Night 49: Home World - Gaia

[zack_fair]

[From here.]Upon stepping through the door, Zack had suddenly felt kind of dizzy, almost like the floor was falling out on him. He didn't know what that was about, but he didn't even get the chance to try and come up with a reason for it, since the next thing he knew he was being overwhelmed by a whole new set of sensations. First of all, he was

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[thatdamnedninja]

Stepping through a doorway wasn't supposed to feel like this, like the world was going topsy-turvy; like they were stuck in a spin-cycle on the highest settling. The disorientation was like a smack in the gut, but it didn't hold a candle to what came next.

The rollicking, rickety jerks and judders were easily enough to send Yuffie stumbling, careening off to the side. She compensated automatically, pushing herself into a clumy, off-balance movement that was half a roll and half a handspring. It righted her, but it didn't steady her, not until the fingers of both hands closed convulsively against a familiar metal railing.

That was when it clicked. That was when she realized why she was so damn off-balance, not just because oh Leviathan she was on an airship, she was on the Highwind-but also because her hands were empty. Both of them. Her shuriken was familiar weight on her back, and her clothes-she hadn't worn these clothes since that time, since that night, and she hadn't felt like this since then, either. Yuffie might not have

[notthistrain]

Cloud rolled his eyes at Yuffie's taunt to Zack, though he knew it was a harmless comment. The blond walked over to the fallen Tonberry just to make sure it wasn't going to get back up again, poking at it with the end of his sword. When he was sure, he reached for the bangle on his wrist and unclipped a green materia. This he tossed back toward Zack.

"That one's a cure." Rather than heal the man himself, he'd let his friend decide how much he wanted healed. He didn't know if Zack even had any materia equipped just then anyway. It couldn't hurt to share. Speaking of which, he really needed to double-check what he had on him. It hadn't been long since he'd last been in his world, just a few days, but things could have been altered for all he knew.

A quick look over his inventory told him this wasn't the case. All his materia was just how he'd left it. That was good to note just in case something else attacked them. "Yuffie, what do you have on you?"

[zack_fair]

"Since when have I been known to cry?" Zack asked, tone only slightly tight with pain as he straightened up, recovering as fast as his mako-laced blood would let him. He sent the two a strained grin to let them know that he would be bouncing back in no time. And the Tonberry? It was very much dead after that spell, which meant that they were back to square one

[thatdamnedninja]

"Every night," Yuffie cheerfully replied. "Into your pillow."

Good thing she'd thought to do inventory before they'd jumped ship, huh? Yuffie bounced on the balls of her feet, restless. "Lessee," she said. "Crapton of small blades, little of this, little of that-set of lock picks, cell phone, smoke pellets… Seal materia, too." She gave her shuriken a wriggle. "And a hella nifty one that doubles up as a flash bomb

[notthistrain]

That wasn't a bad inventory, though it wasn't as if the cell phone was going to do them a whole lot of good if there was no one around to call. Wait, didn't he have his own

[zack_fair]

That was a lot of stuff. It looked like Yuffie hadn't completely lost her urge to hoard things, and Zack just shook his head as he watched the girl run off. He didn't even know who it was that they were looking for. Cloud had something about Marlene earlier, but the name meant nothing to him

[thatdamnedninja]

Yuffie didn't dawdle. She flat-out sprinted, or close enough; found the house in seconds, and searched the bottom floor thoroughly in about the same. It was full of a whole load of nothing. A big, fat, stinking pile of nothing. She took the stairs seven at a time. Wash, rinse, repeat. Hullo, empty house! I'm the Great Ninja, how's it hangin'? There wasn't even anything worth stealing, and, yeah; Yuffie'd totally checked.

"Marleeeene!" she called, cupping her hands in front of her mouth. "C'mere, kiddo! I've got a totes new materia for you to try out on, er-Cloud, maybe, since it's a crossdressing materia; isn't that awesome? Yeah? I thought so. That's why I bribed old man Reeve into inventing it for me

[notthistrain]

Cloud wanted to be thorough, and he didn't like the idea of just leaving without checking the other buildings. Even though he knew Yuffie was probably right and the others wouldn't be anywhere around here, he couldn't help but hope that maybe they were all just holed up in one of the buildings - a basement or something.

It couldn't hurt to check, right? It wouldn't take long, and right now they didn't have any other clues to go by. He shook his head at the ninja's statement. "No, we need to take a look. Even if it's just a quick one. I won't feel satisfied that we've done all we could until then."

That said, he took a step forward--

[to here]