Welding canon is a bit tricky, i hope you enjoy the chapter.

there's more propaganda discussion and a couple instances of 'hey, maybe don't cheer about enemy people dying while in enemy territory'

Moogles and Cats

Yuffie despised Midgar.

Thanks to being pure desert she could't use her chocobo or a patrol would spot her, so she had spent the night stealthily making her way to the Undercity Wall.

Then she had to scale the wall for the under city, which was a stupid way to keep monsters out, as a drake just flew in over the wall and nearly hit her.

Her contact wasn't even in the spot agreed upon, and she had to follow moogle posters, which led her by these weird mumbling stumbling guys in black robes.

It stunk, it was dirty, and the people were ugly.

She would bear it, but this was a terrible place.

Of course, there was an upside.

"More developments on last night's bombing of the Reactor." The newscaster on the large screen announced as images of destruction were shown.

"Awesome!" Yuffie grinned.

"How dare you! People died!" A woman hissed at her. "Damn Wutai for attacking us again."

"Wha-" Yuffie had not expected the vitriol.

"Hey!" A guy with a moogle hat in hand arrived.

"Oh, you would be happy with death wouldn't you, freaks. I'm reporting you both to Security." The woman hissed and stormed away.

"What's her problem?" Yuffie asked.

He gestured for her to follow him.

"… Most of who got hit by the reactor bombing were civilians, not troopers or soldiers. It was a residential sector." Her guide explained. "They just gave a list of children who died not ten minutes ago."

"Oh. Oops." Yuffie winced. There wasn't much honor in killing children, despite ShinRa doing it to them, Wutai was supposed to be better. "My bad." She admitted.

"We need to get you to lay low, there's increased security so everything is pausing for twenty four hours as we wait for the scrutiny to die down. I'm Zhijie, by the way."

"Yuffie!"

"Your other agent went out to get information about the bombing, we'll wait for him to get back."

Sector Seven Tunnel

"The armor was in storage and as for the people wearing it? Well a unit of troopers was killed last night. No bodies, supposedly." Kunsel closed his phone.

"Damn it." Zack glared at the ceiling.

"A false flag operation, but why would ShinRa bomb their own reactor?" Sonon crossed his arms. "What could they possibly gain?"

"War? With a confirmation that Wutai broke the truce first? Kids died, that'll get people that were on the fence to start hating Wutai." Kunsel pointed out. "I'm also getting chatter of locating the last Ancient and some project called Neo-Midgar, but no details. Scarlett and Heidegger were talking about it."

"Thanks Kunsel, see you later."

"I'll be here." Kunsel waved the two of them off.

"ShinRa wants an excuse for war … I suddenly have a bad feeling about infiltrating the building to find the materia they're working on."

"It might be a trap. or at the very least meant to get images of ninjas in the building." Zack and Sonon shared a look. "You can't pull the plug on this mission of yours, can you?"

"I can delay it, but I'm not the senior agent." Sonon grimaced. "And my superior … really wants materia."

"I can't do much to help. Cloud's decided that us helping any attack on ShinRa is going to cost 2000 at least."

"That's reasonable." Sonon sighed. "Are you okay?"

"Aerith was on the sector eight upper plate selling flowers. She's fine, but some troopers were harassing people getting back on the train."

"If they're looking for the last Ancient …"

"Yeah, Cloud and I are taking turns guarding her during the day … She says it's fine." Zack sighed. "Be careful."

"You as well." Sonon split to head into sector seven as Zack took the tunnel to Sector five.

This was a mess, Sonon knew. There was a very good chance that it was a trap, but without proof, there was no way for him to call the mission off over just a bad feeling.

A bad feeling that was solidified when he saw who was his superior on the mission.

Yuffie Kisaragi, who had recently gotten flagged for abandoning a mission for a materia hunt.

And the legitimate princess of Wutai despite what the interim government said. He was sworn to serve the royal family, no matter how they acted.

"Ugh, why do we have to wait?"

"For one thing, we need the forty eight hours for the guy who does the ids to finish." Nayo explained. "For another, the splinter cell-"

"Only called in the bomb threat. they weren't able to get the train." Sonon corrected. "There was an argument about that." Barrett had been frustrated, Cloud collapsing had rattled the man but at the same time, well, Sonon had almost volunteered to help.

"Oh. Well. Uh, you were visiting a contact, right?"

"Yeah, and they verified it. The Wutai armor was from prisoners of war six years ago, a unit of troopers has supposedly burned to ashes in the reactor, which matches the amount of wutai attackers exactly." Sonon explained. "At this moment, it looks like ShinRa's decided to bomb their own reactor to scare Midgar into supporting another war by convincing them that Wutai broke the ceasefire first."

"But we didn't!" Yuffie objected.

"Doesn't matter, as long as the people think Wutai killed kids, they won't stop to listen." Sonon sighed. "The contact also has no information about a special materia on any invoice. They expressed concern it might be an attempt to lure our agents into a trap."

"I mean, it's very likely." Nayo offered.

"But we won't know for sure unless we go!" Yuffie jumped into the center. "Ugh, after we wait for two days."

"Could pick up a couple jobs while we wait."

"Uh, not in this Sector. I might've missed the announcement about the kid deaths and cheered when i saw the fire." Yuffie admitted. Nayo looked horrified.

"… Boss, why?" Sonon knew better than to cheer no matter how karmic he thought the destruction was.

"I got excited."

"Fortunately, I know a shortcut to Sector Five." Sonon was going to keep her hidden somehow. "I can introduce you to a couple mercenaries as well. They're ex soldier and willing to attack ShinRa for a minimum of 2000 gil each."

"Whoa, that's too much." Polk blinked.

"Huh?" Yuffie blinked.

"I'll tell you the conversion rate later." Sonon promised.

Yuffie was thrilled to be moving. Zhijie and the others were nice, but personally they were a little odd. Why wouldn't they want ShinRa destroyed?

"Secret tunnels, huh? what treasures are down here?" She asked Sonon.

"Nothing but nightmares, Boss." Sonon sighed. "I came down here with the mercenaries to do a monster cull. Found a lab where people were trapped in mako tanks until they mutated or died."

"What?" Yuffie had to have misheard that.

"Midgar's a nightmare being sold as a dream. The people in the slums know that, but ShinRa's insured they have nowhere else to go. You saw that wall right? It's not to keep monsters out, but the people in."

"But who cares if ShinRa kills their own, right?" Yuffie saw no problem with this. Whoever believed in ShinRa deserved what they got.

"Yuffie … they're still people." Sonon lead the way up into a sad looking playground. "This is Sector Six. We'll have to go around Wall Market, they've been targeting anyone that looks vaguely Wutaian."

"What's Wall Market?" Yuffie asked.

"… A place where the people try to forget." Sonon led her on a route only another ninja like herself could follow.

"So, what do you think of our allies?" Yuffie asked when Sonon went silent for too long.

"They're more concerned about themselves and their home, they talk a lot about wealth redistrubution and worker's rights."

"Weird." Yuffie jumped after him. What sort of nonsense was that when ShinRa killed people?

"Yeah, to be honest, the splinter cell and the mercenaries are more interested in shutting ShinRa down, but it's complicated."

"What's complicated about shutting down evil?"

"The part where that evil actually has decent people trapped." Sonon paused. "The people who run the Leaf House orphanage, they can't outright tell the kids that war is wrong or they lose funding that they need to keep the kids safe. the mere suspicion of someone defending Wutai can get you in a lot of trouble. Possibly even disappeared with no one knowing what happened to you."

"Isn't that like a horror story?" Yuffie blinked. There was no way that was real.

"It's their reality. We can't cause more trouble than necessary for the people down here." Sonon instructed. "They're on edge as it is." They dropped down onto a path.

"I know how to blend in." They went through a giant door.

"Sonon, who's your moogle friend?"

Yuffie did not yelp. or jump. Or overbalance. She very, very, very calmly turned to look at the woman in pink and the very familiar guy standing next to her.

"You!" Yuffie near shrieked. "You owe me treasure!"

"Treasure? Why would i owe you- oh!" The soldier blinked. "Treasure Princess Yuffie, you grew up. Heh, should have expected that."

"This is the legendary treasure princess you were telling me about?" the woman grinned.

"Yep! This is Yuffie, Soldier Mission Dispatch liked it when she sent messages."

"I'm sorry, what?" Sonon managed.

"What happened to you, you stopped answering my messages!" Yuffie huffed at the man who had disappeard on her almost five years ago.

"Yeah … it's a long story. C'mon, let's talk some place private."

Yuffie wasn't expecting to see a church with flowers growing in the floor.

"Careful, don't step on the flowers!" The woman warned as she knelt down and began tending the flowers. "I'm Aerith by the way. And you know Zack, of course."

"Probably not, she just mass sent those emails, rumor is Emperor Godo left the list of contacts out on purpose where she could find it. Petty revenge."

"He did not! I snuck into his office and found it! That old man was lazy and useless!" Yuffie scoffed. "He deserves being in prison for giving up!"

"Say what now?" Zack straightened. "When did this happen?!"

"You didn't know?"

"Sonon, I was trapped in a damn mako tube for four years and went on the run for another year, between that and trying to find out what ShinRa's up to, anything about Wutai was pushed to 'keep the wutaians in the slums alive' category."

"Right, sorry." Sonon apologized, surprising Yuffie. "The Wutai Interim Government is run by Viceroy Sarruf, Colonel Glenn Lodbrock is his right hand man."

"Sarruf? Glenn Lodbrock?" Zack blinked. "I think I saw that mentioned on the news. Please tell me they're more interested in protecting Wutai and not starting a third Wutai war?"

"Seriously?!"

"You gotta admit most people have a valid reason to want ShinRa gone, yourselves included." Sonon pointed out.

"… It's dangerous." Aerith said, startling them. "When ShinRa's gone, what they've kept sealed will be released." She wasn't looking at them, and the flowers seemed to glow. "So many screams …"

"Uh …" Yuffie looked at Sonon and Zack, who both looked uneasy. "What's going on?"

"Aerith, come back." Zack stepped forward and touched her shoulder.

Aerith shuddered, before blinking up to Zack with a smile.

"Did I go somewhere?" She asked.

"You went all weird and the flowers glowed." Yuffie informed her.

"Hmm. That doesn't sound like me." Aerith shrugged. "Oh well."

"ShinRa's going to be coming after you. We could get you someplace safe." Sonon offered.

"No. I told ShinRa, I told Avalanche, and I will tell you again, I am no weapon of war and I refuse to be." Aerith glared at them. "All you people want is to kill, with no thought as to the grief that follows, and I will not support that from anyone."

"You don't have to." Zack assured her. "We'll find a way to be free."

"Excuse me? We're not ShinRa!" Yuffie was insulted.

"Do you know the worst thing Emperor Godo ever did?" Zack asked her.

"Uh, no?" Her dad did something?

"He gave Prisoners of War to Avalanche's Fuhito so they could have super soldiers. Called them Ravens. Blind obedience achieved by torturing them into insanity. I found two of my comrades, and they attacked me while begging for me to kill them." Zack explained. "I respect your father, but he agreed to make monsters to match ShinRa's. That's what I want to avoid."

"I didn't know." Yuffie hadn't known that. Her father had done something so … not traditional. But if they had had supersoldiers, why had he surrendered, then?

"I did. Never knew what the process entailed, though." Sonon admitted. "Sensei was getting desperate after the monsters barely slowed the soldiers down."

"ShinRa may be at fault for a lot, but I'm not joining anyone willing to do the same things." Zack sighed. "You want help on a mission against them, it's 2000 gil."

"What are you, scared? Fine! I'll find someone else to help us!" Yuffie huffed. "But you still owe me treasure!"

"There's some materia hidden around here, it's yours if you want. the owner hasn't been back for them in years." Aerith mentioned.

"Score!" Yuffie was promptly winded as she ran into a staff.

"Watch the flowers." Aerith said extra sweetly like she hadn't used her staff to block Yuffie from running on her flowers. (Aerith also sounded like that extra scary shrine maiden at Dao Chao's shrine, the one who had reportedly made a soldier first cry.)

"Right, my bad." Yuffie wheezed.

There were only two materia in the whole joint.

When she headed back, Sonon and Zack were talkling, but stopped as soon as they heard her.

"Anyway, any jobs?"

"A couple, but heads up, Damon's back."

"Ugh, might have to do a couple missions for Chadley, then."

"At least you get materia out of it."

"Materia?!" Yuffie asked, jumping between them. "Let's do that!"

"I'm with Aerith for today, but if you need someone to help, Cloud's at the cemetery cleaning out the monsters trying to make it a nest."

"Got it." Sonon lead the way.

Kyrie was having a good day, she managed to get some good money from above the plate before Sector 1's reactor blew up, and she got on the train before the security forces started harassing everyone.

Now she was having a good time selling information from above the plate to sector five.

"This just in, ladies and gentlemen! Wutai betrays the ceasefire! Those sneaks never planned to honor any agreement!" She announced dramatically. "They'd rather murder us all than accept peace!"

"Hey! Don't you have something better to do than tell ShinRa lies?!" A girl in a semi cute moogle costume yelled at her.

"Shut up! This is all Wutai's fault for working with terrorists!" Kyrie snapped, not wanting to be heckled.

"ShinRa's the villain here, Idiot, unless you consider rust as a fashion statement!"

"What's this? A wutai sympathizer?! Where?!" The annoying reporter came running.

Kyrie did not stick around to see if he caught the moogle girl. She was gonna head to sector seven to play fort condor until the reporter left for the day.

(She was halfway there when she realized she hadn't gotten any money thanks to the moogle girl and the reporter.)

"Boss, could you please not start a fight?" Sonon asked her.

"She was lying!"

"Boss, those giant screens only show ShinRa approved news. They will never show anything that disagrees with ShinRa. The people here keep quiet because speaking out can get security called on them if they're not careful." Sonon sighed. "Come on, let's find Cloud."

"Who's Cloud?" Yuffie got her answer shortly.

The Cemetery was carved into actual rock. Some of the stones were carved, but others were made out of scrap.

A blond spikey haired soldier was just finishing a neat combo of sword strikes and casting fire on the last monster.

"Wow. You're good!" Yuffie cheered.

"Sonon. Who's your friend?" the guy asked as he holstered his sword and picked up some monster bits that didn't dissolve.

"I'm Yuffie Kisaragi! Proud Agent of W-whoa!" She was cut off as the soldier yanked her out of the way of a monster that he incinerated with a fire spell.

"Cloud Strife, Mercenary. You alright?"

"Never better!" Yuffie recovered. "You're good with materia! Must have some strong ones …"

"No." His answer was short. He looked up. "Nest must be up there. Did you need anything?"

"Going to do some stuff for Chadley. Could use a monster guide when you're done."

"200 gil."

"Saw that coming." Sonon handed money over. "You hear what's happening?"

"Zack filled me in. Sure it's safe for you to be out and about?"

"I don't think hiding decreases the danger."

"Suit yourself." Cloud shrugged. He pulled out a grappling gun and went up.

"Wait up!" Yuffie scrambled after him. "Ugh, you're a jerk!"

Sonon followed her. The monsters were pretty weak to fire, thankfully, and she finally got to meet Chadley.

"Greetings Cloud! Sonon, and, who is this?"

"Yuffie. Treasure Hunter." Cloud introduced her. "That's all you need to know." He pushed down the moogle hat on her head and stood in front of her, making the kid look at him.

"Hey!"

"Okay, there are some local legends in Sector Six that need to be tracked down, in the old residential area between five and six." Chadley handed them a couple sheets of paper. "Thanks for your help, I'll meet you in Sector Seven."

"What was all that about?" Yuffie huffed as she followed him.

"Yeah, what's wrong with Chadley?" Sonon asked.

"… Forgot you didn't know. He works for ShinRa and reports to the Science department."

"What?!" Sonon demanded.

"… Chadley admitted it to us, he kinda has to obey Science, him being in the slums is as far as he can get in escaping. That said, he's definitely scanned Sonon. I don't know how much information gets back to ShinRa."

"So, wait, you were protecting me by being a jerk?!" Yuffie demanded.

He just turned away and kept walking.

Monster hunting in the slums, which involved passing by crushed remains of houses, was not what she would call fun. Cloud didn't talk much.

So, being the kind and considerate person that she was, she began filling him in on Wutai.

"Do you need to rescue your dad?" Was not the question she expected him to ask.

"What?! No! He deserves jail!" Yuffie huffed.

"Whatever you say. Where'd this Sarruf guy come from, anyway?"

"Uh …" Yuffie paused. She didn't know. "He was a friend of Lodbrock's?"

"So he's not from Wutai? I thought you didn't want a foreign power ruling you."

"That's not-! The situations complicated, okay?" Yuffie huffed.

"I'll say." Cloud paused with a grunt.

"You alright?" Sonon asked.

"Headache. What?" Cloud looked to the side. "Shit."

Yuffie followed his gaze. There was a stumbling guy in a black robe that didn't seem to notice the monsters trying to attack him. Cloud lunged into a strike.

"What's your deal, move!" Yuffie yelled at the guy as she leapt to help Cloud.

"He can't. Severe mako poisoning. He probably doesn't even know we're here." Sonon explained. "There are a few like this down here. Doctors down here can't help them."

"And the doctors above the plate won't bother." Cloud explained as he dispatched the last monster. Something rumbled. "What the heck-"

The nearest dilapidated house moved.

"Did that house move?!" Yuffie screeched as the house not only moved again but jumped into the road.

"Welcome to Midgar." Cloud cast assess. "Hell House, we have to take it down quick. It changes between lightning, fire and ice. Don't get sucked in."

"Say what?" Yuffie asked as the house actually roared. "I hate Midgar!"

When Cloud had said, 'don't get sucked in', Yuffie should have left right then.

Because despite their best efforts, all of them got sucked into the house at different times, and being assaulted by furniture sucked.

By the time the house turned into sticks and furniture, Yuffie was half considering leaving Midgar.

"Why is a house a monster? Houses aren't supposed to be monsters!" Yuffie laid on the ground.

"Here." Cloud dropped an elixir onto her lap. "Where's-"

"He's over here with me, Merc." An old woman wearing traveling gear gently guided the black robe from a hiding place. "I'll take him to the doc."

"Thanks Mirelle."

"Come along now, take it easy." The old woman waved them off as she guided the stumbling man away.

"Weird."

"Boss." Sonon sighed.

"What? It is!"

"C'mon, we need to keep moving." Cloud tossed her a materia. "Support materia."

"Really?!" Yuffie cuddled it.

"Yeah." Cloud looked away. "Here. These have more slots for materia." He held out two different bracers.

"Heehee!" Yuffie giggled as she took them. There was a healing materia in one.

"Why are you giving us these?"

"… It's safer for me if the people I'm fighting beside don't get knocked out." Cloud turned and started walking away.

"Wait a sec!" Yuffie had to scramble to transfer materia and equip the bracer before following.

"… You know you could have sold these for gil, right? Isn't that all you want?" Sonon asked.

Cloud looked at them then glanced away, but not before Yuffie caught a bit of a blush.

"Oh! Ohoho!" Yuffie got in front of him and pointed. "This tough guy image is just an act! You're a total softy!"

"Whatever." Cloud kept moving.

"I bet we can actually get you to go against ShinRa for less than 2000 gil!"

"I should have charged you that when we met." Cloud grumbled.

"Nope! You're too nice!" Yuffie grinned at him. Her assessment faltered briefly as he grabbed his sword and swung in her direction, but it didn't take long to realize that he missed her and hit a monster that had been sneaking behind her. "See! Nice!" Yuffie grinned, and skipped away.

"Sonon, I'm gonna need a raise next time." Cloud muttered behind her.

"Yeah, you and me both." Sonon sighed.

Vents, ShinRa Tower

Cait Sith was worried. In general, Reeve was busy with day to day matters of Midgar infrastructure, in some ways being more of a Mayor than the man in the archives.

So Reeve sending Cait to monitor Heidegger was strange.

Though not as strange as the fact that the security system in Mako Storage of Reactor One had been laser turrets that had apparently gone off at the same time of the bombing.

Which was Security's domain.

Reeve had a bad feeling, and so Cait had a bad feeling.

Heidegger however, was apparently having the time of his life, laughing as he ordered construction of what he was calling an Airbuster, which according to Cait's records was a discarded prototype that Scarlet had sent to Security.

"Gyahaha! Those Slum Rats won't know what hit them!" Heidegger chuckled. "A Reactor or Two is a small price to pay for Neo Midgar!"

"N-" Cait covered his mouth to keep the vocalization in and quickly scooted back into a nearby turn.

Heidegger's head snapped up. As much as Reeve found the man to be a blow hard, the man was genuinely dangerous.

"You! Check the vent!"

Cait did not stick around, quickly dashing into a narrow vent that only he could squeeze through.

"Some sort of rat sir! I saw its tail!" A trooper called, voice echoing through the vents.

Cait would need to be more careful.

A quick trip to the Archives would hopefully yield answers as to what Neo Midgar was.

End Note

yuffie, i love you, but cheering loudly at death and destruction while in enemy territory is a bad idea.

next chapter, more cait, more yuffie, and a couple dates