A/N: Well, chapter three... Cool. Anyway, have fun readng it. Thank you for the wonderful reviews!
Notes: I stole the juggling idea off Genn. Thanks Genn!
There was one thing she remembered about Marlene, above and beyond anything else; She talked. And talked, and talked, and talked.
In fact, when she was happy, she never shut up.
Sakura lay with her face buried in her pillow, trying to block out the incessant noise.
The little girl rambled on and on, about her family, friends, school, what she'd done yesterday, and what she had for breakfast this morning.
"…Anne's Mum makes the BEST pancakes! I must have eaten a million of them!" She chirped happily. "And there was maple syrup! Maple syrup is soooo yum!"
"Is that so?" Sakura muttered through gritted teeth and her pillow.
"Yeah!" Marlene said, not taking the hint, "It's really rare down here! I heard everyone has it in season up round Gongaga because there are so many maple trees, but Papa says he never saw one while he was there."
Sakura ground her teeth together and wondered what would happen to her if Marlene were injured.
Chapter Three: The Candle of Cosmo Canyon.
-Even the fire of hope can be doused-
Sakura woke up late the next morning. Marlene was already gone- thank gods- and she could hear the sounds of people moving about outside the room.
She rolled out of bed and landed in a mess of arms, legs and blankets on the floor with a painful thud.
She had just struggled out of the pile when someone knocked on the door. "Hang on!" She mumbled, and quickly pulled her rain cloak on. She'd slept in her clothes, because she didn't actually have anything else.
It was Reno. "The Boss wants to see you." He said cheerily. She was sure that Reno was only a morning person because it annoyed people.
"Ok."
"And he said to give you this." Reno handed her another cup of coffee.
"How old is it?" Sakura asked, taking the cup and glaring at it suspiciously.
"Dunno. But he found it on top of one of those huge filing cabinets."
"Oh well, whatever it is, down that hatch…" Sakura tipped her head back and downed the slightly goopy coffee.
She managed to look only slightly ill this time, until she reached the bathroom.
oOo
After that, she followed Reno to Reeve's office, where he was, as usual, trying desperately to keep up with paperwork.
"Ah! Sakura! I'm glad you're here, I wanted to ask you about something. Look at this…" He pushed a sheet of paper towards her. On it was a photo.
Of her bike.
"Hey! Where did you get this?" And more importantly, why was there another picture of Cloud's bike underneath it?
"Well, we questioned a few of the people from the Records building, and we found out that your motorbike had been destroyed. I sent Rude to retrieve it. When he came back he said that it looked a lot like Cloud's Fenrir, so we went and had a look…"
Sakura gulped.
"…And we noticed something very strange. It is the exact same make and model as Cloud Strife's, but with a few modifications. Johan tells me it is faster and runs on far less fuel. He said he has never seen anything like it.
Of course he hasn't, Sakura thought bitterly, he hasn't invented it yet.
Out loud, she said, "It's probably just a coincidence that we both have the same kind of motorbike. And I got it second hand, so I dunno about the modifications." It was mostly true, she thought slightly guiltily.
Reeve looked at her for a long time, then said; "Thank you Reno, you may leave."
Reno grumbled, then slammed the door behind him.
"And no listening through the door!" Reeve shouted after him. Then he looked back at Sakura. "Ok, tell me how you got here."
"I- I mean, by motorbike. Um."
"No, I mean how you got to this time. Marlene."
Sakura went bright red, then pale. "Um. I'm not entirely certain. We didn't bother learning how the machines worked, just how to use them. We left all the science type stuff up to Vincent and Johan.
"Ah. I see. Now you can tell me why you're here."
Sakura sighed. "There was only Vincent, Johan, Yuffie, Den, Junko and I left. We weren't going to be able to stop them. Johan found an old reference to a-"
"Den?"
"Denzel."
"And Junko?"
"Uhm… she was Wutain. Uh…" Mumbled Sakura quietly.
"I see. How did she come to know you?"
Sakura stayed silent.
"Alright then. What were you saying?"
"Johan found a mention of a theory for time travel, and they researched it, and eventually they made a way for us to go back in time. A small machine. It disintegrated when I got here though."
"How did it work?"
"It was just a small thing that looked like a cell phone. It needed a huge amount of energy to work though. We decided to break into one of the reopened Mako Reactors and sap energy from there. The day before we went in, Vincent was captured, and we don't know what happened to him. Yuffie went to look for him and never came back. Me, Johan, Junko and Den left the next day as planned to get to the Mako. On the way there Johan was shot, Junko stayed with him, and then when we were almost there, they got Denzel. I was the only one to make it to the center of the reactor."
"And then?"
"I connected the machine to one of the main outlets and pumped every drop of power I could into it until it zapped me to the time and place Vincent had programmed into it."
"And then we know the rest…"
"Yeah."
Suddenly Reeve didn't look like the boss anymore; he looked frightened. "We barely escaped death in the bombings. What's going to happen Marlene? Who are we facing? And what are they trying to do?"
"I can't tell you." Said Marlene. "Not yet."
Reeve nodded slowly. "Ok." He sighed, stood up and wandered over to one of the huge filing cabinets. "Do you want a false ID card or driver's license or anything?"
"Yes please. But NOT Sakura Kinomoto."
Reeve gave a halfhearted laugh. "Of course not. But then again, who doesn't want to be named for an annoying little girl with a winged staff?"
"Anyone but me, thank you."
"What'll it be then?"
"I'd better keep Sakura. What about Sakura Todd?"
Reeve's brow creased. "Todd? Isn't he the old man who…"
"Who died in the cemetery. The only person I didn't save. I didn't know anyone was there…" Sakura looked away.
"Marlene. You can't save everyone." Reeve said sadly. "I should know. I tried to save everyone in Midgar when Meteor, Lifestream, and Holy converged overhead. I failed. Miserably. I didn't even save half of them. But I had to live with that so I could help the ones that did survive. Do you understand?"
Sakura nodded, and wiped her eyes "Thanks Reeve." She stood up and handed the empty cup that had contained the ancient coffee Reno had given her. "Here. You can have this. I'm feeling kinda tired, so I'm gonna go back to…" She never finished her sentence, because at that point she blinked and collapsed into a neat pile on the floor.
"Sakura!" Reeve exclaimed and ran round his desk to see if she was alright. He sighed with relief; she was only sleeping.
He picked her up and placed her carefully on the couch, then left his office in search of one of the Turks.
He found Reno and Elena first. They were usually easiest to find, because Reno was possibly the only person in the world capable of making Elena angry, and when Elena was angry, she shouted at people.
Right now Elena was yelling something about paper planes.
When Reeve poked his head into the office they shared they paused their shouting match. "Hi Boss." Reno said, grinning sheepishly.
"Hey, I've got a job for one of you."
"I'll do it Sir." Elena said, her face red from the embarrassment of being caught arguing with Reno.
"Ok. Sakura fell asleep while I was talking to her. She hasn't slept much since before the bombings. Could you please get her to her room? I don't really want to be there when you wake her up…"
Elena nodded. She knew Reeve was capable of carrying her to her room himself, but he was rather old fashioned, and didn't like going into a woman's room without her permission.
"Hey, I'll come with!" Reno chirped.
Elena scowled. He was doing it to annoy her, she was certain of it. "Fine." She growled.
Reeve watched the two walk off down the corridor, still bickering quietly, and then padded into the office to see what the argument was about.There was a number of carefully made origami planes on Reno's desk. Reevedelicately unfolded one. The paper was covered in Elena's tiny, neat handwriting, and had been headed;'Damage Report, 21/3.'
Reeve groaned inwardly. He was willing to bet that Reno had used some of the paper in Elena's outbox to make these, because she wouldn't have kicked up such a fuss if it were scrap.
He unfolded the rest of them and somehow managed to fit them back into their intended order, smoothed the creases out of them, and put them back in the plastic bin on the desk.
Usually Elena and Reno didn't share an office, but the bunker was a lot smaller than the original ShinRa building.
oOo
Sakura wasn't going to wake up. They'd established that after about five minutes or poking her, calling her name, and Reno had even been brave enough to put his EMR on it's lowest setting and jab her on the shoulder with it.
She hadn't even moved, or mumbled in her sleep.
So in the end Elena told Reno to carry her to her room and went off to see where Reeve had gotten too.
oOo
Reno dumped Sakura on her bed then dragged the blanket off the other bed in the room to throw over her.
He was about to head out the door when Sakura's eyes slitted open and she said, "I'd ask what you were doing in here, but I probably don't want to know…"
Reno spun around and yelled, "Hey, you fell asleep in Reeve's office! I've just following orders!"
"Yeah, sure." Sakura stood up and looked round the room. "Jeez, now I have to make Marlene's bed again for her! Goddammit…"
"Uh… I'd better be going."
"Oh, hey wait!"
"Yeah?" Reno turned round and stood in the doorway.
"Can you do me a favor?"
"What is it?"
"When I got here, I left all my stuff in a hiding place near sector two. Can I borrow a car or something to get it back?"
"No. I'd get in trouble for letting you outta here."
"Please?"
"No."
"Then you come with."
"No."
"Why not?"
"Dun wanna."
Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. "I need my stuff back, and you're going to help me get it. I don't care how, but you are."
"Oh yeah? Make me." Reno countered.
"If you don't, I'll tell Reeve who broke his favorite coffee mug… you know, that one Elena got him for his birthday, with the neat little paintings of the birds on it…"
Reno want from pale to slightly green, then pale again, then white as a sheet. "You don't know that was me."
"Yes I do…"
"You can't! How would you know something like that? How could you know something like that?"
"I'm psychic. And for the record, trying to teach Marlene to juggle with china cups wasn't the greatest idea you've ever had. Now go get a car."
Reno's face screwed up and he looked like a three year old about to throw a tantrum. "Fine! Just let me get my Turk-in-training…"
Sakura knew that Reno was the one who had trained Vaughn, and he was still on probation. Reno was probably making him come so the he wouldn't have to talk to her.
He would probably sulk and be sullen and moody for the rest of the day too.
oOo
Reno made Sakura and Vaughn sit in the back, and snapped at Vaughn when he asked why.
He broke a number of traffic laws, speed limits and ran a fair few red lights. He didn't even bother slowing down for speed bumps, and Sakura cursed the lack of seatbelts in the old Ute Reno had chosen (probably for this very reason) to bring.
This head long approach to driving resulted in an all-out shouting match between Reno and Vaughn, with Sakura yelling at Vaughn to sit down and Reno to keep his eyes on the road, and both of them yelling at her to shut up and stay out of it.
Finally they made it to sector two, and Reno stopped abruptly, causing Vaughn and Sakura to lurch forwards into the back of the front seats.
She left Vaughn and Reno to another shouting match and went off on her own down the back alleys and hidden passageways to where she had hidden the three bags she'd brought with her.
One was hers, and the other two belonged to Junko and Johan, who had told her and Den to take them with when the loss of blood from the bullet wounds in Johan's arm and chest had caused him to collapse, and Junko had refused to leave him.
Den hadn't had time to get his bag to her when he was shot, but he hadn't been carrying anything really important, except the keys for her motorbike, but she knew how to hotwire it.
She still didn't know how Vincent had managed to get it to follow her back in time, but she was grateful that he had. She never would have made it in time without it.
She grabbed the three heavygray canvasbags from their hiding place behind a stack of bins and started backtracking towards the Ute. Hopefully Reno and Vaughn had settled their differences by now, so she wouldn't have to listen to them bickering the whole way back, too.
When she got back though, they both started yelling at her for wandering off in the streets of Midgar on her own and for ditching them. She really wished she hadn't blackmailed Reno. The he wouldn't have been sulky, then Vaughn wouldn't have been grouchy, and then everything would have gone much smoother.
She should have just asked Elena or Vaughn to drive her out here.
Sighing, she climbed into the backseat and stuffed the three bags in between her and Vaughn. She didn't feel like talking to either of the Turks at the moment.
"Jeez, what the hell have you got in these? Lead bricks?" Vaughn demanded when Sakura shoved one of the bags too far and it landed on him.
"No, but there are quite a few weapons. And explosives. I thought I'd need them, but I'm just gonna give most of it to Reeve for whatever."
Vaughn's eyes went all sparkly when she mentioned explosives. "Can I have a look?"
"No." Sakura said, "You can look at them later, but don't go through my stuff. It's rude."
oOo
Somehow, they made it back to the ShinRa bunker in one piece, but when they arrived there was another surprise waiting for them.
"Tseng!" Reno shouted, running over to the man and wrapping his arms around him. "Old Boss!"
"Reno, let me go…"
"No way Old Boss! No until you say hullo!"
"Hullo." Tseng said flatly. "Oh, and hello Vaughn."
Vaughn was grinning widely as he walked through the door of the bunker, where Tseng had obviously been waiting for them to get back.
Reno let Tseng go and ran off down the corridor yelling, "Everyone! Tseng's back! Tseng's back!"
"You're Sakura, I suppose?" Tseng asked suddenly, noticing the woman hovering just outside the door.
She jumped, then nodded. "Yeah. Um, nice to meet you Tseng."
"So what are you doing back?" Vaughn asked. "You still have anotherfortnight off."
"I couldn't just sit around on a beach up near Wutai relaxing when I heard about this, could I? You were almost killed." He looked over at Sakura. "And I hear it's thanks to you that they are all alive?"
She looked down, embarrassed, and mumbled something.
"Well, thank you. I don't know what I would have done if anything were to happen to my Turks."
Sakura grinned sheepishly at him.
"Anyway, I need to talk to… Oh." Tseng had turned around, to see every Turk in the building heading towards him down the hallway, as well as Yuffie and Reeve.
Yuffie reached him first, what with the caffeine-hyped state she was in, and dive tackled him, yelling, "Cuz! How ya been?"
Sakura blinked. She hadn't known Tseng and Yuffie were cousins, but it did kind of make sense…
From the looks on some of the faces surrounding them, none of the Turks knew either.
Tseng pried Yuffie off him. "I'm fine, thank you. Yourself?"
"I'm good!"
"Great, listen, I'm glad to see you all, but I really need to talk to Reeve…"
Suddenly a huge shadow loomed over the crowd of Turks and said, "Everyone back to their rooms."
There was a sudden hurry to obey.
"Thank you Rude. Please tell them I'll come and talk to them all later, but this is urgent."
The huge man nodded his shaved head and moved off down the corridor behind the others.
Reeve and Tseng disappeared into Reeve's office, talking in low, hurried voices, and Sakura followed Vaughn and Yuffie towards the room at the far end of the bunker.
It held the TV and stereo system, among all the other junk the Turks had collected over the years to keep themselves busy; packs of cards, board games, and Elena had started collecting up books.
However, as she passed Reeve's office, hand shot out of the door and grabbed her by her hood, dragging her back inside.
"Urk!" She said.
"Do you know why this happened?" Reeve demanded.
"Wh-what?
Reeve and Tseng looked at each other.
"On my way here I stopped off at Cosmo Canyon to see if Nanaki knew of what was happening." Tseng explained, "He did, and he said he tried to get here to help out, but before he could arrange anything, something bad happened. The whole of Cosmo Canyon is in chaos." He paused.
"The Cosmo Candle has gone out." Sakura interrupted.