Ever since Chekov had returned from the wintry plains of Mideel, Wutai had been far from quiet. Chekov had returned to the Pagoda's grounds, using his right of ruler to live in the massive red building. Why he allowed Yuffie to over rule him, he didn't know.
That, for sure, would change when she returned home.
The chambers he called his own, had been empty of everything when he arrived there. Since his return, the room looked lived in, the Wutai ruler hardly ever leaving. Above the large desk, a map of Gaia hung on the wall, his storm grey eyes boring holes into the parchment.
When he wasn't dealing with the problems facing Wutai – although there never was many – he stared at the map, pacing. Marks littered the map, making him frown and grin at the same time.
Wutai, Mideel and Nibelheim had a black mark crossing them out; having shown no sign of Yuffie.
Junon, on the other hand, had a large circle around it.
Considering the metropolis of the east continent was the larger city and headquarters of the WRO.
Although he couldn't prove it yet, he knew Yuffie was there.
All he needed now was a sign, something to declare where Junon stood on this matter.
A large knock sounded on the door behind him, causing Chekov to look away from the map, annoyed. "Enter," was his only comment.
The door slid open at the request, the man bowing in respect. "My lord, sorry for the interruption –"
Chekov waved the comment aside. "Hurry it up, I am quiet busy."
"Sir, we have a hit from Junon."
Chekov paused, a grin slowly appearing on his face, twisting his features. Everything was going according to the plan. "Have you locked on the target yet?"
The man shook his head, worry clouding in his face as he braced for the ruler's wrath. "They were working on it when I left to inform you."
"Good," Chekov said with a nod, a glint in his eyes. "Take me there this instant."
The man nodded once again in response before backing out of the room, ushering for him to follow. Chekov moved from the room gracefully, hands clasped behind his back, his grin still held in place. As the escort fell in front of Chekov as he moved down the hallway. The escort glanced over his shoulders to make sure the Lord was still behind him, the latter moving so quietly, like he wasn't there. Turning the corner, they started up the colourful stairwell; their footsteps were the only sounds that graced their ears.
Eventually, the stairwell turned into a hallway, the highest level of the Pagoda. The room had been changed over from the battle challenge that Godo had constructed to the room being wall-to-wall machinery, the metal products beeping and blinking as the engineer's moved back and forth between them.
With his sweeping robes and powerful demeanor, he appeared in the room, storm grey eyes looking intently around the room. The Wutai engineer's ran busily from machine to machine, not paying any attention to the new addition to the room. Normally, this kind of response would have angered him, but considering the circumstances, he didn't mind.
He was one step closer to finding Yuffie Kisaragi.
Chekov cleared his throat. "You've got a hit from Junon, I was informed."
Clipboard in hand, the man nearest Chekov looked away from the towering large machine behind him to glance at Chekov. He nodded at the question, his clipboard dropping to his side. "Yes, you were informed correctly, my lord," he said with a bow. "Ten minutes ago, we received the hit. After the last attempt a week ago, we made the desired changes you wished for and the same parameters and signal showed up. We have managed to isolate out hacker as they were attempting to access our main database. We will give them credit, they managed to get past our fist two barriers before we realized their presence; they are a first class hacker."
Chekov threw a glare at the engineer as he let out a laugh, shaking his head. "You have them then?"
There was no doubt about it in Chekov's mind. It was the Tsviet-turned-WRO agent again.
Within the course of a week, Yuffie had disappeared, not a trace left behind. At least they were making it difficult; an easy win wouldn't be as interesting. There was no doubt about it, the WRO were behind it.
So much for recreating world peace . . . looks like they were creating it now.
Why else would they kidnap the rightful ruler and heir to the Wutai throne?
The WRO was guilty.
Yuffie was with the WRO.
She was in Junon.
A smirk graced his features at the thought, nodding at the waiting engineer. "Initiate the program."
The engineer nodded, turning his back to Chekov. Wasting no time, he started shouting commands in Wutaiense, his eyes hard. "Initiate the program, this will end now and bring us one step closer to finding our missing Princess."
Chekov stepped back, a large smirk across his face as the engineer shouted, hands flying in expansive gestures as the other engineers ran between the machines, running from computer system to system.
It wouldn't be long now . . .
Shelke found the net dive into Wutai's database easily. She had to roll her eyes; Chekov had to make such a big fuss that it had been her that had infiltrated their database. But, he hadn't done anything to change his database system; there wasn't any extra security activated or any sort of firewall to deep her out, hold her off.
So, within no time at all, Shelke had managed to get into the database's files and segments that were supposed to be for the Royal Family's eyes only.
She rolled her eyes; she doubted that Yuffie would care.
Away from her body, the projection of herself hung there, indecision on her face as she tried to decide where she should start, what was the most important piece.
The different routes stood before her; security, secret affairs, conference notes and many others. Not wanting to waste any of her time, Shelke moved towards the first route, she might as well know what they were up against.
Heading down the route, Shelke sighed. And she thought this was going to be hard . . .
The projection of herself rolled her eyes, speeding down the route as it opened up to embrace her. Glancing around her, Shelke came to a stop in the middle of the chamber, reading the codes that whirled around before her, reaching a hand out to grab the important threads.
With her focus on the text in front of her, she didn't feel an ominous presence behind her. With her hands full of the text strands, pouring over the information there, she had managed to tune out the rest of her surroundings.
And, that was a bad idea. Didn't she learn that when she was in Deepground?
But, the information . . . it was too important.
Wutai had a grand total of one hundred soldiers.
Thirty of which had come to the main continent, looking for Yuffie.
Nibelheim, Wutai and Mideel were already checked.
Junon was suspected, six Wutai soldiers already there.
She found out the access code to the Pagoda's inner chambers.
The plan of attack should they locate Yuffie . . .
As she read that last line, a shiver went down her spine at the words, bringing her back to the presence. It was then she noticed it, prickling the back of her skin. Something, her inner instinct perhaps, told her that she wasn't there alone. Slowly, she turned around as a shadow fell over her small frame, the strands of text slipping from her lax grasp. Her mouth hung open as she frowned, her eyes locking on the thing behind her.
She blinked, unable to make a sound, as the thing unfurled itself, strands reaching out and holding her tight, squeezing her.
Then, as her world started to fade to black out, she let out a scream.
--
"Yuffie, you're finished!" Tifa said with a flourish, taking the towel of her head.
As Yuffie glanced up to see herself in the mirror, her hair falling down to her shoulder's from the confines of the green towel. Her mouth dropped as she caught sight of her hair, tentatively bringing a hand up to touch the coloured tendrils.
She didn't know what to say . . . she looked so . . . different . . .
Her hair was no longer black but coloured a bright and vibrant yellow. She was blonde, it was weird looking at herself; she thought idly.
She didn't look like herself.
Yuffie's now blonde hair hung down, just brushing her shoulders. The cut had a bit of a shaggy look to it, as it was layered and had an edgy cut to the strands. Brown streaks wove through her hair, peaking out through some of the layers. Her long gone bangs were back as well, convincingly hiding her eyebrows, cresting her now blue eyes. She hadn't liked it when Tifa forced the contacts into her eyes, it felt weird.
She wouldn't have recognized herself if she hadn't know this was coming. But, she didn't think they would go so extreme. Yuffie found herself itching for her old, trademark headband to bring some of her old looks back.
"So, what do you think?" Tifa asked, leaning over Yuffie's shoulders, moment's later. "It'll grow out when this is over, you know."
Marlene shook her head. "I love it! I wish dad would let me do something like that," she trailed off, rolling her eyes.
Translation; he still thought of her as a little girl.
Yuffie nodded. "I am surprised, but I really like it."
A huge grin appeared on Tifa's face as she hugged Yuffie from behind. "That's great!"
Shera nodded in agreement, picking her items up from the dresser top. "You look wonderful, Yuffie. You look different, wait till everyone else sees you now."
Yuffie fidgeted at Shera's words, her eyes fixing on her hands. "I don't know about that –"
"You're not staying in this room," Tifa huffed, hands on her hips as she leveled Yuffie with a glare. "They're going to be curious about your new look and all of our hard work!"
"What if they don't like it?" she mumbled, running her fingers through her blonde locks.
Tifa scoffed. "They'll like it."
"After all our hard work, they better," Shera laughed hands full of her hair products.
Marlene just waved Yuffie's comment aside. "At least Vincent will like it."
"Marlene . . .!" Yuffie whined, glancing witheringly at Marlene who shrugged.
"It's true, he knows you'll still be you," Marlene grinned, grabbing Yuffie's hand, tugging on it. "I'm sure he'll like it, especially with those new clothes of yours!"
Yuffie smiled slightly, her mouth turning up in a grin. Her blue eyes glanced over her outfit; at least it was improved from the holey pajama's she had worn to Vincent's in the beginning. Marlene had picked the clothes out of the small pile they had brought with them, trying to find a suitable outfit for Yuffie, and her new hairstyle.
The pants they had given her were tight fitting, the bottoms flaring out slightly, which could have hide her feet from view. If, Tifa hadn't forced the small, platform sandal's onto her feet, the tops of them a vibrant blue. The colour of her top was similar to the vibrant blue, a square collar that showed off her pale skin with longer sleeves, the edges rough and flared out slightly.
Looking herself in the mirror, she noticed that Tifa and Marlene had stepped out of the room, most likely to give her a little bit of time to come to terms with the face in the mirror. Getting up out of the stool, Yuffie padded across the room – trying to get used to the small platforms – glancing at herself in the floor length mirror on the door.
As she took in her whole appearance, her breath caught in her throat.
That face, those clothes in the mirror, it just wasn't her . . .
At least, no one would recognize her outside the headquarters.
She had to shake her head at the transformation, it was a lot to take in.
When she had shown up in Nibelheim – was that really just a week ago? – she was quiet and reserved, dressed in her old, worn out pajamas with an expression of having given up, and lost everything. Now, she was surrounded by her old friends who didn't intend to let her go without a fight, her confidence returning, and his face only appearing in her nightmares.
It was . . . unnerving.
"Yuffie!" She jumped at Tifa's voice, a knock sounding heavily on the back of the door. She managed to move back as the doorknob moved before it swung open. "C'mon already, everyone's waiting for you; Shera's already gone down," grasping Yuffie's arm, Tifa pulled the ninja from the room, ignoring the frown on the girl's face. "Marlene, let's go."
Yuffie rose as eyebrows as Marlene nodded, a smirk on her face as she started down the stairs, out of sight. She shook her head, they were going to take a big production out of her new looks, weren't they? She could see it in Tifa's eyes; yes, yes they were.
"They're all in the conference room, we don't want to keep them waiting," she laughed, starting down the stairs.
Especially Vincent, Tifa thought, shooting a side glance at Yuffie.
--
Shera frowned at the small group sitting around the big conference table. Beside her sat Cid, leaning back in his chair, talking animatedly to Barret, breaking into laughter now and again. Cloud didn't say much, his Mako eyes unfocused, his mind, no doubt, miles away. Vincent didn't react, his crimson eyes staring ahead, making Shera wonder idly what the gunslinger was thinking about.
"Reeve," she said, her brown eyes stopping on the Commander, the farthest from her, pointing to the cell phone in his hand. "Any luck yet?"
Reeve shook his head, a frown marring his features. "No, her phone is turned off. I don't know where she could have disappeared too."
"Hmm . . ." Shera trailed off.
"I told you, with a girl like her, you should have put a tracker on her," Cid said, glancing from Shera to Reeve. "She's like the brat used to be, but domineering to the extreme."
Shera glared at him, swatting him lightly. "Don't say that, that's rude."
Cid shrugged at Shera's comment, smirking slightly before he turned back to Barret, the darker man holding back a laugh. Shera rolled her eyes at her husband's response, before smiling over at Reeve.
It had been weird, Shelke hadn't been seen anywhere. The last time anyone remembered seeing Shelke at breakfast, but she had managed to disappear afterwards. They had thought she was out in the town, but after four hours and her phone being turned off . . . they didn't want to jump to conclusions, but maybe she was in trouble.
"Do you think she could have . . .?" They didn't want to mention the reality of the forgotten SND terminals.
Reeve snapped his phone shut, dropping it to the table. "No, she promised me she wouldn't unless she mentioned it first . . ."
Shera could see the hesitation in the Commander's words. "But, with everything that's gone on," she pressed, "Don't you think she might have? You know she can be quiet stubborn."
Shera let out a sigh, shaking her head. "Maybe text her then?"
The automatic door whirled open then, cutting off Reeve's response. Marlene bounded into the room, all smiles, and her braided hair moving wildly with each step. "We're all finished!" she announced, although Shera had mentioned it no more then ten minutes previous. "Just you wait, she looks amazing!" she giggled as she crossed the room, dropping into the nearest chair.
Pulling her chair into the table. She cast her eyes around at the others. Reeve was staring at his cell phone, running his fingers over it. Cid was still leaning back in his chair, raising an eyebrow at Shera, who shook her head, smiling. Barret glanced at the door, a lazy grin on his face. Cloud was still looking at the door, his eyes unfocused, and his mind elsewhere. However she was happy to see Vincent's crimson eyes staring at the door, his face unable to be read.
In order to keep the suspense rising, Tifa took her sweet time coming into the room. As she eventually did, a smile on her full lips, wide eyes sparkling. "You'll never guess, you wouldn't recognize her if you past her on the streets! I give you the new and –"
"Tifa!"
Tifa grinned at Yuffie's response; she sounded like Shelke during her first makeover. Yuffie's appearance might have changed, but not her fiery personality. "Aright then," she amended, smiling wirily as she rolled her eyes. "I give you the same old, crazy ninja –"
"AHH!"
Tifa cut off mid sentence, eyes wide at the sound. Cloud jumped, obviously not listening to what was going on in the room. Vincent's eyes narrowed as he reached for his hip holster, while Reeve went pale, his dark eyes narrowing, and his cell phone forgotten.
He shifted, glancing behind him, his mind recognizing that sound.
"That was Shelke . . ."
--
Things are starting to get interesting in a hurry.
Something's up with Shelke and the twists are just starting to appear . . .
After this, things'll never be the same again.