Chapter 22

Rude landed the helicopter atop the Shinra building, and Aeris let Reno help her out onto the roof. From up here, she could see Midgar stretching out below them with its countless city lights under the greenish haze rising from the reactors. The sky above was overcast as usual, though she thought she could make out a faint reddish glow behind the curtain of clouds.

"Come on, 'ris."

She glanced back at Reno, and then followed him down a ladder to the balcony outside what had been President Shinra's office, Rude silently bringing up the rear. They entered to find the huge room empty, and continued on down the grand staircase. Aeris could still make out faint traces of red in the carpet and between the tiles, where the bloodstains had been washed away without complete success.

From there the elevator took them down to the 67th floor, and Reno got off, motioning for Aeris to come with him. Rude remained on the elevator, the door closed, and the car dropped. Aeris frowned, but guessed that maybe this was as far as the silent man was willing to go.

Reno took her onward to Hojo's laboratory, making certain she stayed close. Once inside, he turned to the keypad and locked the door.

Hojo was coming down the steps from his computer station when they entered, and he didn't notice them until he reached the bottom. "What are you doing here?" he asked, appearing more vexed by Reno's presence than surprised to find either of them there.

"You have something of mine," Aeris stated. "I want it back."

"What?" he said, looking genuinely puzzled for a moment. "Oh. That. I thought I told you that I would rather have someone expendable carry it."

"You did," she replied. "I don't care. I want you to put it back where it belongs."

Hojo shook his head in mild astonishment and walked closer to her. "Surely you understand that Cetra do not respond well to Jenova cells."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Two thousand years ago, when Jenova first came to this planet, it nearly wiped out the Cetra. Its mere presence drove them mad. Didn't your mother tell you?" He paused, and when she gave no reply, he continued. "Now, I don't know what carrying a child with Jenova's cells would do to you, but I certainly don't want to risk losing two very important specimens."

Aeris held her ground. She had made up her mind, and she wasn't backing out of it now. "Sephiroth is far more human than alien. I think I'll be fine. Now give it back to me."

"And why should I?"

"Because you've got two Turks in your lab," Reno told him, "and if you're not gonna cooperate, we might as well kill you."

"Two?" Hojo repeated. He followed the redhead's gaze to Rude, who had come to stand only a few paces behind him. He hesitated.

"Just give it up and give her what she wants. Nobody's coming to save your sorry ass."

"Your ways are so crude," the scientist muttered. "Fine. I'll give her back the child."

"Do anything else to her, and we'll make you wish you were never born."

Hojo arched one eyebrow. "Oh, really?"

"Turk's basic training," Reno replied, making a slight gesture with his nightstick. "You'd better believe it."

"Indeed." The scientist's voice was steady, but his eyes belied a distinct uneasiness. He motioned with one hand. "Well, come on then."

Aeris gritted her teeth and followed the loathsome man to his operation table. Anxiety rose in her as she lay down, but she smothered it and did not let it show in her motions. Reno and Rude were there. They would keep her safe from the Professor. She'd be fine.

Even so, she slipped a hand inside her coat to finger the pieces of the White Materia, as if the broken talisman could still protect her.


Yuffie sat cross-legged near the big window on the bridge, watching Midgar as it grew closer. She hadn't felt like being alone out on deck, so she'd decided to join the others. She was getting better at handling this stupid airship, and she didn't want Cloud deciding who was going with when she wasn't around. She wanted to go this time--to make sure Aeris was okay, to find out what she needed from Hojo, and to see if Reno was really serious about that last part he'd written.

案ずるな。エアリスを愛してるから、俺が守る。 Don't worry. I love Aeris, so I'll protect her. Yeah, it was obvious that he cared about her, but to go so far as to say he loved her was something else. Yuffie hadn't mentioned it to Vincent.

At least things seemed to have cleared up between Cloud and Tifa, she reflected. They'd stopped avoiding each other's gaze, and at the moment they were actually standing pretty close together. Definitely a step in the right direction.

They were drawing close, and she could see Midgar much more clearly now. Junon's big cannon (she thought it was called the 'Sister Ray' or something stupid like that) had been fixed to the front of the Shinra building, and huge wires snaked from the remaining reactors to the cannon. It looked like it was charging up.

"Let's hope it works," Tifa said quietly.

Yuffie wasn't terribly enthusiastic about relying on Shinra to destroy Sephiroth's barrier for them, especially when it seemed to take so much energy from the reactors, and so from the Planet. But they didn't really have any other options. Their own spells couldn't break it (which didn't provide much encouragement about the upcoming battle), and it wouldn't just go away.

"What's the plan once we get there?" she asked, not liking the rising tension on the bridge. Everyone was worried about Aeris and anxious that Shinra's plan wouldn't work at all.

Cloud turned to her. "Go find Aeris," he replied, stating the obvious.

"Well, yeah, but how are we gonna do that?"

"You know where they are, don't you?"

Yuffie glared at him in exasperation, but Cid seemed to understand what she was getting at. "I'll bring the Highwind over the Shinra building an' drop you guys off."

"Who's going?" Tifa wondered.

"I'm going for sure!" Yuffie announced immediately.

"I shall go also," Vincent stated much more calmly. The ninja glanced at him. She knew he had a huge grudge against Hojo. Was he hoping they'd run into the scientist? Or was he going because he was the only one of them who actually knew what was going on? Maybe both.

"I guess I'll go, too," Tifa decided.

Cloud nodded and turned his attention back to the cannon.

Yuffie followed his gaze, and stood to get a better look as the cannon came to life with a deep hum. Blackouts spread across the city and three shots fired in quick succession. The bolts of energy streaked away northward to disappear beyond the horizon. After a few moments, a faint glow illuminated the northern sky and then quickly faded.

"Think that did it?" Barret wondered aloud.

"I hope so," Tifa said.

"Maybe Aeris will know," Cloud said. "We'll ask her when we have her back."

No one spoke while Cid brought the ship closer to the Shinra building. When they came to a stop over it, Yuffie followed Cloud, Tifa, and Vincent out to the deck, from where they climbed down to the roof. There was a helicopter there, and she noted it as a possible method of escape. Reno and Rude had to know how to fly it; Turks were supposed to be multi-talented like that.

"All right, lead the way," Cloud said to Vincent.

The ex-Turk nodded and led them swiftly down to the 70th floor. The office there was huge and empty, but the scene that greeted them at the bottom of the grand staircase was decidedly different. There were at least ten SOLDIERs there, most of them First Class, several roboguards, and dozens of regular soldiers. Most of them had their eyes trained on the elevator doors, but several shouted in alarm when they saw the intruders.

"This does not look fun," Yuffie said under her breath. She let her shuriken fly as the first of the men came charging towards them. Vincent cast barrier spells on the group and fired off several shots before the soldiers closed on them. Cloud and Tifa both ran forward into the fray, the blond with his huge sword and the brunette with her powerful fists.

Yuffie stuck close to Vincent, figuring it wouldn't be very smart to fight a SOLDIER or a roboguard by herself. She knew she was good, but she wasn't that good. And it took only a few minutes before they found themselves facing three SOLDIERs, all three First Class.

"Shit," the ninja cursed.

"You can run if you want," Vincent suggested tonelessly.

"Nah, I'll stick with you." She doubted he could take them all by himself without transforming, and she knew he hated doing that. She hated it, too; the few times she'd seen it, it'd been pretty damn terrifying.

One of the SOLDIERs swung his sword towards her, and her thoughts snapped back to the battle at hand as she leapt out of the way. With a blade like that, he could deflect her shuriken easily enough, so she kept on dodging his attacks, waiting for an opening. She grinned when she found one and struck quickly, slicing the blades of her shuriken into his thigh. He only grunted in pain, and hesitated scarcely a moment before bringing his sword up to attack her.

She jumped back, the blade missing her by a hair. He had just started to cast a cure spell on himself, so she quickly hit him with a bolt spell and darted around to attack him from behind. He staggered forward, catching himself on his sword, but not regaining enough balance to turn and face her in time. Yuffie drove one of her knives into his side, and he went down with a sharp cry of pain.

"Ha ha!" Yuffie laughed in triumph, but a blade slicing into her back cut her victory short. She fell with a scream onto the man she'd just downed, mentally cursing herself for not paying attention to the two guys fighting Vincent. She struggled to push herself back up before the man could attack again.

The pain subsided suddenly, and she heard Vincent say, "Get up."

She stumbled to her feet, finding him standing between her and the two remaining SOLDIERs. His flesh arm was limp, blood running down it from some wound in his shoulder, and his gun lay on the ground a few paces away.

"Thanks, Vinny," she murmured, moving to stand beside him. His wound looked pretty bad, but he hadn't used his materia on it and she considered stealing it from him just to make sure the idiot got taken care of. Later maybe.

They each moved to take on the SOLDIER in front of them. Yuffie found this one slower than the other and figured that Vincent must have weakened the guy. He killed his opponent first though, and came to her aid, finishing off the last SOLDIER with several gunshots. The man collapsed at her feet.

"You okay, Vinny?" she asked, noting the glow in his eyes.

"Fine," he deadpanned, reloading his gun.

She frowned and glanced away, taking stock of the rest of their enemies. "You should take care of that arm," she said softly.

A knot of soldiers stood just out of easy range, but they looked too frightened to fight them when they had just defeated three First Class SOLDIERs. They looked back and forth amongst themselves indecisively, and finally one pulled out some sort of remote to call over one of the roboguards.

"That's just great," Yuffie murmured, readying a bolt spell. "On the count of three, okay?"

Vincent nodded.

On three, they each hit the robot with the strongest lightning magic they could. They darted forward while the thing was still in shock, since long range attacks would be of no use against its armor. Yuffie vaulted over it and managed to rip open some panel in its back.

A hole opened in its armor and a gun poked out. She ducked in time to avoid being hit, but then the roboguard turned to smack her aside with one arm. She fell sprawled across the floor and wondered dizzily if it had broken any bones with that hit. It sure felt like it.

Vincent yanked her roughly to her feet, making her cry out. Hoisting her onto one shoulder, he ran for the cover of a nearby column, where her yelling finally convinced him to put her back down. Being carried around totally sucked.

She peered around the pillar. The roboguard was headed their way, not wasting bullets with them behind cover, but it wouldn't last for long. The panel she had uncovered had to be good for something, if only the thing would turn around. Vincent caught her eye and, as if reading her mind, ran out from behind the column, drawing the robot's fire. When he had forced it to turn far enough, she flung one of her throwing knives into the panel. The wires sparked dangerously, and another bolt spell brought the machine to a stop.

Yuffie hurried over to rejoin Vincent, looking around to survey the situation. She could just see Cloud and Tifa past the grand staircase, fighting a pair of SOLDIERs and clearly handling themselves just fine. Otherwise, no other men had come to challenge them, but many of them had remained stationed by the elevator.

"Yuffie," Vincent said sharply.

The elevator doors had opened. Reno and Rude stepped out, the redhead carrying Aeris over his shoulder and his nightstick ready in his left hand. That mass of soldiers still stood between them and relative safety.

"Let's go help them out," Yuffie said, in motion before she'd finished speaking. Vincent ran with her, and they cut a path through their enemies to join the three near the elevators.

"It's about time," Reno commented.

"What?" Yuffie exclaimed. "You were expecting us?"

"Yeah, and you're late."

She opted to leave the punching him for after the battle and lifted her shuriken.

Some time later, only a dozen or so men remained in the room, and they held up their hands in surrender. Cloud motioned for them to get out, and then he and Tifa started towards the others. They all met in the center of the room.

"It figures that you couldn't just leave it up to us," Reno remarked.

"We thought you might need some help," the blond replied, "and it looks like you did."

The redhead shrugged. "We could've made a break for it."

"Just give it up and say 'thank you,'" Yuffie said, rolling her eyes.

"Sure, thanks."

"Is Aeris all right?" Cloud asked, shifting the conversation to more important things.

"Yeah, she's fine," Reno answered. "Just unconscious. She should wake up in an hour or so."

"What happened to her?" Yuffie demanded.

"Can't tell you, kid. You'll find out eventually."

She frowned, tightening her fists, but didn't push it. She'd ask Aeris later, though she wasn't sure that would get her any more of an answer.

"Let's just get back to the Highwind," Tifa said.

"Right," Cloud agreed, though he looked like he'd prefer to beat some answers out of Reno first. Instead he turned for the exit, but before any of them could reach the stairs, a warning began blaring over the intercom. The cannon was charging again, drawing hazardous levels of energy from the reactors.

"That can't be good," Tifa said anxiously.

After repeating the message again, the voice on the speakers went on to say that it was Professor Hojo at the controls.

"Hojo?" Reno repeated. "Godsdamnit." He drew Aeris down from his shoulder and carefully passed her to Cloud. "Get her back to the Highwind. We've gotta do something about that bastard."

Cloud gathered the Cetra in his arms, looking baffled to find himself taking orders from Reno. "What the hell's he doing?"

"No idea," Reno answered, "but you're not the one who knows how to shut the thing down, and someone needs to take care of Aeris. We'll call you when we need a lift."

"Fine," Cloud said, heading for the exit.

The redhead turned for the elevator, not glancing at the others but moving as if he expected them to follow. Rude had gone ahead, and Vincent strode after them without hesitating. Yuffie hesitated, and glanced at Tifa, who nodded to her and went with Cloud. Faltering a moment longer, Yuffie turned and hurried after Vincent.

More men waited on the first floor, not as many as above but still too many to be easy.

"This sucks," Yuffie enunciated. "I don't care if I pass out, I'm summoning Ramuh." She raised her shuriken with the embedded materia over her head and called out for the god in Wutain, concentrating on the spell.

Ramuh shot down through the ceiling in a bolt of light and landed in the midst of the soldiers. His tall staff struck the floor, sending lighting flying out in all directions, crackling through the men with the low rumble of thunder echoing after. It grew blindingly bright, and Yuffie had to look away.

When she looked back, the god had gone and their enemies lay sprawled on the floor, only a handful struggling to get back on their feet.

She wavered, feeling suddenly drained. She started to fall, but Reno caught her, and she used him to steady herself. She murmured a quick thank you, then took a deep breath and straightened. "Okay, let's go."

"Need me to carry you?" Reno asked.

Yuffie shot him a glare. "No."

He shrugged and led the way out of the building. They went down into the train tunnels, and at a fork in the tracks, Rude stopped. The others paused on noticing.

"You leaving now?" Reno asked.

Rude nodded.

"Take care of Elena, will you? I'll see you guys after this is all over."

"Right."

The redhead waved and turned to continue on. Rude went the other way, and Yuffie stood watching him until Vincent called her name and she scurried after the two ex-Turks.

"Why'd Rude decide to help out?" she asked.

"He just wanted to help Aeris," Reno answered.

"Don't tell me he likes her, too."

"Nah, he's into Tifa."

Yuffie blinked. "What?"

The redhead glanced at her. "What do you mean, 'what'? She's hot."

"It's just weird, 'cause Tifa likes Cloud, and everybody knows that. And they're kinda sorta enemies."

"Yeah, doesn't really detract from the hot," Reno said. "So, who've you got your eye on, Yuffie?"

"Huh? I don't like anybody."

"Damn."

She arched an eyebrow. "What, were you hoping I liked you? You're in love with Aeris!"

"Hey, nothing wrong with a threesome."

Yuffie didn't hesitate to punch him this time. "Pervert," she spat.

"Reno, perhaps you should refrain from getting yourself beaten up until after we kill Hojo," Vincent suggested.

"Very funny, Vince," the redhead muttered, rubbing his cheek.

The tracks came out into one of the sectors, Yuffie didn't know which. A recently-erected latticework of beams and girders rose up from the street to support the huge cannon, and thick wires snaked alongside the structure. A set of rickety-looking stairs led up to the control station.

It began to rain as Reno started up, the other two following. Several flights took them to the broad landing of the control station, where Hojo stood working with his back to them. He did not seem to notice them.

Vincent stepped forward. "Hojo."

The scientist paused, but did not turn. "Oh. It's you."

"Why are you doing this?"

"You shouldn't have to ask me why, but I suppose your 'friends' don't know. My son could use the energy; that's why."

"Your son...?" Reno repeated.

"Sephiroth, of course."

"You're his father?" Yuffie exclaimed in shock.

"Yes," Hojo replied. "I offered my wife for the Jenova Project, and during her pregnancy, we injected Jenova cells into the womb. Brilliant, wasn't it?"

The ninja took a step back, revolted. "That's just wrong. No wonder he went crazy!"

Vincent shook his head. "He doesn't know."

"Still," she insisted. "That's terrible."

"Why help him?" Reno asked the scientist. "Okay, so he's your son, but what he's doing is going to get us all killed. I didn't think you had a death wish."

Hojo chuckled quietly, and Yuffie shuddered. "It's my desire as a scientist," he said. "To create a superior being, that's what the Jenova Project was. But Sephiroth, he's trying to go even further, to become a god. Hee hee... So of course I want to help him."

"Did you let Lucrecia die because of your 'desire as a scientist'?" Vincent asked, his voice low. The glow had returned to his eyes.

Hojo froze. "There was nothing I could have done," he said stiffly. "She would have died anyway."

"You couldn't have done for her what you had planned for Aeris?"

"She agreed to it. It was what she wanted."

"But you knew she would die."

The scientist finally turned around to meet Vincent's gaze. "Didn't you?"

"I have spent the past thirty years atoning for my mistake. You, however..."

"I have spent that time helping her son."

Vincent's eyes flared a brilliant red, and his voice rose in anger. "You are the one who drove him to this, and yet you claim to be helping him? You bastard!"

Yuffie took another step backwards, and noticed Reno doing the same. She'd never heard Vincent raise his voice before.

"Hmph," Hojo scoffed. "Do you remember what happened the last time your anger got the better of you?"

"This time will be different," Vincent stated.

"Heh heh heh... We'll see about that. You see, after your Turk friends paid me a visit, I thought that I had better prepare myself in case something like that happened again. So I injected myself with Jenova cells. Hee hee hee! Let's see how that experiment is turning out, shall we?"

With those words, his skin seemed to ripple. Yuffie had thought before that he looked a little green, but in the failing light, she hadn't trusted her eyes. Now though, he was seriously discolored. Tentacles shot out from his sides, tearing through his filthy lab coat, and within minutes, he was barely recognizable as having once been human.

Vincent tossed aside his gun and bowed his head. His normally slender form grew, straining the fabric of his clothing. Horns protruded from his head, a long tail extended from behind, and his boots tore apart as his feet became huge clawed talons. His skin turned to a dark violet. Finally, wings ripped through his back, broad bat wings the color of blood. They beat powerfully to get him into the air, and he hovered there, looking like a demon straight out of Hell.

Yuffie shuffled closer to Reno, her eyes wide in undisguised fear. "I don't think that one's ever come out before," she whispered.

The redhead looked at her, and though his gaze was much calmer than hers, it still showed a hint of fear. "Come on, Yuffie. Let's leave this fight to Vincent. We'll stay out of the way unless he really needs us."

She nodded dumbly and let him guide her to the far end of the landing. From there, she watched the two monsters fight. They were vicious, using spells far beyond her comprehension and attacks completely free of reservation. The demon that had been Vincent was quicker, but the thing that had been Hojo seemed able to heal itself. Still, the winged creature held a determined ferocity to win.

Lucrecia, Yuffie thought. That was the lady Vincent was in love with, but Yuffie had never known much about her. How the hell could she have been Hojo's wife? Why hadn't she gone with Vincent? Any way you looked at it, there was just no comparison. This Lucrecia lady, she decided, was a moron. She hoped Vincent got over her soon.

Finally the winged demon struck down what had been Hojo and let out a scream of triumph that sent shivers down Yuffie's spine. It alighted on the ground, folded its wings, and turned towards her and Reno. Fixing them with its blood-red gaze, it started towards them purposefully.

"Shouldn't he change back now?" the redhead asked uncertainly.

"Y-yeah..." She watched the demon approach, her anxiety only growing. "Um... Vinny?"

It stopped at the sound of her voice.

"Vinny, change back now, okay? Hojo's dead. Your fight's over."

The thing tensed, and slowly, slowly, the wings shriveled up and the tail and horns retreated. The demon left Vincent's body with reluctance, but at last he returned to normal and collapsed on the floor.

Yuffie hurried over to him, crouching down beside him. "Vinny, are you okay?"

He grunted softly.

"That's not an answer."

"I'm fine, Yuffie."

"You sure?"

He opened his eyes and sat up enough to nod. From there, he carefully got to his feet. It was a good thing his clothes were kind of baggy, she considered, or he would've been naked now. She found herself blushing at the thought and quickly shook her head, standing with him.

She looked around for Reno and spotted him at the control panel. She walked over to him with Vincent just behind her. "Can you shut it down?"

"Yeah, everything's fine. He only got it charged up a little more than halfway." The redhead hit a few more buttons and then turned to her. "Let's get back to the Highwind now."

Reno led the way through the streets of the sector. The few people still out gave them strange looks, but no one spoke to them. They saw no sign of Shinra.

"I guess you'll need to buy some new clothes," Yuffie remarked to Vincent. "It's too bad nothing's open this late."

He did not reply.

She glanced up at him. "So you really hated Hojo, huh? I've never seen you that angry before."

"Yes, I did hate him. But I hate myself as well."

"For letting her die?"

"Yes."

She frowned. What could she possibly say to him about that? "You shouldn't hate yourself. That's stupid. I don't know anything about what happened to Lucrecia, but you're a good guy, Vinny. You shouldn't hate yourself."

Vincent said nothing.

"Just do what the girl says, Vince," Reno told him. "It's easier that way. And anyway, thirty years atoning? I think that's enough to make up for whatever you did a hundred times over."

"Perhaps."

They continued on in silence until they were nearly out of Midgar, and then Reno used Vincent's PHS to call Cloud up. Yuffie was glad to be out of the city, but not so happy to be back on the Highwind. And, she realized, there was nothing left to do but fight Sephiroth. It was almost over, all they had to do was reach him. She had to admit, she was scared.

Reeve met them on deck and told them to come up to the bridge. Cloud had something important to say. Yuffie figured she knew what it was: 'We're going to fight Sephiroth. Are you sure you want to come?' And even though she was frightened, she knew what her answer would be: 'Hell yeah!'


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