The escape plan was going perfectly, all she needed to do was keep crawling back to the shaft she entered from and quietly leave. But as she got closer to the exit, she began hearing the enemy's voices getting louder which could only mean that their escape route was now their death reception.
"What now lass?"
"Sheesh! Let me think."
"We're doomed!" Cait whined, any louder though and he could expose them.
"Seriously shut it furball!"
She didn't have time to argue with him right now; they needed to escape first. Sadly, without a map she couldn't navigate out of the vents alone 'wait, I don't have one, but Cait has it in memory.'
"Hey Cait, you still have that map in your memory right?"
"Uh, yeah."
"Then tell me where does this lead?"
She directed his view to the shaft opening on her right. Cait sat silently, accessing the map in his memory, studying the route. Pinpointing their location, he quickly calculated where the path would lead them.
"Um, it seems to lead to one of the old sections of this building. At the far end is a vent entrance a-"
"Good! We'll take it!"
"What? W-wait lassy! What if it's blocked?"
"Do you see any other way out of here?"
Cait got quietly all a sudden as he realized that she had a point. Yuffie took his silence as acceptance and changed her direction to the vent she suggested.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
At Junon, Cloud had checked into an inn and sat on the bed checking his delivery list one more time before he went to sleep for the night. As he did, his mind wandered to his recent visit to Elmyra at Kalm.
~.~.~
5 PM, Kalm Town, Elmyra's home...
"It's been a while since you last visited me like this." The old woman walked out of the kitchen, carrying a tray of tea and homemade biscuits for her guest in the living room.
"I'm here to deliver a letter to you, ma'am," Cloud replied as he reluctantly accepted the tea from her. He really was on a tight schedule, but he didn't have the heart to tell her that he had to go.
"Oh? who would write to me?"
"Well, You'll just have to read it... Just don't think its a joke." Cloud was really nervous. Elmyra was Aerith's mother, so of course, if someone writes to her claiming to be her dead daughter, it would cause the old woman to feel very insulted. He just really hopes that he doesn't take it out on him.
"In any case I'll do it later, reading my letter now will be rude to you."
"Um, actually, I would prefer you to read it now."
"Is there something you're hiding from me, young man?"
"Not really trying to ma'am. I have something to tell you, but I'll need you to read the letter first."
Elmyra glanced at the envelope then at Cloud suspectly. She didn't have a reason to doubt him, he hoped. He watched her as she carefully opened the envelope and pulled out the paper. Her facial expressions shifted from confusion to disgust, then finally frustration. She lowered the paper and eyed Cloud.
"Is... this a joke?"
"Well I don't know exactly what's written, but I do know the writer. And she is pretty much alive, ma'am" Cloud Gulped, She was not happy, and he had pretty much predicted this outcome. However, instead of letting him have an earful, she instead took a seat on the wooden chair next to her and exercised her breathing, naturally to cool her temper.
"Alright Cloud, let's say I do wish to believe this letter. How will you prove to me that my adopted daughter is alive?"
"She wrote a number for you to call."
"I saw it, but please understand that it's too hard for me to call this unknown number."
"I could call it for you if it would make you feel better."
The old woman closed her eyes and stayed quiet for a while. The silence was making the blond feel very uncomfortable. To his relief, Elmyra gave him her home phone.
"Call her for me."
~.~.~
He won't forget how much Elmyra cried as soon as she heard Aerith's voice through the speaker. The senior woman had to walk out on the call for a good 15 minutes before coming back to continue the call. He could tell she was delighted to have her daughter back in the land of the living. Afterward, Cloud gave Elmyra a silent goodbye and left to complete his deliveries as the happy woman continue her chat with Aerith.
He considered telling Zack about it after his text exchange with Tifa but it was already midnight, and he was sure Zack was in a deep sleep by now. He sighed stuffing the list in his bag and placed them on the nightstand as he laid down in his bed, face first in the pillow. He could talk to Zack in the morning, but right now, he really needed to get to sleep.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
It got very quiet since Yuffie and Cait decided to change their route to their escape moments ago. She was sure now that they lost their pursuers, but they have yet to reach the exit that Cait mentioned. Adding to her long list of worries, the vent they were in now was pretty old, and she heard the metal flooring creak under her weight with every movement. But she won't show any concern or doubt; She was Wutai's greatest warrior after all.
"How much farther Cait? I'm getting fatigued."
"With this pace, we may need an hour of crawling till we reach the exit."
"The hell?! That long?"
"Afraid so lass."
"You have got to be kidding me."
Yuffie dropped her head on the metal flooring and groaned in agony. The sudden sound of metal bending and creaking reached her ears at that moment reminded her that this shaft was too old to support her any longer. But before she could react somehow the shaft broke open under her, dropping both herself and Cait down into a pile of rocks and pipes.
She groaned after awhile and painfully dug herself out of the pile. She was halfway out as she gasped for air and rested her upper body on the mass she was still stuck in. Cait poked his head out of the pile and quickly got out and shook the pebbles out of his fur.
"You ok fluff face?"
"Aye lass, I'm still fully functioning. Good thing I fell on this."
Cait pulled out a Chocobo plushie from under him and showed it to Yuffie, and it apparently looked new too. 'He's one lucky cat' she sighed then pulled the rest of herself out of the pile. She suddenly yelped in pain and immediately stopped trying to get herself out.
"Cait, I think I broke my leg."
"That's Bad lass."
"YOU THINK?!" She yelled in a whisper frustrated as she tried to pull her self out again carefully. Only to tumble down at the bottom of the pile with force after her release. 'What did I do to deserve this damn luck anyway?' she whined in her head, forcefully sitting herself up and rested her back on the pile, trying to catch her breath.
Cait, on the other hand, decided to look around the room they fell in. The room was extensive both in width and height, as well as had large horizontal windows high up near the ceiling. The room also had a bed on the far end of the room, next to it was an open box filled with toys that were flooding out of it, and on the bed was a small tray containing a bottle of water and a half-eaten sandwich. He concluded that they fell in a storage room that was currently being used to detain someone.
"Hey lass, maybe we should make like a tree and leave now."
"I-in a minu-nute Cait, I need-need to rest for a bit."
"But what if someone's he-aahhh!"
Yuffie quickly got up on her feet, Which strained her leg very badly and forced her to drop to the floor. Pulling out her giant 4 point shuriken, She used it to give herself some sort of support.
Forcing her way towards Cait's yell, she then stood unsteadily on her feet facing Cait's direction, her weapon ready. But what she saw wasn't a threat, it was only a little 3 or 4-year-old girl hugging the robotic cat with a massive smile on her face.
"Kitty!"
"H-Help me, lass! She's coughing m-me to death!"
"Oh well, you relax. It's just a kid." She relaxed her sore muscles and collapsed on the floor and put away her weapon. The little girl looked away from Cait and stared innocently at her direction with curiosity. She was the same girl that she saw in the Deepground computer just before they got discovered by the enemy.
"Sowy, is dis your kitty?"
"Nah, he belongs to a friend of mine. You can keep playing with him if you want, kid."
"L-lass!"
"Shush 'Kitty'" Yuffie sent a threatening glare his way and he instantly clamed up to avoid her wrath. She then turned her attention back at the little girl with a cheerful smile of her own.
"I'm the great ninja Yuffie, and this ball of fluff is Cait. What's yours, kid?"
"Um... I don't have one. The big scawy man das I'm Cetwa."
"No name eh? Then when we get out of here, I'll help you get one. So can you tell me if there's a way out of here?"
"Out? I never go out, big scawy man is scarwy and... boldie das is bad out dide."
"It's not bad outside I promise but staying here is. So trust me, I won't do anything to hurt you I swear."
"... Pinky dwear?"
The little girl reached her hand up towards Yuffie, extending her pinkie finger. Yuffie giggled as she leaned a bit forward to the girl's level with a smile and linked her own pinkie with the girl's.
"Pinkie swear."
She replayed cheerfully, though they had to cut the nice atmosphere short. Both herself and the little girl froze up as they heard heavy footsteps were getting awfully close. Yuffie gestured to her new little friend to be quiet as the ninja took her partner and hid in the nearest empty container she could find. Even with her bad leg, she forced herself with all her might to hide.
Just as they hid, the owner of the footsteps entered the room. The little girl kept her head low while her sites met with her captor.
~.~.~
"Little Cetra... Care to tell me what happened in here? The men say that they heard something." The giant man, with his uncaring tone, glared down at her, expecting an answer.
She bit her lips as her eyes looked towards the pile of rubble and metal from the recently collapsed vent. She opened her mouth, trying to say something, but her lips moved with no sound. The man was getting impatient with her.
"Little Cetra... Answer." The white-haired man bared his teeth slightly before sighing recalling that he was speaking to a toddler fundamentally.
"T-that... fell." She finally spoke while pointing towards it with a shaky arm. "It was scary."
The older man looked towards the rubble, then to the vent that had collapsed. He then turned his attention back at the frightened child.
"Did anything, or anyone, fall in?"
"N-No."
He kept his glared at her, watching her for any sign of lying. Other than her usual behavior with him, he found nothing out of place.
"Alright then, behave Little Cetra." He turned his back to her and finally left the room, closing the big heavy door behind him.
~.~.~
Yuffie and Cait got out of their hiding spot after hearing the big door slammed shut. They were very relieved that they were not caught, and by Weiss from what they heard.
"That can't be him... could it Cait?"
"Well, there wasn't any recorded of his body ever being found, lass."
As they were in the mists of their discussion, Yuffie felt a tight grip around her arm. Turning her attention away from Cait, she saw the little girl holding on to her tightly, obviously scared of her previous encounter with Weiss.
"Hey now, kiddo. It's ok now."
Seeing the little girl shaking made her sad. Kids are supposed to be happy and enjoying their youth, not be locked up for whatever reason. They needed to escape this place, but with the lack of first aid or a cure materia, they needed to wait for her leg to heal up a bit before they could attempt that.
"Cait, call Kunsel. Tell him that we are kind of stuck for now."
"Alright, but we'll need to be very careful. This little girl seems to be a high priority for Deepground."
"Yeah... you know what? I'll call him; you cheer up the kid."
"Wait, what?"
Yuffie grabbed her fuzzy partner and handed him to the silently sobbing girl. "No need to cry kiddo. Here, Kitty wants to play with you! So please don't cry."
The little girl looked tearfully at Cait before slowly accepting him. He would wiggle himself free, but he had to agree that she really needed someone to play with. So he played along, making some funny faces and meowing, getting her to laugh and smile.
As the two were doing that, Yuffie pulled out her cell phone and called in Kunsel, who was waiting for their return at the Midgar boarder.
"Hi, Kunny, Yuffie here. I've got some bad news."
