Part Six

1.

I awoke early the next morning with a fresh mind. A bird chirped through complete silence outside.

Cloud said he'd be ready today, I thought. And finally I was ready.

I found him in the diner.

"Are you ready to go?"

Cloud looked up from his food at me. "Well, I'm eating right now, but after this... Maybe ten, fifteen minutes?"

"Okay. I'll be in front of the village."

"See you in a bit."

It was still early morning, and the sun shone along the horizon all the way across the canyon, casting long, soft shadows on the ground. It already was warming up. Today would be a hot one. A warm breeze blew in from out over the ocean, perforating the air with the scent of saltwater. I thought ahead as I waited. I knew what I wanted to say now, and I knew how to say it. I won't deny that some of the aspects of what I was about to do were intimidating, but I felt I could do it. I found myself having difficulty holding still. The anticipation kept me moving.

Thankfully, Cloud came down sooner than he'd said, and we were off without too much delay.

"So how do you think we'll do today?" Cloud asked as we reached the mountains and started climbing.

"I think we're all ready for what's going to happen."

"What's going to happen?"

"Whatever. I don't know. But I think they're ready. I know I am. That's why I'm going back."

"You think something bad is going to happen?"

"Like I said, I don't know. But I'm prepared for whatever may happen."

We seemed to be saying the same thing over and over. Our conversation had stalled. The climb seemed to go slowly, dragging along meagerly at close to a snail's pace. I tried to remember all I'd thought about, trying to get it all in the front of my mind for use at a moment's notice, but anticipation and anxiety clouded my thoughts. My mind wasn't climbing with me, wasn't talking with Cloud, and it wasn't in the previous night's passage; it was already ahead of me, in the cavern and the laboratory, trying to see the day's events pass before they happened.

The next I remembered, Cloud and I had reached the top of the mountains and were looking down on the lake below. Immediately, I noticed that things were different from the last time I'd been there. The waterfall had dried up, it looked like, and the entrance to the cavern was exposed to the day.

"That's weird," I said to myself.

"What is?"

"The waterfall. It's gone."

"Not supposed to be?"

"Come on. Let's go." I descended into the crater, Cloud following behind.

Things inside the cavern had changed as well. It was fairly dark. Rocks and rubble were lying around the place, broken and irregular. Many of the blue pyramid formations had been broken and were missing their tops.

"What happened in here?" I asked in shock.

I saw the altar. Several of its wings had been broken off, some snapped at their bases, some chipped about halfway down, some cracked down the middle. The white materia was missing. A deep, ragged crack ran in the ground from the base of the altar, between Cloud and me, and past us outside to the lake.

"Red." Cloud had walked behind the altar.

I walked to his spot and saw the crack running from behind the altar back into the dark hallway leading to the laboratory.

We followed the crack straight down the hallway, passing more rubble and some small rocks, and came to the threshold of the lab. Only one of the huge mechanized doors still stood its frame. It looked like it had been hit by a very large object—it had been crushed out of shape and bent inward toward the lab. The other door lay crumpled on the ground fifteen feet inside the doorway.

Cloud took the first step across the threshold. He was awed by the laboratory. I was shocked by what had happened to it. My thoughts escaped me. I wandered over to the crumpled door in front of me.

At its top and bottom ends the door bent up to the sky; the rest of it was bent and bashed almost beyond recognition. I made out a sign on a less battered section of the door:

Shin-Ra Electric Company

Cleaning the World with Mako Energy

This lab had been run on mako. Still was, maybe. I'd thought mako had gone out of use a long time prior, gone the way of Shin-Ra, but apparently I was wrong.

Cloud stood beside me, reading as well. The lab's use of mako energy didn't seem as shocking to him as it was to me.

"Powerful stuff," he said matter-of-factly.

What did that mean?

"Nanaki," I heard, and looked up. Malaika and Anand walked toward me. Anand had called my name.

Cloud tensed up next to me. Malaika and Anand seemed not to notice Cloud, or else they ignored him.

"I'm glad you came," she called out again.

They were upon me quickly, and Cloud continued to go more or less unnoticed.

"Panth will be glad to see that you have come," she said somewhat privately.

"He's been waiting for you," Malaika followed. "For the past few days, actually. He's seemed preoccupied."

"Something is really bothering him."

"What happened to these doors?" I asked.

They shot a glance at Cloud.

Anand spoke. "I think whatever did this is what Panth is worried about."

Malaika still watched Cloud out of the corner of her eyes. "I'll take you and your friend to see him." She turned and motioned for us to follow her.

Malaika, Cloud, and I walked back through the lab. Anand did not follow. All eyes were on us, mostly on Cloud, as we passed the others. Daya watched him with suspicion. Chatur watched him with a strange interest. And Bikhai scowled and glared, but at me, as he sat alone in a dark corner of the lab.

Malaika saw Bikhai's scowl and said to me in a whisper "I think he thinks you're trying to take me away."

Other than that statement, we walked without speaking; she looked almost afraid to say anything in front of Cloud. After walking what felt like several miles through a sea of eyes, Panth finally came into sight.

"Ah, Nanaki, you have come." A sleepy smile drifted onto his face. "And you've brought your friend."

I looked over at Cloud. He stood partly behind me, seeming at every second to shrink farther and farther away. "Cloud," I said to Panth, giving my friend a name, and side stepped quickly so Panth could see him.

"Nice to meet you, Cloud."

Cloud bowed his head slightly. "I'm glad to meet you as well." He attempted feebly to step back behind me.

"I had begun to wonder if you would come," Panth said, turning his attention back to me. "But you're here now, and from the look of things, you've come just in time."

"I saw all of the damage. What happened?" I asked.

"No one is sure." A male voice said from behind me. Chatur came up from behind and passed me on my right. "All we know is that it happened last night and early this morning," he said as he walked to Panth's side. I saw the tattooed IV on his shoulder.

He continued speaking. "I saw strange lights in the lab early this morning. The lab's lights were out at the time—we turn them off while we sleep. I saw these green lights shining from behind the machines near the entrance. Crashes and sounds of twisting metal and heavy footsteps came from the direction of those lights. My mind was hazy from sleep, and I thought at first that Erevu had returned. I even thought I heard him call out to me. But quickly I realized it wasn't him, and I was frightened. I stood and watched the lights move about beyond the machines for about five minutes, listening to the crashing sounds and the footsteps, and then suddenly they disappeared. In the dark I couldn't move. Just after sunrise, I went to investigate. You've seen everything I've seen."

"Yes," I said, "but you don't know what did this?"

Panth spoke up. "No, It was, however, something most definitely large, and very powerful. And it has left us exposed. You saw the materia is missing?"

I nodded.

"This creature that came into our lab took the materia on the altar, locking the entrance to our lab open. I hate to admit it, but none of us except Erevu knows how to work any of these machines around here beyond turning the lights on and off, so we don't know how to fix this problem. We are exposed to the outside world right now."

"And Erevu hasn't been returned yet," came Cloud's voice from behind me.

The conversation halted abruptly, and three pairs of eyes burned past me into Cloud. I heard Cloud's breath cut off, and he was completely still. For a moment I thought they'd killed him with nothing but their looks.

"No." Panth broke the uneasy silence.

A soft exhale as the tension died down.

Panth paused and then said again, "No," and stopped. "But I have this feeling... Erevu can be found if the source of these lights can be found."

"Cloud and I have seen the same lights Chatur saw from Cosmo Canyon every night for the past week. They're always in the same area: right around these mountains. In fact, the first night we saw them was the night Erevu disappeared."

"So whatever this is may come back tonight then," Malaika proposed.

"I'd say so," I agreed.

Another lull in the conversation ensued, but the tension was not there.

"...Tonight the lights will return, you think," said Panth after thinking for a moment. "If we were to hide up in the mountains, we could at least see what is causing them."

"See what we're up against," Chatur repeated.

"You think this creature is against us?" I asked.

"I think if it took Erevu, it can't be a friend of ours," he replied.

I wondered to myself, Do we know it took Erevu? But I didn't say anything.

"Nanaki," asked Panth, "would you go tonight into the mountains and wait with us?"

I nodded.

"And you, Cloud?"

Once again, all eyes were on Cloud, this time, my own included.

Cloud was taken aback by the request, but he stepped from behind me and answered with surprising quickness. "Yeah. Yes, I'll go."

"I don't believe I'll be able to go myself," Panth stated. "I'll ask Bikhai to go in my place. I'll go ask now." He left, and Chatur followed, leaving Cloud and me alone with Malaika.

"You'll be coming tonight, right?" I asked her.

"I don't think Grandfather will want me to, but I'm going to come." She looked at Cloud, who was behind me again. "Cloud, my name is Malaika. My grandfather told me to try to get to know you."

Cloud bowed his head slightly again, but he said nothing.

I spoke instead. "Cloud lived in Costa del Sol on the coast east of here until about a week ago. He came to Cosmo Canyon after the people in his town disappeared one night."

"Like Erevu's disappearance, it seems," Cloud said.

Malaika looked at him for a moment with interest, the same kind of look I'd seen on Chatur's face earlier, and then back at me as though to ask why Cloud had spoken.

I continued. "I've been close to Cloud's family for almost my entire life. He comes from a long line of very good people. Good friends. And he is no different."

"I'm sure I'll be glad to have met you, but if you'll excuse me, I need to go find my brother," she said. I could tell she was afraid. She moved off in the direction Panth had gone.

"Cloud, wait here," I said. "I'll be right back." I left him behind and went to catch up to Malaika, reaching her a moment later. "I told the truth back there. You don't need to be afraid of Cloud."

"I told the truth also. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I'm quite sure that your friend is good, and I'm sure that once I get to know him..." She trailed away. "But at the moment, he's just a human. I can't take this kind of change to my life yet. Not yet."

I could sense Bikhai's words behind her voice. "Malaika," I said, "things are changing, whether or not you want them to." I came off sounding annoyed. "There isn't any sort of choice for you to make." I wanted to stop speaking, but the words kept coming. "Your brother is gone. Your home won't last. You can't stay sheltered forever." I stopped walking. "There are some truths to face, Malaika. You'll be lost if you try to stay behind. You'll be lost."

She kept walking. "I need to find my brother," she said again over her shoulder. "I'll see you tonight."

I sat down in my spot. I could sense Cloud's words behind my voice. There are some truths to face. He'd said that to me before. And the reaction was almost the same.

Cloud walked up behind me. "What'd you say?"

"Nothing," I said, and looked up at him. "Nothing worth repeating anyway."

2.

Cloud stayed behind me for most of the rest of the day, and because he stayed behind me, Malaika's family stayed away from me. He had become a burden on me. But at one point around midday near the double mechanical doors, Panth came and took him away for a while.

Almost immediately, I was approached by Anand. She looked into me with those two white eyes. "I can see your intentions, Nanaki, in saying what you said to Malaika."

"You heard? You were there too?"

"By chance, I happened to hear."

"I..."

"I think you were right about what you said. It's hard to take, but it's true, and these broken doors prove it. I can see it. But Malaika... She has lived her entire life within these walls. She doesn't know anything else. You can understand; this place is her home, and losing it frightens her."

"I do. I realized that."

"It scares us all to some extent. As I've said, even Panth shows signs of nervousness and unrest these days. All I'm trying to say is... give her some time."

"Right," I said. "You know, I regretted saying it almost immediately."

"There is nothing to regret in what you said." Her eyes seemed almost to smile. "Just how you said it. Be safe tonight, and keep her safe."

"Thanks. I will."

She walked through the double-doorway and into the hallway beyond. The mechanical door still lay crumpled on the floor in front of me. Be safe, I thought. After a moment, I followed Anand outside.

The day had turned out to be quite hot, just as I'd thought it would. The sky was cloudless and blue, and the sun radiated its light brightly.

On the other side of the lake near the river, Panth was talking with Cloud, Anand listening in from nearby. I could hear them talking, but not well enough to make out any words.

As the inarticulate sounds floated across the lake, I came up to the water's edge and peered down into it. My reflection, wavering left and right, inward and outward, looked back up at me. The water held no blues or greens; It was pure black, even in the bright sunlight. The ghost of blacks and grays convulsed and laughed back at me.

"I see you." And it saw me too.

"Who are you talking to?" a voice from beside me asked. Cloud's image stood beside mine in the water and had joined in the laughter.

"Nobody. ...It's strange. The water in this lake isn't refracting any light."

"Just eating it right up. I wonder if it's always like this."

"I don't remember. The only other time I really looked at it was in the middle of the night."

Cloud picked up a fairly large rock and threw it a foot into the the lake. The water rippled violently upon impact, and the ghosts broke up and dissipated momentarily. Panth was talking quietly with Anand now.

"What did Panth want?" I asked.

"Just to know more about me. Looks like you were right. He seems to be the only one who wants me here."

"Are you scared?"

"What?" He didn't understand.

"Of them. Are you afraid?"

"A little intimidated, I guess."

"It's the same with them. They'll get used to you eventually." I said it as much to him as to myself. "Maybe soon—as soon as a week, or maybe even tonight— or maybe a long time from now." Anand's words echoed through my head. "Don't be nervous or intimidated. Just give them some time."

Cloud was silent for a moment. He was putting words together in his head, wondering how to say them. After a moment, he spoke. "Red, do you remember when you broke your leg falling over that cliff?"

"How could I ever forget?" I answered.

"Over those next few days after I brought you back when you were slipping in and out of consciousness and saying those strange things..."

"Yeah?"

"You said..." His mind reached back. "You asked me if I saw the angel. You said she saved you. A white angel. Over and over again. I thought it must have been your injuries talking."

I didn't remember any of it. "A white angel saved me, huh? Maybe it was the injuries, or maybe not. I don't know. I can't remember. But maybe I was saved. Maybe it's true."

"Maybe."

3.

Night fell, and I found myself waiting on the mountainside with Cloud, Chatur, Bikhai, and Malaika, wondering how I'd gotten there. When had the sun gone down? When had the day passed by? I lay crouched down, watching and wondering.

All else was silent. No one spoke; perhaps they were afraid to. My heart beat quickly and heavily in my chest, and I could hear its pulse in my ear. I didn't know why I was so nervous. I even shook slightly. Was I nervous? Maybe excited. Maybe not. I tried to keep still and to stay quiet. I concentrated on my pulse, and tried to slow it down. It was all I heard.

"Are you okay?" Suddenly the silence was broken.

"Huh?" I lost my concentration. It was Malaika.

"You're shaking."

"Oh, yeah. I'm fine. I don't know why I'm shaking..."

"Are you nervous? Scared?" Was she poking at me?

My leg ached, I realized, all up and down its length. I wanted to shake it and stretch it out, but I didn't. "Maybe a little."

"Me too. I think we all are," she said

Bikhai glared over his shoulder at me.

She spoke uncomfortably. "I want to apologize about today."

"Me too," I said.

"It took me some time and some advice from Grandfather, but I realized you were right. It's hard to accept, but... I guess that's the truth for you, huh?" She let out a gasping laugh, but it was half-hearted.

"Anand spoke to me today, and she helped me come to a realization. I knew that you've lived most all of your life here in the lab, but I guess I never realized what kind of impact it has had on you. You haven't seen the world for yourself, have you?"

She shook her head.

"I didn't mean to push it on you. I didn't mean to try to push you out of your home."

"It was the truth. I just couldn't understand it. And... I didn't want to." Another half-hearted laugh. "We all have to wake up to reality eventually, don't we?"

"You don't think we'll find Erevu?"

Another glare. Malaika seemed not to have heard me.

"Nanaki... Will you be there? If we leave here?"

"Definitely. I'll be anywhere you need me."

"You'll show me the world? Teach me what I don't understand?"

"I'll do it as long as you'll allow." The pain in my leg subsided. "I'll show you anything, everything, you want to see."

Bikhai rose forcefully to his feet with a grunt and walked down a ways from us .

I watched him go. "And I'll protect you from what you don't."

"Thanks," she said, and was done.

"How far from here have you been?"

"Remember when you chased me from Cosmo Canyon up here into the mountains? That's as far from home as I've ever been. In fact, I'd only ever been out that far once before, and I saw you then too. You fell from the sky to me." She smiled. "But your landing was a bit off. You hurt yourself pretty badly. I remember I didn't know what to do when you fell in front of me. I had come to be alone—it was shortly after my grandmother died—and suddenly you were there. I was scared just being that far from home, and you scared me even more, but... something kept me there with you. I could tell just by looking at you and listening to the sounds you made that you were hurt, and I saw your house far up above. I wanted to try to get someone's attention to help you, so I stood by you and howled, hoping someone in your house would hear. Lights inside turned on, and I ran away, feeling that now you would get your help."

"It was you? You were the one who howled?"

"You remember that. You remember me?"

"No. Not clearly. Cloud—that was who you woke with your howls—told me about it later."

Malaika looked over at Cloud, who had been listening in from the beginning of the conversation, and Cloud looked back at her. He leaned back against a large boulder and seemed oddly at peace. A white fire burned gently behind Malaika.

"Cloud thought it was I who was howling. I didn't remember it."

"I was wrong," he said, and smiled faintly at having said it.

Why did he smile, I wondered.

Malaika looked at him with wonder, and the fear was gone. "Maybe I've been wrong too. Maybe it won't be so bad..."

"You three," Chatur broke in. He had been keeping watch while we talked. "Come look. Something is happening."

Malaika and I, along with Cloud, came up beside Chatur. Bikhai remained by himself separated from the four of us. He had noticed something as well. We crouched around Chatur and looked out over the lake.

Everything seemed calm at first. A false alarm? "What? I don't see any" I was interrupted; a beam of green light suddenly shot up into the air from the lake's surface and rolled left and right momentarily, like a spotlight searching the sky, before disappearing below water again.

"What was that?" Malaika asked.

"The lights," I said to no one.

Again the green beam of light rose up from the depths of the lake, this time accompanied by another beam seeming to emanate from the same source underwater. The lake water began to agitate, forming small ripples, and quickly the ripples gave way to splashing waves. More and more lights emerged and searched the sky. Quickly the lake turned into a tumultuous quagmire, and the area was lit by the near-ubiquitous green light. A light green mist rose up from the water and became so thick that it was like fog, shielding the lake's surface from view.

As the shafts of light shone up from below on and across us on the mountainside, the pain in my leg resurfaced and climbed into my hip and the small of my back. I had tensed my body involuntarily, but I still shook spasmodically.

And then the water stopped raging, and out from the green mist on the lake stepped a familiar figure.

"Erevu?" asked Malaika loudly.

The area was strangely aglow in the light green aura of the lights. Erevu stood facing away from the lake, still as death. The beams of light seemed to emanate from Erevu and radiate around him in every direction. The water behind him slowly resettled, and the green fog began to lift.

"Erevu..." Chatur whispered next to me.

None of us moved. Was it truly Erevu? Had he returned? We all watched and inspected him as he began walking lifelessly forward, as though he were asleep, toward the cavern. It looked to be him. Everything from the tattoos to the fire on his tail looked the same. But how could he have walked out of the lake? The water would have killed him. I looked closer. Something was wrong.

Bikhai snuck quietly over to the four of us. "Is it really him?" he asked Chatur.

"No," I answered, and I found what I was looking for. "Look at the eyes."

Erevu stopped walking and stood, as still as before, facing the cavern. Entirely red eyes. He tilted his head down toward the ground, and glared out of the corner of his eyes directly at us.

Cloud's words from a few days earlier came back to me. 'You were right. About everything.'

As soon as the words came to me, the five of us were illuminated in the beam of one of the lights, blinding us with its brightness. The other searchlights disappeared. Erevu lifted a front leg, and pointed it languidly at us. The shaft of light narrowed to include only Cloud, who I could vaguely see was now standing behind me near the rocky wall.

I looked back down at Erevu. His leg was still in the air, pointed at us. His face remained emotionless; only his eyes, glowing red in the night, glinted menacingly behind the green light. Then, without warning, he, as did the shaft of light, disappeared from our sight. The area remained cast in green.

Fear and dread struck me a split-second before I heard the cry from behind. I wheeled around and came face to face with Erevu. He stood where Cloud had been, glaring coldly at me. Cloud was nowhere in sight. I couldn't move at first and stared him blankly in the face. Then my sight traced slowly down to his still-raised leg. It was covered, almost up to the elbow, in blood. A drop fell from his paw and hit in the middle of a small puddle, black in the night, forming just in front of him.

Cloud...

Erevu glared at me for a moment, and then at Malaika, and then Bikhai, and Chatur, inspecting us. Horror came into me. Erevu's sight came back to me, and his face held the same cold-blooded expression. Another drop fell into the puddle, and he disappeared again, reappearing below, where he had stood before. He began again to walk toward the cavern, leaving one red footprint on the rocks every few feet behind. Darkness returned to the area as the green light receded into the cavern with Erevu.

"Cloud?" I asked, dumbfounded, through the darkness. My sight wouldn't adjust to the dark. "Cloud?" My voice became more frantic as a thick fog descended upon me.

From somewhere to my right I heard Chatur say "We must find Panth and the others and get them out of there before they are found," or something to that effect; I barely heard it through the fog.

"Cloud? Cloud?" I began calling out, louder and louder, as panic and fear came and gripped me. I was grasping through the dark, but I realize now it was not for him. "Cloud?" I grasped for what he was. The call rang out and went invariably unanswered.

Three small lights, two orange and one white, strode off into the darkness.

"Don't go. Not yet," I said and followed the lights. I didn't understand what I was saying. I didn't understand what I was thinking. Suddenly, I found myself alone. Through the darkness and the fog I found my way to the lake and stopped and looked in. "There you are," I whispered. Immediately, the panic was gone.

The water had stilled itself into a calm, glassy plain. The ghost stared up at me from the from the depths, palely lit by the light of my tail.

"I see you."

A few moments passed. I could still hear my pulse in my ear, and my leg still hurt me, but I calmed down. I looked at the ghost, and it looked at me. The laughing had stopped. A thunderous crash came from behind me in the cavern, and then a rush of footsteps came in my direction. I didn't move. They slowed up and stopped.

"I guess I have to say goodbye," I said to myself.

They stood behind me for a moment, seeming almost afraid to move or speak. Then a face and body appeared next to me on my left in the water. Bikhai. I lifted my head about halfway to him, staring blankly into the lake. The night was silent.

"Maybe now you can understand how I felt," he whispered into my ear.

I looked into the water. Some color had come into my reflection, brought to it by the light of his tail.

"Yeah..." I thought I did.

In the water a third shape appeared next to me on my right. Malaika. I blinked and saw more color come into my reflection.

"The lab's gone. Our home is gone."

"Yeah..." What would I do?

Panth appeared beside Malaika. I remembered the day before on the beach, and I pictured what he had said to me. It seemed he knew what would happen. My reflection had become a near-mirror image now. Slowly the darkness seemed to disappear and my senses to return. Two white eyes materialized on the other side of Bikhai in the lake and looked up at me, watching me, almost smiling. Chatur appeared past those eyes and looked at me with a strange interest. And farther off another shape appeared, not as distinguishable or formed, but present nonetheless. The darkness lifted and was gone.

I don't know how long the seven of us stood there—it seemed to me an eternity at the time—or even when we left the lake and the laboratory and our pasts behind. We were walking away in silence before I knew it.

Words kept echoing through my head as we climbed out of the crater. 'Someday you'll find your life's mate. If we leave, will you be there?' The sky in the east began to brighten and the stars to disappear as we started down out of the mountains—the night was almost over. 'We don't want you here. He thinks you're trying to take me away. My brother is missing. I guess I'll have to watch out for your monster. Cloud... Maybe now you can understand...' The canyon, pale in the weak light of morning, lay ahead, past the river. We walked silently onward. 'It's attracted to sources of mako. Cleaning the world... Several travelers have gone missing.' Everything came together in my mind. The seven of us stood together now in front of the steps leading upward. How did they feel? 'It's a frightening thought, not knowing what will come. You know that feeling. But the first step is the hardest. Don't be afraid anymore. The rest will follow.' I stepped forward. The sun broke over the mountains, and we ascended the steps into the new day.

4.

I suppose that is as good a place to stop as any. It's hard really to pick anywhere to stop telling my story without it seeming horribly abrupt because, even today, my story is not complete. But that's how it was: abrupt. It felt wrong, what happened that night. Like it shouldn't have happened yet. It left me feeling unprepared. I wasn't prepared to lose Cloud, in the same way, I'm sure, that they weren't prepared to lose their home. But that's how it was, and so it was sudden, bringing them to the canyon.

They had a hard time during the first few weeks, especially Malaika and her siblings, who had no remembrance of ever living with humans. It seemed eyes were always pointed in their direction. Understandably, they wanted to stay out of the spotlight and spent most of their time with me in Grandfather's house. Gradually things changed, and it got better as they became more and more accustomed to the humans and the humans became more and more accustomed to them.

Eventually it was like they had always lived in the canyon. I kept my promise to Malaika. I stayed near her always, helped ease her fear, showed her what there was to see in the canyon, and we grew close to each other. Bikhai didn't show the same malcontent at my being near as he did before. Maybe it was because we were in my territory now. Maybe he'd come to accept me. I wouldn't say we ever became friends, but within that first year, we ceased to be enemies.

I myself was in shock for the first weeks after losing Cloud. The full impact of his apparent death had failed to hit me that night. When we returned to the canyon, it was all I could think about for a time. I wished things between us had come to something of a close, but... as I've said, that's not how it always works out. The world waits for no one.

Malaika and I went back to the lake several times to look for Cloud, but we found nothing. I saw inside the cavern that the hallway leading back to the lab had collapsed in on itself. Malaika told me later that Erevu had brought it down that night. She said she saw him as she went with Chatur and Bikhai back into the lab to find the others, that the lab was lit only by the green rays of light. She said he just stood there and watched as they ran by, just watched them run away out of the lab, almost like he was waiting. It seemed to her that no sooner had they gotten into the cavern than the lab collapsed. She thought he had waited for them to leave.

Neither Erevu, nor the monster appeared again after that night. I have wondered many times over the years for what purpose the monster existed and have come to the conclusion that there is no way to know that reason for certain. I do have my theories, though. I think maybe what I have already said holds the truth to this question. The monster's existence may have stretched back to the days of Midgar, Meteor, and Holy. I've wondered, was humanity destined to disappear? Or maybe only a part of it? Long ago, the Weapons roamed the planet, produced because of the use and abuse of Mako energy, produced specifically to protect the planet from that abuse and those who caused it. It has occurred to me that Cloud and Erevu may have been victims of the planet. It was only taking back what it had lost.

After those first few weeks, I guess I began to move on. It was hard, but it had to happen eventually. With Malaika by my side, I was living a new life. I began to look more toward the future. Toward the unknown. Toward life with a family. I realized I didn't have to be alone anymore. It seemed the old life, my solitude, my fear, had died with Cloud.

Today, things are different. No longer are we all together in Cosmo Canyon. In fact, Malaika and I are the only two of the original seven remaining in the canyon. Panth is gone; it's been almost a hundred years now. His age caught up with him, and he fell asleep one night and didn't wake up. Anand died a few years back. I was the one who found her. She, too, had gone overnight. Her eyes were open when I found her, still watching me. The image was burned into my mind. I'll never forget those eyes.

Chatur, without Anand, heads his clan on the Eastern Continent. He is well advanced in years and barely hangs on these days. He doesn't seem to care anymore whether he lives or dies, greeting whatever may come, day by day. His flare has gone. I hope to get across the ocean to see him soon. It doesn't seem there is much time left for him. Bikhai and Daya left the canyon a long time ago and moved across the Nibel Mountains to start their own clan. Bikhai never really did get used to the canyon. Humanity was too much for him, so he left it and took Daya with him.

As for me, life has settled down into a rhythm. Things are peaceful and relatively uneventful here in the canyon. It's been an eternity living like this, it seems. For more than 200 years my life has been static. Perhaps it's as I have said, that there are more important matters in the world to worry about. Maybe I've been pushed to the side now, put out of the spotlight, but I'm happy living like this. I'm happy finally to be at a point in my life that I can be happy with. I'm happy finally not to be alone. But even in this time of peace there is a feeling of uneasy apprehension in me. I know that one day, somehow or another, this blissful eternity will come to a close. I know that I can't go on forever. I have lived a full life, fuller than I ever could have wanted. I wait for that day in hopes that it will never come, but I know that when it does come, I will be ready.

For now, though, I've just got to continue living every day as it comes, to keep moving, because that's all I can do. I know that if I stop, I'll be passed up, and I'll find myself suddenly with nowhere to go, with nothing I can do, and I will be lost. It's easy, I've seen, to get lost and never find your way. So, I will keep moving, for Malaika, for my family, for my species, and for myself, until that future day comes when this paradise comes to its end.

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And so ends my story. I could have dragged it out another three or four chapters, but I don't think I would have been able to add much to what is already there. I had fun writing the story, and I hope you had at least a little fun reading it. Before I go I'd like to thank all of you who have been reading for the past weeks and any who come across this page in the future for taking the time to read what I've written. Also, special thanks go out to Cendrillo for all the reviews of my past chapters. I really appreciate the feedback. Thanks.