By Word of Mouth,
By Ealinesse
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DISCLAIMER: I own nothing of the Final Fantasy series - characters, items, ideas, nothing. I do not claim to. I do own Carlos, and his little goonies, however, even though I may not like them much at times...
WARNINGS: Maybe a little language.
FEEDBACK: Yes please! Reviews are always welcome ^_^
(very short) AUTHOR'S NOTES: ... at end of chapter.
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Chapter Ten: And So We Meet Again...
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Shake frowned, folding his arms across his chest as he watched the ninja before him pack with a hidden purpose. Her hands moved methodically, rearranging the items inside to look more believable. Her face was stony, the set of her mouth determined.
"Are you sure you want to do this?"
Yuffie sighed and continued checking the bags over, trying to conceal the bulk of the solid object that was hidden by the flimsy canvas cloth. "What was my answer on the first night, Shake?"
"You know what I mean. This is a different situation entirely."
"How si?"
"What if he checks the bag early? You know you're meeting him at the end of the alley, and-"
"I'll step back. It'll trigger only if he opens it. He never does straight away, and both times he's stepped away from me just for distance."
"You're sure."
Yuffie looked up and stared blankly at the wall above her bed, careful not to jostle the explosives inside. She exhaled and counted to ten, then, fastening the two bags together, she turned to face the man behind her, her shoulders rigid. She noticed the worried expression on his face, ignored the doubt he hid. She knew it was there, all the same.
"You don't believe I can do this without messing up?"
"Of course I do."
Despite herself, Yuffie offered a wry grin. "Right." She turned to leave the room, but Staniv stopped her as he entered.
"Where do you think you're going?"
The young ninja rolled her eyes. "So now you're ganging up on me, too?"
"You know what I mean. You have another twenty minutes before you even need to think about leaving."
She lowered her eyes. "I need time to think."
"It's best not to. You had time enough to do that. I know you didn't sleep last night because the guards heard you crashing around in your room. You were angry, and you didn't even hear Shake or I knocking on your door. You may as well wait and have us to talk to. Calm down. If you're angry, he'll see it. If you keep eyeing those bags worriedly like you are now, he'll see it. He'll also use it against you. From what you've said already he doesn't trust you. Don't give him a reason not to."
"Making sense as always," Yuffie muttered. But she knew Staniv was right. Behind her, she could imagine Shake was nodding as well. Thinking would only make her question her resolve. But what's more, it would make her more angry. Angry that he'd doubted her. Angry that everyone did. Angry that Carlos had deceived her twice, and she'd learnt nothing but how callous and arrogant he was. She was angry at her father, too, though she couldn't tell why.
But more than anything, she was worried. They didn't know whether Godo was still alive. In fact, they were counting on the complete opposite... And right now she could not believe it was her that had come up with the idea.
She couldn't afford to let herself belief he was alive, because if Carlos survived this, then… No. She had to be neutral party. There could be no discussion on the matter, and although she longed not to do this, for her father's sake, she knew she had to prove herself. Yuffie scowled and unconsciously clenched a fist. Her father's life was no a mere game to be toyed with. Carlos was going to pay for this, one way or the other. She could not afford to think about what she could lose as a result.
"Stop worrying." This came from Staniv, and Yuffie let her shoulders slump as she was directed over to a nearby seat. "You can't have time to think about this."
"I know."
"You cannot let your resolve waver."
"I know."
"You cannot-"
"Staniv?"
"Yes, Miss Yuffie?"
"I've known the four rules since I was three."
Staniv merely nodded with a small smile, and placed his hands across his lap. They lapsed into silence and Yuffie bowed her head, playing with the crisp fabric of the bag. A hand slapped hers away, and she looked up into the cool grey eyes of her aide.
"Leave it."
"But-"
"Yet you still worry."
The ninja felt sudden tears prick at her eyes, and she squeezed them shut. She wrung her hands together, ignoring the whiteness of the knuckles. She pressed her lips together and quickly released the painful grip on her hands and the emotions that it brought, instead playing with the emerald stone in her ear - the one her father had given her for her last birthday; the one her mother had owned, that her father had given her years before...
"Now look at me," she groaned, "I would have made it without crying if I had left before."
"You're sure of that?" Yuffie raised an eyebrow, and she saw Shake smile from the back of the room.
"Why does everyone keep asking me that question?"
Staniv offered a minuscule smile. "Because they do not like the answer you give them."
"But it's the truth."
"I know. But does it make you or anyone else feel any better by admitting it?"
"It isn't supposed to." She cause the corner of Staniv's mouth twitch, and continued. "How can I be sure if what I'm doing is right. I feel like I am condemning him to death, I-"
Before her fears and doubts could consume her, however, Staniv cut in, vanquishing all room for quandary. "You said so yourself,that you cannot afford to believe he is alive. They may threaten you, but you said that it could mean everything and nothing at the same time. Their words are nothing, and they have offered you no proof of anything except harm. You cannot believe them. They hurt your father, and you cannot believe he is alive. This deserves punishment. This is for Wutai. This is for your nation."
Shake stepped forward and knelt before her. "You are stronger than you might think."
Yuffie snorted. "Yeah, right."
"Right."
The ninja downcast her eyes and moved to her bed, where her shuriken lay in its case. It was time to do something. If she was busy, then she knew she'd have no time to think. Removing it, Yuffie hid it this time her jacket, but she did not remove the heavy cloak from its hook, it would hamper her movement should she need her speed. She had no cause to worry. The man had not checked her for weapons the two previous times. She guessed, though, she had looked too weak to even bother searching. At least one thing had worked to her advantage; she knew she would not be weak tonight, although that was what he would expect.
All she had to be, was strong...
You are strong… 'Right.'"You doubt yourself."
She smirked, remembering Staniv's cryptic answer from only moments before. Her strength of resolve solidified under his gaze. "Not anymore."
"Good. You can do this, just remember that you can have no doubt. Repeat to me what you are doing."
And she did, like she had repeated the steps of her kata when she was learning them as a child. Staniv's eyes shone with some indefinable emotion, and she knew instantly that it was at the coldness and neutrality that she had repeated her task with; that it was from the very thought of the upcoming act itself. Yuffie sighed. She couldn't help it... there was no other way for her to try not to care. She knew Staniv's misgivings about this, but in the end he had agreed, as had the others. That Wutai still had an heir was all that mattered. Not her aide's opinion; not her father's life; not her feelings.
She left before her faith could fall, and before the telltale tears began to fall. That man had hurt her father, and now she would hurt him back. A lot... for she had all of Wutai behind her.
This was for them, whether they knew it or not.
Not her father.
Not her.
Wutai.
The implications and repercussions of tonight's advancing actions had yet to fall upon her, and with a last examination of the bulky explosives concealed by the canvas bags, she sped down the back-alleys to her destination.
* * * * *
The night-time weather was, as the Turk had initially observed, far from fine. Dark clouds loomed overhead and were very close to concealing the moon - the only light the Turk had to go by. His nightvision goggles, it so turned out, had been broken also when the cabin had fallen, along with his nightstick. He had nothing else, and now he was relying on nature to persevere. Of course it was only natural that it would let him down, too.
'Well,' Reno decided glumly, 'At least it isn't raining.'
Sparing only the briefest glance up into the clouds, Reno surveyed what he hoped would be a little bit of harmless weather. As he exhaled, his breath created a small haze that dissipated seconds later. He rubbed his hands together, which were still cold despite the gloves he now wore. He would much rather be at home with a warm coffee, but that was the way his so-called luck ran. Instead he had received a second note under the door, telling him exactly where he was supposed to be; the same place, coincidentally, at the same time. But under his own initiative he had decided to come an hour and a half early, in case something eventful happened.
In which case, Reno realised, it was.
Quite secretly throughout the alley came the odd, minuscule movement. They were not such as the ones created by the chill breeze that whipped through the alleys, either, or the ruffling of the rubbish bags as rats and mice scavenged through them. Every now and then Reno would catch the familiar glimpse of light reflecting off cool steel, and then a swish of dark, dull fabric. The movement was minimal but he knew it was there. In fact, if he had arrived not fifteen minutes earlier, he was sure that he would have seen the men move into their hiding spots in the most darkened shadows of the alley. Though, he decided, any fool could have seen the weapons from his vantage point.
Reno held no delusions about what was going on. He had seen the cloaked figure exchange money with Carlos last night, and he had seen the person leave with some small item in their hands, though he had not seen what. Towards the end of the brief meeting – for it couldn't have been any more than ten minutes that each person was here – Reno had seen Carlos pitch a knife at the person of slighter stature. It had missed, but from the looks of things it had been intentional. He had also seen the person pick it up, though he had little idea of what it was to do with. It had become clear earlier that this was no drug exchange, and the occasional tones that wafted up to his rooftop let him know that this was more than a little personal. But the voices had been muffled, and he had been able to gather very little information. He was hoping for better luck tonight.
And if he gained what he needed, then he'd be able to merely watch the man, not traverse around in search for information. Waiting for Rude and Elena sounded a lot better than working until Rude and Elena arrived.
… But for some reason his gut was telling him to stay. By the looks of the men here now something big was going down tonight. He only had to wait to find out.
Reno shook his head, switching his mind back to the issue at hand. He surveyed the area around him, making a mental note of the positions of the men. There were four of them that he could tell, and none were Carlos. He assumed he was inside, like he had been last night. The rubbish piled up on each side of the looming metal door hid two men reasonable well. Every so often he could see them wriggle uncomfortably on the spot. There was also the occasional noise, communication. The hand signals were easy enough to read by themselves. One flick of the wrist for stay, two for move.
There were two others further down, opposite each other in the middle of the alleyway. From his side of the very uncomfortable rooftop Reno could see the one posted under a broken glass window, about four metres from the door. The other was directly under him, and opposite the man under the window. Reno couldn't see him, but at times, when the miniscule lighting was right, he could hear him. They were all waiting for a signal, and by the way they were watching the door, he guessed it was going to come from Carlos.
And that brought up more questions. If Carlos had the manpower, where had he gotten it from? The public parole files? Had Carlos tracked down men and conned them into working for him for money? Or was he holding something worse above their heads, like family? Reno scowled, knowing it made sense. The old Shinra had done that to him, and he didn't have to even try to remember the lengths he'd gone to, to keep them safe. He knew the parole files contained family parties, and psychiatric evaluations. It was cruel, but it was the way the world worked. Something he had learnt the hard way. Another advantage to Carlos.
This wasn't looking good.
Reno looked down, about to focus on the door once again, when a movement out of the corner of his eye made his stop. Without the cloak it was painfully obvious who this figure was, and what she was doing here. Reno bit back a groan. He wasn't completely uninformed; he knew Yuffie's father had been missing, and now why she had been acting so strangely. But the papers had mentioned nothing about a ransom, only that he had been missing.
Reno scowled, eyeing the weapons glinting off the moonlight, and then looking back to Yuffie. He knew she hadn't seen them, she was too focussed on her own thoughts for that. He knew who they were going to kill, and although he was here for surveillance, he knew he had to stop this. Now that everything made sense he had to get Yuffie out of here before she got hurt. If not… well, it didn't bode good for him, or her.
Muttering silent expletives through frozen lips, Reno began to skulk across the rooftops and down the ladder on the other side of the building, where he could head to where Yuffie was located. He only hoped he wasn't too late. Unholstering his gun as he reachd the end of the steps, he couldn't help but think perhaps his luck had changed.
Maybe this mission wouldn't be such a bitch after all.
"Yeah, good one."
* * * * *
Yuffie entered the alleyway and narrowed eyes, scanning for trouble. There was nothing she could see, but that didn't mean anything. The mist and cloud had long since covered the moon and it was getting harder and harder to see. She knew this was the end of the alley, though. Instead of more twists and turns and alternate routes there were old buildings, ancient wooden factories, many of them condemned.
Her curiosity at the location peaked, and she found herself drawn toward the metal door she could see at the end. As it was she was over ten minutes early. Yuffie took a reluctant step forward as she eyed the forbidding door at the end, but looked down when something crunched under her foot. Broken glass from a shattered window had fallen into the alley, she decided, glistening like tiny gems in the moonlight.
It was only then that she noticed the shadow that fell across her vision. She made a motion and began to turn, but too late.
A cold hand clamped itself across her mouth and the ninja suppressed a muffled scream, knowing it would do her no good in such a place. Another hand wrapped itself around her ribs, pinning her arms by her sides. All too soon she felt herself being dragged painfully backward, the heels of her shoes scraping loudly over the broken concrete.
Too slow her instincts kicked in, and the cold fear that had taken residence in her belly was pushed to the back of her mind as she struggled against her unknown captor's strong arms. Her mind was confused, terrified, and she had no knowledge of the surroundings around her. Her feet kicked out suddenly of their own accord, and she heard a muffled exhalation of breath as a shot hit its target dead-on.
She was too busy fighting for her own free will that she did not notice she'd dropped the rigged bags when she'd been caught.
After a while she ceased struggling, and it took her a moment to realise that they'd stopping moving. Her eyes wide, Yuffie felt the warm breath of her captor against her cheek. A glint of hair blew across her line of sight in the breeze, and she knew by the sheer length and colour that it was not her own. Her eyes narrowed and suddenly common sense prevailed. She found a finger to gnaw at with her teeth, and once she had the grip, she bit down and did not let go.
The hand over her mouth was removed briefly as she felt the mysterious person cuff her lightly over the head. Her grip was released as she found her mouth free, and she opened it to yell something, but it was at once concealed again. She understood instantly. The person was trying to shut her up, not hurt her. But that did not stop her struggling. Another kick hit home, and then another.
"Will you quit kicking me, stay still and shut the hell up?"
The ninja stopped dead at the familiar, richly accented voice. She tried to turn her head but found it held firm as it was pressed against his chest.
"Yes or no."
Yuffie managed a tight, curt nod against the restraining hand and then it was gently released. Suddenly free, the ninja propelled herself out of the confining grip and spun around. The angular face and dancing, glowing eyes were painfully familiar. She matched the familiar face to the voice, and scowled. Her own could not hide her obvious confusion. "Reno?"
"The one and only."
Sudden rage filled the nervous ninja, and she stepped forward, gesturing her hand to the sky in an effort to revolt her fright of only moments before. "What the hell were you thinking?" she whispered hoarsely. "I don't have time for your stupid games!" Yuffie's anger hid her relief at the knowledge of her momentous captor, but why she was relieved to see the Turk of all people was beyond her.
Then she stopped. Though she could come up with quite a few reasons why Reno would be in an alley, she knew none of them were founded. She frowned. "What are you doing here?"
"Shh!"
"Shh, yourself," Yuffie muttered, and looked from Reno to her watch. She turned to go back, knowing whom that noise would have spawned from. She was about to leave him standing there, but before she could do so the Turk darted in front of her, effectively cutting her exit off. When she tried to push past him a firm grip on her arm stopped her in her tracks, and she turned back to the redhead, who was unconsciously nursing his injured finger with his free hand. An amused smile played across his face, but there was something serious in his Mako gaze that the ninja could not place.
"What do you want?"
Reno shrugged cryptically. "Why leave? You have ten minutes before you have to meet him." Yuffie frowned, and opened her mouth to ask just how he knew that, but again the Turk silenced her. "You can't go back there."
"Why not? I've got better things to do than socialise with an arrogant Turk."
Reno frowned and ignored her last comment, instead gesturing to an elderly building, one which hid the end of her meeting alley. He decided to get straight to the point. "Did you notice the men hidden behind the rubbish? What about their weapons?" He paused, judging her reaction. Her face remained blank. "No? What about their materia?
"I…"
"Right, then, take my word for it, but did you ever wonder what such armed men would be doing in the alleyway at this exact time tonight? Particularly the same one you were due to be in?"
Yuffie frowned and raised her chin in a self-righteous gesture. Having her senses mocked was one thing, but her motives questioned... "I could ask you the same question."
"You could," Reno smirked, "but all I'm saying is that if you go back into that alley… Well, don't say I didn't warn ya. Good riddance if you want to be ignorant. Follow me if you want to live."
Yuffie ignored the comment and ducked her head as Reno began to walk away. She crossed her arms across her chest, feeling the comforting feeling of her shuriken against her side. She fingered it idly, wondering why everything had to be so twisted. If Reno was right, and they were armed, then that would make things a whole lot worse. Should she follow him?
Yuffie looked at her watch and bit her lip. Ten minutes was plenty to find out what was going on.
She darted after Reno even as he began to head around the corner. "Hey." She stopped a foot or so behind him, watching as he turned. She almost scowled as she realised he'd been expecting her to follow, but hid the look when she acknowledged the fact that he didn't have to be here in the first place.
"I thought you had better things to do than hang out with the likes of me?"
Yuffie ignored him. "What do you mean? Warn me about what?"
"What do you think?"
"Look, Turkey, you're not making any sense! I've got to get back before-"
"You go back, and they'll kill you." It was a blunt statement, but to Yuffie, it held the weight of the world. Was that what he'd been implying? What about-
"You have to trust me."
Yuffie was about to scoff... and about to laugh at the image of her trusting, or even following a trained assassin, but a larger noise broke the silence. A long shadow appeared at the end of the oncoming alley and she felt a firm fist close around her arm as Reno tried to drag her to a service ladder.
"Up here, quickly!"
"Reno!" she hissed, pulling back. The phantom figure grew ever-closer as she struggled to get away. Wild panic filled her. If Carlos found her here with someone else, then there was no telling what he would do. But Reno's grip wouldn't let go.
"Come on!"
"Why?"
"Hurry up! I'll tell you later. Get up here." His voice was fierce, but there was the trace of some foreign emotion in his words... something that didn't ideally fit a Turk.
Frantically, the ninja tried to free her hands, though she couldn't say why. "No, Reno, not unless you tell me-"
The Turk nodded hastily to the incoming person, who was still out of sight. "Want to know more about him? Or your father?"
That did it. He had dropped the one name, and the one person that she couldn't possibly ignore. Silently, and with stealth and grace that belied her shivering frame Yuffie shot up the ladder and onto the open roof of what she presumed was an old factory. She stepped up to Reno, face to face.
"Tell me more."
But instead of answering the questions she'd been so hopeful to hear, he stepped around her and crept across the roof silently, reduced to all fours in an effort to remain anonymous.
"Reno..."
It was all she could do not to scream in frustration as Reno stopped at a spot on the roof without answering her. She crouched next to him, her eyes wide as she realised from this vantage that there were indeed people in the alley. She could see at least four without even trying.
She turned to Reno. "What are you doing here?"
"Shh!" he hissed, turning back to her. "You want to see what I was talking about?"
"I-"
"Look-"
"No, you look." Yuffie grimaced, wondering how she had managed to put so much emphasis on her words while keeping it to a mere whisper. Reno caught it too and stopped moving, rigid in the empty space. He looked at her, his cerulean eyes narrowed. "Tell me what you know."
But just as he opened his mouth to answer - or not - a loud noise stung the silence. The old building they were resting on seemed to quiver in the heavy discord, and Yuffie squinted though there was no light, trying to make out just what was going on. Reno followed her queue, and both of them unconsciously shimmied forward as they tried to peer through the small gaps in the top of the concrete wall
"Where is she?" a voice called through the darkness and instantly the ninja recognised it. It was her father's kidnapper. The noise had been the heavy metal door. She pressed her nose against the cool concrete wall, torn with the reality that she'd
And then it hit her. She was supposed to be down there!
She tried to jump up, but couldn't, and she felt herself gripped by a steely, strong arm.
"What do you think you're doing!"
"Going down there. I have to-"
"You can't."
Yuffie's eyes narrowed, and she scowled up at him through dark lashes. "Don't tell me what I can and can't do, Turk!" She turned back to her father's captor and was shocked when four others seemed to melt from around the walls, one carrying something that was all too familiar. "He's... they're five minutes early!"
She tried to make another move to leave, but something brought her to a standstill; tried to rectify the situation by leaving the troublesome rooftop she shouldn't have climbed in the first place. She didn't know what it was; whether it was the amount of people with the original man, or whether it was fear, or the simple repose of inaction. What she did know was that she was suddenly aware of everything around her, as if the scene was intensifying itself just so she could see what she hadn't intended to miss.
And then she recognised that familiar item in one of the men's hands, and her already tense muscles went taught. She breathed a sudden intake of the cold, frigid air, and swallowed the remainder of the growing gasp in her throat.
Reno seemed to recognise her actions. He turned to her, his face taking in the expression and tense set of her shoulders. "What? You want to stay now?"
But she ignored him, for her eyes were too focussed on the bags that the man held - those same bags which held the very key to her father's life, and to Wutai's imminent justice.
Almost immediately the scene unfolded around them and the ninja focussed her attention on one man. The leader. She saw the underlying suspicion in his eyes, hidden almost by the cruelty and callousness that he held so boldly. She saw the tense line of his ashen mouth in vivid technicolour, though the pale moon only allowed her to realistically see shades of the finest grey. She knew what the scene meant to this man; what her sudden absence implied. She also saw the other men backing away, suspect of the small, twin packages, their fear unhidden. She saw the way they gripped their ammunition like a lifeline, their eyes scanning the immediate surroundings like a hawk scavenging for food, for her... for Reno, who was never supposed to be there in the first place.
And it was then, suddenly, that she knew without a doubt the potential it all had to go horribly, horribly wrong. And it was then that she also knew Fate was going to strive let her down, like it always did...
Again.
TBC...
* * * * *
Yes, I know, an odd place to end a chapter, but I thought that since I want to keep an average, even chapter size, then finishing it now would be a good idea. Anyway, that simply means you'll get the next chapter quicker... whether you want it or not ~_^. As always, comments and criticism are much favoured. ^_^.
To: Rose Flame... A Heal materia? Now, I thought I put in that Yuffie didn't have a heal materia... must have been about the end of chapter five, when they were discussing antidotes and healing, and such... You've made me interested enough to go back and check on that... but I thought I did... lol. Who knows? Oh, and authorities? Ugh... don't get me started, lol...
Next chapter will be up very soon... within a week.