As Odine finished his statement three oddly dressed people stepped out of the time machine looking quite confused. They had only a brief moment to take in their surroundings before Squall recovered from his shock and demanded to know who they were. Irvine went one step further and accused them of kidnapping Rinoa, Selphie and Zell.

Quistis interrupted to head off any violence. "I'm sorry, but your appearance happens to coincide with the disappearance of our friends. I don't suppose you know where they are?" The strangers shook their heads. Quistis saw the look that flickered between the girl in pink and the man with blond hair but ignored it. Irvine, unusually perceptive in this case, chose not to ignore it.

"Tell me where they are!" he demanded, pulling out his gun and pointing it at the girl in pink. The other man immediately defended her, jumping in front and reaching behind him, clearly forgetting that he wasn't wearing a weapon. Nonetheless he faced up to Irvine, a remarkable feat for a man only an inch taller than Quistis herself.

It was Squall who first noticed something odd about this man. "Your eyes… they're glowing…"

This prompted Odine into action for the first time since the visitors had arrived. "Glowing eyes? Zis remindz me ov an experiment done zousands ov years ago… let me find my notes… aha! The substance known as Mako, found only in one cave on zis planet, injected into the elite SOLDIER of the corporation Shinra, often resulted in glowing eyes. But… zere has been no Shinra for zree zousand years!"

Silence greeted this statement. Finally the girl in pink spoke up. "There has been no Shinra for three thousand years… but that must mean… Cloud, you were…" she tailed off.

"I think, Dr Odine, that you have some explaining to do," Squall said pointedly. "Not least because you were seen only three weeks ago at the SpaceStation and left with a truck. Say, one big enough to hold something the size of that time machine over there."

Odine looked as though he was about to refute this statement when Irvine glowered at him, still holding his gun. "Okay. Ve have been excavating the planet next to ours for some time. You know zat, yes? Good. Ze time machine was found, vich ve have taken as evidence that intelligent life once lived zere. Ve did indeed find human remains, several cities, and somezing that could be related to the Moomba and Shumi. Records show zat somezing vas coming, somezing serious enough for zem to move zeir race to anuzzer planet. Zat is all ve know."

"So… you were injected with this Mako stuff?" Quistis asked Cloud.

"Yeah… but Shinra's experiments stopped a few years ago. I'm the only Mako-enhanced person alive now."

"Zen you must be…" Odine scanned the paper. "Cloud Strife!"

"Yes, he is," Yuffie spoke for the first time. "But what does that have to do with how we got here, and more importantly, how we're getting back?"

"As far as I can tell, zis time machine is one built by a Lord Godo Kisaragi. The materials used to make the machine are unknown, but ve are vorking on it."

Yuffie's eyes had widened in shock. "You mean… that this is MY time machine… around three thousand years into the future?"

"You are Lord Godo?" Odine asked, surprised that the small girl could be THE Lord Godo.

"I'm his daughter, Yuffie."

"Vell then, I zink that as a direct consequence of someone playing vith time, you have come here and ze uzzers have gone zere. Your vorld, your time, your planet."

"Thank God we equipped this thing with a telephone," was all Yuffie commented as she stepped inside the machine once again and began pushing buttons. They were soon connected to the other end.