Chapter 8.
Vincent Valentine heavy-heartedly opened the door to the stairwell and climbed the stairs. They never seemed so long.
Vincent found himself practically flopping down on the living room chair. President Strife was there, glaring at him, waiting for his report on finding any help to start rebuilding the physical and moral cases of Midgar again.
Wait a minute. *Glaring?* Hm. Maybe he's just tired, Vincent thought. He looks so tired all the time...
"Anything?" Cloud broke the silence with a jabbing question.
"No, sir."
Cloud sprang up irritated from his seat. Putting his hands in his pockets, he hefted himself over to the window and blankly peered out at nothing in particular. "Damn. This is pointless..."
"Sir..."
Cloud spun around, and his eyes were absolutely burning inside his head. What is UP with him? Vincent thought. Is it Tifa? He only gets like this when it's something to do with Tifa...
"Yes?"
"Sir..." Vincent assessed the furious expression in Cloud's eyes speechlessly again, and after realizing his mind was wandering, started his evaluation of the Midgar people again. "Sir, my assessment of the mental mindset of this city is not necessarily that of hatred towards you, or any of us in particular, but a sort of restlessness. A sort of...emptiness, a longing for someone who can show the people their potential. A guide."
"Some have seen you as that, although this city is so overwhelmingly massive, we have been able to expose you to only a small portion of it. We will need to further canvass this city to let them know that Shinra is dead."
Cloud turned his head back to gaze at a bird that happened to light itself on a wire outside. "Shinra is dead...but Wutai is up to something..."
"Sir? You have encouraged us time and time again that Wutai is no threat. Do you really believe that?"
"Wutai as a whole is no threat, I believe. However they still retain powerful magicians. I'm not sure why they would go around destroying random empty buildings when they have so many powerful magicians in their country, though."
"Do you think us aiding Yuffie and Godo in the past has resulted in us shooting ourselves in the foot?"
Cloud really didn't care about Yuffie, or Godo, or Wutai, or his Presidency...not at this point. But there were too many people relying on him to be distracted by his personal problems.
"Yes."
Vincent was shocked that Cloud was so blunt with his reply.
"Oh, don't give me that crap, Dad, I know the Blonde Bomb's got something we want!"
"But dear. We are using tactics that the Shinobi clan would completely disagree with. They are disowning us as they live in Paradise. Let's just concentrate on our own home for once, dear. Shouldn't we have learned that lesson...?"
"Lesson! Chocoboshit on the lesson!" Yuffie let loose her giant shuriken on the helpless target dummy far across the sunny Wutai practice field. It was a perfect throw, AS usual. The dummy's stuffed head was easily separated from the rest of it as her shuriken siced through it.
"But dear...After all, he DID do something with all the materia...it seems all of it has...disintegrated!"
Her jet black hair blew into her face as the gentle breeze flowed in from the mountains high above Wutai, where the gods of Da-chao slept in stony silence. "Which is WHY I want him here. I want whatever he's got. I want that weapon and I want him with it, too. He's the only one that can use it. I was aboard that airship when that materia practically placed itself into the hilt of that sword. I think it still exists and it's important!"
"But using the gods themselves like playthings! We're using totally unnecessary methods!"
Yuffie managed to stop throwing the shuriken and level with her father. Just for a moment. "Daddy...," she began, helplessly looking for words to convince him. "Daddy...our people are happy. They are secure in your leadership. They're confident that the world isn't going to be blasted into smithereens by some falling rock from the sky. But daddy, they are not proud!" She gestured with her hands into a pleading gesture for the first time in her arrogant life. "Daddy, your people, OUR people, are not proud. They need desperatly to see your magic powers and those of the other magicians in the town. They need to be able to say to people," and she put a fist to her heart to emphasize her point, "'I am Wutai!' and see the respect and awe in that other person's eyes. Please, daddy, don't waste this opportunity. This is our last chance to go from a tourist city with a leader that noone realizes the powers of to a...city that knows where it's pride springs from!"
Godo considered her speech for a moment.
"Daddy, I think the gods of Da-Chao would forgive us. In fact, they would do more! They would crown us! Crown us and Wutai as the great nation of warriors we should be regarded by the word as!"
Godo was about to buy into the theory.
"But we need that guy and his weapon and whatever that thing in his weapon is...for US. We need control over whatever he's got. Da-Chao will undoubtedly help us."
"Fine, dear. Do whatever you need to do. I put you in charge of the plan to bring that young man here."
Yuffie gave a sly smile with a glint in her eye after picking up her weapon again. "Ya sure, Pops?"
"Well, I won't last forever. You have to have some experience directing Wutai's actions. This is a start."
"Great! Daddy, you're pretty good for an old geezer!"
Godo was...errr...glad to recieve the compliment.
Yuffie threw her weapon a few more times as Godo left her to practice alone. Yeah. He put me in charge to bring Strife over here. HA! She thought as she left the shuriken loose one last time at the nearly destroyed practice dummy. The shuriken sliced through the torso of the dummy and it fell limply to the ground in half.
"Put me in charge, he says!" she finally said out loud as she mocked her father to herself. "Ha, Daddy...what do you think I've been doing for the past couple months already?"
