Chapter 11:
In the Pagoda of the Five Mighty Gods
"To stop sinning suddenly."
~Elbert Hubbard (when speaking of death)
Wutai seemed abandoned.
At first, the group had stayed together, Shera holding Adine's hand in one of hers and Marlene's in the other. Vincent, after one look around the silent town, had pulled out his gun. The Turks followed suit, and even Cid kept a firm grip on his spear. There was an odd feeling of tension in the air, as though something terrible had happened…or was about to happen.
After a few minutes of strained apprehension, Yuffie gave a short shriek and ran in front. "Dad!"
Cid tried to grab her before she got too far away but missed, his hand closing on empty air. "Yuffie!" he yelled. "Wait!"
The teen wasn't listening. "Dad!" She ran past the bar, racing further into town.
"Hey! Yuffie!" The others tried to follow, but, as always, the young ninja's speed showed through. By the time they had rounded the item shop, she had disappeared from view.
"Great." Reno shook his head. Cid noticed was still fingering his gun absently. "Now what?"
"We've got to find her," Elena said. She stood with her arms clenched tightly, looking very strained. "Something's happened in this town. It's too dangerous to let her wander around by herself."
"Where'd she go, then?" Barret muttered.
"Cid!" Vincent said suddenly, pointing with the barrel of his gun, which he hadn't put away. "The pagoda!"
"Good idea," the pilot agreed. "Come on!" He and Vincent led the way, followed closely by the others.
Immediately upon stepping inside the five-story building, it was obvious something was horribly wrong. No one mentioned it, but the guarded expressions on everyone's faces deepened. Adine let out a little whimper of fear. Shera bent over here in concern.
"Cid, I don't like this." Vincent spoke quietly, not wanting to alarm the children further. "Where are all the people?"
Cid frowned at Vincent's tone. "You think it's Jenova?"
"What else could it be?" he replied. "The Sresla. That's got to be it."
Cid started to swear softly, but the words died on his lips as some kind of noise sounded from the floor above them. As one, the entire group looked up. There was a scrape, then the low murmur of voices.
"C'mon," Cid said, starting up the stairs. "We've been standing here too long."
However, when they reached the second landing, the floor was empty.
There were more noises from above, and then a shrill scream.
"That was Yuffie!" Elena gasped, tightening her grip on her gun.
Cid growled a curse. "Let's go!"
The third floor was also empty. But, as Cid's party discovered upon advancing, the fourth was not.
"Sh!" Gorki hissed as the group barreled up the stairs. Cid blinked in recognition and lowered his spear. Gorki, Shake, Chekhov and Staniv were the first four guardians of the Pagoda of the Five Mighty Gods, destined to live out their lives in the five-story building until they were defeated in battle. Yuffie had defeated all four of them- as well as Lord Godo, the challenge of the final floor- but had refused to fulfill the obligation of becoming the new master of the pagoda. Therefore, Staniv, Chekhov, Shake and Gorki were stuck.
"Where's Yuffie?" Vincent demanded, not lowering his gun. "Why did she scream?"
Chekhov gestured upwards. "She's on the top floor. But don't go up there!" He added as Vincent made a move toward the stairs. "Lord Godo is very sick."
Cid felt a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach. "What's wrong with him?"
Staniv shook his head. "We don't know. He's coughing up blood and having hallucinations. And that mark on his hand-"
"Is it a red mark?" Cid interrupted. "In the shape of an hourglass?"
"No, it's black!" Shake burst out. "But yeah, it looks like an hourglass."
"Damn…" Cid said softly. They were too late.
"Miss Yuffie looked shocked when we told her," Chekhov explained, looking at the floor. "Then she gave a kind of scream and ran upstairs."
"How many people have the virus?" Shera asked gently. "When did it start?"
Gorki closed his eyes. "The entire town was struck a few weeks ago. It was a sickness unlike any other we've seen. The little materia we had did no good at all. Potions were no help, either. Mothers could only watch, powerless, as their children sank into deep recessions, always ending with the black mark. Whole families have died. None have survived the sickness…" He broke off, making a frustrated gesture with his hands.
"But…there's got to be something we can do!" Elena cried. "We need to have hope!"
Gorki shook his head slowly, as though unconsciously disagreeing with everything Elena had said. "Wutai will not survive," he said bleakly. "That was what Lord Godo said before sending us away. He wished to die alone."
Cid turned to the others, rage and sorrow fighting for control on his face. "Jenova wants a fight," he said in a low voice. "We'll give her one."
* * * * *
Lord Godo resembled more of a skeleton than anything else- a thin, wasted bag of bones laying on an ironically colorful sleeping mat, propped up by several pillows. His head was hanging low and his breathing was shallow, if not nonexistent. He looked, to all appearances, already dead.
Yuffie stayed in the doorway, rooted to the spot by the sight. Her father- her gruff, comical father- seemed hardly recognizable. She wanted to run back downstairs and demand to see her real dad. But before she could, the man in the bed lifted his head and looked at her.
Their eyes met. There was a moment of shocked silence. The only sound was Godo's sudden gasps for breath, until his lips parted and he said in one incredulous whisper:
"Yuffie?"
She gave a choked kind of sob and ran to the pallet. As thin and weak as he looked, as long as it had been since she had last seen him, he was still her father, the one she was fighting for. Him and Wutai.
However, she maintained enough self-control to stop herself from throwing her arms around him, as she was wont to do. He looked as though the slightest touch might shatter him into a million little pieces, like a fragile piece of glass. And besides, although it pained her to think it, part of her was afraid and even repulsed by the sight of this man who did not seem her father at all, with his waxy skin and dark, sunken eyes, with the thin, claw-like hands that trembled as they reached out for her.
"My daughter…you've come back…"
The guilt washed over her, preventing her from speaking as she laid her hands in his. She had wanted to return to Wutai after defeating Sephiroth, to see her father again, but she had continuously put off the long journey, feeding her procrastination with what seemed, now, like feeble excuses: It's too far away; Wutai's boring; He doesn't want to see me, I'm an embarrassment to him…
And while she was away…
"Why didn't you come back?" he persisted, holding her hands with a grip so tight it hurt. It was as though he could hardly believe she was there, and if he didn't cling tight she might evaporate before his eyes. "Why didn't you return sooner?"
"I…I don't know," she said, her eyes downcast. She was feeling stupid and ashamed. "Dad…don't do that. Please-don't cry!"
It was true. Tears were coursing down Godo's cheeks, and when he spoke, his voice was thick.
"I wanted you to come back…I needed to tell you…before I died…"
"Dad!" A rising dread was fixed in Yuffie's throat, making her speak more harshly than she'd intended. "You're not dying!"
"…needed to tell you how sorry I was…about Wutai. Commercialism…depending on tourism… You were right."
For a few seconds Yuffie was speechless. It was unlike Godo to apologize for anything, and Wutai was the last thing on her mind for the moment. Then her gaze fell on her father's hands in hers, which were now shaking so badly they were slipping from her grasp. And she saw…on the left hand, a black mark in the shape of an hourglass…
"No!" she said firmly, disengaging her hands from his and standing with authority. "I was not right. I was a selfish brat, ignorant of what Wutai went though in the war. You did the best you could under the worst circumstances. I'm the one who should be sorry."
Godo shook his head, oblivious to her every word. "I failed Wutai."
She lowered her head, so that her dark eyes were level with his. "No, you did not. Do you hear me, Dad? It was not your fault."
He looked into her eyes, and whatever he had been about to say never came out. Instead he nodded slowly, almost hypnotically. He believed her.
Instantly, something seemed to snap inside of him, and he bolted upright with both hands pressed over his mouth, coughing furiously. There seemed nothing Yuffie could do for him as she stood back, helpless. The choking spasm lasted several minutes. Godo finally removed his hands from his mouth. He hid them hastily under the blankets, but not before Yuffie caught a glimpse of the red splatters of blood across both palms.
"Dad," she said in a low voice, watching as Godo regained his composure. "You're really sick, aren't you?"
He turned his head away from her, unwilling to answer.
Overcome by a mindless fear, Yuffie began to cry. She was going to lose her father, the one person in the world she had left. What would she become, without her father to be there for her? What would Wutai become?
"Dad, I'm sorry I never came back!" she cried out, needing him to at least say something. "I'm sorry I argued with you! I'm sorry I blamed you!"
He made no response, just kept his eyes fixed away from her. The pain became unbearable.
"Look!" Losing control, she began to yank materia out of every crevice in her weapons and armor, dumping the whole mess of it onto her father's pallet. "I promised you I'd bring materia! Here it is, all of it! You have to live now!"
No reply.
The panic left her, replaced by numb despair. Her head lowered. "You have to live…"
A cold hand brushed her cheek. "Please, Yuffie," Godo whispered. "Don't do this." His hand dropped back beside him on the pallet. "Keep fighting. Let nothing stop you in your quest. Let nothing interfere with your beliefs."
She knew what he was saying.
Forget me. There are others who can be saved.
But…was anyone else worth saving, now? Was there even a point in fighting anymore?
His eyes, curiously stern, caught hers and she nodded slowly. Of course there was.
"Okay, Dad," she heard herself say. "Okay."
He smiled faintly. "That's my girl." He closed his eyes. His breathing slowed and finally stopped.
It took Yuffie some time to realize the Sresla had faded and disappeared before Lord Godo's death.
* * * * *
Cid was surprised at how calm Yuffie looked when she returned. She was a little paler, maybe, but there was no hysterical sobbing, no angry grief.
"Lord Godo is dead," she said tonelessly to Gorki and the others.
Staniv looked shocked. "No…it can't be!"
"Well, it is!" she snapped. "See to it he has a decent burial."
Perhaps it was the way she spoke that made Gorki ask timidly, "But aren't you attending the funeral, Miss Yuffie?"
Yuffie didn't answer at first. She looked at Cid, and it was there, in her eyes, he saw the grief that he hadn't been able to spot at first. But it was more of a resigned, pained grief, and what she said next made him certain she was at peace with herself.
"I have something more important to do."
"More important than paying your last respects to your own father?" Shake demanded. "What's that?"
Yuffie winced and opened her mouth, but it was Vincent who spoke, his voice filled with unmistakable anger.
"Perhaps, while you are sitting in your pagoda and hoping the ones you love recover on their own, Yuffie is going out to protect the living and to insure nothing like this ever happens again." His voice was colder than ice, but his eyes showed the true malice he was feeling. "I advise you, next time, to make no judgments unless you know the true situation. And even if you do, stay the hell out of it!"
Shake murmured something that might have been an apology while Cid made a sign for Vincent to "cool it." The former Turk stepped back, his eyes narrowed into red slits.
"I'll leave the matter of the funeral to the rest of you," Yuffie said quietly, not looking at any of them. "I know I can trust you."
As each of the four bowed and assured her of his capability, Cid felt an odd sensation, looking at Yuffie. …It was as though she was a different person, no longer a whiny teenager, but someone older, someone mature. Yes…looking at Yuffie, her young face filled with sudden wisdom and sorrow beyond her years, Cid saw that she was truly an adult at last.
She turned to him and the rest of them. Cid noticed the empty slots in her armor and shuriken and wondered briefly what she had done with her materia, but didn't ask.
"Let's go," he murmured.
No one spoke as they left the pagoda, but Yuffie stayed behind a moment to look up at it. She didn't think she'd come back here for a while. There was too much to handle…too much to think about.
Maybe someday…