That night, the party sat around the great fire, all fully recuperated and discussing the next day's plans. With Cloud, Aeris, and Sephiroth in tow, the party seemed to be shaping up quite nicely. Cid and Nanaki came by and started discussing where they were to head next.
Nanaki began, "First of all the next area you need to reach is a great white alcove in the Northern Great Glacier, it will get very cold there so prepare accordingly. Since there are currently ten Braves and Delita, you will need plenty of supplies; our huts will give you the necessary provisions to survive up there. The alcove is 50 miles east of the foot of Great Glacier Mountain, but due to the constant weather fluctuations, Cid cannot fly you there completely."
Cid continued, "There's gonna be strong winds up there, plus low atmospheric pressure meaning I can't fly in there for very long, so you're gonna hafta get off quick and foot it the rest of the way." ,br>
Ramza nodded in approval, and the provisions were prepared that night. The next day as the party was prepared to leave, Nanaki had some final words with Ramza and Delita concerning Cloud and Sephiroth: "Just because Cloud has accepted Sephiroth does not mean Sephiroth's trial is over, he must face what he will become and destroy it." Ramza grimly nodded and thought about what they would do when that time came.
As the party went up to the airship Nanaki said good-bye to Alma and wished her the luck of the land.
"You will find out that not everything is as it seems up there, look for the truth before you look at distraction."
When the warriors were ready for takeoff, Cid said, "It'll only take a few moments to get up there, so be ready for a quick shimmy down the landing ladder. Or you could just jump, but I wouldn't recommend that..." he smirked.
"Steady as she goes captain!" Ramza smiled, and without a moment's notice, they were up and away. The flight was very fast and short, despite the airsickness both Ramza and Cloud experienced. Before they knew it they were knee deep in snow, with icy frigid winds eating at their clothes.
"Man, I'm glad Nanaki gave us these insulated clothes," Zidane commented, "otherwise I'd be a bravesicle."
"See that crack in the pass," Ramza shouted over the wind, "I think that's an underground passage, we can get to the Time Gate without having to deal with the wind chill."
As the party trudged up to the crack, a very narrow passage seemed to go down into a deep cavern.
"We can go down there, the cave will be warm." Delita said between frigid breaths.
Agrias was cautious, "There may be monsters down there so be careful." ,br>
As the party walked down into the alcove, they found the walls like reflective mirrors--of ice, and strangely, it was particularly much warmer down here than expected.
In response to this, Delita signaled that they lighten their loads by carrying their heavier clothes around their waists.
"We'll be able to travel faster this way." he had remarked.
Marching out into a large spacious area of the cavern, they came up on a forked area with three paths.
"Okay....," sighed Ramza, "where do we go now..."
"We split up into two groups of four and one group of three." Delita thought aloud, "Zidane, Garnet, Agrias, and Ramza take the left path; Sephiroth, Cloud, Aeris, take the middle path, Beowulf, Reis, Alma, and I will take the right path."
"That's all fine, Delita, but what if any of the parties gets lost in the cave or they end up in a dead end?" Alma asked.
"I have a feeling...," said Delita "that if we pull out each of the stones and exchange them with other party members, that the stones will glow when that member is nearby. Also each party's leader or the one with the brightest Zodiac stone keeps theirs, so that as long as the stone is in their hand they have a source of light to guide the way."
"Good thinking, this way we can track each party without actually getting lost ourselves, and cover more ground at the same time." Alma said.
So the parties exchanged stones, save the most luminescent stones which were reserved for people who would be taking point in each party, they deliberately made sure each party had at least one stone from the other two parties to see if they were nearby.
So it was settled, the party would then break up, with the brightest stones glowing to light up the cave. Agrias stone was the brightest so she took point in the first party, Cloud took point with his stone which seemed bright enough to light up the whole cave, and then Alma's stone lit up the path for her party.
As the parties seemed to drift further and further apart from each other, the stones they each held seemed to dim, but there were points in the paths where the stones were very well lit and a certain party was nearby.
Since Agrias took point in the first party, the path was a little less interesting, still Zidane had much to talk with Ramza about, "So how did Cloud's bout with Sephiroth go huh? Did he beat the crap out of Cloud? I would've loved to see the bruised face and ego of that spikey-haired punk."
Ramza replied, "I wouldn't say that so loudly, Zidane, these caverns have echoes you know."
"And besides," chimed in Garnet, "you wouldn't want me talking about you behind your back WOULD YOU!?" she raised her staff to hit him in the head.
"N-n-no No! Of course not! Heh---!" Zidane's grin wouldn't be believed for a second. Ramza sighed as they went further down into the icy cave.
Agrias ran into a wall of stalactites and stalagmites, which seemed like imposing teeth to the party. This didn't bother her in the least she simply drew her sword and cast thundersword on the whole blockade, which blasted into charred fragments, making the path open again.
Zidane noticed the stone that Sephiroth had given him started to glow. He said, "Cloud's party is nearby....uh-oh maybe I shouldn't have made those cracks before about him getting beat up."
"We warned you...." Ramza smirked.
Meanwhile Cloud's party was quite silent except for the occasional attempts at conversation on Aeris's part.
"So...Sephiroth, do you have a family back home?" she asked.
"................" Sephiroth had nothing to say about that subject.
"Hmph...the rat's close by...." Cloud looked at the stone Zidane gave Aeris. He only just recently called Zidane that whenever he tried to hit on Aeris.
Aeris said, "You really shouldn't call him that, you know, he's one of the Braves like us, and we're going to need him in the upcoming Zodiac War."
Cloud looked at her sincere eyes, he missed them so much; but he realized that the last time he saw her, he was 21 and she 22, she was still 22 now, but he was 26, whereas Sephiroth told Cloud admittedly that he was currently 20 years old, making Cloud feel the oldest of the group. Which was disconcerting enough, but he also felt somewhat separated from her, not used to her being younger than he. But he tried as best he could to do whatever she asked; he owed that much to her, he figured.
"........Alright, I'll stop calling him that..."
Aeris put her arm in Cloud's arm as he held his Cancer stone, which was a bright crimson hue. Overcome with her kindness, Cloud became a bit nervous, and to some extent his hand trembled. Aeris noticed this and put her hand on his to calm it down, her soothing touch seemed to seethe up inside him like a warm heat. Quietly, with Sephiroth drifting somewhat behind, Cloud spoke to Aeris.
"You know, in this era, there was a time when I had lost you, you could no longer be with me, I hated myself and everything around me....in my anger I was blind to the fact that I had friends to help me..."
She looked at him seriously, with an odd intensity and said, "Come what may, fate plays an important role in our lives, someday I will leave this life, and so will you, hating yourself will never get rid of the pain, and now you've realized that. Right now, I'm just getting used to the fact that I may never see my home until this war is over, but I deal with it and get on with life."
Cloud smiled weakly in response to her statement, but he knew it was true, and the smile grew stronger.
There was something in Cloud that made him seem completely content around her. Like all things were fulfilled, that his whole life was complete somehow. He wished moments like these would last several lifetimes.
Sephiroth wandered up and said, "the stone Beowulf gave me is getting pretty dim, I think their going down deeper than we are..."
