*pokes head out and waves* Hello all my lovely readers! As my present to you all, you get another chapter this month! (please watch for flying swine) XD Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy late Hanukkah, Kwanzaa's in there somewhere... (mutters and scratches head sheepishly) and if none of those appeal to you, Happy December! :D
Chapter 21 The (not-so-shocking) Betrayal
Despite the lulling sound of the waves on the shore, sleep was difficult on the rocky ground. The morning dawned dim and damp with the heavy scent of rain on the air. Barret and Cid shared their own muttered moans and complaints about the unforgiving ground as they swiftly packed up for the day's journey up the continent. Last night Cid asked about taking the plane-turned-boat further up the coast to save them some time but Yuffie assured him that this was the only low point on which to access the continent, the high cliffs serving as a natural defense and invasion deterrent… until Shinra started sending troops by air.
Speaking of the young woman, other than Cait Sith who was a robot, she seemed to be the only one with much energy that morning. She bounced around helping her companions stow their bedding with a wide smile on her face. When everything was cleared away, Cloud nodded his head to the steep road accessing the tall cliffs north of them. Just before setting foot on the worn trail, Yuffie called out, "Wait! Wait!"
She scrambled past the head of the party and blocked the path, arms extended. Vincent tilted his head to the side, a faint frown marring his face and he asked, "Why are you stopping us? Is there a problem with this trail?"
"I know this area pretty well," Yuffie answered wagging her index finger. "It gets pretty tough past here so you'd better brace yourselves for it."
"Further on?" Tifa asked, looking up at the steep though clear path ahead and then frowning at the girl. Yuffie bit her lip and practically vibrated in place, a slight sheen of sweat on her brow.
Aerith tilted her head and asked in concern, "Yuffie, are you alright? You're acting strange."
"I- I just want you to be ready. It's really going to be a lot harder from here and-"
A pair of voices shouting interrupted her. "There they are! Catch them!" A pair of Shinra infantrymen burst from behind a large pile of stones, training their guns on the party and standing between them and Yuffie.
"Shinra? Here?" Zack gaped, his hand reaching for his Rune Blade.
"Yuffie, did you know about this?" Aerith asked, her brow furrowed.
The young Wutaian waved her hands, "I didn't know they'd be here. I had nothing to do with this one!"
"What do you mean, 'this one'?" Vincent asked, narrowing his eyes at her. "Are you implying you had something else planned for us?"
She flinched under the accusation in his eyes and the worry on Aerith and Tifa's faces. "I um- uh-"
The two troopers closed in on the party and with a last guilty look shot over her shoulder, she ran up the cliff-side path.
"Yuffie wait!" Zack called, but she was already too far away to hear him.
"I don't think it's them sir," one of the infantrymen said into a radio. He waited for a response and then replied, "Understood."
Turning fully to face the group he held a hand palm to them in a signal to stop. "Stop please, we're on the trail of- What is it?" he snapped at his companion who was elbowing him in the side.
"Wilkes! It's Strife!" the slightly shorter trooper hissed. Cloud's eyes widened, he couldn't believe the odds.
"What?" Wilkes scanned the party and his eyes locked on Cloud's distinctive blond hair. "It is! Damn it Cowley, I see it's Strife, stop pulling on my arm!"
"But he's wearing a SOLDIER First uniform Wilkes!" Cowley protested. "He was a trooper like us back in Junon. Don't you realize what that means?"
Wilkes tilted his head slightly, studying the group carefully though it was hard to tell with a majority of his face obscured. His head turned to look at Zack and then he stiffened. "Well I'll be damned… So Sarge's friend is Cloud Strife-" he whistled and lowered his rifle.
Cowley relaxed slightly and in a sheepish voice explained, "We were told to take you in for questioning, but neither of us is stupid enough to think we can take you two on." This was said to Cloud and Zack.
"You aren't who we're looking for anyway," Wilkes said and he stepped aside, pulling Cowley with him.
"Won't you get in trouble for not bringing us in?" Cait Sith asked as he shuffled past.
"Nah, we'll just wrestle and roll around on the ground to rough ourselves up a bit so we can say you beat us and got away," Wilkes explained and then did a sharp double take when he realized he'd just addressed an animatronic cat.
"Ooh nice, I wanna try that move I learned down in Bro's gym while we were in Wall Market!" Cowley hummed in anticipation.
"You gonna put on some heels too?" Wilkes ribbed and then patted Cloud's shoulder as he started to walk by. In a low voice he warned, "Keep an eye out, we're here chasing Don Corneo. He's kind of gone off his rocker since the plate fell, so be careful."
Cloud nodded and shook their hands before watching the pair walk back to their post behind the rock pile. "You forgot to say something about black and gold!" Cowley hissed when they were a short distance away. Cloud slapped a hand against his face and moaned.
"I still can't believe we didn't catch on when Sgt. Miller mentioned his last name," Wilkes muttered in self disgust, "What kind of-" and then they were out of even Cloud's hearing range.
Shoulders slumping in defeat, Cloud marched up the stone trail to rejoin the rest of the party. Head tilted in concern, Zack asked, "What's the story behind those two? I didn't expect to get off so easy."
"I met Greg Miller in Junon, he's a sergeant now. He and those two helped me get on the boat out of Junon," Cloud explained. "Apparently they're also members of the clubs."
Zack winced, "Ah, that explains their reaction then…"
"Clubs?" Vincent asked, raising one eyebrow. Cid unconsciously mirrored the expression behind him.
Cloud shook his head and grimaced, "I don't want to talk about it." He squeezed past the others to join Aerith and Tifa near the front of the party. Zack shook his head with a sigh and followed.
"Ain't anybody gonna answer the damn question?" Cid asked, lowering the dull end of his spear to crush a scorpion before it could crawl up his boot.
Barret shook his head and as they climbed he explained, "See, it's like this…"
While Barret explained the convoluted tale of Zack and Cloud's escape from Shinra and the furor over Kunsel's brilliant publicity plan, Cloud and Zack reached the top of the plateau. The wind was stronger here, and the damp scent of rain tingled in Cloud's nose. Far over the ocean, he could hear the distant rumble of thunder. Aerith and Tifa whirled around as soon as they heard the crunch of their feet, the space between their brows creased with worry.
"She's not here!" Aerith cried, rushing over to clench fistfuls of Zack's sweater, her hands trembling. "She was already saying it was dangerous. Why didn't she wait for us?"
Tifa silently approached Cloud, her eyes sad and rested her forehead against his collarbone. His hands automatically rose, his left wrapping around her shoulders and his right gently stroking the back of her head. In a low voice so the distraught Ancient couldn't overhear, she whispered, "I don't want to believe it, but… she betrayed us."
Cloud frowned and in an equally quiet voice said, "I've met those soldiers before. They said they were looking for Don Corneo."
Tifa rubbed her forehead back and forth slowly in the negative before raising her left wrist so Cloud could see her Gold Armlet. Only one of the materia was left. Cloud sucked a breath through his teeth, the air hissing and he grimaced, turning his arm to check his own armlet. He didn't have anything left and he suspected the same of his sword. Cloud sighed heavily, resting his chin on the top of Tifa's head and quietly asked, "Should we tell the others, or let them figure it out on their own."
Tifa whimpered, shaking her head again. "I don't know! I'm afraid there's some other reason behind this but… Why would Yuffie do this?"
Straightening his shoulders, Cloud unwrapped his arms from around Tifa and pulled her back to look into her tear-moist eyes. Voice full of conviction, Cloud assured her, "I don't know why, but let's catch up to her and find out." Tifa smiled weakly and nodded, stepping away so Cloud could turn to face the others.
The others stood stiffly looking away, painfully obvious in their efforts to give the couple "space". Cloud couldn't help but chuckle as Zack tried to point out shapes in the looming black clouds above while Barret and Red were relating some tale from earlier on in their adventures to Cid, Cait Sith, and Vincent.
Cloud cleared his throat loudly to pull their attention to him. Aerith frowned in concern at Tifa's shadowed eyes and the grim expression on Cloud's face. "So our next objective has been changed. Our first priority is going to be finding and if necessary, capturing Yuffie."
"What?" Aerith yelped, almost dropping her Prism Staff. "Why?"
Tifa sighed and answered in a dull voice, "Check your materia."
Confused, the rest of the party looked down at their Golden Armlets. Zack was the first to react. "Alfonse! Noooo!" he wailed, clawing at the empty slot on his bracer. "Cloud, is Alfonse Jr…?"
"Gone," Cloud answered with a shake of his head. "Check your weapons and armlets, let's figure out what we've got left."
After checking their weapons and some of the new materia Cloud pocketed the night before, Cloud redistributed the few newborn materia and summarized, "All of our Summons and mastered materia are gone. We're left with two dozen mostly new magic materia, one All, a new Cover, two new Senses, and the new Steal Tifa forgot to give me last night." He blew out a frustrated puff of air and shook his head.
"So 'sides Cid's All, she took all the useful materia," Barret growled in frustration, stroking the brand new Earth materia that replaced his mastered one.
"We've still got the new Cover, too," Zack interjected, looking up from mournfully cradling Alfonse III.
"Like I said, all the useful materia got taken," Barret huffed, still sore over the fiasco in the chocobo fields.
Cloud dug in his pouch and pulled out a pile of Adaman Bangles. "Since fitting all our materia is no longer an issue, we might as well use these. They have a higher defense than the Gold Armlets." He handed them out and when the few materia transfers were done he put the Gold armlets in his pouch. "When we get our materia back, we'll trade back as needed," Cloud's voice was firm. Zack nodded grimly and they crossed the plateau to the first of many rickety wooden bridges.
The storm broke just after they crossed the first groaning bridge. Thankfully they found a crack in the side of the plateau large enough for all of them to shelter in, since the wind was much too violent for tents. The overall mood of the party was grim and conversations were short and held in low voices despite the raging storm outside.
"Do you think she's okay in this?" Tifa asked, clutching the violet fabric shawl ripped from Cloud's dress around her shoulders and shivering in her damp clothes.
Cloud slung his left arm over her shoulders, pulling her closer to his side so she could leech off some of his warmth. "I don't know," he replied, staring blankly out into the storm. "She did claim to be familiar with the area, so perhaps she found somewhere to take shelter as well."
The storm was the first of many trials as they slogged northward on Yuffie's trail. Eddies of wind and tide carved the narrow island country in a twisting array of cliffs and canyons. Fighting the monsters with the low-level materia remaining in their possession grew to be an arduous task rather than a minor annoyance. It was with no minor relief they finally emerged from the twisted canyons onto Wutai's northern plain. Even from a distance, the vivid red paint and slate roof tiles of the village shone like a beacon.
When they passed the first out-skirting homes of the village, the people stopped and stared silently at them. Some faces expressed grim resignation and some poorly concealed defiance. The worst however were the blatant looks of terror when some of the older villagers spotted Cloud and Zack. Whining children were dragged off the street and doors and shutters slammed closed before they passed.
"Love the welcomin' committee," Cid drawled, rolling his eyes to Zack. "Is it like this everywhere you go?"
Zack grimaced and shifted uncomfortably, scratching the back of his neck before asking, "You do remember Shinra fought a war here a few years ago right?"
"I thought you were no longer affiliated with Shinra," Vincent replied, a warning tone in his voice.
"We're not," Cloud answered before Zack could snap at the gunman. "But just like you were once a Turk, Zack was once a SOLDIER."
"Do ye think they recognize him?" Cait Sith asked mournfully.
"Unlikely," Red XIII responded with a shake of his mane. "In all probability, they are reacting to the uniform rather than the person wearing it."
The closer they came to the village center, the less a reaction they received from the locals. Unfortunately, the lingering defeat and resignation in their apathetic eyes only made Zack feel worse.
A large stream wove through the village, crisscrossed by wooden bridges with red banisters. The first few bridges had matte red paint, slightly peeling and worn from weather and the passage of time. When they reached the town center, the paint was a bright, glossy red. Instead of looking like a normal wooden bridge, it looked like something out of a magazine. All the homes in the white inner walls gleamed almost unnaturally while signs in the common tongue rather than traditional Wutaian proclaimed services and wares.
Zack stopped and stared, his jaw slack. "What happened here?" he breathed. Tourists from the other continents clogged the streets, cameras slung around their necks and gleaming sunglasses on their faces. While some of the cultural structures still remained, most of the streets and buildings were covered in a stereotyped patina of commercialism. Shaking off his unease at how much the capital had changed since the war, Zack took the lead.
He wove past the more commercialized district to an older section of the city. While still painted in bright reds, the signs were in traditional Wutaian. A few of the passing civilians gave Cloud and Zack nervous looks and a wide berth. A flicker outside a store caught Cloud's eye. Yuffie flinched at the sight of them and dashed away. "Hey!" Zack called after her to no avail. They pounded across the gentle arch of a nearby bridge and into the nearest building.
Weapons of all sorts decorated the walls all the way up to the vaulted ceiling of the shop, but there was no sign of Yuffie. An impressive display of swords filled the wall behind the counter, some of the swords dwarfing even Zack's buster sword. Cid whistled and mused, "Damn, what kinda monster could use a sword like that?"
Zack winced remembering one of his battles in the war and muttered, "An actual monster?"
A man dressed in traditional battle robes of blue and cream turned from a display of shuriken. His eyes narrowed at them and he hissed, "Sorry but we're all sold out."
Vincent looked from the man's face to the weapon laden wall and back. He gave the man an unimpressed look and scraped the fingers of his claw against each other. Flinching at the shriek of metal on metal and the former Turk's cold, crimson gaze he stammered, "Those-those are just for display! S-samples of our work! S-sorry. Why don't you come back at another time? Give us a chance to restock!"
Aerith turned pleading eyes on the broad-shouldered young man behind the counter. "You don't have anything?"
He flushed, tugging on his small ponytail nervously and murmured, "Sorry, listen I-"
"Hiro!" the older man snapped. "Go help Master Okazaki at the bellows!"
"Yes sir," Hiro called and in a quieter voice said to Aerith, "Sorry, nevermind."
With one last glare from Vincent, they filed out of the store. Across another bridge the next building had a massive model of a turtle over the sign. The sounds of laughter and scent of food drifted from the open doors. "Huh, I wonder if this is the Turtle's Paradise place I keep seeing ads for," Cloud mused before brushing his way through the noren curtains at the entrance.
The restaurant's back wall was lined with delicate bonsai trees. Simple flower arrangements or another bonsai decorated the centers of the low square tables across the floor of the building. Reno, Rude, and Elena occupied a table near the door, the remains of a meal littering their plates. Noting their uniforms, Vincent made a quiet noise of derision.
Quiet as it was, it caught Elena's attention and she dropped her chopsticks loudly stammering, "It's you! How did you get here?" She asked in confusion. She shot Tifa a questioning look and the woman nodded faintly.
A wide grin split Elena's face and she opened her mouth but Reno cleared his throat noisily and she flushed, stammering in a forced antagonistic voice, "Never mind that. It is my lucky day that you're here now. Get ready to die!" She cried dramatically.
Cid and Vincent tensed, preparing their weapons but Reno's head hit the table with a loud thunk. "Elena, you talk too much," the Turk moaned.
Her shoulders dropped and her hands lowered. "Wh-what?" she asked, her blue eyes filled with confusion.
Reno lifted his head off the table and propped his chin on his hand before drawling, "Why did we come to this place that's pretty much in the middle of nowhere?"
Perking up like a teacher's pet she raised one hand and answered, "We came here to take a vacation and rest from some of our latest missions!"
Reno rubbed his temples and sighed heavily, "And what missions in particular were we resting from?"
"Ooh, I know!" She bounced lightly in her shiny black shoes and chirped, "We're resting from the missions where we were chasing after Cloud and his friends and you and Rude got soundly beaten up by them!" Rude slapped his forehead and then shook his head back and forth. Elena deflated, shoulders hunching and in a low voice said, "Oh. So I guess you aren't interested in fighting them right now?"
Reno turned to address Cloud's party and grimaced, "Damn, there's more of you each time! Don't suppose you'd let us pretend you weren't here and we could return the favor?"
Mindful of the disadvantage their lost materia put them at, Cloud nodded, motioning for the battle-ready ones to stand down.
"Bu-but?" Elena bit her lip and looked longingly towards Tifa and the hand the woman held over her travel pouch.
Rude sipped his drink and mourned, "Even the booze tastes bad now."
"...Sorry…" Elena murmured, head bowed and slipped back into her seat.
In no hurry to abandon their sudden luck, Cloud tilted his head towards the door, silently signaling to move on. Vincent looked back at the restaurant, a bemused expression on his face and then shook his head. "I must apologize for doubting portions of your story, Cloud," he said.
Tifa tilted her head, eyes narrowed in confusion and asked, "What do you mean doubted his story?"
Vincent shrugged, averting his eyes and replied, "I doubted the veracity of his tale when he mentioned overcoming and escaping the Turks on multiple occasions. If that," he tilted his head towards the restaurant, "is the quality of Turks Shinra is training now, I have no cause to doubt. The blonde was acting especially strange though."
Zack snorted a laugh, "That's because she's an infiltrator."
Vincent's eyes widened and then narrowed in calculation, "I find it hard to believe the Turks have slipped so far that they haven't discovered a spy when you knew of them."
Red tilted his head to the side and asked, "Can we really label it 'discovering' if she alluded to her duplicity herself?"
Vincent hummed thoughtfully but shook his head and said, "We're wasting time, let us continue."
Crossing yet another bridge, they reached a building on a patch of land in the fork of two tributaries. Outside the shop, a little girl in a golden outfit ran in wild circles humming a song to herself and chasing dragonflies. At their approach, she pointed to the distant cliff and said, "That's Da-chao!" Cloud and the others looked up at the carved figures on the mountainside.
Zack tilted his head to the side and asked, "Is one of them giving the guy in the center bunny ears?"
The little girl gasped, hands coming over her mouth and shoulders hunching. She looked around in confusion after nothing happened and then pouted, "Mommy always scolds me when I say that. She says 'Emiko, they're making sacred symbols and it just so happens that one looks like bunny ears and is behind Da-chao's head'." She related the oft repeated words in the sing-song tone of someone who is tired of hearing the same explanation.
"Anyway, I heard you can climb to the top, but mommy says it's really dangerous so I'm not allowed," she huffed and kicked at a small pebble, scaring a frog off a lily pad. On closer inspection, Cloud noticed a path beyond the building leading up to the decorated cliff. Cloud felt a pull, but shook it off. Their materia was his highest priority.
Tifa crouched down to the girl's level and asked, "Did a girl with a lot of materia go that way?"
"A girl with materia?" she parroted and then shook her head. "No one has climbed the mountain in a while. There's monsters there you know," she whispered in conspiratorial voice. "And I think there's one in the roof of this store too. Sometimes there's pounding and banging from the ceiling!"
Cloud narrowed his eyes at the shop and then whispered something to Tifa. She smiled and reached into his pouch, pulling out a fist-sized, fuzzy chocobo with googly eyes and extended it to the child, "Thanks for the information, take this as a reward."
The girl's chocolate brown eyes widened in awe and she took the silly toy, rubbing her cheek against the yellow puff ball. "You're giving me this because I told you stuff?"
Aerith nodded solemnly and insisted, "Good information should always be rewarded if you ever want any more."
Little Emiko looked like they'd given her the answer to the universe. "You're welcome! And thank you!" she chirped, dashing off. Unbeknownst to Cloud and Tifa, their actions set the little girl on the path of being one of Gaia's most successful information brokers. But that is a different story…
Zack looked up at the signs on the building and remarked, "I learned enough simple Wutaian to know this says it is a materia shop."
The materia shop was built much on the same lines as the weapons shop, though its ceiling was much lower and the counter was along the west wall rather than in the back. The woman on the floor fiddled with some object in a box on the counter, pointedly ignoring their entrance. Behind the counter, a younger woman in white with a violet sash looked up at their entry. Her eyes widened in shock and a broken whimper came from low in her throat. The older woman in green looked up at the sound of distress and asked, "What is the matter Maiko?"
Maiko's lips trembled and tears formed in her eyes before she hung her head. Following her gaze before it dropped, she looked at the party and her eyes widened in understanding followed swiftly by confusion. "But I thought-? I'm sorry dear, if I'd known about this I would have-" she changed to Wutaian, circling the counter to pat the younger woman on the shoulder.
Feeling like a bit of a voyeur, Cloud scratched the back of his head sheepishly. Maiko calmed slightly after the conversation and darted a few furtive looks at the party and then towards a gleaming black and gold box on the east wall. When Cloud caught her eye, the corner of her mouth twitched in a slight smile and she gave a slight nod.
Cloud crouched and opened the box, pulling out an ice-blue MP-Absorb materia. A rapid thumping sounded from above and Yuffie dived out of the attic access, snatched the materia from Cloud's hand and streaked between the others to dash out the door. Maiko keened in distress and the older woman spat a string of Wutaian curses after the young princess.
Expression thunderous, the woman apologized and grudgingly admitted, "We cannot sell to you today. You can try heading northwest past our shop to plead your case with Lord Godo but…I'm sorry, we're closing early today." Maiko was openly sobbing now and the woman gathered her in her arms, stroking her silky black hair and murmuring soothing words.
Cloud frowned and nodded, "Thank you. We'll come back later."
Once they were outside, Cloud shot the shop a long look and followed the path the woman suggested. The stone path led alongside a cheerily babbling brook a grove of maple trees bordered the path's other side. Through the trees, a multistory pavilion towered over the forest.
"I kinda' feel like I missed somethin' back there," Cid remarked. "Anyone else feel the same?"
Vincent made an affirmative noise, Cait Sith and his mog both raised a hand. Cloud stopped, sighed, and tilted his head back to look at the eggshell blue sky scattered with wispy cirrus clouds. After a few moments he shook his head and looked back at them, "It's just a theory, but from what we saw, Yuffie used her rank to make the shops not sell to us."
Vincent nodded once, "I had already considered that. I'm curious about the emotional display back at the materia shop."
Cloud grimaced, "I'm sure you've heard about the fan club thing by now." When Vincent nodded, Cloud continued, "I suspect Maiko back there was a member. Being ordered not to talk to or help someone she's grown to admire… Not to mention working hard to purchase the materia only for it to be stolen away?"
"Poor girl," Aerith murmured. "Maybe we can visit her properly when the problem with Yuffie gets resolved?" Cloud made a noncommittal noise of agreement and started walking again.
Zack hesitated on a portion of the path, pausing to stroke some old damage on the trunk of one of the trees, his eyes distant. "This is the first place Genesis attacked me. Sephiroth saved my life that day…" he explained, stroking the tree once more and then moving to the head of the party, following the distantly remembered scenery.
As part of the terms of their surrender, Wutai underwent a mass de-militarization. No guards stood watch outside the castle grounds, though Cloud sensed watchful eyes on their backs as they climbed the stone stairway to the central court. The long flight of stairs led to a massive paved plaza lined with golden irises. Three buildings dominated the court. To their left was a shrine with a massive cylindrical bell. An elaborately carved log that served as the clapper hung from chains nearby. The five tiered building visible from the village loomed on the far edge of the pavilion.
To their immediate right was the home of the royal family. An elderly groundskeeper swept the cobbles between the shrine and the mansion. He looked up at their approach and then shook his head sadly, "You have the look of people wanting action from Lord Godo. Sadly, when Shinra broke our nation his spirit broke as well. He is likely sleeping right now, you're welcome to try and wake him." He shook his head and returned to sweeping up leaf debris from the last storm.
Accepting the invitation, they climbed the wooden stairs onto the massive front porch. Passing under a crimson torii gate Cloud slid the front door open and the party slipped inside.
"If he wasn't exaggerating I admit to losing a bit of hope in getting our materia back using this route," Tifa admitted as they followed the long, wood-floored corridors deeper and deeper into the complex. A few of the doors they passed opened into lovely manicured gardens. Koi the length of Aerith's arm flashed in the stone rimmed pond in the center of the back garden. A bamboo shishi-odoshi slowly filled with water until it overturned, dumping its contents and falling back against its stone base with a deep clank.
Red flinched, his tail lashing and rumbled, "I don't care for those." Thankfully for Red's nerves and the ears of the mako enhanced, once they passed the courtyard into another portion of the house, the sound faded to a distant, almost musical clunk. They walked quietly as they were able on the polished wooden floor. They explored several rooms with delicately painted images of birds and flowers.
After checking dozens of rooms and finding no one, Cloud shivered and muttered, "No wonder Yuffie believes in ghosts."
"Why is that?" Aerith asked, turning away from a wall ornament of polished mirrors and intricately knotted red string.
"This mansion is huge and impeccably clean…" He waved a hand at the gleaming floor.
Vincent nodded and finished for him, "Yet other than the old man outside, we haven't seen a single person. Where are all the servants?"
Cloud opened the last door on the wing and stepped into the room. This was one of the first rooms that looked like people had once been there. There were a few messily arranged futons along the back wall. Four crimson floor pillows were strewn around a low table.
"Spikey's got a point. There's gotta be servants with how clean this place is," Barret huffed. "Present room not included."
Zack shrugged and guessed, "They're probably in secret passages in the walls and ceilings. Yuffie can't be the only ninja left in Wutai."
Vincent nodded slowly, his gloved hand cupping his chin. "Your theory has merit. I suspect you are right."
Cloud hummed and prodded a poster with some kanji motto and then brushed it aside to reveal a small, secret corridor with a wooden chest at the end. Tifa held the tapestry aside while Cloud slipped inside and opened the chest. Moments later he emerged from the passage, gingerly holding a Magic Shuriken away from his body. Six razor-edged blades sprung from the heart of the weapon.
Barret shook his head while Tifa held the pouch open for the blond to carefully store the vicious weapon inside. "Man, I dunno how that girl uses those things. I'm already down an arm and I'm afraid the gal will end up joinin' me."
Aerith shuddered, "Ugh, don't say that! Now I'm going to freak out the next time she uses a weapon!"
"Even if it is used against us?" Vincent asked flatly.
Red XIII's ears drooped and he hung his head mournfully. "Indeed her betrayal is a bitter pill to accept. Though she is currently playing the antagonist, would it not make us the villains to desire the permanent maiming of such a young woman?"
Vincent hummed in consideration and then nodded, "I can accept that justification."
With the weapon safely stored, the party retraced their footsteps, returning to the courtyard with the noisy bamboo fountain. This wing of the palace was smaller yet more opulently decorated. Two sliding doors lined one wall with a final door leading into another wing. A painting of cloud wreathed peaks under different phases of the moon marked each door. Inside the door with the waxing crescent moon was a study. Bookshelves filled the entire left wall. The shelves groaning under the weight of scrolls and old books.
The dusty scent of old paper mingled with the pungent reek of calligraphy ink. A wall scroll as tall as Zack stretched from the desk on the far wall and across the floor almost to the door. A massive paintbrush sat beside it in a tray of drying ink. Cloud stepped around the scroll and triggered a latch to another secret passageway on the rightmost wall. "I'll be right back, it's a short one."
Vincent looked down at the characters on the scroll and snorted, "That's ambitious."
Cid looked up from poking at the brushes on the low desk and gaped, "You can read those squiggles?"
Vincent nodded quietly. Cait Sith looked from the kanji and back up to Vincent and asked, "What does it say that is so ambitious?"
"'Tenka muteki'. Loosely translated it is a claim of invincibility," Vincent shrugged and looked up when Cloud returned twirling a Hairpin between his fingers thoughtfully. Zack winced at the assertion.
Red XIII tilted his head and studied the golden hair pin and the silver charms dangling off of it. "No materia slots and weaker than my Seraph Comb, correct?" he theorized. After Cloud nodded smiling proudly, Red huffed and said, "I will continue with what I'm using now."
Cloud looked at the scroll and book laden shelves and shook his head. "There isn't anything more we can do here."
They filed out of the study and proceeded down the hall. The next sliding door depicted a full moon over the misty mountains. Thunderous snoring rumbled from inside, Cloud shook his head and murmured, "If what the groundskeeper said is accurate, this might be Lord Godo's room."
Cloud carefully slid the door open and peered in. A small table with a half-eaten plate of dumplings and half a mug of green tea stood just in the door. The thick, sweet smell of incense drifted from the smoldering remains of offerings at the ancestor memorial to Cloud's left. No other furniture cluttered the room, though a few scattered books and scrolls littered the floor at the head of the occupied futon.
A graying man in a purple over kimono sprawled across the top of the futon, arms spread wide and noisily snoring. Vincent narrowed his eyes at the man's feet, still in house slippers and the wisps of steam rising from the mug of tea. Cloud's eyes followed the same path and he met Vincent's gaze with a raised eyebrow.
The former Turk nodded, stalked to Lord Godo's side and chided, "If you're going to fake being asleep you should at least have kicked off your house slippers."
Godo grumbled and without opening his eyes huffed, "What do you want? I don't have much… there's a room you can rest in on the other wing. Make yourselves at home…" He snorted and snuggled his head back against his pillow, clearly done with the conversation.
Barret grumbled at the brush-off and barked, "We're lookin' for Yuffie. Where is she?"
One bushy brow twitched and Godo snorted, "Yuffie? Nope, never heard of her." He emitted another loud snoring noise in a blatant dismissal.
Cid scratched his head and leaned on his spear and drawled, "Maybe you're goin' senile old man if you forgot your own daughter. She took somethin' from us and we want our stuff back."
Growling, Godo threw an arm over his face and huffed, "Leave me alone, I already said I don't know what you're talking about."
Red XIII glowered at the man and rumbled, "Your duplicity is unbecoming of a leader. Tell us where your daughter has taken refuge and we will leave you to your repose."
Finally realizing they weren't going to leave him alone, Godo sat up and bellowed, "I already said I don't know her, there's no one named Yuffie in Wu-" He choked off his excuse when his eyes fell on Red. His gray eyes widened as he looked at the rag-tag group, brow creasing in confusion at Cait Sith and faint fear at Cloud and Zack's uniforms.
Discomforted at being loomed over, he climbed to his feet and scowled at them, recovering his steam after the initial surprise. "I've never seen you here before," he shot a suspicious look at Zack when he blew out a short breath of relief. "I've seen a larger than normal amount of Shinra soldiers around lately. I don't suppose you'd mind telling the leader of a poor conquered nation what that is about?" he asked testily, looking between Cloud and Zack trying to figure out which one to address.
His eyes narrowed at the slight signs of wear on their durable uniforms and his tone changed, "I don't care who you are but if you're in trouble with Shinra, please leave. I have no desire to host more of them than I already do and I wouldn't want them thinking I'm supporting insurgents."
"That's because you're a coward!" Yuffie's voice cried from the open door behind them. She swung down from a passageway in the ceiling and landed lightly in a crouch. She scowled at the older man, her mouth pinched in a tight frown.
"Yuffie?" Godo's voice trembled and he gaped at the girl, his eyes flicking up and down, looking for injuries. "You've gotten so big…" he whispered so low Cloud only barely caught it.
"You're scared of Shinra!" Yuffie accused, shouldering her way through the others and leveling an accusing finger at her father. "Why don't you bow down and do everything they say like the rest of the world?"
Godo flinched and Yuffie spread her hands to encompass the party around her, "These guys are actually standing up to Shinra!" The accusatory "unlike you" was implied in her glare.
"Be quiet! Don't speak of things you do not understand!" her father reprimanded, slashing the air with a stiff hand.
"So we lost the war, so what? That's it? Toss in the towel? Roll over like a dog?" Yuffie's voice went shrill. "What happened to the mighty Wutai that I used to know?" Her voice broke and tears ran down her cheeks.
Feeling like spectators in the most embarrassing ping pong match ever, the rest of the party shifted uncomfortably while the pair argued.
"Show some respect," Godo snapped. "You can't begin to understand the decisions that were made back then. You were even more of child then than you are now! You should be ashamed to think of pursuing some fantasy-driven dream over serving your people. If you care as much for Wutai as you claim, why have you spent so little time here? Is your absence doing any good for Wutai?"
Yuffie flinched at the retort, "Th-That's none of your business! Your smothering cramps my way of life. And don't try and turn the conversation back towards me!"
Godo slowly raised his hands and clutched fistfuls of his hair and in a disbelieving voice repeated, "Smothering? Cramps your way of life? I helped give you that life and this is the thanks I get? A wild excuse of a daughter?" Still clutching his hair he appealed to the ceiling.
Yuffie flinched again and then stiffened, and snarled, "Maybe I'd be a better daughter if you weren't such a sorry excuse for a father!"
Her voice hitched on the last word. She whirled and dashed out of the room. Godo shoved past Cloud and Zack to run after her, but she was already gone. He shook his head, shoulders slumping in defeat. Much slower, he made his way back into his room. Turning his back on the party, he stared blankly at the mural of a small town among fields of rice on the far wall.
Shaking his head, Cloud tilted his chin towards the hallway, leaving the man to his thoughts. When Zack slid the doors shut behind them, Aerith shook her head sadly and murmured, "The two of them have such bad communication skills."
Barret stared pensively across the garden courtyard and muttered, "I sure as hell hope my little Marlene and I don't end up like that."
Tifa patted his shoulder soothingly, "Nonsense, Marlene adores you and she knows how much you love her!"
The large man shook his head sharply, "That isn't the problem. Those two love each other a lot too. Like Aerith said, they just ain't good at talking to each other."
"I do wonder how much of their harsh words came from seeing each other again after so long," Vincent added.
Cait Sith sighed and shook his head, "Family dynamics are a complicated thing, but since they obviously care for each other, perhaps with time they'll learn to understand each other."
Zack nodded and fervently declared, "I hope you're right. That was painful to watch."
Cloud nodded and turned to leave the mansion. Cid piped up, "Hey, ain't we gonna look at the rest of the place?"
Cloud shrugged one shoulder and said, "You're welcome to look but Yuffie's long gone from there by now."
"Ye sure of that lad?" Cait Sith asked doubtfully.
Cloud nodded slowly and then he stiffened for a few seconds, a strange look of fear sweeping over his face before vanishing under calm confidence. Tifa tilted her head in concern but Cid's exclamation of shock from the final room, the door marked with a waning moon, attracted her curiosity. With one last look at the blond staring intently back in the direction of the village, she dashed to see what prompted such a reaction.
The last room was an elaborate worship room. The candles around the large chamber flashed off the wealth of mirror shards and gold inlay sending sparks of light across the room in a dazzling spectacle. A ten foot tall, polished brass statue of the six-armed water god Da-Chao dominated most of the back wall. Aerith gasped at the intricate rug on the floor, "Such bright colors! And though I don't know what any of those symbols mean, it seems powerful and striking."
Cid huffed in annoyance, "Looks like Cloud was right, this is a dead-end." He stomped out of the worship hall and back to where Cloud and Zack waited. "So you were right, she ain't in there. Now what?"
Shaking himself to refocus, Cloud answered, "We go back into town. Yuffie's waiting for us there."
Vincent inclined his head and studied the younger man intently, "Interesting turn of phrase there. Mind sharing your reasoning?"
Cloud shook his head and started back through the large manor. "I'm not avoiding the question," he replied after a moment, "I'm considering how to properly explain what I mean."
Vincent hummed quietly and nodded. Within a few minutes, they were finally outside. The old groundskeeper carefully swept around the shrine housing the massive temple bell. Just under the torii gate at the head of the stairs, Cloud started to speak as they descended. "Something I think we might have forgotten in our time with her-Cid and Vincent less than the rest of us-is that Yuffie is still a teenager."
Zack froze mid-step and cringed with his full body before muttering, "Oh crap."
Cloud nodded sadly and continued, "Take the hormones and willful nature of a normal teen, add on that the expectations of being a princess. Not only that, the princess of a country that's been conquered."
Barret scratched his goatee and huffed, "She thinks she's gotta fix everything?"
"That's part of it," Cloud agreed. "The burden on her is likely why she ran away. Which leads to her hunting for materia…"
Zack shook his head sadly, "She was doing that when I met her most of the times before… Before Nibelheim."
Red huffed quietly, "We've all seen the power of our materia. It would give the bearer a strong advantage against any opposition."
"That's all fine in explaining why she would take our materia," Aerith interjected with a frown. "But why do you think she's waiting for us?"
"She discovered her father has no intention of using the materia to fight her perceived enemy," Vincent mused, nodding slowly. "Now we are the only path she has to achieving her desired revenge."
"So she's just going to wait for us and give the materia back?" Cait Sith asked, a faint note of relief in his voice.
Zack snorted and then burst into laughter. Cloud sighed and shook his head with resignation before answering, "No, we're going to have to work for it. She's pushing her limits with us to see how determined we are since in her eyes, her adult figures have 'given up' when things got hard or didn't go their way."
"Well crap," Cid grumbled as they emerged from the trees to the village proper. "I'm kinda old for hide and go seek. How in the hell are we gonna find her?"
Cloud didn't answer, he crossed the bridge to the Turtle's Paradise restaurant and then another bridge to a more residential area. He narrowed his eyes at a house on the top of the ridge and then shook his head slowly. The bemused party watched as Cloud turned down a short alleyway and stepped into a home.
A woman looked up from stewing a pot of soup over a fire, a little girl played with a doll at her side. An old man with one leg pulled a pipe from his mouth and muttered, "Another stranger, what an omen."
Cloud walked past the old man and slid aside the mustard yellow screen against the wall. Yuffie gaped up at him, her eyes wide. Shaking out of her shock, she shoved past him, bounced off the back wall and squirmed out the door past Aerith and Tifa before the two women could do more than yelp at her swift approach. Calling a hasty apology to the homeowners, Cloud dashed out the door after her. She had already ducked down an alleyway and out of sight but he grimly ran out of the residential area back towards the shopping district. A few shoppers yelped and complained as they thundered across streets and bridges, spoiling photo shoots and sending a few people reeling.
Cloud didn't slow until he stood in front of the Turtle Paradise Restaurant once more. The massive brass pot outside the doors rocked and a foot pulled inside, the lid rattling into place. Cloud raised an index finger for quiet, then pointed at Zack, Aerith, and Cid with two fingers and then to the bridge to the materia shop. Zack nodded swiftly blocking the bridge with his two companions. The blond did the same with Vincent, Barret, Red, and Tifa.
Once assured the escape routes were blocked, Cloud slipped a spare Adaman bangle over his knuckles and struck the pot. A deep gonging rang from the metal and Cloud struck it one more time. The lid flew off and Yuffie jumped out of the pot, clutching her ears. She scrambled past Cloud to cross to the materia shop and skidded to a stop when her way was blocked. Trying for the other bridge met the others Barret at the front, his arms folded and looking down at her sternly.
"You can't get away this time," Cloud told her, walking slowly to where she stood, shoulders slightly hunched with guilt.
"O-okay, I know I was wrong," she admitted, hanging her head. "You win. I'll give you back your materia." She slumped past Tifa and the others, heading back to the residential area.
Cait Sith waddled up just as they passed the entrance to the weapon shop and whined, "I'm not built for running! Where are we going now?"
"To our materia," Aerith answered. Behind them, Wilkes and Cowley ran inside the restaurant to speak with the Turks.
Chapter split for size. :P Several notes here feel free to skip down to the review button if you aren't up for a little ranting from the author. :D
First note: gah… figuring out what materia Yuffie would have taken was a PAIN! She can only take 48 and by the time I reached this point in the game, I usually had quite a few more than she could steal. True, I was usually left with low level materia or ones I never used (like Sense and Transform). I tried to incorporate this in with what I left the characters with based on what I've been divvying out and pseudo leveling. I probably messed up on some of them (she likely would have left the low-level materia she had in lieu of some of the remaining 2-star materia but I decided to count her equipped materia as part of the stolen 48.
Second note: some may hate that I included some things from Crisis Core (mention of Genesis' summons attacking Zack). I figure with his past with Sephiroth, and revisiting the area, some of this should come up. Only in generalizations though, since I haven't played the game myself.
Okay, third note: apologies if Yuffie's argument with her father was lackluster. They say "write what you know" and what I knew wasn't arguing in such a hurtful way with my dad… (sigh) But after three days of almost no writing I realized that wanting to take a serious route with that argument was holding me back :P Also, what the heck was going on with those "Googah" things in his conversation?
Language note on the scroll: from my small understanding of Japanese, Tenka Muteki means along the lines that there's no enemy in heaven or earth thus I put it as a claim of invincibility. If any of my readers are stronger in their Japanese and would like to propose a better interpretation please feel free to do so! :D