Author's Notes: Yes, more of the story. It's so much easier to write Tuesday thru Friday because them I'm at a job that doesn't matter and I can work on it without getting too distracted. Odd, isn't it? The things I do to keep away from students. How I loathe the students. Students piss me off. When spring break begins I am free! And I'm so very very tired. People take advantage of me and it makes me mad.

Chapter 2

For a moment, everything was calm as Nida was slowly led to consciousness by a rather suspicious mind. So thankful was he for a soft bed and a warm blanket that it didn't even register to him that they shouldn't be there. In fact, there was no reason in hell that they should be there. His own bed at Garden was lumpy and the blankets rather itchy. In Esthar the bed was nice and firm, just the way he liked it, and the blankets and sheets were all of satin so that when he tossed and turned, which he always invariably did, they didn't move as much with him. But these were only two of the things that went unnoticed by the SeeD in those moments of pre-wakefulness.

The facts began to filter in as his eyes opened though. Wherever he was, he wasn't outdoors. That was a problem because his last memories had been of being outside fighting odd wolves. With that revelation the SeeD sat bolt upright, reaching around for his weapon, just in case those wolves were still around. Of course the sudden movement only served to make him rather dizzy, and moments later he was lying down once more. Of course the foolish action had provided him with more details. Apparently there had been a wet cloth upon his forehead, which now laid upon the covers before him. What was more, there was a small table beside him with a bowl of water and a bottle of some liquid he couldn't identify from the quick actions.

So Nida just rested there for a while, contenting himself to look around at what was visible from his place. From what he saw this was most definitely not Garden or his own home. The walls were a shade of cream that only hospitals should be able to get away with. There was nothing on the walls, and the singular window was covered by a rather frilly set of white curtains. The only other piece of furniture in the room was a chair placed near the bed. Something about the room radiated comfort and safety despite the emptiness, but the part of Nida that was SeeD was already active. He had to get out of here.

While he was very dizzy, the youth slowly slipped from the bed, making sure not to move too fast or make too much noise. His first thought once he was free from the blankets was the most obvious one he could have, 'where are my clothes'. For indeed, Nida had been stripped almost bare by whoever had brought him to this place, and there was no sign of them in the room. Nor were his boots present, and as there was no closet in this room there was not even that obvious place to search. Carefully the young pilot pulled one of the sheets from the bed and wrapped it around his body. When all else failed, a SeeD improvised.

It wasn't long before Nida heard footsteps on the other side of the closed door that separated the room he was in from whatever else there was here. Still in SeeD-mode, he sunk over and pressed himself up against the wall. If the door was opened, he would be behind it, and would have a chance to capture whoever was coming.

Luckily for whoever was on the other side of the door, the other two parts of Nida's brain that the SeeD side suppressed were becoming rather livid. Had this person, or these persons, not taken him in after he was attacked? Did they not give him shelter and a bed? Was there not food and apparently medication? Had someone not tried to break the fever that he could now undeniably feel? Whoever was on the other side of this piece of wood was trying to nurse him back to health. Surely the bandages he now noted on his arms showed that. And hadn't he seen two of the creatures slain by another source?

This indecision did nothing to help the physical strain already placed upon his body, and tired legs caved beneath him. Of course it didn't get much better from there. As if fate was adding insult to injury, the door was quickly opened as his caretaker came to check on the 'thud', causing the door to open enough to strike his poorly placed head. Arms were flung up, despite the stinging pain that now existed, to cover his head. It hurt, a lot, and this was hardly fair.

"Well…" a feminine voice had been saying as the door opened, but it turned into a horrified gasp as the 'thunk' of wood on head reached her. Nida groaned as the voice, now full volume, added to a headache that had suddenly, and unsurprisingly, sprung to life. Could things get any worse?

"Don't you walk away when I'm fuckin' talkin' to ya Shera!" a voice shouted from the hall. Yes, apparently it could.

The woman shushed the man with a gesture and slowly closed the door so that she could kneel by Nida. Her hands, soft and gentle, peeled his fingers, hands and arms away from a tender head. Nida flinched away from her after a time, but only because her fingers had moved from his forehead to inspect a new source of blood. There was a motherly nature about her and it calmed the SeeD enough that he did not struggle against her. His instincts told him that this woman only intended to help.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" she asked, two fingers flashing before his eyes.

"Two," he said, flinching back from their proximity to his eyes. Relaxed or not he still had reflexes that he was bound to, and fingers close to eyes usually meant an attempt to blind him.

"Well, I suppose that is a good sign," the woman chuckled. "As long as you can pull away like that I can assume your neck isn't broken."

The youth groaned and closed his eyes. Great. Just great. She was going to make jokes about it. That was hardly fair, and reminded him of something Seifer was more than likely to do to him. Then again, the sarcasm would also be a Kiros classic, but that wasn't the point. He just wanted pain killers and to get out of this place…

"I guess it would be best to get you fixed up," the female voice said. After a moment he found himself lifted (but with a grunt) into strong arms. The familiar caressing touch of a sleep spell washed over him, and under his breath he swore as his body caved in to the power of the spell. This was just not fair…

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For the third time Nida awoke to find himself in an unfamiliar place. First he'd been under that tree, then he'd been in that bland room, and now he was awake, eyes open, frowning at yet another room. This one looked, unlike the previous, to be very lived in. There was a shelf at one side, a dresser against a wall, and a large collection of spears against a rack in the corner. What was more, he wasn't alone.

Beside him sat the woman from earlier, a soft smile upon her face. She wasn't anyone he recognized of course. Her hair was brown and rather long, and pulled back into a pony tail. Her clothes were an odd shade of yellow (though not as bright as Selphie's) and over it she wore a lab coat like Doc K always wore. And to top it off, she had glasses almost identical to the ones Quistis was supposed to wear all of the time.

"Well good morning," the woman said, placing her hands to his chest and pushing him back down onto the bed. "Please don't move. You're not completely well yet."

Now that was obvious to Nida, and he wanted to roll his eyes and respond with something like 'I hadn't noticed', but he just couldn't find it in him to do so. She was, after all, a nice looking woman and she was obviously only trying to help. Besides, if it came right down to it, he could probably over power her.

"Where am I?" he said at last, and was rather alarmed at the way his voice just croaked out. It was painful to speak, and that was never a good sign.

"Rocket Town, in the home of Captain Cid Highwind," she said, placing a hand to his forehead to check his temperature.

Nida had never understood it really, just why women did that. There was, after all, a perfectly good thermometer on the table beside her. The read out from that would be far more accurate than any hand, or any GF based scanning spell that could be used to read his state of health. Of course, the chance was that this woman didn't have a GF at her disposal, but he could seem to remember a sleep spell being placed upon him previously. Just who were these people to have the powers of the Guardians at their finger tips anyway? And damnit shouldn't she just be using that thermometer? He'd feel a lot more comfortable without her hands on him...

"Seems that the fever has finally broken. You should be up and about by tomorrow. You had us worried there for a moment. Sleeping for that long. Cid was about to go get a doctor, or at least Tifa."

All through this Nida was pondering the name she had used. Cid was always a familiar name to him, but it was always attached to 'Headmaster' and 'Kramer', not 'Captain' or 'Highwind'. While it was close, it was far from the same thing. The name didn't ring a bell for any active SeeDs either. But such was just another likely fact in his current theory of the world being messed up. Slowly he was building a pretty good case upon that idea. From the stars themselves seeming to plot against him, to the freaky wolves. Nothing was adding up.

"You've been out for nearly two days now you know. I was so sure that I might have hit you far too hard. Cid said that you'd wake up soon enough. Said he'd seen Cloud take far harder hits to the head with no ill effects, but you know, Cloud has a very thick head, not to mention all that hair to protect him…"

He wanted to tell her to shut up. He wanted to glare at her, roll over and go back to sleep. He wanted to do anything but listen to the words of a woman that obviously wanted to talk and could find no one to talk TOO. But here he was, a guest in someone's house, and she had taken care of him, so it seemed a little rude for him to just say something like that. Still, there had to be a way for him to get her to be quiet. Wait… Two days!?

"Two days?" Nida said, panic obvious. Abandoning his duties was bad. Going missing is bad. Abandoning duties by being missing for two days when doing a personal favor to Squall was horrible! There went all his hard work on getting a SeeD rank A.

"Yes. And you'd been out a whole day before you woke up the first time."

Here the young man groaned. It got worse and worse. "I have to get out of here. I have to go back... Squall is going to KILL me…"

The woman frowned and pushed him back down onto the bed as he tried once more to sit up. "If you start running around before you're really ready to do so, I'll rather sure Cid will kill you."

"Is that a threat?" Nida growled, voice low and dangerous. If he was being threatened there was no way at all that he was staying here.

"Does it have to be?" she responded, adjusting her glasses slightly.

"If he's gonna be like that, then just leave him alone Shera," a voice came from the doorway of the room.

Standing there was what was most likely the blue and yellow blur from days before. The man was neither exactly large or small, but he had a presence. He was THERE in the same way the Seifer and Squall always seemed to be THERE, and for both of their reasons. Something about the presence of this man demanded attention and respect, and he radiated both a very fatherly feeling, and a confidence that was undeniably powerful. At least, he did so as long as he wasn't talking, which the man seemed to enjoy.

"Really, he should be thankful that we took his pathetic ass in. Imagine bein' out there with no weaponry! He was askin' for trouble. No wonder those Nibel Hounds attacked like that."

"But he held them off rather well," the woman, Shera, pointed out. "Surely that counts for something Captain."

So this was Captain Highwind. Nida wasn't sure if he should salute or glare the man down for his attitude. After all, who had given the guy permission to rescue him? Nida could have handled all four of those… Nibel Hounds? Odd name really. Odd like Highwind.

And already his mind was back to the man. He could not, of course, be blamed for that. There was that muscled torso just visible under a light blue shirt, the cocky attitude accented by the cigarette sticking out of the corner of his mouth, that stupid smile and the goggles on his head. And those were just the highlights of the man's appearance…

"Excuse me," Nida said, using this chance to sit up once more. "Would someone please tell me what is going on?"

"Actually," Cid responded, turning to glare at him, "I think you're the one that should be explainin' things to us. Like who the hell you are, what the hell you're doin' out here, and why the hell you're givin' Shera a hard time. So you best start talkin' or you ain't gettin' no tea."

While the SeeD didn't understand what kind of threat a lack of tea presented, he had no intention of sharing the truth. For all he knew he was in enemy territory and this was all some ploy. Of course it didn't seem likely, because he hadn't been silenced and he could still sense the gentle, sweet voice of Siren echoing around in that little corner of his mind. Wait… that was it. If Siren was still there he still had his magic. And he was always sure to stock a healthy supply of scan spells. Not only could they help you with dealing with foes, but damned if they hadn't always been useful when he was working on his ships.

Nida grew silent for a moment, calling out to the sweet voice and to his magic. While he watched Cid glaring at him on one plane of existence, he sensed the magic swelling within him upon another. And, after a moment and as Cid was drawing closer to him, the scan spells were located. A hand rose before him and there was a pale blue glow before Nida felt the normal rush of knowledge that came with the spell. And what it told him was almost troubling.

This man before him was strong, very much so. Not up to the level of Squall or Seifer, but probably close to Quistis. Magic was obviously not his strong point, but with the scan came a faint echo of a voice much like Shiva's from a large metal bangle set with gems at the man's wrist. Also was sensed a resistance to fire, something that said this man HAD to have a Guardian with him, but Shiva should be off with Squall, should she not? It made no sense at all.

Neither did Cid's reaction to the scan. The blonde paused, and Nida had to assume he was recoiling at the feel of the spell. Scans were rather intrusive after all. But the bewilderment upon the man's face shouldn't be right. This man should have been able to recognize his SeeD uniform, right? And he would have known that SeeDs always carried GFs with them, even if they were un-junctioned. Something was wrong here, very very wrong.

Cid seemed to realize that too, and the man finished his movement to grab Nida sharply by the wrist. The SeeD allowed the hold, as it wasn't too painful and he could break it any time.

"What the hell was that?!" the man demanded, twisting his arm a bit tighter. "I checked you, and you ain't got no materia on ya. No way in hell you should be able to cast scan."

Reflexes took the place of better judgment and with a single quick movement Nida had reversed the hold, leaving Cid's wrist in his grip and twisted at an angle. Luckily Nida had the advantage of being seated to help him break the grip.

"I don't have any materia, whatever it is. And it would be best if you kept your hands from me, Captain."

The word was full of contempt. Nida obviously didn't feel this man had any right to captaincy if he was going to act like that. Demands were not supposed to be made. Requests were. Orders weren't punctuated by pain unless it was absolutely necessary, and this man hadn't gone by that either. After a moment though, Nida released him. After all, the two of them only wanted answers. Maybe they were going a bit far.

"Fuckin' shit," Cid hissed, pulling away once his wrist was released. Some part of Nida couldn't help but chuckle at the fact that he'd made the man react in such a way. This was obviously a person used to being in charge after all. Everyone could do with a sense of vulnerability once in a while.

"I have a few questions of my own, and I believe they hold precedence over yours, sir. Questions like, where am I, who are you, and why am I in this place?"

Both Cid and the woman Shera were quiet for a moment. That could not be good, Nida decided, because the silence was the tense sort. It was like the sort that came in those daytime dramas Selphie loved, the silences they used when someone made this big revelation but you still have a few seconds to fill before the commercial break. Or like Squall's 'are you kidding me' silence. Except there was no annoyance or amusement in it. It was just… quiet.

"Can you tell me your own name?" Cid asked, after some unspoken agreement was reached between him and the woman.

Considering their reaction to his question, Nida decided it was best not to give the whole truth.

"Nidus," he said after a moment. It was close enough that it wasn't really wrong, and Seifer HAD called him Nids once in a while. And Nidus Nidulus. That was his least favorite. It just made no sense. Irvine said it was a bit fitting though, because Nida would have his head in the clouds a lot, and Nidulus sounded like it should be the name of a cloud.

"And where are you from kid?"

"I'm from Balamb," which was true enough because he didn't know his real home town, "And I'm not a kid. I'm twenty-one."

Again there was the silence and the look between the two people who were obviously older than him. What was wrong about his answer? Surely these people knew where Balamb was. Or maybe this was just more of the world being fucked up…

"I ain't never heard of no Balamb, kid," Cid said after a while. "And I've been all over the world."

"Well," Nida countered, rather annoyed at this point, "I've never heard of a Captain Cid Highwind, and I keep up to date on officers of the military across the world."

The statement was true enough. Nida was supposed to keep up to date with such things, but for all he knew there were some that he missed. There were always those with rank who were retired, promoted on the field of battle, or whose rank was given in secret. This could be one such person. He highly doubted it of course, but nothing was actually impossible.

For a third time the silence came, this time mixed with a bit of anger. Apparently the man didn't like the idea that he wasn't instantly recognized by someone. The woman just seemed worried. Maybe she understood what was going on more than the man did. Who knew really, because Nida sure didn't.

"Ya haven't heard of me? Then what about Barret Wallace?"

Nida shook his head. He'd never met anyone like that, and it had never come up in work.

"Vincent Valentine?"

Again the SeeD shook his head.

"Well damnit kid, do ya at least know Yuffie Kisaragi? She's a fucking princess!"

There were no princesses back where he was from, so Nida could do nothing more than frown in annoyance. Were Squall here there would be a silence a man would have to answer too, and he might have pointed out that he was considered a prince in Esthar because he was Laguna's son. But that wasn't at hand here, was it?

"Shit, I KNOW you've got to know who Cloud Strife is. Spike has saved the world, what is it, three times now?"

Nida sighed. "Can we get to the point or not?"

Cid shook his head and grabbed a cigarette. Despite Nida's glaring at the presence of the thing, Cid lit up and took a puff of the cancer stick. Few people back home smoked, it was a rather reckless thing, it could kill you after all.

"What rock have you been living under for the last three years kid?"

He wanted to say that for the last three years he'd been flying, so no rocks were involved. Instead Nida responded with, "Why are you so shocked I don't know these names?"

"Cause we fuckin' saved the world from Meteor, Geostigma, Omega Weapon, and Sephiroth multiple times!"

Nida perked up. There was finally something he understood. Omega Weapon was the name of that beast Squall and the others had slain in Ultimecia's castle. The greatest foe they had faced. He always loved to hear the story about the powerful being that had nearly destroyed the heroes of the world. Part living animal, part machine, the thing had been unstoppable, until Squall.

But this man was claiming to have had a hand in Omega's defeat, and that couldn't be right. Just another piece of information that didn't seem to fit into what Nida knew of the world. Either someone was playing a damn elaborate prank or…

"What year is this?" he suddenly demanded. It all fit. What if this was the world of the future? Or the past? Odine had been working with time compression after all. Chances were that something had gone wrong and he'd been sent to the wrong time. If it was the future there was a chance of him going back, or at least finding out about what happened to his friends. If it was the past…

"Uh, I think it's about 3 PM now," Cid said, thinking for a moment.

"Not the time," Nida sighed in annoyance.

"No, not in the afternoon. PM means Post Meteor. Man, is something wrong with your brain? You'd have to have been dead or something not to know this shit kid."

Now the expression of the blond brightened. "Wait, Shera… You don't think he's got none of that amnesia shit, do ya?"

"I suppose it is possible Captain, but," Shera began, only to be cut off by the boisterous blond.

"Well then, I guess we best be callin' someone with experience in that stuff. Shera, you go and call Reeve, and I'll handle Vince. Ah hell, just call 'em all up. We can make a bit of a reunion out of it, bahamut knows Yuffie's been gunnin' for one."

Nida looked on in bewilderment as Cid continued his conversation with himself. It was as if the man had managed to put the presence of both of them out of his mind. Not that it was surprising. It always seemed the blonds had the ability to do that so much better than other people. They seemed only to only recognize themselves. This man was a lot like Seifer.

"Well Nidus, you're in for a treat. You're going to get to meet the saviors of the world," Cid chuckled, turning and heading out of the room without giving the SeeD a chance to respond.

"Wait…" Nida said, moving to get up, only to be head back by Shera.

"Rushing after him will get you no where," the woman said. "And you're not exactly strong enough to get anything more than that from him. Here, I have some soup for you. I think it's about time you got something into your stomach."

When she held out the bowl Nida was going to refuse, until that was, his stomach protested very loudly. A faint blush reached his cheeks and he accepted the food. "Thank you Mrs. Highwind."

The woman laughed, "Oh no, I'm not Mrs. Highwind. My name is Shera. Cid only acts as if he's my husband. And someone has to take care of him."

That he could understand very well. "Well, I thank you for helping me."

"Don't thank me," she said, standing and still smiling softly. "Cid is the one that saw you being attacked by those Nibel Hounds. He's the one that saved you. I only fixed you up."

With that Nida was left alone in the room with his bowl of soup. The door closed behind the woman as she left and silence filled the room again. The young SeeD just looked down at his bowl of soup and frowned. Squall and his friends had saved the world, together, and he'd helped them. But it was becoming more and more obvious that he wasn't in that world he had known anymore. Just when, or where, he was at the moment was a mystery. Nothing was certain at all. So what was he supposed to do?

Logic said that he should try to lay low and gain knowledge of the land and the people until he could contact base. Paranoia said that he was never going to get back home because these people were going to kill him. His heart, though, said that maybe, just maybe, he should take a step back for a moment and figure out a plan of action. There was no way of knowing if he could go home after all, especially if he had ended up in the past. For all he knew he was back in a time before the success and fall of Centra. A part of him that was a historian really liked that idea, but another part said that wasn't likely. Some of the stars should still look the same that far back, right?

What was he supposed to do now?