Intermediary

Haruna had known she'd eventually have to introduce Cloud, Tifa, Aeris, and Hokuto to Fuhito—Aeris had told her as much on behalf of the younger Minerva of the current era. She hadn't expected that introduction to be done as a result of Fuhito trying to kill Cloud, with potential help from an Assassin. It had been a gamble to intervene, but she'd been fairly certain what Fuhito knew of her to date would cause him to hesitate, and the Assassin would at least pause at hearing Wutain. The gamble had worked—Cloud had played into it very nicely, leaving the impression that Yufi was now very dead at the Turks' hands. She wasn't sure he'd realized that detail.

Now, with Fuhito and Maya sitting at her kitchen table, she realized she was stepping into very dangerous territory. How well could she manage it?

"So, what was it you wanted to discuss, customer-san?" she asked in Wutain, and his lips curled into a smirk.

"It seems your luck over-rides even those who have rather high luck, like the members of Royal Family," he mused. "Between your connections and that, I think we can help one another. My plans include the elimination of the Shin-Ra Company and the Royal Family, but they seem to have acquired unexpected assistance somewhere. If your plans include the elimination of one or both, your apparent—ah—ties to people in both lands might be very useful, in combination with my resources. What do you think?"

She leaned back in her seat as she eyed him for a long moment. Finally, she said, "I have an old friend who helps me acquire goods to sell to undermine the Shin-Ra. My grudge against the Royal Family is more personal, and my position tends to go more to supporting Wutai against the Shin-Ra. Even if that means supporting 'insurgents' rather than a formal military. In more practical terms, I'm harder to track by working independently, and for the purposes of retaining my autonomy to keep providing goods to those more actively opposed to 'the establishment,' I need to maintain that position."

"Oh, I'm aware of that part, and I wouldn't be asking you to do anything which would actually change your own plans. Unless you just plan on staying holed up here?" he asked in vague amusement. "I can also make sure you have 'security' if you happen to need it."

Haruna tipped her head to the side. "I was going to start traveling to sell products soon," she admitted. "I don't have a precise date yet, but the more 'special' customers I have, the more feasible it is for me to go. Especially if they offer me places where I'll get sales of my special goods. Since your first visit, I now have five other potential such customers, and one definitely wants me to be able to transport my goods elsewhere."

"I most definitely want you to do so, but some of those 'goods' would be ones I've specifically given you for others in other areas," he told her plainly. "Most of the items should be able to be hidden in much the way you already do."

"Do we actually get anything out of that?" Maya suddenly asked, and Fuhito looked at her in surprise as Haruna's lips quirked in amusement. At the man's look, Maya added, "Well, you're asking us to transport potentially illegal equipment that's easier to find in our goods than anything we'd normally carry. If you expect us to do it for free, that's much too dangerous to risk."

For a long moment, he just looked at the other woman, then returned his gaze to Haruna. "At the very least, it would be no different from your costs for your special goods. I could offer more for the delivery service itself if you like? Some of those things would be ones I'd pay well to see moved, if you're willing. And that won't stop me from buying your goods as well, if I happen to need something, or see something I like. I can even offer to help you with your personal grudge, though if you're the traditional sort, you'll keep that one for yourself."

Again, Haruna paused to think about that. In theory, she couldn't actually make the decision without getting Veld's permission for the purposes of laying the bait for the trap. Except now she had two traps to lay. Finally, she gave a nod and said, "If your prices turn out to be reasonable, I wouldn't be opposed to some of those deliveries, but if you give me something I don't think I can safely transport, you'll have to find someone else."

"Good!" Fuhito grinned, the look of it somehow cold and smirking despite the obvious joy behind it. "Where do you plan to travel to so I can start collecting things to be delivered on your route or things I can send to one of those locations so someone else can pick them up? My other business partners may well make a lengthy trip to get something, assuming they know where to be and when."

"My route was going to start at Costa del Sol and travel through most of the areas between there and Nibelheim. On the other side of the mountains is a small coastal town I'll divert to so I can cross to Wutai, where I also plan to travel and sell. Depending on how the War goes in the next little while, I may not go all the way to Wutai City other than on personal business, but everywhere else in Wutai I would sell," Haruna explained.

The man gave a small hum, then nodded. "Are you planning to go to the Northern Continent at all?"

"At the moment, no," she informed him plainly. Also, she didn't want to put herself too much into his grasp—it was very likely his northern base was in use by someone, even if that was one or both Restrictors. Since he was showing so much interest in her, going there would run the risk of him kidnapping and experimenting on her. Besides, all the people she needed to track weren't going to be up there. Except him.

"That's a long diversion of our route, too," Maya commented. "The travel costs alone, let alone the time, won't be very profitable."

Fuhito made a dismissing motion. "I can have people meet you at several places along your route—effectively, pretty much anywhere but Gongaga and Cosmo Canyon. Wutai is the Shin-Ra's now. They'd taken it over as of when I left three days ago. Does that mean you would or wouldn't go to Wutai City?"

Haruna tapped the tabletop with one finger a few times, but Maya commented, "If the Shin-Ra have taken over, there should be 'insurgents' to sell goods to, and no one should look twice at us if we pull out the Wutain fabric we've been keeping. What do you think, Haruna-dono?" Fuhito's brow rose at the address, but he gave a small nod.

"I can guarantee you that market," he added. "Though the elder's difference to you makes more sense if you have noble blood somewhere and her family is one of your retainer families."

Maya just gave a faint smile as Haruna's lips quirked in amusement. "I won't argue the point. Wutai's insurgent market could well prove very profitable if you can in fact guarantee me that." She paused again, wondering if Veld would back her for this move, but then decided she may as well go for broke on this one. Nodding, she said, "I'll go right up to the capital, then. I have to go there anyway, so this will make it easier. If you have agents there, of course they'll also be able to retrieve from me anything you sent along—again, assuming it's worth my while to risk carrying it."

"That—" he began—only to get cut off.

"The fuck's with the company, Haruna?" Kariya's familiar—and annoyed—voice asked (also in Wutain, other than the swear word) from just inside the door, and Fuhito began to draw his gun and rise in alarm as he saw the Turk uniform—then he froze with his mouth open a bit in shock.

"Kariya, don't you ever knock?" she asked him in annoyance. This wasn't the first time he'd just walked in, either.

"When I feel like it, Sweetheart," he shrugged. "Playing with the big fish now?" His tone turned amused and smirking. "Is it going to help you reach your goals?"

"You cocky bastard," she replied in even more annoyance. "I hope you have something worth my while, since you're here out of schedule."

"Yeah," he agreed, pulling out a memory stick and giving it a toss to her. She caught it easily and he offered, "Being put on guard duty leaves a guy a lot of free time. Those are some pretty good efforts from the Science Department, but sorting them's up to you—I can't keep those on me long enough for that this time."

Suddenly, Fuhito began laughing. "Oh, this just gets better and better!" he commented, sounding giddy with joy. "Very nice, Lady Tailor." He then gave her a formal Wutain bow of respect. "My name's Fuhito, the leader of the group called AVALANCHE. I'm thinking of a rename because of my new business partners, though. I'll let you know if that changes. Your name?"

"Haruna Hayashi," she offered, head tipped to the side as she assessed his response to Kariya's presence. Of course, at least Kariya knew exactly what he could play on, and would need to given Fuhito's presence, but the other Wutain's response was actually much better than she thought it might be. That meant he knew the Death God of the Battlefield on sight even if he didn't know Kariya personally, and was completely willing to believe it was all a setup. Of course, it was, just in the opposite direction the Wutain man was assuming.

Fuhito made a noise which wasn't quite a hum, like he'd just worked out a puzzle. "Since I have your agreement already, Haruna-san, the only other thing I'd like to ask is whether or not you know the significance of that girl called Aeris."

Her brow rose at that. "You mean her habit of talking with 'the Planet' and what that means for her blood?" Since Fuhito already knew about her, there was no point in her playing dumb—if she made it clear she knew, he might even be more likely to leave her alone.

"That," he agreed. "The President is after the Promised Land, and the only way to keep it out of his hands is for someone else to find it first. Would you work with me and her to do so?"

The words terrified her as she asked Minerva—the one in her soul—for guidance on how to deal with that. Handing Aeris to him was something she couldn't do, but—! As she reached for Minerva, she suddenly felt Minerva send out her energy, wrapping Haruna's soul in it—and she suddenly felt like she wasn't even inside her body, watching in bemusement as Minerva took over. Her eyes turned Lifestream green and blazed with light as her body took on a white-green glow.

Then, Minerva spoke through her, saying, "Man, you and the other have both made the same error in interpretation. The Promised Land is the death to which my children return after many long years of travel and healing of the land, it is not a place the living may visit. Should you wish my Promised Land, feel free to end your life. At that time, it shall be yours. Until then, my Beloved Child is not yours to play with, and retaliation shall be swift and violent should you make such an attempt."

Then, the light burnt out and Minerva receded so Haruna could have her body back. She blinked the blazing light out of her eyes, blinked again at the stunned looks of the other three, then—the exhaustion hit and she sagged onto the tabletop. "Ow..." she muttered.

"...Okay, maybe this is a stupid question, but—who, or what, was that?" Fuhito asked suddenly.

"That was 'the Planet' speaking though Haruna," Kariya answered, tone suddenly pained. Maya gave a nod and got up to prepare tea.

"She's not an Ancient, though," Fuhito answered with a frown of confusion. "That should only be possible for an Ancient."

:I hope you have an explanation for that, Minerva,: Haruna commented to the other being sharing space with her, thankful mental communication was easier when exhausted than physical communication was.

:I do,: Minerva answered in amusement, and passed it on to her.

"It's not 'being an Ancient'," Haruna muttered. "There are definitely skills an Ancient has which no other person alive now has, but the reality is that everyone on the Planet has a bit of Ancient blood in them. She forcibly activated mine so I could watch over Aeris for her. I didn't expect it to have results as impressive as that, though."

"Impressive," Fuhito repeated in a flat tone. "I'm not sure I'd appreciate having my body taken over. But, if it's true what 'she' said, then we actually don't need to worry about the Promised Land anyway. I'm going to do some checking on that. In the meantime, I'll leave you to rest. I'll be back when I have some items and locations for you." He then let himself out.

As Maya put tea on the table in front of Haruna, Kariya asked, "So...Deals with Hades in the flesh?"

The Wutain woman tried to lift her head, only to find dizziness and a splitting headache stopping her, so she just stayed where she was and answered, "It was that or let him kill Cloud."

"...And will Veld go along with that?" Kariya asked dryly.

"He already gave approval for me to sell to him if it means we can keep track of him. As long as this doesn't cost the company anything—it won't, it's going to cost Fuhito directly—he'll probably be fine with it. It also gives me an excuse to go right into Wutai City to sell. And to track necessary elimination targets."

Before the discussion could proceed any further, Haruna suddenly felt herself being hugged by three smaller bodies—the children. Wait, that meant Cloud was hugging her, too! "Okay, as much as I get Aeris and Hokuto hugging me, why are you, Cloud?" she asked in a suddenly almost defeated tone.

"That power," Cloud answered quietly. "We felt it from Hokuto's room. I remember what it felt like to be taken over by someone else, and even if Minerva's nicer than The Nightmare or Jenova...Being taken over isn't easy to deal with, anyway."

With a sigh, she had to admit he was right. "Thank you," she said quietly. "And I think I'm going to sleep now..." She didn't actually get to try getting up—she was out as soon as she said the words.

MB

Cloud had to sigh faintly as Kariya lifted Haruna and took her to her room so she could sleep off the 'possession by Minerva' she'd just had. He wondered suddenly if Minerva could even have done that if it had been Tseng instead of Haruna, and while he knew he'd probably never have an answer, realized it could be an important point at some time. After all, it had been Minerva to suggest Tseng take Haruna's form to begin with—Haruna had let that slip one day. He then sat in the chair she'd been in before Kariya moved her, and Aeris and Hokuto sat in the two chairs next to his.

"I don't think that was what Minerva meant when she said Haruna should find an excuse to introduce us to him," Aeris commented apprehensively.

"Yeah, well, plans don't normally last long with people like Fuhito and the Restrictors involved," Cloud snorted. "But no, that wasn't the way to do it. Why did he think it was so good that Yufi was with the Turks?"

"Cloud, you made it sound like you left her with them in a way that led to her being killed," Hokuto told him in amusement. "Especially since you had that stone Haruna told you to get, right?" He nodded in surprise, so she pointed out, "She was never supposed to take it off. In his mind, you could have only gotten it from her corpse."

"...So we're her helpers to assassinate people?" Cloud gaped in shock. That had definitely not occurred to him, but reviewing what he'd said outside, too, his words could very well have been taken that way.

"Actually, if she has any form of responsibility for you, which she implied by having to introduce you to him in a formal meeting, he'd be expecting you to be 'helping' in the 'family business' in some way," Maya commented, setting tea out in front of them.

"True, that," Kariya agreed with a sigh as he rejoined them. "But damn, we weren't both supposed to end up here on the same night..." His gaze was on Cloud right then.

Cloud, on the other hand, shrugged and replied, "It had to happen eventually."

"Maybe, but on the same night Fuhito turns up?" Kariya asked flatly.

"That turned out to be a boon, if his bow to Haruna was actually a formal bow of respect," Maya commented, brow raised at the older man. He blinked, and she went on, "Between Cloud 'tricking' Yufi into a death trap and you handing Haruna 'stolen Shinra secrets'—in your Turk suit, no less—he's realized he probably won't get a better in than her. Probably for trading information, too. For our purposes, that makes him a lot easier to track, especially since he apparently does a lot of traveling, and his intervals seem to average around three days. Now I know why she once told me the best definition for him is a 'slippery psychopath'."

Cloud snorted at the words. "Slippery is one way of saying it."

Kariya had to sigh at the words. "Which is why the general order to anyone who isn't on the undercover detail is to kill him on sight. And that still really hasn't worked."

"It probably won't," Cloud shrugged. "Not yet, at least. Especially not if he's working with the Restrictors. Come to think of it, someone should probably be going through missing persons lists for any kind of unusual trend or commonality."

"How will that help? Won't they just grab random people?" the older man blinked in surprise.

Shaking his head, the blond boy replied, "That's not their preference. It's not 'random' when they take people, it's normally strong, healthy adults or injured soldiers they retrieved off the battlefield. Otherwise, it's certain people who have some very specific skills they want to experiment with or modify. Maybe if they're really short on suitable people, they'll start taking actual 'random' people, but just in the Midgar Slums, they have plenty of suitable fodder they probably wouldn't even have to kidnap, just tell them they'll have guaranteed meals and a roof over their heads."

"That's true," Hokuto commented. "I happily agreed to Turk training because it gave me more than I'd had at the orphanage. I think most people in the Slums wouldn't even really question what was going to become of them—if they'd even live long enough to appreciate the 'luxury'—in favor of just getting out of the Hades-forsaken hole of this city's Slums. Aeris is an anomaly who treats things which sound too good to be true like they actually are that. And she's normally right."

"The exception is Haruna, and that's because I know her," Aeris agreed. "She won't offer me something like that with the intent to hurt me. Everyone else...doesn't even have a reason to offer."

"And hopefully, if we can get things to fall right in the next few months, that will change for the better so Fuhito will have less fodder," Kariya nodded. "And we have other reasons to have to get things to turn in a better direction, too."

"Mom's new job will help for me in particular, and we always were in a better place overall—she owned that house, at least, so no one could just take it away. With me there, growing things, that takes care of a lot of our food. Most people aren't that lucky, and with the Plate up above, most of the Slums doesn't get enough light to grow food, anyway. Being at the southern edge of it is a boon that way—sun still comes right in at our house," Aeris commented. "And Midgar the way it is can't fix that. Especially if they build the rest of the wall, keeping the city from spilling out from under the Plate."

"Maybe that's a thing we can talk with Rufus about," Cloud suddenly blinked. "We have space all around Midgar—if we didn't have the Reactors, that land would be good land to grow things. We can have buildings which are, like, warehouses, inner-city apartments, shopping centers, and whatever under the Plate while food growers can be outside in the plains. I was never fond of the walls to start with, and they're only a third built, anyway. It would be easy to just stop, or re-purpose the materials. If Rufus realizes what we can do with that land, he might even actually do it."

Maya chuckled and said, "If you can get him to take that route, I think most of the world would thank you. His father definitely wants everyone where he thinks he can control them—hence the walls, even if those would actually help against monsters, too—but if he takes a different route and encourages expansion, I think people would go for it. There would be fewer people in the Slums directly, and managing the space would then be easier. The major problem is the funds which would have to go into building appropriate buildings, like apartments, in the Slums."

"And cleaning up the trash heaps!" Aeris added, and Hokuto nodded.

"If Rufus is the Company President, he'll have the funds to do that," Cloud pointed out dryly, and the others had to chuckle. "It's just a matter of making him realize he needs to do something about it."

"Okay. How?" Maya asked curiously. "He has no idea how the common people live in his own city—he doesn't even know the state of things across the Plate, let alone in the Slums. And he really has no reason to bother, since it doesn't affect him."

"We could take him on a tour to see it all himself," Kariya suddenly grinned. When the others blinked at him, he elaborated, "Really, the only reason he hasn't seen that reality is because no one has bothered to take him into the Slums or the less wealthy places on the Plate. Yes, he needs a guard to do that—he's got the Turks for that, and we know how to go around unseen all over the world. Taking him on a plainclothes trip to see what's right here should be easy for a few of us, especially one of our number who grew up in the Slums—Verde, for example."

"Is he back from the trip he was on?" Cloud asked in surprise.

"Been back for a few days," Kariya replied with a dismissive wave. "He likes those collars you made for Rogue and Sly, by the way. That would've been his choice, too, so he's just been noting for Derin any time he notices the brat activate a skill. Derin wasn't all that pleased to find out Rogue's as much an instigator as Sly, but he couldn't argue it, either. Not with Verde telling him point-blank that Rogue's behavior won't change unless Derin takes steps to change it."

"Yeah, that just means he got the same advice from someone who barely ever had a pet and someone who's a long-time pet owner," Cloud replied dryly, then looked down as he felt Tyra nudge his leg with her head. "What do you want?" he asked with a sigh. She gave a bark, which he tried to interpret somehow and came up blank. "Are you hungry, maybe?"

"When was the last time she was let out to do her business?" Hokuto asked suddenly, head tipped to the side. "If she didn't when you were on your way here, she probably needs it now."

"Ugh..." Cloud muttered, then got up to let her outside—and she happily went. "Though, we probably shouldn't stay much longer, anyway."

"Let me head out first. You just wait around here for about an hour after I'm gone," Kariya told him in some amusement, rising. "I've got to talk with Vincent about that possible trip for Rufus—he's the one most likely to know how to slip it past the President without getting caught. And you leave that alone. Well, unless Vincent thinks you should take him into the Slums, but I'm pretty sure he'll go with a native to them before any other option."

"I'd appreciate him doing so, too. See you later, then," Cloud agreed, and the older man headed out. Apparently, Tyra was ready to come back in by then, too, so she curled up at his feet again.

"An hour..." Hokuto murmured. "What do we do for that long?"

"Play cards?" Aeris offered with a grin.

The others blinked at her, then chuckled as Maya found them some cards so they could play some random, simple children's card games for the hour until Cloud had to head back to the Shinra building himself.