Emerald Crisis--Final Fantasy VII--Disc One, Mission 10

The Ruins of Midgar: Below Shinra HQ\

            Yuffie swayed and landed quietly, her footfalls silent from years of training.  Rising, she pinned herself to the wall and moved along its edges while Daisy came to a heavier landing beside her.  She switched the bracer-flashlight on, searching the area briefly, memorizing everything she saw before Daisy’s eyes had time to adjust.  Then, it was off.

            “Where are we,” Daisy asked while rubbing the ache from her arms.

            “The bottom,” Yuffie said, kneeling at the center of the elevator they stood on and flipping the hatch open.

            “And is this all it is?”

            Yufife stopped and looked up at Daisy.  She had her arms planted around the edges of the hatch and was just bout to lower herself in.  “Is this all what is?”

            “Adventures,” Daisy said.  “Are they just endless climbs.”

            “Mostly,” Yuffie said.  “And walking.  So much walking.”  She smiled.  “And somewhere in between, you manage to save the world.  Not at all like the movies make it, huh?”

            Daisy just sighed.

            “Okay, now quiet.  Time for game faces.”  Yuffie lowered herself into the elevator and landed lithely, going to the wall again.  This time, she drew her shuriken as they moved.  Daisy followed her in, nearly falling forward as she landed but being caught by Yuffie instead.  They took position beside the elevator doors, which were already worked open and partially folded inward.

            Yuffie peeked around the corner and into the room.  It was larger than she expected, two-story, with catwalks lining the walls and one bridging the walls into the center.  Expensive machinery lined the first-story walls.  Tables filled the interior, with a few more large, dusty machines spaced evenly across the floor.

            Lotus soldiers worked tirelessly.  One walked the catwalks above while others scurried about the floor. They had a vault on the left wall opened, a halo of soot showing where the explosives went off, and they were removing crate after crate of materia.  They took the crates to the tables in the center of the floor, where some of the soldiers were pulling each piece out, one by one, and making notes on nearby clipboards.

            Across the room, the wall was open.  An enormous, two-panel door had been pulled apart.  Yuffie could hardly see the tunnel beyond thedoors in the darkness, but she could make out a small tram car which waited there, presumably to haul their take away when they were done with the busy work.

            She kneeled back in the elevator with her back against the wall and pulled up the holographic interface on her bracer.  The signal was dead, which meant they were alone in enemy territory, surrounded on all sides by Lotus soldiers.  A cold sensation crept down her spine and settled in her gut.  For a moment, Yuffie thought it was fear, and then she thought it away entirely.

            She put on a weak smile.

            Daisy waited beside her, weapons drawn, safety off.  Yuffie gestured for her to wait and watch.  Daisy nodded in return and peeked out of the elevator doors.

            Sitting straight, Yuffie took a deep but quiet breath, and then ducked out into the facility.  She stopped beside one of the large machines and hid with her back to it.  The steel was old and cool to the touch.  She peeked over it, noting the movements of the sentries and the workers, and then moved on.  She wound a slow circle around the facility, stopping periodically to peek at the guards and adjust her course.

            As she approached the center, she kept a close watch on the guard on the catwalks.  If she were going to be caught, it would be by him.  Back to a machine, she peeked around the corner and caught sight of a middle-aged man with greying dark hair and a lined face.  He moved with a hunch and had glasses perched low on his long nose.  His voice was high and rough, and his manner manic but disinterested.  He spoke with a woman who was standing inside of the vault.  Her voice was deep and serious.

            “Doctor, we didn’t come here to find your pet project.”  He tone was calm on the surface but edged with malice.  Yuffie could tell from the way the woman spoke, she did not like the doctor.

            The doctor cackled.  “Perhaps, but we get what we get, darling.  Beside, I’m sure your Lotus won’t be so upset to have more powerful materia within their grasp.”

            “He isn’t looking for more materia, only a specific materia.”

            “Yes, yes,” the man said absently.  He stepped into the vault and Yuffie could hear something click.  There was a mechanical whine as a machine struggled to life.  “But you can’t outfit an army with only a single materia.”

            “If we get what we’re looking for, we won’t need an army.”  The woman moved.  Her footfalls were heavy and her gait wide.  Yuffie imagined her, tall and stocky, in her mind.  “Enough games.  Is it here?”

            “Who knows.  If not, then we will find it elsewhere.  There are files, dear, and they’re still here, I am sure.”

            The woman took a deep breath.  “You made us certain promises.”

            “The day hasn’t ended, dear.”

            “Don’t call me dear.”

            The doctor laughed again, this time more quietly.  “You just leave me to my job, to the materia.”  He stepped out of the vault.  His hands were inside of his pockets now.  The doctor was the only one who didn’t wear a Lotus uniform.  He had on slacks and a yellow-turtle neck sweater. “And you take care of your own job.  We have company.”

            Yuffie went stiff, she held her breath and ducked around the machine, her back pressed hard against the cold steel behind her.  The woman followed the doctor out of the fault.  She had drawn a weapon.  “Where?”

            “And here I thought you SOLDIERS were the elite.  Veterans.”  He chuckled again.  “The elevator, dear.”

            Yuffie cursed to herself and listened as the woman called over one of the lotuses and whispered an order into his ear.  Then, she heard a blade being drawn, a large, sharp one, and didn’t wait any longer.  Standing, she hurled her shuriken overhead, aiming for where she estimated the woman to be and rolled to take cover behind another machine.

            A flash of fire was followed by a cloud of dark smoke.  Flames surged across the floor, between the machinery, the heat of it forcing the steel to glow and bend.  Yuffie conjured a materia shell from her bracer to hold the flames at bay and waited for the flames to recede before lowering her arm.  The Lotus scrambled around her.

            “She’s here,” the woman shouted, and gunfire echoed across the room.  Yuffie moved around the other side of the machine again, to flank her enemy, and she finally caught sight of the woman.  She was tall, with glowing green eyes and curly blonde hair.  Yuffie recognized her from the rally.  She was the woman who stabbed Daisy through the stomach.

            More gunfire, this time from Daisy, who kept the Lotus at bay with well-placed shots.  The female SOLDIER took the doctor by the sweater and dragged him away, tipping a desk and dropping him behind it.  She shouted orders from her crouched position, ordering the Lotus soldiers above to cover their retreat.  A particularly stout male Lotus on the floor approached her to receive direct orders from her.

            “We’ve been compromised,” the SOLDIER said, and she glanced at Yuffie, who was handling a few ground soldiers while they spoke.  “If she’s here, then the W.R.O. won’t be far behind.  I’ll take the doctor and what materia we have and return.  You clean up and grab whatever you can before following after.”

            The Lotus nodded and turned to three others who were awaiting his command.  Yuffie was gone.  She had handled the two Lotus who got to her and knocked them unconscious, and she returned to moving along the walls, out of sight of those above.  She meant to cut off the SOLDIER’s retreat but didn’t move fast enough.  A sniper shot from the catwalk hit with enough force to knock her back even as the barrier stopped it.

            Daisy shot the sniper from below, and Yuffie made another effort to intercept the SOLDIER and the doctor as they made their way across the room.  This time, a Lotus soldier stepped in front of her.  She was a skinny thing carrying a big, dark automatic rifle, and she unloaded on Yuffie, who lifted her bracer and charged through the gunfire.  Yuffie leapt into the woman, feet-first.

            The woman fell back and rolled into a nearby materia canister, knocking materia across the floor.  Yuffie landed on her back and kicked up, planting both feet firmly on the steel and preparing her second assault.  The Lotus met her again, this time with a baton in hand.  It sparked whenever she pressed a button on the grip.

            The woman lunged and Yuffie pivoted.  She pushed away the woman’s arm and struck her in the face, cracking the ceramic of her mask.  The woman staggered back, and Yuffie rolled over a nearby table, meeting the woman on the other side with her foot.  The woman stumbled forward and caught herself on one of the machines.

            From her periphery, Yuffie noticed another Lotus approaching from behind her.  He had a gun in one hand, pointed at the floor, and a dagger up in the other.  The woman in front of her lunged again, aiming for Yuffie’s stomach.  Yuffie twirled around and threw the woman into the second Lotus.  The baton touched his chest and sent him rigid as electricity crawled through his form.

            The woman turned as Yuffie leaped off of a nearby machine.  They met, knee-to-face, and the woman’s mask shattered into pieces as she fell backward into another machine and slumped onto the ground.  The male Lotus fell beside her, gun discarded and knife clattering against the steel panel flooring.

            Another Lotus opened fired as Yuffie landed.  She lifted her barrier and caught the bullets before ducking behind a machine.  More gunfire and Yuffie hardly had time to react as bullets gathered around the floor.  She grabbed materia from the floor and focused her energies and ice formed around the Lotus’ gun.

            He discarded it and charged forward, reaching for the knife on the ground.  Yuffie met him part way, planting a kick to his chest and then again in his stomach.  As he staggered back, she conjured ice around him in a solid block that swallowed his body up to the neck.  His arms dangled from the sides.

            Another Lotus was taken down by precision shooting from the elevator, and Yuffie smiled and dropped the materia she held.  She turned and found the large Lotus from before making his charge.  He swung over head with both hands, and she caught it with her bracer and her legs gave out.  Daisy fired, but he took Yuffie by the arm and lifted her barrier to block the bullets.

            They danced together, spinning as they fought for control.  Yuffie tried to rip her arm free, to counter his movements.  She wove their legs together, struggled to get a firm grip on his neck or shoulders, to angle his body in a way that gave her leverage or exposed him to Daisy’s keen eye.

            He lifted her and slammed her down on the table.  Air rushed from her lungs and left her coughing as he kept a firm grip on her.  She parted her legs, clamped them around his head and rolled, bringing him face-first into the table.  His head bounced off and mask fractured, revealing one eye underneath.

            The grip he had on her loosened, and she stumbled back while she fell from the table and caught herself on the floor.  She scrambled away before his head cleared and took refuge out of sight of him, taking time to catch her breath while gunfire echoed around her.

            She peeked around the left of corner of the machine where she hid, where she left him, but saw nothing.  To the right she found him searching for her.  She pressed one hand to her side, where her body ached, and the cure materia in her bracer flared to life before she stood to charge him.

            They met, and she made a series of swift, precise strikes at his chest and face.  He dodged them, ducking and swaying with her movements before stepping in for his own attack.  Yuffie bent backward under it and then seized him by the arm.  Pushing off of the machine beside them, she used the momentum to carry her up and bring her knee up into his face.  He stumbled back but held his footing.

            She wiped sweat from her brow and smiled.  “You’re pretty good,” she said, and the Lotus smiled as another chunk of mask fell from his face.  He lifted a device and clicked the tip of it, and she felt the draw of her materia slowly fade away.  The faint glow of her barrier faded with it.  She glanced at her armguard.  “A jammer?”

            He nodded and dropped it beside him before drawing two large, curved knives and twirling them in hand.  He held them backhand and sunk into a low stance.  Yuffie frowned and unfastened her guard, leaving it on the floor and stretching her arm while hopping in place.  She felt winded, but she could fight.

            “Just so you can’t say I tricked you afterward, you know who I am, right?”

            “Yuffie Kisaragi of Wutai.”

            She smiled.  “That’s the Great Ninja Yuffie, the White Rose of Wutai, actually.”

            “Won’t be white for long,” the man said.  His knives gleamed.

            “Clever.”

            The Lotus grunted and lunged forward, and Yuffie ducked under the charge.  They met, him stabbing down at her and missing entirely as she rolled away.  His knife hit the steel flooring and left a thin scrape across its surface.  He turned to stab again, but she caught him by the back and drove her knee into his gut.  It knocked him to his side, but he barely seemed to feel the blow as he rolled back to his feet.

            She kept attacking, using her speed to her advantage.  Most swings landed, but he kept his arms up to soak the blows.  He fought carefully, conserving energy and taking quick, powerful strikes, holding his blades to in a way that left shallow gashes along the machines that flanked them.

            Yuffie avoided severe injuries by staying mobile.  Her barrier had left her drained to start and the use of the ice and cure materias found her fatigued.  Her knees buckled when they should have held, and she could feel her reaction slowing.  A few sweeps of his blades left thin gashes along her arms and shoulders.  One caught her in the cheek just before she could retreat.

            He caught her with a punch to the gut, the base of his knife knocking the air from her, and then jabbed down at her with the other blade.  Yuffie shuffled away, falling into a nearby table and rolling across its surface.  Materia spilled off around her, and she caught one as it fell and tried to cast as she stood but nothing happened.  The materia was inert in her palm, its light stolen by the nearby jammer.  So, she threw it at his chest and watched it fall harmlessly to the floor.

            He grinned bloodily.  “Looks like the legend ends today,” he said, sauntering forward and twirling his blades.  She could see blood on their polished surface, her blood.

            A bullet ricocheted nearby and drew the Lotus’ attention.  He ducked down and looked over his shoulder to find Daisy charging, guns up and cursing as she continued pulling the trigger.  Bullets bounced off around him harmlessly as he kept low, with his back to the steel machines.  He peeked around once to gauge her movement and then rose to hurl one dagger at her.

            The dagger spiraled through the air and caught Daisy in the shoulder.  She fell to the ground, holding the blade and cursing as blood gushed from the wound.  Both of her guns fell to the ground beside her, one empty and the other with its clip out as she was reloading.

            Yuffie took the opportunity to attack from behind.  She leaped onto him, pummeling him in the back of the head until he reached up and pulled her back down.  The machine caught her fall, and she bent over it, her spine straining.  Lifting her, he tossed her again, into the nearby table, which skidded backward and toppled as she fell onto the ground, groaning.

            He stood over her then, one big booted foot resting on her chest.  The world kept spinning as a deep ache spread through her.  She strained to focus on him, and he tapped her chin with his boot before pinning her face to the floor.  From his holster he pulled out a pistol and cocked it.  The mechanical sound focused her some, but she could only barely see him past his boot.

            “You know,” he said, chuckling as he pointed the gun at her head.  He moved his foot down to her chest so she could turn to face him.  “For all your boasting, I thought you would be better.  But, I guess even heroes have to die someday.”

            “Not the good ones,” she rasped, grabbing him by the ankle.  He smiled as she coughed up the blood pooling in her throat and closed her eyes.  It hurt, all of it hurt, her body and her pride.  She could taste the blood, feeling it congealing on her chin and lips, feel the swelling aches in her back and the broken bones.

            Then there was a pulse.  In the very core of her a light flashed into a spark of adrenaline and then something more.  She was desperate and tired, and she had no one to save her, so she would have to save herself.  It was hard for her to admit, but she was at her limit, and she had to break past it.

            With the last of her energy, she pushed his leg to the side and rose from the ground.  Something greater than herself filled her with endless force, endless energy, and she put all of it into one final, wild swing.  Her first coalesced with a shining blue light and caught him across the face and a gust of wind exploded around them, toppling tables and folding the steel panels of the machines around them in.

            Light and fire followed as he flew across the room, landing in a materia ben and knocking it backward underneath him.  It went skidding across the floor as he rolled to a stop against the far wall, materia scattered around him.

            Yuffie took a deep breath and folded, falling to her knees, and she panted for air.  On her hands and knees, she crawled through the debris to find the jammer and turn it off.  She dropped it into her pocket before returning for her guard and grabbing the cure materia from it.  On the way to Daisy, she mended her own wounds as best she could before helping to remove the dagger from her partner’s arm and healing her after.

            “I’m sorry,” Daisy said as she held her arm just below the gash.  She watched the skin folding shut beneath the blood.  The wound itched as it wove back together.

            Yuffie smiled weakly.  “Don’t be sorry.  You took out an entire army on your own.”  The materia stopped glowing, and Yuffie kneeled down beside her, exhausted and pale.  “Still,” she sighed, “I could have done without you missing that last shot.”

            “I crumbled under the pressure,” Daisy said, and they both laughed.  She felt light-headed, and her shoulder was still bruised, but she could move.  She reached for her guns and finished reloading them.  “Are you okay?”

            “Please.”  Yuffie wiped sweat from her forehead and blood from her lips.  “I’ve faced worse than the big guy.”  She pushed herself to standing after a few more deep breaths.  “No time to lick our wounds, though.  We’ve got a tram to catch.”

            Daisy nodded and slipped the clip into one of her guns with a definitive click. Then, she holstered both weapons before rising with Yuffie.  “Then lead the way.”

            Yuffie nodded and went to gather her shuriken before they left.

-Disc One-

            They followed the tram tunnels to an exit and could smell the sea in the distance before they saw it.  The tunnels were dark, and this darkness, combined with their fatigue, made the journey feel endless.  When they saw a light at the end, they ran forward to find the mountain ridges rising behind them, dark grey and stabbing the sky.  There was a beach to their right, pale sand being swallowed regularly by the shifting tides.

            Daisy paced the beach, kicking the sand, while Yuffie walked the high grasses nearby.  The stalks were flattened across a wide area and bent outward from a gust of wind.  An airship had landed there.  Grooves were worked into the soft dirt where it had touched ground.

            Yuffie joined Daisy at the beach.  They sat together, staring into the grey horizon.  A pink blush was forming at the rim of the sky.  The sun would be rising soon, and night was finally coming to an end.  They breathed and felt very tired suddenly.  All of the damage they accumulated came to life, and they really just wanted to rest.

            Daisy leaned into Yuffie and put her arms around her.  She held her close.  “You okay?”  Yuffie frowned, and Daisy shook her gently and squeezed her at the shoulder.  “Listen, this isn’t over.  We’ll get them later.”  She ruffled Yuffie’s hair and sat up straight.  “You’ll see.  We won’t stop, and they can’t hide forever.”

            The wind was cold but growing warmer.  The air smelled strongly of salt and wet.  They stayed there as the first rays of sunlight spread across the water.  Yuffie laid back, head in her hands, and she stared up at the sky, shivering as the cool air danced across her bare midriff.  Daisy stood and stretched and rubbed her arms for warmth.

            “Come on.”  She offered Yuffie her hand.  “We should go back and look around, see if we can find anything before the W.R.O. guys figure out where we went.”

            Yuffie opened her eyes.  She stared up Daisy’s arm, up into her dark eyes.  Both looked tired and beaten up, but Daisy had something that Yuffie was lacking.  There was vitality still there.  Yuffie kept replaying their failed battles in her head.  Even fighting that single soldier had been a challenge.  She wondered how many times the others saved her over the years, and then pushed those thoughts away so she could force herself to take Daisy’s hand.

            The walk back was long and quiet.  Neither was moving quickly and neither had the energy to care.  The soldiers were still unconscious.  Daisy set out to tying them and marking them for W.R.O. pick up, sending coordinates to Shelke while Yuffie searched the vaults and the files stored inside.  The facility still had power even after years of neglect.

            She found files and downloaded them to her personal database and then left through the tram tunnels.  It was a long walk back to Midgar, but Yuffie was happy for the exercise.  She needed to stretch the sores out of her and work out the nervous energy left over from the battle before she went to rest.  It also gave her time to look through the files.

            As they passed through the ruins toward Daisy’s car, they caught sight of a W.R.O. airship drifting overhead.  They would be arriving soon and start their search, and Yuffie wanted to make it back to Edge and get a few hours of rest before they came calling on her.