Chapter XVIII

Council of War
"You're looking at me like I'm going to be doing this." - Yuffie

"Our group continues to grow," Vincent said. He sat on a metal ledge in the packed conference room. Yuffie saw the entire Avalanche team together for the first time since they had rumbled with Sephiroth, back in the North Crater. The newly reconstituted Cait Sith sat by the door, his cat half looking as dignified as possible while balancing on his flopping pedestal, the white flippered moogle that forever bobbled like a Jello salad.

The others sat arrayed along the conference table, except for Cloud who stood at the far end by the video screen. Tifa and Nanaki flanked him, Tifa giving him those moon eyes of hers but Cloud, as usual, too dense to notice. (Hard to tell with Barret blocking her view though. Why did the big hulk park himself next to her anyway?) Yuffie glanced at Aeris, who sat across from her with a sly smile etched on her face, quite the contrast to the hyperkinetic Cait Sith.

"Nice to have everyone together again." Cid, who sat at the head of the table, stood up. He fumbled in his jacket pocket, frowned, fumbled in his other pocket, scowled, and scrabbled at his pants pockets. "Damn. I can't believe I smoked my last - "

"Endure," said Juria. "In enduring, grow strong."

"The hell? Do we have a talking fortune cookie in here?"

"The question is," said Vincent, perched on no more than his heels though looking as serene as a kitten (unless someone had stapled his butt to the wall?), "The question is, can we trust her?"

"I can vouch for her," Barret said. "I've seen her wallopin' Shinra with a passion. There was heat in that stick of hers."

"I have heard much of your group's struggles," Juria said. "Many from my friend Yuffie."

"Now if you ask me if we should trust Yuffie, well." He snorted.

Yuffie slugged him.

Juria said, "I wish to put an end to Shinra's weapon research at Carmine's base. The existence of such a program is an insult to the Planet itself and if Shinra turns out this invert mako there will be no sanctuary anywhere. Not for anyone who stands between Shinra and world domination."

"We should take her," Nanaki said. "Perhaps she can help dismantle the Shinra facility."

"I can certainly help with the dismantling. I have experience in such things."

"What kind of convents do they run here in Wutai?" Cid asked.

"You'd be surprised," Yuffie said. "I had to stop her from bombing the restaurant. When Carmine tried to snuff us with that mako fire stuff? Juria just happened to be carrying a bomb."

"Mad bomber nuns. Well damn. You certainly fit in with our ragtag group."

"And you should have seen her deck Reno," Yuffie said with pride.

"That was Mother Noriko. But thanks," Juria said.

"We get the picture," Cloud said. "The question is - "

"We take her." Aeris stood, green eyes almost ablaze. "I have a good feeling about this. We take her."

Cid said, "Well, we know who wears the pink dress in this family. Is this feeling based on fact?"

"Call it Cetra intuition." Aeris sat. Yuffie looked from her to Juria and saw the intense stares belied by the knowing smiles. It made her shiver but she gave Aeris a thumbs up.

"Cetra intuition?" Cloud said. "Is the Planet passing you notes?"

Tifa put a hand on his arm. Juria, however, spoke for herself.

"A full Cetra should be able to contact the Planet here, so close to a shrine of power. Even a half Cetra would pick up emotional impressions." She stopped and looked at everybody staring at her, Yuffie in particular.

"Aeris must have been talking to her Jenova friend again," Cid said, "though all the kid does is sleep. Still. After two of those rituals. Anyway, I trust Aeris' intuition any day. Juria? I'm Captain Cid. Welcome aboard the Highwind."

"My pleasure." Juria stepped forward and shook his hand. Yuffie could not stop staring at her.

"In any case," Cloud said, activating the display board, "We need a plan. We've debriefed each other on our past few weeks and it's clear the production of invert mako at this facility must cease." He keyed a control panel. The cancerous growth of metal filled the screen. It looked uglier than it had in real life.

Three screw shaped black towers jutted at slightly off-kilter angles. Midway up their height and again at three quarters, steel walkways ran between the towers, all patrolled by guards. At the base, several cube shaped buildings clustered like mold colonies.

"What are those towers?" Tifa asked. "The whole thing looks like a prison."

Nanaki said, "Our guess is they are cooling towers of some kind. Invert mako is so unstable it needs a large quarantine area to keep it from erupting."

"Sounds like Shinra. Ungodly powerful and ungodly dangerous."

"We believe large amounts of raw mako ore start in the oval building in the north, where it is processed and passed to the towers for purification. Or more like the reverse, if you will. Reactor grade mako would be bled off and passed to a small reactor that uses it to power the whole operation. Logically, they would locate it near the towers."

Yuffie squinted and grimaced. Amidst the tumbling block buildings, there did appear the profile of a small mako reactor.

"Damn Shinra," Barret said.

Cait Sith pushed back from the table, bouncing even more feverishly. Yuffie looked away lest she become seasick, only to see everyone's heads bobbing with him. Barret, in particular, looked as if he had just smoked a big doobie.

"Blueprints on screen," Cait said. Yuffie had to admit, the cat part looked more dignified with his top hat and black cane, if only he didn't need to balance on a bouncing pudding.

On the screen the towers dimmed. Bright white lines traced the insides of buildings. In the center of the towers, three points on a triangle, a circular structure lay hidden below the blocky rooftops. A thick band connected the round area to the base of each tower.

"That central facility," Cait Sith said, "is where they weaponize the purified invert mako. Some is still not suitable for use, perhaps too unstable or non-reactive. Shinra apparently cooks off the hot stuff in the three venting towers. The dead mako they dump out the long pipe into the ocean. Dead mako, while still mutagenic, will not create the monster activity typical of a reactor. But you might find the odd three eyed fish washing up onto the beach."

Yuffie grimaced, recalling an overgrown green octopus corpse.

Cait Sith continued, "If one of these towers is disabled, the company can switch those valves and reroute the flow to the other two towers in time to shut down their center facility. They might even safely shut down with two towers off-line. What we need to do is shut off all three tower vents at once.

"No sweat," said Barret, "How do we do that?"

Cloud spoke up. "We will need to drop a team on each tower."

"Drop?" Yuffie's stomach rose into her chest.

"That's more like it!" Barret said. "Parachute onto the towers, set the charges, and boom!"

Yuffie gulped. "By boom, you mean - "

"Better to use gliders," Cid said, way too much of a grin on his face. "The wings can ride updrafts and you don't go in as hanging ducks like you do with a parachute. Do your job, then shove off."

"You're looking at me like I'm going to be doing this."

"You like to blow things up, right?"

"Oh Gawd."

"One question though," Barret said. "Supposing we set off bombs on top of the towers without getting shot to ribbons. How is this going to accomplish anything? It won't knock the towers down."

Cloud said, "No need for that. We just need to block the vents. But first, we'll stoke the fires a bit." He touched a button below the screen, and a close-up of a glass canister filled with a sinister green light appeared. "We captured fifteen of Carmine's invert mako shells when we fought with her at Lee's Camp."

"'Fought' is a generous term," Tifa said, rubbing her neck. "I'm still sore from that beating."

"Whatever. The weapon ended up in our hands. Having seen up close what this does to a living body, I can think of no better use than to shut down Shinra's production. For good."

"Speaking for Reeve," Cait Sith said, "I anticipated this action. I had the low level employees recalled to Wutai for surprise physicals."

Cloud gave him a menacing look.

"I won't be a party to slaughtering innocent workers in the name of freedom." Cait Sith's lower form stood firm and still for the first time Yuffie had ever seen. "This will not be like the mako reactors you blew up in Midgar, killing hundreds, which led to the disaster in Sector Seven."

"Are you still blaming us for that!" Barret leapt to his feet. "That was goddamn Shinra!"

"Yes, it was a despicable act, by an insane president. But you have to admit, Shinra would not have collapsed Sector Seven had you not been blowing up reactors with wild abandon."

Cloud cut off Barret's retort. "Enough of this. Cait, if Reeve wants to play hero, go ahead, but don't jeopardize our mission."

"On the contrary." Cait Sith began to jiggle again. "Computer records will show that, after days of his phone calls not being returned, he tried to save as many loyal Shinra employees as possible."

"Won't he be at risk?" Aeris said.

"Documents will show how the newly renamed Xee had intercepted plans of the rebel attack. These documents will appear after the fact, but a certain computer genius will backdate the metadata. Computer aptitude comes in handy in the world of high finance."

"Oh hell," Cid said. "I just fly the airship. We may be invisible, but we'll still show on radar unless I fly us low enough. Lucky for you all, I'm a damn good pilot." Referring to the diagram, he continued. "We will fly in low. I filled up the launch pods with missiles back at Cosmo. We are armed to the damned teeth. We'll spray out a barrage that should take out the Takeo hangers and the ammo dumps in one whack. They'll probably have some planes on the airfield but we'll scope those out while we're coming in and be ready to hit them with a second barrage. If we're lucky, we'll smash all of them. If not, a couple may limp away."

"How about planes on patrol?" Vincent said.

"Ha. At night, two pairs of fighters patrol in four hour shifts. The shifts are staggered every two hours so if we attack just after they land, we can smash a couple of them on the ground."

"What if they launch the new planes before landing the old ones?" Yuffie asked.

"Thought of that. We'll need a distraction."

"Cool," said Yuffie, not meaning it.

"It'll be you, brat," Cid said. "We'll drop you at the end of the airfield before we swing around for our attack."

"Drop? Like, through the air?"

"A glider. Clear wings. You'll drift to the ground. In the commotion, no one will spot you."

"And just what do I do when I hit the ground? Break both legs and snap my neck?"

Cloud reached into his pocket and drew out a gleaming red materia orb. "We figured you might want to test out this new materia." He tossed it to Yuffie, who caught it in an instant sugar high. "We placed two of our summon materia close to our Huge Materia - "

"I still want to see that!"

"All in good time, Yuffie. Anyway, we lost our Bahamut and our Neo-Bahamut but came away with this."

Yuffie peered into the ruby light. "Bahamut Zero," she whispered with lust. "Just like in all those Wutai monster movies."

"Puff the Magic Dragon," Cid said. "Worked wonders to sweep the Shinra secret agents off the lower decks when they tried to stop our takeoff from Cosmo Canyon. Poor Rufus had to flutter away in his chopper."

"For the second time that day," Aeris said.

"One question," Yuffie said, feeling strangely cautious. "What's to stop the airfield from swarming with Shinra troops?"

"Looks like we might need another distraction."

The door slid open and there stood a sleepy looking John Philip Sorea, half slouched over, looking no more menacing than a tonberry. His kid face lifted, his porcelain face with bone white hair and lavender eyes surveying the room, smiling as he caught Aeris.

"I won't ask how you knew to show up on cue," Cid said, "though I wouldn't mind you teaching that trick to my flight crew."

Barret said, "He looks smashed. Didn't we cure him?"

"Twice." Aeris smiled. "First time, he stayed up barely an hour before he gave his new life force to save Bugenhagen.

"What a riot that was," Cid said. "I came back for a smoke after an all-nighter on the Highwind, and there's old Boogie with a new opera voice, bringing down the house at Hiro's bar singing a song about dead puppies. Like John here passed off a little crazy to him."

"Never mind that," Cloud said. "You're awake, John. Where is my mother?"

"Takes her awhile to get moving. For the record, I'm getting tired of getting shot by your trank gun, Vinnie."

Vincent on his wall perch shifted something, though he appeared not to have moved.

"I hear you need a distraction? How about my Little Bo Peep materia?"

"You mean that huge sheep?" Barret said. "Maybe Yuffie should have it."

Vincent said, "She has a dragon. That should keep Shinra busy."

"I figured I could drop in and crash my sheep through the front gate. That way," he said with a smirk, "they won't even think of Yuffie."

"Suppose they gun her down for the good of the human race? I know I've been tempted to do it myself in the past."

"Barret," Tifa said. "Aren't you past that yet?"

"You spend a day crawling through sewers with Yuffie and you try to keep your sanity."

"I know what you mean," John said. "I once saved Aeris from certain death and as a reward Yuffie smacked me upside the head. Twice."

"Moving right along." Cloud rapped on the table.

John took a step farther into the room, turned to Yuffie and stopped dead, a shocked expression passing to something even more wild.

"You're alive!"

"What was your first clue?" Yuffie said. "My fist about to clip you in the chops?"

"Not you, child," John said with a creepy voice. "Umeka."

Yuffie heard a stirring beside her.

Juria sat forward, looking confused. "You are mistaken. I am Juria Maiya of Healing Waters."

"That's as may be now. But you are also Umeka Yamagawa of the people. Half the people, anyway, since your father was a Wutai silk merchant whom your mother rescued from drowning, but that only binds you more tightly to the Planet, seeing as how you live in both worlds. You have hidden well, all these years. Hiding in plain sight."

After a bit of confused silence, Barret spoke up. "I, I kinda wondered why Juria wasn't on Shinra's hit list. I mean, you go around blowing up restaurants you gotta be on somebody's list."

"She didn't blow up a restaurant."

"Yea yea brat. But she managed to teach you restraint, which is harder."

The nun held up her arm. "If confession is good for the soul, I confess, I am Umeka, though I haven't used that name since Shinra murdered my sister Kohana. After that, even after my time in the order, my thirst for revenge culminated in the botched bombing of the North Corel reactor." She hung her head. "I take full responsibility."

Barret snorted. "You didn't set the faulty bombs, did you?"

"No. Genji sent me away. If I'd been there - "

"You'd have been killed, like all the rest."

"I could have fought."

"And so could I. But we both would have died. What would have Marlene done without me?"

Cid said, "There's a lot of guilt to go around in this group. Vincent here spent twenty-seven years in a damn coffin as his self-imposed punishment. And if you check out our fearless leader, after we went to all that trouble to retrieve the black materia from the Ancient Temple? This joker up and hands it to Sephiroth. He would have done it again in the North Crater, had not Aeris here whacked him in the nads with her staff."

"I'd prefer we not bring that up," Cloud said, "It's still a sore point with me."

"Yea. Then John fumbled the black materia. Who knows where the hell that might show up."

A thought finally occurred to Yuffie. "Juria, if you are half Cetra, like my mother? That makes me - "

"A quarter Cetra and full brat," Cid said. "Though I've wondered about that Clear Tranquil ability of yours."

"Another thing. What about the incompetent bombers? Who did try to blow up the North Corel reactor?"

The doors swished back open. "Hi. I'm Larry; this is my brother Darryl and this is my other brother Darryl."