Well, that was fast!

In truth, I had this chapter half-written at the time I posted the previous one. I managed to tie the rest together in a two-day marathon writing session across one weekend, and then do final edits in mid June. I am now fully moved in at my new apartment, and I'm loving it. The energy here is so much nicer than the… I'll be honest, I was basically living in a slum. Pre-war fusebox with screw-in fuses, tiny galley kitchen slightly wider than my hips, wedged between two car dealerships. I've lived in worse places, but not many. Now that I'm in a better place I'm hoping my mood will continue to improve, and ordinarily I would be hoping that my writing output would improve alongside it. Unfortunately, I was recently laid off and I'll be devoting a lot of my energy to the job hunt for the immediate future. Hopefully I'll find something quick, but I have no way to really guarantee that. We'll just have to see what happens.

I missed y'all's comments and reviews! I'm really glad to respond to this stuff today.
mega1987: Not quite yet, you'll see.
IPMay: Mastery of the Neko Ken is one of those things that… honestly, I think gets used a lot in fanfics. When it works, it really works, but when it doesn't it kinda falls flat. Time will tell if I go that route or not, it'll depend on how I feel. I've got enough other things going on that I don't know it'll be worth it.
Kyleta: I'm not surprised you forgot about Cait Sith. He's kind of an unusual case for the game, an entirely mandatory character who nonetheless is only important for like twenty minutes in three instances, spread out across the entire game. He gets little to no development and isn't exactly on your side. Obviously, he's going to get a little more than that here, but we'll get to that when we get to it.

Everyone else who commented, I'm really glad you all remembered that I exist and that all of you are still around to enjoy this. The last couple years haven't exactly been kind to us. So it's up to us to be kind instead. Please do what you can to make this world an easier place to exist in for everyone.

Enough soapboxing for now. On with the story!

Chapter Thirty Four

Fire And Ice

[ ν ] - εγλ 0007, December 18

The rainbow confetti drifted down and settled over the three women. Ranma's soul-wrenching terror abated not at all as the absurd looking animal pranced about on its tiny booted feet, front paws flailing joyfully through the air. "C-c-c-cat… there's a-a-a c-cat," she stammered, still crouched down behind Aerith. Her eyes darted every which way but directly behind, not daring to look straight at the feline, but desperately seeking a line of escape.

Yuffie stared at Ranma for a moment, before devolving into gleeful laughter. Aerith frowned at the younger girl. "Yuffie, stop that!" she scolded the young ninja.

Yuffie ignored her, cackling and pointing at the redhead. "Ranma Saotome, master martial artist, all-around badass, is scared of cats?"

The feline figure looked puzzled at the statement. "Nah hold on there," it spoke again, in a thick accent. "Ae ain't no ordinary cat! Ae'm onuva kind! No other like me in alla Gaia!

Ranma's tension faded a little bit at the realization that she was being addressed directly by the source of her fears, which, excepting the incident with the ghost cat, was something that hadn't happened even at the height of the weirdness that followed her around back in Tokyo. "...y-y-you talk…" she floundered.

"A'course Ae talk!" the cat replied, his accent growing stronger with his emphasis. "Ho'else ya'd know it was me?"

Aerith sighed. "Mister Cat, would you please give us a little space?" she asked in a polite tone. "My friend here seems to be… unsettled… by your presence."

The cat wrinkled its nose briefly before smiling. "Aye, lass, ye have me apologies," he answered.

Aerith smiled and gave a polite bow to the cat before turning to Ranma. "What's going on?" she asked quietly, as the Mog turned around and took several ponderous paces away from the others. "How can we help?"

"C-c-cat…" Ranma stuttered, shaking visibly, eyes firmly on the ground. She could see the enormous white feet of the Mog moving further away, and silently prayed that the feline would come no closer to her.

"Yes, there is something over there, and it is in the shape of a cat," Aerith said patiently, as a mother might speak to a child. "It's not a real cat though. Real cats can't talk like people do, real cats don't wear boots and mittens, and real cats don't ride on top of…" she glanced over at the cat-shaped object and the thing it was perched on, "...what looks like a giant stuffed toy Mog. Does that help you?"

Ranma didn't respond for several seconds, trying to parse this new information. Finally, she gave a weak nod of her head. "G-give me a m-m-minute," she whispered, before taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, her breathing slowing considerably.

Aerith gave another smile, then stood and faced Yuffie. "Not. A. Word," she warned, her expression suddenly stern.

"Why shouldn't I?" Yuffie taunted. In response, Aerith strode straight up to the girl and grabbed her chin. "Hey, lemme go!"

"Because," Aerith leaned forward, pressing her cheek to Yuffie's so that her mouth could not be seen. She whispered in a deceptively sweet tone directly into the girl's ear, "I haven't said a single thing about you, 'Princess Kisaragi.'"

Yuffie froze. "..." she breathed, her eyes swelling up in shock. "...how-"

"We can discuss it later," Aerith said sweetly, though there was a sense of steel underneath the sugarcoated voice. "We'll have plenty of time. For now, leave Ranma alone. For me. Please?"

Yuffie nodded absently. "...kay…" she answered, the wind in her sails visibly deflated.

Aerith gave her a playful pat on the head, and then turned back to the cat with a cheerful smile. "Thank you for giving us a moment. We needed to resolve a couple loose ends from earlier this morning." She blinked in thought. "I'm so sorry, what was your name?"

"Ach, Ae forgot to introduce meself?" the cat said, still hopping from one back foot to the other atop the Mog. The dance finally came to a stop, and the cat ran one paw behind him to flick his cape into the wind, sweeping the tiny crown from his head as he did so. "How rude o'me! Pleased to make yer acquaintance, the name's Cait Sith, fortune teller extraordinaire!" he announced with an extravagant bow, holding his crown to his chest like a hat, before righting himself and replacing the crown between his ears.

Aerith gave a curtsey in response. "Well, Mister Cait, I'm Aerith," she began, before gesturing with one hand to the others. "The short-haired girl over there is Yuffie, and the redhead here behind me is Ranma. You may have to excuse her, she's… having some trouble right now…"

Behind them, Ranma exhaled sharply, and opened her eyes, standing up slowly. "Okay… th-this is going to take s-s-some time, but I…" she trailed off as she considered her words carefully. I wish I didn't have to show this weakness to anyone. "...I'll do my best."

Cait peered over Aerith's head to the redhead as she stood up. "Am Ae really that terrifyin' to ye, lass?" he asked, genuinely concerned.

Ranma couldn't meet Cait Sith's eyes, or in fact any other part of him. "N-N-Not your fault," she answered, shivering slightly, focusing on a small imperfection in the sun-baked cobbles about a meter to the left of the bizarre creature. "S-Somethin' happened when I was a kid. Rather n-not go into the details right now. Just… give me time."

The cat nodded. "Fair enough," he said cheerfully. "Tell ya whut… Normally, Ae charge ten gil for a fortune, but as compensation fer nearly scarin' ya witless, allow me to offer me fortune-tellin' services, free o'charge, on this occasion only."

Yuffie stepped forward, still a little dazed from Aerith's revelation a few moments previously. "You wanna tell our fortunes?" she asked, most of her previous aggression having drained away.

"Ah, but fortune ain't all Ae tell!" he answered excitedly. "I ken find missin' people, lost objects, buried treasures, anythin' ye ken think of."

Ranma turned at that, and looked directly at Cait. In that moment, she felt the familiar terror rising inside her, her body tensed visibly, and her pulse quickened. She blinked, and took a deep breath. Not a real cat, she thought. It's just a toy, a wind-up plushie and it talks. Real cats can't talk. So it's not real. You've dealt with toys before, no problem. She exhaled, and forced her body to unwind from the fight-or-flight instinct. "Sorry, this is gonna take some gettin' used to," she admitted, briefly managing to keep the quaver of fear out of her voice. "C-Cait, you said you can find people?"

"Ah, absolutely!" he responded with enthusiasm. "Practically a hobby o'mine at this point."

Ranma took another calming breath, lowering her eyes again to the pure-white body of the larger creature. "We're t-tryin' ta find a man named Sephiroth. Can you help us find him?"

Cait Sith cocked his head to one side, running a mittened hand beneath his chin. "Sephiroth, eh?" He scratched at his chin in thought. "Name sounds familiar… ah, whatever, lemme see what Ae ken do!" He tapped the Mog on the head, and suddenly the two of them began to gyrate in unison. Ranma looked up, her eyes drawn to the motion despite her phobia. It took several long seconds for her to realize that what they were performing was some kind of choreographed dance, as they stretched first in the same directions, then in opposing directions, Cait's motions atop the Mog almost comically exaggerated. After about thirty seconds or so, the dance came to a conclusion. The Mog stood motionless for a long, tense moment, then almost robotically lifted its right arm and handed a long, narrow ticker tape to Ranma.

Ranma took the tape, reading over the symbols printed as if typewritten into the sheet. "'Remember what you forgot. Look behind the sofa.'" She looked up in the general direction of Cait, still having trouble looking at him head-on, and passed the ticker tape to Aerith, who frowned at it in confusion and passed it to Cait. "Um… I don't know if we shoulda said so, but Sephiroth is a person, not a set of car keys."

Cait examined the slip of paper in silence for a few seconds, then slapped the side of his head. "Ach, sorry about that, lemme gi'e it another go." He crumpled up the useless slip and tossed it carelessly behind him, then the duo began their dance again. As before, the two moved in perfect unison for nearly half a minute, without any obvious effort. The Mog extended his arm again, holding a similar slip of paper out.

Yuffie stepped forward and took the tape, reading it over. "'One good deed repays another, and is repaid in kind. Expect big things come the summer.'" She looked up at the fortune teller. "Yeah, even if this was legit, I don't think we oughta wait until June to find Sephiroth."

Ranma sighed and turned to leave, privately glad of an excuse to put some distance between them and the feline. "Look, I appreciate the offer, but this ain't gettin' us anywhere. We need to get to trainin' while the day is on our side."

Cait gave an exasperated look. "Hol' yer chocobos, lass… an' gimme dat," he demanded, and snatched the slip out of Yuffie's hand as soon as she offered it, glaring over the paper in confusion, turning it over and around in his mittens multiple times. After a long moment, he closed his eyes and smacked one paw against his forehead. "Aha! Dere's the problem. Ae had this dope here on the wrong setting! One tick, lasses," he said, and he turned around, ducking down to fiddle with something out of sight, his tail waggling above like a strange fuzzy antenna. For a brief moment the Mog's eyes glowed orange, but the light faded in them before any of the girls could comment on it.

"That otta do 'er!" Cait proclaimed, and stood up again, now holding a bright yellow megaphone sized to the mittened hand that held it up. "Okay, okay, last time. We get another clunker after this one, Ae'll let it go."

Ranma shrugged. Cait and the Mog began a completely new dance, much more precise and poised than the previous. Where the first one was rapid and comical, this one almost seemed reverent in its motions. After almost a full minute, the Mog's hand extended again, a much longer slip of paper extending from his fingers. Ranma took the paper and read it over in silence, her eyes scrolling over the words twice, then three times, trying to figure out if she was being played with or if it was serious.

"Well?" Aerith said finally to break the tense silence that had fallen over them all. "What's it say?"

Ranma's voice was subdued as she read aloud, "'West, then south, then north again. Mountains, forests, ancient dens. That which you pursue, you will surely find, but you'll all have to leave something behind.'"

All four of them stood in silence, contemplating those words. "Ae dunno… In all me days, Ae've never given a readin' like that one. Didn't even know this fook down here knew ho' ta rhyme." Cait ran one mitten over his left ear nervously. "Well, that settles that. Shall we get goin'?"

"What?" all three girls asked in unison, their shared surprise at the statement causing Cait to fumble his megaphone in shock.

Cait recovered his grip on the megaphone and shrugged. "Well what do ya expect, lasses? Ae canna leave somethin' like that gnawin' at me, wonderin' what came 'o it!" He gave a magnificent smile, baring his pointed feline teeth. "Ae'll tag along with ye 'til Ae figure it out, Ae'll go mad otherwise."

Ranma blinked and turned to glance at the other girls. "Either of you got a problem with this…" in her mind she choked briefly on the word cat, "...guy coming along with us?"

"Oi, Ae don' care whatcha do, Ae'm comin' along wit'cha!" Cait declared loudly.

Aerith looked up at the cat. "Mister Cait, I don't think you understand," she began politely. "We're already in trouble with a lot of people, and we'll probably be in more trouble in the future. We don't want to put you in danger."

"Lass, Ae appreciate yer concern, truly," Cait said solemnly. "But let's be honest, the whole world's dangerous some way or anotha', an' I'd be no less in the thick of it travelin' wit' ye than if Ae stood here instead. Better we support one anotha', aye?"

Aerith considered the cat's words. Then she took a moment to contemplate that she was considering the words of a cat, and briefly reflected on how weird her life had become since meeting Ranma Saotome a scant three weeks ago. "If you insist," Aerith responded, shaking her head. "But I hope you know how to fight, because we may have to fight monsters and maybe even people too."

Cait perked up at that. "Ae ainna much of a fighter meself, but Mog here can throw down wit' the best o'dem." In response to his words, the Mog squared its arms in what looked like a boxer's stance, the gorilla-proportioned limbs clearly giving the creature a significant reach advantage if nothing else. "Na bad fer a stuffie, izze?"

Yuffie blinked at that. "Your Mog's… a plush?" she asked, confused, stepping towards the odd pair. She reached out and poked gently at the massive white Mog, and it was indeed soft to the touch, the fabric bouncing back easily. "You mean, like a carnival toy?"

"Aye, raychoo are," Cait answered, waving one mitten excitedly over his head. "Ae brought 'im to life meself. He's got a lil' steel holdin' 'im up where it counts, but there ain't all that much goin' on upstairs for 'im, if you get me drift. S'why he sticks with me, we both know Ae'm the brains o' tha bunch."

Ranma rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Kami-above, and I thought Nerima was gettin' weird," she muttered quietly. Aloud, "...okay, fine… the c-c-c… dammit, the cat… can come with, I guess."

Cait wrinkled his nose in irritation. "Oi, Ae ain't 'tha cat'," he responded, jerking a mittened thumb at his chest. "Ae have a name, yanno. Honestly! Ae try ta help and this is the treatment Ae get."

Ranma took the hint. "...sorry…" she said after a moment. "I'm… not really at my best right now. Cait Sith, you can come with us if you like. Right now, we're…" she shrugged noncommittally, "...waiting for our boat to get ready, so if you wanna walk with us for a bit, we're gonna do a little trainin' outside the city."

Cait beamed at the trio of girls. "That doesna sound too bad," he commented, as the Mog fell in line behind them. "Lead the way!"

-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-

"So… what's your story, anyway?" Ranma asked Cait as they hiked along.

The quartet had decided to head northwest, moving through a wide open field that looked to be heading towards a small mountain. The Mog trundled along between Aerith and Yuffie, as Ranma kept a lead of several paces and led them down a short descent into a broad, abandoned stone quarry. Aerith carried a small basket filled with a meal's worth of exotic foods. "Me story?" he asked.

"Yeah, can't imagine a talkin'... c-cat… is a normal thing, even for this place," she prompted, becoming slightly more at ease with him as time passed. "Do you know where you were born?"

"Ah, yeah, Ae came here from Midgar," he said casually, waving one paw in the air in a distant kind of way. "Bin around these parts aboot a year. Wasn't really 'born,' not prop'ly anywae… Ae started out as a stuffie, just like Mog here, but a wee bit smaller than Mog, as ye ken guess. All Ae know is some kinda magic happened, because Ae felt it happen. One night Ae was just sittin' on a shelf at a carnival somewhere, waitin' ta be sold, or won, or whatever. Woke up the next day, suddenly Ae could walk an' talk, and think big thoughts... real heady stuff, lemme tell yeh."

Ranma considered that for a moment. "You don't even know what did it to you?"

"Nae, nothin' useful, anywae…" Cait scratched his head. "Mighta been somma dat Mako shite they're always goin' on about. Not like Ae wuz gonna trust any of dem what was chasin' me down to answer me questions, though. First coupla days were a blur. Lotsa runnin'. Teeny little pipes. Big stompy fellas tryna chase me down. Some o'dem had snares, some had guns. Got tae hell outta there, ran me tail off, ne'er looked back."

Aerith looked back at Cait with a smile. "Sounds like me about a week ago."

"Pardon me sayin' so, lass," Cait commented, "but if ye was a plushie last week, ya gone and grew up a bit."

Aerith gave a giggle. "No, I mean, last week some men locked me up in a building in Midgar. Ranma and the others broke me out, and we're still going." Aerith smiled. "I hope that means we can be friends."

Cait blinked as he processed the question. "...A'course, lass," he replied after a second. "Least until we figger out that blasted fortune." They walked in silence as Cait considered the fortune for a moment. Then the conversation caught up with his ears again. "Wai'aminnit… you said a talkin' cat wasn't normal fer this place… is it normal somewhere else?"

Ranma sighed. "I ain't from around here," she said simply.

There was a long silence following this statement. "Izzat all o'da story," Cait asked, perplexed, "or are ya gonna peel yer skin off an' transform into a bug-eyed creature from beyond da stars no'?"

That got a chuckle out of the redhead. "Nothing like that," she answered after a moment. "I'm from a place called Tokyo. It's not on Gaia. But we still have… c-cats… where I'm from."

Cait sat in thought for a moment as the four of them moved into single file, Ranma in the lead, with Cait riding atop his Mog companion in a distant second. They rounded the first turn in the cliffside path before it clicked. He stood up sharply atop the Mog, waving his paws in front of him. "Wai'wai'waitaminnit, 'not on Gaia'? Ye pullin' me leg, right?"

Aerith giggled, remembering her own reaction from a scant three weeks ago. "She's not kidding you," she answered, practicing a portion of her staff work as they descended. "Ranma is a 100 percent bonafide space alien."

Ranma rolled her eyes and turned to face the trio following her. "I'm not a space alien, for cryin' out loud," she said vehemently, waving one hand in a dismissive gesture. "I'm as human as the rest of you."

"Speak fer yersel's, lass," Cait retorted, pointing one thumb at himself. "Ae ainna human. Neither's Mog here. So it ain't that simple, izzit?"

Ranma shrugged in response. "...whatever," she grumbled. "Point is, I'm human. My mom and dad are both human, my fiance's human, pretty much every person on my planet is human." Except for the Musk kingdom, she thought to herself with a shiver, remembering her battle with Saffron once more with an unpleasant shiver. But that's besides the point right now.

Cait appeared to ponder that for a moment. "So you're a human who's also an alien?" he asked finally.

Ranma opened her mouth to answer, and then closed it. And then opened it again. "...I guess I am, if ya put it that way," she responded thoughtfully, trying to wrap her head around the two seemingly contrasting concepts.

Yuffie rolled her eyes. "I don't believe that for a second," she countered loudly, glancing away. "You keep talking about all of this, but you use Wutaian martial arts, you use lifestream techniques, and you even speak like a native. Uchūjin? Arienai. Zenzen arienai."

Ranma glared up the path at the younger girl. "And lotsa folks from Wutai look like me when they get splashed with cold water, right?" she asked pointedly.

"Look, I accept that you're freakin' weird, all right?" Yuffie explained. "Doesn't make you an alien."

Ranma shrugged. "Whatever…" and let the matter drop.

Cait picked it back up. "So… if you're some kinda… space human… or what-have-ye… then these Tokyo cats are… what, 'orrible critters that eatcha limb from limb?" he asked, still puzzled.

Ranma chuckled. "Nah, just… regular, ordinary house pets." She suppressed a shudder, as a flash of the old memory of Genma's training ran across the inside of her mind.

Cait wrinkled his nose, leaning forward and propping himself up on one hand as the Mog navigated the narrow path down, Aerith and Yuffie right behind him. "So if cats in your Tokyo and cats everywhere else're the same, what in the world would leave ya scared'a somethin' like lil' ol' me?"

Cait noticed Ranma twitching slightly every time he said the word. The redhead increased her pace slightly, gaining a few more steps of distance between herself and Cait. "You really wanna know about that?"

"Aye, lass," Cait answered in a friendly tone. "What can Ae say, Ae'd die curious."

Ranma gave him a light smile as she turned and leaned against a boulder that sat in the quarry, still keeping a bit of distance from him. "Now's not a good time for that," she answered, running one hand through her hair. Truth is, I really don't want to deal with the runt's nonsense right now, she thought, glancing at Yuffie briefly. "Just, suffice it to say that my pops is an idiot, and it's his fault. I swear, though… as weird as this place is for me," she commented, shifting the topic slightly, "the weirdest thing by far, so far, is how I'm not half a kilometer away and up a tree any time you come into view."

Cait adjusted his crown atop his head. "Ae'll put tha' down to me winnin' personality an' me stylish good looks," he said lightly, preening a bit. After a moment, he backtracked through the conversation again, feeling as if he had missed something important. "Wai'a'minnit… why would ye look different if ye were drenched?"

The redhead waved her hands vaguely in an effort to forestall more questions. "I'll show ya later, Cait," she answered, before turning her attention to Aerith.

Aerith stifled a giggle as she circled around the boulder Ranma was perched on. "Well, anyway, you two should probably give us a little space," she said to Cait and Yuffie, "since we're going to be practicing summons. I don't want you two caught up in the splash zone."

Cait Sith gave a thumbs-up with one mitten, and turned to Yuffie. "C'mon, mebbe ye ken tell me a bit more about the bug-eyed space alien," he commented, as the Mog turned and started walking away.

Yuffie trailed after him, her face scrunched up in frustration. "I'm tellin' ya, he's not a freakin' alien-" she insisted, gesticulating wildly.

Aerith watched them as they walked off to the near-edge of the quarry. "You… kind of are a space alien, you know," she commented, glancing up at Ranma. "Though if I think about that the other way, then we're all space aliens to you…"

Ranma shook her head. "I try not to think about it," she admitted, folding her arms over her chest. "We're all just who we are. I'm human, but I'm from another planet. You're human and you're part Cetra. Cloud and the others are all human too… except for Red, and Cait, I guess, but… we're all just ourselves, is what I mean."

Aerith tilted her head in consideration. "I suppose that's one way of looking at it," she answered thoughtfully. "Anyway, before we get sidetracked again... summon magic," the brunette began, holding up the shiny red orb that the captain had gifted them in exchange for saving their lives. "The materia isn't all that common, because they only grow in the wild. Shinra has some process for producing some of the basic magic materia, it's why you can buy them sometimes. I remember it has something to do with their mako reactors, but beyond that, I don't know. Either way, they don't sell summon materia, so I guess they can't make that in their reactors." She paused for a moment, rolling one of the red spheres around in her hand idly. "Each summon materia is keyed to one of the summon spirits, and using the materia calls forth that specific spirit. And you can't just throw them around like regular magic. Each one can only be used every so often and then they have to recharge."

Aerith tossed the materia orb to Ranma, who caught it out of the air. The martial artist held it gently in the palm of her hand, as it felt slightly warm to the touch. There was a sense of a deep, barely restrained power within it, like that of an explosive, or the feeling she got when someone was using a powerful chi technique nearby. "There's someone inside this thing?" she asked, perplexed. She looked back up to meet Aerith's eyes. "That doesn't feel right... Am I calling it out to help me, or am I leashin' it like a dog?"

"Uhhhh... a little of both, I think," Aerith admitted, tilting her hand from side to side. She looked thoughtful for a moment, and took a few steps closer to Ranma, lowering her voice. "Look, the summon spirits are... a complicated subject. Like, really, really complicated. The spirits are… there's only like seven or eight known summon spirits. Wutai-" and at this she glanced at the distant shape of Yuffie for a moment, before continuing, "-reveres one of them as a local deity. Shinra and SOLDIER both look at them as just another weapon. A lot of them appear in old religious and historical texts, so they've been around forever." She held her breath for a moment, considering how to continue. "There was a guy I used to date a long time ago, and he told me about a friend of his who would not shut up about Loveless, and there's something about the spirits in that…" she trailed off, taking a deep breath.

Ranma blinked, giving Aerith a perplexed look. "What's Loveless?" she asked. "Sounds like the name of one of those soap operas Kasumi's into."

Aerith gave a smile as she began, "It's a really old story, so old that it's not even a proper story, it's more like a poem that goes on for a hundred and fifty pages… it would take way too long to explain the whole thing. Anyway, even ordinary people have their own stories about the summon spirits. A lot of people have spent a lot of words arguing about what they are. And honestly, we still don't really have an answer. Mom- uh... my real mother, I mean," Aerith continued, holding up the other red orb they'd picked up in Junon, "she told me that they are embodiments of... emotions, feelings, actions, concepts... but they can't interact with the world anymore outside of the materia used to summon them."

Ranma furrowed her brow as she tried to wrap her head around all of that. "So, the materia's like... what, it's imprisoning them? You said it's like a key, so we're lettin' them out and then lockin' them back in?"

Aerith shook her head vehemently. "One of only two things that everyone agrees on is that they're not imprisoned. If you shatter a summon materia, the summon spirit doesn't break free, a new materia will just grow somewhere else." Ranma eyed the red orb suspiciously, but shrugged, letting the idea go for now. "So, now that we still don't know what they are, let's go over what they do. Just like regular magic, calling them up takes mana, and it takes a lot. When you call a summon, they will stay around for a minute or so until you give them a target. Then... they do their thing."

"...their thing?" Ranma asked, curious.

Aerith nodded in response. "I've never seen it myself, but... summons are supposed to have access to some really powerful magic, way stronger than anything us mere mortals can throw around. The one in your hand is called Ifrit. This one I've got is Shiva, and we're going to start there. Shiva is-" she began, waving the materia in her hand around, but trailed off when she saw Ranma's expression. "...Ranma?"

Ranma's expression had frozen. She was staring intently at the red orb in Aerith's hand. "Shiva," she said slowly, trying to piece her thoughts together. "Shiva is the name of a god in my world." She turned her gaze down to the similar orb in her own hand. "And Ifrit… I don't remember, but it sounds familiar…" Ranma glanced away for a moment, and then let out a short bark of a laugh. "Yeah, I'm not gonna figure that one out right now. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I kinda wish Nabiki was here," she commented wistfully. "If anyone could cut through the crap and find the real information, it's her… even if she'd charge me a thousand yen for my trouble."

"Nabiki is..." Aerith hesitated for a moment, scanning back in her memory to the weeks Ranma had spent in their spare room. Then her face lit up in recognition. "Oh, right, your- uh, Akane's sister, right?"

Ranma grinned. "She can be pretty cold sometimes, but she's good at tracking down facts." She shook her head for a moment, tugging at her tunic in the warm weather. "All right, I've wasted enough time. Show me how these summons work."

Aerith gave a smile, and stood up straight, holding the red materia in one hand. "It's pretty much the same method as using your mana to fuel a normal spell, but it'll feel different, because it takes a lot more control. You have to pour the mana in slowly, over several seconds. Your mana will backlash if you go too fast, and if you go too slow, it'll be like trying to fill a bucket with a hole in the bottom and it won't take at all. The way my mother described it to me, it's going to feel like you're trying to lift a rock with your brain until you get used to it." She took a step forward and reached out with her hand, gripping the materia firmly, her face screwed up in concentration. After several seconds, the orb in her hand lit up, glowing a deep red, and a pale blue light appeared somewhere overhead and above them. A wave of cold air blanketed them both, and Ranma raised her eyes to behold a figure, female, proportioned nearly five meters tall, skin blue as ice, hair a deep turquoise, bound over her head in a ponytail held in place by a long metallic band. She descended from above as snowflakes crystallized out of the humid air near her skin. Clothed in some wispy material that fluttered in the light breeze, dyed the same purple as the band in her ponytail, and as the amethyst gem which covered her third eye point. She hovered just over the grass, poised and nonchalant all at the same time, and turned to face Aerith, her eyes solid white.

Ranma did not dare to speak. Shiva was everything that Genma had loudly insisted could not exist. A being, obviously a woman, undeniably feminine, and incomprehensibly powerful. She could feel the chi, the strength radiating off of this being, this spirit, and felt briefly for a moment that if she somehow managed to stick her foot in her mouth anywhere in Shiva's presence, it would likely be the last words she ever spoke. She probably wouldn't say it out loud, but Shiva was scary.

Shiva's gaze fell over Ranma a moment later, and the spirit's expression flickered briefly, before returning to the calm mask it had been a moment before. Ranma briefly wondered if it had been reading her mind.

"Shiva," Aerith said softly, bowing her head as she spoke. "I wish to understand your power. Will you please demonstrate for us?"

Shiva did not move for a long moment. Finally, she tilted her head forward once, and swept around in a half circle, facing the field they stood in front of. Raising one arm above her head, she pulled at the immense power at her disposal, the temperature dropping further in the air around them as a chill wind began to spiral around them. It seemed to Ranma as if she was grasping at the very essence of cold, some force greater than mere temperature or substance. It was as if 'cold' had been given some greater form, a power that ignored such trivial considerations as weather or even climate, and simply was cold.

Shiva's hand swept down, her fingertips spread wide, and the ball of cold did not so much fly out as erupt from her hand, spraying the field with particles of ice, building up in layers and sheets, until massive pointed stalagmites of ice jutted out from the glacial plain that had sprung up in the empty quarry ahead of them, spread out over almost a hundred square meters of land in what had been merely seconds. After a few more seconds, the ice suddenly shattered and began to lift upwards into the air, cracking into giant chunks, then into smaller shards, and finally sublimated into nothing before their eyes.

The quarry had been gouged deep by the flying ice. Long grooves, widening as they progressed out from the epicenter, ran in a cone outward from where Shiva hovered, the dirt and stone beneath the compacted surface exposed from the spell. Shiva lowered her arm, and turned around again to face Aerith, and then Ranma, who by this point was rubbing her arms from the sudden unexpected cold. Shiva's expression had not visibly changed, but Ranma felt as if there was somehow an air of smugness behind it. "Thank you, Shiva," Aerith responded as the summon's gaze returned to her. "We appreciate your cooperation." Shiva gave a soft smile, inclined her head, and vanished into thin air, leaving behind a few snowflakes swirling through the suddenly rapidly warming air. Aerith held up the summon materia, whose previous luster had been replaced by a dull reddish-brown, glowing faintly in the center.

Ranma turned to face Aerith. "T-t-that was Shiva?" she asked between chattering teeth.

"That... was called Diamond Dust," Aerith answered, giving the redhead a smile. "Was that what you were expecting from the stories on your world?"

Ranma was still running her hands over her arms, trying to get some warmth back into them. "Uh..." she thought about it for a moment, "...kinda? I'm not an expert, but I think my world's Shiva is usually shown as male."

"...okay, but... so are you," Aerith countered, grinning with amusement.

Ranma blinked for a moment. "Oh, ha, ha," she returned, but was smiling underneath it. "Yeah, okay, ya got me there. So... let's give this Ifrit a try." Ranma took a few steps forward and lifted one arm, holding onto the materia with a firm grip, feeling the insistent pulses of warmth radiating out from it as she began to fuel the summoning with her mana. Aerith's description of 'lifting a rock with your brain' felt apt, as there was a pressure against her mana reservoir while she worked the spellcraft. It felt to Ranma as if the materia, or something inside it, was actively resisting her attempt to bring it forth. The effort of it made her knees feel weak, and she worried that she might fall over and embarrass herself further. Reflexively, she reached for her chi to reinforce her stance, until suddenly it felt as if the rock had removed itself, the summoning feeling as if it had snapped into place. An area of the earth before her began swelling and expanding, the stone and dust drying out rapidly. The mound continued to grow, as if an enormous mole or hedgehog lay just beneath the surface of the earth. The already damaged ground began to take on the texture of parched desert wasteland, before the ground cracked and shattered completely, and a figure pushed up through the ground and into the air above and in front of Ranma.

The figure was at least four meters tall. Like Shiva, he was built vaguely out of human proportions, but unlike Shiva, he definitely would not pass for human. His body was heavily muscled and with a skintone like burnt stone, cracked and glowing as if magma ran beneath the surface instead of blood. Patches of red-brown fur extended from his chest, arms, and legs, and a wild red mane surrounded his head and face, hanging down in front in a long beard, almost like a lion's mane. His hands and feet ended in savage looking claws, and a thick gold bracelet was wrapped around each wrist. His face was slightly elongated, the space between the chin and the nose jutting out slightly from the rest of the face like a bat, a prominent set of sharp fangs extending in a scowl that threatened to devour anything that dared to slight the creature. A pair of long, sharp looking horns, almost obsidian black, trailed out of the top of his head and curled backwards on themselves like a ram's. Ifrit let out a low growl, wisps of flame and smoke trailing from his mouth as he hovered over the ruined patch of land that already appeared to be fading back into itself, as if watching a volcano growing in reverse.

Ranma felt the waves of desiccating heat rolling off of Ifrit's body, but didn't feel as affected by it as she had by Shiva's ice. Aerith, on the other hand, was already visibly perspiring from the increased temperature. "All right," Ranma declared, meeting Ifrit's glowing red eyes, "show me what ya got."

Ifrit stared at Ranma for a long, tense moment. It was not a friendly look. It was the kind of look that, under other circumstances, might be taken as sizing up prey before a meal. Ranma briefly began to consider her options in a straight fight with such an entity. Before Ranma could adjust her stance to a more aggressive one, Ifrit's head bowed in acknowledgement, and he turned away, reaching for the recently-scoured earth. The ground seemed to shift and begin to roll up towards him, stone and soil coalescing into a loose, shaggy orb of dirt, almost twice as big around as Ifrit was tall. Lifting it up with one arm, the spirit reached out with the other claw, towards the hole left behind by the damage he had already wrought, and clenched his free hand closed tightly. Almost immediately, a pool of raw magma welled up in the gouged-out gap in the earth, the liquefied rock streaming upwards from the ground into the assemblage of earth that Ifrit had already collected. The magma began flowing into and around the orb, merging with it as it caught fire, cooled, and then heated back up again, the entire sphere taking on a lava-like state.

Ifrit braced himself on the ground, turning his gaze upward. He raised one clawed hand, tossing the fiery orb into the air. As it crested some fifty meters up, Ifrit crouched for a second before pushing up, leaping into the air after it, creating a shockwave from the sudden upwards motion that nearly knocked Ranma to the ground. The bestial figure rose to the height of the ball of molten earth resting in the sky, raised both hands overhead, and slammed his fists down hard onto the sphere, sending it careening back down to the ground.

Right at the hole where the earth had been pulled from, only a dozen or so meters away from Ranma and Aerith.

Ranma didn't bother wasting time shouting. She turned and inhaled sharply, her body blurring hard as she sprinted towards Aerith. The older girl had already begun to turn and start moving, but not nearly quickly enough. Ranma reached her in half a heartbeat, looped her into a bridal carry, and continued making speed away from the point of impact. Two seconds and nearly eighty meters of frantic dashing later, the burning sphere collided with the ground, detonating into another shockwave that threw Ranma from her feet, sending both herself and Aerith sprawling in the dull-gray stone dust. The ground around the impact caught fire, globules of molten stone flying outward from the newly-formed crater. Ifrit descended to the ground again, hovering just in front of Ranma as she pulled herself back to her feet. Ifrit's smoldering eyes rested over Ranma again, and let out a rhythmic guttural sound that at first sounded like a growl of challenge, but then Ranma realized Ifrit was laughing. "What's the big idea, huh?" she demanded, squaring her stance in case the summon attacked them.

Ifrit's lips moved over his fangs, the same bassy growl propelled forward from the creature's mouth. "Show me... what you got..." Ifrit echoed, before letting out another laugh, vanishing in a puff of flame.

"...the hell..." Ranma muttered, before turning to Aerith. Aerith was staring in bewilderment at the space where Ifrit had been. "Hey," Ranma called out, waving one hand up and down. "You okay?"

Aerith's eyes dragged slowly across the empty space Ifrit had left behind to focus again on Ranma. "He... spoke...?" she asked in shock.

Ranma gave her a puzzled look, reaching to help her back to her feet. "What, they don't talk much?" she asked.

"No, they don't talk, ever!" she corrected, throwing her hands over her head. She turned away, pacing a few steps, trying to gather her thoughts, before returning to face Ranma directly. "A couple thousand years of history and the two things everyone managed to agree on is they're not prisoners, and they never speak! You summon one for the very first time and not only does it look like it's about to turn on you, but it opens its mouth and mocks you with your own words. Did you do that? Did Ifrit do that? How did either of you do that?"

Ranma spread her hands out in a half shrug, half defensive posture. "No idea," she said simply. "I called him up, I told him to show us what he can do. He did it, nearly killed you, and then came down here and taunted me, before he vanished. I don't think I did anythin' special."

Aerith nodded her understanding, and met her eyes. "How do you keep doing all of these impossible things?" she asked. "You get a summon spirit to talk. You fight SOLDIER with your bare hands. You're noble, you're kind, and you're not nearly the jerk you make yourself out to be. You do everything that this world says isn't able to be done and you make it look easy while you do it. I don't know how you do any of those things, and maybe I'll never know..." she trailed off for a moment, her eyes falling to the ground. "But whether I find out or not will have to wait."

Ranma looked puzzled. "Why would it have to wait?" she asked. "Gimme the Shiva materia, I'll call her up here right now an'-"

"No, you can't," Aerith interrupted, reaching for Ranma's hand. She pulled it up, confronting Ranma with the materia orb she held, which had lost its previous glow and now resembled the one Aerith held up with her other hand. "For summons, each materia only works once per sunrise. After that, they go dark until dawn of the next day. If we had a pile of summon materia, we could do what you're suggesting, but…"

Ranma looked at the dun sphere in her hand, gritted her teeth, and slipped it back into one pocket. "All right, fine," she muttered. "Gonna get to the bottom of this, though... I ain't always the brightest, but I'm tired of all these mysteries followin' us around. I'd like to figure out one of 'em, at least."

Aerith looked up and met her sensei's eyes, seeing them filled with frustration at all the things that she had questions for and no answers, and felt a twinge of empathy for her. "Well, all that will still have to wait a bit," she said, looking past the shorter girl.

"Why's that- oh," Ranma derailed, her eyes following Aerith's line of sight as she turned to see Yuffie and Cait approaching them at speed, "that's why."

Yuffie shouted to them across the quarry as she ran towards them. "What the hell'd ya do this time?" she called out. "You aim Ifrit at yourself or somethin'?"

Aerith was still facing away from the pair running towards them, and stepped smartly towards Ranma. "Don't say anything about Ifrit talking, sensei," she whispered. "I think Yuffie wouldn't take it well."

Ranma hesitated for a fraction of a second, but nodded her understanding. She looked up at Cait's approach and took a few hesitant steps backwards. Cait, for his part, stopped where he was, giving Ranma a wide berth. Yuffie came to a halt only a few feet away from the redhead and "You can't possibly want to get out of our sparring session so badly that you'd set yourself on fire, can you?" the ninja demanded.

Ranma didn't respond for a couple seconds. Then she laughed.

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"So, what's this thing Ae hear about ye and water?" Cait asked Ranma, as they sat down to lunch.

Ranma was deliberately keeping her distance, but seemed to be getting gradually more comfortable with the idea of Cait as a person rather than as a cat. She could manage to be within ten meters of him now without feeling her hackles rise, but any closer than that and she needed to get a much larger distance before she could calm herself again. "Uh… did we bring any water, Aerith?" she asked, trying to stall.

Aerith pulled out a pair of bottles, labeled as different kinds of fruit juice. "This was all the stall owner had with him," she apologized, passing one to Ranma. "You could just tell him, you know."

Ranma shrugged, taking a bite of some kind of preserved meat and hard cheese before unscrewing the cap on the juice. "This," she began, gesturing vaguely at herself, "ain't what I normally look like. Normally, I'm a guy. I turn into a girl when I'm splashed with cold water. I turn back to normal if I'm splashed with hot water."

Cait was silent for fully twenty seconds, staring at Ranma intently, as he processed that information. "Ye… yer a lad?" he asked carefully, as if the moment might turn tail and flee. "Yer not a lass?"

Ranma sighed and shook his head. "Not by choice, no," she muttered. "Haven't been able to get a bath since I got soaked with sea-water aboard the ship we came here in. Hopefully the hotel will have a good shower, or the boat to Wutai will have a water heater aboard. I hate being stuck in my girl-half for so long."

Yuffie nodded. "I seen it, it's kinda weird… you'd think there'd be, like… a flash of light, or smoke, or sound effects," she commented around a small helping of her own meal, "but nah. One second, boy, next second, girl. An' he loses like half a meter in the switch, too."

Ranma snorted. "In your dreams, runt," she shot back, "'cuz that's the only way you'd be taller than me."

Yuffie tossed a root vegetable of some kind at Ranma, who deftly smacked it out of the air. "I am taller than you right now," the ninja taunted, "or are you just not able to see the difference from all the way down there?"

Aerith glanced between the other girls in exasperation. "Really, you two, are you so immature that you'd let it devolve into Who's Taller?" Despite her tone, she was also sporting a smile. "And besides, I'm taller than either of you."

Cait's expression had only become more confused, an impressive feat for so small a face. "But… ye… Ae…" He gave up and threw his hands into the air over his head, one mitten dislodging slightly. "How?!" he exclaimed.

Ranma smiled ruefully. "So, remember earlier how I said my pops is a moron?"

"Aye, Ae remember," Cait answered, puzzled.

"Well, about two years back…"

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The data from Project Sidhe was intended to be collated nightly in burst transmissions. The single burst transmissions were designed by the operator to prevent identification of the signal used to submit the data, and likewise to reduce the chance of the signal being traced, jammed, or intercepted. However, the prototype asset had been given the ability to make spontaneous transmissions when it was deemed safe or if the value of the data was worthy of such a risk. The asset had not been active for even a full day yet, and had made three such transmissions in an incredibly short period of time. The operator had initially considered it to be a defect, but after reviewing the content of the transmissions, the value of the information more than exceeded even the highest expectations of the project.

The secondary effects of this influx of high-quality data were that less than two days after the information was acquired, additional funding and resources were immediately dispensed from the vast Shinra treasury to allow for additional assets to be constructed as quickly as possible, and that its operator was granted a special directorship within Shinra, one known only to himself and the President. Project Sidhe had more than shown its value.

The primary effect of the data is that after Rufus Shinra landed at the base camp outside Gongaga, a scant five hours after the sinking of the Grace of Ifrit, a Shinra lieutenant handed the President a sealed envelope, with the words Presidential Eyes Only hastily scribbled on the outside. "Hmm… I wonder what the home office has for me today," he muttered, as his new aide stepped away. He opened the envelope and scanned the information inside.

And then re-read it, much slower, to make sure he hadn't misunderstood anything.

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Collated Report

Summary of critical transmissions from Project Sidhe asset

1. Person of interest 'Yuffie Kisaragi' (94% match to photo records) has been identified as
associating with all current members of known terrorist organization 'AVALANCHE'.

2. Organization 'AVALANCHE' has been identified as traveling to Wutai in the near future.
Date of arrival unknown; best speed from current known location approx. 4 days by sea.

3. Person of interest 'Ranma Saotome' not indigenous to Gaia. Claims to be from another planet.
Claims to be male. POI possesses previously unknown ability to transform self between
male and female 'half'. POI may have an exploitable weakness related to cats.

Details of POI claims in files PS/X 1001-1011, Shinra Tower.
Additional claims made by POI have yet to be verified.

Further observation recommended.

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Rufus' mind raced at the implications. Knowing that the Wutai royals were actively conspiring with known terrorists was an incredible gem of knowledge, a casus belli he might never have had the opportunity to exploit otherwise. If his goal had been to outdo his father by finishing what he had started but failed to complete, this would be the perfect banner to rally behind. 'The same terrorists who attacked our city, destroyed our comfort, and murdered tens of thousands by collapsing Sector 7 on itself, have been found colluding with our old nemesis, the backwards land of Wutai…' Eh, someone else could spin that better, but it was a good start, he thought to himself, shrugging internally.

But the other news, about the Saotome girl… and she wasn't even a girl. Wasn't even Gaian, if she- if he was to be believed. The ability to change shape, even if only to the level described, could be advantageous, but the real prize was the idea of an entire other world out there. And with knowledge such as that, what did pathetic Wutai matter now? Who would still be bothered about where this planet's Promised Land was hidden when there was the possibility of an entire world, ripe with Mako and who knows what other resources, just waiting for the chance to be conquered and exploited? "Ah, father, if only you could see me now…" he muttered to himself. He pulled out a solid gold lighter from the inside pocket of his suit jacket and ignited the bottom corner of the transcript, tossing it onto the ground as it caught; the entire sheet was a pile of ash in seconds. Stepping towards Lt. Parson, he turned his back to the others, to make sure he was neither seen nor heard. "I need to send a communication back to headquarters, I'll have to appraise them of the changes to my standing orders. Can this chopper make it to Rocket Town?" he asked quietly.

Parson shook his head immediately. "Not in a single flight, but we should be able to refuel at the supply platform in the Nibel mountains."

Rufus nodded his head, flicking the lid of the gold lighter up and down. "I'm offering you a field promotion to Captain. You can take it or leave it, but I am placing you in direct command of this unit regardless. Get me another pilot out of the men here. I have a plan, and you will make sure that the entire unit is ready to move by noon. Our primary target has changed." He pulled out a cigar and lit it, tucking the lighter back into his suit jacket. "We have a golden opportunity being handed to us. We're going to lay a trap for AVALANCHE… and now that I know what's at stake, I want Ranma Saotome captured alive."

Shiva is in fact the name of a god in Hindu faith, and is typically depicted as male. Ifrit, or more accurately efreet, is the name of a type of demon or monster in Islam. You might or might not be surprised to find that an overwhelming number of summons used throughout FF history originate as deities or deific-level creatures from various world religions. Odin is from old Norse and modern day Asatru. Bahamut and Kujata are both a part of the support structure which holds up the Earth in traditional Islamic cosmology.

I'm not surprised by how much info there is regarding the characters from both franchises… blood type, birthdays, and so on. Aerith Gainsborough is 163cm, or 5'4" tall. Ranma in his boy-half is 164cm, or about 5'5" during the series. Aging him up a year, I've decided he's 168cm, which would just put him at a shade over five and a half feet. In that form, he would just be about a forehead taller than Aerith. Us doofy Americans will measure with anything other than the metric, but I rather like the precision of metric for math… despite that, 'a forehead taller' is a visual measurement you can get behind without needing exact numbers. A~anyway, Ranma's girl-half is 150cm, which is a diminutive 4'11". I've decided that she would be topping out at 5-foot-nothing after another year of growth, or 153cm. That's shorter even than Yuffie, who ranks in at 160cm, or five-foot-two.

For those who don't know, PSX was the shorthand abbreviation for the original PlayStation, which is what Final Fantasy 7 premiered on nearly twenty five years ago. PS/X being the internalized, abbreviated designation of 'Project Sidhe eXperiment', i.e., Cait Sith, is something that, like so many of my best moments, I wish I could take credit for planning out months or years in advance. Nope. Total serendipity. But I'll take it.

Language lessons…

Cait Sith: Gaelic. Because of the differences of the three primary dialects of Gaelic, and the complexities in transliterating Gaelic into modern English, I will not be invoking the old tongue here. It is, however, historically pronounced the same way an English speaker would say 'cat she' rather than the common 'Kate Sith'. The name is something of a title, and denotes the faerie Lord of the Cats in old Celtic mythology. He is always depicted as an all-black cat except for a patch of white on his chest. I mention most of this largely as a point of trivia, I don't intend to be a pedant about how his name is said in-story or in-game; I've been saying 'Kate Sith' like most of the rest of you for the last twenty five years. Just… if you actually meet the mythological Cait Sith in your journeys through the world, do him the service of saying it proper to his face. :D

As a related point of trivia, in his two canonically voiced appearances to date (Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus), the voice actor who portrays him in the English dub adopted a noticeable Scottish accent for his lines. And I decided to run with that… so Cait Sith speaks with a Scottish accent. I originally was thinking about going full-on Scottish Twitter with him, but I decided to back it down a tad for legibility's sake.

Sidhe - Also Gaelic. Funnily enough, also sounds like 'she'. Remember those multiple dialects of Gaelic I was talking about? Anyway, Sidhe is a word used to refer to the fae.

'Uchūjin? Arienai. Zenzen arienai' - Japanese. Translates to 'An alien? Impossible. Completely impossible.'

Casus belli - Latin. A justified reason for war.

Full credit to one of my online friends for helping me figure out the best way to integrate this chapter's Japanese phrase. By their request, they are remaining anonymous.

Hope you liked it! As always, feedback and comments are welcome. Can't wait to show you what's coming up next!