Conclusion

Reeve insisted that Yuffie take some time off to recover. He felt that the mission that ended in explosions, neither he nor Yuffie would go into more detail about that mission, had been too risky to set her on with only a handful of rookie agents. Vincent could tell that Yuffie did not agree, but she let him coddle her and enjoyed the attention. For several weeks she dutifully stayed in the WRO building. According to Reeve, she filed paperwork, went through exercises with her rookie team, and was just generally Yuffie.

It was not long before she got the itch in her feet again. Reeve sent out a text informing everyone that the intelligence department had all vanished from the building. He had security trying to figure out how they had done it, but Yuffie was on the prowl again. One night soon after, somewhere shortly after midnight, Vincent's phone began to ring. The music was soothing and instrumental, but still different than the plain beeping that usually marked a phone call.

Cautiously he answered the call, "Yuffie?"

"You like it?"

"It is quite nice." Vincent murmured, "Thank you."

"Of course." Yuffie chuckled, "You really need to secure your phone better. At least the others made me work for it to mess with their phones. I plucked yours right off your belt."

Vincent made a noise of agreement, even though he did not mind her games. It would not have mattered where he carried his phone. If Yuffie wanted it, she was going to get it. He heard her grunt and the sound of her feet hitting packed dirt. It was at this point that he realized why she was calling. He waited another moment, unsure of what to say.

"If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure? "

Vincent sat speechless. After the chocobo noises and the questions about cats and bread, he had not imagined such a serious question.

As if she could read his thoughts, Yuffie chuckled on the other side of the call, "I figured that you would prefer an intellectual-type question over my chocobo impression. I did some research during my down time."

There was the sound of some shuffling and what may have been an animals snarl coming from the speaker, "...of course if you'd prefer, I could start squawking for you-"

"No!" Vincent cried. He paused, surprised by the vehemence of his response and then cleared his throat, "I find your question to be excellent. I'm just not sure of how to answer."

"Take your time."

Vincent could hear the teasing in her voice and the barely existent sound of her shoes hitting the ground. If nothing else, she was very light on her feet. He did his best not to analyze the sounds too closely, knowing what she really needed from him was a distraction, "I suppose I would have to disagree."

"Really?"

"Well, as an example, your father has absolute power in Wutai and he did not seem corrupt to me." Vincent set his book aside and leaned back in his chair, "I have also seen corruption in the slums where people were essentially without any power... Aeris had the power of the Cetra and seemed incredibly pure."

"All good points, Vince. It's like power can lead to corruption, but doesn't cause it. Huh." Yuffie grunted and he could hear her begin to run faster, "There must be some other element that causes corruption. Neat."

He waited to see what she would say next, but she stopped running again and there was some quiet clunking noises. She waited silently for a while. Vincent felt himself holding his breath and forced himself to breathe normally. After a moment or two she murmured, "I think I'm all good. I'm gonna lay low for a while and wait for my extraction team. It'll give me time to think on what you said."

Vincent smiled slightly, "I... would be interested to hear your thoughts."

"Really?" Yuffie laughed again, "Well alright. It'll give us something to talk about next time. Nighty night, Vince."

"Good evening, Yuffie."

He chuckled to himself and set his phone aside. He was surprised to realize how mature his young friend had become in the years since they had first met. Then again, the Wutain princess had many faces. Maybe she had always been more mature than she had let on and no one had noticed. Perhaps she did her best to do what was unexpected in an attempt to amuse herself. Chances were that he would never know for certain. There was a small part of himself that enjoyed the mystery of it. He picked up his book and began to read again.

While looking for a picture of a cat with buttered bread on its back, I came across the best internet page ever. Search "Murphy's Law Application for Antigravitatory Cats" in Google and pick the Uncyclopedia entry. It should be first. My mind is blown.

This marks the end of this story. Hopefully you've enjoyed it. I'm working hard on the next chapters for Do You Want To Talk About It. I should have something post worthy soon. I'll try to post it in the next few days. I've got a rough story arc worked out for the rest of that story, so things should go more smoothly in the future. I hope.