Even Demons Can Be Saved

Plans and Plans

The three Shinra employees ended up staying at the Wutainese capital for another two days before they were able to come to an agreement. Godo had finally given them a surrender, of sorts. They had to agree to keep the surveyors and military out of Wutai. In exchange, he would provide them with the time they needed to do what they had to. If things were not resolved after six months, he reserved the right to advance his military again.

Of course, that was not what was written. The only thing that was the same between the actual agreement and the written surrender that was to be given to Shinra was the expulsion of the military and surveyors.

Neither party was completely satisfied as there were still many things that they couldn't agree on, but they all knew there had to be compromise to reach a common goal. Godo also reserved the right to tell his top military advisors of the reality, even though he had agreed to keep it from the public. None of them wanted anyone to find out about the farce until it was too late to stop them.

The only other point of contention was when they were ready to leave. Sephiroth had let slip the fact that Hojo had been asking about Eve and Godo nearly insisted that she stay in Wutai. Sephiroth wasn't opposed to the idea either. If she went back to Midgar, she would be in danger. She refused to allow either man to make that decision for her. Godo knew when to quit pushing, but Sephiroth ended up walking away in frustration. He logically knew that her arguments were valid. There was information that only she knew or could find out since she communicated regularly with Minerva, but he did not like the idea. When he finally spoke to her again, he vowed that he would not allow anything to happen. She doubted that everything would be as easy as they hoped, but it made her feel tingly to know he cared enough to want to keep her safe.

By the time they finally made it back to camp, Eve was already tired of the continued efforts to get her to stay. Despite what they wanted, she still needed to talk to Tseng and get things started on that end as well. It wasn't like she was gung ho about facing Hojo. The thought terrified her. At least she was reasonably sure that Sephiroth would keep her away from the man.

She nearly groaned when one of the first people to greet her was Reno. "Yo, Cupcake, how's it goin'?"

She shook her head and barely managed to keep from frowning at him. It wasn't his fault she was irritated. "Have you talked to Tseng?"

Reno raised a brow at her brush off. "You okay?"

She sighed. She hadn't meant to be so brusque. "Yeah, it's just been a long few days. Sorry."

"Uh-huh. Well, I'd be happy to kick some ass if you need me to."

She finally laughed at his solution to nearly everything. "That's okay. No ass-kicking needed today." Her face sobered a little before she continued. "We don't have a lot of time, though. Were you able to get a secure line to Tseng?"

He waved her off with a grin. "Yeah, yeah. Let me mail him an' he should be able ta call in a few."

She gave him a grateful smile. 'Let me know when he does."

She left him to it as she moved to try and listen to the conversation between Sephiroth and Captain Hawl. She must have missed most of it because he was saluting and turning to follow orders as she walked up.

Sephiroth frowned slightly when he saw her. She cut him off before he could say anything. "Look, I know why you're worried, I've heard it enough times, but I have a plan. Trust me. The last thing I want is to wind up in his hands either. Let me talk to Tseng, and then we'll go over it."

Sephiroth ignored the looks the two of them were given as he pulled her closer. He whispered so that only she would hear. "I can't stand the thought of anything happening to you. I will accept this but don't expect me to be happy about it."