Every Now and Then
Chapter 2: Welcome Back… Now, Get to Work
“…”
“Rude, why don’t you stop tormenting yourself and just talk to her?” Elena asked.
“…”
“You’ve had every opportunity, you know… There’s no excuse.”
“…”
“So what if it doesn’t work out? At least then you’ll know and you can stop pining over her!”
“…”
“Alright, that’s it… I’m done talking to you about this,” said Elena, and she started to walk away. The stoic Turk paid little attention to her departure… until he noticed where she was headed…
———-
“There…” Yuffie said to herself, as she shoved the large canvas sack she’d brought back from the town of Duraman under her bed. Her new materia would be safe enough there for now. She was quite proud of herself… it was the most materia she’d ever collected at one time… and she hadn’t even had to steal it! Her victory high was interrupted, however, by a growl from her stomach.
“Huh… Next stop, food!” she said as she bounded out the door.
Yuffie’s quarters were in a small building on the newly constructed side of Midgar. Walking from one side of the city to the other was like entering a different world… and it scared her sometimes, though she would never have admitted that. She eventually reached the low building that lay at the heart of it all and paused for a moment to look at the collection of tents that were just a much a part of the city as the buildings like the one she was staying in.
Yuffie turned and moved toward the mass of canopies near the new Shin-Ra HQ, the huddle of canvas rooftops propped up on poles to shelter the rows of long tables. It was collectively known as the Kitchen, and it was where all of the food in Midgar was prepared and distributed. She didn’t hesitat before jumping into the line that was quickly forming.
———-
“Um… Excuse me, Tifa…”
“I’m a little busy right now,” the martial artist replied, cringing as she recognized the voice that addressed her.
“I know… It’s just that I need to ask you something… See, Rude over there has this…”
“Really, Elena, I’m busy,” she snapped, cutting the Turk off. She stirred the pot of soup that simmered on the stove, as if to prove her point. Whatever it was the Turk had to say, she really didn’t want to hear it. Maybe it was petty of her, but she couldn’t stand them… not one of them. It was all she could do to remain civil towards the former assassins… spies… murderers… any number of terms fit. She worked with them when she had to, she discussed what needed to be discussed for the good of Midgar with them when she had to… but she didn’t like them, nor did she trust them. As far as Tifa was concerned, the present state of things was just as much the fault of the Turks as it was Rufus Shin-Ra’s, or Hojo’s, or even Sephiroth’s. They’d all played their parts. And the Turks had proven themselves especially heartless, in her opinion… Reno in particular.
“Just answer one question for me, and I’ll let you get back to work,” the blond replied, obviously miffed at being so abruptly dismissed.
“Fine…” Tifa sighed. Anything to get rid of the woman. She didn’t bother to turn and face her, “What is it?”
“I just wanna know if you would ever consider go… Mmmph!”
Tifa turned around just in time to see Rude dragging Elena away, his hand clamped firmly over her mouth as the female Turk struggled futiley in his strong grasp.
“Weirdness… What was than all about?” a new voice asked. Tifa turned again.
“Yuffie!”
The ninja grinned at her friend.
“Miss me?” she replied, taking a bite of her apple… Fifteen minutes in line for a piece of fruit, for Leviathan’s sake…
“Yuffie, you disappear for two weeks, then we suddenly find out you’re off on some mission with… Reno! I can’t believe you’d go off alone with that… that… ugh… Monster is too nice a name for him!”
“Come on Tif… Give the guy a break. Sure he can be kind of an ass sometimes, but he’s not a monster… Really.”
‘A break?’ Tifa thought, ‘I’d like to break his neck…’
———-
“Mmm! Mmph mu mmm mm!
Rude at last released his hold on Elena.
“What’s the big idea? I was just trying to help!” she yelled.
“Don’t,” Rude replied.
“All you have to do is go up to her and say ‘Tifa, I like you’… What’s so hard about that? Sure she might throw you halfway across Midgar, but at least she would know how you feel…”
She couldn’t help but feel more than a little hypocritical saying that… after all, she’d spent gods only knew how many weeks and months fawning over Tseng without ever really telling him how she felt about him. But she wasn’t about to watch Rude make the same mistake she did…
“…”
———-
“So that’s pretty much it. All taken care of, no loose ends, bad guys’re dead,” Reno finished. It hadn’t taken long to recount his – and Yuffie’s – little adventure in Duraman. Reeve had listened attentively, nodding from time to time. Cloud just rolled his eyes at intervals, giving Reno the distinct impression that he felt that he could have done a much better job, given the chance.
“Feel up to another assignment?” Reeve asked.
“You’re the boss,” Reno answered, with a slight shrug, despite the little voice in his mind that answered with a resounding “No!” and brought forth fantasies of vacation time in Costa del Sol.
“Good,” He pulled a map out of his desk, “I’m sending you here.” Reeve tapped a spot to the north of Midgar that seemed to be nothing but ocean.
“Okay… I’ll bite. What’s up there?” asked Reno. Even Cloud moved a bit closer to get a better look.
“Six years ago, Shin-Ra set up a research laboratory on an island near the northern continent. There was a massive mako fountain there… bigger than anyone had ever seen before… and originally, a reactor was to be built on a neighboring island. But the two islands are part of a volcanic chain, and too unstable for a reactor.”
“But not to unstable for one of Hojo’s experiments,” Cloud interjected, with obvious distaste.
“This wasn’t one of Hojo’s projects, actually. But at any rate, the area is prone to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunami… not to mention, it seems to be a location particularly favored for nesting by red dragons. And since mako reactors have quite a lot of delicate machinery…”
“So what you’re saying is that they didn’t want to build a reactor where it’d probably go up in flames before they got their money’s worth,” Reno cut in.
“More or less,” Reeve replied, “But the president still wanted to make use of the island.”
“And a few scientists were expendable, right?” Cloud commented, dryly.
“The team was made up a volunteers… It was their idea. They petitioned Shin-Ra for funding to study the fountain in the hopes of finding a way of harnessing mako energy without actually extracting it from the planet.”
“Why’d Shin-Ra agree to spend money on something like that? The company wasn’t exactly known for it’s planet-friendly ideals…” said Cloud.
“Heh… I can tell ya that,” Reno replied, “Mako reactors’re expensive… to build ’em, to keep ’em running, and to protect ’em… They were trying to save a few gil.”
“That’s about the size of it,” Reeve confirmed, “They thought that if a less invasive method of extracting mako energy could be found, it would be more cost effective. Most people think that the reactors work like a siphon… once it gets started, the mako comes out on its own, and the reactors just regulate it. It’s not that easy, though. The reactors have to force it out of the planet at every step of the process… which means the machinery needs almost constant repairs, most of which was automated. But the systems that repair the reactors are powered by mako, which…”
“Which eats into the profits,” Reno finished for him.
“So why not just build the reactors on top of natural mako fountains? Wouldn’t that make things easier?” asked Cloud.
“That was tried, but the fountains dried up every time when they were tapped directly. That’s why the Shin-Ra board of executives decided to fund the research. If the scientists could figure out how a mako fountain works, maybe they could also find an easier, cheaper method of extracting energy,” Reeve replied.
“So you want me to go up there and do what?” asked Reno, “Spy on ’em? Shut ’em down? Make ’em quietly disappear?”
Cloud glared at the Turk’s almost light-hearted suggestion that he was being sent in to murder a group of scientists.
“Part of their agreement in exchange for the funding was to send a detailed monthly report to Shin-Ra, informing the board of their progress. They stopped sending the reports about two months before the Meteor incident, but Shin-Ra had more immediate problems to deal with at the time.”
“Like what?” asked Cloud.
“Oh, I dunno… Like rebels trying to turn the population of Midgar against the company… like terrorist groups planting explosives in mako reactors, maybe?” Reno replied with a scowl, “Like a bunch nut-jobs killing workers and destroying equipment, just cuz they didn’t like the way we did business…”
“Yeah? And who’s the psycho that dropped a city onto the hundreds of innocent people living under it?!” Cloud yelled back, rising from his seat, and he could have sworn he actually saw the redhead cringe for a moment.
“It was more like thousands,” Reno growled, “And back off!”
“That’s enough,” Reeve cut in, before the two men could come to blows, “As I was going to say… I want the two of you to work together on this.”
Both men went suddenly silent, and looked at Reeve as though he’d suddenly sprouted a second head.
“Me? Work with him!?” they chorused.
“Decide who’s going with you and be ready to leave in the morning,” Reeve replied dismissively. Neither of them said another word as they left the office.
“I just hope they don’t all end up killing each other,” Reeve sighed when they were gone. But they were all on the same side now… it was time they started acting like it.
Comments