Chapter Twenty-Two

The cliffs that sheltered Fort Condor came into the view in the early morning light. The dawn had been diffused into a red glow by the low cloud cover, obscuring the higher reaches of the cliffs. Not the best sign for this day, Cid thought, one hand pulling a cigarette from his breast pocket while the other automatically flipped his lighter out of his pocket. He brought the two together with practiced expertise, taking a long drag as he lit the paper.

"That's absolutely disgusting," Yuffie announced, curling her lip in distaste. She moved – still with that feline grace he'd never thought she could obtain from her gawky adolescence – so that she was distinctly upwind from him. "Don't see why we are trying to be sneaky – they'll smell us for miles."

Cid returned her disgusted glare through half-lidded eyes, letting her annoyance just slide around his consciousness. At this stage in his life, he pretty much expected disgust from members of the female population every time he chose to feed his habit. He wasn't sure what he'd do if he ever found one that actually approved of it. Ah well, no need to worry about that, it would never happen, he though to himself in amusement. Yuffie's scowl deepened when she saw a smile touch his lips.

"So," he said, exhaling the smoke as much in her direction as he could. "Should we wait for Vincent and Red, or just go in?"

"How do we know they aren't already in there?"

"Well, I supposed they were ahead of us. But they were to go to Condor first, then meet up with us here or in Juno. We could wait here on the road, or just go in the fort and look for them."

"I think we should go in to Condor," she answered, studying the cliffs again. "If Condor has gone bad, we need to know as quickly as possible. It's been nearly two weeks since you dropped them off, right?"

"Yes," Cid acknowledged. He considered the issues that had happened during their journey south to Condor. The Highwind II had not been back up and running as planned in a week. Since Gyrn didn't have a PHS, Cid didn't know why, but Cloud had reported it had not come by to pick up all the graduates as he had wanted. And Vincent and Red had not checked in, either. Cloud had gotten upset about that, before his PHS had started getting unreliable as he had entered the desert and traveled to the Golden Saucer. The PHS's had never worked well with all the sand that got in their systems. Cid had finally just left his PHS off.

"Then shall we go?"

A feline tail flicked against the rock, sending a small shower of pebbles down the cliff face.

"Are you planning on watching them all the way up the road to the fort itself?" The cat directed his inquiry at the cloaked and partially masked figure that stood in the darker recess of the cliff behind him. His companion regarded him stonily for several long moments, but did not deign to give him an answer.

Vincent had been trying to figure out who the ninja figure that was traveling with Cid was. Surely it couldn’t have been that foolish, greedy, selfish, and entirely too noisy brat of a girl that he remembered from before. Surely the elders would not have seen fit to put that misfit in the ninja leathers. But as the pair had made the assent up the path to the fort from the plains below, it was readily apparent, first from her weapon of choice, that shuriken on steroids, then by her features, to his sharp eyes that it was indeed that same child. Yuffie.

Without a word to his companion, Vincent launched himself off the ledge they had been resting on and made his way toward the ascending pair. Nanaki watched him make his descent, then rose and began his own descent, though he took an easier and more direct path.

Yuffie paused, gazing up at the cliff face above them. She thought she had seen something up there, among the rocks. The sun had cleared the horizon, but most of the cliff face was still in shadows due the angle of the cliffs in relation to the sun's position. Cid stopped a few paces after she did, turning back to look at her.

"Tired already?" Yuffie ignored his question, continuing the scan the cliff. Something… something was there, moving, she was sure of it. "What is it?" Cid asked, observing her wary posture. He turned to look in the general direction she was scanning, but saw nothing.

"Something's there," she said. Without further explanation, she pulled her shuriken out and bounded off the path. She disappeared from view in moments.

"Dammit, Yuffie, get your ass back here!" Cid called out after her. He threw his cigarette to the ground, stomping it out angrily as he prepared to go retrieve his errant partner. "Chasing after shadows…" he muttered.

"There's no need to follow," a cultured, familiar voice said from up above him. Cid leapt back from the edge of the path, glaring angrily at the large red feline above him.

"Dammit, Red, you and your sneaky…" he trailed off, too angry for words. Instead, he reached down, grabbed a small rock, and threw it at the cat. "Where have you been, anyway?"

"Watching and waiting, as we were instructed," Nanaki answered, easily avoiding the rock. "What took you so long?"

"We traveled all the way from Midgar. I'd say two weeks is pretty damn good time, with no chocobos." Cid looked back in the direction that Yuffie had disappeared. "Wild guess. That was Vincent she went romping after."

Nanaki didn't answer, but the sound he made was as close to a laugh that Cid had ever heard him make. "While we are waiting for the children to end their game, let me fill you in on what we have seen."

Cid shook his head at the antics of a younger generation, then found a convenient rock to sit on. "How long have you two been here?"

"About two weeks. We spend a few days reconnoitering the area around here, to be sure there weren't any… surprises."

"Find anything?"

"No. But when we started actually watching the fort itself.. well.. that was interesting."

"Do tell," Cid said, wondering why they hadn't contacted Cloud if they had found something interesting.

"The Condorians seem to have a new training protocol. I didn't recognize it for what it was, but Vincent insists it is the same style he saw Sephiroth practicing when he found him on the Northern continent."

"So that confirms what Reeve said that Sephiroth has been here," Cid mused, considering.

"Reeve knew he had been here? How did he know that? Has Reeve seen Sephiroth? Did Sephiroth go to Midgar as well?"

"No no, it wasn't like that. No, Reeve seems to have a contact in Fort Condor. You know how he is with his damn contacts. When we left him two weeks ago, he said his last word from Fort Condor was that Sephiroth had come to visit. His contact wouldn't say what the purpose of the visit was, other than he was looking for artifacts from the Ancient's city. He hadn't heard from the contact in a week. Even if the message had come via a chocobo courier, it would still take a week for the message to travel from Condor to Midgar. So…"

"That means our trail is at least four weeks old. That is a very cold trail, " Nanaki finished.

"So what about the training? Are they preparing an army?" Cid's hands started questing for the cigarette and lighter as his mind tumbled the new ideas into an unpleasant conclusion.

"As far as we can see, Condor has lesser numbers than the Academy, still, the new techniques… they do not seem to be combat moves, more of conditioning katas."

"So he gave them a work-out routine?" Cid found this rather… odd.

"So it would seem," the cat acknowledged. "We have been watching for some time, waiting to see if they will reveal anything more. But that is all we have seen. What little we have managed to overhear is that they are happy with the new regimen, but also very, very tired." At that, Nanaki let out another odd, feline chuckle. "They do not strike me as wishing to take over the world any time soon. It seems they know they are not up to par with the Academy, but dearly would like to be so. Condor is in very lean times. There are no signs of prosperity or growth like I have seen at the Academy."

"Why haven't you been on your PHS? Cloud keeps asking if we have heard from you."

"It seemed… prudent to wait," Nanaki's tail twitched suddenly, betraying his irritation. "You know as well as I do if we told Cloud that they were using the same moves Vincent saw…" He trailed off, meeting Cid's eyes meaningfully.

"Yeah, I know. Damn." Cid glanced back up, considering the fort that was currently not in their line of site. "So now what?"

"Since you two have arrived, I think we should actually go to the fort and see if they have any artifacts. Perhaps we might also question them of their intentions. With the four of us together, they would think twice before attempting anything unwise, should that be their current frame of mind."

"So we wait until they decide to come back from their little... whatever they are doing…"

"It's a good time for a nap," Nanaki announced, stretching and laying down contentedly on the rock he stood on.

"It's barely morning!" Cid protested.

"Silly humans. There is never a wrong time to nap," Nanaki muttered back, closing his eyes. Cid sighed loudly, then resigned himself to waiting for their errant companions.

Yuffie crouched, still as the rocks around her, her breath shallow and slow. Somewhere, her quarry was crouched, equally still and equally silent. She had followed her hunch that whatever was in the rocks, it was probably hunting them, so rather than waiting for it to come to them, she had gone seeking it. Perhaps it has some interesting kind of materia, wild materia… she mused, her eyes searching the rocks for any betraying movement.

A slight sound to her left drew her attention immediately. She leapt in that direction, but found herself suddenly moving in another direction all together as a large, dark form collided with her from above. The two of them crashed noisily on the gravelly side of the cliff, each jumping back from the other and scrabbling for steady footing. Yuffie sacrificed the grip on her weapon to grab at a rocky outcropping with both hands to stop her sudden decent. Her eyes alighted on her attacker, and she gasped.

"Vincent!? What the hell were you thinking?" For it was definitely Vincent that had attacked her. Even now, he perched carefully on a rock a few yards from her, looking for all the world like he had not nearly just gone rolling down the mountain. He was staring at her, glaring actually, his anger clearly radiating from his body from his posture. She took a moment to appreciate he had not changed at all since she had last seen him. He was still cloaked in mystery, just the upper portion of his face showing. She'd always been intrigued by him, by his aloof nature and quiet manner. No matter how insane a situation they had been in, he had always remained above the intense emotional involvement that had gripped the rest of their group.

"You are not worthy of that attire," he stated flatly, breaking her reverie.

Yuffie gaped at him in astonishment, all thoughts of his curious allure forgotten. Not worthy? What does he know about the leathers? Her feet started slipping on the loose shale, and she used that as a distraction from his words. She released the rock she had a death grip on and slid further down the cliff, grabbing her weapon as she slid, and then jumped to a more secure position.

"I knew it!" Her words were not exactly what she had meant to say, but rather, what she was thinking. "You are from Wutai! I knew it!" Vincent did not move at her proclamation, but she sensed a slight increase in his anger. Finally, her own annoyance fought its way around her elation at her discovery. "And who the hell do you think you are to judge my worthiness?" She jumped from her ledge, leaping from one rock to another until she was only a few feet from him.

He met her eyes with his own, meeting her defiance with cool disgust. The anger she had sensed from him was gone entirely, replaced by his now haughty glare. Yuffie was tempted to show him exactly how worthy she was, but, before she could decide, he turned away from her and made his way back toward the trail.

"Bastard," she muttered, following him. But she was left wondering why had he been so upset to see her in leathers. What did he know? What had he been before he had entombed himself all those years ago?

"Well, that was a short nap," Nanaki declared as he spotted Vincent returning. Yuffie was trailing Vincent, and the cat could tell she was definitely going to be a in sullen mood. Briefly, Nanaki wondered why Vincent had drawn Yuffie off. Had he not trusted her, after all these years? It seemed quite odd, indeed. But as Vincent made the final leap the brought him to the path, his glower made Nanaki decide it was not a question he felt like pursuing.

"About damn time you got back," Cid remarked as Yuffie finally rejoined them. She glared at Cid, but didn't give a reason for the excursion either. "Well, since we are all finally here, let's go."

"Go where?" Yuffie asked, looking up at the fort. Cid had indicated that they were going to continue up the trail. "I thought since we caught up with them…"

"Seems like the Condorians have learned some new tricks," Cid explained. "Stuff that ole' Vince here thinks Sephiroth taught them. So Red and I figured we should go see exactly what they are up to. With four of us, they aren't like to try any funny business."

"Additionally, we can check for any artifacts that might have been removed from the Ancient's city and collect them… by force, if necessary," Red added. He studied Yuffie for a moment, then said, "though, if I remember right, Yuffie, certain skills you once had might be more useful in purloining such items."

"What?" Yuffie drew herself up, immediately indignant.

"I believe he was referring to your very sticky and light fingers, girly," Cid said, laughing.

Yuffie glared at Cid first, then Red, then huffed her way past both of them up the path. Cid, still laughing, followed after her. Red remained a moment longer, waiting for Vincent, then took up the position of rear guard.

"Halt!" The voice shouted clearly from above the gate, long before they had a chance to even approach. "What is your business here?"

"Just came say hello," Cid answered with a smile. "We were in the area and thought we might drop by for a peep. Don't mind, do you?" Yuffie stared at Cid, somewhat aghast at his affected cavalier attitude. The man at the gate seemed equally taken aback, as he stared at Cid for several moments before answering.

"Wait here," he instructed, then ducked behind out of sight. Several minutes later, an older man peered over the gate at them.

"We seem to be very popular suddenly," he commented down to them. "It seems a fair bit odd to me you folk would come for a visit. If I am not mistaken, you would be friends of the ba-" he caught himself, pausing a moment. "Friends of Cloud Strife, is that correct? You look like some of the ones described that were his companions before…"

"Before we stopped Shin-Ra from destroying the planet, yeah, that was us," answered Cid. The man above them shifted uncomfortably.

"Well, now that we have exchanged pleasantries, do you mind telling me the purpose of your visit?"

"No problem," Cid replied easily, smiling up at the man. "However, I'm getting a crick in my neck staring up at you like this. Why don't you open the gates and let us in and we'll talk like civilized people."

The man frowned down at them, biting his lower lip in agitation. He disappeared behind the gate again, then a few moments later, the gates opened. Cid strode forward before the gates completely were open, with Yuffie hurriedly rushing after him. Vincent and Nanaki followed quickly, but without seeming to rush.

A hushed group of people awaited them in the courtyard behind the gate. The man who had been speaking with them stood at the head of the crowd, looking very worried and uncertain. Then, as if he had reached a decision, his demeanor totally changed, becoming more relaxed. His eyes took in the their whole group carefully, accessing each of them with practiced eyes. Then, he walked up to Cid, offering his hand.

"My name is Kedric. You could say I'm in charge here. Welcome to Fort Condor," he held his hand out, waiting for Cid to take it. Cid, glancing at his hand, chose to ignore it. Instead, he walked on past the man, moving further into the courtyard. The group of people parted before him, some of their faces showing annoyance at his attitude.

"Nice place you got here," the pilot said casually, his eyes surveying the buildings. His eyes swept across the assortment of people in the courtyard. Several faces also peered from the windows of the buildings. Young faces, and some very old. Most of the people in the courtyard were in their twenties. They had the hardened look of soldiers, but they were not regimentally so as the members of Cloud's Academy. Yet one thing that was clearly lacking, the one thing he had been expecting, was menace. There was not menace toward him or his companions. Fear, yes, but not menace. These people were terrified by their presence, but they did not want to do any harm.

"Follow me," Kedric said brusquely, catching up with Cid and indication to a building. Cid and the others followed him inside the building, were he lead them to a small office. It seemed very cramped with the five of them filling it. Cid and Yuffie took the two chairs opposite the desk as Kedric seated himself carefully behind the desk. Nanaki gazed about the room, then stared fixedly at a dark red stain on the carpet by the book case. Kedric followed the feline's gaze and blanched slightly. Cid raised an eyebrow, looking first at Kedric, than at that stain that the red cat was now intently investigating with his nose.

"He bled here," the cat announced, raising his head to fix his gaze on Kedric. Kedric paled even more. There was no need to ask who "he" was. "But not much. This is mostly…" Nanaki turned his head back to the stain, taking another sniff. "Mostly fruit?"

A slight smile crossed Kedric's lips. He nodded. "Yes, actually… it was an accident. The glass broke and-"

"Then you admit he was here," Vincent interrupted, his voice cold. Kedric jumped, not expecting to hear him speak.

"Just as I have allowed you to come in, I also allowed him, yes." Kedric chose his words carefully. Cid blinked slowly, considering. He moved suddenly, causing Kedric to flinch, but Cid was only reaching for his cigarettes and lighter. He lit the cigarette, taking a slow practiced draw.

"So," Cid said, exhaling the smoke directly at Kedric. "You realize this puts us in an… interesting frame of mind. You admit that Sephiroth," Cid paused, putting direct emphasis on the name. He watched Kedric's reaction carefully. He had expected the man to either pale even more, or to protest indignantly. Instead, his expression hardened in what appeared to be irritation. "That Sephiroth was here, in this room. And you are still alive. So, I guess that leads us to conclude one thing – that you are in league with him."

"Just what," Kedric answered, his words clipped in anger, "would we possibly be in league to do? In case you didn’t notice when you were making your little evaluation earlier, we are hardly an army. For every twenty able-bodied youths that apply to the Academy, we get one, if that. Most of the trainers we have are from the regular army – hardly had more training than to point and shoot. You know very well we are not a force to be reckoned with."

"Then why did Sephiroth visit you, if not to get you join his side?" Yuffie asked.

"He came," Kedric answered, softening his tone somewhat. He leaned back in his chair, composing himself. "He came seeking artifacts from the Ancient's City. He told me he had been contracted by Bone City to return them to the ruins, if you really must know. That is all."

"Not quite all by half," Vincent said, his eyes narrowing. "Your trainees seemed to have acquired some new techniques. Where did those come from? Old army regulars just dream them up?"

Kedric met Vincent's gaze without flinching. Clearly, he did not want to divulge more than he had said. "It is as I have told you," replied Kedric, "he was here approximately five weeks ago. I gave him the artifacts we had, and he left. He did not ask us to join any cause. For what it is worth, he was a hell of a lot less rude than you folks. Now, I think you need to go. I've said all I need to say." Kedric stood, motioning them to the door with his hand.

"One final question," Cid said, rising slowly. "Why did you have the artifacts in the first place? I have heard the propaganda that Fort Condor is no longer Shin-Ra and has promised to never repeat Shin-Ra's atrocities. But it seems that looting would be right up Shin-Ra's alley."

"If you haven't noticed the monsters are growing in strength again, you must be blind," answered Kedric. "We were searching for something, anything, to help us in protecting ourselves and those that hire us to protect them. As it happens, what was brought back from the ruins was of no use to us."

"It seems you found something useful," Vincent muttered, still glaring at the older man. Kedric motioned for them to leave again. Vincent turned sharply on his heel and stalked to the door, yanking it open sharply and leaving the room. The others followed him, their body language speaking as clearly as his that they were not pleased by the information they had received.

After they had left, Kedric sat back down heavily at his desk. Certainly, it will be war now, he thought bitterly. His scouts had already reported that many Academy trained fighters had arrived in Junon and had been making forays in groups of four in the direction of Fort Condor. Already, that bastard Cloud is planning his attack. He won't be happy until he's leveled every last building that was ever touched by Shin-Ra. He rested his head in his hands, trying to figure a way out of his predicament. The four that had just left him would no doubt relay the news that the soldiers of Fort Condor had new training skills, ones that were no doubt similar to what they had seen Cloud's own students do.

Of course, it's perfectly acceptable for Cloud to teach his students the things Shin-Ra's SOLDIER core taught him, but most certainly, it is not ok for his competition. As his fingers massaged his temples, an idea suddenly came to him. Well, it's probably insane, but it's certainly worth a try, he mused, mulling the idea over. Yes, it certainly won't hurt to try. With that, he rose from his chair and went to call a meeting of his officers.