Retrieval

Wutai.

Cloud was gazing at the surrounding terrain with an annoyed expression—it had never been one of his favorite places. Oddly, if he'd never met Yufi or Corneo there, he'd probably have liked it a lot more, but as things stood, the place was in its current worst season (absolutely wrong for everyone not Wutain) and was sopping wet. That just made it worse; it felt a lot like he was standing in a bloody shower, steam and all. At least they weren't in a Wutain town, just at their base camp south of Tamblin, but that was offset by them preparing for battle. He'd really never been one for war, despite having wanted to join SOLDIER, and despite having joined the Infantry.

And young Cid was an annoying, arrogant son-of-a-bitch with a mouth worse than his older self Cloud had known, so he was practicing avoidance at the moment.

Sephiroth had paused beside him earlier to wish him luck. Actually, everyone but Azul had done so, of the 'field commanders' of the operation known as the Wutai Assault. Partly, that was because Azul didn't really want anything to do with anyone but the top SOLDIERs, and partly...He was preparing the assault on Tamblin, so his focus was on that. Cloud honestly didn't care—other than Argento and Weiss, dealing with the Tsviets of Deepground was still really strange to him. And he still wasn't even completely sure of Weiss yet. Argento was only 'okay' because he'd never known her before.

They were almost ready to go when Veld stepped up beside him and commented, "It's actually odd seeing you in civilian clothes."

Snorting, Cloud said, "It's gotten strange to be in them, if that helps. Even my 'plainclothes' visits to her still feel like work."

The man chuckled, then fell silent for a minute. "I'll wish you luck finding and retrieving Yufi. Remember—straight back to the airship so they can leave. Even if something on the battlefield looks like it's going poorly. If I can, I'll be back in time to join you, but I won't count on it."

"I know," the blond boy paused, then sighed faintly. "I hope you can retrieve your daughter safely. But...be ready for anything. Because I'm sure things won't go as smoothly as we're hoping, and I'm pretty sure I'm here right now for this...absurd plan...because the shit's about to hit the fan."

"Why's that?" Veld asked in surprise.

"Minerva has gotten into the habit of shoving me into the middle of things that are about to go wrong," Cloud shrugged. "And because part of her came back, and has probably been talking to herself behind Tseng's back, I'm sure this one is the same. I mean—my meeting the Nightmare and ending up in the building pipes just in time to find Tyra and Scarlet...That wasn't really coincidence. I don't think so, anyway."

Again, the older man was quiet for a minute, but then he patted Cloud's shoulder and said, "I'll be prepared, then. Take care of yourself in the meantime. We won't know how things will go until we get started, so we should still hope for the best."

They were interrupted by Sephiroth using a 'command' shout (his voice was pitched to be heard above the din), "Attention! Units one through eight, move out! Our target is past Tamblin, so stay alert until we get to Wutai City!" The last two units, nine and ten, were Azul's, so were focused on Tamblin.

With the shout, they were on their way, and had reached the caves quickly, hearing the din of battle back at Tamblin as they went. Argento was in the lead, so they also reached the right one with speed and ease, and were through it surprisingly quickly. Sure enough, it led through the mountains to the forests and plains around the capital of Wutai. From there, Cloud split from the group to head for the woods, knowing that was the kind of place Yufi was likely to go. He would start there and work his way to the City, probably getting there before the troops—if he got there at all before finding the girl. All he was sure of just then was that she wasn't at Tamblin yet, as he'd seen none of the tell-tale signs which meant she was nearby.

What he didn't expect was for something to yelp and crash into him, sending both him and the small form rolling along the ground until they hit the base of a tree and the other form bounced to land a couple feet back the way they'd come. "Oww..." the other form muttered, sitting up slowly as she rubbed her head—and Cloud gaped for a moment as he realized it was Yufi. She hadn't changed much as an adult, other than her figure and the clothing she wore—currently, she was in a pair of shorts and a shirt in blue with yellow hems. Her hair was still short, too, and she had a white headband on.

"There you are," a chilling voice said, and both children looked up to see two men step out from behind a tree. One Cloud realized was Fuhito, and the other—was fully covered, but didn't wear the same emblems as Crescent Unit. An Imperial Assassin? "Oh, dear. It looks like we have company," Fuhito commented, then shrugged dismissively. "One child or two doesn't really matter."

"How dare you!" Yufi began angrily. "I'm the Princess—my father will have your head! And you—Assassin! You're supposed to work for my father and protect me!"

"I don't think he'd be here—either of them—if they actually cared..." Cloud sighed faintly, rising carefully. :Fenrir?: he mentally asked of the Summon he always had on him. :Can you help us?:

:I can, but I have the same weakness as any other Summon—if they do me too much damage, I have a recovery time. What help do you want?: Fenrir agreed, asking for details while they had a moment.

"Wait, does that mean the Imperial Assassins betrayed my father?" the girl—who was about seven years old—asked in shocked horror and dawning realization.

"This one did, anyway," Cloud agreed. :A lift, maybe?: he added to Fenrir, who gave agreement. "Fenrir, come to me!" he then called out loud, and as the large, black wolf began forming, he seized Yufi and jumped for his Summon-friend, aiming to land on his back.

"No! Get them!" Fuhito snarled, even as Fenrir bolted for the woods.

Cloud had managed to straddle the wolf's back in riding form as he pulled Yufi against him and made sure he'd flattened himself out as much as possible on Fenrir's back. Several trees fell around them as Fenrir dodged through the woods, and managed to anticipate and dodge several laser shots, too. Fenrir was fast, but apparently those men were keeping up with him, and it was only the fact that the wolf's natural terrain was rugged, rough forest that allowed him to stay ahead of them. In that, the falling trees had actually helped, but Cloud was now very worried about what would happen next. The Assassin keeping pace with them wouldn't actually have surprised him, but that Fuhito also could...he was obviously very martially inclined, despite his interest in science and technology.

Fuhito and an Imperial Assassin weren't great odds—they were both powerful in their own right, and he still wasn't fully trained up; he really had no way to fight a laser, anyway. A thought caused him to direct ice at the two men's feet on one of Fenrir's jumps which allowed him to see them so he knew where he was aiming. If anything, the wolf's jumps were more like flying and cleared the tops of the trees easily, which may have been good for dodging...but not so much for going unseen. Especially during the day, even on a cloudy, rainy day.

A furious snarl sounded, then a band of energy surged from the forest—and hit Fenrir before he'd landed. Cloud and Yufi both yelped as Fenrir howled in pain and dissolved, dropping them while in mid-air. Both expected a hard landing—

Only for a pained shout to sound as they landed on something surprisingly soft. A snarl made Cloud look up—only for Dark Nation to barrel into the Imperial Assassin, who clearly hadn't expected the interference from an animal. The Assassin was knocked back against a tree, struggling to hold the Blood Taste's fangs away from his throat.

Wait, Dark Nation?

He sat up and looked down at the thing he and Yufi had landed on—only to see a very annoyed Rufus glaring at him. "What the fuck, Rufus?" he hissed. "You're not supposed to be here!" Yufi looked up and stared between the two in confusion.

"There y—" Fuhito began to say, only to be cut off with a yelp as Tyra—who was supposed to be with Angeal and Halo—bit his leg and held on tightly, growling as she did. Yufi, Rufus, and Cloud all stared with a lack of comprehension for a moment. "Ow! Fuck, what did this little—" Then, his eyes widened in alarm and he gasped, "Poison! Antidote! I need an antidote, now!" He raised his gun to point it at the pup (Cloud shouted, "Tyra!" in alarm as he did), but was distracted as a crow came down from above and flew into his face, causing the shot to hit the base of a nearby tree.

"Kurosai (1)!" Yufi shouted happily. "You made it!"

A moment later, Dark Nation slammed into Fuhito full-force, and there was a pause as the Assassin jumped to the man—then apparently used the Exit spell to send the two of them away from the small (or not so small, anymore) group. Tyra was sitting on the ground where she'd originally bit the Wutain man, tail wagging as she watched Dark Nation return to her.

Cloud just shook his head tiredly as Dark Nation nudged Tyra over to Cloud, Rufus, and Yufi, and after a short pause, the crow landed on a branch above them. Cloud got up and helped Yufi rise as well, then helped Rufus up, even as he glared at him again. "What are you even doing here, Rufus? It's not like it's safe for you here!"

"You say that like I'm not allowed to know what's really going on in the world, Cloud," Rufus glared back, lifting his cane a bit. "And at least I had the sense to bring Dark Nation with me."

"Sense would have been staying home!" the younger blond retorted in irritation. Just then, he glimpsed Yufi move away out of the corner of his eye, and spun to catch her wrist—and yanked one of his Materia out of her hand as he did. "No, thank you," he told her flatly. "I'm not the kind of person you can steal from. And in case you hadn't noticed, some of your own people are trying to kill you. It'll be a lot safer for you away from here."

"And what, become a prisoner?" she replied in annoyance.

"Prisoner? Really?" Cloud asked in equal annoyance. "That's way more work than just keeping you busy with combat training you want to do anyway."

She gaped at him for a moment, then glared and said, "But you're from the Shin-Ra, and that means you're the enemy!"

"Who is whose enemy, exactly?" Rufus asked in confusion. "As far as I know, the men fighting on the battlefield right now don't harm or kill children."

"But they're attacking Wutai just because we want to stay ourselves!" she replied hotly.

"Actually, right now, Wutai's being attacked because two Wutains we know told us we have to start killing the people who are killing off all your High Nobles before there are none left," Cloud told her pointedly, and she froze. "One of them is even a High Noble who survived the attack on his family—but he was the only one of his family who survived. Shinra gave him a chance to recover and build a life for himself, otherwise he would have died then, too. He knows what the situation is, and told us what we really need to aim for here—so that's what we're doing. You saw for yourself you're a target of theirs, too, and probably, so is your family. It's literally not safe for you here anymore. Especially not with Fuhito aiming for you."

"Why? He's Wutain..." she blinked.

"He's a cold, heartless bastard who wants to destroy all life on the Planet," the younger of the two blonds told her flatly, and her eyes widened in horror as Rufus blinked in surprise. "And, if he actually just wants to kill you, you're lucky, otherwise he'd use you as an experimental test subject. And believe me, the tests he does makes those who go through it no better than walking corpses. You'd be better off dead. So, you tell me—do you really think you're safe here or should stay around?"

"But the President of Shin-Ra wouldn't just let me walk around freely, would he?" she asked, glaring. "He could use me to win the war—"

"He's already winning it without you, girl," Rufus sighed. "Who are you, anyway?"

"The Princess of Wutai," Cloud told the older blond in amusement, and Rufus blinked and stared.

"Really? Why in the world would they kill their own Princess?" Rufus asked in utter confusion.

Cloud shrugged. "The ones behind it need certain people out of the way in order to get the power they want. The High Nobles and the royal family are amongst them."

That made the older blond sigh. "Point." He then gave Cloud an annoyed look. "Fine, I'll say nothing about your new recruit. At this point, my father sort of expects Wutains you've retrieved to join your number, anyway, so I doubt he'd question it."

As Cloud snorted in amusement, Yufi asked in confusion, "What new recruit? For what?"

Cloud looked at her again and asked, "So, how come you're way out here instead of back at the Palace with your guards and caregivers?"

"Because I gave them the slip so I could help fight the Shin-Ra," she told him with a smirk-like grin.

"Really?" he asked flatly. "You 'gave them the slip', when they're decades older than you and have at least three times your experience? Who are you trying to kid? They're letting you slip out—they don't want you somewhere safe. And you're playing right into it by thinking you're somehow better than people you have no chance of actually being better than when you're only seven years old."

"Well what about the two of you? You gave someone the slip to get out here!" the girl glared in reply.

"Rufus did, only because he thought it was a brilliant idea to slip in with an army heading for the battlefield," the younger blond agreed. "And in theory, with so many heads to count, that's actually a valid way to go unseen. Which isn't how you're 'slipping away' from your minders, is it?" She gave her head a shake, and he went on, "And I was supposed to be here—scheduled and everything—just not to fight. They were all well aware of me and even made sure to wish me luck."

"That makes no sense," Yufi muttered with a frown.

Suddenly, Dark Nation twitched and Cloud felt a sense of danger, so he drew his combat star and jumped between Yufi and the woods—only for a blade to clash loudly with his defensively-held star. Looking up, he saw the Assassin (the same one or a different one?) holding a katana as he used his weight to try to force Cloud to the ground. What the Assassin obviously didn't know or expect was the strength enhancements Mako infusions gave to people, and was actually surprised the blond boy could hold against his weight and strength. After a minute of trying to force the boy down, he pulled back to launch another attack, and Cloud felt a cross between annoyed and ill that these Assassins were really a match for Sephiroth.

At least it was General Sephiroth's skill he could compare it to, not The Nightmare's, and the General's skill was at least a more natural (and slightly weaker) form than The Nightmare's.

Either way, at the rapid exchange of blows, Cloud soon found himself having to do what he'd done with Weiss—wield two different lengths of blades while using the star's base as a shield. It was fast-paced, and he knew he'd only be able to keep it up for so long—

An alarmed shout from Rufus and a scream from Yufi made him chance a glance—only to see the two staring in shock at another Assassin, who was crouched by them and obviously wounded. He couldn't take long to look, and even just that glance nearly earned him a neat slice across his side, but he was thankfully able to avoid that one. He couldn't afford to try to watch the two of them against another Assassin, but he couldn't just do nothing! Neither was fit to fight an opponent at that level!

Then, his own battle shifted and he could see in the background how the Assassin rose to attack again, and met Rufus' cane, but quickly backed off when Dark Nation launched an attack. That gave them breathing room, and the crow also distracted him from a shot aimed at the dog, which meant he gained injury caused by a bitten arm. Cloud couldn't let his attention waver more than that—his own opponent suddenly kicked up the speed and forced him to match him. The blond boy's focus had to go to the man he fought, not to what was in the background.

But both Rufus and Yufi—!

Suddenly, Cloud felt the surge of energy and emotion which came with hitting a Limit Break, and realized he could now use the same multi-blade attack he'd used on The Nightmare the last time they'd fought, when spirit-Zack had held him in place for him (2). Only, this time, he realized Omni-blades worked on more than one target. Before he even realized he'd done it, both Assassins were pierced by the first blade, and by every successive one, as the force of the Limit Break took over and he instinctively followed the directions to strike with each blade. To strike both, somehow, with each blade, so fast they had no chance to dodge.

Then, he stopped between the two and absently lifted his hand to catch the last of his blades as it fell again, and just shook his head dazedly as he realized both Assassins looked more like pincushions. And Rufus and Yufi were both staring at him in open-mouthed, wide-eyed shock.

"Well, I guess the shit hit the fan," he sighed faintly, then swayed as he realized how draining that Limit Break was for someone who had a child's body and wasn't fully trained up. Yes, he'd have to start actively training, and that probably meant doing a lot more sparring with the Firsts and the Tsviets. Especially now that he knew for sure that The Nightmare was going to come for him eventually, and he couldn't afford to be so drained by an attack—and a Limit Break one, at that, because those weren't supposed to drain a person at all. That only happened when the user was using one way too high above their current ability to use, which made said lack of ability hit home.

A hand caught his arm, and he looked up to see Rufus as the older blond commented, "I don' t think Limit Breaks are supposed to leave you too tired to walk..."

"They aren't," Cloud sighed. "Unless you used one above your own ability to manage. Which I apparently just did."

"With impressive results," Rufus agreed. "But we should likely not stay here if we somehow went from one Imperial Assassin and Fuhito to two Imperial Assassins."

"You're probably right," Cloud sighed as he began collecting his blades. His gaze then lifted to Yufi's as he asked, "Come with us? Please?"

She blinked. Then she blinked again. Finally, after a moment, she asked, "If I go with you, can I learn to do stuff like that?"

"Everyone's Limit Breaks are individual, but you'll definitely get the training to allow you to access them," he offered.

"Then yes!" she grinned. "I'll become so strong no one will know what hit them!"

Both young men looked amused by the words, saying nothing to dash her hopes—the Turks would definitely be able to keep up with her for a very long time. It was only then when Cloud realized he should probably alert the others to Fuhito's presence in Wutai just then and to tell Argento two Assassins were dead, so pulled out his PHS, suddenly thankful the rain had stopped around the time they stopped fighting.

Once he'd sent the messages and put his PHS away, Rufus steadied Cloud for the walk back to and through the tunnel, followed by Yufi—who was so hyper she practically ran circles around them. The crow (had she called it Kurosai?) followed along, landing on the girl's shoulder when they reached the cave, and both Dark Nation and Tyra (who either stayed at Cloud's side or at Dark Nation's) paced Rufus. When they came out of the cave, Dark Nation also fought the three Razor Weeds they found. Or rather, he fought two while Tyra bit one...and before Dark Nation got to it, it died of poison. Rufus raised a brow at the younger blond, who just sighed tiredly.

"She can apparently poison things—and seems to favor the 'badly poison' version," the younger blond commented.

"So does that happen any time she bites something?" Rufus asked. The 'or someone' went unsaid.

"She's never poisoned Delta—that's Zack's puppy, her sister—Halo—that's her mother—or Dark Nation by biting them. I don't think she even poisoned Sierra when the two were trying to get used to one another," Cloud explained.

"Who's Sierra?" Yufi asked curiously, stopping in front of him.

"She's a Coerl kitten—a type of cat monster—one of our friends inherited," the boy told her, and she gave a nod.

"Cats and dogs always fight first," she said in a 'sagely' tone which made Cloud want to laugh. "But if Tyra didn't poison her, maybe she didn't think Sierra was actually a threat, even if she didn't really like her?"

"...That's actually possible," Rufus commented thoughtfully. "The poisoning aspect could be something which uses a kind of 'threat level' to potentially activate."

"Too true," Cloud agreed. "That's what most monsters do, anyway—use stronger attacks on stronger opponents, unless they're trying for a literal quick kill."

They were making their way in the direction of the airship when Yufi asked, "So I guess Dark Nation is one of Shin-Ra's fighting dogs, but what's Tyra?"

"Dark Nation was a wild Blood Taste which happened to be black, actually," Rufus said dryly. "That's a genetic quirk—most are red or red-brown, but that quirk came up in the one a Turk found for me. We're not completely sure what Tyra is—she was the result of Shinra Lab genetic engineering—but she seems most strongly based on a Nibel Wolf or a Bandersnatch with the mane."

"Nibel Wolf—a female Bandersnatch pup doesn't have a mane at all until into her second year, but Tyra isn't even old enough to be parted from her mother and already has one. That's a Nibel Wolf trait—they can't live in the Nibel Mountains without one and that's really their only territory, while Bandersnatch mothers migrate to the lower, green plains while they have pups, and the young females tend to stay there until they've made it past their second year. The Bandersnatch males go right to the glacier and mountains to bring food for the females with pups, or who are pups, so they've grown a mane within a couple weeks of birth," Cloud explained.

"...Where did you learn all that?" Rufus asked in shock as he and Yufi both traded amazed looks. "That's pretty obscure, isn't it?"

"Actually, I learned it from one of Shinra's own nature shows," Cloud answered in amusement. "I saw for myself that all Nibel Wolf pups grow a mane within a week of birth, though—I just learned the difference between them and Bandersnatches from the program." He then looked up at the darkening sky and commented, "I'm sort of glad we're getting back before dark, though...Leaving just past nightfall will be good."

"Leaving?" Rufus blinked.

"I already did everything I needed to here—the repairs didn't take long," Cloud shrugged. "And it's not like we can just hang around and expect Y—her to be safe." He was just thankful he realized they hadn't had actual introductions with names before he actually said her name—that had been too close. And without his new Turk training, he'd probably not have caught it at all. On some levels, that realization was both painful and amusing—to think, he was praising the Turks for doing something right! Barret would have hit him over the head with his weaponized arm...

"What were you going to say?" the girl asked with a suddenly suspicious frown.

Thinking quickly, Cloud sighed and shrugged. "I was going to say 'you', as in, Rufus. He's not safe here any more than you are. Why?"

"Why did you switch it?" she blinked in surprise.

"Because, as he likes to say, I'm something of a brat, and I really don't like him—or anyone—pointing fingers at me and saying 'you shouldn't have done that.' If he doesn't want a fight, he doesn't point those fingers," Rufus filled in, giving Cloud an annoyed look. "He does it often enough to me that I'll take any break I can get."

The girl giggled. "Oh, by the way—so you don't just have to call me 'her' or 'you', or worse, 'Princess', my name's Yufi Kisaragi. Nice to meet you!"

The two blonds traded looks, then Cloud said, "I'm Cloud Strife. This is Rufus Shinra, the idiot who decided entirely on his own to put himself in danger for no good reason. Ow!" The last word had come from Rufus whacking him over the back of the head with his cane as he glared at him.

That just made the girl laugh harder. "This will be more fun than I thought at first!"

She was still grinning widely as they got on the airship and it took off—only for her motion sickness to kick in and the three to move to the ship's Sick Bay so she could get a tranquilizer and rest. Somehow, that was bemusing to Cloud, since his Mako enhancements meant he no longer got motion sickness, but he'd once had it easily as bad as she did.

Notes:

(1) Kurosai is obviously Yufi's pet (and Phoenix's idea)—or more like her minder when no human is watching her. While most of what he does is basic bird actions and attacks, he also has a couple abilities I chose based on the lore of crows and ravens. That means Kurosai can put people to sleep with a form of hypnosis and drain their life off them while they're sleeping. Obviously, this only works if the target doesn't have immunity to sleep.

(2) According to the Compilation data, the actual full version of the Advent Children movie had Zack appear as a semi-tangible spirit long enough to hold Sephiroth in place for Cloud at the end of the movie. Because 'The Nightmare' version of Sephiroth is more powerful than the normal version and Cloud had only just had his Geostigma removed, there was no feasible way he could actually have defeated The Nightmare alone, so this version of events in that instance makes a lot more sense (he'd had no recovery time, and Zack's always been watching out for him).