Final Fantasy VII: The Story 2nd Instalment

Emerald Princess of Vernea

Chapter Fifteen

It felt like stepping into a different world passing through the gates of Wutai. It was as though they had left behind a world of grassy plains and wild, threatening monsters, and instead had entered a dimension that was calm and tranquil. It was an absolutely beautiful village, unlike anything they had ever seen before. It also carried with it an air of mystery and seclusion, seeming as though the wheels of time had stopped completely to keep this village in its beautiful, picturesque state.

They could tell right away that it was a ninja town. The houses were large and hut-like, built mainly of wood that was painted shades of red and grey. The double doors were also made of wood and slid open, with thin but strong sheets of paper in place of windows. The roofs were made of black wood and were specially built so that the curled slightly inwards and upwards to a point, in true oriental style.

Looking at the few people that were wandering around, it was also possible to tell that this was Yuffie's home. The style of clothing was pretty much the same – tight and free of restriction so they could grab their weapons at the first sign of trouble. There were also the telltale signs of a number of shuriken's close to the hands of the people, although of many different designs.

Running all the way through the village was a beautiful stream, filled with crystal clear water that carried a glorious blue shimmer to it, enhanced by the late afternoon sun. The water sparkled in such a way that it seemed as though the stars were shining in the water, their twinkling light reflected within the depths of the water. Floating on the lightly rippling surface was a number of flat green leaves, and a number of water lilies floated luxuriously alongside them.

Cloud and the others came to a stop and looked around at the beautiful village, their eyes wide in awe. It truly felt like another world or a different time, and they were the invaders, intruding on their peaceful land.

There was a lot more to see on the outskirts of the town. A large cluster of trees – tall and green, surrounded the back end of the town. Yet there was something else rising up out of the forest, even taller than the trees. It was a tall pagoda, with five levels packed one on top of the other, like a guard tower overlooking the town.

What stood out the most, however, was the tall, rising cliff that bordered the northern part of the town. They only glanced at it briefly right then, but what they did see was a large statue carved into the side of the cliff. It was the statue of an ancient figure, a man, with many arms pointing in many directions; surrounded by the faces and figures of others.

"Hey!"

The group all turned and looked across the wooden bridge that crossed the stream. Yuffie was there, standing in front of a shop that had the sign 'Weapon Store' written in big, black, fancy lettering on the front. Yuffie waved at them, grinning, and then delved into her pocket. She took out one of the balls of materia she had stolen and waved it about in the air as though taunting them, before she placed it back in her pocket, turned away, and ran off again.

Cloud and the group followed as quickly as they could, running across the bridge towards the Weapon Store. Even as they ran the villagers made no move to help them – they just watched and simply stepped out of the way as they ran past. It made sense: they would never catch one of their own.

They lost sight of Yuffie after she crossed the second bridge, jumping around rapidly and then suddenly disappearing, just like that. Cloud's group crossed the bridge as well and came to a stop just in front of another shop. They looked around, but there was no sign of the girl. All they could see was the shop they were stood in front of, another shop across a third bridge, and a few wandering villagers. They thought they had lost the girl for good, until they heard a faint noise behind them.

Cloud spun around just in time to see the wooden doors of the shop behind them slowly slide shut. Without even waiting to think about whether it WAS Yuffie who had shut the doors, Cloud stormed over and pushed them open again, barging straight into the shop with the sign 'Turtle Paradise' above it. Then he stopped and stared straight ahead.

He had barged straight into the local bar, and the moment he had entered his eyes had fallen on the table nearest to the door, and in particular the three people that were sat there. Those blue suits… the blonde-haired woman, the red-headed man, and the bald man… The Turks!

Hearing the doors slam open, Elena put down her drink and turned her head. Her eyes landed straight on Cloud's face, and after staring at him blankly for a few seconds, she suddenly realised who he was and jumped, almost knocking her drink over the table.

"Yy, you? How did you get here…?" she demanded angrily. She then shook her head fiercely and got up out of her chair, kicking it back and raising her fists. "Never mind that. I guess it's fate that brought us together. Get ready to die!"

The rest of the group came in then, standing behind Cloud as he stood staring at Elena. They saw the Turk standing with her fists clenched, and her two comrades sitting silently at the table. Hurriedly Tifa and the others all drew their weapons and pushed past Cloud and into the bar, surrounding the table in preparation for what seemed to be an inevitable fight. The rest of the bar fell silent, all eyes on the corner table.

Only Cloud stayed where he was, not moving his eyes away from Elena. She glared back at him, her eyes so fierce and angry that there might as well have been flames burning inside of them. How could a woman so young have so much blood thirst in her? Perhaps she wasn't bloodthirsty at all, Cloud thought silently. Perhaps she was just driven by her duty as a Turk.

"…Elena, you talk too much."

Elena gasped and lowered her fists, spinning round to face Reno. "Ww, what?" she asked, surprised.

Reno didn't even look up at Elena. He just sighed and stuck his finger into his half-empty glass and slowly twirled the shrinking cubes of ice around the container. When he was done stirring them around he flicked his hair out of his eyes and said, "What are we doing way out here in the middle of nowhere?"

Elena blinked, confused by Reno's question. "We're taking our vacation and resting up from our work," she replied.

Slowly Reno nodded his head, and then raised his gaze. He glanced very briefly and without concern at Cloud and the others standing around the table, and then looked back at Elena. "Now our vacation is ruined," he said.

"B, but…"

"…Even the booze tastes bad now," said Rude, who was sitting across from Reno. The older Turk looked down into his own glass with a scowl on his face, as though he had just drank something old and rotting. He put the glass on the table and pushed it away from him, not prepared to drink any more.

Elena looked from Reno to Rude, and then looked back at Reno. Reno had turned away from her and was drinking out of his glass again. She couldn't believe that they were actually going to ignore Cloud and his group, right when they had walked in on them. Even if they were on their vacation…

"…Sorry…" she said finally, giving in and sitting back down in her chair, pulling it back towards the table. She was about to grab her glass again when she stopped, and gave Cloud another fierce glare. "Hmm, you're lucky all right. Now get out of my sight! The next time we meet I won't be so nice."

With the immediate tension subsided Cloud and the others put away their weapons and quickly left the bar, since it was clear that Yuffie was not there. As they left Tifa carefully slid the bar doors shut again, although it was served no purpose other than to make her feel a little safer. Not that anyone could feel entirely safe knowing that the Turks were on the other side of that door.

They were a little bit cautious with the next shop they entered – this time an Item and Materia store in the far north of the town, close to the entrance to the cliff. A young girl was looking at them curiously as they walked entered the store, peering out from behind the wall with a peculiar smile on her young face. As they disappeared inside the shop she disappeared behind the wall again and sniggered, her hands over her mouth so she couldn't be heard.

There was a definite air of tension inside the Item Shop. As Cloud and the others entered the shopkeeper seemed to tense up and quickly moved to the back of his store, pulling a cloth over some small, glittering items he had stored there. Even the other customers in the shop seemed nervous, giving the group suspicious, sideways glances.

"What's their problem?" asked Barret, looking around at the people. As he met their gazes they quickly turned away, pretending to be browsing through the items.

"…They have something to hide," Vincent replied calmly, folding his arms.

Cloud walked forward into the shop, and the others followed close behind. They could feel the gazes of the people on them, watching them with sudden anxiety as they headed further into the shop. The shopkeeper pretended to ignore them, although even he was watching them with keen interest.

Suddenly Cloud stopped and turned his head round, looking at all corners of the shop. There was no sign of Yuffie, but that didn't mean that she wasn't hiding somewhere. They couldn't ask outright if Yuffie was hiding behind the till or something like that – they could only search.

And search they did. Like the customers they pretended to brose through the shop's items, although in reality they were searching for any signs of Yuffie's presence in the shop. Yet there was nothing – if Yuffie was in the shop then she had hid herself away spectacularly.

Cloud headed to the back of the shop and searched along the back wall. While he was moving onto the next wall he came across a chest that was partially hidden amongst the shop's inventory. Curious, he leaned over and quietly opened the chest, taking a quick peek inside.

If he ever needed proof that the shop DID sell materia, this was it. Inside the chest was a single light ball of materia, a type he hadn't seen before. He lifted it up out of the chest and looked inside, trying to see if there was a faint image contained inside.

He was about to stand up and ask the shopkeeper directly about the materia and about Yuffie, when he suddenly heard a loud creaking noise coming from above him. He looked up, and a dark blur suddenly dropped down in front of him. While he was startled Cloud felt his hand being quickly pried open and the ball of materia snatched from his hands, before the blur suddenly moved again, heading out of the shop.

Yuffie didn't pause or wait as she bolted out of the shop, jumping straight over Cait and ducking underneath Cid's spear as he swiped it, trying to knock her over. This time she didn't stop or taunt them and ran straight out, a superior grin on her face as she darted across the ground. She knew Cloud and the others were chasing her, but she had an advantage: speed, and knowledge of the village.

The girl leapt expertly over the bridges, rushing across them to find her next hideaway place. She headed straight for one particular house close to the entrance of the village, taking a quick peek behind her to see if Cloud and the others were following her. For a moment she had a clear run, and so she bolted into the house.

There was an old man and a young boy in the house, and as Yuffie forced her way into the house the boy turned and exclaimed at her loudly. Yuffie ignored him and turned back to the door, peering through to see where Cloud and the others were. To her surprise she saw them crossing the bridge close to where she was, and she quickly jumped, panicked, and ran straight behind a small foldable paper curtain in the corner of the room. She looked up for a second before pulling the curtain around her, hiding herself from view.

Cloud and the others came running into the house, this time certain that they had seen Yuffie run inside. As they ran in the young boy turned to face them, scowled at them angrily, and put his hands on his hips.

"Oh no! More weirdos!" he complained loudly, not looking too happy to see yet more people barging into his house. He paused and looked at them a little more closely, eyeing them up and down. "No, these aren't like the one from a while ago, but these ones look weird too!"

The old man, clearly the boy's grandfather, looked up and gazed at Cloud through squinted eyes. He gazed for a moment or two, before a smile spread on his wrinkly old face. "Well, well," he said cheerfully. "Long time no see. What have you been up to? Let's see… what was your name?"

The kid rolled his eyes and ran over to his grandfather, giving him a playful but harsh dig in his arm. "No, Gramps!" he said fiercely. "This isn't anyone you know! This is just some stranger who barged into our house!"

Cloud and his group stood still, looking more than a little embarrassed at having made another scene barging into someone's private home. Cloud wished he had learned after the Turtle Paradise incident not to just run into people's homes. But they had been so sure they had seen Yuffie run in here… That fact was soon confirmed, as the boy continued to speak.

"What are we going to do, Gramps? Some strange-looking girl came in here a minute ago and I…"

The boy was suddenly silenced as a loud and angry hushing sound came from the corner of the room, loud enough for everyone to hear. Everyone turned at the same time towards the corner where the noise came from, and saw the foldable curtain hiding the corner away. Cloud nodded at Tifa, who walked straight over to the curtain and pulled it away, revealing the corner.

As they expected Yuffie was hiding behind it, on her knees and ducking down with her head held between her hands, eyes squeezed shut. She felt the breeze of the curtain being pulled back and slowly lifted her head. Her gaze was met by the angry faces of Tifa and the others, each of them staring at her with fierce intensity.

"……" she mumbled silently, realising she was caught.

At that second Tifa made to grab her, but Yuffie was one step ahead, already up and moving around the room. She jumped out from the corner and moved swiftly, dodging past anyone before heading straight for the door. Red XIII tried to take a snap at her ankles as she dived past, but she was too quick even for his reflexes and bit only the air.

They all piled out of the house again. Because of the small doorway and the size of their group they almost got stuck as they tried to force their way out. Somehow they managed it without getting jammed and ran out into the street again, looking around at Yuffie.

They were too late again. There was no sign of the girl anywhere. There hadn't been enough time for her to get too far, so she must be somewhere around. Yet as they looked around there was no sign of her, as though she had completely vanished.

At that moment the wind suddenly began to change direction for a brief moment, now beginning to blow from the west rather than the east, towards Cloud and the others. Red XIII raised his head as he caught a familiar scent on the air – one that he recognised and was fairly close. However just to be sure he walked forward and sniffed again. Sure enough the scent was there, coming from the west. The others watched him patiently, until Red XIII finally nodded and turned to them.

"Over here," he growled, and began to run off across the bridge.

Everyone followed Red XIII closely as he darted across the bridge, his head held high to catch the last traces of the scent on the breeze before it switched back to its ordinary direction. He was halfway across the second bridge when the wind changed back and the scent was lost, but Red XIII had got enough of it to know that Yuffie was somewhere around the immediate vicinity.

With the others standing around, Red XIII lowered his head to the ground and began to sniff again. It took him a second or two to pick up the scent again from the ground, but when he found it he followed it closely, keeping his nose to the ground.

His nose led him past the door to the Turtle Paradise, and over towards a large stone barrel that stood just next to the wall. Red XIII circled the barrel, and then gently climbed up the side to where the stone lid was resting slightly ajar. He was careful not to get too close or sniff too loudly, but when he finally jumped down and looked at Cloud, he nodded confidently.

Cloud nodded back, and signalled to the others to get into position. They moved instantly, splitting up and guarding the two bridges that led to the rest of the town. Aeris, Cid and Barret took the northern bridge leading to the Item Shop, while Tifa, Vincent and Cait took the eastern bridge, blocking off the way to the Weapon Shop.

With everyone in position, Cloud and Red XIII both turned to the barrel. Cloud strolled up cautiously and peered through the gap created by the stone lid, but all he could see was blackness. He then stepped away from the barrel and punched out with his fist, hitting the side of the barrel with all his might.

His fist connected hard with the side of the barrel, and the sound of his punch echoed loudly inside the barrel. Cloud hit it again, and the echo sounded once more. He hit it fiercely one more time, before a pair of hands burst out of the side and pushed the lid away, and Yuffie leapt out of the barrel.

The girl landed and tried to flee, dodging the swift snaps of Red XIII's jaws as he again tried to bite her ankles and stop her fleeing. Yuffie spun round and ran towards the eastern bridge, only to see that her route was blocked by Tifa, Vincent and Cait, who had their weapons ready to use against her if she tried to pass.

Seeing that there was no way she could pass Yuffie turned the other way and headed towards the northern bridge, hoping to cross into the safety of the forest. She soon skidded to a stop as she saw that bridge was blocked off, too, with Barret, Aeris and Cid standing in her way.

Without thinking Yuffie turned around again and headed back, but quickly stopped as she saw Cloud and Red XIII standing directly behind her. She turned around but remembered all her exits were blocked. It then hit her that she was trapped and she sagged heavily, shaking her head. Seeing this, Cloud stepped forward.

"You can't get away, Yuffie," he told her sternly.

Yuffie looked up through meek eyes and looked around at the others, who were slowly advancing on her. She knew she had know way out, and she also knew that playing the sweet and innocent was not going to get her out of this mess. Knowing this she sighed heavily, and regretfully nodded her head.

"O…okay," she said timidly, her voice barely a whisper. "I know… I was wrong…… You win. I'll give you back your materia."

Cloud then motioned for her to move and Yuffie complied, walking slowly and shyly down the middle of the group towards the eastern bridge. The others followed close behind her, Barret staying especially close so he had the girl within his range, just in case she tried to make a break for it.

While Yuffie led them off to the other end of Wutai, two blue-uniformed Shinra soldiers came running down from the far west of the town, from where the pagoda stood. They looked around aimlessly for a second before crossing the northern bridge, heading for the Turtle Paradise bar. They peered through the paper sheet for a second, before they ran straight into the bar, running to the three Turks that were still sitting around the table.

"So our reports were right!" one of the soldiers shouted as they stopped beside the Turk's table. Elena stood up as they approached, but Reno and Rude didn't flinch. "He IS here on vacation! We finally found him! Get the Turks here for back-up!"

The two soldiers waited for the Turks to make a move. They expected the three to jump up out of their chairs and help out right away, and were incredibly surprised when none of the three Turks moved. Instead Reno just looked down at his glass, now his fourth in a line of empty glasses, and didn't look at the soldiers. "…What a drag," he grumbled, pushing the glass away.

The two soldiers gasped and looked at each other in surprise, wondering what Reno meant. The first soldier then turned back. "Ww, what was that…?" he asked.

Reno sighed heavily, and reached out for yet another glass lined up on the table. By now of course the ice had melted, and Reno frowned. "Right now we're off duty and can't run off to save your butts."

"We know you're off duty, but…"

"If you knew that, then don't bother us!" Reno snapped, suddenly sounding angry as he slammed down his glass and spun round to face the two soldiers, an irritated glare in his eyes. "Lookin' at you is makin' me sober."

The two soldiers seemed taken aback by Reno's aggressive attitude. They looked at Rude, who was looking at them through his black shades but saying nothing, his lips pursed tightly together. Elena was looking at Reno in equal surprise, completely confused.

"But you all have orders from headquarters to look for him too!" the first soldier protested. Reno replied by picking up his glass and taking a huge mouthful out of it, swirling it around his mouth before swallowing it in one loud gulp. The soldier stared in disbelief one second more, before he frowned and shook his fist at Reno. "All right, that's it!" he shouted. "We'll get him without any help from the Turks, just you see!"

Reno shrugged, not really caring what the soldiers did. The soldier growled angrily and then stormed out of the Turtle Paradise, his comrade firmly in tow. Seconds later the soldier returned again, still glaring at Reno through his visor.

"And don't think that headquarters isn't going to hear about this!" he shouted threateningly, before he turned and walked back out again, sliding the doors shut behind him. Again Reno shrugged, and turned back to his drink.

Elena watched silently as the two soldiers stormed off, hearing them grumble all the way outside the bar. She felt a little awkward, as she had never disobeyed a direct order from headquarters before. She couldn't believe that Reno was acting in this way, disobeying an order! Thinking that started to make her angry, and she spun around to face him.

"Reno, do you think that was really such a good idea?" she demanded, losing her temper to Reno's laidback attitude. "I mean is that the way a professional, a Turk would act?"

"Elena," Reno said to her calmly, speaking in such a way that it made Elena's blood boil even more. "Don't misunderstand. A pro isn't someone who sacrifices himself for his job. That's just a fool."

Elena stared at him, her fists clenched and shaking, unable to believe her ears. She turned to face Rude. "Rude…?" she said, hoping that at least Rude would see sense.

To her utmost dismay Rude said nothing to agree with her. He simply sighed and looked away from her, placing his glass on the table. "…………" was all he could muster.

Elena frowned. "Well, I don't buy that!" she snapped. "Goodbye!" And with that she walked out of the bar, leaving Rude and Reno behind. When she was gone Rude looked up at the door, which was still open.

"………" he muttered silently.

"Relax," Reno assured him. "She's not a child. Let her have her way now…" He then downed the rest of his glass, and signalled to the barman for another healthy round.