Gongaga, Gaia a-la Reno and Elena, Wednesday Fandom Time

[puppy_fair]

Okay. So, Mideel had been a bust. But once Zack had been given clearance to leave the clinic that they'd found there, he and Ino had hunted down transit to get them the hell out of there. It didn't even matter where, at this point. Civilization. Any continent would do, so long as it wasn't Wutai, and wasn't drowned in mako. Fortunately, for some

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[puppy_fair]

Corel wasn't at all where Zack had remembered Corel being. The place that he'd been certain Corel was located at was surrounded on all sides by quicksand and desert so harsh that he was certain even a chocobo couldn't cross it. There stood the Gold Saucer, like some kind of twisting skyscraper monument through the dunes, but Corel...?

They'd had to consult the maps on their PHS systems, which were becoming ever more useful on this trip, and those had led them to a place which wasn't labelled Corel, but North Corel instead. And, while it didn't seem to be strewn with ruins the same way that Gongaga and Mideel had been, the sheer poverty that the people here were living in was...

Zack stared for a small eternity. And then shook his head and walked into the town, which seemed to be mostly made up of crates and tents and any junk that people would have been able to drag through the harsh desert from their old home. The other Corel. Or whatever Zack imagined was left of it

[puppy_fair]

"Along with the Gil I dropped on the way out of town," Zack mused. "You know, totally by accident."

He had no doubt in his mind that someone had already ferreted it away.

[flowering_mind]

"Absolutely by accident," she replied. "And an accident that would be--appreciated, I think, if it happened again?"

They could be Gil fairies.

[puppy_fair]

Zack nodded his agreement, already digging through his pockets for the coins that he'd picked up from the monsters that had been waiting for them along the tracks and the pathways that they'd been making their way through.

"I really don't think they're in any place to blow it," he agreed. "A place like that? Maybe they'll use it for... agriculture, or something."

Zack had fortunately never heard of Corel Ale. Which was generally the product of a desire to get drunk, when all that there really was at one's disposal was the 'or something' that was usually sitting around in a place like that. And potatoes.

[flowering_mind]

She shook her head. "It can be used for repairs," she pointed out, "and to import things so they can get back on their feet more."

Ino, in some ways, lived in a happy world where people made sense and did what was practical.

[puppy_fair]

"Right!" Zack actually managed to crack a grin, strutting for a few steps before coming to that abrupt halt that one came to when reaching elevated railroad tracks that one generally wouldn't want to fall off of.

The landing would have sucked.

"So, there's our plan, then? We pass back through North Corel, camp back the way we came, and figure out if there's a better way to get to Junon from there in the morning?"

It really sounded like a better idea than pushing on past another burned-out reactor.

[flowering_mind]

It really did.

"That should be fine," she mused, as she peering at the tracks. "It's not like we're on a schedule, right?"

[puppy_fair]

"Nah," Zack agreed. "Besides meeting your friend in Junon, we really didn't have anything else we wanted to do, did we?"

He hesitated for a moment, taking a few careful steps out onto the tracks again.

"Though..."

[flowering_mind]

Ino was far less careful, but then she was also cheating shamelessly and using her chakra to steady her steps as she wandered over the tracks.

"Though?" she prompted. "Somethin' you wanted to do?"

[puppy_fair]

He glanced over his shoulder at her, shooting her an awkward sort of smile.

"Well.... it's just that Junon is on the Midgar continent..."

After Mideel, Gongaga, Corel...? He needed to know.

[flowering_mind]

Ino came to a stop, balanced precariously and stared at him.

"You want to see Midgar?"

[puppy_fair]

Zack took another step, two steps, and then stopped as well.

"It's that bad, huh?"

[flowering_mind]

She made herself keep walking, just so she could catch up with him.

"I won't say to not go," Ino said, earnestly. "But--yeah. It's that bad."

And worse.

[puppy_fair]

"I need to know," he said, simply. "I've been told. I mean... I know something happened there. Have you ever noticed how tired everyone is? I can't help but see it. It's everyone. Everyone who knows."

And it had been eating at him. For around a year, now.

He shrugged his shoulders again.

"It's home."

[flowering_mind]

She reached out for him then, thinking better of it, let her hand fall.

"We can go," Ino replied, looking down. "You should see it. Just--don't say anything 'bout going to Midgar next, when we reach Junon?"

Reno would find some way to stop them, she was sure. And that was a scene she... didn't know if she wanted to deal with.

[puppy_fair]

Zack quirked a tiny smile. There wasn't anything behind it. But it was there.

"They don't need to know that we're going anywhere but straight back to the island," he promised. "We can thumb a ride to Condor, and then there's a cave near there that I've had a few monster-hunting missions in before. That should at least get us to the other side of the mountain range."

Provided it was still there. Zack had no idea just what to expect, anymore.