Chapter Nine

Rewards

upstream and down

Annie Dillard

They led Tifa back into the white cell room, hands held behind her as she walked forlornly into the room. The guards shoved her back into her cell, and she allowed herself to fall to the floor. She laid there in a crumpled heap, not moving. She didn't move even after they left the room.

"Teef?" Cid asked.

"…Teef?" Barret said.

She stirred. Sitting up, she leaned against the wall. Her face was shiny with sweat, but there were clear tear marks down it. Her hair stuck to her face and neck, hanging limply in front of one eye. Her hands rested dejectedly in her lap, one cradling the other. Since the vertical bars went across the whole room, they could see her. And they could see as she rose her hands and she looked over at them. One burgundy eye stared out at them, the other hidden by a curtain of hair.

Her hands were bloody. Her fingernails were broken and battered, broken past the quick. There were cuts all over them, and they were bloody and scarred. One of the fingers may have even been broken. As broken as her face, broken as her spirit. This was nothing new – they just pretended not to notice as the others came back from torture. Not because they were bad friends, or because they wanted to pretend it didn't happen, but for their friend's sake. For pride's sake.

"Teef…" Reeve said.

"…they asked me something different this time." She said quietly.

No one said a word.

"They asked me where the Turks were. They asked me where Marlene was." Tifa shook her head. "And I told them that I couldn't possibly know, since I'd been in here. So this is what happened."

They gave up torture after a while. They accepted that if you wouldn't speak after so many times, you probably didn't know. So they just interrogated. Not just asking, they would ask for random bits of the trip. And if they didn't cooperate, they hurt them. But it had been a while since any of them had been brought back bloody.

"Tifa…they won't get away with this." Nanaki said.

Tifa looked up, and her chin quivered. "Yes they will…" she said quietly.

"Teef, don't you talk like tha'." Barret warned.

"Face it!" she exploded. "Yuffie and Vincent are going to have a hard enough time keeping hidden without bursting into Auhncore headquarters for us. I mean, I don't even know how much Vincent actually cared about us! I mean, I thought…I did…but…but I could be wrong." She frowned. "God knows it wouldn't be the first time."

"Come on Teef." Reeve pleaded. "They're coming. …and they're okay."

Tifa looked over, and shook her head slowly. "You know…I really do want to believe that Reeve…"

The men looked at each other desperately. Tifa was their rock. They were floating, helpless, only her to hold them steady.

"I want to believe they're okay…" she said, and her eyes were laced with pain and they could see her heart breaking in her chest. "But I can't."

Wutai, or rather, the Auhncore guards at the gate of Wutai, padded him down thoroughly before letting him into the city. He didn't bother with a disguise – he wasn't wearing the trademark suit, he had one eye covered and no one expected him to be alive. Stepping into Wutai, his eyes swept over the city. There were guards all over the city, keeping wary eyes open on all the alike Wutain faces. How they thought they'd spot Kisaragi was anyone's guess.

So Rufus walked confidently through the streets, as though he had a reason to be there. Not that he didn't. But he did not avoid the guard's gaze, nor did he make direct eye contact with every one of them. He did meet one's eyes and gave a polite nod. The guard looked him up and down and decided he was worth ignoring. So Rufus kept walking until he got to the Kisaragi palace, near the pagoda. Striding up to the door, he knocked.

"Over here." A calm voice called, and Rufus turned to see Godo Kisaragi at the door of the pagoda. Wearily he brushed off the Auhncore guards and walked over, and led the way into his house. Rufus followed, not waiting for an invitation. When Godo settled in a room and motioned for him to sit down, he sat.

"Why are you here, Rufus?" he asked wearily.

"I'm surprised that is your first question for me." Rufus said.

Godo shrugged, tired. "This world has turned to a point where you showing up is one of the more believable things that has happened."

Rufus couldn't fight that logic.

"I assume you somehow managed to survive the blast, and you have been recovering with help from your loyal lapdogs."

Rufus chuckled. "Yes."

"See." Godo said, grim. "That isn't so complicated."

"No." Rufus said. "I suppose not."

Godo sipped his tea. "So you are here."

"Yes." Rufus said. "I am."

Then Godo pushed a pad of paper across the table. It read 'We Will Not Talk Here.'

Godo stood and placed his tea down, and walked out. Rufus followed, only to find Godo had disappeared. When he looked around, a tapestry on the wall caught his eye. Walking forward, he made to lift it off the wall. But it didn't move. So he looked closely at the tapestry.

It depicted nine people of all shapes and sizes. They were the heroes of the world. There was Cloud, spiky haired and blonde as ever. There was Aeris, ethereal as always. Tifa, gorgeous and tough. Vincent, dark and mysterious. Cid, brash and looking off to the side, cigarette in his mouth. Barret, bearlike and tough. Cait Sith, goofy looking on so serious a tapestry, with Reeve depicted behind him. Nanaki, gold eye capturing the eye of the leader, head lowered. Finally there was Yuffie. He was grateful they had not put her in a kimono, but with her unbuttoned shorts, short-shirt, bandanna and overlarge shuriken. They were there, all nine of them. Following the tapestry, it depicted Sephiroth, cold, cruel and threatening as ever. Behind him, a grotesque shadow, was Jenova. Following it, it showed the story of Meteor, of the Calamity from the Skies. The black materia, Shinra, the Turks and the death of Aeris. Finally, it showed the final battle and Holy coming, and the Lifestream creeping up to save the world.

At the bottom, it mirrored the top, and depicted the heroes again. Except this time, Aeris was separate from them all. Her stomach was bloody and her face pale and shadowed with death. The rest were together, but they were not clean as they were at the top. They were dirty and scraped, wounded and forlorn. But they were together, and their eyes shone with victory.

"A very beautiful tapestry," Rufus said.

He expected Godo to answer from somewhere behind him, but instead, the wall began to move. The tapestry and wall lifted to reveal a hole in the wall. Rufus climbed into it, and heard it shut behind him, leaving him in darkness. However, as soon as it shut, candles lit up. Walking over, he inspected one. "Hm." He said.

Godo was no where in sight, so Rufus walked.

As he walked, the straight passage that required him to hunch opened. As he walked out, the space opened up. He found himself in a maze of stairs and passages, so he stuck to the one he was on. Finally the stairs went into a closed passage again. Walking through the passage, it at last came to an end. Without him saying a word, it opened for him. Stepping out, he found himself in a circular, metal room. There were doors along the sides, but only one was open. So he walked through it, to find Godo sitting in an armchair, reading a file.

Rufus walked forward and sat in an armchair set up across from it. Godo motioned to the tea, and set down the file on the table. Rufus could see the title.

Kisaragi, Sayuri

"You are here about my daughter." Godo announced.

Rufus nodded.

"…you are here because you've seen her."

"I'm here because she sought me out."

Godo looked at him disbelievingly.

"Well. She sought out my Turks, who brought her to me."

"So exactly why are you here, Rufus Shinra?"

Rufus was quiet. "I am here," he said finally, "to say I'm sorry."

With that, Rufus nodded at Godo. With that, he stood up and he walked out.

"For what?" Godo's voice finally rang out after him. Rufus didn't answer, but started walking up the stairs again.

"For what?" Godo's voice came again, louder.

Rufus turned.

"You didn't know her…you were too young to know anything about it…" Godo said, coming into the circular room, holding the file.

"I didn't know your wife or what happened to her." Rufus said. "But I do know your daughter."

Godo was, for the first time in their meeting, confused.

"And for what will happen," Rufus said, "I am sorry."

Godo's hands dropped, file held limply in one hand. Rufus started walking again, walking up the stairs.

"What is going to happen?" Godo asked, voice full of panic and heartbreak.

Rufus didn't answer.

"What's going to happen?" Godo's voice, growing distant came.

Rufus kept walking.

"Answer me!" The distant voice came.

"What is going to happen?" He cried.

But Rufus kept walking until the voice faded.

It was when he reached the top of the stairs, and Godo was at the bottom, no trace of any calling left that he answered.

"Your daughter is going to get caught." Rufus replied to the wall in front of him. "That is what is going to happen."

"Miss-"

"Mrs." Skye said, face contorting into a sad smile.

"Oh," Yuffie said, shifting uncomfortably. "I'm, um, sorry."

"Don't be." Skye said, and put a tray of breakfast on the bed for Yuffie.

"You really don't need to do this." Yuffie insisted.

"Yes I do." She said nonchalantly.

"No, really, I don't want to be a burden."

Skye smiled. "Then don't be."

She bustled into the kitchen, and Yuffie shrugged as she ate her breakfast. She wasn't about to insult the woman, after all. As she ate, she swore her eyes glazed over dreamily. How could Cloud grow up so screwed up if he ate food like this every day? Then again, maybe it was the sudden loss of the food that drove him into nutso-ville.

Skye came back.

"Did you have any kids, Mrs. Strife?"

"Skye, please. And yes."

"Where is he now?" Yuffie asked, knowing very well he was packed inside a car crushed up against the tree.

Skye shook her head. "It isn't really important…" she said sadly. "He doesn't even know I'm alive."

Then, something dawned on her. She went over what Yuffie had replied to her answer, and turned her head, eyebrows knit in suspicion and confusion. Regarding Yuffie with suspicion, she seemed to think on what to say. Finally, she looked over at Yuffie and locked her gaze with Yuffie's.

"…how did you know my child was a he?" she asked slowly.

Yuffie quickly decided whether to lie or not. Then, seeing as no one was around, she decided that lies would do her no good. "Because I know your son, Mrs. Strife."

Skye shook her head. "Everyone does."

"No…Mrs. Strife I know your son…I am close friends with your son."

Finally, it all dawned on her. Her lips parted and her eyes widened, and she walked forward, leaning down closely until her nose was an inch away from Yuffie's. She tilted her head and squinted, as if to get a better view. Finally, she leaned back.

"You are Yuffie Kisaragi." She stated.

"Yes." Yuffie smiled. "I am."

Mrs. Strife locked eyes with her and bit her bottom lip. "Well then," she said softly. "I suppose its time we had a little talk."

"Where are we going?" Cloud asked Rude. He'd only had his stitches for a day, but apparently he wasn't getting any time to recover. Rude was checking his guns and weapons, and Cloud hesitantly lifted his sword. He sighed with relief when he found he could lift it just as easily as he could before, that he hadn't damaged too much in the crash.

"Follow me." Rude said.

Cloud was a leader, and Turks were used to taking the lead, so it was an unpleasant rubbing of authority. Cloud hated not knowing where he was going, but he reluctantly followed Rude. As they were leaving the warehouse, he caught sight of himself in a grimy mirror. He grimaced.

His hair was still the color of dried straw, like it had been when he had met 'Summer.' His forehead was covered in puckered, scabby cuts, but the gel Rude had applied had done wonders, and the lump was reduced to a wide, but considerably smaller bump. He had his stitches and cut across the bridge of his nose.

"I look like Frankenstein," he muttered.

"Yes." Rude said. "You do."

Cloud quirked an eyebrow and chuckled. Was this the Rude version of a joke? Whatever it was, he ran fingers through straw-colored locks and strode after Rude. To his surprise, the bald Turk did not walk out the door, but took a sharp, unexpected turn. Cloud followed, and found he was being led up a staircase. Once the stairs ended, it was a maze of old boxes and rusted machinery in the dark. Finally, Rude opened a door.

It didn't take a genius to figure out where they were. The destitution and hungry air about the place rank of Midgar, and the dark and desolate nature of even post-Meteor Midgar screamed of the slums. Surprisingly, Cloud found himself climbing out of what seemed to be an old abandoned car, half covered in ivy. After that shock passed, Rude was already blending into the streets, walking ahead like he hadn't just climbed out of a car.

Cloud followed Rude faithfully, no matter how much it irked and irritated him. He was not a follower, no matter how much he wished to be, he didn't have it in him. So it bothered him when Rude finally entered what seemed to be the reincarnation of Wall Street.

Neon and halogen lights blinked, and Rude just walked past the shops. When he finally turned into one, Cloud followed. And as he walked in the door, he felt a frightful sensation of déjà veux. You see, Rude had led him into a dress shop.

The owner greeted him formally, but in a way that suggested they'd met before. Cloud heard the rumble of Rude's voice mention something about a pick up and his sister. Cloud found this quite odd, one reason being he never thought Rude had a sister, and secondly because he couldn't picture him with one. Yet Rude emerged with a hanger with a cover over it, and silently walked out of the shop. He proceeded to weave about Wall Mart, and while the déjà veux increased, so did his panic.

Rude finally weaved his way through until Cloud found himself staring upon a familiar sight: The Honeybee Inn. Or at least, it's new incarnation. Rather than go in the front, Rude slipped around to the back and knocked on the back door. It opened, and he was let in, and a few deep, incomprehensible words let Cloud come in to. Cloud felt his panic rise as Rude walked down a hall and finally turned into a room. Feeling his doom approach, Cloud turned in.

Sure enough, the room had vanity mirrors all across with individual prepping stations, and chairs like you see in hair salons. There were girls lounging around who looked, interested, at Cloud and Rude. The three girls smiled and stood up, and called a name. From an adjacent room, heels clicked and a girl entered.

She had olive complexion, large hazel eyes, brown hair tied into pigtails. She grinned brightly as she saw the two and walked forward. She wore Daisy Duke short-shorts with cowboy boots and an orange crop top that had 'Hooters' sprawled across the front, the eyes of the mascot owl were the O's, and suggested something else. Rude raised an eyebrow. "Hooters?" he asked.

She smiled. "Honey Bee business is so good in after Meteor world, they're opening up a restaurant. Not the same of course. Waitresses just dress something like this and have big ol' cha-chas as they serve. Nothing else."

"Ah." Rude said.

"If that goes well enough, they'll be Hooters Airlines."

"Can't wait." Said Rude.

Cloud chuckled and shouldn't have, for her attention shifted as she pulled her hair out of pigtails. "This is him, huh?" she said, and squinted at him, lips twitching down. "Do I know you?"

"No." Cloud deadpanned. Saying things too quickly was suspicious. "At least, I don't think."

"Huh." She said and shook her hair back, snapping hair-ties onto her wrists. She was gorgeous, Cloud had to give her that. "Well then." She grinned wickedly. "Let's get it started."

She seized Cloud and smiled as she forced him to sit in one of the chairs, and a few of the girls stood as a few left. One pulled up a tall chair and a table, and brought nail-files, nail polish and other evil looking equipment over as she grabbed Cloud's hand. Rude's friend in the Hooters shirt took the wig from Rude and praised him on his taste. The chair was spun around so a girl with more evil looking equipment could settle by his feet.

Before Cloud could protest or glare at Rude, the Hooters girl strapped him into the chair with a makeshift rope made of tied together scarves. She picked from a selection of bald skin-caps and fitted one over Cloud's head.

"Come on, handsome, we've got a lot of work to do."

Yuffie rubbed her temples on both sides of her head, eyes shut. She groaned lightly, her false brunette hair falling like a curtain on either side of her face, as though shielding it. The woman who claimed to be Cloud Strife's mother sat across from them, fidgeting with her apron strings. She looked up nervously and fiddled more as Yuffie bit her lip. "Far too many dead people are coming back to life," she grumbled.

A nervous laugh was all Skye offered. "I don't know who else, honey, but chances are that we were never dead."

"Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated," Yuffie murmured.

"What was that?" Skye inquired.

"Nothing." Yuffie sighed. "Let's just get this straight. Your son came into town with Sephiroth, here on known as Crazy Silver Haired Psycho, here on abbreviated as C.S.H.P. So C.S.H.P. proceeded to torch the town, which was unfortunate. So, you manage to escape the fiery flames of your house and save a few village children. So you and your merry gang of kids escaped to the hills, sustaining fiery burns of ouchness, and you guys chilled there. One of the kids died, the others you managed to save from the fiery burns. You stayed there, because you were all too weak to move further than it took to get food in water. You had found a little nook carved deep in where there was a natural spring and food supply. As you gained strength, one of the older kids left to find help. He, however, couldn't find his way back, disoriented. But when he was getting weak, he found a traveler, who was led back to the nook. He saved you all, but took you to his house in the middle of bum-…uh, in the middle of nowhere."

"Actually, a short while away from Rocket Town."

"Yea. Well, when you healed, you all had fallen into a rhythm and lived there. You, however, remembered your hometown and son, so you decided to go back, taking some children with you. By now, it was five and a half years later and town was creepy town. But more people were coming as the creepy Shin-Ra people abandoned it, so you turned it into a town here."

"And I've lived here ever since."

Yuffie looked up. "Now, what doesn't make any sense is why?"

She raised her eyebrows.

"I mean, this is all well in good for growing up and raising a family, but why come back? After all that happened, and what this place became, why?"

Skye frowned slightly, and her head bowed. Her hair fell over her face, and she looked up at Yuffie, blue eyes piercing. "I've been waiting for my son." She said, voice quavering. "Even after…everything I've been waiting for something, someone…a clue. A sign."

Her eyes were brightening, almost fanatically. It was frightening, for such a normally calm and cheery woman. She lunged forward and seized a startled Yuffie by the biceps. "And then you came," she said feverishly, eyes glowing with a frantic light. "And now you're here," she breathed, and her face moved closer. Yuffie leaned back, eyes wide, startled by this new side of crazy she was seeing. "You're supposed to have come here," she smiled, a half-there smile, more discomforting than not. "It was fate, don't you see?" she barked a laugh in triumph.

"Ma'am," Yuffie said evenly but seriously. "Let go of me."

Even in the bout of mild insanity, she was sharp. Her gleaming eyes grew sharp and narrowed. "You're not leaving." She said.

"I'm going to count to three," Yuffie said professionally as the grip tightened.

"No!" Skye protested. She became pathetic, a simpering, pleading, desperate woman. "Please, please, my son…" she pleaded.

"One." Yuffie said, glaring.

Nails bit into Yuffie's arms, a sharp contrast to the pathetic mess of a woman in front of her, looking like she was incapable of hurting a housefly. "It is destiny, don't you see?" Skye's gleaming, fanatical eyes widened, as though searching for an ounce of understanding.

"Two." Yuffie continued.

The nails drew blood. Yuffie winced, and her lips grew tight.

"Oh don't, please, this was fate! Goddamnit!" she cried, starting to shake Yuffie back and forth. Yuffie's eyes widened in shock as the arms gave her a good hard shake. "Goddamnit, don't you see this was supposed to happen?! What do you want me to do?!"

"Three." Yuffie finished.

"This was supposed to happen!" she cried in despair.

Yuffie, seeing the hands would be difficult to pry off, darted a hand up in a pincer like shape that grabbed her at the back of the neck. Her fingers dove into two pressure points, and Skye hunched over, neck sticking up like a turtle.

"Let go," Yuffie growled, and pushed harder on the pressurepoints.

Skye peeled her fingers off Yuffie. Yuffie squeezed hard then let go, letting Skye crumple on the ground rubbing the back of her neck. As Yuffie strode from the house, Skye collapsed into dry sobs. "This was supposed to happen…" she whispered. "Don't leave…it was meant to happen…"

"I hope you find Cloud and your sanity," Yuffie said spitefully, looking without pity on the depressing figure of a woman. "But don't you count on me." She turned from the house, and opened the door, and didn't look back. "He's no friend of mine," she finished bitterly, hoisted her Conformer and slammed shut the door, leaving a woman with her sobs.

"How did we get on the Eastern Continent?" Cloud asked suddenly as the woman prodded and pulled at him. Asking what this was for had proven useless.

"I brought you here." Rude said. Thank you, Captain Obvious.

"Yes, but how?"

Rude was silent, but as he looked away it dawned on Cloud. "You were following Yu-" he glanced at the woman around. "You were following her."

Rude didn't respond.

"Why are the Turks interested in Her?"

Rude didn't say a word.

"Where's Reno? And Elena?"

"They are doing what She asked them to do."

Cloud narrowed his eyes. "You're lying."

Rude looked at him blandly from beyond the sunglasses.

"You're not lying." He said, defeated. "She sought you out."

Rude was silent.

"Why?"

"If She sought you out, why did you follow Her without Her knowing?"

Cloud sighed in defeat. "Fine. Maybe I don't deserve to know."

"…Life rarely gives you what you deserve." Rude said.

Cloud sighed, thinking of the events come to past. "Tell me about it." Then, he thought again.

"Or maybe," Cloud said, voice laced with defeat, "Or maybe it gives you exactly what you deserve. Maybe we're all being constantly punished for some cosmic wrongdoing, or even for a microscopic one. Maybe we're all constantly being rewarded, rewarded for what we've done. Maybe I've earned my reward."

Cloud snorted and shook his head. To his surprise, Rude spoke, echoing what he was thinking.

"Some reward." Rude said.

A/N: Okay, I'm introducing some new elements: Karma. Ooohhh.

And finally the quote is finished. I'm referring to the italisized quotes that have been below the Chapter announcement of each chapter. It was all one quote, if you didn't notice, and here is it in it's entirety:

I'm a frayed and nibbled survivor in a fallen world…and I am getting along. I am aging and eaten and have done my share of eating, too. I am not washed and beautiful, in control of a shining world in which everything fits, but instead am wandering awed about on a splintered wreck I've come to care for, whose gnawed trees breathe a delicate air, whose bloodied and scarred creatures are my dearest companions, and whose beauty beats and shines not in its imperfections, but overwhelmingly in spite of them, under the wind-rent clouds, upstream and down.

Well I like it, and I think it fits really well. But now the quotes won't stop they'll just be different either per chapter or another thing like this.

Another chapter ends with a Rude statement that I really like. I like Rude. Whoo. Go Rude.

Whoah. Cloud's mom is a psychooo. But don't think too badly of her yet, she lost a son, remember? And then found out he risked his life to save the world, and is in mortal peril and lost again.

And what are you up to Rufus you sneaky kid?

And the origins of Hooters.

So leave a review! Hope you liked it.

Finally, reviewer thanks: Midnight Mafia, xmutedx, Fox in a Den, XxHowToSaveALifexX, VinVal, MysticKoorime, aidiane valentine, laila, Chibi Ninjaa xo.cherry, Cookiekitten, MadMaz87, moonstarlight.