Chapter 12

They reached Junon the morning of the third day, and though Jessie had never been there, it had an unfortunate familiarity. Stronger than the salt smell of the ocean was the stench of Mako, and a run-down little village lay in the shadow of the massive city overhead.

It wasn't in as bad a shape as the Midgar slums. The siding on the buildings was peeling, their walls darkened with soot, but they looked structurally sound, and their windows were in tact. Scaffolding plunged down between houses, supporting some part of the base above, but out to the west, towards the ocean, the sky was open.

"Well, this place still sucks," said Yuffie, wrinkling her nose.

They stopped just past the first house, and Barret turned to Yuffie. "So what's the plan, kid?"

She didn't answer, but instead stared at him with all the silent offense a teenager could muster.

Jessie bit back a laugh and said, "Sorry. He means, what's the plan, Yuffie?"

Yuffie nodded, relenting. "Okay," she said, "so the only way to the upper city is through the base elevator, but there's this one guard I know who'll take bribes--"

"That's it?" Barret interrupted. "We just gotta bribe a guy?"

"No, I'm not finished!"

"Let her talk, Barret," said Tifa.

"Thank you. Now, there's no way he's gonna let all of us up, you guys are way too suspicious as a group. But once I get up there, I can steal you some uniforms. Then we just wait for the shift change, and go on through like we all belong. It should be no problem getting on a ship the same way."

"That's great for the rest of us, but..." Aeris looked down at Red uncertainly.

"What about me?" he finished.

"I've been thinkin' about that," said Yuffie, tapping a finger to her lip. "We could try to pass you off as like a weird-looking guard hound. Like maybe if you weren't wearing all the feathers and stuff?"

"I've seen ones with red fur," Jessie recalled, though it seemed like a stretch. "It might work."

"Everyone else we've run into takes him for a weird-looking dog," Tifa pointed out. "Why not the Shinra?"

They all looked at Red. He was about the same size and build as Shinra's guard hounds, but his mane and tail were distinctly different. Especially the tail, which he was swishing now in apparent agitation.

Aeris crouched down in front of him. "We'll just try to make sure no one gets too close a look at you, Red. Okay?"

"...all right."

Hopefully no one would, Jessie thought, if they could move quickly enough through the base and the city. And that depended on Yuffie. She'd behaved herself on the road, but Jessie knew Barret still had his suspicions. There was a chance, however small, that she might ditch them here and turn them over to the Shinra in hopes of a reward greater than the 1000 gil they'd promised her.

"Are you sure about going up there on your own?" Jessie asked her.

"I've done it before," said Yuffie.

"I know, but have you done it before and stolen uniforms for five people?"

At that Yuffie hesitated. "I guess I could take you," she said. "You're the only normal-looking one of the lot."

"Well, thanks."

Tifa exchanged glances with Aeris and asked, "We're not normal-looking?"

"No way," said Yuffie. "You've both got way too much hair, and you look like you wrestle bears for fun. Plus you're both kind of loony."

Jessie couldn't hold back a laugh at that. Yuffie apparently hadn't reached the stage yet where she had any interest in dating, and it had continued to baffle her whenever Aeris and Tifa flirted. She really did think they were the kind of weirdos who had to be stopped sometimes from jumping off bridges.

"You okay to go with her, Jess?" Barret asked.

"Sure. I mean, she has a point, I'm a little less conspicuous than you guys, and I've snuck into Shinra facilities before."

Barret nodded. "Awright. Good luck, an' keep an eye on her."

Yuffie stuck out her tongue at him and then nodded to Jessie. "C'mon. The guy I know usually gets the morning shift, let's see if he's there."

The base elevator was sealed off behind a massive door at the far end of the street, guarded by a single soldier. They might have attacked him and taken the elevator by force, but the control panel was in easy reach for him, and Jessie saw what looked like an alarm button. No good.

The helmets they wore made it hard to distinguish Shinra soldiers from one another, but Yuffie seemed to recognize him, and they approached.

"Hey," said Yuffie. "How's it goin'?"

"Oh, hey," he said in recognition. "Didn't expect to see you coming through here again so soon."

Yuffie shrugged. "Got an unexpected business opportunity. You know how it goes. The usual deal still on?"

The guard gestured to Jessie. "She with you?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"Then it'll be double the usual."

"Come on, man, really?"

"200 gil, take it or leave it. I could get in a lot of trouble if anybody found out about this, so you better make it worth my while."

Yuffie sighed and motioned to Jessie. "Fine. Pay the guy."

Jessie was not surprised Yuffie wasn't willing to fork over her own money, but it was fine; it was AVALANCHE's mission, after all, not Yuffie's. She paid the soldier, who opened the door into the elevator and motioned them through.

"I'm a little surprised he's willing to do this," Jessie remarked as they started upwards.

"They don't pay those guys enough," Yuffie said. "Anyway, I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm some kinda smuggler and not like, an actual criminal, like you guys."

Jessie couldn't argue with that one, considering the crimes that had been ascribed to AVALANCHE, alongside the ones they'd actually committed. "Is there anybody guarding the top?" she asked instead.

Yuffie shook her head. "We're gonna come up down the hall from the barracks. It's a couple hours to shift change, so the halls should be pretty clear right now. Just let me go first and I'll make sure."

"How'd you figure all this out? I mean, they don't exactly let people scout the base. Barret said when he came through before, everybody who wasn't a Junon resident had to submit to a search and a military escort out of the city."

"Like I was gonna put up with that kinda treatment," said Yuffie. "People don't look up a lot, you know. You don't get searched if they never know you're there."

It was a puzzling explanation to Jessie until the elevator reached the upper level, and the doors opened into a hallway within the base. Exposed pipes ran along the ceiling, and Jessie pointed up at them inquisitively. Yuffie nodded.

Jessie had always wondered how the Wutai War had gone on so long when Shinra had both the superior technology and manpower, but if this was how they trained their teenagers, then it started to make a little more sense.

Yuffie scouted ahead and beckoned Jessie down the empty corridor. They came to a locker room, and shut the door behind them.

"Okay," said Yuffie, "let's see what they've got for the taking."

"We're looking for uniforms," Jessie reminded her, checking first for any lockers that were already open.

"I know that! But if we happen to see anything else worth while, there's no reason to leave it with the Shinra."

Jessie didn't expect lowly infantrymen to have much of value, much less keep it in their lockers, but if they did... Maybe Yuffie had a point.

"So what's your story anyway?" Yuffie asked as she started down the lockers on the other side of the room.

"Huh?"

"You know, why do you hate the Shinra?"

"I thought you weren't interested in getting to know us," Jessie said.

"I dunno. Maybe I'll stick around."

Jessie nodded thoughtfully. Yuffie struck her as someone who was used to being on her own, but didn't necessarily want to be. Jessie just wasn't sure if anyone else was on board with her joining besides Aeris.

"Shinra's been messing up everyone's lives since I was a kid," she said. "We've all lost a lot to them."

"If they're that bad to their own people," Yuffie said, "how come there's not more of you?"

"It's their propaganda machine," Jessie explained. "A lot of people are convinced, no matter how poor they are right now, if they just work hard enough, they'll get to be the ones on top. And most everybody else is too scared. I thought one of the things we could do as AVALANCHE was to make people realize they could stand up to Shinra, but... If you heard what happened at the Shinra building, then you must know what they did to Sector 7, too."

Yuffie glanced over at her, and her response was solemn. "Yeah. I mean, I heard it was AVALANCHE, but I thought that sounded fishy."

"I go back and forth, since then. Sometimes I think I get why people wouldn't want to fight, when you risk bringing that down on the people you're fighting for... But then I get so angry, that it happened."

"I get angry, too," Yuffie said, and there wasn't any ambivalence in her voice, no back and forth. "I don't care if we lost the war, I'm not done fighting."

Jessie smiled ruefully to herself. That kind of surety only came to her in flashes, soon followed by worries and insecurities. She knew that fighting the Shinra was the right thing to do, but the how of it could be pretty unsavory. She wasn't sure if Yuffie had had to face the reality of that yet.

She'd found some uniforms she thought would fit the girls when she heard footsteps in the corridor. Yuffie met her gaze across the room, and they both froze for an instant.

Then Yuffie was vaulting up on top of the lockers and maneuvering someone's duffel bag to hide her. Jessie couldn't move that fast.

The door opened, and a red-clad officer stepped in.

"What are you doing in here?" he demanded.

"Uh... Changing," Jessie tried. Surely he didn't know every soldier on the base.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"No? My... clock broke."

"Well, you're late," the officer said, and Jessie tried not to look relieved. "We're already halfway through drills for the parade."

Parade? "Sorry, sir. I'll hurry up."

"You'd better," he said, folding his arms and not moving.

"Are you... going to watch?"

She couldn't see his face, but the question clearly flustered him. There weren't a lot of women in the army, so maybe he'd just forgotten himself and how inappropriate it would be.

"Uh, no, of course not! But I expect to see you out there in ten!"

With that, he turned and marched back out of the locker room. Yuffie came down from her hiding place and put her hands on her hips.

"It's a good thing they're so dumb," she said.

"Come on, let's finish up," said Jessie.

The hardest part, as she'd expected, was finding something large enough to fit Barret. They'd gone through more than half the lockers before Jessie decided they'd found the largest size they were going to. It would have to do; she didn't want to use up their ten minutes and run into that officer on the way out.

They stuffed the uniforms into an empty duffel bag, and Yuffie led the way back to the elevator. When they stepped out at the bottom, Yuffie waved at the guard. "Thanks for the help," she said cheerfully, but he only shut the door again quickly behind them.

They found Barret where they'd left him, and he explained that the others had gone down to the beach. He walked down with them, and Jessie stopped to look out at the ocean while Yuffie deposited the duffel bag triumphantly on the sand.

"I take it it was a success," Tifa observed.

"Yeah," said Yuffie. "No problem, just like I told you."

A sudden trumpet blast of music from overhead startled all of them. The fanfare continued, swelling as other instruments joined in, and even a hundred feet below the upper city streets, it was surprisingly loud.

"What is that?" said Barret.

"Must be the parade," Jessie said.

"What parade?" asked Aeris.

"Uhh, I did have a brief run-in upstairs, but he didn't make me. He said something about a parade though."

"Yuffie, you said Rufus was going to be here? Maybe it has something to do with that."

"I guess," she said, sticking her hands over her ears. "Whatever it is, I already hate it."

"Agreed," Red growled, his ears flattening against his head.

"This is good news for us, though," said Aeris, and they all looked at her. "Well, think about it. A big, loud spectacle like that? No one's going to notice a few soldiers who don't quite know what they're doing."

"Good timing on our part," Jessie decided.

They took turns changing in a corner behind one of the houses. Tifa managed to braid her hair tightly enough to get it up under the helmet, but Aeris's proved too thick and she had to tuck it into the cowl. Jessie was happy not to be a member of the Too Much Hair Club; she didn't know how they managed it any other time either.

Barret's uniform was a strain, but the harder part turned out to be convincing him to remove his gun arm. It was a dead giveaway; the Shinra knew him by that arm. Grudgingly, he agreed to carry it in the duffel bag along with the few other things that wouldn't fit in their packs.

"Hey, Yuffie," Tifa said. "How well do you know the base layout?"

"Pretty well. Why?"

Tifa showed Jessie a slip of paper she'd found in the pocket of her uniform; it looked like a username and password. "Could you get us to a computer?" she asked.

Yuffie looked skeptical. "I could, but I've only seen 'em in the command center. There's gonna be someone there, even at a time like this."

Tifa nodded and looked to Jessie. "What do you think? Worth the risk?"

"Well... If there's a parade on, all the big shots are gonna be there, not hanging around the command center, right? And if we can get to any intel about what Shinra's up to, or Sephiroth... Yeah, I think it's worth it."

"Sephiroth?" Yuffie repeated. "As in, the Shinra general? Don't tell me they've got him looking for you guys."

Tifa frowned, and Barret said, "He's the one who murdered all those guys at headquarters, includin' the President."

"He switched sides?" Yuffie said, her brow furrowing in puzzlement.

"Nah, he's just a murderin' bastard now. Don't seem to have any regard for who it is."

"So what's that got to do with us?"

They all glanced at Tifa, and Aeris said, "Let's just say we're worried about who else he's going to be after. If we can stop him, then that's for the best."

Yuffie scratched her head. "Okay, well. Good to know, I guess. Can't say I've ever been a fan anyhow."

They had Yuffie scratch a partial map of the base in the sand, showing them the way to the command center, but they still had a while until the shift change. Jessie could tell that Tifa and Barret especially didn't care for the wait; Tifa kept plucking at her uniform like she already couldn't wait to get out of it, and Barret was constantly fidgeting with his arms. Jessie could understand their distaste for it, but she thought there was something exciting about being in disguise. They were about to outwit the Shinra, slip right past under their noses.

At last they watched another soldier come down from the base, relieving the man who'd taken their bribe. They checked each other over one final time, making sure they all looked as nondescript as they were going to.

"Everybody ready?" Barret asked, and at their confirmation, he led the way to the base elevator.

Jessie couldn't read the guard's expression to tell whether he was suspicious of them or not. A group of five soldiers accompanied by an unusual guard hound... She guessed they looked like a unit coming in from long range patrol.

Hopefully it wasn't so obvious that any of them but Tifa were women. A unit with four women on it was probably unheard of.

"Anything to report?" the soldier asked them.

"Nothin' unusual," Barret replied. "But they're gonna expect us to check in anyhow."

"That's the way it goes sometimes, huh? Lotta nothing paperwork. Least you're not stuck down here for the whole parade. I swear I've got the worst luck in assignments."

"They get so hypercritical when you're gonna be close to the big brass though," Jessie said, using her manly voice. "It's a lot less pressure to stay out of the whole thing."

The soldier nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, I guess you're right. This is boring, but it's easy. Anyway you probably wanna head on up."

He opened the elevator for them, and Jessie was relieved that he didn't want to chat any longer. They all filed inside, and for a second it looked like he was going to say something about Red, but Yuffie pushed the button to go up, and the door closed before he could.

"What's with the voice?" Yuffie asked. "That guy earlier didn't bat an eye about you being a girl."

"Yeah, well, there's four of us this time. I don't think that's believable."

Tifa glanced around as though realizing it for the first time. "Sorry, Barret," she said. "Looks like you're really getting outnumbered here."

"Guess me an' the cat are gonna have to do some bonding," he chuckled.

Red huffed. "Perhaps if you stopped referring to me as 'the cat.'"

"We all know Red ain't your real name, so what's the difference?"

"Man," said Yuffie, "I figured Red was a nickname, but are you really that dedicated to being mysterious or what?"

"I simply prefer my privacy," he said.

The chatter ceased as the elevator reached the base.

"Meet you two at the harbor," Barret said. "Don't get caught."

Jessie nodded. "Same to you."

Yuffie led the others down the corridor leading out of the base, and Jessie went with Tifa in the other direction.

The command center was a huge room on the upper level of the compound. They passed a few soldiers in the halls without incident, and the command center turned out to be largely empty. From somewhere across the room was the clacking of keys, but the typist was hidden from view by the bank of computers.

Jessie slid into a chair in front of the nearest computer, not wanting to stray farther from the exit, and Tifa stood watch beside her. She logged in using the borrowed username and password, no problem, but the system didn't present her with much.

"Your guy must be a fairly new recruit," she said quietly. It would explain why he was still carrying around his password on paper. "I've only got a few recent bulletins here."

"Recent's not bad," Tifa said. "What've we got?"

"There's a couple about today's parade. Looks like it ends at the harbor; Rufus is headed west, too. I guess he's making the rounds now that he's head honcho."

"Does that mean we'll be on the same boat?"

"I dunno. Maybe. I'm not sure if that's a risk or an opportunity..."

In the back of her mind, she was already thinking about it. To be that close to him, disguised as his own men...

Leaning over her shoulder, Tifa pointed suddenly at the screen. "Wait, what's this one from yesterday? Something about a black cape?"

Jessie clicked into it, and frowned. "'Several units have reported sightings of a man in a black cape,'" she read, "and as of the notice, at least five soldiers have turned up dead..."

Tifa said nothing, and neither one of them needed to name him. They knew exactly who that had to be.

"I'd almost think he was following us," Jessie said, "if he hadn't gotten here first. I wonder what he's doing in Junon..."

"Can you pull up any files about him? Shouldn't Junon at least have his military record?"

Jessie doubted their new recruit was going to have access to much, but she ran the search anyway. She shook her head at the result. "There's a file, but this all looks like public knowledge. Right down to the part where he was supposedly killed in action five years ago."

"Never mind then, that's no good. What about AVALANCHE? Anything on us?"

That search was unfortunately a more fruitful one. "Ah. Yeah. Names and descriptions for you and Barret. Descriptions of me and Aeris. No mention of Red, so that's good. Last seen headed south from Kalm, suspected to arrive in Junon... Not so good."

"But not that surprising," Tifa pointed out. "Kalm is pretty pro-Shinra, they were probably all too happy to provide intel when Shinra came looking."

"Yeah, that's fair." Jessie smiled then, realizing, "This doesn't mention Wedge either. I guess that's a clean getaway."

"That's good," said Tifa.

"I think that's about all we're gonna find out through this guy, but let me see if I can--"

Jessie heard footsteps approaching, and only then did she realize she hadn't heard the other person on the keyboard for a few minutes now.

"Do you two have authorization to be up here right now?"

Tifa turned around, and Jessie spun in her chair. She didn't think his uniform was any different from theirs, but he spoke with authority, implying he knew he had seniority.

"We were just reading up on those AVALANCHE criminals, sir," said Tifa.

"You should've been briefed on AVALANCHE days ago," said the soldier.

"I think I was sick that day," Jessie volunteered.

He looked between the two of them and shook his head in disappointment. "Look, I know they've done some horrific stuff so maybe you're scared about them showing up, but that's no excuse to shirk your duties. Where are you meant to be right now?"

"The harbor," Tifa answered.

"Hell, and you're trying to get out of cargo loading, too? Come on, let's go."

"We know the way, sir," said Jessie.

"Sure you do, and you'll conveniently forget once you're outta my sight. Not gonna happen."

Jessie exchanged looks with Tifa, who shrugged. If he didn't suspect them, it was probably best to go along with it for now. At least they'd be headed to the right place, and someone who knew the way would be taking them.

They followed the soldier out of the command center, back down the stairs, and past that stupid statue of President Shinra that Jessie had wanted to kick on the way in.

"You know, you're lucky it was me who found you," he said. "Lot of other soldiers, they don't have any sympathy for you ladies coming into the military at a time like this. There's a lot to be scared of between AVALANCHE and all these weird murders."

Tifa's jaw set, and she asked, "Did you read the report on AVALANCHE, sir?"

"Sure I did. Why?"

"No reason!" Jessie said, elbowing Tifa. If it hadn't occurred to him that three of the four known members were women, they didn't need to be reminding him.

"Well, you can rest assured I keep up on these things, and they haven't been spotted here in Junon yet," he said, and this time Jessie had to stifle a snort.

They exited the base, and he led them down the backstreets towards the harbor. The parade was still going, the music even louder now, and Jessie caught glimpses of it down cross streets as they passed. All those soldiers, all that manpower, wasted--if they'd been manning the base like usual, they might have realized that AVALANCHE was right here in their midst. It made her hold her head up higher.

In time, they pulled ahead of the parade route, and they covered the final few blocks to the harbor on the main street. Civilians hung out of windows in the tall apartment buildings on one side of the street, waiting to catch a glimpse of their new President Rufus. As if he deserved the attention. Jessie was sure he didn't care any more about them than his father had; they were nothing more than a means to an ever-greater fortune.

At the harbor, most of the work had already been completed. A few last crates had yet to be loaded, and their escort waved to the men about to handle it.

"Hey, take a break," he said. "I found you some slackers!"

The soldiers backed off and had a good chuckle as they stood waiting for the newcomers to handle the rest. Jessie wasn't sure if it was because they were late or because they were women--or both?--but if they expected failure then Tifa was definitely going to disappoint.

Jessie couldn't say the same of herself, of course, but they worked together, and she didn't really feel like she was doing much of the lifting. The men had stopped laughing before they got the last of the crates squared away.

"Wow!" said one of the soldiers, and he sounded young. "You new guys are pretty strong."

"Uh, thanks," said Tifa.

"Did you see any of the parade?" asked another. "I thought about slacking off, too, you know. I've only seen Rufus on TV."

Tifa shook her head. "We got caught before we could see him," she said. She glanced to the side, but the man who'd escorted them here had left while they were working.

"He ought to be showing up here soon," said the soldier, "but we're supposed to clear out of here now that our job's done. Doesn't seem fair."

Tifa shrugged as though in commiseration.

"Oh, well. We're gonna go grab a drink, do you two wanna join us?"

"No, thanks," said Tifa. "We're still on duty, and I don't wanna get chewed out again."

The soldiers all nodded in understanding, and started to move off as a group. Jessie and Tifa waited until they had disappeared around a building before hurrying into the cargo hold.

"Good, you made it," said a low voice among the crates, and Jessie spotted Red crouching there.

"Is everyone else here?" asked Tifa.

Red nodded. "Yuffie, too."

"She's coming with us?" Jessie said in surprise.

"Barret was impressed with how well she kept up her end of the deal," Red explained. "He decided she was welcome to continue on with us."

"Y'know, I'm glad," Jessie said. "I like the kid."

Red looked less than enthused, but he didn't sound too put out by it. His ears pricked up and he added, "It sounds like Rufus is nearly here. You both should hide."

Tifa and Jessie nodded, and they split off to hide themselves amongst the cargo until the ship had left the harbor.

So, Jessie thought, Rufus was going to be aboard the same ship... She wondered how many soldiers were travelling with him. How well guarded would he be? Maybe she could get a glimpse of his retinue, as he came on board. It would be risky, and it would be ugly, but she'd have plenty of time to think through some sort of plan to make it happen.


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