The next day, Cloud opened his room door very gently and slowly, half-expecting to see more familiar faces when he peeked out into the basement office area, like he had the previous day.

Thankfully for him, the basement was blissfully quiet and unchanged.

Cloud sighed in relief. He got things in order for the day and went up to see what was going on with the teenagers.

They weren't working on the caravan, which was strange. Sora usually hopped into the thing the moment he woke up, if he hadn't already been camping in it. And with the recent catch of gummi blocks, they seemed to be trying to come up with some way of applying it to the caravan that would improve its maneuverability, or something like that. Therefore, not finding them there confused Cloud for a short while, but he recovered soon enough.

Next, Cloud checked their room, and that was where he found them. They were inside, if the voices were any indication. Cloud knocked on the door and waited. "Come in!" Riku's muffled voice called out after a while.

Cloud opened the door gently and stuck a head inside. They were both sitting on their beds, facing each other, appearing to be in a deep conversation about something. Sora, who was seated facing the door and thus Cloud, was looking particularly sombre. "Am I disturbing something?" asked Cloud.

Riku shook his head. "Come in," he said. "We were just talking about Tidus."

Cloud walked in and closed the door. He approached the boys. "Yes, I heard what you said to him yesterday," he said. "I assumed it was the same situation as mine, that he was in your world and then went back to his world after his purpose there was done. You mean it wasn't?"

"Well..." Riku deliberated. "We knew him since we were young. We kind of grew up together. He never really did come from another world that was collapsing, so it's a bit different from your case."

Cloud thought back to what the boys had told him about their adventures. "This would fit right into your parallel dimension theory, wouldn't it?"

"Yes, well..." Riku gestured at Sora. "I think he's still digesting that part."

And frankly, Cloud didn't blame him. "There's no mail to deliver today," Cloud announced, surprising the boys, "so you're free to do what you want until the next batch of mail from the western continent arrives."

"When will that be?" Riku asked.

Shrugging, Cloud said, "There's no schedule. It arrives when the ship arrives, and that depends on weather conditions, sea conditions, sea monsters, pirates, and other things. I'll let you know when there's work. In the meantime, don't wander too far. I'll need you to be able to come back within the day once I give the call."

Sora actually perked up at this. "You mean we can go out of Costa del Sol?"

"You would even if I told you not to, wouldn't you?" Cloud had to resist rolling his eyes. "Just stay out of trouble and don't torture my chocoboes too much."

Sora whooped in delight at this and immediately started chattering to Riku about what they should do with a free day. Now that Sora was sufficiently cheered, Cloud decided his work here was done and it was time to check in with Reeve. By looking for Cait Sith. He bade farewell to the boys and reminded them not to get into trouble again.

Unsurprisingly, he found the robot near the city square, attempting to trick a few people into trying his sham fortune slips. The cat's ears straightened when it saw Cloud. "Howdy, Mr. Cloud!" it said, immediately dismissing the small crowd in front of him. "How's the delivery business coming along?"

Cloud waited for the last of the meandering crowd to be out of earshot before asking, "Is Reeve listening?"

Cait Sith paused for a brief moment. Then, "He sure is! What's up?"

Cloud stared at the cat. "Don't you have anything to tell me?"

"Oh yes, about that... how about over a cup of tea?" Cait Sith offered.

Cloud tried not to roll his eyes. As if it could drink tea. "This way, then," he nodded in the direction of his mansion.

Once they were properly settled, and Sora and Riku had been summoned from the side yard where they had retreated to, possibly to prepare for their next big adventure, Cait Sith began, "Now don't look at me like that," it huffed. "I tried to contact you yesterday, but all three of you were out on your rounds, so I thought I would try again another day, you know?"

"So what's the latest update about everything, then?" Cloud evaded the cat's blaming tone and asked. "Why did you suddenly go unconscious at that time, anyway?"

"Oh yes, that!" said Cait Sith. "The scientists were actually playing around with the colourful blocks and one of them got the bright idea to set it on fire. As the block burned slowly, this low haze started to fill the laboratory and I wasn't able to mind-control Cait no matter how hard I tried."

Cloud blinked in slight confusion. "So you weren't actually unconscious?"

"I was cut off from Cait Sith, it's about the same thing," the cat danced around. "Now, let us move on to the blocks themselves."

Sora and Riku suddenly straightened up in attention, even though Cloud wished they wouldn't be so obvious about it. "Did the burning help you find anything out?"

"Other than give us temporary brain fog? Not really," Cait Sith shook its head. "After that little incident, we put the block through a proper melting point test, but so far we haven't managed to melt it at any temperature that wouldn't also melt the HQ laboratory walls down yet, so I guess we can safely conclude that it is highly heat-resistant!"

"Anything else?" Cloud tapped on the table impatiently.

The cat gave a short chortle that sounded decidedly like an amused Reeve. Then it said, "To be honest, the scientists are stumped. This is like nothing they have ever seen before. Attempts to replicate its properties which include but are not restricted to sturdiness, high resistance to almost every force of nature, and weightlessness, just to name a few, have been fruitless. The blocks also adhere together very well - sort of like wet clay, except they're not wet at all. We think it may be harnessed best in the field of aerodynamics. And that means we might just have to bring Cid in."

"Cid?!" Sora leapt to his feet. Riku pulled him back down.

"Sorry, you mean Cid Highwind, the famous engineer who piloted the first manned trip into outer space, right?" he covered up smoothly, reciting what he knew from his research about this world. "He's sort of like a mechanical hero to us."

"No need to get excited, boys," Cait Sith twirled around on its mog. "You'll get to see him soon enough."

"Wait, what?!" It was Cloud's turn to leap to his feet. "He's coming here?"

"Aye, yes!" the cat stated. "In fact, he's already on his way!"

"Why's he coming here and not going to HQ?" Cloud demanded.

"HQ is at least a day's journey away for him, even on the Shera, and since you still have some blocks here with you, I thought it might be more convenient for him to just come here, you know?" Cait Sith explained.

That did make sense, so Cloud simmered down a little. "When will he arrive?"

The cat gave it some thought. "I called him yesterday, and he said he had to settle some things before setting off, so maybe later today or early tomorrow morning?"

Cloud looked at the boys. "Better get some of those blocks ready for him to inspect then," he said to them.

The boys looked rather sheepish at this. "Err," Sora spoke up, "we kinda... used most of them on the caravan..."

"Oho?" Cait Sith was immediately interested. "You've been experimenting with those blocks, am I right?"

"You didn't ask about the ones we collected after you went back to HQ," Riku pointed out, "so we thought it would be all right to play around with them a little. We can pull them apart if you really need all of them."

"Oh, no," Cait Sith shook its robotic head. "I doubt Cid will want to see everything. In fact, he may just take some back to Rocket Town, so as long as you have some available for him, it should be fine. However..." the cat lowered its voice to a whisper. "I'm very interested in what you've done to your caravan with those blocks... could you show me, perhaps?"

Sora sent a distress signal to Cloud with his eyes, but Riku was entirely cool about it. "Sure," the older boy nodded, not missing a single beat. He stood and gestured to the side yard. "This way, then."

"It's all right, Sora," Cloud nodded at the boy. "I doubt Cait Sith will comment too much on your unorthodox use of the blocks. Who knows, he and his scientists may even be able to learn a thing or two from your creative applications."

That confused Sora even more, and when he looked to Riku for an explanation, his friend merely shook his head slightly and said, "Come on, Sora."

Soon, Cloud was the only one left in the kitchen. He breathed a small sigh of relief. Personal time was getting so hard to find nowadays. After cleaning up, he went back down to his office, meaning to make some calls to check on the delivery progress of the next shipment from the eastern continent.

Except Firion was standing in the basement again.

Cloud didn't know what to say, so he simply stood there and waited for Firion to notice him, which the latter did, and rather quickly too. "Cloud!" he exclaimed, moving forward in a rush of capes and weaponry. "Guess what?"

"Umm," said Cloud, "you found the portal leading back here?"

"What, no-I mean, yes, I did, wasn't that hard actually... but wait. No, what I wanted to say was, after I returned to where I'd come from, it turns out that other people from the world who were not involved in the war can now see me too!" was the excited outburst. Firion waited expectantly for a response.

Cloud's mind had gotten rather good at processing sudden information dumps recently. "So you think going through the portal here was some sort of trigger for that?" he made an intelligent attempt to continue the conversation.

"Not really," Firion shook his head. "I was with Tidus when I returned, and nobody could see him. Or Bartz and Terra for that matter, when they had just returned from here too."

Cloud very quickly replayed the scene with Firion and Tidus in the basement yesterday, trying to find something Firion did that Tidus, Bartz, and Terra didn't. Then it struck him. "You touched Sora's keyblade, didn't you?" Cloud asked.

Firion actually beamed at that. "You think so too, don't you? Yes, that's exactly it!" he nodded rather happily. "Tidus is trying to find Squall to tell him about this theory now. We're not sure how exactly it might help in the overall picture, but Squall being Squall, I'm sure he can come up with something."

Poor Squall, was all Cloud could think about at that moment. Nevertheless, he shrugged it off mentally and thought about the current situation. "So you can be seen by everyone in the world and not just us," Cloud was saying. "That might be a problem at the moment..."

"Why?" asked Firion.

"Well, we have a guest who isn't privy to all these things," Cloud explained. "And he's in charge of a very big organisation spanning the whole world... and... it's just going to be troublesome for me if he finds out." Cloud sighed.

Firion laughed a little. "I can go back through the portal anytime you need me to," he said, pointing at the ceiling. "I just wanted to make sure that particular dark spot really led back here, and to tell you about the change in my visibility."

"So now we have to wait for Squall to come up with something?" Cloud asked. "It's going to be a bit hard to relay that information to everyone with the skyholes being so haphazardly connected, isn't it?"

"That's why the portal here is important," Firion pointed out. "If we can get them all to find the particular dark spots in their worlds that lead here, we could potentially - finally - hold a meeting with everyone present."

"What, I don't get to have a say whether I want my house turned into an interworld lobby?" Cloud quipped half-heartedly.

"Umm, well..." Firion stammered a little, ever so considerate. "Maybe we could meet in a tavern or something, after we get to this world?"

"I was joking, Firion," Cloud smiled, "but let's see if that dark spot theory holds true for all the worlds first."

"Oh, and can I talk to Sora and Riku again?" asked Firion. "I'd like to test if the keyblade is really instrumental to my change in visibility."

"They're busy with the guest at the moment. You can wait here if you're not in a rush to go anywhere," Cloud informed. He was getting good at this playing host thing. "And maybe help me with my work," he added as an afterthought.

Firion's interest was piqued. "I guess I could..." he said, after a while. "What do you need help with?"

Cloud thought about it. "Can you call that number on that board over there and check when the next shipment is coming to Costa del Sol?" he asked. "I'll go get Sora and Riku in the meantime, and try to send that guest away..."

Firion was already looking at the cork board Cloud had mounted on the wall to pin up all his necessary business dealings. From the stairs above, Cloud could suddenly hear noises approaching. He panicked slightly and quickly went up the stairs to interrupt the entourage that he knew was approaching. It wouldn't do for Cait Sith to see Firion in the basement right now. He heard Firion calling out for him from behind, but had to ignore it for now. Bounding up, he was just in time to see the boys and robot turn the corner and heading his way, chattering about some thing or the other. Clearly, they were looking for him, for when they noticed his presence at the end of the corridor, they stopped.

"Your boys have inspired me to look at the colorful blocks in a new light!" Cait Sith suddenly declared. "And they even have a name for it - Gummi blocks! I do believe that shall be its name from now on. I will let all the scientists know."

"What's this about?" Cloud couldn't help but ask, walking towards them and herding them all toward the sitting room. "Are you trying to tell me Sora and Riku were able to figure something about those blocks out that your contingent of scientists couldn't?"

The robot cat actually looked a little sheepish. "I think they've been trying too hard to look at it from a scientific angle. To be honest, if we'd all just given those blocks to some toddlers, they might've taught us more about its usage than we might ever have been able to by ourselves."

"You're being very vague," Cloud shook his head, "but it doesn't matter. When Cid gets here, are you going to tell him all about this?"

"I'm going to relay the information to him as soon as I can catch him on the Shera's radio," said Cait Sith, "but I believe he would probably like to see the applications personally. And on that note, I shall be leaving you for a while, as Reeve will be having discussions with his scientists, and I'm needed for my video and audio data stream," it bowed down to the others atop its mog. "Tata!" was its final farewell before it bounded off and out of the room.

Cloud waited until he was fairly sure Cait Sith was no longer in the house. Then he turned to the boys and asked, "So... what did you show him that made him so excited?"

Sora launched into an enthusiastic explanation, "Well, we used the blocks to build a barrier around the caravan so that it could serve as protection against the weather and such. Ideally we're supposed to build the entire ship with blocks so that it can withstand things like random meteorites and accidentally crashing into other worlds, but we haven't got enough, so we improvised. The blocks are very elastic, anyway, and can withstand a lot of damage even when stretched. And..." he broke off in half rant when he noticed the dark look on Cloud's face. "Err... sorry?" said he, even though he wasn't sure what he was apologising for.

"We were trying hard not to get Reeve's suspicions up about you two," Cloud explained. "Doesn't seem like he thinks much about how you knew to use the blocks, but you never know... He's very shrewd..."

"I tried to stop him," Riku volunteered with a shrug at Sora, "but I think it doesn't matter anymore, this thing about us being from some other world being found out. It doesn't... does it?"

"I hope we won't have to find out the hard way," Cloud shrugged. "Relax Sora, nobody's blaming you," he had to reassure the deflated boy. "It's all right, it's not the end of the world if Reeve finds out. Well, not for you, anyway," he mumbled the last bit. Then he stood up all of a sudden, startling the boys. "Someone just walked past the corridor to the basement," he whispered urgently, already making his way to the door, "and Firion's there!"

Sora and Riku looked at each other, then quickly followed the rushing Cloud. "Uh... but nobody can see him except us, right?" Sora asked.

"Not anymore," was all Cloud said as he turned the corner and sprinted down the stairs to come face to face with-

"That's not how you do it, boy, give it here!" the gruff and familiar voice of one Cid Highwind was bellowing. Cloud slowed down in his running, trying to gather his thoughts together. Cid was already here? He arrived at the basement to see a rather confounded Firion holding onto his office telephone... by its wires, and an angry Cid gesticulating wildly before him.

"What's going on?" he asked, deciding that he might as well face the music.

Cid immediately whipped around. "Your assistant's a little touched in the head, that's what!" exclaimed Cid, the volume of his voice not going down a single decibel. "Who uses a telephone like that? And who points a bow and arrow at me the moment he sees me?!"

Inside, Cloud chuckled a little. So that's what he's angry about. "I assure you, Firion didn't mean any harm. He was just, uh, following instructions."

Cid paused a little at that. "Whose instructions?" he demanded, even though Cloud was aware Cid knew very well what the answer to that was. He probably wanted to hear it directly from Cloud.

"Mine, of course," Cloud tried to sound affronted, but it was hard to do that before his former team members, sometimes, since they usually saw right through his pseudo emotions. "If you could figure out he was my assistant, why couldn't you guess that?"

The pilot snorted and pulled out a cigarette from his pocket, sticking it into his mouth but not lighting it up. "You're getting soft, kiddo! Door wasn't locked when I came, stranger in the basement claiming to be helping you make calls to check on shipments... can never be too safe, if you know what I mean."

Cloud turned to look at Firion, who was looking both hapless and helpless. He was still holding the telephone in the wrong manner, but there were no signs that he was aware of that. "So anyway," Cloud started again, trying to take charge of the conversation so Cid wouldn't have the time to probe further, "Firion's not really my assistant. He's just... helping me with my sideline," he nodded to himself. That excuse was actually true, since Firion was to be hunting for monsters in this world, and monster hunting was Cloud's sideline. "He was just around the area, so I asked him to help out with the phone calls as well, but I should've known he's not exactly familiar with the technology."

"I've seen it in Squall's place before," Firion grumbled under his breath. "I was just surprised because someone suddenly showed up and I had to think about defending myself."

"With a phone receiver?" Cid snorted.

"What are you doing here, Cid?" Cloud asked, before Firion could retort and make Cid mad. A mad Cid was sometimes a very long-winded Cid. Behind him, he could hear the boys whispering fiercely among themselves. He vaguely remembered that other-Cid apparently existed in the Hollow Bastion place as well. This was probably getting to be quite awkward for them, and right after Tidus' appearance yesterday too.

In time, Cid gruffly replied, "Reeve and his little cat told me to come. Said something about needing my help to look at some blocks of gum that might be useful for my new project."

If there was one thing Cloud truly respected Cid for, it was his unending dedication to his space endeavours. "Well then, let me introduce you to Sora and Riku," he stepped aside so that Cid could see the two boys hiding behind him. At once, the both of them straightened from their hunched positions of talking to each other in low, secretive tones. "Reeve seems to think highly of their creative use of the Gummi blocks. You'd do better to talk to them than to me about those things, at any rate."

Cid gave the boys a long, calculating look over. He threw his hands up in the air after a while and said, "Right then. Show me what you've got, ya little greenhorns."

Sora and Riku looked at Cloud, and Cloud nodded at them. "It's in the side yard. This way," Riku said, as he pointed up the stairs.

Cid snorted softly and sauntered up the stairs before Sora and Riku could move ahead of him. "I know where the side yard is, kiddos. Follow me!"

"Go on," Cloud encouraged, when he saw that the boys stood rooted to the spot even after Cid had disappeared up the stairs. "It's okay, he won't get lost. Just follow him and tell him what you told Reeve."

Sora nodded very slowly. "It's so weird to see him talking to us like we're strangers," he whispered to Cloud, before giving a small wave and turning to sprint up the stairs. After giving Cloud and Firion a nod of acknowledgement, Riku went up as well.

Now that Cloud and Firion were the only ones in the basement, Cloud let out a sigh of relief and sat down on a nearby chair. He looked up at the portal, which was stoically dark and unmoving. "How did Cid not notice you were there?" he knew it was asinine to be talking to an inanimate portal, but he was truly curious.

"This place isn't exactly very bright," Firion answered for the portal. He had rolled up the telephone wire into a ball and placed it on Cloud's work desk. "And I guess he must have been rather thrown off by my presence."

Cloud wanted to protest at the way Firion was treating his poor, innocent telephone wire, but dismissed that thought before it could escape his mouth. "The boys may be taking a while, if you want to see their keyblades again. I guess I shouldn't be asking you to do any desk work while you wait, so why don't we head out and really work on my sideline?" He stood after saying that.

"What's your sideline?" Firion frowned. "I don't think you ever told us."

"Monster hunting and materials gathering," Cloud said plainly, as he grabbed his combined sword and holster in the corner of the room. "Something you should be more familiar with than making phone calls, right?" he gave Firion a knowing quirk of the lips.

"Like I said just now..." Firion began, then stopped himself. He laughed out a little. "Oh all right. Squall did try to explain it to those of us who didn't know what it was, even held lessons and all, but I doubt many of us got the hang of it." He held both hands up. "I concede!"

"I'm sure there's probably something in your world I couldn't operate if my life depended on it," Cloud shrugged. "I doubt phones would be of much use in all the multiple worlds, anyway," he paused, as an idea struck him, "...though, it'd probably be useful to get you one for the time you'd be in this world, in case we end up separated and you don't know how to find your way back to this place." He looked up at Firion. "Think you can handle learning how to operate a phone in a few minutes?"

The semi-exasperated expression on Firion's face told Cloud that Firion was most adverse to the idea after what Squall had probably subject him to, but ever-so-polite, Firion simply said, "You can try, Cloud, but don't you dare hold me responsible if I get it wrong again."

"Oh, please," Cloud scoffed. "If Vincent can learn how to use a phone, you have no excuse."

Firion threw Cloud a confused glance, but didn't ask.

Somewhere out there, someone in a red cape sneezed.

21 October 2013