[fic] FFVII: Gunpowder and Firecrackers (chapter 8)
Hey hey, here's another chapter of G&F! It's Yuffie this time, and finally stuff starts happening XD If you'll look down there at the header stuff, I've added another pairing. Yes, you know it. And it's all adrenalynnrush's fault...as usual. ^_~

Next up should be Sen to Chihiro, for yokozuki.


FINAL FANTASY VII
Gunpowder and Firecrackers
[Other header stuff: PG-13, Tifa/Rude, Rufus/Yuffie, AU to DoC, spoilers up to end of AC]

It is fifteen years after Meteor, thirteen years after Kadaj's defeat. Rufus Shinra, leader of the world philanthropic organization Green Earth, has been having odd dreams about Cloud Strife, about Sephiroth, about the mysterious town of Nibelheim. In a world where peace is as fragile and elusive as the voices of the lost Ancients, the old members of AVALANCHE and Shinra struggle to piece together the secrets of the Lifestream and Jenova's legacy in a race against time to save the ones they love.


VIII. Yuffie


The first glimpse Yuffie had of Rufus Shinra in almost thirteen years was the back of his golden head as he bent over a filing cabinet, scribbling something on a sheet of crumpled paper. His office was smaller than she had expected, with the straight-backed, leather executive chair the only item of luxury in eyesight. The hardwood floor was faintly scratched, the heavy wooden desk antique and a little rundown, functional bookcases lining the walls of the room from floor to ceiling except for where the large picture window opened out into the front lawn of the Green Earth complex, behind Rufus' desk. The sun was going down over the mountains.

Yuffie cleared her throat.

He looked as surprised to see her as she was to be in Corel, the pen almost dropping from his hand as he blinked, and then smiled and said, "I didn't think you would come."

"You twisted my arms and practically dragged me here," she said, plunking her bag down on the floor and crossing her arms. The Conformer twisted uncomfortably on its strap behind her back at the movement. The weapon was not made to be carried while she crossed her arms, but she didn't care. "Don't act so shocked, Shinra."

Rufus laughed and ran one hand through his hair. It was as blonde and thick as ever, though something in his face was unsettled, as if he truly had not expected her here. "I'm glad you made it, then," he said. "Do sit down. There's a chair over there in the corner."

"I'll stand," Yuffie said. "I won't be long. Just came by to tell you that I'm holed up in your visitor's quarters. Nice place you got here."

"Have some coffee?"

She frowned. "I hate coffee. And who drinks coffee at five in the evening? Wait - are you trying to be hospitable?"

He put down the pen and paper on his desk and sighed, the smile dropping from his face. "You act as if we're enemies. Or at the least, strangers."

Yuffie bent her head a little to hide the rush of blood to her face. She was acting trapped and cornered and knew it, but there didn't seem to be anything she could do about it. It had been, as far back as she could remember, one defense mechanism she'd thrown out in front of her in awkward social situations, pushing the other person back behind the wall of her own stubborn indifference. "Sorry," she muttered. "I guess I wasn't sure what to expect."

Rufus' expression softened, and she looked away. He looked like Lord Godo after one of his rages, whenever she made him angry and he'd spent his temper berating her stupidity, before calming down into the benevolent father and launching into one of his parables. But that was the past, and she was not a child any longer. "I think we were both a little surprised," he said, coming from behind the desk and holding out his hand. "It's been a while since we last saw each other. Truce?"

She stared at his outstretched hand, then dared looked into his face, into the blue eyes that held no guile, only truth. "The last time I saw you, your sorry ass was being dragged out of the Shinra building by emergency rescue."

"The last time I saw you," he countered, "you were trying to kill me."

She cracked a smile at that, and stuck her hand out. His grip was firm but gentle, and he had smaller hands than she expected for a man who had once been the most powerful man in the world. "I'll shake on that," she said. "Truce."

As he started to release her hand and go back around the corner of his desk, she realized suddenly that he was limping, holding onto the desk side with one hand. She clamped onto his hand tightly, as if letting him go would break the fragile promise they'd just made. Her eyes flashed to the filing cabinet and the black-and-silver cane that leaned casually against one side. Not quite surreptitiously, she glanced at his legs. She couldn't tell anything from the long pants that covered them, but there was something not quite right with the way his feet lined up and the way they moved, slow and crooked like an old man's.

She'd known that he had lost most of the use of his legs after the Shinra building collapsed. Everyone knew that. He'd mentioned it once or twice in his letters. But seeing it now somehow drove the point home that Rufus Shinra was no longer invincible.

"It's nothing," he said, before she could venture a word. "Bodies are fickle, temporary things, in any case."

"Does it..." she hesitated. "Hurt?"

Rufus considered this for a moment. "Sometimes," he said finally. "When the weather changes. In the mornings, at night." He smiled again, as if to reassure her. "I've gotten used to it over the past fifteen years, after my sorry ass, as you put it, was rescued. I had plenty of time to think while I was trapped there in bed, recovering."

Yuffie flushed. "I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking when I said that."

"Again, it's nothing. If you'll let go of my hand now-?"

Her flush deepened and she dropped his hand, cheeks burning. "Sorry," she said again. Yuffie Kisaragi, this is definitely not your day.

He released her hand and stepped back to the desk, paused, seemed to think better of it and instead gestured to a heavy wooden chair by the wall. "Please sit and have some coffee," he said. "It's freshly brewed, black, but I can add sugar and cream if you like. You look tired, and I find the coffee helps."

Yuffie found that she did not mind so much, so she unbuckled the Conformer's belt from across her chest and laid it gently down on the floor before sliding onto the chair. Her cheeks were still hot, and she rubbed them with the back of one hand, hoping he didn't see. "I'll take it with some sugar, thank you. You look tired, too. Long days in the office?"

She couldn't see his face with his back to her, but she swore that he stiffened. "It's nothing," he said. "I've not been sleeping well lately." He turned with a steaming mug in his hands that smelled wonderful, and she got up quickly, walking to him and taking it gratefully. She'd caught the first airship into Corel from the coast and hadn't had time to grab breakfast. Breakfast on the airship itself was out of the question, considering that she'd probably throw it all back up the moment she got it down. "How are affairs in Wutai? I believe I caught you up on everything happening here in the last letter, but you unfortunately had no time to write back."

"Nice way of putting it," she said, leaning back in her chair. She was itching to ask him about Nibelheim and Rude, but if there was one thing she'd learned from knowing Rufus Shinra for thirteen years long distance, it was that he took time to warm up to a topic. Pushing him would do no good. She'd known that when she called him three days ago, and winding up here in Corel was not what she'd had in mind. "Wutai is fine. We've finally finished fixing up the southern part of the city, the area destroyed in the war with Shinra. It used to be all slums and falling down rubble, but it looks nice now."

"I'm glad it's working out for you," Rufus said. "The war with Shinra...well. I'm trying to make it up to you as best as I can. My father could be quite brutal when he wanted to be."

"You've done us a world of good with your airships and publicity," Yuffie said, shrugging. "We've had another population boom recently, a bunch of expats moving back in from the Junon area. A lot of the old folks won't live in the new area still - some Wutaians are superstitious folk and are afraid of spirits of the war dead or some such thing. But most of the newcomers don't care that much. It's government subsidized housing and a sight cheaper than most of the old land."

"Do any of these expatriates have valid claim to their ancestor's property rights?"

"Some do," Yuffie acknowledged. "A lot of them have the old paperwork, stuff in the back of their great-great-great-grandfather's safes and things like that. Of course, most of it means nothing since that land was destroyed in the wars or they'd been gone so long the property rights reverted to my father, who sold it back to the town. But...we do as best as we can."

"Very interesting," Rufus mused. "You know, we could use you in Corel, lady. The property disputes here are something else."

Yuffie grunted and sipped her coffee. It burned her tongue. "Sorry, Shinra. You're on your own there. I've got my own little city-state to take care of."

He laughed again. "I know. And I'm sorry to have called you here when I know you're busy in Wutai."

Ah, Yuffie thought. Now he's ready to talk. "Apology accepted," she said. "At least, it will be once I know what you're beating around the bush about. Why am I here again?"

Rufus had been leaning against the edge of his desk, but now he straightened, pushing the chair back and standing. It pained her to see him leaning so heavily on the chair arm as he struggled to do so, all the while with a nonchalant expression that held just a hint of challenge, as if to say, I dare anyone to tell me that I cannot do even this.

She didn't say anything. She simply watched as he hobbled to the picture window and leaned there against the wall, fingering the heavy drapes absently. The setting sun made a halo around his golden hair, and Yuffie blinked rapidly to clear the red-orange afterglow from her vision.

"I sent Rude to Nibelheim four days ago," he said. "It didn't go well."


*


Seven hours later, perched on the back of Reno's motorbike as they sped across the night-shrouded mountains toward Nibelheim, Yuffie wondered again at the strange circumstances that had brought her and Rufus Shinra and the rest of Green Earth together. It was almost like the giant manhunt that had occurred when Cloud had gone missing, a mobilization that had reminded her eerily of AVALANCHE after Cloud had been lost in the Lifestream after confronting Sephiroth at the Northern Crater. Everyone's emotions had been taut, the worry so palpable in the air that Yuffie had to fight back tears at night when she climbed into bed. She knew Tifa cried, and so she had vowed she would not, because she had to be strong for her friend.

In the end, Cloud had not been found, and life had gradually adjusted itself to a world without Cloud Strife, a world in which Tifa Lockhart went back to Edge and started dating Rude, a world in which Cid's wife left him to strike out on her own, a world in which Yuffie had lost touch with most of her old friends over the years. It was as if Cloud, hard as he had been to reach, had been the glue that had held them all together.

"I've been having dreams," Rufus had told her. "They're bits and pieces of things - Sephiroth, mostly, but sometimes other things, strange things. Sometimes I hear the Cetra girl speaking to me. Other times I am walking through the gates of some abandoned town, and I can feel something moving in the tunnels at the far end, though it's quiet."

Yuffie had shivered, though it was warm in Rufus' office. "Is this town...Nibelheim?"

"I sent Rude to Nibelheim," Rufus said, not denying her guess. "He was attacked. Luckily, he made it back to Costa del Sol and got help back to Corel. He gave me a cursory report." He'd turned back to her abruptly at that phrase, staring intently at her face as if trying to gauge her reaction. "He found Cloud Strife's star pendant at the entrance to a series of tunnels that used to be the building they called the Shinra Mansion."

"Used to?" Yuffie echoed, but Rufus dropped his gaze.

"I would like you to go to Nibelheim with Reno. I think whatever is in those tunnels is important. Reno can fill you in on the way."

Yuffie stared at him. "Now?"

When Rufus spoke, he sounded strained. "Please speak with Reno. I gave him orders to leave at his discretion."

"Rufus," Yuffie said, standing and gripping the Conformer tightly in one hand, as if the weapon's cold touch could give her strength. "How detailed exactly are these dreams?"

He had smiled tightly. "You don't want to know."

Nibelheim's not there anymore, Reno said, the first words out of his mouth after Yuffie had said hello and told him she was going with him. He hadn't looked too happy about the prospect, and if the situation hadn't been so serious, she would have probably taken the opportunity to make his life miserable for a few hours. It wasn't that she didn't like Reno - she did. The two of them were just too much alike. Talking to Reno was sometimes like talking to herself, and too much of that drove her crazy.

What, it was burned down again?

Reno's mouth had quirked. I asked Rude the same thing. He said no. It's just not there.

It was as much information as either of them knew. Rude had been unable to describe the town in more detail than that, Reno said, and had told them to stay away from it. Cloud's star pendant was warm around Yuffie's neck, and she clutched it as the bike bumped over a particularly nasty ridge or perhaps tree root, praying that Reno's driving would get them there alive.

"It's not my driving you have to worry about on this trip, ma'am," Reno told her over one shoulder as if reading her mind. She rolled her eyes.

"I'm sorry I'm not Tifa Lockhart, but I'll have to do."

Reno jerked slightly and after a moment she realized that he was laughing. "Tifa had her reasons," he said. "Long as I have someone with me that can hit a target reasonably without getting killed, that's all I care about. Besides, Valentine's at Nibelheim already, or so I'm told."

She blinked in mild shock. "Vincent is? What? Why-?"

"We'll see when we get there, won't we?" He sounded harsh, the words forced. He must be worried, Yuffie realized. She wished she could ask him, Is it Rude? Is it Vincent? She didn't think he had any filial feeling for Vincent, but the two of them had always gotten along professionally, if not personally, and Nibelheim being an unknown quantity was not something she'd wish on anyone. She'd heard enough of the nightmarish story from Cloud and Tifa, and didn't need to know any more.

Tifa...now there was someone they could sorely use right now. Except that Tifa had turned away after their initial greeting last night and said, "Yuffie, I can't stay. I'm going home."

Yuffie had understood, even if she didn't want to. It was more than Denzel being missing, a fact which she dismissed easily as Reeve being an overprotective father-type. Tifa was running again, running from Cloud and running from Rude. "Rude really does love you, you know," she had said.

The look in Tifa's eyes was almost unbearably sad. "I know. That's why I have to go."

She had almost told Tifa that she was making no sense at all, but it was useless. Tifa always made sense, because Tifa didn't ever want to say no to anyone, and this time when she did have the guts to say no, Yuffie wasn't going to be the one to call her on it. "Okay," she said instead. "I hope things work out with Denzel. I think Reeve is worried over nothing."

Tifa had given her a tight smile. "Let's hope."

It was only after the other woman had gone that Yuffie had realized that it was the first time she'd seen Tifa in almost eight years.

"What's up?" Reno said.

Yuffie blinked, roused from her stupor. "Huh?"

"You went stiff all of a sudden. You're not going chicken on me, are ya?"

She debated a few answers and settled with, "I'm worried about Tifa."

To his credit, he didn't laugh it off. "I know," he said simply, and she rolled those words around in her head, considering them and finding them acceptable. Anyone who thought that Reno was a blabbermouth surely didn't know him, because the man was a genius at picking and choosing his words. Reno talked, but he never talked carelessly.

"Thanks," she told him, and he shrugged against her as the wind roared by.

"Not much either of us can do now about it. Tifa's gotta figure out stuff by herself. How'd your talk with the boss man go?"

Rufus' face, still proud and golden even as he hobbled towards her with his cane and his crippled foot, flashed into her memory. "Fine," she said. "He gave me the short version of the story. Whatever's in those tunnels is important, he says. Funny, I'd have liked to get the long version of this before heading out on some assignment where I might be killed."

Reno snorted. "There's not much to the longer version. Rufus keeps to himself most of these days, and I couldn't wean much more out of him. Once he heard that Valentine had gone ahead of us, he told me to hurry and catch up, and Valentine would explain everything."

"He's right, you know," Yuffie said.

"What?"

"Vincent's smart. He'll figure out what's going on."

A heave of the shoulders meant that Reno sighed, a sound lost on the wind. "I hope you're right. Cause at this point I don't think even Rufus has much to go on."

Dreams, thought Yuffie, and Reno shifted gears. The motorcycle's roar dulled to a hum, the metal purring between her knees and the motor dropping as they coasted to a stop between two arching mountain peaks, black in the distance against the starry sky. The moon was hidden behind a bank of clouds.

"Now what?" she asked, and Reno turned the key in the ignition. Everything went very still. There should have been some sort of night sounds - insects, birds, the rustling of things in the undergrowth that tickled Yuffie's exposed knees and legs above her boots - but she could hear nothing. She shivered.

"Now," Reno said, "we walk."

They moved silently and swiftly through the thick underbrush, too thick for the normal growth surrounding a town. Weeds twisted in treacherous thorny tangles under their feet, and Yuffie caught herself from falling once or twice by sheer luck and quick reflexes. There was no need to say it - she could see that Reno felt it too, that ominous foreboding that lingered in the air like invisible smoke. She recognized the area by the distance of the mountains, and there should have been lights and the sound of people and smoke from fireplaces and chimneys. But it was dark and still.

"What's that?" she hissed suddenly, and Reno turned as she pointed up to their left at a dark shadow looming out of the undergrowth. He made a signal and they tracked toward it, halting as the object resolved into sharp planes and angles and the shining metal of a propeller.

"Valentine's plane," Reno whispered close to her ear, and she nodded. It was the airplane Vincent had taken into Nibelheim, but a quick look revealed that he was not inside or anywhere in the vicinity.

They backtracked to the trail, which had now become a muddy, barely visible path between the weeds. If this had been Nibelheim's main road, then they surely should be entering the town by now, but she could see nothing except the surrounding weeds and taller scraggly trees and mountains.

Reno's hand on her shoulder stopped her in her tracks. But even as he moved his hand away, her tracker's skills screamed at her and she whipped around to the right, where the enormous maw of a cave opened, yawning and black, behind the rusted remains of an iron fence.

Something moved there.

Reno was already running past the old gate opening, stumbling over unseen brambles and debris, falling to his knees. Yuffie did not need to run, moving slowly and carefully like an old woman in Reno's footsteps, wobbling to the spot where the cloak-swathed figure of Vincent Valentine lay sprawled on the ground, one hand clutching his bloodstained side, the other wrapped tightly around him as if warding off something.

"You idiot!" Reno hissed, and Vincent raised his head.

"I was afraid you were not going to come."

"Vincent," Yuffie said hollowly. "Vince. Is it bad? Are you bleeding?"

In the dim light of the moon she couldn't tell that his eyes were different from any other man's - glinting darkly, face carefully neutral against the terrible pain she knew he must be feeling right now. She stumbled to Reno's side, grabbed the red-haired man's shoulder for support. Reno did not move away.

"I'll live," Vincent said softly. "More importantly, the thing in that cave will not bother anyone again. I have taken care of it. Please get me back to my plane."

"You're crazy!"

He looked at her and she could almost swear his lips were curved in a smile. "Yuffie, I'm fine. I've suffered much worse and survived."

"Lady Kisaragi," Reno said abruptly, twisting his head around to regard her with a flat stare. She shivered. He'd never called her that before, not seriously. "Please escort Mr. Valentine to his ship. I will return to Corel on the motorcycle."

She opened her mouth to protest wildly, that she couldn't let Reno navigate through the dark mountains alone, that she always got sick during air travel, and then shut it again. Vincent was injured, and someone needed to fly that plane.

Yuffie Kisaragi was still a fighter.

"Let's go, Vincent," she said, letting go of Reno's shoulder. Her legs felt steady now, like stone pillars, as she reached down and helped the injured man gently to his feet. She'd forgotten how heavy he was, and as he leaned on her she willed her stone-strong legs to stay that way, not to collapse into the puddles of terrified goo that they had been moments earlier. Her friends needed her, and damned if she was going to fall apart now. The blood from Vincent's cloak seeped into the side of her shirt, still warm and damp.

She was about to steer him back through the ruined iron fence in the direction of the parked ship when Vincent shook his head and stopped. She looked back up at him, then looked at Reno, who had made as if to follow them with an odd, frozen look on his face.

"Vince?" she said. Her voice trembled.

With an effort, Vincent extended his free arm, the human one that was not slung across Yuffie's shoulders like an enormously heavy metal sling. The moon came out behind the clouds fully then. She stared, sickly fascinated, at the spiderweb of red and blue and black patches that crawled up the skin of his arm, at the pale blisters breaking the skin's surface, recognizing that they were Geostigma symptoms in their advanced stage, even more than that, because she'd never seen anyone with those terrible, oozing blisters before.

"Please take this," Vincent said, and something heavy and cold and familiar landed in her palm. She wrenched her gaze away from his dying arm and to the thing in her hand, a very small, very solid, and very ordinary red Summon Materia.