"Ramza, I don't think..."

 "This is the way!" Ramza was running at full speed, while the others were playing catch-up.

 "Ramza!!" The others called, and had to stop. Ramza was running too fast. Ramza stopped, and watched the others panting.

 "You're getting too old." Ramza walked back to them and sat down.

 "If I'd known you'd have grown up to be like this <pant> I would have signed you up <pant> for the Olympics!" Elena managed to say under heavy breathing. "This <pant> tower is so huge <pant> I'm surprised Kefka <pant> knows his way around <pant>."

 "Yeah! How much farther do we have to go?" Barret asked.

 "Let's see..." Cloud took out the map Yuffie had found. "We're approximately here. And Kefka is there." He pointed somewhere on the map. He found the scale, and measured it up. "Oh, I'd be lucky if we found him by night!"

 "DAMMIT!" Barret hollered. "We'd be killed by then!"

 "There's gotta be another way! There's gotta!" Ramza said. "There HAS to be an elevator or something that can get us up there. I saw Kefka. He's not that much in shape to be able to get all the way up there by walking." The others nodded. A window was nearby. Tifa walked over and sat down. She just stared at the outside. The clouds were swirling about over the dark blue oceans, the desert color ground with few trees on it.

 "Tifa," She looked up from the clouds to see Cloud. He sat next to her. "What's wrong?"

 "I... I..." She just kept looking out the window.

 "It's... it's Nate... I just can't stop thinking about him. Is he okay? I just can't comprehend what Kefka did to him and Ramza and the other children."

 "Neither can I. We've taken a long enough break. Let's try to find an elevator or something." Tifa looked at Cloud. Her eyes had that
look. The look of despair. A tear came to an eye. It rolled down her face and she turned her head away. "Tifa, I'm sorry. I just don't know what to do. I miss Nate too. I miss the way things were." Tifa began sniffling.

 "It's just that though. Things WON'T be the same again. Nate and Ramza will stay grown up. We won't be able to watch them go through their lives. It's just not fair!" Cloud hugged Tifa.

 "I know, I know... But what of the rest of the children? Kefka did something to them. Maybe we can reverse it." Cloud helped Tifa up. He hugged her.

 "Come on. We'll find Nate. We'll undo this."

 "Cloud, look out the window. See that? That's where Kalm is. Now. It's just sitting there, helpless, like the rest of the world. What are we now? Just people trying to save the earth. Just like 8 years ago." Cloud didn't know what to say.

 "Look, let's go." They went over to the rest of the group, and they proceeded now at a more reasonable pace. Tifa was trying to see if there was any sort of door in the walls.

 "There's gotta be somethiiiing! Help!" The others turned around as Tifa had wound up in a hole in the wall. The others ran over
immediately, and saw a hidden door. Tifa was gone. Suddenly, the wall materialized over the hidden door as they were about to go in.

 "Dammit! We were so close!" Barret shouted, and banged on the wall. It wouldn't budge.

 "Oohh... where am I?" Tifa woke up. She found herself in a room with a bed and a table.

 "Are you okay? Kefka won't find us in here." A voice came.

 "Who are you?" A person walked out. He had black hair, and was considerably taller than Tifa. His brown eyes had a sense of loving to them.

 "Nate?"

 "Mom!" Nate ran over and hugged Tifa. "I'm so glad to see you!"

 "Nate... you're... squishing me," Tifa managed to get out.

 "Oh, sorry. You wound up in here through a secret passage. I found you. You were unconscious. Something had hit you in the head. I had escaped from Kefka. Where is everyone else?"

 "Nate... It's just so awkward talking to you like this. Yeah. They're here. I just don't know where they are. We got separated. Ramza was with us, and we went up through the tower." Tifa told Nate the rest that had happened, and he nodded his head.

 "We can find them. I have a tiny palmtop I sto... er borrowed from one of the desks in the tower. I can link into the mainframe."
Nate took out the palmtop and battered a lot of commands into it. He got to a screen where there were a bunch of little green blips. "That's them. Here's us." He scrolled over, and showed Tifa that they weren't too far away. "Come on."

 Tifa and Nate ran towards the group. They caught up with them. Cloud ran over and hugged Nate.

 "Oh son! I missed you so much! Of course, that goes without saying." Nate and the others hugged and exchanged salutations.
"I know where Kefka is! I know a shortcut! Follow me!" The group followed Nate to the express elevator. "I learned the way around here."

 "This is just great. JUST great. Things just can't get any worse." Kefka realized that is NOT a thing to say. When you say that,
things usually go wrong, and the situation generally gets worse.

 "Oh, they can, Kefka." Kefka turned around, and saw the group standing out there with their weapons, ready to attack.

 "Oh! It did get worse. But you don't know who I have assisting me." Kefka snapped his fingers, expecting Sephiroth to come. What came surprised him.

 ZZZZZZAAAAPPP!!! (okay, that was a cheap sound effect)

 "Uwaaah! What the hell?" Kefka got up, and saw Nate looking at him, conjuring up more lightning.

 "YOU! What are you doing?"

 "You have no control over me, Kefka. Meet your doom."

 "Urrgh!! Sephiroth! Where are you? Why have you abandoned me?" Kefka received spell after spell. Soon, the magic just began to absorb into Kefka. "Mwha... ha... ha!!!" Kefka stood up, and a triangle of power surrounded him. The others stopped casting their
spells. Kefka was becoming more and more powerful with each spell cast.

 "Stop!!" Nate shouted.

Author's Notes

Hey hey! I got this done before I leave for Chesterfield. Hopefully I'll wrap this story up with one or two more chapters, and maybe a
sequel! Talk with ya later.