Disclaimer: I don't own any of the FFVII characters, places, etc.
A/N: It's gonna be bad for Yuffie for a bit. Please hang on for her! And me!
Chapter 36: Accusation
Yuffie tensed in alarm as she saw Doujima's seal. She and Kale exchanged glances, both worrying about children and Doujima's well being. Emperor and Empress stood together as Kale broke the seal, and they began reading.
The muscles in Yuffie's body suddenly wound like iron, and her face paled. Bile and a coppery taste rose in her throat, as her stomach knotted itself. Pale faced, she met Kale's shocked and enraged expression. She could see the gears whirring and connecting things in his mind.
"I haven't heard from Reno in a while…I hope he's alright…" she had just said the words to incarcerate herself with a crime she hadn't committed. As Yuffie tried to formulate a response as he put together an accusation, the other half of her mind was going over what must have happened. Reno wasn't stupid. This outright attack must have had something to do with the rebellion, or Sonji, because Reno wouldn't sell her out like this…would he? No, no, he wouldn't! He just couldn't!
Doujima, then? Was Doujima working with the rebellion? If Reno was her enemy, then it was a set up, but Reno wouldn't have gotten himself caught under normal circumstances. He was dallying in well protected territory, and the medical reports indicated a sadistic desire to inflict pain on Doujima. Torture was not beyond Reno, but he was practical about it. The pointlessness of Doujima's pain and Reno's subsequent capture without a struggle was proof to her that Doujima had to be the culprit. Then…were her children safe? Yuffie's face went white as a sheet.
"Bitch!" Kale roared. The back of his fist connected with Yuffie unexpectedly. She staggered backwards a few steps, and her hand rose up in a daze at his reaction. Kale had never struck her before, but he closed the distance between them and wrapped his hands around her throat. Her knees buckled in despair. Did he really think she would do something like this? Even after all these years?
As the burning in her lungs began to register and Nayuta's voice hit her ears, Yuffie snapped back to reality. She abandoned despair as quickly as it had come, feeling anger consume and destroy it. Her hands closed around his wrists and broke the hold he had on her.
"How dare you," she snarled.
"I trusted you!" Kale insisted.
"Do you honestly think that if I wanted her dead, I would have wasted my time with hired help?" Yuffie snapped back. "Now where are my children?" she demanded.
"Your children? Your children? They're my children. You, you're…" Kale stammered for words, as Yuffie felt her insides getting colder, as the temperature around her began to drop. "Guards!" Kale shouted.
"What are you doing?" Nayuta gripped Kale's shoulder, spinning him around and snarling into his face. The guards burst into the tent, as Kale flung the letter into Nayuta's face. Her brother took the letter, not yet releasing the grip he had on Kale. His eyes skimmed through it and widened. "And you would turn on her?" Kale spluttered, looking dumbfounded. "An eight-year-old could have forged a better report. You believe this?"
"Doujima wouldn't lie to me," Kale hissed, attempting to remove Nayuta from him.
"But I would?" Yuffie challenged, lifting her chin arrogantly. Kale glared at her, seething. Yuffie had never felt anger that rivaled this, and her fury had never been ice cold. "I would lie to you? Who is it cheating on who?"
"You couldn't handle the idea of being married to me, ever. Not even when we were children! So I looked outside of my life sentence with you in order to find someone that could love me!" Kale tore himself away from Nayuta as the guards looked between each other. Yuffie's heart got colder. "You have brought this isolation and misery down on yourself!"
"And so because I wouldn't cheat, that makes me a liar?"
"You wanted her out of the picture! You want me to suffer in the same self-righteous manner you have!" Kale shook his head.
Yuffie couldn't help herself. She laughed in a manner that chilled the hearts around her. Even Nayuta seemed to swallow hard at the sound of her bitter amusement. Shaking her head, Yuffie strode to the table, and smiled down at the map, detailing where their troops were and recounting the numerous battlefronts.
"You think I would send my children to watch a woman die? You think I would leave my children with her?" She asked this softly, lifting her index finger and tracing the familiar landmass of her homeland.
"I don't know how your mind works. I want this woman arrested," Kale replied, turning to his guards.
"I won't allow it!" Nayuta snarled. "You're a fool!"
"It can be debated in court. You'll stand your trial immediately with the justices." Kale gave her a venomous look.
"Where are my children?" Yuffie asked.
"I wouldn't blame Doujima if she throttled them," he said roughly. The accused empress drew a small knife, and she cut the tip of her finger.
"This is madness!" Nayuta argued.
"Arrest this man as well," Kale jerked his chin at Nayuta.
"Don't be an idiot, Kale," Yuffie said calmly. She pressed her bloody fingertip down on the map, over Asa's city. She moved it again, and quietly counted nine siblings against her. "Nayuta's troops are loyal to myself and Nayuta alone. The only reason you have any command is because you married into our family," she told him when she was through. "If you dethrone Nayuta, you lose the backbone of your military powers."
"Yuffie, I won't allow this!"
"Let them take me to trial," Yuffie looked at her brother. "Nayuta, you need to worry about the Kisaragi legacy. Father always said he wished you were the heir. I trust my people." Yuffie extended her hands to her guards, and they swallowed.
"My lady?" they asked her questioningly.
"Please, take me. I stand accused of attempted murder of the Emperor's lover," Yuffie looked at them with a grim and heartless irony. The guards standing in her colors looked at her pleadingly, before one, a lieutenant named Daisuke, took her small wrists in both of his rough hands. He carefully tightened handcuffs around them, and gently placed his hands on her arm.
"You're a fool," Daisuke said as his voice grated against itself.
"However true, it's not your place, soldier," Yuffie told him. "Remember the kingdom," she added of her brother, who stood with a pale face and clenched jaw. It looked like he was having trouble breathing.
Yuffie was walked out into the thickly falling snow. She tilted her face back, letting the snowflakes melt on her cheeks softly. Breathing in the razor sharp cold, a smile lifted the corners of her mouth.
"Did you know that the first two letters of your first and last name spell 'viva?' VIVA LA VAMPIRE!!!" she heard herself saying brightly in the past. Ah, Vincent. She hadn't thought about him in a long time. "Mine's yuki. That means snow in Wutain. Maybe I'll be an ice bitch when I grow up."
Amused at the precognizant abilities of her younger self, Yuffie blew out a long breath of fog. She followed Daisuke's gentle push towards a convoy.
"My lady, why are you allowing this?" Daisuke asked softly. Yuffie looked at him over her shoulder, studying the face of the older man more critically then she ever had before.
"I have to know my children are alright before I make any moves," she replied. "After all, it was Doujima who had them last…what an idiot I am…" shaking her head, she sat down and clasped her hands in her lap. The people of Wutai would either make her escape from this horrible situation easier or more difficult. She had no intention of being imprisoned, but she would give it until the trial. Taking deep, steadying breaths, Yuffie assumed the lotus position, concentrating on not getting motion sickness.