A/N: First, in a recap of the results of the last poll, be aware that I'm counting "I don't care which Ed and crew you use" votes (there were 2) towards both "Omega on another world" options, so final totals are the following:
(Edit: Late vote in a review for CA: +1 on both 1) and 4)...New totals—and yes, I'm leaving the numbering as-is:)
1) The "Original" Ed and crew on another world (15 votes (13 + 2))
2) The "Dimensions" Ed and crew on another world (6 votes (4 + 2))
Both of these (1 and 2) are the first poll, and it's important!
3) People from another world landing on the Catalyst Array Gaia (4 votes)
4) Something not related to Catalyst Array (5 votes)
5) People from another world landing on the Salvation's Hands Gaia (3 votes)
These three (3, 4, and 5) will be the second poll.
If you're on mobile, switching your device to 'desktop mode' on FFN will let you see the poll on my profile page so you can vote!
The new poll, which will be open for several weeks, will be for options related to either the Catalyst Array (more accurately, the Fates of Worlds), or "Original", Omega or the "Dimensions" Omega landing on another world (the two variants were at least poll-compatible) so I can get started seriously writing. I have no doubt there are many possibilities besides these, but these are the ones I feel I could turn into a viable story, hence why they're included and there's no option to make suggestions to me. Please vote in this poll; the result DOES matter, and the more votes, the better idea I have of where to focus my story-building!
A few extra notes if you want a bit more clarification on some things which will be in the poll options:
First, without quite realizing what I did with my options, I established the "Dimensions" Omega which was to be used as being from a Gaia which lasted four years longer than the "Original" Omega's, and which isn't the one Ed's in for FoWD. There are two instances of one particular world; that doesn't mean I have a preference for writing that world, it means I assessed that changing the arrival date, crew, and location of arrival will significantly change the resulting story. If you don't want either of those 'alike' options, don't choose them!
On the other hand, the poll after this one includes four instances of people from other worlds landing on a Gaia variant, and all but one of those also uses a world from in this poll (Harry Potter, Tales of the Abyss, and RWBY). What makes them different—and changes the story by extension—is how they're going to Gaia, rather than Gaia coming to them. Keep this tidbit in mind while voting, especially for voters who wanted others to arrive on Gaia!
Odd Allies
Sirra as Ratri had become well-known as a presence in the Slums very quickly, and was still just working out how much more skilled her training and work as a Turk had made her. That morning, she had checked with the bounty office for work she could do locally as usual, and had found an unusual request which had been put out by the Turks. As a Turk, she knew they occasionally sent out requests to mercenaries for assistance, but that was normally just clearing monsters out of no man's land for them—which this one was not. In fact, she didn't think she'd ever seen or heard of a request like this one from the Turks.
She had asked the clerk in charge of the bounty office if it had really come from them, but he hadn't been able to tell her because it was the night shift clerk who would have taken it. In other words, the half-Wutain who she met every time she went in to collect her day's earnings from her completed bounties. She took a copy of the request, though, because she didn't know if it was legit or not, or if there was something she was missing about it. As much as she hated the feeling, she was sure this would take investigation to answer, and mercs didn't investigate, they just did what they were paid to do.
But, it had to do with a group of illegal goods runners in Wall Market—they gave Corneo a cut, so he let them operate on his territory—so she was pretty sure she knew someone who could help her. Even if he was a Guard. Someone wanted the runners eliminated because they had 'become a threat to the population' by branching out into high-powered weaponry. In theory, it would make sense for the bounty to exist, but unless they had stolen something of Shinra's from them directly, she didn't think the Turks would bother with it, and if they bothered, they would be handling it themselves. And the only one she had easy access to from that department was Ruluf.
So, she was currently making her way down an alley near where she knew he 'data gathered' from (or one of the places in Wall Market he did so), and found him leaning against the building to the right of the alley, right at the edge of it. It was a tactic which would cause most people to ignore him, since he was clearly unhurried and not upset in any way, but which gave him a quick escape if he needed it. And even in a Turk uniform, that worked in Wall Market—she'd even used it before, like all the Turks had when they'd had reason to be in the area.
Making no secret of her presence to him, she leaned on the alley wall next to the same corner Ruluf was leaning on. His head turned slightly, but he otherwise didn't react, so she asked quietly, "You know I'm 'undercover' right now, right?"
He pulled out a cigarette and lighter, making a show of lighting up the smoke so he could shield his mouth as he answered as quietly, "Yeah. What's that got to do with me?"
"Found a really interesting bounty at the office today, supposedly put out by the Turks. I'm not sure that's true," she replied quietly as he put his lighter away, but kept his hand, and the smoke, close to or in front of his mouth, whether or not he was taking a drag on it at the time. "Did you lot put out a bounty on those goods runners down at Warehouse Eight?"
He blew out a long stream of smoke, then took another drag as he muttered, "Why the Hellfire would we do that?"
"Yeah," she muttered. "Makes me think someone made use of Kariya's ID to put it out, and that would mean Fuhito or one of his goons. Then, we'd have to ask 'why?' Problem is, mercs don't investigate, they just do, so I can't find out for myself what that asshole's up to now."
After a silence and a couple puffs on his cigarette, Ruluf asked, "You got a copy of the bounty?"
"I need it back, but here," she agreed, slipping the folded paper to him at his hip by his pocket. To anyone else, it would have looked like he'd taken it from his pocket. Then, he quickly read it, made a little 'tch' noise, and slipped it back to her the same way, as though he'd just put it back into his pocket.
"As much as I hate to agree with a Hound, I think you're right," he replied. "I have a watch post near Warehouse Eight—meet me there around three. I'll have something for you by then, but no promises on how much. You got other shit to do for the day?"
"Yeah, a clear request and an escort half-way across the city. No idea if I'll be done the escort on time to meet you, so you'll have to wait if I'm not," Sirra told him. "I'm completely not worried about the clear request—might even have it done before I have to go pick the girl up to take her back to her husband."
The man gave a faint snort which he had to quickly cover by bringing his smoke to his mouth again. "I've got time, no worries. But really? Taking married girls back to their husbands? Mercs really do that?"
"'S not like the Slums are safe for women who can't fight to walk around in. Her parents are too old and frail to get her home, her husband works sixteen hour shifts so has no time, and his ma has to take care of their two kids. Yeah, mercs get that kinda work quite a bit 'cause not everyone can do it themselves," she replied in annoyance. "Asshole."
"Sorry," he replied, going quiet. She didn't think 'chastised' described his response, just...thoughtful. "Wasn't trying to be rude. And I guess monsters aren't the only danger."
"Yeah, that's one of the reasons a lot of people who need an escort will pay for it. And for a woman, to be able to have a woman merc—who won't try to rape her and will actually get her where she's going safely—that's worth paying for. A woman in my field can get rich off escorts like that alone, so don't go knocking it," Sirra pointed out with a sneer.
"Point taken. I'll see you later, then. But I'll have to let the Turks know, so if there's anything else you want to pass on, be prepared to hand it to me so I can get it back to the office for you."
"Hmm...Yeah, I'll think on that, 'cause I'm sure there was something I did want to pass on. Later," she agreed, then slipped away quietly and went on with what she needed to do. Later was later, and she would see what would happen then.
FoWD
Ed woke on his own around noon, so got up to take care of his needs and shower, then dressed in fresh clothes and decided to check Kariya's apartment for how Yufi was doing—assuming he hadn't just had a really strange dream. As he made his way to the older man's bedroom, however, he was assured he hadn't been dreaming, as he could hear Yufi asking in amazed horror, "How can this be so hard?"
Since Kariya was chuckling, Ed made his way into the main room, causing the man to look up at him with a faint half-smile as he commented, "You're sure getting adventurous, Ed. That's good to see. Lunch is in the oven, since I had to make enough to cover at least two others besides us three. Ever had shepherd's pie?"
And for some reason, Ed jumped all the way back to when he was a little boy in Amestris as he said, "My mom used to make them every few weeks..." He then drifted off and blinked as he added, "Damn, that's an old memory to have suddenly thought of..."
Kariya had to snort at the words as he said, "No harm in that since it's a good memory, right?" When Ed nodded, he offered, "Come join us." On the table, the blond could see a board with about a dozen rows of four holes, plus a mini set of four holes beside each row, and another set of four which was facing Kariya at the time. There were many pegs in six colors as well, some on the table and some placed on the board.
"What are you doing?" the blond asked as he slowly sat beside Yufi.
"It's a game called Mastermind—basically, a type of code-breaking by process of elimination," Kariya replied. "Right now, I'm the codemaker, so I've chosen four pegs as the code, and the Princess is the codebreaker, who is trying to figure out what the code is. Correct guesses each earn a point, and whoever has the most points at the end wins. Though, the end is however many rounds we decided at the start, which is six, and we're on five now."
Ed eyed all the pieces on the table and board, then asked, "So are there the same number of pegs of each color?"
"There are," the man agreed.
"...So, if you've used four, counting the pegs left over would immediately tell the codebreaker which colors you used and how many of each, and the only thing left to do would be to guess the order," the blond said dryly, and the other two blinked at him in amazement. "Could you use a sheet of paper with numbers or something that you write down instead?"
After a pause, Kariya grinned and informed him, "If this was a serious game 'to win', maybe that would be the better option, and yes, that's one of the possible variants of Mastermind. This isn't a serious game, so it doesn't actually matter if we even keep track of the points. For someone who's never played a game like this before, though, Yufi does quite well for her age. She's already managed better 'scores' than Shelke on every round."
"...Hmm..." Edward murmured as he thought about it and eyed the board. "Yufi, do you actually get how 'process of elimination' works?"
"Sort of?" she offered with a pout. "If you try one thing and it doesn't work, you have to try another until you get it."
"Not quite," he replied, lips twitching a bit in amusement. "Think of it like the process of how you search for treasure or something worth stealing."
She gaped at him. "You mean, like how I pick a place to start, then check each place I come to from there, in an order, until I find what I'm looking for?" the girl asked in amazement. When he nodded, she went back to the board to examine it carefully. She only had three rows left, so she looked like she was actually going back and really checking what she had done before.
"Should you be encouraging those kinds of thought patterns?" Kariya asked him in a dry tone while the girl was working out her next guess.
"There's nothing wrong with the 'thought pattern', only with her applying it to stealing, Kariya," the blond replied equally as dryly. The man blinked at him, then turned his attention back to Yufi while she was obviously calculating something.
Soon after, Yufi had made her guesses—and got it on the last one—and their roles had been reversed so Kariya was doing the guessing. That time, the girl obviously grasped what he was doing as he made his guesses, so Ed just watched them...And realized it reminded him of a game he'd played with Al and Winry back in his hometown when they'd been around six years old. Only, back then, the 'pegs' had either been farm animals or—as he'd offered—numbers from one to six. That flashback brought tears to his eyes for a moment as he realized he hadn't thought of Al and Winry or the good memories he had of them in a very long time.
The game was interrupted by a knock on the door, so Kariya got up to answer it—and as he was opening it, the oven timer went off, causing him to give an annoyed look at the oven as Yufi giggled and Ed gave him an amused grin. Since a startled Lady Shinra and Rufus were at the door, the blond got up and went to turn off the oven, grabbed the oven mitts off the counter from where Kariya had left them, and pulled the shepherd's pie out of the oven.
As he'd been doing that, Kariya had said to the two humans outside (since Carbuncle was sitting on Rufus' head), "Come on in—I made enough for everyone to join us for lunch."
"Thank you," the woman agreed in mild amusement, stepping inside as Kariya joined Ed to take the dish from him. Soon after, Yufi and Kariya's game had been pushed to the side and everyone had found seats at the table, Lady Shinra and Rufus across from Yufi and Ed while Kariya sat to the side of the table between the girl and woman. Carbuncle, meanwhile, had begun poking around the apartment.
They first had a pleasant meal before Lady Shinra turned her attention to Yufi and said genially, "I hear you're Princess Yufi Kisaragi, Emperor Godo's daughter."
Yufi pouted, but answered, "Yeah. So?"
"What brought you here, Princess?" the woman asked.
"Shin-Ra always treats us like trash, so I was going to just steal all kinds of things from you to pay you back for it," the girl answered, her tone and gaze shockingly fierce.
"Revenge?" Lady Shinra asked with a raised brow.
"I guess..."
"How did you get here?"
"If I tell you, you'll send me home and make sure I won't be able to get back."
"If anyone were to keep you from returning, it would be your father. Regardless, I don't currently plan to send you back. As such, how did you get here? It was no short jaunt."
For a long moment, Yufi was silent, but then she sighed and said, "You have merchants here who trade with Wutains. I stowed away on one of the ships heading for Midgar after trading off stuff."
"I see. Is there a particular reason you don't want to go home? I'm sure your father is worried about you," the woman commented, her gaze flashing over to Rufus for a moment.
All of them except Ed stared at her when she gave a derisive snort and replied, "If he even noticed I'm gone."
"Wouldn't he?" Lady Shinra asked, gaze sad.
"No, probably not. He doesn't care about me or what I do, just as long as I don't cause trouble for him when he's in 'Court'. Everyone else means more to him than I do!" the girl burst out in anger.
Ed sighed at the words and put in, "Godo was already grieving the loss of his whole cousin family, the Kaoins—that's seven people—to torture and murder around the time Yufi was born, and when she was five or six, I'm still not clear on exactly when it happened, he also lost his wife to illness. It was too much to handle and he effectively distracted himself by turning to affairs of state to drown out the pain, which also meant he completely lost touch with his only remaining family member—Yufi. He also doesn't know how to fix it. I know he still cares and worries about her, but he doesn't know how he needs to express that to her, so she legitimately feels he doesn't care. The lack of reaction he gives her for stealing is one of the big reasons she feels so strongly about it, because that lack literally translates to a child as 'he doesn't care what I do.' And he doesn't know one of the Kaoins is still alive, though said Kaoin also doesn't want him to know that."
"Why not?" Rufus asked in complete confusion. "I would think family would want to touch base."
"Not when the Kaoin in question was subject to torture at the hands of a fair number of Crescent Unit's members, which to him meant his 'cousin' was the one to have them tortured to death. He doesn't know those members of Crescent Unit acted without Godo's knowledge or permission, and neither does Godo, because they were careful to leave behind nothing to track them with," the younger blond explained.
After a long silence, it was Yufi who asked sickly, "How could you have found all that out without being—being—"
"Tortured?" Ed asked quietly, and she nodded. He lifted his shoulders in a small shrug, then said, "Back the very first time I met you, I had gone to Wutai with a woman trusted by your father and your people, and was representing Shinra at the time, even though a full-blown war was going on in that timeline. It gave me a chance to talk with both Godo and the Kaoin who survived. This is what I found out from them then. So no, there was no torture involved, though I'm sure it helped that I was willing to act as their intermediary."
"...But you've never met me at the Palace first?" she blinked.
"Nope. I met you at the fishing village I first arrived in Wutai at," he agreed, looking amused. "One of the first things you told me was that you'd never seen someone from Shinra with golden hair or golden eyes like a cat's before. Then you told me you had a cat, but it was more interested in chasing mice than playing with you."
After a shocked pause, everyone else dissolved into giggles, even Carbuncle, as Yufi answered, "Yeah, I probably would have said that, too, if I hadn't gotten on an airship to Midgar yet."
"And the big question now is how we handle the situation," Lady Shinra commented, gaze on Ed. "Since you feel keeping her here and training her as a Turk is the best bet—and is actually valid, as much as I would rather not have a child so young in our uniform—what do you feel is the best way to handle this, Edward?"
Ed paused for a moment, then sighed at Minerva's urging him to share. Finally, he offered, "If you have a way to get in touch with Godo and rework some of the aspects of your current truce, you can present her to your husband effectively as a peace offering. She'll keep some status and need a guard, but she'll be free to go to school or do some training in whatever she wants. Illis is usually fantastic as a guard, and Reno's good, too, but I have no idea if any of the ones I've never met before would be able to do it as well as or better. She takes best to people who are direct and will catch her at her games.
"Anyway, part of the agreement would effectively absorb Wutai into Shinra, but in a way in which Godo keeps control of his forces, his taxes, and his people. Your husband doesn't actually want a Reactor in Wutai, he just wants control of the land because he's a control freak. If Godo would take care of protecting and supplying the various resort towns and build or allocate one in Wutai as a resort town which is in the temperate zone people out here most favor, the President will normally go for it, even if that means creating a new department.
"In turn, Wutain troops would be responsible for keeping places like Icicle Inn and Costa del Sol safe, which is fewer people Shinra needs to devote to keeping them safe. Also, by default, Wutai needs all its resources and taxes to become the main supplier for all of those resort towns, and by extension, the Wutain workforce providing them. That way, if it's worded right, the President gets his control, but that also means he has to stay out of Wutain affairs, and only if Godo's input is needed in a meeting does he need to come to Midgar for it."
The others stared at him in amazement before Lady Shinra commented, "Then I suppose I had best get to work. And some photos to assure Godo that his daughter is fine would be good."
"I can do that," Kariya agreed.
"Yay!" Carbuncle cheered from under the table. "It's about time!"
After a startled moment, everyone laughed, and Yufi dove under the table to catch and examine the Summon curiously.
FoWD
She was almost an hour late getting back to Wall Market to meet Ruluf, and Sirra was not happy about that. Still, the job had been successful, and she'd gotten a decent payout for it, so timing aside, it was worth the effort. She'd have to finish her monster clearing later, once she'd gotten the data she needed from the Guard. It didn't take too long to find the right alley near Warehouse Eight, and she slipped up behind him much the way she had when she'd found him that morning. He had his hands in his pockets as he relaxed against the wall, but she could tell by tension in his shoulders that something had happened. Probably something not good.
"So, how goes the investigation?" she asked softly as she leaned on the alley wall next to his street-side corner.
He pulled out his lighter and a cigarette to shield his mouth from view as he had last time, then said, "Standing around here waiting for you turned out to be an ear- and eye-full. Damn, Sir, how the Hellfire did you get caught up in this shit?"
"Can you try not being so cryptic with the bad news, 'luf?" she sneered in reply, and he gave a faint snort at the 'fluffy' implication she'd given his name.
"Let's go somewhere we can sit and chat—no way I'm doing it here," he replied.
She made an irritated noise, but said, "Fine, let's head for one of the bars I frequent. And if you take off your tie and jacket, no one will realize you're a Turk."
He gave agreement, and they were soon at 7th Heaven, the man without his tie and jacket, as he'd stashed them in one of his old hidey-holes on his way.
When they had their drinks and were sitting tucked into the corner, he said softly, "So, our boys in Eight have two major payloads right now, one the kind of high-powered weapon noted in the bounty, and the other from a rival runner's shipment they intercepted. Only, the 'other thing' isn't a weapon, it's scientific research data stolen from Shinra. I also saw someone matching Fuhito's description observing the warehouse, so it's highly likely he wants either or both of those things. He may even have been the intended recipient of the stolen data. That means a merc going in there and eliminating them would leave him free to take any and everything from there he happens to want."
"Which means he's got a lot of people here right now," Sirra agreed with a soft hiss. "That'd explain my current Wutain count around here."
"What do you mean?" he asked warily.
"Well, not just Wutain, but just from the time I got here to now, I've seen three times the number of new faces I should be seeing, and very few of them look like the people from other parts of the Slums," she scowled again as she re-phrased.
"Do you know the faces in all eight Sectors well enough to track that?" he blinked.
"No, but people who've been living in the Slums have a particular 'look' to them—Hellfire, even you and Reno have that look. Ansha, Verde, Emma, Alvis—you've all got it," the lady Turk/merc snorted softly. "It's pretty distinctive next to new arrivals, and I've been seeing a lot of new arrivals. Maybe half-and-half Wutain and not? Some may really be people thinking they can make a living here, but what about all the rest? 'Cause like I said, there's too many of 'em. And I passed several in Wall Market on my way to meet you. They're just waiting for the merc who took the bounty to act, so I can't wait long."
Ruluf sat back to think as Sirra swirled her drink absently—until he suddenly smirked and said, "I have an idea. All you have to do is let me know when you're going to eliminate them."
"Tonight. This shit needs the cover of darkness," she replied immediately. Then she smirked at his raised brow and pointed look upward. "More than normal. I'm aiming for around eleven, when they've mostly let their guards down. And I need to go buy silencers."
"Check with Kelio, the merchant just down the way from Corneo's Mansion—he's one of Corneo's, but he usually has things like gun and rifle accessories behind the counter. And it'll let them see you doing things which can easily be taken as prep for the job so they don't decide to act on their own before you get the chance," he offered, then rose.
"I know how to do my own job, asshole," she glared at him as he laughed, gave her a wave, and walked out. Then, she smirked and muttered, "But Kelio is a new one. Looks like I'll at least pay him a visit soon."