A Rose By Any Other Name

  *

  Natalie heard a scuff of shoes on wood as she came to the door of Vincent's room later that afternoon. She pushed open the door, peeking her head around the corner. Instead of Vincent, a young woman with short brunette hair sat cross-legged on his coffin while sharpening a nasty looking shuriken-type weapon. Something rang strangely familiar about the weapon as Natalie stepped the rest of the way in.

  The young woman looked up. An eyebrow rose as the eyes took on an almost disbelieving expression. "What're you doing here?"

  Natalie arched an eyebrow. "Do I know you?"

  "No, and that's why I'm asking. Vinnie likes his privacy."

  "And what do you know of Vincent?"

  "Me? We're chums, if you really need to know."

  "Then I'll leave you alone." Natalie turned to go, but the girl rushed to stand in front of her. "Can I help you?"

  "You don't need to look down your nose at me. Just tell me why you're in his space."

  "I'm not looking down my nose at you," Natalie contradicted. "I don't like your attitude."

  The girl blinked in surprise, and then she crossed her arms. "Hm. Spunk. I wasn't expecting that."

  "And just how would you expect anything from me? You don't know me."

  "Oh I know your type all right. Seen enough of them. Scientist. Old maid. Doesn't know much about anything but things that haven't existed for, like, a thousand years."

  "Of all the--" Natalie flushed with irritation, fists clenched. Who do you think you are?"

  "Think? I know who I am. Who're you?"

  "None of your business."

  The girl shrugged. "Whatever." She made her way back to the coffin and vaulted up onto it, again sitting cross-legged. She pulled out her weapon to sharpen it once again. "I'll just wait here and ask Vinnie."

  "Good luck. I doubt he'll be back." That statement was a knife to Natalie's heart.

  The girl looked up, eyebrow raised. "What're you talking about? This is his home. He always comes here." She narrowed her eyes. "Then again, he's usually always here in the first place. Doesn't ever go nowhere. Just stays in the box dreaming. Nightmares. Whatever. How would you know anything about it?"

  Temper sparked. "For your information, little miss, I've been researching Vincent ever since I was in school."

  "Is that so?"

  The girl looked downright amused, which irritated Natalie even more. "And what is so blasted funny?"

  "Oh, nothing. I just never thought I'd see the day Vinnie had someone sweet on him." Natalie spluttered for several seconds. The girl laughed. "Gee. This is fun. The others just ignore me."

  "With good reason!"

  The girl laughed again. "Yeah, well, what can I say? That's me for you."

  "And who is 'me'?"

  "Yuffie."

  Natalie's temper died. "Yuffie Kisaragi?"

  Yuffie raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. Who wants to know?"

  "I'm Natalie Long. I've been trying to get a hold of you for an interview, but no one knew where you were."

  "You're Natalie Long. Damn. Sorry about that. Now you probably won't make me sound so cool in your article."

  Natalie waved it away. "Don't worry about that. I'm a little short-tempered today."

  "Noticed. Anything to do with the fact Vinnie isn't in his box?"

  "Yes, well, never mind about that." For her own sanity, she tried not to dwell on that last expression before he vaulted away. Unfortunately, the conversation continue to pelt her like hailstones.

  Yuffie slid off the coffin. "I'm starving. Can we get something to eat?"

  "Of course."

  "Then I'll tell you all I know about these losers."

  "Well, actually, the article is about what they're doing to save the planet."

  She yawned. "Oh. I won't have much to say about that. They never listen to any of my ideas."

  "Ideas? About what?"

  "About what we could use for power instead of Mako. They just think I'm a stupid kid. Well, I'm more than 16," she said defensively as they made their way toward the staircase, "and just because I'm young doesn't mean I'm stupid. I've been around. I've seen things."

  "I'm sure you have." Natalie regarded the young woman a moment. "Why don't we get some lunch, and then you can talk as much as you want? I'm sure I'll be interested in everything you have to say."

  "Really--" Yuffie's eyes narrowed. "Yeah. Right."

  "No. Really. You are correct. I am a scientist, so I believe what you think has a lot of plausible merit. Just because you're young, as you say, does not mean you won't have quite a few good, scientifically solid ideas." Natalie smiled as she opened the door at the top of the spiral staircase, allowing Yuffie to go first. "Besides, I was young once. I remember feeling just as frustrated with the scientific community not listening to me."

  "Cool." Yuffie looked her over. "You're all right, Nat. You're all right."

  "Thank you."

  Yuffie cast Natalie a collection of sidelong glances. "So, how'd you meet him anyway?"

  "Vincent? Purely by accident." Sometimes the best discoveries were accidents.

  "Yeah. Me, too. Cloud, Aeris, and me were investigating the mansion because some weirdos in black capes were spouting that Sephiroth was in there. He was there all right, but so was this riddle about some guy being locked away in the basement because he was in the way of some kook's research."

  "That would be Hojo."

  Yuffie snorted. "Bingo. That guy was the kookiest of all the things I've seen, man. Plain, all-out strange."

  "I agree, but in a way, his tendency toward the bizarre is exactly what drew me to Vincent."

  Yuffie switched her focus to Natalie. "Huh?"

  "Lucrecia was Hojo's assistant in almost all of his research regarding Jenova, Mako, and genetic engineering. She was also related to my teacher in school, in a roundabout way, and so I had the luck of being kept abreast of all she was involved in. As much as my teacher was told, anyway."

  "Gossip. Juicy gossip. That gets schoolgirls each and every time. Believe me. I know."

  Natalie smiled. "Yes. I suppose that is how it started. I was intensely interested in furthering my studies in archaeology, but when I read of the experiments, I decided to minor in the genetic sciences."

  "Because of Vincent? Wow. That's deep."

  Natalie grimaced. "Not really. It's fantastical nonsense."

  "Huh?"

  She chuckled. "I studied Hojo's work for a purely selfish reason."

  "I don't buy that."

  "Well, it's true just the same. I craved a life of adventure. What is more adventurous than curing a lunatic's mad scheme or experiment? And then, inflaming it all was Vincent's life of adventure and danger, the broken hearts and betrayal. It was simply too . . . too romantic for me to ignore. I wanted to rescue someone the same way all the heroes and heroines in the books did."

  Yuffie regarded Natalie. "You don't think Vincent wanted to be a Turk?"

  "No. I don't. The people in the slums, and even out here, didn't have much of a choice in anything. Shinra was the absolute power. How else would he survive unless he chose to do so?" Natalie shrugged. "To survive, he was forced to do what I believe went against his nature. Then, like any of us, he became desensitized. Cold." Natalie shifted her gaze to Yuffie, who looked incredulous. "Do you seriously expect me to believe you are not guilty of the same?"

  She lowered her gaze. "Yeah. I guess so."

  "Well, that was that. The adventure beckoned, and I couldn't turn from it. So, I studied, struggling to understand everything Hojo involved himself in. Believe me, he was into some outlandish things."

  "Duh."

  Natalie smiled. "I guess that was obvious."

  "Does Vinnie know how you feel?"

  Natalie looked sharply over at the girl. "What are you talking about?"

  Yuffie grimaced. "Oh brother. It's obvious you're sweet on him, Nat. And you might as well get it out into the open. That drove me nuts about Tifa and Aeris. Both of them
were nuts about Cloud, but none of them would say anything. Aeris wouldn't because she knew how Tifa liked him and he liked her. They had a history, I guess. Tifa wouldn't because she thought Cloud was wild about Aeris. Of course, even I thought that because he was always doing so much for her. Finally, Cloud never said anything because he was so obsessed with finding and killing Sephiroth." Yuffie scoffed. "Now Tifa and Cloud are together like they should have been in the beginning. It took them long enough."

  "It's never that easy, Yuffie. Just wait. You'll find out one day."

  "I don't think so. If I like someone, I'll just march right up to them and tell them straight to their face."

  Natalie chuckled. "Yes. I guess you would."

  "Why can't you do that with Vinnie? Don't let his face fool ya. He's a great guy. Sure, he doesn't talk much, but he kicks butt in a fight."

  "While thrilling, that is not the basis of a relationship, Yuffie. Besides, we don't really know each other very well." Not for the lack of trying.

  "Yeah. Right."

  Natalie regarded Yuffie with a raised eyebrow. "What is that supposed to mean?"

  "Oh come on. Not even you believe that. You've been studying him for, like, all your life? All you've got to do is tell him about you. And you've probably been doing that already. All you professor types talk a lot when you get started." Yuffie pointed at Natalie. "Am I right? Of course I am."

  She cleared her throat and looked away. "I found him to cure a mistake, Yuffie. That is all." I'll never be his Lucrecia. Though it didn't prevent her from trying--she shoved it aside.

  "Fine, whatever. So, do you want to hear my idea or not?"

  "Of course." Natalie opened the door to the mansion and gestured ahead. "After you."

  "Here's what I'm thinking," Yuffie began. "Okay, here in Nibelheim you have a mountain. Am I right? Of course I am. Okay. Now, on a mountain there's usually either waterfalls or lots of wind. Am I right?"

  "Of course you are," Natalie said with a smile.

  Yuffie nodded. "Okay, well here's my idea. Why can't we rig some sort of pinwheel, except real big, that catches the wind and turns it into energy? They already have windmills at Cosmo Canyon. Why can't they hook it up to something that makes the blades' turning make power?"

  Natalie raised an eyebrow, nodding with interest. "That is an intriguing idea. So simple. Hm. I wonder why no one has thought of this before now?"

  "Who's to say they haven't? Maybe they've been working on it and can't get it to work? Maybe they were sabotaged by Shinra, like Corel."

  "That's certainly possible. Now, about the waterfalls . . . ."

  "Oh. Yeah. Well, the water around here goes by so fast I figured we could build some sort of windmill. Just have it be turned by the water instead of the wind. A waterwheel I guess is what we'd call it. Same principle, don't you think?"

  "Most definitely."

  "I don't know if Cid's already working on them. He's always so secretive about everything. I guess you could ask, though. I mean, you already got them to talk about what they were doing to get this kooky planet back to normal."

  Natalie nodded. "That's true."

  "And we could always go back to coal."

  "We discussed that. Everyone seems to think burning coal is simply too poisonous for the atmosphere to be worth the risk."

  "Yeah," Yuffie admitted with a nod. "I guess that's true." She shrugged. "I guess it doesn't matter one way or the other."

  Natalie chuckled. "Well, regardless, thank you for telling me your ideas. I will definitely add them to our list. Would you be interested in helping with them?"

  "Helping?" she asked cautiously. "By doing what?"

  "By helping me survey some possible locations for power-sources, for one."

  "Really?" Yuffie shook her head. "You don't want me to get lost?"

  Natalie laughed. "Of course not. I need as much help as I can get." She gestured to the path leading toward Mt. Nibel. "I want to show you an idea I had about where we could set up the power generator. Do you mind?"

  "Hell no! I scoped a couple places myself."

  "Come along, then. Let's go and compare notes."

  They headed toward Mt. Nibel.

  "What a trip if we actually build it before Cid even comes up with something," Yuffie guffawed.

  Natalie chuckled. "He does seem a bit over-assured, doesn't he?"

  "Damn straight." The girl scoffed. "I'd like to smear that damn smirk off his face. I swear he wears it 24/7." She sent Natalie a sidelong glance. "How much do you know about electronics and engineering and shit like that?"

  "Nothing, but I am quite certain there will be a book or four about the concept."

  Yuffie laughed. "Yeah. Probably. Well, let's get our asses in gear and go check out the different locales for the power. Then I can go start looking for parts and shit."

  Natalie blinked over at her. "A good idea, but how are you going to haul them here by yourself?"

  Yuffie jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "Got a car . . . well it's a buggy more than anything, but it'll have plenty of room without everyone else's ass plugging it up."

  Natalie laughed. "Too true." She motioned down the path. "I don't know where you went, but the location I saw was just off the main path toward the reactor. It seems there's a little trail that leads to a clearing, of sorts, with quick access to the river at the foot of a cliff. The current flows fast there."

  Yuffie nodded. "I know exactly where you're talkin'. Saw it. Found a wind tunnel, too."

  Natalie smiled. "So did I. Was it on the other side of the reactor?"

  "Yup."

  "It seems we're on the same wavelength."

  Yuffie smirked. "Seems like." She didn't mind.