[Kidd glanced at Sephiroth, giving him a nod before looking at the others. She settled back on one heel and crossed her arms, looking at the tower itself with some apprehension.]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been thinking this but I think it's clear by now that this tower has existed outside of the normal "cycles". This place has been lived in, but there's still the signs that someone has been here. There was food on one of the floors that, while beyond eating, was still fresh enough that it hasn't turned to dust entirely. In fact, if this whole world is set back to the beginning in each cycle then why would the food be there at all?

So the questions I have on my mind are how much time a cycle entails exactly, what precisely happens before the starting point, and how has this tower managed to be an exception to all else we've seen in this world.

[The crystals and their locations were indeed important, but there was something 'wrong' here and she isn't simply going to let that slide either.]

But perhaps this is better explored once we decide to do with everything else here. [Like the force field]