Author's Note: I guess some of you noticed I went a little MIA over the summer, ne? I deeply apologize for this. Lack of motivation, etc.. Kind of turned into a lazy bum, and went through some life transitions. I'm sorry if you had been waiting at all.
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VII or any of its characters.
The Materia Hunter: Tenth Chapter- Reunited Departures
Mideel. A quaint little town in the middle of nowhere on an island of thick wilderness. You hafta wonder, how does anyone live here? You can't grow anything much to live off of with all the woods around. It must be hard to land supplies, too. A mystery, I guess… Which means.. Let's ask Vinnie!
"Say, Vinnie?"
"?"
"How do people live here? You can't grow anything or land ships and have stuff trucked up to the town."
"The Lifestream is very active here. It makes this island very fertile. Anything will grow here, forest or not."
Huh. Then, I wonder if a lot of Materia grows here, too? Kekekekeke…
"Materia is not in any particular abundance here, however."
Damn vamp read my mind again…
"If you're gonna read my mind, Vinnie, ask permission first!" Or then he'd know that I secretly think he's a sexy man-beast, and that I still have that MP Absorb that I snagged from him back in Wutai….
"As you wish, but I need that MP Absorb Materia back before we part ways. Cloud would be troubled if he found it missing."
Ohhhh myyy gawwddd, does he KNOW how freaky that is???
Suddenly, I feel this odd sensation. I can't quite place it, but it seems to be coming from my butt..? It almost sounds like sniffing—
I turn around.
"AUGH!" A large hairy mound leaps up at me and a floppy sloppy tongue gives me a great huge slurp up the face. Eew. Behind me, Vinnie reloads his gun with an audible click. Why would there be a monster in the town?
"Vincent, stop! It's just a dog!!" Tifa shouts and I hear her running forward. The great mass of hair releases me and sits in front of me on its haunches, panting. It's… just a dog. Heh. I hate dogs. Yuck, dog germs… I turn around to see Tifa with both arms wrapped around and restraining a decidedly annoyed Vinnie. Hee hee.
"Maybe it's good that Spike isn't here to see this… he'd be so jealous," I snicker, eyeing Tifa slyly. Man, I wish I could do that.. wait….no, he'd probably blow my brains out. Never mind…
"Oh? Sure you aren't jealous, Yuffie?" Tifa winks at me, and I nearly fall over. Vinnie raises an eyebrow as he puts away his gun. I can feel the blood rushing to my face again..
"It's not like I like him."
"It is not as if she likes me."
We say this at the same time, earning an evil little "tee hee hee…" from Tifa. Oh, geez…
Up ahead, two old ladies converse in hushed voices, of course, doing nothing to satiate my curiosity… I listen intently… just because.
"-poor kid."
"-got a head of this big spikey hair."
"-washed up the other day, from the Lifestream.."
"-lucky to be alive, the poor guy."
"-funny thing is that huge sword he was carrying.."
"WHAT?" Tifa lunges herself away from us and tears up the road, quickly reaching the women and grabbing one by the shoulders, panic and hope written across her flushed face. "I mean, I'm sorry. Could you repeat that, what you just said? About the boy that washed up here from the Lifestream?"
"Oh! My.. goodness, you startled me, dear." The woman was clearly shaken by Tifa's sudden outburst. "Well, a few days ago, a young man with curiously spikey blonde hair washed up just off the shore. A couple of our fishermen found him and carried him back up here, to the clinic just over yonder." She pointed up the road at a small white building, and Tifa nodded, eyes wide. "The doctor said he had severe Mako poisoning, so everyone assumed that the Lifestream had deposited him out on the beach. Who knows how long he was out there, though… could have been days. Doctor said he's lucky to be alive."
Strangely, I find that I haven't been breathing. I guess I was kinda hoping we'd find Spike… not that I care, it's just that he was packin' some mega mucho Materia, baby! Hahaha….ha…. okay, I give in, I was a little worried there for a sec about him being left in the cave and all that stuff, but it was only a second! A second!! No, half a second!!! HALF A SECOND! ….. Stop staring at me. No. Seriously. Stop itttt. ……. Okay, okay, okay, I was really anxious. Concerned. Worried. I dunno why. Guess we've all become kinda close, gotta stick together, right? Besides, Spike's the team leader. We can't go on 'moseying' without him. And if he died, that would be one less psycho multiple personality disordered crazy nutcase in the world. Which would be bad, because we need them. Why am I explaining myself? Argh. WHY AM I TALKING TO MYSELF? ……. Shut up, me.
"Shutting up…"
Vinnie gives me a look. Ulp.
"Nothin', Vinnie-baby, nothin' at all. Time for a visit to the doctor's!"
"What did you just call me?"
"I called you Count Vincula, of course. Always have. GAWD, you are so ignorant. Let's go already!" Heh, the thing about Vinnie is that I can mess with him all I want, and he's not allowed to hurt me. That'd be SO out of character. Hahaha. Too fun. But it really is unhealthy. I mean, if I had that much self-control, I wouldn't be Yuffie. I'd be "High Princess Yuffie Kisaragi-sama of the Great Empire of Wutai". I'd MUCH rather be the "Sexilicious Materia Huntress Ninja Queen of Mystery and Mummified Jam". Besides, it's longer. And hotter. And cooler. Wait, that makes no sense.
"After you."
He's holding the door open and waiting for me. Sheesh..
"Gawd, Vinnie, haven't you ever heard of the saying, "Ladies first"??"
"?"
"LADIES FIRST. Gawd. So? You go before me! Duh." Inwardly cackling, I take the door from him and shove him inside the clinic.
"Cloud…"
We stand at the edges of the clean white room around a seemingly lifeless figure lying on a cot. Tifa kneels down beside him and lays her ear against his face, shaking her head in despair. Quickly, I go to her side and look down at him, his eyes lightless and glassy, lips barely moving with incoherent speech from deep in his throat.
"He has a very advanced case of Mako poisoning," sighs the doctor, flipping through pages on an aged clipboard with a cracked clip. "I don't know why he is alive except for the fact that he seems to have been showered with Mako in the past, probably from the process SOLDIERs undergo, right? The look in his eyes showed me that, but even a SOLDIER ordinarily would not have been able to withstand such a high exposure. There is something very strange or special or determined about your friend here, but unless he recovers on his own, he may not come back. Mako poisoning is a very strange disease. We don't know a great deal about it. Most people lose their minds at a point." Tifa shook her head again and looked up.
"He'll get through this. He always does."
"Yeah," I chime in, "I haven't known Spike here as long as Tifa has, but I can tell he's one tough cookie." Vincent nods slightly, eyes fixed on Cloud's empty ones, an odd look on his face. If Vinnie has odd looks, that is.
"I'll be out in just a minute, okay, guys?" Tifa looked up with sad eyes, and a pang of something shoots through my heart. Hm.
"Kay, we'll be right outside…" I give her a small smile, and with one last look at Cloud, now completely comatose, I gently open the door to the clinic. From behind, Vincent takes the door from me and waits for me to leave before turning briefly to give Tifa a nod, then leaving himself, shutting the door with a tiny click. Feeling oddly empty inside, I plop down on the ground outside the white building and absentmindedly stroke a patch of crunchy grass next to my hand. Spike… I've never seen him look so weak, so detached, or so hopelessly pathetic. It's the not the kind of pathetic you can laugh at. It's like a completely retarded person in a school, trying to fit in right, but just can't because he's different. Everyone sees how different he is, but can't accept him as even human because of it. Horribly, sadly, helplessly pathetic. That's how Spike is now.
"Yuffie."
I look over at Vinnie, now sitting next to me. He looks as usual, bland expression, but trouble in his eyes. A dark cloudiness behind the feral red.
"Here." He hands me a thin green can, the words "Protein Boost" printed across it in bold black letters. "The nurse said you looked thin and fragile, so she requested that you drink this."
I laugh bitterly. "I look the same as always, but whatever. I bet this'll be gross, though." I pop open the can and take a sip, bracing for energy drink bitterness or medicinal drink chalkiness, but it's sweet and creamy, like a shake. Reluctantly, I set the can down on the ground and stick out my tongue. "Tastes like crap," I lie, making faces. Why I'm trying to hide stuff, I don't know. Don't ask me. But Vinnie the mind reader will get to me, I just know it.
"She was right. You do look thin."
"Psh, liar. Just because my waist is smaller doesn't mean my butt isn't bigger."
He gives me a teensy bit of a sad look, then shakes his head. "I wish you'd take better care of yourself and not try to work so hard while making it look like nothing."
I scowl at him. "What the crap are you talking about, Vinnie, I can't even carry my own weight around here anymore, 'specially now that Spike's out for the count, Ae-Aeris, too." I stumble a bit over her name, feeling the choked up sadness coming back. Forcing it down, I mumble, "…besides, why do you care, you don't even have to be human anymore if you don't want to be." Expecting him to be angry, I turn away, back tensed.
But he isn't angry.
"I used to hate being human. Sometimes I felt like I should have become a SOLDIER instead of a Turk, since they are partly mutated into becoming something else…. not human. Sometimes I would be afraid while on missions, or wouldn't be able to go in for the kill. I always blamed it on the fact I couldn't do anything about my humanity, and I hated it. But now, I'm fighting to hold onto what little humanity I have left. Ironic, isn't it. The fear I used to feel for my life has multiplied, the urge to kill something overpowering, worse than hesitating with my finger on the trigger. But that fear and the need for blood gave me appreciation for the place I am in right now, still able to masquerade as a human, a shred of humanity screaming at me to cling to the people I am close to, so I don't kill them, too. I am afraid for you… Yuffie."
Not too often we get a speech.
"You're like my dad, Vinnie, always telling me that I take too many things for granted. Now I'm taking my own humanity for granted. What am I supposed to say to that? "Gosh, I sure am lucky that I have a normal body to feed and give sleep to." Sorry if I'm sounding bitter, Vinnie, I wish Spike was okay…"
"Yes… His condition is severe. We cannot help him now, however, Tifa would rather fall into a never ending hole than not try to help him, I am thinking.. She would best remain here for a while."
I scrunch up my face. "We're leaving Tifa behind? What are we going to do?"
"We'll manage. There is much to do. We just need to know where to go."
I look away, pouting. I don't want to leave Tifa behind. But… I guess Vinnie's right… She'd rather be here, with Spike. If she came, she'd just worry about him all the time. And then she'd be depressed.
"Hey, Tifa?" I poke my head around the doorway to Cloud's room.
"Oh… Yuffie, it isn't time to leave already, is it?" Tifa looks at me, one hand on Spike's forehead, prominent worry lines on her own forehead. Gawd, she's gonna have a zillion wrinkles by twenty-three is she keeps this up…
"No, actually, we're going to leave you here with Spike if that's okay. We thought you might be better off here so you can monitor his condition, etc, etc.."
She first looks surprised, then all smiley and weird… Oookaay….
"Thanks, Yuffie."
"No prob." I smile back at her, feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. Gross, right? Ah, shuddup, I like it. Hehe.
"See you later then, Yuffie. I'll call if anything comes up."
I give her a devilish look. "Expect me to call first!" I sigh in mock exasperation. "I'm gonna get so frickin' bored with no one but moldy oldy Vinnie to keep me company." Jabbing a finger threateningly at Cloud, perfectly asleep, I let my eyes get big and scary, then say in a low voice, "You'd better get better soon, or I will pull the plug on you for lack of anything more interesting to do… mweeheeeheeheee.."
Tifa laughs, then shoos me off with her hand, "Better get going Yuffie, Vincent's waiting for you out in the waiting room, isn't he? I'll talk to you later. Thank you so much for everything."
"Anytime! Later." I wave, then walk back out of the room, a smile on my face. She's so dedicated to him. If I had to sit all day, watching a person lie perfectly still, I'd be tempted to grab the nearest scalpel and stab myself in the head. But Tifa actually wants to do it. Sheesh…
"Oh, Yuffie." Vincent looks at me as I emerge from Spike's room, blinking. "I'll wait for you outside, the nurse wished to speak with you." He turned and walked out. Inwardly, I was screaming, "NOOO! DON'T LEAVE ME WITH A FREAKY DOCTOR AND HIS NURSE FROM HELL!!" But he didn't hear. Grah. So much for mind reading.
"Your name is Yuffie, isn't it? What a cute name for such a cute girl!" says the nurse in a kind voice with a soft smile on her face. I nod barely, twitching slightly. I. Hate. Doctors. Wahh…
"That man was asking about you," she continued, still smiling. "I had told him you looked malnourished, and he acted worried, so I told him not to worry too much. But that gives you a responsibility, Yuffie. He explained to me that you have probably been under a lot of stress lately, with a lot of action and the death of a friend.. I want you to be strong and make sure not to put yourself under too much strain. Even if you don't realize it, what you seem to be going through is far more than any girl your age ever has to do. Make sure you eat enough, sleep enough, and keep pushing forward, okay? Everything will be alright in the end." Behind the nurse, the doctor types away at a computer, making a strangely comforting background melody of clicking. I don't think I'm doing too much. I've always had to fend for myself, and this isn't much different, I guess. But I did lose a bunch of weight after Aeris died. I didn't want to admit it, and I didn't think anyone would notice if I had dropped a few pounds. Maybe it was because I didn't know why. But… now…
"The man… Vincent is his name, right? He cares about you an awful lot, Yuffie. Even though he doesn't look like the type to show it, he notices when there's something wrong and worries. So make sure you're alright so he won't worry. Is he your brother?"
My eyes widen and I shake my head frantically. Hahaha, if we were siblings… he would have shot himself by now out of annoyance..
The nurse giggles. "Oh, I get it, then. Good luck."
My eyes get bigger. "Huh?? No, not like that, lady, he's way too icky for me!"
She laughed more audibly this time, earning a twitch from my eyebrow. "Icky? I thought he was rather handsome, even if a little vampish. Put him in a nice suit, and I'd say we'd have a few hundred girls lining up for him!"
I blush and look away. "Umm, I'm not really interested.. that's all. Thank you for talking to me though. Take care of Tifa and Cloud for me, and don't let Tifa spend too much time with him.. she might go bonkers after a while. See ya." Keeping my head low, I leave the clinic, the nurse still smiling after me. What's up with her? Scared me.. I mean, I think Vinnie's hot, but not the kind of hot I like… I think. He needs one of those tall, angelic looking girls with perfect blue eyes and wavy light blonde hair that comes down to her butt. That'd be the perfect cliched "dark angel light angel" manga that is the bestseller for five months in the comic book store because the characters are hot beyond compare and everyone just loves them and their quirkiness. Psh..
I meet up with Vinnie and the others at the edge of town, and we venture off back into the woods to get back to the ship.
"Onward, Vinnie, we need to find you a hot blonde chick."
"…….."
Back in the airship, Cid has somehow officially named himself "King Highwind" and is talking angrily with an apologetic Cait Sith. Voices are coming out of his megaphone, so I'm guessing they're spying over there on the Shinra geezers.
"#$#&ing Materia'll be the death of us all, I swear. Where's the first one?"
"Materia? It's so shiny and pretty and powerful, though!" I exclaim, running over to them to listen to the megaphone.
"—we must retrieve Huge Materia from the Corel, Fort Condor, and Underwater Reactor locations. Send soldiers to these areas in case there is resistance. Dismissed."
Huge… Materia?
"$#&#." Cid crushed his still lit cigarette in his gloved fist and threw it to the floor. "Guess we gotta stop them. Where d'ya all wanna go first? Think we should go to Corel first? Or Fort Condor?"
"Maybe we should split up and get both locations at once," suggested Cait Sith. Everyone nods and I think. Fort Condor? Or Corel? Barret's gonna wanna go to Corel, and Cid will probably go with them since they're such buddies, hehe, and I don't want to be stuck with them. Nanaki and Cait might go to Fort Condor. Maybe I should go with them.
"Alright, people, we're splitting up. Me and Barret are goin' to Corel. Nanaki and Cait, you're taking Fort Condor. Vincent and Yuffie, you are going to find this Underwater Reactor. Figure Vincent might be better at that sort of crap; none of us knew Shinra even had a $#&$in' underwater reactor thinger." Cid cursed one last time before lighting up again and making me gag.. "Move out!"
Soo.. I guess I didn't have much of a choice, huh. Did I mention I hate water? On a ship floating on top of it… barfy. Probably the same in a submarine under it…. barfy. I hope, hope, HOPE that there will be no "exciting submarine fighting action" here… If there is, I swear, I will make Cid prematurely bald with the use of my trusty, rusty hidden razor…..hehehe.
Slowly, I saunter up to Cid and go on tiptoe leaning forward so I can speak right into his ear… probably deaf by now because of age, but whatever..
"One day, you will wake up bald…" I whisper eerily, then skip away with a creepy little giggle, his eyes wide and scared. Hahaha. This is fun.
"Hey, Vinnie?"
"?"
"Where are we supposed to go?"
"I don't know.
"Then what do we do?"
"Whatever Cid tells us to do."
"…oh."
I sit down against the wall of the ship as it begins to shudder with the force of takeoff. I hate this airship… ugh.. It picks up speed, and I start rocking back and forth, eyes tightly shut. Underwater Reactor…. Underwater Reactor… HONESTLY! Does that old man wanna KILL ME?! Stupid Cid…
Leaning over a bit, I lurch forward suddenly and convulse slightly, my insides curling in on themselves in a nasty retching rhythm. Underwater Reactor…. Underwater Reactor…
Vincent gets up and walks away. Oh. How very convenient for him. Such a kind, compassionate person. I fold myself up into a Yuffie-ball, face contorted in what is probably something resembling the marriage of a Malboro and a squashed red bean bun. The ship shudders underneath me, and I squeak out a moan. Gawd, it's bad today… What DID I eat for breakfast?! Oh gawd, Underwater Reactor…
"Yuffie."
I squint up through a crack in my arms, tightly gripped around my knees with my face stuck between them. Vinnie's back…. burghh….
Noticing my obvious discomfort and green-ness, he continues without further acknowledgement. "Cait Sith has information concerning the whereabouts of the Underwater Reactor."
I groan, feeling a fresh wave of sick coming on. Really, can't he freaking see I couldn't care about the freaking Underwater Reactor less? Unless it involves me and getting a fifty kilometer restraining order against it…
"Since the security measures are such that only qualified Shinra personnel can enter, Cait Sith and Nanaki have been reassigned to that job, and we are to handle Fort Condor."
I nod furiously. The nausea won't go down, but what a relief… No Underwater Reactor for Yuffie-chan, no sirree. Firstly, there's water. Water does not equal Yuffie's friend. Water equals sea. Sea equals seasick. And seasick equals misery. Not just for me, either, but also for the person who I decide to get sick ON. Which, would have been Vinnie, if Cait Sith had not saved me. I should thank him later. Maybe I'll buy him a bag of cotton stuffing to eat.
"The Fort will be dangerous. There is a battle there. You must be very careful." Three separate sentences. Short, monotone sentences, like as if he was talking about the weather.
"Vinnie, I'll be okay. I won't stress or work too hard or anything, so don't feel like you have to care about how I'm doing or anything weird like that, okay? It's not hard being lazy, right? Hahaha."
The speed steadies. If I was near a window, I'd hurl right here and now..
"I have to care about how you're doing because we are allies, and it is my responsibility to do so."
"Allies? Aawww, gosh Vinnie, don't get all mushy on me now!" Sarcasm.
"…………"
"Ahahahaha…ha.. blearg…" I lay down and roll over onto my side to face the wall. I hate airships. I hate airships. I HATE AIRSHIPS!! And.. did I mention that I. Hate. Airships?
"Do you feel ill?"
"Gee, naw, Vinnie, I'm in the fetal position against a dirty cold metal wall because I think I look sexy like this and am hoping to seduce you so you'll fall in mad monkey love with me. Of course I "feel ill", ugh…. I hate airships more than anything.."
"Take this." Vinnie hands me a small vial with a dozen or so bright purple pills inside.
"Heartburn medicine?"
He shakes his head, "They're for airsickness. The nurse gave them to me."
I eye him suspiciously as I knock one of the pills out into my open palm. "Just how much does this nurse know about me exactly…?"
"We were just talking for a short time."
"Right." I pop the fat purple pill into my mouth and swallow it dry. Ack…
"Use this." A green can flies through the air from Vincent's hand into my lap.
Protein Boost.
"Ugh, this again?" I groan, popping it open a little too eagerly to match my words. I gingerly take a gulp. It just seems wrong to enjoy a protein supplement thingie… Old man Godo used to make me take these chewable vitamins shaped like cartoon characters when I was little, before I moved out. They were awful, tasted like shit. But this is pretty good stuff. Quickly, I chug the rest of it down. Slowly, my head stops spinning, and that feeling in my neck that I always get while airsick goes away. Whoooo….
"Meesh, that stuff actually works. I wonder what's in it..?"
"I believe she said it was Gysahl Greens and Nefersuferoth feces.."
"Oh, okay… WAIT A SEC, WHAT?" I double over and feel like barfing.. again. I swear, if Vinnie just had me swallow monster crap, he's got another thing coming.. Looking up at him, his eyes hold no sign of a joke. I gag.. Grossness to the max… oooh, Vinnie, you're going to have a time in the lavatory trying to get out the kunai I'm about to shove up your ass….
"I'm not serious about that, Yuffie."
I stare.
"I didn't know you had a sense of humor, Vinnie."
I stare some more.
"So it's not really greens and dung?"
"It's not really greens and dung."
"Oh."
"……."
"I love you, too, Vinnie. In fact, I love you so much that I'm going to buy you lunch and a present. A knuckle sandwich and a kunai up your butt."
Again, I am SO sorry for not updating this in several months. I hope I can find the motivation to start updating monthly again… we shall see.
Thank you to GirlEnigma for spotting a mistake I'd made. I'd assigned Yuffie and Vincent to the Underwater Reactor, but then had them go to Fort Condor in the next chapter. Haha. I have the most pathetic memory.