Epilogue

Portek awoke in near darkness, his body in pain yet not broken. He found himself ensconced under a lean-to of sheet metal, though it creaked when he touched it, threatening to drop a landslide of concrete on his head. Assuring himself of his ability to walk - or at least crawl - he wormed his way toward the surface, conserving as much of the stale air as possible. He froze every time the debris shifted; the wrong move could crush him like the Sector Seven slums. His luck held though. He broke through to open air, sliding onto a heat-blasted metal plate where the air smelled like skunk and cordite.

The landscape looked like the inside of a smelting furnace.

"Curse you, Yuffie. You caused this." A Cure spell would hit the spot right now, along with a cold beer and a bag of soft pretzels. He would even settle for the ubiquitous Wutai rice and fish. He consoled himself though; he had one treasure tucked away in his boot: Yuffie's aquamarine Poison materia. Without it, he would have perished in the smoke and fumes. He smiled at the thought of Yuffie banging her head and raging at not finding her precious jewel. He stumbled to his feet. Perhaps he should turn away since the farther he moved, the hotter it got. But he felt drawn like an ant to honey. Nothing under this pile; nothing but compost at any rate. Over here. The shell of a bus. No, a truck cab blown onto its side, its windows shattered. The truck bed had fallen away so he dug down along the metal top of the cab, partly sheltered from the heat of the blast crater. He shoved one last slab of metal aside and found an opening, a hole to a cavern below.

Clear out, he told himself. No time to burrow like a badger. But he continued, becoming frantic about it until his hands closed on something soft. A body. Arm, head, chest.

"Touch me there again and I'll rip your arms from their sockets," came the hoarse whisper.

"Carmine? Is it you? You're alive?"

"I can't feel my legs. You need to get it off me."

"What, the truck?"

"Do you see anything else on my legs?"

"But it's a truck."

Sigh. "My luck, only the lummox survives. Look. Use a lever. If that fails, use an Earth spell. It's the only materia I have left."

"Why didn't you use it?"

"Allow me to crush your lower body and we'll observe your spell casting prowess."

Portek took the materia and gawked at it until Carmine nearly bit him on the ankle. He climbed back out. Picking out a steel beam slender enough to carry, he dragged it to Carmine's hole. Then he circled to the far side and cleared away the rubble he could move. Returning to Carmine's side, he fought the impulse to bury her right then and run for his life. Forget about tipping trucks. Just fill in her grave. You have the Earth spell. But his good angel, or perhaps his bad one, made him shrug it off. Carmine might still survive and later, come looking for him.

He grabbed his lever. Bracing it under the truck, he cast the Earth spell on the far side and heaved as hard as he could. Another Earth spell, and another, followed by resetting his bracing poles. The next spell finally allowed him to tilt the vehicle. He hauled on his lever again, bracing it with concrete slabs, throwing more Earth spells until the truck squeaked, tilted, and crashed onto its ruined wheels.

"About time you got that thing off me."

Portek ignored her and climbed into her hole. Her legs looked surprisingly intact, though the weight had pressed them into the ground. He cleared more junk, hollowing out her hole with more Earth spells. She reached up a hand and he pulled her to a sitting position. Squatting just so, he managed to heave her up until he she slid onto his back in a firefighter's carry. It took all his effort to climb from the hole but after many knocks and gashes he reached the summit. He rested, facing away from the heat.

"That's it," Carmine said, gripping him hard across the chest. "Go that way a couple kilometers. I have an equipment dump over there. We can rest then."

"And prepare to strike back at Yuffie and Avalanche?"

"Not yet. They are on their guard now and we are in no condition to strike anything. As soon as we arrive I will release an official statement detailing our tragic deaths at the hands of terrorists. I need to recuperate, bide my time. Then, and only then, we will strike. Now march."

Portek had to stop often to rest and Carmine eventually figured out her orders and threats could not speed her trip. At last, they came upon the depot, a squat gray building on a knoll overlooking an expanse of rice paddies. It looked abandoned on the outside but housed a dazzling setup underground, lab and all. A quartet of attendants greeted them, hovering around Carmine like drones, seating her in a motorized wheelchair. She left Portek alone. To his irritation he found himself locked in his room, meals arriving by silent servants. Bored stiff, he paced the floor for hours, fantasizing about putting his hands around Yuffie's neck, squeezing slowly until her face turned purple and she passed out, then letting her revive so he could repeat the process, over and over. He could feel her young flesh under his fingers. An attendant popped in with a hospital gown, breaking him out of his reverie and ordering him to wash and dress. He complied, submerging his pique before entering Carmine's chamber.

Carmine perched on her chair, looking pinched but comfortable, her hair coiffed and nails manicured. She waved him forward.

"What's the meaning of locking me up like that?" he demanded.

"Nice of you to inquire how I am doing, seeing as how I had my shapely legs crushed under a cement truck."

"Well. How are your legs?"

"I have an appointment with the best surgeon in Midgar, whom I know works in absolute confidence. My recovery may be prolonged but I will relish every second to plot my revenge."

"Yes. Revenge, Miss Carmine." Portek, wondered if the surgeon would live to perform another operation. "May I have Miss Yuffie for myself?

"Perhaps, but first I have a special job for you."

"A job?"

"Certainly. You have demonstrated loyalty and, on rare occasions, competence. Enough to convince me to place you in a position of importance."

"Why, thank you Miss Carmine." He stepped forward but two attendants snapped to his side. They walked him two steps to the right, to a circular railing to which they locked his hands.

"Hey!"

"Don't fret. My first impulse was to have you shot and thrown into a ditch. Let them blame the Wutai Underground. But then, I found this." She held up the ultramarine materia orb.

"Hey, that's mine!"

"Actually, it belongs to that whelp Yuffie, but I have it now."

"I demand you release me. At once!"

"I have a better idea." She flicked a switch. The orderlies returned to her side. "Listen."

Out of a speaker came a series of wet growls and grunts.

"That was once a mere puppy-dog. Now I wouldn't advise trying to pet it. Alas, Fido." She switched it off. Another switch sent a clear cylinder shooting down, sealing itself against the floor at his feet. Rubber pincers snaked out to seize his ankles. Others snapped onto his wrists, allowing the metal bracelets to disengage. Portek began to scream.

"My first experiments with dilute invert mako went poorly. The subject died a twisted, stinking mess. But I have since refined my technique. Too early to expect perfection, of course." She placed the materia orb onto a blotter through which she shone a pencil of light. "Still, a pinch of inspiration and a dash of genius, and who knows what might come crawling out the other end?"

Portek struggled, begged, threatened.

"Come now. I can't have you flying off with half cocked revenge schemes against the ninja girl. It's that Jenova boy I want and you would tip my hand. And Cloud. I really want him. His mind, so ready for molding. I want the others too and I will have fun with them. But those two. When I am done with them, they will beg to join my entourage. Ah yes." She sat back with a dreamy expression on her face for several seconds, perhaps dreaming of surgical instruments. "Now for your job." She flipped a final switch. Green liquid swirled in around his feet, burning like fire, melting off his boots and pants. Shafts of steam boiled around his face. He felt the skin on his legs wrinkle and crisp.

"Move me closer," said Carmine. "I want to watch his facial expressions."

Portek closed his eyes but the bone grinding agony grew, the fire raging up his body, knifing under his ribs, pulling bones loose from their sockets and reworking them in alien patterns. The pain, it would drive him mad, but still, he held onto one thought. Yuffie. Yuffie had done this to him. Yuffie, in her acts of humiliation and disrespect. Yuffie, snotty Yuffie, who even now probably sat smirking, sipping illicit plum brandy, laughing at him. Yuffie, somehow, some day, he would get her. He would show her the true meaning pain. Yuffie, the last image held in his still sane mind. Yuffie, you will pay.

Final note: Characters from Final Fantasy 7 are owned by Square-Enix. The characters of Larry, Darryl, and Darryl come from Newhart, the show where Dick Louden runs that B&B in Vermont. Spells that Carmine casts through her "Torment" materia come from the game Planescape: Torment, as does Juria's catch phrase ("Endure. In enduring grow strong"). Likely a few other aspects leaked in as well.

The band Ogden Edsl wrote and performed the song "Dead Puppies"; give it a listen on Youtube if you feel particularly depraved. Bugenhagen, himself a dog lover, just couldn't bring himself to sing the original. /s

Other characters are mine. As is the "physics lesson" John receives during his free-fall: my attempt to explain why people can leap around and fly about so easily in the FF7 world, without resorting to the cop-out of "Jenova enhancements."

In any case, if you made it this far, thank you so much for reading!