IV.
Yuffie lay down in her borrowed bed, pulling the patchwork quilt around her. She passed her fingertips over the various pieces of fabric, fitting into one another like pieces of a puzzle. She wondered if the things that Tifa left in her wake could ever fit together like this, like the gift Elmyra had given to Marlene.
She snuggled into the fluffy down mattress. I'm supposed to be resting, but I just feel useless. She'd emptied her stomach contents as soon as she'd left the tower, and Vincent had insisted she be given a place to lay down while they started to work on Tifa's messages.
Her hand came to a rest on her abdomen. …sometimes I wonder if I've lost it. Or is this just what it's like, to have Jenova cells inside? Is there a barrier? Am I just one of them now?
Should I just be waiting for my time to go crazy?
Sleep was just as much a stranger to her this evening as it had been for the past two months. Laying her head back on the pillow, Yuffie fought her deepest worries and listened to the voices that rose through the not-thick house walls.
They'd stared at the walls of the security room until the luminol went dim. Every wall was the same. It wasn't enough to create one huge, bloody message; it had to be repeated so there was no way it could be missed.
Barret had gone to spend the night at Marlene's bedside; she'd been transferred to the local clinic. He'd given the rest of them the use of his house to rest and regroup. They'd sat down to a meal of bland take-out, and Vincent had convinced Yuffie to get some rest.
Rude sauntered over to the kitchen table that was to be their brainstorming area. He slid his long legs above and onto one of the two thick benches that was on either side. As he did so, he methodically set a bottle of vodka and four shot glasses onto the bare wood surface in front of him.
"I doubt I'll be drinking," said Red XIII.
A shrug. "I'll save it in case I want to switch to something harder." A bitter tone had entered his voice, and he began to pour himself a shot. "Anyone else?"
Two nods.
Vincent seemed to take his for nostalgia's sake more than effect, and Reeve could barely tolerate his. Rude immediately was downing a second after the last drop of his first hit his tongue.
He set the glass down, his brow furrowing. He'd removed his sunglasses. "I never drank at times like these. That was a Reno thing. I needed to do a Reno thing tonight…maybe it'll help me see what happened to him."
Reeve placed printouts of the security room on the table, then added to it images of the Junon holding tank etching. "Here are the notes we took on the letters. We noticed a continuous repeating pattern. Four lines repeated. Three of them contained sentences, and the fourth contains a word or words that we don't know." He placed one blown up image on top of all of them. "Here is the repeating pattern in the second type of etched letters. While you were all asleep last night, I was getting a computer to do some of our work for us. It's why I was awake to take Barret's call."
"What are the sentences?" asked Rude.
"I am alive here, let me out. She says she's coming. There is more than one."
"Who's alive? Where is here? Who's coming? More than one of what?"
"I don't know," said Reeve, " and I think I need another shot."
"What's the repeating pattern within the odd letters? Can you write it down so I may look at it?" Red XIII's tail twitched behind him, leaving patterns of alternating glow and shadow upon the wall.
Rude looked at the blown up image. "O…I…T…A… I…T…E… H…E…N…R… M…T…N…R…R… N…C…H…E…R," he recited as he wrote down the letters.
"So they're not in any sort of word order, correct?"
"Nope."
"And it's not every instance of a particular letter? Every 'E' is not etched in the secondary way?"
"From this picture, it appears random," said Rude.
Reeve recapped the liquor bottle. "He's right. There's not an obvious message that pops up. That pattern repeats, within a pattern of the four lines that repeats…so those letters could very well be part of another message."
"Is it really code?"
"Code or an anagram," said Vincent.
"I'm better with anagrams," Red XIII said. "Pass the paper."
Reeve scrutinized the image again. "I tried to use the computer to crack the code. Unless it's a code of words in the Cetra language or some other unknown tongue, it's not a code."
Rude grabbed another sheet and began to tear it into squares.
Vincent arched his eyebrow.
"I work better with my hands. I'd have asked if there were a word board game around, but then I remembered. We're in Barret's house." He chuckled. "He's got a world of spirit, but I know from some of his memos that language is not his strong suit." He placed twenty-one squares in front of him and copied down the letters.
"I doubt all those letters go to one word," said Reeve.
"Do you think it's a sentence?" Rude asked, randomly shuffling the papers about, hoping that inspiration would strike.
"If the other lines in the glass were sentences…" Red XIII's voice trailed off, his head cocked to the side as he stared at his sheet.
"One line was gibberish as far as we can tell. Also, she's insane." Vincent leaned back, skeptical. "What if it's just 'so sorry, my Jenova now?' or something equally silly and petulant?"
"Can't be. There's no 'S' or 'J,'" Reeve replied, with a grin.
Rude began to pull pieces aside.
"Do you actually have something?" Vincent asked.
"I just decided to pull out simple words I saw. Here's 'in,' and…" He moved some more papers around. "There's 'the.'"
"Pull out 'a' while you're at it, then. Wait! 'At!'"
"At least 'in' and 'the' could be part of a phrase on their own," Rude retorted.
Reeve set his glass down firmly, third shot down. "For shits and giggles, let's see what letters you've got left."
·
Moving "in" and "the" to the side, Rude moved his hand, gesturing to the remainder:
O A R T E R M T N R I N C H E R
·
"Can I pull out a word, can I?" Reeve seemed to be getting closer to the edge of intoxication.
"If it's stupid, put it right back," advised Vincent.
Reeve pulled up pieces of paper. "Ta-da!" Crater.
"How on the Planet does the word 'crater' help us? The one crater we know collapsed." He shook his head. "Pass the alcohol before I slap you."
Rude cocked his head to the side, glancing at the letters left.
O M T N R I N H E R
·
A shuffle. Nothing. Another.
"Give it up," said Vincent. "At least put Reeve's silliness back."
·
N R H O T M I E R N
·
"Wait. I see 'north,'" Rude said.
"Is there an -ern?" Reeve smiled.
"Holy shit." He pulled the letters out. "Look."
IN THE NORTHERN CRATER
"That leaves 'i' and 'm'…'I'm in the Northern Crater'… Or is she?" Vincent consumed another drink of the vodka. "What if it's a trap?"
"If she wanted to kill Barret or me, she probably could have done it while we slept last night."
"She certainly could have found me in Junon," Red XIII added. "Reeve?"
He nodded in response. "Seeing what happened here, and at the lab, I know she could have gotten to any of us if she chose. We don't need specifics, I suppose, since she's not here to ask, but how was Yuffie sure Tifa did something to Cloud?"
"He'd pretty much stated that he was in fear of Tifa as soon as she found him. He'd isolated himself because of it. So when she awoke next to this instead of the man who'd been there the night before…" Vincent pulled out the bloody pillowcase. "She made an assumption. She came to me to prove it right. I can assure you that someone took Cloud's blood to write this message. And in light of all these things, I only have one idea."
"Ideas are good," said Reeve.
A cynical smile. "This one isn't particularly nice. Tifa deliberately left Yuffie alone, despite having the perfect opportunity to harm someone she deems a 'bitch,' at the least. She didn't go after either of you in Junon, but she went after your machine. The brutal deaths in the power plant…the only link is Jenova."
"What about the messages?" asked Red XIII. "Those don't mention Jenova at all."
"She wants to draw us out, to her? The crater could be a trap. But, if Cloud is still alive, it would probably be the only opportunity to save him. Cloud lost a lot because of the experiments done to him. I don't think he's had the opportunities that you've all had since Meteor." Vincent stood up. "Yuffie will go wherever she thinks she will find him, and I will toss my hand in, too. We have to find Cloud…whether it's to save him, or avenge him."
Reeve stood up, smoothing back his dark hair. "Cloud's sacrifice for us all was up there with Aeris', even though he still walked beside us, in the end. I'm with you."
"As am I," Red XIII nodded. "I am certain that Barret will be with us, as well. It looks like this will be the most unlikely reunion."
As the three former members of AVALANCHE moved to leave the table, Rude spoke up from the bench. "Wait." He looked up. "I know I don't have enhanced abilities, and I'm not all that smart. I'm sure from your viewpoints, I'm just someone who lost a lot of fights to you. Yet, I can't rest if I can't solve what happened to Reno and Elena. If this is a trap, I want to be beside you when you walk into that net."
"Bring scissors!" Reeve smiled.
The next morning, six gathered around Barret's kitchen, instead of four. Reeve immediately began to speak. "I made a phone call before I went to sleep last night. Good and bad news."
"Bad news," said Yuffie. "I don't want to wait for the punchline from hell."
"Tifa has apparently already paid Cid a visit. She left her mark on Rocket Town. Only on the shuttle." He nodded to Vincent. "You may have been on to something last night. Cid doesn't think there's anyone who'd been exposed to Jenova in Rocket Town."
"What did the shuttle say? 'For a good time, call Tifa in the Northern Crater'? 'Cloud plus Tifa equals Smiley-Face'? 'Ring around the rosey, die you motherfuckers'?" The words fell out of Yuffie before she could even stop them. She wrapped her arms around herself.
"Wecos."
"Huh?"
Reeve shrugged. "Cid spelled it out for me. W-E-C-O-S. He has no idea what it is, either. He was hoping we would. It happened about two weeks ago, and he'd just assumed it was vandalism. Except for one thing; the message was burned into the side of the shuttle. They've refinished and repainted it already, so there's no point in looking at it."
Barret shook his head. "So y'all sure that this is Tifa?"
"Cloud was convinced that she was very, very dangerous," Yuffie said. "Decide what you want, but I believed him. Especially after…" Her words trailed off, and she shook her head.
"Cid wants us to pick him up before we head off. So I suppose this is last call. Are we ready?" Reeve looked around at his companions.
"Fuckton of ammo for the gun-arm!" Barret gave his trademark pat.
Yuffie smiled, in spite of herself. "I have a case of materia that I acquired lawfully, all for your enjoyment."
"Is it all right that I left the positronic animals at home?" Reeve grinned.
"Perhaps," said Vincent, "if we go in a strong, but cautious team…we may save more than one friend today. We knew Tifa, and the Tifa we knew was not a monster, was not Jenova."
"Save Cloud, then try to save Tifa?" Red XIII nodded. "That should be the plan."
"She may have turned, like Sephiroth, but there was a point where Sephiroth could have been saved, had he any friends."
"Let's go, then," said Rude. "For friendship."
"And hope," replied Vincent.
As the group filed out the door, Yuffie paused.
·
"I know why I'm fighting," Cloud said. "I'm fighting to save the Planet, and that's that. But besides that, there's something personal, too…"
Yuffie bit her lip, listening to his speech. But…all I have is Wutai…and nothing I do is going to help them. It'd probably be better off destroyed.
"A very personal memory that I have. What about you all?" He paused. And met her eyes.
She smiled to herself. So he hadn't forgotten?
"I want all of you to find that something within yourselves. If you don't find it, then that's okay, too. You can't fight without a reason, right? So, I won't hold it against you if you don't come back."
The airship traveled very quickly, dropping off the crew and members of AVALANCHE. Yuffie wasn't sure why she faked her landing in Wutai, staying on that hateful ship as it made its way across the Planet. She felt the Airship come to a stop, hovering near the outskirts of Midgar. The motion sickness passed with the motion.
She realized it, though, as she made her way back to the bridge. Cloud's still here. And he's all alone. However, as she neared the door, she saw someone else walk through it. Someone with long, dark hair. Puzzled, she continued on.
Cloud saw her through the clear panels of the door. He glanced at Tifa, then back at Yuffie. He shook his head, subtly.
That ass! Hot tears sprang to her eyes, as she heard the muffles of their conversation.
"What are you going to do, Tifa?"
"Did you forget? I'm… all alone. I don't have anywhere to go."
This isn't happening. Gawd, I am such a moron! Yuffie ran down to the meeting room and huddled herself in the corner, as the tears continued to flow. He liked you. He even met with you a few times. But Tifa knew him first, and she was the one who saved him.
It's not fair! I'm just as alone as she is, I have every right to fight for…
Everyone was stunned the next morning, when she "came back." She'd never left in the first place. Her home was in shambles, and her own "friends" didn't know she was coming back to join them when they were in trouble. Then, Cloud…
She shook her head. It didn't matter. She didn't have to get anything back, to fight for love.
·
Yuffie nodded to herself, as she prepared to walk out to the Gelnika. For friendship, hope, and love.
And this time I'm not going to leave the Crater empty handed because of you, you conniving bitch.
·
·
AN: I appreciate the feedback! Hopefully I didn't lose anyone here, but I basically wanted to give some working out of the puzzles I gave you within the story. I think at the very end, I'll have a bit of an appendix translating the various Latin bits (including the Ne Memori Facias rewrite), and the reasoning behind each of the three messages that Tifa left in her wake for the rest of AVALANCHE to find.