Chapter Three: Enemies Emerge
Above the sandy badlands of the Great Desert rose the Gold Saucer, a fitting monument to the power of wealth. It towered out over the flat wastelands below like a gargantuan golden plant, visible for miles all around. Built upon a tiny, almost deserted prison town in the middle of the desert, the Saucer quickly rose in fame as the greatest casino, resort, and chocobo race course in the world. Would-be fighting champions came from as far away as Wutai to test their skills against specially engineered monsters in the battle square, and hundreds of bets were cast each day on the chocobo races. Some believed that Dio, owner of the Saucer, would soon take control of the entire continent, just as President Shinra had, for the hundreds of daily visitors to the Saucer raked in as much money as Shinra did. Several years previously, Dio had ordered the construction of an aerial parking lot, to make transportation simpler for those rich enough to afford their own planes. And it was in a space in this parking lot that the Tiny Bronco was parked.
Yuffie pushed her way through the crowd, lugging her bag of materia with her. She was willing to leave everything else in the plane, but an unguarded bag filled to the brim with materia was too much of a target for an aspiring pickpocket, of which there were many in the Gold Saucer, although the guards had been busy trying to catch them. With a sigh, Yuffie hoped that there was one thief they didn't catch. Her bag was now much heavier than when she had stepped out of the plane. When she had sighted the Saucer, Yuffie knew right away that Neo-Midgar could wait. She had only been to the Saucer twice before, and, though she did not have enough Gil for a ticket, nobody had noticed that the grating in the right wall of the entrance had come loose and that a human could easily fit through. She had spent five hours wandering the Saucer, and, in that time, had defeated all the opponents in the battle square, bet on two consecutive winning chocobos, and played every game in the Saucer's extensive arcade. Now it was time to continue on her trip. With luck she could reach Neo-Midgar before anything important happened.
The bag was really getting heavy, so Yuffie put it against the wall to rest for a moment. Just as she did, though, a party of four men broke through the crowd at a sprint, carrying bulging sacks. As he ran by, the foremost man grabbed a handful of materia from her sack and stuffed it in his bag. Yuffie leapt to her feet and shouted angrily,
"Hey! That sack's rightfully mine," she shouted. "You can't just take it from me!" Receiving no answer, she picked up her bag and hurried after the thieves, as she heard guards shoving their way to the front of the crowd. Seeing Yuffie following the thieves with a huge sack over her shoulder, the guard captain said to his men,
"Grab that girl! She's their accomplice!" Yuffie dodged the pursuing guards easily, but guessed that it would be a long time before she got back into the Saucer. That is, if I can get out, she thought. Only then did she realize where the thieves had run. Into the aerial lot, and headed for a small blue plane parked directly opposite the entrance. Yuffie heard the roar of an engine, and the plane slowly began to move, headed directly towards her. The guards behind her quickly scattered, moving away from the rapidly turning propellers, but Yuffie stepped nimbly to the side and jumped forward as the plane drove by, grabbing onto and wrapping herself around the axle. The ground sped by beneath Yuffie, not two inches from her back. At last, the plane soared out of the aerial lot, headed north. One thing was clear to Yuffie. She was not getting to Neo-Midgar anytime soon.
Yuffie could not hear the discussion of the thieves over the roar of the engine, but she knew where they were headed. The cliffs surrounding Cosmo Canyon were riddled with caves, and it would be impossible for the Saucer guards to apprehend them once they reached their hideout. Good thing I brought the Conformer with me, Yuffie thought, her mind on the large melee shuriken tucked under her belt. I may need it.
Yuffie tried to judge their distance from the cliffs. It would be a while before the plane reached them, so she occupied her mind with the scenery instead. It was really a spectacular view, looking down on the dense jungles surrounding Gongaga. Then, out of the corner of her eye, Yuffie saw a party of six bare-chested men, wearing baggy trousers and wide sashes wrapped around their faces. In their hands, they clutched thin iron casks, pointed up at the plane. Could they be…guns? Yuffie wondered. Nobody uses firearms that primitive anymore. But she was immediately proven wrong by the loud blast of gunfire that covered up even the roar of the plane's engine. The plane veered dangerously, then spun out of control as one of the thieves tumbled sideways out of the plane, trailing blood from a wound in his chest. Yuffie recognized him as the one who had taken her materia, and judging by the sudden loss of control in the plane, the one who had been flying it. The ground sped towards them rapidly, and Yuffie had no time to think before the plane hit the ground in the middle of a small clearing with a resounding crash.
Yuffie slowly opened her eyes to find herself all in one piece. She winced as she moved her arm and found it badly bruised, but realized, to her surprise, that none of her bones were broken. Then she realized why. When the plane had crashed, it had landed upside down, and she was now lying flat on the underside of the plane. She pitied the thieves, who would have had no way to escape a crushing death from the body of the plane. Yuffie had no worries about her materia, though. Materia could withstand all but the hardest blows. Groping around in the cockpit of the plane, she found the body of one of the thieves, his face bloodied past recognition by the shards of the windshield. Then she found what she was looking for. The bags of loot had all survived intact, and Yuffie put as much Gil as she could carry into her bag of Materia. Then she stood up and decided to scout the area. Perhaps the people of Gongaga could offer some assistance. But just as she reached the other side of the plane, she almost walked headfirst into two of the thieves, who were clearly as surprised as she was. One was a wiry man with greasy black hair and suspicious, darting eyes, and his companion was a stocky, bald-headed man, with a patch over one eye. Recovering from surprise and pulling a short switchblade from his belt, he said in a thick accent,
"Now, 'oo de bloody 'ell are you?"
Nanaki surveyed the small group of men in front of him, those willing to sacrifice even their lives for the freedom of the canyon. Three hundred warriors, against seven hundred of the Harad-Zun. Nanaki shook his head. No, not warriors. Blacksmiths, tanners, laborers, mechanics, and countless others, none of whom had ever killed another man, ready to fight and die for their home. He could not forget that. Messengers had been dispatched to the neighboring towns and villages, but Nanaki doubted any help would arrive before the Harad-Zun crushed them. He could see the enemy already, marching onto the field from the jungles of Gongaga, an unstoppable wave of destruction advancing to crush the Canyon's defenses. The men saw this too, but their ranks did not waver.
"Every man has a weapon, Nanaki. We await your command," said Arapat, the solidly built hunter who had been given the task of preparing the men for battle, from beside him. He clutched a long spear in his right hand, which was shaking violently. Arapat knew, as did most of the others, that they would not live out the night. But still, Nanaki had to keep up their morale. They would die, and he hated himself for letting them, but he could not give up the canyon, and knew that he, as their leader, was responsible for keeping up their spirits.
"Very well, Arapat. I am ready," Nanaki replied, and delved into his mind. Memories. Himself as a cub, sitting by the Cosmo Candle, listening wide-eyed to Bugenhagen's stories. Growing up alone, knowing he was the last of his tribe. His first visit inside Bugenhagen's lab, where he learned about the Lifestream. The day Bugenhagen died, leaving him alone to protect the canyon. Seto, his father, frozen in stone, who had battled alone against even greater odds, protecting the canyon from the menace within the cliffs. All these and many more he gathered together in his mind. Concentrating intently, he expelled them with a howl, and a fiery comet swept down from the sky to land amidst the ranks of the Harad-Zun. He suspected that it had been very effective, but the enemy still had over twice their numbers. Howling, Nanaki ran down the slopes, following Arapat and the others, as the Harad-Zun charged from the other end of the plain. The battle had begun.
They were among the ranks of the Harad-Zun in instants, and Nanaki finally got his first clear look at them. They fought bare-chested, and wore baggy green pants and green scarves wrapped around their faces, leaving only a small slit for their eyes. As the Canyon warriors charged forward, there were several loud bursts of gunfire, and several of Nanaki's men fell to the ground, dead. Then Nanaki saw their guns. They were long, single barreled weapons that looked more like iron casks than like firearms. They could shoot only once before reloading, and Nanaki was surprised that any culture still used such primitive guns. But he had to admit that they were effective, for none of the men hit by their large iron bullets ever walked again. The riflemen wore brown scarves and pants, some designation of rank or class. Those without guns gripped either large curved swords and iron shields, or massive spears with long slashing blades at one end. But before Nanaki could observe any other details, the enemy was upon them.
Nanaki tore left and right with his fangs, cutting bloody swathes through the enemy. The sky was rapidly darkening, and the full moon soon became visible over the cliffs. Nanaki looked upwards and howled, a sound that chilled the enemy warriors to their bones. And he became unstoppable, destroying enemies all around him, refusing to feel the pain of the bloody gashes on his flanks. But he saw the line of the Canyon's defenses waver and fall back, unable to stand against the oncoming horde of invaders. He saw Canyon warriors fall all around him, cut down by heavy curved blades. He saw Arapat, stabbing enemies on all sides, trying desperately to reach him. He even thought he saw Barret, face contorted and gun ablaze, unloading at the enemy. The bloodlust was now rapidly abating, but it clearly must have made him delusional. Arapat's pathway to Nanaki was now clear; he rushed forward, but did not see the warrior looming up behind him, his spear poised to strike. At the last moment, Nanaki concentrated on a green materia orb behind his ear, and the man behind Arapat erupted in flames. Panting, Arapat approached Nanaki.
"They're closing in all around us. We must retreat, or we will all die." Nanaki nodded grimly; he did not fail to see the logic in Arapat's remark.
"Signal the retreat," he said. "I'll hold them off." Arapat pulled from his belt a large ram's horn and blew one long, loud note, signaling the retreat to the canyon pass. Suddenly, the two men in front of Nanaki were flung more than twenty feet away, leaving a trail of blood, and Nanaki found himself faced with one of the most fearsome adversaries he had ever seen. The man was at least seven feet tall and as wide as Barret. His gargantuan curved sword was red with dripping blood. He was clothed in the same manner as his minions, but with blood-red trousers and scarf. But one prominent feature about him stood out even more than the others. The armor he wore was unlike any Nanaki had ever seen in his life, yet it looked somehow familiar. Huge crimson plates, shinning in a gemlike manner, covered his body, arranged in a pattern that seemed almost natural. Each plate was shaped like a giant scale, and each was completely unblemished and unmarked, as if made of diamond.
"So you're the leader, the famous Nanaki?" The man spoke in a deceptively soft voice, and he was evidently quite surprised to see Nanaki. "I believe that if you survive this day, you will be overjoyed in the future. However, that will not happen." What is he talking about? Nanaki wondered. But he had no chance to contemplate the matter further, for his opponent suddenly brought the huge blade down mercilessly, straight towards his back. He reacted with lightning reflexes, jumping backwards out of the way, but could not stop the sword from grazing his already battle-scarred side.
Meanwhile, the men had heard the blast of the horn, and turned and ran back towards the canyon. Nanaki spared one final glance for whom he was sure was the leader of the Harad-Zun, and began to run himself. Oddly, he did not see Arapat running alongside him, but could not stop to look. They had been driven back to the cliffs, as he had expected. The finishing blow would come soon, but Nanaki knew one thing: he would give his enemies a hard battle.
Yuffie's mind raced frantically, searching for a convincing answer to the man's question. She quickly weighed what would sound believable versus what would get her out of this mess and decided, with no better alternatives available, on the truth.
"I'm Yuffie Kisaragi, and these are my materia. I came here to get them back, and I'd like to leave now," she said quickly, and watched the reactions on her adversary's face. Surprise came first, followed quickly by amusement. Well, it was worth a shot, I guess, she thought with a sigh. Laughing, the man said,
"Oh, so we're playin' by the rules now, eh?" Quickly his tone changed, and he closed the distance between himself and Yuffie, who found her back to the side of the plane. "Give us back our belongings, miss, or we'll 'ave to extract them from ya. Forcefully." Receiving no answer from the terrified Yuffie, he said "All right, 'ave it yer way," and thrust his knife forwards. But right before it reached her, the sound of a gunshot in the distance echoed through the air, and the man fell over dead with a bullet wound in his forehead.
The second thief, who had been standing several feet away, recovered from surprise before Yuffie, and darted away into the woods. He must have thought I somehow caused that shot, she thought with amusement. As she watched him scampering away in fright she realized with a start that she was still in danger, and ran into the woods with her materia sack over her shoulder just as a second bullet buried itself in the side of the plane. She stopped in the shade of a great tree, where she was safely concealed by foliage, and contemplated her situation.
Her first instinct was to try and find her way to Gongaga. It would not be a long walk, and all of it would be through heavy jungle, which would provide great cover from whoever had attempted to shoot her down. But another thought held her back. How safe can Gongaga be, she wondered, With all these strange riflemen only half an hour's walk from the town? After some thought, she chose Cosmo Canyon. It would not be a long walk from her current location either, and though much of it would be over open ground, she doubted that even such a skilled marksman would be able to hit her when she neared the canyon. And Nanaki might also be there, she thought. Even though he was far too grim and serious, Yuffie liked Nanaki more than most of the adventurers she had accompanied seven years ago. Besides, she thought, he might know just what the hell is going on around here.
Wasting no more time, Yuffie began to walk westwards through the jungle, wondering who the masked riflemen had been. She considered herself a world authority on obscure knowledge, and knew for a fact that they could not be natives of the jungles around Gongaga. She had lived in the jungle for several months, just before she had met Cloud and his friends, but she had never seen nor heard of them. After the invention of the great airships, societies all over the planet had contact with each other, and it was hard to believe that one group of people had remained completely isolated for all this time. But it could be the only explanation. Yuffie could think of no reason they would use such primitive rifles if they had access to better ones. And if this was the case, then they had to dwell somewhere nearby, for long journeys would surely alert people to their presence. This still left a vast area in which they could live; any remote location between the Corel and the Nibel mountain ranges was a possible hideout.
Before long, the broad Alkani River came into view, and she continued along its forested bank for an hour and a half. At last she reached her destination, where several rickety walkways spanned the murky waters. Yuffie crossed the river and continued northwards until she finally reached the edge of the forest. If, as Yuffie suspected, she had been followed, her enemy would be waiting for her to leave the safety of the woods. The cliffs above Cosmo Canyon were only faintly visible in the distance, and it would be a journey without any form of cover. But it was her only choice.
Taking a deep breath, she darted forward onto the rocky plains, and then leapt to the side, just as a bullet hit the ground where she had stood only seconds earlier. The few precious seconds while the man reloaded his gun gave her time to take cover in a shallow gully behind a boulder. Her worst fears confirmed, Yuffie began planning her next move. By moving randomly, she thought, she might be able to elude him long enough to reach temporary cover. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that her plan would never work. She had moved a mere thirty feet from the edge of the woods, and Cosmo Canyon was still as far away as before. Besides, she doubted that random movements would fool the man again, and she was bound to get exhausted before he did, especially with this huge bag of materia over her shoulder. This huge bag of materia…
In an instant, Yuffie had flung open the bag and was searching frantically inside it for one specific green sphere. At last she found it, and concentrated on it intently as she had done so many times before. Instantly, all traces of Yuffie's exhaustion vanished, and she darted out of the ditch with superhuman speed. Even the world's best sharpshooters would have a hard time catching Yuffie under the effects of a haste spell, and before long, she was out of the range of her opponent. Yuffie slowed to a walk as she spotted a group of campfires in the distance, just outside of Cosmo Canyon. Well, she thought, first I'll approach it, and then I'll hope they're friends.
Barret could hardly believe his eyes as Yuffie, of all people, walked into the camp with a big sack slung over her shoulder. What the hell is she doing here? he wondered. Of all the people who could possibly show up, it has to be her. Barret could not think of any of his former companions, other than Reeve, he would want to spend less time with. When Yuffie caught sight of him, she was equally surprised.
"Hey Barret," she said cheerfully, peering around the makeshift encampment. "What's going on?" Grimacing, Barret ignored her and asked a question himself.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"Oh, nothing much," Yuffie replied casually. "But I did see these weird masked guys with big guns earlier who tried to kill me. I was just wondering if anybody around here could tell me who they are."
Damn, there's more of them, Barret thought. Scowling, he turned his attention back to Yuffie.
"Those same warriors are the reason we're all camped outside here. Arapat tells me they call themselves the Harad-Zun. He's the leader of the Canyon warriors here." An expression of worry crossed Yuffie's face.
"You mean there's some kind of battle going on? But then where's Nanaki?"
"Back there," Barret replied, gesturing at the cliffs behind Cosmo Canyon. The moonlight had illuminated the cliffs, casting a harsh shadow over the rocky slopes below, and in its cold glow, Cosmo Canyon suddenly seemed an impregnable fortress. Barret could see his army following him blindly, breaking like waves against rock on the enemy fortifications, and knew that he would lead most, if not all, of them to their deaths. But he could not give up. Shaking his head, he continued.
"The Harad-Zun have taken the town itself, and Nanaki and some of his men are pinned up with the civilians in the caves. We've got to hit the Harad-Zun hard from behind before they can enter the cliffs and kill Nanaki and the others." He sighed heavily. "And it's not gonna be easy. We got a hundred and fifty men down here, and Nanaki's probably got another hundred with him. The Harad-Zun have at least five hundred. But we can't just sit on our asses and let Nanaki get killed."
Yuffie nodded gravely, and Barret was surprised she could ever be so serious.
"You better get some rest," he said, trying to take his mind off the upcoming battle. "We strike in three hours."
"Here we are," said Elena's captor, pushing her forward roughly. "It's time f' you to meet the boss." Elena stumbled forward and tripped, falling face-first onto the dirty frozen asphalt. She struggled to rise, but could not manage it with her hands tied behind her back. As she finally managed to sit up, a heavy boot kicked her in the face, and she fell once again, this time landing on her back.
Elena cursed herself again for getting into this situation. With Reno acting like a stubborn asshole again, she had stepped outside to get away from him, and the next thing she knew, the four Vice members were upon her. They had tied up her hands and taken to Midgar's Sector Three to show her to their leader. And as much as she hated being rescued, Elena had to admit that, without any help, there was no chance of escape.
"So you're the ones who've been shooting down my men. The famous Turks! Well, bitch, you better face it, Shinra is dead and so are you!" The man who had spoken hit Elena across the face with his fist, causing blood to trickle out of her mouth and nose. Elena looked up at him for the first time and recognized him. Stocky and muscular, Kotch had been a lackey of the notorious rapist Don Corneo. She shuddered to think of the time she had almost fallen prey to that vile man's advances. Corneo was dead now, by Reno's hand, but she would not have thought his second capable of continuing his work, much less taking control of a notorious gang and conquering half of Midgar. Shade's covered Kotch's eyes, and his dark skin contrasted sharply with his blonde Mohawk.
"You should have never come back here," Kotch continued. "'Cause now you're gonna have to die." He pulled a machine gun from under his vest and pointed it Elena, but then paused. "On second thoughts, you're a fine looking young woman. I'm a busy man myself, but I can give my men some satisfaction for a change." Then he turned to his cronies. "Do what you like to her. When you're done, kill her." So saying, he shoved her forward into the crowd of men, who yelled raucously and began closing in around her. Kotch turned and began to walk away.
"You can't do this to me! I'm a Turk!" Elena shouted desperately. Kotch smiled faintly.
"Survival of the fittest, woman," he said, and walked away.
The gangsters leapt at Elena and began to tear away at her neat blue suit, while she struggled futilely, kicking at those who got close. But just when the first man grabbed a firm hold of her, he fell dead with a strangled cry. A second gunshot sounded and another man tumbled over beside her. The gangsters turned around to see Rude, holding a pistol in each hand. And as they rushed towards him, Reno stepped out from behind a wall, firing bolts of electricity from his favorite weapon, the electromag rod. Taking advantage of the distraction, Elena ran to a nearby window and cut the rope binding her hands on the broken glass. She picked up a knife from a dead gangster and stabbed one of her assailants in the back. Just as she was about to take a second jab, she saw a shape looming up behind Reno. Thinking fast, she hurled the knife, landing it directly between the man's eyes. Although the gangsters completely outnumbered them, the Turks had them surrounded, and the battle was over in no time.
Reno approached her, and instead of thanking her for just saving his life, simply remarked,
"That's the third time we've had to rescue you. You're starting to make it a habit. A Turk should be better at defending herself." Elena was outraged, but held her tongue.
"Kotch got away," she said instead. "He was their leader."
"Fuck Kotch," Reno replied. "We're getting out of this dump tomorrow. For now, get your shit together and get some rest. We'll steal a plane from the Sector Six Airport." He then seemed to see her for the first time since her capture. Her suit had been torn badly by the gangsters, exposing patches of skin. "You're fine, you know that?" he said, before walking away, leaving her and Rude to hurry after him. Elena doubted she would ever understand what went through Reno's mind. Catching up to him, she asked,
"So, where exactly are we going?"
Reno replied with one word.
"Nibelheim."