Clara - 2002
Clara perched on the roof of the stable, peering south. On a perfectly clear day, she could just make out the top of the reactor piercing the horizon, but today her eyes scanned the distance in vain. She couldn't have made out enough to know what was happening there anyway, but it worried her just the same.
Her gaze drifted nearer, over the rooftops of Pinos towards the school. Its bell rose up between other buildings, and she caught snatches of shouts and laughter that told her it was recess. Billy would be out playing with his friends, and she hoped Chole was making her own. She was new to being a girl to the world at large, and while she excelled at her schoolwork, she was shy with her classmates.
If only Clara had nothing else to worry about.
"You going to help me with this or do you mean to spend all afternoon daydreaming?" Will called up from below. Clara shook her head at herself and climbed back down the ladder.
Will smiled at her as she appeared, and Boko gave a hopeful warble, as if she might rescue him from his imminent nail trimming.
"You know we can't put this off," she told the bird gently but firmly, knowing he understood her tone of voice even if he had no idea what the words meant. "You were so uncomfortable when you had that overgrown nail, remember?"
Boko chirped glumly.
"You want to hold him?" Will asked. "That usually works out better."
Clara nodded and stepped close to lean her shoulder into the bird, offering herself for balance as Will lifted one of his feet. She scratched slowly behind Boko's ears, murmuring soothing nothings.
She couldn't see the school bell from here, but she could make out the mountains in the northeast.
"Maybe we should send the kids up to your dad's for a while," she said.
"Now?" Will wondered. "They'd miss school."
"I know, but... I'm just worried about how things are going to play out."
"Worst case scenario, Shinra sends a team to chase the condors off and they lose their egg." Boko warbled as if in sympathy as Will moved on to the other foot. "I hate to think of it, but we'll be all right."
Clara did her best to keep her anxiety out of her tone so it wouldn't unsettle the chocobo. "Are you sure? What if they decide we were hiding it from them?"
"We sort of were hiding it from them," Will said with an amiability that wasn't any more genuine than hers at the moment.
"That's what I mean... If there's been any damage to the reactor at all, they'll want someone to blame for it. You can't blame the birds."
Years had passed, but she hadn't forgotten Shinra's vindictiveness following the war. The parade of very public trials broadcast out of Junon, sentencing captured deserters and officers who by all accounts had simply made poor judgment calls. The first few had begun airing before Will and many of the other men had come home, and she had spent evening after evening in tense silence with her neighbors, assuring the children come morning that daddy would be home soon.
Will hadn't been branded a traitor, but part of her knew that was more because he was beneath Shinra's notice than because he'd done nothing to earn it. Overwhelmed with caring for the infant Chole at the time, Clara had missed the vote for the reactor, but she often wondered what might have happened to the town had she and a few others lent their hands to the opposition. Shinra didn't lose gracefully.
Will let down Boko's other foot and straightened, giving the bird a gentle pat on the back. "There, that wasn't so bad, was it?" He produced a Gyshal green from the deep pocket of his overalls, and Boko snapped it up eagerly as Clara eased back.
"I'm serious," she said.
"I know," Will said, meeting her gaze. "I just... Shinra's inspection team will be out of there any minute now, and maybe we just wait to hear the report before we make any plans. Graham said the reactor's been functioning like normal the whole time. The condors like the warmth, but the nest isn't blocking any exhaust vents. There's no damage."
Clara nodded, but Graham had only worked for Shinra during the construction. His observations now were made from outside the fence that surrounded the reactor. "When's the last time you talked to your dad?" she asked.
Will let out a chuckle. "Last month. And he was already asking about having the kids up to the ranch this summer, so I don't think he'd mind if they came a few months early. I'm sure he's itching to put them to work."
"I don't think they'll mind either," Clara said, although she knew both children were perceptive enough to pick up on their parents' worries. They would understand they were being sent away from something.
She hoped she was fretting for nothing. Shinra might just slap them with a fine or a rate hike. The company liked its gil as much as it liked displays of force, and they could weather that.
Her chances for reassuring herself were dashed as Daphne came running up to the fence, bulky PHS still clutched in one hand. "Graham called," she breathed.
Will approached the fence as Boko chirped curiously. "What's going on?"
"The inspection team rode out without even talking to anyone," said Daphne. "Almost ran Carrie over."
Clara exchanged looks with Will. "So we don't know what they concluded?"
"Not officially, but from what they could overhear... I think they're going to kill the condors."
Will inhaled sharply. "Not just drive them off?"
Daphne shook her head.
Clara's hand still rested lightly against Boko's shoulder, feathers warm beneath her fingers. "Why... They don't need to do that."
"And we're not going to let them, right?" said Daphne. Her voice faltered, and she looked between the two of them as if for reassurance. As the town's resident bird experts, they'd been down to see the condors after others had noticed them building the nest, but what to do about it had been left to the town headman.
"I'm not sure what we can do," said Will. "It's Shinra..."
"We just need to keep them from finding out," said Daphne. "Graham was going to bribe them, but they didn't even stop..." She inhaled and looked to Clara. "You're our last chance."
"Me?"
"You used to race, right?"
Clara glanced up at Boko. "These aren't racing birds. There's no way they'll catch up to a truck."
"But you could intercept them, if you left now."
The reactor lay south of Pinos; the inspection team would be taking the main road to Junon, which met the road into town a few miles west. She'd have to ride hard, but maybe. Her fingers hooked into Boko's lead, and she drew him towards the gate as Will unlatched it.
"What makes you think they'll stop for me when they wouldn't for the others?" she asked Daphne.
The other woman shrugged helplessly. "Maybe they won't. But we've got to try. Just get them to stop. Tell them we'll pay."
Clara nodded. Boko wasn't saddled, and Will gave her a hand mounting him; it had been a while since she'd done any serious riding bareback.
"We'll catch you up as soon as we can," Will promised.
"Right," she said. "See you soon."
With a whistle, Clara urged Boko into a trot, and then a run as they sped along the dirt road. She and Will had built their little rental business at the edge of town, so Pinos was already behind her. Their birds were bred for stamina, not speed, trained to carry riders and sometimes carts between the region's various towns and villages. For all Shinra's promises, there weren't many out here who could afford their cars or the fuel to keep them running.
Boko's gait was familiar by now, but it wasn't the full-tilt sprint of the chocobos she'd raced in her youth, and there weren't any prizes or accolades at the end of it.
Not for her, anyway. "Feels good to stretch your legs, doesn't it?" she said to Boko, urging him along. "Fast as you can, and you can have all the greens you want when we get home again."
Boko chirped, and picked up just a little more speed. Clara stopped herself from running calculations in her head, the top speed of an average chocobo compared to that of a Shinra truck, the distance from Pinos to the junction compared to the distance from the reactor.
The first of the heavy spring rains had swept through the other day, after the team had reached the reactor, and the ground was still muddy. Boko's powerful talons made him sure-footed, but wheels built for city streets might founder. The road wasn't paved this far from Junon.
The ride would have been exhilarating, if not for its impetus. She'd left racing behind after realizing she preferred the quiet moments spent with the man who trained her bird to the track itself, but she'd almost forgotten why she'd gotten into it in the first place: the shared sense of freedom between her and the bird beneath her as they chased a speed without limitations. Even if Boko couldn't reach the same speeds, it was purer this way, without the jostle of the other racers and the clamor of the crowd.
She could see the junction ahead--and the truck approaching from the south. "Whoa," she said, but just as Boko wasn't used to running at top speed, he wasn't used to coming down from it. He barrelled towards the main road as the truck sped to meet them, and Clara's heart lurched. Then the driver cursed, slammed the brakes, and twisted the wheel. Boko flapped his wings wildly, and his talons dented the hood of the truck as he vaulted over it.
Boko finally fluttered to a stop on the other side of the road. Clara's heart pounded so loudly in her ears that she almost didn't hear the driver get out and slam his door behind him.
"What the hell're you doing!?" he demanded.
Shakily, Clara climbed down from Boko's back and turned to him. He'd stopped, anyway. "Maybe you should pay more attention," she managed. "I'm not the first you almost ran over."
"Excuse me?"
It was audacious of her, she knew. She shouldn't have gone charging through the junction either, but it was hard to muster sympathy for someone who almost ran over her bird. He was like those jockeys, she decided, who just saw their mounts as gil-makers. She knew how to deal with assholes like that.
"I'm here from Pinos," she went on as her voice steadied. "We were hoping to speak with you before you left."
Another man leaned out the truck's passenger window and called, "Nobody's dead, right? Let's get a move on."
The driver fixed her with an irritated look and turned away from her. Clara left Boko and moved deliberately to stand in front of the truck.
"I wasn't finished," she said.
"What're you, crazy or something?"
"It's about the condors. Just... leave them out of your report. They're not hurting anything, right?"
"They're occupying Shinra property."
Clara planted her hand atop the hood of the truck. "Like me? Would you get rid of me for touching Shinra property?"
"You are being a pain in the ass," he said, but his tone said no. Their uniforms weren't much different, but these men weren't technically soldiers. Annoyed as he was with her, he hadn't twitched a single muscle towards the nightstick strapped to his side.
"And the condors aren't even getting in the way of anything," she said. "Much less of a pain than little old me."
The man folded his arms. "You want us to falsify our report for a bunch of birds."
"They only nest every few years. Once they hatch their egg, they'll be out of your hair."
His expression remained skeptical, but he kept on watching her, like he was waiting for her to say one more thing that would convince him.
Coming up the road from Pinos, she could at last see other figures approaching on chocobo-back, and she relaxed.
"I'm not just asking for nothing," she said. "We're prepared to pay you for your silence."
Noticing the direction of her gaze, the man turned. He tensed in alarm and his hand finally went to his nightstick. "Pay us, huh?"
Clara held up her hands as Boko warked uneasily. "I rode out here without the money. They'll have it for you."
He eyed her warily. "......how much?"
Clara didn't have the answer to that, but Will and Daphne were drawing up to join them in moments with Tobin close behind them. The other Shinra man got out of the truck, and the first minutes were tense, but the two men relaxed at the clink of coin from the bag Tobin offered them.
She stood aside at last as they climbed back into the truck and drove on towards Junon, with hopefully nothing out of the ordinary to report.
"...suppose there's no knowing if they'll hold up their end of the bargain," Will remarked.
"There'll be another inspection in a few months," said Daphne. "The fledgling probably won't be out of the nest yet."
"...so if nothing else, we can count on their greed," Clara concluded. "They can bilk us again."
"But the condors will be safe."
"This time," Tobin added.
The three of them turned to look at him and he went on:
"The condors are like as not to come back and nest there again in a few years. I don't think we can pull this off twice."
They were all quiet for a moment. This had only worked at all because the small on-site staff didn't have a direct line to the Junon brass. Bribe the two men assigned to check up on them, and no one any higher up the chain would know, for now. But the condors were up there in plain sight. Shinra didn't have much cause to travel out this way, but eventually, sooner or later, word would get back to them. And they wouldn't let it happen again.
"Well..." said Will at last. "We've bought ourselves some time, at least."
He looked at Clara. Time for their kids to be kids, to grow up a little more without their parents fretting about sending them away to safety. And if it came to that, when it came to that, they'd be better prepared.