Learning How To Breathe
By Faronon Star Wolf
20/?
Wordcount: 2299
"Killing me won't do anything," Cait Sith said calmly, staring into the barrel of Barret's gunarm. "This body--these bodies--are just robots. I can replace them easily."
Barret's gunarm wavered, and eventually he lowered it, swearing, and began to pace.
I looked over at Aeris, and noticed she had her hand by her mouth. I looked closer--was she chewing on her nails?
She was.
I walked over and sat down next to her. She hadn't said anything since Cait Sith--or whoever he was--had played audio of a little girl and an older woman--Marlene and Elmyra, obviously. She gave me a small smile--forced--and looked back to the ground.
"Aeris--" I started, and stopped, feeling awkward. I didn't know what to say. "Aeris, it'll--it'll be okay. We'll get your mom out."
Aeris didn't respond. I looked around for someone who would help me, but my eye was caught by Cait Sith. He was watching me, his eyes narrowed. I gave him a one finger salute and went to grab Cloud and Tifa.
"Cheer her up," I urged them. "I haven't been with you guys long enough--I don't know how. Please?"
They went over, each taking one of her hands, preventing her from going back to chewing her nails, and they talked. I watched them, wrapping my arms around myself, suddenly feeling exhausted.
A heavy hand landing on my shoulder made me jump, and I turned to see Barret. "Kid, you look like you're about to fall over," he said, and his tone of voice made it obvious that this was an apology. "Go get settled in and as soon as we get the Weepy Trio in the buggy, we'll leave." I blinked, and looked over at Cloud, Aeris, and Tifa, and sure enough, there were tears. Blinking again, I went and fell into the passenger side of the buggy.
A door closing made me open my eyes, and I glanced over at the driver's seat to see Vincent there. Closing my eyes again, I started to doze again--it's not fair he's so pretty... he's a guy...
--
"You know, Vinnie," I started conversationally. Vampire Boy did his Eyebrow Thing, seeming to encourage me--or maybe he was just surprised I'd started a conversation out of nowhere--I dragged my mind back to the previous train of thought. "You're pretty enough to be a girl."
He blinked, showing off long dark eyelashes. "...Don't say that again."
"And then you could change your name to--to--uh, Vinita or something."
"Yuffie--" Poor Vinnie. He was turning green. Well, maybe not green. But he didn't look like he was enjoying the mental images.
"And the guys would be all over you--"
"Stop." He'd said it in his I Am Not Amused And I Have A Gun voice, so I stopped. With that conversation, anyway.
"Just saying," I replied, a big grin on my face. It faded as I remembered something I wanted to ask about. "So, uh, did you tell Cloud about the thing?"
"The...thing," he repeated. Vinnie didn't seem to be able to read my mind, which was unfortunate, because I didn't want to let Cait Sith--who was sitting nearby--to know about the tracker Reno had given us if he didn't already.
"Yeah. The black thing." Vintage had a blank look on his face. "The toy you got after our fun helicopter ride?"
"Ah. Yes." He didn't say anything else about it, so he must have been as wary of the cat robot thing as I was. "No, I haven't yet had a chance to."
It was nighttime again, but after my nap in the buggy, I wasn't anywhere near ready to go back to sleep. Vinnie never seemed to sleep, as far as I could tell, and Cait Sith--well, he's a robot, and as far as I know robots don't need sleep, even if the cat was curled up on the head of the Moogle in a convincing imitation of it. I frowned, remembering the other thing I wanted to ask. "Ah... Vincent?"
He just looked at me.
"Um... you were on the helicopter, right? When the Turks were talking?" At his nod, I continued. "Uh, where were they taking me? And why?"
He was silent for long enough that I didn't think he was going to end up answering, but he did. "Junon. Apparently Professor Hojo has taken an interest in your...abilities."
"Hojo--wait, the same one--" I cut myself off at the look on his face. "There's not a chance it could be someone else?" I was begging to be told that it was someone else--President Shinra was always so stingy--but Vincent doesn't believe in self deception, apparently.
"It is unlikely," he replied bluntly. I shivered at his answer and made my way back to my room.
Vinnie knew just the things to say to make me feel better.
--
The next morning, after a tense discussion with Cait Sith--"If you don't take me along, you won't have relatives to try to rescue"--we set out on the Tiny Bronco. (Curse the vomit-inducingness of it all!)
Vinnie must have pulled Cloud aside at one point and told him about our super-secret-weapon, because when we ate breakfast, he told us he knew how to find the Temple.
And didn't tell Cait how he knew once the cat stopped gaping at him. Hah hah. Take that, catface.
So we went out on a boating trip and I was sick the whole time and missed out on the whole "finding the Ancient's Temple" thing. You know, because puking doesn't help with the watching of the horizon kinda thing.
We hit land, and we hiked--uphill both ways! Except not.--to the temple.
While we were climbing stairs--have I mentioned recently I've decided I hate stairs?--I kept thinking that I saw something out of the corner of my eye, but nothing was ever there when I looked.
After a while, I started to ignore all the flickers of might-have-been-something. Then something happened that took my mind off of that.
Remember Nibelheim? And the People With Black Cloaks? Well, one just randomly fell down dead on Cloud.
I'm serious.
"Oh, what the hell," he said crossly, sliding the corpse down to the ground. He-she-it's hand had the same blood-red tattoo--IX, this time--as all the other ones we'd run into had.
Cloud didn't seem impressed with the way random People In Black Cloaks were dying all over him.
I can't blame him, really.
Entering the temple, though, really distracted me.
Wouldn't you be distracted if you stepped into a room that smelled like blood and had a guy in a dark blue suit who was slumped against an altar thing?
Who wasn't dead.
"Ah, it's you," he croaked, and paused to swallow. "You're too late--Sephiroth has already entered the temple."
Aeris stepped forward, her hands glowing with healing energies, but Cloud held her back.
"How can we trust you, Tseng?" the Guy With The Big Sword asked. I wanted to cry you "He's bleeding like a stuck pig, and you're pissing around and playing 'why should we trust you' games?"--but he's a Turk--
--but none of the Turks I'd really interacted with were that bad--
--and while I was trying to figure out what to do, the Turk--Tseng, I guess--went and fended for himself. By laughing. The sound had an underlying gurgle that was really disturbing. "You know what Sephiroth's handiwork looks like, don't you?" Tseng smirked when Cloud went pale, and I could see past him that Tifa had wrapped her arms around herself. "Take a closer look," he offered, grimacing as he shifted his hands on the bloody cloth on his waist.
We stood around and stared at each other, none of us really feeling brave enough--I know I didn't. Vinnie, apparently, didn't feel nervous about being near a Turk--wait, he had been a Turk--as he went over and knelt next to Tseng while we were all still going "no, YOU go look" silently.
"This wound was made by some kind of sword," Vampire boy announced with detached interest. "What weapon does Sephiroth favor?"
"He uses a sword called the Masamune," Cloud replied grimly. Vincent nodded, looking thoughtful. Turning back to Tseng, he reached out, his hand glowing with the green light of a healing spell. When he touched Tseng's shoulder, though, the light didn't get sucked into his body like usual--instead, it spread out over the Turk's body like oil on water.
Tseng grimaced. "A wound caused by Masamune can't be healed by magic--you either recover naturally, or you die." Opening his eyes, he stared at Vincent. "You're...?"
"No one of importance." I couldn't see Vinnie's face--it would be weird if I could, since he had his back was to me!--but his voice was cold. "The keystone."
Tseng gaped at Vinnie like--I don't know what he gaped at Vinnie like. Maybe it's a Tseng-only expression? Anyway, Vinnie had to repeat himself to get Tseng to give up the keystone.
And after that he had to help Tseng move away from the altar, as no one was willing to go near him.
I, at least, had a reason, due to the fact that he was the one who had kidnapped me the most recently.
I don't know what the others' deals were.
After moving Tseng, Vintage had a Look on his face that stated that anything else that had to be done would Not Be Done By Him. He pressed the keystone into the altar and, with a dramatic flourish of his cape thing--who does he think he is, some kind of bad movie vampire?--he stepped aside.
Aeris seemed willing to go, but she was sandwiched between Cloud and Tifa, who weren't willing to go. Exasperated, I stepped up to the altar.
"Kisaragi," Tseng rasped from his seat by the wall. Looking at him warily, I could feel my lips pressing together. "It seems Leviathan's curse has struck me, after all this time..." I felt my frown fading a bit, and I puzzled over his wording--it wasn't quite an apology--he didn't seem like the kind of person who would apologize, anyway--but it was something close to one. I couldn't forgive him--
--no. Self deception has its place, and it had nothing to do with this.
I wouldn't forgive him--but--
"Even Leviathan's palace floods," I replied, turning back to the altar. Looking down at the carved channels there, filled with what looked like some kind of glowing liquid, I licked my lips.
Taking a deep breath, I plunged my hands into it--
--and felt the bottom of my stomach drop out. Oh, and then there was the fact I couldn't feel the ground under my feet, was hanging in nothingness--
--until, finally, inhaling, I felt the world forming around me again.
I stumbled as I went from standing on smooth, old stone to a rough, uneven pathway. I moved forward, finding myself in the middle of a room with stairways everywhere--in every direction, on every wall. Even on the ceiling. Staring up at the dizzying maze of steps, I firmly squashed down the urge to puke--being sick on the Tiny Bronco, or in the buggy, is one thing--but on solid ground? Just because some crazy person had built the Stairway Room of Doom? Unforgivable.
I didn't have much time to think about something I'd realized about what Tseng had said--after all this time? It hadn't been that long--before I heard someone cursing from behind me and turned to face Cid. "What kind of maniac came up with this place?" he grumbled.
Red appeared, and started sneezing. I watched--couldn't make myself look away, really--with horrified fascination as glowing drops of liquid went spraying everywhere.
"What did you do, stick your nose in it?" I asked when he finally stopped sneezing. He looked at me in irritation and didn't reply beyond "I'm a bit lacking in the hands department."
Eventually we were all on the other side of the altar-portal-thing, with Vinnie being the last one across.
It was strange, though, because there was a longer pause before he came over then there had been between everyone else.
So I asked. "What happened? Did you get lost?" I wasn't trying to be annoying. Really.
Vinnie didn't care about my so-totally-not-trying-to-be-annoying. He just gave me a Look. I shut up right quick.
Cloud shook his head, looking impressed. It's because of my ability to ask intelligent questions. Really. "I wish I could do that," he muttered. Cloud wants to be smart, just like me. La la la I'm not listening.
And then I really wasn't listening.
Because I'd noticed someone who wasn't one of our happy group standing nearby.
It--because it was an it--was short, with a large hat shadowing its face and a loose robe covering its body. As I squinted, I could see flickers of faces--like it had forgotten what it had once looked like--
"Yuffie, what is it?" Red asked, looking at me strangely.
"Uh, there's someone standing, like, right next to you, Red," I replied, gaping at the person.
"What are you talking about? I don't see any...thing," Cloud said, trailing off as he apparently began to--well, see something. Looking around, I saw Aeris was also staring at the person.
"Aeris," I started, sounding strangely calm even to myself. "Do you see a person wearing a hat and a robe?"
"Yes, actually," she replied, sounding just about as casual as I did.
"Oh, good," I said cheerfully. "Then I'm not insane."