Chapter XIII- Yuffie

The other side of the mountain was more habitable than the bog they had just come from. Upon taking their first steps out of the cave they saw a massive set of plains with scattered sections of forests. There was one rough patch near a massive tower off to the west, where Cloud noticed a gigantic bird nesting.

"What in the world is that?" Aeris asked.

"That is Fort Condor," Barret answered. "We're heading that way. These plains won't last too long before we hit some of the woods around there. I'd like to get there before sunset if at all possible."

"I doubt we will," Cloud replied. "We no longer have the chocobos, remember. It will probably take us another day to make it that far."

Barret shrugged. "Well then, we'd better get moving. We have a lot of ground to cover."

Aeris was holding up Tifa, whose injuries had steadily gotten worse as the day was getting on.

"Guys, I don't think she can make it that far," Aeris said.

"Don't be silly, Aeris," Tifa said, trying to keep her own feet. "I'm fine."

"No, your not," Cloud said. "Barret, give me the backpack, I need you to carry Tifa."

"Not a problem," Barret said handing over the backpack. Cloud noticed that the pack was much lighter than when they had first left Midgar.

"We're running low on food. I hope Fort Condor is well stocked," Cloud said.

Had Tifa's injuries not been internal, then Aeris would have been able to use the power of the materia to heal her. As it was, she required medicine and proper rest for at least a week. Cloud started to feel the burden of leadership more than ever. Up until now their journey had been fairly easy. A battle with some wolves aside, they had been in good health and well fed. The trek across the bog and battle with the Zolom's had taken much out of them.

Nobody knew exactly how bad Tifa's injury was, but based on the massive bruise covering her stomach and chest, Cloud was very worried that the internal bleeding would be bad enough to kill Tifa. They needed to get her to a hospital soon.

Cloud began to wonder if he was the right person to lead this group. His reason for the journey was simply to deal with Sephiroth, but was he endangering the lives of his friends for his own selfish desires?

Red, who had a knack for reading people, walked alongside Cloud. "You've done remarkably so far, Cloud."

Cloud nodded, but he didn't feel that way right now. "I should be thanking you. You took care of the Zolom's for us."

Red ignored his praise and continued. "I had my doubts about you and your friends at first. I generally don't trust humans, but I must confess you people are a credit to your race." Red looked back at Barret, carrying Tifa on his back. "Don't let a few setbacks discourage you."

Red sank back in the group to travel alongside Aeris. The warrior had taken a special interest in that girl lately. Cloud wondered if it was because they could both commune with nature, or because they were both the most reserved and mature persons in the group. He had seen them have entire conversations without opening their mouths once, like a kind of telepathy. Those two… connected.

Cloud had never had that kind of bond with anybody in his entire life. Except, perhaps, Sephiroth.

Night came quicker than Cloud had anticipated and they were stuck in the middle of a patch of trees about three miles around. Cloud wanted to move out of the woods and take shelter on the plains, but then Red reminded him that they were technically in hiding.

Everybody surrendered their sleeping bags to Tifa for the time being. They made a makeshift bed out of them and Tifa fell asleep almost instantly. Before shifts started, the three men had a conversation. Aeris kept an eye of Tifa to make sure she was alright.

"Tifa's injuries are bad," Cloud said. "Barret, are you confident we can make it to Fort Condor by tomorrow."

"We'll have to keep at it, but hiking all day, we should make it well before sunset," Barret explained.

"If she has internal bleeding," Red began. "She will need a capable doctor. To be frank, it's a wonder she hasn't died already given her state."

"Tifa is very tough," Barret said. "She'll hang on until Death himself comes to finish her off."

"Alright then. I'll take the first shift, everybody else get some sleep," Cloud said.

--

Yuffie Kisaragi. The young girl thought this over and over as she hiked through the dense woods. My name is Yuffie Kisaragi.

The young woman was from the Wutai clan. She had long since left that life behind her though. She was raised to be a ninja; a lovely instrument of war. Yuffie knew that it was all crap. Despite her father's talk of honor and discipline, in the end the skills she had learned were skills of murder.

Yuffie would have nothing of it. She refused to learn skills that she would never employ. She had no problem killing people, by any means (although she had never actually done it). She just wanted her father to start acting like the man he claimed to be and rise up against Shinra, who had taken her once proud nation captive.

The two had many fights on this subject, and she finally ran away from home. That was two years ago, when she was only fourteen. She had only managed to make a living as a thief. Her specialty was materia. She could pick pockets, rob entire stores blind, and do so with the speed and stealth she had been taught from age three.

Of course, ever since she arrived on the Western Continent, she had noticed a slight decrease in business. All the travelers lived in the big, Shinra run cities, like Junon and Midgar, and thievery there would simply not do.

Yuffie Kisaragi, the materia hunter. Yuffie thought. Some hunter I am now, huh?

She hadn't had a meal since leaving Junon and was completely out of money. She was heading to Fort Condor now to beg for some scraps. Yuffie could not believe it. Her warriors pride was damaged. She was a Kisaragi. A noblewoman. And here she was about to act like a common beggar.

Suddenly in the clearing ahead, she saw a campfire. She decided to get a closer look at this group. She climbed up a tree and looked down on the group. There was a big dark guy with a gun where his right hand should be, an equally tough looking guy in a SOLDIER uniform, and some wild beast that looked like a Crimson Fang. Yuffie also noticed two women, and one of them was clearly wounded.

I bet those guys are bandits. They've probably kidnapped those girls, Yuffie thought. She didn't particularly care. All it meant was two more people to rob.

--

Red smelt the air. Something was amiss.

"We're being observed," Red said softly.

"By who?" Barret asked, readying his gunarm.

"Not sure. It smells… young," Red explained.

Suddenly Barret felt something hard hit him in the back of the head. He fell over, unconscious. Before Cloud could dodge, he too was hit by the object, a massive metal shuriken. It cut his left arm deeply before returning to its owner, a young girl with short black hair. Cloud lifted his sword and Red readied his claws.

"Hand over your materia and you won't be hurt," Yuffie shouted confidently.

"You're outnumbered five-to-one," Red replied tersely. "Shouldn't you be surrendering?"

Yuffie laughed and leapt up to the trees. She ran in a circle bouncing off the tree trunks. She threw her shuriken, which hit Red's tail. He hissed loudly, awakening Aeris.

"Barret! Get up!" Cloud shouted.

Barret was still unconscious; the brat had done a number on him. As Cloud approached him, the girl stopped in front of him and delivered a hard punch to his ribs. As Cloud tried to counter, she disappeared.

"She's fast," Aeris said, lifting her staff.

"I'm faster," Red said. He disappeared in a red blur. The sound of hissing and claws hitting metal and tearing clothing echoed through the trees, but Aeris and Cloud couldn't see anything. Suddenly Yuffie was in front of Cloud, facing the other direction. He grabbed her arms, and Red appeared in front of her.

"Let go of me!" Yuffie shouted.

"What should we do with her?" Red asked.

Cloud saw that this girl was just that; a girl, maybe 15 or 16. "I don't really have the heart to kill her."

"Maybe we should tie her up and leave her for the damned monsters," Barret grunted, finally coming to.

In one solid motion, Yuffie broke out of Cloud's grasp and attempted to deliver another punch, but Cloud's training kicked in and he deftly blocked it. He grabbed her wrist and bent her arm behind her back. She knelt down on the ground.

"Ow ow ow ow ow!" Yuffie cursed. "Come on, fight like a man!"

"I'm gonna let you go, but if you try to hit me one more time, I'm gonna go with Barret's idea," Cloud said. "Do you understand?"

Yuffie said nothing for a long time and finally groaned. "Okay." Cloud let go of her arm and Yuffie rubbed her wrist. "How could you be so mean to a girl?!"

Cloud couldn't help but laugh at this, and even Red chuckled a bit, in what sounded like barking. Barret was not amused.

"Who are you and why are you trying to rob us?" Cloud demanded, regaining composure.

"I am Yuffie Kisaragi, an expert materia hunter and proud ninja of the Wutai clan," Yuffie declared.

"You're from Wutai," Red said with sudden respect. "That explains your skill."

Yuffie seemed genuinely pleased. "Thank you! You must be from Cosmo Canyon, huh?"

Red also seemed pleased by this. "Indeed. My name is…. You can call me Red."

"Ahem," Cloud interjected. "This woman tried to kill us."

"No no!" Yuffie shouted. "I was just trying to rob you."

"Oh, that changes everything," Barret said. "We'll just let you go then."

"You don't understand," Yuffie said. "I was exiled from my hometown and have been forced to live off the land… and the occasional group of travelers. I know it's dishonorable, but I it's the only way I can survive."

If he buys this load of crap, then I'm home free, Yuffie thought.

"That's no excuse. How old are you?" Cloud asked.

"I'm sixteen, not that it's any of your business. I was just on my way to Fort Condor to beg for some food, so just let me go, okay," Yuffie pleaded.

"We were headed that way too, now that you mention it," Aeris said. "Would you like some food?"

Yuffie's eyes turned from one of false begging to that of sincere begging. "Yes, please!"

Aeris handed her a small piece of bread. The men looked at her with disgust, as though she were feeding their most vile enemy. She returned a look of moral indignation that said are you really going to let this poor girl starve? The men backed down and sighed.

"My name is Aeris Gainsborough," Aeris said. "This is Barret Wallace, Tifa Lockhart and our leader Cloud Strife."

"Leader?" Yuffie asked with a full mouth. "Are you bandits?"

"No," Barret said with a bit of a smile. "Terrorists. Although we prefer 'freedom fighters'."

Yuffie suddenly stood up. "Are you guys fighting against Shinra?"

Barret was now fired up. "You better believe it. We won't stop until every Mako Reactor is blown to kingdom come and those fat money-grubbing bastards are pushing up daisies. We are AVALANCHE!"

Yuffie bowed very low and humble. "If you guy are fighting against Shinra then please allow me to accompany you! I've always wanted revenge for what they've done to my homeland."

"Well we're technically after this guy named Sephiroth right now," Cloud explained. He unwittingly told her everything that had happened, and Yuffie hung on his every word. With excitement and devotion, particularly at mention of the Mako Reactor explosions and the death of President Shinra.

"Wow!" Yuffie said at the story's end (which was of their confrontation with the Turks in the cave). "You guys are badass!"

Yuffie was genuinely impressed, but she hadn't forgotten a particular part of the story that had perked her interest. This group had acquired some odd materia during their journey which would probably fetch a good price at market. So she figured she could stick around with this group for a little while and when she got bored, she'd rob them blind.

"I am so sorry," Yuffie said. "I really didn't mean any harm. Please allow me to travel with you."

Once again everybody looked at Cloud, and Cloud shrugged his shoulders. "She seems a competent fighter and she's clearly no friend of Shinra. You can travel with us, but any funny business and we'll leave you in a ditch somewhere."

Yuffie nodded, bowed politely and then walked over to Tifa. "So this is Tifa then, the one that got hit by that Zolom?"

"Yes," Barret said. "It's gotta be internal bleeding that's causing that bruise."

"Well I'm not surprised. The Zolom's tail is about as tough as a boulder. But that doesn't explain the black color. It must be skin death, which means," Yuffie pulled some strange herbs out of her satchel. "She's been poisoned. Unlike most snake's, the Zolom can poison its food simply through skin contact. The poison is excreted through their body like sweat."

Red was impressed that this young girl had known about this and he hadn't. "Where did you learn about this?"

"Oh… my father is a medicine man in Wutai," Yuffie lied. She had actually learned about it from her mother, but Yuffie never wanted to mention her. In spite of her dishonorable ways and the fact that she didn't believe in any of the nonsense her father said, she didn't want to do anything that would dishonor her mother, and so she never mentioned her. Not until she was a better person, and she didn't know when that would be.

Yuffie cut up the herb with a small kunai she pulled out of her belt. When the leaf was a powder she grabbed a small skin of water and poured the medicine in it. "She needs to drink the whole thing."

Tifa had been asleep through everything, and Cloud realized he would have a tough time explaining this to her when she woke up. He poured the water down her throat. There was no immediate reaction, but Yuffie assured them that it would take time. Yuffie also instructed Red to chew on some of the leaves in case he had contracted the poison when he bit the Zolom.

--

The following morning, the team awoke, but Tifa remained fast asleep. Barret lifted her up on his back and Cloud again took the backpack. As they traveled up a small set of hills towards the fort, Yuffie filled Aeris with tails of Wutai and Aeris told Yuffie much about the Ancients. Barret and Cloud were discussing whether or not they could trust this newcomer and Red was taking the lead, acting as their scout.

Noon came and went, but they didn't stop for lunch, since they had nothing but scraps of food left anyways. Each person took a small handful of bread, some water from their individual skins and Barret was given the last scrap of meat they had since he was carrying Tifa and needed the extra strength.

Finally when the sun was just on its way down, they arrived at the rocky pillar that was Fort Condor. A few armed scouts went down to investigate them. They seemed disturbed by Cloud's uniform.

"State your business!" One of the guards demanded.

"We're travelers seeking food and shelter for our injured comrade," Cloud explained.

"It's a lie!" Another cursed. "That's the uniform of SOLDIER. He's with Shinra."

Cloud raised his hands. "I'm not a member of Shinra anymore. It's true I was with them once but I am no longer in their service. Besides do you think Shinra is dumb enough to send a uniformed SOLDIER to do espionage?"

The guards looked at each other and finally nodded.

"Alright then," the first one said. "There's a rope ladder in the back of the cave. Climb up it and you'll be in the fort. Ask for Dennis, he's in charge of the operation."

--

Fort Condor had been a pretty quiet place of late. Shinra was cooking up something big in the Mako Reactor at the base of the mountain, and the citizens of this fort weren't going to stand for it any longer. If they went into the Mako Reactor they would likely kill the massive Condor that had taken up residency there, and would also kill its unborn chick. The Condor's were an endangered species and they would not let their namesake be damaged.

Shinra, of course, was not one to trifle with such things and they demanded access to their reactor at all times. In the end, a full-scale war had broken out. Women and children had been sent over the mountains to Kalm or to stay with relatives in Lower Junon. Only the men stayed, and they were not enough to form an army.

They hired mercenaries all the time, which is what Dennis was expecting when he saw Cloud and his party arrive in the fort.

"Ah welcome," said the man in a deep voice. He was old, but still looked very tough. "Are you an outfit of mercenaries?"

"I'm afraid we are not," Cloud said. "We're just travelers looking for some shelter."

"I'm terribly sorry," Dennis explained. "Now is not the best time for us to entertain, there is a war going on here."

Dennis explained the situation to the members of Avalanche. Battles occurred often and without warning, and there was no way of knowing when the next attack would come. Furthermore, at the moment they were shorthanded, and could not possibly hope to survive an invasion.

"Well Shinra's concentrating on Sephiroth right now. They might not attack for a while," Cloud explained.

"But that it were so," Dennis said. "Shinra hired a special unit of soldiers to deal with this fort alone. They are known as the Warhammer Unit. They specialize in infiltration and sieges of places such as this. No matter how many we kill more pop up. And to make matters worse, they've trained monsters to fight alongside them. Wyverns and Beasts of all manner."

Cloud nodded. He had heard of both the Warhammer Unit and the trained monsters that Shinra used. He figured there was only one way to solve both their problems.

"Very well then. How about this? We'll work here as mercenaries. We don't want your money, just room and board and some medicine for our sick friend," Cloud said. "We're all extremely skilled fighter and have experience taking down entire companies of Shinra soldiers."

Dennis seemed overwhelmed with joy. "Very well. You work for what you eat."

--

A couple of weeks passed. Tifa's condition slowly improved and the poisonous bruising on her stomach slowly reduced in size. The food in the fort was very good, despite being military rations. Each day, Cloud and the others patrolled the fort, and each day nothing exciting happened (except one instance of a loose Wyvern showing up on the field and Dennis swearing that it was the first wave of an attack).

Aeris insisted upon helping out by keeping the place clean. The fort had clearly not seen a woman's touch in many months, let alone a woman as was indicated by various soldiers hitting on her.

Finally the day had come and the group was preparing to leave. Tifa had still not awoken, but the poison was out of her system and Cloud was afraid to wait any longer for fear of losing ground on his quarry, Sephiroth.

Their backpacks were packed with the finest food the fort could offer, enough to make the trip to Junon. They were given new sleeping bags and some additional medicine for Tifa in case her illness returned.

Suddenly a lookout shouted "The Warhammer's are on the move!"

Cloud and the others rushed up to the top floor and saw a company of about thirty heavily armed soldiers marching up the hill. Cloud, Barret, Red, and Yuffie marched out onto the field. Aeris stayed behind to provide healing for any one who needed it. They were joined by twelve soldiers from the Fort itself.

"Seventeen of us versus thirty of them," a soldier moaned.

"I like those odds," Cloud said confidently. He lifted his sword and rushed at one soldier, cutting him down before the soldier could even open fire.

The Warhammer's began shooting, but Barret's aim was much better. He took down four by himself before he had to take cover. The morale of the troops shot up and they began to charge at the Warhammers. Yuffie leapt across stones and threw her shuriken. It arced around the battlefield, hitting three soldiers before returning to her. She landed in front of a fourth and delivered a bone-crushing punch. Red was the fastest of all, knocking down soldier after soldier and tearing soldiers apart with his claws.

Two soldiers made their way up to Aeris, but she laid them flat with some quick work with her staff. As soon as it had begun, the battle was over, with the shattered remains of the Warhammer Unit laying on the ground in front of them.

"Is it over?" Cloud asked.

Suddenly the ground began to shake and a massive soldier made its way onto the field. It wasn't a soldier, so much as a massive two-legged beast with a huge horn on its head. It let out a massive roar and proceeded to knock Cloud back three feet with one punch. The beast's skin was like armor and it towered at least three feet above Cloud. Cloud got up and tried to strike it with his sword, but the only result was the sword vibrating so hard Cloud lost his grip and dropped it on the ground before him.

Barret ran up and fired a round directly in the beasts eye and it growled in pain. The beast began to chase Barret now. He was running up the hill but signaled to the others to stay back. He had a plan. The beast finally cornered Barret on the top of a cliff. It was at least a two-hundred foot drop from this point. The monster charged and Barret jumped over the edge, grabbing onto the rock's ledge as the monster went tumbling over the edge to its doom.

Barret climbed back up, with Cloud's help and smiled. "I always wanted to do that."

Cloud and the other soldiers laughed and went back inside to celebrate their victory. Aeris cried out to them that there was more good news. Tifa had woken up.

They gathered around her bed and filled her in on what had happened. She looked at Yuffie with a puzzled look on her face.

"Who are you?" Tifa asked.

"Yuffie Kisaragi," Yuffie replied. "Nice to meet you."