A/N: Well, I'm back. I can practically hear you all saying 'Oh no, not again!' but I am back with an another chapter and indeed and whole load of random ramblings.

Disclaimer: Er, don't own game, er, do own this … thingy … story … um, don't sue?

MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

ahem No dedication.

The End Of It All, Hopefully - Part Two

"We're not going to budge this boulder any time soon," Lillie said, sitting down and sighing, while Victoria casted some cure spells, trying to heal the pain Holly had realised she was in after she'd woke from her mini-coma – which had lasted ten minutes. See, mini?

We'd realised that the flying boulder was the act of Nemesis up on the cliff, presumably fighting the Gullwings and what not. Martha suggested that he most likely grabbed the nearest thing and hurled it, aiming badly, but Victoria rightly pointed out that Nemesis was a) dead and composed of only pyreflies and b) the same size as an ordinary adult, with not enough physical strength to even lift a boulder.

So, in conclusion (hmmm, my history teacher would be pleased) – we have no idea how Nemesis threw the boulder, if he even did, which is probable (okay, maybe not).

"This is bad," Martha mumbled, looking up at the distant cliff.

"What is?" Asked Lillie, peering up at the cliff, trying to spot what Martha was looking at.

Martha shook her head. "We've been hear to long – I know this is serious but we really need to try and find this-this … place!"

"Oh, no, don't worry about me then," Holly said, sarcastically. Evidently Victoria was doing a good job on the healing front.

"Maybe …" Victoria said, creases appearing in her forehead as she thought, "If I stay here with Holly, you three could go find this place and then … well, you know."

'Us three', that is Lillie, Martha and I, looked at each other, eyebrows raised.

"Should we?" I asked.

Martha nodded, "It's our best choice! Er, no offence Holly," She added as an after-thought. We agreed on it and set off, leaving Holly and Victoria by the boulder (or under the boulder, in one case).

:Ten Minutes Later:

"Essence my ass," Martha said angrily, plonking herself down on the nearest rock. "I give up. Seriously! There is no way we're going to find this place. I don't care what that Farra-dude said – how the hell does he expect us to 'follow our essence', when we don't even know WHAT IT IS! And what Hedges said, about acting upon instinct? My instinct is saying I have no freaking idea where it is!"

Lillie sighed heavily. "My guess is we've been walking and searching for two hours. Two hours! Yuna ... Rikku ... they probably aren't even fighting anymore. They probably aren't even alive anymore."

"Why did them damn pyreflies have to disperse!" Martha practically screamed.

"I've been thinking ..." I said. Martha and Lillie looked at me expectantly. "Just the word, essence, it kind of gives you the impression it's in the same category as 'soul' and 'spirit', all that stuff, doesn't it?"

"And ...?" Martha raised her eyebrow.

"Well, the New Age type people that are around today ... they believe in stuff like out of body experiences and discovering past lives, don't they?"

"Most," Lillie answered.

"Out of body experiences ... discovering past lives ... speaking to the dead ... it's all a matter of getting in touch with our spirits and souls," I said thoughtfully. "And our 'essence' ... like I said before, the word gives us the impression it is similar to our souls and spirits."

"...So, if people can get in touch with their souls etc., we could get in touch with our essence in a similar way?" Lillie concluded, finally seeing where I was going.

"Exactly."

Martha rubbed her chin, frowning. Eventually she said, "Meditation. That's what they all seem to use. Would it work?"

"No harm in finding out."

:Five Minutes After That:

All three of us, sitting in a circle, sunk deeper and deeper into a state of meditation. Our heads were cleared of everything, except for the faintest hint of a quest. To find our essence.

Meditation isn't a state of mind that let's you keep track of the time. How long did we sit there, meditating? Who knows. We never will know, but it's not exactly important. While we were sitting there, we weren't bothered about keeping track of time. We were bothered about finding our essence. And, as luck may have it, we eventually did.

How to explain someone's essence ... It's hard, really. It's not something you can physically see, yet you don't feel anything either. In the term of the five senses, you have no idea what your essence is, or when it's there. But ... you just know. It's one of those things.

The easiest way to explain it, in ordinary terms, is by saying that it's a Question And Answer thing. Similar to instinct really, but this actually gave you the real answers, not just what you felt that you should do. And, needless to say, the question on all our minds was Where is this place we have to find?

And it showed us. It was if ... a giant TV screen suddenly appeared in our heads. The picture was of us three, sitting there, in our meditating state. Then whoosh, it flew off in a certain direction, zigzagging across the Farplane, showing us our trial. Across a field of flowers at least 5ft tall. Over a peaceful stream. Past a group of boulders that looked like a Modern Art statue. Through a forest. Over another river, this time more rapid and vicious than the first. Across another field, this time with only golden grass. Into another forest. Past a clearing with a waterfall. Out the forest and into an open plain. Across the open plain to a ... cliff. More sheer and smooth than the one earlier. No way of getting down it, except for jumping.

At the time, we never found out whether we were expected to jump. Because, suddenly, we were all jerked out of our meditation state. By Martha sneezing.

"What was that for!" Lillie yelled, jumping up.

"Sorry!" Martha said, holding her hands up. "I didn't even realise I needed to sneeze! I'm sorry!"

"We'll just have to find our essence again," Lillie growled.

I shook my head. "No. We're not wasting any more time. If what Lillie said earlier about us travelling without Hedges And Holly took two hours, that means we've been in the Farplane for six hours! And we don't know how long we meditated for! We're going to follow the track until we find that cliff. Then we'll decide what to do."

They nodded, and Lillie mumbled an apology to Martha.

"It's okay," Martha replied. "I think we're all worked up."

"I hope you two have a heck of a lot of energy left in you. 'Cos we've got another few hours ahead of us!" I said, getting up off the ground.

As we turned to start walking in the direction our essence had said, I heard Martha mumble something. Something along the lines of, "Over six hours here ... is there any hope the Gullwings and the rest have survived?"

Whether the question was just Martha voicing her thoughts to herself, or it was directed at me and Lillie, I don't know. But me and Lillie looked at each other, before I turned to Martha.

"There's always hope," I said. Lillie nodded. "Even when you don't have anything else, there's always hope."

A/N: I was planning on going a lot further with the story in this chapter, but I thought this was a damn good place to stop. And I figured the journey would be a nice chapter by itself. Sorry for being away for so long! R&R please.