A/N

NOTICE VERY IMPORTANT!

okay guys so the poll only has a total of three people that have visited. Now the poll is on my page and the thing is that one of the choices will make me have to do ANOTHER poll so i would like to see where everyone stands. So this poll will be up until tuesday then the other poll will be made then that poll will be up until until Friday night. but that all depends on what the final choices are so go to my profile and vote please!

okay second note. feel like making a couple of shout outs to a few fan fictioneers out there because i feel really good right now

First off Saria19, who provides me with some of the more detailed reactions to my chapters and gives me ideas for what to do next. Your cool.

Then to those who actually have stayed rather consistent with my ff and post reviews for nearly every chappa which i do admire, lovleess an the living fantasy, little 101, and wingsong5555. You guys rock.

Then I would like to thank Ingness who is the reason I wanted to post this shout out. I am always skeptical about my writing and i always feel its lack luster compared to quiet a few fanfics out there. Yet here this person comes who had just joined FF and said i made a good fanfic in all the right words. Your awesome in my book bro.

and last but certianly not least I would like to thank the very first person who reviewed my fanfic, however they utilized the anonymous review feature and they will now be known to me only as a random fan. I don't know if your still reading, but it was you random fan who also helped me in keeping this train going.

so without further ado i give you chappa 14!

Ch 14

"No way in hell you have never ate one!"
"I haven't even heard of it Nate."
"Its the greatest combination of peanut butter and chocolate ever!"
"Then why don't you just go back to Medeel where it is."
"You don't understand! How can you have not heard of a peanut butter cup Yuffie? The next thing your gunna say is Kool-aid doesn't exist!"
"cool...ade?"
"ARGH!" The next morning I had spent all my time before everyone continued traveling combing through the beach town, looking for anything sweet or from earth, but not a single product I had ever known existed here, Reeces, Gatorade, hell fucking even Heinz ketchup was just a figment of my imagination or as Yuffie said were stuff only in Medeel.

"I don't see what the big deal is Nate, its all just sugar and stuff." I looked her dead in they eye.

"I have been traveling for damn near a week without the joys of any of the "sugar and stuff " I used to have everyday till I met Cloud. The only thing that's made me forget this is the fact that I am on a company's hit-list, I have had multiple traumatic experiences, I helped save three, count'em, THREE lives from a horrible explosion, and I helped rescue two others. Now the only thing I ask is that I get my fucking favorite SUGARY STUFF so I can pretend my life has been normal thus far!"I walked away from a gaping ninja. You know I now realize how Tallahassee felt in Zombie Land when he was looking for that one twinkie...oh what I wouldn't give for a twinkie right now...

After many unsuccessful attempts at finding any reminder of home, with me even raiding the Shinra vacation house for hopes that it wasn't just full of items, everyone regrouped and set out towards the west. Yuffie looking a little down after what I said. But in all honesty its hard knowing everything you took for granted seemed to never exist. As much fun and thrilling it was to be in FF7 it didn't mean I would forget my real home...my mom, all my brothers, my favorite pets, hell I miss my school teachers.

"So Nathan what do you think?" I looked up.

"Huh?" Tifa shook her head.

"You didn't hear single word did you? Nathan this is important matters we're talking about."
"I space out okay."
"Just don't do it when we are talking about important things okay?"
"Yes mom." I heard a small giggle escape from Yuffie's lips before she put on a now weakened angry face when I looked back. Tifa sighed before explaining.

"Cloud had wondered why Sephiroth was heading west."
"What do you mean?" Cloud slowed his pace so he was closer.

"The Promised Land is a fictional concept that Shinra has been chasing for years, yet Sephiroth is just wandering around the continents."
"Maybe there is a certain way he has to get to the place, some kind of specified path or something." I said.

"One does not simply walk into the Promised Land Nathan." Red said and I snorted.

"Something wrong?"
"Its nothing, I just remember a guy saying the same thing about something else and the exact opposite happened." He eyed me before I continued.

"If that's the case then maybe he's looking for something." I said, might as well get these guys a little prepared for whats going to happen.

"What would he look for?" Aeris asked. I shrugged.

"Regardless, we need to keep moving, the only place we can go is a path through Mt. Corel." Cloud said and we kept walking. The only person who didn't participate in any conversation was Barret, but I could sympathize with the guy. We were all about to go into his old home and he was to blame for the incident that killed almost everyone in his town. I don't think I can do much for him though, he pushes everyone away when they get to Gold Saucer so I can't do much for him.

"Nathan." I look and see Cloud pointing over a hill. I look over and see a ton of those egg monsters just wandering around.

"Grangalans, only five but still dangerous."
"Cuz they have smaller ones inside them right?"
"Yes, but this actually could help us." I look at him.

"For what?"
"Since everyone now has new materia and has different roles in the group this will be a test run." He turned to the group.

"Everyone get ready, their in the way so take them down like how we planned." Everyone prepped before running out at the egg monsters. Having to go over a hill though made it so we lost the element of surprise and the monsters started attacking right away with their spitting/spinning blades.

"Take them out before the multiply, if they do, take out the larger one and the little ones will die off." Cloud said. Everyone split off into groups of two with Cloud handling a monster by himself. It was one of the strategies he made us do.

(flashback)

"Considering we won't always be fighting just one or two enemy's we need to split into teams that will work one each others weaknesses. Some of you won't have restore materia since we have so little gil, so this balance will help minimize how much healing we will have to do."

(End)

I was paired with Barret since I did well with magic and he was a shooter kind of guy, but also we had the three basic materia of Lightning, fire, ice, and even earth to use against enemy's. The other pairs were Yuffie and Red and Tifa with Aeris. Barret started firing at the egg while I cast fire on it, the thing looked like it was made of porcelain but it took both hits with ease and shot blades at both of us. We both got out the way and switched tactics. Barret started charging an ice spell while I distracted the egg since it took him longer to cast than anyone in the group. I pulled out Fusion and went for a swipe bu t the egg some dodged. I then gripped it with both hands and started to swipe at it repeatedly, remembering another lesson from the previous nights planning session when Cloud started evaluating everyone individually.

()

"Nathan, you are good with magic, and you think on your feet. Its helped you a lot lately but it can only get you so far. Tell me, why do you fight with your sword in the style you use?"
 "Its what feels right, I remember reading about a style where the first strike was drawing the sword so I got used to that"
"It is useful but what happened when you start just slashing with only one hand on your sword?"
"Its not as powerful?" He nodded.

"I want you to get used to using two hands on Fusion Nathan, you won't have the same feel or quite as much versatility, but your slashes will have a consistent amount of power behind them."

()

"What the hell!" I looked back and saw Barret with a very angry look.

"My ice is missing...Yuffie!"
"I was gunna give it back!" She yelled as she swiped a smaller egg with her shuriken and ran over to him. He looked mad before he started focusing again. He made a large block and it fell on top of our egg creature. I sheathed my sword after seeing that everyone else was done fighting.

"Good work everyone, we did it all right." Cloud called.

"The hell we did! the little thief had my materia!" Barret said pointing at Yuffie.

"I was borrowing it and I forgot to give it back!" She yelled.

"Quiet. We don't need to fight, you got it back. Now lets try to cover some more ground before it starts getting dark." We got a little more walking in before we had to stop at the beginning of the mountain path. I called first guard duty since I didn't want to be up in the middle of the night or early morning with little rest. Most of the time I had practiced using Fusion with both my hands. It really wasn't my style but Cloud didn't steer me wrong on how much power I could put behind each slash. I kept trying to see how I could do my Bankai attack but it would pull through. I was wondering almost my entire shift about why it didn't work since during guard duty I could pull an Air slash. However my time came up and I slept till Cloud got us all to pack our tents and move out. We started walking the rocky path until we ran into some man resting off the side.

"Hey, whats going on?" I asked.

"Whew. Hey, your actually talking to me." He said in between tired breaths.

"What is it?" Asked Cloud.

"I just passed a guy in a black coat back there." Everyone seemed to freeze.

" I tried to tell him it was dangerous up ahead, and he ignored me!"
"Sephiroth." Cloud said. Everyone seemed pretty psyched to go except Barret. I stayed near him while we started traversing the mountain path. We had passed by a Mako reactor with little trouble. We eventually got to the cart tracks and cliff from Barrets flash back and I saw him tense up really bad.

"Something on your mind?" I asked?

"Huh?" He looked at me.

"Your really tense...is something wrong."
"No...I'm fine..." He sounded somber but I left it at that. We eventually got down to the area where the rail tracks seem to be one hundred feet in the air. Everyone took their time crossing over. I realized unlike the game monsters really couldn't do much here since they were so narrow. I picked up a transform materia and handed it to Nanaki since he had another status infliction one. I was somewhat bummed we couldn't climb down to get the items that we stuck on the side of the track, but falling that far wasn't on my priority list for the day.

"Guys there's a fork." Tifa said.

"We'll split up. Aeris, Nathan, Red and Yuffie will go the lower path. Me, Barret, and Tifa will check what is on top." Cloud said. We split off into our groups. We went down but almost immediately ran into the draw bridge.

"I don't see a switch around here." Aeris said.

"It probably somewhere where Cloud and them will go. We just earned ourselves a break guys." I flopped onto the ground and used the bridge for back support. Soon enough Cloud got over to the lever and dropped the bridge.

"What do we do? Do we go ahead?" Asked Yuffie.

"Nah just let them catch up." Everyone went back to resting when Cloud and them came back.

"I guess we can rest, its almost sundown." Everyone started setting up their tents.

"Hey, who was in charge of food?" I asked.

" Because we are really low." I checked our travel packs and we only had maybe two peoples worth of food.

Cloud groaned. "No one picked up supplies while we were in Costa Del Sol?" Everyone seemed to have a duh moment.

"Guys we can't afford to make these mistakes! Let this be a lesson that if we don't keep supplies up we can't travel properly." Cloud scolded.

"Man you guys are wimps, I'll go find some food." Yuffie said, walking off.

"What? Where are you going to get food?" Tifa asked.

"I'm gunna go hunt. Be back in a jiff." She said continuing. Cloud shook his head and looked at me.

"Go keep an eye on her so she doesn't get any trouble."
"Why me? Reds her partner!" I just got comfortable too.

"Do you think I forgot when I told you she is your responsibility." I got up grumbling and caught up with her. She was a little surprised but didn't say anything.

"What are we hunting?"
"Cokatolis, I saw a bunch earlier." We traveled Clouds path and ended up on on the hill looking around until we ended up inside a cave. Inside we saw a nest of chicks about the size of a small dog chirping away.

"Aw damn it I knew this place looked familiar." I mumbled.

"Aww look at the little babies." Yuffie leaned down and stared at one.

"Yuffie we really need to leave." I said.

"Hold it Nathan, I'm looking at the... LOOK a treasure chest!" She ignored the birds now and went right up to the chest that was stuck in the back of the nest.

"Seriously? You just disturbed a nest!" I couldn't keep my voice down.

"Doesn't matter, these are all mine now." She said with a smile on her face carrying a bunch of phoenix downs.

"Great now lets get out of here!"
"No way I bet theirs a ton of treasure here!" She started searching the entire cave for stuff, however the only things that were worth a damn were the phoenix downs. "Aww no more treasure." She slumped onto the ground. I tried to pull her up.

"Okay you got your shit now lets god before..." There was a small chirp behind me. Turning back I see a huge evil looking bird, it had the size of a Chocobo but the face of an Emu and it was ready to charge. I pushed Yuffie out the way and got rammed head on by the bird. It was like getting socked by a football professional and I had the wind knocked out of me.

"Nathan!" Yuffie pulled out her weapon and charged the bird. She got a good slash but the bird kicked her into the wall and started screeching. It tried to stomp on me but I rolled out the way fast enough to only get cut by its talons. I ran to the entrance only to see the bird try to pick at Yuffie who looked knocked out.

"Hey you overgrown chicken!" The Cokatolis looked at me and readied for another charge. It started running when I quickly moved to the side to let the thing run right off the edge of the cliff. I looked down and saw that it only got a few bruises and a screwed up wing.

"Well at least that did something." I jumped down and readied my blade when the bird tried to get me again with its claws. I drew Fusion with a slash and got the giant bird, but it caught my shirt and knocked me down, I hit the back of my head on the dirt and started to get dizzy, I got up as fast as I could and swung Fusion at the bird when it came up to my face and just blew some kind of smog into my face and dodged my attack. I started hacking and slashed around wildly. The bird kicked me in the side and knocked me down again. I got some of my vision and saw the bird ready to stomp me out again. I quickly lifted up my hand.

"Fry!" I focused on my fire materia when suddenly instead of the normal fireball it blew a large volley ball and hit the Cokatolis right in the head, but the fire spread through the whole bird, making it start running around trying to put the fire out. In the end it finally fell down and just started to roast. I got up and looked at my hand and saw that my fire materia now had a stronger looking flame inside of it.

"I leveled it up...Yes I did it! I leveled it up! Yuffie you have to...Yuffie!" I started climbing the cliff and got back inside the cave. Yuffie was exactly the same as she was when me and the bird fell down so I picked up one of the phoenix downs and made her drink it. Withing a few moments she started hacking and coughing.

"Awww what happened." She grumbled.

"That thing knocked you out luckily you found these so you'll be fine when we get back to camp." She tried to stand but immidetlly fell.

"I need a potion." She wined.

"Well to bad I didn't bring any."
"What! Are you an idiot! You always take potions when you do stuff like this." She started having a tantrum, but in her state she could only talk.

"So why didn't you since there was a possibility I wasn't coming?" She shut up then since she couldn't think of a good rebuttal. I sighed and picked up her items. I handed her my pack and leaned down in front of her.

"Come on, I'll carry you."
"Nu uh, I'm perfectly fine until I'm healed."
"Without a potion that could take a day or so. Maybe you can get accounted with the chicks while I just take the charred remains of the bird back to eat. Now get on my back." After a few seconds she got up and fell on me. I walked out the cave and carefully trekked my way around the hill. But over time I could tell I was getting weaker because my body felt like it was getting stiffer and slower, more than a few times my joints would lock up. Eventually we got passed the bird but I fell because it felt like I gained a hundred pounds.

"What are you doin? Carry me!"
"Just...let me rest...I feel...really heavy..." Yuffie looked at me before she limped off herself and check under my shirt, her reaction told me it was bad.

"Did you let the bird blow something into your face?" I nodded.

"You idiot that was its petrify smog! Your turning to stone right now!" I flipped over and saw my stomach. It was pure stone ingratiated into my skin. It flexed only a little with each of my breaths. I looked and saw it traveled to my legs and up towards my neck.

"We need to stop this, its amazing its this slow...how is that?"
"Less analyzing, more saving me from becoming a fucking a statue!"
"But I don't have any soft!" I grunted when I remembered a fact from the game.

"Cokatolis have soft, check it." She stumbled over to the bird and pulled out the one thing I really didn't want to see.

A needle.

"What is that?"
"Its soft, I just need to get you and you'll be alright." She was about to stab me when I rolled out the way.

"I'm trying to save your life!" "Do it when I'm not looking that thing is long as shit!" She tried to get me again but I rolled. And this continued for about a minute. It must have been a hilarious scene, two injured people rolling around on the ground. Finally the stone fully enclosed my legs and Yuffie had me pinned down between her legs.

"Here we go." She stabbed my stomach and I felt it go through, however it wasn't as bad as I thought because she pulled it right out. I looked and saw the stone start to regress until it vanished completely.

"Thanks."
"Now that your done we need to get to camp." I got up and started carrying her again. We came up to the camp and everyone looked worried.

"Are you two okay?" Aeris ran up.

"We had a bad run in with a Cokatolis mother, Yuffie got messed up so Aeris could you heal her? And sorry we couldn't find foo..." I looked and saw a plucked Cokatolis carcass roasting on the fire.

"Who is the dick I am about to fuck up for making me look like a wimp and idiot."
"It came up to the camp and we got it by surprise. No need to hurt anyone." Red said chewing on what looked like a leg but I'm not to sure of a giant birds anatomy. I sighed and sat down with Yuffie while she was being healed. Cloud handed me and her some meat and I ate it with glee. I really didn't care at the moment I was eating a giant bird but it tasted good enough. After eating me and Yuffie were stuck with first shirt since Cloud considered our encounter reckless and ill prepared. The fire cackled as we sat in silence. Healing from the previous fight.

"Sorry." She looked at me.

"For what?"
"Yelling at you the other day."
"You say that now?"
"I was just stressed and seeing you like this kinda makes me feel guilty since I didn't pull you out when I cou.. oww!" She punched me in the shoulder.

"Don't start that dumb stuff now." She shoved her backpack onto me.

"Whats this?"
"I found it in the item shop before we left, your drinks popular at Icicle Inn, that's why nobody heard about it...I got you something else too since you like sweets. I had to borrow Barrets materia though to keep it cool." Wait Yuffie got me something? Little thief Yuffie? That... is really nice.

"You owe me fifty gil by the way." Awww I knew there was a catch. Well its the thought that counts. I opened the pack and took out the items. I ogled the can of soda and treat them for a bit before having a gigging fit.

"Hey whats so funny?" She yelled.

"Nothing...hahaha...its nothing, thanks Yuffie, you made my day. You can get some sleep, I'll keep watch the rest of the time." She yawned and went off inter her tent. I popped open the can and took a drink. My taste buds basically rejoiced when I downed the whole thing. I started eating my candy when I started laughing again.

"I never thought I'd be in final fantasy seven, and now here I am with a cold can of NARC Cola and sea salt ice-cream. Life somehow finds ways to surprise me still." I enjoyed the rest of my shift and went to sleep happy.

ATE

"So this is Cait Sith?" Rufus said. Eying the cat standing in front of him.

"Yep, that's me. So what do you need me to do boss?" Rufus allowed a brief chuckle. He knew Reeve was eccentric but he now realized how deep it really ran.

"I need you to infiltrate AVALANCHE and transmit their progress to us on a daily bases, any and all information is deemed important."
"Sir, are you sure that this is going to work? I highly doubt that they will simply just let him tag along." Said Tseng who was standing off to the side.

"Hey, I can do this job no problem! Just you wait." The cat pointed at the Turk.

"I am still skeptical." Tseng said.

"I have doubts too, but as long as he becomes a part of the group then the objective is completed." Rufus said. The robotic feline climbed up his moogle and pulled out his microphone, he started giving it orders and it moved as he wanted it to.

"Head out to Gold Saucer, I'm sure the will have to pass though there, now I don't care how, but get into their group." The little cat saluted and went off. Rufus turned to Tseng.

"Now how is our other plan doing?"
"The Highwind is still being repaired. And the company helicopter can only go so far without having to stop off to be refueled."
"So the only decent mode to get around most of the continents is the Tiny Bronco."
"Which is still under captain Highwinds ownership."
"As I recall didn't Shinra give him the funds to build it?"
"Yes." Rufus smiled.

"Then we are simply cashing in on one of our investments. We will have to move to Rocket town."
"It will take some time, the mountains will force us to refuel often."
"We'll leave for rocket town when we have enough Intel on AVALANCHE." Rufus said dismissively, hoping his plan would work so he could keep track of Cloud and the rest.

The next day we packed up and moved out. The long rickety bridge took some time but we eventually pulled through and got on another mountain path. It wasn't long before we found a very run down looking tent city.

"Wait here." Barret walked to the front of the group and was spotted by one of the workers in Corel. Everyone was a bit confused until one of the workers went up and hit hit, and what was worse was he just took it.

"Well lookey here. Never thought I'd see your face again." Said one of the men.

"Those people with you? I feel sorry for them, hanging around a death sentence like Barret." Said another.

"You got a lot of balls coming here. Its your fault North Corel is a garbage heap!" The third man spat at Barret who was simply looking at the ground. The whole group was angry that they treated him so bad. I just stood there with a sad look on my face.

"Why dontcha say something? Or did you forget what you did here already."
"...I'm sorry." Were all the words he could muster.

"Shit, you ain't even worth the effort."
"Don't waste your time talking to that techno-freak!" All of them walked away and we all caught up to Barret.

"You heard them...its my fault this town was...destroyed."
"How is that possible." Aeris asked. He shook his head.

"It don't matter anymore. Whats done is done." We left on that note and looked around town, the whole place was dirty and depressing. And when we passed by people would scowl in our direction. Aeris even bought some cheap bangle from one of the shop owners. I could see the sympathy on her. Eventually we came up to the lift.

"Barret what happened?" Said a concerned Aeris.

"Sorry." He said.

"Why is everyone angry?" asked Cloud.

"My hometown used to be around here."
"What do you mean 'used to'?" Asked Red.

"Aint here no more, heard it got buried four years ago." He seemed to space out.

" But how could those people say though terrible things?" Aeris said.

"And its my fault...all my fault." He told use about North Corel. When it was a small coal mining town. He talked about how Scarlet came and promised the town would get better if they allowed Shinra to build a Mako reactor. At the time the only person who was against building the reactor was Barrets friend Dyne. He eventually caved and the reactor was built. Everyone including Barret thought it would make their lives easier.

"It happened when Dyne and I were out of town for a few days. Shinra troops burned down the whole place. My friends...my relatives...everything."
"Shinra troops? Why!" Cloud yelled.

"There was an explosion at the reactor, they said it was done by a rebel faction." Everyone was shocked.

"That's Terrible!" Said Tifa.

"Well I guess that's true. But more than Shinra, I couldn't forgive myself...never should have gone along with building the reactor." Tifa walked up and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Don't blame yourself. We were all fooled by the promises that Shinra made back then too."
"But that's why I get so pissed off! Not only did they take advantage of me, but I lost my wife...Myrna, too."
"It would have only been you two against the whole village, I doubt it would have changed a thing Barret. You were looking out for your family." I told him.

"Hey everyone! If you want to get to the Gold Saucer then hurry up!" Shouted the conductor.

"Lets get on." Cloud was the first one in.

"Dyne was my best friend. We was close as ever since we was kids." He walked on.

"I never knew, he never said anything." Tifa said.

"Its hard, he blames himself for being fooled. Its a wound time will take a while to heal." I said.

"I'm not sympathizing with Barret, he never should have trusted Shinra." Said Yuffie who walked into the cab next. The rest of use filed in I looked off in the distance and saw a few flashing lights. Remembering Barret would have face his past very soon.

"What are you thinking?" I see Red.

"I got a feeling something off is about to happen."

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