"Although we don't have any evidence of the Lifestream resurgence affecting that which has already returned to the planet, at this point we shouldn't rule anything out. Yes, the rate of decomposition of plant matter has also increased tenfold, as has-" a voice suddenly blasted through her walkie talkie, cutting off the last part of Reeve's conversation.
"MATERIAMASTA22, THIS IS BLACKHAWK. COPY? READY TO DEPART." The voice was their young new pilot, Trevor. Yuffie always looked forward to Trev being on shift-he actually had a sense of humor unlike most of the stuffy older people Reeve kept around. It almost, almost made her enjoy flying.
The ninja laughed. "10-4 BLACKHAWK. DEPARTING FOR DADDIO'S PATIO." She skipped away from Reeve's office and out the nearest exit to the building's side, where she knew the helicopter would be waiting on its landing pad.
There was an uncomfortable silence before Reeve came over the radio. "Daddio's patio…?"
"I'm talking about Wutai!" Yuffie chimed back in, nearing her destination. "Or do you wanna be my new daddy, Reeveypie? I'll trade Godo in if-"
"Stop this foolishness right now. And if I hear those ridiculous nicknames one more time—" whatever empty threat Reeve made was silenced by the beating of the overhead blades from Trevor starting the copter's engine.
As the ninja neared him, Trevor gave her a thumbs up and a smirk.
"BOSS SOUNDED PISSED," he yelled over the noise. Yuffie shrugged.
"REEVEY'S ALWAYS MAD ABOUT SOMETHING," she shouted back, her voice shrill. Trev handed her a helmet and she fiddled with the built-in headset and mic as she affixed it to her head. Once satisfied with her adjustments, she continued. "Pretty sure mad's the only thing he feels."
"Maybe its 'cause you always annoy him, and you never listen," Trevor chuckled. His normal speaking voice was expressive and musical, but somewhat overtaken by a rasp that developed from smoking.
Trev was no more than 18-everyone around HQ knew-but he'd never admit to being less than 25 to anyone that asked. He was overly concerned with being taken seriously as a pilot, and even with his fun-loving nature he was quite professional in most settings. Yuffie had a habit of bringing out the mischief in anyone around her; for Trevor she was like a big sister, and their rapport typically reflected it.
"HEY KID," the ninja shouted directly into the mic, startling Trevor and causing the copter to jerk to the right as the pilot was trying to get it airborne.
"ARE YOU CRAZY?" He shouted back, looking over his shoulder to glare at her. She'd managed to pull the over-ear headphones away from her head to avoid his fate. She gave him a sly smile and mouthed the words "You started it!"
Another crack of thunder rumbled across the skies, rattling Yuffie right out of the memory.
The way the light filtered through the larger-than-life stained-glass windows above the staircase illuminated the particles of dust as she shakily breathed them. The adrenaline from her outburst was wearing off, and the chill of the unheated mansion was starting to soak through her wet clothes and set into her bones.
Her feet carried her forward with no instruction from her brain, straight to the staircase: after all, heat always rises. If there's any available, that is… She hopped onto the first step with both of her feet, the gentle creak of the wood sounding beneath them. She paused a moment, waiting for any other sound.
There was still nothing.
As another test, she repeated the process on the second step, then the third.
Finally satisfied, she carefully ascended the rest of the staircase, her small hand gripping the railing with each step. Once on the landing, she turned to observe the floor below her. The huge pattern stained into the wooden floorboards of the foyer looked positively new as she towered above it, as if the blemishes and age had simply melted away. The windows behind her illuminated the burgundy stain so much that it seemed to shimmer. From this angle everything seemed beautiful-even the darkened doorways to the sides of the entrance didn't seem so spooky.
This feeling wasn't safety, but it seemed…safe enough.
Yuffie turned around to face the giant windows, just ahead of her by another small staircase. The gorgeous swirls and shapes decorating the sides that held the thick glass panels in place had captivated her since she first saw them seven years ago. They were the one good thing about this place. Wutai didn't have anything so pointlessly grandiose and…pretty. Her home was beautiful, but in different ways, in efficient ways. No building was larger than the sacred battle tower, and it had to be big to serve its purpose.
Having time to appreciate these windows almost made her feel grateful for the chance. Almost. It was hard for her to imagine the people that had looked through them over the years of the old house's life. Had they ever really appreciated them? Appreciated how small they made you feel?
With every step towards windows the rest of the world seemed to shrink, Yuffie included.
Because the glass was the sort used for windows in chapels, it was unbelievably thick and warped so much that you couldn't really see though it at all, just blobs of colors and shapes, the idea of the mountains that surrounded the isolated place, the blinding whiteness of snow, if it was there.
She could imagine being a little girl, trying to squint though the window to make out the shape of a tree, or spying someone strolling in the garden simply by the moving shape. What a different childhood that would have been, so stifled and reserved. Would she still have been a hellion, or would she have quietly spent her time watching shapes move about in the colors behind the panes?
The ninja had walked up the second staircase still lost in thought, imagining the ripped lacey dresses and double-layered sweaters that most likely would have made up her wardrobe if she'd grown up here in cold Nibelheim. Would Godo have been a smithy, or perhaps the owner of the local tavern?
If her father surrendered to ShinRa, if the war had never happened, would Wutai have its own mansion just like this one, where the president could personally oversee the destruction of the land and culture that didn't serve his profit-margins…?
She clenched her fists and let out a huff of air, fogging the glass now so close to her face her nose was nearly touching it. Now focusing, her eyes could see blotches of green and brown through the condensation on the glass, but not much else. The ninja watched droplets of rain spatter against the outside of the glass, watched their ghosts roll away, fading into the splotches of color assumed to be the ground far below. Thunder rumbled across the sky once more, but it seemed somewhat subdued. Soon the storm would move on and so would she, back to the helicopter with Trevor, back to headquarters where she could properly sulk for a bit about the mission being a bust. Next time, pick the cave. She huffed again. Or just send Shelke. Vincent would certainly answer her calls, being that she was weirdly spiritually connected to his dead girlfriend from, like, 30 years ago.
And since she was on the topic, wasn't it fucking weird to still be so obsessed with someone that you sleep at their grave after they cheated on you with their boss and dumped you? Yuffie wasn't the most socially graceful-most times when trying to relate to others she put her foot in her mouth or said hurtful or insulting things without really meaning them because she was the one hurting, but she wasn't stupid. Vincent's whole deal with the lost love from a lifetime ago meant he was actually the stupid one. Even if Lucrecia realized the mistakes she'd made in the end, her actions and Hojo being a miserable prick left Vincey with a literal eternity of loneliness and suffering. WHY did he keep going back?
I'm still pissed at Pops for locking me in a shack and blaming me for the Geostigma outbreak, I couldn't imagine if he killed mom and let her be an experiment for a creepy-ass scientist. She shuttered and scowled. "We made a DEAL, house," she unclenched her fist enough to point into the void of the high ceiling. This is your LAST warning to stay the eff outta my head! She dragged her hand across the windows and curved the edges of the iron molds with her fingers as she continued down the hallway to the left.
It was fortunate Yuffie didn't mind being on her own. For the most part, she was used to it. It wasn't just Vincent that didn't answer her calls; more often than not Cloud didn't either, and Tifa's frequency of answering was diminishing now that she had Marlene, Denzel, and Shelke on her hands. Barrett and Cid would pick up every once in a while, and usually bitch about having to do so. The only one she could count on as a listening ear was Red-Nanaki-the loveable fluffball. It was funny imagining him answering the phone with his clunky paws and sharp claws, and sometimes the ninja called him just so she could giggle at how long it took him to answer, or his shifting and one-moment-please-Yuffie's as he struggled to get into a position allowing him to both talk and listen.
Yuffie hadn't seen him that long ago. Nanaki was the first one she told when the WRO started investigating the potential causes of the Lifestream's overabundance. He'd come to the WRO's headquarters to discuss the very matter with Yuffie and Reeve, citing "extensive examples of vegetation bursting to life within the canyon, and prey animals reproducing at unprecedented rates."
Science was given a whole new dimension of fun when the big words were coming from adorable puppy-cat-men.
Now seemed like the perfect time to call him. She gripped her phone within the front right pocket of her shorts and wiggled it out with her fingers. With only a few clicks, the ringing of call wait poured through the small speaker.
Beeeeeep… Beeeeeeeep…
"Salutations, Yuffie," the deep, familiar voice of her friend suddenly warmed the cold hallway.
"Red!" Yuffie couldn't help but grin. "You answered so quickly!"
"Not my name," huffed the beast on the other line. "But yes," he continued, proudly. "After my latest journey to Edge, Tifa helped me upgrade my device to one more suited to my…somewhat limited range of motion."
"Aw, you got another new phone…?" While Yuffie was happy for her friend, the loss of their traditional phone call antics would be missed.
"This one is voice activated," Nanaki stated, knowingly rubbing salt into his friend's wound.
"Fancy…" Yuffie's voice trailed off for a moment. "But I bet you still have to plug it in when the battery dies, right?" Thoughts of her feline friend carefully tending to a thin cord in his mouth, trying not to let his sharp teeth damage the wire's sheathing, desperately trying to insert the end of the cable into the small port of the phone brought her much joy.
"Actually," Nanaki further killed the mood. "This new device has a small stand that I am able to simply set the phone upon to maintain its livelihood."
"WHAT?!" Whined the ninja. "That technology is BRAND stinkin' NEW and you just get to CARRY it around the forests and the canyon like its NOTHING?!" She clutched the small flip phone she'd had for too many years close to her ear as she complained. "WELL, GOOD LUCK CHARGING IT ON A TREE, BUDDY."
"Yuffie," Nanaki's voice maintained its composure. "I live in an intricate series of homesteads carved within the side of a canyon. Not in trees." He heard the ninja huff in response. "I know you didn't call me to reprimand my choice of portable communication devices," his tone softened into a gentle purr. "What's the matter?"
"Well," Yuffie started, her bluster gone as she moved up the next staircase that took her to the small hallway of the mansion's second floor. Straight at the end of this hallway and visible from Yuffie's current position was a room full of plants, all different species, all soaking up the sunlight the generous giant windows of the mansion offered them. The plants lived in pots more than decades old, were barely watered or at-all taken care of, yet they thrived and grew unruly, tangled into each other, reaching toward the sun together. "I went to tell Vincent that Reeve wanted him back at headquarters."
"Right," affirmed Nanaki. "That was your intention when last we spoke. I informed him he would most likely be hearing from you soon, once Reeve decided the best course of action."
"You've already spoken to him?" Rang the ninja's voice, louder than was comfortable, through the speaker of Nanaki's phone. Her tone was accusing.
"Yes," Nanaki responded, flatly. "I told you at least once before: this time every year I make my rounds to check in on everyone. Immediately after meeting with you and Reeve, I made the trek to Edge. Vincent and I have a standing agreement to meet along the way, somewhere convenient for him as he travels to…"
"I remember," Yuffie interrupted, also flatly. "So he already knows the Lifestream is going crazy, then. Mission accomplished."
"And how did your mission fare, Miss Kisaragi? Is Mr. Valentine now in the capable forces of the WRO?" The beast sat on his haunches, waiting for a further inflamed response. To his surprise, it did not come. All he heard was a small sigh.
"No," the ninja continued, kicking dust off the floor with her feet. "I went to the mansion when I should have gone—"
"To the cave," they said together. Then silence as Yuffie's plodding footsteps continued trekking towards the well-lit room with the plants
"Why didn't you go to the cave, Yuffie?" Nanaki finally asked, baffled. You knew he would be there, his words said, especially considering the circumstances…
"I KNOW I should've," the ninja huffed. "I don't need you to tell me…"
"I am merely asking why."
The ninja reached the doorway and leaned against its frame, admiring the vast overgrowth of vegetation stretching over their individual pots.
"I-" she started, hesitating. What was there to say? That she was hoping she'd be right? That she knew he wouldn't be here, but she couldn't be bothered to go anywhere else? That it was too creepy to walk in on him hanging out with his dead, cheating girlfriend from thirty years ago? That going there felt like an interruption? That going anywhere else would mean that everything really had changed, except for her…?
Vincent and the mansion fit together like puzzle pieces, only now there were more pieces, and someone screwed up and put different pieces in the same box.
"The mansion was a prison to the man for ages," Nanaki interjected the ninja's thoughts. "Now that he's found a connection to his former self, a connection to the life a part of him wishes he could have lived so long ago…" He paused. Yuffie was still silent. "What humanity remains within him, those portions of sympathy and compassion that lie, muted, beneath the surface-they still cry out, weakly, to be heard." Nanaki heard them, when he'd lamented the passage of time to Vincent years ago, prompting their annual meeting.
"I know it was a shitty idea to come here, RED," Yuffie protested, but it was meek compared to her normal capacity for verbal confrontation. There were no insults, no threats, and refusing to use his proper name was a tired attempt to fend him off.
"But you still haven't told me why," Nanaki insisted, burying his claws into the rocky soil of his canyon abode, patiently kneading the pebbles between his toes.
Yuffie shrugged, even knowing her friend couldn't see it. Her shoulder was beginning to warm the wooden doorframe as she pressed against it to support her weight. "He's just…always been here, you know? I get sent out to find him, I go here, woooosh he comes with his stupid cape, then we all go save the frikkin' world."
"Everything changes," Nanaki mused. "Change is the only constant of existence." Contrasting the confident manner of his speech, saying the words made Nanaki's heart feel heavy. He was reminded that one day, probably before his eyes, nearly everyone he loved now would be gone; eventually change would take them, all of them. Except for Vincent. It was this desperate cry against time that inspired the man to take pity on the beast, to placate Nanaki's fear and uncertainty with the promise that as long as life remained, Vincent would meet him once per year.
Would he, hundreds of years from now, remember this conversation with Yuffie and regret disregarding her desperate cling to normalcy? Would he even be able to remember her at all? Vincent would remain far beyond Nanaki's own mortal end, centuries away though it may be. Perhaps Vincent would remain until the Planet itself died, and at that point…would Vincent, himself, remember traces of any of them? It was too easy to shove away Yuffie's reasons as foolish, misguided, or miscalculated, but…should he be given as short a life as she, surely he would also act afool sometimes-perhaps out of rebellion, or comfort. He expected another protest from the woman, but again he was denied.
"I guess you must be right, since he sure-as-shit isn't here," Yuffie chuckled slightly. "Did he go all hmmmmmm-I'm-a-brooding-super-serious-grumpy-guss when you told him about the Lifestream?"
"He reacted as one would expect from him," Nanaki admitted. "Which is to say, not much at all. Though if that is the prerequisite for the states 'grumpy' as well as 'guss,' then I imagine that, yes, you could say he was a rather…super-serious-grumpy-guss." Nanaki gave his friend a toothy grin, even knowing she couldn't see it. Hearing her voice crackle into laugher over the line made the pointless gesture seem worth it. This was the person he knew.
The ninja's laughter erupted from her belly and echoed through the empty halls. "Nanaki!" She breathlessly screeched. "That's one of the funniest things I've ever heard you say!"
"You're the one that said it!" His voice protested over the speaker.
"GAWD, I'm hilarious," she kept laughing, the sound pouring out from all around her. The only other noise Nanaki could hear was the muffled rumble of thunder.
"Yuffie, are you flying back in bad weather?" He asked, concerned, mentally listing the reasons why Reeve would reprimand the decision upon her return.
"No," Yuffie responded, trying to catch her breath. "Can't." A few more seconds of panting, trying to regain control of her giggles. "Gotta wait out. Storm."
"I see," he said, only partially relieved. "You're still in the mansion?"
"Better than being wet and cold," Yuffie responded, turning away from the door frame of the room full of plants to face another doorway directly to its left, the room itself housing several large beds decked out in quilts and comforter sets decades old. "'Least in here I'm just cold."
"Have you noticed anything strange since arriving?"
"Uhhhh," Yuffie started," you mean besides this whole creepy place?" Now that things were quiet again, she could still hear the rain pit-patting against the windows, and she caught a flash of lightning just as it peeked through. "You think if I saw even a single ghostie I would still be in here? NO!" She kept moving into the room, trying to decide which bed to flop on. "Say, Nan," she started again.
Yes, Yuffie?" Nanaki settled into the dust of the warm cavern floor. He scooted the phone along the floor with his nose, delicately booping the speaker button with it.
"Do ya think I've changed, too?" The ninja asked softly. She decided on the bed directly in front of the doorway and readied herself for a jump.
"Everyone does. Everyone has to," was the beast's response. The sound of creaking springs erupted through the speaker, startling Nanaki. "Yuffie?! What was—"
"Relax, Nan," Yuffie giggled again as a cloud of dust swirled around her from the impact. She pulled one of the quilts from the end of the bed up to cover her lithe body. "I had to find some blankets, so I didn't freeze to death."
"The fact that you're willing to stay within the confines of the mansion as opposed to opting for the thunderstorm outside means you're no longer the same person. You're no longer a…what is the term? Scaredy-cat?" The beast grinned again, slyly.
"Ha, ha," the ninja mocked. She rustled around in the quilt until she could wrap it completely around her, leaving only her face exposed. She impersonated a heap at the foot of the bed. "Don't quit your day job, fluffbutt."
"I scarcely believe who I'm speaking to," Nanaki chuckled. "Cid, is that you? Godo?"
"HEY!" The ninja's voice was shrill as she yelled. "I called you to make me feel BETTER, NOT WORSE!" Nanaki's teasing was starting to wear her (already lacking) patience thin. "I'm NOTHING like my old man. HE'D never go out and save the Planet! And he never even woulda saved WUTAI from the GEOSTIGMA without ME," she continued, bitterly. "And you know what HASN'T changed?" Yuffie insisted.
"What's that?" Nanaki purred.
"Heh," Yuffie started. "You're still the only one that answers my calls, dummy. You wouldn't do that if you thought I was some weirdo imposter."
A sudden boom sounded all around, so intense it shook the house.
"UggggHHHHHHHH!" Yuffie groaned into the phone's mic as she fell back onto the bed. "I thought the storm was CLEARING UP! At this rate I'm gonna be stuck here all freakin' night!"
"That is quite the storm," Nanaki agreed. The phone's speaker was small, making the condensed noise of the crash seem like an explosion. He shook his head unconsciously, as if to shake the echo of the sound out of his skull. The metal rings and jewelry within his mane clanked together softly with the motion. He didn't really know how to respond to the ninja's previous observation. Maybe it was true, however just as likely it was frustration at her plight blowing the situation out of proportion.
Yuffie stared into the high ceiling of the room, tracing the patterns in the dusty white sea with her eyes. Things were eerily quiet, save for another slight rumbling moving across the walls. This one was not at all intense, merely persistent.
"Yuffie?" Nanaki's voice finally broke the silence. "Change isn't a bad thing. Besides, the fight against it isn't one most can win." Images of himself and Vincent through the coming ages floated through his mind, and even Nanaki changed within them; his bright red fur would lose its sheen, its tips would begin to grey, his powerful muscles would weaken. The thoughts were disturbing. It would have been more appropriate to say the fight against change is futile for all but one, he thought.
"Just kill me if I ever start getting grumpy like Pops, please," the woman huffed. "I can't count on Vincent to help, and everyone else is old and they'll probably die before it happens. Since you'll be the only one left, you have to help."
"Assuming you live long enough to take up Godo's mantle, you would have earned the right to his scowl," Nanaki teased. "And why in the world would I want to assassinate my dear friend when I could instead reminisce about how far she has fallen…?"
Yuffie sighed.
As if on a cue, two sharp crashes once more shook the old mansion, fierce enough to cause the heavy paintings hanging upon the walls of Yuffie's room to bang against them. She only had a second to lift her head before a third crash echoed through the empty house, this time accompanied by the sharp snap of splintered wood. The paintings slipped from the walls and cracked against the wooden floor as the chill of panic pierced the ninja's warm quilt.
"Yuffie," Nanaki's voice was a low growl. He stood at attention, crouched as if prepared to strike; his fur stood on end. "Tell me that was thunder."
Shaky breathing was all he got in response.