Hmm, a post-Vegnagun adventure would mean bringing Auron back from Farplane. Which can be done, of course, and we wouldn't even need to make it AU since that's after canon is finished. So that's a possibility. I had been thinking more about going completely AU and having them meet up at Operation Mi'ihen. Either before the cave, or perhaps the Crimson crew could run into Yuna's party as they are escaping the cave. Of course, the latter situation has the added complication that Nooj is possessed by Shuyin at the time -- I don't know whether that's a challenge you'd want to tackle in this context. If we set it *before* the cave and take it AU at that point, no reconciliation would be necessary, since Nooj doesn't get possessed by Shuyin and so never shoots Paine and the others. All kinds of directions this could go here....

And we have time to turn over a lot of rocks before either of us is done with our current commitment.

True, although I was seized by the muse last night and stayed up until 2 AM writing, and I got all of the next chapter and a chunk of the following one drafted. And the shape of the story is now clear: that will be it. These two chapters are all that remain. So depending on how the editing goes I could be very close to finished with this. Wow!