A/N: I know, I know, one can only have so many cliffhangers in one story. I apologize. Take heart, my friends. Soon it will be over. Well, at least until the sequel.
Inwë found herself in a tunnel of darkness. Her thoughts were blurred and her vision continued to fade in and out. It felt like a dream, with no clear border between reality and fiction. There was nothing to do but head deeper into the tunnel. Once or twice the authoress thought she saw a black wolf with bright blue eyes appear on the path ahead. Whenever she saw it she hurried forward, but when she got closer it had disappeared.
After what felt like hours of wandering the darkness, Inwë collapsed and buried her face in one hand. She was lost, it seemed, in every sense of the word. I have to be dead. There's no other explanation. But why am I trapped in darkness? The authoress sighed sadly and looked around. Everything around her was still covered in shadows.
"Can you see the light?" asked a strange voice. Inwë whirled, looking wildly around for the speaker. She was completely alone.
"Who are you? What do you want?" she demanded.
"Can you see the light?" the voice repeated, "It's calling you, but something's getting in its way. Can't you feel it?" Inwë stood up and looked around.
"Light?" she wondered aloud. There was a low whine behind her, and she turned. The black wolf from before was sitting and watching her.
"Sirius?" she inquired uncertainly. The wolf stared at her with his bright, clear blue eyes. Human eyes. Inwë gasped and knelt down so she was eye level with the mysterious wolf. She slowly reached out a hand to pet him.
"Zack…?" Just before her fingers could brush against his coat, the wolf vanished. Bright, blinding light flooded the tunnel way. Inwë screamed and put her hands over her eyes, shielding them from the sudden brilliance. Eventually her eyes adjusted to the light and she lowered her hands. She could vaguely hear sounds around her, snatches of conversation, and the sound of the ocean.
"Can you see the light?" asked the unknown voice once more, before it faded away. Inwë tried to walk around but found herself unable to move. She felt her eyelids growing heavy, and she slowly closed them…
"Do you think she'll wake up?" inquired a calm voice.
"I don't know. For her friends' sakes, I hope she does," sighed a second.
"Things haven't turned out well so far. She's been out cold for three days," replied the same calm voice.
"I admit, there is the possibility that she won't recover. If her condition doesn't change soon…" There was a pause.
"Should we tell her friends?" asked the calm voice, "They've been through a lot together. They have the right to know if she's going to die or not." Inwë groaned slightly and struggled to open her eyes so she could see who was talking about her.
"Hey! Val's awake!" exclaimed a third voice. There was the sound of a chair sliding back quickly and two pairs of footsteps approaching. Inwë managed to open her eyes a little. Reno was standing next to her bed, staring down at her with an excited look on his face. Hatori suddenly appeared and frowned at the authoress. He put a hand on her forehead to check her temperature.
"You don't have a fever anymore. That's good," he informed her with a tired sigh.
"What…where are we?" Inwë murmured.
"The beach. There's a comfortable house here that's been hidden away from the rest of the continent," Vincent, the calm speaker, told her.
"Mmm…the beach…is there rum?" Reno chuckled.
"Yep, she's feelin' better."
"No thanks to ye, Reno," the authoress muttered, "Now, did you get my friends back in one piece? And what about Cloud, is he okay?"
"Your friends are fine. We could barely get them to leave your side. Sakura was here a moment ago, but we forced her to get herself some lunch. As for Cloud, he's conscious but still in rough shape. Tifa's with him now," Hatori said as he eyed Inwë with concern.
"What?" Inwë asked him suspiciously.
"You do realize you should be dead right now, don't you?" Reno interjected before Hatori could speak. Both of them gave the Turk dark looks.
"Yes. I should be dead. Why am I not dead?" Inwë asked no one in particular.
"I'm not sure," Hatori replied, "When we found you, you had a white glow around you. It wouldn't let anyone touch you, so I wasn't able to check you for injury. However, since you seem to be in good health and spirits, I'll spare you the physical and let you check yourself over for wounds."
"Thanks." Inwë suddenly started coughing. Hatori grimaced slightly.
"I was afraid of this. Since you came so close to dying, I think your immune system took a heavy blow. Whenever you're in the realms, you're probably going to have a bad cough or other cold symptoms."
"Lovely."
"Aw, it ain't that bad, Val," Reno teased, "You could have been a lot worse off." Vincent rolled his eyes and Inwë gave Reno a blank look. The Turk grinned roguishly and headed out the door.
"I'll let everyone know you're not dead," he called over his shoulder.
"SUZUME-CHAN!" yelled four voices just as Reno stepped into the hallway. The Turk was almost barreled over by Inwë's friends, who all attempted to tackle her.
"Easy, mates. I'm still not feeling so hot," she warned them half-heartedly.
"You scared us half to death! Never ever do that again!" Shaedan ordered sharply. Inwë raised an eyebrow.
"I scared you half to death? I'm not the one who got kidnapped by Sephiroth."
"Yeah, but we're not the ones who almost died!" Aki snarled. Inwë waved off the comment loftily.
"Trifles."
"Ehem," Hatori said airily (a rather disturbing tone for him), "Before you start celebrating, I would like to point out that Inwë hasn't had a change of clothes in four days, and she's covered in blood. You smell."
"Meanie!" Inwë whined, offended at being told she was smelly. However, one look at her blood-soaked shirt and she was more than willing to take a shower.
The authoress felt better after a nice cold rinse. The blood in her hair had been difficult to get out, and she would need to cut it when she got back home. Still, she was clean and alive, and even got a change of clothes as an added bonus. While she was dressing she eyed herself in the bathroom mirror. Sure enough, there was a thin scar just below her rib cage, mirrored by one on her back. It had the grayish half-healed look of a Morgul wound and still felt a bit sore, but it wasn't bleeding. Another scar and another story to add to the collection, Inwë thought with a grim smile. Most of the "scars" she had weren't visible unless she was in Middle-earth, but she had a feeling this one wouldn't fade away.
Inwë's next order of business was touring the strange house and finding and/or locating in her discovery a way to get some delicious island cuisine. In other words, she was looking for the kitchen. On the way she discovered that the house contained several bedrooms, the largest of which was being shared by her friends. She found Reno and Rude snoozing away in their respective hammocks in the room they were sharing with Hatori. Vincent, it turned out, hadn't stayed the night in the house the whole time; he was always off somewhere else by himself, which didn't surprise Inwë much. The next stop was (finally) the kitchen. It was large, with screen doors lining the walls and leading to the porch outside. The sunlight glittered off the sea, creating a spectacular view that Inwë would have appreciated if she had not been too busy making herself a roast beef sandwich. Her friends filed into the room just as she was sitting down to enjoy her meal at the counter.
"This place is gorgeous, isn't it?" Shaedan asked with a grin as she peered out at the beach. Inwë's mouth was stuffed, so she just nodded. Amaya, being her typical self, sat down at the end of the counter and sipped on a glass of water without comment. Aki and Sakura sighed deeply as they stared out at the beach with wistful expressions. Inwë couldn't be certain, but she could have sworn they exchanged evil grins with one another. She decided to be on guard from now on.
"So…where'd the food come from?" the authoress asked once she'd swallowed her food and was capable of speech again.
"Reno and Rude brought it. Didn't you notice the beer bottles in the fridge? I thought for sure that'd give them away…" Amaya said half to herself.
"Oh."
"Are you feeling ok? Hatori said you shouldn't overexert yourself," Shaedan scolded mildly.
"Yes, because if you do, you will die! You will die a slow and horrible death, from which there is no escape! Blood! MUHAHAHA!" Aki said randomly. Everyone promptly collapsed into fits of laughter. Inwë started coughing after a minute, and they stopped smiling.
"Are you really always going to get sick while you're in the realms?" Sakura wondered.
"Hatori thinks so."
"That's horrible," Amaya said grimly, "I wish there was something we could do, but…" Inwë smiled sympathetically and waved off the offer.
"Think of it as a penalty for getting myself so close to dying."
"You weren't that badly hurt," Sakura sniffed.
"Yeah, she was," the other three friends chorused. Inwë snickered. That was how she and her comrades were – they laughed off the threat of death and made a joke out of it. It was the only way to prevent them all from slipping into angst (which they often did anyway). Speaking of angst…
"Hey…where's Norrington? He didn't get hurt, did he?" Inwë asked nervously.
"He's fine. He's the one who found you!" Shaedan answered brightly. The authoress made a mental note to thank him later. She sighed contently as she downed a glass of milk and burped.
"Pardon me," she muttered, "It's not like I've eaten in three days." Inwë turned and squinted at Sakura, Aki, and Shaedan.
"By the way, you three…those dogs of Shinra didn't hurt you, did they?" she demanded.
"Nah," Aki replied, "They wouldn't dare. Sephiroth and the Mouth would have murdered them."
"Those two would have murdered them just for fun, so I'm going to believe you," Inwë sighed.
"Behold! It is I, the Voice of Reason!" Inwë and the others scrambled about for weapons that didn't exist. The authoress suddenly remembered her powers and snapped her fingers. There was a shriek from the Voice and a small white rabbit appeared on the counter. It had adorable huge brown eyes and soft white fur. Inwë looked disgusted.
"Ugh. I despise such misleading appearances," she snapped. Aki looked like she was in heaven.
"It's cute! It looks like Momiji!" she cooed.
"Don't be fooled. It's as evil as Fritzwilliam," Inwë warned her. Aki pouted while Amaya and Sakura had adopted evil and hopeful grins.
"Can we kill it?" they asked in unison. The Voice (or should it be the Rabbit?) whimpered softly. It stared at the authoress with a pitiful look in its eyes. Inwë snapped her fingers again. Nothing happened.
"Damn," she murmured, "I was hoping that was just a disguise. Whose idea was it to have that be your true form?" The Voice-Rabbit's nose twitched.
"I thought it was cute."
"Think again – though, hang on. Are you a girl or a guy? A girl could get away with saying that's cute, but a guy…"
"Voices don't have genders."
"Right," Inwë said, "Well, I swore I'd have my vengeance. Cloud's bedridden 'cause of you, I almost died, my friends were all kidnapped, and you knowingly endangered canon characters." The Voice started bawling. Inwë glared at it, hesitating. Aki did have a point…it was kind of cute…
"No! I will not give in to the fluffy cuteness!" the authoress yelped. She sat back down at the counter and concentrated on remembering every single evil thing the Voice had done during the course of the adventure. Without opening her eyes, she zapped the Voice straight into the dungeons below her house, where she also kept Umbridge and a Sue she had captured and intended to study (once it had stopped screaming for its precious Legolas to come and save it, that is). Grinning broadly, the authoress turned to her friends.
"I shall put an electric collar on that thing and zap it repeatedly when we get home. I can just see it bouncing off the walls…"
"Don't get carried away, Val." The teens all jumped and stared at Reno, who had just groggily wandered into the kitchen and was now rummaging through the fridge for a beer.
"You shouldn't be drinking this early in the day," Amaya pointed out. Reno shrugged.
"I'm off duty."
"Pfft. How do we know Rufus didn't send you on this crazy trip?" Inwë inquired. The Turk gave her an unpleasant grin.
"Rufus would never send two of his best bodyguards on a suicidal mission."
"Yeah, he would," Inwë answered grimly, "You know he would. If it's in his best interest, he'll do anything." Reno gave her an odd look.
"You really hate him, don't ya?" Inwë didn't answer.
"Whether or not Rufus sent you, you still shouldn't drink in a house full of teenagers. It sets a bad example," Shaedan pointed out in an attempt to divert the conversation away from Inwë's vendettas.
"As if any of us would start drinking just because he does," Amaya snorted proudly. There was a pop and a fizzing noise. Everyone turned and stared at the authoress, who was sipping out of what looked like a beer bottle.
"INWË!" they yelled in shock and horror.
"What? It's root beer! Try some if you don't believe me," she retorted coolly. Amaya glared at her, grabbed the bottle, tried a sip, and handed it back.
"Root beer," she assured the others. Inwë smirked smugly as she wiped off the bottle to remove any "Amaya germs". Reno stalked out of the room.
"You people are too loud. I'm gonna drink this outside," he called over his shoulder. Aki eyed him mischievously.
"Let's go into his room and put superglue in his shoes," she suggested half-jokingly.
"Aki, Rude's in there. We'd never get away with it," Inwë reminded her sternly. Aki sighed unhappily.
"What's the point of having the Turks around if you can't pull pranks on them?" she wondered aloud.
"Well…they are good bodyguards…" Sakura said thoughtfully. Inwë groaned.
"I'm going to check on Cloud and then hunt down the Commodore. Anyone care to join me?" she asked, gulping down some more of her root beer and shooting her friends a quizzical look. They all volunteered.
Cloud's room was surprisingly hard to find. They spent fifteen minutes searching the house and ended up in Reno's room twice, their own room three times, and the kitchen once more. Finally someone had the sense to wake Rude up and ask him. Aside from the deathglare they received, there were no negative effects from waking him up. Once they had directions it only took about five minutes to find what they were looking for. They quietly rounded a corner and came across the open door of Cloud's room. Tifa was sitting in a comfy armchair on one side of the room, while Cloud was dozing on the bed in the opposite corner. Inwë tentatively knocked on the door. Tifa looked up sharply.
"Oh, you're awake too! That's great," she exclaimed. Inwë smiled and glanced at Cloud.
"How is he?" she asked, trying to keep the worry out of her tone.
"He'll be fine once he starts resting a little more. Right now he just wants to be up and about. You know Cloud," Tifa sighed. The authoress rolled her eyes.
"He can be such an idiot sometimes. But seriously, how badly was he hurt? The last time I saw him he was unconscious."
"A few cracked ribs and lots of cuts and bruises. The usual. Though," Tifa added, "this time was pretty bad. Good thing we had Hatori, right?" Her attempt at an optimistic smile was valiant but unconvincing. Amaya shook her head sadly.
"We should be going. Inwë needs her rest, too," she said quietly. Inwë gave her a bewildered look but nodded and followed her friends back to their room.
"He'll be all right, really he will," Amaya reassured the authoress as soon as they had shut the door, "But Tifa always worries about him so much…it's tiring her out. When I said you needed rest, I really meant she needed rest. She hasn't left Cloud's side for more than ten minutes since we got back." Inwë let out a low whistle but didn't comment.
"Oh, Norrington!" she gasped, "I forgot to find him and thank him!"
"Do it when we get home. Hatori and the gang want to return tomorrow, so get some sleep. They'll be wanting a ride back to their worlds." Inwë muttered something about pirates and went to change into some pajamas.
A/N: I'm gonna be away for a couple weeks, but I have the epilogue all written up so I'll update as soon as I get back. And then...the sequel! MUHAHAHA!