Emerald Crisis--Final Fantasy VII--Disc One, Mission 8

The Ruins of Midgar: Sector 7\

           

Daisy parked just outside of the Midgar.  The ruins towered over them, twisted spires of steel rising and shining in the twilight.  The glow of the sunset casted everything in gold.  Here, the smell of wet stone and rusted steel permeated everything.  It was better than the smoke, or at least Yuffie thought so.

            She took a moment to collect herself before checking her map.  The files Shelke gave her had everything she needed and pointed to the Shinra HQ building, the ruins of which rested high on the upper plate.  Daisy waited impatiently beside her, checking her guns to pass the time.

            “So, what exactly are we looking for,” Daisy asked after a prolonged silence.  Usually, she was understanding to Yuffie’s motion-sickness, but the attack on the Lodge have left her anxious.  When no answer came, she glared over the car at Yuffie.  Yuffie!”

            “Sorry, sorry.”  Yuffie held her stomach and regarded the map pulled up on her bracer again.  “Honestly, I’m not sure.  Shelke did her best with the information, but all I really got from it was that the Lotus would be looking for something here.”

            “And what is it they are looking for?”

            Yuffie lifted her bracer and pointed at a glowing green dot a good distance away from them.  “A secret materia lab, probably filled with all sorts of experimental materia, just like what the Emerald Lotus would be looking for.”

            Daisy took a deep breath and holstered her pistol.  “Okay, that’s better.  Where is this lab?”

            “Beneath Shinra HQ, deep beneath.  Deeper than Deepground.”

            “Great.  And do those files tell us how to get there?”

            “No, but I know how,” Yuffie said, grinning.  She closed the map and pulled a jacket from the passenger seat.  After slipping it on, she led them into the ruins.  Daisy followed shortly after, hugging herself for comfort.

            “This is my first time coming to Midgar, you know.”

            “Really?”

            “Really.  I grew up on an entirely different continent, and when I was a girl, I used to dream of joining AVALANCHE.”  They walked in silence.  Collapsed stone pillar had fused together through impact to form a canopy above them.  The sunlight peeks in through the cracks.  “What about you, Yuffie?  Do you have any dreams from when you were a kid?”

            Long ago, on a mountain overlooking Wutai, Yuffie made a promise.  Actually, it was more a childish proclamation.  Shinra had won the war with materia, so she would take their materia and win Wutai back.  After everything that had happened since then, it felt like a lifetime ago.

            “Most of the files Shelke gave me were corrupted.  Those that aren’t, are way above our paygrade, so I didn’t have the clearance to get them open, but we know one thing about them—Reed could get them open.  That means that they’re related to materia somehow.”

            “Oh.  I wonder why the Emerald Lotus is looking for materia.  What they’re doing, it goes beyond simple smuggling or traditional materia abuses.”

            “Exactly, but if they’re seeking experimental materia, we know one thing.  Whatever they’re looking for, it can’t be good.”

The Ruins of Midgar: The Sector 6 Slums\

            Sector six survived the battle of Midgar but only just.  When the Sister Ray fired, the recoil shook the entire plate.  Debris littered the ruins like little meteorites dropped from the heavens.  Buildings were collapsed from the reverberations, landmark-memories of the catastrophe visited here.

            Residents of the slums mostly relocated to Edge.  Some even managed to turn their lives around.  They found purpose in the hard work required to build the city and, in the effort, were able to rebuild themselves.  Those who lived on the plate relocated entirely, finding home in other cities before their money would mean nothing.

            Those that remained after meteor fall did not let themselves be known.  They stuck to the shadows and lived a quiet, isolated existence.  Some were former soldiers without a war to fight.  Some were Shinra supporters too afraid to meet the public head-on.  Yuffie and Daisy knew they were there, watching, but they saw no one on the empty streets.

            The ruins stank of old fumes and decay.  They climbed a fallen beam and stared across the flattened streets and broken buildings.  It was Yuffie’s first time in Sector Six, but she had an idea of where she was going.  The map on her bracer also helped to keep her on track.  She pulled it up and checked their position, and then she pointed ahead.  “Over there.”

            Daisy wiped her brow.  Though she was healthy, she was also fresh from the hospital.  Her body was still adjusting to the hike.  She straightened her jacket and tightened her ponytail.  “There?  What’s there?”

            Yuffie hopped from her perch and carefully descended the mountain of debris.  Then, she made a swift approach into what was once the famously the Wall Market of Sector Six.  Daisy trailed shortly after.  She took in the collapsed stalls with mild disgust.

            “Really, what are we looking for here that will help us get up to Shinra?”

            Yuffie checked her map again and then took a left on a forked path.  “How much do you know about the Wall Market, Daisy?  More importantly, do you know WHY it was called the Wall Market?”

            “Because of the market?”

            “Because of the wall,” Yuffie said.  She took a right and came to a stop before a solid expanse of steel and stone that towered still.  It was covered in graffiti of all sorts, some works of art, some drunken declarations of love and loyalty.  Yuffie put her hands on her hips and took it in. “Tifa told me that when Aerith was taken by Shinra, she and the others climbed up to the plate from here.  She also said Barret used some weird metaphor, calling some piece of wire a…Golden rope of truth? Or hope?  Anyway.”  She grinned at Daisy.  “It’s our way in.”

            “A wire,” Daisy said, staring at the wall and at the wreckage above it.  She gulped.  “And it goes all the way up?”

            “Yup.”  Yuffie approached the wall and squinted.  She thought she could see something in the dark.  “It’s the easiest way up.”

            “No, it’s really not,” Daisy said.  She tried to rub a smear of dirt from her jacket cuff.  “Listen, there are tunnels, elevators.”

            “And you think those would be easier to climb?”  Yuffie felt for the wire in the shadows.  “There’s no power left here, Daze.  Besides, all of the tunnels are collapsed or under W.R.O. watch.”  Her fingers found something and seized it.  She gave a firm tug and it held.  “This really is the easiest way.”

            Daisy watched Yuffie plant one foot against the wall and start her climb, and she frowned.  “Seriously?  You really don’t expect me to believe that they snuck into Shinra HQ by climbing a cord that went all the way up to the surface.”

            “If it’s so hard to believe, then climb up and see for yourself,” Yuffie said.

            Daisy coiled the cord around her hand and started her climb.  She stared at the wall as she hauled herself up and followed a long, winding crack with her eyes.  It disappeared into the darkness, lost amidst graffiti and shadows.  Above her, Yuffie shook the wire as she made her slow progress.  From where Daisy was, the wall looked endless.  The remains of the upper plate seemed impossible to reach.

            They hugged the cord tight as they shimmied along slowly.  When they finally crested the wall, they saw the Midgar ruins extending out around them.  There was nothing but ruin and wreckage all blurred into the darkness.  From the center, the Shinra HQ building rose from the rubble, still standing despite the horrors visited upon it.  A meteor couldn’t fell it, nor could the warfare that followed.

            The cord held, to the surprise of both women.  Even at its thinnest, it did not snap.  The longer she held onto it, the safer Yuffie felt.  She couldn’t imagine power ran through it either and that only brought her deeper comfort.

            They passed the wall and left it behind, shimmying determinedly through sore arms and sore thighs.  They found respite on a fractured girder at the top and sat at its center, legs dangling between the bars.  Daisy sat on the right, her back rested against its crooked frame.  It would lead them the rest of the way up, Yuffie remembered from the stories.

            The night was bleak and lifeless.  There was no moon, just inky shadows and cold silence.  Yuffie couldn’t see the stars above, but she could see fire pits below.  It reminded her that not everyone left the ruins.  The remnants survived, as they always do, and that night they glittered in the darkness.

            Daisy wiped her brow and hugged her jacket to her body.  She stared out into the night, panting softly.  “It’s weird to think, this used to be a city.”

            Yuffie nodded.  “Biggest in the world.”

            “And now it’s,” Daisy frowned, “This.”

            Yuffie nodded again and lifted one leg.  She hugged it and stared into the darkness.  From where she sat, she could see it, a tiny white steeple with a hole in its roof.  For a long time, it was considered a wreck.  Now, it is the lone survivor.  Yuffie pointed at it.  “See that?”

            Daisy squinted.  “The church?”

            “Yeah.  I’m not sure, but I think that’s Aerith’s church.”  Yuffie looked at the frayed ribbon tied around her right arm.  “She was an old friend of mine.  Of…ours, and she, uh, she died.  Fighting Serphiroth.”

            “Oh.”

            “Anyway, she used to grow flowers in there, way back in the day.”  Yuffie smiled and kicked her foot.  “And flowers still grow there, without anyone watching, even after everything that’s happened.  I like to think that’s how life is.  You see all the destruction, all of the damage Shinra did, to the people, to the world, and it can be hard to remember that life keeps on going like nothing ever happened.”

            “Wow.”  Daisy chuckled under her breath and stared at Yuffie.  “That didn’t sound like you at all.”

            Yuffie stretched.  “Yeah, I must be getting tired.”  She stared up the broken ladder that would lead them to the plate, and she sighed.  It disappeared in the night, but if she stared close enough, Yuffie could see stars between the cracks.  “Still have a long way to go.”

            “Yeah.”  Daisy stared up at the plate, too, and then pulled herself to standing.  She was careful not to mind her footing.  “But we’ll make it.”

            Yuffie pushed up and dusted the rust from her shorts.  “Of course.”

            “Think they’ll be there?”

            “Who?”

            “You know.”

            “Oliver and them?”

            “Yes.”  Daisy stared fixedly at the plate now.  Her features were sharp in the darkness, as was her tone.

            “I don’t know.  Maybe.”  Yuffie shrugged.  “What will you do if he is?”

            Daisy didn’t speak, but Yuffie could see the words written on her face.  It was more than anger, even more than hurt.  It was disappointment and broken trust.

            Yuffie stepped forward and grabbed at the rusting steel.  The outer layer of it turned to flakes in her palms.  She tested their strength before she started climbing.  Daisy was shortly behind her.  “You know,” she said, staring above and wincing whenever the steel turned to dust, “With Reed at least, I always knew he was bad.”

            Daisy groaned.  “No, you didn’t.”

            “No, I did.  Really.  I mean, granted, okay, maybe I didn’t KNOW he was part of the Emerald Lotus.  But, I knew I was going to kick his ass one day.”

            “Please.  You just didn’t like him because he didn’t like you.”

            “Nah, it was more than that.  He was faking from the start, and he was never a very good actor.  He didn’t care enough about people to want to protect them from anything.”

            Daisy hummed.  “I guess that’s true.”  She pulled herself up steadily in Yuffie’s wake.  “You know, sometimes it’s hard to remember that you used to do spy work for the W.R.O.”

            Yuffie grinned down at her.  “Yup, I’m a veteran.  Been there from the start.”

            “Feeling old yet?”

            “Not on your life, but I still wouldn’t mind putting all this Lotus crap into an unmarked grave.  Irks me that they’re using Wutai like this.”

            “Using Wutai?”

            “Their name.  The Emerald Lotus is a Wutai flower.  In the old days, before my dad or even my dad’s dad, people used it as a sort of medicine and for ceremonies and stuff.  And now they’re using it, its image, and its name.  Just another bunch of jerks trying to destroy my homeland.”

            “Huh.  Maybe they think of themselves as the cure.”

            “Sure.”  Yuffie looked down and felt the world spin.  She remembered the assault on Shinra HQ, the stale air feeling fresh against her face when she left the airship, and the uncomfortable buoyancy of the parachute.  It was all a distant memory, but staring down at the ruins, it all came back.  “I’m sure Shinra thought the same thing.”

            “You really think?”

            “Nah.  Maybe in the beginning or something.  They thought they were bringing people civilization, using Mako energy back before anyone knew what it was.  I mean, it was like that when I was a kid.  I used to think materia was the power of the gods, that if I just got enough, I could save Wutai.

            “And there were people in Wutai who wanted them there, who wanted civilization.  They saw their weapons, saw their magic, and they wanted that.  That’s the thing about people with a cause.  You think you’re so right that you can’t do anything wrong, and you don’t even think about the people you step on to get there.”

            “I guess so.”

            Yuffie crested the girder and hopped from the tip to another series of wires.  “And, uh, that was a close one.  Cloud and those guys, they weren’t fighting for a cause, you know.  They were fighting for people.  Ideas, they’re not people.  They don’t have feelings or anything.  You focus so much on them, you forget what the important thing is.  People can die, and it seems to me that no one is fighting for them a lot of the time.”  She paused and met Daisy’s eyes.  “That’s what I think, anyway.   Now, come on, we’ve still got a ways to go.”

The Ruins of Midgar: Shinra HQ\

            A few hours pass and finally, after one last break, the duo reach the top of the plate.  Yuffie pulled herself up and rolled onto her back to stare up at the starry sky, and she had to laugh.  Though the city was in ruin, the skyline has never looked better.  Years ago, as they approached in their helicopter, Yuffie was struck by how dark the sky was—a product of the light pollution, among other forms of pollution.  Now, she could see each star clearly.

            Daisy came to rest beside her, sitting on her knees and panting.  “That—was—quite—the—climb.”

            “Yeah.”  Yuffie sat up and wiped sweat from her brow, but she kept smiling.  She turned to regard Shirna HQ, which towered before them, derelict but standing.  “And now we’re here.”

            They took in the HQ.  Despite years of neglect, despite the many battles fought there, the assault of the Diamond Weapon, the duel between Cloud and Sephiroth, the war with Deepground and Rosso the Crimson’s death, it stood.  Yuffie hated to admit it, but when Shinra did something, they did it well.

            She stood and dusted herself off.  “Come on.  No time to catch our breath.  If we can trust Shelke’s information, then the Emerald Lotus is already here, and the W.R.O. won’t be far behind.”

            Daisy took a deep breath and stood beside her.  Once more, she adjusted her jacket’s cuffs.  “Alright.  Then, where to?”

            Yuffie pulled up the map on her bracer.  “We’ll want to reach the top floor.”  She tapped the holographic interface and moved through the map, analyzing the different halls and stairs and seeking whatever hidden paths the W.R.O. may have already found.  “A while back the W.R.O. found an elevator there and, surprise, surprise, Shinra was keeping even more secrets.  Anyway, from what the records say, it was a materia lab, but the W.R.O. shut it down.”

            “And the Emerald Lotus think there might be something there.”

            “Exactly.  Which means that’s where we’ll find them.”

            “So, how do we get there?”

            Yuffie chewed her bottom lip.  “Well, the main elevator will be busted, which means we’ll have to use the stairs.  Usually, that would mean key cards, but I doubt there’s any power left in the locks up there.  So, we’ll start in the lobby and work our way up.”

            Daisy took another deep breath as she considered the trek before her.  She put her hands on her hips, sighed.  “Sounds good, I guess.”

            Yuffie laughed and nudged her.  “Come on, it won’t be so bad.  Though, we’ll want to keep our weapons handy.  Shinra liked to let their experiments run loose around here.  Last time we were here there were reports of biological weapons roaming the place.”  Yuffie closed the maps and drew her shuriken.  “Which, of course, we didn’t come and take care of.”

            “With no one living out here they probably didn’t see the point.”

            “Still.”  They exchanged glances.  “I think we could do them a favor and kill a few.”

            Daisy drew her guns and flipped their safety.  “The things we do for work.”

            “Just imagine they’re Oliver’s smug little face.”

            “Done.”

            They enter the building and found it in disarray but not entirely in disrepair.  The walls were surprisingly well-preserved, the windows smudged but enduring.  A front desk wound around a central pillar with two large staircases leading up to the next floor, where elevators could take them higher.  Paneled lights hung from the ceiling.

            Despite the dust and darkness, the room was largely undamaged.  Even with the rubble lying around the entrance of the building, this room seemed almost entirely untouched, save for footprints in along the floor.  They looked animal in nature, padded paw-prints of an unknown origin.  Yuffie made note of them and moved forward.

            They followed a nearby map to the fire-exit, where they started the long climb upward.  Unlike the main building, the stairwell was showing its age.  The concrete was eroding slowly and much of the railing was altogether missing.  There were a few places where they had to hop from stair to stair to make it higher.  Yuffie did it with a smile.  Daisy followed reluctantly.

            The higher they we, the more damage they found.  On the way Yuffie found grappling hooks and ropes left by who she assumed to be Lotus soldiers.  They were left recently, much more recently than the last W.R.O. excursion to the area.  There were also footprints, scuff marks, and open doors.  They were searching methodically.

            They moved farther up and found webbing.  Some of it had been cut through already and moved in the breeze.  What was left was thick, viscous, and pervasive.  It was strung across nearly every wall.  They found a body hanging in one particularly voluminous clump in a darkened corner.  They wore a green uniform that had been torn open across the front.  Blood beaded along the silk.

            Yuffie and Daisy shared a grimace and moved on.

            The farther they went, the more bodies they found.  Most were suspended in the air by a liberal amount of webbing.  Some were torn limb-from-limb and partially eaten.  Often times, their weapons were found nearby, held in place by the webbing as if frozen in time.  The smell of blood permeated the stairwell.

            Yuffie covered her nose and kicked one of the soldiers.  They didn’t move.  “Looks like we’re on the right track.”  She glanced back at Daisy.  “Maybe we shouldn’t even be here.  Seems like the monsters are cleaning up just fine.”

            Daisy frowned at the idea.

            “Anyway, let’s keep going.”

            They took a step forward, and then Daisy yanked them back.  Webbing surged from the shadows and spread across the Lotus corpse nearby.  As they fell backward, Daisy grabbed hold of the railing and drew her pistol.  The steel railing twisted and gave, and she fell backward, being caught by Yuffie, who had rolled to a stop just before tumbling over the edge of stairwell.

            A creature stood suspended in the webbing above them.  It was enormous, with eight furry legs and a growth protruding from its abdomen.  Its upper torso was that of a wolf, with a canine snout.  Its lips were curled back in a snarl, its eyes a snowy white.

            “Yuffie, what is that?”

            “Whatever it is, it’s making its home here.”

            The creature twisted and turned.  Its abdomen flexed and webbing rushed forth.  Yuffie shoved Daisy forward and took the webbing to the torso.  The blow was enough to knock the air from her. She fell backward and then hung, body wrapped in a thick blanket of fine, viscous fibers.  She cursed and swayed, staring at the darkness below.

            “Crap!  Daisy, it got me! I’m stuck.”

            “I’ve got it,” Daisy said, and she lifted herself and looked up.  The creature was gone now, lost in the shadows.  She tried to stand but couldn’t move her ankle.  Her left foot was taped to the floor by thick webbing.  It was her turn to curse.  “It got me, too, Yuffie, and now it’s disappeared.  You see it?”

            Yuffie frowned and swayed.  “No!  I can’t see anything.”

            “Well—Wait!”  Daisy rolled to one side and fired up into the darkness, where she thought the creature may be crouching.  A screech followed in the wake of the gunfire and blood spread across the webbing.  The creature fell from the ceiling, landing on all eight legs and lunging forward at her, fangs bared and gleaming.

            Daisy pressed firmly against the wall and fired twice.  It took two bullets to the chest and fell back into the railing, which gave under its weight.  The stone beneath it shifted and fractured.  Its legs scrambled and seized at the floor and when that wasn’t enough, it leapt from the stonework to the webbing across the way.

            “Daisy?  Daisy, what’s going on?  What are you doing up there? Did you get it?”

            “Shut up.”

            “What?”

            “Shut up!”

            “Oh.”

            Daisy followed the creature’s crawl up.  She aimed her weapon and rolled onto her back, her ankle twisting at an odd angle to accommodate her position.  Then, she pulled the trigger once, twice, three times.  She heard a screech and then watched its descent down the stairwell.  Silence followed.

            “Looks like you got it,” Yuffie said as she continued to sway.  She heard it land far below.

            Daisy took a deep breath.  “Looks like.”  She looked down at the webbing on her feet.  “Now to figure out how to get out of this.”

            “I think I’ve got it.”  Yuffie wriggled and flexed her hand.  She managed to touch her shuriken briefly and closed her eyes.  A small flame spread across her torso and parted the web’s fibers.  She nearly fell but caught herself on the very edge of the stairs and pulled herself up.  Then, she held the materia in hand and glanced at Daisy.  “Close your eyes.  And don’t move.  I don’t want to take your foot.”

            Daisy swallowed and winced.  She felt a flash of heat and could see the light through her closed eyelids.  Then, her foot was free.  When she opened her eyes, she found a small amount of webbing still there, crusted to her sock.  She flexed her ankle before standing and then regarded the Lotus corpses.  “Well, now we at least know what got them.”

            Yuffie nodded.  “And we got it.”

            “There may be more, though.  So, guards up.”

            “Let’s hope there’s more.  More of those means less of the Lotus.”

            Daisy sighed.  “I think I’d prefer the Lotus.”

            Yuffie checked her map and nodded.  “Well, we’re getting close. Come on.”

Indigo: Abraham, Preceding the Storm 6th step...Speeding

6^th step…Speeding

            Alexandra Hughes was guilty of speeding.

            In the first week they spent all their time together.  They would go to the diner and discuss art, life, school, and a host of other things Alex didn’t really have opinions on.  In the quiet moments Alex felt a measure of contentment.  It reminded her of home and of better times.

            Two weeks passed and they kissed for the first time.  It wasn’t romantic.  They were in a crowded room, finding privacy in a corner.  Despite the chaos surrounding them, Alex was wrapped in silence.  They stared into each other’s eyes, and their lips met.  Many kisses followed but that was mattered the most.

            Four weeks later, Alex gave her virginity to a girl she hardly knew.  In the aftermath she laid in silence, staring up at the ceiling in the darkness.  Carolyne slept at her side.  Nothing was different and nothing had changed.  The next day the world kept spinning, no course adjustments made.

            Within a month it was over.  Deep down Alex always knew it was inevitable, that they would spark big and burn out quickly, but denial was a powerful drug.  It was for the best, even if she denied that, too.  Sometimes, when crying, she could remind herself that to lose something, you had to have it in the first place.

            Still, denial couldn’t protect her from one harsh truth: she was guilty of speeding, and someday life would catch up to her.

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.”

Indigo: Abraham, Preceding the Storm 5th step...Likes and Dislikes

5^th step…Likes and Dislikes

           

            “Ah-hah! I figured it out,” Ellen said.  It was late Saturday night, and instead of partying or socializing Ellen cleaned the room while Alex lied in bed and stared at the ceiling.  She blurted this out suddenly in the middle of cleaning the sink.  “You like her,” followed shortly after with the accompaniment of an accusatory finger point.

            Alex tilted her head and looked down with precise stoicism.  “I do not.  She’s just a friend.”

            Ellen smiled, her eyes aglitter.  “Please, I see how you look at her.”  She clasped her hands to her chest.  “You should tell her how you feel!”

            “No, I shouldn’t, because there’s nothing to tell.”

            “Oh, don’t be like that, Alex!”  Ellen went back to the sink, but that didn’t stop her from continuing the conversation.  It was mostly to keep her energy under control.  “It’s simple enough.  Just go up to her and say, ‘Hey, I want some boobage, and you’ve got boobage.  So, let me have it!’”

            That managed to make Alex blush.  Embarrassed and annoyed, she flung her pillow down at Ellen, who caught it with her face.  “You are so obnoxious! I don’t freaking like her, okay?  So just drop it!”

            Ellen stopped washing the sink.  Alex avoided eye contact now, and silence fell over the room.  They remained stationary for a few seconds.  Then, quite earnestly, Ellen asked, “Alex, is there someone you do like?”

            “No, not in the least.”

            “Is it me?”  Ellen eyed her suspiciously for a brief second.  “It’s okay if it is.  I mean, I would say no, but I’d be flattered.  Wouldn’t bother me in the least.”

            Alex looked disgusted.  “As if.”

            “Really?  What about Carolyne, then?”

            Now, Alex looked anything but innocent.  “No!”

            Ellen smirked.  “So, I was right from the start.  It’s Shana!”

            Groaning, Alex fell back on to her bed and hid beneath the covers.  “Is there any way to shut you up?”