Chapter IV; Land of the Living
"You.. simple.. fuck!" Yuffie screamed furiously in Cid's face. Barret stood beside Cid with an abashed expression on his face. Reeve must have turned Cait Sith off, because the great mechanical moogle was showing no reaction to Yuffie as she stomped it.
"Everyone was trusting you to defeat Weapon and protect Mideel, and what happens!? Cloud and Tifa, Tifa and Cloud of all people here, you let them go missing!? I at least would have had the decency to stick my neck out for my friends!"
"Heh." Cid grunted, wanting to get back at her for her burning remark. "If they had materia on them, at least."
And earned himself a slap in the face.
"And I quote," said Yuffie, not bothering to wipe away tears filling her eyes.
"'Every man for himself.'" she whispered."Every goddamned man for his every goddamned self."
A heavy silence fell upon the group as her remark took its impact. Yuffie turned and left the room.
"Cid.." Red XIII started carefully.
"Listen, what the hell do you want!?" Cid exploded. "We defeated Weapon for now, but Mideel collapsed right there, right under our feet! What were we supposed to do!?" He shook his head. "I swear to God I had f#$&ing forgotten they were still in there, I had yelled to them to get out. I-I g%&*mned didn't know.." Cid insisted, trying more to convince himself than anyone else.
*
Barret went over to Vincent.
"Now what?" He murmured. "Cloud and Tifa are missing, Cid is a wreck, Yuffie probably bailed. Now what?"
Vincent's ruby eyes glided over the scene before him.
"We wait."
"No. I refuse to accept that," Nanaki interrupted. "Neither Cloud or Tifa would just wait. We.. we have to look for them, find them.."
"Nanaki, how?" Vincent questioned. "Think for a moment. What if they fell into the Lifestream? We don't know if they'd survive that. For all we know, Tifa and Cloud are dead. And even if they weren't, where would they be by now? The Lifestream looks like liquid, a flowing mass of light.. it could have dragged them miles underground. Or, they could have sunken to the bottom, and we still couldn't get them out."
Barret let out a distressed sigh. "This whole damned situation is terrible."
"What it comes down to," came a voice from the fluffy metal beast as it powered back up, "is that it's up to us now. We can't rely on those who aren't here."
Barret turned to say something angrily to Cait Sith, but seemed to remember at the last moment that he was quite at the mercy of whoever it was steering the damned thing, because they had Marlene. As Barret always had, in times of despair or need, he yearned to be with his daughter. At least hear her voice.
"Let me talk to Marlene."
The cat nodded pensively. Click. The mog's eyes, which had at first been glowing green, now glowed blue.
"Hi Daddy."
"Marlene..?"
"Yah. I can't talk too long now, Daddy, I'm in the middle of Monopoly with Aeris' Mommy."
"You're.. playing Monopoly with Elmyra?" Barret said incredulously. Nanaki's eyes widened a little and Vincent's eyebrows raised.
"Mmhmm. We moved to Kalm, now. We have a garden here, and I have my own room! And a doll. I called her Priss. I liked that name."
"What about that man, who took you away?"
"..Huh? No one took me away, he just helped us move here, if that's who you mean."
"Hey, catman!" Barret shouted at the cat/mog thing. "Sorry, honey, I have to go again."
"'Kay. Bye Daddy! I miss you."
"You too.."
"Yes?" Came the man's voice. The eyes were green again.
"I thought you kidnapped my daughter."
"Well.. to imply something often works well enough, you know."
"I see." Barret was frowning, finally understanding what this man had done. And hadn't done.
**
"Yuffie? Are you alright?"
Yuffie spun around to see Vincent there, eyes on her.
"Yeah. I'm fine. Just.. frustrated. Damn Cid."
"I think you've yelled at him enough for now. He already was feeling guilty about what happened."
"I.. I just can't help but think, 'if only I had been there to help'.."
"But you weren't there, you couldn't help."
"I..I know, but.."
"Yuffie, no one can change the past, trust me."
She exhaled slowly. "I know."
"We're all seeing you in quite a different light right now." he remarked.
She smiled sarcastically at him. "Isn't it great?"
"..strange but pleasant."
The smile died on her face to be replaced by a look of thoughtfulness, again something rather unexpected, coming from Yuffie.
"That's the first time in my life anyone ever called me pleasant."
Vincent didn't respond to that, ever the diplomat.
"Vincent!"
His eyes sprang wide as he shocked awake from his thoughts. "What?"
Yuffie's eyes were fastened tight on something a distance away.
"Look.." she murmured tensely, "a body.."
And Vincent found himself running to keep up with her, wondering if this was the end in sight, or merely the eye of the storm.