Author's Note: Hello, everyone. Been a bit since my last update. The Elden Ring DLC came out and basically absorbed my entire life for the better part of a month. Hopefully I can get back on track with a consistent schedule again, but for now I hope you all enjoy what I've gotten for you so far. I'd like to have the next chapter out as soon as possible, but I'm not going to commit to a hard timeline since I've blown my previous two deadlines already.

Just know that this story does mean a lot to me, and though I might take time between updates, I have every intention of seeing this story to its completion. So no need to worry about me bailing on it.

Enjoy!

The frigid winds of the Northern Continent brought a chill to Gast's bare lips. He was beginning to regret shaving before the expedition, but what was done was done, and he had no choice but to make due with his own decisions.

"This way, Doctor!" the Shinra expedition guide shouted. Their body, honed and hardened by years of physical labor, swiftly moved across the knee-deep snow with barely a sweat on their brow while Gast and his scrawny assistant struggled and trudged every step of the way.

"Do you think this could be it?" The assistant huffed, his lungs struggling to keep pace with his body.

"For the sake of our budget, I certainly hope so," Gast murmured, strategically walking in the footprints left by their guide. "I had to call in a favor from Grimoire to convince the President to grant us our last extension. If we don't come forward with results soon, then they could very well pull the plug on the entire operation."

"That'd be…" the assistant stopped to catch their breath. "That'd be outrageous!" he wheezed. "After all you've done for the company?"

"Therein lies the problem, Hojo," Gast said, continuing forward into the relentless wind. "This project isn't for Shinra, not really; it's for the planet. Shinra may be the ones cutting the checks, but they're still a corporation at the end of the day, and they expect to see profits."

"Is the pursuit of science not profit enough?" Hojo finally found his breath and pressed on. "We've uncovered so much about the Ancients already! Surely they have to see the value in our work!"

"Maybe if you ever get on the board, you can express that to them yourself," Gast chuckled.

"Sitting among all those stuck-up narcissists?" Hojo snickered. "I think I'll pass."

"We're almost there, sir!" The guide shouted over the wind as they came upon the dig site.

Giant industrial heaters blasted into the uncovered dirt to melt the permafrost while sweeper bots with flamethrowers burned away at the dense ice and packed snow. Traditional excavating had proven impossible. The frozen earth had broken, dulled, and shattered almost every pick, drill, and shovel Gast's team had thrown at it, as if the planet itself didn't wish for them to uncover what lay beneath.

In the end however, innovation and technology proved the victor. Though the process had been slow, the gradual melting and chipping away at the mountainous region inch-by-inch had finally paid off, and the secrets it harbored couldn't remain hidden any longer.

Gast always theorized that the Northern Continent had at one time been a paradise where civilization thrived and prospered, and his expedition had proven that theory true. Buried underneath almost a hundred feet of snow and ice, Gast's team had uncovered the remnants of a society lost to time. They found structures and buildings with strange, alien designs reminiscent of seashells and coral, as well as husks of petrified trees that radiated a dim white glow, but nowhere could they find any signs of the inhabitants who once resided in the once lost city.

No desiccated corpses, no bone fragments crushed beneath the thousands of tons of ice and snow, no writings or scriptures, nothing. It was as though the Ancients that once resided there had simply left with nary a trace of their existence besides the homes they built so long ago.

At the base of the dig site, Gast and Hojo came upon a massive crane hoisting an unseen object from the depths of a black pit, chains clanking and cables groaning as the workers gathered around to bear witness to what would arise from within.

"Is this it?" Gast asked the guide as he and Hojo stepped closer to the pit.

"Mhm," the guide nodded. "A drone found it about two-hundred meters down."

"Two-hundred?" Hojo gasped. "The depths of this city only go fifty!"

"I don't know what to tell you, Doc," the guide shrugged. "Me and my boys just dig this stuff up, you're the ones who have to figure out how it got there."

Hojo took a step closer to the pit as the crane's cables whirred. Gast bit down on his chapped lower lip, uncertain of what he should expect to see emerge from the depths of the earth. Based on everything this expedition had uncovered until now, logic dictated that it would be an old pillar or perhaps a monument of some kind. However the tugging feeling in the back of his heart told him it was something else, something more.

With a final groan of the crane, the object emerged from the pit. It was made of stone, and rectangular in shape. The chains that connected it to the crane's hook made it sway like a pendulum throughout its ascent.

While everyone else who'd gathered around took a step back to avoid the swinging hunk of stone, Hojo remained unmoved as he examined it with wide, gleeful eyes. Markings and etchings of various reliefs covered the stone box. The meaning to such intricate designs were beyond everyone watching, but the purpose of such a box buried deep beneath the earth was universally understood by everyone.

It was a coffin.

"Stand back!" One of the dig site workers barked as the crane gently rested the sarcophagus on the ground. Gravity soon took hold and it fell back lid-side up as the chains rattled and snagged, tugging at the crane hook.

Ignoring the warnings, Hojo and Gast ran up to the coffin, feeling the ground tremble as it hit the cold dirt. Workers hurried to unfasten the chains sealing the lid shut, and once they were undone, the two scientists along with the help of the dig team quickly moved to push off the heavy slab. Stone ground against stone as the team worked to open the coffin, and once the lid finally came off, a gasp overtook everyone as they gazed upon that which rested inside.

Throughout Gast's tenure, he'd seen his fair share of unearthed tombs and lost sarcophaguses. The remains found in such places varied from mummified husks to mere bones shrouded in weathered cloth. However when Gast's eyes dared to peer inside the coffin, his expectations were demonstrably shattered.

"She's beautiful," Hojo whispered.

With hair of snow and skin like ice shimmering beneath a cold winter's sun, a woman resided in the coffin with her hands resting on her shoulders and her arms crossed over her breasts. Though her lungs were still and her eyes remained sealed, Gast felt an uneasy sense of dread intertwined with fascination crawling along the back of his neck that this woman, or rather, this thing wasn't dead, but merely dreaming.

And what does one dream of for two millenia? Gast wondered.

XXXXX

Exhausted brown eyes struggled to remain open as they peered through a microscope. From a scientific perspective, Lucrecia wondered if someone like Azul could even be considered human anymore. The infusion of mako and Jenova cells had created a biological cocktail of cellular structures stitched together like a horror movie monster.

The red blood cells were engorged to the point they appeared ready to burst, hyper-inflated with over seven times the amount of oxygen of a typical cell, only held in place by black, miasmic-like bodies that mended together the overworked cells. However as time moved forward, the efficiency of the miasma waned. One-by-one the red blood cells began to burst, wither, and eventually die.

"They're degrading." Lucrecia said, pulling her head back from the microscope and wiping her eyes.

"I guess that should be expected," Shalua rested her hand against a desk as she leaned back. "They're still just SOLDIERS at the end of the day, and all SOLDIERS degrade eventually."

"Not all of them," Dr. Crescent responded. "But that's beside the point. Come take a look."

Shalua stepped forward and switched to the monocular lens. As she zoomed in, she saw exactly what she expected to see; the cellular structures were beginning to break down. Durable as the body of a SOLDIER was, even they couldn't fight against the inevitability of decay.

"Is there something I should be looking fo— wait a minute." Shalua adjusted the microscope. The miasma, like the other cells, began to break down. "Why are the Jenova cells decaying? Only the human cells should be doing that?"

"They're not decaying," Dr. Crescent took a sip of coffee.

"Then what are they…" Shalua gasped. As the miasma broke down further, telltale traces of black oozed out of them like smoke intertwined with a faint red hue. "I've seen this before! It's just like…"

"Geostigma." Lucrecia finished. "I went back and re-read the reports because I thought the same thing," she continued. "You're right, Jenova cells don't decay under normal circumstances. However Geostigma's interwovenness with the Lifestream saw it return to the planet."

"Which means now all Jenova cells can rejoin her through the Lifestream itself, because…" Shalua gulped, feeling a chill run down her spine. "Jenova has made herself a part of the planet."

"A cancer would be more accurate," Lucrecia replied.

"This is insane!" Shalua shot up from the microscope. "That means that every piece of her that gets destroyed will just find its way back to her!"

"It certainly seems that way," Lucrecia replied, leaning back against a table with her arms crossed. "I hypothesize that she's found herself existing in a perfect middle ground where she is simultaneously a part of the planet and separate from it entirely. She can reap all the benefits of being made whole through the Lifestream while not being bound by its will," she rubbed her baggy eyes. "As she is now we may still be able to eradicate her without severe repercussions, but if this continues…"

"Killing Jenova would be the same as killing the planet itself, wouldn't it?"

"That's what I fear, yes," she nodded. "However, that's all purely hypothetical at this point in time."

"So how do we kill her then?" Shalua asked. "How do we kill her while we still have a chance?"

"That…" Dr. Crescent let her head hang for a moment, her eyes vacantly staring at the floor before the words eventually fell out of her mouth. "I don't know yet."

XXXXX

The hour-long trek to Cosmo Canyon passed in what felt like a matter of minutes. Even from beneath the heat of the sweltering sun, Cloud and Tifa remained transfixed on Denzel, spending every moment of the hike to catch-up while Nanaki led the way through canyons he knew better than the back of his paw.

Two years earlier, shortly after the Omega Incident, Denzel came to a sobering realization that before he'd even escaped adolescence, he'd already bore witness to three potential world-ending calamities, and throughout all of them, the only thing he could do was watch as everything unraveled around him, able to do nothing more than pray that the world would still be there at the light of dawn.

At first Denzel sought a traditional route of service through the WRO, but Reeve saw to it himself that the boy was denied, wishing to move past the era of exploiting youthful ambition and zeal in the way Shinra had in decades' past through divisions like SOLDIER. However that did little to ease the drive that burned in the young boy.

Though Cloud and Tifa tried to quell him, tried to steer him toward a life free of conflict, Denzel wasn't so easily swayed. In the dead of night, Denzel left the safety of Edge and ventured into the unknown of the wilderness surrounding the ruins of Midgar. Where he planned to go, he didn't know. The only thing guiding him were the faces of those he'd come to cherish. Cloud, Tifa, and Marlene, those who'd taken him in as one of their own when he had nothing to give in return. That was all the guidance he needed, or so he thought.

Under the veil of a full moon's light, Denzel found a pack of fiends following close on his trail. He utilized what magic he could to keep them at bay, but their numbers were greater than he could manage.

When all seemed lost, like a knight atop a mounted steed from tales of old, Cloud appeared from the ether atop Fenrir, it's engine roaring as the SOLDIER slashed through the fiends with the hulking force and weight of the Fusion Sword.

At first Cloud wanted to ridicule the boy, to demand an answer for why they'd been so foolish, but when he saw the look in Denzel's eyes, when he saw how much they yearned to be able to stand at Cloud's side rather than at his feet, the SOLDIER couldn't help but feel a twinge of empathy, recognizing that not so long ago he too carried that same look in his eyes.

In the days that followed, Cloud tried to train Denzel himself, but found the young boy's affinity for magic to be a skill that he was simply not suited to instruct. The longer Cloud spent trying to train him, the more he wished Aerith was still there, knowing she'd have been a better match for the boy than he could ever hope to be.

After weeks of consideration, Cloud and Tifa decided it'd be best if Denzel sought to be trained by the planetologists of Cosmo Canyon. They'd received letters and phone calls from him from time-to-time, but as the months passed by, they became fewer and fewer until eventually life without Denzel became routine again.

Though Cloud and Tifa had hoped in their heart-of-hearts to see him again, they never expected to have seen him excell in such the way that he had. As they gazed upon him they saw that not only had he grown physically, but there was a more mature, albeit youthful air about him in the way that he spoke, in the way he walked, in the way he carried himself. Every action he took was one calculated with thought rather than impulse. In many ways he truly had grown up.

"We're here!" Nanaki shouted with glee as they picked up the pace to cross the great wooden bridge leading into Cosmo Canyon, his flaming tail swishing left and right as he sprinted ahead of the three.

Nanaki dashed over the threshold leading into the village, passing by a woman sitting atop a small boulder, idly kicking her black boots as her feet dangled in the air. He saw no more than a glimpse of her, but she carried the familiar scent of lilies, and that was enough to give him pause.

The creature slowed their pace and turned back to the woman, only to find nothing but an empty rock next to the bridge, yet the lingering scent remained.

"You alright, Nanaki?" Tifa called out as the three finally caught up with him.

"Yeah," his head swayed left and right, his muzzle twitching as he took in the smells around him. "I just thought I…" he shook his head. "It was nothing."

"Well about damn time ya'll showed up!" Cid shouted as he and the rest of the group approached from the inside of the village. Yuffie had finally shed her green complexion now that her feet were firmly planted on the ground, while Cait Sith sat atop Barret's massive shoulder.

"Yeah," Cloud replied. "And look who we found," he patted Denzel on the back.

"Whoa!" Yuffie leapt forward. "Denzel?! Last time I saw you, you were like this!" She held out her hand flat and placed it just above her waist.

"Well son-of-a-bitch, kid!" Barret walked up and ran a huge hand through the boy's hair. "It's good to see ya!"

"Good to see you, too, Barret!" Denzel chuckled.

Cloud managed a faint grin watching Denzel reunite with the others, but his attention fell away from the boy when he noticed someone standing amongst the crowd in the village, someone who even at a glance was easy to spot with her red jacket and pink dress.

From a distance, Aerith gave the SOLDIER a small wave with a kind smile before vanishing into the mass of people. Cloud felt a tug at the back of his legs, a drive to rush forward and chase her down, but cooler heads prevailed, and he instead held onto patience. Cloud figured if he was seeing her here, then that must mean he was on the right track.

Tifa glanced over to find Cloud deeply staring into the crowd, finding a look of determination in his expression. The young woman followed his gaze into the mass of people and looked closely, hoping to see, or rather wishing to see what he could.

All she saw were unfamiliar faces.

"Alright now," Cid clenched the toothpick between his teeth. "I hate to interrupt ya'lls reunion and all, but we got business here."

"I have'ta agree with scruffy n' grumpy," Cait Sith added. "We can't be wasting time, unfortunately."

"We should let Grandfather know we're here first," Nanaki said, striding past the group. "He can probably give us a better understanding of the situation."

"Agreed," Cloud seconded, feeling the faint hum of the strange materia in his pocket.

"I'll go with you!" Denzel stepped forward. "I need to speak to Master Bugenhagen about those fiends we fought out there anyway."

"Fine by us," Cloud shrugged. "Maybe you can lead the way. Red here might be getting a foggy memory with his age."

"Hey, I've told you, fifty-three is still really young for my kind!"

"Whatever you say, old timer," Cid pulled out his toothpick and put it in a small disposable container he retrieved from his pocket. "Let's get a move-on, everybody!"

As the group moved toward the lift, Tifa couldn't help but throw a few looks Cloud's way, spotting that same determined expression from earlier.

"Did you see something?" She asked.

"Hm?"

"Just a second ago, it looked like you saw something," she said. "Just wondering, is all."

"Oh," Cloud scratched at the back of his spiky blond hair. "It was nothing," he lied as they stepped onto the wooden lift.

Tifa didn't vocalize a response, but Cloud could practically hear the look she was giving him. At a glance her narrowed gaze and inquisitive eyes might've rang with judgment, but Cloud knew her well enough that it was just her way of making a point that this was something they'd be talking more about later when other ears weren't there to listen.

The wooden cogs of the lift ground against each other as the pulley system churned and the group watched as the base of Cosmo Canyon grew further away as the sky only drew closer.

Upon arriving at the precipice of the towering spire-like mesa, they were met by the iconic sight of the fabled Cosmo Canyon Observatory, its massive telescope aimed toward the bright blue sky which carried the faintest hints of orange as the sun slowly crawled toward the distant horizon.

"Grandfather!" Nanaki exclaimed, his tail flicking and whirling as he darted inside while the rest followed behind. "We're here!"

"Welcome back, Nanaki!" Bugenhagen's raspy voice reverberated from inside the observatory, coming from the upper levels as he floated down from atop his iconic shimmering sphere. "I'm glad to see you all finally made it!"

Cloud hadn't seen Bugenagen in almost half a decade, but all-in-all the elderly planetologist appeared exactly the same as they had five years ago. However the SOLDIER remained uncertain if that was because the methuselah of a man had been maintaining good health, or because he'd simply reached such an age that they just couldn't possibly look any older than they already did.

"Sorry for their delay, Master Bugenhagen," Denzel stepped forward. "They had to stop to help me fend off a few fiends out in the field."

"Is that so?" The old man's cataract-tinted eyes shifted toward the boy from behind his circular black glasses, expressing the telltale signs of intrigue. "And what sort of fiends were they?"

"They weren't anything like the fiends we'd normally find here," Nanaki spoke up. "They each had a single black wing, but they were small, and stunted."

"Hmm," Bugenhagen stroked his beard. "That is interesting…"

"I'm guessing you've seen a lot of fiends like that lately, haven't you?" Cloud asked.

"Unfortunately," the old man sighed as his floating sphere rotated and hovered upward. "Come now, follow me. I'm sure you all have a lot of questions. However, I'm uncertain if I have the answers you might be looking for."

The group began their ascent up the stairs lining the circular wall as they climbed to the upper levels of the observatory. Most of them intently listened to Bugenhagen as he spoke. Yuffie on the other hand found herself distracted by some of the old contraptions and devices in various display cases.

""Whaddya mean by that?" Cloud asked. "Aren't you supposed to be the guy who knows everything about the planet?"

"Ho ho hooo!" he responded with his trademark howl of a laugh. "Once you get to be my age you'd be surprised by how much you come to understand how little you actually understand."

"Well damn," Barrett said. "The hell does that say about us, then?"

"Don't worry, Barrett!" Yuffie chimed in. "You're not young like the rest of us. You've even got little gray hairs coming in! Look!"

"Ow!" Barrett yelped as the ninja plucked a long silver hair from his beard.

"I found another one!" Cait Sith exclaimed, but before his gloved fingers could take purchase, the hulk of a man grabbed the robot by the tail and held it out of reach from his face. "Hey, let me down!"

"Can ya'll settle the hell down?" Cid snapped. "I swear, Tifa's the only one who's got any sense out of all of ya!"

"Aw, thanks Cid!"

"Hey," Nanaki piped up. "What about me?"

Cloud shook his head as he ascended the steps onto the observation floor where Bugenhagen was waiting, Denzel following close behind.

"Don't worry," Bugenhagen said as he floated toward a switch to retract the telescope and close the bay door, enveloping the room in shadow. "I may not have all the answers, but I do have some."

Once all light from the outside had been shut out, a holographic projector came to life and illuminated the room. Stars twinkled and danced mere inches from everyone's very eyes as the empty void of shadow lit up with all the brilliance of the cosmos.

"This thing never stops being cool!" Yuffie squealed.

"That incident in Nibelheim, surprising as it was, wasn't without at least some form of prior indication," Bugenhagen said.

"You knew it was going to happen?" Tifa asked, her tone remained steady, but it was ready to take a harsh shift at a moment's notice depending on how the old man answered.

"If only," he replied, waving his hand around, causing the hologram to close in until an image of the planet was fully in view of the group. "No, but after it happened, all the anomalies I'd been observing finally started to make sense."

"Like what?" Tifa cocked her head slightly.

"The Lifestream, like any living being, moves freely throughout whatever path it chooses." A complex weave of luminous green encircled the image of the planet, swirling and flowing with a beautiful intricacy to its movements. "But just as the fish swim with the currents, so too does the Lifestream. There is a set path which it almost always follows called the leylines, though it does deviate from time-to-time."

"Errant strands!" Denzel piped up.

"Ho ho! Someone has been paying attention to their lessons," Bugenhagen laughed. "Yes, errant strands, small slivers of the Lifestream that dare to venture from the beaten path to find their own way." The hologram moved in closer to show tiny threads of green branching off from the main body of the Lifestream, creating a structure not too dissimilar to capillaries, as though building a vascular system for the planet itself. "Some burrow deep into the earth, creating pockets of pure mako, while others ascend to the surface and become lifesprings."

Though Cloud appreciated the planetology lesson, he couldn't stop from crossing his arms and tapping his foot, waiting for Bugenhagen to get to the point.

"Gotta be patient, Cloud," a woman spoke next to him, but it wasn't Tifa. Peering over his shoulder, he was met by eyes of the same vibrant green as that of the Lifestream.

"Aer—" he stopped himself, but spoke just loud enough to capture Tifa's attention.

"Cloud?" Tifa called.

The SOLDIER opened their lips to speak, but their gaze remained fixed on Aerith's soft features. After a moment of struggle, he forced himself to look away.

"Nothing," he whispered, looking ahead to the hologram with crossed arms. "Just thought I heard something."

"If you say so," Tifa replied with a hint of unease in her tone, but ultimately chose to let it go, returning her attention back to Bugenhagen.

"However," the planetologist continued, seemingly just as unaware of the new listener as the others, save for Cloud. "There was an anomaly regarding some errant strands that came to my attention a few months ago."

The hologram zoomed in closer until all that could be seen was a single current of the Lifestream. From the current, hundreds of errant strands broke free of the main body, but unlike the other strands, they all moved as if guided to a singular point drawing them in.

"They're all moving to the same spot!" Nanaki said, walking up to the hologram and circling it to observe it from every angle. He wasn't alone however, as Cloud watched Aerith take a step forward as well, looking over the projection with an inquisitive finger pressed against her chin.

"Precisely, Nanaki," his grandfather replied. "And I'm sure by now you can guess what was drawing in those errant strands."

After a moment, the strands coalesced into a spherical mass before the serene green eroded away into a dark red. After a few seconds, there was a surge as the red mass erupted and began coursing its way through the Lifestream, bringing its crimson hue to all in its wake.

"Was that Jenova?" Barret muttered.

"Ol' bitch just can't stay dead, can she?" Cid scoffed.

"But how is that possible?" Denzel asked. "Jenova isn't a part of the planet. How could she be able to draw in the Lifestream like that?"

"Geostigma," Cloud said, more out of instinct rather than intuition as he grabbed at the pink ribbon tied to his left arm. All eyes turned toward him, including Aerith's. Yet Cloud saw none of them as he uttered words that weren't truly his own, recalling from a memory he'd rather have forgotten. "All those who died with Geostigma returned to the Lifestream with a piece of Jenova attached to them, and they girdled the planet, choking it…" he lowered his head. "Corroding it… After that, all she had to do was call back the pieces that'd merged with the Lifestream, didn't she?" With a deep breath, Cloud lifted his head and forced himself to ask the question he didn't want the answer for. "We were too late stopping it, weren't we?"

"Too late would've been having never stopped it at all," Bugenhagen answered with a tone that shimmered like a candle fighting back shadow. "Had it not been for all of you here, and I do mean all of you, then we wouldn't even be having this conversation right now," he stroked his beard. "However, you are right. It does appear the Geostigma that did merge with the Lifestream was enough for Jenova to impose her will upon it, and it's given her a physical form once again. Now she's using it to spread chaos across the planet. Everywhere she goes, her infection touches all the nearby lifesprings and mako deposits, birthing fiends and abominations unlike any other I've seen before."

"So how do we stop her?" Cait Sith asked.

"Unfortunately that's one of those questions I mentioned earlier that I don't have an answer for," Bugenhagen replied.

"Well shit," Barrett growled. "What the hell do we do about it, then?"

"I wish I knew," the old sage said. "Even if you could find a means to destroy her, you'd first have to find a way to trap her and keep her from swimming through the Lifestream and escaping the moment she's faced with a true threat.

"What about someone in the Lifestream?" Aerith spoke up, causing Cloud to jump a bit. "Like an Ancient?" Aerith's gaze was directed to Bugenhagen, but it was clear they couldn't hear her. As Cloud shifted in uncomfortable silence, the young woman gave a quick glance toward him, which was enough to get her point across.

"What about if someone was in the Lifestream? Like an Ancient?" Cloud's voice brought him to the center of attention once again. "Could they do something about it?"

"An Ancient?" Bugenhagen adjusted his glasses. "An interesting question."

"Cloud…" Tifa felt a sense of unease in her chest.

"I suppose if there were an Ancient within the Lifestream who was standing against Jenova, I'd imagine they'd be using all of their energy to repel the infection for as long as they could."

"But what else could they do?" Aerith followed-up, and Cloud echoed.

"Cloud," Tifa placed a hand on his shoulder. "I don't think we're going to get anywhere with this."

"Hmm…" Bugenhagen remained deep in thought for a moment. "If an Ancient were to be bold enough to stop fighting back Jenova's infection, then perhaps they could try to divert their energy into shepherding the healthy Lifestream away from Jenova, leaving her for a time at least, stranded and without direction."

"Ancients can do that?" Both Denzel and Nanaki asked simultaneously.

"Only one highly attuned with the will of the planet, and even then, only in theory, as it would require them to work in tandem with those on the surface."

"How?" Cloud stepped forward with a newfound intensity in his eyes. "What would we have to do?"

There was an uncomfortable shift in the room. Cid clenched a toothpick between his teeth and looked away while Barrett reached for his sunglasses and rested the dark shades over his eyes.

"It'd be quite simple, really," Bugenhagen said, slightly relieving the tension. "All you'd have to do is close off the leylines."

"Grandfather!" Nanaki barked. "You can't be serious?"

"What?" the old sage shrugged. "I'm just answering his question. What can I say? It's an interesting hypothetical."

"Hmm…" Aerith tapped her chin with a slender finger. "Closing the leylines does sound kinda risky."

"What would closing the leylines do, exactly?" Cloud asked Aerith, forgetting that he was the only one who could see or hear her. Fortunately for him, it was a question most of the others were wondering as well. Even more fortunately, there were others there who knew the answer.

"To answer that question fully would require more time than you have, unfortunately," Bugenhagen replied. "But to put it simply, if the leylines were to be closed off, the Lifestream in that area would just flow freely for a time, going wherever it pleases."

"Basically," Nanaki said. "The entire Lifestream would become one big errant strand."

"Exactly!" Bugenhagen exclaimed. "And when huge swathes of the Lifestream begin moving wherever it pleases… Ho ho hooo! It can have disastrous consequences."

"Like what?" Yuffie asked.

"Remember what happened in Mideel?" Nanaki reared his head.

"Uh-huh."

"Imagine that, but happening all across the planet."

"But…" Cloud spoke up, "If an Ancient were to be guiding the Lifestream like you said, then we wouldn't have anything to worry about, right?"

"Ding-ding-ding!" Aerith jumped up in the air, giving the SOLDIER a thumbs up. "You got it, Cloud!"

Bugenhagen managed a very small smirk hidden beneath his beard as he floated toward the hologram. "Now you're beginning to understand." With a wave of his hand, the green flow representing the Lifestream ceased and began pulling away from the corrosive red, abandoning it to helplessly wander without direction. "Without the leylines or the Lifestream to guide it, Jenova will be trapped. It wouldn't take long before she finds her own way to escape, perhaps a few hours, but during that time she'd be completely vulnerable.

"Look," Cid said. "I don't wanna rain on no one's parade, but don't this little plan here hinge on… well…" he pulled the toothpick from between his teeth. "Look, I ain't gonna beat around the bush here. "We need Aerith to be able to do this, and I know she's come through for us before, but we can't go runnin' into this plan half-cocked. We need to know that we're all on the same page if you know what I mean."

Aerith pouted her lips and looked over to Cloud, a sense of frustration burning in her narrowed gaze. The SOLDIER couldn't tell if this was frustration born out of Cid doubting her, or her being unable to speak for herself on the matter. Realizing he needed to take this into his own hands, Cloud opened his lips to speak, but he was too slow; someone else already had.

"I don't think we need to worry about that," Tifa said. "You said it yourself, Cid. She's always been there when we need her most, and if the planet is being threatened like this, I don't think this time would be any different."

"I knew I could count on you, Tifa!" Aerith ran up to the dark haired woman and wrapped her arms around them, sending a surge of swirling green dancing around Tifa as Aerith's body dissipated on contact. "I don't know what I'd do without you!"

Tifa let out a small gasp. She felt a sudden warmth in her chest followed by a lightness in her stomach, it was as if she were being blanketed by an unseen cloak of comfort interwoven with a lingering feeling of nostalgia. She reared her head toward Cloud, and when she met his gaze she found a warm smile painted across his face. Then, for a reason that Tifa couldn't quite understand, a lone tear ran down her cheek.

"S-sorry" Tifa stammered. As she stumbled back, Aerith came back into form before Cloud's eyes as Tifa unknowingly fled from the Cetra's grasp. "I just… um…" All eyes were looking at her, but the sudden feeling had left her uncertain of what to say next.

"Tifa's right," Cloud stepped forward and stood next to Aerith. "If there's one thing we've always been able to count on, it's her," he looked over to the Cetra, finding her smile meeting his own. "There's not a doubt about it."

Tifa watched as the SOLDIER's gaze fell upon an unseen figure. At a glance it seemed like nothing more than a mere gesture, but when she peered into his mako-laden eyes, she didn't see an empty gaze, but rather the reflection of someone else's within them.

Loath she was to admit it, the sight left her feeling sick.

"Hell yeah," Barret nodded. "Couldn't have said it better myself."

"I mean, if it's the best shot we got, I say we go for it." Yuffie added.

"You've got my vote!" Cait Sith exclaimed.

"I trust Aerith," Nanaki's tail swished with an uneasy caidance. "And I don't see any other options right now. So I'll agree to it for now."

"Alright, fine then," Cid said. "So we're gonna trap her. That's all fine and good, but how the hell do we close off these leylines anyways?"

"Ho ho hooo!" Bugenhagen laughed. "You'd be surprised by how simple it is."

"The leylines have several junction points around the planet," Denzel said. "All it'd take would be a minor ritual and the leylines in the region would be slowed for a time. If the ritual is performed at several junction points over the course of a few days or weeks, then the planet will basically close the leylines entirely."

"It'd only be temporary, maybe a day before they begin to flow again," Nanaki said with a more mature inflection in his tone as he made his way toward the center of the room. "But during that time the Lifestream will be completely without guidance and it could cause immense destruction across the planet if not controlled."

"Sounds like it's kinda easy to just wreck the planet, doesn't it?" Yuffie scratched at the back of her head. "Like, scary easy."

"That's why only one person on the planet knows where all the junction points are located," Nanaki said, looking toward Bugenhagen. "They've never been written down, and are only passed down generation to generation."

"I guess it's time to pass them down then," Cloud said to the old sage.

"Oh?" Bugenhagen scratched at his beard. "You don't think I'm the one who knows, do you? Ho ho hooo! No, not this senile old timer!"

"Well if you don't know, who the hell does?" Cid snapped.

"My father," Nanaki said, and immediately all attention fell to him.

"Oh," Aerith chirped, leaning in with piqued interest that only Cloud could appreciate. "Didn't see that one coming."

XXXXX

The mountains of the southern Nibel Region were more like rolling hills compared to the jagged crags and spires found near Mt. Nibel in the north, but their paths were nonetheless tumultuous for the average hiker, and a logistical nightmare for the WRO as they escorted the mass of former asylum patients on their twisted pilgrimage across the western continent. They moved without rest, only driven by the unseen hand of the master who called for them.

Keeping the fiends at bay had been a trivial effort for the WRO, but the constant unending march had taken its toll on the personnel. For as deteriorated and degraded as they were, the patients leading the journey were still SOLDIERS. Their bodies were hardened and carved by years of service, mako, and the best biotechnologists Shinra had to offer at the time, whereas the WRO were just a group of dedicated men and women who could only try their best to keep up with the unyielding bodies of their escortees.

"The humans recognize them as Mother's harbingers, and yet they continue to protect them?" Nero scoffed from atop his perch overlooking the mass of people below as they crossed through a deep valley. "How quaint."

"Perhaps," Weiss said, his arms crossed as his white jacket billowed in the wind. "But so long as the humans stand guard over them, they'll never let them return to Mother. They'll merely allow them to come within grasp of her grace," he extended an open hand outward. "Only to pull them away from her embrace." Weiss clenched his hand into a fist, digging his nails into his palm.

"Then why don't we just kill them?" Rosso asked as she approached from behind, licking her lips at the prospect of wetting her blades with blood once again. "They wouldn't stand a chance against one of us, much less three."

"Because that isn't what he wants," Weiss replied, pulling his hand back. "For now we are to just let them maintain their course until the time comes."

"So drab."

"You'll have your chance to kill again, Rosso," Weiss' gaze remained unmoved as he spoke. "Our spies have reported that the airship arrived at Cosmo Canyon earlier today."

"They're following Mother's path?" Nero tilted his head a bit. "But how do they know?"

"They have Shelke with them." Weiss replied. "There's no doubt she's the one helping keep them a step ahead."

"You want me to kill her?" Rosso's ears perked.

"Do as you wish," Weiss' tone shifted toward almost apathetic as he turned away from the valley. "Just slow them down. We can't have them catching up to Mother before she arrives at her destination."

"With pleasure," Rosso purred, running a gauntleted hand through her scarlet hair.

"Just remember one thing," Weiss' gaze burned into Rosso's with an intensity that left the Tsviet taken aback, causing her prideful demeanor to falter for just a moment. "Under no circumstances are you to kill Cloud," he ordered. "Our liege wishes to see to that himself."

"U-Understood," Rosso nodded. After she'd taken a moment to regain her composure, she spoke up once again. "What of you two? Where will you be?"

Though the restraint around Nero's mouth concealed his lips, the way his brow raised and his eyes lit up with a fierceness in his gaze betrayed all the tellings of a demented grin, a grin that Weiss shared.

"Nero and I will be paying a visit to an old friend."