Turning
"Crap!" cried Yuffie. "Down five people. If it does come to a confrontation, we're toast!"
"Uhm," said Reno. He looked up at her with wide blue eyes. "Well, Yuffie, since we're all going down, I'd just like to apologize for my terrible behavior earlier."
"That isn't funny!"
He shook his head. "No, I'm serious!"
"You are?"
"No. But I had you going there, huh?"
She stalked out of the room.
"That isn't polite, you know," Elena reprimanded softly. "You shouldn't infuriate her like that."
"Yeah!" Cait Sith agreed boisterously. "It really is really rude!"
"So, I've been wondering," said Reno conversationally. "How is it that you can do all that work and still control Cait Sith?"
"Would you believe me if I said I was ambidextrous?" Reeve asked with a hint of laughter in his voice.
"What?"
"Well, to tell you the truth, I've just been signing papers practically the whole time you've been gone. I've signed so many, I don't even have to look to see where I sign. And a lot of the business meetings I've been getting done while you sleep."
"When do you sleep?"
"Uh, well, I sometimes catch cat naps between meetings."
"You must have a lot of job loyalty," said Rude. It was the first time he had spoken in nearly two days.
"Not loyalty, exactly; necessity. If I don't do it, who says the next Hojo or Shinra won't? How could one know that the next person won't end up destroying the planet?"
"It sounds like you've thought this out."
"Uhm," he said agreeably. Then he shrugged. "But it seems as if we've gotten off topic again. What should we do?"
"What can we do?" Elena looked mournful. "It seems we'll never get done with this."
"It almost seems as if you've gotten emotionally attached to this mission," Vincent said from behind them.
Reno scowled. "Can't you ever just walk into the room like a normal person?"
Vincent looked sideways at him. "That would destroy my perfect image. I need to make an entrance."
"Did you...Did you hear that? Was I imagining it? Did Mr. Serious Valentine make a joke?" Reno's jaw was hanging open.
"Well, I'm glad we were able to concentrate on the topic even more," interrupted Cait.
"Right," Rude said. "So, we don't have the Highwind anymore. Cid is out of the question, as he can't walk. And there's thousands of miles to explore around here."
"The others are counting on us," Vincent pointed out. "I, personally, do not want to give up. I think we should go on."
Reno humphed. "There's nothing I'd like more than to go to the edge of the Corel Desert for a couple of months, but the Turks don't terminate their contract unless the contractors agree."
"I want to go on," Cait said. "And I think Yuffie feels the same way."
"I'm with Reno," Rude said.
"And I would like to find that girl," said Elena. "I'm intrigued by all this, I must admit." But she had a feeling as she spoke. You just want to be around him...
"Cloud," Tifa whispered gently. "Cloud. Cloud, can you hear me?"
The mercenary in question stirred and moaned slightly, his feverish face bathed in sweat. He had dropped into a coma about two days after the others had left, and had seemed to be in constant pain afterwards.
Oh, gods. Anything that can hear me, let him live. Tifa's eyes filled with tears, but her sobs were silent. I don't care if I die, even. Please, let him survive this.
She turned away from the bedridden Cloud. The heavy, airtight door was perfect for the quarantine she and Cloud were in. Food and water were readily available in a pantry off the main room. The room was very nice, all in all. That didn't make it any more pleasant, as it would probably be Cloud's - and, most likely, her - death chamber.
"My dearest, my darling Cloud," she whispered to him. "You killed Sephiroth, the most powerful swordsman in the land! Surely you can fight off a little cold like this!"
She often wondered why she wasn't ill, when Cloud had fallen to it within a matter of hours. However, that really wasn't one of her main concerns.
"Tifa?" The muffled voice came from outside the door. "How are you doing?"
"Red!" she cried, happy to be able to talk to someone. "I'm doing fine. How are you?"
"I'm fine," came the reply. "We've found the cause of the disease, and maybe how it's spread."
"How?" She was practically dancing with anxiousness. This could be the next step to a cure, after all! she thought.
"Well, apparently it originated somewhere far to the south," Red said. "It was picked up by a bird or some other flying creature. It migrated north, until it died, in the Nibelheim area. Apparently, with a creature's death, the sickness is released into the air. It dissipates after a few days, but strikes any and all it finds."
"Why haven't we heard of anyone else falling sick?" Tifa demanded.
"We assume it's either because the area of the disease's origin is unpopulated, or the heat kills it. We aren't sure."
Tifa bent over Cloud. "Cloud..." she murmured. "Just a while longer...We will find a cure soon...I promise..."
"Oh, I just got word about Elmyra!" announced Cait. "She's...Her condition has worsened. They're taking her to Junon, which has a better medical facility."
Yuffie's hands flew to her mouth. "Oh no!" she cried. "Isn't she supposed to get better, rather than worse?"
"That's the idea," Reno muttered. "But, surprise! It doesn't always work that way!"
Yuffie wheeled on him, and for once she seemed to have really lost her temper. "You, you despicable worm of a man!" she said. "This isn't something to joke about! Elmyra could die! And you're making jokes about it?!"
Reno seemed to have been caught by surprise. But the blank look in his eyes slowly faded, and he stretched back on the couch he was on. "That's part of the job, my dear ninja."
Yuffie flushed, and she gritted her teeth. Her hand flew to the spot where her Conformer would have been, but in the absence of one, she simply stared at the Turk. She balled up her hands, then drew back with her foot and kicked Reno as hard as she could in the shin.
"Owwwwwww!" Reno cried as Yuffie looked on with a bit of satisfaction. "Ow, ow, OW! Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow!" He looked to her. "Was it something I said?"
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