Sorry for the delay but this month has not been anything close to normal, that and I found a plot hole in the chapter I was going to post so it is under going a re-write. This chapter was going to be posted in March but I made a promise to have something posted each month so here it is now.
A pleasant surprise; Chocobos don't carry motorcycles; Frugal Tifa;
Conversations aboard ship; Obvious weapons and urgent news;
A trap at the docks; Don't mess with mother chocobos
"Best of luck to ye, lads and lasses!" Cait Sith called. Tifa waved back at the little cat before following Cloud, Yuffie, and Denze out of the valley. They planned to head for an area that wild chocobos had frequented in their own time, and hope that the great quality of the birds there hadn't changed in the intervening decades. Even if the birds would only be yellows, it would save them a little bit of walking. Yellows weren't hardy enough to cross mountains or rivers, but the only way to obtain a better mount was from a domestic breeding program, and they had no idea as to where or even whether there was one on the island during this time period.
With a deep sense of homesickness, Tifa thought of the gold chocobos they had spent so much time and money rearing. Gold chocobos could do anything - even endure crossing over oceans. Not to mention, they were fast. Cloud had repeatedly set track records at Costa Del Sol and the Gold Saucer, racing those birds. Tifa wished, with a petulance that she knew was childish, since everything else but the kitchen sink had been sent back in time with them, that the golds had come along too.
The sun was nearing its zenith by the time they started to see chocobo tracks in the lush grass around them. Tifa reached in to her pocket and activated her Chocobo Lure materia while Cloud instructed Denzel on how to catch a wild chocobo and handed out some reagan greens. Denzel and Yuffie had Lures too, which would not only help attract the birds but to keep them calm. Wild chocobos were usually fussy and nervous mounts, but with the greens and Lures they shouldn't be too bad.
Tifa sat beside Cloud and plucked idly at the grass. Denzel jogged nervously from foot to foot, rolling the Lure between his palms. Yuffie yawned, and started carving her initials into a nearby tree. A bee nearly flew into Tifa's hair, but otherwise everything was very peaceful. A slow quarter hour passed before Cloud stood up, looking intently westward. Tifa stood too, and soon was able to make out a large yellow smudge on the horizon, moving quickly towards them.
Yuffie, now perched in the highest branches of the tree, yelped and leapt down. "What the hell?! I think we attracted every chocobo in a 50-mile radius!"
"I don't think so," answered Cloud, his brows knit, looking confused. "See how the light's flashing off their feathers? Those aren't yellows - they're golds."
Tifa turned towards him for a moment, perplexed, before turning back and looking harder at the birds, cupping her fingers around her eyes and squinting to try and make out some detail. They were moving incredibly fast, and the light did seem to sparkle around them.
"How could there be a flock of this many wild golds?" Cloud muttered beside her. Tifa wondered too. There were two large towns on this island, and a few small villages. Maybe they'd stumbled onto a domestic stable's ranch lands after all.
The flock's frontrunners reached them, slowing from their full-tilt gallop to an excited walk. Several of them flapped their wings and extended their long legs in a complicated stepping pattern, warking loudly. Tifa recognized it as the chocobo "dance", meaning the birds were not just excited, they were also happy. To her shock, she realized she recognized not just the dance, but the chocobos performing it. An older male with the feathers around his beak turning white, the sweet-natured hen with curling tail-feathers, even the young male with the twisted hip, who came limping up at the rear of the flock - she had known them all since they were chicks.
Cloud put a voice to her wonder. "These... these are our birds from the Chocobo Farm." A little smile crept across his face, even though the birds were pushing and shoving around him, trying to get close enough to pull on his blond hair. He reached out to pet them, asking them quietly "How'd you guys get here?" Most of the birds were trying to get to him, their favorite person, but two detached themselves from the group, and came towards Tifa and Yuffie instead. A small, zippy male trotted sharply up to Yuffie, butting her none-too-gently and warking insistently. Tifa's own favorite mount, Nerthius, a leggy, middle-aged female with a smooth gait, approached more quietly, her head bent in a way that clearly invited a scratch.
Tifa laughed in delight, acquiescing, even as she puzzled. How had they gotten here? Did it have something to do with her wish earlier? If the chocobos were going to have shown up anyway, why would they have appeared here and not back in the cave with everything else? Even by the generous standards of her strange and unusual life, this time travel thing was proving to be very weird.
"Help!" cried Denzel. Tifa turned towards the boy quickly, and couldn't help laughing aloud again. One of the young chocobos, Sigfodr, still in training, was reaching for the reagan greens Denzel was holding above his head, as high as he could stretch. It was just barely out of range of the bird's open beak, and both boy and chocobo were standing waveringly on tiptoe.
Tifa went over to assist, gently but firmly pushing the bird away. "Do you remember how to hand-feed him, Denzel? If you don't, I can show you again." It had been some time since they'd been able to take the kids out to the chocobo farm to visit the flock.
Denzel clenched his hand around the greens, scowling fiercely. "I remember how."
Tifa smiled. Of course. Denzel didn't like people underestimating him. Even if he was a city kid, born and bred, he was unquestionably adaptable. He could handle a half-grown chocobo easily.
"Alright then. He's all yours." Tifa quit holding the young chocobo at bay. Denzel held his hand out flat, with the greens in his palm. The bird swallowed the offering with lightning speed, then regarded Denzel's empty palm quizzically, before fixing the boy with a dark eye and an inquisitive "Wark?". He reached out cautiously and patted its downy neck, smiling more broadly as it responded to the attention.
Satisfied that the two would get along now, Tifa looked over the rest of the flock. That was somewhat harder than it used to be, since she was now to short to see over the chocobos' backs. She was able to count fifteen sets of legs though. That was all plus one of the gold chocobos Cloud owned, including the two that were too young to ride and the two that were still in training. The fifteenth bird was a silver chick Cloud had bred from a black and a white. Apparently its parents hadn't come back with the golds.
"So anyone want to hedge a guess as to why most of Cloud's chocobos are here and didn't shrink like the rest of us and all our things?" Yuffie asked.
"Well, everything we could need for this... whatever this is... seems to have come with us. And I guess it wasn't necessary for them to be smaller. We can still ride them," Tifa shrugged. She really had no idea, but Yuffie had asked for a guess. It was just one more mystery to add to the growing pile.
Even though having the flock solved one of their transportation problems, it generated a whole new one. What to do with them all? It would be inconvenient to take the chicks, and the birds wouldn't like having to stay back in the cave. Tifa tried to remember what she'd seen in Banora. She doubted there was anyone there who could look after so many animals. Golds had amiable personalities, but they were large birds, and took a lot of care. It was only because of Choco Billy and his family's dedication that Cloud was able to maintain such a big flock, and they were paid well for the upkeep.
"Well, I'm glad we have them," Yuffie said, echoing Tifa's thoughts, "but what do we do with all of them?".
"I'm not sure. I didn't see any stables in Banora." Cloud sounded concerned, but Tifa couldn't see his expression through the feathery crowd around him. "We could find a barn in Costa Del Sol and hire someone to look after them, but it would cost a lot of gil."
Tifa couldn't think of a better idea. The only other place that could take so many was the Chocobo Farm, but that was nearly on the other side of the planet from their destination - and it would still take a lot of gil.
"We could take them to the Gold Saucer, then go to Nibelhim, then pick them up on our way back, then drop them off at the farm before going to Midgar." Denzel suggested. "I know the farm is still out of our way, but at least they'd be close if we needed them."
"That plan won't work", Tifa gently reminded Denzel. "The Gold Saucer doesn't exist here." It never would exist, if everything went as planned and Corel was saved. Then again, Tifa thought, Dio is the epitome of the entrepreneur. I wouldn't put it past him to find somewhere else to build his dream palace - and with Shinra hopefully reformed, it won't be over the ruins of someone's home.
Cloud's suggestion of leaving the chocobos in Costa del Sol seemed to be their best option. The race track there was in its glory days, so there should be enough space. The party would go to Nibelheim, kill Jenova and ransack the Manor, then pick the birds back up and head for Midgar, dropping the chocobos off at the Farm on the way. By that point, they should have killed enough monsters to have plenty of gil.
"Oh! Guys! We forgot something!" Yuffie exclaimed, almost jumping with glee. "We don't have to take a boat anymore! The chocobos can run us over the water."
"The chicks can't reach that speed yet," Cloud stated flatly.
"We could carry them," Yuffie begged. Tifa wasn't surprised that Yuffie was trying to get out of the boat trip, considering how bad her motion sickness was. Cloud wasn't going for it though.
"I'm not leaving Fenrir, and the chocobos can't carry it. End of discussion."
Denzel, Tifa, and a pouting Yuffie each mounted one of the golden birds, and Cloud stayed on his bike. Keeping the Lures active so the flock would follow, they set off to Mideel, where a cargo ship was scheduled to be leaving for Junon and Costa Del Sol.
With the golds, the group made better time passing through the grasslands and rolling hills around Banora than they had anticipated, reaching the jungle that surrounded Mideel around two in the afternoon. Their ship would be leaving in five hours, to arrive at 10 a.m. three days later in the port at Junon. Since they had plenty of time before the ship left, Tifa was able to take the time to appreciate the lush scenery. She hadn't had much time for sight-seeing the last time she'd been here, what with stressing over a comatose, mako-poisoned Cloud, fighting ULTIMATE WEAPON, and falling into the life stream.
The forest was dense, filled with wide-canopied trees, brushy undergrowth, and flowering vines. Aerith would have loved all the greenery. In this time, Tifa thought, Aerith will live to see it. The superabundance of flora was undoubtedly due to the closeness of the life stream. This whole island was unusually close to it, as they'd seen in Banora's caves, but Mideel took the cake, with the lifestream flowing barely ten feet below the soil. When the town came into view, Tifa straightened eagerly. It didn't matter if golds were faster and smoother than any other type of chocobo; they still had been riding bareback for over three hours and she was beginning to feel sore.
Denzel had been alert the whole time, asking questions and drinking in the answers. While she, Cloud, and Barret had taken the kids to Kalm, Costa Del Sol and Rocket Town, this was Denzel's first time on an island and in a place with such thick foliage. She was sure that he was also thinking of the adventures and mishaps they'd told him of that had taken place in Mideel.
As the group made their way through the side streets of Mideel, they attracted quite a crowd of onlookers, most of whom had probably never seen a gold chocobo before. The growl from Fenrir died to a gentle purr as Cloud pulled to a stop in front of a large, graying, and most of all, old cargo ship. In fact, almost all of the ships at the dock, except for a few small pleasure craft and rowboats, were well advanced in years. Most likely, Shinra had commandeered the newer ones for its idiotic war.
"That's a large flock you kids got there. You plan on boarding all of them?" Tifa refocused on the sailors who were making their way down the ship's gangplank, all in plain t-shirts, jeans and gloves. Why is it, she wondered as she dismounted, that airship hands and sailors all look the same? These guys would have blended in perfectly with Cid's crew on the Shera or Highwind.
"Yes, fifteen chocobos, one motorcycle and four passengers to Costa Del Sol," Cloud answered them briskly.
"That's gonna run you 250 for the passenger tickets and bike, add an additional 450 for the birds... You're looking at seven hundred gil." The spokesman grinned avariciously, while one of the men behind him radioed to someone still on board the ship to prepare the lower-deck pens.
Cloud just shrugged and handed the gil over while Tifa inwardly winced, doing the budget in her head. 700 for the boat trip; renting a few stables in Costa Del Sol for even a couple days would be about 50,000 gil; getting semipermanent stables at the farm would be about 150,000 gil, though if they could keep the chicks with the hens they could shave off probably 30,000 or 40,000. That was all assuming that inflation was the same as it had been while Shinra's bubble had been at its most expansive. Since this was wartime, it was possible that prices would be even higher.
Maybe they could have someone race their birds at a track. They wouldn't even need a very good jockey out there, because with golds it wouldn't matter. As the owners of the mount, they'd get a hefty cut of the prizes. Or, she thought guiltily, they could take a page from Yuffie's book and place bets on their own birds through the PHS gambling system. No one would know it was them betting, and they could make twice as much gil. If each one of them did that, the group could make about 20,000 gil a race. A high-stakes cup could even get them maybe 80,000. Win a few of those, and expenses would no longer matter. Still, she was uneasy about it, not to mention how winnings that big would draw attention. Best to keep the birds there for as short a time possible, only entering them in the races with big purses, and then get them moved to the chocobo farm before anyone caught on or tried to steal some of the birds.
The fuss and kerfuffle of the chocobos being led up the loading ramp drew Tifa out of her musings. She gave her bird a little push, urging her forward, and followed the flock onto the old ship. There were two shaded holding pens on deck, one half-filled with some yellow chocobos. The sailors put the mothers with chicks in the other open-air pen, and urged the rest down a ramp to two more pens below deck. Once they'd seen the birds settled in happily, and Cloud had made sure that Fenrir was properly secured, the party made their way to their cabins. Instead of one room for the boys and one room for the girls, as the rooms were assigned to them, the group decided Tifa would room with Denzel and Cloud would room with Yuffie. Though Cloud's motion sickness was not as severe as Yuffie's, he still got a little ill at sea, so the idea was that the two could stay together in miserable companionship. How much of the trip Yuffie would actually spend in her room and not hanging over a railing was questionable.
Tifa took Denzel up to deck to watch the departure, and very shortly after the deep throbbing of the engines began rolling through the ship, a green-faced Yuffie came to join them. Piteously, she asked, "Remind me again, why are we taking a boat and not riding the chocobos?"
Tifa putting her hands on her hips and sighed, "Because the chicks and Fenrir can't go over water."
Yuffie just groaned. This was going to be a long trip, Tifa thought. Denzel was watching the water starting to churn behind the ship, and Yuffie was now thoroughly occupied with trying not to throw up, so Tifa took her chance and went to see the other unhappy traveler. Stopping outside his room, she paused, took a deep breath, and knocked.
"Cloud? Are you in?"
"Yeah, come in."
Opening the door, she found her childhood friend laying face down on his bunk. She couldn't help but smile. The bunks weren't that big, but even with the blond stretched out full length, there was plenty of room for her to sit next to him.
"Seasick already?"
"No."
"Don't tell me you're tired."
"No."
"Are you planning on brooding the whole trip?"
"No."
"Then what are you thinking about?"
"Vincent. He would still be locked in the coffin. I talked with our Vincent when we were on the Shera about it, but he didn't give me much of a reply. I'm not sure if we should wake him up."
"Mm. I know what you mean. I thought about asking him too, but I never got around to it." She shook her head. "It's odd thinking about younger versions of ourselves, but I suppose we can just avoid them when we get to Nibelhim. But I do think we should wake Vincent up. There's more to life than hiding in a coffin. And having a second ex-Turk around would be helpful."
Cloud pushed himself up onto his elbow. "Right, but trying to get him to help isn't going to be easy. It's not likely he's going to believe time travel."
"We could try luring him out with the double promise of killing Hojo and providing information about Lucrecia," she offered.
"What about Sephiroth? Our Vincent knows what Sephiroth is capable of, and he still wants to give him a chance. This younger one would undoubtably get in our way if we have to kill Lucrecia's son. He won't understand, he'll just..." Cloud trailed to a stop, not sure of what words to use.
"So we introduce the two. If anyone can make Vincent understand, it's himself." Tifa shrugged, consigning brooding, cryptic Turks to their own care. Cloud made a face, as though not entirely satisfied with that solution. He didn't say anything else, though, and after a minute Tifa lay down beside him, their shoulders and hips touching.
He was, basically, mostly, her boyfriend. They lived together, planned their activities around each other's, and were raising a pair of kids together. But Tifa couldn't truthfully say that she felt like they were a couple. True, Cloud had been better recently, helping out at the bar and spending more time with them. He'd vanished from her life so many times, though, that she couldn't shake the feeling that he would leave again and this time never reappear. The persistent doubt was frustrating, to her and to him. Their friends had noticed, and would try to help by bothering, teasing, and outright nagging them about it. It didn't help. It was only times like this, moments where they could just be quiet together, that made her think that maybe she was worrying over nothing.
Unaware of her thoughts, Cloud asked "I wonder what happened to the rest of the flock?"
"Hmm? You mean your other chocobos?"
"Yeah."
Cloud had five other birds, two wonderful yellows, a blue and a black that he refused to sell, and a white he'd recently bought. Why they hadn't traveled with the others was beyond her, but since she was mostly operating on guesswork anyway, she made an attempt.
"Golds are hardier. They would be able to handle the stress better than the others." If the birds had experienced the same type of sickening pressure and turbulence she and her friends had when they were transported through time, the non-golds probably would have had a hard time.
"Maybe, but the chicks aren't that sturdy yet, and it doesn't explain Sleipnir." Cloud rolled over on to his side to look at her.
"Well, she's a silver. You told me yourself, you don't know what she'll be capable of when she grows up. Maybe she's more like the golds."
Cloud shrugged a little, and made a noncommittal noise.
Sighing, Tifa rolled off the bed. "I don't have any answers, Cloud. All we can do is commit to our course. We're finally on our way." Standing, she looked down at her contemplative friend.
"If you need anything, just call me and I'll get it. Take care." With that the raven haired girl slipped out, making her way to her own room. Sleep sounded good. As she got ready for bed, she checked her PHS. It was still fully charged, and there were no calls, no messages. Hoping the others were all okay, she slipped beneath the covers and drifted off into dreams.
The Shera was silent and dark except for a faint light coming from one of the many computers on board. It had been a few days since the party had split up on their different tasks, with Vincent staying behind to keep a watchful eye on Shinra's activities. Initially, the reserved gunmen had not been pleased with his assignment, but now he was feeling quite thankful that he had stayed. Staring at the screen, he dialed Cloud's number. Nibelheim would have to wait.
Cloud didn't mind traveling. He enjoyed it actually. What he didn't like was the rocking motion of the ship. Since getting the mako in his body, motion sickness hadn't been a problem. Unfortunately, multi-day trips with no respite could bring it back. The ship docked for two days in Junon before the next leg of its trip across the sea to Costa Del Sol. He would rather have gone straight to Costa, but now he was glad for the chance to get off the ship and onto steady ground.
Once they'd disembarked from the ship, the four of them wandered around the wide streets of Junon, the sea breeze carrying the oily, rotten smell of the pollution that plagued Shinra's second stronghold. The pollution wasn't as bad as their own time yet, and if all went well, never would be. Even so, the Electric Company's presence was everywhere. The harbor was full of Shinra ships, and the streets teemed with its troops. Massive cranes towered over the city, hoisting pieces of the Sister Ray into place. After a few times of barely dodging a Shinra patrol, they realized that perhaps it wasn't a good idea to wonder around the war-time city with their weapons so obvious. They had only just avoided being stopped and questioned several times now.
Cloud growled when he saw yet another squad of troopers proceeding along the street. All he had wanted to do was get off the ship and stretch, not play hide n' seek with Shinra. Was a bit of peace on solid ground too much to ask for?
"This is ridiculous," Yuffie complained as they made their way down another side alley. "Is there anywhere in this city to just relax?"
"We could go down to old Junon," Tifa suggested.
Cloud frowned. "Too risky."
Tifa paused and looked at him. "Too risky?" she asked, clearly puzzled.
"We could go, but the guards at the gates probably wouldn't let us back in," he explained.
"I guess that's right. Where can we go…?" Tifa mused. She was cut off by the ringing of Cloud's PHS. Digging the device out of his pocket, Cloud looked at the screen. The number was Vincent's. Had something happened? He flipped the phone open and answered. "Yes?"
"Cloud. The Turks will be bombing Kalm in under six hours."
His mind stopped working for a moment. Turks bombing Kalm? Why? Had this happened before, in their timeline?
"Someone is leaking Company intel from there. Their identity is unknown, so Shinra intends to destroy all possible suspects."
Cloud could feel blood rushing to his face. All those lives for one leak? How could Shinra justify that? Then again, they had dropped the sector seven plate just to take out AVALANCHE. All those lives above and below plate, lost for what? To kill a group of six. Never let it be said that Shinra didn't embrace overkill. Emphasis on the kill part.
What could they do now to help Kalm? Could he get there in time to make a difference, or would he only be jeopardizing the mission at hand? He made rapid calculations in his head. At Fenrir's top speed it took six hours to get to Kalm from Junon. He might just make it.
"I'll try to stop them," he informed Vincent and snapped the PHS shut. "You guys go on to Costa. I'll meet you there. Yuffie, Denzel, listen to Tifa." With that, he took off at full speed back to the ship to get Fenrir.
"Hey! What's going on?" Yuffie hollered after him. "Call Vincent," he yelled back before whipping around the corner and out of their line of sight.
Cloud ran. The faster he got to the ship and to Fenrir, the sooner he could get to Kalm. Storefronts and startled pedestrians passed in a blur as he dodged and jumped over anything in his way. He made it to the ship in record time, even by SOLDER standards. Running up the ramp to the storage bay, he undid the rigging on his bike, threw off the ratty tarp and hopped on. The engine started with a satisfying purr. Moments later, the dock workers who had been moving the cargo for offloading in Junon were diving out of the way of a large black motorcycle. Fenrir might have been shrunk down to a manageable size for its rider, but it was still not a small bike.
As he sped down the streets of Junon, Cloud was partly aware of two Shinra Troopers, also on motorcycles, trying to stop him. He ignored them and crashed through the city checkpoint's gates. Once he had the open road in front of him, he gunned Fenrir and left the troopers in a cloud of khaki dust.
Tifa stared at the corner Cloud had disappeared around. What was going on? Worry started a sick churn in her stomach, and she dialed Vincent hurriedly. She only had to wait for one ring before the gunman answered.
"Yes?"
"What did you tell Cloud?"
"I told him the Turks intend to bomb Kalm."
"What?! But why?" Bomb Kalm? That didn't make sense.
"As I told him, there is someone leaking Company intel from there. Their identity is unknown, so Shinra intends to destroy all possible suspects."
"Did this happen before?" They hadn't been in the past for very long and had only done mundane things. They couldn't have triggered this, right?
"It did."
"I see. Thank you." She put her PHS away and turned to the remaining two. She said lightly, "Looks like we're on our own for a bit."
"But wait, what's going on? Why'd Cloud leave in such a rush?" a confused Yuffie asked, while Denzel stood next to her looking lost.
Tifa shook her head. Better not to hold this conversation in the middle of a Junon street. She noticed an elderly lady walking by with a large canvas bag and got an idea. "Let's see if we can hide your weapons. That way we won't have to worry so much about the patrols." Well, assuming Cloud didn't make too much of a commotion when retrieving Fenrir. If he had and they were recognized as his traveling companions…. That would make life just that much more difficult, and she'd deal with it when the time came.
After some looking around, Conformer sat nestled in an over-sized cloth shopping bag and Denzel's Enhance sword was wrapped up in a large black trash bag. Both were easy to get out, if need be, but no longer attracted attention. With the weapons taken care of they were finally able to walk down the long straight streets without being stopped for questioning. Denzel and Tifa window-shopped, while Yuffie darted into and out the stores, full of restless energy. Tifa eyed the younger girl suspiciously. She would not put it past Yuffie to be shoplifting. After the fifth time, Yuffie caught her eye and grinned impishly, raising her empty hands. "I swear I'm not doing anything. I know we don't wanna attract attention." They passed a bar, relatively busy for early afternoon, and Tifa was surprised by the sudden heat of tears behind her eyes. She blinked them away, wishing she could do the same for the abrupt, deep pang of homesickness for Seventh Heaven.
Denzel stepped up beside her and gave a her hand a quick squeeze before dropping it again. Tifa looked at him, surprised by the gesture. He blushed and refused to meet her eyes, stepping away, looking out to sea. Yuffie, unaware, sighed obnoxiously. "Just when I was finally old enough to go into bars, this happens. I am never going to get a legal drink."
It was late afternoon when they went back to the ship. Tifa grimaced as they approached, seeing the cluster of Shinra security personnel aboard and on the dock. Apparently Cloud had made a commotion leaving. She gritted her teeth, seeing one of the deck hands spot them and point them out. "Hey, you!" the trooper beside him called. "Come here."
Surreptitiously, she flexed her hands. "Yes?" she asked, as sweetly as she could manage, stopping in front of them.
The trooper looked them over and turned to the deck hand. "You sure this is them? They're just a bunch of kids."
"So was the boy that nearly ran us over," the man replied with a growl.
Tifa inwardly winced. Glancing over she noticed that Denzel and Yuffie were both about to speak up, so she cut in before they could. "Sorry about him, he can be a bit impulsive sometimes." She smiled radiantly, remembering how little trouble she'd ever gotten into as a girl. It wasn't that she'd avoided trouble. It was just that she'd always seemed responsible for her age, and she was pretty, and the mayor's daughter. The last advantage didn't matter here, but she figured she could still count on the first two. "If you don't mind, we're going to head back to our bunks." She stepped quickly past them, counting internally. One… two… three… four…
"I apologize, little miss, but we need to ask you some questions," the trooper said, his boots thunking heavily on the dock as he took a few steps towards them.
Tifa whispered, her voice barely more than breath, counting on Yuffie's sharp ears to catch it. "Get the chocobos." She turned to face the Shinra trooper. She shrugged and gestured to Yuffie and Denzel. "Those two are pretty tired, so they're heading to their bunks." Yuffie caught on right away, yawning hugely and dragging a confused Denzel off by one arm. "I'll answer your questions." Crossing her arms, she looked up at the unfortunate man. He had no idea who he was dealing with.
Yuffie crept along the ship's corridor, listening carefully for sounds that would suggest that someone was approaching. She glanced back at Denzel and asked, "You have dream powder in your pack, right?" They had stopped by their rooms to collect their belongings, knocking out the two guards that had been stationed there, before going to get the birds. Once the boy nodded, she smiled. Denzel's first real mission, and it was a stealth one. Score!
"Get it out, alright? There'll probably be a guard on the chocobos, and since they're being kept in two different places, we don't want an alarm to go off until we're good and ready for it." Hopefully it wouldn't be raised until they were riding off into the sunset. A thought occurred to her, and she stopped and faced the boy, pulling at the laces of her shoes. "Pro tip: breathe quietly. And take off your shoes, and put 'em in your pack. This ship's full of metal, and if you're nervous and noisy, the noise'll bounce all over the place." She stowed her own shoes, waited for him to finish shoving his sneakers away, then went on, listening to Denzel's suddenly off-kilter breath behind her. Maybe she shouldn't have said anything about that. But the kid had to learn, and it was good advice.
Since they would be leaving by way of the main deck, they went first to the lower levels where most of the birds were kept. Carefully maneuvering between the shipping crates, the pair came into view of the pens. True to her predictions, there were two troopers standing guard. Inwardly, Yuffie scoffed. Shinra was so predictable. Not to mention, they were really underestimating her. This was going to be too easy.
Holding her hand out for the dream powder, she climbed a nearby crate, planting her stockinged feet on the hinges when possible and hauling herself up with arm strength when not. Once on top, she took aim.
"Hey, three eyes! Over here!" she yelled at the troopers. They turned at the noise but never saw her. Instead, they ended up with facefuls of shimmering, rainbow colored dust and dropped ungracefully to the floor. "Ha! Night, losers!" Yuffie cackled, jumping off the crate on the far side. She was working the pen's gate latch when Denzel came up behind her.
"Alright," he said, licking his lips and wiping his palms on his shorts. She noticed how he avoided looking at the unconscious men. It puzzled her a little. Denzel'd already seen plenty of terrible stuff; why would knocking somebody out painlessly bother him? She got the latch open and took a second to study his face. It was just nerves, she decided. He met her gaze steadily and asked, "Next we get the chicks and their moms, right?"
"Right. They'll also have guards, so here's the plan. You hop up on Freyr, since he's the leader of the flock and all." She pointed to the older male whose feathers were starting to turn a little white. "The rest should follow him. Take them over to the ramp that leads to the main deck and keep them there until I give you the signal. Got it?"
Denzel tilted his head, squinching up his eyebrows. "What's the signal, and what am I suppose to do after I get it?"
"Huh? Oh, well, you'll know the signal when you hear it. As for what to do, just run to the off ramp, pick up Tifa, and we're out of here."
"Okay." Denzel nodded, making his way over to Freyr. He grabbed a fistful of feathers and tried to mount, but the bird was just too tall for him to do it without stirrups or a mounting block. Freyr turned his head and watched the kid peaceably. The ninja, trying to stifle giggles, decided to step in.
"Don't ride bareback often, do you?"
Denzel, blushing through his freckles, crossed his arms and frowned. "No."
Yuffie pressed her lips together to keep the laughter inside. The kid was so independent. With a quick motion of her hand, she told the bird to lay down. Cloud might have an odd taste in naming them, but he was a skilled handler and trainer. His birds could do a lot more than just run. A good thing too, because she could recall off the top of her head at least seven times the birds' different commands had come in handy. Like that one time she'd borrowed one to go treasure hunting and had run into a whole pride of coerls. One of the big cats had managed to completely freeze her lower legs, and if the chocobo hadn't known how to lie down on command so she could crawl onto its back and get out of there, she probably would've been eaten. Of course she had gone back later with an Ifrit summon and gotten revenge on the felines as well as picking up the materia she had originally gone to get.
Once Denzel was on the bird's back, it stood up, the brunette clutching its neck feathers. He still looked a little uncomfortable, but oh well. Yuffie led the group to the ramp. Nodding once for Denzel to wait at the bottom, she made her way above deck. She scanned the scene. It looked like the deck hands were mostly clustered up toward the front of the ship, where the troopers on the dock were presumably still dealing with Tifa. She spotted two more troopers by the deck pens. One was feeding some greens to the hens, and the other was leaning on the rail of the pen talking to someone out of sight, presumably someone sitting in the pen playing with the chicks. She understood the impulse - chocobo chicks were just too cute. Dammit. Why couldn't these guys just stand guard like they were supposed to? Yuffie always hated seeing her enemies act like nice, decent people. Some people thought of her as heartless, because she always put her own interests first. That wasn't true. She'd just learned, at an early age, that you couldn't let empathy get in the way of bigger goals. That didn't mean that it was easy to do so. She padded forward, noiseless, a tiny slip of shadow, until she could make out the conversation.
"Where'd you learn so much about chocobos, anyway?"
"My first job was working at the Chocobo Farm back near Kalm. I've always loved these birds."
"I've ridden them a couple times," the leaning trooper offered. "When I was a kid my family went on vacation once to Costa Del Sol and we got to ride a bunch of blues along the beach."
"What's the deal with all the different colors?" the trooper with the greens asked the one in the pen. He put his arms up on the rail, momentarily pausing his feeding. One of the hens in front of him, Skaui, Yuffie thought, warked and clicked her beak unhappily. He ignored her, until she curved her neck and snapped at his hand. He jerked it back, startled, and hurriedly pulled out another batch of greens. Skaui was always a brat, and never more than when she had a chick.
"Well, blues are powerful swimmers and can cross rivers; greens are sure-footed, with good endurance, making them great for the mountains. Blacks are a mix of the two, so they can do both, and from what I've heard reds can cast some spells, though I've never seen one do it."
"What about these? Are they shiny yellows, or what? That one's got some black feathers mixed in, does that mean anything?"
Yuffie bristled. Shiny yellows? Was that guy dense? Before she could stop herself, she popped out of hiding, full of offended pride. "Yellows? Do they look like yellows to you? These are GOLDS!" she shouted. "And for your information, they're the best birds in the world." That wasn't an empty boast either. These birds had proven themselves time and time again.
The two troopers outside the pen whirled to face her, while the third struggled to his feet, the startled chicks tumbling from his lap. They let out panicked little cries as they bounced onto the deck. Goodnatured Frigg was quick to try and calm the alarmed babies, kweh-ing softly to them and lowering her wings to shelter them. Skaui had a different reaction. She puffed herself up, put her head down and charged, slamming the unlucky trooper into the pen wall. She whirled, aiming a quick strike at the trooper who'd been leaning on the rail. Her beak clanged against his helmet, denting it and knocking him to the floor. In the meantime the last trooper had managed to unsling and aim his standard issue rifle, but too late. With a swift back-flipping kick Yuffie knocked it askew, right into Skaui's range. The gold and black hen immediately clamped onto it with her beak. They played tug-of-war for a few moments until Skaui wrenched it away with a vicious yank, pulling him off-balance. Before the hapless trooper could regain his footing, Yuffie swung Conformer upward, hitting the back of the man's neck, just under his helmet, with the flat side of the shuriken. He wobbled and fell on his face. The small girl held the throwing star briefly in front of his face, checking his breath, to confirm that he was out cold but not dead.
One of the the things the group had decided was to try and keep the death rate to a minimum. Firstly, because they didn't want to kill someone who would be important later, and secondly, they were trying to save lives, not kill everything in their path. The killing part was for a select few department fat heads anyway. Some of the less seasoned members (Reeve, Shera, the kids nodding in agreement) had also raised the objection that most Shinra forces were just regular people, and didn't deserve to die. There had been significant glances at Cloud, the former trooper. The rest hadn't bothered to disillusion them. Sure, they weren't evil. They were still combatants, and they'd signed up knowing their life would be on the line. It wasn't worth arguing about when the other reasons were enough to decide the issue.
The trooper who'd been sent into the wall was back on his feet, wheezing. His rifle had been knocked out of his grip, and was now under the feet of the milling chocobos, so he vaulted the pen and came at Yuffie with his baton, only to Freeze mid-charge, ice crackling across his skin. Yuffie grinned. Leviathan in the sea, she loved materia. With a Contain materia slotted into Conformer and her quick casting skills, there wasn't much she had to worry about. The last trooper was lying groaning on the floor, probably concussed from the force of Skaui's little love tap. Rather than making that headache any worse for him, she tossed a little dream powder in his face. She began going through the three trooper's pockets, winking saucily at the Frozen trooper as she slipped her hand into his trouser pockets. His expression changed subtly as she did (subtle changes were really all someone under a Stop spell could manage), going from angry to nonplussed to grossed-out. Yuffie belatedly remembered that she was no longer a devastatingly hot eighteen-year-old, and yanked her hand abruptly out of his pocket, clutching a handful of gil. Somehow, she couldn't quite bring herself to meet his eyes again, and instead counted the gil. Combined with what she'd grabbed from the other guards she had seven potions, 749 gil, one cough drop, two grenades and some gysahl greens.
The black-haired girl drew her Conformer and, whirling, threw it so it landed in front of the open deck ramp, one of the five points embedded in the deck planking. That took care of signaling Denzel. She turned toward the pen and eyed Skaui warily. The hen was still fluffed up and hissing as she paced back and forth along the railing, her long neck stretching toward the downed troopers. The ninja stretched out her hand and offered the greens to the agitated hen. Skaui snatched them up, swallowing them all in one go, before hissing one more time, in the manner of an action star tossing off a last one-liner. Yuffie rolled her eyes. What a brat. "Thanks for the help, but settle down. We really need to get going."
She made sure the hen saw her hand was empty before reaching to pat her black-flecked neck. Skaui nibbled at her shoulder, hard enough to hurt a little, but not enough to damage, and her feathers settled back into place. Satisfied the hen wasn't going to attack her, she opened the gate and scooped up the two gold chicks. She walked slowly to where Denzel and the birds were pouring out of the hold, keeping a close eye on Skaui behind her. It wouldn't be good if the hen decided that Yuffie was running off with her baby. The hen paced close behind, but showed no further signs of aggression. (Towards Yuffie, at least. Her large, heavy-clawed foot knocked into a trooper's gut as she stepped over him, and Yuffie was certain that wasn't an accident.) Frigg walked along placidly, completely unruffled by all the drama.
Yuffie stopped in front of Freyr, and the old patriarch stopped too. She gently handed the chicks up to Denzel, trading them for Conformer, which she slung across her back. "Here, take these two. When we meet up with Tifa, you can pass her one. I'm gonna take Sleipnir with me." She stooped and picked up the little silver chick. "Oh yeah, Denzel, one more thing. Watch out for the hen with the black feathers: she's a total brat."
Warning delivered, she vaulted up onto Frigg's back, urging the hen towards the ramp that would lead them off the ship. Time to pull a disappearing act.
