7.
Yuffie slowly regained consciousness.
She felt a pat on her shoulder which grew more relentless as she refused to wake up. Tasting the concrete in her mouth, she finally opened her eyes, realising she was laying prone on the ground. There were no more sounds of gunfire in the background, only people shouting orders and the noise of helicopters flying above
"There it is, she woke up!" a voice spoke "Tell the lieutenant we found her"
Yuffie rolled on her back. Feeling an eerie sensation over her face, she passed a hand on her cheeks and forehead, only to irk as the palm of her hand turned out
"Don't touch your face m'am!" the same voice that had woken her up urged her "You are full of scratches on your face. You don't want to put even more dirt on your wounds…"
Scratches? How did she got them? It all felt so confused and hectic…
Yuffie turned towards the medic who was tending to her
"What happened?" she asked him
"You were caught in the blast of the explosion…"
"Which explosion?"
"One of our gunship launched a missile to destroy a jamming facility" the medic explained "We thought nobody was near it…"
Apparently, judging by the number of soldiers roaming around the piers, the WRO had finally landed in the facility. Did it mean that the mission was over? Perhaps accomplished?
She quickly got up, startling the corpsman, who was deep into dressing her wounds. She felt a bit dizzy as she jumped on her feet all of a sudden
"Hey calm down!" the medic protested. Yuffie did not care about him. She took a look at the moor where the Dragonette stood the last time she saw it.
Now the vessel was not there anymore
"Where is the submarine?" she frantically asked, towering the medic who was still knelt on the ground "Where is it?" she almost begged to know
The soldier was about to voice his obliviousness, but a call came from behind her shoulder
"Yuffie!"
Yuffie turned and saw Lieutenant Sarah Farron running towards her
"Yuffie!" the lieutenant walked the last bit up to her "Thank God you are here. I was looking for you everywhere!"
"Sarah! What happened?" Yuffie frantically asked
"What is the last thing you remember?"
"I was at the dock, right there" she explained "We were… ambushed by Brad and his gang…" she faltered, as she felt the urge of sitting down again. She felt like all her stamina had left her all of a sudden "The submarine has disappeared again…!"
"Can somebody give me a stretcher please?"
"A stretcher?" Yuffie replied, puzzled. Meanwhile two corpsmen were already rushing to her spot with a orange "I don't need no goddamn stretcher!"
"Whatever" Sarah shrugged "I'll have you taken on the Shera right now, though. Get yourself checked a bit, will you? Do you manage to walk?"
"What? The Shera is here?" Yuffie asked
"Of course" Sarah nodded "It landed right after the main contingent had seized the entire facility"
"I can walk" she assured her "Where is Cade?" she suddenly asked
"We are looking for him" Sarah replied "We honestly thought you could tell us where he is. Wasn't he with you?"
Yuffie stopped on her tracks upon a path carved by the explosion of the missile against the building which hosted the microwave jamming device. Around them soldiers were corralling prisoners and evaluating damages to the facility.
Yuffie heart momentarily stopped beating as she recalled the events leading up to that moment: they were making their way towards the piers when none others than Brad Clawbourne had appeared. He was just about to kill Yuffie on the spot when the missile had struck, saving them from a point blank execution.
But apparently Cade was nowhere to be seen. It was not like him to hide out in such a circumstance. And the submarine had definitely set sail, maybe in the aftermath of the chaos brought by the explosion and the landing of the WRO forces.
Things were not looking good
"Let's get in the Shera" Yuffie suddenly burst "We'll look for him later"
She took point and ran towards the opening amidst the warehouses, a space large enough to allow the airship to fit in. She ran to the back of the hull, finding the SISF team loitering at the base of the ramp
"Hey, look who's there!" Perkins greeted her
"Jeez Yuffie" Elena marvelled at her face "Did you shave your face with barbed wire?"
"Has anyone seen Cade?" Yuffie frantically asked, panting
"Cade?" Kewell frowned "He was with you last time we saw him…"
"Yuffie!" a voice called her from inside the ship. It was Evan
"Evan!" Yuffie shouted, hopping towards him "Cade is… nowhere to be found!"
"That guy surely can't have just disappeared into thin air…" Perkins wondered
"Yuffie, we thought you know where he was… we lost contact with him the moment the missile struck. We didn't know you were close to the jamming device!"
"What about his beacon?" Yuffie enquired. Her heart was beating faster than ever. Cade had to be somewhere. And possibly safe and sound
"We are trying to locate him as we speak" Evan made a gesture inviting all the special forces team inside the hull "Him and the submarine?"
"What about it?" Sarah enquired "What are we going to do now that we couldn't prevent the submarine from setting off?"
"We have sent a naval squadron to chase and stick to its tail…" Evan explained as they made their way to the main deck "Even if we fire on it, the Mako bomb would explode and catch our ship in the explosion"
"And the detonation would still be dangerous as the submarine is still into the hazard area…" Ruding met the party as they set foot on the main deck "Glad to see you safe, Yuffie. We lost you for a second…"
"But there is no sight of Cade…" she helplessly replied
"Don't worry" Ruding reassured her "If he's out there, we'll find him"
"Sir, Edge is online" a servant had rushed to Evan, who nodded
"We are expecting to report to Reeve" he announced, as a giant screen appeared in the middle of the deck. Reeve appeared on screen
"Shera! Do you copy us?" Reeve asked
"Loud and clear" Evan replied "We are ready to report!"
"Come in, then!"
"We were unable to prevent the submarine from sailing away" Evan bowed his head. Behind Reeve, a murmur erupted
"The submarine has just entered the hazard area" Evan continued "That means that if the explosion takes place right now, we will have to face the consequences of a massive seaquake"
Reeve, at the other end of the wire, paused
"Did we suffer any casualties?"
"No, Sir" Evan replied "No casualties on our side…"
"Although…" Yuffie offered, shutting herself up quite instantly
"Although what?" Reeve amicably enquired
"Cade is missing" Evan said
"What does it mean?" Reeve asked
"In the aftermath of the missile strike and the mass landing of WRO forces, we lost contact with Yuffie and Cade. Yuffie has been retrieved, as you can see…"
"…But there is still no sight of Cade" Yuffie finished for him
Reeve stood silent for a while. He turned to Zansteid
"Colonel, the situation is critical" he told him "Please notify all units stationing on the Oceanic Rim area to evacuate all the people from the coastline as much as inland as they can"
"What will you tell them? If a mass evacuation is ordered, there will be mass panic everywhere" Evan asked
"We are prepared to deal with it, don't be worried…"
"So it is over?" Yuffie wondered
"I'm afraid there is nothing more we can do" Reeve shook his head "We have missed the chance to strike at the submarine while it was still at anchor, but that would have meant killing the entire SISF team along… and up to that moment the situation looked like it was still manageable"
"But somehow, Brad managed to sneak the vessel under our eyes"
"So we give up, right?" Yuffie feistily replied "Everything we have done, everything we fought for… it was all for nothing. Now we simply stand here and watch the world crumble. Isn't it?"
A spooky silence fell on the deck of the airship. Yuffie couldn't believe that they had all reached the end of the road. It couldn't be. Not after what everyone had been through. That was simply unfair. Millions of people dying, cities and towns razed to the ground…
And Cade was nowhere to be found, either.
"Yuffie" Reeve spoke "I'm sorry. All we can do is try to contain the damage…
This was quite the opposite she had envisioned. There was hardly a future from now on. And then the irony: she had fought enemies thousands and thousands of times more powerful than a bunch of depressed, delusional terrorist, yet she couldn't keep up with the most human adversaries she had encountered so far
"Maybe we can override the submarine mainframe and divert it to a safer spot…" Ruding was proposing to one of his aide
"Forget it" his subordinate swiftly replied "They have busted the mainframe through to through…"
Maybe it was better for the world to end. At least , for the world as she used to know it. She was a failure. There was no chances her actions could have left a positive mark. There was simply no place in the world for her. Nor for her dreams, nor for her aspirations.
She walked and took a seat. She felt like she really needed to shout and cry. How would have Cade reacted to the perspective that the world was about to end? Maybe he would have welcomed that with a smile, knowing that, after all, he was about to reunite with the countless people he had lost during his life
'Cade' she thought to herself 'Why have you disappeared right when I needed you the most?'
"What's with the nuclear stockpile?" Evan asked a subordinate
"We are almost done with it" the WRO officer replied "Most of the ordnance has been disposed and taken care of…"
"Good" Evan nodded "Get ready to evacuate all the WRO personnel. The bomb might explode any minute now…"
"Sir, incoming transmission!" a technician suddenly announced
"Well, what's with all the excitement? Just pass it on the secondary channel…"
"Sir, the transmission…" the WRO officer explained
"The transmission, what?" Evan spurred him, translating next to his station
"Sir, it's coming from the Dragonette!"
Even Reeve jumped on his seat, thousands of kilometres away, picking up that announcement. Yuffie sprung up too
"Sir" another technician echoed "We have located Tuesti's beacon"
"What?" Yuffie shouted "Cade! Where is he?"
"Too much stuff all at once…" Sarah shook her head as the sudden turn of the events acted like a catalyst, hyping up the morale of the whole crew of the Shera
"The hell is happening here?" a grumpy voice thundered over the voices of the crew shuffling throughout the main deck "Are they giving away free beer to celebrate the demise of Gaia? That's the only reason I could figure such a brawl…"
"We found him!" Yuffie cheered, running towards Cid
"Found who?" Cid asked
"Cade! Who else?"
"What? Did he even disappeared?" Cid scoffed
"Ah, fuck you Cid" Yuffie punched him on the torso, with no tangible effects on his side "They could take the ground off your feet in one fell swoop and you would only feel a draft at your arse…"
Cid shook his head, drawn to the workstation were the technician who was tracking Cade's beacon was sitting at
"So" Evan pressed him "Where is he? Ruding, go manage the incoming communication"
Ruding nodded, flying to the console next to the one Evan was staring at
"Well, the signal comes from…" the WRO officer explained, before being struck with disbelief "It can't be…"
The mark corresponding to Cade's position was right were the Dragonette was supposed to be
"Cade is on the submarine…" Yuffie realized, eyes bulged
"What?" Reeve shouted from afar
"Sir, we are ready to copy the transmission"
Yuffie felt hope punching through the lumps of sorrow in her sound
"That can't be…"
"It's Cade, everything can be when he is around" Evan smiled
"Wait, wait" Sarah claimed their attention "what if somebody accidentally brought his beacon onboard? And what guarantees do we have that he is still alive…"
"Lieutenant Farron" a voice went off the loudspeakers in the deck "I am sorry to hear you still doubt my skills…"
It was Cade.
8.
Owing to his outstanding sight, Cade had caught wind of the incoming missile just in time to brace himself. That allowed him to drop on the ground and better withstand the effects of the explosion.
While the harbours were swept away by the shockwave, he had stuck to Brad and his posse, who were making a run for the submarine. The vessel had been promptly started up, its engines now running at full power.
Surprisingly, Brad was focused on reaching the submarine and did not realize that someone was still after him. Battered by the explosion and trying to ignore the loss of equilibrium that came with every step forward he made, Cade was running towards the pier where the Dragonette was moored, gunning down and taking care of any obstacle who stood in his way.
Brad leapt down on the submarine's bridge, reaching for the main hatch. For some inexplicable twist of fate, the auxiliary hatch was still open and seemingly unguarded.
Gunship had appeared in the sky above, strafing huddles of enemies with their machineguns in an effort to help soften resistance before the WRO forces landed. While Cade reached for the passage, head had appeared inside the hatch. Without second thoughts, Cade shot him point blank and the corpse of the unaware sailor fell down the staircase.
Cade dived into the submarine's interiors, closing the hatch behind him. He leapt down the ladder and without even thinking, he emptied his weapon gunning down the party of soldiers he met upon landing down below.
Cade had guessed that he could not expect any of them to cooperate. It was better to wipe that scum from the face of Gaia and prevent Brad from achieving his goal. He would have settled scores with his conscience once back on the land, when it would have been all over.
When he would have been finally able to see Yuffie again.
Spurred by that thought, he made his way to the commanding room while the roar of the engines echoed throughout the hull. The crew was apparently kept at a bare minimum, that being a suicide mission, and he met no further resistance.
Once he found himself in front of the door separating him from the command room, he checked and reloaded his weapon, draw a breath and readied a grenade.
He knocked on the door
"What's up with them guys now?" he heard a voice asking
"We have a problem with one of the engines" Cade replied "I think it's about to explode"
"Explode?" the man asked incredulously. Cade could hear steps coming towards him. The man slammed the door open.
He did not even had time to utter a syllable: Cade's rifle shouted, thrusting him back at the centre of the command room. He hurled the grenade in front of him taking shelter behind the door.
The grenade went off, blinding and stunning everyone inside the compartment. Cade burst in and mowed everyone down. With the back of the eye he could see someone making a run for a passage opposite his position and closing the door behind him.
The whole action had lasted less than five minutes. Cade, still panting, contemplated the gory scenery of bodies strewn across the floor and blood on the panels. It looked like a slaughterhouse.
He checked every corpse, hoping to find Brad among them. Maybe still alive. Just to give him a taste of his own medicine.
Unfortunately Brad was not there. And apparently, no one was alive enough to ask.
He sprinted towards the stern of the vessel. If he remembered correctly, the compartments ahead of him ultimately hosted the small nuclear reactor powering the submarine. The Mako was probably stored there as well.
The door that led into the nuclear reactor room was open. Cade carefully trespassed the threshold, finding himself immersed in a bluish and greenish light. The nuclear core was slotted into a wall at the end of the room opposite the entrance. At its feet stood a black box rife with caution tags emanating a sinister green light.
And next to it stood Brad
"Well" the man said "If this isn't an unexpected visit. Cade nice to see you…"
As a reply, Cade aimed his gun and fired. A bullet hit Brad in his leg. He collapsed with a groan
"Civilized people usually say 'hi'" Brad teased him, holding tightly to his wounded leg "but who am I to judge the customs of the North" he laughed
"If you hope you are going to get killed wit a snap, forget it" Cade bitterly replied "You are going to pay for this, Brad. All of it and tenfold!"
"Cade!" Brad laughed hysterically "You can do me whatever you want. Like I care about a thing…" he patted the black box "This jewel will change the world. For the worst I hope. Too bad you are stuck here, it would have been pretty interesting to see how things would have turned out on the surface…"
"What makes you think that it will eventually go off?" Cade retorted
"Come on. Can't you see all this red signs on the panel?" Brad pointed at a console whose display was all red "The core of the nuclear reactor is about to give in. The nuclear fuel will eventually spill and react with the Mako. It's not me, it's physics…" Brad cackled, but his laughter was cut short by another bullet on his other leg
"Oh, Cade" Brad marvelled "I didn't expect you to be such a sadist. Guess I had the wrong idea about you all along… I bet you were excited watching Kayla slowly die in your arms"
Cade froze upon these words. He was really tempted to kill Brad right there on the spot. But it would have been too easy
"Cade, I have an idea" Brad smiled "Why don't you join me? You know, I've carefully thought upon the matter and I've realized that we are identical as two drops of water: we both lost something we loved and we had to fend off the world while we finally reached our private heavens… Does it sound familiar to you? Join me and let's put our differences aside. It will be fun. I promise it…" he said, followed by an hysterical laughter.
Cade had enough of that. Even on the verge of death, Brad's hysterical malignancy was starting to have a negative effect on himself. He fired a volley right at his chest. Brad jolted as bullets lodged in his stomach. Blood spurted from his mouth
"Ah, fuck" he protested "that's a mess…"
"That was for Yuffie, and thank whoever you like that she's still alive and better than me"
Cade made a step forward
"And the next one is for someone you'll meet soon" he continued "Any wish before dying in a way that, still, I consider too dignified for a maniac piece of shit like you?"
"Ah, well if you insist…" he told Cade "Then you don't mind if I fuck Kayla in the Lifestream…"
Cade fired a single shot in the middle of the forehead. Brain matter and blood were splattered on the wall behind him.
That was the end of Brad Clawbourne
"Creepy to the very end!" Cade exclaimed, contemplating the liberating way of a lifeless Brad strewn against the nuclear reactor "You know, we might be two drops of water, Brad. I'll give you that. But unlike you I ended up in a pool of water instead of a pool of shit" he finally remarked.
Now what? Brad's plan was still rolling, despite his demise. The air in the reactor compartment felt hot and heavy, almost poisonous. Cade figured that it wasn't a sound idea to remain in that room for long.
He dashed back to the deck, leaving Brad's corpse behind him. As soon as he found himself in front of what he thought was the radio console, he started tweaking the knobs and entering codes, hoping to dial up the Shera somehow.
Luckily enough, after a couple of tries, he managed in his intent.
"How did you end up in the submarine?" Evan asked, still coming to terms with the pleasant discovery
"It's a long story…" Cade cut short
"Cade! Are you all right?" Yuffie asked, apprehension in her voice
"I'm all right Yuffie" Cade replied "Sorry if I left you behind. There were some stuffs to take care of, you know…"
"Cade, what's the status of the submarine?" Ruding asked "Reeve is here with us, at least virtually"
"Oh, really?" Cade said "Marvels of the technology… well, the submarine is devoid of any human presence I think. Except for me of course…"
"You mean the crew…" Reeve intervened
"They are all dead. Brad too" Cade told him "Sorry uncle. If you wished to organize a trial, I think there will be no defendants at the bar"
"That's not a concern" Reeve smiled "We have to take care of the submarine and its dangerous load. Public relations will have to wait for now"
"Cade, did you find the Mako?" Evan asked
"It's right next to the reactor" Cade explained "And that's were the bad news begin: apparently the reactor is in shambles. They planned to use a nuclear fuel leak as a primer"
"Can you do something from there?" Yuffie asked
"There's little I can do" Cade pondered "Apart from steering this thing away from the place it was supposed to blast off"
"We are plotting an area where the detonation will yield the least damage" Reeve announced "It will be uploaded to the Shera in no time"
"Besides" Cade noticed "I've never sailed a submarine like this before. I could use some help…"
"Don't worry" Ruding announced "We have the instruction manual for that submarine and possibly the entire catalogue of the WRO fleet at hand. As soon as we have the new course…"
"Sir!" a technician announced "We have just received the set of coordinates"
"Wonderful!" Ruding exclaimed "Chipperfield, have the manual for the commandeering of a Seagull-class light submarine ready…"
Yuffie witnessed that exchange without speaking a word
'Please, Cade, for the sake of both of us and everyone in this world' she thought 'take that thing away from there! And make it back in one piece!'
Ruding carefully guided Cade in the procedure to set the submarine autopilot on the course to the coordinates the Shera had just received. The vessel glided underwater as it steered towards the designated safety area
"Submarine changing course" somebody announced, much to the delight of everyone involved. Yuffie was overwhelmed by excitement and hope. The sudden and welcomed twist in the events was something only Cade could have been capable of
"Well, now the autopilot is set" Cade announced "I think that the only thing to do is getting out of here…"
"The Dragonette is supposed to have a couple of escape pods astern. Go check them out. We'll tell you how to operate them if needed…"
"Sure thing. I'm on…" Cade was about to talk but a sudden shock interrupted him. The whole hull of the submarine trembled and screeched as the deck plunged into a temporary darkness. Half of the illumination came back almost instantly, along with a plethora of warnings. Popping up in the panels not damaged by the gunfight earlier on. The commotion was felt back in the Shera too, as a burst of static momentarily cut the communications between Cade and the airship
"What's happening now?" Evan asked, fearing the worst "Cade, are you still with us?"
"..I am…" his voice emerged back from the statics as the broadcast cleared up
"Sir, the submarine is going down" an officer announced "It's on collision course with the bottom of the ocean!"
"Cade, what the hell is going on there?" Yuffie shouted
"I don't know" Cade replied "There are a lot of warnings going off al at once…"
"The damage control panel!" Ruding urged him "Look at the damage control terminal, it should tell you what's happening…"
Cade rushed to a terminal while thrusting his feet on the floor to negotiate the sudden listing of the submarine
"Damage control terminal, damage control… here it is…" he started reading the feed being scrolled down on the screen "Main generators offline, skeleton mode on… The hell is a skeleton mode?" he shouted
"Cade!" Evan shouted "Pull the bar towards you! The submarine is going to plunge at the bottom of the sea!"
. He rushed to the seat in front of a control stick and pulled them with all the strength he could apply. At last the submarine seemed to respond to his action and it levelled back again
"Damn it, that was close…" Evan sighed
"I've got bad news, everyone" Ruding meekly announced
"What?" Yuffie asked "What is it now?"
"The submarine reactor is failing" Ruding explained "All the main systems are being disconnected but Brad and his gang must have tampered with the submarine's mainframe…"
"What do you mean?" Yuffie pressed on
"The mainframe is making only the vital system run. It has disconnected everything but the engines and the controls…"
"Wait!" Evan intervened "That doesn't mean that…"
Silence engulfed the deck of the airship once again. Yuffie again stood petrified. She feared what was coming up, although she had already, realized that good news were over.
Cade was doomed.
With no energy powering the escape pods, there was no way he could have escaped the submarine. Maybe he could have made his way out from it and swam to the surface, but that was a suicide attempt.
He was fated to be trapped into the vessel, which would have turned into his coffin any minute now
"Are you trying to tell me that without power the escape pods won't work?" Cade asked. His voice was genuinely concerned. Evan himself had never heard him so worried in all his life. And neither Reeve
"I'm afraid so" Ruding shook his head
"Maybe if I pop out of the hull and swim to the surface… there might be some breathers around…"
"The worst part is that the autopilot will be off too. We must have someone stuck to the controls otherwise the submarine will plunge again…"
Silence came from the submarine, interspersed with Cade's heavy breathing. He finally let a sigh out
"And that would make the whole story pointless" Cade pondered "Everything we have made and done. Everyone who has died…"
His voice has slightly cracked on the last word
"How long to the safety zone?" Ruding asked
"Less than three nautical miles…" an officer replied
In the control room of the Dragonette, Cade reverted back to the pilot's seat
"Basically I'll make a last stand and keep this tin can on its tracks" he sighed "Everyone will be safe. Even if that means sinking with it…"
"No!" Yuffie stood up "That can't be! Cade, there must be a way to get out of that thing. Just think! Isn't you who always told me that there always a way out?" she cried, tears in their eyes
"Yuffie" Cade replied "I'm afraid this time there isn't"
Only the Gods knew what was crossing Reeve's mind right now. The man he had virtually raised and protected as if he was his son was about to die. The screen definition wasn't high enough to tell his emotion by staring at him.
Likewise, none on the deck was considering the fact that millions of people were out of danger as the submarine covered the remaining distance separating it from the safety zone. Nobody was thinking about the fact that they were about to accomplish their mission. With minimum casualties, on top of that. Not when that single casualty was someone like Cade.
Everyone was thinking about the loss that they were about to experience.
They were about to lose a friend
"Come on kid" Cid begged, eyes wide open "You can't die here… You owe me several rounds at the Headquarters' Bar"
"Damn it Cade!" Evan shook his head "I've never had a reason to hate you. And honestly, if you want to give up and sacrifice yourself for the sake of everyone of us… I won't stand in your way. I'm not going to hate you for that. Still…"
A relative. A nephew. A son, virtually
"Cade!" Reeve told him, with a seemingly otherworldly composure "Before you go, do you happen to have a minute for your uncle?"
"I surely do have, Reeve. I think I've got time for everyone" Cade calmly and joyfully replied, nowhere like a man who was about to die "Come on, speak first. I've never been able to properly start a conversation, you know"
"Well, this will probably enrage you but let me tell you I'm sorry for what happened to your family. Please don't chastise me for apologizing once more. I have to. Let me do that. Please!" he begged
"Conceded!" Cade nodded
"I've never been… graced by the gift of a family, unlike my brother. Unlike your dad and mom. He was always telling me to leave Shin-Ra and raise a family, and then he would tell me how wonderful it was to have you as a son. I had always thought that he was a bit exaggerating but since when I came to your rescue after you left Shin-Ra yourself, and after witnessing the man you turned out to be, I realized that if I ever had a son, I really would like him to be like you. Again, I might have committed something terrible by letting your parents die, but somehow fate still graced me with the gift of your forgiveness and your company. So, thank you Cade. You returned everything I gave you. Multiplied by hundred…"
Cade stood there speechless. He was averse to praises and staff but, faced with the fate of dying at the bottom of the sea, he took all of them. He felt glad that he would have left such an image of himself
"Thanks uncle Reeve" he replied, voice broken by the commotion "I… you would have been a great dad. To me, you surely have been the closets thing to a father. And I really needed… someone like you. You saved me and gave me even the closest thing to a family. I was not always the model son and I sure gave you headaches from time to time but your support was always unyielding. Again, thanks…" he concluded.
Thankfully, nobody could see him sitting there all busy wiping tears away from his eyes. Cade had known death early in his life and came to deal with it in several other occasions. Therefore, he had gladly accepted his fate, since it also meant sparing the life of several other innocent people. But every time his mind raced to the people he was about to leave on Gaia, a sadness enveloped him in a firm and unavoidable grasp
"Well, quick before this thing explodes" he urged "Anyone else?"
"Ah, damn you kid" Cid intervened "that's a very sly way of running away from your debts. And with the excuse that the world is about to crumble… pathetic" the grumpy mechanic smiled, not without being able to wash away the veil of tears covering his eyes
"Cid, you were the closest thing I had to an uncle. The bad uncle, though…"
Everyone laughed. Even Yuffie. It was the saddest laughter of her entire life
"Take care of yourself, Cade" Evan told him "We'll miss you"
"Take care of Sarah, Evan… whops" Cade realized his faux-pas too late
"Ah, who cares" Sarah replied "It was anybody's secret, anyhow…"
Next, it came the most painful of them all
"Yuffie!" Cade gulped. He felt weak as he was about to talk to a girl he had known and loved too late "I'm sorry. We won't be able to spend that week in Costa del Sol as we had planned…"
Yuffie, marshalling all the courage she could muster, stood up
"It's all right, Cade…" she faintly replied, tears running down her cheeks "I'm just… this is unfair! It's plainly unfair! Somebody like you should live for a hundred years, or more…" she shook her head
"I know… life is a bitch" Cade replied with a grin. A burst of static blurred the broadcast for a while "If that makes you feel better, I'm not dying in vain. Thanks to me lots of people will wake up tomorrow and their major concern will be providing food for their families and getting money to bet on the Chocobo races. I think this is quite an achievement…" a laughter cut his speech. He was not laughing at all. He was actually crying.
Yuffie felt his sorrow thorough the ether. She burst into tears
"Cade! I don't want you to die!" she shouted, face buried in her hands. Sarah stepped next to her, providing her some comfort
"Me neither, Yuffie!" Cade replied, his voice trembling "I would trade my place with anyone in this world. Believe me I really would like to be somewhere else. Anywhere but here… And the reason is simple. It's because I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you…"
"Please Cade!" Yuffie implored "Don't make it harder than it is!"
"I'm sorry Yuffie" he continued "But that's how things are. I'm about to die and I won't be able to live long enough to fulfil my dreams. But then, I think of all the people that I… that we are saving from a certain death. Damn it, we are saving an entire PLANET! Isn't that great?"
"Sort of…"
"Yuffie, I couldn't face myself if I had to live with the thought of being someone that someday, was able to make the world a better place but missed his chance. And it's not about how much I love you, or Cid, or Reeve or anyone else, for that matter… There are people who depend on us. We both knew that, way before this whole ordeal started. Some things are even bigger than love itself…"
An arrow pierced his heart. It was an arrow shot from afar. From the past.
'I think I've understood now…' he thought to himself
"Cade!" Yuffie brought him back to the present "Do you realize that my life will be a living hell without you?"
"Don't be like that" Cade shook his head "You are strong, though and smart, other than beautiful. You'll find someone better than me and you'll live the life of your dreams…"
"Nobody is better than you, and you know it" her words dodged her tears
"Yeah, you're right… then pick someone who will be the closest thing to me!"
Again, incredibly, everyone laughed. It was a bitter laughter, though. There was little room for joy and exuberance in a moment like that
"Say hello to Kayla for me…" she recommended
"I'll do"
"It's in the safety area" a technician discreetly announced
Ruding and Evan nodded
"Cade?" Yuffie asked again. But no answer came from the speaker
"He must have turned the speaker off" Evan told her, placing a hand on her shoulder "This is too much for him, too!"
"I see…" Yuffie nodded, taking a seat
The deck fell silent again. Seconds passed and a tremor caught the Shera, making everyone run for cover. Sarah ran outside
"Hey it's not just the ship" she said "It's an earthquake"
"Look at that!" a technician pointed his finger outside the porthole. In the light of the early morning a second sun had appeared low on the horizon, raising in the cyan sky in a bright bowl of light
"Lost contact with the submarine" a technician said "It exploded eventually"
"Seismographs are off the charts!" another WRO officer chimed "Brace yourself!"
The quake came again, stronger this time. It nearly lifted the Shera from the ground, but it passed away as soon as it came.
When jolts finally subsided, everything that was left from Brad Clawboune's scheme was a pillar of water and smoke on the horizon. It was humongous but it was already waning off
Reeve was awaken by an officer who urged him to focus on the seismic reports and the tsunami monitoring feeds
"So, the quake that was to happen according to Brad's plans amounted to just that…" Evan wondered
"We confirm that the earthquake has subsided. There might be aftershocks but they will be negligible. As per the tsunami warning, there might be waves up to one metre in some areas" Reeve told them
"One metre? Ha!" Cid laughed "Take this bad guy! Life goes on!"
"Of course it does" Evan shook his head "And we know who to thank…"
In a corner, Yuffie stood there, sitting. She was petrified from head to toe, unable to feel or express anything.
EDGE
1.
"It was very kind of you to come"
"I might be a ruler of a country and Yuffie might be my only heiress" Godo Kissaragi told Reeve "But I'm first and foremost a father, and if things are the way you told me, then I think I should tell Yuffie that I'm ready to help her…"
The two men were standing side by side on the main landing pad of the WRO Headquarter in Edge. They were surrounded by personnel ready to welcome the Shera back home
"Again, I'm sorry for your loss" Godo continued "I'm not oblivious to what losing a beloved one means. If there's anything I can do…"
Reeve bowed his head and raised his hand
"I'm alright. I won't be able to sleep well knowing that Cade won't be around like he used to be. But I'll have to carry on. I've been like a father for him and he was the closest thing to a son I had. But I'm also the head of the World Regenesis Organization. The world needs to be kept under surveillance. If we let our guard down, then Cade's sacrifice will be vain, eventually…"
"Sounds like he was truly a remarkable person" Godo wondered "I understand why my daughter fell for him…"
"And you daughter is truly a remarkable person as well" Reeve added "Again I'm personally in debt with you. We will be of assistance anytime you will require it"
"I'll take due notice of that" Godo nodded "Thank you"
The late afternoon breeze swept the landing surface. An officer approached Reeve
"Sir, the Shera is about to land"
"Magnificent" Reeve replied "Thank you!"
The officer saluted and hopped away. Reeve and Godo Kissaragi raised their heads staring at the orangey sky, noticing a couple navigation lights in the distance
"There it is…" Godo whispered
Soon the airship became visible and bigger as it approached the landing site. The personnel was ordered to clear the pad as the Shera made its final approach.
As the skids touched the ground and the engines came to a halt, WRO officers swarmed the site, performing their assigned procedures. The rear ramp was lowered and finally, one by one, the members of the Special Intervention Service Force walked up to Reeve.
Lieutenant Farron was leading the row of special operatives who finally stood to attention. They all saluted, before being ordered to stand at ease. Yuffie stood at the very back, partially concealed by the array of the operatives before her. It was hard to tell that they had come back from a highly successful mission. Even the special forces members that had only been slightly touched by Cade's presence were still affected by his departure. Yuffie, well, looked like a zombie
"Sir" Sarah Farron finally spoke "Special Intervention Service Force leader, lieutenant Farron ready to report, Sir"
"We don't need a report. Not right now, lieutenant" Reeve replied. Sarah and the others made a surprised look
"Take your men and proceed to your quarters" Reeve instructed "Take a few days of rest and then we will talk. All clear?"
"Clear, Sir" Sarah replied. The SISF squad then proceeded out of the landing site
"Yuffie!" Reeve called her out as she spotted the ninja, who walked up to them.
The Wutaian princess stood before Reeve looking him right into the eyes. Then a tear made its way on her cheek as she sprung forward throwing her arms around him.
Reeve let Yuffie sob against his chest for a while, under the watch of Godo. When Yuffie finally separated, she wiped the tears away from her face and walked up to her father
"Yuffie!" Godo murmured "How are you?"
Yuffie threw aside the grudge she had held towards her father all this time. Apparently Godo had done the same. She hugged him, crying
"Dad…" she uttered "I want to go home"
"I know" he nodded, caressing her head "Mr. Tuesti here, told me everything. I'm here for you, Yuffie. Don't forget it!"
"I know" Yuffie replied "Thank you!"
"The Shera will be ready to take off again in half an hour" Reeve explained "I'm sure Cid will be happy to give the both of you a ride back home"
"I accept your offer" Godo nodded "We'll have some time to talk together then, if you like of course" he added, looking at Yuffie
"I'll give a try"
"Go get some rest downstairs with the others, Yuffie" Reeve said "I'll cal the both of you when we will be ready to set to Wutai"
"Reeve!" Yuffie told him "I want to be there. If his body will be found…"
"I'll make sure you will be informed as soon as we will find something… now go get some rest. You need it!"
"He saved my life…" Yuffie whispered "He saved all of us…!"
"I know" Reeve nodded "He's happy knowing that he did so. I can feel it…"
Reeve stared back at the sky while Godo took Yuffie under her arms leading her downstairs.
GOLDEN SAUCER REGION (INLET)
1.
"Hey ma', look at that!"
The woman raised her head, momentarily disregarding her current chore. Her child had the nasty habit of picking up almost everything from the ground, and she did not want to have to tend to another cut or another bite this time.
She got up and followed her son's voice to the beach. Upon seeing the target of his attention, she froze.
Her child was poking at a cylindrical object, the size of a grown cattle animal all painted in yellow and black. At one end stood what looked like a hatch
"Holy shit!" the mother exclaimed, disregarding the fact that she might have just taught her son a bad word "Don't touch it! This is something dangerous!"
"But mom…" the kid protested, as he was caught and ferried away by that object.
The woman was uncomfortable at the thought of having such a sinister artefact on the shore of his estate. She ran uphill, her kid firmly grasping her hand and pouring a river of questions about the nature of that object. Questions to which of course his mother could not give an answer.
Once reached their house proper, the woman stumbled upon her husband, who was tending to a piece of terrain. The turmoil made him turn
"Honey, what's happening?" he asked "I thought you were busy down below…"
"Something came from the sea!" she explained in a hurry, urging her kid to rush inside the house and stand there for a while "Call the WRO post and tell them to send someone to get rid of that thing…"
"Something?" the husband frowned "Is it an animal, a bomb…"
"Just call the WRO!" the woman ordered him
"Jeez, all right!" the man dropped his tools and went for the telephone.
Half an hour later a small convoy of WRO trucks had arrived on the scene. The commander of the WRO squad was greeted by the woman
"Oh, thank the Maker you are here!" she shook his hand
"Calm down m'am!" the WRO officer calmed her down while his men were readying the instruments "What exactly are we dealing with? You haven't been very clear at the phone…"
"Something came from the sea!" the woman frantically explained as she led the squad down to the beach "It must be a device of some sort…"
"M'am, don't you listen to the newscast?" the WRO officer shook his head "Since the earthquake in the islands two days ago pretty much everything has washed ashore because of the tsunami. It is nothing to be so worried about…"
"Well you would be worried too if your son pokes everything everywhere" she countered "This is my family and my household!"
A subordinate chuckled. The WRO officer silently reprimanded him with a piercing gaze
"Honey, dear!" the woman told her husband upon meeting him halfway to the beach "Why don't you get these gentlemen something to drink while we sort things out?"
The man shrugged and made his way back to the house
"So" the woman said, setting her feet on the beach, metres away form the cylinder "There it is, as you can see…"
Terror gripped her. Her and the whole WRO team.
The cylinder hadn't changed much since she had saw it last time. The only difference was that the hatch was open.
And a couple of feet away from it, sprawled on the pebbles stood the content of the object. Seemingly alive, moreover
The WRO officer dodged the woman, who made a ran back upwards. A soldier rushed for his sidearm. His superior rushed for his radio, instead
"Somebody send me an ambulance and a medical team" he radioed "And fast!"
WUTAI
1.
The week that had just gone by had been one of the worst of Yuffie's entire life.
She had hardly left the Royal Pagoda in Wutai, longing for the company that his father and her beloved retinue was eager to provide. From time to time she was considering giving up the battle against the pain and sorrow she felt, and peacefully slid into the arms of depression. But every time she tried, she could swore that some kind of unseen force quickly dragged her back to the surface of the sea of grief she was swimming into and forced her to catch a good mouthful of air, spurring her to fight her personal battle. In such instances, she was led to think that she might have lost a friend, but on the other hand she had found a guardian angel.
Nonetheless, things were still quite hard for her. She tried to grasp to every positive thing there was around her such as her friends and the prospect of her commitment to the political and social life of the country, which she was now starting to see under a different light.
And her father, too. Whatever had happened, it had helped to mend the broken ties between them. That made life in the Pagoda way easier, as it made easier thinking about the day she would have taken his place. And his company something to look for and lean on rather than something to avoid.
It was hard, of course. Her father was urging her to take her time, to do one step at a time. Nobody said it was easy. Not even Reeve, who called her from time to time, telling her that Cade's body was yet to be found and offering her the help of a professional. Yuffie had turned down that offer. Cade himself appeared in her dreams every now and then, leaving her incoherent messages or messages she could hardly crack, only to disappear right when she least expected it, making her wake up in the middle of the night and leaving her crying on the bed. She discarded those appearances as her mind simply playing tricks on her, nothing more.
She woke up.
It was morning this time. The nightmares had spared her sleep this time. It was time to get up once again and face the fact that no matter how, life went on.
It went on for Cid, who had been granted an extended leave back in his hometown. Surprisingly, his wife Shera had told her that Cid looked less grumpier than ever these days. Since it was Cid they were talking about, the thing sounded alarming, although Shera had reassured her that he had resumed to most of his awful habits back in no time. Most of them, she had remarked.
It went on for Evan and Sarah, who were back to work, having refused any kind of leave permit to assist in the relief operation in the aftermath of the whole affair. The mining facilities in Corel had taken a bad hit, so the town of Mideel and several other places scattered around the world.
It went on for Reeve as well, who struggled to keep an unyielding appearance, yet many wondered what crossed his mind. One of the traits in common between him and Cade was their reluctance to open up. Guess it runs in the family.
Everyone's life was going on. Her should have followed suit.
She got up from the bed and walked into the kitchen, in the wing of the Pagoda where Godo had suggested her to stay, where they could enjoy a bit of privacy without forcibly secluding themselves from the outer world.
Godo in fact was sitting at the table contemplating a newspaper. As soon as he heard her daughter's footsteps, he stood up. Yuffie walked up to him, greeting him with a hug
"Yuffie…"
"Dad"
"How is it today?"
Yuffie sighed "As fine as it could be…"
"Guess we are making a progress here" he smiled. Yuffie smiled back, although the grin was somehow forced
"Have some breakfast" he invited her. One of Godo's chief concerns was that Yuffie would neglect her diet as a side effect of her lingering state of despair. Instead, Yuffie went through her morning supper without hesitation. She had never skipped a meal up to this day, save for the first couple of days
"What's up with you today?" she asked, staring at the centre of table
"Nothing really important" Godo said "You know, the reorganization of the Civic Guard is our first concern on the agenda, but it's not a homogeneous process…"
"So today you are slacking…" she suggested
"Not really, I mean… It's not a very polite way of saying that today there is nothing of capital importance to discuss"
"I see…" Yuffie smiled, making her father's eyes gleam
"It's good to see you smile Yuffie" he said
"I know" she nodded "I'll try to smile more often. If I have the chance to, of course…"
They stood in silence for a while. Yuffie shuffled cutlery and dishes away from the table, discarding them in the sink, resolving to clean them up as soon as possible. Godo had given the servitude the order (well, the request) not to interfere with her daughter's recovery while she stayed at The Royal Pagoda. Yuffie had countered his request by telling him that she could use having people around, provided they let her take care of herself.
Godo stood up
"Listen Yuffie" he said, making her forget about the dishes in the sink "you have hardly poked your nose outside the palace. Why don't you breathe some fresh air for a change?"
"Do you really think it would help?" Yuffie sighed
"You don't know unless you won't give a try" Godo explained "But surely a modification to your daily routine would be of great benefit"
Since the day Yuffie was back on her feet (mentally speaking) she had shadowed her father while he carried out his daily tasks of ruler of Wutai. She did that with such a commitment and at an alarmingly hectic beat that Godo had to force her to take some time off. Surely things were changed both inside her and between them
"Or, even more" Godo added "take your camping equipment and get your friends and stay out for a couple of nights. I remember how happy you were when we did that with your mom"
Yuffie let her arms down "Are you serious?" she marvelled "Do you trust me that much?"
"Yuffie, I'm your father" Godo replied, seemingly offended "And I'm not the father to a mentally unstable girl. I'm just a father who has to help a daughter overcome a loss…"
Yuffie leapt forward, throwing her arms around him
"I wouldn't do anything to her that could make things worse" he whispered
"Oh, dad…" she exclaimed, tears in the corner of her eyes.
She had set out that very afternoon. She would have reached even further south if Aizen hadn't arrived late at the point they had convened for the rendezvous. She had planned to venture beyond the Da Chao mountain, going through a road that was notorious for being infested by monsters. Yet Yuffie was eager to stretch out her muscles, so her two friends.
Unfortunately, they were behind schedule. They had just started climbing the foothills leading to the Da Chao Mountain that darkness came. And hunger too. They had set up a tent and they were about to have dinner
"What? Pork and beans?" Yuffie exclaimed "Since when Yuri manages to cook something requiring two ingredients? I mean, two ingredients?"
"We sent him to school while you were away" Aizen explained "It's still a long way to the top, though…"
"Hey, you two!" Yuri said "Quit complaining about my cooking abilities or you'll have soil for dinner"
They all laughed. Godo was right. Bad thoughts were far from being locked away but that outdoor adventure was soothing her soul. It was still a long way to the top but someone had to do the first step
"Hey, backseat cookers" Yuri howled "toss me another beer"
"It's the second in less than five minutes" Yuffie protested
"Well, I'm thirsty" Yuri shrugged
"You usually drink water when you're thirsty" Aizen pointed out
"Listen" Yuri sighed "just give me that goddamn beer…"
"Whoa" Yuffie exclaimed "Give him the beer or he'll kill us while sleep"
A can was hurled in the air, promptly caught by Yuri's hand
"Say, Yuffie" Aizen asked her "How are things going at the Pagoda these days?"
Yuffie halted sipping from her can of beer. She stared at a point between her feet
"Uhm, good I guess" she simply replied "I'm keeping myself busy…"
"Ah, ok" Aizen nodded "Good to hear that"
"Is there something wrong?" Yuffie asked
"No, no" Aizen shook his head "It's just that we were worried about you…"
"You didn't show up for quite a number of days" Yuri explained, abandoning his cooking spot for a while "We were simply worried that Godo was lying to us. He kept telling us that you were shaken and all…"
"But Yuri is a paranoid" Aizen intervened, trying to lighten up the mood of the speech "He always thinks that something worst is behind!"
Yuffie chuckled "You are very dear guys" she said "but I'm alright, more or less…"
A gust swept the opening where the camping site
"Damn it" Aizen looked up "We'd better hurry before temperatures drop all of a sudden"
"Don't worry guys" Yuri came up sporting the pan, ready to give away the food "The chow is on the way…"
They all got served, while another gust came by. This time fiercer and accompanied by a thundering noise
"Is that a storm?" Yuffie asked
"How can it be?" Aizen marvelled, as the noise grew closer and closer "The sky was crystal clear up to an hour ago…"
Then something flew over them, winds beating against the terrain, nearly scattering their camping equipment. Yuffie could tell the silhouette of an airship flying surprisingly at low altitude
"Damn airship pilots" Yuri swore as soon as the vessel was out of sight "Why don't you fly underground next time?"
Yuffie followed the airship as it glided towards the main town
"What's that airship doing there, anyhow?" Aizen asked
"Beats me" Aizen replied "Give me a hand, that thing made a mess here…"
Yuffie stood there instead, following the vessel till its lights merged with the ones of the city where it landed. An odd feeling grew inside her. Albeit she was ready to dismiss that sensation, due to the recent turmoil her soul had gone through, she could not shake away the impression that the airship was carrying something for her.
Maybe Reeve had come firsthand to inform her that Cade's body had been found and a memorial service was on schedule.
She closed her eyes, as she battled the pain coming from a wound yet to close
"Yuffie? Are you all right?" Aizen shook her
"Oh, I'm sorry" Yuffie replied "I… I just had a funny thought. Nothing really that matters"
"Care to share?" Yuri asked
"Right now I only care bout eating something" she exclaimed "have we cleared up the mess?"
"We did" Aizen told her "Thankfully most of the stuff was anchored and safe. Otherwise I'd have to get back in town to retrieve the tent"
They finally had dinner. Yuffie regained her composure and for a while she forgot about the whole airship affair.
Until her PHS started ringing
"What's it now?" Aizen frowned
The eerie feeling kicked in again. Yuffie rushed to the device
"Hello?"
"Yuffie, it's me" Godo said at the other hand of the wire
"Dad, what's happening?" she asked, her heart beating faster and louder
"Yuffie, I'm sorry to interrupt you but you should come back to the Pagoda…"
"What is it?"
"You should see it with your own eyes?"
"Dad, what was that airship about?" she pressed, almost begging for information
"I told you Yuffie" Godo continued "Come and see by yourself"
The communication dropped.
Her hands were shaking.
"Yuffie" Aizen tentatively asked "What was that?"
"Guys" she uttered "I have to go back"
"Why?"
Yuffie did not reply. She walked off the campsite.
After finally encountering sounder terrain, she started running.
"That means I'll take her share…" Yuri shrugged, preying on Yuffie's leftovers.
4.
Adrenaline had helped keep her pace steady until she finally reached the Royal Pagoda. To her shock and surprise, the airship that had just flew above her back in the foothills of the Da Chao mountain stood in the park just behind the royal premises, surrounded by a line of WRO soldiers.
Yuffie quickly gained entrance to the building and to her surprise, found Godo having a private conversation with none other than Reeve Tuesti
"Oh, good evening Yuffie" Reeve calmly greeted her, with the smile of an unemployed man who had just won the jackpot at a lottery. Strangely enough, that sunny disposition only made her more nervous
"Yuffie, Reeve wants to have a talk with you…" Godo explained her "He says that there's something delicate he should discuss with you"
"What is that?" Yuffie nervously asked "You found him? I mean, his body…"
"Well" Reeve scratched his head "We found him, yes. But not how we were expecting"
Yuffie felt dizzy. Combined with the effort of running all the way from the mountainside to Wutai, Reeve's cryptic statements turned her perception of reality into a tangled mass of contrasting feelings.
She came to think that it was all a nightmare. It must have been the beer, she thought. The alcohol had probably the side effect of waking up her demons while she closed her eyes. She promised to herself not to touch any more spirits from now on
"Yuffie" Godo got closer to her "Are you all right?"
"Maybe we should postpone the whole thing…" Reeve suggested
"I think so" Godo concurred "Only the Gods know how could she react upon seeing that…"
What were they talking about? There was just one way to know that.
'Heaven help me!' she thought to herself as she woke up from her frozen state and started making her way towards the garden where the airship was perched. If there was anything to see, it was inside there
"Yuffie" Godo shouted as Yuffie pushed him and Reeve aside "Please wait…"
But Yuffie was virtually running by know. Nobody stood in her way, as the retinue was probably still asleep, sent back to their beds by Godo. She slammed open the door that led to the garden, sweating buckets and barely managing to put one feet after the other.
She finally reached the airship. The side hatch was open. The line of soldiers guarding the ship looked menacing in their black combat suit, yet they didn't blink an eye as they witnessed Yuffie darting past them and making a way for the interiors of the airship.
Now that she was inside, where was she supposed to go? She quickly scanned the surroundings and the premises started looking way too familiar. In the name of the Gods, what was happening?
Guided by an unheard voice, she took a turn inside a compartment. She ran a few metres and her attention was caught by a solid, white light coming from an open door. She carefully stepped towards it, feeling the forces leaving her at every step she made towards the source of that light.
She finally had the chance to peek beyond that passage. It was not a matter of chance rather than courage. Although her movements inside the ships where swift and nimble, deep inside her she coveted the fear that something too overwhelming to bear was about to take place.
Without further due, she entered the room. It was a compartment converted to a medical station. Machineries, tables and clothing was ubiquitous and white. She felt like walking in a sea of snow, even the temperature was cooler than the outside. Most of the medical instruments were working. But where was the staff? And besides, could it be here that she would have found her answer?
A heavy plastic curtain separated the main compartment from a secluded alcove. She could see that there was something behind the curtain.
Disregarding any procedure in place, she pulled the curtain apart.
And everything fell apart. At least, it started to fall apart.
Her heart sank as she contemplated a bed where a figure was laid to rest. Pipes and wires emerged from the gauzes that wrapped him up
'Him?'
How could Yuffie be so sure?
Voices came from behind her. Yuffie did not notice them. Or chose to ignore them.
Instead, she stepped forward, her mind racing back at a time when she witnessed something strikingly similar
'It can't be…" she thought. Blood was rushing to her head as she was starting to lose sensibility in her limbs. As she approached she could finally tell the features of the man laying in front of her. Because she was sure it was a man.
Those black hairs.
Those green eyes.
Those thin scars where the forearms were exposed.
"No" Yuffie incoherently uttered "Please don't be…"
The man blinked his eyes. He was alive. He scanned the surroundings trying to tell who had just spoken.
Finally their eyes met. They both shed a tear upon recognizing each other.
Yuffie made one final step, coming right next to the bed. She knelt down. And then something terribly beautiful happened.
The man spoke.
Or to be precise, Cade spoke
"Yuffie…" he said, with the mightiest voice he could afford, his chest raising and sinking as he drew breath to cope with the tension of facing a girl he loved and who thought he was dead
"Cade… this is… a dream? You can't be…" Yuffie whispered, her face twisted by the painful process of pain, grief and sorrow being converted into something else
"…alive?" Cade terminated from her, tears falling down form the uncovered by the gauze "I… am, instead" he said, coughing and gritting his teeth because of the intense pain something so menial was causing him
"I…" Yuffie tried to talk but she was soon rendered helpless. She collapsed over Cade, crying like she had never done before in her entire life.
Cade gathered everything he could to lift his left arm and land his hand over Yuffie's head. He was crying too, but he wanted to let her know that he was there.
He was alive and he loved her.
Yuffie's weeps were so intense that Cid made no effort in pinpointing her location. Followed by Evan and Sarah, he discovered the ninja crying over Cade, who was shedding tears as well, caressing her head
"Damn it" Cid shook his head "let's go tell the doctor he's going to have another patient to look after…" and he walked away.
Evan and Sarah stood there instead
"She did not even realized she was on Shera, didn't she?" Sarah asked
"Who cares" Evan shrugged "I'm just happy things turned out the way they did. Aren't you?"
"Me?" she smiled at him "Of course!"
WUTAI
(SOME TIME AFTER…)
1.
"Keep it up, you lazy bone!" Yuffie shouted from above
"Hey, give me a break!" Cade replied "Do you have to remind you what did the doctor tell you?"
"Yep!" Yuffie blinked "He told you to move your ass every now and the, otherwise you're going to lose that magnificent body of yours…"
"Oh, that made me blush!" Cade smiled, while climbing up trying to reach the rock where Yuffie was perched.
They were finally enjoying their first trek outdoor after the doctors had given Cade the green light. Two days in a row of food and water deprivation had taken a toll on his body and mind, but his proverbial fibre had allowed him to burn up the stages of recovery. The only concern was the therapy to get rid of the Mako in his bloodstream: it was a lengthy process akin to a chemotherapy, and the doctors had told him not to overdue.
But in that late afternoon of late summer, it would have been more unhealthy for someone to barricade inside a house rather than enjoying the landscape of Wutai. So they had both decided to set out and take a stroll throughout the rolling hills south of the main town.
"Would you mind lending me a hand? You dislodged all the rocks here!" Cade said
Yuffie rolled her eyes "Don't act like a deadweight though" she recommended, stretching out her arm "Give yourself a thrust, will you?"
Cade got a hold of her hand and helped himself on the ledge. When he finally came on top he crawled for a few metres and abandoned himself with his back on the ground, panting because of the effort. Yuffie rushed next to him
"Are you all right?" she asked, standing over him
Cade took a moment to gaze into her eyes. Then he took her face into his hands and pulled her towards him.
Yuffie initially reacted with surprise but then let it all go as she felt the warmth of his lips against hers. She closed her eyes reciprocating the affection now flowing between them.
Once they separated, she laid on the back as well holding his hand
"I think you are all right, aren't you?" she asked
"I am…" he nodded.
As they stared back into each other's eyes, Yuffie rushed back to the events that took place after that night.
After Yuffie had discovered that Cade was alive, she had collapsed over him, prompting the intervention of a doctor, much to Godo and Reeve's concern. Upon discovering that the shock of the finding had left no lasting consequences, her father had come up with an idea
"Maybe we can arrange for a cot to be placed right next to the bed" he suggested "provided there are no objections to that…"
"I don't see any" the doctor who had just checked on Yuffie shook his head
"You see, I don't want for her to wake up on her bed and have her wonder if it was all a dream or not" Godo explained "I want her to wake up and see that the truth is that Cade is alive and well. That is… well, let's just go with the alive"
"I appreciate your concern" the doctor replied, giving his avail to Godo's proposal. Reeve wholeheartedly agreed with him as well, of course.
With the cot deployed and Yuffie clad in a night attire brought from the pagoda, the ninja was left sleeping next to her loved one. As the doctor left the room, he did not notice that somehow Cade's hand had snuck up to reach for Yuffie's own.
Cade was better in a surprising short amount of time. He was finally able to properly tell Yuffie everything he felt, and Yuffie was able to do just the same.
Of course it was time for the litany of visits as well. Starting from Cid
"Well, kiddo" he said "what do expect me to say?"
"That you were crying like a baby when you realized I was dead?" Cade had suggested, making Yuffie giggle. The ninja was firmly stuck by his side
"Never in a million other lives, you ungrateful prick!" the mechanic grumped.
Evan and the SISF team had somehow made things easier for him: the whole team was brought before him to hear how he had managed to escape the submarine, despite the escape pods not being available
"When I was told that there was no way out, I simply stuck to a seat and closed my eyes. I was hoping to fall asleep so I won't have felt a thing when the explosion would came
"But then something happened: I had some sort of… vision, if you want to call it like that, that in a very subtle way told me that I could use the pod the crew was meant to use to shuttle papers and mail to the surface in case of emergency"
"Was it the ghost of the commander?" Evan joked
"It was the ghost of someone we had known personally" Cade replied without missing a beat
"I see…" Evan bowed his head, silently reprimanded by Sarah "Sorry!"
"Never mind!" Cade continued "Anyway, I managed to operate the pod. I was cramped inside a space no larger than this bed and when the reactor exploded, I was at the currents' will. I finally ended up on a beach somewhere south of the Golden Saucer. The WRO found me and here I am…"
When the WRO team alerted by the family had found him, he was immediately shuttled to the WRO hospital in Niebelheim, still not recognized by anyone since his dog-tags had gone missing. Thankfully, when the pod was examined, it was revealed that it belonged to the Dragonette, and some officers made a beeline to the WRO Headquarters revealing that there was a potential survivor from the explosion.
Reeve was flown into Niebelheim and recognized Cade. There was no point in trying to describe what the head of the WRO had felt upon realizing that Cade was alive
"And that is pretty much everything I have to say. If something else happened, I was too unconscious to notice that…" he concluded, causing laughter among his audience.
Of course there was some time to talk specifically with his uncle. Not without the constant presence of Yuffie by his side. Far from being a nuisance, Reeve had immediately realized that Cade was too fond of her to let her go
"Cade" Reeve said "I've heard some rumours that hint at the fact that you'd wish to leave the WRO…"
"Well…" Cade was quite embarrassed at the perspective of confessing that intention to Reeve "Please, uncle Reeve. I'm not doing that out of ingratitude. It's just that I think I've discovered that maybe now my place is somewhere else…"
Reeve raised his hand
"Say no more, Cade" he told him "It's your life. Surely you will be missed. But apart from that, it's your life and you have the right…, well now you have the duty to be in charge of yourself. I think Yuffie is strong enough to keep you on your tracks… Am I right Yuffie?"
"You bet you are!" the ninja enthusiastically replied, kissing Cade on the cheek
"If this is a threat" Cade smiled "I'll tell you it's not working…"
"Ah, Cade" Reeve amicably slapped him on his shoulder "Just pay a visit to your old uncle every now and then…"
"I'll do" Cade nodded "Thanks Reeve. I'm a very happy man right now"
Reeve bowed his head upon hearing Cade's sincere words
"It's great to hear that, Cade" he said hugging him before walking away.
Then, of course, came the most dreaded talk of all.
It was Godo's turn
"So, it has been brought to my attention that there quite an affection running between you two…" he said
Cade was sorting out the words to tell him that indeed he loved his daughter but Yuffie came first
"Yes, dad. There is!" Yuffie nodded "Even if Cade is too spineless to admit that…"
"Hey, mind your words!" Cade reprimanded her "I remind you that I saved the world…"
"Heaven, don't start using that excuse now!" Yuffie sighed
"I have the feeling you are going to give me quite the headache" Godo considered
"No, Sir" Cade immediately replied "I'll treat your daughter the way a princess is supposed to be treated. Provided, of course, someone like me is allowed to be engaged with the princess"
"That's not an issue" Godo shook his head "And as far as Yuffie is happy, I'm happy too. Bear just that in mind"
"I'll do, Sir" Cade nodded
"By the way, I heard Yuffie has offered you to stay by her place"
"That is right, Sir" Cade robotically nodded again "Provided this is fine with you"
"And she told me" Godo continued "That you wish to repay your debt, somehow"
"Yes, Sir"
"Don't worry" Godo said "Wutai is a great country. We will find you something to do once you will be fit for it. Up to now, keep an eye on my daughter for me…"
"Hey!" Yuffie protested "I can provide for myself"
"Didn't you hear your father Yuffie?" Cade teased her
"Cade Tuesti" Yuffie sternly replied "I remind you that you will be staying at my place. So behave yourself"
And that's how Cade found himself between a rock and a hard place.
"What are thinking of?" Yuffie asked him, still laying on the ground, eyes in the sky
"Lots of things" Cade replied
"Like…"
"Like where are we going from here" he continued "What are we going to do, and such…"
"How about 'living', for a start?" she suggested "Enjoying everything a boring life in a country like this has to offer, without fearing that someone might… take them away from you" she said, putting a hand on his chest
Cade turned and kissed her
"I like that" he said "I could use some living, especially here…" he added, pointing his finger around
"You really like this place…" Yuffie told him
"I do, really" he said "It's so peaceful. It really makes you feel like… I don't even know! Damn it, it seems so unreal to me…"
"Why? What is unreal?"
"The world at peace" he replied. Or at least momentarily "And you by my side…"
His thoughts were interrupted by Yuffie who climbed on top of him, sealing her lips on his. They stood together for a while
"This is real, Cade" she told him "You just have to get used to it"
"That sounds awful" he replied
Yuffie kissed him again
"I'll give you that" she said
Cade made just in time to catch a glimpse of the giant Buddha carved on the slope of the Da Chao mountain before giving in to Yuffie's assault
"Do you think…" Cade asked her, catching breath in a hiatus
"What?"
"Do you think he would take it as an offense?"
"What?" Yuffie asked again
"If we made love, right here under his nose!"
"You perv!" Yuffie slapped him on the cheek, laughing "But you know… after all it's just a statue" she coyly smiled
"Have you made up your mind?"
"Yes" she replied, as she slowly took of her fleece sweater "I do have"
"I love you, Yuffie"
"I love you, Cade"