A/N: This is the last chapter. I dun like it. And that's why it's the last chapter. I had a good idea for the start of a story, but it kind of lost momentum. So anyway, I apologize most sincerely if you don't like this chapter. It ends on a pretty lousy note. And the whole idea for the big ending I had, it just didn't turn out that well. I'm sorry. So… Enjoy?

One last thing, before I get on with the story: A big Thank You to... furubafreak01, KatoriTsubasa, -find.me.please-, Writingcritter, Yeyana Valentine, LaneJoe, Skrap, Becky, Pishivee, SilverKitsune013, glamrockbloodbath, Crazy Ninja Lady, Beatrisu, Kairi 3SoraNamine 3Roxas, Sora Potter and vorsith for reviewing the last two chapters of this fic. You're all wonderul. I feel like I've kind of let you all down with this last (crappy) chapter, so I'm really sorry. Someday I'll have another go at writing this, and if I can make it better, I'll re-post it.

Becky: No, the title wasn't inspired by anything, really. And I have to say I don't know who Ewan McGregor is. I'm not very up to date with movie stars.

Writingcritter: Absolutely! It was a great suggestion.

---Chapter Three---

The last thing Fred remembered seeing before everything went blurry was a huge gray, tooth filled head looming over himself and Yuffie.

After that there was a loud crack, a roar, a red cloak fluttering to the ground, a flash of gold, a yell, a thunk, and everything went black…

…Then Yuffie was shaking him and yelling something. "…Up! You have to wake up! Vincent's not moving! The dragon fell on him! Help me! What if he's dead?"

Through tremendous effort, Fred managed to crack open an eye and groan. "Wha' happened?"

A worried face swam into view, only to be replaced with a bucketful of cold water, which cascaded into his eyes, nose, mouth and ears. He spluttered for a while, but it did wake him up. "What's wrong?" He asked, now that he was capable of thinking straight. "And where did you get that bucket?"

"Vinnie killed the dragon, but something went wrong and it fell on him! He's not waking up! You have to help, I'm not strong enough to lift it off!"

Fred sat up, and was suddenly aware of a sharp, bursting pain in his head. He swore and clamped his hand over the right side of his face, where the pain seemed to be coming from. When he pulled it away again, it was coated in blood. He stared at it.

"Come on, come on, it's just a shallow cut! It looks worse than it is! I'll patch you up if you help! Er. It's from where Vinnie's PHS hit you. It fell out of his pocket."

Fred nodded and staggered to his feet. "Where?"

"This way."

Vincent was lying face down under one of the dragon's huge front legs. A short, well used rifle lay a few meters away where it had fallen. Yuffie was right, he wasn't moving.

Even through the blinding pain in his head, he felt sick with worry. Or maybe that was because of the pain in his head. "I'll try and lift the dragon up, you drag him out when I do."

The dragon was lighter than he expected. It probably had hollow bones like birds, for flying. But it was still very, very heavy. If it wasn't for the many years he'd spent doing all the heavy lifting for his elderly grandfather, he would never have managed to move it.

But slowly, inch by inch, the dead dragon's huge, scaly leg lifted of Vincent's body, and Yuffie darted under to drag him out.

Then he let it drop and sat on the ground for a few moments, panting. "Is he… ok?" he gasped out.

"I don't know. He's breathing, but…"

Fred nodded. "Get him to the truck. We'll have to get him to a town. I have no idea what to do, I'm not a white mage or a doctor."

Between them they managed to lift Vincent to the truck and into the cab. Yuffie ran back to get his cloak. "I should ride in the back." she said when she got back.

"There is no back."

"I'll sit on the crane then. The last thing he needs is to be squished up between us two. Don't worry, I'll be perfectly safe."

"Well… ok. Hold on tight, stay down. If anything goes wrong, bang on the roof. And one more question."

"Yeah?"

"What really happened to his arm?"

Yuffie went bright red. "Oh. That."

"Yeah. I mean, I understand that he'd not want people to know that he's got a metal claw where his left arm used to be, but what happened? How did he get it?"

"Well, the part about being shot was true." Yuffie paused. "I don't know much, he doesn't talk about it very often. But I know that he used to be a Turk, a long time ago. I don't know why, but he argued with one of ShinRa's scientists, and ended up getting shot."

"I… see. A Turk." Fred went round to the driver's door. "Well, Turk or no, he doesn't deserve to die."

"Of course he doesn't!" Yuffie yelled. She was already settling down on the tray, in between a railing and the boom of the crane.

The truck started up with a spluttering roar, and Fred carefully backed it out of the scrub and back onto the road. By the feel of it, one of the tires was going down. Hopefully they'd reach an inn soon.

oOo

Fred almost drove the truck off the road when Vincent woke up suddenly and asked where Yuffie was.

"She wanted to sit on the tray. She's a ninja, I'm not going to argue with her."

"Good answer." He paused. "By the way… what happened?"

"You killed the dragon and it fell on you… I think you're pretty badly injured, not sure though."

Vincent grimaced. "Five broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, a broken wrist, and many various scrapes, cuts and bruises."

Fred almost drove off the road again. "You know all that? How? And if you're that badly hurt, how can you just sit there? Most people would be screaming!"

"I've learnt to tell, and to ignore pain. Sort of comes with the job… Ow."

"Don't shrug like that. It won't do you any good."

"Watch the road." The man fell silent and shut his eyes again. Fred went back to giving the road his undivided attention.

oOo

Finally they reached a town. Yuffie could almost hear Cid saying 'What a bloody dump'. "What is this place?" she asked.

"Lockwood. It's a bloody dump, isn't it?" Fred pulled a face at the tiny town.

Yuffie looked at him strangely.

"…What?"

"Nothing, nothing. Where's the healer's?"

"This way. We'll drive right up. Get back on the tray."

Yuffie nodded and scrambled up while Fred climbed back into the cab. It was only a few seconds drive, but they didn't want to have to carry Vincent or make him walk very far. "He looks heavy," Fred had said. Vincent had scowled at him, but not said anything. Apparently ignoring pain took a lot of concentration.

As soon as Fred had stopped Yuffie jumped off the tray and hammered on the door. A faded sign on it announced that the healer and white mage Martha Farthy lived and worked in this building.

The door opened a crack and a face peered through. "What is it?" the voice was old and cracked.

"Our friend's hurt! Come on! Open up!"

The voice grumbled something about manners these days, but she opened the door. She was a white haired, stooped old woman, with a friendly looking face, complete with crow's feet around her brown eyes and smile lines around her mouth. "Where is your friend?"

"In the truck. We didn't want to move him too much…"

"Good, good. I'll be right out." She bustled back inside and came back carrying a cloth and wood contraption. "It's a stretcher. I'm too old for this kind of thing, but you two could get him on it. I'll walk you through it."

So, carefully, with Martha squawking her instructions hurriedly at them, they levered Vincent onto the canvas stretcher. Vincent must have sunk back into oblivion, because he didn't move or make any noise at all.

Eventually they got him inside, and they only crashed into the doorframe once. Martha told them to put Vincent, stretcher and all, on the kitchen table. Then she went off somewhere to get her healer's kit.

When she got back she was carrying what must have been half the medical supplies on this side of Midgar. "I don't know what's wrong with him, see." She explained. "I'll just check though." She put her hand on his forehead, and a white glow surrounded him.

"Oh dear. He's quite badly off, isn't he? What happened to him?"

"A dragon fell on him… it was dead though."

The old lady's eyebrows shot up. "Well well well. It must have been rather a large dragon, too. He's got…"

"Five broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, a broken wrist, and many various scrapes, cuts and bruises?" Fred asked.

"Yes." said Martha.

"How did you know that?" Yuffie demanded.

"He told me."

"What?" Martha squawked, "How could he tell you that? He's not even conscious!"

"He woke up for a while."

Martha looked at Vincent, who was definitely out for the count. "My my, what a strange young man…"

Yuffie pulled a face at the back of her head and muttered, "You have no idea…"

"What now?" Fred asked, "Only, I need to change one of the tires on my truck before we can leave again…"

The healer flapped her hand at him. "Go, go. I'll be able to work better without you two in my way anyway. Go on, out."

Fred nodded. "Come on Yuffie. You can help."

Yuffie balked. "What? Why me? I don't even like cars!"

"Just come…"

oOo

Yuffie tried to scrape some of the mud and grease off her hands with a rag, but only succeeded in smearing it up her arms. She let out a yell of frustration and threw it at Fred, who yelped is it hit him in the face.

"Yuffie! There's some swarfega in the truck! Don't blame me for your mistakes!"

"But you could have told me that I was holding the can upside down! What's swarfega?"

"Hand cleaner." Fred muttered, turning back to the tire and picking up another wheel nut.

Yuffie didn't bother trying to help out any more. Instead she climbed into the cab and rummaged around until she found the bottle Fred had been talking about.

It was pale red and gooey, and it stung where it got into a cut on the back of her hand, but the dirt and grease melted off her hands. She wondered what it was made of. Probably some closely guarded family secret. She decided to ask Fred later.

oOo

It was over two hours before Vincent emerged from the healer's house. He moved gingerly, but apart from that he seemed ok.

"Vinnie!" Yuffie called, "We've got the truck all fixed up!"

Vincent looked at Yuffie, covered head to toe in mud, and Fred, not looking much better. "Are you sure you didn't break it instead?"

"Yes! Er, but we did end up having to chase the spare tire along the road a bit. That was Fred's fault."

"It was not!"

Vincent sighed.

oOo

Lockwood Inn was two kilometers past Lockwood itself. It was a tiny, rickety establishment, with a weather beaten sign nailed to the top of a pole that stuck out of the ground at about forty five degrees.

"This is it. This is where I'm supposed to be meeting the people whose car I'm towing." Fred said.

"You can look for them, I'm getting a room and a shower!" Yuffie said, shoving Vincent to make him get out the cab faster.

"Ow, ow, watch it!"

"Sorry Vinnie."

Fred climbed out the driver's side door and locked the truck, then followed the two inside. They were already sitting down at a table in the bar to wait for their meals to show up. He looked around, but there wasn't anyone else in the bar, so he decided to get some food as well.

The bartender looked up. "Hey, are you the tow truck guy?"

"Yeah."

"They left to get some supplies in Lockwood, they'll be back in a half hour or so, they said."

"Oh, thanks."

Yuffie had almost finished eating by the time Fred's meal was ready. She sat there, chewing noisily on the last of her chips. "So, Fred," She said after she'd swallowed, "How exactly did you get landed with a name like Fred?"

Fred scowled at her. "It's short for Frederic. Don't laugh."

She laughed anyway. "Boy, I can see why you wanted to shorten it!"

"The name Frederic has similar origins to the name Vincent. They were both popular about two hundred years ago in Midgar and the surrounding areas." Vincent said.

"The only difference, is that the name Vincent is still cool." Fred grumbled.

"Where are those people you came all the way out here to tow?" Yuffie asked.

"The guy at the bar said they'd be here soon," Fred told her, just as the door opened, letting a sudden gust of wind and a group of people in. Yuffie and Vincent were sitting with their backs to it, so he had a nice clear view, right between them. "Speak of the devil, here they are."

Yuffie looked round. "Cloud!" she shrieked, jumping up. Vincent looked around too, surprised.

"You know these guys?" Fred asked.

"Yes! Cloud, over here!"

The rest of AVALANCHE noticed Yuffie, who was waving enthusiastically at them. "Yuffie! What are you doing here?" demanded Tifa.

"We hitchhiked here! Cloud got stuck did he?" Yuffie giggled evilly, "It serves him right for leaving us behind!"

"Who are these guys? Where's Vinnie the Vampire?" asked Cid.

"Hah, very funny." Vincent said.

"No, seriously…" Cid looked closer at him. "Hey, what happened to you? Your hair! Vincent got a haircut! Why, though?"

Vincent hesitated for a few moments, then said, "It's a very long story."

"And I'll tell you the whole thing later!" Yuffie added.

oOo

When introductions were finally over, and Yuffie and Fred had finished telling the others what had happened, Fred and Cid went to get the buggy out of the mud. "Frig, what happened here?" Fred demanded, looking at it. "Did it sink after you abandoned ship or something?"

Cid shuffled his feet, as much as he could in the ankle deep mud. "That's exactly what happened."

"This is gonna take a while."

"Yeah, I figured you'd say that." Cid grumbled. "We'd better get a move on then."

oOo