A chill crept up Jacob's spine, the icy air biting at his back as he stood on the outskirts of the Forgotten City, breathing in the night air, chest heaving. Sweat trickled down his face, running the rim of his eyes, nostrils, falling from his chin to dot his shirt below. His lip was even bleeding a little where he had banged it against a table, dried blood in his chin. The boy's eyes blazed, an anxious weight pressing down heavily on his chest, so heavy he thought it would burst. Each breath he drew in made the anxious weight grow in heaviness, like an over inflated balloon that just wouldn't pop.

Dekel was nowhere to be found. Nowhere.

Jacob was in a mess of emotion. He didn't know where one thought started and another ended; it was all a sticky mess inside of him. Rather than deal, he pushed all his worries, worries of Dekel lost, captured, gone, from his head. It was too much to deal with after crawling around in the sewers, nearly being caught and found out. Everything was too overwhelming.

Dekel couldn't be gone. He couldn't be. Jacob stemmed these thoughts before they snowballed, but still didn't move. He continued to watch the outline of the City of the Ancients in the darkness. His feet didn't want to move.

"Jake?" Somebody was behind him, pressing cold fingers against his arm, trying to somehow give him some sort of comfort. The voice was low, soft, gentle, but he shook it off. "Jake, come on." Marlene pushed his arm gently from behind, coaxing him to move. "Everyone is waiting, Jacob." He saw her face out of the corner of his eye, her eyes just as anxious as his fluttering stomach, her round cheeks pale and peaky in the moon light, but blurred around the edges.

Her hand meaningfully tightened, squeezing something like strength into him, and he took a step forward. Then another. And another.

"It's okay," she whispered, her breath rising in a mist as she followed to keep in pace with Jacob. "We'll find him. We will, and he's tough, right?" She smiled, dimples piercing into her skin. "He can hide himself good. He's okay."

Jacob ran his tongue over his teeth, biting back words he'd rather not admit to thinking. Dekel was my responsibility. They all were. It's my fault this is happening...if anything happens. He let out a long sigh through his nose, releasing some of his tension as he did so, but not dissipating it by any means.

"Come on," she murmured again, and took the lead, carefully taking Jacob's hand and walking him to the old city, like a mother guiding a child.

Jacob failed to notice the clammy sweat on her hand and the cool and shaky nervousness of her touch as they walked, his mind a whir of other thoughts and concerns; but, she noticed how his shook unconsciously, the sweat trickling between his fingers, and the coolness of his touch, and she understood. Understood that nothing she was saying or doing was helping him. He was battling something she could not help with. Not at the moment. So, she led him in silence, finding simply guiding him along enough for her...

A gentle light pressed against Jacob's eyelids, closed. He left his eyes tightly shut, half wishing to go back to sleep. It had taken him a moment to remember what the dead weight pressing against his ribs was from, but soon he began to tie images, thoughts, and words together, remembering each event as though watching it on a movie screen.

Yesterday felt like a dream, everything skipping around, rushed, and hard to keep up with. His mind hadn't processed it at the time, and now it was, mulling everything over.

The city's old streets, houses resembling large shells as if taken from a beech, and mysterious atmosphere, all failed to impress Jacob the night before. His mind had seemingly shut down, and the only thoughts he could form were of finding his sort-of brother.

Of course he couldn't act on the impulse. Tifa and pushed him off to bed, saying he had had enough adventure for one day. Jake had half expected her to hate him for loosing Dekel, but she didn't. She smiled, the same confident smiled, and shoved him gently in the back towards his temporary home.

Jake had looked back at her, blankly, not able to think of anything to say. In his present mind, Jacob pictured the scene; Tifa's slight smile, Marlene's hand still wrapped up in his own, a few smaller children crying, and Denzel hanging nervously at Tifa's side. Jacob remembered that moment clearly, although he wasn't exactly sure why. Something had caught his attention, something in the way Tifa had looked at him as though everything would work out. Something like hope...

"Jake!" Came a voice followed by running footsteps as somebody entered the house. "Jake!" The footsteps pounded against the wood floor, banging against Jacob's ear drums painfully hard. Jake's eyes opened wide, and he was little surprised and startled by his visitor.

It was Denzel, he had just come into view, breathing hard, obviously just having run the entire way here. He was bent double, hands on his knees, head down as he sucked in air. Jacob sat up, blinking in the sunlight groggily.

"What is it?" Jacob said weakly, rubbing his tousled and tangled head. Denzel took a moment, still breathing hard, but obviously impatient to speak.

"C-Cloud...wants...y-you" He managed to rasp out.

"What for?" Jacob said nervously, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. He didn't like Cloud much; they had never seen eye to eye, and there was something Jacob envied about Cloud, but Jacob would never admit that.

Jacob stared in puzzlement at Denzel, and their eyes met for a moment before Denzel, almost embarrassedly, dropped his gaze to stare at his feet.

"Don't know...didn't ask." Denzel mumbled, feeling stupid for not asking, pink creeping into his cheeks.

"Guess I'll find out when I get there." Jacob tried to sound interested, as though he was curious as to what Cloud was summoning him for, but it was half hearted. Denzel picked up on this.

"S-sorry to bother you. I didn't know you were still sleeping..." his voice trailed away sheepishly, and he twisted his hands behind his back, kicking a small pebble on the wooden floor so it rattled away.

"No... don't worry about it." Jacob said dismissively. "You were only doing what you were told to do. My fault for being lazy and not getting up sooner." Jacob grinned and got out of bed. Denzel smiled back, relaxing a bit once he realized he hadn't done anything wrong.

Jacob dressed without another word, and Denzel left, saying he and Marlene were off to explore the rest of the city.

Jake pulled on some pants, gray and a little dreary looking, and took a shirt up robotically. He felt as though he was just going through the motions of a morning routine, and he wasn't looking forward to the day. There was no way he could go and save Dekel now, not with Midgar crawling with ShinRa looking for him and the others. Tifa and explained that last night. The words hadn't sunken in until now, however.

Jake gave his shirt a final tug, trying to stretch out the wrinkles, but gave up after an ominous ripping sound. Quickly, he left the house, hoping against hope something Cloud had to say might make him somehow feel a little better. He was sure, however, that Cloud wouldn't do that in the slightest.

The water was cool, rippling faintly in a soft wind that whisked by. The reflection of trees flickered back and forth in the water, their colors meshing into one collage of images. The pool was isolated from the rest of the city, sitting alone under the canopy of trees. A once empty fountain now held water, the old stone weathered and cracked, but it didn't leak. It was a large fountain, nine to ten feet in diameter, and was about five feet deep. It was more of a swimming pool that a fountain, but there was a second level to it, less than half the size of the first pool.

Jacob stood on one side of the fountain, absentmindedly biting a finger nail as he watched each clone, one by one, enter the pool. Cloud stood beside the small line, nodding to each one as they entered the water and dissolved as though they were smoke evaporating into the sky.

It was with both horror and fascination that Jake watched these people vanish. Some looked fearful, some angry, some relieved as they stepped over the wall, men and women and children alike, and promptly began to dissipate. They looked so...so human, it scared Jacob a little. He wasn't sure what he expected these people to look or be like, after all, he had lived with a clone for years, but he had still expected them to be sprouting extra arms or spewing venom. But no, they were people, just like him, and suddenly Jake knew why Dekel had been so against AVALANCHE's ideas.

The last person, a man standing six feet high and with broadly built shoulders, stepped into the pool. He turned around as he did and gave Cloud a look, a prideful look of dignity and esteem, his hands clenched and white knuckled. He was afraid. But before that fear could show in his face, the man was gone. Lost to the air around him.

Jacob watched for moments, mouth slightly open, heart pounding heavily against his ribs. His body felt a little weak, a little limp, and his mouth had become very dry. It was then that Cloud noticed Jacob standing there like a statue, rooted still, watching the place where the man had just been.

Cloud watched Jacob for a second, seeing if he'd react or say something. The boy didn't.

"You came fast." Cloud said, walking slowly to stand in front of Jake, his face impassive, blue eyes staring into Jacob's like an x-ray. Jake raised his own gaze in time, not quite meeting Cloud's.

"Is...is that why you brought me here?" Jacob managed to say, his mouth not moving much, voice low, very low and strained. "To...to see...that...?"

Cloud shook his head and leaned his weight on one leg, folding his arms. "No," he answered, "no, I hadn't expected you to be so quick."

"You mean I wasn't supposed to see...?" Jacob sounded a little contemptuous as his thoughts went back to the broad shouldered man. Cloud gave a shrug.

"No, I'll be honest, you weren't. But never mind." Cloud sighed gruffly, glancing back over his shoulder at the fountain for a second. Cloud had a ragged and haggard look on his face as though there was something pressing for him to do, or something was on his mind, but he was not about to tell Jacob why. Jake watched as the man's face grew darker, the pale blue eyes distant.

Then the man's attention darted back to Jacob.

"I guess you want to know why I got you down here." It wasn't a question. Cloud's tone was even, knowledgeable, and as though he wanted to get right to the point. Jacob nodded back. "I'm taking you with me to find the Turks." He said outright to Jacob.

The boy blinked once or twice, and raised one eyebrow in confusion.

"What?" He said, not understanding at all.

"You and Marlene and Terace are going to come with myself and Barret to find the Turks. Tifa's idea." He added shortly.

"Wait-w-why, when? How?" Jacob rambled, blinking furiously a few times, brow furrowed as he tried to figure out Cloud.

"Tifa thinks you need something to do rather than sit around a mope."

"I'm not moping!" Jacob defensively snapped back.

"I call sleeping in 'till noon moping." Jacob didn't answer, feeling a little ashamed. "Anyway, it'll give you something to do."

"What about Dekel?" Jacob immediately said. "I'm going after him as soon as I can." Jake was stubborn, and he glared at Cloud meaningfully.

"And soon isn't about to happen. We'll find him when it's safe, and until then, you're coming with me." Cloud had obviously expected some friction. Jake stared at the ground, eyes drifting to the side, and he slowly nodded.

"Whatever." He muttered, crossing his arms.

"So," Cloud started again, "we leave tomorrow to the Icicle Inn up north. That's where they're hiding, or around that area at least. We'll be gone for a while, so be ready."

"Ready for what?" Jake looked up at Cloud, reproach and apprehension in his eyes. Cloud gave a soft sigh and started to walk off.

"Anything." He called over his shoulder. "Tell Marlene for me will you? Terace should know... I have to make a call." Jacob took that last line to mean, leave me alone, in the language of Cloud.

It seemed as though Jacob had little say in what came next on this journey. Cloud had spelled his fate out in a few brief words, and Jake had little to do with it.

As Jacob slowly, thoughtfully, and moodily, walked back to the city to find Marlene, wherever she and Denzel had gotten off to, Jake began to wonder what Cloud would do if he simply didn't come. If he simply went off by himself to find Dekel and bring him back. Would the man be angry?

It was a sorely tempting thought, but Jacob pushed it from his mind. He knew all to well he would need help breaking back into the city, and so his rescue mission would have to be put on hold.

"Jay-jay!" It was Laurie, a little blond seven year old with a few other little devils at her sides. "Jay-jay!" she repeated, her small footsteps beating away at the ground as she and her friends ran up to him.

Jake spun about, coming out of his own head once he heard the sound of his name, or nickname more like.

"Hey there!" He grinned down at Laurie who beamed right back up, but she nervously tugged at one golden pigtail on her head.

"Um," she started, shuffling her feet a little, "can...can you come and play with me?"

"With us!" An eight-year-old boy named Peter corrected her.

"Us!" She glared at Peter for correcting her, and then continued. "Please, Jay-jay?"

"Can't right now, sorry Laurie." He looked around briefly, feeling agitated about being held up. And although the children were touching a few nerves at the moment, pestering him to play when there were more important things to be doing, he didn't feel comfortable telling them to get going and leave him all the hell alone. He couldn't say that to children, and it wasn't in his nature. Normally. "I'm looking for Marlene, you seen her?"

"Lenie? Looking for Marlenie?" One very tiny four year old said, excited. Jake nodded.

"Um, I saw her..." Laurie paused for thought, face tight and screwed up as she began to heavily rack her brains.

"She was by some old temple thing." Shrugged Peter.

"I was about to say that!" Laurie snapped, her voice whining, and she stamped her foot, mouth pouting.

"Thanks guys," Jacob said with a small smile. Laurie pouted up at him, so he quickly added. "Maybe you could tell me where the temple is, Laurie." Her face lit up at once, and she stuck her tongue out at Peter who rolled his eyes.

"That way!" She pointed to her right with zealous, taking all the pride she could in helping Jacob.

"Hey, thanks!" Jacob rubbed the little girl's head in thanks, and she giggled.

"Stop it Jay-jay!"

"I'll see you later!" He waved at them and ran off quickly, smile fading as he ran, loosing himself in thought once more.