Beneath the Bleeding Sun
By Kyra1
It's the unrelenting shadows, because eventually everyone is lost in the darkness. Yuffie, Vincent, AVALANCHE and the WRO against an already broken enemy.
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Chapter 1
Return to Midgar
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It wasn't supposed to be like this. There wasn't supposed to be anything human. Shinra wasn't real. They had always been so lofty and then Deepground, well, so much had been destroyed. There just wasn't supposed to be anything left.
Yuffie nudged the ruined doll with the toe of her boot. She had forgotten that the city wasn't all Shinra and soldiers and fat men in suits. There had been families and children and parks and so very many smiles, so different than what her father and the rest of Wutai had always spoken about the city. She stepped around the doll and moved along the road towards the large building looming in the close distance.
Shinra headquarters.
She was unsure what she's doing there, but it didn't give her falter in her steps. Without the need for battle and the rush of adrenaline burning through her veins she couldn't help but shrink in on herself. It wasn't everyday one went strolling into a ghost town kicking up dust and digging through the shadows, not that she strolled or would even deign to dig through other people's closets, hell she didn't really dig through her own, at least not without gloves and a shovel. But it was eerily quiet and even in the midday sun the emptiness; the complete silence of the ruined city brought a chill to her. It was almost as though the ghosts of the city itself followed her.
"Yuffie." Her radio prickled suddenly.
It took her a minute to twist it free of her belt loop, all the while grumbling why the man insisted she carry it with her when she had a perfectly fine phone. Finally tugging it free she smiled smarmily into the black box. "Reeve."
"You should be getting close to your contact."
"Good." She said and glanced over her shoulder to a store with its roof collapsed in. "It's way freaky here. I mean the place is crawling with scavengers and looters, but it's completely dead here."
It was too easy to register the surprise in his voice. "There hasn't been any resistance?"
"Deepground?" She spotted one of their silvery masks and hurried towards it practically leaping the last few steps to kick it. The mask bounced and clattered down the hill out of sight. "Nah, they know better than to mess with the Great Ninja Yuffie. They wouldn't stand a chance."
It was his tired voice, so very like her father's, the next time he drawled her name. "Yuffie."
Suddenly she was serious and planted one hand on her hip, then lifted it to wag her finger at the radio as though he could see her through the speaker. "Look we haven't even seen a Deepground soldier outside the Shinra building in over a month, and you tell me to grab my stuff and head to Midgar, to Shinra no less, and you still haven't told me why!" She let her wagging finger drop to her side and jerked her head away.
"Now I'm not one to complain," she started back, anger rising again.
"Yuffie."
The short laugh couldn't be stopped and she waved her hand furiously at the radio. "Okay, okay so I am, but…"
"You're looking for something." The radio crackled loudly.
And finally she was silent. "What?" At least for a moment.
"You'll know it when you see it." There was the sound of a door opening and then murmuring before he spoke again. "Continue to the Shinra building, your contact will be outside. I'll contact you again after you arrive."
"That's it?" She huffed into the box and when it was obvious he didn't intend to respond she puffed out her chest and growled to herself wishing she hadn't already sent the helmet on its little vacation down the hill. "You're the boss man." Yuffie purred a little too sweetly into the box, and then went about hooking it back to her belt loop.
It wasn't the first time he had sent her on some assignment without really filling her in, but it wasn't really like him to keep things completely quiet. Sure Reeve had been a little cautious since Deepground, which meant he kept a tighter lid on situations. There had been an investigation of what was left of the place, Vincent, Chaos, she corrected herself had really done a number on the place. The sudden thought of the gunslinger hovering above the ruined city with those hideous wings sprouting from him sending little black shadows snaking across the ground gave her a chill, and then she was furiously certain of one fact: Reeve would have told Vincent why he was going digging through a junky city.
Like a firecracker popping and sizzling out she gave herself a moment, stomping her feet a couple times for good measure. Where was another one of those helmets? When she was sure she was spent Yuffie dragged herself along the street. The building loomed overhead. Gawd, she would have hated living there. There weren't exactly houses that close to the building, mostly blown out stores and restaurants, which brought the question: Where did the people live?
Yuffie paused at the sight of the other side of the hill. Ahead of her the plate was cracked and falling. The ground had become a length of an oddly angled incline down that spanned several yards before giving away entirely. She didn't think, she'd always been one to just do and hope for things to work themselves out, and leapt onto the plate. Spreading her arms out for balance like a surfer she'd seen in Costa del Sol the wind rushed around her. Yuffie used the few seconds to scan the area, hastily throwing together a plan, and as the edge neared she launched herself into the air. Tucking her arms to her chest she flipped neatly, landing in a crouch across the gap on a small raised outcropping of debris.
The metal groaned underneath the impact of her meager weight as she let loose a smile and jumped to her feet throwing a fist into the air. "Ten points for style!"
And of course that was when the metal shifted forward sending her top over tea kettle to the ground. "Ow…" She whined rubbing the back of her head with a gloved hand where the Conformer from its strapped place to her back had knocked against her skull. "More like a six…."
Before she even had a chance to crawl back to her feet a voice called, "Miss Kisaragi!"
Someone had seen her. So much for ninjas being graceful. By the time she was on her feet there wasn't a chance to discreetly brush herself off, the uniformed WRO officer had almost crossed the distance. "Miss Kisaragi!" He called saluting her as he approached, which strangely didn't satisfy her, just prompt her to twist her lips in that way Chekov claimed meant she wasn't paying attention. "We're all ready for you up ahead."
"Uh, great." She made an overly grand sweeping gesture. "Lead on."
Doggedly Yuffie followed the officer the final distance, all the while wondering what exactly they were ready for. The thought had to be pushed aside to turn sideways and wiggle herself through the collapsed doorway.
It wasn't at all what she was expecting. She knew that meteor had pretty well ruined Midgar and before that Cloud or maybe it was Reeve had told her how Weapon had attacked the Shinra building head on. Surprisingly the interior really had held up pretty well. Sure one of the staircases was lying on the ground in shards and nature was already trying to reclaim the cracks in the ground and the walls, but it still reeked of a business. Maybe it was the receptionist desk with its stack of yellowing papers and dusty photos that still claimed the room for Shinra, despite its overturned chair with its missing wheels. Even in death Shinra wasn't really dead. It still held some strength and that was a thought that she knew she would never shake.
It was the feeling of not being alone and eyes watching her that brought her back to take notice of the WRO soldiers corralled into one of the corners in the back. "The path is clear." One of the men wearing a red toboggan called.
The officer that met her out front walked over to the other soldiers and began digging through one of the packs on the ground. "Our mission was to secure the Shinra building and deliver this to you." While he was digging she covered the distances between them so that when he removed a manila folder he raised it to her from where he was crouched. Passed confused, she slipped the top open and started to reach inside when he spoke back up. "We left two men stationed below to maintain the entrance to Deepground.
This struck her as odd.
"It's still that bad?" She folded the envelope as best as its contents would allow and tucked it away in the pouch attached to her belt loop beside her radio.
This gave him pause and she knew she'd asked the wrong question by the way he stared back at her all angled jaw and narrowed eyes. "There's reason to believe that Deepground stragglers may be returning. The building wasn't entirely cleared after the first incident." There was something about the man that distinctly reminded her of Cid, probably the thick strong odor of cigarettes that emanated off him like cologne. "I led one of the teams that was sent in for a thorough sweep after the incident, but most of them had already abandoned the facility. When we got down there it was much larger than the Commissioner had anticipated. Besides, where else does a rat go when it rains?"
Home.
It took her digging her toes into the soles of her shoes until they burned to keep from barking back at him for the lecture, so was no surprise when she didn't thank him, but simply waved flippantly and proceeded a little to her right where the others were waiting.
The floor was scuffed more so the closer had come to the others, proof someone had cleared the way for an investigation. She let herself imagine Reeve shouting orders all the while that little Cait doll wound about his feet.
The other soldiers clamored about a hallway tucked underneath one of the stairways. One of them nodded to her, two of them whispering and the last one falling into pace behid her as she turned the corner. "Good luck." He called when she stopped to glance at him, then he turned and rushes back to the others.
New recruit, she smiled to herself and approached a large square hole in the floor. Someone, most likely one of the WRO had welded metal rods along the side at an attempt to make a ladder. Some ladder, it was entirely uneven, and just as she had earlier, Yuffie did not think twice. "Look out below!" And she leapt down the hole.
This time the floor did not give way beneath her. The walls spanned ahead of her and she couldn't halt the since of foreboding that came over her as she stood and looked up the tunnel in which she had fallen. It struck her it was much deeper than she had originally thought, and much smaller. Back to the task at hand she moved down the hall, suddenly remembering the manila envelope she had been given. It took a few tugs to get it loose of the pouch, then she dumped the contents unceremoniously into her other hand. Electronics? She shook the folder and then peered inside as though something extra might mysteriously appear, and when nothing else materialized she tossed the folder over her shoulder and grabbed her radio.
"Reeve." The confusion welling within her didn't allow her the patience to wait for a response. "You do remember what happened with Chief, right?" There wasn't really even a point in her pretending to be good with technology. Outside of a phone she was practically helpless. Security Chief Boaz still wouldn't allow her in the Communications room back at the WRO headquarters without her hands being in her pockets. All technology given to her required a thorough tutorial as well as a typed manual; not that she ever read the manual, but it was required none the less.
Suddenly she was all too aware he hadn't responded. "Reeve?" The little device crackled in response a laughing testament of her growing fear of being entirely alone in the corridor.
"Yuffie." His voice rang through clearly.
"What's on the cd?"
"Nothing, yet." Of course. "That's what you're getting."
She tapped her foot along to the popping of the pieces into place. "And the card key?"
"To open a door."
Had she not been around him and Vincent for so long since the beginning of the WRO she would have fallen over at the seriousness of his answer, instead she settled on rolling her eyes and supplying a sarcastic comment. "Wow, I had no idea."
He ignored the comment entirely. "Keep going. I'm sending your comms unit a location."
"To what?"
"A door," Her next comment died in her throat as he continued. "To somewhere we haven't quite figured out."
And she knew he was aware he'd hooked her interest, and could practically see his toothy cat like smile. That Cait doll was much more like him than anyone was willing to admit. "During the last sweep of Deepground we were able to get our hands on some interesting information."
"What kind…"
"The kind that helps in rebuilding. From underground oxygenation to alternate methods of energy and more efficient engines for airships…it's all there, however," She waited impatiently now clasping the radio with both hands as though she could will his voice strait from its little black corners. "We ran into a problem."
There's the distinct sound of metal shifting in the corridor, causing her to recoil like a frightened little canary. When she was certain no one was going to come lunging around the corner with a machete she asked, "I'm not going to like this am I?"
"All references to this location list it as N21, however we can't find an N21 on any of the schematics that we managed to get our hands on."
She glanced across the hallway as if the abandoned halls were still in use, and then whispered. "You think Shinra hid it?"
"It wouldn't be the first time."
There was far more truth in his statement than she would have cared to acknowledge, so she gave a little hiccupping laugh and tried for innocence. "Why would they hide that kind of junk?"
A lengthy pause held her before she managed to let the silence play itself out without yelling into the box for an answer. "That's our primary concern. This is why you and Vincent have been sent in."
"Vincent?" She deflated like a balloon. The knowledge that she wasn't trusted with this all on her own tempted her to stomp back out the front door of the building, if it wouldn't be such a long climb back up.
"He's," There's a slight pause as Reeve can be heard clearing his throat. "Working on something else first. Your concern is that information. I shouldn't have to tell you to be careful, but who knows what else Shinra might have been trying to hide."
Something about his concern made the ninja smile and rub the heel of her boot along the floor. "Yeah, thanks a lot mom." Then more seriously to herself, while she tucked the radio away, "There's no end to their secrets." After everything they had dealt with from Shinra, Reeve had plenty of reasons for worrying.
Yuffie stole a moment to tug out the comm. unit and watched a gold symbol dance across the screen. There was a pang in her stomach as the screen shifted to show an alternate view of the underground passages. It was going to be much further than she had thought. Hooking it back to her hip, Yuffie continued glaring at the device as though it were the sole reason for her troubles. Wordlessly, she began down the hallway, picking her way through collapsed walls and forgotten tools. The lights highlighted her already pale skin and plastered a sickly yellow to her narrow shoulders, but it was the dark shadows from the debris that did nothing to help disguise her slight body.
She tried to imagine watching her own back as she strode through a door labeled N21, a yawning room ahead of her with tubes filled with mako and other insidious chemicals. She imagined the cheers she would get for stopping at the first computer terminal just inside the door, and her miraculous ability to place all the information needed on the cd she had been given. She imagined Deepground soldiers flinging themselves helplessly in front of her as she fought her way effortlessly back to where an elevator would take her to the surface. The image was clear in her mind while she wandered the corridors, smiling to keep her uneasy calm.
It was something Reeve had said that ghosted behind her, and she knew he was probably right in one regard. Who knew what else the Shinra might have been hiding.
Something told her she wasn't going to be home in time for dinner.
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Expect updates every other week as two thirds of this behemoth has already been written. I'm going through editing much of it so that I can get it posted while I'm sorting out how I want to tie everything up in the end. I've always wanted to write for Final Fantasy and am only just now getting around to it. This idea has been in my head and I could no longer ignore it. This is going to be an action adventure with a bit of romance thrown in. Cronstructive criticism is welcome. Drop me a line. ^_^
