"It's always surprised me" said Nanaki. "That the areas closest to the Lifestream, the blood of our planet, our the ones most uninviting and barren. Except maybe Mideel. Do you know why?" Renmaru shrugged.

"Too much of a good thing." The speaker was another Nahuel, Maiara. Maquinna had sent her to aid them, her skin was a paler, rosier shade than Nanaki's, and her mane was bright orange. The flame on her tail was also red, deeper than her skin, closer to crimson. Her build was also somewhat lighter than his, but she was almost as good as he was in combat. And they'd had plenty of opportunities to see what she could do in Midgar.

"And here we are" Cait Sith nearly bounced off Moggie as he hopped over to another, nearly identical section of the ruins. Reeve, fortunately or unfortunately depending on your point of view, had been unable to come with them. Instead, like Maquinna, he was contacting them through Cait Sith. "This used to be where Hojo's department worked. I don't know what good it does, Meteor mixed every thing up thoroughly."

"At least we don't have to worry about looters. Looks like we're the first people here since the clean-up effort." Reno buffed a gold ring on his jacket then tucked it into his pocket. Elena noticed. "Reno! Don't rob the dead! Have some respect!"

"Aw, you're no fun."

"Okay people" Cloud took charge at that point. "Midgar may be a barren wasteland like Nanaki says, but we've seen plenty of unfriendly creatures. We'll devide up into groups of three. Group one: the Turks. Group two: Nanaki, Maiara and Yuffie. Group three: Cid, Shera and Vincent. Group four: myself, Tifa and Renmaru. Group five: Cait Sith, Barret and . . . I think I ran out of people. Okay, Cait Sith, Barret, you wait here by the Airship." He checked his watch. "We have about four hours till the sun goes down. Everyone meet back here after three and a half, no, three hours. I don't want to see anyone wandering around in the dark."

"Let's go!"

"Even if our team doesn't find it, we've definitely made a significant dent in the monster population here."

Tifa wiped the sweat off her brow. "Cloud don't say that. For all we know, these might have been people once, who didn't escape in time."

"Even if they were . . . " Renmaru wiped the blood off his halbard. He had demonstrated competency but not proficiency with almost every weapon they'd had on board. Unfortunately, being a jack-of-all trades and master of none left him somewhat behind the rest of AVALANCHE and the Turks. Only his innate talent with materia allowed him to keep up with his two partners at all. Right now he was carrying the halbard slung across his back and a scimitar belted at his waist. "There's nothing there anymore. No thoughts, just pain-just hunger."

"Nothing?" Tifa was shocked.

"Nothing. They-they don't even have a sense of caution or self-preservation. They attack to feed themselves, but they don't even care what it is."

"That's horrible. And to think, SOLDIER is almost like this." She frowned. "I wonder . . . let's keep going."

"Yoohoo! Our mighty leader!"

"Is that . . . " Renmaru squinted at the waving figure in the distance. "Is that Wuffie?"

"Yuffie" corrected Tifa. "I wonder what she wants?"

"Yo, exalted spiky-haired leader dude! You owe me!"

"Cloud, what's she talking about?"

"I made a bet with her . . . "

"A bet?"

"I can't believe I just betted away a Mastered Materia!"

"& Cloud, it's ya own #!& fault!" Barret was unsympathetic.

"This doesn't look like any other type of materia I've seen before." said Nanaki. Indeed, the orb they were looking at was at least twice as big as their slotted Materia, even bigger than the dense Black Materia used for calling Meteor. It was also, as the name implied, fasceted rather than smooth. Although the edges were clear and scattered refracted light in rainbows around the table, the inner core was a cloudy grey swirl.

"Who would of guessed that Yuffie would be the first to find it?"

"She's a $#!& Materia Hunter, of course she was gonna find it first!"

"It's not exactly a normal Materia. It's more like a Summon than an Attack or an Effect." Renmaru cradled it possessively, wiping off grime with his shirt. He no longer dressed in rags, although the mishmash of borrowed clothing was scarcely any better. He wore a white tee-shirt (Tifa's), deep blue pants that were rolled at the cuffs and tied at the waist (Cloud's), hiking boots and socks (bought by Shera) and a blue jacket (Elena's). Shera made a note to go shopping with Elmyra for some clothes. The boy looked like a grab-bin reject!

"And tell us about it?"

"That's why I shoulda gone, and you shoulda left her with Cait Sith!"

"So now what do we need to do?" Maiara raised her voice to talk over the building argument. "In order to use this, we need to find a place where the Lifestream wells up directly to the surface of the earth."

Cid took his cigarette out. "Back to the City of the Ancients then?" Renmaru shot him a look sharp enough to cut his throat. "We're Cetra, not Ancients. And no, that area is too isolated. We don't know what kind of shape the resurrectees are going to be in. Some place near a city, just in case we need to rush them to the hospital."

"There aren't too many places where natural Mako and civilization meet." interrupted Cait Sith. "Would a place like this be good?"

Renmaru was shaking his head, causing his loose purple hair to fly about. "No, no. Places like this have been over exposed to Mako, they don't have what I need."

"The only places I can think off . . . other than the Northern Crater would be Nibelheim and Mideel then."

"Mideel." Cloud said decisively. "Nibelheim's spring is too far from the town, besides, Nibelheim doesn't have a hospital. Mideel's done a wonderful amount of rebuilding, they're our safest bet."

The discussion continued for a while after that, but everything important had basically been decided. At the end of the meeting everyone scattered, the Turks and Cait Sith huddled in a corner so they could give their report to Reeve, Nanaki and Maiara went up to the deck to keep watch, Yuffie and Shera went to see if they could find some Dramamine (for Yuffie, Shera was perfectly at ease in the air), Barret talked with some crew members, trying to call Elmyra's PHS to tell her about the latest developement, and Cid and Cloud began plotting routes to Mideel. Tifa, Vincent and Renmaru all left to go back to their sleeping quarters, Vincent slightly ahead of the others. Tifa was rubbing her forehead.

"Ms. Tifa? Is something wrong? You kept doing that while we were searching?" Vincent turned around. "Doing what?"

Wide violet eyes met narrow crimson ones. "This" said Renmaru, reaching up and rubbing his own head. Vincent transfered his gaze to the martial artist.

"It's nothing much. I've just had the worst headache this afternoon. It's probably just stress; and it's probably go away after I get some sleep."

"If your sure . . . " Vincent stared at her.

"Yes I'm sure." She smiled back. "But thank you for your concern."

"You should have said something. One of the others could have searched while you rested."

"But I don't want to be a bother to anyone."

"You never are." There was an awkward pause, then Vincent turned around, swiftly entering his own room.

"Err, excuse me" Renmaru interrupted her reverie at that point. "But, Ms. Tifa, do you want me to make you some tea? I know some herbal blends that might help."

"That's very kind of you. And what's with this Ms. Tifa thing?" He shrugged and blushed a little. "It seemed appropriate."

"Well we're friends now. Just call me Tifa, Ms. Tifa sounds so . . . schoolmarmish."

"Okay, Ms- I mean Tifa. Just Tifa." She laughed at that.