"What the hell is going on here, Dio? I want to know how you've allowed a massacre to take place under your nose, I want to know why my friends were imprisoned for it, and I want to know now."
"We didn't know they were with you," Dio replies, closing the door of his showroom to hide the bloody mess in the main lobby of the Battle Arena. His tanned skin is shiny with either sweat or oil, his immodest costume (a tiny pair of briefs that glitter in the overhead light, leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination) drawing her gaze no matter how much she fights it. "The evidence was overwhelming, Madam Vice President, and we caught them at the scene of the crime."
"Who?"
"Well, we're sure the culprit was the man with the gun-arm, of course, just as the receptionist described, but his accomplices . . . the spiky-haired boy, a girl in pink, and . . . well, to be honest, I'm not quite sure what the other thing was, but I think it was a cat."
"And what did they say about the bodies?"
"Er . . . nothing, incidentally. No confession was coerced."
"And the others?"
"The others have . . . have joined their friends in the prison."
"So you just threw potentially innocent people into an inescapable prison? You didn't think to ask what happened? You didn't think to simply detain them and come find me?"
It's definitely sweat. Dio is three times as wide as her in the shoulders, two times as tall, but he cowers under her gaze—as he should. After all, she's the vice president, and if she feels that Dio has made a terrible mistake, she absolutely has the power to punish him for his incompetence.
"I'm sorry, Madam Vice President," he continues, bulky arms held awkwardly at his sides. "The evidence was overwhelming, and we had to see to it that no threat to you was—"
"I want to see them. Bring them to me, or I'm going down to talk to them."
Dio stares at her for a moment like she's crazy.
She very well might be.
Several employees lie dead on the other side of the showroom door, bodies riddled with bullets, floor smeared with blood, an unknown assailant possibly still creeping around the Gold Saucer, her travel companions thrown unceremoniously into the desert prison beneath their feet.
But she mustn't allow herself to show any fear, despite how frightened she is. Rufus would never allow fear to dictate his decisions, would never show any sign of weakness towards a subordinate.
She's happy about it. Happy for something to distract her from sadness and tears. Happy for a reason to be angry, even if it's horrible. She's good at looking and sounding intimidating. She hardly has to try—her last name does half the work on its own.
"But . . . Madam Vice President!" Dio sounds shocked at her suggestion. "You can't possibly put yourself in a room with those heathens, nor can you go down to Corel Prison alone!"
"I have nothing to fear," she replies confidently. "My friends are innocent, and we'll prove it."
If Barret had wanted to go on a shooting spree to express his vehement anger and dislike towards Shinra Electric Power Company, surely she would have been his first target. She was vulnerable, alone, and he knew where she was sleeping.
Dio looks very torn, probably torn between obeying the vice president's wishes and denying her the right to something possibly dangerous. "Perhaps I should send some security with you, just in case—"
He's really going to make me go down into the prison, she thinks, incredulous. How hard would it be to bring a handful of new prisoners back up to the Gold Saucer? "No," she replies. "Just me. Show me to the elevator."
"It's dangerous—"
"Don't worry. I have a gun, and my friends are very well armed." Charlie pats the handgun tucked into the holster that Barret had given her. It's nice to have her gun in the open, a warning to everyone who speaks to her that she isn't completely helpless. Not that she knows how to use the gun (she hasn't even fired it once yet), but no one else needs to know that. "And when I come back up from that prison, with my friends, we will all be walking out of here unmolested, with their names cleared, and you will forget we were ever here. Is that understood?"
Dio nods. "Yes, ma'am."
"If you tell anyone we were here, I will call my brother, the president, and you can discuss why you refused to follow my orders with him."
"Yes, ma'am."
Charlie looks at him for a long time. "And when we leave, we'll need a car."
He nods again, this time quickly.
"Now, take me to the elevator, or I'm going to get angry."
She understands what Dio had been nervous about the moment she touches down in Corel Prison.
Not only is the open prison uncomfortably hot, surrounded by sand on all sides for miles and miles and miles, and made mostly of junk, but groups of two or three men are scattered about the place, turning to look at Charlie as she walks into the center of the "town", where a few buildings remain from whatever came before the prison.
The gazes are unsettling, and she feels as if she turns her back on the wrong person, it will be a fatal mistake. She touches her gun lightly, knowing that, if it comes down to it, she'll have no choice but to just aim and shoot and hope that she doesn't miss her target.
"Hey, baby," says a voice to her right, and Charlie turns with all the dignity she can muster, "you look a little lost."
Three men watch from underneath an overhang of a sheet metal roof, shoulder to shoulder. The one who speaks is bald, the top of his head bright red and peeling. He sweats heavily in the heat, disgustingly so, and takes a few steps closer to her, revealing a pointed rat-face and brown front teeth.
"I'm fine, thank you," she replies, turning away and never moving her hand from her gun.
"Hey—" His arm shoots out to take hold of her own, jerking her back. "I ain't done talking to you."
"I am," Charlie snaps back, trying to pull away from him. "Let go of me. Don't you know who I am?"
"A pretty little thing, that's who," he answers, pulling her closer. Charlie digs her heels into the ground, prepared to knee him between the legs before pulling her gun out. "There's three of us and only one of you, honey. I wouldn't fight it, if I were you. It'll be easier that way."
Charlie moves without thinking, bringing her foot up to kick the man right between the legs. He shouts, releases her, and drops to his knees while calling her every name under the burning sun, but before she's able to get away, the other two men are on her, grabbing her arms and forcing them behind her.
She's able to kick her leg out again, and she's close enough to the bald man for her foot to connect hard with his nose. The following crack! and cry of pain gives Charlie a small feeling of satisfaction.
"You bitch!" he screams into his palms, still on his knees with blood leaking from his nostrils. "You broke my nose!"
Despite the furious pounding of her heart, Charlie sticks her tongue out at the man groveling on the ground, cradling his broken nose with tears in his eyes.
"You're in for it now," one of the men rasps in her right ear.
"Like hell I am," she hisses. "I'm Charlotte Shinra, the vice president, and I demand you let me go immediately."
"Yeah, and I'm Doofus Shinra, president of the world," says the other man into her left ear. "Can't you tell by the hair? Besides, if you were really Charlotte Shinra, you'd like fucking your brother, wouldn't you?"
Charlie turns her head slightly, just to humor him. His hair is straw-colored and sticking up in all directions, greasy and matted. "You look nothing like my brother," she decides. "And I would take care not to call him that again, if I were you."
"Doesn't matter what you want," says Doofus, and Charlie screams as one of their feet comes down hard on the back of her knee, forcing her to the dirt ground. She catches herself with her now-free hands, looking up to find herself nearly face to face with the broken-nosed man.
"Hold on," he pants, lowering his hand slightly to show her his bruising and crooked nose. Eyes rove her face for a moment, taking in the hair and the eyes. "I don't think she's lying. Looks like Charlotte Shinra to me."
"How would you know?" Doofus asks.
"She was on the cover of that—" His eyes go wide, fixing on something over her right shoulder, and then her left.
As Charlie goes to turn around, her leg aching dully, both of the men who held her arms thump heavily to the ground. Upon closer inspection, two small shurikens are lodged into the backs of their necks, where blood is beginning to bubble. When she looks up, two very familiar figures are running towards her.
"Nice shot," Charlie remarks.
"Don't say I never did anything for ya," Yuffie mutters, taking back her shurikens and wiping the blood off on the front of her shirt.
"You okay?" Tifa asks, reaching down to help Charlie to her feet.
Charlie brushes herself off, turning to the third man, who still kneels before all three women, looking desperately frightened. "I'm fine," she answers, speaking then to the man in front of her. "You know who I am, then?"
"Yes," he replies raggedly. "Yes, you're the vice president. Ma'am. Forgive me. I'm so sorry to have bothered you. Ma'am. Miss Shinra. Madam VP."
"So you understand what I'm very capable of doing to people who disrespect me?"
"Yes, ma'am."
She sighs, glancing left and right at Tifa and Yuffie, respectively. "Get out of here," she tells him. His bits and his nose are probably already hurting enough, and there's not much he can do without his friends. Once he hobbles away, Charlie turns back to face the others, a little more irritable. "Okay, what the hell is going on here?"
"I don't know what they told you," Tifa begins quickly, looking troubled. "But . . . I just know that Barret didn't do this. I can't believe it."
"I know," Charlie answers, offering her a small smile.
"You . . . know?"
"I don't really know Barret that well," Charlie continues, the logic of it seemingly so simple, "but the fact that I'm still very alive and well and not full of holes . . . that kind of gave it away."
"Well, that's great, then!" Yuffie says, punching at the air in an excited sort of way. "A jailbreak sounds fun to me. This place sucks. What's the plan, Shinra?"
"Wait, hold on, no, no, no," Charlie says, unable to keep from laughing in Yuffie's face. The younger girl's face twists unnaturally and her mouth forms a scowl. "There is no jailbreak. We're just going to round up the others and take the elevator back up to the Gold Saucer—"
"That's boring," Yuffie complains.
"I'm sorry that my plan doesn't involve the murder of more prisoners, okay?" Charlie snaps, feeling the heat rise to her cheeks. Or maybe it's just the sun. It's hot, and the hair at the back of her neck is already sticking to her skin. "Let's find everyone else, figure out who just slaughtered a bunch of Shinra guards—"
"Like that matters," Yuffie interrupts, scoffing loudly and crossing her arms. "It's what they deserve, after serving in the war—"
"Those guards—those people—are my responsibility now," Charlie cuts across her, feeling more presidential than she's felt in a long time. Yuffie's just a stupid kid, but that only makes her angrier. She doesn't know what she's talking about. "And I can tell you right now, that half of Shinra security has never set foot in Wutai. It's all young boys in need of some pocket change. If I don't get to the bottom of this, then I have failed them as their vice president." She steps closer to Yuffie. "If you don't like my plan, then we will leave without you, and you can find your own damn way to escape. Now, let's find everyone else, get the hell out of here, and move on."
If Yuffie wants to continue arguing, she has the decency to keep her mouth shut for the time being. It's a good plan, an easy plan, so long as nothing has happened to the others.
Red XIII is the first found companion, lying in the cool dirt in the shade by a dry well. He's glad to see them all safe and unhurt, asking questions that none of the women have answers for yet.
They find Cloud, Aerith, and Barret in one of the old and abandoned buildings, and they aren't alone. As soon as Charlie follows Tifa over the threshold and into the small sitting room, someone calls out, "Charlotte!"
Charlie, startled (no one here calls her Charlotte), turns to the source of the voice, only to find something very familiar looking back at her. "Oh," she says. "You're the fortune-teller. How did you end up here?"
"The name's Cait Sith, and wrong place at the wrong time," the cat answers woefully. "You shouldn't be down here, anyway! It's dangerous!"
"I can handle myself, thanks." Charlie scoffs, flashing Cloud an annoyed look. "Do you just recruit anyone you meet?"
"If I didn't, you might not be here," Cloud replies, but his tone isn't completely humorless. If the circumstances weren't so dire and dramatic right now, Charlie dares to believe he might have given her a stiff little smile. "How did you get down here? They don't really think the VP did this, do they?"
"No, of course not," she says, giving her shoulders a slight shrug. "I took the elevator. Someone had to come get you, didn't they?" She looks at Barret, sighing. His eyes are fixed on the floor, his shoulders hunched. "I know you didn't do this, Barret. I think it's pretty obvious that I would have been your first, and probably only, victim."
"You have to tell us what's going on," Tifa urges him gently. "They said a man with a gun-arm did this."
The house is quiet for a moment, the only sound the floorboards creaking underneath everyone's shifting weight. "There was someone else who got a gun grafted onto his arm, four years ago," Barret tells them all. He slumps against the wall, sinking down to the ground and stretching his legs out in front of him. "Dyne and I, we were on our way back from a nearby reactor that was being built, and that's when we found out 'bout Corel, 'bout the Shinra bastards burning it down. I stood and watched as my entire life went up in flames."
Charlie's face hardens. She knows what they're all thinking. She knows they all hate Shinra, and by extension, her. She knows they're all blaming her for what happened.
"We tried to get back, but Shinra soldiers ambushed us and started shooting," he continues, pushing aside the neckline of his tank top to show off half of a scar Charlie's never noticed before.
She's known enough Turks in her lifetime to know what a bullet wound looks like once its healed and scarred over. Reno has a swollen and puckered one on his shoulder that he's rather proud of (his initiation rite, he calls it), and when Veld would take his shirt off at the beach, his torso seemed to have more gunshot scars than her little-girl-self could count.
"And in the chaos, Dyne lost his footing and would have fallen to his death if I hadn't caught him."
Aerith slowly lowers herself to the ratty sofa, holding her hands in her lap.
"But they kept shootin' and shootin' and . . . I lost my grip on Dyne." Barret looks up at them all for the first time, but he avoids looking into Charlie's face completely. "From then on, I couldn't use my right arm no more. I was depressed for a little, but then I got rid of my artificial arm and got this grafted in." He pats the gun affectionately with his left hand, like they've been through a lot together. "I got it to take revenge on Shinra."
Charlie and Barret meet eyes for the first time. He lifts his arm to point it at her, but she isn't afraid.
"Hey!" Cait Sith protests, leaping to Charlie's side and waving his hands. "Why don't you put the gun down? She didn't do anything!"
"Shinra took everything from me," Barret says through gritted teeth, clearly pained. After a moment, he lowers his gun again, defeated. "But I heard from the doctor that another man had the same procedure done. But not his right arm, his left."
"Dyne?" Aerith asks suddenly, causing everyone's attention to be pulled away from Barret. "You don't think . . . ?"
"He has reason to hate Shinra, too," Tifa agrees, looking hopeful again. Charlie knows it's an act. There's something perpetually sad about her. "Maybe he would join us, if we explained to him—"
"That's why you gotta get outta here," Barret says, nodding towards Charlie. "Dyne's too far gone now, but I gotta apologize to him before I can rest in peace. He ain't gonna want to see me traveling with the vice president of the company." He pushes himself back to his feet. "Y'all go with her. I have to do this alone."
"I can't let you do that," Cloud replies, shaking his head. "I can't have you dying on me."
"We still have work to do, Barret," Tifa frowns, taking a few steps closer to lay a small hand upon his forearm. "Don't you want to save the planet?"
Barret growls. "Of course I do."
"Red and I will go with you, for backup," Cloud says, an order from a commander. There is no arguing with it, but Charlie doesn't have any qualms with the idea. If Barret has a chance to settle his past and put an end to the brutality committed, she's going to let him. "The rest of you, follow Charlie up the elevator and wait for us there."
Aerith stands up quickly from her place on the sofa. "We're not going without you. The rest of us will wait here for you to come back, and we'll leave together."
"I like that plan," Yuffie sighs happily, punching the air again and bouncing on her feet, preparing for battle. "Sure you don't need a little extra backup, Cloud? I'm pretty good. Ask Charlie. Saved her from some pretty rapey guys out there."
Cait Sith sounds panicked. "What rapey guys?"
Charlie shrugs. "It's true." She nods at Cloud. "Go. We'll wait here."
After affirming nods from the rest of his friends, Barret leads Cloud and Red XIII out of the house, and hopefully, not to their doom.
"Here, found it." Holding the map against the dashboard with her elbow and shining the light down upon it with her right hand, Charlie points to the small village written in miniscule writing upon the map. "Gongaga. Keep going due south." She glances at the compass in her lap, jostled around by the rough terrain, but still pointing faithfully south. "We'll have to cross the river."
"Dio said the buggy could, if we needed it to."
"It's a bit weighed down, don't you think?"
"We'll find somewhere shallow. Know anything about Gongaga?"
"Only that there was a reactor there once, but it exploded some years ago, taking half the town with it. I've never been there before."
It's not as cramped in the buggy as Charlie had believed it would be. She has plenty of room in the passenger seat, however, with Cloud driving on her left. The rest of their party has thrown themselves carelessly around the empty space in the back, big enough to hold their weapons and each other, even Cait's wide moogle, which seems to double as a very comfortable pillow.
They're all asleep, or feigning very well. She isn't entirely sure if Cait Sith needs to sleep at all.
"How far is the river?"
"Far enough that we should start looking for a town with an inn or a place to camp," Charlie sighs, folding up the map and clicking her flashlight off. "If we leave early enough in the morning, we'll make good time if we rotate drivers every few hours."
She glances around her to make sure everyone is still sleeping. "So what happened with Dyne?"
"It's taken care of."
"That doesn't explain Barret's complete silence tonight. That's more unnerving than his anger, I think." She turns the flashlight back on, searching the map. "There's a village close to the river, but we'll never make it tonight."
Cloud hums. "I can drive a little longer."
"Good." Charlie stuffs her things back into her backpack, but keeps her compass out to make sure they don't get turned around. "I've been meaning to talk to you."
"Oh?"
She lowers her voice. "Red told me you're making a detour to Cosmo Canyon. I want to go there, as well."
"I thought the deal was that we'd bring you to the Turks. To Tseng."
"We agreed that you would bring me close enough to the Turks that I could manage the rest of the journey on my own," she counters softly, hoping no one is listening in on their conversation. She wouldn't put it past Yuffie to be gathering all the information she can. "But I've changed my mind. I want to go to Cosmo Canyon with you, and after you leave there, I can manage on my own."
Cloud looks sideways at her. The headlights of the buggy brighten the dirt road that they're following, but to the left and right of them is only darkness. "What's your deal?" he asks bluntly. "You have an execution facing you in Midgar or what? What's going to happen to you?"
"Worried about me?" she teases.
"Aerith might get upset if something happens to you."
The sentiment is too kind for Charlie to laugh. "I'm not sure what's going to happen to me yet," she admits. "I was kind of hoping the Turks could answer that for me."
"So you're officially on the run now?"
"I guess so."
"Then why isn't anyone looking for you? Shouldn't there be a worldwide alert for the vice president?"
"My brother probably doesn't want to alert the world to my disappearance at all. People might start to wonder why the vice president chose to leave the company, and you know how many secrets Shinra has to unearth." She gives him a tired smile. "So you'll keep me safe until Cosmo Canyon, right?"
"For the right price," Cloud says. "And we're still going to Gongaga first. Sephiroth takes precedence. What's in Cosmo Canyon, anyway?"
"You're full of questions tonight, aren't you?"
"And I can't help but notice you're deflecting almost every one."
Charlie scoffs, trying to identify any landmarks outside the window. Barret is snoring from behind her. "Fine," she whispers. "Red recognized my mother in a photograph, and he claims she's still at Cosmo Canyon."
"Is she?"
"I don't know. I haven't seen her since I was a child."
Cloud is quiet for a minute. The buggy continues its journey down the rough road. "All right."
"What's your price?" she asks, somewhat sharply. They're going to bleed her dry, no doubt, with this new request. She can spare it, of course, but it's the audacity. "I'm sure my company alone isn't enough for you."
"Don't worry about it," he answers, untroubled by Charlie's sudden coldness. "We're headed that way anyway. Consider it repayment for getting us out of the prison."
Charlie isn't going to question it. If everyone else were awake, she's certain they would insist that Charlie give them another sack of twenty-thousand gil, but getting that money would cause more trouble than it's worth. "Got another question for you," she murmurs, wondering if her honesty will get her anywhere. "About your sword."
Cloud raises an eyebrow, looking wary. "What about it?"
She doesn't know how to approach it. She doesn't know how to ask about who the sword used to belong to. What if it's not the same one? But that's impossible. That's Angeal's sword—she knows what Angeal's sword had looked like, because it mattered so much to him, and—
"You okay? You look kind of pale."
Her throat feels very constricted. "I just . . . wondered where you got your sword from."
"Had it for a long time."
Charlie can't tell if he's lying. It's such a casual and non-chalant answer that Charlie almost thinks he's telling the truth, but what about Angeal? What about Zack? "No one gave it to you?"
"Like who?"
She blinks at him. "Do you remember a SOLDIER named Angeal?"
There's a split second in which she thinks he's going to tell her the information she's half-dreading. And then, something happens, but she doesn't know what.
Cloud grunts, lifting his right hand to his head as his eyes flutter closed. His foot presses on the gas pedal as far as it can go, without even seemingly realizing it, and Charlie has to brace herself against the dashboard as the buggy jerks forward violently.
"Cloud!" Charlie gasps, shaking him by the shoulder. He might be having a seizure, but she isn't sure. She isn't even sure if he can hear her.
At the sound of her voice, however, Cloud looks up, suddenly realizing what's going on and slamming on the brake.
His right arm shoots out stiffly to stop Charlie from going through the windshield, but the impact of her chest against his forearm still knocks the wind out of her. She hears everyone shuffling and cursing around in the back, and someone slams into the back of Charlie's seat.
"What's going on?"
"Did we crash?"
Cloud and Charlie look at each other for a long moment, and then she glances back over her shoulder to find everyone staring at them, wide-eyed. Yuffie is pressing her face to the nearest window, and Tifa and Aerith are both rubbing their heads.
"Is everyone okay?" Charlie asks, and they all nod in return. "Cloud? You all right?"
"I'm fine," he snaps, breathing heavily for a second, giving his head a shake, and sighing. "Just tired. We'll make camp here tonight."
Her heart racing, Charlie doesn't think she's going to ask about the Buster Sword again.
"Is there a reason you don't sleep in the tent?"
Charlie lifts her eyes to look at him, shaking some dirt out of her boot.
Her light blonde hair is pulled back into a messy bun at the nape of her neck, leaving a few loose strands to frame her face, and she's clad in just a gray tank top that's slightly sweat-stained. Even in the dark, her chest gleams with sweat. It must be warm.
He wouldn't know. It's rather cool in the confines of his office at the Shinra Building, probably the only person still in the entire place besides the cleaning staff and night security.
"I just feel more comfortable sleeping outside. Besides, there's not enough room in the tent for me." She slips her other boot off and shakes that one out, too. "I don't mind," she adds quickly.
He's quiet for a moment. Reeve is just happy she's talking to him.
"I'm sorry for being short with you earlier at the Gold Saucer," she says suddenly, fixing her backpack and lying on the hard ground, using her bag as a pillow, her gun lying at her side, still stuffed into the holster. "You kind of caught me at a bad time."
"Water under the bridge now."
"All right. Good-night."
She rolls over, putting her back to him, and falls asleep relatively quickly.
She looks so incredibly uncomfortable that it makes him sad, seeing Charlotte lying on the ground, with nothing but a backpack and a jacket to use as her bed. It's nerve wracking to see her just lying there, out in the open, where anyone or anything can sneak out of the shadows and hurt her.
Reeve thought it might be harder to earn their trust—much harder.
Instead, the moment they had left the Gold Saucer, they had all spoken of Dio's indication that Sephiroth had made towards Gongaga, and then they had offered him a space in the buggy, and that was that.
But that information isn't half as important to him as the other information he had overheard.
The first piece of information was just confirmation of something he had already guessed—or rather, what Scarlet had guessed: Charlie was seeking out the Turks (more specifically, Tseng).
But now she's determined to find her mother, the mother that has been assumed dead ever since before he ever met Charlie.
Is it possible that she's found her mother at all? What are the chances that it's the wrong woman? There are many who might pretend to have been the late president's mistress in order to secure some respect or money.
And after setting up camp and starting a fire, he had watched through another's eyes as Aerith had sat down next to Charlie, whispering into her ear and giggling like children as everyone stretched their legs and yawned and complained. Reeve had no idea what they were talking about, but he hadn't needed to know details to think oh no oh no oh no.
He needs to put a stop to it now, before Charlie grows too attached to these people, before he causes her even more heartache by betraying them.
He sends a text to both Rufus and Tseng.
Headed for Gongaga, he writes. Will be there in a few days.