Tobi: Hi~ props this week go to Shirosenshi Kisetsu 166 and DeeJay-Dubu. This chapter is shorter and more lighthearted than last chapter... which is a good thing, I think. Angst isn't good for the soul, you know. As always, thank you everyone for all the reviews and wonderful comments. (Oh, and we have some fanart! I'll be posting links on my profile soon.)

CM: hey guys. im sorry i didnt reply to you all this time around. i had wayy too much on my hands this week. for those of you who dont know what Jumanji is: Jumani is a movie about a game that while you play it lets out monsters and other awful things. the only way to escape them is to finish the game. So it lets out things like: A stampede of animals, sucks you into a jungle, killer bats and bees, killer lion, killer plants, a soldier with a sniper gun out to get you, a flood. And if you can survive these things and win then the game will end and all the bad things will go away. The movie is great. I loved it. Anyways, hope this helps all our foreign readers. :D

Kimchi—Cloud's favorite food—had never been so tasteless. Cloud chewed slowly, tense and rigid in his chair. Sebastian was in his lap, a comforting, familiar little weight, but his friend could only console him so much.

Swallowing thickly, Cloud set down his fork. The tasty, extremely spicy mess of cabbage and rice looked unappetizing; Cloud pushed it away and stared at the table.

What did he do now? Fight some more?

He had tried that already. It was obvious he wouldn't win.

Cloud sneezed and coughed harshly. Now he was sick. He was sick because the ghosts had... tried to kill him. Kill him.

The angered fire that had possessed him so recently was still there; it maybe even burned brighter than it had before. He was pissed and angry—of course he was. No one took an attempt on their life lightly. But a deep, dark fear made him freeze and tremble, and he focused very little on getting more revenge.

The next time it tried to kill him, it might succeed.

Cloud sniffed, coughed and blew his nose. The shower he had just taken helped, but he was still shivering and cold and was bundled up in sweats with a blanket over his shoulders. Before long he'd be unbearably hot and would take it all off, though.

For not the first time, his thoughts drifted towards his state of well-being. He should have been dead; he knew that. But he wasn't—why was that? Who had saved him?

At least he knew for sure it wasn't his ghosts who had saved his life.

But who else could it have been? A neighbor? (He didn't have any neighbors, Cloud admitted after a minute.) A... uh... vampire? There were coffins, right? Maybe something had crawled out of that padlocked and chained coffin?

Cloud immediately started feeling his neck for puncture wounds. ...Wait—he was being silly.

Something was up, that much he knew. Cloud drooped and rested his forehead on the table. He'd just scare himself speculating; it was better to just relax.

Things would get better once Aerith showed up.

...How did Cid survive? The amount of stares Aerith was getting as she drove the blond's beat-up, junky, covered-with-dirty-bumper-stickers-but-still-faster-than-any-other-vehicle-out-on-the-road car were making her seriously wish she had tinted windows.

Nibelheim was very pretty. The town itself was charming in a slightly-dirty, backwoods way, and the scenery was just gorgeous. She could see a few mountains in the distance, snow capping the taller ones.

Aerith cautiously drove the Highwind up a long, winding road towards what she presumed was Cloud's mansion.

Cloud...

She suspended judgment for the time being. Her focus was on finding Cloud, safe and sound.

Her mouth hung open as she came up to the manor. Cloud hadn't been lying when he said it was 'really nice.' She parked Cid's car and got out, craning her head back and peering up at the roof. She could see the horns of stone gargoyles on the top; they were creepy and didn't go well at all with the scenery of Nibelheim, but they were kind of nice, in a weird way. They would need to paint sometime too...

But, wow! Cloud lived here all by himself?

She scowled as she remembered the hysterical, half-sobbing conversation Cloud had had with her. Again, she'd suspend her judgment until she saw and could draw conclusions by herself.

The front door was unlocked. Aerith let herself inside, and her eyes widened as she walked forward.

It was huge. There were two magnificent red-carpeted staircases, a shiny marble floor and a glittering chandelier overhead. The inside of the mansion was beautiful.

But it was totaled.

Broken glass littered the floor. Paint splatters coated the windows, ceiling, furniture and floors. A couch was overturned in the next room, surrounded by pillows. There was a thick, brownish stain on the carpet of one of the staircases, and a whitish-yellow stain near the top of it.

It looked like a class of rabid kindergartners had been let loose inside with fingerpaints and baseball bats.

Aerith gently closed the door behind her and started poking around.

When Zack heard the growl of an engine, he lifted his head up off Genesis's lap and hurried towards the window. This was probably Cloud's friend—to be honest, he had been sort of excited to see the people the kid hung out with. It was hard to picture Cloud as anything other than 'Hojo's relative,' but he was getting there. At the moment the blond was upstairs cleaning his room.

He unlocked the door, and a minute later, a girl walked inside. She wore a worn pink dress and had pretty chestnut hair; Zack immediately liked her.

The girl—Aerith? If he remembered correctly?—looked around for a minute, eyes wide as she took in the sight of the mansion. Zack caught sight of Cloud's now-dried puke on the steps and winced, scratching the back of his neck bashfully even though no one could have known he was there and was partly-responsible for the mess.

He trotted back to Genesis, who was dozing on a couch. "Hey!" Zack whispered fiercely, shaking him. Genesis had been sleeping almost nonstop for the past day; Zack was afraid it was because he didn't want to be awake or something. They were all deeply affected by the guilt of knowing Cloud was innocent, but it had hit Genesis particularly hard. "Wake up!"

Genesis stirred a little and reached out, smushing a sleep-heavy hand on Zack's cheek and pushing him away. Zack wasn't deterred, though, and grabbed the offending hand. "Cloud's friend is here!"

That finally made Genesis wake a little. He sat up, yawned, and slurred, "Where's Seph n' 'Geal?"

Zack shrugged and hauled Genesis up. "Dunno. But come on! She's really pretty."

The glare Genesis sent him, although sleepy, made Zack shiver and smile charmingly to show the redhead he didn't have to get jealous or worried or anything.

Genesis 'hmphed' and made his way to the entrance room, which he had been voting to just call the 'foyer' because that was a heck of a lot easier to say all the time. Aerith was inspecting a broken lamp, hands on hips and making soft sounds of disapproval. The ex-Commander glanced at Zack, smiled softly, sadly, and left to go find the others.

Zack frowned as Aerith toed a bit of dried blue paint with her shoe. Here was more proof that Cloud was a normal guy with normal friends—a stab of hot guilt cleaved through him.

But... what was done was done, so they just had to keep moving forward.

Cloud ran a damp washcloth over his dresser, removing the last traces of flour that lingered from "hell week." His sheets had been washed, his carpet vacuumed, and Sebastian thrown in the washing machine for Aerith's arrival (Sebastian hadn't been very happy about that, but it had to be done).

"Cloud!"

Aerith! Cloud scampered out of his room and shot for the stairs, beaming down at his friend. Aerith grinned, and Cloud bounded down the staircase.

They collided and Cloud swung Aerith around in a big hug. Cloud laughed for no reason and set her on her feet, opening his mouth to start yakking. But, Aerith's hands clamped down on his spikes and pulled roughly. Cloud howled in pain and tried to push her off, but Aerith was unstoppable. She yanked and tugged until Cloud was bent over, hands up and pleading with her.

Only then did she let him go. She barked, "I was worried about you!"

Massaging his scalp and looking sheepish, he apologized. "Sorry..."

Aerith hugged him again, squeezing and asking, "How are you?"

"...Fine," Cloud answered vaguely. It was obvious that there was way more to it, most of which Aerith knew, but she hadn't been given the little details yet.

The brunette frowned, then gestured for Cloud to follow her. They got her things out of Cid's car, and Cloud took the opportunity to fill her in. Aerith listened closely, quietly, not saying anything until he was done. He decided to not mention the peanut incident, and Aerith didn't catch that he was withholding anything.

He was slightly nervous as to what she'd say, but for the moment, carrying Aerith's things upstairs took all his attention.

"What the hell is in this thing?"

Aerith giggled at him, a few steps behind on the stairs. "Stuff. Don't tell me you're out of shape!"

"I've been getting my exercise," Cloud muttered darkly, scanning the mansion for evidence of ghosts, even though it was unlikely he'd find any. Aerith didn't hear him, but a certain invisible man did.

It took three trips, but they eventually got all of Aerith's stuff into Cloud's room. Cloud made to toss a duffel bag on the dresser, but she stopped him.

"I'm sleeping in here with you? In your bed?"

"Yeah," Cloud replied absently, moving Sebastian over so Aerith would have room.

"...Um. Eww."

Cloud looked up; Aerith wrinkled her nose and tilted her head at the bed. Cloud's eyes widened and he burst, "I haven't done anything in there!"

Doubtfully, Aerith asked slowly, "You haven't?"

"I..." Cloud paused, frowning. "...Haven't."

He had been too busy fighting for his life to worry about anything of a sexual nature. ...What kind of man was he? It had been weeks... Cloud stopped thinking lest he scare Aerith away and smiled. "I haven't." Aerith snorted and sat down.

The reason he wanted Aerith in his room that night was because he didn't want her all by herself in some guest room. These ghosts were murderous—he knew that. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if something happened to his friend while she was staying.

Fifteen minutes later had them settled in and sitting cross-legged on the bed, discussing. Almost unbelievably, Aerith bought his story. She didn't think he was crazy, wasn't going to stop being his friend!

"Have you tried talking to the ghosts?" she asked seriously.

Cloud grimaced. "Yes, but it didn't do me any good." He—cleverly, he thought—left out anything about the olive branch when he explained his attempts to make peace with the ghosts. Aerith seemed amused by the cookie idea, though.

When he finished pouring out his soul and flashing his half-healed wounds, Cloud sagged back onto the bed, actually exhausted. He sneezed.

Aerith gave him a level look and asked, inspecting him, "So... what happened when I was on the phone with you?"

Cloud froze. He didn't want to tell Aerith about the peanut thing—she'd try to make him leave the house, and he didn't want that. He wasn't done with it; he'd never be. He'd be dead before he left. He said after a short pause, "The ghosts took my phone, and I was feeling sick and didn't want to chase after it. I'm sorry—I know I should have called you back as soon as I got it back, but I was feeling really gross and just went to sleep."

Aerith bought this too, and nodded sympathetically. There was silence for a moment, and Cloud had a great idea. "Aerith!" he blurted. "Use your Cantien powers to make them leave me alone!"

Aerith burst out laughing. Cloud had been serious, though, referring to Aerith's unique religion, and was not nearly as amused as she. "I don't have special powers," she said once her laughter had died down. She got up off the bed and moved towards a bag in the corner, however.

"Do something!"

A thick, wooden, rectangle-ish... thing was pulled out of the bag. Aerith turned, held it out and informed him, "A Ouija board."

Cloud blinked. "A what?"

The Ouija board was placed on the bed, but not opened up. There was a metal hinge on the one side. Cloud stared at it, getting a very Jumanji-ish feel about the whole thing. What he would have given to have a stampede of animals crush his ghosts! Or a madman hunter with a gun shooting at them!

"A Ouija board," Aerith repeated. "It will help us speak to the spirits. I picked this one up in Midgar before I left. We ask the ghosts questions, and it'll answer us."

That was a terrifying thought, but Cloud swallowed and nodded. His friend then grabbed a funny-looking candle—see, he knew Aerith would use her magical Cantien powers—and a small brown paper bag. Aerith tilted her head towards the door, and they went downstairs.

"Sit," Aerith commanded when they got to the kitchen. Cloud tentatively sat at the table, watching what the brunette was doing with rapt attention. She placed her goodies on the table and rooted around in the cabinets until she found a container of salt.

Aerith proceeded to make a pentagon of salt on the floor around the table, chanting something as she did so.

Cloud's eyes bugged out of his head. When finished, Aerith stood and announced to the kitchen, "This pentagon will keep out any spirits with negative intentions. If there's anyone here who would like to be nice and talk to us, they can pass through it."

The Invisibles, who were, of course, not five feet away, stared at each other. Sephiroth had his hand covering the left side of his face, and Angeal shrugged slowly.

Under Cloud's intense gaze, Aerith lit her candle and placed it on one end of the table. From the bag she pulled out some incense, of all things, and lit that too with the matches found in a kitchen drawer. She filled a bowl with water and set that on one end of the table too, and located a tiny potted plant on a windowsill in some adjacent room and placed that down too.

"I have something here that represents four elements," Aerith explained. "Fire, air, water and earth. Each item is in its respective cardinal direction." She indicated which way was north, south, east and west. Cloud nodded slowly, liking the smell of the incense if nothing else.

"Cantinians believe in a fifth element, though—one that combines and brings the other four together. Our planchette will represent spirit for the séance, alright?"

Cloud was totally lost. "Planchette?"

"Planchette?" Zack echoed. He glanced at the other three men and laughed, "Duuuude, this girl is as crazy as Cloud!"

Back to rooting around in the cabinets. "The planchette is what we touch, get it? Spirits will move it to the correct letter, number or word to answer our question."

"...Uh-huh," Cloud said blandly.

Genesis frowned, shooting Angeal a look.

Aerith finally pulled out a shot glass. She grinned at Cloud, took a breath and entered the salt pentagon. She sat down in the chair opposite the blond and opened up the Ouija board.

Every letter of the alphabet was printed on the wood in large, fancy letters. The numbers from one to ten were beneath that, and the words 'Hello' and 'Farewell' were in the bottom corners.

Aerith placed the shot glass on the board and explained. "We touch the planchette—we cannot let go, okay?—and the ghost will talk to us by moving it to the correct letters and spelling its answer. Got it?"

Cloud nodded again, both placed two fingers on the shot glass, and Aerith began the séance. "Are there any spirits who would like to talk to us?" she asked loudly. Cloud nearly choked and shot out of his chair at her audacity, but resisted and stayed put.

The other men in the room glanced at each other again. Zack giggled, "Wouldn't it be freaky if it actually moved?" (Secretly, Zack was afraid of ghosts, but he'd never tell his lovers that.)

Genesis snorted and tentatively walked forward. He hesitated briefly, then stuck his finger into the shot glass. He slowly dragged it to the 'HELLO.'

Cloud squeaked, blue eyes huge. Angeal smiled at that. Aerith looked surprised too. "...I-I didn't do that, Aerith!" Cloud stuttered.

"It...it was one of your ghosts," Aerith shakily confirmed. She continued to the ghost, "Do you mean us harm?" (The pentagon should have kept any ghosts who did mean them harm out, but she figured it wasn't a bad question to ask.)

Genesis slowly spelled out 'NO,' pausing after the first letter before going onto the second.

Aerith smiled broadly at Cloud, who looked like he was about to be sick.

"Did you harm Cloud?"

'YES.'

Aerith frowned. "Why? What did he do?"

Genesis thought about his answer for a moment and glanced back at the others. He finally settled for 'MISUNDERSTANDING.'

At this, Cloud spluttered and swore. "A 'misunderstanding?' You tried to kill me! This better be one hell of a 'misunderstanding,' you fucking-"

He was silenced with a stern look. Aerith coughed lightly before moving on. "How many of you are there?"

Cloud watched as the shot glass moved by itself and slid down to the '4.'

Four ghosts!

"Will you bully him again?"

'NO.' There was a pause, then: 'CLOUD.'Cloud's eyes widened as he realized that the ghost knew his name. The shot glass moved and the spirit continued, 'IF YOU CAN PLEASE FORGIVE US.'

Blue eyes widened with outrage, and Aerith made a soft sound of surprise. ...Forgive them? Was this ghost crazy? Why the hell would he forgive something that had tried to kill him? No... he wasn't about to do any forgiving anytime soon.. This ghost could kiss his ass.

"I'm glad we had this little chat," Aerith spoke up, "Because if I hear you've been bothering my friend again, I'll come back with an exorcist. I mean that. Is this understood?"

Cloud watched as the planchette moved again.

'YES.'

If Genesis had been an actual ghost, he would have been scared. As it was, his lips gave a miniscule twitch and he stepped back, avoiding looking at Cloud. She had every right to be angry at him.

'GOODBYE.'

It might have been his imagination, but Cloud felt like the atmosphere in the mansion was a little bit...lighter. Maybe it was just the knowledge that his ghosts may not have been after him anymore—at any rate, he felt a little bit better.

Then he realized that all people, even ghosts, were capable of lying, and he fell back into suspicion.

Aerith smiled. Cloud frowned.

All four Invisibles grimaced. Their apology had been a nice idea, but what were they going to do if Cloud was too afraid of them to accept their apology? He didn't have to forgive them, but they wanted Cloud to know that they really were sorry. They couldn't just talk to him—they'd give the kid a heart attack.

"It seems you don't have much to worry about," Aerith said, closing the Ouija board and standing. Cloud said nothing and helped her clean up, not trusting one word the ghost had 'said.'

They cleaned up, chatting about the whole thing. Aerith seemed convinced that they were sincerely sorry, which bothered Cloud a little. So trusting, that girl was. Maybe she just had more faith in Cantinian stuff than he did.

Now that the highlight of the evening was over, they didn't know what to do. They hung out in Cloud's room for a while, catching up, then simultaneously changed into pajamas.

"His girlfriend, do you think?" Zack asked, turning away respectfully as the two younger people got dressed, completely at ease being in the same room as each other.

"Perhaps," Sephiroth answered. "It isn't any of our business, however."

They devoured almost a whole tub of ice cream downstairs before Aerith suddenly snapped her fingers and burst, "You never gave me a tour!"

Cloud chucked his spoon in the sink and started. To tell the truth, he doubted he had ever been in the whole mansion either, so this was probably a good thing. He was eager to relax and just have fun for once—his stay here had been horrid, and he felt like he deserved it.

The first floor was the first thing they toured. Cloud gleefully pointed out the destruction from the war. "I was planting flowers in Midgar," Aerith marveled, "and you were fighting ghosts. Wow."

The home theater was a big hit. They found some storage closets and a room full of some kind of polish or something. Neither had any clue what that was about. They only briefly stopped in the basement—to be honest, Cloud was still terrified of going down there. You couldn't pay him to go back in that scary coffin room.

The tour continued for a while, and they eventually moved up to the second floor. Nothing really interesting had happened until then, so it was a big surprise when Aerith leant against a section of wall in a guest room and the bit of wall moved.

It was a rectangular section, like a door. It didn't swing open, exactly; it was made so it sunk in, then swung open about halfway. It was dark, wherever it led to.

Cloud glanced at Aerith, grinned, then bolted inside. A secret passage! This was so exciting...

The walls inside were about three or four feet apart. They expected it to be dark and damp, like a cave or something, but it just felt like drywall. There wasn't a light switch or anything, so Cloud had to stick his arms out and blindly grope his way along.

The passage went straight for a little bit, and then abruptly turned left. Their breathing seemed loud and obnoxious in here—it was quiet and creepy, but Cloud didn't let Aerith see he was freaked.

"Where do you think this goes?" Aerith whispered from behind him.

Cloud was busy feeling out another turn and merely said, "Dunno."

They hit a dead end in another minute, and they thumped the wall all over to see if it would open. Aerith eventually found a doorknob and, feeling a bit stupid, she opened the door. They stumbled into a new room, deeply breathing in the un-stinky and not-damp air.

"Hojo's room!" Cloud cried, blanching. "Ugh!"

Coming out of the secret passage themselves, the Invisibles snickered at that. They all felt a bit disturbed knowing that Hojo had some passageway in his bedroom—or, maybe it was the first owner of the house who had it. None of them knew about it. That probably meant there were lots of things in this house that they were unaware of, and that was an unnerving thought.

Aerith wrinkled her nose as she inspected Hojo's room. Cloud avoided looking at the bed—knowing Hojo had slept there made his skin crawl. She didn't seem fazed though; she opened the first drawer of Hojo's dresser, and Cloud almost gagged. Hojo's underwear were probably all ratty and covered in skidmarks and gave diseases—no thank you!

Judging by how fast Aerith slammed the drawer shut, he had been correct. She coughed gently, wiping her hands on her pajama pants even though she hadn't touched anything other than the dresser handles.

"I hate being in here," Cloud confessed, meaning to go back toward the passage door and jumping when it closed in front of him. There wasn't any evidence that there was a door there. Creepy.

Genesis cursed loudly; he had been trapped in the secret passage when he had accidentally closed it on himself from the inside. The other three laughed at the redhead's misfortune and followed Cloud and Aerith outside. It was kind of weird, probably, how they kept following them around like stalkers. But there wasn't anything better to do, really, so tailing the newcomers it was.

Another passageway was discovered that went from the nursery to a big bedroom that could have been a master bedroom. It was sad because the nursery and its contents were unused—Aerith seemed to think that the original owner (not Hojo; definitely not Hojo) had been about to have a baby, but something had happened, like a miscarriage. Speculation just depressed them, so they left the nursery and thought about what to do next. Aerith wanted a tour of the grounds, but they were in pajamas already and it was getting dark. They could do that tomorrow.

But then Aerith had a wonderful idea; they raided the kitchen for popcorn, soda and junk food and decided to watch a movie. Cloud had been itching to try the huge screen in the home theater out, but he hadn't got the chance to yet (for obvious reasons).

Cloud flipped the switch up, and the lights came on slowly, not abruptly like other lights. It was like... the opposite of dimming; the lights sort of... gradually turned on. Was there a word for that? Anyway, it was really, really cool.

Aerith sat in the very first row of huge recliners, placing the popcorn in her lap and looking at him expectantly. Cloud fumbled around until he found a DVD player in the corner.

The last thing he wanted to do was watch a horror movie. He probably wouldn't be able to handle it. Instead, he picked a comedy from a large selection of movies in a small cabinet. It wasn't familiar, but that was alright. He stuck it in, pressed play, grabbed the remote, and joined Aerith after turning off the lights.

The movie wasn't anything special. They enjoyed it, though; Aerith laughed at all the stupid scenes and Cloud made fun of the actors when they did a particularly bad bit of acting.

For a while, Cloud was able to forget everything that had happened in the mansion since he had moved there. He was having fun with Aerith, watching movies and making himself fat just like he used to back in Midgar. It was really, really nice.

"I hate this movie," Zack groaned. He sat in the row of chairs behind Cloud and Aerith, as did the other three invisible men. Sephiroth had his legs crossed, propping his head up with his hand, elbow on the armrest of his chair. He hadn't said anything negative about the movie yet, and seemed to be actually paying close attention to it.

Genesis kept stealing pieces of popcorn when the two in front weren't looking. Them seeing floating food probably wasn't a good thing.

At one point Cloud cracked up when the main character fell into a dumpster because the villain had set up mousetraps everywhere (or something like that—the only one paying complete attention in the room was Sephiroth) and choked on a popcorn kernel.

He made an odd noise and wheezed, but no air was getting to his lungs. Aerith and Angeal both sprang towards the choking boy.

Angeal was fully prepared to perform the Heimlich; they couldn't let Cloud die now, now that they knew the truth—but Aerith got there first and punched Cloud right in the gut.

The kernel flew out of Cloud's mouth and landed somewhere. Cloud continued to laugh like nothing had happened and blubbered through his tears of amusement and pain, "Patrick is so stupid!"

Angeal paused and sat back down after a moment (a monster should have known better than to try and help, anyway). Zack roared into laughter. Aerith hit Cloud's shoulder and said that he was the stupid one.

By the end of the movie, Zack was fast asleep in his chair, Genesis was feasting on a bag of gummy worms he had stealthily stolen and Angeal and Sephiroth were making out (and most likely a bit more than that) in the back row like horny teenagers. Genesis flung a gummy worm at them.

Cloud was completely stuffed, and he pushed the empty bowl away. Aerith was half-asleep in her chair, eyes drooping as she chewed an Airhead contentedly.

They didn't even bother to clean up; they stood and left, each heading towards a bathroom to brush their teeth and wash up. Cloud fell onto his bed, scooting over and making room for Aerith, feeling more relaxed than he had in a long while. He hugged Sebastian, murmured 'good night' and rolled over. Tomorrow they had things to do, but for now, he could relax and didn't have to worry about anything.

In a room on the other side of the mansion, Genesis, Angeal and Sephiroth were awake but were pretending to be asleep, each staring at the ceiling and wishing sleep would come to them as easily as it had for Zack.