

"No, it's not that. The original print has been smudged. I can't read the last part..." Garnet replied, sadly.

"Just when we were getting it!" Zell whined.

Reno, still holding onto the rest of the documents, walked over to Garnet and handed them to her. "Maybe there's something in the rest of them? Take a look."

Gingerly taking the pictures from the Turk leader, Garnet began to look over them. After some time, she looked back up at the group and shook her head.

"Um, can I ask a question? What's a materia?" asked a somewhat confused Angela.

"It's a colored orb filled with magical power. It's formed from a substance called mako that nature creates. When left alone, it will condense into its materia form. You can tell what kind of magic it has just by looking at the color. But there are many different kinds and some are more stronger than others." Cloud explained.

"So, whatever kind this materia that was used, it must have been extremely strong, right?" Seifer confirmed.

"Figures this jack-ass would use a materia to do something like that..." Barrett huffed.

"But I'm still confused.... What does the materia have to do with any of this? And why were the notes in a different language?" questioned a somewhat confused Yuna.

"Well, they're definitely a scientist's notes. There is no doubt about that. But much of the research from the past has always dealt with materia. But this type of research has not been seen since the time of the flourishment of the Cetra civilization." Vincent noted.

"So you mean these could be clues about not only this stuff but the Cetra as well?" Eiko asked, excitedly.

"Could be.... But if there was only some way to connect all of this together." Irvine thought aloud.

"Yes, and besides...this even looks like the writing system of the Cetra." Garnet confirmed.

"Well, let's rest on it. It's late and we're tired. Let's rest here for the night and we'll see what happens in the morning." Squall suggested.

Everyone then agreed and each person found a spot to sleep. After some time, everyone had fallen into a deep sleep...that is...except for Cloud...

"Cloud, I've found you!" a voice cried.

Cloud quickly turned around to the source of the sound. He did not see anything....but the voice sounded strangely familiar. Who was it? And why was it calling out to him?

'This is just like that dream... Except that it sounds much closer...' Cloud reminded himself.

But why was Cloud the only one to hear the voice? Could not anyone else hear it? Was he back in his dream....is it a dream?

To be continued.....