Okay, hopefully this will all come through all right because my connection at home is… ify. Ladywisdom – thank you! I admit, it was weird switching from the first dozen or so chapters into what it's turned into. The story just wouldn't stop and I kind of had to scramble to keep up. As clunky as it was I'm glad it's readable. Vanilla raindrops – dum dum DUNNNN – lol. Yep, poor Cloud. He was really starting to be much too happy. I had to do something terrible to him. And – total agreement. Nothing beats 'let's mosey'… except maybe 'you look like a bear in a marshmallow'. How many chapters? Good question, the story does seem to go on forever doesn't it? But I'm on chapter 103 right now in my write ahead and I'm thinking somewhere around 110 we should come to the end of our crazy ride. At least that's what I'm thinking now. Ask me when I hit 110 ;) dis – officially, eh? I need a pin or a button or a badge or something. Who knows what kind of condition Tifa was when she got carried out of the exploded reactor? That's what potions are for. But I had to do something special for Seph's sword. After all, he's so busy messing up so many characters with it on a regular basis. Good point too – Reno knows what would happen if he tried to leave the Turks and Cissnei has never been on her own outside of them (at least in my story). I have plans ahead for them though, never fear ;) Fairheartstrife! – yep, yep. The characters don't listen to me either when I try to give them advice. Cloud does need Tifa and even though I'd intended her to hold out on the 'I love you' admission, she just wasn't having it anymore. Almost ninety chapters in and the girl just has to blurt it out – lol. OCV – we'll have to hunt down whoever was handing out Cloud plushies last time and grab you one too. Well, I know that Cloud uses 'let's mosey' and Cid reams him out in the video game but it just seemed more like a Zack appropriate phrase in my current story. Wo0t for the indy reference catch! lol – I'm having a bit too much fun with the team of Zack/Yuffie. That much hyperness just begs to be abused. Akuma – I shall endeavor to keep the suspense growing for the next three chapters too. Lovin' the fact that you're enjoying this. Jini – awwww, thank you. I don't think a story is worth reading if the characters aren't the real center of it and I'm so flattered you think I'm doing a good job at it. I really do want them to seem like friends and family as much as they are a team. As for cliffhangers… er, sorry? : 'D– you are such an absolute trip! Take up all kinds of wild room with your reviews. They always make me grin like an idiot and just make my day glow. Though – I don't plan the cliffhangers this way, I swear! Lol. They just write themselves that way. I'm not done with Cloud by any stretch – wait, that's not helping my claims of non-evil, is it? And yeah! I'm glad somebody applauded Shera. There's only so much abuse anyone should have to live under. Though I'm with you… poor Cid. So, I guess the question is – does anyone have Zack plushies to hand out too? mc – it's true. Nobody seems to mind handling icky bandages. Never thought of it. Let's say it has something to do with the fact they all wear gloves so much. Or maybe they just rub it off on their pants like kids. Good point. And – wow, I'm flattered you reread the chapters you like. I know you do for my shorts in my other fic but it really means a lot to me that the chapters in this long, drawn out saga get reread too. I will do my best to give you many more to want to go back and read again. And, since you asked, Cloud's left arm stopped working when he was in the ring. I put it in and then sweated bullets that someone would pick up on it too soon and blow my entire – Cloud's got the stigma! situation chapters and chapters later. Any readers that did pick up on it though were nice enough not to give me away though by saying so in the reviews. I always worry my foreshadowing is too heavy handed (Aerith's foreshadowing is intentionally thickly spread however – lol) Iskra – I adore reviews for each chapter. It makes me feel like I get to re-enjoy each one all over again from a different viewpoint. And yes! That's exactly how I felt about Shera's situation. Couldn't have put it better myself. In fact, I'm flattered and glad you think I did good with all the characters' reactions in the last few chapters. I've got a lot of heavy stuff rolling down on them and I admit to being a bit worried I might either not do them justice or over do it. As for Aerith… lexi-yeesh – how could I resist 'let's mosey'? and now I'VE got a picture of Cloud toe bouncing in my head. Aerith and clones and Sephiroth, oh my! Yep, the party is just starting there. And heh – glad you enjoyed Yuffie. She refuses to be boring to write for. Tae – lol! You made me laugh so hard. First – oh, I'll fix him all right… second – blushing beam. Third – isn't it just though… and fourth – oh, you ain't seen nothing yet! vx-luna-xv – thumbs up. If I made it a bit painful to read Cloud's part than I did something right – wo0t! And yeah, Tifa just couldn't keep it in anymore. We'll see how much longer Cloud can manage. and of course peekchan - thank you again for editing me despite the chickens.

Chapter 90: Lights in the Dark

There was no clearing or break in the palely glowing trees. One minute they were deep in endless dreamtime woods and the next their toes were at the very edge of a lake whose water seemed endlessly black and as still as glass. Tifa reached out and caught Aerith's shoulder, not sure her friend would stop and Aerith inhaled and shook her head, looking up and around. Her eyes were still hazy and not entirely focused but when she looked over at Tifa she managed a soft smile.

"It's like music. And voices. And humming. Like trying to pick out one instrument in a symphony. It's beautiful… and frustrating."

"Are there supposed to be lights in the water?" Zack asked, killing the mystical moment and Tifa slipped her arm around Aerith's waist and looked. Below them in the dark of the water, strange spearheads of green-sheened white moved. Like eels. There was no visible bottom to the water and the pale traces of light were small. It was reassuring until Tifa realized that they were either small and close to the surface… or they were huge and much deeper down. Her fingers tightened around Cloud's hand on the other side of her but he was looking with narrow eyes across the water and didn't respond.

"So… now what?" Yuffie asked from the curve of Zack's side. She was chewing her bottom lip and instead of looking at the water, she was looking around the area. "I mean, are we there yet?"

The way she phrased the question made Tifa's lips curve upward and she looked over at Aerith. Her friend was frowning and looking across the water at the glowing woods on the other side.

"I don't… I don't know," Aerith supplied, seeming to shake some of the haze off of her, starting to look uncertain. "It's here. Right where it wants to be. Or almost where it wants to be. See?"

She raised her hand with the key in it and the thin pearl artifact was literally floating over her open palm. Somehow, despite the white trees, the lights in the black water and using materia all the time, the floating key made Tifa feel like she'd stepped into a children's story.

And all the really old children's stories were a lot darker and prone to tragedy than people liked to remember.

"Maybe we can just circle around the lake," Yuffie suggested and Zack looked away from the key to judge it.

"Without disturbing the water," he added after a minute's decision and Tifa nodded. It made as much sense as anything else. Maybe Aerith's key wanted to be just on the other side of the water.

She really hoped to all things good and bright that it didn't want to be in the water. The more she watched those strange dragon eel lights in the dark water the more the thought they might actually be very big and very deep down nibbled away at the edges of her mind.

"No." It was Cloud's voice and it was flat and emotionless. She turned her head to look at him and he was still staring out over the water, the white light making his eyes pale colored in the dark. They all waited but he didn't offer anything else and after a moment, Zack asked:

"Dude?"

"It's ahead," Cloud's voice was sure. "Not on the other side of the water."

There was a moment of silence as the group digested it and then Zack asked:

"How do you know?"

Cloud turned his head and for a moment as he did so, the pale light stopped reflecting off his eyes and they were glowing an intense blue. His brows came down and he looked young for a moment.

"I don't know. I just – know it."

Zack digested it and then put his hand back to lift his sword clear.

"Okay. You girls stay here. I'll just swim on out and see what's there." His boot touched the tip of the water and Tifa watched those lights so deep down stop their mindless swimming and start to head toward their section of the shore.

"Uh!" she let go of Aerith to reach out and catch Zack's shoulder. His eyes met hers. He wasn't sure about this either. But he trusted Cloud and if his friend said the temple was there, it was there. Or at least worth looking for. "Can't we – " Tifa's mind raced for something that wouldn't put them in the water with the white lights. "Can't we look for a bridge or something first? Maybe we came in at the wrong spot?"

Zack looked a little relieved.

"Can't hurt to look," he agreed. Tifa looked back at the group and wondered why she and Zack were the only ones making sensible suggestions. She was used to Cloud knowing what to do, or at least pretending he knew what to do, which was almost as good. But he wasn't offering anything now and his face was tight as he stared out over the water again. She looked back at Zack.

"Split up?"

He thought about it and nodded. For once he wasn't striking a pose or looking 'noble'. Instead he just looked thoughtful and slightly worried but still competent. Tifa found it strangely reassuring.

"Got your PHS?" he asked and Tifa tapped the one that Cloud had given her. He looked over at Yuffie who was fidgeting by the edge of the water and looking like she wanted to kick a pebble in and yet was telling herself what a very bad idea that would be. "You got one?"

Her head came up and she nodded, apparently able to fight ADD and listen to conversations at the same time.

"Of course! The White Rose of Wutai must always be able to order take out at a moment's notice!"

Tifa pulled the girl into a quick hug. Crap, at least someone was acting normal. Weird… but normal. Zack grinned and his face relaxed a little.

"Okay, here's plan. The lake's not that big. I mean we can see the other side from here. So we should be able to keep an eye on each other too. We'll split in two groups and circle around the lake and meet up on the other side. Then we'll… uh, take it from there. PHS in case anything comes up." He nodded and then looked questioningly at Tifa. Who gave him a shrug but nodded as well. Yes, they were both capable of making their own decisions and coming up with their own plan of action, it was just… they both looked over at Cloud. It was just they were used to his leadership. It would have been nice to have him at least chip in an opinion. He hadn't moved though and Tifa wasn't even sure he'd heard her.

"You take the Great Ninja Yuffie," she offered. "I'll take Aerith and Cloud." Aerith looked relieved and Zack gave Tifa a look that asked if she really wanted both of the spacey people in her ground. She nodded. She'd feel better if Yuffie was with Zack. He was the better fighter. She'd also promised Aerith she'd be there for her so that meant that was her team. Cloud… she didn't want to let Cloud out of her sight when he was acting the way he was and he was a better fighter than her too. It just seemed the most sensible break up and Zack gave her a quick smile. He seemed a little less 'Zack' than usual but not in a bad way. More in a… quieter, more steady way. The way she'd kind of imagine he'd act in about twenty years or so. Then he gave her a wink.

"So, we'll meet on the other side. Sis."

It had her smiling and she nodded. It was okay. Everything was going to be okay.

"Okay. Come on," she told her team and Aerith moved over to wrap an arm around hers, giving Zack and Yuffie a weak smile.

"Don't step in the water, okay?" she instructed and they both nodded, Zack with as much determination as Yuffie. Tifa caught Cloud's hand in hers and he turned his jade colored eyes to look blankly at her. She gave his fingers a squeeze and his lips shifted briefly. He gave a glance at his sister and Zack and then followed as Tifa started around the side of the lake closest to her. Zack and Yuffie headed in the other direction.

They couldn't stay linked the way they were of course. The trees grew randomly and there was a great deal of picking their way carefully over giant, white glowing roots and weaving away from the lake when they couldn't. She'd expected the trees to feel funny under her fingers the first time she touched one but they just felt like trees despite the white glow and the lack of leaves. It was reassuring and Tifa reached out even when she didn't exactly have to in order to feel the roughness of their bark under her fingertips. Aerith came directly behind her and Cloud took up the last spot. From time to time, Tifa would turn her head to look across the lake and sometimes, she caught sight of Zack's tall form and Yuffie's slender, flighty one. It was reassuring.

But the white traces of light continued to move under the glass dark water and no breeze or sound whispered through the woods.

Tifa finally paused when she noticed she was starting to get a stitch in her side and she leaned a hand against a tree near the edge of the water and looked across. It was empty for a long moment and then she caught the flicker of Zack's hair, obvious against the pale white of the trees. She squinted. Shouldn't they have met up with each other by now?

As the thought sank in, she turned and looked back the way they'd come. It looked like they were exactly halfway around the lake. Yet they'd been walking for long enough for Tifa to be tired and Aerith had dropped down to sit on a root as soon as she'd stopped.

It was taking them an awfully long time to get around such a small lake.

She took a drink from her water bottle and then pulled out the PHS. Cloud had gone back to looking across the lake and Aerith took the bottle when Tifa offered it to her. Her friend's face was flushed and she was breathing heavy but her eyes were greener than usual and not entirely focused. The key floated over her open palm, lazily rotating. Tifa looked away from it with a blink to break the spell and opened the phone.

Zack picked up on the second ring.

"You feel like we're walking around in circles too?" he asked without preamble.

"Well, I don't feel like I'm covering the same ground over and over but… we should be back together by now," Tifa offered.

"Yeah," she could almost hear him rubbing the back of his neck. Yuffie was chirping something in the background but it sounded like she was talking about pagoda paint and so Tifa didn't focus too hard on it. Zack exhaled over the phone.

"So do we keep walking or try to backtrack?"

Tifa looked at her two companions. Then she looked back the way they'd come. Then she looked in the direction they'd been heading. She wished she knew how long they'd been walking but she hadn't thought to check the time on her PHS and under the silent trees there didn't seem to be any darkening or lightening to indicate the passage of time.

"Did you see anything on your way to where you are?" she asked.

"Nope, nada," he answered and she suddenly realized how good it was to hear his voice. At least he had Yuffie to listen to. Tifa's two companions were as silent as ghosts and even that thought wasn't reassuring. "We keep going a little longer?" Zack asked and she nodded before remembering he couldn't see it over the phone.

"Well, the phones seem to be working fine. And we didn't see anything either. If we go back we're just where we started. Maybe the lake is wider across the way it's probably deeper than it looks. I can still kind of see you and Yuffie sometimes and we haven't been attacked by anything. We might as well."

He made a noise, sounding, for a second, like Cloud.

"I can only see you. Blondie and Aerith both blend in with the white too well. But yeah – you're right. All we're doing, at the worse, is wasting time if we keep going forward and I haven't seen any signs of – Cloud's imaginary friend."

Sephiroth. Tifa was suddenly glad Zack hadn't said the name out loud. She didn't necessarily believe in bad luck but mentioning the silver haired man seemed to be an invitation if it did exist. They'd both been counting on meeting up again quickly if something did happen on the other side of the lake but that seemed to be out of the question now. It was either push ahead… or retreat the way they'd come and still not know what to do.

Tifa sighed.

"Okay. I guess we mosey a bit more."

Zack chuckled over the phone.

"Right."

The line went dead and Tifa kept it to her ear and stared across the water a little longer.

They had to be doing something wrong. Or, if not wrong, at least not right. They had to be missing something. They had the key. They had a Cetra with them. That meant there had to be a way to get in or the Ancients would have never made a key in the first place. So what were they doing, or not doing, that they should be? She frowned and looked down at the black water. Then she looked back at her friend. Aerith had gone into a vague staring trance but Tifa recognized it was as much from being tired and scared and needing to shut down for a little while as anything else. She got up and moved over to sit down next to her friend, leaning her shoulder against Aerith's. Aerith stirred and looked over.

"It's all whispers in my head. I can't make out what they're saying but they're so restless. We're close." She shook her head. "I just don't know how to get closer."

"Do you think it really is in the middle of the lake?" Tifa asked and Aerith squinted out over the water and nodded after a minute.

"It keeps tugging inward," she said and Tifa looked out over the water. She couldn't see Zack or Yuffie anymore. Cloud stood at the edge of the water like a statue and his eyes didn't blink and they'd never once left the middle of the lake. Tifa hated times like this. She knew there was an answer and it was probably right in front of them but she had no idea what it was and she knew, just knew, that she'd feel amazingly stupid at how obvious it was when they finally did figure it out. She focused on what they did have.

They had a Cetra. They had a key.

They were stuck on the edge of a repeating lake with Cloud going funny on her and Aerith getting green stuck in her eyes.

Crap.

"Do you think it's the key?" she asked. Aerith looked down at it for a minute as it rotated slowly above her palm. Then she stood up and stepped to stand next to Cloud at the edge of the lake. Tifa, not sitting out of arm's range, stayed where she was and watched. Her friend turned and extended her arm so that the floating key pointed to the right of the lake. Then she turned to point it toward the left.

As she turned however, her arm was extended over the lake itself and as she did that, the spindly little key began to glow. Not brightly but with its own light instead of just reflected light. Aerith stopped and adjusted her arm a little. Tifa stood up and moved over to join her. The water in front of them rippled suddenly. Barely there but it was movement over glass. Tifa noticed the white lights angling toward them again but, squinting, she also thought she saw –

"Rocks?"

Aerith wasn't paying attention but as Tifa watched she saw rocks as black as the water just under the surface. They were round and looked like they'd risen from the bottom of the lake however far below that was even though she hadn't actually seen them rise. They also looked slick and shiny and they were spaced unevenly apart. She opened up her PHS and Zack picked up with a:

"Roadkill Café. You kill 'em, we grill 'em."

"Zack…" Tifa didn't look away from the strange steps leading toward the center of the lake. "I think we found the bridge."