FOR BETH! (Hugs Beth) Beth0987

This chapter is written by Beth0987….

Disclaimer: I do not own any CSI related characters, nor any Final Fantasy 7 characters. Any additional characters that appear during the whole story are more than likely to be my friends, so they pretty much own themselves.

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The worst part of living in a city with only the loosest concept of law enforcement, thought Yelina, was that they had to beg, borrow or steal lab equipment. The microscope Speed was staring into had come from a decidedly shady deal in a bar- it may have only been 120 gil, but she didn't want to know where the seller had got it.

'Yelina,' Speed looked up and gestured for her to come over. 'Look at this,'

Yelina looked into the microscope. It was a plant, but not like one she had ever seen before, in Miami or Midgar. The leaves were round and slightly bulging. She poked one with the end of a biro, and a thick black liquid oozed out.

'What is THAT?' she asked, slightly unnerved by it.

'Black sap, found only in trees on a remote Mideel island,' Speed dropped a thick book on the table, raising a small mushroom cloud of dust. He opened it and flipped through a couple of pages until he reached a drawing that matched the plant exactly.

'Where is this island?' Yelina pulled a map of Midgar and the north coastline from under a pile of paperwork. She scanned the islands, but she couldn't see Mideel anywhere.

'It's about twenty miles off the south coast of this continent.'

Yelina looked at Speed, her mouth hanging open slightly.

'I'm sorry; I thought I heard you say the south coast,'

'I did,'

'But that's…' Yelina tried to imagine how far away it was. Even though she had been here over three months, she had never been far from Midgar. Never more than a short trip in their old, unreliable car that was very temperamental.

'421 miles,'

'The car's not up to a trip that long, and we can't possibly walk it. Maybe if we rented an airship or a boat…' Yelina mentally calculated the amount of cash they had left. It was dismally low. They'd probably have to hitchhike it.

'Well, there is one way, but you probably won't like it…' Yelina watched Speed turn a page in the book, pretending to be absorbed by the plant drawings.

'What?' she asked. She wasn't sure she wanted to know.

'Er….' She had never seen Speed this tongue-tied outside the morgue before.

'If it helps us get another killer off the streets, I don't care if we have to crawl it,' This wasn't exactly true. She was down to her last good suit.

'Have you ever heard of chocobos?'