Revised 6/21/15
Monsters Among Us
Chapter 1
You say that things change
Evenings in Nibelheim were chilly—as could be reasonably expected from a town situated in the mountains. This was particularly true in winter, when dry snow blustered parallel to the ground and the wind howled through the mountains. Being in such a town, it seemed that all warmth bled out of the world when the sun sank behind the craggy Nibel peaks. Wise folk—such as the denizens of this small northern town—knew to remain indoors once twilight fell. Children learned early the perils of venturing out after dark in a land where the weather killed without discrimination. Yes, evenings in Nibelheim were chilly, which was the reason Vincent Valentine was currently trudging through ankle-deep snow on the outskirts town, peering through icy gusts of swirling powder for signs of an underdressed ninja.
It had been nearly a week since Avalanche had been called together to discuss a growing concern pertaining to certain species of fiends' peculiar spike in aggression of late. Reports had been pouring into the WRO detailing sudden and unprovoked monster attacks all across Gaia. The reports seemed to indicate a westward trend to this behavior; first starting in North Corel but aggravating near Nibelheim. According to Cid, the area around Rocket Town fared even worse, and the entire town had been put under lockdown in order to defend against disturbingly coordinated attacks by groups of Twin Brains. Cloud and Reeve had made plans to mobilize as much of the team as possible to uncover the source of this wave of seemingly unprovoked insanity but reaching their old teammates was made difficult by the chaos.
Marlene and Denzel had been left in the care of Barret and Elmyra in Corel where they would be kept safe while Cloud and Tifa joined by Nanaki and Vincent attempted to reach Cid, who'd taken charge in Rocket Town managing the quarantine. The group had tried several times to contact Yuffie via PHS but failed to reach her. Assuming that she was wrapped up in obligations to Wutai, they had just about given up hope on recruiting her aid when they stumbled upon her quite accidentally midway between North Corel and Nibelheim looking somewhat dazed from travel and frequent battles—and a tad thinner than usual, Vincent had quietly noted—but otherwise perfectly healthy. The group was currently occupying Nibelheim's only inn as they waited for the blizzard to let up enough to allow them safe passage through the mountains.
When Yuffie had abandoned the inn to go exploring—a term vague enough that coming from Yuffie it certainly promised less of its proper implication and more mischief—about an hour before sundown nobody had given the declaration a second thought. Nobody save for a black clad gunman who'd taken vigilance by the inn's only door earlier in the afternoon. Normally, such a departure by the team's flighty ninja wouldn't have provoked any consideration save for a quick inspection of the pockets to make sure she wasn't absconding with anything of value, but something about their cheerful friend wasn't sitting right with the quiet gunslinger.
Ever since they'd found her Vincent couldn't help but feel that something about Yuffie was...off. She hadn't been herself since they'd discovered her in the field. Not answering her phone wasn't terribly strange for her, she was a ninja after all, and ninjas didn't stop to answer their mobiles in the middle of stealth missions, but Yuffie rarely failed to return their calls, even if only for the opportunity to gloat about whatever she'd been stealing at the time. Maybe that had been his first hint that something wasn't right with his young friend. Since then, everyone had noticed that she seemed oddly subdued. She was still the same quirky Yuffie, but...toned down. Her typical inane chatter was less frequent and lasted only a fraction of the time it usually would. She spent long periods of time lost in thought, only speaking when spoken to. She'd also exhibited an unusual ferocity in battle that certainly hadn't been present before. Vincent had begun to quietly wonder if something had happened in the time since they'd seen her last, but he'd kept his musings to himself. A quiet Yuffie was a more pleasant Yuffie to share space with, after all.
After trying and failing to ignore his unease concerning this—it didn't help that she'd left without bothering to grab any sort of protection from the elements—Vincent excused himself to look for her.
Nibelheim was not a large town by any measure; not even containing a materia shop. Since there was little of interest to a character such as Yuffie, Vincent did only a brief sweep of the place. As expected, the energetic thief was not in the town and nobody he asked could recall seeing here. However, it was because this town was small that the list of places where the ninja might go was very short. If Yuffie wasn't within the village then she was outside of it, which left only three places to search; the mountains, the reactor, and the mansion. While the reactor was her best bet for finding uncommon materia, Vincent's instincts told him she wasn't there. Venturing into the mountains at this time of night, during a storm no less, was foolish and Vincent was confident Yuffie could ascertain that much for herself. The mansion, on the other hand, was where the team had found the Odin materia. And him, he tacked on as an afterthought. Perhaps Yuffie thought that after Deepground's infiltration there might be something of interest left for her to uncover there.
During the several months since Omega's defeat, Vincent had returned to Shinra Manor once to make his peace with the place. He'd actually considered restoring it with all the extra gil he'd acquired during his travels, however the present situation had put this idea on hiatus. Now, the quiet ex-Turk found himself trekking up the familiar path far sooner than he'd expected when he left to meet the others in Kalm five days prior. He wondered, assuming he ever did get around to restoring this old mansion, if his on-and-off comrades in Avalanche would visit him here. Cloud and Tifa might, should they ever feel inclined to visit their former home, and Yuffie would with certainty—often and uninvited, he anticipated.
Yuffie could be stubborn, loud, sneaky, conniving, and grating and she was somewhat eccentric and materialistic, but she was loyal—despite her penchant for theft—and she cared fiercely for her friends... among which she counted him, for reasons he couldn't fathom. Though he'd been cold and even downright cruel to her in the past in order to keep her at a distance, she hadn't given up trying to befriend him. The day she left him in peace was the day Sephiroth turned over a new leaf and Aerith returned from the lifestream. And yet...at some point between having his possessions stolen for the fortieth time and rescuing her from Nero's darkness her frequent intrusions into his personal life had stopped bothering him. He couldn't pinpoint just when it was that being in her company no longer made him desire to swiftly exit the vicinity of her person...the point when her incessant cajoling ceased to anger him. Perhaps it happened at the same time that he finally realized that her abrasive behavior was anything but selfish. She honestly wanted him to be happy, and if tearing him to pieces mentally, emotionally, and even physically was what it took, she would happily pluck a freshly sharpened kunai from her sock and carve the brood straight from his body.
He supposed that was the real reason he was out here in the cold searching for the absent ninja when he could be inside by the fire trusting her to take care of herself. She was his friend and he was worried about her.
Vincent's breath formed a white cloud in front of him as he approached the entrance to the old manor. The worn building remained just as he'd left it, the only difference being the fresh footprints still partially visible just before the entryway where they were somewhat sheltered from the still heavily falling snow. That answered the question of where his young comrade had gone. Vincent pushed open the heavy wooden doors of Shinra Manor and stepped quickly into the darkness beyond. He brushed the snow from his shoulders and glanced around the foyer, his enhanced eyes adjusting quickly to the inky darkness. Now that he'd entered the building, he knew without quite knowing that Yuffie was near.
Inside the mansion was barely warmer than out; the only real difference being the absence of the raging snowstorm. Even without the buffeting winds that could still be heard via the groans and creaks of the aged structure, the chill was hellish. Yuffie was not dressed for these temperatures.
Vincent's worry grew as he peered around the large entrance hall. He could feel the chilly air seeping into his bones despite his modified body, heavy cloak, and thick leather garments. Just how long had Yuffie been here in this monster infested mansion clad only in shorts and a sleeveless top? Sure, the young ninja could be careless, but she'd never struck him as suicidal. Perhaps he should've accompanied her earlier. Or followed her, at least.
He knew he was being unreasonable. Yuffie was old enough to handle herself and had never needed anyone's company However, her recent change of behavior had him questioning her current state of mind. If she was distracted by something, who could tell how it would affect her decision making ability?
Vincent started as a sudden, single musical tone broke the silence, sounding from deeper within the mansion. The note was soon followed by several others and Vincent realized that he was hearing a scale on the manor's old piano. Barring the unlikely event that the monsters residing in the house had discovered an appreciation for music while he was away, Vincent now knew the whereabouts of his missing comrade. He also noted as an aside that the notes te and re seemed to be back in working order. He felt part relief and two-parts annoyance that Yuffie had been busying herself fixing pianos while he worried himself into a state of near-panic over her safety.
As he traversed the entrance hall, the notes started again and Vincent was somewhat surprised to hear them come together into an actual melody. The gunman had never pegged Yuffie as the type who would bother herself with a venture as stuffy and humdrum, as she'd likely label it, as learning an instrument. But then, she was a princess, he mused. He supposed it wasn't uncommon for a woman of her station to dabble in the arts.
However, it soon became clear that the player had a touch more experience than mere dabbling. Despite a slight tremor from understandably frozen fingers, the light melody was fluid in a way that suggested proper training. Vincent crept nearer to the door that separated him from his teammate, suddenly cautious of disturbing her. He grasped the doorknob and turned it slowly, opening the old, creaky door as quietly as he could.
"Snow can wait. I forgot my mittens."
Yuffie's voice nearly scared Hellmasker out him.
"Wipe my nose, get my new boots on."
She was singing. A simple tune that complemented her playing. Vincent noted that Yuffie had moved the piano so that it was now situated at the back of the room, near the tall windows that displayed the storm raging beyond the glass. The violent winter outside drew interesting parallels to Yuffie's lyrics as she continued to sing, not yet noticing the man standing uncertainly not ten paces from where she sat.
"I get a little warm in my heart when I think of winter," she sang. Her voice was light, but there was a feeling of heaviness in the melody. Or perhaps it was in the way she played it. "I put my hand in my father's glove.
Vincent stood deathly still so as not to catch her attention. His lips pulled into a frown as he continued to listen.
"I run off where the drifts get deeper.
Sleeping Beauty trips me with a frown.
I hear a voice. "You must learn to stand up for yourself,
Because I can't always be around."
Yuffie's voice trembled. Her next few words were almost a whisper.
"He says, when are you going to make up your mind?
When are you going to love yourself as much as I do?
When are you going to make up your mind?
I tell you that I'll always want you near.
You say that things change, my dear."
Yuffie's voice and playing came to an abrupt halt as she caught sight of his reflection in the polished lacquer of the piano. Vincent felt a pang of frustration toward himself for foolishly interrupting her song.
Walking around to the front of the piano, he was finally able to see Yuffie's face. He could see her shock at being caught, but what immediately drew his notice was moist sheen in her eyes. A quick – over of her person also revealed an alarming paleness in her lips and her fingers that still hovered just over the keys.
"Vincent..." she started, but trailed off and wiped her eyes instead, trying to salvage what dignity she could.
Vincent unclasped his heavy cloak and draped it over her smaller shoulders. This seemed to shake her out of her silence.
"Ah! Sorry," she apologized, her usual cheerful tone returning. "I was just wandering around the mansion when I noticed the piano and I haven't played one such a long time and I just thought that maybe I should fix it up and–"
"Yuffie," Vincent cut through her rambling with a serious tone, "Just what were you thinking, coming all the way out here dressed so inappropriately?"
Yuffie's expression turned sheepish. "My materia senses were tingling?" It was the worst lie he'd ever heard coming from her. "What about you, Vinners?"
Vincent awarded her with a look that was flatter than normal. "My Yuffie senses were tingling."
There was a moment of silence in which the two simply stared at one another. Then Yuffie grinned widely and gave him an impressed look. "Look at you, Vince! That was almost humor."
"Come, Yuffie," he said, ignoring her jab. "Let's return to the inn and warm up. I can't help but find these conditions less than optimal, particularly now that you have my cloak."
Yuffie nodded and hopped off the bench, following him from the room.
oO0Oo
Cloud and Tifa were the only ones still awake when the pair returned to the inn.
"Yuffie!" Tifa rushed to the door and fussed over the younger girl, batting snow off her back and shoulders and brushing it from her hair. "What were you thinking, going out in the dead of winter dressed like that! You need to take better care of yourself. Thank Shiva Vincent found you!"
"I'm fine, Tifa," Yuffie insisted. "I just lost track of time. And it wasn't snowing when I left."
"We're in the mountains, Yuffie," Cloud chimed in. "Even you know how unpredictable the weather is up here."
"You didn't seem to mind when I left," Yuffie huffed, moving to sit by the fireplace.
Tifa handed her a steaming mug of something that smelled heavenly before retorting. "We didn't realize you were so ill prepared. Really, Yuffie, you lived on your own for how long before we met you? I would've thought you'd have more sense," she chided.
Yuffie hung her head slightly, her shoulders bowed. "I'm sorry, guys. I wasn't thinking."
Tifa sat beside her and threw her arms around the girl's shoulders. "Don't be sorry. I didn't mean to sound so harsh. I know you can take care of yourself... I just worry. You know how I get."
"It's true," Cloud offered from behind the couch. "There was this one time last year when I left her for fifteen minutes to buy groceries and she went totally nuts! She called up everyone in the neighborhood and wrote depressing poetry, and—" Cloud was silenced by an expertly executed smack in the head courtesy of Tifa.
"Like hell, Cloud. That never happened." Tifa turned back to Yuffie. "He's just sore because nobody even noticed he was gone." This comment earned a rather undignified noise from Cloud, but he offered no more peanut-gallery input.
Vincent just watched from where he was left forgotten by the door. Cloud, he noticed, had made a great emotional recovery since his second battle with Sephiroth almost two years past. According to Tifa, he had completely returned to his old self with the added bonus of having outgrown a bit of his shyness. The gunman was happy for his friend. Observing Cloud now, the shadow of grief gone from his eyes and his whole manner lightened as though he no longer carried the weight of ghosts, it seemed to Vincent that sins could, in fact, be forgiven. Watching his comrades interact, Vincent almost felt that perhaps, together with these people, it might just be possible for him as well to regain some semblance of the man he once was.
"I appreciate your concern, guys, and you're right. I'll buy a jacket tomorrow morning. Wouldn't wanna catch a cold in the middle of a mission." Yuffie placed her empty mug on an end table and made a show of yawning, stretching her arms over her head. "That said, I think I'll call it a night. Early thief gets the loot and all that."
Yuffie hopped up and gave them all a small wave before practically skipping to the stairs. Vincent waited for her to ascend the steps to the second floor before stepping forward and addressing the others.
"Yuffie...hasn't been herself lately."
As usually happened whenever he decided to speak up, all eyes in the room turned on him. Vincent fought the urge to shift uncomfortably. Cloud cocked his head slightly. "How do you mean?"
"She seems," Vincent paused as he chose the right word, "...unfocussed." He decided against revealing her behavior in the mansion. Her hobbies were her own, and if she didn't feel like sharing them, he wasn't going to either.
"I understand what you're saying, Vincent." Tifa looked thoughtful. "She's probably under a lot of stress right now."
This piqued Vincent's interest and he shifted his gaze to Tifa. He hadn't heard about anything of particular interest happening in Yuffie's life of late.
"You know how she was helping me with the bar..." the fist-fighter started, shifting her weight and grasping one of her elbows. Her lips had pulled into a small frown. "Well, her father called her back to Wutai about a month ago. She didn't say why, but I'll bet it has something to do with her duties as heiress. All that's been put on hold, of course, what with all the monsters gone mad. Not even Wutai can ignore this situation."
"I see." Vincent crossed his arms and looked down at the polished wooden floor contemplatively. "Has she said anything about what might have happened during the time she was there?"
Tifa shook her head, her long dark hair swishing heavily behind her as she did so. "No... I did ask her, but..." The young woman's frown deepened. "She was a little evasive about the topic and I chose not to pry."
Vincent's eyebrows furrowed. Could it be that something was going on that Yuffie wasn't telling them about? He would prefer to think that the young ninja trusted them enough to be open with them about things that were troubling her, but he also had to remember that they hadn't exactly treated her in a way that would inspire trust and openness. They were all a little ashamed of the way they'd brushed her off after returning to their lives post-meteor. No, not brushed off—blatantly ignored. Yuffie had tried to reach out to them and they'd deliberately snuffed her. Especially him.
All of them claimed to be Yuffie's friends, but they'd only ever reached out to her when they required something of her. How many of them had they seen Yuffie's name on their phone's caller ID and ignored her? Cloud, for a certainty, and Vincent more times than he could count. Even Tifa had, though she'd admitted to feeling incredibly guilty after finding out that Yuffie's call had pertained to the stigma in Wutai and had been made in urgency. Since coming together to battle the remnants of Sephiroth, everyone had made an effort to stay in better contact with each other and be more receptive toward Yuffie whenever she sought out their company, but if she still felt wary about confiding in them or felt her place in their group wasn't as sure as it could be, who could really blame her?
"I too have noticed that Yuffie has been behaving somewhat atypically these past few days," Nanaki spoke up, regarding the group with his single eye. "Perhaps we should talk to her tomorrow. In the case that she is quarreling with Godo again, we may be of some help."
The present members of Avalanche shared gestures of agreement. Feeling the matter sufficiently attended to, Vincent nodded to everyone and turned to the stairs. "Then if you'll excuse me, I'm going to retire for the evening." With that, he too ascended the steps and headed for the room her shared with Cloud and Nanaki.
oO0Oo
It was past midnight. Vincent lay in his bed, not sleeping, but not entirely awake either. His body required little rest so he often spent his nights dozing in a kind of limbo, letting his thoughts wander. Chaos was gone, returned to the Planet, and Vincent finally felt at peace in his own mind. Death Gigas and Hellmasker bothered him infrequently, and Galian Beast only ever stirred when he was under a great deal of stress. As he lay, Vincent amused himself by listening to the soft noises of the night. Muffled skittering sounds spoke of mice in the walls. A small shuffling registered at the edges of his senses; someone was moving in the next room. Likely one of the girls getting up to use the restroom. Light sniffles could be heard from down the hall; a little boy with a cold. The wind still howled outside, blowing against the inn's sturdy frame.
Minutes passed as Vincent lay in suspended animation, but the telltale creak of the stairs' loose seventh step reminded Vincent that someone was up and about and that the room next to his was suspiciously quiet now. Warning bells went off in his mind and his Galian-enhanced senses registered a shift in the inn's atmosphere. A kind of pressure was building in the air accompanied by a sense of urgency. Vincent forced himself into a state of alertness and silently slipped out of bed. If he were Nanaki, his hackles would be up and his ears would be standing at attention above his head.
Vincent donned his boots and cloak and made is way down the stairs, carefully avoiding the creaky seventh step as he slipped noiselessly into the lobby.
oO0Oo
She didn't know where she was going. She didn't even know where she was. She remembered warmth and a soft bed...but she'd left. Why did she leave? Her head felt uncomfortably warm. Her body ached. She was freezing. Harsh winds ripped at her hair and clothes and snow was piling up around her legs. She had to keep moving. She couldn't afford to stop here. Darkness swam at the edges of her vision, but she picked up her feet and trudged on into the endless dark.
"Hey, are you okay?"
The voice was gentle, but she knew she couldn't trust it. These creatures knew only destruction and greed.
"Miss?"
She growled low in her throat. She should hurt it. Yes, she should hurt it for what it had done. It should suffer. It needed to pay. If it didn't pay, then where was the justice in the world?
"Tom, I think she's ill. Come over here and help me."
Another voice joined the first. "Poor girl. Wonder what she's doin' all th'way out here...? An' in the middle'uh the night, too." The owner of the second voice made to grasp her shoulder. His mistake. The moment his hand brushed her bare flesh she let out a feral shriek and flung her hands up to claw at the man's face. "Agh! Vic, hold 'er down!"
The first man attempted to restrain her but she was quick. She sprung away from both men, hissing and snarling. Remembering the weapon strapped to her back she pulled the large blade free with her right hand. Now they would suffer. Now they would understand what they'd done!
"Shit, Tom! She's crazy!"
Kill. Red bled into her vision as she watched the two men try to flee. Kill. She pulled back her arm, muscles coiling, preparing to launch her lethal tool. Kill! But just as she began to fling her arm forward her progress was halted with an angry scream of steel on steel. The two men took advantage of her confusion and fled.
"Yuffie! Control yourself," a cool, masculine voice came from an area near her head and she sensed an enormous power behind this man's tone. Her head pounded and she dropped her shuriken. It slid down the barrel of a massive gun before sticking into the snow with a muffled thud.
She made to lunge for the weapon but a sharp blow to the back of her neck caused her eyes to roll back in her head and she fell limply to the ground.
oO0Oo
Sooo... This has been sitting around on my computer for about two years now. Holy damn, where does time go? I was going to wait to post it until I could be sure I had the time for it, but then the months just kept slipping by and I got all busy with my A:TLA stories. Well, I've finally decided it's time to blow the dust off and get this sucker moving again. I owe it to one of my most favorite games of all time.
This chapter has been greatly edited and reposted. If you find any typos or other mistakes, don't hesitate to tell me. My tendency to miss those things borders on criminal.
Yuffie's song in this chapter is a lightly edited version of Winter by Tori Amos. I do not own the song, but do highly recommend looking it up and giving it a listen.
Lemme know what you think and I'll see you again next chapter!
Advocaat