"Thank you so much. This . . . this is above and beyond what I asked of you."

"Consider it nothing, young one. I must admit, opening this area to my own people was munificent of you."

"It's the least I could do." Maquinna, Renmaru and Cloud were standing in the Ancient City, beside the pool that Cloud had chosen as Aeris's final resting place. "Digging up those bodies again . . . "

"They deserved better than that." Cloud stated firmly. AVALANCHE and volunteers from Junon had disinterred the bodies from the mass graves at the base, to be reburied near the ruins. "How do you bury your dead?"

Renmaru shook his head. "We don't. Instead, we return them to the Lifestream. There's an upwelling beneath the city here."

"Need help?"

"No thank you, I'll do it myself." He frowned. "I only wish we could recover Aeris's body. She too deserves to be returned to the Planet."

Cloud grimaced. "I'll see what I can do, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. This pool is deceptive; it's far deeper than it looks."

"Still, I think she'd appreciate it." Violet eyes turned to see a tall, athletic woman walking up to them. "Tifa!"

"Hello Renmaru, Cloud. I just came to tell you that we're ready to start burying your people Maquinna."

"Thank you. I'll be down to give them their Last Rite." The grizzled red beast started down, slow and limping a little from age. Cloud and Tifa started to follow him, when the blond realized that they had left someone behind. "Renmaru!" The purple haired boy turned towards them. "Renmaru, aren't you coming with us?"

He shook his head. "No, I'd like to take this time to be alone for a while. And I'll start moving the Cetra bodies into the Lifestream. It's something I feel I should do alone." Cloud and Tifa were about to protest, but Maquinna beat them to it. "I understand and I'm not offended. Renmaru, if you ever need to talk to anyone, I'm always ready to listen."

"Thank you, Maquinna."

"Tifa! Tifa wake up! I need to talk to someone!" Tifa blinked blurred eyes and tried to focus on the white blob in front of her. It had been a long day, first burying Nanaki's and Maquinna's people (she still didn't know thier names), then helping move the Cetra to their final resting place. Apparently the wellspring of Mako was the same place where Sephiroth had killed Aeris, and that had brought up bad memories for all of them. She supposed it could have been worse. Cloud, unfortunately, had been able to recover what was left of Aeris-a mere skeleton. He was the one who had cradled her bones until Renmaru had taken them away. She couldn't imagine how he felt. "Tifa, please!"

Now she was awake enough to realize what was going on. "Renmaru? It's very late, shouldn't you be in bed?" Renmaru had carried the remains of the Cetra alone in the end, and had still been . . . disposing of bodies when she had gone to sleep.

"No, something's gone right for once!" For the first time, she saw the boy, no, the young man look happy. "I have to tell someone, otherwise I'm gonna burst!"

"Okay, okay" she sat up. "Take a deep breath and calm down. What's gone right? And explain slowly."

He did so. "I had just finished placing the last of the bodies in the Lifestream. After that ordeal I needed time to center myself, time to accept what had happened. Until tonight, I've just kept going, trying not to think of how I had almost done it, almost saved them. So I decided to meditate, right there by the pool. That's when it happened." He broke off and clutched her, temporarily overcome by emotion. "I could hear them. All of them. It had never happened before."

"Hear who? What had never happened before?"

"My people-talking to me. I mean, they had, during my journey they had told me how to find you, how to survive outside the camps. But that was more prodding and emotion, they'd never spoken to me before."

"Ren-Renmaru, you are the last Cetra. All your people are dead."

"I know! But that is how we speak to each other, through the Lifestream. The Lifestream holds the combined soul of all the Cetra who have died. The elders taught us how to commune with it, to draw from the strength and wisdom of countless generations. Alive, we are alone, dead we are connected to everything, the Planet, ourselves, everything!"

Maybe she was dreaming. Or perhaps this would make sense in the morning. "Alright, the other Cetra started speaking to you. What did they say?"

"Tifa, oh Tifa! They told me of a way to ressurect our people! I won't be the last Cetra!"

"Alright, I'm not sure I understand this. Could you please explain it again?" Cloud and the rest of AVALANCHE were . . . not quite awake. Tifa had managed to calm Renmaru into waiting till morning before springing the news on everyone, but some people just don't function well before their caffeine injection.

"It's simple. Long ago, before Jenova came, you are aware that the Cetra had an advanced society. We created many artifacts of power, Meteor, the Black Materia is an example of one of our artifacts. One of the avenues of research explored was that of resurrection. Even the most peaceful of societies still has it's fatal accidents, lives cut short. The method of resurrection could give people life again, if they were attatched enough to the world."

"So you're suggesting we go out, find this . . . ?"

"Crystal Materia."

"Find this Crystal Materia and use it to bring everyone in the camps back to life."

"No, of course not. First, the Crystal Materia only works on Cetra, it will not bring the Nahuel or the humans you killed back to life."

"The Nahuel?"

"Maquinna's tribe. Second, the ritual is very draining. At best, a single person could raise five individuals, he or she would probably die after raising more than two or three. Third, even among the Cetra, it can only bring back those who are closest to life, those who have the greatest attachement to living. That is not our way, instead we look forward to joining our ancestors and the Planet in death. So even if I am lucky enough to be able to bring back people, I will probably find very few willing to come back from the dead."

"&&#$&#! If the Cetra could do this, why didn't they do it before? Like after Jenova. Why didn't we hear anything about this?" Cid's foul mouth made the younger man wince. "First for all those reasons I mentioned before, Crystal Materia was very rarely used. When Simon Hojo started killing off what few Cetra communities remained, none of them had any Crystal Materia, even if there had been anyone to resurrect. But Aeris . . . she had found one, or rather, Shinra had found one. She saw it during her captivity in Midgar. When she rejoined the Lifestream, she told me about this." He blushed. "This-this resurrection buisness is supposed to remain a Cetra secret, but I'll need your help to do it."

"Let's take a vote." Cait Sith saw the argument building and tried to head it off. "All in favor of trying to help Renmaru in his potential wild goose chase?" Tifa, Cait, Cid, Shera, Nanaki and Maquinna. "All those against?" Vincent, Barret, Yuffie and the Turks. "Cloud it looks like you're the tie breaker."

Their leader sat and thought. Renmaru was obviously getting anxious. Just when it seemed he was about to say something, the spiky-haired dude stirred. "I say we go for it."

Cheers and whistles followed that statement. "Well, &. It looks like we're in for a longer ride than we expected Shera."