Dawn broke, and the drums seemed to start again to ring in the new day. The party gathered themselves at the meeting fire, even though the flame had long since extinguished the night before. Nanaki was the first to speak.
"You know where you must go, the City of the Ancients, and do not forget the holy stones...you will need them to activate another time gate there."
Delita had some questions on his mind, "But I thought we had to find the three bearers of this era, and activate the stones?" He added, "And who is this new ally we'll be getting, and how are we going to get to this City of the Ancients?"
Nanaki looked at him almost mystically, "Soon you will meet your ally, come with me..."
Nanaki walked up to the great white airship known as "The Highwind." on its side. The party noticed a man standing next to a ladder.
Nanaki asked, "may we board your ship?"
The guard seemed more than happy to let them up, "Be my guest Red XIII."
"Red XIII?" Alma asked as they reached the top of the ladder.
"Yes, that is the name I was given by a scientist, but my friends also call me this out of no disrespect."
"Very interesting..." Alma pressed her lips together in consideration.
After Nanaki led them through a series of corridors, up a flight of steps and onto the main deck. They ran into a gruff old airship captain with a blunted cigar in his mouth.
"Well who might you kids be?" said the man.
"My name is Sir Delita, and these are my friends, Ramza, Alma, Zidane, Garnet, Reis, Beowulf, and Agrias."
"My name's Cid, and I'll be doin' the pilotin' see...you just let me know if I'm going a little too fast for you kids to handle seein as Red here told me you guys have hardly ever rode on an airship before."
The party was wide-eyed, "How did Nanaki know?"
"Didn't he tell ya? He's a sage-prophet. He gets told everything."
Nanaki glanced back at Cid and then looked at Delita, "He shall be piloting you towards your destination, your ally is here on this ship, and will aid you through time, but I will say this: Cid is not a brave..."
Delita looked at Nanaki seriously, "Why must I endure these mind games? All I seek is the truth of where to go and what to do..."
Nanaki sighed, "I am only knowledgeable from what I've been told, you must learn from there."
During the conversation between Nanaki and Delita, Ramza heard a door open from one of the cabins, and someone stepped out from behind them. Cid had moved into the main cockpit area and was talking with someone.
"Hey, Cid, we going anywhere like Red told us we would, or is it nowhere in particular today, lately I don't really care where we go."
"Sorry kid, no such luck, we're taking aboard eight new passengers, Red's staying behind, and we're headed toward the City of Ancients."
"Hmm...Maybe I'll fight some aquatic creature and get killed there...maybe then I can rest with her at my side..."
"I don't think so, kid, that Ultima Sword of yours packs quite a wallop, I doubt anybody would go near you anymore to try anything..."
"It doesn't matter anymore..I used to think that fighting could get rid of my problems but I still... feel.... empty...."
"Aw, kid, you're makin' me cry with all that 'angst' stuff," sarcasm was dripping from Cid's reply.
Ramza turned about to see who Cid was talking to, but all he could see was Cid's back leaning up against the frame of a door.
Cid puffed on his cigar and said, "Well, I guess it's about time we went out and met our guests hunh..."
Cid stepped out on the front deck like he had before, and ushered the man he was just talking to up front. The man had a simple Soldier uniform on, more relaxed and casual than a regular uniform, but the spikey hair was unmistakable.
"Cloud? Is that you?" Ramza asked, "Cloud Strife! What are you doing here?"
Cloud crossed his arms skeptically staring straight at Ramza. Then with a surprised look on his face ran towards Ramza like he was an old friend and shook his hand eagerly.
"Ramza?! The question is, what are you and your friends doing here?"
"Oh! That's right, you never met Delita. He's an old friend of mine. You've already met Agrias, Beowulf, Reis, and I think you remember my sister Alma, I'm not so sure about Zidane or Garnet though..."
Cloud nodded "I've met Zidane before in your time's Lindblum area, near a weapon shop. He's pretty cocky for a thief."
Zidane looked at him with slight contempt, "Well you lied when you said you were the best swordsman in the world, I proved that..."
"Liar...that's just 'cause I had to use my materia blade on your ass!" Cloud joked. Zidane smiled, it was going to be another standoff again.
"Enough, Zidane, stop picking fights with him!" Garnet scolded.
"So...now your tied down too huh?" Cloud smirked.
"Shaddap, numbnuts!" Zidane yelled.
If it wasn't for Delita and Ramza pulling Zidane and Cloud away from each other, they would have gotten into a fistfight right there and then.
"Knock it off, you two, you can catch up on old times later!" Delita laughed.
"Okay, okay, I'll calm down now...but first let me kill that scrawny bastard!" Cloud said trying to pull free from Delita's grip.
"That's enough both of you!" Alma yelled.
The two finally calmed down and Ramza was able to explain the situation as to how they got there to Cloud.
"You see," Ramza continued, "we realized we're Zodiac Braves, we don't know why Delita's involved, but he seems to have some significance in the time gates. As for you, we think you may be a Zodiac Brave, but we're not sure...so would you mind going along with us to the City of the Ancients...?"
Cloud was silent for a moment, "It's been a while since I've been there, I have many...memories there, so why not?" It's been five years since I visited her there; maybe I'll have the guts to talk to her from the lifestream. He thought.
"Well all aboard that's goin' aboard!" shouted Cid like a rusty old sea captain.
It took less than fifteen minutes for Nanaki to bound off the ship and for the Highwind to jump into high gear, the entire ship seemed to triple it's speed every second.
Ramza wasn't used to any airship, let alone one with the speed. So, he ran over to the side of the ship and ralphed, unbeknownst to him, Cloud was there way before him pouring his guts out too. Alma laughed at the sight.
