As of late, it as come to my attention that, among other problems, the length and formatting of my chapters is crap. Hence the lateness of this one. While I don't expect them to be completely fixed, I hope that anything that I did helps. Please continue to review; without them I would shrivel into a tiny raisin.

Also, as a result, I'm probably going to have to fix up the rest of the chapters. This will probably cause a large non-making senseness within the entirety of the story. I apologize, but chapter 5 should be up...within...someday.

------------silec

Tifa was surrounded on all sides by dense forest. With wide, frightened eyes, she sat huddled against a cold stump rubbing her knees. Eryl, the poor, oblivious bird, was calmly drinking from a creek with an unnatural greenish tint. They were lost. And she was pretty sure that it was her fault. The chocobo had pulled at her hands, wanting to go faster, and she had absentmindedly loosened her grip on the reins. He sped off like a rocket, then, recklessly tearing through rivers and cliffsides, finally running out of breath and ending up stranded in this place.

Tifa held her head in her hands, thinking hard. She made small clucking noises at Eryl, calling him to her. He trotted over, and she rapped him lightly on the head. A gull flew by overhead. Within her verdant prison, she nurtured a hatred for the gull and its freedom.

Tifa stroked Eryl's shimmering ebony wings. "I guess we'll be spending the night here," she said, receiving a sharp kweh in return.

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The sun sat high in the sky. It was unbearably hot outside. The bright rays reflected off of glinting relics of the old cities only making things worse. Cloud felt ill. Ill and guilty, and hot, an unholy triad. He pulled a sweaty glove from his hand and fanned his reddened, sticky face with it. The tall spikes of his hair drooped. He was sitting within the cool interior of the airship, and still he felt as if he was being roasted alive by the demons themselves. Shifting the crate where he had seated himself, he peered out onto the bridge, where Cid stood, barking orders to his crew.

He felt like small child. Everyone else was taking charge and making big decisions, while he was lounging about feeling nauseous. But he wasn't going to take that anymore. He was going to make the decisions, accept responsibilities. Cloud sprang up and defiantly kicked the crate against the wall. "Cid!" He shouted. "Get me a bucket, I'm feeling sick!"

It wasn't as if Cid felt annoyance towards Cloud's actions after the unfortunate accident. He was feeling the strongest kind of guilt, the kind you get when you've hurt someone you love. He could understand that. He had often felt that way about Shera. Now more than ever, he found himself thinking about her. He wanted to know what she was doing, if she was okay.

But some things, he told himself, can get to you. Cloud spent his days barricaded in the room once used for briefing their team. He would only leave to ask if they were any closer to their destination, and the instances that were getting fewer and farther between when he needed to obey his body's need for food and other such luxuries. He never helped inspect the ship, or navigate, or anything that could possibly make the trip any faster, and Cid was much too afraid to break the barrier surrounding that dank room to ask him for any assistance. So now Cid's shift encompassed all hours of the day.

It was hard enough to identify the exact location of Nibelheim. To do it alone was nearly impossible. In addition to the many changes done to manmade structures and natural landmarks, the collision had sparked a worldwide quake of such large proportions that the tectonic plates had shifted more than they would have within a million years. Thus, Cloud and Tifa's hometown, once on the western continent, could be anywhere at all, assuming that it still existed.

One night, Cid was the last one left awake on the ship, yet again. He struggled to keep his eyes open, and his head was propped up on the same railing that had sent Tifa tumbling to the ground. His mouth hung open slightly, and the cigarette in his mouth joined the dozens of others littering the deck. He was contemplating giving up and going to his unused bed, when he saw something. The lack of rest made Cid rub his eyes several times when he saw a massive shape on the horizon. He stretched his neck as far as it would go, and he could see it clearly there. A fallen angel, and perhaps their only hope of finding Nibelheim.

Lying on her side, silhouetted by the moon, was Shinra no. 26. It was the hopes and dreams of Rocket Town. The small dwellings that had once clung to this dream were gone, leaving only the rusting carcass.

Cid backed slowly away from the railing, keeping his eyes on the rocket, then broke into a sprint and shouted to all the inhabitants of the Highwind. He half-dragged them to the deck. The ship ambled in a slow circle in the night sky above the deserted town. It was new moon, the only source of light being the blue-white stars dotting the black heavens. A cold wind sliced through the deathly silence. The ship would inevitably head over the Nibel Mountains, toward Nibelheim's supposed location, but Cid would not act without Cloud's permission. He was still mostly asleep, but he knew the importance of this decision. Cloud knew, too, what he needed to do. "Go," He murmured, letting go of all his inhibitions, and focusing all the "what if"s commandeering his mind into a single hope, that perhaps, waiting for him at the gates of his home, was Tifa.

At that moment, high above the green plains, the sound of metal grinding together echoed all around them. Smoke rose from between the metal floorboards. There was a malfunction within the ship, down in the engine room. It didn't take long for the massive airship to begin plummeting towards the ground. One of Cid's crew managed to shout to Cloud over the confusion. "You've got to get to the engine room! There's something interfering with the gears!"

Cloud waved the smoke from his face and ran from the pandemonium. He started towards the engine room, but a hand gripped his shoulder. His feet slipped and his face made contact with a storage crate. Flipping himself over, Cloud glared at his assailant. Cid grabbed the young man by the shoulders and roughly hoisted him to his feet. "What the hell is wrong with you?! You want to get yourself killed?! We have to jump!" An explosion from a lower floor knocked them both over, and they shielded their eyes from the resulting cascade of pipes and wiring. Cloud pushed Cid aside and crawled towards the stairs, coughing and tripping repeatedly. "We're not going to make it on foot! You and your crew go on without me! I'll try to fix the ship!" he shouted. Already, he could feel his consciousness freeing itself to the thick haze filling the ship.

He removed his sword from the sheath on his back and stabbed it into the floor, using it as an anchor to carry his unfeeling legs. With the last of his strength, he pulled himself to the edge of the stairwell and gripped the railing in a vain attempt to regain his posture. His breathing irregular, Cloud turned his head to see Cid making his way towards him, a parachute in hand. A million miles away, he heard Cid's irritated voice. "We gotta do this hard way?"

"Come on, Eryl, it's late, we have to get moving." The black chocobo clawed at the dry, mahogany dirt, sniffing it curiously. "You stupid bird," Tifa said, tiredly beckoning Eryl across a small creek that was barely a trickle. She yanked at his reins, but he remained at the other side. A third time, he daintily stuck a claw into the puddle of water before quickly removing it and squawking pitifully. "YOU STUPID BIRD!" she cried out, increasing his distress.

She tried dangling some gysahl greens over his beak. Nothing. She tried pleading with the chocobo. Nothing. Finally, she tried leaving him behind, and he was at her side, chirping excitedly, in seconds.

Tifa smiled, and patted his head. "You stupid, useless bird."