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Chapter Eight It was a half hour before Kit could gather up enough strength to lift her head from where it rested on her knees. She had never cried so much that she could recall, so much that it made her feel sick. She never used to be this emotional. Fall in love with a man, and he'll make you into a stereotypical woman whether he intends to or not, she thought bitterly. She couldn't be mad at him, though. Off in the distance, she could faintly see the giant cannon of Junon jutting out towards the ocean, and she forced herself to get on her way towards it.
When she arrived, she looked around a little to see how the town had changed since her last visit. It hadn't changed at all, except for the lack of wreckage lying everywhere. A steep cliff formed the eastern border of the city, covered sparsely with brush, making a good place for her to hide as she waited for AVALANCHE to show up. Of course, she hadn't considered that possibility when she'd walked into town in plain sight of anyone. She would have to go back south a ways and come to the top of the cliff from the east, that was the best way to avoid notice. Or she could simply wait around in the town for a day or so, she thought as she realized she still felt wobbly from all her crying. It wasn't as if she needed to ambush them. Yes, she'd definitely rather just sit down in a chair for awhile...
"What's the matter, lady?" a small voice piped up just to the left of her. Kit looked down and saw a little girl fidgeting with a whistle and peering up at her.
"Nothing's the matter," Kit replied, but the girl shook her head.
"Your eyes are all red, like you've been crying," the girl insisted. "You're from Shinra, right?"
Glancing around, Kit saw a few dejected looking townspeople, but no one else. "I was," she admitted, "but I think they did some very wrong things."
The girl nodded. "Me too. After they built the underwater reactor, the water started to get polluted and the fish died. I have a dolphin friend who comes to see me, but he doesn't come as much as he used to. I don't blame him, I don't like even looking at the nasty water."
Kit glanced out over the beach. At the foot of the support poles holding up the Shinra community's foundations, the water did have a rather orangish tint to it. That couldn't be healthy. "Shinra messed up," she agreed. "So did I," she mumbled to herself, but the girl heard.
"What do you mean you messed up?" she asked curiously. "Oh, and my name's Priscilla. It's nice to meet you."
"My name's Kit," Kit said, extending her hand to the girl. "I messed up by working for Shinra. If I'd followed their orders as I was supposed to, well... either things wouldn't be so complicated, or I'd be dead, and they'd be even less complicated."
"Don't talk like that," Priscilla said, shaking her head vigorously. "As long as there is life, there is hope. That's why Mr. Dolphin still keeps coming back. He thinks maybe someday the water will be clean again, and we can go swimming together like we used to. Would you like to meet him?"
Kit smiled. She'd never dealt with children in her line of work, of course, but this girl was pleasant to be around. "Sure, I'd love to meet Mr. Dolphin," she replied. "He sounds very smart."
"Oh yes, he is," said Priscilla as she skipped ahead of Kit towards the beach. "When I blow this whistle, he jumps for me. He can jump really high!"
"Will I get to see him jump?" asked Kit.
"You sure will! Just watch..." As they reached the edge of the dry land, Priscilla blew the whistle, and Kit saw a man-sized shape streaking towards them. It stopped just on the edge of the worst of the pollution, and then with a playful jump, Mr. Dolphin announced his presence with a series of squeaks and whistles.
"Hi, Mr. Dolphin!" Priscilla called over the noise of the waves. "I have a new friend who wants to meet you! Her name is Kit." The dolphin raised itself up until only its tail was in the water, and bobbed its head forward in what appeared to be a bow.
"That's incredible," breathed Kit. "Hello to you too, Mr. Dolphin!" she called. She'd never seen an animal trained like that, to respond to even just a voice, or were dolphins all this intelligent?
"Kit wanted to see you jump, Mr. Dolphin," Priscilla explained. "Are you ready?" The dolphin bobbed its head and squeaked again. Priscilla blew the whistle, and Kit couldn't keep herself from gasping in delight as Mr. Dolphin flung himself gracefully out of the water nearly to the foot of the Shinra platform above. "Do you like it?" Priscilla asked, turning to her.
"Oh yes, it's wonderful!" Kit exclaimed. The dolphin raised up and bowed again, then leapt in graceful arcs back and forth in front of them. Kit clapped, and the dolphin cackled at her.
"Mr. Dolphin doesn't want to stay here too much longer," Priscilla said to Kit. "The water makes him feel dirty, so he's going back out to the deeper parts of the ocean, where Shinra hasn't messed it all up."
"Goodbye, Mr. Dolphin," Kit called, and the dolphin waved its tail at her. She waved back as it leapt in those same graceful arcs back out to the deeper waters, but then paused once more and did another tremendous leap before disappearing.
"He wants you to be cheered up," Priscilla said seriously. "So do I. Are you sad because Shinra messed up your life too?"
Kit paused. This girl just wouldn't quit. "Not exactly," she said, trying to think of something she could tell Priscilla that wouldn't be an outright lie, but would be something the girl would understand. "I guess you could say I'm having boy trouble."
Priscilla's eyes widened. "Really? Why? You're very pretty."
"Thank you," said Kit, smiling in spite of herself. "Shinra wanted me to do something bad to someone, you see, and I decided not to do it because... well..."
"Because you loved this person?" Priscilla asked, her eyes shining. "So you quit Shinra instead? How romantic! Did you kiss him?"
"Well, yes, it was romantic, I guess. And yes, I kissed him." It was nice to tell this to someone, even if they took it almost to be a fairy tale. "I quit Shinra and travelled with him, but lots of people don't like him, and... they want to hurt him. So I'm trying to stop them, while he goes on ahead."
"He left you behind to clean up his mess, you mean?" Priscilla said angrily. "Isn't that just like a man!"
Kit barely succeeded in holding back her laughter at hearing that coming from a little girl. "He wouldn't have done such a thing if I hadn't agreed to it. At least I don't think he would have. But I do miss him terribly."
"That's too bad," Priscilla said, her face sympathetic. "How long will you be away from him?"
"I don't know. Probably a few weeks. I need to stay here for a few days and figure out what to do next, at least. There's no inn in Junon, is there?"
"There used to be, but the innkeeper closed it because he was sick of Shinra troops coming in and turning it into a bar," said Priscilla, "but he sometimes puts people up when he's sure they're not Shinra, since he still has the beds. If I tell him about you, he'll let you stay as long as you need to. And he won't let any Shinra people in."
Kit was astonished. "I would really appreciate that, Priscilla. I just met you, why are you doing this for me?"
Priscilla grinned. "You quit Shinra, and you talked to Mr. Dolphin. Most people just look at him and laugh, and call him a fish. Dolphins aren't even fish!" she exclaimed indignantly.
"I thought everyone knew that."
"Nope, people are stupid, especially those Shinra people. They don't know anything. No offense, Kit." The girl looked up at her curiously. "Are you okay?"
Kit was still feeling a little odd, but she nodded anyway. "I've just been walking more than I'm used to, I suppose."
"Why don't I show you where the inn is - or was, then? You can lie down there if you want to," Priscilla said, scampering off towards the town. "I think you should, you don't look very well. Even Mr. Dolphin was concerned about you."
"I'll be fine," said Kit, but all the same she was glad when Priscilla and the former innkeeper had talked, and she had a soft bed all her own to lie in and sleep the rest of the day away.
She awoke with a start as the sun was setting, feeling much better and more alert than she'd felt since she'd accepted her final mission for Shinra back in Midgar. Still, how much time had she wasted lying in bed? AVALANCHE could have come and gone for all she knew.
Kit stood up and pulled her clothes on in a rush. She would not fail Sephiroth as she had Shinra. No matter what Shinra had done, she still counted herself as a traitor, because she had been given a mission, and she had ignored it.
Opening a window to see exactly how far the sun had gone down, she saw what had awakened her - a huge beast was flapping above the water where Mr. Dolphin had jumped for her, and there was someone down there fighting it. One figure she could make out was huge and dark, with what appeared to be a gun in place of one of his hands, which he was firing at the beast. Another was smaller and slimmer, and was throwing something small at the beast, while a third figure held a gigantic sword before him, making Kit's breath catch in her throat. It was obviously not Sephiroth, but she would have bet that was the same man she'd seen fighting Rufus on the roof of the Shinra building. There weren't many who could use a sword that size aside from Sephiroth, who had undoubtedly started the trend of oversized swords.
The battle raged as she watched. The beast flapped its wings until huge waves rolled over the people fighting on the beach, but they shook it off and continued to pummel the thing. The man with the sword suddenly sheathed it, and energy started to glow around him. Lightning flashed from the sky and illuminated the town as it struck the beast, which gave a shriek and burned to ash before it hit the water.
It hit Kit then why the big dark man looked familiar, and just who the other man with the sword was. The dark man was Barret Wallace, and his picture had been up on every wanted poster board she'd seen for months, as the leader of AVALANCHE. The smaller man was Cloud Strife, the ex-SOLDIER that was working with AVALANCHE for the time being, and he called lightning because he had materia. Being in SOLDIER, he'd learned how to use it. The other figure, which she could now tell was a young girl, she didn't know. She'd expected it to be Tifa Lockheart, another member of AVALANCHE, but this girl was younger and had her hair cut short. She hadn't fought with her fists and feet like Tifa was supposed to, either.
Down on the beach, the excitement hadn't died when the beast did. Townspeople were now rushing forward and shouting and bending over something, until one of the men ordered everyone to back off. When they did, Kit could just make out a small shape lying on the sand. Cloud, Barret and the strange girl stood looking down at it, and Kit realized it was a person. In fact... it looked like Priscilla!
Kit threw the window shut and rushed down to the river's edge to help her. By the time she arrived, Cloud was bent over the girl, trying in vain to make her breathe. Finally he looked up and shook his head.
"Try it again," Kit said angrily, and they all looked up at her in surprise. Cloud's eyes lingered on her own, and she could see his were the same blue-green, as if that gave him a right to stare. He wasn't Sephiroth. "Go on, make her breathe."
Cloud bent over again and blew harder into Priscilla's mouth, but it did nothing. He shook his head again, and Kit nearly shook him. "You have to keep doing it. You were SOLDIER, weren't you? Why didn't they ever teach you to do it right?"
Barret in particular stared at her this time, seemingly weighing her with his dark eyes. She didn't know or care what he thought. Cloud was doing better this time, taking deeper breaths and rhythmically blowing them out, and after a little while, Priscilla began to sputter and cough. Kit sighed, relieved, as one of the men thanked Cloud and gathered Priscilla up in his arms.
Her relief didn't last, though. Now that Priscilla was not there to stare at, the townspeople had gone back to the streets, but Cloud, Barret, and the girl were all staring at her. "You're SOLDIER too, huh?" Cloud said. He looked as if he were trying to be cool about it, but she could see him sweating.
"I was," Kit replied, just as coolly. "I've seen your face on the walls at Shinra HQ a lot in the last couple weeks, Cloud Strife. You're working for AVALANCHE now, I hear."
"Well, you heard wrong," Cloud said, shrugging. "I'm not working for AVALANCHE, it's just their interests and mine are the same right now. And just who are you?"
"My name's Kit. Ex-SOLDIER first class. Shinra asked me to do something I wouldn't do, and now I'm unemployed." So Cloud wasn't working for AVALANCHE. Sephiroth wasn't omnipotent, apparently.
"Like what?" asked Cloud.
Kit answered with a calculated frown, not too severe, but enough to show her distaste. "They wanted me to go kill a condor sitting on top of one of their reactors. I went along as far as the foot of the reactor, and then it became apparent the condor wasn't doing any harm. I guess they just didn't like their precious reactor being used as a birdhouse. I wasn't going to kill it just for trying to hatch an egg, so instead, I left."
Barret and Cloud exchanged glances. "We were at Fort Condor," said Barret, "and we didn't see no one that looked like you."
"I told you, I left yesterday afternoon," Kit repeated. "I got here early this morning. When were you at Fort Condor?"
"We got there last night," Cloud grumbled. "We must have just missed you."
"Yeah. That's just as well, because I didn't want to fight anyone. So..." Kit turned to Barret. "I've seen your face on the walls too. You're Barret Wallace, the guy in charge of AVALANCHE, right?"
"That's right," he said, "and what the @%#$ are you going to do about it, Miss SOLDIER?" He hefted his gun-arm as if suggesting he might use it if he didn't like her answer.
"Nothing, I'm not SOLDIER anymore," Kit reminded him. "I am curious though, what is AVALANCHE all about? I mean, we were told for awhile that you were some kind of eco-terrorists, so I can understand blowing up the Mako reactor. I never thought it was a good idea myself, to suck the life out of the planet, but what were you thinking when you collapsed the Sector Seven plate on top of the slums?"
A motion in the corner of Kit's eye caught her attention, and when she glanced over, she saw Cloud suddenly back away from Barret, shaking his head. She quickly looked back at Barret, and he started off shouting a long string of curses that nearly made her blush, and punctuated it by firing his gun-arm into the sky.
"Is that what they sayin'?" he roared. "Those #%@$ killed Biggs, Jessie, and Wedge, droppin' the @^#% plate on the slums like that, and they try and pin it on us? I'll get 'em!"
The girl stood back, shaking her head. "Gawd. Need a tranquilizer, Barret?"
"AVALANCHE d idn't destroy that support beam," Cloud said angrily, just loud enough so that Kit could hear over Barret's swearing and gunfire. "Shinra did. In fact, it was the Turks who set the bomb."
Kit didn't need to feign surprise. "What? Why would they do that?"
"Sector Seven was where AVALANCHE had its headquarters set up," Cloud explained. "To get to us, Shinra destroyed a whole eighth of the city, and killed innocent people."
"Us?" the girl asked with a smirk, as if there was not a man shooting like mad right beside them. "I thought you said you weren't with AVALANCHE, Cloud."
"I'm not," Cloud said coldly. "I was just working for them at the time."
"Who are you, anyway?" Kit asked the girl. "From what the posters read, I expected someone a little older, fighting with her fists rather than throwing stars."
"I'm Yuffie," the girl said, grinning, "and I'm not AVALANCHE either. I'm just along to see what I might pick up along the way. I suppose you were expecting Tifa, she's up in town somewhere."
"Hmm. So what are you all doing exactly, if you're not eco-terrorists?"
Barret finally lowered his gun-arm, panting. "Just savin' the planet. That's all I'm doing anyway, it's what AVALANCHE has been about all along. Jus' now Cloud thinks he found a better way to do it."
"If you were in SOLDIER, or even if you weren't," said Cloud, "I guess I really wouldn't need to ask you if you knew who Sephiroth was." Kit froze. This was what she was hoping to find out. "Five years ago, when I was SOLDIER first class, I went on a mission with him to my hometown, Nibelheim."
Again, Kit was surprised, but she supposed it looked natural, though she was surprised for the wrong reasons. Sephiroth had said that he was accompanied to Nibelheim by a SOLDIER first class named Zack. Maybe there had been two assigned besides Sephiroth, she supposed. "Where he disappeared," she put in, and Cloud nodded.
"He's come back now, and he wants to destroy the planet," Cloud continued. "It's enough reason that I would kill him anyway, but... he burned my hometown. I have to settle the score."
Kit almost couldn't stifle a laugh. "You are going to kill Sephiroth?"
"I'm at least going to try to stop him," Cloud replied. "If we all worked together, maybe we could kill him."
"Is that some kind of invitation?" Kit asked, seeing the perfect opening. "We could kill him?"
"Hmm..." Cloud thought for a moment. "If you want. We could use the manpower, and seeing as you were also trained in SOLDIER..."
This sent Barret into another fit. "Now wait just a minute, Cloud," he bellowed, waving his gun-arm around. "We don't know nothin 'bout this woman, and here you are inviting her to join AVALANCHE? $#%@, man!"
"She left Fort Condor," Cloud reminded him, "and that's enough to make Shinra hunt her down. You of all people should know how Shinra deals with their problems."
"Yeah, that's what she said," Barret growled, turning his back to them all. Looking out at the orange water, he swore profusely. "Shinra... They're gonna pay after all this Sephiroth $#%@!"
"So, are you going to join us, Kit?" asked Cloud.
Kit pretended to think it over for a minute. "Why not," she finally said, "Shinra is already going to want me dead. A little hanging out with rebels won't do my reputation much harm."
"Alright then. Our plan now is to cross the ocean. We think Sephiroth is going to do the same, if he hasn't already." Cloud scratched his head, looking uncertain. "We're just not sure how yet."
"I was stationed here a year or two ago," said Kit. "Up on the platform, Shinra has their new airship, the Highwind. That would be a little difficult to take, though. They also have a ship that goes over to Costa Del Sol, so if we wanted to wait until that set sail, we could sneak aboard."
"That sounds like a decent plan," Cloud said thoughtfully. "We have to get up to the platform, though... maybe we could climb the tower."
"So that's the plan, Cloud?" asked Barret. "We might wanna get some rest first, before we climb all the way up there."
"Oh gawd." Yuffie groaned. "We're going on a boat? I hate boats. But I hate airships too. Gawd."
"Well then, nothing will make you happy," Kit remarked. "I have to wonder why you're hanging out with AVALANCHE if you don't like to travel."
"It's not travelling I hate, it's boats and airships," Yuffie retorted. "And I'm hanging out with them to see what I might find... like, yaknow, adventure."
"So you won't complain, right?" Cloud asked. "Let's see if we can find somewhere to rest then, before we climb the tower. We have to tell the others, too."
"Try talking to the man that lives in the first house as you come into town," Kit suggested. "He let me stay there when he found out I quit Shinra."
Cloud nodded, and he and Yuffie walked up the beach back to town, but Barret lingered, staring suspiciously at Kit. "You from SOLDIER, that's for sure," he said after a minute. "You got those eyes... and I ain't never seen nobody out-cool Cloud. That's a point in your favor, but that don't mean I trust you."
"That's just fine," said Kit, shrugging, "because I'm not sure how far I can trust any of you either."
As she stalked away after Cloud and Yuffie, Kit heard Barret grumbling behind her. "$#%@, she out-cools me too."
To Chapter Nine. To the intro. That means it's mine, not yours! |
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