Author's Notes:

Yes, that's right. I have a habit of killing characters. Funny, too, considering I don't own them, heh. Oh, and as of last chapter, PE is longer than SFtPO. Oh, and before I start, am I seriously only at three readers, or does everyone else just never review? I'll keep going regardless, but I need to feel appreciated every once in a while. : P

Chapter Thirty Seven

Extraction

Yuffie looked up at the air duct and sighed. She didn't want to do this. Those ducts smelled awful. And they were just a huge maze. And this wasn't even the right type of duct. This was one for air conditioning. But if she went through this and cut a hole in the panelling at such and such a place that Reno had told her about, she'd be able to get into the the Mako vents, and from there, follow the directions laid out to her to get to the cell.

"You ready for this?" Elena asked, the woman at her side, but looking around anxiously.

"Sure," Yuffie said with mock bravado. She had run the plan through her head a million times, but still she felt nervous. There was no real reason to. It was simple. Go through the tunnels, find the jail cell, wait for Shera to cut the power, go into the room, dispose of the guards, free Cait Sith, and then escape. With Shera turning off the lights, and the little bag of surprises Reno had supplied to her which was now slung over her shoulder, this should be a stroll along Da Chao.

So why was she so nervous?

"Do this right, and Reno might notice," Elena said, and Yuffie nearly jumped.

"You think so?" the girl asked, surprised that Elena had quickly discovered what she herself had been unsure of. "Do you really think he'd ever like someone like me?"

The blond Turk answered truthfully, "No, but Reno's been known to surprise everyone with random bouts of intelligence from time to time."

Yuffie smiled, and Elena hoisted her up into the duct. The Wutaian girl waved to her fellow Turk, who put the grate back in place, waved, and then went about her business. She'd have to make herself an alibi, too, albeit not as obvious a one as Reno was making for himself.

But that wasn't Yuffie's problem. She had fifteen minutes to get to the cell by her estimate before Shera pulled the plug on the power. The ninja snorted. That would hardly be a problem at all. It was just the problem of dealing with eight Shinra guards once she got into the room with the cell that was the problem. Elena had suggested gas cannisters, but Reno had waved the idea aside. Too easily traced. Hojo would find out where they came from and from there figure out who used them. No, they'd need something more common to deal with the guards.

Yuffie thought about all this as she made her way through the small ducts, remembering her brilliant suggestion, which was now resting in her bag. If luck was on her side, this would be unbelievably simple. She grunted at that thought. Luck? There was no luck about the great ninja Yuffie. She was all skill. She didn't need luck.

She took a left in the tunnel, and saw a small knob hanging down from the ceiling. According to Reno, that was some sort of power supply, meant to revitalize any recon bots put into the ducts. Those bots had been how he was able to find her last time she was fooling around in the ducts. She almost smashed it as she crawled by it, but grumbled upon realizing that those same recon bots were now at her disposal. Breaking the power supply would just hurt herself in the long run, and probably come out of her pay.

It was her only landmark anyway. She crawled another seven feet, and then turned to the panel on her lefthand side and produced a Fire Materia from her pocket. Focusing on the small orb, it glowed brightly, then faded. No fire came forth, not even any heat. That was odd.

She tried again, and once more failed. This wasn't right. Materia not working? For her? She'd heard of complete amateurs messing up using a Materia, but never a professional! No one used Materia like Yuffie Kisaragi. No one! So why had she failed?

She must still be thinking of Reno. She pushed the thought away, and tried using the Materia again, but it produced the same feeble results.

Maybe it's broken?

The thought seemed preposterous, but she had to concede it. It most certainly wasn't user error. So unless Shinra had newly discovered some sort of Materia dampening technology and applied it to their air conditioning system, that seemed the only reasonable answer.

Rolling her eyes, she pulled out an Ice Materia and tried it on the panel, freezing it completely. Well, that worked. She focused once more on the Ice Materia, and froze the steel plate as cold as it could go, then put the Materia away. Pulling back her fist, she slammed it into the iced over steel as hard as she could, shattering it. She would have shouted for joy if hitting it hadn't hurt so much.

She yelped in pain, and looked at her fist, which had been bloodied from the impact. Wiping it off on her Turk pants, she crawled forward, carefully making her way over the shards. She counted off 12 feet, then stopped, and saw a black grate to her side. She looked out, and outside of it was a small room with a table. Five guards sat at it, playing poker. To the back of the room was a jail cell with a small cat-like doll sprawled out on a bed. In front of the door were two guards.

Where was the last man? There were supposed to be eight. Shrugging, she waited for the lights to be turned off, absently taking out a piece of Materia and polishing it on her shirt. She was in that duct for about ten minutes before a wave of Mako fumes hit her, regulating through the tunnel. She nearly choked, but managed to keep it in, knowing the guards would hear her if she did. When the fumes passed, she let out a relieved breath.

As soon as she did, the lights went out. She instantly kicked out the grate, sending it flying in the direction of the table in the room. Jumping out quickly, she rolled to the side as guards burst into movement, trying to figure out what had happened. The emergency lights flickered on for a second, but Yuffie was ready for them. She held up a green orb, and a Flare spell hit it, instantly destroying the light source. The guards, disoriented and panicked, desperately called out. Another second later, red lights turned on from the face-guards of each mask the guards were wearing. Shinra nightvision goggles. All the Shinra guards were required to wear them. They instantly powered on when there was no more light in the room, but had to be manually turned off. And, if they were suddenly exposed to bright light, they tended to absorb the light and temporarily blind whoever was wearing the mask.

Reaching into her bag, Yuffie pulled out a flare and ignited it. She tossed the burning brand at the nearest group of guards, and quickly pulled another out, igniting that, and sending it at the door to the cell. Men yelled as their sight was taken from them, their night vision shorting out in an electrical surge in front of their eyes.

"Cait!" she called. "Get down!"

Through the light of the flares she scattered around the room with one hand, she saw the cat jump off his bed and climb underneath his bed, then, as an afterthought, push it over to use it from a shield. With her left hand, Yuffie held up the Contain Materia in her hand, and once more the Flare spell erupted, slamming the bars of the cell in a flash of red and white light. The front part of the cell, and even part of the ceiling, disappeared and Yuffie heard Cait yell, "Holy!"

As soon as the debris settled, Cait Sith came scrambling out of his hiding place and ran to the ninja, dodging blind guards who were trying to grope their way around the room, some of whom had managed to remove their masks, but were still unable to see.

"Get in the bag!" she hissed at the cat, holding it out for him, and putting her Contain Materia inside it.

Cait gave her an indignant look, and then jumped in. Yuffie didn't waste any time in slinging the sack over her shoulder, and jumping onto the table, and from there into the shaft. She made a large bang as she did, and one Shinra guard managed to figure out where the sound had come from and fired off his weapon a few times.

Yuffie didn't look back, but she saw a green light, followed by a powerful blast of wind that rushed behind her, howling its fury. Cait must have used her Contain Materia that she had put in the bag with him to cast a Tornado spell at the guards. She smiled, and hauled herself up into the Mako vent.

"What are you doing here?" Cait Sith asked. "And why are you wearing a Turk uniform? Did you steal it or something? You know what they'll do to you when they find out, right?"

"Long story," the ninja said, remembering Cloud's similar reaction. She grit her teeth, and continued onward, away from the cell and to escape.