The world felt heavy. Her body ached with exhaustion. Even her eyelids saw fit to burn. Mind a babbling knot of ideas, Yuffie felt herself drifting on and on to a darker place when the phone began to ring. A jerk ripped through the teenager's body as she felt her limbs tense and pull. Her surprise woke her friend and lover, Tifa, whose eyes snapped open with the quickness of an uneasy rest. "Wha-whadizzit-" Yuffie managed to mumble as she propped herself up and stared dazedly around. Tifa rolled over, her eyelids sinking again. "Phone..." she croaked groggily. The younger girl flumped backward onto the pillow her eyes rolling into the back of her head. "Oh'fer Ifrit's sake..." she breathed. The harping noise of the phone felt like hammers on their ears. Tifa scowled and gave Yuffie a weak push. "Answer it!" she whined drowsily. Yuffie grit her teeth and sat up with great effort, her shoulders slumped. As she reached over for the phone, she muttered ominously under her breath about, "Cutting it up into a million pieces and then gluing them back together again as plastic agents of vengeance to tear apart whoever the hell was calling at so ungodly an hour." And ungodly it was. The sun hadn't even painted the buildings yet in its morning light. With the phone pressed lazily to her ear, the ninja grumbled, "Hu-llo?" "Yuffie! Good to hear you kiddo. It's Reeve." The man's voice danced and jiggled on the girl's eardrum unpleasantly, the alacrity in his voice abhorrent to her. Yuffie covered her face and slumped forward, her elbow finding rest on her lap. "Reeve, you greasy two-faced nincompoop...Do you know what friggin' time it is?" "Well aware, Yuffie. Well aware. I just wanted to call and let you know, that I'm handling this whole 'Firewire' mess right away. I've spoken with my lawyers and they say that the Inter-Continental Press Association can have the magazine fined for writing false information and a bunch of other criminal charges I won't bother you with." Tifa tugged sleepily at Yuffie's shirt. "Wha'duz he want...?" she asked with eyes closed. Yuffie shook her head in answer. "Fine, whatever Reeve. But yer gonna have'ta forget about the 'false info' part." "Huh? What do you mean?" the man sounded genuinely confused. Wearily, the ninja let out a long sigh. "Cuz what they wrote is true. All of it...pretty much. Me an' Tifa are together now." A long pause. "Like a couple?" Reeve asked stupidly. "I just said it, didn't I?" Yuffie snapped. "Look, Reeve. I appreciate you trying to help, but goddammit, me and Tifa are tired, so if you don't mind-" "Wait! Wait!" the man cried, cutting the ninja off. Yuffie growled, "What is it?" Reeve's voice took a quavering tone as he spoke, "Uh, look, I apologize. Didn't mean to seem like you two weren't...I mean, I didn't ever want to come across as...well, yeah." He gave an uncomfortable cough. "But, there was another reason for me calling so early." "Spit it out!" the ninja barked edgily. "I can get you out of Costa Del Sol. Just get dressed and ready. I've sent one of my best men to help you out." "What the hell? Do you expect us to leave right now?" "Yuffie, if you leave now, you can beat it outta there before you get harassed by every news reporter this side of the universe. Not to mention all the rubberneckers and crazy fanatics who may stop by to see if its really all true. I mean, hey, if you two want to stay there, that's your choice...but I recommend getting outta there immediately. This isn't your ordinary scandal, y'know..." "I didn't realize two single women getting together was a scandal." Yuffie returned darkly. Reeve made a noncommital noise. "Well, it is if those two women happen to be the world-renowned heroes of the Planet. In fact, forget scandal. You've got yourself a ticking time-bomb." "Go to hell Reeve. Tinker with your faulty robotic cat and geeky town models. I'm going to sleep." And with that the teenager angrily hung up. Tifa propped herself up onto her elbow. "So what was all that about?" she asked quietly. Sleep was leaving her, as it was Yuffie. Grouchily, the ninja kicked the blanket away from her and placed her feet on the floor. "I dunno. Reeve's nuts. Said he had 'stuff under control'," she mimicked quoation marks in the air, "and that he could get those Firewire jerks into trouble. Then he told me to leave with you to the Costa Del Sol airport, like, right now,cuz one of his lil' soldier boys was gonna come and get us." The girl rubbed at her eye furiously. "Gawd, that greasy-headed schizo-fruit can be so..." she stood, a frustrated sound escaping her lips and walked toward the balcony. "Seriously, I don't get why everyone's reacting so bad. I mean, puh-lease! It's all just a buncha bull-" As Yuffie turned to look out the sliding glass doors, her eyes fell on a face, dressed in a dark mask, where stark white eyes stared in return. Her face contorted into that of absolute horror, and she gave a strangled cry as she fell backward in shock. Tifa shot upright, her eyes snapped wide with surprise. "What!?" she cried, "What is it??" she stumbled out of the bed head first and her hair fell into her face, making it hard for her to see. Yuffie pointed at the man in front of her with an arm that shook as if it were in an earthquake. The intruder raised his hands silently to his face as the girl sputtered out the words, "It's, it's a-!!" The man pulled the mask off and revealed a sylphlike face with deep set eyes, a low sloped nose, and a small forehead. Mouth set in a churlish line that turned down at the corners, he raised a short gloved finger to his lips in a sign to keep quiet. Yuffie, her composure regained, stared at the man disbelievingly. "Quiet!?" she shouted, "You want me to keep quiet!? You scared the living BAJEESUS out of me you goon!" Tifa joined Yuffie at her side, and she saw for herself what the ninja was looking at. The man was about their height, with broad shoulders and an unusually slim waist that shaped his body to a 'V'. He was dressed in black clothing; his sweater seemed to serve both for the purpose of warmth as well as armor (judging by the odd plates of leather on his chest and arms), his pants were loosely fitted and fixed with large pockets. The belt that encircled his waist was thick and wide, a holster for his pistol and a sheathe for his hunting knife on either side. He tapped the glass with his finger and mouthed the words, "Let me in." Yuffie grit her teeth, her face now a furious scarlet. "Oh, I'll let you in all right!! To beat the crap outta you! I'll splice your ass with my Conformer and turn your lousy remains into a smoldering pile of badly fried beef jerky!! Just you wait and see you fuglylittle creep!!" The ninja began to rise to her feet, her shoulders tensed in lividness as she moved forward. Tifa placed a calming hand on the ninja's shoulder, halting the girl's movements. "Hold on, Yuffie...let's hear him out." the woman said. Yuffie glared at her. "What!? What for?" "Don't you get it?" Tifa nodded to the man, her brows furrowed. "Reeve sent this man." Tifa straightened, and with a wary glance at the stranger on her balcony, she slid the door open. She stepped aside as the man entered the hotel room, the cool air rushing in with him. "Thank you," he said. His voice was low and rough, and Tifa felt her hairs stand on end to hear it. Shutting the door behind him, the man looked to Tifa, then Yuffie. Both women squirmed under his unnatural gaze. "Reeve has sent me to escort you out of Costa Del Sol. I'll handle security and offer smooth passage to wherever it is you wish to go." the man said, his hands folded militantly behind his back. "Outside, my team waits for word on your response to this offer. If you decline it, I'll leave and you can handle things as you wish it. Reeve only means for this as a courtesy." Tifa and Yuffie blinked. Yuffie stood, her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What's with your eyes? And just who the heck are you?" The man's head turned slightly, and the teenager gave an involuntary shiver when she realized that his pale gaze was now fixed on her. "My name," the man said in his rough voice, "Is Baxter. I am the head of Reeve's special operative team. My eyes, though they appear unnatural, are actually covered by a specially designed contact lens. I can give more details on that later if you wish." Tifa gave a nervous laugh. "Uh...a pleasure to meet you?" she said uncertainly. Yuffie crossed her arms and scowled scornfully at him, however. "'Baxter'? What the hell sorta name is that?" Baxter shrugged. "You can call me something else if you'd like." he suggested offhandedly. "Oh yeah? What's that?" "You can call me 'Gidget' if it makes you happy." Yuffie blinked slowly at him. "...Uh, yeah," she glanced at Tifa, who shrugged in response. "So anyways...Baxter...you got any good reason for me and Tifa to take Reeve's concerns seriously?" "Have you taken into consideration my entrance? Or why Reeve failed to say exactly how and when I would be meeting you? Furthermore, don't you think it's strange that the article published about the both of you managed to take quotes of some of your more private conversations?" Yuffie opened her mouth to say something snarly when Baxter's message clicked. She looked to Tifa with wide eyes, and found the woman wore the same expression of horrified realization. Their room was bugged. Baxter looked between the two of them, then nodded solemnly. "If you ladies would get ready then, I'll take you both out of Costa Del Sol safely." Half an hour later both women were ready to go...save for one thing. "I don't believe this." Yuffie muttered as she searched the room for her shoes. Tifa and Baxter watched the girl storm about, her dark hazelnut eyes almost turned black from her annoyance. Older woman watched anxiously as her lover checked under the bed for the third time. "Yuffie, you honestly can't remember what you did with them?" she asked as her hand gripped her bag more tightly. "I don't get this!" Yuffie cried out, her arms thrown up in frustration. She stopped in the middle of the room and ruffled her hair angrily. "This doesn't make any sense! My shoes aren't here! I've checked the bathroom, the closet, my bag, the balcony, under my bed...hell, I've even checked to see if they were in that dopey little bedside drawer!! What the heck is going on!?" "If the morning carries a breeze in through the window, you can be sure it can carry something back out." Baxter explained stoically. Yuffie gave him a look so daunting that Tifa found it necessary to be apprehensive on Baxter's behalf. "What do you mean," the ninja hissed as she lowered her hands and curled her fingers like claws, "'Carry out?'" Baxter opened the sliding glass door and jerked his head toward the city. "Just as I said." He glanced at Tifa. "Are you ready now?" Tifa blinked and looked back at Yuffie, "But what about her shoes?" she asked anxiously. "Yeah! What about my shoes, Gidget!?" Yuffie snarled, her pearly cheeks blotched pink. The man raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you a ninja?" he asked calmly. "At any rate, I see you have a perfectly good pair of boots there next to your duffel bag." The girl stomped her foot impertinently. "Those orange sneakers are my babies you rat faced jerk! I've had them since, like, forever!" "An even better reason to get a new pair." Baxter returned coldly. As he turned his head, the light illuminated the line of his jaw and cheekbone, leaving the hollow of his cheek in shadow. The effect was somewhat ghastly. He crossed his arms and stared at Yuffie with his penetrating gaze. "Are old sneakers going to be the one thing keeping you from leaving this room?" he asked. "If so, I think I'll go right now and just save myself the trouble-" "Hey!" Tifa interjected. She stepped forward between Yuffie and Baxter, her fists clenched. "Stop being so insensitive! She just lost something important to her, all right?" she mirrored the man's rigid stance, her arms crossing over her chest as she squinted her eyes and asked, "And just how are we leaving this hotel anyway? The way you put it, people are watching from all angles!" "The roof." the man said as he pointed downward and shook his head. Tifa stared at him in confusion. "We'll go from building to building till we reach the extract point. From there its up to you." He pointed behind him, toward the balcony. Tifa's eyes lit up with understanding. "You mean-" her face fell and her shoulders slumped, "You mean we'll be hopping from rooftop to rooftop the whole way?" she stepped out onto the balcony and the early morning air nipped at her skin as she stepped to the edge of the balcony and looked down. There didn't seem to be anything to climb on...save for the balconies. Baxter joined her outside and rolled his shoulders. At the fighters mortified expression, the man extended a hand. "I can carry you if you'd like." he offered plainly. Yuffie, back inside the hotel room, sat on the bed and pulled on her boot laboriously. It was as if the loss of her sneakers seemed to rob her of mundane strength. With a sour face, she listened to Tifa and Baxter's exchange, all the while a seething animosity that previously hadn't existed developed in the back of her mind for those responsible for the FIREWIRE article. Her attention was commanded in full when Baxter suggested carrying Tifa on his back. With hair that swept indignantly into her gaze as she stood, the girl met the two on the balcony with her duffel bag in hand, the early morning sun bringing a glinting edge to her normally dark eyes. At her arrival, Tifa shied, her gaze laced with both alarm and an unfounded guilt. "I'll be fine on my own." The fighter told the stony-faced man stiffly. Yuffie glared at him, her dislike of him now concrete. "After you then, Baxter." she said snidely as her hand gestured toward the edge of the balcony. "And I hope you slip, you ugly tart." the girl thought maliciously. Baxter, without so much as another word, leaped over the balcony railing. He gripped the iron rail with a clenched fist, and his body twisted midair to plant his feet firmly on the outer-edge of the concrete balcony. With a cursory glance over his shoulder to the balcony diagonal from Tifa and Yuffie's, the man gave a short hop and fell to it. Again, he quickly turned his body mid-air, his posture meanwhile managing to maintain the rigid crouch he held while hanging. Baxter caught the other railing and again his feet slammed into the edge of the concrete. Calmly, he then dropped to the ground, a fall of approximately twelve feet. Yuffie and Tifa watched him as he went, the former's eyes narrowed with disdain, the latter's eyes made wide with trepidation. Both women looked at one another. "Do you want me to go first?" Yuffie asked, her brows still furrowed as she quietly tried to gauge Tifa's feelings. The woman swallowed and nodded mutely. Her grip on her backpack turned her knuckles white. The ninja nodded sympathetically and jerked her head where Baxter jumped. She slung her duffel bag strap across her chest messenger style, then crossed her arms. "If you watched Baxter, you'd have seen how he kept his body in the same position even when jumping. Do that, and you won't jump too high and you'll be ready to hang on to the next railing. I'll go down first. If anything goes wrong I'll get you, 'kay Tifa?" Tifa nodded her head nervously, and the ninja went over the railing. She looked at Tifa with an encouraging smile and jumped from sight. The fighter hurried to look over in time to see Yuffie grab onto the balcony railing below. The teenager looked back up at her and hissed low as she could, "Just take it easy, Tifa! This is a cinch!" Tifa shook her head, perspiration lining her brow. "Easy for you to say, Yuffie. You've kept in shape," she muttered sourly. The ninja, temporarily letting go with one hand, gestured for the woman to come down. "Come on, Tifa! I'm going to move so you get ready!" Yuffie sidled to the right, leaving Tifa plenty of room to jump down. With a deep meditative breath, Tifa closed her eyes for a moment and shook out her arms. She opened her eyes again, an anxious look on her face. She didn't allow herself more time for preparation, however. If it was true that the room was bugged, than it would only take matter of time before those listening would figure out that she, Baxter, and Yuffie were not really escaping by way of the rooftops. She found herself eternally grateful that all they were dealing with were over-eager reporters and not trained assassins or the like. If the latter situation were the case, their attempt to throw off their pursuers by misinformation would quickly be seen through. Despite this knowledge, the fastest Tifa could manage was to sit on and carefully swing her legs over the railing, stare down at the ground with a face tainted green, and turn and stand with feet precariously placed at the small footing allowed by the iron bars. At that point she stopped. "Tifa, have you got it?" Yuffie asked worriedly. "Sure," the woman let out, her voice strained. She felt her stomach turn. "Ifrit!" the woman cursed. Her eyes squeezed themselves shut as she breathed hysterically, "I was a martial artist, not a spider monkey! It's one thing to fight, it's another thing to scale up and down the sides ofbuildings!" "Come on, Tifa!" Yuffie's voice became tense. The young ninja could quickly see that this escape would not happen as easily as she had thought. What would happen if Tifa jumped and missed? Tifa had five feet of space between horizontal balconies, and the length from the first floor to the second was at least twelve feet. For someone as acrobatic as Yuffie, the task was elementary. For Tifa, however, the situation was considerably more daunting. Yuffie looked angrily down at Baxter, who gazed passively back up at them from the ground. "This is an awful lot of trouble for a couple of journalists, isn't it pal!?" she bit out. Baxter's face remained blank as he replied, "If she doesn't hurry, things are going to become very difficult, very soon." "No kidding." Tifa hissed through gritted teeth. Yuffie shook her head, "Tifa just forget about whatever you're thinking, 'kay? I won't let anything happen alright?" At that moment, Tifa let go, her lungs filled with a desperate breath as she pushed with her right foot and her body turned. The iron rail of the balcony diagonal of her seemed a thin, frail structure-and frantically the twenty-three-year-old wondered if it would support her weight. She saw it rush up to her, and she extended her hands and feet in preparation of the landing. The woman met the edge of the other balcony, her hands quickly gripping onto the cold, hard edged iron railing. The metal bit into her palms, and the shock of pain caused Tifa's mind to momentarily go white. In this brief moment of distraction, her right foot slipped and missed its footing, and the woman felt herself drop. "Tifa!" Yuffie grabbed the woman's backpack at the top, the strap letting out a disconcerting shriek of torn fiber before the fighter came to a complete stop. The brunette in question managed to keep her fingers gripped on the railing to the last knuckle, and her left foot planted itself precariously on the bottom edge of the balcony platform. "Blessed Alexander, I think I'm going to faint." The woman breathed weakly. Yuffie's pearly face seemed ashen as she regarded her love with eyes that said the same. "D'ya think you could wait till we get to the ground to do that?" the girl managed a shaky smile. "I think it'd be neat to catch you all heroic-like." "Sure." Tifa said, returning Yuffie's smile. She pulled herself up with the ninja's help. "Thanks, Yuffie," she said sincerely. "Are you two nuts?" The women froze as they turned their heads stiffly and gazed upon the ruddy face of a teenage boy, his fiery curly hair frizzed and messy as he squeezed his molting green bath robe shut with a blotched dry hand. He pointed with the other hand, his expression disbelieving. "You two are cat burglars!" he squeaked. "Because we're obviously dressed for it," Yuffie quipped smartly as she gazed unapprovingly at the boy's bare hairy legs and large feet. She looked back at Tifa and patted the woman's shoulder. "Tifa, you've just got one more. Drop down and I'll handle this." "But Yuffie-" Tifa began shakily. "You'll do fine." And with that, the ninja pecked the woman's cheek with a quick kiss. "All right," the fighter said. Her cheeks turned a slight pink, but her voice became steadier. She glanced behind her, and with a quick breath, she jumped. "Hey!" the boy cried as he rushed toward the railing and looked over. Tifa could be seen on the balcony diagonal from them. She looked as surprised as he was that she made it. "Hey. You." Yuffie poked the boy's shoulder harshly. He jumped and stared at her apprehensively. The girl gave him a severe look. "Listen, we're just trying to avoid trouble, okay? If anybody asks, you didn't see anyone out here. Got it?" "You two," He looked down at Tifa, his eyes illuminating with realization. "You're the two Avalanche members they've been talking about!" "It took you this long to make the connection?" Yuffie deadpanned. "Were you like, dropped on that big head when you were a baby? Or is that bogus hairdo of yours sucking the intelligence from your brain?" The boy's face turned red. "I'd watch how you talk to me, brat. I could spill your cover." The ninja leaned forward, and her voice hissed through her clenched teeth. "No, I'd watch how you talk to me, you zit on an imp's ass!" She raised a finger and pointed to herself, her eyes narrowed to dark slits. "I was woken up at a VERY low number during the AM-now I mean not even in the 'divisible by two' range-by a gel-helmet spazzoid whose idea of a good time is to give crappy fortunes to idiots with his alter ego, which just so happens to be a very annoying robotic cat. You just sit and wrap that wimpy intellect around that for five minutes, and THEN try and understand how it feels to be chased from a hotel room you paid for by a military goon trying to 'rescue' your sweet legendary ass from a couple of limp-wrist reporters who've got nothing better to do but spit on the heads of those they owe everything and their first-born children to! After you've digested all that, envision the emotions a babe like me, gracious as I am, would be FEELING under such circumstances!! Do you get what I'm saying, Jack? D'ya see where I'm coming from? So while I'm totallyup for respecting your tiny ego as a blossoming wannabe macho-moron, I REALLY think you should just shut your frickin' pie-hole and wipe this entire event from your mind...'kay?" The boy blinked at her, his mouth slightly agape. Yuffie's eyebrow twitched impatiently. "Well?" she prompted. The boy scratched his head. "Who the hell is Jack?" he asked insipidly. The ninja slapped a hand to her forehead. Tifa jumped to the street, her breath rushing from her lungs as she felt herself drop. When she hit the ground, she bent her knees to absorb the shock and rolled forward. Pain still shot through her feet upon impact however. Baxter knelt by her, his chilling gaze fixed on her face. "Are you all right?" he asked. "Fine." Tifa managed to say as she carefully stood to her feet. Yuffie joined them a moment later on the ground. Tifa gave her a worried look. "You don't think he'll tell them where we've gone, do you?" she asked nervously. Yuffie rolled her eyes. "That guy's an idiot. If he says something, the only way it could matter is if somehow Baxter allows it to matter." she glared upwards towards the balcony where the boy had been, "And that'd be hard to do." Baxter gazed at Yuffie for a moment before silently turning and walking away from them toward the street. The teenager shouted after him, annoyed. "Hey! Don't tell me you had us do all that just to go back toward the main street!?" The man stopped and turned to gaze penetratingly over his shoulder. At his feet was the sewer access. Yuffie paled. "Wait, you don't mean we've gotta-" "What is the matter, Ms. Kisaragi?" Baxter asked, his lips now curled in what suspiciously looked like a smile. Lifting the lid up, he motioned for the two women to enter the manhole. Yuffie sneered and Tifa grimaced, but both women did as he instructed. When both disappeared from sight, Baxter gave a momentary glance upward to see if the teenage boy on the balcony was watching. The boy, who was leaning over the railing to gaze down at them, paled when he locked eyes with the special operative. He sputtered and with a terrified look, pulled back out of sight. Baxter still with his slight smile, entered the manhole, pulling the lid into place as he descended.
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