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.

Emerald Crisis--Final Fantasy VII--Disc One, Mission 6

Midgar Region: W.R.O. Hunter’s Lodge\

            Yuffie returned late in the evening, squinting as she approached.  The airfield surrounding the Lodge glowed in the twilight, pale ghostly bulbs that illuminated the stirring dust.  The rain had soaked her through and she shivered in her approach, feeling more sick and fatigued than she had been before she left.  More than that, she felt despondent, disconnected from the world and from herself.  Aside from the storm, she was accompanied only by silence.

            At her approach, she noticed something wrong.  There were black helicopters settled on the field and soldiers moving about.  In the distance, she saw them moving, precisely and strategically, in small squadrons.  She paused and kneeled down, watching their movements.  The rain had covered their approach.

            The lights dimmed and flickered before going out entirely.  In the distance, she heard an explosion and felt it rumble in the ground.  Yuffie cursed to herself and ducked down further, approaching carefully in the fading light.

            The Emerald Lotus had been quiet since the attacks.  The interrogation of Hollis hadn’t turned up much, from what she knew.  Files on him told of a North Corel survivor turned mercenary.  He had as much reason to hate Shinra as anyone else in the world, and he told them that the W.R.O. was nothing but history repeating itself.

            Lotus himself was a complete mystery.  Theories in the mess hall had said that his trail went cold in the old Midgar sewer system.  The attack itself had been planned for months before.  The threat wasn’t as new in the making as they thought.  It had been a wound festering for years.

            This new attack led Yuffie to know something else: the parade was a feint.  Edge was terrified, and the W.R.O. was just as shaken.  It all proved to Yuffie that the Emerald Lotus was on no one’s side, but they still seemed to be gaining support.  New people disappeared each day.

            She stopped behind a steel crate outside of the building and ducked beneath it.  She took the time to check her phone but found no signal.  The Emerald Lotus was being careful here, but this sort of interference wouldn’t be permanent.  They were moving quickly and striking quickly, and then they would be moving back out.  Inside, she spied the emergency lights coming on, their red glow appearing in flashes in through open doorways.

            She took a deep breath, and she charged the front door.

            Smoke filled the halls.  Gunfire echoed around her.  Yuffie could see only by the flashing of the emergency lights, which blurred everything into a haze.  She sprinted first toward the infirmary, to check on Daisy, but she found no one there.  The room was as empty as the halls were.

            She left the infirmary, going deeper into the facility.  The Lodge held only one thing of worth—the materia vault.  If the Emerald Lotus were attacking for any reason, it would be for that, she was sure.  She found the stairs and took them down.

            The first floor of the Hunter’s Lodge—basement 1—was the entrance.  It was a web-work of offices.  The second floor, deeper below, held the more secured parts of the base.  The prison was down there, and so was the vault.  Buried beneath concrete and steel, it was the safest place within miles of Edge or Midgar.

            She came to a stop, kneeling beside a stairway wall and peeked out.  The holding cells were one way and the vault the other.  Smoke and flames rolled away from the vault and poured down the hall, and she could see flashes of green uniforms moving among the chaos.

            Another deep breath.  Yuffie doubted Lotus would be there himself, but she knew Hollis would already be free.  The vault was under attack, too, which also meant he wouldn’t be alone.  It occurred to her for the first time in her life that she might want to wait, leave the trouble for someone else, but she didn’t like the thought.  She pushed it away, focused on the task at hand, and fingered the throwing knife in her belt as she turned the corner.

            Entering the vault, she stepped over two broken bodies of W.R.O. soldiers.  The smoke helped to hide her approach, made it easy for her to move.  The first Lotus soldier she struck didn’t have time to react.  Yuffie had their arm behind her back and their head against the wall in a matter of seconds.

            A second soldier nearby reacted to the subtle noise their partner made.  They had their rifle up as she approached, but Yuffie seized them, hands on the soldier’s shoulders, feet planted into the soldier’s chest, and flipped them overhead and into a nearby wall.  They landed heavily, unconscious.

            Yuffie adjusted her grip on her dagger before she rose.  Stopping beside the vault, she looked in and found Hollis inside, flanked by three Lotus soldiers.  Materia was scattered around them, glittering in the dim light.  Six more soldiers inside were, busy loading materia into large trunks they had brought with them..

            Hollis snorted a laugh and turned.  He had his big arms crossed over his chest.  There was a wild look in his eyes.  “Well, well, look who’s here.  Hey there, girly.  Thought you’d still be in intensive care.”

            Yuffie winced.  Seeing him made her body ache, her stomach tense, but she forced herself to stand straight.  “I was getting a good rest, but I heard all the fun down here and thought I’d join in,” she said, flashing her dagger as she entered the vault.  “Things are getting out of hand though, big man.  Get back in your cell.”

            “Ms. Kisaragi, I thought I told you to leave.”

            Yuffie went stiff, her throat tight.  Reed entered behind her, his suit jacket open, revealing a black vest beneath.  His neat hair was a mess, and there was blood splashed across his face.  An electric rod sparked in one hand.  A bracer of materia gleamed on his wrist.  “We’ve been compromised,” Reed said, looking past her.  “The W.R.O. will be here soon, and we’re not equipped for a full battle.  Take what we have and go.”

            “Wait,” Yuffie said, looking between them.  Her eyes fell on Oliver, waiting in the hall way, who stared fixedly back at her.  “Wait...”

            “I’ve waited so long for this,” Reed said.  Lotus soldiers filed past the two of them.  Hollis lingered in the hall, beside Oliver, staring back at her.  The two of them left then, while Reed undid the cuffs of his jacket and tossed it to the floor.  “I’ve always hated you.  Hated your impulsivity, your insubordination, and your insistence on getting mixed up in everything around you.”

            “Traitors.”  Yuffie breathed the word.

            “Pick yourself up, Kisaragi.  Now isn’t the time to cry,” he said.  “I want to break you—kill you at your best!”

            Yuffie’s disbelief turned to anger.  She glared.  “The only thing you’re going to break is your hip, old man.  Now, get out of my way.  Oliver has some answers to give.”

            Reed gave a sour smile.  The materia on his wrist glowed brightly.  “You always did have a smart mouth.”  The rod in his hand sparked again as he gripped it tight.  “Time to teach you some respect.”

            He struck first, swinging his rod swiftly, stabbing it forward.  Flashing arcs of light danced along the shaft.  Yuffie ducked under the rod and then rolled across the floor, evading a spreading tide of flame that followed her.  Heat washed over her back.

            She jabbed at Reed and swiped with her knife, hitting only the air.  He sidestepped and brought his rod around in return.  They danced together, stepping through flame and debris, narrowly missing with each strike.  He landed a punch on her cheek, and she kicked him hard in return.  They parted, smiling

            Yuffie felt her tender cheek and grinned.  Reed growled in response, hitting the floor and sending a sheet of white ice spreading across its surface.  Yuffie leapt over it, landing steadily as the flames were swallowed.  Steam and smoke choked the air.

            They met again.  Reed blocked two jabs and caught Yuffie in the stomach with his rod, sending a shock through just after she escaped. Before she could retreat completely, however, he caught her again in the stomach with a sharp kick that knocked her into the wall.

            She grabbed his ankle as he tried to retreat and pulled him back toward her, forcing her knife into his shin.  He screamed and as he was tipped back, falling flat on the ice with her landing on him, her knee in his stomach.

            Wheezing, he rolled away, leaving his shock rod and clutching his gut.

            “I’ve fought worse than you as a kid.”

            Another growl, and he pushed off the ice, swinging with a wide haymaker, his bracer sparking.  Yuffie pulled back, watching his fist glide by, and punched him again, this time in the nose.  She felt the cartilage give.  Warm blood spread across her knuckles.  Yuffie shook the blood from her fingers as he retreated to the wall.

            “You bitch,” Reed shouted.  “I will kill you!”  He reached for his bracer only to find it gone.  Yuffie smiled back at him, holding the bracer up for him to see.

            “Looking for this?  Geeze, seems like you’ve grown senile in your old age.”

            “You...”

            “Me,” she said.  “What, Reed, did you forget who you’re fighting?  Let me remind you.”  She dropped the bracer, stopped smiling, and stared him hard in the eyes.  “I am the single white rose of Wutai, the hero of the Jenvoa War, and I just kicked your ass.  I am the Great. Ninja. Yuffie.”

            Reed stared a moment, and then laughed.  He laughed so hard that his entire seized, and he held his stomach, laughing and laughing until he started to cry.  “You?  You’re nothing but a fool.  The biggest fool I’ve ever met!”  He scooped up a materia from the floor, smiling with blood in his teeth and dripping from his lips.

            The air went tense and smelled of tin.  Yuffie dipped down and sprinted across, her feet leaving prints in the melting ice.  Heat moved through her, as a tickle of energy moved up her arm in a flash of light.  She leapt through it, sailing through the air, and landing in his chest knee first.  Bone gave, and so did his body.

            The materia hit the floor and rolled to a stop at a far wall.  Yuffie held him, braced against the wall, wheezing and twitching as the electricity teased her nerves.  A deep breath, and she dropped him to the floor and kneeled down beside him.  He was unconscious, breathing shallowly, and he was broken, not her.

            He wheezed beside her, slow and steady, and she was glad for it.  She hated him, but she still wouldn’t have like to see him die. She stood, and grabbed his bracer on the way out, and she sprinted down the halls, to the stairs, and up toward the surface, where Oliver and Hollis were making their escape.

-Disc One-

            Towers of smoke suffused the air, the wind stirring them into a murky cocktail that darkened the sky.  Clouds parted to reveal a helicopter settled on the asphalt, Lotus soldiers hauling enormous trunks into the interior as well as bags from other soldiers that were working elsewhere.

            Yuffie ran as hard as she could, her lungs burning from the smoke.  She was halfway to the helicopter as it started to lift, smoke swirling around it, fire writhing and swelling.  The anti-air turrets burned like beacons in the darkness.  Two more helicopters, white in color, hummed in the distance, making their slow approach.

            Screaming, Yuffie touched one of the materia fixed to Reed’s bracer and drew power from it. She hurled a ball of flame high up and it broke harmlessly against the helicopter’s underbelly, causing it to sway in the air but doing little else.  She ran hard, bent her knees, and jumped, letting one of her own materia carry her through the air.

            The wind whipped at her hair and she landed in the open doorway of the helicopter.  Two soldiers drew guns on her, but she had her protection spell ready before landing.  She ducked around, kicking one out and disarming the other.  A safety cable caught the first, while the cold steel of the helicopter interior caught the other.

            The helicopter rocked as she fought, stirring her stomach.  The glow of her materia faded.  Hollis sat back, crouched in a seat, watching with a smile.  His big body took up more room than two people would, and when he did rise, she could feel the vibrations of each footfall passing through the steel.  “Knew we couldn’t trust Reed to finish you off.”

            Oliver caught Hollis by the shoulder and pulled him back.  “No.”

            Yuffie braced against the interior walls and tried not to vomit.  She watched the two of them, watched the joy drain from Hollis’ face, the anger and disappointment that took its place.  There was a brief disagreement, and Hollis backed down, letting Oliver step forward to meet her.

            He looked her in the eyes, appearing almost sorry, and then pushed her out with his foot.  His movements were gentle, tender, without hate or malice, but she didn’t have the strength to hold.  The movement of the helicopter had sapped everything from her.  She fell, limp, and watched the helicopter disappear into the darkness.

            Just before landing, she conjured her protection materia to soften the blow.  The pavement broke, but she held together.  Only the wind was knocked from her as she recovered.

            She laid there a moment, on the hot asphalt.  Fire and smoke rose and spiraled as she listened to the whipping of the Emerald Lotus’ helicopter disappear, replaced by the approach of the W.R.O.  Vaguely, Yuffie thought she could hear Daisy calling for her, but she didn’t have the strength to respond.

Emerald Crisis--Final Fantasy VII--Disc One, Mission 2

Midgar Barrens: W.R.O Hunter’s Lodge\

            Outside of Midgar and only a few miles shy of Edge was the Hunter’s Lodge, the unofficial name for the W.R.O. Materia Hunter’s base of operations.  It was a small, squat Shinra military bunker abandoned after the Jenvoa War.  Like all things Shinra, the W.R.O. picked it up and repurposed it.

            From a distance, it looked like a series of square buildings dug into the dusty red earth of the Midgar wastes.  Since moving in, the Hunters had done little to repair or upgrade the exterior walls, leaving them wind blasted and worn.  The interior had been left in similar disrepair, save for a vault built into its base where materia is held before extraction to the W.R.O. HQ building.

            Hunter philosophy was that every base is disposable.  They are a nomadic force, moving where the trouble was.  A central base of operations, while logistically sound, was financially unreasonable considering how small the Hunter force was and how frequently they moved. 

            Despite their humble foundations, the Hunters were quite successful.  Everywhere they went, materia smuggling rings were broken down and the materia they coveted and sold was confiscated and distributed to proper authorities.  Dangerous materia was kept off the streets, while medical materia was made readily available wherever resources accommodated.

            Much of the lodge itself was located underground.  Here, a series of tunnels connected rooms that once served as bunks for Shinra soldiers.  They were made into offices for what few onsite Hunter work there was to be done.  A handful of agents stayed, too, rather than pay rent in Edge.  Yuffie originally intended to do the same until Tifa offered her a room.

            Yuffie didn’t visit often.  She found the narrow halls of the Lodge oppressing and the dim lightning worse.  Daisy was there almost every day, to check on new information, resupply, and write reports.  She enjoyed the paperwork, which was why Yuffie worked with her so often.

            Daisy was a few years older than Yuffie, dark-haired, dark-eyed, and gentle.  She joined the Shinra military at a young age, as many people did, with dreams of a better life.  While she was an expert marksman, she never saw combat and was grateful for it.  When she joined it was with romantic aspirations of protecting people from monsters or bringing them the light of industry.

            That didn’t last long.  She quickly learned the true motives of Shinra, and the atrocities they committed, atrocities hidden from the public eye in the name of progress. That was when she filed for a desk job, and she was lucky to get one.

            After the war, Daisy turned her efforts toward rebuilding.  She believed in the W.R.O. and its mission, and since she was a former Shinra soldier, she viewed it as her responsibility to set things right.  Yuffie often reminded Daisy that she was a soldier in name only, but that didn’t do much to ease her guilty conscious.

            They arrived at the lodge in the early afternoon.  The asphalt danced in the midday heat.  Yuffie nearly fell from the passenger seat in her scramble to get out of the car.  It took everything in her to keep from vomiting again.  The distance between Edge and the Lodge, while short by most standards, was another reason Yuffie didn’t visit often.

            She was still nursing an upset stomach on the way in the front door, and Daisy was good enough to help her along.  They took a series of long, winding corridors with bare, chipped walls to the cafeteria.  They had already sent the information to Shelke, but Daisy decided she wanted to visit the lodge to eat and do her own research.

            They had just reached the door when a petite, bespectacled blond woman approached them, calling their names.  “Um.  Excuse me.  Ms. Kisaragi.  Ms. Kisaragi, could I bother you?”

            Yuffie, who had been holding her stomach up until then, leaned against the wall and looked up.  “Canary?”

            “Uh.”  Canary shifted, adjusted her glasses.  She normally worked the front desk, but the girls had taken the back entrance.  She was a mousy young woman who seemed perpetually scrambled.  It always surprised Yuffie that Canary would ever follow the hunters anywhere around the world, but every time they moved, she moved with them.  “Yes,” she said, “I’m sorry to bother you, but Mr. Reed would like to see you.”

            Yuffie sighed and rolled her eyes.  “Oh, great.  What now?”

            “I’m sorry.  I didn’t think to ask.”

            “You’re fine, Canary.”  Daisy helped Yuffie up and took her by the arm.  “Come on, I’ll go with you.  It’s probably about what happened at Wasteland anyway.”

            Yuffie groaned as Daisy dragged her forward.  “Or we could ignore the old guy and focus on our work.  Our real work.  I’d prefer that over his lectures.”

            “He gives us our work, which means that sometimes, our work is to listen to his lectures.”

            “I just want to make it known that I disagree.”

            “Fine. Disagree.  Just do it quietly.”

            Daisy led Yuffie through the halls by the arm.  In the back of the facility, closest to the materia vault, they find the program director’s office.   Mr. Reed was a tall, stout man with a trim beard and short, dark hair.  He wore a fine, blue suit with a light blue tie and polished leather shoes.  His name plate, too, was polished and sat gleaming on his desk when they entered.

            When he saw them, he sighed and showed them to their chairs.  His office, relative to the offices in the building, was larger but still quite small by conventional terms.  His desk was stacked high with paperwork and stuffed with file folder.  He had an older computer purring, loudly, on his desk, which he stared at as they settled.

            “Ms. Gould, I didn’t ask for you.”

            “I know,” Daisy said as she eased into her seat.  She had to force Yuffie into the other one.  “But, I thought that since Yuffie and I are partners, it wouldn’t hurt for me to present.”

            He gave her a long, tired stare, and then nodded.  “Fine, if you insist.”  He stood from his desk and folded his arms behind his back, but only after smoothing out his jacket.  “It won’t hurt for you to hear what needs to be said, I’m sure.”

            Yuffie sat curled in her seat, still holding her stomach.  She watched him pace behind his desk quietly, sorting his thoughts, and when he turned on her, he glared.  “What’s wrong with you?”

            “Motion sickness,” Daisy said.

            “Oh, yes.”  He leaned forward on his chair.  “Quite the agent, aren’t you?”

            Yuffie shrugged.  “Not everyone can sit behind a desk all day.”

            His eyes narrowed, and he stood again and resumed his pacing.  “Enough of that.  Let’s review your work lately, Ms. Kisaragi.  In particular, your most recent escapade, where you involved yourself in a bar brawl at a known criminal location.”

            “Okay, how in the world did you hear about that already?”

            He stopped on point and smiled grimly.  “So, you don’t deny it?”

            “No,” Yuffie said, and Daisy pinched her wrist.  Yuffie recoiled and frowned.  “Ow!  What? It’s not like he would believe me even if I lied.  Anyway, I didn’t do anything wrong.  We were there gathering information.”

            Reed raised single eyebrow.  “With your fists?”

            “Sometimes the only way to get the best information is to beat it out of someone.”

            Daisy pinched Yuffie again and then folded her hands on her lap. “Director Reed, I assure you, in this situation, Yuffie did her absolute best to operate within mission parameters and reacted accordingly only due to a shift in said parameters.”

            “So you’ve said before,” Reed said.  “You said it during the car chase through Edge.”

            “What,” Yuffie said, “Was I supposed to just let them escape?”

            “You said it during the warehouse fire in Wutai.”

            “Hey, turns out fire materia makes things burn.”  Yuffie nudged Daisy, who glared at her.  “I’m right here, aren’t I?”

            “And you said it in Junon, when she got drunk and captured by the enemy.”

            “Okay, now that,” Yuffie paused, “That was not my greatest moment, but we made it out okay, didn’t we?”

            “And there is your problem, Ms. Kisaragi.  You always make it out.  You rely on others to clean up the messes you’ve made, and you always end up making it out with the story, don’t you?”

            “I don’t think that’s a problem,” Yuffie said, leaning back in her chair, crossing her legs and arms in a sulk.  “You just want to string me up.”

            “Sir,” Daisy interrupted, with another glare at Yuffie.  “With all due respect, I was on each of these operations and was just as much involved as she was.  So, why am I not being reprimanded like she is?”

            “Because, you’re solving the problems your partner causes.” Reed sighed.  “Which is commendable.  But, were it not for her reckless behavior in the first place, you wouldn’t need to clean up after her like a mother with a child.”

            “Sir, again, with all due respect, I don’t think that’s fair.”

            “Oh, it’s definitely not fair,” Yuffie said, her body sinking into itself in an effort to keep from throttling Reed.  “What would be fair is if he focused on his paperwork and left the real work to professionals.”

            “Professionals.” Reed laughed.  “You mean childhood materia thieves turned ‘heroes’ because they knew the right people.  That sort of professional?”

            Yuffie stood and glared with balled fists.  “And where were you during all of that?  Hiding and cowering with everyone else?”

            “I was working with the Director to evacuate people from the city, what you were supposed to be doing rather than floating around with your friend, Mr. Valentine and taking credit for his successes.  But that’s what you do, isn’t it?  Throw yourself into the middle of things and claim victory after it’s all over.”

            “Sir,” Daisy said, but she was cut off by a glare from him.

            “Listen, Ms. Kisaragi.  You are a member of the Hunters, which is a W.R.O. operation.  We are not at war with monsters anymore, and we shouldn’t act like it.  Your actions don’t save the world.  They just cause trouble for the organization at large.”

            “I stop bad guys!”

            “You cause property damage and hurt people in the name of your own personal crusade,” Reed said.  He held her gaze, even as she glared at him, and met it with a glare of his own.  “According to officers on the scene you were threatening the young men at the bar.  And what did you get for it?”

            Yuffie prepared to move on him but felt Daisy grab at her wrist.  She took a deep breath.  “Well, sorry, but we got information.”

            “And I hope it is worth the trouble that it has caused for the W.R.O. and the peacekeeper wardens.”  Reed stood tall and adjusted his jacket again.  Then, he pulled out his chair and took a seat.  He returned to his computer and started filling in paperwork.  “I just wanted to warn you, Ms. Kisaragi.  I won’t be overlooking your antics anymore.  What good will you had coming into this is all used up and the Director can’t protect you forever.”

            Yuffie scoffed.  “Listen, I’ll worry about that when you actually get the guts to stand up and take a shot.”  She turned to the door and yanked it open.  “Come on, Daisy, we’ve got work to do.”

            Daisy stood and bowed to Reed.  She muttered an apology before turning to chase after Yuffie, closing the door discreetly on her way out.

-Disc One-

            Yuffie led them down the hall until it became clear that she had no idea where they were going.  Daisy took lead then and led them through long, dark hallways to Lodge’s cafeteria.  On the way, she glared back at Yuffie over her shoulder and found the shorter woman walking with her arms behind her head, pretending to nonchalant.

            Yuffie met her gaze.  “What?”

            “You.”  Daisy huffed.

            “Listen, D, I didn’t say anything to him that he didn’t have coming.”

            “He’s your boss, Yuffie.”

            “He’s your boss,” Yuffie said.  “I’ve been at this way longer than he has.  And besides, he’s a jerk.”

            “You push his buttons.”

            “He pushes mine.”

            Daisy stopped at the cafeteria door and had her hand on it when she turned to face Yuffie.  Her other hand rested on her hip.  “And you don’t even try to make it better.”

            “He’s a paper-pusher.  I’m the one doing all the real work.”

            “You are the one who’s making all the real work harder for all of us,” Daisy said.  “Whether you realize it or not, we all aren’t heroes from the good old days, Yuffie.  Some of us haven’t saved the world three times over and are just trying to do the best we can now, and we can’t do that without resources.  Resources that he is in charge of procuring.”

            “I…”

            They entered the cafeteria and come to a stop.  Across the room, sitting alone with an open folder and a tray in front of him was Oliver Sykes.  Daisy went quiet when she saw him and smiled faintly as he made eye contact with her.  He waved them both over.  “Well, hello, you two,” he said as they approached.  “I thought I saw you around here.”

            “Oliver.”  Daisy adjusted her jacket and tightened her ponytail.  “Yeah, we’ve been, um.”

            “Arguing,” Yuffie said, slumping down at the table.  “We’ve been arguing.  And heya, Oliver.”  She reached forward and took the fruit cup from his tray.  She had the lid off and the fruit halfway into her mouth before he could speak.

            Oliver was a good soldier, quiet and industrious.  He worked alone most of the time, and even when on a team operated largely in isolation.  For those reasons, he got along well with Yuffie.  Neither intruded on each other’s efforts.

            He was also quite easy on the eyes.  Though short, he was stout and had eyes so green they looked mako-infused, save for lacking the signature glow. Even without that sort of enhancement, he could hold his own in a fight, too.  Yuffie had seen him spar with other soldiers and was impressed.  He won far more often than he lost.

            As they settled, Oliver shut his folder and set it on the seat beside him.  He took off his glasses and tucked them into his shirt.  “What were you two arguing about, if I may ask?”

            “The usual.  Reed’s up my ass, and Daisy thinks I should let him make home there.”  Yuffie poured the rest of his fruit cup into her mouth and then tossed the empty remains onto his tray.  She caught Daisy staring and lifted her eyebrows in response.  “What?”

            “Anyway,” Daisy said, sighing her frown away.  “What were you working on? We’re not interrupting, are we?”

            “No.”  Oliver smiled, and it showed his dimples.  “No, just found some smuggling in the Kalm area.  It’s nothing major, but I’m looking into it.  How about you two, how did last night go?”

            “Smooth,” Yuffie said.  Daisy gave her another look, and Yuffie met it again.  “Seriously, what?”

            Daisy rolled her eyes.

            “Daisy stepped into steal the spotlight, as usual.”

            “So, she saved your rear,” Oliver said, and Daisy laughed.

            “Sure, you can call it that if you like.”  Yuffie leaned forward and, without him noticing, took his roll from his tray.  By the time he realized what she had done, she had eaten half of it, so he sighed in defeat the slid the rest of his food over to her.  She responded with a cheeky grin.

            “Anyway, today we followed up on a lead,” Daisy said.  “Which, in turn, led us to another lead, which is why we’re here.”

            “Doing research,” Oliver asked, leaning forward on his elbows and doing his best to ignore the way Yuffie ‘ate’ his food.  He wasn’t sure she even chewed.

            “Grabbing lunch,” Yuffie said between bites.

            “Yuffie has Shelke doing the work,” Daisy said.

            “You know, you always say that with a tone.  Like you don’t approve.”

            “That’s because I don’t approve.”

            They looked at each other, and Yuffie shrugged.  “If you have a resource, why not use it.”

            “She actually has a point,” Oliver said.  “What’s your lead for, anyway? If I may ask.”

            Yuffie gave a great big swallow. “Some guy over at Wasteland dropped a name,” Yuffie said.  “Emerald Lotus.  Sound familiar?”

            Oliver paused, scratched his chin, shook his head.  “Nothing. Sorry.”

            “Damn.”  Yuffie burped and shoved the tray away while Daisy grimaced.  A chime sounded from her bracer, and she stood from the table with a half-wave and skipped across the room, finding privacy near the awning overlooking the barrens.  She stared out the window, at Edge rising in the distance. “Well, hello.”

            “Yuffie Kisaragi.”

            “Who else would it be, Shelke?”

            “I have information for you.”

            “On the Emerald Lotus?”

            “What else would I call you for, Yuffie Kisaragi?”

            “Sarcasm,” Yuffie said, smiling.  “You may yet become a real girl after all.  So, tell me something good already.”

            “The Emerald Lotus is a type of medical plant found in the Wutai region.  In small doses it is known to have regenerative effects, though ingestion of its leaves can, in large doses, cause minor auditory or visual hallucinations.  This is caused by…”

            “Shelke.  Shelke!  I know this already.  I’m from Wutai, remember?”

            “Yes,” Shelke said, “In ancient Wutai cultures it was adopted as a symbol of both regeneration and metaphysical ascendance. The oldest texts sometimes use it to symbolize rebirth.  According to the myth of…”

            “Shelke, do you have anything about the Emerald Lotus that I want to hear about.”

            Shelke paused for a moment.  Yuffie heard typing, clicking, and then, “An anti-WRO organization calling itself the Emerald Lotus has become very active in the Midgar region in the past two years.  It is believed that they began as a group of small-time crime rings focusing on minor criminal activities such as extortion, bribery, and materia smuggling.  Recently, however, while crime has reduced sharply, the severity and scope of crimes committed has increased proportionately.  That is to say, they are becoming organized.”

            Yuffie glanced back at where Daisy and Oliver were flirting.  “Anything else?”

            “Their influence is growing.  It seems they’ve become quite influential in the Kalm area and even reach Junon.

            “Kalm, huh?”  Yuffie stepped outside, into the fresh air.  She breathed deep of it before leaning onto the patio railing.  “And what exactly is their beef with the WRO?”

            “Official transcripts of captured and interrogated members claim their leader, calling himself only Lotus, is against any form of larger, extranational governments.  He speaks loftily of an anarchist society of equals, living with absolute freedom, free from government oversight and uses lingering fears of Shinra to gain support.”

            “Sounds like scum.”

            “Perhaps, but his organization is growing quickly.”

            Yuffie nodded.  “People are still scared of all that crap, especially with the Deep Ground stuff only a few years back.  Anything else?”

            “The Emerald Lotus are holding a rally tonight, in the ruins of Midgar, sector four.”

            “Sector four.”  Yuffie stood from the railing and returned inside.  “Sounds like I’m taking Daisy somewhere nice tonight.”

            “Be careful, Yuffie Kisaragi, and contact me if you need anything.”

            “We’ll keep you posted.  Thanks, Shelke.”

            “Yes,” Shelke said, and she cut the call.

            Yuffie returned to the table and stood quietly, hands on her hips, smiling until Daisy and Oliver acknowledged her.

            “Uh oh, Daisy, that looks like trouble,” Oliver said.

            “That is trouble,” Daisy said, and she crossed her arms.  “What did Shelke say?”

            “She said that you need to dress up nice, because we’ve got two tickets to an Emerald Lotus rally in sector four, but they’ve got a dress code.  Bummer, but she thinks we should crash.”

            “Does she think that, or do you,” Oliver asked, and Yuffie shrugged.  Oliver shook his head.  “Didn’t Reed just get onto you for sticking your nose into this?”

            “Oh, yeah,” Yuffie said thoughtfully.  “Huh.  Guess I forgot about it because I don’t care?  Yeah, it’s probably because I don’t care.”  She looked at Daisy.  “You in?”

            “I’ll be there,” she said, and Oliver shook his head again.  “What can I say? She’d be lost without me.”

            “Aren’t you the martyr?”  Yuffie waved and turned to leave.  “I’m going to train until then.  You two lovebirds have fun and Daisy, sweetie, I’ll see you tonight.  Don’t leave me hanging.”

            “I’ll be there,” Daisy said, and she waved over her shoulder.  When she turned back to Oliver, she found him frowning.  “What?”

            “She’s going to get you killed one of these days.”

            “No,” Daisy said, and she laughed.  “She’ll get herself killed long before that.”

The Ruins of Midgar: Sector Four\

            Daisy drove them to the outskirts of Midgar, with Yuffie hanging, half-sick, over the side of the car.  They stopped just outside of the sector-four fence, half-flattened during meteor fall and blackened by the heat of the Sister Ray’s backfire.  Parts of the chain link had melted away altogether.

            Massive spires of debris gleamed in the sunlight and jutted from the earth, remnants of crises past.  Every sector bared their scars proudly during the day but seemed haunted by night.  Yuffie considered that perhaps nausea was influencing her perception and could find no argument to the contrary.

            They parked in the shadows, among the debris, and then waited for nightfall.  Both found disguises.  Yuffie work a dark jacket with her hood up and a pair of loose pants belted tightly around her midsection.  Red-tinted shades completed the ensemble and effectively covered her face, or so Daisy claimed.

            Daisy wore a bright green vest over a tight black sweater and a pair of brown pants with deep pockets.  She kept small two small sidearms attached to the vest and kept her vest zipped tight.  Like Yuffie, she kept her face covered with sunglasses and also wore a big, brown hat with the bill angled low.

            The remaining streets of sector four were long, narrow, and littered with decay.  Up close the fractured remains of the plate towered over them, gleaming faintly where the moonlight touched them and crusted in dust farther below.  Bones lay scattered around them, tattered clothes hanging from some.  The air smelled strongly of oil and ruin.

            Yuffie kept her eye down as they passed.  Daisy grimaced at their surroundings before turning her attention ahead, at the lights appearing in the distance.  “That must be where the rally is.”

            “Must be,” Yuffie said quietly.

            “Now, don’t look anyone in the eye.  And don’t talk.  You’re famous in all the wrong circles, so they might recognize you.”

            “Daisy, please.  I know how to infiltrate a place.  I’m the great ninja Yuffie, remember?”

            Daisy sighed.  “So, you keep saying.”

            “What?”

            “Nothing, nothing at all.  Just be careful.”

            “I feel like you’re talking down to me.  Listen, just because I get motion sickness—a lot of people get motion sickness, you know.”

            “Yes, yes,” Daisy said.  “It’s not the motion sickness.”

            Yuffie stopped and lowered her glasses to reveal a glare.  “Then what is it?”

            Daisy stopped, too, but she shied away.  “It’s that, sometimes, in your excitement, you can sometimes be a bit, well, theatrical.”

            “Name one time, ever, that I’ve been,” Yuffie made quotations marks with her fingers, “Theatrical!”  Her fists came to rest on her hips as she really gave herself to the glare.

            Daisy sighed.  “Nevermind,” she said, and she hurried forward.

            Yuffie followed shortly after, saying, “Hey!  Don’t you walk away from me,” but Daisy did just that and ignored her.

-Disc One-

           

            Up close the lights were blinding and gave off a great deal of heat.  A stage had been set up, freshly built in an area cleared of wreckage.  Enormous chunks of steel—remnants of the upper plate, Yuffie was sure—were stacked high around it for added privacy.  Standing out front were two guards, both wearing dark green vests with a golden emblem across the chest.  The emblem was of a flower.

            People gathered in the clearing, pooling before the platform.  They talked quietly in the dusty heat of the night, their voices amplifying each other and creating a thunderous murmur.  Yuffie approached confidently, with Daisy trailing, and they passed the guards without issue.  Inside, they hugged the rear and talked in hushed whispers.

            “Think this is the place?”

            Daisy nodded.  “It couldn’t be anything else.”  She looked back at the entryway.  More people were following them in.  They seemed to appear from the darkness, coming from all sides.  “This isn’t some small gathering.  Look at the headcount.”

            “Yeah,” Yuffie said, grinning.  “Been a while since I fought an entire army.”

            Daisy frowned.

            “I’m kidding.”

            “You better be.  We’re here to gather information, nothing else.”  She whispered this with as much authority as she could, which wasn’t much.  There were people around her on all sides.  Increasingly, it was growing harder and harder to keep their conversation private.

            “I know, I know, and I’ll get it done.”  Yuffie pointed at herself.  “Ninja.”

            Daisy’s frown deepened.  “It’s a good thing I brought my guns.”

            “Oh, you worry too much.  Now, go.  We shouldn’t be seen together.  Pretty girls like us, we’ll draw attention.”

            “Be. Careful.”

            Yuffie grunted and slipped into the crowd, disappearing among the bodies.  She found a place upfront and surveyed the stage.  It was stable but shoddy, thrown together from the mess that was there, she was sure.  The lights buzzed, but the loudest sound was the whirring of the generators powering them.

            From the corner of her eye, Yuffie spied Daisy in the back.  Attendees were still gathering but there was little room left.  Anxiety moved through the crowd like static.  Everyone was one edge, excited to hear what the Lotus had to offer, each interested in the cause.

            Yuffie was anxious to hear it, too.  She gave furtive glances at those around her, nodded gently when she made eye contact, and she did her best to be discreet without being suspicious.  The people here wanted the same thing as her—to see what the Emerald Lotus was and what it would do.

            The only difference was, Yuffie planned to stop them.

            As she listened, Yuffie learned more of the people gathered there. Each had complaints about the W.R.O. and voiced without restraint.  There was no fear there, no fright that they might be heard.  Every word was met with agreement or else parroted by others around her.

            The people here didn’t like the W.R.O. or what it represented.  They viewed it, at best, as an inconvenience and, at worst, just another Shinra.  Every aspect was criticized, including the Materia Hunters, and at times Yuffie found herself agreeing.

            Under W.R.O. rule the distribution of materia was tightly controlled.  These efforts were intended to curb the usage of dangerous materia.  After Shinra’s fall there was so much chaos.  People who had been stripped of freedom, some kind and some cruel, found themselves without shepherds in the storm that was the new world, and in such times people grow wild.

            Some of the things Yuffie saw in the field justified the Hunters for her.  She found rings of women ensnared by manipulate materia and used for unspeakable acts.  She found fire or lightning materia weaponized by thugs and criminals who were harassing local towns.  In one particularly gruesome case ,a Wutai veteran was murdering tourists to the area by using ice materia to freeze them alive and watched the life leave them slowly.

            But the people didn’t know about that, and they never would.  W.R.O. politics was built around order, and anything that spoke any sort of failure on their part was kept quiet.  Worse still, were some of the policies instituted that the people did know about.  Most notorious was the cure materia shortage.

            After Shinra’s fall, materia became a commodity.  While materia occured naturally in nature, much of the materia bought and sold was manufactured and distributed originally by Shinra itself or otherwise mined by them.  Without Shinra there to produce the raw goods, the stock dwindled and could no longer meet demands.

            In short, there wasn’t enough cure materia for everyone.  The W.R.O. solved this problem by tightening control of cure materia and then cutting distribution altogether.  They set up clinics, which were free to start but operation costs were too steep.  A cost was instituted to pay working operating these clinics, and soon after prices increased.

            Soon, the W.R.O. clinics became one of the biggest money-makers for the para-military organization, and they were also one of its major public faces.  Among this crowd of refugees and rebels who feel betrayed by the new government, the clinics were also an example of everything wrong with the W.R.O., and listening to their complaints, Yuffie couldn’t find herself disagreeing.

            Still, despite her understanding, the complaints eventually bled together into a cynical white noise.  She stayed close to the stage and stared straight ahead, waiting for the real Emerald Lotus to appear.  The people around her were prospects and that meant, from her experience, they were about as close to the actual organization as sand was to glass.

            A few minutes passed and then there was movement in the crowd.  The soldiers outside moved in and were joined by other Lotus soldiers.  Over a dozen of them took places among the crowd.  A few worked in the shadows to turn up the lights, and Yuffie could just see them as formless shapes moving in the darkness.

            A group of lotus soldiers stepped onto the stage, led by a tall, thin man with a dark mustache.  They all wore the green lotus uniform, but he has his open, revealing a toned and slightly scarred chest underneath.  He had a tattoo on his left pectoral of a behemoth.

            Mustache took center stage and scooped up the microphone.  He tapped it and listened to the speakers whine.  The people backstage adjusted the audio while the crowd held their ears.  Yuffie winced.

            “Hello, everyone,” he said.  His accent told that he was from Junon, but it was light, which meant he travelled.  He moved easily and with a limp.  Yuffie figured him for a former Shinra soldier.  “It is truly wonderful to see so many of you here, so many who can live with open eyes and opens hearts.  On this site, not long ago, a war was fought with human lives, for human lives.  Shinra monetized us and enslaved us with their ‘mako energy,’ and they burned any who disagreed, and the W.R.O. is barely different.  Same system, different suits.”

            The crowd murmured a polite cheer, and all around her Yuffie could feel the energy changing.  It was hardened and stirred, galvanizing from a disorganized discontent into a focused force. 

            “But tonight, will be the beginning of change, true change.  Tonight will be a revelation!  The Emerald Lotus is here to help you, not to see, but to act.  We will change this world, and we will cut away your shackles and return to you the freedom taken by a money-hungry government that wishes only to control you.  We will show you that your freedom was never truly taken at all, only hidden away behind a mirage of lies and false institutions.”

            A storm of applause greeted this, and Yuffie could feel the bodies around her moving. The lights and heat surrounded and suffocated her as the bodies moved.  They swayed and clapped, and they listened raptly to his every word.

            Silence settled, and Yuffie could hear even Mustache’s footfalls as he paced across the stage.  “I am but a man, as all of you are but men, but together we are more.  The Emerald Lotus is not an organization but a body of people working toward one future, one unified goal—a free world for all.  We are a vision of what could be, of what should be, of the end of a corrupt empire that has grown from Shinra’s ashes,” he said.  “The W.R.O. is a disease and we?  We are the cure.”

            The crowd cheered again and grew wilder by the minute.  Mustache smiled at the chaos he sewed and lifted his hand.  Silence fell, and he lifted the microphone once again to his lips.

            “But I go on.  I am here not to incite you to rebellion—no, that is not my job.  For I am like you, all of you, who have come from broken homes, from broken lives taken from us by the broken people chosen by those sheep too weak to break from the herd, but I was saved, as you all will be, by our true leader, but the one man who hears our voice, who sees our suffering, and who knows how to fix it.”

            Mustache stepped back and extended his arm, and a man appeared from shadows.  To that point, Yuffie didn’t see him, and she was stunned by his sudden appearance.  He moved liquidly from the shadows, draped in a flowing green robes richly embroidered.  He had his hood up, trimmed with golden fabric.  A mask covered his face, expressionless white, with thin, dark slants for him to see from.

            Mustache smiled at the awed silence of the crowd and handed off the microphone to this man, who seized it and stared out at the people.  He rose it to his mask, and he spoke.  His voice was rich and smooth but had an energy to it that bespoke youth.

            “Long ago, before Shinra and even before materia, the ancient people of Wutai used a single flower to cure all of their ails.  It was small and thin, with eighty tiny petals. It grew in the shallows of ponds, floating across the surface like a shooting star and had a blossom in the center of the deepest green.

            “Once upon a time, it was used by men and women of the tribes there to heal wounds and fight disease and, in certain rituals, to give visions of the future.  As time passed, and technology advanced, this practice was left forgotten, living only in myth or parable, but in truth it was once a primary regent in the ancient potions, used to heal small lacerations or ease suffering.

            “That was the Emerald Lotus, and just as it healed, so shall we.  We will cure this world of the lies and corruption that spoil it, and we will lead it toward a new future, one of mended wounds that were once left to fester by corporate greed and hunger for power. 

            “Brick-by-brick, the W.R.O. has recreated everything they destroyed in Shinra, and we have let them do it.  Shinra burned down my home, enslaved my people, tortured my body in countless ways before leaving me to die.  Now, Shinra is dead, and a new taskmaster has risen in its place.  It claims to be different, but I do not see my home returned.  I do not see my family avenged.  All I see are the same crimes committed, but now people accept them with open hands.

            “I am no leader, I am the Lotus.  I am a simple vision, a spirit of righteous change conjured by all of you.”  He pointed to the crowd as he spoke, and everyone held their breath.  “You suffer under Shinra’s ghost no more.  The W.R.O. uses honeyed lies to hide their poison, but you will not swallow.  The seeds of rebellion are planted and ready to flower, and it is our hands which will pluck the ripened fruit and eat of it freely.

            “It is for you that I exist.  I am a simple Lotus, waiting in the water to be consumed by a sick and dying world, by a sick and dying people.  So, trust me, trust in the vision I give you and, fight alongside me.  For only if we fight will we be truly, truly free.”

            There were no applause, not even a cough.  When Yuffie turned to see the crowd, she found them in awed silence.  They didn’t simply watch him.  They worshipped him.  They saw in him everything that the W.R.O. promised but failed to be.  They saw in him every complaint, every hunger, every pain, and every hurt, and they saw in him the way to take it all away.

            “And now the sad truth.  We are fighting a war, and we are fighting it to the death.  The W.R.O. has grown fat and drunk on its power, and it does not want to let go.  There are those so indoctrinated that they willingly let these slave-masters leash them like dogs and parade them about, eating scraps discarded from the table because they lack the resolve to rise and take them for themselves.

            “Violence will happen.  It is unwanted but inevitable.  Words have not worked and will not work, not against those so sick with greed that they cannot hear.  The pen is no mightier either, for our enemies can see only the gil they stand to make, not the text which we write.  No, weapons will be our font, and our message will be left in flame and in blood.  This flesh is necrotic, and we must cauterize it before we can heal.

            “So, we fight.  We take our futures from those who would shepherd us against our will.  We wage this final war, and we free ourselves from the cages built around us long ago.  We become the heroes they claim to be, the heroes we were always meant to be, and we tear down this wall of lies so that we can truly, finally, see reality.”

            He went quiet again, and this time they cheered.  It was a sea of flailing limbs and Yuffie spied Daisy in the back, looking pale and frightened.  They made eye contact, and Yuffie was sure she looked the same. 

            The two of them traded nods and Yuffie sunk into the bodies.  She moved smoothly through the masses and stopped only when the crowd went quiet.  Lotus was speaking again before she could turn.

            “I am glad that I have your support.  Now, for the first step.  Before we fight, we should send them a message.  A declaration of war, and I know just the message to send.  Yuffie Kisaragi, if you could help us with that task.”

            She froze and stared into his mask, and she could almost feel him smiling.  The bodies around her parted, giving her a long, narrow view of the stage.  He watched her, microphone to his mask, stone-still.

            “I knew you were here,” he said.  “How could I not recognize you, hero of the Jenova War, supposed savior from the meteor fall, leashed and collared and trained to attack on command.  Have you come here today to sniff me out?  To devour me before we devour your beloved master?  Are you afraid I might share the valuable materia that you have worked so hard to keep out of the hands of those who truly need it?”

            Eyes were trained on her now.  The soldiers in the corners had left their post and were moving through the crowd.  The bodies around here went still, stiff, all watching with her uncertainty, in awed fright.  They shifted only as they were shoved about by the enemies moving through them.

            Yuffie tugged her hood back and tossed her glasses to the ground.  “You know, this is embarrassing.  I get recognized everywhere I go.  Price of being famous, huh?”

            “Must be,” Lotus said.  “Why are you here, hunter?”

            “Just taking a look at your little club here.  I was thinking of joining, but I don’t like the outfits.”

            “Ah.  But you stayed long enough to memorize the faces of those here so that you can take our families from us as we sleep.”

            “Please,” Yuffie said.  “You’re painting some kind of picture here, but you’re not a very good artist.”

            “Art has always been subjective,” Lotus said.  “But, enough.  We know your rhetoric and I know your rules, and I will not be subject to them.”

            “No, you want to play by your own rules, get everything in the world without a care for the people it might hurt.”

            “I want only to do what is right, based on my own conscious and not on the pockets of those who would make me their slave.  I will not bow to some new dictator, nor kiss the boot of one who kicks me down.”

            “I’ll be kicking you in a second.”  Yuffie noted how the crowd was thinning around her, how the soldiers were making wide circles about her, ready to strike but afraid to make the first move.  “Listen, all of you.  The W.R.O. just wants to help.  It just wants to create order!”

            “And why does the W.R.O. have to create order?  Why can’t we do that on our own?  Why do they need to control how we live?”

            “Oh my-You’re ridiculous, you know that?  You’ll just take anything I do and say and turn it against me!”

            “Easy to do when you’re so wrong,” Lotus said.  “But, I understand.  You’re a good dog.  Reeve has you well-trained.”

            Yuffie growled.  “Keep talking and you’ll see just how well-trained I am!”

            Lotus laughed.  “And what will you do?  Assault me, as you did the patrons of the Wasteland?  Look well, everyone, this is the W.R.O.’s true face.  Force in the face of opposition.  If you can’t buy them, then you intimidate them.  The problem here is, Yuffie, I am not afraid of you.  And I will not bow to anyone.”

            “Oh, I don’t know.  I think I’ll have you on your knees in a bit.”

            Yuffie charged.  The soldiers around her broke holding pattern, but they didn’t know how to move.  They were hesitant and slow, and they could do little more than watch from the sidelines as she made her approach.

            At the stage she jumped and flipped through the air.  At apex, she pulled a materia from her pocket and felt it draw from her body.  A spark of electricity jumped from the sphere and made an arc toward Lotus.  It died before reaching him.

            He stood still and watched her descent.  She drew a knife from her other pocket and brought it down toward him but hit empty air.  He side-stepped the attack and kicked her hard in the chest, knocking her from the stage and onto her back on the ground.  She used the momentum from her fall to roll backward and onto her feet, and she staggered to a stop.

            Lotus watched her from the stage.  In one hand he held the microphone.  In the other, he held a small handle with a little red button on the end.  The button glowed dimly beneath the floodlights.  “Surprised that your materia failed you? Don’t be.  We’ve found a solution to our materia problems, one which will level the playing field.  We call it a materia jammer.  When activated, all materia within a fifty-foot radius is rendered useless.”

            Yuffie scowled.  “Doesn’t matter.”  She yanked her jacket off and dropped it at her side.  “I don’t need materia to knock your ass up and down that stage.”

            “Yes.  You’re quite the fighter.  Overcame the five gods of the pagoda on your own.”  Lotus tossed the jammer to a tall, dark woman standing nearby and then dropped the microphone.  He leapt from the stage and landed ten feet away from her, staring into her eyes.  “We’ll see how long you last.”

            Yuffie threw her dagger, and he kicked it away.  He undid his cloak, revealing a loose, black gi underneath, and folded the cloak carefully before leaving it on the stage.  When he turned, he still had his hood up, and he tucked it into his mask before meeting her eyes.  “Yuffie Kisaragai, daughter of the great Gotoh Kisaragi, leader of the Wutai, highest of the five gods.  I had thought you were better than this.”

            “I’m just rusty.”

            “Let’s give you incentive then.”  He pointed to the corner and Yuffie saw Daisy standing straight, her weapons discarded.  A blonde stood behind her, eyes glowing green and holding a sword to Daisy’s throat.

            Yuffie sighed.  “Really, Daze?”

            “Yuffie, I’m sorry!”

            “Yeah, yeah, just sit tight.”  Yuffie widened her stance and turned back to Lotus.  “I’ll mop this guy up quick.”

            Lotus laughed.  “You think highly of yourself, don’t you?”

            “You’ve done your homework.  You should know.  I’m an old veteran.”

            “Yes, you were.”

            “Oh, man, am I going to enjoy punching that mask into your skull!”

            “Then do it.”

            She charged again and swung hard, but by then he wasn’t there.  He moved a small, discreet circle around her.  She met him coming around, bringing her left fist back at him, and he ducked under it.  This continued, strike and evasion, strike and evasion, looking almost like a dance.

            Yuffie stepped in, tangled her right leg in his, and tried to punch for the head, but he caught her by the fist and twisted her around.  He moved to pin her against the stage, but she twirled in the air and used her momentum to twist his arm back.  Flowing with her movements, he spun, too, and then kicked her in the side, knocking the air from her.

            She stumbled into the stage and glared at him.  The blow was glancing, and adrenaline kept her going.  She was hurt, but it was mostly bruised pride.  He was smiling behind his mask, she was sure.

            He bounced on his feet and laughed.  “Weren’t the people of Wutai supposed to be good at hand-to-hand combat?”

            “Shut. Up!”  Yuffie kicked high and missed wide.  She spun on heel and kicked overhead, and Lotus caught her by the ankle and threw her to the ground.  She landed in the dust and rolled to a stop before pushing off and continuing her assault.

            Her next swing landed her in his grasp.  She drew another knife and swiped at his face.  It left a shallow scrap across his mask.  He moved too quickly, too fluidly for her to pin down, and at this point it was becoming clear that he was toying with her.  He tossed a handful of dust into her face and twisted the dagger out of her hand.

            She staggered back, coughing and rubbing dust from her eyes, while he walked a small circle around her.  He held the dagger between his hands, regarding it casually as he spoke.  “Truly, I am disappointed.  After all, you were a hero.  A legend.  Or so you remind people but, it seems, like most legends, you’re mostly fiction.”

            Yuffie’s eyes burned, but she was angry, so she swung wildly.  Each time she could feel his body just outside of her reach.  He moved around her, but his presence remained static, and it kept her swinging, kept her mad.  Finally, he stopped retreating and met one of her swings with a kick to the gut.  This one hurt for real.

            “Or, maybe it is that your time in captivity had dulled your fangs.  Have your masters pampered you with shiny things?”

            “Big talk for someone who is doing nothing but dancing around my attacks,” she coughed.  “What, afraid to break a nail?”

            “Yuffie,” Daisy shouted.  “Don’t!”  The woman behind her had adjusted the blade.

            Yuffie saw Lotus look back, and then look forward again.  “Fine,” he said.  “This game has gone on long enough.  Watch, everyone, as I end a legend.”

            He made toward her, and Yuffie dug in her feet.  Years ago, before the Hunters were put together, Tifa helped Yuffie to sharpen her hand-to-hand combat.  They studied together, and Tifa taught her a secret that no one else knew.  It was a part of the school of martial arts she learned as a teen.

            The attack was called the school’s Death Blow.  It was a forced critical strike.  To do it right, Yuffie had to wait and put all of herself into one blow.  The attack was to be swift and discreet and, if she was lucky, it would end the fight immediately.  The key was stance and force.

            If it hit, the damage would be catastrophic, and Lotus would be eating his mask.  If it missed, then Yuffie would be wide open and without time to react.  Either way, the battle would be over.

            She could hardly see him, but she could feel his approach, hear his footsteps.  When he was closed, she aimed for his chest.  She took a small step with her right foot, and she braced herself.  With both hands, she struck with lightning force, and she hit nothing.

            He danced around her again, grabbing her by the arms and redirecting her energy.  She couldn’t react in time to stop it and found herself being thrown, face-first, into the stage.  Her nose cracked and flesh parted.  Blood gushed and filled her mouth.  It painted her chin red.

            She spiraled around toward him and didn’t respond until he landed a blow into her gut.  She backed again, into the stage, and then pushed off without thinking.  She couldn’t breathe and her legs were giving out.  She fell into him and felt pain in her left shoulder.  He had sunk the dagger into her.

            Lotus held her up, one hand under her right arm and the other holding the dagger.  He released her and let her fall into the dirt, where her blood was pooled.  He stood over her, covered in blood that, briefly, she thought might be his and then reality caught up to her.  She coughed and stared blindly into the inky black sky.

            He leaned over her.  “I won’t kill you, because I have a message,” he said, and he stepped onto her face and pushed it into the blood and the dirt.  “So, listen, and listen well.  Tell them that I am coming, and that there’s nothing they can do to stop my revolution.”  He pulled his foot back and kicked her.

            Her head jerked to the side and the world spun.  A trail of blood was spread around her.  Everything was glaring and white, and then her vision started to fade.  The last thing she saw before she blacked out was Daisy with a blade sticking from her gut.