3.
Deceit


On the streets of the slums night never really seemed to end. It didn't matter who you were or what you did for a living. The plates always stood oppressive above keeping day as far away as possible. Yuffie continued to occasionally give a little moan to indicate that she was in pain although she was really not but her plan was simple. Even if she was making it up as she went along. She knew this "Kandya" woman was by her own admittance in a bit of bother with the Shinra….but why and how much? But if it only meant a night and some free accommodation why not have a look and she what she could discover…..

The Shinra tower loomed over Midgar. It stood like a dagger in the heart of the world's largest city. High above in the 26th floor, in a small office tucked away as far hidden into the building as possible, a meeting was in progress.

"Sir…?" Laverne stood proudly in his Capitan's office although he was fighting back the tears a battered nose can bring "….You wanted to see me?"

The Capitan sighed and his apathetic gaze fell upon Laverne "Sergeant?. Would you care to explain to me why, in the middle of this large-scale operation to capture the AVALANCE team that attacked us tonight, you have ordered 6 units out into the slums to apprehend one woman who kicked you in the face?"

"But..But Sir I have reason to believe she is AVALANCE too" Laverne stated in his defence

"And why is that?…" the Capitan began "We have video footage of these people who attacked tonight and not one of them matches the description of the girl you saw"

"…..But she was hiding from us in a trash can….She ran when we confronted her…She…She….HIT me" Laverne spoke desperately "She has something to hide I know it"

"That does not justify you sending six units out to find her….we have REAL criminals here to be caught and you are WASTING OUR TIME WITH THIS STUPID VENDETTA OF YOURS!!!!!" The Capitan shouted fiercely at the big man his temper growing "Have I not already given you to a special assignment? Why aren't you out DOING WITH YOU HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED TO DO!!!!"

Laverne went red with shame. Not so much for what he had done but for the fact that he was letting this shrimp of a man tell him what to do and he had no choice but to follow instructions. Somehow he managed to blame all of this on that girl and he was going to make her pay even if it meant patrolling the city alone after his shift.

"NOW GET BACK TO YOUR WORK AND GET THOSE UNITS BACK ON THEIR ORIGINAL ASSIGNMENTS!!!" The Capitan stood and pointed to the door of his office. Laverne turned his eyes still watering from the pain and quickly exited out into a corridor full of Shinra staff that were ease dropping on this mans chastising. He looked at them with his watery eyes as behind him a voice shouted from the office

"AND PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER MAN! YOU ARE IN SOLIDER, THERE'S NO ROOM FOR CRYBABIES HERE!!!!" The whole corridor of people snickered and grinned as Laverne stomped away furiously back to his assignment.

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Down in the motor-pool garage 5 fully armed officers were waiting for him by a large armoured vehicle. One of them spoke to Laverne "So where are we headed boss? Did we find her?" Laverne gave him a glance and eventually replied "Yeah intelligence got her location about 2 hours ago. She's hiding out in the slums of sector 9"

"What about that girl we were chasing earlier? Any info on her?" the officer asked

"Forget about her for now….She's my problem…Right now lets concentrate on this Ex-Solider woman" Laverne answered as he climbed into the passenger seat of the Armoured Van

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It was now 4am and all was still dead in the slums of sector 9.

"There ya go, you can sleep here for the night" Kandya directed Yuffie into a small backroom of the derelict house she called home. It wasn't just her home though. It was also home to 3 other women who had moved in months before. Yuffie knew all to well from the looks of things here that it was no Holiday home. No she recognised this sort of set up. This was a hide out. But she figured it best to say nothing for the moment.

"I think it would be best if you just kept to yourself for the night" Kandya began "The other girls here don't like company to much, and besides there probably gonna be to high now to care about anything" she said with a glum face

Yuffie lay back on her makeshift bed and stared at the ceiling above her. Her mind began to formulate a plan for what she would do next. This woman was without a doubt on the run from Shinra but why. But then again she wondered what difference was it to her. What if she was to anonymously inform Shinra or Kandya's location and tell them it was her that blew up that building tonight? The soldiers would swarm in here leaving Shinra HQ practically unguarded. But then again what if Shinra had already caught those people. She had figured that man she saw fighting off those guards on the railway bridge was defiintly one of those responsible. Though he did have some moves on him. He would be a hard one to catch. She debated this to herself for quite some time. Eventually she figured if Kandya was of no use to her she could still steal her belongings and get out of there. Yuffie tossed a small green globe up into the air at the ceiling and caught it as it fell back down to her. She had already done well in grabbing Kandya's Fire Materia while she was down in the fight. Whatever she planned on doing she still had to get back to her own hideout she was staying in when the explosion happened. She had left her weapon there under the mattress. Yuffie stood up and walked to the window in her room. She swung back the old shutter that was practically hanging on by one hinge and looked out at the slums. It must be nearly morning now she thought as she watched a lone cat slowly stalk a mouse in the alley beneath her window. It was much like herself she thought as in moved slow and fluid close to the ground behind its pray. Soon it was in striking distance and it readied itself for its strike. Slowly…slowly…careful now, Yuffie could almost hear it think as it readied. Like a shot it was in the air above the unsuspecting mouse. The boxes to the cats left exploded as a wide mouth shot from the darkness and engulfed the feline in one quick move. Yuffie's eyes widened in surprise as this new monstrosity claimed its meal. Ugggghh She really hated this place. You never knew what was sneaking up on you. The creature slid from the shadows. It was long and resembled a snail only with legs and its head was nothing but a huge wide mouth. And damn did it look mean. The beast scurried away leaving only a bemused mouse staring at a cats tail on the ground missing one cat. It counted its blessings and scuttled away.

Yuffie returned to her bed and lay upon it. She closed her eyes and began to think of home. In the distance she could already hear the streams running down from the mountains and the birds chirping in flight from the forest. And the rumbling of a large vehicle approaching down the street outside her window. She reminded herself of ho much she really hated this city. She shot up out of her bed as she heard a crash downstairs. She quietly glided to the door and opened it a crack to see what was going on. It was no good though she couldn't see a thing because her room was 2 doors down the corridor from the balcony that looked over the large living room downstairs. Must be one of those junkies Yuffie figured as she walked down the corridor to see what they had done. Suddenly the silence was torn again by the unmistakable sound of gunfire. Getting down low Yuffie moved in to see what was going on here. She kept down behind the banister as she looked out over the balcony. Her heart stopped as she saw 4 Shinra officers in the room downstairs. One of them had Kandya by the throat as another grabbed her from behind and attempted to grab her flailing arms. Kandya moved swiftly. With both hands she forcefully slammed into the chest of the officer who had her by the throat. He fell backwards at great speed taking another officer to the ground with him. Yuffies jaw dropped as she watched Kandya throw herself backwards from the legs up. Her body spun in the air and she bought her boot down hard upon the skull of the guard behind. Using his body as a step she somersaulted again off him landing just behind. Immediately she was in action again. The officer to her right drew his weapon only to be met with a spinning kick to the side of his head. Kandya spun from the kick 360 degrees and this time bought her leg to the officers knocking him off his feet.

"Freeze!!!!"

Kandya halted her attack as she felt the cold metal of a gun nozzle on her neck.

Oh crap Yuffie whispered silently as she made out the shape of the man who now had Kandya subdued.

"I knew we would probably need more men in apprehending an Ex-soldier" Laverne said with an extremely annoyed look on his face. "No matter we have you now…sweetie. I believe the General wants to have a word with you"

Ex-Soldier! Yuffies mind raced. I think I've had enough to do with this. She quietly turned to make her exit from her bedroom window. Except fate seemed to have other plans. The floor beneath her feet creaked ever so slightly. But loud enough.

Laverne raised his head to see what was just above him.

"YOU!!!!!!!!!" he roared with all his might as he swung his semi-automatic machine gun up to the balcony and fired.

The room erupted with chaos as the bullets screamed from his gun and chopped up the already decrepit balcony Yuffie was running along. The world seemed to cave in as the balcony beneath her feet gave way bringing the wall it was attached to with it. She hit the ground hard. She felt the debris slap against her face as the wall fell down after her. And then there was nothing as the world went black.