Silencing the Chaos
Chapter 10
It was almost three o'clock in the morning when Yuffie snuck into Vincent's room. She had swept the house of bugs and made sure there were no lingering spies. By going to bed with their usual routine, any lookouts left by two o'clock.
"Vinnie?" Yuffie stuck her head into the room.
"Come in."
With a running jump, Yuffie dove onto his bed and crawled under the blankets with him. The air was cold and Yuffie was fighting off the sniffles from being in the cold lab all day. It hadn't been exactly what he meant, but he did nothing other than shift to give her more room.
"We can call in the troops," Yuffie said, holding up a small device. "I video recorded Green's speech."
"We have no grounds to stop Phil or James."
"I panned. Discreetly," Yuffie was smug. "I even avoided catching you in the frame, so you can continue doing undercover work."
Vincent's silence was not reassuring.
"Vince? What is it? I don't know what you're thinking. I'm no Chaos."
"Yes, I am grateful you are not."
Yet, he did not speak his mind. Like the obnoxious girl she was, Yuffie started poking and prodding, pulling and pushing at him.
"I'll pull the Protomateria out of you and ask Chaos myself," she threatened, even though there was no way she could inflict that kind of pain on her partner. Not after seeing the state he was in the last time it happened.
"I…want to be selfish."
"Okay," Yuffie sat up, "what exactly does this entail?"
"I want Lucrecia to rest. Properly."
There was a long pause and Yuffie shifted again.
This time, it was to face Vincent where he sat up against the headboard. She used his bent knees as a resting place for her arm as she planted her chin on her fist. She sucked on her teeth, making an annoying squelching sound that caught his attention. She smirked at his glare.
"You going to finish your explanation now?"
"Rest in the Lifestream, without taint."
Yuffie shot away from him; scrambled away off the bed. Horror and shock made her drop her video recording on his bed. She stood, shivering from the cold in her shorts and shirt.
"You…want this? You want them to get her out of the crystal? Do you even know what you're risking?"
"Yes."
"This is more than wanting to give the woman you love the rest she deserves. You want to risk the safety of the world? What about Cloud? He'll kill you if he found out!"
"There is a chance to rid the Planet of the last of the Jenova cells."
"It just gets worse! Now you're justifying! You never justify anything!" Yuffie was pacing.
"Slow down, your breathing and heart rate are erratic."
"No shit, it's erratic, you moron!" Yuffie threw her hands up. It was a good thing she had no weapons on her. Her fingers were becoming itchy. "This is! You! Argh!"
She stormed out, slamming the door.
Three beats later, she came back in.
"Fine! But you have to convince the commissioner. And his word is final."
"I will contact him."
"Leviathan, help us all," Yuffie moaned as she stormed off again, just as angry as before.
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The phone call with Reeve did not go well. And airship with the commissioner and a small army would leave as soon as possible to put a stop to the Revival Project.
Even with Cid and Shin-Ra's advancements in technology, it would still take more than a day to prepare and arrive in Ebony.
That was enough to twist the fate for many people.
No one expected Alexander's theory to work so quickly. Of course, they didn't find that out until later.
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Things spiraled out of control when Reeve infiltrated the entire city of Ebony. People screamed and hid, some tried to revolt. But mostly, they stood, slack-jawed and wide-eyed, as the Overlords were handcuffed and carted off from their luncheon. More staring happened because Vincent and Yuffie were in the midst of it, leading the cuffed men away and ignoring all the yells.
Yuffie sighed after some of the noise quieted down. The WRO agents were doing a good job at creating order, holding conferences and meetings to delegate leadership and break down the Overlord system of the city. Several businesses closed that day. Mostly Phil's. Others sprang up.
"They are a very resilient population," Yuffie commented to Vincent and Reeve. She was finally comfortable again. She had her headband, her shuriken and her ridiculously short shorts.
"So it seems," Reeve clapped a hand on both agents' shoulders. "Good job, you two. Now show me this lab."
"This way, boss man," Yuffie skipped down the road.
"Why the frown, Vincent?"
"She called me that during the mission."
"And it bothers you that she called me that?" Reeve let out a hearty laugh. "She calls all her authorities that, sorry, Vincent."
"Ruby, Emerald!" Yuffie reached the two girls milling in the shade of an awning. "You're free! You can leave Ebony!"
"Actually, it's Rachael and Emily," Ruby grinned. "The bosses hate remembering new names, so their assistants are always Ruby, Emerald and Sapphire."
"I'd believe it," Yuffie retched to the side in mime of what she thought about it. "Hey, hey, Reeve. Can we help these two get jobs later? Newscaster and fashion, right?"
The girls nodded as they turned to Yuffie's real boss.
"Sure. If you think they're good. They did know about the plan, though."
"And couldn't do a damn thing about it, either. But," Yuffie looked over her shoulders to survey the girls with a crooked brow. "You could question them and decide for yourself. They do have to give statements anyway."
"We'll consider it," Reeve waved a couple agents over to take care of Rachael and Emily.
"Hey, Rose?" Emily called out as the WRO members turned away. "Sapphire's still in there. Her name is Sophia."
"We'll find her. No worries."
"Hey!"
"Yeah?"
"What's your real name?"
"Me? I'm the Great Ninja and Materia Hunter, Yuffie Kisaragi!"
Yuffie twirled around and ran to catch up to where Vincent was leading Reeve to the lab.
"So we picked up all three at James's restaurant. Why would Alexander leave the lab?" Yuffie jumped onto Vincent's back, slipping slightly from the unfamiliarity of Vincent's back without his cape. "I would have thought Alexander would refuse to leave."
"The process is long, Phil probably harassed Green into it," Vincent said and waited patiently as Yuffie scrambled for her perch.
"Yeah, I could see that happening," Yuffie chuckled her signature 'nyuk nyuk,' as she pictured it. "Oh, a girl, Sapphire, real name Sophia, is in there. She's Alexander's assistant."
"Will she come easily?" Reeve asked. Yuffie snickered, earning her confused looks.
"Sorry, gutter thought. In all honesty, I don't think so, she was different than the other two. Though, I believe she only stuck with Alexander because he taught her about science. It could be the work, that will keep her."
"Is she crazy?"
"Dunno," Yuffie shrugged. "We're about to find out."
They arrived. The doors were open and WRO members were guarding it.
"On point, Vincent."
Detaching herself, Yuffie let Vincent take the lead, pulling out her shuriken to follow. There was a shower of sounds from the two dozen cocking guns behind them.
"Careful, there's mako," Yuffie warned and fell into step with Vincent.
Vincent lead the way to the back chamber with Lucrecia. At every intersection they felt officers break away to check the rest of the building. It was the very last room in the lab where they stopped.
"Everyone, put your hands up and slowly back away from the equipment," Reeve's voice rang out, surprising several lab technicians.
"What's this? Rose? Mr. Travers?" Sapphire looked up from the mako chamber she was inspecting.
"Sophia, it's alright, just put your hands up and come forward," Yuffie instructed.
"But, Rose, something is happening," Sophia looked at the small window of the chamber, but took a step away at the sight of Vincent's glare and raised firearm.
Yuffie went and led Sophia a few more paces away as Vincent looked into the mako glow.
"Reeve, get your scientists in here, now."
The WRO commissioner came forward to look for himself and immediately pulled his radio out, calling for his science team.
"I can help, Rose, Mr. Travers. I don't know what's going on here," Sophia gestured to the people, then gestured to the machines to say, "but I do know this. I can help."
"Reeve?" Yuffie deferred to her boss. "What do we do? She does know these machines."
"I cannot take the risk. Not with Jenova cells on the line," Reeve said firmly. Turning to Sophia, he continued, "Sorry, dear. It's nothing personal."
"Rose—"
"It's Yuffie, Sophia."
"Yu-Yuffie. I can help. I promise."
"It's not my call. It's my boss'."
"I thought," Sophia looked at Vincent, then Yuffie's clothes and weapon, then at Reeve. Realization dawned on her. "It was all a lie."
"I'm sorry, Sophia. But we needed to stop this. We came for one thing and got something else entirely. Be honest and maybe you can give us that help in a little bit, okay?"
"Okay. Be careful," Sophia called after her as a soldier led the scientist out.
"So what is," Yuffie started as she stepped to the chamber. Peering in, Yuffie paused, looked at the quiet and downcast Vincent, then back inside again. "Holy Leviathan, protect us all."
The crystal had all but disappeared.
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"What are we going to do?" Yuffie sat on a lab table far from the mako chamber, the WRO scientists and Vincent. The question was running through her head over and over. There was nothing she could do. Reeve had given her orders not to enter another agent's jurisdiction in collecting statements and there was no riot control. That left her the choices of twiddling her thumbs or kicking her heels.
At the rate the crystal disappeared, it was only a few hours, tops, before Lucrecia was completely free of the crystal prison. Who knew what the crystal did to her body functions. From what Yuffie remembered, Sephiroth dissolved the mako crystal cocoon and woke up nearly instantaneously. The Black Materia probably had some effect, but that did not exist anymore and couldn't be used as a comparison.
Then there was the issue of whether or not Lucrecia was actually dead. She went into the mako alive and that stopped her from entering the Lifestream. That also meant that if her body could handle it, she could come back. Frustrated with her growing headache, Yuffie scratched her head. She knew she should have stopped it sooner.
If it was up to her, she would have. But it wasn't her call. In a perfect scenario, she would have told Reeve the moment Lucrecia was mentioned and Vincent would have been pulled. They might have stopped the Overlords weeks earlier. They might have protected Lucrecia.
Yuffie buried her head into her hands. She just wanted it to be over. She was tired of being Rose Aoyama. Tired of being so close to Vincent and know it wasn't going to happen. Tired of trying to rival his perfect woman, who was dead. Tired of thinking of "what if's."
A small gloved hand patted her knee. She flinched and kicked, causing Cait to tumble away.
"Ouch. Calm down, lassie."
"Sorry, Cait. You know better than to sneak up on me."
"Yeah, blame my new update. I think it wiped some minor files," the accented cat robot hopped onto the table beside Yuffie.
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to take your report."
"I haven't written it."
"I have recording capabilities now. You talk, I record, it comes out as a written file. Easy-peasy."
"Right now?" Yuffie sighed and looked across the room to where Vincent stood with an avidly speaking Reeve. "Fine, nothing else I can do anyway. I just wanna go home."