Chapter 17

Walking on Water

Cloud, Sam and Aeris pulled themselves out of the water and up on shore again, the Outcast ships had headed back toward the other continent and the area was left devoid of life.

The three of them were literally the only living beings left, no sign of life ever existing near or around Costa Del Sol was evident.

"We have to get across the water," Aeris said looking at the black crater which used to be the sunny resort.

"I'll work on that, you two settle somewhere, it might take a while," Sam said.

Cloud and Aeris stared a while longer at the scant remains of the resort and then just sat down.

"It seems unnecessary," Cloud said suddenly, "whatever they wanted hadn't been there, why destroy the entire resort?"

"They just don't care," Aeris replied, "if the Outcasts have their way existence itself here will cease. Destroying a town doesn't make any difference if everyone on this planet will suddenly become nonexistent."

"I guess they're attacking Midgar for the same reason they attacked here," Cloud said.

"Midgar is still intact in this existence, which means Shinra would still hold some influence. Whatever the Outcasts might want it's likely Shinra has it hidden, or has it and don't know they do," Aeris explained.

"Even if we get across the water, we don't know what we're looking for," Cloud said, "how do we know what to stop them from getting, even if we knew, how could we stop an army?"

Aeris shook her head, "The same way you defeated Sephiroth I suppose."

Cloud looked at her and then back at the destroyed resort. He had a feeling this would turn out worse than anything they'd faced with Sephiroth.

Aeris turned to Cloud and smiled, "How do you get your hair to stay like that?"

"What?" Cloud asked.

"I've always wanted to ask you," Aeris said running a hand through his soaked hair. "Even when it's completely covered with water your hair keeps the spiked look, how do you get it to do that?"

"Same way you get yours to stay the same I guess," Cloud replied looking up at her hand which she removed from his hair.

She laughed, "My hair's got nothing to flatten it's nothing like yours."

Cloud ran a hand through her hair, "It's wet and it looks the same."

"That doesn't count," she said almost absent mindedly as she looked into his eyes. "My hair's different."

She realized they were sitting a lot closer to one another than she thought.

They sat in silence for a while, then Cloud suddenly turned to look behind him, Sam was standing a few feet away.

"Oh, come on," Sam said shaking his head, "all this crap, you have your chance, and you both chicken out! Not one of you even tried to initiate the kiss, what's wrong with you people?"

Sam walked over to them looking exasperated, "I pretend I have to walk far away to do what I need to, I stand out there for ten minutes longer than necessary. I tell Cloud that he can have you all to his self and still nothing gets done, now I don't blame my skills as a matchmaker, you two are just slow. For God's sake, everyone's waiting for it, she's back from the dead, freaking kiss her will you!"

For a moment neither of them could respond.

"Ah, forget it, it's all wasted, there might never be another lull in the action!" Sam said. "I don't get it, she loves you, you've obviously got the hots for her, what else do you people need?"

"Sam, shut up," Aeris said.

"Fine, let's just go to Junon," Sam said waving a hand at them dismissively and walking toward the water.

"On what?" asked Cloud standing up.

"Your feet," Sam replied, "it won't be as fast as a boat but we can walk across the water."

"Sam, doing that kind of thing could…" Aeris began.

"Kill me, I know, you say that so much, would you leave it alone, nothing I've done has killed me yet," Sam said, "I found a loophole, as usual, come on."

"Walk on the water?" asked Cloud.

"In theory Sam has the ability to twist elements," Aeris said, "he can make the surface of the water buoyant enough to let us walk on it, but manipulating an element this large and for as long as we need it runs the risk of draining him entirely of energy."

"Whereupon I will be sucked back to the Lifestream and you two losers are left to swim the rest of the way," Sam said amiably, "har-di-har-har."

"I could levitate us some of the way," Aeris suggested.

"Honey, you've left out one important part of your definition of my ability," Sam said, "you forgot the part about where I use the loophole I found in this existence's continuum to drain energy from the planet and use it to walk the entire way."

"You're going to use this planet's energy?" asked Aeris.

"Isn't that in the Cetra 'list of things you shouldn't do?'" asked Cloud.

Sam smiled and pointed at Cloud, "Good one, I knew you'd get the idea, see, a sense of humour, very good, very good. Yes, although the Cetra don't actually have a list of things you shouldn't do it is frowned upon."

"You're gonna do it anyways?" asked Cloud.

"Do I look like I really care if I'm frowned upon, I eat frowns for breakfast," Sam said, "now let's go before Aeris gets all emotional because she can hear the planet crying: no, please, don't walk on my water, you'll get it all dirty with your muddy boots!"

Cloud and Aeris walked to the shore, Sam gestured for them to follow and then he stepped out to the water. When his feet should have sunk in they instead seemed to stand literally on top of the water.

"I'd say come on in the water's nice, but I wouldn't know," Sam started dancing around on top of the water, his feet making small splashes, "because I'm not in the water!"

Aeris closed her eyes and shook her head at Sam as she too found herself walking on top of the liquid.

Then all three of them were making their way toward the other continent, walking on the surface of the water.

"If you look to your left you'll see…water," Sam said, "and if you look to your right, you might be able to catch a fleeting glimpse of…more water!"

They ignored him and kept walking.

"You realize that if at some point I accidentally forgot to keep us buoyant we'd all be swimming in the middle of a very large body of water," Sam said, "it's just so nice to see you two trust me so much."

"What exactly are we going to do once we catch up with the Outcasts?" asked Cloud ignoring Sam yet again.

"Well, I suppose we'll kill them," Sam said nonchalantly, "you could do that Cloud, Aeris and I will sit back with a bag of popcorn and watch the show."

"There're gonna be a lot of them aren't there?" asked Cloud.

"Nothing you can't handle, you've fought harder enemies," Sam said smiling, "you'd think you'd never seen Advent Children before, these guys are…"

"Advent Children?" asked Cloud.

"Yeah, you know the computer animated movie with…" Sam stopped walking suddenly, "…oh, right…don't ask me to explain that one," Sam chuckled, "that would be way too confusing for you!"

Cloud just shook his head.

"Anyways, you got a feel for them back at Costa Del Sol, they're pushovers without their flashy airships and explosives," Sam said shrugging.

"That's not quite what I gathered from our meeting," Cloud said, "but if there had been any more of them we wouldn't have stood a chance."

"Most of them are very good warriors," Aeris told Cloud, "all of them have the powers of the Cetra."

"They're not invincible, however," Sam added quickly, "as you've seen, their asses are kickable."

"How do you know so much about these guys?" asked Cloud.

"I know things," Sam said shrugging.

"Who was that man?" asked Aeris.

"Mardra?" asked Sam.

Aeris nodded.

"I also know people," Sam replied cryptically.

"Where do you know an Outcast from?" asked Aeris.

"Can't a guy have secrets?" asked Sam.

"No," Aeris replied quickly.

"I'm sorry, who died and made you the ruler of what people can and can't have?" asked Sam.

Aeris just looked away from him and muttered something under her breath…she did that a lot with Sam.

They walked for about an hour, though none of them were really timing, finally, after a long inconvenient walk, Junon Harbour appeared ahead.

"Solid ground again," Sam said, the first word spoken in a very quiet hour. "I've gotten so used to the water I almost can't give it up…nope, I'm over it, let's get off the liquid and go."

They finally hit the shore; they stepped off the water and on to a beach which Cloud and Aeris recognized.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Junon Harbour, please exit carefully," Sam said, "next stop, Midgar, all aboard."

"This beach," Cloud said.

"Mr. Dolphin," Aeris said smiling.

"Oh yeah, with the CPR thing," Sam said, "that was awkward, more or less than dressing up like a girl I'm not sure. Cloud was used to that kind of stuff by then, though."

"Let's get to Midgar and find out what the hell is going on here," Cloud said.

"It's still pretty far from here," Aeris said, "I can levitate us over the caves and the swamp area, though, so that'll save time."

"Just glad we don't have to try and get another Chocobo," Cloud muttered.

"Well, let's go before all our friends leave the party," Sam said.

The three left Junon and headed out immediately toward Midgar, as they got closer Cloud attempted to prepare some sort of plan to find out what they were actually looking for but got nowhere.

"I can see those brain cells burning up in your mind, buddy," Sam said to Cloud, "my advice: don't worry about it until we get there, we can't do anything until we see our enemies."

"There has to be a way to find out what they're here for," Cloud said.

"We'll find out, but there's no way to discover the answer out here, we have to get to Midgar first," Aeris said.

"Sometimes the girl knows what she's talking about," Sam said smiling.

They encountered no resistance on their way toward Midgar, Cloud figured the presence of the Outcasts would have scared away all of the monsters that roamed the area.

Aeris used her levitating ability to get them over obstructions.

Within twenty minutes Midgar was in sight.

"There she is, good old Midgar," Sam said, "alive and kicking, or at least getting kicked."

There appeared to be many airships surrounding the city, a few were still firing weapons down on Midgar but most were just hovering in place…waiting.

"Wait, look at that one," Aeris said pointing.

They all saw what she saw, one of the airships seemed to be headed directly toward Shinra Headquarters.

"It's not gonna be able to stop," Cloud said.

"Looks like someone wants to get in badly," Sam said, "care to find out who?"

"Maybe they know something we don't," Aeris said.

"It's the only lead we've got at this point," Cloud added, "how do we get in?"

"First we walked on water," Sam said, "I think we're ready for another magical feat care of yours truly."

"What did you have in mind?" asked Cloud.

"Walking through walls," Sam replied matter-of-factly.

"Alright," Cloud said nodding; at this point he wouldn't question any of Samael's ideas, "let's do it."

The three ran toward Midgar, now constantly on a vigilant lookout for any Outcasts that may have stayed outside of Midgar, they spotted none.

They ran until they came right up to the wall that separated Midgar from the outer world.

"Give me a second or two," Sam said, "if you guys wanna try that kiss thing again while I'm preoccupied go ahead."

Aeris and Cloud looked at each other.

"Just get us through the wall," Aeris replied.

Sam shrugged, "Your loss."

Sam examined the wall and executed the necessary rule-breaking steps to make the wall intangible.

"Alright, ladies and gentlemen, I will now turn this wall into a door!" Sam exclaimed.

Aeris walked toward the wall and tried to step through but instead she ran into it and bounced back, she stared at Sam angrily.

"I didn't say go, did I?" asked Sam. "If I had said 'go' then you would know to walk through the wall, and I distinctly remember not saying any kind of word like 'go.'"

"Sam, open up the wall before she kills you," Cloud suggested.

"Alright, you're all so hostile, take a chill pill," Sam said and kicked the wall with his right foot. "Okay, it's good, go ahead."

Aeris began to move toward the wall but suddenly stopped and looked at Sam, "You go first."

"I'm hurt…really, Aeris, beautiful, you don't trust me?" asked Sam.

"Should I?" asked Aeris.

Sam smiled and put a hand on the wall, it was still solid, "No, you shouldn't, good call."

Aeris opened her mouth to say something uncharacteristically mean to Sam but he snapped his fingers and jumped through the wall before she could. Cloud and Aeris followed suit.

They appeared on the other side, Cloud had no idea where they were.

"I've never been to this sector before," Cloud said.

"Me neither," Aeris added.

"That's fine, we're headed upward anyways," Sam said. "Fly, fly, little birdie."

"Stand still, I'll float us up to where…" Aeris was interrupted by a loud noise that sounded like a mixture of a lot of breaking glass, grinding metal and something big smashing into something else.

"Up to where that airship just rammed Headquarters would work I suppose, but hey," Sam said shrugging, "you're the pilot, sweetheart, your call."

Soon they had levitated above the upper plate and they were approaching the mess where the airship had collided with the building. Aeris set them down on the airship and they jumped off into the building via one of the many decimated windows.

Almost immediately Cloud caught sight of someone running around a corner down the hallway to his right.

"Someone just went that way," Cloud said gesturing down the hallway.

"The horrible drivers I assume," Sam said, "let's go check for their licenses shall we?"

The trio ran down the hallway and turned, the figure he'd seen turn the corner had become three figures. Three figures now trapped at a dead end.

"This door is locked down with an almost indestructible metal when the building is considered to be in danger," said one of the three figures down the hall.

Cloud, Sam and Aeris moved toward them slowly, not yet knowing if they were friend or foe.

A somehow familiar gruff voice spoke, "There's no way we can get through this, we'll need another way in."

"Vincent," Cloud muttered, "Vincent's here."

"It sounds like him," Aeris agreed.

As they came closer they realized well enough that it was Vincent standing with two people who looked to be scientists.

"They're friends," Cloud confirmed.

"I know of Vinny Valentine," Sam said nodding, "well, everybody here knows everybody, let's go say hello."

The female scientist shook her head, "It'll take too long to go around, we need to get in there now."

"We can't possibly get past this door, Lucrecia," the other scientist replied.

"Actually," Sam said to the three who turned immediately, all pointing weapons at him, "I think we might be able to assist you with that little problem. One might say I have a thing for walking through solid objects."