One of the last chapters uploading, so read profile for explanation. I am terribly sorry.

Sin: Good luck love….I can't wait either

Stringing together stale words

Even so, all we want to do

Is to share simple thoughts

The tickling wind blowing through today

Is abandoning the ruins of yesterday

Laughing with you, now we're alive

-Seishun Kyousoukyku

-TiA

Emotion:

Regret

The first thing that registered to her when she had finally awakened was the throb in her eyes and the dryness in her throat. She swallowed and felt that taste she always had if she didn't brush her teeth before going to bed and tiredly reached up to rub her eyes. They felt so dry and itchy like that bad eye infection she once had as a child, but she knew this probably appeared to be much more vulgar then a simple pinkness.

How much longer until she was completely blind? Or perhaps she had slept through her whole final period of light, the thought scared her so she opened her eyes just to check and gasped. All she saw was dark.

She tried to catch a grip and told herself that it was probably night time, considering the fact that so much had happened during that day… or maybe it was already the day after? She couldn't really get a jist of how long she had been out, by the feel of her body, though, she had to say she was asleep for quite a few hours. She moved her head this way and that then found a source of light; the crack underneath what she could assume was a door.

When she tried to stand up she regretted it instantly as everything came crashing down upon her; her injury throbbed violently and her stomach churned in an unpleasant manner. There was also the dizziness she was now suffering from and she could feel the weakness in her knees buckling underneath her. She felt so incredibly helpless as she sunk to the floor and could feel the strain of her heart pumping blood to the muscles unused for so long.

She took in a deep cleansing breath and grasped the side of the bed for support before using the strength left in her arms to shakily get to her feet. First one knee bent, then the other, and finally she could feel the muscles in her legs working to straighten her out even though they felt like jelly. She slowly shuffled her way over to the door and rested on the wall beside it heavily, panting and clutching her ripped diaphragm, it occurred to her now that there was a presence of bandages across her chest, legs, and even arms. The thought finally hit her that perhaps she wasn't presentable, but she could care less, she knew the one home would have already seen her naked anyways, why should she care now?

Slowly the light seeped into the darkness of the room and devoured it, the brightness startled her and when she turned around after opening the door only a few inches she could see the room completely. Even though it was still dark and shadowed she could see the bed that she had once rested on minutes before, a dresser in the other corner and a lamp placed upon it. It was not what she remembered from the last time she had been to Tifa's house, but she came to the conclusion that she was far too dazed to really remember what her old room looked like.

Voices drifted to her ears from down the stairs and Yuffie quickly assessed that she was in Vincent's old room, she frowned slightly and transferred her weight over to her left leg, the one that wasn't really that badly injured. Why would they place her in Vincent's room of all things…? Perhaps this was Tifa's way of getting back at her for something, Tifa was slightly humorous that way.

She hesitated, knowing that a long explanation on her part was to fallow the end of those stairs but she knew that it would be cowardly to prolong it. She cursed at her own weakness for being so easily defeated and caused such a situation to occur. The small part of her mind whispered to her to grab her things and run, the louder and much more obnoxious part screamed back: where thehell is she going to go with those injuries?

She gazed down at her bandages and noticed that someone had the decency to put her in a pair of shorts and a shirt. She sighed and slowly made her way down the hallway to the stairs, heavily relying on the wall for the support she needed. When she reached the top of those damned steps she could hear the melodiously soft tenor of the gunslinger and stopped, leaning forwards to listen.

"But we don't know why…"

He trailed off and there was a murmur of consent of some sort and Yuffie decided it best to hear what they were speaking of before she went barging in. She stepped to the first stair, then the second, and slowly sat down at the top of the stairs, leaning her head on the wall beside her and listening.

"But Vincent," It was Tifa. "Why else would Yuffie go to the City of the Ancient's twice, she obviously wanted to… see someone…" There was an awkward silence in the room, and she could just see Tifa eyeing Cloud and gauging his reaction before continuing.

"Possible," Commented the said blonde, "but why would she feel the need to just pack up and do so…? The girl exclaims everything she's going to do…"

There was a couple chuckles from Cid and Barret, or what she could assume as much, but Yuffie felt a bit of hurt lay upon her chest at the rather mean thing he said; he didn't even sound like he was joking. "It leads me to think that she had some sort of hidden agenda, Yuffie always thinks she can handle this sort of stuff on her own, that's why she was hurt so badly."

How badly Yuffie wanted to march down those stairs and see the looks on everyone's faces when they saw her listening in. Maybe she would fake tears… or not… they seemed to be coming all on their own.

"All I wanted…" She whispered to the laughter that bounced up the stairs, "Was to prove that I could help… that you all could relax…"

"You're right…" The laughter died away instantly, "She most likely did want to do it on her own, but I don't think you like words being put in your mouth Cloud." Ooh, someone sounded angry, at least she knew that she could trust someone. "I guess you never knew how it felt to want to do something on your own." Yuffie had never heard this voice before, "Whatever I'm out of here, when she wakes up, tell her I'd be happy to meet her."

There was shifting and then, a small goodbye from Tifa, finally the door slammed shut and everything was silent.

"What the hell is up with her, she doesn't even know the brat…" muttered Cid in a rather defensive manner, she could see him crossing his arms and looking dejected.

"We gave a poor example of ourselves… here we are talking about someone who she sees as our injured friend… and we talk about her like that…" There was a deep regret and sadness lacing through Tifa's words, "I guess it never occurred to us that our teasing was a bit extreme from the outside looking in…"

Yuffie felt like scoffing; 'teasing?' she demanded crossly to herself, 'what the hell ELSE were you all saying?'

She sighed, knowing that she probably would not get anything done that night, they had all erupted in whispers and she obviously could not let her presence be known or they'd know she was eavesdropping. She cringed as her sides protested in pain while she stood up and limped her way back to her room, stumbled across the floor and then fell into the bed.

She never noticed how much walking from the stairs and back could take out of her and didn't even realize the door had opened slightly. She curled up into a little ball and faced the wall, thinking about all that had happened to her in the past few weeks.

Was she a nuisance no matter what she did, did they all think of her as an attention-seeking childish thief? No one ever cared about her, she only had the memories of her mother; and even then she felt no comfort like she normally did. Why was it that everything she thought was real, ended up being fake and transparent like a mirage?

Her eyes widened when a slight pressure was applied to her shoulder, she shook her self-pity off and decided to act normally. The hand hesitated and then, after it was removed the weight of a body hit the bed, Yuffie could faintly make out the pretty sigh of Tifa Lockhart.

"I know you're awake, Yuffie-chan,"

"You're very observant Lockhart-san," The elder brunette flinched at the coldness in her voice and the name she had been referred to. She was used to hearing that from customers (and even then they mostly never called her such) but not from a friend she had known for four years. "Thank you for your hospitality, I'll take my leave in the morning."

Tifa looked hurt and alarmed, "Not with that wound you aren't!"

"As if you really care."

"Isn't that being a little childish?"

"You know nothing of being alone," She accused warningly.

Tifa stared down at the icy form beside her, that voice wasn't the voice of the usually hyper and upbeat Yuffie Kisaragi she's grown to know over the past few years. She felt anger bubble up in her gut but she shoved it down and ignored it, not giving the ninja what she obviously wanted. It was true that Tifa may have had people who cared about her now, but when her father had died she thought she had lost the only hope of being loved.

All of that aside, when did being alone ever come up in their previous conversation, she wondered what the younger woman meant by this interjection. Was she expecting a response, or a certain reaction to her harsh and rather self-centered words? Tifa didn't know what to do or say to this, so she simply sat there contemplated it's meaning and after a few moments she decided to switch tactics.

"Yuffie, we were all worried about you, why don't you tell me what happened?" She cautiously rested her hand on the others shoulder and waited for something to happen. She waited for what seemed like an eternity, then finally the same harsh voice replied to her.

"Why do you need to know?" There was a pause in which Tifa opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off. "There is nothing for you to do, the world is not in danger and no one important has died."

Tifa frowned, obviously not liking where Yuffie was taking this, what reason did she need then the protection of her only real female companion?

"Yuffie," she sighed and turned her own back to the ninja, so that she was facing the cabinet, the light from the crack in the doorway illuminating the side of her face. "If we didn't care about you, don't you think we would have left you where you were lying to bleed to death?" There was a shift behind her, but no response. "I don't know how you feel about us, but every time we've been in trouble you were there for us, why can't we be there-"

"-Because," Yuffie sat bolt upright, angrily flaring her words at Tifa, "because I didn't think I would NEED any help, because I thought for once I wouldn't just be the side show. I'm so sorry for stepping into the spotlight, I know I'm a pathetic loser who can't do anything on their own…" The voice became so weak and fragile that Tifa's stomach flipped unpleasantly.

"I know I can't do anything to save the ones I love, damn it, I can't even help those who are already dead. The final battle four years ago; I did nothing but watch as the fighting flew by me, a throw of the conformer here, a splatter of blood there… but Cloud did everything… Then a two years ago, once again it was Cloud and you, then Vincent… and just when I thought I was getting close to someone…" She trailed off pathetically, curling her knees up to her chest. "He ignores me…"

Tifa wasn't sure if she had meant Vincent by that or someone totally different, but the hurt was lacing through her words and Tifa suddenly felt bad. "I thought that I would actually be able to help you all without involving you…"

'So you took the weight of the new threat on your shoulders, is that it? Do you remember what happened to Cloud when he did that?"

"Psh, he still succeeded…"

"But at the cost of something precious to him, he knew he could rely on us, but he chose to fight alone, and now he's like a shadow of his former self…" She sighed deeply, "One no one will ever be able to revert…"

'Funny,' thought the younger girl sadly, 'that's all I ever was… a shadow to my father of what my mother could have been…'

"Yuffie, please… let us help you… no… let me help you!"

Aeris' words came back to her {You're going to need their strength Yuffie, all of it}.

Yuffie smiled softly, maybe she was being rather childish about all of this, she would probably beat herself up for it later, but she was never one to think before she leapt head-first into trouble.

So she told her, everything she had learned so far, carefully leaving out the problems at home, such as the death and the marriage proposal. She told her all about the tainted white materia, why she had run to get it only to have it stolen once again and used against her. She explained all about the curse, it's effects on people and even how she had taken down all those soldiers by herself just to have the stupid woman almost kill her.

During her explanation, it occurred to her that it probably would have been smarter to tell them all of this from the beginning, then the organization wouldn't have the white materia. Her pride would have been damaged, and she would have hated to run back crying to her friends once more to save the world, but the truth still laid it out before her painfully clear. Because of her, things were worse as to when they started off.

But now she would fix it, even if it did cost her, her life.

Tifa listened intently, drinking in all of the newest information and trying to come up with a reasonable plan to get everything back to normal.

"Wow! That's so amazing, you did all that?"

Both girls turned their heads towards the door to see a blonde, poking her head though the crack in the doorway, Yuffie instantly recognized her voice as the girl from before. They watched her as she sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck and stepped into the room fully adorning a coat and a normal pair of jeans with a blue t-shirt. "Sorry, I forgot my coat and I came back to get it, they all said to come up here and talk to Tifa-san so…." Her eyes shimmered with childish delight, "Oh it's so nice to finally meet you Kisaragi-san!" She bowed respectfully.

Yuffie had never been shown such courtesy before and she was a little shell shocked to see a bouncy blond come running into their room. But the woman definitely looked to be a fighter with her well toned body and had managed to get up to the room without either girl hearing her.

"Yuffie is fine," She assured her finally, breaking into a small smile, "Nice to meet you…?" She fished around for a name, realizing that no one had mentioned this girl ever.

"Oh how rude of me! I'm Ryona," She bowed once more and then walked over to the both of them. "I'm very sorry about before Tifa-san but it irked me that someone Reno spoke so highly of was being trashed before my eyes."

Yuffie looked completely and utterly confused at the statement, since when did Reno ever even talk about her, let alone sing praises?

"Yeah well… I don't like seeing me trashed before my eyes either…Ryona-san, you're good friends with the letch- I mean…. Reno-san?"

Ryona laughed heartily and feeling more confident walked into the room and knelt on the floor beside the bed.

"Oh please, you don't have to act formal around me I know he's a ladies man, in fact I've seen if first hand…" She paused, pressing a slender finger to her chin in thought, "If I may, what you were talking about before…This curse placed on you, you said it was a curse of blindness… but isn't it possible that because this was the first try at the materia… could it have malfunctioned…?"

Tife pursed her lips, she looked towards her younger companion and then towards the slender blonde before her, "It's possible, but if you look at it logically, Yuffie is already showing signs of the curse… is there any way to test if the curse is going to just... go away?"

Yuffie rolled her eyes, "If I didn't already know I was losing my sight then I wouldn't be here… my vision is dimmed, it's like I'm looking through a tinted screen, I've estimated only a week until I'm completely blind…"

There was an awkward pause that drifted about the room, each girl lapsed into a silence that no one wanted to awkwardly break. Tifa nor Ryona knew if this would be a touchy subject for the Wutainese heir and didn't want to tread on landmines if they didn't have to. Yuffie gazed over into the blankness of the room, she suddenly jumped up and, ignoring her wounds, hobbled over to the dresser where a small handheld mirror was usually placed. She picked up the reflective surface and gazed into it, she feared the soon-to-be grotesque designs that would appear over her eyes, and she could see a hint of them forming at the corners of her pure grey orbs.

She slammed the mirror down onto the desk and could hear the startled gasps of the two girls behind her, at that point she really didn't care. She could feel the intense self hate that was swirling into the pits of her stomach, how could she be so careless? If only she had been a little bit faster, thought a little more ahead, listened more intently, then she wouldn't be stuck in a cage with no exit right now. She would surely loose her sight within less then a week, and here she was with absolutely nothing to do about it.

How the hell was she going to get the white materia back when she could barely see what was right in front of her rhetorically or normally speaking? There was so little time for her to formulate a plan of action, and she had to focus on her own problems as well, what could she do?

"Tifa," Her voice was rather testy, but it wasn't showing any signs of anger at anyone else but herself, "Get everyone down in the bar on the double, and if you can lock up for the night… please."

She heard the rustle of clothing and listened intently as the busty bar owner rushed to do as her friend had said, not even bothering to ask why. They all knew things were serious now, and Yuffie still had to explain everything to the others, if the ninja heir wanted to take charge, then she might as well, she knew the most (at least for now) about what was happening.

Once the door had clicked shut, Yuffie breathed in and exhaled, her shoulder drooped, losing all signs of tension. Ryona contemplated if she should go and offer the other young woman some moral support but decided just to give her some space. She didn't really know what exactly was going on, but she would rather not get in the way of these people. Although, even though they all seemed to be close, and she was the odd man out she still wanted to support them, they were the first friends she had had in a while.

"Yuffie-san, I'd like to help, I know we don't know each other very well but… well…" She trailed off, sincerely at a loss for words but the meaning still hung in that silence.

"Thanks," Came a soft reply, then Yuffie turned around with a forced smile gracing her face. Ryone was happy she was making a conscious effort to be positive when it would be much easier to sink into depression, "We should get going, I can't call a meeting and then not show up right?"

The light had long since faded from the sky, leaving nothing but starry skies and a swirling navy night. Yet young lips let out a slightly frustrated sigh, parting slightly and then setting into a straight line. She really didn't like it when her computer froze on her, and now was the time when she was needed the most and people were relying on her. She ignored her bodies pleas for energy, knowing full well what it wanted and refusing to rely on Mako any longer. She reached into a small container and took another cut up piece of carrot, biting a piece off into her mouth and chewing thoughtfully. Her eyes trained on the screen and numbers flashed by her vision, her left hand flying across the keyboard and creating a series of clicking sounds as she input codes.

With both hands free she focused both on the task at hand, searching through the archives that had been left behind by Deepground, she had been extremely lucky to come across these data fragments when they were cleaning up all those months ago. They had been sitting neglected at the bottom of some boxes in Reeve's office, and it wasn't until recently that he had allowed her entrance into the secret files. To tell the truth, she was looking for nothing unparticular originally, but as she got further and further into the deepest parts of the memory data she couldn't help but think that she would have been so much better off knowing all of this from the start. This information would have really helped against the fight those months ago, if only she had paid more attention, if only she had seen the light sooner.

If only she could have saved Shalua.

She wasn't going to let her carelessness slip up again, besides, this information may prove useless, but if she knew all of this then it may help out somewhere down the line.

Her mind skipped back for a moment to remember something Reeve had said to her on their last transmission. She leaned back in her chair and slumped her shoulders forwards, eyes dancing with unspoken memories.

-TWO MONTHS PREVIOUS-

'It's odd,' the WRO leader said as his face flashed off and on to the video conversation, 'After we had safely raided the DeepGround head quarters a lot of the remaining members didn't put any resistance when we brought them in for interrogation.' He paused for a moment to collect his thoughts, 'as well… there was something odd about how many people we found, one would think there would still at least be a couple hundred hiding out somewhere in the building- even after Vincent had made his rounds. But we only found a rounded one-fifty, doesn't that strike you as odd?'

"There were many more than that, according to my last briefing before I was captured by the WRO there were living quarters that were near the central complex that were only accessible from an elevator in the underground caverns. There were well over three hundred lying in wait there, but weren't to be dispatched unless a level five emergency occurred. Even when we attacked the head quarters and ultimately infiltrated the complex, it would have taken far too long for them to get assembled and given orders before Vincent Valentine defeated Omega." The Rui girl took a quick scan around the room she was in, looking for a data disk she had left on the table not too far away and making a mental note to look at that later. "I told you all of this before when you asked me for any extra information that may help with the mission… There wasn't any evidence that they were even told they were under attack." Replied Shelke in her normal mono tone but her voice held a kind of annoyed edge to it, as though she felt she was being accused of something.

'And I believe you,' he assured her quickly, 'we did check out these storage areas, but there were no soldiers to be found, we checked the other areas as well, a clean sweep from top to bottom and bottom to top, meeting in the middle.' He looked seriously troubled by this, scratching his neck irritated. 'I can't help but feel like they were re-located… but there haven't been any attacks anywhere lately…'

Shelke nodded in understanding, her mind already thinking a mile a minute as to what could have happened to these remaining members of the enemy organization. There WAS an escape route to get to above ground without being detected, but she had no idea where that would have led them. They had surrounded the area with a ten to twenty mile radius with even more scouts in other areas of the surrounding planes.

She resisted the urge to groan at the work placed before her, obviously they could have hid out anywhere by then, it had been at least nine or so months. They could also be plotting to try again, or now that they had a bone to pick with everyone in the WRO they COULD be staging a total wipe out.

"Reeve Tuesti, I request permission to go over the files you had gathered from the DeepGround headquarters, perhaps I can find something relevant there."
This put the leader on the spot, he nervously looked around on his side of the line and then crossed his arms across his chest.
'I don't want to cause an alarm, and I'm glad you've decided to work for me with your computer and hacking skills but… we aren't even sure that they made it out, they could have been dispatched earlier and were wiped out?' He was looking for a lifeline, but the blunt young amber-haired teen wouldn't give it to him.

"It's best to be safe then sorry, would you rather prefer another incident like a year ago popping up? You could get some more casualties…" She may not be the manipulative type normally, but she also knew exactly which buttons to press and how she could get her way with her new boss. She figured that Tuesti was the type of person who put his men first and attacking a point that had to do with them always ensured Shelke victory.

'Oh… alright, I'll send them over, make sure to put them to good use, I just don't like giving these to you outside of work…' He trailed off then waved the thought away, 'Anyways, be sure to write a detailed report of your findings, I'll want to read it.'

"Alright…" She stopped awkwardly, not really knowing how to end the pleasantries, "Thank you for the computer, it helps a lot…"

'You're very welcome Shelke.'

"Um… Goodbye?"

'Alright contact me soon, Tuesti out.'

-BACK TO PRESENT-

The ex-deepground member leaned back in her chair slightly she had been going at this for hours and still nothing of relevance popped up that would really help her out. As it was she was sending Reeve on a wild goose chase to find these missing members when his full focus could be on the reconstruction of the places after meteor had hit. But something deep inside her was telling her that she should keep looking, that eventually something was going to happen.

She heard the gentle patter of Nanaki's paws making their way towards her room from down the hallway. She inclined her head to look around the computer screen and waited for him to enter, giving her housemate her full attention. She respected him a lot, and in a way she knew that he was like the uncle she had never had, always looking out for her and treating her like a favored niece. It was a new pleasure that the computer girl really appreciated, and even though she hadn't known him before a year ago, that it felt like she had known him forever. He listened to her, and genuinely wanted to know her, not just as the shadow of Lucrecia's memories, but as a girl who had missed out on so many of life's good times and needed someone to show her them.

"Hello Nanaki," She tried to hide the yawn that she was suppressing, but his wise eyes bored right through hers. "I was just doing some work…" she added in an almost sheepish tone, inwardly realizing that no one had ever made her feel so liked, it made her feel good inside.

"Shelke, shouldn't you be getting some rest? It's getting late…" He reprimanded her softly, his soothing voice relaxing her and removing the stress that had been building up ever since she started looking at the data.

The auburn haired girl looked back to the computer and sighed in longing, she really wished that she could just find what she was looking for, but the information was so random and not ordered at all. They had to quickly upload all the documents and files before Omega had demolished the place, so they were in no specific order, and many of the files weren't named or were even corrupt.

"I wish I could, but I still have a lot more to go through," She paused and mentally battled with herself if she should ask him for help. The rational side argued that he didn't need to worry about it and it was her job to begin with, but that other part of her that had slowly been creeping out over the past little while was saying that she WAS only human and she could use someone else's opinion.

In the end the humane part of her seemed to win out, she leaned her elbows on the desk right before the keyboard and offered her caretaker a small and awkward smile, "Would you mind helping me out?"

"Not at all, just tell me what to do," He quickly made his way over to her side and then sat back on his hunches, watching the screen with a critical gaze, his deep eyes scanning across the information sliding down the screen. "What are we looking at here? 'Genetic testing altered with the canine gene?'" He quoted, squinting slightly to finish the sentence and then looking at the younger girl for any ideas.

Her face clouded over with an unreadable expression, she too, looked at the words and then looked down and didn't bother to meet his gaze. After seeing the effects of what the scientists in DeepGround were doing, with a conscious it made her slightly queasy, after all she has seen the pile of rejected experiments. Nanaki was patiently waiting for her reply, but she felt like she could give none to justify what had happened. She supposed that she would just have to tell him the horrid things they had done to people in order to produce such mindless soldiers.

"They were a breed of controllable deepground soldier, they were a cross between a human and a canine, altered to create a warrior who could have the reactions, senses, and agility a dog had." She reached out and clicked the back button on her keyboard sending the screen back to the original file contents, "There were many human lives lost in order to create them…" She took a moment to close her eyes and rid herself of these thoughts, she couldn't get distracted now, "Either way, there are many things I haven't looked through yet, tell me if you see something that has anything to do with blueprints or secret passages."

"Will do,"

There was a deep intake of breath as everyone's eyes were trained on the Wutainese princess, "Which brings us to where we are today," She finally concluded, clasping her hands in front of herself as though it were simply a school speech and nothing to do with the fate of the world.

They had to give her credit, Yuffie was really trying to think of these things positively, there was so much they still didn't understand as to why this was suddenly happening. With DeepGround so fresh in their minds they were sure it was some connection to Omega, but no one had any evidence other than what their makeshift leader had decided to share with them. No one knew what this man needed the white materia for, and on top of that, what the hell he used to actually change it to blind instead of heal. The ninja girl of their team had decided that it was best that the whole group didn't know about her little encounter with Aeris, and as of that point she hadn't had much time to brood over it.

"So basically what you're tellin' us, is that some weird-o's are tryin' to put incurable diseases and shit on people for no reason?" Summed up the Highwind pilot, taking a long drag from his cigarette and then exhaling into a wisp of smoke. "Well, we've had people try to cleanse the planet, and now we got people trying to kill everyone from rampant curses, they got any STD'S in that thing?"

"CID!" Tifa nearly decked him right there, but the small chuckle from those around her stopped her from doing so, the man was only trying to keep everyone in light spirits. Despite the fact that, once again, they would be uprooted from their normal (or as normal as it could get) lives and were out chasing ghosts.

Reeve, who had been silent until then and had just arrived in time to get into the explanation, had his head tilted down and his troubled look on his face. Vincent looked over and studied him for a time and then quietly interrupted the small bit of turmoil to ask the WRO commander what was wrong.

The leader looked up, silencing everyone and making all eyes follow on him, he stood up and began pacing back and fourth, his chin in his hand, muttering thoughtfully. Finally he stopped and turned towards the group, revealing to them what he probably should have since his suspicions had first arisen. He told them all about how he and Shelke had been talking about the unaccounted for DeepGround men who could have escaped before they had captured the grounds and forced the army into submission.

"She's currently looking into it," He assured them, seeing the worried looks on all of their faces, "I have faith that she'll come through."

"That would explain it though, all the men that were there even after we had defeated Deepground, there must be a connection!" The Kisaragi heir stood abruptly, ignoring the intense pain that went shooting up her body from the sudden movement. She looked down, collecting her thoughts and then decided on a course of action, "Alright, I want you guys to bear with me, I think we need to look at this carefully and take all the steps to ensure the planet isn't in danger anymore…" She took Reeve's place as the centre of attention. Her eyes softened as she placed them on each Avalanche (and other) members of the room, "I'm so sorry, I placed this all on you now, I had promised myself that I would do this on my own and not try to drag you all back into this… But if we're going to fight again then we need to do it together, no more going on my own , I promise." She held up a hand and covered her heart in a mock vow.

"We're here for ya brat, we had to chase Spiky and Vampire boy over here, might as well let you drag us through the mud too!" Boomed Barret good-naturedly, crossing his arms across his chest and sending a cheeky grin over to where Cloud was sitting and sending a rather put-out stare.

"H-hey!" cried the twenty year old indignantly, "If it was up to me I wouldn't drag any of you through the mud but… I have a promise to keep to a couple people actually." Realization dawned on her as she said that, she sent a quick look over to the gunslinger of their group and then faced everyone once again.

She was still so reluctant to tell them everything, to bring them all back and throw them into the battle field once more. What had happened to Tifa's wish of a quiet life with her bar and Danzel, to Cloud's delivery service, to Barret and his daughter, to Cid and his wife, to Vincent and his quiet existence? Everything that she didn't want to happen was currently happening, and even though she felt horrible, a small part of her was happy to see them all again, and to know that they had her back if she needed it. God even Reeve and Reno were there, more as friends then armed support, and now Ryona was there lending a helping hand.

When had things turned around, when had she deserved such loyal friends?

It was time Yuffie Kisaragi took charge, it was time that she showed them just how mature and strong she could be. She was still the same person on the inside, but now wasn't the time for justice speeches, she could do those all she wanted later… but now was the time for action.

"Alright, I've pretty much narrowed down our search to the DeepGround old head quarters and Neibleheim, as well as other concentrated areas that the DeepGround liked to stay near. We should probably go in parties and see what we can dig up-"

"-Whoa! When the hell did YOU turn into a leader brat, you hiding a split personality in that hear of yers like Vampire boy over here?" Cut in Cid once more, leaning forwards and watching the youngest of their group with amusement.

"Oh I'm sorry, is a girl in charge hurting your manhood Cid?" Teased the bartender resting her elbows on the bar counter top, having being in that position for quite a while now.

Cid blanched, his cigarette almost falling out of his mouth, "That ain't-"

Yuffie could tell this wasn't getting them anywhere, she looked around at the remaining members of the room who weren't nit picking at each other. Reeve, Reno, Ryona, Barret and Cloud were all watching Tifa and Cid in amusement but when her eyes landed on Vincent she met crimson. He was watching her with a calculating gaze, she tilted her head slightly to the side and continued their little staring contest. He wasn't staring through her, which meant that he wasn't talking with his inner demons, and he was blinking, so he hadn't fallen asleep with his eyes open…

Realization dawned on her, she turned fully towards him and walked over slowly, everyone else was still focused on the other two. She bit her lip and he crossed his arms.

"I guess I owe you an apology, huh?" He didn't respond, but his eyes turned away from her, she knew that he wasn't mad, he never was, but she could see where he was coming from. "I didn't want to bother you, you know? You had just finished with your personal… problems, so… I just figured that you would like to be left alone for a while…" She bowed her head slightly, "I guess that backfired huh?"

"You don't owe me anything," Her head snapped up, and her eyes widened a fraction, "Yuffie, your eyes, you're growing blind and if only I would have gotten this out of you earlier-"

"Whoa! Whoa!" She cried, throwing up her arms and waving them franticly as her mind went into alarm, "You had nothing to do with this, it was my own stupidity!" She calmed down slightly closing her eyes to clear her thoughts and portray a calmness, "I know that I'm not amazing like you or Cloud, but this time it's my burden, and this may sound selfish, but I want you all to help me." She grinned cheekily, "You know, 'Justice never sleeps until it puts evil to rest', and I'm not about to stand around as this guy does this-" she pointed to her eyes for emphasis, "to everyone."

She spun around dramatically and punched her fist into the air, "So LET'S GET THESE GUYS QUICK!" Everyone in the room went silent and turned towards the new protagonist, "Okay guys down to business, we're going to need to contact Computer girl and Red to give them the scoop, they'll help out as a home base. As for everyone here I assume I have your full support, right?" The people before her nodded dumbly, not really understanding the whole personality switch, "Alright so we're going to break you guys off into teams of two, we all have Cell phones and we'll contact each other if we find anything. Unfortunately, I'm going to need to stay here for a week or so, but hopefully we can nip this in the butt before it gets any worse, got it?"

Cloud shrugged, and suddenly he was hit with the oddest urge to say it, so he did, and man did it feel good: "Alright people, let's mosey!"

BEEEEP! BEEEEP!

Reeve narrowed his eyes slightly, he walked over to his lap top and opened it, he took a step aback when Shelke's face came across the screen and her voice was unsteady and worried.

"Reeve Tuesti there is something wrong; I found where the hidden passage way led the DeepGround members to!" The WRO's face turned from surprised to serious, he looked grave as he nodded and waited for her to continue. "I know the reason why they haven't tried anything as well, and I have a vague idea as to what they may be up to…"

Everyone had trained their ears onto the video connection, Yuffie took a step forwards in anticipation, already dreading an answer. If this had the most calm member of their operation in a dither then she could only imagine what was running through her mind. Something bad was happening, and now Yuffie couldn't go back on her words.

"There was another organization that was held right underneath Weiss' nose," She spoke in a hurried rush, she was so anxious to get it out that she wasn't taking in much air either. "They were studying the effects of a tainted lifestream and they wanted to use it to inflict some sort of an epidemic on people, apparently they were trying to create a master race! They quickly diverted many DeepGround soldiers to their side and apparently they were planning on taking out the Tsviets with it as soon as they accomplished their goal."

"Wait slow down Shelke, you mean that there were people in that organization that had the materials to make these experiments?"

"YES! Thirteen months ago when the police went down into Midgar and were looking for the place that may have held the Shinra laboratories they were all taken hostage by Weiss, but soon after they were captured all of them went missing, even to us! It appears that the scientists were using them for experiments to create an impure lifestream that they could inject into materia's and then ultimately use to kill off millions of people in the form of diseases!" Yuffie began to feel sick to her stomach as the explanation went on.

"And I now know who their leader is and where those soldiers came up…"

"Well? Who was it?"

"A scientist who was the apprentice of Dr. Hojo and cousin to Lucrecia Crescent."

There was a sharp intake of breath coming from the gunslinger, his eyes flashed with a memory from over thirty years ago. An image to startlingly clear that he couldn't remember that he hadn't recalled that before, he should have known that Hojo had placed his morals and ideals down upon someone. And now he knew for sure, where the soldiers had managed to escape from without being detected.

"Keith Granger, and the hidden route led to-."

"Shinra Manor." Cut in Vincent, standing up so quickly that Yuffie could hardly track it.

"Oh shit." Whispered Yuffie, her hand flying to her mouth as every little thing fell together into place, it didn't take a genius to know one thing-

"We are so fucked…"

Just like that, leaving nothing behind

Just sharing with you

Soon we will realize that that was everything

The sadness going along the cheeks

Will only become a river of tears

Wavering thoughts will melt into

A strong swirl

-Seishun Kyousoukyku

-TiA

Last chapters uploading soon.