A/N: Cap'n, AiH, anyone else still reading…I apologize for the long wait! Gomennasai!
It must have been about midnight when Inwë woke up. Stars shone brightly overhead and there was a warm breeze whispering through the trees. The authoress remained curled up, her cloak wrapped around her like a blanket, and blinked sleepily as she tried to remember what had woken her. The wind ruffled her hair and a few strands tickled her cheek, waking her up more. She brushed her unruly hair out of her face and sat up slowly. Amaya was snoozing peacefully on a bedroll next to her. Aki, who was bunked on Inwë's other side, muttered something in her sleep and rolled over. Everything seemed quiet. No, that wasn't right…there were low murmurs coming from by the campfire. The authoress peered at the shadowy figures gathered around the fire. She could just make out Cloud's silhouette – his spiky hair made him easy to spot – sitting with his back to her on one side of the fire. Another person sat next to him, and voices could be heard. Inwë decided to creep closer and hear what was being said. She quietly slipped as near to the fire as she dared. Sure enough, Vincent, Sirius, Hatori, Norrington, Cloud, Reno, Rude, and Tifa were all seated in a ring around the flames. Inwë covered her mouth with one hand to prevent a squeal of delight from escaping her. Rude was relating some sort of event to the others. Even in the pitch-black night, he was still wearing his sunglasses.
"We saw them when we were trying to catch up to you. Beckett, Sephiroth, and a third man I didn't recognize, all headed this way. Beckett brought a dozen soldiers with him. Sephiroth is alone," he reported in his manner-of-fact voice. Tifa nodded grimly to confirm what the Turk said. Vincent stood up and started pacing.
"This third man…what did he look like?" he asked Rude and Tifa in a low voice. When Rude didn't say anything, Tifa began to speak.
"I didn't get a good look at him. He wears some sort of helmet...and he sounded kind of strange. He has an odd accent. I think he might be a mage or something like that." Norrington sighed deeply.
"What is your plan of action?" he inquired of the others. Cloud stared moodily into the fire.
"Tifa. I want you and the Turks to go home," he stated simply. Tifa let out a furious gasp.
"What? And let you fight Sephiroth alone? No way!"
"Yeah, and who put you in charge?" Reno added angrily, "Rude and I ain't goin' anywhere with that freak Sephiroth on the loose." Cloud and Reno started arguing.
"Fighting with each other isn't going to help!" Tifa growled.
"Tifa's right," Hatori agreed solemnly, "We need to figure out a plan quickly. I for one say we should send the kids home. This is getting to be too dangerous."
"What about Inwë?" Norrington asked.
"It was her powers that were stolen," Rude pointed out. Inwë chewed on her fingernails nervously as she listened from behind a tree. She frowned slightly as she noticed Sirius was no longer in the group. Where was he? A low growl from behind her answered. In a second Inwë found herself on the ground in front of the adults. They all stared at her as Sirius trotted back to his seat.
"Konbanwa," Inwë muttered. Vincent grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet.
"Well, now I suppose all chance of the teens being tricked into leaving the dimension is long gone," he commented dryly. Inwë grinned at him.
"Yep, sorry guys. I'm not going anywhere. Though Hatori," she added, "You might want to send Yuki home. I could hear him coughing in his sleep all the way on the other side of the camp." Hatori nodded sadly.
"I'm sending Kyo and Yuki home in the morning. I'm responsible for their well-being and I can't justify letting them stay here. I think you and your friends should at least think about joining them," he replied. Inwë scratched the back of her head. He did have a point – her friends at least should not have been involved in this. The authoress was going to see the adventure through to the end if it killed her, but she couldn't asked her friends to do the same.
"I'll talk to them," she agreed after a minute. Just then there was rustling in the bushes. Cloud instinctively grabbed his sword, Vincent pulled out his gun, and Reno snatched up his fight stick. A moment later Raven stepped out of the trees.
"Sirius and I are leaving first thing in the morning," she announced bluntly. Inwë's jaw dropped.
"But…but…but…!" she stammered.
"I'm sorry, Inwë, but things are just too dangerous. If Beckett and the others get your powers first, everything will be destroyed. If Sirius and I go now we might have a chance elsewhere. Right now we're obsolete."
"What…do you mean?" Inwë asked carefully. Raven smiled at her sadly.
"I mean that even if Beckett gets your powers, there's only so much damage he can do before Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney decide to sue him. But Sirius and I? No one cares. Sirius is supposed to be dead, and you know as well as I that my producers care nothing for me," she ended bitterly. Inwë's lower lip trembled and she hugged her friend. The half-demon looked rather shocked before she pushed the authoress away. Sirius walked over and gave Inwë a broad grin by way of comfort. It didn't help much.
"It's settled. Inwë, go wake your friends and decide what you're going to do. Remind them that I think you should all leave and let the adults handle this," Cloud ordered her shortly. The Elf glared at him and stalked off to talk to her friends. Once Inwë had related the various bits of information, they were all adamant. They were staying.
The group tried to get a few more precious hours of sleep before dawn arrived. Inwë had almost constant nightmares that kept waking her up, so she didn't take it well when Cloud poked her with his sword again. Luckily for him, the authoress was far too miserable to risk damaging her relationship with her friends again; otherwise the swordsman would have been chewed out a second time. The assembly groggily put together some sort of breakfast before getting ready to scale the hills. After an hour, they were ready to go. With heavy hearts they bid four of their companions good-bye. Inwë and Amaya lingered on the path while the others started climbing, watching as Raven and the other three vanished into the gloom of the forest.
"What happens if they run into Sephiroth?" Amaya wondered aloud. Inwë shook her head.
"Raven can teleport, but…"
"But you and I both know that Sephiroth is out of everyone's league."
"Yeah. That." The two teens sighed deeply and started to climb the hill.
After two hours of steady climbing, Cloud and the others decided they needed a break. The teenagers collapsed in an exhausted heap and gladly accepted the water canteens Reno handed out. The Turk smiled at them and sat down on a rock a few yards away.
"Hey, Val," he said after the girls had finished sucking down water, "Who do you think this third guy is?" Inwë glanced up and gave him a furious look.
"Reno. Do not call me 'Val'. It's degrading."
"What?" Reno protested, "You're a Vala, ain't ya?"
"Heh. In my head."
"Didn't Cloud over there say somethin' like that?" Inwë's friends all snickered as she tried to decide how best to answer that.
"Maybe. But that's not the point," she added quickly, "My point is, please don't use a stupid nickname form of 'Vala' when talking to me. Only the Mouth of Sauron –." The authoress broke off suddenly as she realized something. Her friends immediately noticed the change and eyed her nervously.
"Suzume-san? What's the matter?" Amaya asked her. The Elf shook her head slowly.
"I just…I don't know. The third man, didn't Tifa say he wore a kind of helmet and spoke with a weird accent?"
"Yeah," Reno agreed. He tipped his head slightly to one side and stared at Inwë curiously.
"Oh no!" Aki suddenly exclaimed, "Please don't tell me the Mouth of Sauron is grouping up with Beckie and Sephiroth!" Everyone was silent for a few moments. Just then, a flock of birds flew up from the trees only about a mile from where their campsite had been. Reno almost fell off the rock he was sitting on.
"Damn. They're getting' close!" he growled. Vincent shot Cloud a look, and the swordsman nodded.
"Ok, let's go. We'll have to hurry if we want to reach the top of the hill be nightfall."
"Actually," said the Voice of Reason from overhead, "If the hilltop is your goal, you're better off just staying where you are. You'll never find the authoress' powers from up there." Inwë instinctively reached for a sword that didn't exist. She sighed and pouted, watching as Cloud, Vincent, the Turks, and Norrington all got ready for some sort of fight.
"Voice!" Inwë called angrily, "I swear if you weren't somehow working for Aerith, I'd kill you right here and now!" Cloud turned his head sharply to stare at the authoress. Oh, so he hadn't known about it after all. Amaya and the others eyed their friend suspiciously.
"Hmm. And how would you do that, o-weaponless-one?" the Voice snapped airily. Inwë stood up and shook her fist at the sky.
"I would rip your sorry carcass out of whatever alternate dimension you're hiding in and thrash you soundly, that's how!" she yelled. She felt a hand on her shoulder and was surprised to see Vincent standing next to her. As usual, he did not look amused. Well, maybe just a little, but only because Inwë was funny when she ranted.
"Why shouldn't we go to the summit? Did you set some kind of trap for us?" the undead Turk growled at the Voice. The Voice let out a low whimper.
"No, no I didn't set any trap! But just think about it! You're looking for a pendant, a necklace, in the middle of a jungle. It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack. That, and the vulture already returned to the Mouth's service. It dropped the pendant somewhere on the way. It could be literally anywhere." The group sighed deeply. This mission was starting to look hopeless.
"What do you suggest?" Hatori inquired. The Voice pondered for a minute before answering.
"I say you should all surrender, beg for mercy, and pray Lord Beckett and Sephiroth only decides to kill a few of you," it replied in a dead serious voice. Inwë let out a low growl of rage and tried to lunge at – well, at nothing in particular. Vincent kept a firm grip on her shoulder and prevented her from going anywhere.
"It has a point."
"No it bloody doesn't!" Aki and Shaedan snarled in unison. Inwë grinned proudly at her friends.
"Sorry, Vincent, this time my friends are right. Beckett wants us all dead. He has no use for any of us." Vincent shrugged and released his hold on the authoress' shoulder.
"Ok, so aside from giving up, do you have any good ideas?" Reno wondered, staring at the sky. The Voice snorted.
"Well…Inwë should be able to locate her own powers from anywhere. They're a part of her, just as every author or authoress has powers that are a part of them. Being without powers is like being without a muse."
"Idiot, I am without a muse. It'll be a miracle if I haven't lost all my writing abilities," Inwë muttered. The Voice ignored her.
"How can Inwë locate her powers?" Cloud asked politely enough. The Voice coughed slightly.
"Well…I think all she has to do is concentrate on thinking about the pendant. I'm really not sure. No authoress has ever lost her powers before! We Voices are only taught so much before we're assigned positions." Inwë moaned.
"Are you saying I was assigned this pompous windbag? It never gave me any good advice anyways!" The Voice let out a gasp.
"How dare you? I am the one who prevented your characters from becoming Sues!"
"This sounds too much like a Sue story as it is. Some help you've been."
"More help than you've been. Without me you never would have arrived here in the first place."
"Without your help maybe we wouldn't need to be here! You sent the damn vulture. The Mouth of Sauron's damn vulture, too," Inwë added with a furious glance at the base of the hill. Reno shook his head and glanced at Rude, whose expression was next to impossible to read.
"If that's all you've got to say, how 'bout if Inwë starts concentrating on findin' her pendant?" Reno snapped. The authoress gave him an angry glare and sat down again. She took several deep, calming breaths and closed her eyes. She pictured the pendant. It was silver and in the shape of a crescent moon, overall a very plain trinket. She remembered how the light had reflected off of it, how the elegant silver chain had felt in her hand, how delicate it had seemed. She remembered rummaging through her old jewelry box, looking for something to give her muse. Most of the pieces in the box were just junk…except for the one necklace. For some reason her fingers had brushed against it, and she knew at once that that pendant would get her muse out of her dark corner.
Aki suddenly gasped. Reno let out a low, surprised whistle. Inwë slowly opened her eyes and looked around. Over on the other side of the hill, in the forest, a bright white gleam could be seen. It looked like a huge diamond reflecting the light. The authoress stood up and sighed in wonder.
"There you are."
A/N: I dedicate this chapter to Authoressinhiding, who pestered me to update, and Captain MeraSparrow, who actually reads this stuff and retains what's left of her sanity XD.