A/N: Teehee listening to One-Winged Angel while I write this. Dunno how it'll affect my muse (or lack thereof), so be warned.

Inwë smiled grimly at her powers glimmering down on the other side of the hill. It was at least another day's hike, maybe two, but it was there. Cloud and the others were huddled together, discussing how to reach the powers quickly and with minimal hassle. Meanwhile, Amaya had her spyglass out and was watching the progress of the enemy group. Thanks to her they had confirmed the Mouth of Sauron's presence as well as the number of troops accompanying Beckett. The coward didn't seem comfortable traveling with any less than twenty soldiers; that, or he obviously didn't trust Sephiroth or the Mouth, which showed more common sense than Inwë wanted to give him credit for.

"Suzume-san! Come and have a look at this!" Amaya called from her station on a ledge. Inwë pulled herself out of her thoughts and jogged over to her friend.

"What's up?" she asked with a nervous glance at the base of the hill. Her friend handed her the telescope and pointed. Squinting, the authoress peered down at their enemies. She could just make out Sephiroth, Beckett, and the Mouth. They were having some sort of argument – or rather, Beckett was arguing with both the Mouth and Sephiroth, who seemed to be listening calmly to his ranting.

"What do you think the problem is?" Amaya inquired slyly. Inwë smiled slightly.

"Knowing these guys? Could be anything. I think Beckett is losing control of the situation and sees Sephiroth and the Mouth as threats."

"That should be good for us, right?"

"Maybe not. Beckett, the little weasel, usually seems to keep his cool when he's scared. If he's this flustered, either he's in a real rage or he's scared stiff of something. I don't care for the situation. Any attempt to storm the caves could turn into an ambush," Inwë quoted abruptly. Amaya just shook her head and sighed. Norrington, upon hearing his own words spoken by a partially insane teenage girl, turned around sharply and glared in her general direction. It was the first time in a few days that she had directly quoted anyone from Pirates of the Caribbean. The Commodore had been hoping her exposure to the Final Fantasy VII characters had finally snapped her out of her Pirates obsession. Apparently he had been wrong.

"All right, everyone," Cloud said loudly. The teenagers scrambled to get in a group so they could hear what the "adults" had to say.

"Normally," Tifa explained, "We could probably just trek down to the bottom of the hills, but since we have company, we have to be more cautious. We don't know if Sephiroth and the others have seen Inwë's powers yet, or even if they know we're here. We have to hurry if we want to beat them to the powers. That means we travel all day, take breaks every hour or so, and only stop to make camp and get something to eat. We only stop to make camp when it's too dark to keep going, and we get up as soon as it's light enough to see the path."

"There's a full moon tonight," Aki pointed out. The teens groaned. They did not want to spend the next day or two without sleep. Reno gave them a you-are-so-lucky-I-don't-feel-like-beating-you-for-insubordination look. Sakura stuck out her tongue at him. The Turk made a face behind Cloud's back, which caused Sakura and Aki to dissolve into a fit of giggles. Cloud just stared at them blankly, wondering what was so funny. Tifa shot Reno a dark look and sighed at his immaturity.

"Don't worry," she added loudly so that the teens would pay attention, "We'll stop to rest for at least three hours every night, regardless of the light. I grew up in Nibelheim and worked as a mountain guide. I know how hard it is to keep going without sleep." Amaya and Inwë exchanged glances, both remembering certain past events.

Six and a half grueling hours later, the exhausted group pitched their tents and boiled water for a late dinner – the last of the potatoes and some tough beef jerky. Someone had had the foresight to pack a loaf of bread, so the meal was rescued from being utterly wretched and wound up as just bad. The only thing that could have made it tolerable was something that would have spoiled on the trip – butter. Fortunately there was a spring of clean water nearby, so everyone got something to drink.

"…So Tseng, Elena, and I were just chillin' in the local bar, celebrating my return to active duty," Reno explained. It was after dinner, and he was talking about the time Cloud had accidentally walked into a bar where the three Turks – his enemies at the time – were having a few drinks together.

"And then what happened?" Aki asked, a broad grin on her face. Cloud was sulking on the other side of the fire. He didn't look too happy that Reno had chosen that particular event to retell.

"Well, we were jus' minding our own business when this little runt of a Shinra guard came in. He kept his helmet on the whole time, so we had no idea who it was. I didn' think he was old enough to drink. I was way off. Turns out it was Cloud the whole time. Lucky for him that none of us recognized 'im," he chuckled. Cloud shot him a death glare.

"You were so drunk that it was a wonder you even recognized each other," the swordsman muttered irritably. Reno stared at him indignantly.

"I wasn't drunk!"

"He wasn't," Inwë agreed, "I remember." The Turks, Cloud, Tifa, and Vincent all gave her odd looks. The authoress blushed.

"Oh…I wasn't there…right. Sorry, I forgot." She proceeded to mutter something about remembering not to remember things. Amaya and Shaedan snickered.

"So," Shaedan yawned, "Should we get some sleep now?" Everyone agreed and scrambled to get their bedrolls and blankets out. Rude coughed to get their attention.

"We should have two sentries. We don't want to be surprised by any unwelcome guests," he growled. Inwë tentatively raised her hand.

"I'll stay up!" she volunteered, "I can never sleep at night anyway." Reno pretended to yawn and stretch, looked up at the sky, and sighed.

"I guess I'll stay up too. No real point in goin' to sleep if we're gettin' up again in a couple o' hours," he offered with a slightly grumpy glance at the teenagers. With that settled, Inwë bid her friends goodnight and grabbed her cloak. Nights on the hills were chilly even in summer, and she always got cold very easily. Reno trudged up the path a little ways until he came to a comfortable rock ledge. From there he could see the camp almost perfectly. The only problem was, Inwë had beaten him to it. She blinked slowly at the Turk, realized she had stolen his idea, and grinned evilly.

"This seat's taken, mate." Reno stared at the teenager, unsure of what to say. In a moment he shrugged, climbed up next to her, and sat down a comfortable distance away. The two of them didn't say anything for several minutes, until Inwë shot him a curious look.

"So…Reno."

"Yeah, Val?"

"Are you really the fastest Turk?" Reno gave her an odd look.

"Who told you that? I mean," he added, "Yeah, I'm the fastest Turk."

"And Rude is the strongest."

"Yeah, he likes to think so." Inwë stifled a snort.

"Why are you asking me stupid questions like that?" Reno inquired. The authoress shrugged.

"After being pirates, my friends and I all agree we want to be Turks. I was just curious. I've read a lot about you guys, but most of what I know about you as people is stuff I've gathered from a hundred different sources. I don't even know if most of it is true."

"Like…?"

"For instance," Inwë continued eagerly, "Your markings…are they scars or tattoos?" Reno lifted a hand to his cheekbone and ran a finger over the red mark there.

"Well…" He stopped short and held up a hand for silence. Inwë cocked her head to one side and listened. She could just make out the sound of footsteps. She froze. Were they being ambushed? Reno silently reached for his EMR (electromagnetic rod). The authoress held her breath and wished she had thought to get herself some sort of weapon.

"Run," Reno whispered.

"What?" Inwë hissed. The Turk glared at her.

"You heard me. I said run!" The authoress opened her mouth to argue that she was no coward, but then she thought of her friends and the others. They were all probably still asleep. If Inwë and Reno got taken out, then no one would be there to warn them. Inwë gave her Turk friend one last, pained smile and then bolted. She heard an angry yell that she knew had not come from Reno. She kept running.

Inwë skidded to a halt before she crashed face-first into the bed of coals that still burned in the center of the camp. Rude, Vincent, and Cloud were all awake in a flash.

"What's going on?" Cloud demanded sharply. The authoress gasped for breath and pointed towards where she had left Reno.

"Reno and I…on guard duty…heard someone…told me to warn you…" she panted. The others got the message and grabbed their weapons. Cloud put Inwë in charge of waking the others up before he and the other two ran off to help Reno. The authoress first went to shake Norrington and Hatori into consciousness. As soon as they understood what was going on, they headed up the path after Cloud. Inwë looked around wildly for some sort of weapon so she could go and fight too, but by then Tifa and her friends were awake.

"Let them handle this," Tifa told the authoress sternly.

"But I left him up there! I have to help him!" Inwë protested while she rummaged in her pack for the pocketknife she had been using to cut up her beef jerky and peel potatoes.

"Reno will be fine. Honestly, do you think any soldiers would be able to take him on?"

"Sephiroth might," the Elf argued lamely. Tifa patted her on the back and set to work organizing the other teens enough so that they could keep watch. It was too dangerous for them to go running after the guys, considering the only skilled fighter in the group was Tifa.

They waited more or less patiently for ten minutes before they heard someone coming. Tifa was on her guard, but Inwë was too worried about Reno and the others to be cautious.

"Reno? Cloud? Norrington?" she called as she jogged towards the approaching person.

"Inwë! Get back here!" Tifa yelled.

"Suzume!" Aki growled. The authoress ignored them. She stopped when she got close to the person. He was hidden mostly in the shadows, but Inwë could tell it was a man.

"Cloud? Vincent?" she asked nervously.

"Hm. You really are rather stupid." Inwë backed away very quickly as she recognized the voice. The man slowly stepped out of the gloom. The moonlight reflected off his silver hair and the blade of his katana. His bright, cat-like eyes glowed softly in the darkness. Inwë bit back a terrified scream. She heard more footsteps behind her as Tifa and her friends ran up. The authoress didn't look at them, she just stared at Sephiroth.

"Run."

A/N: Oh...so that's what listening to One-Winged Angel does to my muse...