Preamble:

As noted in the previous chapter, this was cut from 'The Human Spirit' in the interests of organization and time. It also gave me an opportunity to experiment with the two style of prose we've seen so far. Hopefully it's not so jarring as to make it not worth the trouble.

SOLDIER. With the carefully trained eyes of the tallest Turk following her every move, Yuffie had exited through the unlocked steel door teased by Rufus Shinra, which took her into the small, unattended galley that seemed to serve the circular room they'd just used. Instinct steered her towards one of the two other doors, which led outside and onto a covered footbridge that linked that building with the adjacent one on the other side of a precipitous drop, this one built in the same style but rectangular and more discreetly reaching into the rocky cliffs below it. She pictured Rufus having to hobble across the varnished wooden beams with his cane. Maybe he makes Rude carry him, she thought, as she found herself grinning again. She could feel him watching her smirk with his quiet suspicion, but he said nothing: instead, one of his arms appeared through the door's frame holding something.

"Don't forget your antique." She felt her grin vanish as she hastily rushed through the galley and took her the tape recorder's carrying case back, throwing it over one shoulder in a huff before snapping back. Rude unceremoniously shut the door in her frowning face.

So, the company's keeping them with him at all times now. Ever since his little talk with Kadaj.

At the end of the bridge was an identical metal door, which she opened and through it was surprised to see not another moderately modern art deco-style resort building, but a sparse, utilitarian junction room with a pair of elevator doors on one side and a particularly resilient-looking security door on another. She'd seen the top of the building from the outside, and surmised the elevators must've reached into the cliffs below. She'd never been in this part of the resort.

To her side, one of the elevators chirped a tone and the doors opened, lighting up the room. A slender woman, more her stature, with swept-over blond hair and the same two-piece black suit worn by Rude entered, not sharing Yuffie's surprise at the encounter. She reached out with both hands and took her luggage before Yuffie could respond, sliding it against the wall, then forced Yuffie's arms up in what was a familiar routine for both women.

"So, you're here too, Elena!" Yuffie announced jovially. "So, what, only one Turk with the big man in charge ever since his little talk with Kadaj?"

"Is that something the W.R.O's spymaster discovered?" Elena asked coldly as she felt the pockets in Yuffie's vest as she frisked her. The search was particularly thorough, even ignoring her luggage. When Elena circled back in front of her, she found Yuffie was grinning almost impossibly wide.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think you were enjoying this."

"How long have you been sitting on that one?" she asked.

"Pretty long time," Yuffie admitted frankly. "How was it?"

"Probably would've worked better on my sister. She didn't have a known crush on another Turk," Elena explained, matching her frankness.

Yuffie nodded. "Where is she? Dead?" She winced a little.

"No, she's just not posted here."

Yuffie nodded as Elena finished the frisk. "Tell me next time she's here, right? I wanna' try it on her."

"Of course," Elena replied, as though she'd been asked to hold open a door. "This way."

"To what?"

"You'll see," she answered, a hint of playfulness entering her voice. Next to the security door, she fished some sort of plastic card out of a pocket and pressed it against the digital reader: Yuffie spotted a small image of her flash on a display as the door began to lift up on a chain assembly. Now they were in a long, relatively wide hallway lined on one side with thick glass behind raised blinds, overlooking what she thought was a large courtyard, but with a clearly militaristic bent: the irritatingly loud helicopter she'd seen earlier, or one of the same model, could be seen, landed and surrounded by multiple off-road vehicles and a small military tractor. Not just red-uniformed officers but the enlisted soldiers, in their modern dark blue military fatigues, were scurrying about, including at least a half-dozen who disembarked from the helicopter itself. In a testament to the thickness of the large windowpanes she was walking by, their racket was heavily muffled and she had no choice but to watch them yelling and gesturing at one another, particularly when a soldier wearing a massive radio set on his back climbed out of one of the cars and tried to get the attention of the helicopter's crew.

This was called, in military parlance, a landing zone. She'd known for years that helicopters were making regular flights into Healen Lodge, but somehow she'd never actually seen it happen. Was this deliberate? Is Rufus trying to tell me something, trying to remind me of something I know?

She knew what it reminded her of: Shinra's occupation of Wutai.

After Wutai lost the war, when she was around ten years old, a military occupation was set up in the so-called Imperial City. "Unilateral" was a word used to describe it. Called the Midgar Army Provisional Government, it was an elaborate military government that would install Midgar's rule—now indistinguishable from Shinra's rule—over the defeated empire.

Except it didn't last. There was no wanton slaughter or brutal occupation, as everyone had told her was inevitable. Shinra didn't even build the Mako Reactor they'd publically desired, violating the ancestral holy lands outside the Imperial City, though they'd considered it briefly. Instead the entire military occupation packed up and left as quickly as it had appeared, leaving only a SOLDIER garrison at Fort Tamblin, the eastern name for Tamburin-jō, the Great Tamburin Castle. After a few years, that was replaced by a corporate office whose sole duty seemed to be maintenance of the long-range power and telephone transmission lines from the mainland. As it turned out, Shinra had no interest in exacting painful revenge, at least not as they expected. Shinra took Wutai's materia, the same way the Grand Army of Midgar had when Wutai fled the Eastern Continent after the last war, and poured money into the commercial, agricultural, and tourism sectors. Instead of another Mako Reactor, they go their tourist trap.

I still don't understand why they'd do that. Or why Rufus would care in the least about her childhood memories.

"So, journalism?" Elena's sharp, proper voice jolted her out of her childhood memories.

"Yeah," she taunted her back. "That's right. What of it?"

She could hear Elena stifling a giggle in front of her. "And I take it you didn't get that highly-coveted interview with the president of the Shinra Corporation?" she taunted her back.

"Oh, who cares about Rufus, he's old news," she insisted. "How about you? What does Elena…Elena…of the Turks, have to say?" she finally asked.

This time Elena didn't even bother stifling it as they continued along the windows.

"Come on, I'll make it worth your while. Come on, come on, come on!" she chirped.

"I seriously doubt you could," Elena finally replied, glancing at her over her shoulder briefly. "And I'm not looking for a job with the W.R.O., unfortunately for you."

"Maybe I should try with Tseng," Yuffie remarked remorsefully. With the Turk's back to her, she took the opportunity to reach into her luggage and turn the large, upwards-facing control knob into the record position. She then felt for two metallic, textured switches inside circular pits, hoping the leather case would mask the sound of loud mechanical clicks.

[START]

Kisaragi: Where is your old boyfriend anyway, Elena?

Elena: I'd remind you that he's not boyfriend, but that seems like a waste of my time. And yours, for that matter. Did you really just come here to harass the president for an interview for, what, a book? I can't even say I've ever thought of you as having read a book before.

K: I wouldn't say I was harassing him. [PAUSE] Hey! I read lots of books!

E: Besides ones that tell you how to use thirty-year-old reel-to-reel? Seriously, you look ridiculous with that thing, I hope you realize that.

K: Yeah. [YAWNING] Like I'm going to take advice on style from Shinra's department of hired murderers.

E: You should be so lucky.

K: So, Miss Hired Killer, where are you taking me then? And maybe remember that I'm probably the last person in the world who'd be afraid of you.

E: Stop complaining and look at that.

K: You mean that helicopter outside?

E: Yes, that. What do you see?

K: I see a bunch of your uniformed goons running around, loading equipment onto the helicopter. So what?

E: So even out here, on these cliffs in the middle of nowhere, the company's been busy. You're smart enough to have figured out the military presence here is at the highest it's ever been. Back in the old days, after Meteorfall, even many of the patients didn't realize this facility was operated by Shinra.

K: That the reason for all those company logos everywhere? Avoiding confusion of ownership under capitalism? [PAUSE] No reading, humph.

E: You told the president that this is about Deepground. You're right to still be worried, someone at the W.R.O. should be, instead of celebrating how you're the masters of the universe.

K: I…wouldn't go that far.

E: And we were worried about it too. We worried about it before the media or your boss Reeve, for that matter. We're still worried about it. [PAUSE] If anyone of those men out there knew about something even remotely like Deepground, trust me, we'd know about it.

K: Yeah, well, forgive me if I don't think that's enough! You had, what, two years to do something about Deepground? Three? How many people died while you were busying doing something, until AVALANCHE had to do something about it?

E: You mean like how AVALANCHE did something about Jenova's Head and Geostigma? [PAUSE] I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell like that.

K: Yeah, me neither. [PAUSE] Sorry.

E: You're right, unfortunately. We…the Turks, the company, everyone…we screwed up. Not because we weren't doing something, but because we were afraid. Like you said, we knew about the Deepground Army better than anyone, and we knew how disastrous it could be, so we were careful. And it ended up being a disaster anyway. More than half of the General Affairs Department that was committed to Deepground was injured in the fighting, some of them seriously. [PAUSE] We didn't have enough people, it's a simple as that.

K: And now you do? I see, at least, thirty soldiers out there right now. And I've seen more helicopters on flight paths to the resort than this.

E: You've been watching the skies? I'm impressed.

K: You know I can't just leave it to you. We…we tried that, you know? [PAUSE] You're putting your hand up against the window, what're you looking at?

E: My hand against the…when the president was talking to you, he wasn't telling you that there's a community of retired veterans of the Midgar and Junon armies now living just down the road, in Kalm. [PAUSE] He certainly isn't telling you that, in particular, you should seek out the former-Captain of the Presidential Guard force, who has retired in anonymity in Kalm. [PAUSE] Because sharing that with a member of the public, even if she were in the W.R.O., could jeopardize the safety of those veterans and expose them to violent anti-Shinra sentiment.

K: Wait, Kalm?

E: So you understand that...

K: Yes, Elena, I know what you're saying! [PAUSE] Retired veterans of the Midgar and Junon armies. I'm sure they're a real easy-going bunch.

E: Compared to us?

K: [LAUGHTER] Good point. [PAUSE] Tell Rufus thanks. Or…don't tell him. I'm not sure how that works.

E: Let's keep it that way. You know we're only helping you like this because we trust you.

K: Really? I thought it was because you watched me save Rufus Shinra's life. Same as those guys out there. While all your elite SOLDIER members and military police and guards were just standing around, useless.

E: Well, SOLDIER isn't what it used to be either. Deepground made sure of that.

K: Hey, about that. The W.R.O.'s official line is that SOLDIER was disbanded. But that was before Deepground. We know what was left of SOLDIER fought them. I guess you couldn't not give me a straight answer on that, could you?

E: [LAUGHTER] You waited that long to ask me that? Fine, you want an answer? See that jeep that just drove up to the helicopter? The woman in the back seat?

K: [PAUSE] You mean the tall, pale blonde…whoa! Look at the pair on her! I mean…I'm seeing a blond woman in a very form-fitting sleeveless and legless black combat suit, with sword on her hip and…is that a war scythe? I haven't seen one of those in ages. Way she's spinning it, geeze, that thing probably weighs more than I do. [PAUSE] That's a big materia crystal on the other end. Though not as big as two other things…

E: God, it's like I'm talking to an idiot savant. Stop describing everything you see!

K: And those bright blue eyes, it's like she's in...is she in SOLDIER? Is that what you're telling me?

E: What does she look like?

K: She looks like if Cloud and Tifa had a kid and she had her chest and his height and sunny disposition. God, I hate that smug look you Turks always have. So what's her name?

E: Why don't you go ask her some time? I'm sure she'd love to chat.

K: She's getting into the helicopter, with the lady in the white coat. [PAUSE] Is she on some kind of mission? And what summon materia is that? Whatever it is, you know that was supposed to be surrendered to the W.R.O. two years ago, right?

E: You mean surrendered to you, the W.R.O.'s spymaster and materia-keeper?

K: It's. The. Law. Elena!

E: I'm sorry, is a member of the former eco-terrorist insurrection AVALANCHE lecturing me about the law? You know how stupid that sounds? And don't try stealing it from her either, I've seen what she can do with that giant hammer of hers. In fact, actually, why don't you give it a try? [PAUSE] And by the way, I know you're recording with that ridiculous thing. Next time, maybe get eavesdropping hardware that isn't the size of a small child!

[STOP]

With another loud metal click, Elena turned the knob back and stopped the recording, the TC-5500's numerous mechanical parts gently coming to a halt.

"Now how did that happen?" Yuffie asked innocently as she pulled her hand out of the luggage.

"You don't think I couldn't hear those reels spinning?" Elena asked, her eyes narrowing hostilely. "Or when you started it in the first place?"

To be honest, I thought there was an even chance you didn't. Yuffie managed to hold that back and just gave harmless smile, sticking her teeth out. "Seriously, though, who's Boobs and how did she get that materia?"

Giving a slow, loud, and exasperated sigh, Elena let her forehead come to a rest against the thick glass pane.

"By order of the World Restoration Act, I order you to tell me," Yuffie insisted.

"Sometimes I forget how much I hate you."

"Oh, you love me and you know it," Yuffie announced smugly, a wide smile reappearing on her face. "I'll let the materia slide this time, on account of how helpful your boss has been. Or hasn't been. Whatever. Next time, though."

Head still against the pane, Elena's chestnut-colored eyes shifted towards her with a clear look that suggested she couldn't count on there being a next time. "I ought to take your stupid tape recorder, but there's a good likelihood you can't even use that thing to begin with."

"You never know, do you?" she taunted, turning back to in the direction they'd entered the hallway and strolling away from her. Yuffie was confident that she'd given an adequate impression of calm—in fact, even with her remaining questions, she wanted to get out as soon as possible. Whoever the tall, fair-skinned woman with blonde hair was, it wasn't as pressing as who'd she seen get into the helicopter after her, presumably before it lifted off. A smaller, thinner redhead with an unmistakable prosthetic arm concealed under a white laboratory coat.

Yuffie Kisaragi, the spymaster of the World Regenesis Organization, would've never imagined Shalua Rui, one of the organization's most talented minds, would reappear with the Shinra.

Author's Notes:

I'm not sure if switching back and forth between these two formats is such a good idea in the long run, though it does make it clear the limitations of transcript-style dialog. Still, I'm happy with how it turned out, and I think it captures a certain...narrative?...that might less creatively conveyed otherwise. Something like an interview transcript wouldn't really give us access to Yuffie's thoughts and memories (allowing us to flesh out Wutai a little further), unless she went as far as to verbalize them one by one, which there's probably a reasonable limit to.

I very much like the Turks, which itself probably isn't surprising. Given time, and interest, and a good justification, I would actually like to spend a little time reconciling the two different faces of them, as probably best encapsulated with Reno (the first and most prominent Turk introduced in the original game), a ruthless G-man-style enforcer and killer and a selfless hero with little sense of self-preservation (when he was saving Edge City's ungrateful children). Some people are, understandably, unhappy with that juxtaposition. What do you think?