Yuna, Aerith & Tifa

[Yuna Braska]

Rikku gave Tidus a punch to the shoulder, "Im always right on time" She said proudly. She helped her cousin up form the ground and dusted herself off as Gippal arrived.
" i'm sorry, i tired to stop her but she used her mind powers to send me to get a drink" Rikku grumped and shoved Gippal out of the way.
"What have you been up to lately Yu..." Rikku looked to Tidus and walked a little closer to her cousin whispering behind a hand. Yuna screwed up her face and shook her head. "Rikku!"
"Alright sorry for asking!" Rikku said place up her arms in innocence.
"Rikku didn't you want to show me something?"[b/] Rikku paused and then jumped in the air.
"Oh Yer!" Rikku pushed Gippal out of the way again and ran back with Yuna's hand, tugging her towards the gates of the huge complex.
Gippal brushed of the sand from his pants and watched the girls run back to the desert city. " Women.. i think i will never understand" He said to Tidus.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Zack didn't even need to look at Aerith to know that she was upset. He could hear it in her voice, even sense it as she entered the room. He let his hands fall away from the punching bag and after brushing his forehead clear of sweat he went over and gathered the distraught Cetra up in his arms.
"It'll be alright Aerith, i wont let this destroy everything we've tried so hard to build."

[The Painted Lady]

Tidus watched the girls run in confusion. What was the whispering about?
"Uh, yeah..." he said, scratching the back of his head.
"Strange..."

Aerith sagged in against Zack's chest, the heat radiating off his body surrounding her quickly. She didn't seem to care that he was covered in sweat. She needed him close.
"I don't want that to be us..." she whispered, desperation in her voice.

[Yuna Braska]

"We had just put up the communications signal and we have been checking sites." Rikku began to explain in a huge round room where Al Beds were busy working with the touch screen glyphs which appeared before them. The room was the most Machina established place Yuna had ever seen. Everything seemed so unrealistic. "We were beginning to pick up signals out of Spira and they seemed.. a bit odd" Rikku's high voice slowed a bit towards the end of her explanation, she seemed a little confused by the situation herself. " We contacted Gippal and the other leaders, but only Gippal has arrived so far... and you. "
Yuna listened in strongly to Rikku's rants but with her fast speech it was hard to keep up.
" I though it might be best if you were here too... besides, Spira considers you a leader even though you refuse to take on the job" Rikku said with a sort of laugh. Yuna never wanted to lead Spira, she just wanted everyone to be happy. Including herself. The leaders they have now are doing a wonderful job in keeping the Calm, they didn't need her.
"What is it you found?" Yuna asked finally wanting to get to the point.
" We found a series of conversations from people of the same language and some sort of fiend sound wave. " Spoke Cid who came through the doors.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Zack squeezed Aerith and inhaled deeply, trying to calm her down as much as he could.
"I'll never let it happen Aerith. Never." He pulled away a bit and lifted her chin, "I have faith in our ability to look after one another."

[The Painted Lady]

"So what does that mean for us?" Tidus asked from by the door.

Aerith took a deep breath too, lifting her eyes to Zack's.
"I do too," she said. "Of course I do. I'm being silly."
She took his face in her hands.
"I love you so much... and I'm going to make this right, okay?"

[Yuna Braska]

"We are not sure yet son.." Cid said walking over to one of the glyphs and pulling up a screen which he had a series of sound wave recorders on. The old man was bold and seemed to look a little tired, Rikku had mentioned to Yuna on a call to Besaid that Cid was up all night analyzing the discovery.
" Conversations?" Yuna asked confused as she made her way to Tidus for a better view of the larger screen that was portrayed on the walls. Rikku went over to one of the other Glyphs and began tapping her fingers on it.
"Are you sure they are not from Spira?" Gippal asked walking down into the lower part of the large circular room where other Al Bed's were trying to find the same sound track which the recording came from.
" Silly Gippal. After the night this quadrant blocks out all of the incoming messages and transfers them to the West stage of the city. You should know... you came up with the energy saving idea" Rikku said disappointed in Gippal's memory
" Yes, but you didn't actually tell me what time Home received the message, Silly" Gippal responded with his hands on his hips. Rikku grumbled and poked her tongue out to him.
"The message was received at 0249 hours, now is there any other questions that you can waste my time with before I play the recording?" Cid asked as he looked around the room.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Zack smiled and kissed Aerith again, brushing her hair from her face before he broke away to go and fetch his shirt.
"I know you will. And i'll be right by your side to help you do it." He was just pulling his shirt on when Cid's voice came over the intercom.
Your stops comin' up. Northern Crater, ETA 30 seconds, one minute tops. The intercom switched off.
"Alright, let's get ready." Zack said, offering Aerith his hand.

[The Painted Lady]

Tidus shook his head.
"Play away," he grinned.

Aerith nodded, taking Zack's hand and squeezing it tight.

[Yuna Braska]

Gippal turned to Rikku at the above desk and smiled. " We would make such a good couple, our specialty can be arguments" He gave a laugh as Cid prepared the recording. Rikku growled and threw her boot at the man. "Be Quiet!" Gippal ducked away from the boot and deeply laughed before turning to the screen. Cid waited impatiently for the children to stop before he pushed the button. A loud screech came over the monitor and filled the room, Rikku automatically covered her ears before the noise settled to a sort of rusted rumbling. It reminded Yuna of anything on Spira, it had to be some sort of Fiend to create such a irritating and ear bursting noise. the whole Crew in the room had their ears covered with their hands.
"That.. doesn't sound very friendly" Yuna commented unblocking her ears.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Soon Zack was leading Aerith, now freshly rugged up in warmer clothing, down the ramp into the ankle deep snow at the outer rim of the Northern Crater. He looked around and shivered, this place still gave him the creeps... lots of bad memories here.
Several hundred feet down the slope from them the ground flattened out and at the center bright green tendrils of light snaked upwards, but Zack didn't have to be an expert on the planet to know something wasn't right. The usually pristine green glow was darkened, tainted by black sparks which bubbled to the surface with the stream of life that planet was using to heal the massive wound.
"That doesn't look good..." Zack hissed, squeezing Aerith's hand and working his was carefully down the slope ahead of her in case she should fall, "Ready to ask it?" He asked, hoping they wouldn't have to go TOO close to the strange stream.

[The Painted Lady]

"Yeah..." Tidus agreed. "That, or your machina is broken..."

Aerith felt herself shudder at the sight before her. It broke her heart to see the Lifestream tainted so. She took a deep breath, squeezing Zack's hand back. She didn't reply to Zack's question, not feeling like her confident self.
"Zack..." she finally said. "I told Tseng he should stay with us when we're in Midgar... Just until he gets back on his feet..."

[Yuna Braska]

Cid sneaked up behind Tidus and gave him a big slap on the back "Nope! That there is one big Fiend, usually on Spira Fiends are unable to make that rusted noise from their throats because of the same vocal chords they possess. Every Fiend has their own call, but none can break the pitch this one has. It would be stupid to call it human" Cid cleaned out his ear with his finger and looked to his daughter. " Don't whine Rikku, everyone else had just as much warning as you did." Rikku was sitting on the floor with her hand still on her ears and a moan coming from her suggested that the high pitched recording surprised her.
Yuna frowned and thought for a moment. "How is it possible? Are we really saying that there is other Fiends out on other planets?"
Gippal laughed. "I would call it some sort of Alien with the craving to devour something by the sounds of that thing" He joked pointing to the screen.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Zack squeezed Aerith's hand comforting, noting that her change of subject meant she was not confident at all.
"Of course. He's our friend... it's our place to help pick him back up." They continued their walk in silence for a few minutes before Zack stopped, really not wanting to go any closer.
"Is here close enough?" He asked, glancing down at Aerith.

[The Painted Lady]

Aerith bit her lip, nodding. She placed a hand on Zack's chest, looking up to him with uncertain, wide green eyes.
"You stay here... I won't go much further," she said softly, reluctantly letting go of his hand to take a few more steps forward.
She paused, before lowering herself gracefully to the floor, eyes fixed on the sickly black liquid that was the Planet's life source.

Tidus rubbed the back of his head with a small laugh, catching his breath from having the wind knocked out of him by Cid.
"Sounds... fun?"
He turned to Cid, with a curious expression.
"So, does it affect us? Is there something we should do?"