Emerald Crisis--Final Fantasy VII--Disc One, Mission 11

Edge: Seventh Heaven Bar\

            Daisy dropped Yuffie off at the bar before returning to the Lodge to rest.  Yuffie offered to let her stay but didn’t have the heart to argue when refused.  Instead, Yuffie shuffled inside as the sun climbed slowly over the buildings and glittered against the windows.  Marlene and Denzel were just waking as she entered and offered sleepy greetings that she didn’t remember returning.

            Yuffie slept deeply, forgetting for a time the aches and the bruises, both physical and emotional.  Her dreams were peaceful and faraway, memories dragged up in the wake of her battles.  She didn’t remember them clearly when she woke up, just lilies floating on the water and Wutai seen from a mountain top.  The sun was golden, and she had prayed to Leviathan before leaving home for good.

            Her phone work her when she saw that man again.  He was wearing a mask this time, but his eyes were dark like hers.  They were Wutai.

            “Hello?”

            “Yuffie Kisaragi.”

            Yuffie felt her face to make sure it was there and found it hurt to move her arms.  She groaned slowly as everything else began to hurt again, too.  “What?”

            “How are you?”

            “Sore and sleepy.”  She sat up, slowly, whining with each movement.  It wasn’t just pain anymore.  Her muscles felt dead.  She was sleeping so well and needed a bit more of it.  The world was blurry when she opened her eyes and a bit too bright.  She felt sick and had to take a few minutes to breathe through the nausea.  “Why are you calling?”

            “Ms. Daisy Gould returned without you.  I was just making sure you were well.”

            “Well enough,” Yuffie said.  She stretched her feet and toes and listened as they popped.  A breath, and it didn’t hurt so much to breathe anymore.  “We followed your lead to Shinra HQ and found some bad people up to bad things.”

            “Of course.”  Yuffie could hear the distraction in Shelke’s voice and imagined her in a dark room, lit only by the glow of her eyes and the holographic monitors that surrounded her on all sides.  “Did you find anything of value?”

            “Not really.  They’re looking for materia, it seems.”

            “We knew that already.”

            Yuffie pulled away from the phone long enough to blow a raspberry.  Then, she remembered the data she got from the hard drives and rose to dig through her clothes to find it.  She held up the thumb drive in the light.  “We got something for you, too.”

            “Good.  You should deliver it to me here.  I do not trust it going through the W.R.O.’s system.”

            Yuffie frowned and thought of Reed.  Then, she thought of Reeve, and her frown deepened. “Know what? Neither do I.  I’ll be there soon to see you in person.”

            “Good. I have something to tell you when you get here.”

Midgar Region: W.R.O.’s Hunter’s Lodge\

            Daisy was awake already when Yuffie called, and she arrived shortly after.  Yuffie hid out in her room and nursed her hurt.  When Daisy arrived, Yuffie offered a passing farewell to Tifa and the others before going outside.  She didn’t eat breakfast because it would just come back up during the car ride.

            Half an hour later they arrive at the Lodge.  The surface damage was mostly cleared.  Anti-air turrets broken in the assault had been repaired or patched.  Their remains stood, stunted, in the distance, their wiry insides tightly knotted or otherwise frayed, exposed like a fresh wound.

            Underneath the damage was still showing.  Walls were blackened from flame, cracked and fractured or otherwise collapsed entirely.  The workers there were tired and frightened.  They looked over their shoulders constantly, fearful of what might come.  The W.R.O.’s lingering suspicions helped nothing.

            Yuffie followed Daisy through the halls, holding her stomach and lamenting her decision to forego breakfast.  They got her some bread before going to Shelke’s office.  When the door opened, she greeted them without looking away from the glowing monitors in front of her.  Yuffie groans.

            “You’ve brought the data.”

            Another groan, and Yuffie handed off her thumb drive.

            Shelke turned it over in her hands and gave it a quick glance.  Then, she jammed it into a console on her left forearm and started sifting through the data.  Her eyes darted around from monitor to monitor.  “It’s encrypted.”

            “How long will it take you to break it,” Daisy asked.  She tried to follow along with Shelke’s work for a time but gave up after a few seconds.

            “I already have,” Shelke said.  “Now, I am compiling data and distilling it to the most important parts.  I have to be careful, though.  A dip in my productivity might arouse suspicion.”

            Daisy looked at Yuffie, who shrugged and said, “She’s always like this.”  Then, she moved forward, stuffing the last of the bread into her mouth and leaning against the wall.  Her stomach still felt raw, but she could breathe again.  “So, you said you had some other information for me?”

            Shelke nodded absently.  Her eyes glowed like the monitors.  It wasn’t reflection.  They produced their own light.  “Yes.  The Emerald Lotus didn’t just target Edge.  Reports of attacks all over the world have come in.  They struck many W.R.O. facilities alongside more public areas, and it seems they were looking for something.  A pattern points to something more than materia.”

            “Of course.” Yuffie scratched the back of her head and glanced at Daisy.  “Whatever it is, must be old Shinra, huh?”

            “Seems likely,” Daisy said.  “And they must think that either we’ve found it or that we know where to find it.”

            “Right.”  Yuffie returned her attention to Shelke.  “It’s been half a decade and Shinra is still kicking our asses.”

            “Somethings are hard to kill,” she said, fingers flying across a holographic keyboard.  “They’ve started many fires to keep us distracted.  Reeve will be leaving soon to deal with it.”

            “Probably.  How long until you’re done compiling?”

            “I will message you.”

            Yuffie nodded and pushed off the wall.  “Then I am going to get breakfast and digest it before we have to go anywhere.”  She passed Daisy on the way out and gave a wave over her shoulder.  “Happy hunting,” she said, and Daisy followed her.

            Shelke didn’t even look back to see them leave, but she did say goodbye before the door slid shut.

-Disc One-

            Yuffie ate a light lunch and then went outside to rest.  Her body still ached from the battle the day before, and she didn’t feel comfortable wasting energy on her cure materia.  After the surprise attack made by Reed, she didn’t feel comfortable wasting her energy on anything.  The halls were narrow now and dark, and everyone was jumping at shadows.

            Daisy kept her company.  They set out on the deck, watching the sky.  It was clear, devoid of cloud or smoke, and they could smell the sea again.  From where they were, they could see canyons in the distance and the dusty red landscape of wastes.  On the opposite side, they could see Edge and the ruins of Midgar rising behind it.

            Midgar, the city where it all began and, for her, where it all ended.  She didn’t get the chance to fight Sephiroth in the planet’s core, but she was branded a hero anyway.  When she was young, she always felt cheated being stuck with Reeve and Vincent at the meteor’s impact.  It was probably why she was so quick to join the W.R.O.

            During the Deep Ground crisis, she was on the front lines, fighting right alongside Vincent.  At the beginning it felt to her like she was making up for her inactivity during the final battle.  After the fight with Nero, however, she had a different perspective.  It was so dangerous, so deadly, and she was lucky to have survived.  Looking back, she isn’t so sure how she would have handled Sephiroth.  The thought still shook her sometimes.

            The Emerald Lotus attacks were beginning to feel the same way.  Yuffie could see something wrong, and she could see no one was taking steps to fix it, but she didn’t feel right fixing it herself.  The end of the world was a fight she had avoided twice already, and she wasn’t qualified to be in the middle of it now.

            Reeve cleared his throat beside her and drew her attention.  He was wearing a white vest and pants, with the vest buttoned up to his neck.  His beard was neatly trimmed and his hair styled, but he had bags under his eyes.  “You look distracted,” he said, and he leaned forward.  Yuffie glanced at Daisy, who was keeping her distance, and then returned her attention to Reeve.  “Care to talk about it?”

            “Nothing to talk about.”  Yuffie sat up, stretched.  “Just thinking about old battles.”

            Reeve nodded.  “I do the same sometimes.”  He grinned.  “It seemed simpler back then, didn’t it?  Back when the evil was so obvious.”

            “Wasn’t obvious to some people,” Yuffie said, and she gave her own grin.  “Some of us worked for them.”

            Reeve laughed.  “Some of us did.”  He adjusted his cuffs and looked her head on.  “Yuffie, we found a curious thing the other night.  A group of Lotus soldiers had infiltrated an old Shinra lab beneath Midgar.  By the time we mobilized and ended up on scene they were already neutralized.  Would you happen to know anything about that?”

            “Nope.  I was with Daisy all night last night.”

            Reeve glanced at Daisy, who stared resolutely out at the sea.  “Were you?  And what were you doing, exactly?”

            “Checking some leads on materia trade and keeping away from the Emerald Lotus, like you asked.”

            Reeve hummed and smoothed his suit.  “Fine.  If you want to be that way.”  He stands straight, towering over her like he does so many people. He really was tall.  Sometimes, when he spoke with her casually, she forgot about that.  When he looked at her like a disappointed parent, however, she could see it clearly.  “I know you won’t listen, but I am warning you as a friend.  Stay out of it, Yuffie.”

            “Stay out of what, sir?  We were just doing our jobs.”

            He frowned.  “Of course.”  He went to the door and left her there, alone with Daisy, who hazarded a glance back at Yuffie only after he left.

            “He knows.”

            “Of course he knows,” Yuffie said.  “We weren’t discreet.”

            “Should we be worried?”

            “Nah.  We go way back.”

            Daisy sighed.  “I don’t think that will protect you much longer.”

            “Maybe, but it will protect me for now.”  Yuffie’s phone chimed, and she pulled up a message from Shelke.  Then, she stood from her seat.  “That was fast. Come on, Shelke has gotten it ready.  Let’s go and see where we’re off to next.”

            Daisy sighed and nodded her agreement, and she followed Yuffie back inside.

-Disc One-

            Shelke doesn’t turn to greet them as they enter her room.  The door slid shut behind them, trapping them in darkness and the blue glow of the holographic monitors, which were suspended in the shadows.  Information flashes across each monitor in a blur, and Daisy has a hard time believing any of it is memorized.

            Yuffie moved forward and leaned on Shelke’s chair.  “A little birdy told us you had some information.”

            “Is the door closed?”

            Yuffie glanced back.  “Of course.  Do you see the light in here?”

            Shelke took the time to look around.  She returned to her work, fingers dancing across her keyboard with robotic precision.  “I hadn’t noticed.”  Code drifted across screens, looking to Yuffie like alien script. “I was able to access the files,” Shelke said.  “It was old and damaged.  Much of it is fragmented as a result.”

            “Of course it is.” Yuffie sighed toward Daisy, who gave a shrug.  “We can never get a break, huh?”

            “Was it all for nothing,” Daisy asked.  She had leaned against the door frame and watched from a distance.  Shelke frightened her, and Yuffie’s relationship with Shelke confused her.

            “No,” Shelke said absently.  She held out the thumb drive Yuffie had given her earlier, and Yuffie scooped it up.  “What was left on the drive gave me enough information to search in, and I find a direction.”

            “Oh?’  Yuffie glanced at the screens again but saw nothing.  There were personal notes kept in the corner, clipped phrases that meant nothing to the casual observer.  “And what direction is that?”

            “Project D,” Shelke said.  “Multiple files alluded to this Project D.”

            “Let me guess, a secret Shinra project?”

            Shelke nodded.  “It was run by Shinra’s Science Division many years ago.  Information is sparse, but drawing from other sources, I was able to ascertain the goal of the project: the creation of specialized, military grade, hyper powerful materia.”

            Yuffie frowned.  “Makes sense.  And that’s what Lotus is after?”

            “That I do not know.”

            “Right, right.”  Yuffie paced a small circle around the room, which was cluttered with cables and hardware.   She was careful to avoid them as she marched over around and scratched her head.  She stopped behind the holographic monitors and stared through them at the glowing faces of Shelke and Daisy.  Only Daisy seemed to look back.  “Well, that’s good, I guess, but we already knew they were after materia.”

            “There is more,” Shelke said.  She glanced at Yuffie with empty, glowing eyes.  “I cross-referenced the information on these files with information from the W.R.O. databases.”

            “And?”

            “And what I found was highly classified.  Even I didn’t have clearance.”

            “So you hacked it?”

            “So I hacked it,” Shelke said, allowing a ghost of a smile.  “The information was well-guarded, but it led me to an index showing the location of an isolated database that should have what we want.”

            “Isolate database?”

            “High level security.  Anything connected to the network can be accessed by anyone with enough time and skill.  To keep something truly private, you keep it isolated from the network, which is what any adequately run organization will do.  Even then, references to it are kept for practical use, but clearance must be given before the files can ever be accessed.  All of the details about Project D are hidden in the W.R.O.’s primary databases, beneath HQ.”

            Yuffie rubbed her chin.  “So, we already knew about all of this.”

            “It appears so,” Shelke said.  “It has never been secret that Shinra has facilities beneath Midgar.”

            “But they never made it public knowledge, either.”  Yuffie eyes went wide.  “There might be more facilities we don’t know about.  Which means if we access the database, then we can figure out Lotus’ next move.”

            Shelke nodded.

            Yuffie whooped and reached through the monitors to hug Shelke, who allowed it limply.  “Thank you, thank you so much you little brat!”   Then, she ruffled Shelke’s hair on the way to the door.  Daisy stood from the wall and waited.

            “Be careful, Yuffie Kisaragi.  This information isn’t meant to be seen by people of your clearance.  It will be dangerous, and it may lead to trouble.”

            Yuffie grinned.  “Then we’ll just have to keep from getting caught.”

-Disc One-

            Daisy remained silent as she followed Yuffie outside to the car.  They stopped beside it and stared back at the base.  The asphalt was still covered in soot from where the battle took place.  The air defense towers were shattered stalks of exposed circuitry and carnage.  Maintenance workers were taking a break in the hot sun.

            “A lot has happened,” Yuffie said, and then she met Daisy’s gaze.  “You’re worried.”

            Daisy looked at her and nodded.

            “About stealing from the W.R.O.?”

            Another nod.

            “You don’t have to come.”

            “I do.”

            Yuffie laughed and shook her head.  “Nah, Daze, you don’t.  Not there, not this,” she said.  “We’re partners and all, and I’m always happy to have you watch my back, but this is full-blown treason at this point.  Nothing dubious about it.  We’re stealing from our bosses.”

            “I know.”  Daisy chewed her cheek and kicked at the asphalt.  When she had been assigned to Yuffie, she was excited to see what type of person a hero of the Jenova War would be and, at first, was a little disappointed.  Yuffie was loud, impulsive, and disorganized.  She hardly seemed like someone who had saved the world.

            After everything that happened, Daisy had changed her mind.  It seemed like everyone else was the problem and Yuffie was the only solution.  The Emerald Lotus was a crisis on par with Deep Ground, and yet no one was organized.  There were no heroes taking to the streets, just two lone women being hobbled at every turn.

            The thought frightened Daisy.  More than that, it made her feel weak.  She liked working for the Hunters, and she liked working alongside Yuffie and Oliver.  It was a good life, hard work, but safe by comparison to what was recently started.  Yes, there was combat involved, but it wasn’t war, and what the Lotus brought with them was, and if they were to get caught it would be a front on both sides.

            “Seriously, Daisy,” Yuffie said now, all of the humor leaving her face.  In all their years working together, Daisy never saw Yuffie so sober.  She looked almost like an adult as she took Daisy’s hands and gave them a squeeze.  “I’ll be fine on my own.”

            “No,” Daisy said.

            “Sure, I will.  I mean, come on, I’m the great ninja Yuffie.”

            “That’s not what I mean,” Daisy said, and she was shaking.  “I’m scared, Yuffie.  This is big and it’s scary, and that’s why I know I can’t stay.  Something is going on out there.  A storm or something, and everyone here just has their heads buried in the sand.”  She squeezed Yuffie’s hands back.  “And that’s why I know this is where I should be.  I just don’t like it.”

            Yuffie laughed.  “Me neither,” she said, and she sighed.  Sobriety left her, and she smiled like an adolescent again.  “Well, then, I guess this will make us partners in crime.”

            Daisy laughed nervously.  “I guess, but we’re only doing this because it’s right.  Because it has to be done.”

            “Exactly,” Yuffie said.  “Betraying them to save them.”

            “How many people thought that way before they died, you think?”

            “Doesn’t matter, Daze, ‘cause we won’t die.  Now, come on.”  Yuffie grinned and pulled Daisy toward the car.  “I think it’s about time we went and broke some rules.”

Emerald Crisis--Final Fantasy VII--Disc One, Mission 7

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?”

            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.”

Emerald Crisis--Final Fantasy VII--Disc One, Mission 1

Edge: Seventh Heaven Bar\

            Yuffie was sleeping, as they say, the sleep of the dead.  Her arms were dead, her legs were dead, and the rest of her was simply numb to the world.  Late the night before, she came back to the bar and climbed in through the window, collapsing face-first onto the mattress in the spare bedroom which Tifa loaned out to her.  A few seconds passed, and then she was soundly asleep until the very late morning.

            Her senses returned to her slowly, starting with sound.  The continuous ringing of her alarm drilled into her ears and forced her into a state of partial awakening.  She groped across the mattress, across her messed blankets and pillows, to her nightstand, where her bracer rested. Thumbing the holographic display, the silenced the small, neon alarm clock that was shaking insistently at her. The ringing stopped and Yuffie, body hanging partway off of the bed, landed with her face to the floor and groaned.

            Her room was lit already by the midday sun, its warm yellow light panting the walls and the floor.  She winced as she opened her eyes and pulled the sheets from her bed off and over her.  They gathered about her neck and chin but left her aching eyes uncovered.  A final groan, and she laid there in defeated frustration, glaring sullenly at her window.

            The sun glared back while the curtains danced.

            Outside Edge was alive with people.  Cars hummed up and down the street.  Steam drifted in and out of view, moving wherever the wind willed it.  It was nothing but a grimace to her as she struggled to standing and, in a final act of frustration, threw her crumpled sheets back onto the bed.  She checked the time and took the holographic interface from her guard, fixing it to the belt of her shorts.

            She shuffled to the bathroom, where she washed her face and brushed her teeth.  This was followed by a more half-hearted attempt at further grooming, which was mostly her patting her hair and muttering at lot.  At one point she scratched her rear.  After that, she made it back into the hall and started toward the stairs.

            The night had went long.  By the time the paperwork was done, Yuffie was crawling into her bedroom at around dawn.  The trouble was the W.R.O. command structure.  The Hunters had limited holding cells and those only for the worst, who would be shipped out to W.R.O. HQ for interrogation or incarceration.  Street toughs and low-level dealers were taken to the wardens, which was a chore on all sides.

            When given the assignment, Yuffie had taken it under the assumption that the problem would be solved quickly and carried that with her into each new assignment.  Edge, in particular, seemed incorruptible with its close proximity to the W.R.O. HQ, as well its deep roots in the organization.  Even with its location—being so close to Shinra things were bound to be dug up—she never thought there would be so much work.

            She was wrong.  A month after her arrival, the Hunter’s Lodge—their makeshift HQ—was still undergoing finishing touches and materia smuggling was still unchecked.  For the time Yuffie stayed with Tifa, who offered permanent housing in the bar for friends, and offer that was quickly taken and then taken advantage.

            Back in her room Yuffie found socks and a shirt.  Then, she lazily tied her boots.  Her PDA chimed.  She tapped it.  “I’m awake already.”

            “Good afternoon, Yuffie Kisaragi.”

            Yuffie frowned.  “Shelke, did you set my alarm?  I don’t remember setting it last night.”

            “Yes, I did.”

            “How?”

            “It isn’t difficult.  The encryption on the model TPK-73 Holographic...”

            “Know what?  I don’t really care.  Just don’t do it again.”

            “Noted.  We’ve process the dealers from last night and looked into their information.  Interviews and interrogations were completed this morning.”

            “I interviewed him yesterday, you know.”

            “These interviews were formal, and the name came up again between all of the dealers.  Wasteland Bar.”

            Yuffie stretched.  “Tell me about it.”

            “It is technically within Edge, being built on the fringes, near Midgar.  Records state that it is already being watched by warden forces due to suspected criminal activity.”

            Yuffie grunted.

            “It may be a staging area.  Orders from Reeve are to go there and gather information.”

            “Of course they are.  Like he needs to tell me how to do my job.”

            “This is infiltration, Yuffie Kisaragi, nothing else.  Whatever you see, do not engage.”

            Another yawn as she sauntered into the hallway.  “Ah-huh.”

            “Daisy will serve as back up.  She should be there in thirty-minutes to pick you up, traffic permitting.”

            Yuffie sighed.  “Sounds like fun.”

            “Good luck, Yuffie Kisaragi.”

            “Yeah, yeah, won’t need it.”

-Disc One-

            Yuffie made her way downstairs to the bar, where she found Marlene and Denzel having lunch while Tifa cleaned the counter.  She could smell freshly cooked bacon and bread as she staggered through the room to steal a chip from Denzel’s plate.  He gave her a glare, and she patted his bushy auburn hair and slumped into the chair next to him.

            Marlene gave a smile.  “Good afternoon, Yuffie.”  She slid her plate over to Yuffie.  They were having BLTs, crusts removed and sliced into halves.  Yuffie took one half and started eating.

            “Yuffie, you’re not stealing their lunches again, are you?”  Tifa had her back to them when she asked, busy prepping for the evening rush.  Her new 7^th Heaven was every bit as popular as the old one.  Yuffie always called Tifa’s ability to see things without actually seeing them motherly instinct.  Tifa had no children of her own, but she didn’t seem to mind.

            Yuffie stuffed the sandwich into her mouth and choked.  “No.”  She winked at Marlene, who giggled politely.

            Tifa turned.  “If you can wait, I’ll make something for you.”

            “No time.” She stole a drink of Marlene’s water as she stood.  “Got work.”

            “Of course, you do.”  Tifa smiled.  “When did you get in this morning?”

            “Yeah, did you stop anything big last night?”  It was the first time Denzel spoke, but he always got excited about her jobs.

            Yuffie turned to him, smiling.  “I saved the world.”

            “Yeah, but we already know about that.”

            Yuffie laughed and blew him a raspberry.  “Just a small-time materia deal in the Midgar ruins.  Whipped some butt, interrogated some guys.  We’re checking out the information we got from them.”  She turned back to Tifa, who was busy checking her drawer for the night.  She was counting bills out on the counter.  “Hey, Tif, you ever heard of the Wasteland Bar?”

            “Yeah.  That’s where all the sorry riffraff I kick out of here go.  Why?”

            “It’s where I’m heading.  Got anything?”

            “Not much.  I hear they’re open pretty much all hours of the day.”  She stacked the bills, sorted them, and eased them back into the register.  “Rumor is that the place is dangerous, Yuffie.  Be careful.”

            “Dangerous?  Please, I’M the great ninja Yuffie.”  Her PDA chimed, and Yuffie thumbed it.  “Yeah?”

            “I’m pulling up.”

            “Right.”  Yuffie ended the call and grabbed a handful of chips from Denzel’s plate as she passed.  “Well, you all have a good day. And Tifa, make sure you feed those kids.  They’re all skin and bones.”

Edge: Streets\

            Daisy’s car was sleek and red.  It had two doors and two seats, and she took it with her everywhere, driving without a care, the canopy down, glasses on, her dark hair whipping in the wind.  Yuffie hated it.  She hated the glossy finish.  She hated the leather seats.  She hated the polished rims, and she hung over the door, head down, trying her hardest not to vomit on the street as asphalt by.

            Only a few years ago Edge, was grassland and dust.  The air was fresh then but had stagnated since.  The streets were narrow, each meticulously planned and measured for maximum efficiency.  The Midgar wastes were not a place where life flourished, at least not human life, and they had to use every inch to its fullest potential.

            Since its founding, Edge had developed the strong, musky scent of a city, and it choked Yuffie as they passed.  She was born in Wutai and raised on the road.  City’s always stunk to her, felt oppressive with all of their towers of stone and endless highways.  Daisy, on the other hand, was at her best in the city.  The country always gave her allergies.

            The unchecked growth of Edge frightened some people, Yuffie included.  Those who could remembered Shinra’s rapid development, Shinra’s military, and Shinra’s abuse of power keep a close eye on the growing W.R.O. and the cities it runs.  Shirna Inc. still lingers in their minds like a specter, haunting them.  Still, others flock to the security given by this new regime, once having lived with technology and unwilling to part with it now.

            They came to a stop at a traffic light and Daisy peeked at her over her sunglasses.  “You’re looking well.”

            “Ugh.”

            “You read the briefing?”

            “Not a word.”

            Daisy laughed and shook her head.  They started moving again, and Yuffie’s stomach did a flip.  At the end of the street, Daisy took a turn and started toward the outskirts of Edge.  “Wasteland isn’t in the best area, as its name would imply.  We’re there to gather info.  Which means this is espionage.  We’re their usual clientele, or at least not Hunters.  We gather information, we do not engage.  Get drinks, sit on them.”  A glance at Yuffie, who was green by this point.  “Understood?”

            Yuffie hung over the edge of the car.  “Blrk.”

            “I’ll take that as a yes.” They passed truck.  “They’re supposed to be a lot of criminals in there, including smugglers.  This is where they live, so there’s other W.R.O. investigations going on there.  So, stay sharp and be careful.  No guns blazing.”

            Yuffie groaned.  “Don’t. Use. Guns.  Grgh.”

            “You, uh, going to be okay?”

            “No. Promises.”  Yuffie hardly got the words out before she vomited over the edge of Daisy’s sleek, red car, and lefts a long trail of bile across the door.  This bile followed them to the bar like drops of wet paint.

Edge Outskirts: Wasteland Bar\

            Wasteland Bar was mid-sized and square.  The exterior was shoddily made, looking as if it were composed of various materials haphazardly thrown together.  At one point in time, Yuffie figured, it had been a regular Edge building, but frequent bar rows or, perhaps, the attack by Bahamut Sin less than a decade back required improvisation on the owner’s part.

            The inside, the girls found, was not much better.  The light was dim and smoky, and the room went quiet as they stepped in.  Women were likely a rarity there, or so they imagined, especially two young women such as themselves.  A sea of beards, tattoos, and shifty glances greeted them.  A thin man with a thin, gray mustache watched them from the bar.  He didn’t smile.

            Everything was quiet, save for the music in the background, and it wasn’t until Yuffie and Daisy took a booth that any life returned to the room.  The patrons were hunched over their tables, gambling or plotting and, whatever they were doing, they kept a close watch on the them both.  The thin man from the bar approached and took their drink orders.  Daisy asked for something light.  Yuffie got a tonic water.  When their drinks arrived, they sat on them, watching the patrons while being watched in return.

            Yuffie swirled a straw inside of her glass and made a small whirlpool.  She placed her finger over the top and drew the straw out, sucking her drink from the bottom before setting the straw aside.  Across the room, three thugs had moved to the doors.  “We’re getting some looks,” Yuffie said.

            “Of course, we are.  Aren’t you supposed to be a ninja?”

            “What does that mean?”

            “It means that you’re not exactly inconspicuous.”

            “What, you want me to scowl more?”  Yuffie shrugged.  “So, sue me for having a bit of presence.”

            “You waved at someone as we entered.”

            “That’s just being friendly.  Anyway, you’re the one acting all shifty-eyed.”  Yuffie hunched and darted her eyes back and forth.  “Oh, gosh, I hope no one notices that I’m spying.”

            “Yuffie!”

            “Then again,” Yuffie sat up in her seat and took in the room, “Everyone else here is pretty shifty-eyed, too.”

            Daisy yanked Yuffie back down into the booth.  “Would you sit down? We’re supposed to blend in.”

            “We don’t have enough tattoos for that.  Or yellow teeth.”  She looked at a large man at the bar.  “Or tattoos OF yellow teeth.”  She tilted her head.  “Really, guy?”

            Daisy sighed.  She looked around and found all eyes fixed on them.  The bar was slowly winding back up again.  The music got louder.  So did the chit-chat.  No one stopped watching them, though, and it was becoming apparent that each one had a weapon ready.

            “Think they recognize me,” Yuffie asked, sipping at her water again.

            “From what?”

            “From the war,” Yuffie said.  “Any of them. All of them. I’ve been in it since the beginning.”

            Daisy sighed.  “I don’t know.  Maybe.  Probably.  Just our luck.”

            “Oh, relax, Daze.”  Yuffie crossed her legs, swayed one foot in tune with the jukebox.  “If you act like you don’t belong, then you won’t belong.  Ninja Rule #1.”

            “I thought Ninja Rule #1 was to end the fight before it started.  Or there was the time you said it was to move like the night.”

            “The Ninja’s have a lot of rules, the importance of which change to suit the context of the situation.”

            Daisy sipped her drink, winced, and spat it back into the bottle.  She decided to hold it by the neck and pretend that she was enjoying it.  No one seemed to believe her.  “They’re still watching us.”

            “Of course, they are.  It’s cause we’re so pretty.”

            “That doesn’t make me feel better.”

            “It should.”  Yuffie turned her cup around in circles.  Then, she set it on a napkin and watched it form a wet ring at the napkin’s center.  “And, hey, at least it’s better than Junon.  You remember that one place?  With the guy with the toupee?”

            “Oh.  Don’t remind me.”

            “My point is: we’ve done this before.”

            The bar was back in full swing.  All around them, people were laughing and carrying on.  The only clue that anything was amiss was the way everyone glanced, was the people at the door, was the bartender hovering around one part of the bar and patrons coming to him.

            “I don’t know.  This feels somehow different.  This time, I think they know.”

            “Oh, they definitely know.  It just doesn’t matter.”

            Daisy sighed and stared at her drink.  “This was all such a mistake.”

            “Yeah, looks like it.”

            “Well, what do we do then?  We can’t gather information if they know that we’re looking for it.”

            “Hmm? Oh, yeah, that is a funny anecdote.”  Yuffie stood.  “I’m going to the bar to get my drink refilled.”

            “You’ve barely had any of it.”

            “Yeah, good point.”  Yuffie left the table, marched through the crowd and toward the bartender.  People parted to let her pass and watched her as she went.  It was at that point Yuffie was sure they recognized her, which suited her just fine.  It got all the pretense out of the way.

            At the bar, Yuffie took a stool and sat down.  The bartender gave her a long stare and stood, arms crossed, cigarette burning in his mouth.  He took it out and blew a haze of smoke in her face.  She coughed and waved it away with her hand.

            The tension had returned, and Yuffie could feel it in her neck.  Everyone around her had shifted collectively, each of them reaching for a weapon.  The bartender stared her in the eyes.  “What do you want, girl?”

            “Another drink and, if you’re open to it, a moment of your time.”  Yuffie gave a smile.  It was easy-going and somewhat lackadaisical considering the situation she was in.  “I’m willing to pay for both.”

            The bartender took a glass out and poured something clear and sour-scented into it.  It poured out the sides, leaving pools of beaded liquid around it.  He shoved it at her.  “There, on the house.  Drink it and leave.”

            “Well, now, that’s no way to treat a customer.”

            He crossed his arms again.  “You’re no customer.”

            “I’m not?  Then, what am I?”

            “W.R.O.” The air tightened further.  All eyes were on her back.  Yuffie circulated through her head the placement of each thug. She accounted for potential movement around her based on the scuffling of feet or particularly heavy breaths.  The bartender, meanwhile, spat.

            Yuffie pursed her lips, bobbed her head, shrugged.  Then, she took the glass and held it to her lips.  The smell was stronger up close.  “You could call me that.”  In her periphery, she could see guns drawn and knives ready.  “You could also just think of it as me being curious.  Actually, it’s better to just think I’m curious, because whatever the case is, I’m going to find out what I want to know, and curious saves you a lot of clean up.  Maybe also a few cracked ribs.”

            “We ain’t afraid of you,” the bartender said evenly.  He leaned forward to stare her in the eyes.  “We killed before.  Even government dogs like you, Yuffie Kisaragi.”

            “Yuffie? Kisaragi?  Me?”

            The bartender gave a scoff and smiled like he was in on a secret.  “Recognized you from the moment you walked in.  All them broadcasts years ago.  Hero of the Jenova War.  Well, you ain’t a hero here, honey.  You’re just outnumbered.”

            “Hm.  Good point.”  Yuffie looked over her shoulder.  “Hear that, Daze.  They did recognize me.”  She leaned forward now, drink forgotten on the bar.  “Assuming I am her—which I am—what makes you think that you can kill me then?”

            “Cause you ain’t never been hero.  Other’s did all the work.  All you did was take the credit.  Now.” He reached into his pocket and produced a pair of brass knuckles.  Flexing his hand, he said, “Finish your drink and get the hell out of my bar before I kill you.”

            “Hear that, D?”

            “Of course, I did.”  Daisy frowned and sighed.  “Reed is going to love this.”

            “We’ll call it self-defense.”

            Yuffie grabbed the bartender by the head and slammed him, face-first, into the glass on the bar.  She gave him another hard strike before kicking back at a man with a knife behind her and punching another nearby.

            Gunfire echoed around her as Yuffie spiraled through groups of people.  She kicked at them, struck at them with her fists, used her momentum to land blows with extra force.  One particularly tall man she tossed over the bar by hooking her legs about his neck and swinging around.

            Smoke filled the room, venting through bullet holes left in the wall as Yuffie darted around.  She disabled a group of men, dismantling their guns as she knocked them unconscious, and soon all that were left were two men, one thin and the other older, carrying a steel pipe and a knife, respectively.  Yuffie stared them down, hip cocked, as she dropped the bits of the last gun she took.

            “You two really think you can win this?”

            “No,” said steel pipe, shaking, “But...”

            “But?”

            “Them was our friends,” said knife, but he said it without feeling.  It seemed to her that a life of crime was only a hobby for him, and then something he only just started doing because his son was into it and he wanted to connect with him, and like this was all a huge mistake.

            “Ah.  Honor before reason.”

            “Something like that.”  Knife took a deep breath to collect himself, and he lunged.  Yuffie hardly had to move to leave him on the ground, his switchblade in her hand, her tossing it up and down while she kept him pinned with her foot.  She looked at steel pipe.  “You give?”

            Steel pipe dropped his weapon and whined.  “Don’t hurt me!”

            “I won’t.  In fact, I’ll let you help me make the world a better place, but...”  She kicked him into a chair, which slid back into the wall, and tossed the blade into the wood just between his legs, pinning the fabric of his pants to the seat.  As she approached, she kicked the blade deeper into the wood and leaned forward on her knee.  “Talk fast or I’ll stomp them to dust.”

            He swallowed, loudly, and began to sweat.  “But I don’t want to be a squealer.”

            “You’ll a squeal a whole lot more if you don’t talk.”

            Another loud swallow.  It almost sounded like he actually said ‘gulp.’

            “What do you know about the materia smuggling going on here?  Who are the dealers? Where are they getting it from?  And if you don’t know, who would?”

            “None of us,” he squeaked, and she shifted her foot.  “W-What I mean is, we ain’t dealers!  We doing running is all, and for someone else.  Big group, led by a man with a mask.”

            “A mask?”  Yuffie glanced at Daisy, who was watching from behind her.  “And who is this man?”

            “I don’t know, but he ain’t just into smuggling.  He’s been doing more, lots more.  Has a whole group of people doing for him but don’t want us in his numbers.  All he wants from us is to move his stuff without getting caught.  That’s it.”

            “And say I wanted to get some materia, how would I get a hold of it?”

            “They don’t hire, but they’s always recruiting.  People who go there, they go normal and come out talking all kinds of crazy.  Say they’re fighting for a cause or some like it.”

            “A cause?”  Yuffie snorted.  “Real original, these guys.  And where do they do these recruitment drives?”

            “All over.”

            Yuffie applied pressure to his genitals.  “Where is that?”

            “Midgar Ruins!  Sector 3!  Tonight only!  Rally!”

            “A rally, huh?”  Yuffie lifted her foot, positioned it between the knife handle and the chair.  With a flick of her ankle, she flipped the blade up and caught it in the air.  Then, she turned and tossed it, hitting a man behind Daisy with the butt of the handle and forcing him back to the ground.  Without looking back at the boy, she said, “You can go.  And take your daddy with you.”

            He and the older man were nearly out the door when Yuffie bid them to stop.  They stood, stiff, and swallowed.  The young man, formerly steel-pipe, now trying to turn his life around, turned.  “Y-Yes?”

            “Just out of curiosity, if I wanted to go to this thing—I mean, it does sound like fun—what is it for?  Who are these people?”

            “Th-the Emerald Lotus.”

            “Emerald Lotus?  You’re sure about that?”

            He nodded.

            She tapped her chin, knitted her brow, and then she laughed.  “Okay.  Thanks.  Have a good day now and stay out of trouble.”

            “Y-you, too?”

            Both men left as Yuffie walked the bar.  None of the men were dead.  She saw rubber bullets scattered across the floor and looks Daisy in the eyes.  Daisy met the look with a frown.  “I brought them because I knew, I just knew, you’d cause trouble.”

            Yuffie shrugged.  They started toward the exit.

            “And what was that ‘stomp them to dust’ crap about?”

            “Something I picked up from Tifa way-back-when.”

            “You people,” Daisy said, holstering her guns and climbing into her car.