I just want it stated for the record that, if you guys kill me, you'll never find out how the story ends. I just want everyone to remember that. I will now slowly back toward the door, throw the next three chapters at ya'll and hope the time it takes you to read them gives me enough of a head start. OCV - thank you. I certainly try my darnest to keep everyone on their toes. There's a balance between giving readers what they expect to satisfy them and keeping them off balance with unexpected stuff. I think most everyone can see this is going somewhere but hopefully not to the point where it won't still be a 'hang on tight' kind of ride. And wo0t! for my now having a catch phrase! That's grand! Hopefully unlike lightning, I will be able to strike the same place more than once ;) Fairheartstrife - Ahhhh! yeah, that part made me yell when I wrote it too. This comes of the characters doing their own thing and never telling me what's going on. Though... I don't know that these next three chapters are going to be any better. Don't abandon me for demonegg yet! mc - yeah, Tifa's not so good at listening to what Cloud told her to do, is she? Of course, you think he'd be used to that by now. We'll find more Cloud plushies. I think we're going to have the manufacturers working overtime making those. If you need somebody to hang onto in the meantime, I'll sacrifice a hand. I hardly know what they're doing anymore either. ladywisdom - yeah, that would have been bad. Can you imagine Yuffie in charge of Cloud and Aerith? lol let's see if I can keep up the level of intensity ;) iskra - exactly! Fairy tales aren't half as sweet and innocent as Disney has made them. Glad you like that. And, you know, that's a really brilliant observation. I hadn't even thought of it but the forgetfulness in the temple IS like mako poisoning. Wow. That's an awesome call. Little bit more of Aerith's fate, your mantra does pop up in my head when I write for her. Wish I knew whether it was going to work or not. As for chapter 95? well, ... akuma - yep, everything got kind of blended together and then swirled around with my locations. It seemed to work though so I went with it. Glad you're enjoying - that's what's most important to me for my readers. Keep that ominous music going. We're not out of the woods... er, temple yet. vanillia raindrops - wow... just wow. Thank you so much for the compliments. It means a heck of a lot to me that you think I've done well keeping everyone in character. And thanks for the boost on the descriptives as well. I hate loggy descriptions that take up too many pages too. And yeah! I agree and couldn't have phrased it better - Zack really is the best thing to happen to Cloud and Tifa, isn't he? And he so wrote himself into the storyline. I'm glad my favorite trio is so popular with you. I never have as much fun as when I'm writing them together. As for chapter 88 - lol! That would be funny/creepy - Cid having cameras installed in each of the rooms. But nah - for some reason the team just automatically assumes with no basis in fact at all that if Tifa is missing and Cloud is missing and they're not where they're supposed to be than that they must be making out somewhere. I have no idea where the team gets that crazy idea but they seem to have it. demonegg - see? this is what happens when Real Life sneaks in and steals you away from the fantasy world. Tifa goes and confesses to Cloud and all kinds of craziness ensues. Not that you couldn't just go back and read it later, unlike the situations in RL - lol. But I'm glad you caught up and yep, I try to let them keep their strength even while they're falling apart. I think that's what makes real heroes. Hanging on - by tooth and nail if necessary - when everything's already fallen apart. But you already knew that. ;) lexi-yeesh - wow, I so adore your reviews. Seriously, it's like having you right next to me where we can both yell comments at the movie screen or jump around in circles together. And wellllll.... the temple and the city have kind of merged so it's anyone's guess what happens. Oh, what the heck. Everyone's going to know what happens by the end of chapter 95. jianre - glad you're liking the descriptives. Zack and Yuffie - yeah, they're a dangerous combo, but I'm kinda having fun with them. Especially if they ever decide to gang up on Cloud. You know, when he's not head tripping. Tae - SOMEone obviously needs to force Cloud to sit down and watch Dr. Who episodes. And - just couldn't resist Cloud needing to check the cell phone. It seemed such a guy thing to do. I too adore Cloud-the-security-blanket. How could he not be? It's just nice that Tifa doesn't mind sharing in that particular area. I'd seriously be glomping him if he were around during a scooby-doo situation. Heck... why wait for that. Er. and yeah! Zack and Yuffie. In a less tense time, I think they'd be tearing things apart with their evil - I mean, mischief. As for 'Tifa called'... how could I resist? vx-luna-xv - well, here's the explanation of why Cloud left the girls alone. And - I'm loving that you're antsy. Talk about a serious compliment. Now let's see if I can carry it through. And to Peek-chan - thanks for not killing me. Thanks for editing me. And thanks for constantly threatening to bean my characters on the head - because they deserve it. :'D - there you are! I thought I'd lost you, Dis and writer. Yeah, I had the scooby doo song going in my head too with the whole 'let's split up gang!'. And w0ot~! Zack plushies! I think we might have a line of paying clients lining up for those. Well, here's the next three chapters! Hope all ya'll enjoy!

Chapter 93: Questions Without Answers

"Where's Cloud?" Tifa asked and wasn't at all sure she wanted to hear the answer. Aerith didn't move out of her arms.

"He can't be here," her friend's voice was just a little bit dreamy.

"What?" Tifa's voice came out sharper than she'd meant it to but when Aerith didn't answer her, she pulled back a bit and caught her friend's shoulders. "What?!" she repeated more fiercely. Aerith's eyes, too sad and too full of green, met hers.

"Didn't you guess? Jenova lives inside of him. This place was designed to keep Jenova away. So he can't be here."

Tifa had to fight the urge to just keep on rolling with her 'what?' questions. Her mind stumbled over what she'd just been told and the panic closed around her heart like being swallowed by ice water.

"Stop. Slow down. What? Cloud? How could he have - ? How do you know that? How does this place - ? Where is he, Aerith?"

Aerith shook her head as if trying to organize her thoughts.

"I – I don't know. Somewhere… down. Everything falls down here that doesn't belong."

"Tell – this place to bring him back!" Tifa managed to keep her voice level but the whip crack behind it was something that could make her siblings cringe.

"I can't!" Aerith didn't exactly wail it but the sound was in her eyes all the same. "This place doesn't listen to me. I'm not enough for it. I can hear things but they can't hear me."

"All right," Tifa's hands clenched at her sides but she pulled in a deep breath. She didn't need to panic. Not just yet. Cloud was a scary guy. He would be all right on his own, for a little while at least. She pulled in another breath and it didn't help the tight band that had formed around her heart at all.

"All right," she repeated. "Then let's go and get him. If you can hear things, maybe you can hear how to get to him."

Aerith's eyes met hers.

"You haven't asked about Jenova."

Tifa resisted the urge to just sit down on the front step of the door and bury her face in her hands.

"I know," she answered weakly, reaching out and catching her friend's hand in hers. Together they both stepped through the imposing doorway, into the dark and shifting hallway where the ceiling seemed to go upward forever and the walls seemed to move when she wasn't paying attention. After a pause, Tifa looked over at Aerith and asked:

"Is that why he's been acting so strange?"

"I don't know," Aerith answered, squinted in front of her as if she were a little drunk and seeing three of an object when she knew there was only one. "I knew something was wrong with him after I woke up in Bugenhagen's living room after he opened the planet to me. I could almost hear it on him. It sounded the way Jenova sounded when it moved over the planet. I could… I could hear his body screaming. Even when he wasn't paying attention. I thought – I thought I was just still confused."

She sounded apologetic and Tifa wasn't sure she could handle that right now. She wasn't sure she could handle any soft emotions directed at her right now. She wasn't sure what was going on inside her head and her heart, just that she wanted, very badly, to concentrate on doing something and not thinking at all.

"But when we were standing in the doorway, after I touched the wall, I could see it on him. All… black and purple and twisting and wrong."

"On his arm." Tifa couldn't help herself and the words choked out of her. Aerith gave her hand a squeeze and looked over at her, worry on her face. Tifa just shook her head and wished the damn hallway would end. It couldn't possibly be as long as it seemed. Next to her, Aerith made a sound and Tifa realized she was holding her friend's hand too tight. With a rueful smile for her, she relaxed her hold a little.

How had Cloud gotten… infected? Infested? What word did you even use to indicate the fact that Jenova seemed to be, in some form or another, inside him? He'd noticed it after Nibelheim. Had something happened there? Something he hadn't mentioned and that no one else had seen? Tifa needed to find him to ask. But more, she needed to find him just to see him and reassure herself.

"When does this damn hall end?" she asked in frustration and, just like that, Aerith suddenly gave her hand a squeeze and moved to the side. For a split second it looked, to Tifa, as if her friend has just walked… sideways into a wall. And then Aerith's hand was tugging hers and she was following on faith stronger than eyesight. Suddenly there was a dark opening in front of her where there had used to be a wall. Tifa followed Aerith through.

Beyond was another hallway and she resisted the urge to shut her eyes and curse.

The trick to dealing with insane things was to stay calm and logical. It wasn't to feel panicked that a world-destroying monster was living inside of the man you were in love with. It wasn't getting emotional over the fact that your best friend was talking to walls and had too much weird green in her eyes. Calmly.

It was kind of like living with two accident prone siblings. 'Kind of' in a not at all kind of way.

So while they walked down the hallway that looked exactly like the hallway they'd just been in, Tifa kept a firm hand around Aerith's and forced herself to pull in a deep breath. After a minute, Aerith took another 'side-step' through the wall and Tifa found herself in another hallway just like the last.

It was going to be far too easy to get lost in here and Tifa really didn't want to think about being stuck here forever.

"Can you help Cloud?" she asked as she followed Aerith though another wall. She felt as if they were going slowly downward but it was impossible to tell for sure and she had a sneaking suspicion that, if it wanted to, the building could just make her think she was going down.

She wondered if it could tell she didn't like it. And what it would do if it could.

Next to her, free hand still supporting the floating 'key', Aerith shook her head.

"I – I don't know how. At first I thought it was like… like a weed? Something I could just pull out." She looked over at Tifa, eyes too large in her face and sorry. "If I could even figure out how to pull something like that out. I don't know. Sometimes I feel as if I understand what needs to be done but not how to do it. Like the way I taught myself to close cuts and make bruises heal. I know I should be able to do something but I don't know how. But here, outside when I saw it… it's – it's like it's a part of him. Even if I could figure out how to… pull it out, I think there's too much of him that's it and its that him."

They walked sideways through another wall and Tifa exhaled. Telling herself it was all right. They had time. A little time yet at least. If Aerith couldn't figure it out, maybe her father could. Even if they couldn't eliminate it maybe they could find a way to make it stop killing him.

Hadn't Professor Gast talked about injecting a child with the Jenova cells….?

After a silent minute, Tifa asked:

"Aerith? Where are we going?"

Aerith shook her head with a frown.

"To the center of it all. I don't… " she looked over at her friend. "Tifa, I'm so tired of saying 'I don't know', but I really don't know. I just know I have to get to the 'center'. That the answers are there. That that's where this place wants me to be." Face starting to go lost, she murmured: "I shouldn't have brought you with me."

It helped focus Tifa a bit and she made a noise.

"Nonsense. You would have walked into a wall – one that didn't become a door – by now if you were left on your own. I'm here because I can't hear a thing this place is saying. That's why you need me, remember?"

Aerith's slender fingers twined a bit tighter around hers and the brown haired girl gave her a weak smile.

"I don't know what my life would have been like without you, Teef."

"Hey, stop that," Tifa gave her friend's hand a light tug. "People only say that kind of stuff when they're about to die. Don't say things like that. Not ever. Okay?"

"I'm a coward," Aerith told her softly, not looking at her and then she shook her head again. "I am. I'm… I think I'm starting to like Zack. Not my Zack. Your Zack. Sometimes lately, when I'm with him, I feel happy. And I forget whether I'm happy because he reminds me of my Zack or whether it's because I just like the person he is. But if I let myself love him… then I'm betraying my own Zack, aren't I? And it's not fair to your Zack either because he'll never know for sure if I like him for him or if I like him because he reminds me of someone else. I'll never know for sure."

"Aerith…"

"I know my Zack would want me to be happy. He'd want me to keep living my life and fall in love again. I'd want the same for him. I know, I really do, that my Zack is dead and he's not coming to see me the way he promised. I know I should move on. But… I don't really want to move on. I'm happy being in love with him even if he is dead." She sighed and it made her shoulders shake. "I don't want to fall in love with anyone else. And I really don't want to fall in love with someone that I might only love because he's close to what I used to have. It's not fair. Not to either of us…"

Tifa really didn't know what to say. She hadn't been expecting a confession like this and certainly not while they were walking through the sides of walls in an endless maze of identical hallways. She didn't think she was exactly qualified to give advice anyway considering she'd managed to avoid all the 'in love' stuff up until just recently and the relationship she had now didn't exactly seem run of the mill and normal. Instead she just squeezed her friend's hand firmly with hers and after a minute, she asked:

"Maybe… maybe you're over thinking this?" That at least she could speak from experience on. "Nothing has to happen right away." Tifa paused and thought very carefully about how to say what she was going to. "This is going to end soon. For good or bad. If it's bad… well, it won't really matter, will it? But… if it's good… if we win and stop Jenova then… we'll all go back to our lives the way they were before this. Or something like our lives before this. I mean, you'll be in Wutai probably, with your mom and your dad. Maybe you shouldn't worry about deciding things like that now. Maybe you should wait until life is back to normal and then figure out whether you want to see Zack or not. Maybe if he's not around, you'll realize you don't want to see him. Or that you do. But maybe you shouldn't fight yourself so hard about it until you've had a chance to find out away from him first."

Aerith made a sound and it might have been a sob or a laugh. Her hand was so tight around Tifa's that it was painful but she didn't try to break the grip or pull away. Instead she just looked at the flower girl and Aerith gave her a teary smile.

"That's such a practical Tifa thing to say."

Tifa gave her a weak smile.

"Well, I'm a practical Tifa kind of girl."

Aerith's head suddenly snapped around and she grabbed Tifa's hand with sudden fierceness. To Tifa, it looked as if her friend's eyes glowed.

"It's here," Aerith announced and suddenly stepped into a wall again.