Midgar Region: W.R.O. Hunter’s Lodge\
Smoke
lingered in the skies above the Lodge.
Around the facility, W.R.O. personnel worked through the night to quench
the flames and restore power. Wires had
been cut and the facility left dark. The
back-up generators didn’t even last through the night.
Reeve took
charge after the battle and organized the Hunters again. Extra soldiers were relocated and used to
secure the facility. Yuffie was returned
to the infirmary, where she was checked over thoroughly by an overworked medic,
who gave her a rushed go ahead and went on to the next body.
The materia
left behind was moved to the Edge branch of the W.R.O. Reeve would follow it there a few hours
later. All of the passcodes at the Lodge
were changed in short order. The
passcodes throughout the rest of the system were done the day before. Specialists were brought in to seek out any
lingering threats.
Yuffie
spent her time in the mess, watching the city in the distance. The sky was bleak and grey, and by midday the
smoke was finally starting to dissipate.
She could still smell burning wood and hot steel, but the salty sea air
was mixing slowly into it.
She was
leaning against the guard rail when a deep voice came from behind her. “How are you feeling?” Yuffie turned to find Reeve standing there,
clutching two cups of black coffee. He
offered her one, and she accepted it graciously and set it to the side with no
intention of drinking it. “We didn’t get
our chance to talk after that first attack.”
“No, we
didn’t.” She looked at him. “You’re still busy as ever. And tall, too. And is that grey in your
beard?”
Reeve
laughed. “Yes, on all three
accounts.” He blew on his coffee and
then sipped it slowly. “How are your
injuries?”
“You
kidding?” Yuffie punched the air. “I’m the Great Ninja Yuffie. Recovery is my middle name. So long as you spell my name with materia.”
“Hmm. You always were full of energy.” Reeve rested the cup on the guard rail and
rested his hands around it. He stared
out at the barrens, toward Edge, and beyond it.
“Two attacks in under a week.
They’re becoming more aggressive.”
“Yeah. Did you guys have any idea that this would
happen?”
“If I had,
do you think I would have let it happen.
It all makes sense in hindsight, however. Reed was insistent on keeping Hollis
here. I should have noticed.”
“Yeah,
probably.” Yuffie nudged Reeve, who
laughed quietly.
“I wanted
to warn you, Yuffie. It isn’t just Reed
that was the problem. He had authority,
but not enough to do this alone.”
Yuffie
remembered Oliver. Her levity died. She took a deep breath and grabbed the guard
rail. “Yeah.”
“We’ll be
investigating everybody.”
“Me?”
“Me?”
Reeve
laughed again and scratched his beard.
She could see the bags under his eyes and the sleepless nights that
caused them. Looking at him now, she
could also see that he was losing weight.
His cheekbones were more pronounced.
“No, not you, at least not really.
We’ll ask questions, but everyone knows where your loyalties lie.”
“Thanks for
that, I guess.”
Reeve
hummed and drummed his fingers against his cup.
He took another sip. “They took
some experimental materia, powerful things we found in some old Shinra
facilities. Very dangerous, if it falls
into the wrong hands.”
“The
Emerald Lotus is definitely the wrong hanss.”
She pushed off the rail, stood with her hands on her hips. “When do I leave?”
“Hm?” Reeve looked at her. “You don’t.
I want you here, back on your original mission. With the Hunters down a director and a field
agent, and the others here under scrutiny…”
“Daisy is
in no trouble, and she can do all the work alone. Seriously, I think sometimes I just get in
her way.”
“She’s
better at hoarding materia than you are? I find that hard to believe.” He smiled his winning, politician’s smile,
and it was hard for Yuffie to remember that it was fake.
“Reeve,
come on. I can be of better use to the
W.R.O. than this, and you know it.”
“We’ve
already got someone on it, someone good.”
She glared at him, and he sipped his coffee to keep from looking her in
the eyes. “Look, I appreciate it, but
what we need right now is stability.
You’re good at your job, cleaned up Wutai in a matter of days. And Junon? I still brag to my friends about
how I knew you way back when over that.”
She added a
frown to the mix. “You don’t have any
friends.”
“Now,
Yuffie…”
“No, I
deserve better, and you know I do.”
“You’re
fine where you are.” She scoffed, and he
said, “I mean, you are needed where you are.
Please.”
She sighed
now. “Once, you trusted me with your
most important missions. Remember Deep
Ground?”
“I still
do, Yuffie. This is important.”
“To you,
but not to me.” She turned on heel and
returned inside, leaving Reeve alone with both coffees.
-Disc One-
Yuffie
wandered the halls in a huff. She found
her way downstairs and gazed at the broken materia vault, now emptied of all of
its contents. The materia was moved
immediately, but it was futile.
Everything worth taking was taken, and the W.R.O. had only leftovers and
an empty vault. She stood in the center
of it, hugging herself, staring at her loss.
That was
how Daisy found her, seated in the center, arms around her knees. She joined Yuffie there, and they were in
silence for a few seconds before Daisy asked, “You okay?” Yuffie nodded and left it at that. “You know,” Daisy said while gazing around
the room, “I don’t think I’ve ever been down here. From the very start, Reed and Oliver insisted
on doing the cataloging. At the time, I
always thought it was a relief.” She
sighed. “I always hated the paperwork.”
“We both
did,” Yuffie said, sulking on her bent knees.
“We were idiots.”
“Can’t
argue with you there.” Daisy gazed at
the burns across the floor, the scratches made by the door as it was hurled
across the room. They spread like flower
petals from the doorway. Daisy traced
them with her fingers. “Still, it’s hard
to believe that they would betray us.”
“Harder to
believe that they could pull it off. No,
actually, not hard to believe, just frustrating.” Yuffie glanced at Daisy. “You okay?”
“I am,”
Daisy sighed, “I am surviving it. I went
for a walk. Oliver said—He told me I
could use some fresh air. I was at the
beach when I heard the explosions and made it back just in time to see you
tumbling down.”
“Oh.”
“Did he say
anything to you?”
“No. The coward.”
“He—He has
his reasons. He must.”
“Daisy,
don’t waste your time on it, and don’t give him the credit.” Yuffie glared at the walls, at the empty
shelves, at the fractured tiles of the floor.
“We doesn’t deserve it.”
“I guess
not.”
Yuffie
looked at Daisy, who stared at the floor now, and she hugged her. They had worked together for years and, even
with a blade sticking from her gut, Daisy has never looked so weak before. Yuffie rubbed her back. “Don’t listen to me. I mean, he was always fussing at us. Maybe, in a way, he was trying to warn us
about what was coming.” Yuffie took a
deep breath as they parted. “Maybe, I
just need some of that fresh air you were talking about.”
Daisy sniffled
and nodded, and then she rubbed her eyes.
When Yuffie stood, Daisy stayed, staring at the wall.
On the way
out, Yuffie pulled up her phone and called Shelke.
-Disc One-
When Shelke
answered she told Yuffie where to meet her at the Lodge. Reeve flew her in to look over encrypted
files found on Reed’s person after the battle was over. She was given use of Reed’s old office, which
had been completely cleared out. Everything
that he bad touched was taken for investigation.
Shelke had
her massive computer network set up.
Monitors hung from the walls and lit the room with their blue-white
glow. She sat in the center, eyes
shining orange, her fingers doing an intricate dance across cyberspace. The room smelled faintly of hot steel and
stale air.
Yuffie was
in there for a few minutes just watching her before Shelke even noticed. Even then, her acknowledgement meant a
slight, somewhat disinterested nod, but it was enough. Yuffie paced the room and looked at the data
scrolling rapidly across the screens. It
moved too fast for her to read any of it. “So, Reeve brought you in?”
“The
Director asked me to analyze data drives found on Reed’s person, as well as his
personal data drives and communications logs.”
“Oh, come
on. Reed was pretty dumb, but he
wouldn’t just leave anything incriminating on him. It’s all got to be wiped, right?”
“Yes, but
anything deleted can be found and reconstructed if you know where to look. This is why Reed made efforts to hide the
data drives on his person, because he knew about me.”
“Too bad
for him that he got caught.”
“Yes,”
Shelke said. She spoke with the same
absence, as if she wasn’t in the room.
From Yuffie’s understanding, the other woman probably wasn’t. With how her abilities worked, she was a million
places at once. Her corporeal body
didn’t matter; her reach was infinite.
“I have files for you, if you would like them.”
Yuffie
stopped and stared at Shelke. “Reeve
doesn’t want me on the case.” Hurt bled
into her words, more hurt than she intended to show.
“I know
that,” Shelke said, and she looked Yuffie in the eyes. The glow of her eyes dimmed, and Yuffie could
see their natural blue behind it. It was
strange seeing her like that. She hadn’t
grown an inch and never would. Forever,
she would be an adult woman trapped in a child’s body, never aging, never
changing. Shelke reached into her back
pocket and produced a data drive, which she jammed into one of the many devices
on her arms. Her eyes glowed. “I also know that you’re not one to listen.”
“True but
I’m not feeling so defiant anymore.”
Yuffie sighed. “Maybe I’m getting
older, or maybe it’s because its’s Reeve telling me to back down this time. I mean, he’s a smart guy and is running the
entire W.R.O. If there’s anyone out there
who knows better than me, it’s probably him.”
“But that
isn’t what you’re afraid of.”
Yuffie’s knitted
her brow. “Uh, huh?”
“You are
not afraid of disobeying but of what will happen after. You’re afraid that you will make it worse or,
perhaps, that you may even find yourself questioning the W.R.O. and Reeve
himself.”
“Please.” Yuffie scoffed, shook her head. “Now, you’re just talking crazy. I wouldn’t find anything.”
“There are
black boxes that even I can’t get into,” Shelke said, and her eyes glowed like
twin stars in the near-darkness of the room.
She pulled the drive from her arm and held it out to Yuffie. “Even among the W.R.O. files.”
Yuffie
stared at the drive. “Shelke, I don’t
know.”
“Yuffie
Kisaragi, you know very well what you want and what you are.” Shelke stared at Yuffie now and through
her. Her face was expressionless, her
tone was empty, but there was something in the glow of her eyes, something in the
blue of them. Yuffie couldn’t quite
place it, but she imagined it was something like hope. “You are the White Rose of Wutai, the Great
Ninja, veteran of the Jenova War, and the Deep Ground Incident. You are Yuffie Kisaragi, for all the good and
bad that entails.”
“Veteran,”
Yuffie repeated solemnly. “To be honest,
that just makes me feel old and tired.”
Even as she said it, she took the drive from Shelke. “What exactly is on this thing?”
“Everything,”
Shelke said. “And you have it first.”
Yuffie
grinned. “It’s always good to have a
head start in a race.” She pocketed the
drive. “I’ll look at it later, but I
have to ask, Shelke, why are you helping me?”
Shelke
paused in speech only. Her hands moved
as she thought, moving files, closing pages, opening new ones, altering her
programs. She seemed hardly human. Even when she spoke, it was somewhat
mechanical. “Yours is a unique
perspective, and one worth supporting.
You have been there from the beginning, starting with the field reports
of Soldier First Class Zack Fair during his missions hunting rare materia at
Shinra’s command, to the war with Shinra and then with Jenova after, through
the battle with Bahamut Sin and the Remnants, and even during Deep Ground. You have saved the world countless times and
always done your best. And you have
saved your friends, as well.”
Yuffie
laughed, and she smiled proudly. “Well,
I guess.” She stretched her arms over
head. “And you know that off the top of
your head?”
“I know it
all,” Shelke said. “I can access the
electromagnetic field that surrounds the planet and, through it, interact with
any computer within the network within an instant. Anything hidden from me is hidden for a
reason.”
“Ah, right,
you’re omniscient. You would think I
would remember that, considering how often it saves my rear.” Yuffie went to the door. “Reeve won’t be
happy, you know.”
“Irrelevant. You have been there from the beginning. It hardly seems appropriate to change that
now.”
Yuffie
glanced over her shoulder, and she smiled.
“You know, sometimes, you make no sense.” She plugged the drive into her bracer and
pulled up a holographic interface on its surface to start sifting through the
files. “But, who knows, maybe if I act
quick enough, he won’t have time to get mad.”
“That seems
unlikely,” Shelke said.
“Yeah,”
Yuffie said, just before she stepped into the hall. She had the files up and was starting her
search. “But, it’s worth a try.”
-Disc One-
Yuffie
spent her time alone in the mess hall, looking through file after file. Reeve avoided her after their
conversation. All of the W.R.O. workers
at the base did, too, and, without them, there wasn’t much left of the Hunters
to bother her. Only she and Daisy worked
in the field and, with things as they were, Yuffie doubted more agents would be
assigned to bolster their ranks.
The files
Shelke gave her were more than fragmented data.
She had, to the best of her ability, reconstructed much of the corrupted
files through use of her own information resources and sheer intellect. The picture it painted was not one of
comfort. The Emerald Lotus was larger
than anyone expected, and they were looking for more than simple materia. What they took, and what they left behind,
was proof of that.
Reed spent
a lot of his time researching Midgar and had, apparently, pushed for Edge for
years. There was something near thre the
Lotus wanted, but they didn’t have the resources or the numbers at the time to
get it. Their plan was to use the
W.R.O., particularly the Hunters, to seek it out. That plan seemed to have changed once Yuffie
got herself involved.
Whatever
they were looking for was underneath Midgar.
This came as no great surprise to Yuffie, who knew from experience of
Shinra’s deepest, darkest secrets. They
buried many things beneath the city as they built it. She could only imagine the sort of dangers
that still waited there, and she went to her locker to grab her things and
prepare for the worst.
That is
when Daisy met her on the surface, on the burned and blackened landing strip
outside of the base. For so long Yuffie
had seen the Hunter’s Lodge as home base.
She didn’t visit often, but it felt safe enough. The battle changed it for her, reminded her
of her first reaction on the day of their arrival. It looked like a Shinra military base again,
and she didn’t like how that left her feeling.
Daisy was
dressed in a jacket and jeans. She had a
tie fastened around her neck underneath the jacket and a white shirt buttoned
and tucked. Her pistols were hidden
beneath the jacket. Her dark hair was up
in a tight ponytail. They stared into
each other’s eyes.
“You look
like you’re in better health.” Yuffie
tried to smile but knew it didn’t fit.
She didn’t feel like smiling after everything that happened. Like Daisy, she was fully dressed, wearing
her bracer and having her shuriken strapped in.
All of her materia was allocated appropriately. She had her phone fixed inside of the bracer
and the holographic interface ready.
“Reeve got big plans for you?”
“He hasn’t
talked to me yet.” Daisy flipped her
hair and looked away. She and Yuffie
stared out at the wasteland together.
Everything between Midgar and the sea was dying. The air still smelled vaguely of smoke. “I’m feeling restless, though. It feels like I haven’t done anything
lately.”
“I know
what you mean. Feels wrong waiting
around in a bed while the world goes crazy around you.”
“Exactly.” She looked at Yuffie again and crossed her
arms over her chest. “I’ll be frank; you
look like you have a lead.”
“I
have…something.”
“Is it
related to Oliver?”
Yuffie went
quiet but stared Daisy in the eyes. She
couldn’t bring herself to speak. Reed
was a jerk and he was on the wrong side, but that didn’t mean he was entirely
wrong about her. She could still see
Daisy with a blade sticking from her stomach.
Yuffie took a deep breath.
“Shelke found some files and pieced them together. They don’t tell me much, but they did give me
a direction.”
“And you’re
going to follow it?” Yuffie nodded, and
Daisy repeated the gesture. “I’m going,
too.”
“No, Daisy,
just, no. You’re still injured, and
Reeve doesn’t even want me involved.
Don’t let me drag you down.”
“You’re
not,” Daisy said. “This isn’t about you
at all. It’s about me, and it’s about the
dangers that the Emerald Lotus pose to everyone.” She scratched her nose, and then her eyes
hardened. “Besides, I have a few words
for Oliver.”
Yuffie
watched Daisy stare ahead, firmly, resolved.
It wasn’t anger that drove her, and it wasn’t thoughtless ambition. Daisy was certain, clear, and convicted. It showed in the set of her shoulders, in the
steadiness of her gaze. Yuffie couldn’t
drag her anywhere she didn’t want to go, and she also couldn’t keep her from
following.
Yuffie knew
that sort of conviction, and she also knew better than to challenge it. She sighed.
“We’re going to lose our jobs for this, you know?”
“Maybe but
we’re also going to save the world.”
Yuffie
grinned, and they locked hands. “You
know, I’m always getting you into the best trouble,” she said, and more softly,
“You’re with me?”
“Until the
end.”
They
squeezed each other’s hands and then burst into laughter. Yuffie lifted her left leg and rubbed her
foot against the back of her right leg.
“Okay, enough of that,” she said, thumbs hooked in her pants. She looked around the asphalt. “Your car still good? We need to head to
Midgar ASAP if we want to get there before the others do.”
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