CHAPTER EIGHT: KING OR PAWN?
Disclaimer: Square Soft and lots of other people own Final Fantasy, not me.
I'm just temporarily enjoying the playground they outgrew and left behind. . . no sense in letting it go to waste!
C&C welcome and appriciated. Thanks for reading.
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Reeve was tired. Not the 'I just jogged two miles and got all sweaty' tired, and not the 'that damned dog next door kept me awake all night' tired, but the tired that comes from weeks of knowing that any mistake on his part might cause the whole world to fall apart. Weeks where each day brought a new crisis before yesterday's had been solved. Weeks where every crisis killed. He attempted to glare at his briefcase, but it was weak and uninspired. He sighed. It wasn't the briefcase's fault. Just those damn files inside. An approaching rainstorm that was likely to flood the culverlets where many of Midgar's squatters lived. An attacking frog tribe near Mideel that was killing traders. A new study that showed the huge number of deaths caused by street lights malfunctioning due to the Mako reactors being off line. The exponential rise in street crime and gang wars due to the people's distrust of the government. Complaints from Snow Village that they couldn't buy the clothing they need to survive the winter because Nibelham had turned off their textile factories to save energy. Suspicions that someone in accounting was stealing millions of desperately needed gil, and an angry letter from the head of accounting refusing to force his staff to undergo security checks and lie detectors for unsubstantiated rumors because it would weaken moral. The list went on an on.
And now he was sitting in the executive suite in Junon, unable to deal with any of that because some madman had a big gun and plans to take over the world, and Reeve didn't have an army to oppose him because he'd already pissed the Shinra troops off too much. The military didn't like being downsized, whatever the reason. Especially not a sixty percent downsize. But he had needed the money to rebuild Corel's mines and buy coal so there would be some sort of energy to run hospitals, clean polluted water, run factories to can food so people would have something to eat this winter. . . Only now the coal was polluting the air something terrible, and the hospitals were getting full of people with respiratory problems. . . And the ex-military officers were revolting, and the ones still here wouldn't listen to him. . . God, he was going to die of a stroke before the end of the decade. Maybe Sephiroth had the right idea- a quick painless death for everyone instead of this interminable dragging on. He couldn't see any way mankind had a chance for survival with the world like this. . .
He shook his head and laughed quietly at himself. Angst, anyone? He took a sip of the amber liquid in his cup and smiled up at Cait Sith, who was perched on a shelf just above the door. He had gotten in the habit of taking the robotic cat along with him whenever he left Midgar. There was something infinitely hopeful and energetic about the silly and earnest looking toy that weapons development had turned into a deadly radio controlled fighter. Would that he could at least pretend to have the same. . . Idly he wondered how people would react if he stopped coming in to work and sent Cait instead, controlling the robot from the equipment in his bedroom like he had during Avalanche's battle to save the planet from Sephiroth. Or, to be honest, from the equipment currently in his luggage. He glanced over at the innocuous cheap gray nylon exercise bag with 'Shinra Gymnasium' scribbled across the side in brilliant neon pink and lime green. It worried him that he had brought it. He carried Cait with him a lot, it was true, but to bring the rest . . . Everyone thought Cait was just a weird fetish- they were used to those from the rest of the Shinra hierarchy, and a cuddly stuffed cat at least was fairly harmless, as far as quirks go. Few knew of Cait's military background, not connecting the small toy with the one that had ridden the huge mog and fought beside Avalanche. The mog had been so big it was what everyone had focused on. Even those who did know thought that Cait was harmless without the mog. . . When he brought the bag on this trip they just thought he wanted to work out so the military wouldn't complain about his being weak, and laughed at his useless efforts. No one suspected a thing.
The Junon security checkpoint had scanned his luggage without any objections, not realizing how the two together turned into one of the deadliest weapons Shinra had ever developed. It really was lucky that the military had refused to use Cait when they saw how ridiculous his fighting style looked. Reeve had found him in a trash can walking home one cold and lonely New Year's, and decided to take the toy home because he figured that some heartless Shinra janitor had thrown away a kid's Christmas present, and he wanted to find the kid and return it. Do a good deed and get it returned tenfold. . . When he took the cat out of the dumpster, there was a weapons development tag tied to it's foot, stamped 'Top Secret.' Curious, he dug through the pile of leftover lunches, and found the rest, along with a binder full of circuit diagrams and the codes to activate the thing. He cleaned it up at home and modified the circuits a little so the transmitter/receiver piggybacked on the same frequencies as Shinra's television broadcast stations, and he could use them to transmit commands to Cait from anywhere in the world, without using military frequencies. By the time he decided to help Avalanche, he had the perfect tool to contact them while still remaining with Shinra to do what he could from the inside.
Still, for him to have brought Cait and the control equipment . . He had probably just been silly. No matter how disgruntled Junon command was with his leadership, surely they wouldn't. . . but the ex-military officers were. . . Reeve shook his head and bit his lip, taking another deep swallow of the amber liquid from the engraved crystal shot glass in his hand. His eyes smarted as the burning liquid raced down his throat. He was expecting problems, not just the 'refuse to obey orders' type, but the 'military coup and killing the current president' type. Sure he had bodyguards, but the only ones he truly trusted were young; the experienced ones were loyal to the military, he was pretty sure. And Avalanche was busy in Wutai. . .
What was up with him and self-pity tonight? He needed to get more sleep. . . maybe he was coming down with something. He had been in charge of Shinra for two and a half years, and nothing terrible had happened yet. Lots of things that could have been terrible, and lots of things that could have been dealt with better, but mankind had survived.
People had survived!
Sure there had been a lot of deaths, but no where near the thirty percent of the population that scientists had been predicting after Meteor destroyed all industry, poisoned the majority of crops around the world, and left the citizens of the world's most populous city injured and homeless. He could defeat the odds. Look at before he became president! He had helped a ragtag group of seven adventurers- eight if you count Aeris- repel a sentient meteor half the size of the moon, overthrow the world government, and kill General Sephiroth, despite Sephiroth having been a master strategian and the ultimate warrior that mankind had ever produced. Produced meaning in a lab, in Sephiroth's case. He still felt pity for the confused, silver haired man-boy who had been his foe. Man-boy. Admittedly, Sephiroth had been older than him, but there had been something infinitely child-like in Sephiroth's belief that there could ever be a perfect solution, in his lashing out in single-minded anger when he found out that he had been lied to, and in his eternal quest for someone he could trust, regardless of who that person was.
He shook his head and set down the glass, half the liquid still swishing around the bottom. Sitting around thinking accomplished nothing. Leaning over, he unzipped the gray exercise bag and pulled out the virtual reality headset and the attached keyboard. On the shelf across the room, Cait's eyes opened to stare curiously at his master, huge ears swiveling as his radar turned on and scanned the room.
"It's been
a while since you activated me," the
cat's AI mewed in a friendly, gravelly voice, it's tiny mouth smiling slightly
as it spoke. "Something up?" It jumped down from the shelf, somersaulting
in mid air just to show off. It landed
on its hind legs and bowed, it's red cape bouncing in the air. "Something fun?"
"You got it, my friend." Reeve shook his head, smiling as the black
cat frowned at the slightly brown color of his white forepaws and began to lick
them clean.
Cait glanced up at his chuckle and glared, stomping his red booted foot. "You need to take better care of me!"
"Sorry, sorry," The dark haired man apologized, swallowing the laughter. "I've been busy."
"Too busy to take care of your friends? Hmph. At least you woke me up now, before you spilt coffee on me and fried my circuits or something. And don't think that I don't know that you've had me sitting on your desk like some sort of mindless paperweight!"
"You're just too special to me for me to leave you behind," Reeve replied, typing away at the keyboard.
/ID Code./
/Mission Programming./
/Objectives./
"Hmm." The cat seemed vaguely placated. "So why're we at Junon? I thought they didn't like you."
"They don't, and that's why I need you. If something happens, I want you to stay free and help me from the outside."
"Oh, I get it!" The cat grinned widely and jumped up in the air, clicking his heels together as the new programming entered his circuitry. "I'll hide somewhere on the base and be like your secret weapon if you get into a fight, because you're no good at fighting!"
"Thank you so much for pointing that out to me." Reeve muttered sarcastically.
"Oh, you didn't know?" The cat asked, shaking his finger at Reeve. "You're usually more observant than that. I mean, think about it. You've spent your life doing paperwork, you're no hunk of muscle, you've never been in the military, and you avoid conflict at all costs, much less fights. You barely even know how to shoot a gun! You need to pay attention to your weaknesses better!! That's basic tactics!" Cait twitched his whiskers earnestly. Reeve sighed.
"Why do I put up with you?"
Cait looked confused.
The intercom to Reeve's suite buzzed. "President Reeve?"
Reeve folded up the control equipment handed it to a puzzled Cait, who staggered comically at the weight. The equipment was half as big as the cat.
"Hide yourself and this and get out of here as soon as you can."
"Got ya, big guy. Take care of yourself."
"You too."
The buzzer rang again as Cait scampered off and hid amongst the dense leaves of a potted tree in a corner. "President Reeve? The commander is ready to see you now."
Reeve straightened his tie and slipped on a dark blue suit jacket over his white shirt. He pressed the button to the door, and it slid open. "Please take me to him."
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Avalanche was lazing around the suite Yuffie had given them. Cloud was napping with Tifa reading a book beside him, Vincent was leaning against a wall lost in thought, and Cid was sitting by the table, sharpening his spear. Barret and Red were playing chess.
Red nosed his black pawn across the board, finishing a trap he had been building for the last half hour. "Checkmate," he said calmly, his tail swishing with amusement as he took in Barret's expression.
The massive man frowned at the chessboard in disbelief, unable to believe that his white king was so completely surrounded by enemy pieces. The door to the room slammed open.
"Cloud!" Yuffie yelled, and the figure on the mattress against the far wall stirred.
Cloud sat up and ran his fingers through his sleep tussled blond hair. "What happened?"
"Listen!" Yuffie held up the tape recorder she had been clutching in a white knuckled hand and pressed the button.
Static.
"Junon command to Wutai command."
"Wutai receiving."
"We have a message for Princess Kirsagi and her Avalanche friends, from General Hoyman, supreme commander of the Shinra military."
Tifa frowned. "I thought Reeve was the supreme commander of the military."
"Shhh!" Yuffie ordered as the tape continued.
". . . under our control. If the Wutai army does not cease all preparations of an offensive against General Falstor and the members of Avalanche do not surrender themselves directly to Junon command, at noon seven days from now, including all seven members, Mr. Reeve will be executed."
"WHAT?!!!!" Everyone yelped.
"Those damned Shinra, I knew we couldn't trust them!" Barrett's eyes were wide in fury as he snarled.
"We must save Reeve." Red's tail lashed uncomfortably. "But our arrest would give the monastery and Sephiroth free rein. . ."
"Then we just have to rescue Reeve before we deal with our other enemies," Cloud said firmly, getting to his feet. "Your troops will be ready to march on the monastery in about ten days, right Yuffie?"
"Yeah, but. . ."
"Try to keep preparations secret, but continue. Mobilizing less obviously will slow you down, but we can't risk troops coming over to help Falstor from Junon before the seven days he gave us are up. I imagine you can still be ready to attack in two weeks? Stopping the monastery is more important than any of our lives, and I'm sure Reeve would agree. The rest of us are going to Junon to break Reeve out, and sabotage enough of their ships that they can't send troops to Wutai."
"The timing on this will be tight." Red murmured, head cocked as he thought. It takes six days to get from Wutai to Junon at maximum speed, so we'll only have twenty-four hours to prepare to leave on this end, and to rescue Reeve and sabotage the ships on the other end. By the time we get back to Wutai, and march to the monastery, it will be about another nine days. We will only have a day or two to defeat the monastery before Sephiroth awakes. Is there a pattern to where the Lifestream usually reincarnates him, Cloud?"
Cloud searched his memory of Sephiroth's memory and nodded. "He always awakens near Cosmo Canyon."
"But that's eight days beyond Junon! We'd never make it back from the monastery in time to be there when he returns. If there's left over supplies there from when you were there, and he can use them to survive and get strong again. . ."
Cloud nodded again. "I did leave my pack there, and yes, it has canned food and a few materia. He is likely to recover fine on his own this time. That's why I'm not going to come back to Wutai with you. I'll go find Sephiroth and kill him."
The room erupted in protests.
"But he'll just come back. That doesn't seem like much of a solution." Red frowned.
"You bloody idiot, you can't go! You'll just end up being his puppet again. The rest of us'll go, and you run the war here in Wutai! I killed him once, we can do it!" Cid snapped.
"You're still too sick to even be thinking about going to Junon, much less fighting Sephiroth," Tifa shook her head. "You're not going anywhere even if I have to tie you down to the bed!"
"I can just stay there and keep killing Sephiroth until we do come up with a more perment solution, or build a cage that can hold him. And I'll be fine. I've fought in a lot worse condition than this. We all have. As for the rest, he's in a lot of pain while in the lifestream, and when it expels him. My guess is that he won't be able to think coherently enough to use me. But just in case, I'd like some of you to come along, and kill him or take care of me if I start to act weird."
"Take care of me had better not mean what I think it does," Tifa snarled. "Not a chance!"
"I'll just come back, same as him. You can apologize and take care of me then. Or maybe someone can come up with another way to neutralize me? Red, Cid, you're the scientists here. . ."
"Don't call me a fucking scientist! I'm an engineer!" Cid snapped. "Why do you have to go?"
"I'm the only one who can sense him. I mean, I know he's within a few days travel of where I left you guys on the way to Mideel, but that's still a huge amount of territory. None of you would be able to find him."
"I hate to say it, but I think Cloud has the only workable plan," Vincent murmured. "If we're going to save Reeve, we only have a few hours before we must leave. We do not have time to argue like this."
Red nodded. "For now, let us accept his plan. If anyone comes up with something better on the way to Junon, we can modify it then."
Cloud nodded. "Thank you. Everyone, pack up and get ready to go."
"You can't!" Everyone spun around at the sudden exclamation from near the door.
"Lieutenant Allen," Yuffie's voice was slightly dangerous. He swallowed and entered the room.
"Your Highness, General Tsuoru asked me to tell you there would be a meeting at two this afternoon to decide which garrisons it's safest to pull fighters from."
"Acknowledged. I'll be there," She stared at him with narrowed eyes when he didn't leave.
He glanced away from her, aware that he was embarrassing her, but feeling that it was important that he speak. "I realize that I don't have the experience the rest of you have, but may I ask how you intend to successfully invade Junon? Look at what happened at the Heiwa monastery. Junon is the headquarters for the entire Shinra military, and has been so for hundreds of years. The Heiwa monastery was only built a year ago, and probably only has a fifth the armament and manpower. If you lost there, how can you hope to win at Junon?"
"We've done it before." Yuffie's voice was curt. Why did he keep embarrassing her like this? It was a good question, but by the Holy Water Dragon, couldn't he just trust her? He even said it himself; he was too inexperienced to understand the subtleties.
Barret nodded. "That's all true- Lt. Allen, was it?- but we know Junon's layout as well or better than it's commanders do, thanks to Cloud's messed up memory of being in Soldier."
"Hey," the blond in question protested mildly.
The lieutenant looked confused and even more worried, if possible. "Sir. . ."
"I sort of inherited the memories of one of Shinra's SOLDIERS." Cloud explained, glaring at Barrett. "Junon is very old, and has resisted many attacks, but it's built to repel a massive force, not a few invaders. Moreover, because it's so old, they've decided what the most efficient techniques for defending it are. They haven't changed the pattern of guards in sixty years, nor the times that the guards change. Since I know those, it'll be pretty easy to sneak by them. Moreover, it's so huge that no one knows everyone, and no one is surprised to see a stranger wandering around fiddling with equipment. If we get some uniforms and act like we know what we're doing, it's likely no one will even realize we've been there until it's too late for them to do anything about it."
"Heiwa monastery, on the other hand, was a completely unknown quantity," Red cut in calmly, warm brown eyes watching the young man. "In part it was our fault. We were so used to easily defeating Shinra troops that we didn't even consider that they might change their patterns from those Cloud knows. We will not make that mistake again."
"We sure as hell won't!" Cid lifted his spear off the table and peered closely at the edge. He grinned wolfishly. "But now we gotta get going. Get your lazy butts in gear guys, it's time to go kick some Shinra ass again. Oh, and don't goof around too much, 'Your Highness,'" The gray haired pilot snickered as he stood. "It's an insane plan, but it looks like we gotta depend on you to run things here. Don't fuck up like you usually do, kiddo."
"Me fuck up? Who always crashes our transportation, Gramps? First the Bronco, and then the Shinra 26, and then the Highwind. . . I don't know why they even let an old geezer like you fly."
"They were sacrificed to save us, you idiot! I didn't crash anything. And who're you calling a geezer, baby face?"
"Enough, you two," Cloud cut in before Lt. Allen could decide to kill Cid to protect his Princess' honor. "Cid's right, we gotta get going. Everyone, go pack your bags- full weaponry, but we'll be traveling fast, so don't over pack. We'll meet back here in twenty minutes."
Cid rolled his eyes, but everyone headed to Junon nodded and headed for the door. Tifa was the last to leave, and mouthed "good luck," and smiled at Lt. Allen as she passed by, her head carefully turned so Yuffie couldn't see. The door shut behind her, leaving Yuffie and Allen alone in the room.
"I'm glad you're not going to Junon," he said quietly.
Yuffie shook her head. "I've got to go see how much of the old pre-war armaments they've actually gotten to work." She pushed by him and headed for the door.
"Yuffie. . ." He grabbed her arm. "I may not be able to predict the intricate details of your plans, but I'm not an idiot. It was a legitimate question."
"Telling your commander she can't do something was not."
"You're right. It wasn't, and I apologize for that. But dang it, Yuffie, I'm never going to be able to get the experience to make you respect me if you keep me in the dark about what's going on."
"You're just a lieutenant. You don't need to know."
"But you're not consulting with your generals either. You've got a responsibility to Wutai! You can't keep gallivanting about with Avalanche."
She pulled her arm free. "I'm not gallivanting, I'm protecting Wutai. And I'm not 'with Avalanche,' either. I am Avalanche. I'm just as much a legitimate member as any of the others."
"But you're a princess of Wutai first! You have to remember that. No matter how much you love your friends, your first duty is to govern your country fairly and honestly. People are beginning to talk."
"To talk?" Her voice was cold.
"That you're more loyal to Avalanche than you are to Wutai. That you'd be willing to sacrifice us to accomplish their goals."
"What?!"
"Look at it from their standpoint! You're setting Wutai up as a target for both Falstor's super-weapon and the entire Shinra military! We barely even have a chance against just the monastery! And everyone remembers the destruction following the Shinra wars. If that happened again, nothing of Wutai would survive intact."
"It won't come down to a war."
"You hope. You have to consult with them, your highness. By the Holy River, you're not even the true ruler of Wutai, but you're not consulting with your father either. You're just issuing orders that could end in all our deaths."
"They're necessary, and I don't have time to go through full parliamentary procedure. If we don't do this now, the Shinra wars are going to seem like a gentle breeze compared to the storm that will follow. You're just upset because I won't sit back and let you protect me like a proper lady. Well, deal with it. I'm a warrior of the Water Dragon, and I Will Protect Wutai." She slammed open the door, and he could hear her angry footsteps storming down the wooden floor of the hall.
Allen sighed. "That's not it. . ."
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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Uh, ok, I'm wrong, the Turks still aren't showing up. . . I swear they have to next scene though. They have to. They're at Junon, and the next scene is Junon. . .
Inarae
ginabrae@aol.com
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