" 'Till The End " By Luke's Dragon
A/N
One of my favorite parts of FFVII was the start of Disk2 where Cait Sith and Yuffie rescue Tifa and Barrett from Junon. We didn't see much of what Yuffie was thinking (Like most of the game) so I decided to do this fic to explain what might have been going through Yuffie's mind during the mission.
Disclaimer
I don't own Final Fantasy VII, which is the property of Squaresoft. I wish I owned Yuffie, but sadly she is a made up character in a computer game so that's out of the question. *Sob Sob*
The Song Yuffie sings is "Bye Bye Now My Sweet Love" by Bonnie Tyler. Hey guess what? That's right it isn't mine either.
~~~
Yuffie Kisragai was not a happy ninja as she struggled into the third disguise of the morning. So far she had tried dressing as a medic, but one too many nurse jokes from Cid had put paid to that idea, the second plan had been a Shinra uniform which had not been an option. The third disguise was as a television reporter; it was the best of a bad lot although she wasn't that sure that anyone would believe it. There were very few sixteen-year-old reporters with a Wutai accent wandering around Junon, but still there seemed to be little choice in the matter. Yuffie was also wondering why the group had to steal a van to travel around in, and why they had let Vincent drive. Feeling thoroughly travel sick she checked her materia, wishing that she was somewhere else, preferably somewhere without a van, without Shinra and most importantly somewhere she was not going top get killed saving someone she didn't really like.
It had been less than a month since her life had been turned upside down, a month before she had met Cloud. Now her she was trying to sneak into one of the most heavily defended places in the world to try and save her rival, and Cloud, well who knew where he could be now. It seemed like so much more than six days since that fateful day when Sephiroth had claimed the Black Materia, since Weapon had been freed, since she had lost Cloud. Muttering a curse that Cid would have been proud of Yuffie slammed her fist into the side of the van. There was no use in thinking like that. She knew it was a dreadful thing to think but she had been secretly quite glad when Aeris had died. How awful was that? The last of the ancients dead, no hope to stop Meteor and she was happy because it meant she might have a chance with some guy with a smarter sword than he was.
As the van clattered along the winding, bumpy track from Midgar, Yuffie tried to focus on the mission to try and get her mind off the fact that she felt that any second now she was going to throw up.
"Vincent! Can you go a little more carefully?" She was sure that he was doing it on purpose. Come to think of it he had been acting even more mysterious than usual, still never mind.
"…" Came the predictable response from the driver.
"Why did you have to drive anyway?"
"…"
"You can't drive since you're not old enough, Red and Cid are on the airship, and I'm a stuffed toy cat, so Mr. Valentine here is our only driver" The last thing Yuffie wanted was any more smug remarks from Cait Sith. She had never forgiven him for ruining her date with Cloud at the Gold Saucer, although she was fairly sure that he hadn't thought of it as a date, more something to pass the time until the next battle. Still she had enjoyed pretending even if it was just for a little while that they were a couple.
Muttering something about how it was stupid that it was fine to kill military personnel but not to drive under age, Yuffie returned to thinking, and as much as she tried to focus on the task in hand she kept drifting back onto Cloud. She wondered where he could be right now, there was no chance he could be dead, as Cait Sith had remarked, 'he's harder to kill than a Toonberry'. She really hoped so. If the worst had happened and he was dead, she didn't think any of them could carry on the fight. They needed a leader, they needed Cloud, and she needed Cloud. She wanted him to keep his promise and take her on another date, she wanted to keep traveling the world with him, having adventures and finding new materia. She wanted to win that stupid 'Mog House' game at the Gold Saucer and impress him; she wanted him to tell her that…
What was the point? She knew damned well that Cloud loved Tifa and Tifa loved Cloud. She had known she didn't have a chance six days ago when Sephiroth had been creating all those illusions of their hometown. She had seen all the memories they had together, the way he needed her to be there for him, the way he didn't need Yuffie. It was sad, but it seemed the only choice when all this was over was going back to Wutai. Wutai, with all it's stupid traditions, the place she had left and swore never to go back, and now she had betrayed her friends for Wutai, stole their materia, put their lives in danger all for some stupid town which she said she didn't care about. He'd come for her of course, and that had made her so happy, but if there had been anything between the two of the before hand, there wasn't anymore. She wasn't sure about Cloud but she knew the rest of the group viewed her as being like Cait Sith, a traitor. That was why she was quite surprised that it was she and Cait Sith who had volunteered to go in and rescue Barrett and Tifa. If Cloud was around she could have rationalized it as being to prove to him that she was a part of the team, maybe that was it anyway, when they found Cloud they'd all say 'Hurrah for Yuffie, what a hero'. Somehow she doubted it. To pass the time Yuffie started to sing, it had two functions; it stopped her feeling so ill, and annoyed Vincent. It was an old song, one her mother had sung to her. That must make it at least fourteen years ago, since that was when her mother had died. Strange that she could still remember such a little thing after so long.
// There's no time now you said to be in love
Anyhow what is my life to you
Well there's no point it's true in pursuing you
And it's not that I can or I'd want to
But to be honest I'll say that there have been times
When I've desired a kiss or a smile
And once or twice you've shown the face I like
And it's affected me more than I'd want it to
But what's the use in telling you
If you don't feel the way I do
It's so very wrong to hold a love so strong
And never have the chance to share it
//
Before she could get any further Vincent said "…" which she took to mean 'we're here'.
Yuffie and Cait Sith disguised as reporters walked casually through the streets of Junon, she couldn't help but notice that there were a hell of a lot of soldiers wandering around, if it came to a fight to escape they were going to be in trouble. The plan was that Cait Sith would throw a sleep grenade and rescue Barrett and Tifa who would meet up with Yuffie. She was supposed to scout the easiest route to the airship where Cid would drop a ladder down for them to make a daring escape. Then they would go and find Cloud.
"Cait Sith?"
"Yes?"
"Why are ya doin' this, I mean you work for Shinra an' all"
"It's hard to explain, let's just say I'm not keen on my superiors. Anyway what about you? There's no materia for you in doing this"
"Maybe there's more important things" It was tough to tell if Cait Sith smiled, being a toy cat riding a giant Moogle doll made telling what he was thinking a near impossibility. Still Yuffie was sure he was grinning at her.
"Good Luck Yuffie" He walked away to do his part of the mission. Yuffie wished it were her going in to knock that Scarlet woman out, although she wouldn't have used a sleep bomb, which was probably why she wasn't allowed. Yuffie had persuaded a couple of friends who lived in Junon to act as her camera crew, since she was sure TV reporters didn't walk around on their own. She hated putting people who had nothing to do with Avalanche in danger, but there seemed no other choice. She spotted them stood on the bridge over looking the ocean. Glancing out over the scene it looked as if there was a storm brewing.
After a brief recon mission Yuffie decided the best plan would be to charge down the main street to the airport, with any luck the soldiers wouldn't be able to catch them if they got a good head start. Although she was worried that out running a tank or any of the other Shinra war machines was going to be too much for them. The team which consisted of an out of condition old guy who complained at walking up stairs, a bar hostess whose 'chest' got in the way of running and a stuffed toy. Yuffie checked her Leviathan materia for the sixth time, glad that she always kept it with her. Just as she turned to ask her cameraman what the time was a deafening siren went off.
Yuffie guessed they must have broken out and set off the alarm, telling her friends to get out of here she tried to look as casual as possible as a platoon of soldiers went running up the street right towards where the others would be coming from. She was considering running up to meet them when out of the corner of her eye she saw a huge shape moving quickly from the sea towards Junon, it was Weapon. As what seemed to be the entire army opened fire on Weapon and it returned fire with a terrifying barrage of powerful attacks Yuffie offered a silent prayer to the Four Gods, at least this way the Shinra would be too busy to worry about them.
Just them she saw the sight of Barrett and Cait Sith racing down the street towards her, minus Tifa. She called out to them as they approached her. Yuffie felt uncharacteristically worried about Tifa when they told her what had happened, but there seemed to be no time to worry about that now they had to get to the airship.
Happily they encountered little resistance on the way to the airport, it seemed most of the troops were occupied in fighting Weapon. Yuffie hated to give the Shinra credit for anything but she had to admire the courage of anyone who would volunteer to go up against that monster. Knocking the two guards out of the way the activated the lift to the landing strip and ran, now pursued by the finest troops SOLDIER could send after them. On Cait Sith's instruction they made there way to the far end of the airfield, there seemed to be no sign of Cid or this airship they had been promised, she would at the moment have put up with her airsickness to get the hell out of here. Looking over the edge of the concrete flooring Yuffie noted it was far to high to even consider jumping, but what with the approaching enemies it looked as if this could be a good idea. Barrett and Cait Sith appeared to be having a furious argument, apparently Barrett thought that it was another trick by the cat to betray them.
"C'mon Barrett cool it, why would we have done all this jus' to betray you?"
"Yes, if we were enemies we'd have left you in the execution chamber"
"*&^% Stuck here with a stupid cat and a kid…. Fine but you'd better watch my back 'till the end, partners"
Partners? Is that really what we are? Maybe that's why I'm fighting along side these guys. I know there's nothing in this for me, and I don't have a chance in hell with Cloud, but I'm still here. Still risking my life to save these guys. Well, like he said, 'Till the end. I'll be right here until the very end whether they want me or not. And whether you want me too, Cloud.
She was sure that their airlift would arrive soon, then they could rescue Tifa, much as she hated the idea there seemed to be little choice, and then they could go and find Cloud. It seemed like a good plan, just as long as Cid would hurry up and bring the airship so she could get out of today's adventure alive.