Author's Note:
I apologize for the wait, summer has ended so I'm back on track on being busier than usual. This is also my longest chapter yet so it took a while to type it all up—I'm quite proud of it. Enjoy.

010: Surrender.

The small town surrounded by vast green fields and trees had once been filled with hopes and dreams, and dreamed of doing what was once thought impossible—a trip to outer space. Of course, only the best, damn pilot in this whole world had been capable of going, and he did, he achieved this dream though it didn't quite go as expected. But now he was the talk of his town, the most respected and the most looked up to, he finally achieved his dream and through that learned an important purpose. Now, Cid Highwind does whatever it takes to make sure the world is better, and everyone living among it is doing better as well. Rocket Town felt a little safer and he lived a peaceful life with Shera.

That was until he received a call a following morning. His wife poured him his favorite tea when the cell phone in his pocket rang; how he hated to be interrupted of his morning tea.
"This better be good!" He said upon answering his cell, Shera placed a small plate of toast and a jar of jam beside his cup, and she planted a peck against his temple. "…It's you! It's been a while, how've you been?!" His mood brighten just a bit, releasing a lighthearted chuckle as he carefully brought the cup up and pressed it against his lips, listening to his caller's voice. "…You say what? You want to what?!" It was an ordinary day, starting off with his favorite cup of tea as it always did. Shera stood at the kitchen, working on the remainder of breakfast when she heard Cid's chair scoot back, and heard him approach.

"Looks like I'm going to be gone for a while, the Shera is needed," Cid smiled, Shera turned to him, matching that smile; he seemed happier these days and that, of course, made her very happy.
"Of course, can you blame them? The world needs you."

Cloud wanted a simple, smooth ride, he didn't expect anything fancy or big, he had Fenrir and that was enough for him and Yuna, but Barret along with Tifa decided to invite themselves to this trip, and somehow Cid got involved too. To think the pilot actually flew all the way to Edge just to pick them up; it was too much.

Shit, this isn't a vacation, Cloud bitterly thought, as he gazed out the airship's large windows. He could only guess who invited Cid along and asked him to bring his airship; he doubted Tifa and Barret would actually go through this trouble. So who would…?
"Hey Cloud~!" As if right on cue, he heard the bright, cheerful, yet irritating tune of a certain 'White Rose of Wutai', who trotted right up to him with a bright grin. "Isn't it great!? My motion sickness is getting better; I'm doing exactly what you told me to do! I even convinced Cid to let us borrow the Shera for a while."
"Wait, it was you…?" The blond stared at the raven haired girl in quite the confusion. "You called Cid?"
"Yeah! I figured it couldn't hurt, besides, how else was I going to show you how better I was getting?"
"You didn't think that was a bit much?"
"No way, we used to travel on the old hunk o' junk all the time! It's just like old times." The young girl's grin grew, displaying a set of white teeth, which quickly disappeared at the sight of the new face right beside Cloud; she hadn't noticed her as the blond took most of the view. "Who's she?"

Yuna, who silently stood at Cloud's side the whole time, finally turned to greet the younger girl with a tiny smile, though the girl just eyed her.
"…You have weird eyes."
"U-uh?" Cloud immediately shot a glare to the black haired girl and she simply pouted.
"What? Like you haven't noticed? You don't meet many people with eyes like hers."
"Yuna. M-my name is Yuna." At her introduction, the young girl smiled brightly once again, hands propping enthusiastically at her hips.
"I'm the great ninja, Yuffie Kisaragi!"
"Ninja? Uhhh, what's a ninja?"

Silence was shared between the two; a long, awkward pause. Finally, Yuffie piped up. "Your eyes aren't the only thing that's weird about you." Just then the ship suddenly jerked to the side, causing the three to stumble; Yuffie gaged and held to her stomach.
"I thought you said you were getting better," Cloud mentioned, as he straighten himself out.
"I'm not a miracle worker!" Hunching over, Yuffie turned to her heel and walked off.
"Oh, um, she seemed nice," Yuna cleared her throat, her hands clasping behind her back. "Even if she did call me weird."
"I used to get motion sickness like her too, you know," Cloud kept his back to Yuna, as the two watched where Yuffie had disappeared to. "Riding on Fenrir helped me a lot; I don't really get sick anymore."
"You used to get motion sickness?" Considering Cloud constantly rode on that large vehicle, she would've never suspected such a thing.
"I used to—like I said, I got used to it." Yuna smiled at him as she turned back to observe the outside world beyond the tall glass surrounding them, it was just like the Fahrenheit and Celsius.
"You mentioned someone named Cid…?"
"Yeah,"
"Would he…happen to have a daughter and son?"
"Huh?" That was an odd question, Cid had no family that he really ever spoke of, as far as the entire group knew it was just him and his wife, definitely no mention of children around there, and he hadn't really been with any other woman besides Shera. "I don't think so."

Speaking of the devil, the captain, himself, approached the two, coming up right behind Yuna who had her back to him. "What is the meaning of this?!" He spoke, causing the young woman to jump at the sound of his voice, she immediately whirled around to be greeted to this new face but he kept his attention to Cloud. "You call me up, interrupt my tea, and get me to come all the way out here just so you can use Shera for your little vacation?"
"I didn't call you, Yuffie did."
"She told me you needed this ship."
"Of course she did…"
Eventually, the other blond male noticed Yuna. "Huh? And who might you be?" This man had goggles attached to his forehead, the same kind that reminded Yuna of the Al-Bhed, though his fashion was still much more 'calmer' compared to theirs. She noticed a cigarette held by the strap of the goggles, as well as one between his lips. "I'm Yuna, pleased to meet you."
The man grinned, the cigarette caught between his teeth; he nodded her way. "Name's Cid."
"Wait, you're Cid?" At the sight of the woman's surprised face, he couldn't help but to smile—yes, she must've heard of him!
"That's right! Cid Highwind, first man ever to fly to outer space, nice to meet you." All this granted was confusion from the woman who blinked in dumbfound before her lips curled up to a polite smile.
"Wow, I had no idea," Yuna said. Cid must've been a common name, to think it was such an incredible coincidence that he had also piloted his own ship. She could only assume this was all his. But, nonetheless, Cid had believed the impressed twinkle in her mismatched colored eyes was directed toward his success; he felt quite proud of himself and thus his mood lightened a bit.
"She a friend of yours?" Cid asked, and to that, Cloud nodded. "I like her already, we should be arriving soon." Cid had turned and disappeared from where he came from, and the pair watched him as they did with Yuffie.

It was time and he prepared for this, his determination to bring the world back to what it once was had been great and with this he was able to rally up the remaining supporters of Shinra Inc. Life went on but the planet's wound was greater than before, with plenty of its energy lost, they had no choice but to find a way to rebuild somehow.

Reeve was foolish into thinking W.R.O. could do anything to help the planet; their own kind had already hijacked the airship for a joyride. This wasn't the proper way to lead the world; this wasn't the right way to heal the planet. No, only he knew the right way.

Cid Highwind took off with the Shera and it's terribly hard to discreetly to whisk away with something that big without being noticed. So what were they planning?
"Is the ship trackable?" One of the rebels nodded in confirmation.
"Is Cloud with them?" There was no response then, its Cid Highwind's ship, but that didn't always mean that Cloud would be with him, right? He didn't believe so. "…Search the 7th heaven just in case. He couldn't have gone too far."

Reno and Rude last saw him with the mysterious woman in question, meaning she was most likely still with him, even if she wasn't, he must've known where she went. She's connected to this group—this AVALANCHE… Cid Highwind was up to something, he just knew it, and he felt it.
"Do not let her get away."

Yuna scribbled on a piece of parchment, she received it from one of the crew members, along with a pen. She got started on the letters she promised to Wakka and Lulu, while at it she decided to write Rikku, Brother, and her Uncle Cid. If she had enough parchment leftover, she might even write Paine.

I miss you, she wrote on the paper, and it couldn't have been truer.
"All that has happened," she murmured, as she tapped the pen against her lips; such a strange writing utensil, different from the quill and ink she was used to. But the utensil in her hand wrote so elegantly, she couldn't help but to love it. "All that has happened…I met someone…" She pressed the tip of the pen to the parchment and began doting down the words of her adventure till a member of the ship came by, wandering into the room. "Miss…Yuna?"
"Yes?"
"The captain told me I should come get you—we're here." It took her a while to fully remember where they were headed exactly, then when it finally hit her, and her stomach churned with anxiousness. She was here, she was actually here. She tugged away her belongings for later; for now, they had arrived and she was ready to learn.

Right as she set outside she noticed the orange puffs of clouds above her, that radiant orange also blanketed around the large, red canyons surrounding them, and high above them the dark indigo sky bled into the color; she noted the moon already out and up so high. The dusk approached them rather quickly. The next thing Yuna noticed were the long stairs carved from the red rock of the canyon, leading up high, the team traveled up those stairs and she followed. It took a while for all of them to reach the top, but then they finally did she was basked in awe by the view of her surroundings. The large canyons only seemed so much bigger up close; they expanded in the horizon and up to the sky, on these canyons had been many huts, buildings, and windmills. At the very top, she noticed a peculiar and rather large looking building, though she couldn't quite get a good look at it. Another thing that stood out was the fire that burned powerfully to their side, with stands and huts surrounding it.

"This is Cosmo Canyon?"
"That's right," the crew member that fetched her answered, they beamed with enthusiasm.
"You all really didn't need to go through all this trouble for me…"
"Oh this isn't just for you, this is for us as well," their arms folded across their chest. "You see, a long time ago, AVALANCHE was first founded here, till Barret formed another group at Midgar."
"You are all AVALANCHE?"
"Huh? Oh no, we're different now, some of us are AVALANCHE, some are ex-Shinra. The World Regenesis Organization is the result." Right after that explanation, the member moved on, leaving Yuna to herself as others broke away and explored on their own.
"Ex-Shinra…" Well, it was good to know they got out while they could.

Yuna was left alone and her vision skimmed her surroundings for a particular spikey, blond haired man, the only other person she knew and felt comfortable with right now. Once she spotted him, she rushed right for him, poking his back, and giggling. But then she noticed Tifa right up front of him, as they were having a conversation.
"Oh! I'm sorry…"
"No..! It's alright; we were just talking about heading up to the observatory," Tifa explained.
"The observatory?"
"Our friend's up there, at least I think he is, he's taking a break from his traveling."

Yuna gave a firm nod and smile, eyes traveling up to the purple, pink, orange, and indigo hues of the sky, to the lively, big, roaring, and powerful campfire. The entire area just hummed in a glow that seemed warming to her; there was another feeling behind it that she couldn't quite understand, it was a very down-to-earth feeling.
"Are we going to the observatory first?"
Tifa spoke of meeting up with their old friend, Yuna desired knowledge; this was the best place to start.

He returned every now and then, telling the people of Cosmo Canyon of his discoveries and theories of life. To the people, he was an incredibly wise creature, to his grandfather, he was just a teenager. But Bugenhagen was no longer among them, their observatory and their knowledge had to be handled by someone else. Usually some of the other villagers had no problem, but they shared nowhere near knowledge that Nanaki did. So usually when he came back from his adventures, everyone greeted him warmly and immediately sought what he learned.

In a way, it was almost as if he were continuing what his grandfather once did, and while it felt great, he couldn't picture himself doing anything other than traveling, learning, and protecting the planet. But it felt nice to do it every once and a while.

He had to admit, it came to quite a shock for him too, to see this new young woman in Cloud's party, approaching the feline for the desire of knowledge. But he wasn't shocked that she expected someone far…different from him. Though she was quite unique herself and the aura she gave off explained that very well. Nanaki traveled far and wide and yet never met anyone like the young woman who stood beside his friends; obviously he had a lot more traveling to do.

"Nanaki," Yuna repeated, it was the name the creature gave her to introduce himself.
"But we call him Red XIII—or just Red," Cloud mentioned.
"Why do you call him that?"
"It was my test subject name," Nanaki had no trouble explaining Shrina's experimentations.
"O-oh…" That topic got dark quickly. "Well, I will refer to you by your real name then." She leaned over, smiling brightly yet hesitantly reaching out to pet the feline, but he leaned back to avoid her touch.
"I may resemble a 'dog' but I can assure you I'm not one."
"Er, right, sorry…"

They wasted no time, Nanaki took them to planetarium, toward his grandfather's popular machine; this would've been a great start to guiding Yuna, to teaching her of all the knowledge they spent years collecting.
"Remember—we can only fit three at a time." Nanaki would count as the first person, Yuna turned to Cloud and Tifa and immediately she knew she wanted to take Cloud with her, he was the one who helped her; he was the one who originally was supposed to take her here. "Uh, Tifa, you wouldn't mind waiting, would you…?"
The woman watched her with unreadable red tinted dark eyes but she shook her head nonetheless, a tiny smile forming on her face. "No, its fine, you two go ahead." Her tone, however, had been quite dull. Yuna took her word nonetheless and took Cloud with her into machine room.

She was in a circular room, in middle of it had been a round pillar, at the top the large and vast ceiling was blue, figurines of planets, the sun, moon, and stars floated around. From afar, it looked simple, but up close…
Nanaki informed Cloud to push the button to the side that dimmed the room's lights and brighten the one inside the machine, incasing them in a glow. The pillar ascended to the ceiling, taking them into a larger view of what she believed to be a replica of space. The planets were small, as they were only models, but the entire replica itself was large enough to cover the three of them; if this was big, but then that meant space—real space—was even bigger.

Yuna was in awe.

She was surrounded by stars, by the splash of neon nebula sprinkled across the darkness, planets of all sizes floated amongst her; Zanarkand. She's seen this before, back at Seymour's machine, when he showed him the incredible image of the ancient city through a sphere, she felt its image float right through her.
A shooting star soared right past her, then another, and another. She tried to reach out to them yet they were out of her reach. She twirled, her arms rose up to capture the stars on her fingertips, but they, too, were out of reach; Yuna smiled either way. Yes, this brought back many memories. Eventually, she aimlessly backed against Cloud, gently apologizing to him as she turned back to him.

"This is…space?" She asked, the models of other planets caught her eye. "There are other worlds out there too." When she was young, Spira was her only world. "No one has even to space before."
"Except for one man," Red corrected her.
"Right," Yuna smiled again, "Mr. Cid Highwind."

The observation continued, the planet the three approached and watched from down below had been their own. There were the green, brown, and white plains that decorated the orb, the blue that represent the waters, and fluffs of white clouds floating amongst that. "This is our planet?" The feline nodded.
"It's so…small compared to the others." Somehow, she would've never guessed it.
"Our planet is large to us but compared to the rest of the universe, it's like a small child," Nanaki recited Cid's words. "There are many things out there, many unexplainable things, hoping to hurt this planet just as much as the people who occupy it."
"But why?" Yuna asked.
"Power. Power is a big part of the reason."
"So is that why Shinra drained half of the life from this planet?" There was a pause.
"Largely, yes."

Her fingers curled against each other, her eyes averted back to the model of their planet—a small child, with its 'life', its blood forcefully drained to simply fuel their new, strange machina. "The lands of Midgar are so plain and dead…"
"If Shinra had succeeded, this entire world would've died too." Cloud finished, stepping in the conversation.
"Along with my home."

In just one night she grew to love Cosmo Canyon so much, the wave of reminiscing continued when everyone rejoined around the large bonfire that Yuna spotted earlier. The fire in particular had been much larger than the one she set up with her group, back at Zanarkand Ruins, but it was a moment she would never forget. The fire roared with force but provided with comfortable warmth. The entire group scattered around, some sat by the fire along with her, others explored shops, and others went off to relax at the pub. For a moment, Yuffie passed by, grumbling something about how 'the materia in this place still sucks'.

Yuna listened to the words of the elders, expressing the answers to her questions just fine—first, they instructed her of how this wasn't the first time the team visited Cosmo Canyon, upon their first arrival, they brought back Nanaki, taught him to be the strong warrior he is now.

He saved the planet along with Cloud and his friends.

"From Shinra?" She asked, listening to the crackling of the fire, hugging her knees to her chest.
"…No," Cloud said, sitting right next to her, watching the fire alongside her. "Someone else."
"Oh, who?"
He didn't answer, she watched as the fire reflecting in his illuminating eyes hid behind his lids; they took her breath away. "That's not important," he finally said. "Not right now." There were just some topics he couldn't approach lightly.
She understood his secrecy, wasn't so sure if she enjoyed it, but she understood it, and left it at that.

"I've learned so much," Yuna piped up, deciding to change the subject. "From the Elders here, they've taught me so much about the Ancients—they were an old race, tied with magic, they didn't even need to train it just…came so naturally." She cleared her throat, aware she was simply rambling in hopes to take their minds off of other things. "But they were more than that; they were connected to this planet." Very similar to what the summoners did yet not exactly the same.

"They share a closer relationship than you think," one elder told her, a few hours previously. "The Cetra are born with this magic, others regain this knowledge back."

Over 2,000 years ago, every human was technically part of the Cetra, many of them expanded and drifted away from their roots, but some held back—the remaining Cetra. Some humans, however, wished to return back to their roots, even gaining the ability to train and call upon the fayth, the souls of the afterlife, the lifestream…
Thus, the summoners were born.

"The summoners, they were trying to train so they can communicate with the planet again," Yuna explained, till their objective obviously changed during the era of machina wars. "That's what the elders told me." But there was still that difference.

"The Cetra's magic was connected to nature, the summoners' magic is connected to the afterlife—together they made a great team." The key term: made. "The Cetra knew how to speak with the earth beneath them; the summoners know how to speak with the afterlife—an ability they learned from the Cetra, of course."

So this is where they all originated from. Yuna only knew of the summoners through their purpose to stop Sin, at the time, to her, it was their only purpose. But she learned they were much more than that.

"The summoners disappeared, little by little, with their new knowledge they went back to their home in hopes of teaching others. Most of them never came back."

They were all tales by then, rumored by the human population that continued to grow on this side of the planet, along with the dying race of the Cetra, and the mention of the mysterious land that reached her ears as she listened to the elders' stories.
"The Promised Land." She knew by the look of Cloud's expression that he recognized the topic; she would've asked him further explanation but a shout and gunshot rang in the air.

The peaceful, easy atmosphere of Cosmo Canyon was disrupted and in no time the civilians ran away, screaming. Cloud shot up from the ground, reaching for his weapon; Yuna followed, doing the same. While the innocents ran for cover, the two of them made their way toward the entrance where their friends stood in front of the perpetrators.

Their suits, their suits were what caught Cloud's attention and what caused his breath to hitch. What kind of sick, fucked up joke was this? He couldn't be staring into the same navy blue uniforms that all the small fries from Shinra wore, the very one that he wore on his days with Shinra. They even came complete with the same rifles as well.
"What the hell are they doin'?!" Cid shouted, he came running just in time, standing right beside the pair as the rest of their friends stood out in front. A group of people lined up in front of their group, a helmeted man up front, he wore a different uniform, those found on the commanders. A gloved hand rose, his finger stretching out and pointing right for Yuna…

Yes, that's her! It has to be her!

"Hand over the girl and we'll leave peacefully." He simply said, though there was that hint in his tone that indicated he tried very hard to come across intimidating. Yuna shook her head, stepping back, and quickly resisted.
"What is going on?!"
"This is by the orders of President Rufus Shinra, himself!" The 'commander's' voice almost cracked. "Hand us the girl and no one gets hurt!"
"I will not stand down to you," Yuna retorted, she held her pistols in front of her, ready to fight back, and her friends wasted no time doing the same. Cid held a long lance, a weapon Yuna was familiar with through Kimahri. Barret's metal arm transformed back to its large gun. Nanaki snarled while holding up his position, the feathers he wore beside his firey ears glowed. Yuffie hurried up right beside them with a strange looking weapon—four long blades attached to one another to resemble a 'star' of some sorts… Then Tifa cracked her knuckles, but she pulled out no weapon. Cloud moved to the front with his large sword and it was then she knew she had others to protect her, others like her family back home; she knew good people. She would fight alongside them.

The 'leader' of this group seemed taken aback but he refused to let down, he stood his ground and spoke, with a booming voice louder than before. "Are you really going to stand beside AVALANCHE, the people who did more harm than good?"
"Shinra was destroying the planet!" Barret growled. "We saved it!"
"Is that so? Or maybe I need to remind you the time you destroyed Midgar's reactors, causing an explosion that not only destroyed homes but killed and injured over a hundred people!"
The words obviously struck at nerves, causing the groups to argue, all but Yuna protested. Yuna heard these words and instantly she felt her guard drop, feeling the shock hit her. Over a hundred people…
No, she had no reason to doubt them, did she?

"That's not true…is it…?" Her gaze fell toward Cloud, who turned back to her, watching her with a heavy, cold stare. "So it is."
"We did it because those damn reactors were drainin' the livestream—we know it ain't right but—
"But you knew your actions would lead to casualties, don't be a hypocrite, you speak of saving the planet—saving lives, yet all you ever did was take innocent lives yourselves. Do I need to remind you of Sector 7's demise?" Hands wrapped around Barret's large arm where Tifa held him back, preventing him from launching forward and attacking the commander. The commotion felt muffled and distant to Yuna, where she simply stood at her spot, pistols lowering back to her holsters, her mind and her feelings conflicting with one another. "But why didn't you stop them…?" She simply asked Cloud, and he provided no answer, just cold, dead silence. Suddenly, her decision was final, and with a deep breath she straightened herself out.

The group watched in horror as Yuna stepped up, both hands unarmed and in the air, slowly approaching the Shinra guards; Cloud called to her and she turned back to him, with a tiny, dishearten smile. "They want me, they have nothing to do with you, and I shouldn't force you to fight for me…" She took in another deep breath, watching the 'leader' with hardened look. "You keep your promise—no one gets hurt and they all go free, I am the only one you want." It was hard to tell behind that helmet he wore but the man seemed surprised, in a way, as if he expected a fight to go down, at the same time, he seemed relieved as well.
"You made the right choice, Ancient," and he bound the young woman's hands, taking her by the arm.

"Yuna!" Again, she heard Cloud calling to her, and she turned to him, watching his bewildered expression, frowning at the results. As they hauled her out, she saw him approaching, with an arm held out to her, but it was too late—there wasn't anything they could do.