: V : Introspection
The Highwind was soon up in the air, speeding over the New Continent towards the west. For Cid's airship one and all were eternally grateful, for now long treks and extortionate taxi fares were no longer needed. It was not long before they had left the green lands behind and were flying over the softly lapping green-blue waves.
Cloud stood alone by the side of the railing, looking down on to the whirling mass of foamy water and sea-spray. Soon they would again be over land, soaring towards the faraway Oriental town of Wutai. It was as Cloud was mulling over Yuffie's lot over the past few years that he realised that Reeve had walked up, and was standing next to him.
"It's really something, isn't it," the President commented, gazing out to sea. As Cloud followed his line of vision, he saw that it was the spectacular sunset that he was referring to. It was one of the most aesthetically pleasing settings that Cloud had ever seen. The sun and the sea together struck inside him such an emotion that he felt the tears spring to his eyes. The wonderful sight of the sun's glowing reflection on the surface of the coldly shifting sea seemed to make all the struggling and pain he had suffered before worthwhile.
"Yes. It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen," he murmured.
Reeve leant forwards over the metal railings, a cheerful grin on his face. "Kind of makes you wonder," he began reflectively, "what this Planet would look like if the Meteor had crashed into it. There certainly wouldn't be any of this to look at, that's for sure."
Cloud nodded slowly.
"No; the Planet would be a barren wasteland. Everything would be dead."
Reeve sighed, and rested his chin on his hands. In the reflected light of the sun, it seemed to Cloud that he looked very tired.
"It's going to take a long time for the Planet's Lifestream to replenish itself, but I think we'll do it. I've been so hard at work trying to reduce Mako production. I don't think we'll ever get to the proposed target in our lifetimes, certainly."
"You look tired," Cloud spoke to him gently. Reeve's shoulders slumped a little.
"Tired? No Cloud, I'm exhausted. For the past three years I've been trying so hard to rectify all the mistakes the previous Shinra government made. It's too much for one man to take on."
"But you did it, nevertheless," Cloud reassured him. "And look at how far we've come in just three years. The people love you, Reeve."
The older man smiled with just the faintest hint of sentimentality.
"There is a limit to these things Cloud. There's always a place where you have to draw the line and say 'Right, I'm going to think of myself for a change.' "
"That's true," Cloud conceded. A short silence followed, and then Reeve spoke up in a more determined voice.
"Cloud, you might as well know the truth. I've been hoping to resign from my presidency next year and pass it on to some one else."
Cloud was astonished.
"What?"
Reeve did not look at him, but his face was thoughtful.
"Listen, Cloud. The more time passes by, the more I come to think that I'm not suited to this job after all. It's hard work, and everyday my strengths weakens, and I feel as though tomorrow will be the day I just give in completely."
"I don't understand," Cloud ventured. "I thought that being President and saving the Planet was all you wanted to do."
"Yes," Reeve replied slowly, still looking out to sea. "But things have changed now. I'm not the person I was three years ago." He paused, and when next he spoke, his eyes were dreamy. "I don't think I could ever make anyone understand what happened to change my life. Standing in the Temple of the Ancients...sacrificing myself for the good of mankind...No one will ever know what it was like to be inside that falling temple as I gave up a part of myself. Although I was not physically in Cait Sith's body, he soon became real to me - like an extension of myself. It was as though I could feel the spirits of the Cetra seize that toy body and make it theirs'..."
He faltered off, and Cloud watched him closely as he listened to his words.
"That episode changed my life, Cloud," Reeve finally continued. "At first, it made me feel invigorated, feel as though I could do something for this Planet. Now, as time goes by, I feel as though I can do other, more low-profile things. I've done my bit as President. That day in the temple, a part of me was taken away by the Cetra...and now I realise I'll never get it back. Now, I want to search for peace of mind."
"I can understand," Cloud replied finally, leaning forwards a little over the edge. The sea was giving way to land now. "It's hard to look at things the way everyone else does when you've been through what we have." He stood up suddenly and laid a hand on Reeve's shoulder "Don't worry, Reeve. Just do whatever you think is right."
Reeve smiled up at him faintly, stood up straighter and faced the other.
"As long as you're there to support me, Cloud. You always did know best."
Cloud gazed at him in astonishment.
"Who? Me?"
"Of course you did." Reeve grinned at him. "Put it this way Cloud. If I had led AVALANCHE three years ago and not you, where do you think we would be now?"
Cloud pretended to think hard.
"Probably in a run-down restaurant in Midgar," he paused. "Then again, we probably wouldn't be here at all."
"Exactly," replied the older man seriously.
Very few minutes had passed before they were landing just outside the tourist town of Wutai on the Western Continent. Nightfall had drawn on. Wutai was a haze of sparkling fireworks that showered like raindrops over the crimson pagoda rooftops down below. It was truly a wonderful sight to behold, especially with the magnificent Da-Chao statues lining the background.
"Why are they celebrating?" Tifa asked, mesmerised by the falling rainbow of fireworks.
"Mus' be the Mid-Autumn festival or somethin'," Cid explained, chewing on a cigarette. He'd somehow managed to sneak one into his mouth during the time they'd left the Highwind. "There are gonna be plenty of tourists hangin' round, I can tell you."
"Oh man," Barret groaned.
Wutai was, indeed, still full of tourists, and the festivities had attracted large numbers of crowds that Cloud and the others practically had to wade through. There were lanterns and dragons and wishes tied to the branches of cherry trees. There were food stalls with dim sum and stands that sold masks and fans and silk kimonos. It was hard not to get distracted, but finally, the six travellers made it to Lord Godo's richly painted red and gold pagoda.
"Let's hope Yuffie's inside," Cloud said to the others.
"Let's not," Cid retorted, after a snort. He and Yuffie had never got on.
The 'throne room' was still the same; richly carpeted, with a retinue of gold statues standing to attention to the side, and numerous silk tapestries painting the walls. The familiar aroma of spices and orange-blossom wafted lazily over towards the visitors' nostrils. Lord Godo himself was seated on his kang at the back of the room, complete with purple kimono. Yuffie, however, was not there.
"Greetings, Lord Godo," Cloud began, bowing in the Wutainese custom as was required. The staid man stood up and bowed also.
"Greetings, my friends." He stood up straight again, and his face had lost some of its seriousness. "You've come just in time. The Mid-Autumn festivals are in full swing. Could I tempt you with a seven-course Wutainese barbecue in exchange for a few materia crystals...?"
Cloud, groaning inwardly, hastily intervened.
"Actually, we were hoping to meet your daughter. Is she somewhere about?"
Godo frowned. His vagrant daughter was not his most favourite of topics.
"I don't know where that silly child is. She went to join the festivities in the town centre." His face became sterner. "I hope you haven't run into any pickpockets out there, because the chances are that it's her."
Cloud immediately felt about his pockets in alarm. Unsurprisingly, all his money and materia had disappeared from his person. Looking up, he noticed that everyone was in much the same state.
"That girl!" Cid was shouting in-between curses. "I never did trust her, even from the beginning!"
His tirade was interrupted by the gold double-doors banging open, and there stood Yuffie, dressed in a lilac kimono and azure obi, intent on making her big entrance.
"Really, Cid!" she began in as booming a voice as she could manage. "I thought you would have learnt by now that no one can hide from my lightning-quick fingers!"
"Yuffie!" Godo yelled at her before anyone could get over their surprise "Come in here at once and return your friends' property! How many times do I have to tell you that if you want a bargain, you have to learn to trade and haggle properly, not steal!"
"But father!" Yuffie replied sullenly, closing the doors shut. "I was going to return everything to them anyway!"
Godo rolled his eyes and addressed his audience.
"Honestly, I try to make her a lady, and this is how she repays me."
"Now, now father," Yuffie returned, wagging a finger at him. "You know that I'm no lady."
Cloud listened to the exchanges between father and daughter with a sense of ironic amusement. Thinking that their relationship was just as ridiculous and entertaining as ever, he was suddenly beared down upon by an ecstatic Yuffie.
"Cloud! How's everything going, big bro!"
Cloud tried to disentangle himself from Yuffie's embrace, and was suddenly surprised by how different she looked. Yuffie had always been what Cloud had considered a 'late-starter': flat chested, slim, athletic. Now, at nearly nineteen years of age, she had finally started to fill out, and her boyish face now held some quality of womanliness in it. The most striking about her, however, was that her once bobbed hair had been allowed to grow, and a shiny, jet-black sheet hung to her shoulders in a perfectly straight line.
Yuffie noticed the stare he gave her and passed him an impish grin.
"So, what do you think, eh? Does it look good?"
Cloud managed to get a grip on himself somewhat. She may look different, but she was still the same indestructible, insupportable young Yuffie.
"Just give me back the materia, Yuffie," he returned calmly.
After a general sulk, Yuffie gave in and returned everyone's belongings with a scowl marring her face.
"Well, now that that's all in order," Godo began, "could I ask why it is that you want to see my daughter?"
"Well, we were just wondering whether she'd like to come with us on a little trip." Cloud answered, putting the phrase as carefully as he could. Yuffie turned to him, her eyes shining.
"A trip? Where?"
Godo's eyes narrowed and he stroked his beard thoughtfully.
"So...you want to take my daughter away on a 'trip', do you...?"
Cloud nodded. "I hope you don't mind. It's kind of important. You see, we're having a sort of tour of the Planet, if you like, a recapturing of the journey we went on three years ago."
"Ah. I see," Godo replied, a glint in his eyes.
"So...do you give us permission to take Yuffie with us?" Cloud ventured.
"Do I?" Godo's face was at its most solemn. "Of course I do! By all means, take my daughter away from here. You have no idea how much she gets under my feet. It's really most annoying."
"Father!" Yuffie objected, her voice injured "That's not fair! You're always so horrible to me!"
Godo put up his hands and refused to look at her.
"Yuffie, I try to make you into a lady and here you are, just as boorish as ever. It would be a pleasure to me if you went. I wash my hands of you! Now go!"
With a crestfallen look of shame, Yuffie turned and walked out of the throne room, the others trailing behind her. But once outside, all trace of Yuffie's shame was gone.
"At last!" she breathed to the others. "The old man's finally decided to send me away!"
Tifa stared at her in astonishment "Yuffie, don't you love your father?"
"Of course I do!" Yuffie looked offended. "I just don't like him. Now, are we going or not?"
They did not leave Wutai straight away, but stayed the night and enjoyed the celebration. After sleeping in one of Wutai's best hotels, the seven set off back to the Highwind and began the journey back towards the East Continent. It took another day or so to finally arrive outside the crumbling ruins of the Temple of the Ancients. Their plan had been to gather at the building and have a quiet moment of reverence in memory of the Cetra. This idea, however, proved to come to nothing, as the whole site was swarming with dozens of avid archaeologists.
"Do you think they've found some stuff worth stealing?" Yuffie asked hopefully.
"I doubt it," Reeve replied. "There weren't very many treasures around when I went in last." There was a wistful look on his face as he looked out on to the ruined temple, and Cloud could tell that this was a moment that Reeve would rather spend by himself.
"Is that all you ever think about?" Cid addressed Yuffie in distaste. "Stealin' things, I mean?"
Yuffie shrugged, unconcerned.
"I'm hooked on it, Cid, there's nothing I can do about it."
"Well, I don't expect there's anything worth stealing," Red told them both. "So you might as well just drop the idea."
The group walked down to the main archaeological site, where they were welcomed by one of the resident archaeologists.
"Hello, welcome to the Temple of the Ancients. Were you hoping to volunteer for the excavations or are you just sight-seeing?"
"Actually, we were here just to see how things were going," Reeve said, stepping forwards from the back of the crowd. "My friends and I here came to this place when it was still intact."
The archaeologist didn't know whether to be astonished at his important visitor or the surprising claim.
"Mr...Mr. President...! What a surprise!...What brings you to these parts?"
"Well, I've been on a tour of Mako Reactors for the past month or so," Reeve replied matter-of-factly. "Oh and by the way...have you had any luck excavating here at all?"
"Well...not really," the other replied, a little nervously. "All we've found are bits of brick and painted frescos - no treasure or anything expensive." He paused, and lowered his voice a little. "Sir, I must ask...is it true that you came here when the Temple was still intact?"
"Of course," Reeve replied with exaggerated casualness. "And if I were you, I'd pack up my bags and leave straight away. There are absolutely no treasures here at all."
The man's face gave the Shinra President a withering look.
The archaeologists gave directions to their base, a small community named Bone Village situated on the southern peninsula of the Northern Continent. It was a couple of days or so before they arrived there by travelling on the Highwind.
Bone Village itself consisted of numerous tents pitched up over a layer of soil scarred from previous excavations. The inhabitants, however, were warm and friendly. It was the perfect place to stop by for supplies and rest on the way up to Icicle Inn in the freezing north. After stocking up for their journey once more, each group member went off on their various activities, though most chose to get some rest in the Highwind. Cloud, however, decided to go down to the bar and meet the local people.
The bar, if it could be called one, resided in little more than a makeshift tent. Vintage cider was the staple alcohol for sale, and though Cloud was not too keen on the stuff, he spent ten Gil on a mug anyway.
"Do you get many people volunteering round here?" Cloud asked the bartender curiously. He had noticed many city-people about, the kind that didn't fit in with the obviously country life here. The barman nodded to him with a smile.
"We sure do. Excavating's getting popular nowadays, what with all this new craze on the Ancients and stuff...During the summer the village was filled with visitors!"
"From how far afield do they come?" inquired Cloud, feeling that he had time for idle chatter.
"Oh, we get people from all four corners of the globe, even as far out as Mideel and Wutai. You really get to know what different people are like. The world's a funny place, y'know."
Cloud nodded his agreement over his cup.
"You see," the man carried on, glad for some conversation, "people from Wutai are very emotional people. They get so het-up about everythin'! But the people from Kalm, they're really easy goin', don't bat an eyelid at anythin'. And the people from Cosmo Canyon are all wise an' stoic." He gave Cloud a searching look. "An' where might you be from, young man?"
"I'm from Nibelheim," Cloud returned and the man gave him a knowing look.
"Ah. Them people from Nibelheim are always the very secretive type who like to keep themselves to themselves."
"You seem to know a lot about the way people are," Cloud commented, a little surprised at the man's accuracy.
"Well, I've seen a lot of different types over the past thirty years," the other replied modestly, "but there are still some people you can never figure out."
"Such as?" Cloud prompted.
"Well, there's this guy sittin' over there right now," he answered with a nod of the head, "an' I just don't understand him one bit. My guess is that he comes from Nibelheim, but he says that he's a traveller with no home. He came here a week ago, and I felt kinda sorry for him, so I gave him a place to stay."
Cloud turned to see the subject of the man's talk. Sitting away from him at a table in the corner was a black-haired man with a familiar poise. Cloud turned back to the other.
"I'll go and talk to him."
The barman gave a slight shrug and Cloud wandered off to the man's table.
"Mind if I sit here?" he asked politely. The man hardly looked up, but shook his head anyway. Cloud wordlessly pulled up a chair and sat down slowly.
"Well," he began softly, "it's been a long time, hasn't it, Vincent."
The man opposite looked up sharply and the velvety, red eyes gazed into Cloud's own, widening in surprise.
"Cloud!"
Cloud nodded to the other, passing him a faint smile. Vincent had changed considerably since they had last met, for he was no longer dressed in quite such antique fashions, and his unruly jet hair had been cut back and neatened. Nevertheless, he still had same mysterious quality about him, one of silent thoughts and secret actions. The expression of surprise he wore on his face did not remain there for long.
"I should have known you would come," he said after a quiet moment. "I've been thinking about you and the others a lot lately."
Cloud, too, had not been too surprised at their seemingly coincidental meeting.
"So you're still searching then?" he asked the older man.
Vincent sighed, his shoulders slumped.
"For what? Lucrecia's dead as far as I know. There's nothing left to search for."
"There must be," Cloud told him. "Otherwise you would not still be travelling."
Vincent lowered his eyelids.
"No. I wouldn't. I suppose I'm still searching, though I don't know for what. It will be endless, endless and fruitless, Cloud. Already, three years have disappeared, and still, I'm no closer." He sighed again, then raised his eyes with a brighter countenance. "And you? Why are you here?"
Cloud briefly told him of all that had passed recently. When he had finished, Vincent nodded knowingly.
"So. You're still searching too." He drank a little from his mug. "You and I were always the same."
"Yes, except that I have a vague idea of what it is I'm looking for," Cloud replied. Vincent brushed the sentence aside.
"It will come to pass, Cloud. When I first started, I had purpose. My heart was filled with a burning flame, a will to search for the thing I knew was there, I knew existed. I searched and searched and searched. For two whole years I did that, until one day, I was standing by the sea on the Western Continent and everything came crashing down on me." The scarlet eyes were far-away now as Vincent spoke. "Like the shifting sands under the waves, everything had been reft from me. She was gone: I could not find her: I was searching for a ghost, a memory, a love that had never existed. The search was over."
"And yet still," Cloud persisted, "you travel the Planet, searching?"
A twisted smile played on Vincent's lips.
"Yes, in the vain hope that there must be something out there for me. Believing you are somebody is a hard thing to give up, even when it's been disproved to you countless numbers of times."
"There is something," Cloud reassured him. "You've just got to be strong, never give up, keep on believing. You , me - we'll all get there in the end."
Vincent looked at him with softly glittering eyes.
"And you think that if I come with you and the others I'll find it?"
"It's possible," Cloud shrugged.
Vincent was silent for a moment as he gazed into his glass.
"Well," he began with a long sigh. "I was planning to go up north anyway."
Cloud nodded, and they both finished their drinks in silence.
Next: The return of a mystery guest changes everything...