Nanaki stood near the railing, watching the whale spouting water into the air. Cloud was sprawled flat on a deck chair, still suffering from motion sickness, though he hadn't thrown up anymore after their first day on the ship. Nanaki had tried to comfort Cloud by gently licking his face, which didn't seem to help.

"Ouch, I don't have fur and those tiny hooks on your tongue hurt," Cloud said woozily, "but thanks still." Nanaki noticed his cheek did look slightly abraded in places that had been licked.

The sea darkened and Nanaki's ears flapped a bit, sensing a storm approaching. He walked over to his friend. "The wind's picking up. We'd better get into the cabin."

"Ugh, okay." Cloud grabbed his water bottle and stood up unenthusiastically. The staff was already securing the movable objects on the deck. The ship had just started to roll as they returned to the cabin. A smoking man sat at the table looked up at Cloud as they found the only empty seat. "You look pale, kid. Are you seasick?"

"Aye, sir." The smoke in the cabin didn't help with his situation. He'd heard that most people would gradually grow out of seasickness and he hoped that would be the case with him. The man stubbed out his cigarette and reached into his case to take out a white medicine box. "Take a pill, its effect will last eight hours."

"Umm... Thank you." Sensing no ill intent from the man, Cloud opened the box and took it. Feeling too nauseous to look at its description, he asked dumbly, "What was that?"

"It's herbal medicine made in Mideel. And don't ever eat anything from random strangers again, boy. It could kill you."

The ship pitched about in the storm. "I know, it's just...Mideel...that's a long way from here." Across half of the planet actually.

"My family lives in the Icicle Area. I visit them when the hospital in Mideel isn't busy."

"You work in a hospital?" Surely the man meant clinic, right?

"Yes. It's not a big one, but it's one of the best medical facilities that aren't built by Shinra. We also have our own institute and pharmaceutical factory."

"And you don't use mako?" asked Nanaki.

"The island terrain wasn't suitable for mako reactors. We have water power stations. What kind of creature are you, by the way? I heard you speaking yesterday, but I'd never known that there are animals that can talk."

"I am what you see. The one who created us didn't bother to give us a name." It's probably Cetras' fault, thought Nanaki. They came up with the craziest ideas when designing new creatures, and promptly forgot to name them upon completion.

They continued to talk and miraculously, Cloud didn't feel like he was dying from motion sickness anymore. He sat up a little straighter. "It worked. I need to buy this."

"I'm glad it worked for you but I don't have more of it. Come visit us if you'd like. Mideel has the best hot springs and a variety of goods," said the man as he gave Cloud his business card.

The next day, Cloud woke up feeling better than the mornings before. He went on deck and saw that they were sailing between mountains. On their right, white sea birds hovered over a large waterfall framed between two cliffs. Green plantations peeped up between rocks and the peaks were covered in snow.

They got off the boat at the bone village, a small village with tents and houses made of bones of giant monsters. They cooked seafood brought from the ship before continuing their hike. The Capital of the Ancients was supposed to be just beyond the forest. Unfortunately, after walking for hours, the landscape still didn't change. Cloud tied ropes to trees every now and then as markers, only to stumble upon the same markers over and over again.

They asked around in the village. "You need the Lunar Harp to wake the Sleeping Forest. It's said that once the forest awakes, a path would appear," the archaeologist answered.

"The Lunar Harp? It's probably around here somewhere under the ground. We can dig it up for you if you find it," the person sitting at the doorway replied.

Cloud searched for the Harp throughout the village. He spotted a barrel, a mop, and a summon materia under the ground before discovering the Harp. They hired an excavation team to dig up the Harp and the materia. Finally equipped with the Harp, Cloud tried playing it in the forest but could only produce discords. They waited with baited breathe as the not-music echoed around them.

"The forest is waking up," Nanaki said as the trees within the forest slowly became luminous, a path lit up by white light appeared ahead of them. They passed houses made of conch shells with beds and other furniture but had clearly been abandoned for ages. There was also a gigantic conch shell near a large lake. Cold lights shone through the trees dancing on the lake's surface. They found a spiral of staircases made of light in the shell's basement, leading them into an underground castle with medieval-style towers standing above a spring. There was an altar surrounded by crystals in the middle. The construction was so bizarre that Cloud fished out the camera they'd bought at Costa del Sol to take photos. It took him some time to properly capture the paintings carved on the walls.

"Did you hear that?" Cloud asked as they walked back onto the ground. A low and reverberating sound was coming up from somewhere within the forest.

"Rumbling sound out there, I heard that too."

They followed the sound and found an abandoned coliseum. A narrow hanging walkway led to the platform in the center, on which stood a red tree wrapping around a large blue crystal. Ancient writing looked like texture patterns were carved into the stone ground.

As soon as they touched the crystal, a cascade of water fell from above, surrounding the entire platform like a cylinder. Light projected onto the water as the crystal started to glow, flashes of images flickered on the water screen, displaying a planet they recognized as Gaia from the shapes of its continents.

The water screen split into two. One side showed that the lifestream across the globe flowed onto the surface and merged before it began to leave the planet. But once a part of it reached into the space, it began to disappear, until the entire lifestream vanished into the void. The viewpoint changed and they saw other planets also being stripped of their lifestreams, until the point that the planets started to crumble, leaving the space bleak and empty.

The other side of the screen was much brighter. They saw a large red-orange beast running in a wasteland, whom he recognized as Nanaki by the branded 'XIII' near his shoulder. His fur looked thicker and longer, and there were two cubs following him. The cubs were pretty small, their tail tips weren't flaming yet. That Nanaki had a scar over his right eye, which Nanaki didn't have at the moment. The beasts jumped onto a cliff, overlooking a circular structure far below covered in dense vegetation.

Both sides of the images dissipated before a brown-haired girl wearing a dress appeared. They could only see her face below her nose on the screen, and she was holding a white materia in her hand.

The flow of water stopped as soon as the glow in the crystal dimmed. "Hoo boy." Cloud shook his head and took a deep breath. "Big you look so cool! And you're gonna have kittens!"

"We're not cats," said Nanaki as he couldn't decide whether to be happy or worried. "I fear it's warning us about the possible futures of the planet."

"You're probably right... I have a feeling we need to find that girl. I've never seen a white materia before. Maybe she's the Ancient who created it."

"Maybe. Help me take pictures of the writing, Cloud. I'd like to study them with grandfather."

"Sure."

They went back to the coliseum the next day, but the waterfall didn't reappear, so they continued their journey, passing by an abandoned town in the Modeo ravine. They climbed on a hill and arrived at the Icicle Inn, the northmost human settlement.

Scouting around the outskirt of town, a tuft of yellow feathers behind the fir trees caught Cloud's eyes. "A Chocobo!" He rushed towards it, only to be stopped by a large rabbit-like monster that used a carrot as its weapon. Cloud dodged an attack and Nanaki shot it with a fire spell. The monster melted into water and fell to the ground in a splash, freezing the carrot it left behind.

"It was made of snow," Nanaki said dazedly. Could they build a snowman and make it as lively as this monster?

When he looked up again, Cloud was already a hundred yards away chasing after the Chocobo that had run up a bare slope during their fight. Nanaki tried to catch up with his buddy, but the harsh wind and whirling snowflakes threatened to put out the fire on his tail.

"C-C-Cloud, st-top," Nanaki called out as his teeth chattered, "my fire's going out."

Cloud's face was reddened from the cold as he turned around. "Fine, I will catch that sneaky Chocobo next time."

Icicles hung from the eaves and houses were covered with thick snow. They found a seamstress and commissioned her to make Nanaki a down coat.

"I'm not mako enhanced like you." Nanaki sneezed, still waiting for the coat to be made. "I'll be okay in this weather when I grow bigger."

"We've picked the wrong season to come here." They had planned to leave for the Eastern continent before catching sight of Hojo at the beach, which resulted in a change of schedule.

Night descended early as they entered an inn that served dinner. A name spoken by a customer on another side of the room drew Cloud's attention.

"...The Strife boy died in Wutai."

"How did you know that?"

"I joined his fan club."

"Didn't know you were a fanboy."

"No, we used to play together as kids before he left for Midgar to join up Soldier." The man paused. "His mother must have been devastated, losing her only son."

"She still in town?"

"She's in Midgar, moved there when his son made First Class..."

Cloud didn't know what to feel, Strife wasn't a common name, and a Soldier Strife was certainly his biological father, who according to the customer had just died in Wutai and left Cloud's grandmother in Midgar? He hadn't known that the Strifes came from Icicle Inn, or that he had relatives in Midgar other than Sephiroth.

"Someone you know of?" Nanaki asked.

Cloud shook his head. "No, just some Soldier I'd heard about in the labs."

A few weeks later, they took the boat from the Northern continent to the Eastern continent, disembarking at Kalm, a small quiet town comprised of brand new timber-framed buildings and a water wall at its center.

"Something doesn't feel quite right. The people here barely know each other," said Cloud as he watched the town square from the window. Coal miners were moving into the town on trucks with their families.

"Agreed, the whole town looks like it had just been built yesterday."

"I wonder what happened here? This was supposed to be an old town..."

They couldn't uncover the secret in Kalm and a few days later, they were on the road across the wasteland, heading towards Midgar.

"...With this ring, I ask you to be mine." Kyrie watched Kadaj as the boy produced an antique silver ring and slid it onto her finger. Like Kyrie's parents, Kadaj's mother didn't have a job in the slums. He had stolen the ring from a topsider. The boy always dyed his hair orange, which probably took a lot of work.

"Nice ring," said Yazoo who stood on the podium with an open book in his hands. Kyrie sent him a glare for interrupting the perfect romantic moment.

Yazoo cleared his throat. "By the power vested in me. I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may-"

"Shh! the freak's approaching! Let's leave before she accuses us of treading on her flowers," Loz exclaimed as he ran into the old church, ending their pretend wedding ceremony abruptly.

"The creep who talks to the air?" asked Yazoo as he closed the book and began walking towards the door at the back of the church.

"Yup, who else grows flowers in Midgar?" replied Loz as he put an arm around Kadaj's shoulders and started dragging him towards the door.

"I like her flowers though," Kyrie said as they walked out of the church. She used to be friends with Aerith, until one day, the girl suddenly yelled at her to hurry home, just because she had accidentally stepped on her flowers. The worst part was that Kyrie went home just in time to see her parents' dead bodies being carried in. She hadn't talked to Aerith ever since.

She peeked through the slit of the door and saw the brunette walk in, strolling up the aisle and kneeling to tend to the flowers. Kyrie gave her former playmate one last glance before running forward to join her partners in crime.

AN: Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment or leave criticism!