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Chapter Fifteen By mid-afternoon, the party was on their way south, crashing through the thick brush in the buggy Dio had provided them with as restitution for having dropped them into the desert. Cloud had done something to get them out, up there at the Gold Saucer, but Kit wasn't sure what it was. She'd spent the rest of the morning dozing off in the truck, trying to shake the disorientation she'd been feeling. It seemed to have worked, for the most part. When the buggy was attacked for the third time by roving monsters, Cloud decided everyone was going to take turns defending it, and Kit took hers just as the others did. Aeris still was shooting concerned looks at her, but Kit was able to ignore them.
Besides the buggy, Dio had also left a letter for Cloud, telling him Sephiroth was heading towards a town called Gongaga, just south of the river. Apparently, Sephiroth had been at the Gold Saucer after all, but Kit couldn't imagine what for. Unless he was purposely leading AVALANCHE somewhere...
It wasn't a very long way from the desert to the lush forest that surrounded Gongaga, and the trip was quicker in the buggy. The sun was just getting low in the sky when they caught a glimpse of some tall structure through the trees. Cloud decided they were close enough, that he'd go ahead and scout around first.
"Not by yourself," Aeris admonished him. "What if Sephiroth really is in there somewhere? You'll need someone to back you up-"
"Like me," Tifa interrupted, climbing out of the buggy to stand next to Cloud. "You really should take a fighter with you."
"Or someone who can use magic," Aeris added, with a puzzled glance at Tifa.
Tifa just smiled and shrugged. "Yeah, one of the two. Which would you prefer, Cloud?"
It was all Kit could do to keep from laughing. Each of them had to know how the other felt about Cloud by now - everyone else did - and yet they remained perfectly civil towards each other. How did they do it?
Cloud looked back and forth between the two girls, scratching his head. "Uhm... maybe I could use both," he said finally.
Both of the girls smiled at him. "Great. Let's go," Tifa said cheerfully, ignoring that Cloud was helping Aeris out of the buggy. Aeris's long skirt did get in the way an awful lot... but maybe that's why she was wearing it, so that Cloud would feel obligated to give her a hand now and then, Kit thought with a smirk.
As Cloud and the two women took off into the woods towards the structure in the distance, Yuffie jumped out as well. "Gawd! It's good to have solid ground under my feet again," she said, yawning and stretching. "Spending all day squashed in there with the rest of you guys just isn't my ideal way to travel. No offense."
"I understand completely," Red muttered. For most of the ride, Yuffie had been bored, and making jokes at the others' expense, mostly Red's. "At least you don't get carsick too."
Kit chuckled, following Yuffie's lead and getting out to stretch. Even if she hadn't been feeling very well lately, she didn't like going so long without moving around. She tipped her head back and forth, trying to rid her neck of the stiffness of a day's journey, and a motion caught her eye. There was something in the sky, far off in the distance, but it looked like it was coming closer. She squinted at it, but couldn't make it out.
Barret saw it too. "You know what that is?" he asked Kit. She shook her head.
They watched the dark shape grow larger as it approached, and soon it was accompanied by the noise of motors whirring. The noise identified it as something Kit knew well. "It's one of Shinra's helicopters," she told the others.
"Shinra?!" Barret raised his gun-arm to the sky. "Those troops at the Gold Saucer... Dio probably sent us right into a trap! We gotta go after that pokey-hair punk and warn him."
"Hold on," Red warned. "If it was a trap, they wouldn't do something as obvious as flying a helicopter over us - they'd have already moved their men into place, and they'd be keeping a low profile. Right, Kit?"
She nodded. "Heidegger may be dense, but he's not completely stupid. It's probably nothing to do with us."
Cait bounced over to where Barret and Kit stood. "She's right, Shinra's after lots of things besides you guys. They were only looking for Sephiroth at the Gold Saucer, remember? If Dio heard he came this way, maybe they did too."
"That has to be it," Kit agreed. Like Corel, Gongaga was a story she knew. Three years ago there had been an explosion at their Mako reactor too. Shinra officials said it was sabotaged, but then, they'd said the same at Corel. Kit wondered how many of the "official" reports she'd been given over the years were fabricated.
Either way, there wasn't supposed to be much left of Gongaga, just a small village in the middle of a forest, housing a handful of people who were too stubborn to move on. It would have been an ideal spot for an ambush, Kit supposed. But if it was a trap, it was much more likely to be of Sephiroth's making than Shinra's. At least she hoped it was. Shinra would mean as much trouble for her as it did for AVALANCHE.
The helicopter wasn't far off now, and it hovered above the structure they'd seen through the trees, before it began its descent. Everyone could now see the Shinra logo painted on the side.
"Uh, it's landing where Cloud and Tifa and Aeris were headed," Yuffie pointed out. "Shouldn't we go make sure they're all right?"
"Nah," Barret muttered. "They'd hear the motor just like we did, and Cloud ain't dumb enough not to stay clear."
"Better to stay here and wait for them to return," Red agreed.
A few long minutes went by, with everyone watching the spot where the helicopter had landed. Soon it was rising again, and took off to the north. Cloud and the others hadn't returned. Barret was looking a little touchy by the time they did, a few more long minutes after the helicopter had vanished. "Where you been?" he roared, waving his gun-arm in the air angrily despite the fact he'd been assuring everyone else there was no need to worry.
Cloud looked relieved to find them all unharmed. "I suppose you saw that helicopter? Scarlet and Tseng were here, looking for some kind of special materia Scarlet wants," he informed them. "We weren't seen. At least, not by them."
"What do you mean?" Red asked, curious. "Who were you seen by? I'm guessing it's not Sephiroth, or you would have told us right away."
"Right," Cloud said, nodding. "It was the Turks." The relief left his face. "And they were expecting us."
"How would they have known?" Red pondered. "Are we so predictable?"
"I don't like to think so, but maybe it's better than the alternative," Cloud remarked.
Yuffie cocked her head to the side and looked at him with amusement. "Yeah? What's that?"
"That one of us is a Shinra spy."
Yuffie's eyes nearly bulged out of her skull. "A spy?! No way!"
"Great, a spy," commented Cait. "Now everyone will blame me, cause I'm the new guy..."
Everyone was aiming discreet glances at each other, but most of them were directed towards Kit. She pretended not to notice. The situation was too bizarre. Here she was, being suspected as a spy, when in fact she was a spy, just not for the people they suspected. Worse yet, if there really was a Shinra spy among them, they probably would have reported her whereabouts. AVALANCHE was of no concern to her, after all. If anything happened to them, she and Sephiroth would simply have the rest of their lives together.
The rest of their lives... when he'd spoken of immortality, was that really what he'd meant?
"That's not really possible," Red said finally. "Just look at us. Cloud is running this mission to find Sephiroth and stop him, so what reason would he have to be working with Shinra? Barret and Tifa were original members of AVALANCHE - if anyone is an unlikely candidate for a spy, it would be them. Aeris and I were held in Hojo's research laboratory, and believe me when I say that no one who had gone through that would have any kind of loyalty whatsoever to Shinra. I'll admit I don't know Kit, Yuffie, or Cait Sith as well, but Kit proved herself when she drew her weapon on that Shinra officer at the Gold Saucer, and saved Tifa and I in that desert prison. Cait's a machine, and Yuffie's just a child." Yuffie glared at him and stuck out her tongue. "Given all this, which of us would be the spy?" Red finished, ignoring her.
Cloud scratched his head thoughtfully. "Maybe you're right. The Turks were ahead of us back in those caves near Kalm, even before we met Yuffie, Kit, or Cait."
"Or maybe it's that Dio guy," Barret put in. "He let the Shinra troops run all over his place, and then conveniently gave us a buggy and told us Sephiroth was headed for Gongaga?"
"I don't really think it's Dio's doing," Cait commented. "I sort of worked for him, remember? I can tell you, there's not much more to that guy than meets the eye."
"And what does meet the eye is too much!" Yuffie laughed.
"It's probably just a coincidence," Red agreed. The others nodded in relief, Barret and Aeris a bit more reluctantly. Kit could understand Barret being suspicious, but Aeris was a surprise - she was the least judgemental or suspicious person Kit had ever met. Kit looked a little closer at her face, and realized her eyes looked a little red. Why would Aeris have been crying?
"Didja check out the town yet?" Barret asked, to get off the subject. "You said no Sephiroth, but how sure are you?"
"We went into town - which was in a different direction than we thought," explained Cloud. "That structure we saw through the trees was the wreckage of a reactor. It exploded," he said, glancing at Barret, "and destroyed the town. Now it's just a dozen or so people who have nowhere left to go..."
Barret did look grim, but didn't lose his temper this time. "An' Sephiroth?"
"No sign of him," replied Cloud. "No one there's seen him. Maybe he was just passing by here... or maybe he let it slip at the Gold Saucer that he was coming here, to throw us off the track. I mean, I didn't see anything here he might have been after. There's nothing here. Am I right, Tifa? Aeris?"
Aeris nodded thoughtfully, but Tifa seemed lost in thought. Kit noticed suddenly that both of them had been awfully subdued since returning from their expedition. Obviously something had been there. Whatever it was, though, Cloud didn't seem to be concerned.
"So where to now?" she asked. "We don't have any new leads on Sephiroth, do we?"
"Not one," Cloud muttered. "It's getting sort of late. Maybe we should stay the night here, and maybe by tomorrow we'll have some kind of an idea."
Everyone seemed to agree on this plan, and so the party left the buggy and headed for Gongaga, following Cloud's lead along the forked trail. Aeris lagged a little ways behind the group, which Kit found unusual, considering usually she went out of her way to be as close to Cloud as possible. She dropped back to walk beside her, and Aeris looked up in surprise. "Oh, Kit," she said with an apologetic smile. "What is it? How are you feeling?"
"Tired of people asking how I'm feeling," Kit muttered. Aeris looked a little taken aback at the remark, and Kit sighed. "Sorry. I'm fine. Still don't know what happened, but as long as it doesn't happen again, I don't care."
Aeris wasn't convinced. "I really think you should see a doctor... but anyway, did you want to say something?" she added hastily, at the irritated look on Kit's face.
"I just was curious as to what happened in Gongaga?"
"Like Cloud said - Shinra built a reactor there, and-"
"Not that," Kit interrupted, grinning in spite of herself. "I mean, why are you and Tifa so quiet? Cloud said there's nothing there..."
Aeris had started to grin back, but the beginnings of her smile slipped away. "Oh... well, I can't speak for Tifa," she said, absently trying to brush the dust of the trail from her red jacket. "Remember I told you I had an old boyfriend who was in SOLDIER? His parents live here... and I didn't even know he was from this town."
"He never told you even where he was from?" Kit knew the question was a little hypocritical - she didn't know where Sephiroth was from either, but then again, the two of them hadn't exactly met in any ordinary way.
"He didn't talk so much about the past," Aeris replied. "He wasn't much like Cloud - he was more... brash, I guess would be a good word. He was always talking big about where he was going to go, and what he was going to do. And then he would do it. He even went on a few missions with Sephiroth, before Sephiroth vanished."
"Impressive," Kit agreed. "So what happened to him?"
Aeris stared at her feet, shuffling through the dust. Kit found Aeris's shoes sort of amusing - heavy brown walking boots were a sharp contrast to her graceful pink dress. "He went away on a mission, about five years ago, and never came back."
Kit wasn't really sure what to say. "Was he... killed?"
"I doubt it," Aeris said with a slight smile. "More likely he just found himself a new girlfriend in some other place, and stayed there. He never had a problem getting girls to pay attention to him, you see. And Mom didn't really like him, besides, so I shouldn't have been surprised he left."
"Hmm. Sounds like a real jerk," Kit commented. "I'm sorry."
"It's really no big deal," Aeris insisted. "It was years ago. What's sad is, his parents said they haven't heard from him either. I don't really mind not knowing what happened to him, but... they're his parents."
"Yeah... parents." The thought made Kit feel a little guilty. She might have parents out there somewhere who didn't know where she was either.
The tone in her voice must have made Aeris suspicious. "What is it?" she asked.
Kit was trying to come up with an answer when they reached the edge of town. The sight of it was rather disturbing - the first thing they saw upon entering was a graveyard, filled with row after row of headstones. The houses were little more than crude brick huts, that looked as if they'd been meant more as temporary shelter than permanant housing.
The others had stopped to look the place over as well, and Yuffie was just gawking. "We're gonna stay here?"
Cloud nodded, gesturing to the largest building, which still wasn't very large. "There's the inn, if anyone wants to turn in early. I'm gonna look at weapons."
"They have a weapons shop here?" Kit asked, surprised.
"They gotta have some way to make ends meet. After havin' Shinra blow up their place, especially," Barret growled.
Yuffie stalked off towards the inn. "The beds better not be made out of straw or something," she muttered.
As the others spread out to get a look around town, Kit found herself alone, staring beyond the fence at the edge of town at setting sun's light reflecting off the ruined reactor. She'd never thought about it before, but she might have a family somewhere. She could have a father and mother who wondered where she was, and if she was still alive, just like the ex-boyfriend Aeris had been talking about. She probably had had friends, she might have brothers and sisters. She must have had some kind of life before Shinra had done whatever it was they had done to her.
Lost in thought, she jumped when Tifa leaned against the fence next to her. "Horrible, isn't it?" Tifa said, not noticing Kit's surprise. "How is it that Shinra can still build these reactors, when so many of them have ended up destroying entire cities?"
"I suppose they keep changing the design, trying to improve it," Kit replied. "None of the ones in Midgar have exploded yet, at least not without the help of a certain rebel organization," she added, with a sideways smirk at Tifa.
Tifa smiled back, but less brightly than Kit had expected her to. "I didn't exactly like the terrorism part of it," she said, still staring abs ently at the reactor. "It's just that I want Shinra to stop destroying. Barret's way was the only way I could think of... until Cloud came back."
"And then?" Kit prompted.
The look on Tifa's face was uneasy. "Kit? Can I ask you something about Shinra?" she asked.
"Mmm... sure." Kit was a little confused by the sudden change of subject. "What?"
"How long does it take for a person to advance to the rank of SOLDIER First Class from the time they join, on average? How long were you there before you got that high up?"
Kit frowned. She didn't have any memory of serving in the normal army, or joining the SOLDIER program, but she wasn't going to tell Tifa that. Well, Sephiroth said he'd freed her from the capsule at Nibelheim, that was five years ago... "It took me four years," Kit said finally. "And that was faster than average. Usually it's more like six or seven. Why, thinking about infiltrating them?"
It was a joke, of course, but Tifa didn't seem to notice. "No... just thinking."
"About Cloud, right? How long was it for him?" Kit asked. "He's really very good with his sword, and he's young to have been First Class five years ago."
Tifa didn't answer right away, and Kit glanced over to see her grip tighten on the fence until her knuckles were white. "Tifa? What is it?" she asked.
"No... nothing," Tifa murmured, and abruptly ran off towards the inn.
That was strange. Tifa was usually so cheerful... Kit reminded herself it was none of her concern, and turned her thoughts to something else. Sephiroth. The thought of him was reassuring and troubling at the same time. What had he been up to, letting them think he was going to Gongaga? Kit would have bet he hadn't been anywhere near the place. So where had he gone...?
Kit closed her eyes and tried to think of where Gongaga was on the maps she'd studied back in Shinra HQ. There was so little left, it had probably been left off of most of the newer maps, forgotten as if it had never existed.
It was then she realized she was feeling something strange. A presence, somewhere to the northwest. It was as if something called to her to join it... because she was a part of it. Was it Sephiroth, reaching her somehow? Did he want her to leave AVALANCHE and come back to him?
The feeling was soon gone, but she could still feel its unnatural touch on her mind. She stood there by the fence as the sky grew darker, pondering what it had meant, until she heard odd-sounding footsteps behind her. She turned to see Cait Sith bounding towards her across the uneven ground.
"Hey, Kit!" the cat called through the megaphone it held. "Cloud says we're going to get an early start tomorrow, so why don't you come to the inn?" As Cait drew nearer, he put down the microphone and looked at her quizzically. "What are you doing out here, anyway?"
"Just thinking," Kit said, echoing Tifa's earlier answer.
"About what?"
"Nothing a fortunetelling machine would be interested in, I'm sure," she replied, turning back towards the inn.
The moogle bounced alongside her as she walked. "Are you so sure?"
"Quite. So does Cloud have any particular destination in mind?" she asked, to make conversation. She couldn't get over how familiar the cat's voice was.
"He said he wants to head northwest," Cait said. "Why, I don't know. He can't even tell us what he thinks will be there."
Northwest... maybe that message hadn't been directed at her. Maybe Sephiroth was trying to reach Cloud. But wouldn't he have thought it a little strange, a premonition that strong?
Who knew, Kit decided. She was too weary to think about it, even though she had dozed off for a few extra hours that afternoon. As soon as she'd settled herself in her bed at the inn, she drifted off into dreams of a familiar voice, calling out to her from across a great distance.To Chapter Sixteen. To the intro. That means it's mine, not yours! |
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