"Oh man." It was the only thing Cloud's vocabulary contained. "Oh man. Oh man, oh man, oh man."

 "Will you stop saying that?" Yuffie yelled at him. She smacked Cloud across the face.

 "Ow!"

 "That's what it takes to get through your thick skull, Cloud." Before they knew it, the tower began to shake and shift.

 "Woah! Call Cid to get us outta here!" Elena shouted. Cloud took out the PHS phone and talked to Cid. Being no roof on the tower, the Highwind easily came down and let the ladder out. The group climbed into the plane as fast as possible. As the Highwind flew to a safe distance, the tower crumbled to bits. Everyone, including Nate, Ramza, and Shadow, were on the ship. The tower crumbled into pieces, and the continents began to shift back into their normal positions. The sky turned blue again, the oceans light aqua now. The land was green, with trees sprouting from the ground, the forests back in view.

 "Well, if the rest of the world is back to normal, why are we still old, switched, and the rest of the children mindless drones?"
Nate questioned. Nobody had an answer. This was a question that needed further pondering.

 The group needed some time off, to rest and think. The children Kefka had captured and changed were carted off to Bugenhagen's
observatory, long since empty. Cosmo Canyon was full of them. What better place for modern science to help them? Red XIII returned to Cosmo Canyon, to further study this predicament. All the other members returned to their homes and villages, greeted by cheers and crowds. They had saved the world from evil once again. Nate sat alone, in his room.

 "Man..." he thought to himself. His bed was now too short for him, even though Ramza's body was only five foot seven inches tall. He went to his bookracks, and took out one of his favorite books.

 "The making of MacGyver..." This was not a book kids his age would read. Vincent gave it to him for a Christmas present, even though Nate didn't really like MacGyver; Vincent was the Mac fan.

 "Richard Dean Anderson..." There was a full size color poster in the book. He took it out, and put it up next to his Star Trek And Star Wars maps of their respective universes. Nate quietly continued to read the book, interested in all the facts about MacGyver, the TV Show, and RDA himself. Nate got up and turned on his clock radio. He turned it to 95.9, and listened to the news.

 "Bzzzzt... Today, the same group of people who saved the world eight years ago by defeating Sephiroth, have once again saved the world from the evil madman Kefka. The world is now restored to its original condition, and the evil tower is gone. They are working on fixing the state of the children he kidnapped... that is all..."

 "Damn radio!" He picked up the radio and threw it out the window, flying into the streets and landing on a sidewalk. It shattered into
several pieces, the electronics scattering on the ground. Nate returned to his bed, and took the other radio out of a drawer. A knock was heard.

 "Who is it?"

 "It's me... mom..." Tifa's voice came. Nate rolled his eyes. "Come in," He replied. Tifa opened the door, and came in. She
gave a timid smile, and sat on his bed with him. The radio now played reggae music, steel drums blaring. Tifa motioned for him to turn it down; he did.

 "Well... this... is... the first real time I've been able to talk to you for so long... I... missed you, Nate..." She turned and gave him
a big bear hug.

 "Mmm... mom... you're squishing me!" Nate complained, and she withdrew.

 "Well... really... until we can return you... back to your old self... we need to go shopping for a new wardrobe for you... You can't
wear the same outfit for the rest of your natural life, can you?" Tifa gave a small laugh with that one. Nate hadn't thought of that. He
surveyed the clothes Ramza had left him when they switched. A blue T-shirt with blue jeans. How appetizing.

 "Come on. Come to the store. We'll have a fun day. You need a fun day, after all the stuff you've been through."

 Nate looked away, and then back. "Yeah, you're right. I _could_ use a fun day." He looked at Tifa and smiled.

 "Now, where are we off to first? How about Clothing Boutique?" Tifa suggested. Nate just looked out the window of the car. Many
thoughts were running through his mind, as were Tifa's. The left, number-crunching side of her brain said Nate would be embarrassed to try on girl's clothes, while the creative, artsy right hemisphere said "HEY@! It's FUN!@!!" The gut feeling in her heart, though, said "This isn't right." And it wasn't.

 It was the first time Nate was in the women's department of the clothes store. It was full of pinks and pastel shades, not his type. He preferred blues and blacks. He looked at the racks of shorts, skirts, and tops. He stayed away from the lingerie section for obvious purposes. After sorting through racks and racks of clothing, he picked out some things to try on. A pair of black jean shorts, a blue sweater, a few green T-shirts, and a few pairs of knee shorts. He proceeded to the dressing rooms, and stepped in the one labeled; "Women." After a half an hour of trying things on, he picked the ones that fit and went to the cash register with Tifa. She looked at the garments he picked out, and frowned.

 "You sure these colors are right?"

 "Yes, mom. These are what I want."

 "All right."

 They proceeded to the cash register, and paid for the 40 dollars worth of shirts, pants, sweaters, and shorts Nate picked out. They
returned home, and Nate stocked his drawers with the new clothes. Tifa gave him some underwear she had when she was about the size of Ramza's body, and Nate put them in the drawer. After she left, Nate tried some of them on, and none of them seemed to fit.

 "Aw man! I guess I gotta go..." He went into the secret place where he stashed all of his money, and took out some of it. He
proceeded to walk to a different clothing store. He got there, and proceeded to the lingerie section. After an hour of embarrassment,
becoming beet red, and spending every penny that he had brought with him, he now had a complete wardrobe he could survive with for a few weeks. He returned home, and went in his room. He took out the MacGyver book, and turned his radio loud again. It was gonna be hard.

 "Aw jeez..." Ramza was back in her room again, and stared at the ceiling, waiting for something to happen. The glow in the dark stars were superimposed on it. Her room was a lot smaller since the last time she was in it. Her stuffies were all at the foot of her bed; trampled by the lower legs and feet. All of a sudden, she felt ravenously hungry. She hadn't eaten for a while, so food is good. She got up, out of her room, and proceeded to the refrigerator. She took out a bottle of Kool-Aid, and found a frozen pizza in the freezer.

 "Let's see... instructions..." This was the first real time Ramza had used the stove. She set the temp. to 425 degrees Fahrenheit, put the pizza in, and set the timer for 12 minutes. She took the Kool-Aid, and poured a large glass of it. She walked over to the living room and sat on the couch. The TV remote was there, so Ramza turned on the TV. Ramza sipped the Kool-Aid, and watched
cartoons. When they began to bore her, she took out the TV Guide.

 "Hmm... Star Trek is on... or we could watch MacGyver... or Miami Vice... I think I'll watch Star Trek." She changed the channel to 8, and proceeded to watch this week's episode of Voyager.

 "BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!!" The oven timer went off, and Ramza got the pizza. She took it out, and got it on the plate. After turning off the oven, she returned to watching Voyager. This was a repeat. Ramza had a look of disgust on her face. She got up, and went back into her room. The pizza and Kool-Aid drunk and eaten, she was no longer hungry.

 "Just one thing after another..." She sighed, and fell asleep.

 "Hon? Hon! Wake up!" Ramza rolled over and yawned. Her eyes opened and saw her mother.

 "Oh... Hi mom... I was just resting."

 "I came back a few hours ago... You were asleep, so I left you alone. It's time for dinner." Elena sat on Ramza's bed. Ramza got up, and yawned. She stretched, and scratched her sides. After completely waking up, Elena and her went to fix dinner. The full feeling the Kool-Aid and pizza left her vanished, and she was very hungry again. Nate's body was six feet tall, and Ramza towered
over Elena, who was only 5'4" tall without her heels on. Reno wasn't home; he was with other people at Cosmo Canyon to find a cure, and he wasn't going to be back for a long time (a la a few weeks). It took an hour, but Ramza and Elena made roast beef, with potatoes, carrots, and gravy. The corn on the cob took a bit longer to cook. After it was all said and done, they sat down at the table. Ramza took a bigger chair, instead of the one that was normally at her part of the table.

 "Wow... this is really good..." Ramza commented as she ate the meat and potatoes dish. The newspaper was next to it, so she picked it up and attempted to read the articles (Hey, she's only seven years old). It was about the television and radio leading to the depreciation of society. It was all a gray area to her. She flipped to the editorials section and read through the editorial cartoons.  Those were things she could understand. There was an interesting one about a town being poisoned by dangerous chemicals known as Polychlorinated Biphenyl's, or PCB's. The town had a big industrial company. At the time PCB's were used, they didn't know that they could cause cancer. The company had dumped them into the river and lake, and the citizens of the town were portrayed in the PC. It showed the town under attack by Godzilla, who had "G.E." Written on it, and Mothra, which had "EPA" written on it. The citizens were standing outside the town and said, "Gee, can't they see they're ripping the town apart? Why can't G.E. just clean up its mess?" Ramza needed to ponder that thought.

 Elena broke in her thought process. "Hon, I picked up some clothes for you at the store... they're in the car." Ramza went into the car, and took out the several shopping bags worth of clothes. She put them in her drawers, putting the clothes she used when she was little in the closet. She came out again and sat with Elena.

 "Let's go in the living room," Elena said, and Ramza nodded. Elena took a Pink Floyd CD from the rack and put it in the Aiwa stereo. They sat in the living room. Elena left to change, and came out not in her blue suit, but in a more casual red tank top with blue shorts. Elena looked less business-like and more down to earth.

 "It was hell this week..." Elena said, and Ramza nodded her head. Ramza took out the book from the Pink Floyd CD and began to read it. All of a sudden, Ramza felt a squeeze. She looked and saw Elena giving her a big hug.

 "Don't... go anywhere... I love you..." Ramza hugged her mom back

 "Me too... Me too."

Author's Notes

 Well.. finally did this... I'm going to be in Maine, from the 24th to the 27th. This had to be done. That town, that was talked about in the editorial, is none other than my hometown of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Lexan, and plastic itself was pretty much invented here. General Electric had dumped PCB's into the Housatonic river and Pontoosuc lake. It polluted the land, and the EPA is on GE's case, and it has pretty much divided our city of 40,000 apart. Also, Hillary Clinton visited our humble abode last week, on the "Save America's treasures" tour. You might find clips from the tapes on C-SPAN (ugh). I DID NOT enjoy writing the part where Nate was at the clothing store, but it had to be done. Voyager IS on Channel 8 in Massachusetts, and 95.9 is my favorite radio station. WUPE won the Station of the Year award for Mass. State Broadcasting. G'night.