It had been a full day since Ragnar had his encounter with Reeve.

After finishing there, Ragnar was in for a very long ride as Cloud took them out of the city and across country. Eventually, they reached a new road going along southwest, away from Midgar and along the coastline. This was a fairly recent addition, but it made it much easier to get to Junon by land. Toward late afternoon they arrived, and they got on the first boat they could that they found was headed to North Corel. It wasn't a straight shot. The closest that a boat could take them was north of Costa Del Sol, past the old mako reactor and to a service road that could bring them there. It was going to be a voyage that would take all night, so Cloud and Ragnar slept while Cait Sith recharged his batteries through a wall outlet.

They arrived early the next morning, and once again they saddled up on Fenrir, which had been ferried across, and road out from the port they landed at and toward Corel. They were in a more rough and mountainous area here. There were signs of a lot of old mining equipment and tunnels. Cait Sith explained to him that the place used to be one of the largest coal producing areas on the planet. In the wake of the mako reactor, the town went under quickly. That didn't last long though. Once Shinra fell, mako reactors crashed as well. That was when a new invention began to gain promise that had been shoved aside under the era of mako energy (for being too expensive or competing): an engine that ran on purified oil. It just so happened that the Corel area was rather rich in the crude substance as well, and soon the place was busting again with activity.

As they drew closer, Ragnar began to see a rapidly developing neighborhood grow up around him. The roads became paved, newer stores began to spring up, and many two story houses were arranged in new subdivisions. Even more were being built. Currently, this place was getting to be one of the richest areas on the Planet. But mining oil was still a dirty business, and the people who lived there had lived in garbage and waste for too long to be too rushed about their work. The homes themselves were built in a more secluded, faraway area. The oil fields themselves were miles away, and it was to these that Ragnar was taken.

The place smelled rather foul. After passing into another rock valley, things grew dirty and black around them. The air was filled with smoke, much of their surroundings were stained black, and grime and oil were everywhere. Trains constantly rolled in on the rail system that surrounded this place, loaded up, and then ran out again. There were at least a dozen large oil well towers, pumping out of the ground the precious black substance. However, the main place of interest was the large refinery. Cloud rolled them to this. Ragnar got his best glimpse of what Midgar had once looked like. As Fenrir passed under the entrance and began to literally drive underneath it, he saw all sorts of metalworkings, girders, pipes, and industrial lights. Around this point…Cloud had to get Ragnar to snap out of it. He had been staring at one and looking nervous. It reminded him of the New Shinra HQ Dome.

Despite all he was seeing, Ragnar couldn't focus that well on his external environment, not even the refinery. That was because all of yesterday, last night, and today…he had been listening to Cloud's story. Cloud had been right…it was amazing…and probably held more pain and agony for him than Ragnar's own life had for himself. Every hour that passed, Ragnar began to look at Cloud with a little more awe, realizing that his own thin, hard body had passed through some other great challenge. And the misery and anguish that Cloud had endured…it was beyond belief. Ragnar, in the end, only ever really suffered in the physical sense. Cloud had lost his mind, and then nearly lost his soul.

Ragnar began to secretly realize some things as he listened to the tale. First of all…he realized who those strange people had been in Icicle Inn three years ago. They were the people he was interacting with right now. He had gone right by them, and hadn't even noticed. But now that Cloud said it…he began to remember the face of Tifa and Cloud from their midst…and even Cait Sith stuck out in his memory, odd as he was. He also found out why General Leers and his group came north. They were supposed to go into the Great Northern Crater after a man named Sephiroth…the source of Cloud's nightmares and anguish.

Lastly…and most importantly…he found out who the lady in the lake was.

Apparently, it wasn't Cloud and his band that managed to save the world threee years ago from their fighting. It was her in the end. She was murdered by Sephiroth…one of the man's many sins for which he felt no remorse or pity…but not before she had managed to pray for Holy to come and destroy the Meteor. It was her, acting within the Lifestream, that had called the Planet out to save itself from annihilation in the end. What more, last year, when there was some sort of disease called Geostigma afflicting people all over the world, it was her that sent a rain that healed whoever was touched by it. She had been the true last Cetra, the last of their race that had survived longer than the book indicated.

Knowing this, and hearing many details from Cloud's story, Ragnar began to wonder if the one the runes called Gen Avo Ach was actually one and the same with Jenova, the alien creature that had been the source of all of this misery. There were some similarities…and a mispronunciation of the Cetra word could have led to the current pronunciation of Jenova. Last but not least…that thing had the same desire to kill the Cetra as the original Gen Avo Ach had.

There was one other thing he wondered, though. When he arrived in the City of the Ancients, a voice had commanded him to keep reading until he understood the runes. Now that he thought about it more clearly…he thought that it had been female. Could he have…?

Ragnar snapped out of his thoughts as the motorcycle ground to a halt. Shaking his head a bit, the youth turned and looked to Cloud. The ex-mercenary turned the ignition off, and immediately dismounted. Ragnar looked up a bit, and saw that they were still in the refinery. A few workers were running around outside, but the true item of interest was a small metal frame staircase just across from him, leading up into some sort of simple office. It was illuminated through the closed blinds, but Ragnar could see little other than an occasional shadow moving by.

Ragnar moved to get off, only to have Cloud put his hand on his shoulder and shake his head. "Go on and wait here. We won't have any trouble getting this guy on our side. He's hated Shinra longer than either of us."

The youth eased back after a moment, but raised his eyebrow. "What'd they do to him?"

"Only drove him out of business, wrecked his town, bankrupted the citizens, burnt his house, killed his wife and best friend, and took his right hand."

Ragnar grimaced a bit after that. "I think I'm starting to remember this guy from your stories… I don't think he's going to fit on the bike too."

Cloud merely cracked a small smile. But then, he turned away from the bike and walked to the metal staircase. A moment later he had ascended it, and gave a knock on the door. Ragnar heard some sort of muffle from the other side, and Cloud opened it and entered. He shut it behind soon after.

Ragnar slowly exhaled, and began to wait. He looked around a bit at the passing people, who in turn looked back at the motorcycle and the massive stuffed animal astride his back. Time slowly passed. Ragnar kept an eye on it via the clock posted outside the office. After about ten minutes, he began to get a little bored. He turned his head behind him at last to the strange creature.

"How you doing back there?"

"Oh, now you talk to me." Cait Sith complained in response. "I've been back here for hours, and all you've been doing is listening to Cloud's story. You didn't even stop him when I was poking you to try and explain myself for what I did at the Gold Saucer."

"Well, I can see why he's a bit nervous about you. Technically, you were built to be a Shinra spy. I'm a bit regretful about bringing you along…"

"Aw, come on!" Cait Sith whined in response. "I'm with you guys now! I work for Reeve, not New Shinra! Besides…you think AVALANCHE didn't kill its share of innocent people when they blew Mako Reactor No. 1?"

Ragnar hesitated at that. For being a stuffed robot, the cat had a point. Still, that hadn't been the intention in the end, unlike when Shinra destroyed Sector Seven with the upper plate, killing the people above it and below it. And AVALANCHE never had crazies like Hojo…

"Man, if you distrust me for giving the Sphere to Shinra, you should distrust Cloud a little more for giving the Black Materia to Sephiroth."

"Well, Shinra is still around. Sephiroth is gone."

To that, he merely heard the cat give a whistle. Unseen by him, the toy shook his head. "Heh…that's what we thought a year ago…"

Ragnar paused himself after that. But then, he gave a shrug. "Well…Cloud killed Kadaj. The rest of those 'Sephiroth larva' were dead. So isn't he gone?"

"Kid…" Cait Sith slowly responded, his voice a bit lower and darker. "…We never even found out how those three came to life."

The youth felt his back run a bit cold at how Cait Sith said that. He swallowed slightly, and turned his head back in front of him. That was something he'd rather not talk about at the moment. He had a feeling that Cait Sith really didn't want to either…

It didn't matter, because they would have stopped talking a moment later. That was because a large crash came almost right from over them as what looked like a rolling chair tore through the blinds and glass of one of the windows, and fell down right in front of them. Both Ragnar and Cait Sith leapt back a bit in surprise, Ragnar in the seat, and Cait Sith cowering behind his moogle, and looked up in surprise. The other workers froze and turned as well. Even over the sounds of machinery and steam that filled the plant, a steady stream of obscenities, curses, and goodness knew what else that obviously came from a very large, very angry man began to pour out from the now open window. The youth was stunned as he looked up to it. He tried to make something out of the endless curses, but he only managed to catch what sounded like, "Spiky-Ass" a few times…

Moments later, the door to the office opened, and Cloud calmly walked out and shut it behind him. As he did, the curses continued to come out endlessly, and if anything grew in volume. The ex-mercenary exhaled and began to walk down the stairs. Ragnar looked to him a bit uneasily.

"So…I take it he didn't want to volunteer?"

"Oh no. He agreed to that the second I told him, 'Shinra's back'." Cloud answered as he continued to make his way down. He next gestured to the chair. "That's because I told him Marlene is coming along."

Ragnar remembered. Marlene was supposed to actually be the man's daughter, not Cloud's. She had only been living with Cloud and Tifa because Tifa was a family friend, and because he didn't want her living in a polluted, rough town like Corel. Marlene had spent most of her life in Midgar already. Another thing that may have had to do with it was the fact that he thought she might have needed a major female figure in her life. However…what may have been the biggest part is that Marlene wanted to be close to where "the flower girl" had lived, which was the infamous church with flowers that Cloud mentioned several times. Ragnar was beginning to regret he hadn't stopped to see it himself, half-destroyed as it was now…

Cloud reached Ragnar's side and turned to the door to the office. Moments later, a man nearly broke the door down as he stepped out. He was larger than the story's suggested. His work pants, shirt, and vest barely covered his hulking body. Considering his size and muscles, he looked like he could have eaten a guy like Cloud for breakfast. It didn't help that he had a rather heavy and dangerous looking minigun for a hand. His hair was cut short, but a thick beard and mustache were across his face. He glared down on Cloud with near murderous intent. The gun, however, told Ragnar who he was without confusion. It was Barret.

Although…after looking at him a moment…a confused Ragnar couldn't help but lean over to Cloud and whisper to him. "Um…he's black."

"I'm aware of that." Cloud flatly answered. "Adopted daughter."

Ragnar hesitated a moment, and then gave a nod in understanding as he leaned back on top of the motorcycle.

"How stupid can ya' be, wantin' to take Marlene along!" Barret screamed at him, the first intelligible thing he had said since he began yelling.

Cloud merely shrugged. "Well, you're already coming along, so she can't stay with you. I tried telling Tifa to stay behind, so maybe you should yell at her. This isn't easy on me either, because Denzel will be going. Last time I tried to keep them away they came the first chance they got. And now they're a year older and even more precocial."

"Did ya' ever think of Elmyra!" The man blasted back.

Cloud sighed. "She moved away two years ago, and I'd be dumping them on her for I don't know how long. She doesn't have any income to support them since she retired. Besides, it's already on file that Shinra knows you have a daughter. Don't you think they'd be going after her once they realized you were a part of this organization?"

Barret fumed, and pounded his one remaining fist against the wall. He turned to the side and began to mutter some sort of obscenities once again. Cloud calmly stood and waited. It seemed this wasn't the first time this sort of exchange had happened between the two. Cloud usually won out, unknown to Ragnar, and that only made Barret more upset at him with time. In the end, the man turned back and grunted like an ox. He looked down over the two of them, and he turned his angry glare to Ragnar instead. The young man paled and recoiled a bit.

"So you're that Ragnar guy, eh?" Barret called out to him, and then snorted and shook his head. "You look jus' like Spiky Ass when I met him in that damn sweater. Alright, Scrawny Ass…I'm in. Give me a couple hours to get a few things together." With that, he turned and marched back into his office, slamming his door behind him. This time, the hinges did break, and he collapsed partially to set at an angle against the frame.

The young man blinked once to recover from that event. But then, he frowned and turned to Cloud. "That's not his new nickname for me, is it?"

Cloud shrugged again. "Well…you didn't like the name, 'kid'."


Despite the rather rough greeting, Ragnar was soon glad to have Barret along. He further expanded Ragnar's call for volunteers to the Western Continent. He was all too willing to contribute whatever tools, gas, and machines that he could afford, but more importantly he put him in contact with residents of Corel.None of themhad ever liked Shinra, especially after what they did to their town. Barret said he'd have another hundred recruits by tomorrow. For now, however, they left him to do whatever he could, and continued on down from Corel on their road trip.

It took most of the rest of the day to get to the next spot. The area only became more hilly and rough as they wound their way onward, eventually losing most vegetation and becoming dry and rocky. Fenrir was tough enough to handle it, but at more than a few skids Ragnar wished he had been wearing leathers or a helmet. After driving on for a few hours, the sun was starting to set, bathing the valley in a bright red glow. It made it look nice, in Ragnar's opinion. Very rustic and natural, and the red light reflected in just the right way as the sun lowered. However, he eventually got distracted as they neared their next location.

It was some sort of settlement built into a sharp angle in the rock valley. It looked very naturalistic. There weren't any electronics or special lights around, and all of the dwellings seemed to be made in the caves. The only power source was a few windmills. As they drew nearer, they eventually began to see that wood ladders connected everything to each other, and all of the designs around it were painted in a sort of native, ancient style. It essentially looked like some sort of throwback to an earlier age, when nomadic tribes lived in this part of the near-desert valley. Ragnar admired it. It was beautiful to him, just like the City of the Ancients. And as he drew nearer and began to hear the native drums and wind instruments playing, it made him feel peaceful and relaxed. As they drew to a halt at the front gate, and everyone dismounted, Ragnar looked up to the top, and saw the one piece of true machinery there…a giant observatory on top of the rock face, peering up into the darkening heavens. But he mostly saw an archway made of wood posts and a cloth stretched from pole to pole, reading the two word name of this place.

Cosmo Canyon.

A bit later, and Ragnar found himself following Cloud through the many twisting caves that made up the rock canyon wall, leading them toward the top of the archeological site. They had to climb ladders at many points, but luckily the trailing Cait Sith could climb. There were several people in Cosmo Canyon, but most of them were either archeologists themselves or people who were just enjoying living in nature, in this more basic lifestyle. Ragnar remembered from Cloud that Cosmo Canyon was filled with people who had a great affection for Gaia and the environment, but that most of them were far too pacifistic to consider as recruits. However, there was a rather powerful and wise person here that he wanted to enlist the help of.

The three finally reached the top of the cliff. Once there, they found themselves face to face with the observatory. It was indeed large, but also technologically advanced. This place was made mostly of metal, although it did have a bit of wood to give it a more homey look. There were several devices built around the main telescope, which towered over all. They looked like they were recording the weather. It was three stories tall, and rather impressive. Ragnar hesitated to take it in for a moment, marveling at the place. But in the end, Cloud pulled him away and led him to the front door.

Once there, the ex-mercenary stopped them again and knocked on it.

"Who's there?" A deep, somewhat old-sounding voice called.

"It's Cloud. I brought the kid."

Ragnar turned to him. "Did you tell everyone I was a kid? I'm twenty!"

"Come in." The voice from within answered.

Cloud reached down and opened the door soon after. He went inside, and a frowning Ragnar followed him in, trailed by Cait Sith on his giant moogle.

Inside certainly didn't look like a research facility. It looked like a basic home. It had a few more cables, valves, and pipes than a regular house, but just ahead was a table, sink, stove, and refrigerator. There was also a ladder for going up to the next level, and a sealed door to the right. The main area was at the end of a short hallway from the entrance. The three began to walk down it, and toward the main, dimly-lit room.

Not far along, Ragnar froze and stared ahead. There was one resident in the front room, it seemed. It was sitting in front of the table and looking at them through its one good green eye, for the other was scarred. It was some sort of monstrous creature that looked like a cross between a lion and a wolf. It had orange fur that was sleek like a desert animal's. Its had a slight mane, but it looked more like hair on the creature than an actual mane. Its tail had a tuft of bright red fur on the end of it…and if Ragnar didn't know any better, from the way it was moving, he'd say it was a small fire. It was laced with muscle, and looked to be a rather powerful and deadly animal indeed. Most of all…it focused its one remaining eye off of the others after a moment, and solely on him.

The youth swallowed a bit as he stopped. Seeing the predatory look of the creature, he didn't dare move any closer. However, as he stood there, he looked up to its head. He saw that there were feathers coming out from behind it, like a headdress. And he could see one metal feather tied in with it, used for slashing. He also saw that one of his limbs had a black tattoo on it…showing the number 13. Seeing that, Ragnar knew who he had to be. He turned slightly to Cloud, who had stopped moving with him and looked back to him, and then pointed ahead.

"This is…Red XIII?"

The man gave a nod.

Ragnar turned back to the creature, which had never looked away. He remembered Cloud talking about a half-wolf, half-liger creature that he had experienced on his journey, but he looked far more fearsome and feral in real life. Still, he tried to be as courageous as possible. Drawing himself up, and making sure not to make eye contact, he slowly began to creep forward toward the sitting beast. It didn't move. It continued to stare at him as he slowly and surely made his way to it. It never bared its fangs either. It just raised its head to keep following him with his eyes. After a few moments, Ragnar finally was standing right next to it.

Realizing it was an animal, he extended the back of his hand for it to smell. He made sure not to look directly in its eyes and smiled nervously. "Hey boy."

The creature looked up to Ragnar's face, down to his hand, and then back up to him again. Then, he rolled his eyes, sighed, and turned to Cloud. "You didn't tell him I could talk, did you?"

Ragnar snapped back immediately in surprise. Cloud smiled and snickered a bit. The young man turned to him and frowned. Apparently, he had been planning this. However, Cait Sith was much less subtle. He grasped his middle, rolled back off of his moogle, and laughed out loud. He was soon rolling as he fell to the floor and continued to let it peel. The young man kept his frown, and realized he looked like an idiot. As for Red XIII, he gave a sigh as he looked back to him.

"And as for your little attempt to 'make friends', boy, I wouldn't advise doing that to any more wild animals. And if I was going to attack you, your throat would have been ripped out the moment you crossed my threshold." For a beast, the creature spoke quite calmly and slowly, and in a sophisticated and controlled manner, like one who was governed by intelligence. "And I prefer the name Nanaki. Only my friends call me Red XIII, boy."

This had done it. Ragnar groaned and rolled his eyes before fuming. "Why does everyone keep calling me a kid! I'm twenty! Twenty!" He turned back to Red XIII after that. "Now even you're calling me a kid! You're not even that old! What are you? Five? Six?"

"Fifty-one." Red XIII calmly answered, causing Ragnar's face to fault and cutting off his diatribe. After that, he turned to Cloud again. "He's rather excitable, isn't he?"

"He can be." Cloud calmly answered.

Cait Sith continued to roll on the ground.

Ragnar himself frowned one last time before smoothing himself out. He drew himself up again and looked back to the creature seated on the ground. He crossed his arms. "So…are you with us?"

"Well, I think I have to be." Red XIII calmly answered. "It's obvious that you need someone with intelligence in your force."

The youth intensified his frown. "Was that supposed to mean something?"

"Only to one who expects it to." Red XIII answered. "However, I'll have to warn you. Cosmo Canyon can offer very little else in support other than some historical records. No one else in here is a warrior. The last time Cosmo Canyon was even in an armed conflict was over forty years ago. I'll go ahead and post a call for volunteers, but there is no money or soldiers here."

"It's still appreciated, and right now I'm looking to get anything I can." Ragnar answered. "I don't suppose there's any other…warriors like you around here?"

"Well, one can only hope, because otherwise I'm the last of my race." Red XIII calmly answered. "But for now, I'm all there is."

Ragnar sighed. "In the case…I don't suppose you own a car, because I don't think all four of us can squeeze onto Fenrir."

Red XIII's eye narrowed and looked at the youth tiredly.

"Young man…what would I do with a car?"

Ragnar put his hand to his forehead and groaned again, while Cait Sith, having just recovered from the first bit, now began to roll again at the latest one.


As it turned out, having more room was unnecessary. After spending the night in Cosmo Canyon, Ragnar learned the next day that Red XIII was quite capable of keeping up with Fenrir using his own four legs. It was a rather interesting sight, seeing such a magnificent predator keeping alongside a motorcycle as it went through the rest of the canyon. They did have to stop more often now, but it wasn't too bad. And they really only had to go a little bit further the next day. After that, they stopped by Symbal Ferry, a road people could take to avoid going through Nibelheim and straight to Rocket Town. Ragnar could hardly blame Cloud for wanting this. In order to cover up a massacre committed by Sephiroth, the town was rebuilt and reseeded with Shinra employees looking for a place to live. Although it would be interesting to see if the people there had abandoned it, that town had ceased to mean anything to Cloud or Tifa years ago. They had to rebuild what was left of their lives away from it.

The ferry ride didn't take too long, luckily. Just a few hours. From a distance, Ragnar was able to see their next destination as they worked their way up the coastline. Unlike many of the other places they had gone thus far, this hadn't been built up. The houses were all still small and basic, and it appeared to be a rather small residential area without much of interest. However, just outside the town was a much larger site. The rocket that gave the town its name was gone by now, but something new had been built in its place. A large, flat, concrete paved field had been zoned out, and it boasted several large, curved top buildings outside. Ragnar had never seen a hanger before, but that's essentially what it was. The field itself had a rather large ship on it, one that Ragnar marveled at in awe. It looked to be the size of a regular ship below, but on top of it was a giant foil with rocket engines on the side. It was gigantic, and gleamed beautiful and streamlined in the morning sun.

Ragnar turned and pointed to it. "So that's the Sierra, huh?"

Cloud gave a nod from his own place on the ferry deck.

The youth turned back to it and marveled. "It's amazing… All of those transport Gelinkas the New Shinra uses are so cumbersome and clumsy… That's beautiful."

"Make sure to tell him that when you meet him." Cloud answered. "Maybe that will make him a bit more inclined to let you use it, because we sure had a hell of a time trying to get him to use it last time."


"What was that?"

"Can we step into your office where there's not so much noise!"

Ragnar winced as Cloud screamed at the top of his lungs, plugging his ears as he did so. Red XIII had no such luck, unable to cover his own ears and their sharper hearing. He just bared his teeth and dealt with it. The four had made it to Rocket Town now. After working their way through it, they made it to the new airfield and the hangers contained there. The man they were looking for was in the first hanger, along with about twenty workers and the skeleton of a new airship that looked a lot like the Shera. At the moment, it was begin assembled, and was mostly in pieces, with everyone working on it, either welding or tightening or checking or whatever. Most of all, one of the engines was being tested, and like a typical jet engine filled the hanger with deafening noise. Even Cait Sith stuck his head in the mouth of his own moogle to avoid it.

It even seemed to annoy the man they were looking for…but according to Cloud, the man was perpetually pissed off anyway. They were standing across from him now. He was still young at this point, and a bit unshaven and rough looking. His hair was blond and tied back by a pair of flight goggles. He wore a simple green shirt and loose pants with work boots, and all of them were stained and ripped through having been worked with excessively. He had a looser jacket tied around his waist, and his teeth were clenched around half of a cigarette. For the past minute, they had been trying to talk to him over the sound of the engine. Cloud had just finished yelling this last part after leaning over and into his ear. After leaning back, the man nodded.

"Yeah, sure! But why the hell didn't you say that before?"

"I did say that before!"

"What?"

"Let's just get out of here!"

The man snorted, turned, and began to lead them away from the engine. The others followed in close behind. Even distancing himself a bit from the engine made all the difference to Ragnar. The roar was horrible. He wondered if he was going deaf at all from having been so near it. They continued to walk through the hanger, wading their way through piles of junk, tools, and metal, and passing by walls filled with blueprints and designs, and all the way to the back of the hanger. There was another office with glass windows back there, looking a lot like Barret's had. However, this one was on the ground floor, and was filled with dozens of models for various components, aerodynamic shapes, and some full planes. It too was overstuffed with blueprints, to the point of making it a rather unlivable mess. All this Ragnar could see easily through the windows, for none of them had any blinds. From what he heard about this guy, he wasn't the kind of person to let anyone do a job without him watching it. Once he was at the door, he opened it up and stepped inside, letting the others follow. While Ragnar moved in, he looked to the front of the door at a sign that had been nailed to it.

Rocket Town Aerodynamics. President: Captain Cid Highwind.

Once Cait Sith passed through the door, his moogle immediately shut it. To Ragnar's surprise, the sound immediately died. The windows in the office had to be made with sound-proof glass. He turned and looked around a bit, now that he was in. There was a desk with chairs on either side, but both of them were full of papers and tools. There was a couch against one of the walls that looked slept in. Lastly, there was another open door near the back, which seemed to open up into some sort of living area that was far more well kept.

Cid maneuvered his way through the floor, avoiding his models but stepping on some blueprints, after first looking at them to make sure they were nothing he was ever going to complete. He let out a cough as he moved across the room to his side of the desk. As he did, he reached up to his ears, and a moment later removed a pair of foam pieces.

"You had earplugs the whole time?" Ragnar remarked as he looked at him, a bit incredulous.

"Of course I did. I ain't stupid enough to try walkin' around in there without 'em." Cid answered in his normal surly voice. He turned a corner on his desk, and made for his chair. He indicated ahead to the opposite one as he reached it, and began to lower himself into it. "You can sit there. Just throw thatshit on the floor. You want any tea?"

Ragnar looked around uneasily a moment, seeing that the floor was mostly already covered with material. However, he soon began to slowly pick his way to the chair that Cid indicated. As for Cloud, Red XIII, and Cait Sith, they began to go to the couch behind him. "Um…sure." Ragnar answered as he stepped around a rather large model.

Cid turned his head to the open door. "She-" He began to yell…but then cut himself off in mid-speech. "Oh yeah…" He said in a much more normal voice. "She's out on Hanger Two." He looked a bit puzzled himself for a moment, and turned back to the others. In the end, he gave a shrug. "Oh well…" He answered. He was in his chair now, and reached under it for a mini-fridge he kept hidden there. "How about a beer instead?"

"No thanks." Cloud replied as he eased himself down on the couch.

Ragnar, on his part, was at the chair, and was pulling things off of it. But on hearing this, he gave another shrug. "Alright, I guess so."

Cid looked to him and frowned. "I wasn't talking to you, kid. Try again in five years."

Ragnar clenched his teeth as he pulled the last bit of paper out, and put himself in the chair. "I'm not a kid. I'm twenty."

"Bull#$." Cid retorted with a snort. After saying so, however, he gave out another cough. With a bit of a frown on his face, he tore out his nearly dead cigarette from his mouth and smothered it in a nearby unemptied ashtray as he coughed again. After that, he reached up to his goggles, and got a fresh one out of a wrinkled pack he kept there. After sticking this one in his mouth, he went into the top of his desk for a metal lighter.

"I've been thinking maybe you should cut back, Cid." Cloud suddenly announced.

Cid looked up to him and glared as he ignited the lighter and put it to his mouth. "I've been thinking maybe you should get rid of that damn haircut that makes you look like a &#ing chocobo, but I haven't said anything about it." He spoke from around the edge of his cigarette. Cloud said nothing back, while Cid practically threw his lighter back into the top of his desk, and then slammed it shut.

Ragnar inhaled a bit from where he was seated. This guy was about as intimidating as Barret, though he was only about half of his size. Yet after a moment of silence, he was able to look up and speak to him. "Captain Cid…I know that the Shera means a lot to you, and I know you hate people coming around asking for your flying machines, but I'm really in a bind here and it could really come in helpful…and so…"

Cid sighed in response to this, and held up a hand to silence Ragnar. The youth complied, and Cid took a look drag on his cigarette before he turned his head up, looked him in the eye, and answered back in a much quieter, yet still gruff, tone.

"Look kid…or man…or whatever the hell you like, I ain't exactly a fan of Shinra, and I ain't no coward. But I'm afraid you're just plain out of luck when you came to me. To run a ship like the Shera for any length of time, much less a ton of them, you need a crew, you need money, you need fuel, and you need a hell of a lot of materials. One of the reasons I could get around so well back when I was running around with this ass over here," He gestured to Cloud at this. "Was because those planes ran on mako engines. That kind of energy source doesn't run dry for about six months at a time no matter how hard you work at it. Now all I got is gas derivitives for fuel. I also stole the Highwind back from the Shinra Corporation, and I'll tell you right here and now that if they hadn't given me an assload of funding back when I built it, it'd just have been another model gathering dust in this room.

"Now I've been trying to get this company you see here off the ground for three years. In that time, I and just about every other person in this whole damn town have liquidated just about all our assets trying to get the money we need to attract investors. There ain't a whole lot of people after Shinra who just have lots of money to throw around on stuff like this. Those that we have gotten expect it back with quite a bit of interest. If I ever want to be able to fly anything anywhere again, I'm gonna have to generate some money, and so far all we've been doing is taking it. That's because pretty much every business in the world has hadshit to pay for how much it takes to run a transport or a passenger run until about two months ago, when the economy started looking up. If I start spending more of their money now to cover my bills to run this ship on your errands, then I'm going to be sunk in a hole with no way out. And not only me, but everyone else in this town that gave everything they had to this.

"That said…you give me eight more months. At the end of eight months, I'll have the Horizon finished, I'll have a ship to keep running my business, and you can use the Sierra until you run it into the ground. But you got to give me some more time."

Ragnar looked anxious at all of this, and formed a rather uneasy expression. "We really kind of need it now…"

Cid rolled his eyes and sighed again. He turned back to Ragnar disdainfully afterward. "You got a big pile of money, a few tankers full of gas, and enough scrap to double the size of this town lying around somewhere, kid? 'Cause otherwise I can't help you."

"Well…how much money do you need?" Ragnar asked after a moment, giving a shrug. "Reeve gave me some money…"

"Did he give you about 35 million gil?" Cid lazily asked.

Ragnar's eyes widened. "35 million? If I had that, couldn't you build us our own ship?"

Cid exhaled another blast and took the cigarette from his mouth, looking to Ragnar both tiredly and angrily. "I told you once already, kid! You need parts! You need fuel! If you're taking it into combat, you need warheads and rockets too! And you got to pay your crew because even if they volunteer, their wives and kids sure haven't!"

The young man sighed and bowed his head. He had been looking forward to having that airship on his side too. If nothing else, it would have been great to move people off of the Northern Continent in an emergency. But it looked as if it would have to wait. There wasn't any way out of this. Currently, his growing army couldn't give any benefits to anyone. They didn't even have a real base yet. In the end, he looked up to Cid again with a forlorn expression.

"Alright…couldn't you at least move the troops and materials we have now up north?"

Cid frowned again. He put his cigarette in his mouth and took another drag. He looked miserable about this too. It seemed as if he genuinely wanted to help, but his hands were tied at the moment. He tapped a finger against his desk, and removed his cigarette to flick some ashes into the tray. In the end, he turned back slightly to Ragnar, although he didn't look up to him, and grumbled in response.

"…40,000 gil."

Ragnar formed another outraged face. "Oh, come on…"

"That's the best I can #!$ing do." Cid snapped back, cutting him off. He continued to look to the desk, and puffed again on his cigarette. "That's subtracting my cut, minus the fuel price, and totally uninsuring the ship itself. I'm going to have to fit the bill for the fuel and oil myself if I charge you this. I'm also only charging you for two runs instead of however the $#!# many it's gonna take. The investors already have me by the balls. If I charge a client less than 40,000 for a job and try telling them I can't pay their dividends, they'll have my ass too."

Ragnar's face turned back into a frown. He slumped back into his chair and sat there a moment hopelessly. He reached his hand back up to his forehead and rubbed it. After a moment, he put it down and looked back up to Cid. "All we have is 23,000…"

Cid ruefully shook his head. "Sorry kid. That low of a price…it's gonna have to be all in advance."

The young man frowned and lowered his eyes again. For a moment, he stared silently at the floor, trying to figure a way out of this latest dillemna. The only thing he could really think of was asking Cloud and Tifa to mortgage the Seventh Heaven, which he would never do. But he had nothing himself, other than hawking pieces of his sword, which he would also never do. In the end, he turned away from Cid and looked behind him to the others.

"You guys have any idea where we can find another 17,000?"

The three looked back silently for a moment. Red XIII bowed his head and looked contemplative. Cait Sith gave a hopeless shrug. Cloud himself sat with his arms and legs crossed, and looked to the floor. In the end, he slowly sighed.

"Well…there's one last person we have to go to yet…"


"Alright! When do we leave? I'll go get my stuff!"

The much larger, darker, and slightly graying man seated next to the exciteable young girl answered by putting out a hand and placing it on her shoulder. She had just been able to get up at this point, but she found herself stopped here, and wheeled around to him. His face had not changed, and he looked grimly and sternly back at Ragnar from where he was seated. The young man didn't feel that boded well.

Wutai had been doing better since the end of Shinra. Now that their treaty was essentially invalid, the country was able to start manufacturing again and going from being a mere tourist trap to a power. Wutai still had much of its ethnicity present, including its trademark shrines, pagodas, streams and flowers, and its way of life. However, it was in the midst of modernizing now. Factories were going up all over the country, and more modern equipment and electronics were being produced. Wutai had been attacked by Shinra in order to essentially remove their greatest foreign labor competitors. With Shinra gone, the city was now the home of some of the fastest growing companies and richest investors. After all, while Midgar and all the businesses it held had been wrecked, and Junon and its businesses had been damaged, Wutai was all but untouched by the incidents with Meteor, and had quickly rushed in to fill the vacuum in world industries.

Getting to Wutai had not been easy. There was a ferry that took them across from Rocket Town to the shoreline of the continent it was located on, but after that they were forced to march across overland up one rocky mountain and narrow crag after another, spanning rickety bridges, rounding treacherous cliffs, and essentially going through many areas that ranged from foolhardy to travel to downright near suicide. Ragnar had wondered how Wutai was able to ship anything like this. Cloud explained that they had a canal located closer to the actual main city that Shinra had ordered shut down after their war, but had been reopened recently. However, it was in such disrepair that it was only a commercial route for now, though they were working on widening it. Fenrir didn't help that much here except on level ground, and the group was forced to camp along the way. That made Ragnar more nervous. He had only two days left…and by now the only way he could hope to get back would be on the Sierra.

The upper class of Wutai now had some more notoriety, now that their town had some power and prestige again. It had taken a bit of work before they were allowed to be seen by the current head of the town, Godo. Luckily, Cloud had quite a bit of clout with him and the rest of the leaders of the town, who called themselves the Five Mighty Gods. However, the person who he had the biggest connection with was Godo's daughter, a spunky-looking, black-haired, exciteable young woman named Yuffie. Unfortunately, this person was the only member of the old group Cloud hated more than Cait Sith. She was a liar and a thief. She had mostly stuck around with the group just to steal their materia, which she never apologized for. However, she had at least been nice enough to let Cloud have the materia after their last run together. That was…until she found out Cloud unceremoniously kept it in a chest lying around with the rest of his things free to public access…which was exactly where Kadaj's boys found it. After that, she used her thieving skills to also unceremoniously take it back. She maintained it would be safer with her. In truth, Cloud couldn't really blame her. It was his negligence that led to the summoning of a bizarre, Geostigma-twisted version of Bahamut named Sin.

The group was now seated on traditional Wutai floormats inside Godo's house. In front of them, on a slightly raised level, the man himself seated, with Yuffie at his right. The place was pretty nice inside. It had an indoor stream, lots of wall hangings, paper walls…a kind of culture that Ragnar had never experienced before. Ragnar had been most enthusiastic about getting Wutai's help. This country had lost the most under Shinra. If they came into power, they'd be forced right back into the dirt where they had been three years ago. There was strong anti-Shinra sentiment here too among the populace. Yuffie herself was rather high on that list. Many felt as if Shinra had insulted their honor and made them like dogs, and they weren't too forgiving about that in Wutai tradition.

For all these reasons…Ragnar was rather surprised when he saw Godo calmly shake his head. "No."

Yuffie snapped her head around to her father in shock. Ragnar was rather surprised as well at that, and formed a puzzled expression.

"No?" They both said at once, only Ragnar being much calmer, and Yuffie sounding far more outraged.

"Dad, what are you doing!" Yuffie continued. "They're getting into a war with Shinra! This is Wutai's chance to kick their butts and reclaim our honor! We should make them pay for what they did to us!"

Godo darkly turned his head to Yuffie at that. "You, my child, never participated in the war between Shinra and Wutai. You never had to see or experience the death that resulted, the breakup of families, or watch our town turned into ashes. You never had to be orphaned and starved in the streets during a siege, or be afraid to step outside and be marked by a Shinra sniper. There is more to war than just honor seeking and revenge."

Yuffie continued to fume. Then, she snapped back to Ragnar. "Fine! I'm the new leader of Wutai anyway, since I beat you in a fight, so I say we're helping them!"

"And I say…" Godo responded to her, growing a bit cross in expression as he stared at her. "That you abdicated that position right after you beat me so that you could run off with Cloud and his friends, and since then you have not resubmitted to the trials to reclaim it. Hence, I am still leader."

Yuffie wheeled around in astonishment. "What! I have to do it again?"

Ragnar grimaced a bit at the father-daughter spat, but then spoke up in a more calm and controlled voice. "Sir…I know that there is a lot of danger inherent in war, and you want what's best for your people. But if we can stop the New Shinra from passing through that bottleneck, there won't be any danger to your country. If they do break through, however, everyone could be affected. You know what Shinra will do to you if they come back into power."

Godo turned away from Yuffie and stared back at the youth. He looked a bit tired, and slowly inhaled and exhaled. He bowed his head for a moment, and then looked back up to him.

"No, young man…I'm afraid it is you who does not know that there is a lot of danger inherent in war." He slowly answered, not critically but plainitively. "I was once very much like you when I first became leader. The Shinra tried to buy our land out and claim ownership over our raw materials and companies. I tried to strike back against this. I thought that we were prime to succeed in a war. We had discipline and honor…and all the Shinra had was a soulless company. I thought for certain that we would be favored in the conflict, that surely our spirits would triumph over a few greedy bureaucrats with hired guns as their power.

"I was wrong. I learned that for all our tradition, emotion, and passion…things that we thought were unbreakable by any mortal thing…each could be countered by some device the Shinra could invent. The way of ruling through pride and honor collapsed in the face of industry and innovation. Today, I know that the strength of our spirits mean little to the blades of SOLDIER, or to the bullets of rifles. I myself had defeated over 200 swordsmen in that war. I was one of the few people who got to cross blades with Sephiroth and live. He defeated me in two seconds, and the only reason I am still here was because he wanted me to command the others to surrender. Notions of nobility…just cause…personal strength…I know now that those can only take you so far, and only defend your people for so long.

"Were I speaking only for myself, I might acquiesce. But I do not. I speak for thousands of children who have been born since our war who I would not see suffer a conflict or degredation like that again. Wutai has nothing to offer you anyway. We disbanded our army after our war with Shinra. We have no weapons or armed forces. A gun has never even been made in our land. Even if we were to join you, we could not offer you anything of significance."

Ragnar formed his second look of disappointment. Another expected success collapsed in his face once again. His hopes had once again been dashed. Yuffie looked to her father, down to Ragnar, and back again. Her face was still anxious and tight, and she had not been broken back by much of that dialogue. Almost pleading, she focused on Godo and wrung her hands into fists.

"Father…"

"I'm sorry, young man." The leader replied with a simple head shake. "Good day."


About thirty minutes later, the four were hiking down the same path they had worked so hard to get up that morning. Wutai had already shrunk into a line of houses and factories at the bottom of a valley behind them. Overhead, the four faces of Da-Chao looked down on them and on the travelers far away. Ragnar didn't look very happy, which was only typical. He had lost his chance of having a ship as well as having the help of a well-funded ally. What good would his volunteers do if they had no way to get them up north? It left him feeling rather downcast, and his head hung low as they slowly walked back. Cait Sith frowned and kept his own hands folded uneasily behind him as his moogle went along. Red XIII had a tired expression. Cloud was the same as always, walking with his arms crossed as they moved on.

"Two strikes…" Ragnar glumly sounded aloud.

"You did your best, kid." Cloud answered back. "Give it a few months. If your army can get enough prestige and renown, and more people know about the New Shinra, you might get people to join more readily."

"If we can survive that long…" The youth moped in response.

"We'll do our best to make sure you do." Red XIII answered. "After all, we're 'on this boat' as well now, so to speak. And we've been through worse."

"Besides, you got one more ally out of it." Cloud announced.

Ragnar turned his head back to that in puzzlement. "What do you mean?"

In response, Cloud shot out a hand to his left, and grasped that air. However, right after doing so, it appeared like something was wriggling in his grasp. Not only that, but he began to hear a large amount of complaining and struggling from what sounded like a young woman. Ragnar and the others turned fully to stare at this. After a moment, Ragnar began to notice something. The air looked somewhat distorted around Cloud's hand. A second later, the ex-mercenary reached out and grabbed this distortion, and proceeded to yank it away. It came with him, and Ragnar soon realized it wasn't a distortion at all. It was some sort of fabric made into a cloak that bent light around it, making virtual invisibility. Not only that, but he revealed a small wriggling person underneath, trying to get free of the grasp that now had her by the collar.

"Yuffie?" Ragnar announced out loud.

"Let me go!" The small ninja whined.

"If you're looking for any more materia, you're out of luck." Cloud informed her. "You might as well go home."

At this, Cloud released the young woman. It was so abrupt that she nearly spilled back and landed on her rear, but she managed to stabilize herself soon after, and looked up to pout at the ex-mercenary. "Like hell I'm going back there!" She snapped back. "Dad may want to blow this chance to get Shinra back, but I don't! I don't care about the materia this time! I just want to get Shinra back!"

Red XIII raised an eyebrow. "You honestly don't care about the materia?"

The young woman hesitated at this, and then frowned and shrugged. "Ok…maybe I care a little about the materia, but I want to kick Shinra's butt too!"

Ragnar stepped over to Cloud during this exchange, and took the fabric from his other hand. He stretched it out and looked it over for a moment. "No military forces…yet they've been building these things…" He murmured allowed. He turned back to Yuffie after saying this. "Does Wutai have any more of these?"

Yuffie, in response, snatched it back out of Ragnar's hands. "First of all, that one's mine, and secondly it's just a prototype. It cost 8 million gil just to make that one."

"It appears that Yuffie isn't the only member of her family that knows how to keep secrets…" Red XIII observed.

Cait Sith grinned. "Want me to spy on them?"

"Forget about the cloak for the moment." Ragnar answered, and turned back to the girl. She was protectively folding her cloak up to put away. "Do you still have the materia you got from Cloud?"

The ninja looked up at this, and wheeled back to the young man. "Hey, that stuff's mine too, kid! Cloud let me keep it, fair and square!"

Ragnar bristled for a moment at that. "Even the nineteen-year-old is calling me a kid…"

"Well, I think we'll be needing it." The ex-mercenary answered. "You're going to have to get it."

Yuffie frowned in response, and crossed her arms in a pouting manner. "Aw man…it took me months to get all of that…"

"It took all of us months to get that, including the time we spent getting it back from you after you stole it." Cloud retorted. "Besides, you'll have more soon. Even the amount of materia we have isn't going to be nearly enough for an army to use against Shinra. We'll have to start using it as soon as we get back to the City of the Ancients so it will replicate. After that, you can keep the originals."

"I'm going to hold you to that." Yuffie answered, pointing a challenging finger in Cloud's face. "Man, I wish I had a tape recorder just now…"

Ragnar exhaled. So it wasn't a total loss after all. They had one person from Wutai at least, and quite a bit of materia. Still, the youth wondered whether or not they should actually keep it. Materia was worth its weight in gold on the world market. Selling a few good orbs would make quite a bit of money, like what they would need in order to pay Cid's fee. However, on thinking of this…Ragnar remembered that Yuffie was supposed to be quite the thief. Perhaps she had stolen a bit more than materia over the years…

In the end, the young man turned back to the thief.

"Say Yuffie…do you happen to have a bank account?"

The young woman slowly turned over to Ragnar as he asked this, looking a bit uneasy.

"…Why do you ask?"


To be continued...