Cid Highwind spat the cigarette butt out of his mouth and reached into his pocket for another one. Vincent Valentine leaned against the wall, arms crossed, eyes closed. Cait Sith was moving from one pile of rubble to the next, inspecting the pieces of what had been Midgar. Kinto was out in the field searching for more food.
Cid lit the cancer stick perched on the corner of his mouth: "Where are they!"
"Patience," Vincent said mildly, opening one eye to look at his comrade. "If they said they were coming, then they're coming."
"Could they come any slower!" the blond pilot argued.
"I don't like being here; this place gives me a bad feeling..." Cait Sith meowed from his exploration post.
"Every place gives you a bad feeling," Cid snapped, inhaling the smoke quickly.
"Yoo-hoo! Boys!" Yuffie Kisaragi bounded into the darkened building and smiled brightly at them. Red XIII came tearing in next, skidded to a stop, and panted heavily.
"We got here as fast as we could..." he gulped, his tongue lolling out of his mouth. Barret Wallace stumbled in last, his chest heaving and sweat pouring down his face and neck.
"Any faster an' I would've killed myself!" he gasped, wiping his large hand across his brow.
"We had to stop–Barret collapsed on the way here," Red climbed atop a pile of crumbling rocks and sat down.
"It took us about half an hour to convince him to drink an elixir!" Yuffie shook her head.
"So, your clone was defeated as well?" Vincent glanced over at Barret.
"Yeah," he grunted.
"So now that everyone's here, let's get moving!" Cid bellowed, throwing his half-finished cigarette to the ground and smashing it with the heel of his boot. Cait Sith meowed happily and dug in a pile of debris as the others gathered in a circle.
"Look what we picked up in Wutai," Barret said, pulling out the items they had found. Vincent quickly took the materia before Yuffie could and inspected it. She jumped up and down, waving her arms frantically as she tried to reach the glass sphere.
"Kind of strange..."
"Ngh! Gimmie!"
"I've never seen anything like this..."
"C'mon, Vince! Give it t'me!"
"Barret, do you think this really is a materia?"
"Vincent!"
"I dunno," Barret replied, taking it back and putting it in his pocket. Yuffie huffed and stomped over to where Cait Sith was fiddling with something beneath the rocks and dirt.
"Maybe we should hang onto it until we get Cloud back," Cid suggested.
"And what do you think we should do with these?" Nanaki motioned to the two pairs of gloves and the other sphere on the ground. Vincent picked up the Prism Gauntlets.
"This looks like something Tifa would use."
"Those look more like thieving gloves," Cid said, indicating the claws and ball.
Yuffie looked up. "What?"
Cait Sith suddenly opened the box he had found: "Aha! Here, Cid! Catch!"

He tossed Cid a red-handled lance. It looked exactly like his Venus Gospel, except it had another blade at the second end.
"Where'd you get this?" Cid blinked, studying the weapon.
"Right here," the cat walked over to them, followed by Yuffie. "It's called the Devil's Pitchfork. Like it?"
"Couldn't be happier," the older man replied, strapping it to his back.
"And what are these?" Yuffie picked up the black gloves and the golden orb.
"Those were the Telekinetic Gloves, remember?" Barret said.
"Oh yeah," Yuffie replied, placing her shurinkan on the ground and slipping the gloves onto her small hands. She clenched them, and all of a sudden, three golden claws appeared on each set of knuckles. The golden ball glowed, levitated up to her hands and hoovered, as if waiting for a command.
"Looks like they're yours, Yuffie," Red concluded.
"Cool!" she squealed, unclenching her fists and tucking the gold ball into her shoulder armor.
"Okay, so what's the plan?" Cid asked.
"I'll take two others with me," Vincent suggested. "We'll get to the City of Ancients on Kinto. The rest of you follow in the Highwind."
"So, who's going on the suicide mission–I mean..." Yuffie covered her mouth with her hand.
"For that, I'll take you," Vincent replied.
"Dang it," she pouted.
"I'll come too," Nanaki jumped down from the rock.
"Right," Cid nodded. "We'll come in later and save your butts."
"That'll probably be the case," Yuffie rolled her eyes.
"Come on, enough talking. Let's go," Vincent commanded. The three walked outside and Vincent whistled. Kinto's head rose up from the tall grasses on their left.
"See you when we see you," Barret waved.
"If we don't get killed first," Yuffie muttered, hopping onto the chocobo's back after Vincent.
"How pessimistic can you be?" Red XIII growled, climbing on last.
"Good luck!" Cait Sith waved energetically and the gold bird took off toward the ocean.