Chapter 4
It took a while to get Tifa and Cloud off her back when Yuffie came in their house with a tear-soaked face. However, she managed. She told them that she urgently had to leave, thanking them for their hospitality as she bid farewell to the couple. They were solemn to see her leave on such low spirits but Tifa managed to talk her into staying long enough to pack her a lunch for the road. After an hour, the young Wutain was off southwards to her next destination. After several hours, she could hardly see Nibelheim at the base of the mountains when she stopped to take a breather.
"Maybe it was a mistake to ever visiting that stupid vampire jerk! Well, at least I got his materia, that'll teach em to think twice before pissing off the great ninja Yuffie Kisaragi!" She exclaimed, punching the air wildly with a nutty smirk on her face. The smirk soon faded to a frown and she let herself slump down onto the ground, sitting on her butt.
"But now I feel like I've lost a friend………" Yuffie murmured to herself. She let out a heavy sigh and stood back up before clearing her throat and looking at the now darkening sky. "Well, I should find a place to set up camp soon. Man, nighttime around here gives me the creeps with all them wolves!"
Meanwhile, back at Tifa and Clouds….
"Oh, Cloud, knock it off!" Tifa giggled as Cloud went about tickling her. She turned to face him laughing and put her arms around his neck as they sat on their couch in their living room. Cloud was nuzzling her neck now as she continued giggling.
"Say I'm right!" Cloud prodded playfully as he continued poking her sides.
"Fine! I'm right!" Tifa proclaimed mocking him, only to receive more tickles from her lover and almost falling off the couch. "Cloud! Heheheh!"
"Not, until you admit that it is I who is right!" Cloud smiled, grabbing her to pull her close again. They looked into each other's eyes while smiling, closing the distance between their faces. Their lips barely brushed when they heard a knock on their door. Cloud cursed whoever it was silently as Tifa got up smiling to open the door. When she opened the front door, she couldn't help but let out a surprised 'Oh!' To her greatest surprise it was Vincent.
"Vincent! This is a bit unexpected. W-we haven't seen you in a while." Tifa opened the door wider to invite him in. He, however, shook his head to the invitation.
"Good evening Tifa." Vincent said before glancing over her shoulder to notice Cloud. "And Cloud." He went on in his usual monotone voice. "I came by hoping that you might know where Yuffie is."
"Oh! Well, she was here about an hour and a half ago to get her stuff and she left in a hurry. She looked as if she was a little troubled." Tifa told him, trying to find a mild way of saying the words. "Um, did something happen between you two—"
"We just………" Vincent paused to rethink his answer. "Um. She stole my materia again, I'm just looking for her to get it back is all."
Cloud had come to the door after hearing this. "Oh, Tif, it seems like I'm right about TWO things today."
Tifa elbowed him to shut him up and turned back to the brooding man on their front step. Tifa knew Yuffie to have been a thief in the past, but she usually didn't steal from anyone who was in Avalanche unless she was greatly angered or deeply offended in some way, in fact she promised she wouldn't and had not since the incident in Wutai two years prior. She had a suspicion that Vincent was hiding more than he'd like to share, though she didn't dare pressure an answer out of a man like him. She smiled again at Vincent. "I'm sorry she did that, I would think she'd have more sense than to steal from a friend. I honestly don't know where she is going, though I now she was heading south. Perhaps to Cosmos Canyon."
Vincent thought on the word 'friend' for a moment, feeling further guilty for practically accusing Yuffie of stealing for no reason. He brought his eyes back up to the woman before him. "Thank you. I'll leave you two to one another." Tifa blushed as he turned to leave. Vincent paused for a moment and glanced over his shoulder to add another comment. "Congratulations, to the both of you."
Tifa stared at him as Vincent walked on again, Cloud's jaw dropped when he processed the words. They turned to each other before going back inside, Tifa smiling deviously. "So he did get the invitation!"
"Well we put it on his box so he'd see it when he had to go to the bathroom or eat or something! But he didn't say anything about coming to the wedding." Cloud told her. They continued their playful bickering as they went back to each other.
Back to Yuffie after an hour has passed.
The multicolored materia sparkled in the firelight as Yuffie held it up to view it. She went through the materia that she had grabbed from Vincent at the base of a steep mountainside. The materia was cold between her fingers making her smile slightly. Though her new materia was pretty nice, most of it being mastered, she still felt a bit crappy. Her conscience told her that she promised not to steal anymore from anyone in Avalanche, even Vinny. She frowned and stomped her foot in the dirt for letting conscience get the better of her feelings. She countered her conscience's voice aloud. "Well it was his fault! He was being a butthead and wouldn't listen to me! He doesn't deserve this materia!"
She huffed out some air as she put the stolen orbs into her pack and laid down to look up at the stars. They at least made her feel serene, though also made her tired when they twinkled down at her. Calmed down and comfortable, Yuffie's eyelids began to get heavier and heavier. Soon, her thought drifted back towards Vincent and his silly red cape. Within ten minutes she had dozed off next to the fire.
The howl of a nearby wolf made Yuffie jump awake again. The fire had died and the crescent moon had risen to hang higher in the black sky painted with stars. Yuffie shivered and almost felt as if something was watching her. She pulled her travel blanket over her tightly as she went for a piece of fire materia. Everything was dark, save for the moon in the sky, yet it didn't help her much being only a sliver of the entire moon. Digging through her bag, she paused when she heard leaves crunching ten feet to her left. Listening more intently, she heard various noises surrounding her and very close by. Though they were subtle, she knew now that she wasn't paranoid and really wasn't alone at all.
'Okay! Stupidest mistake number one: Taking rash actions and not waiting until the next day to travel freaky fields alone! Gawd! Yuffie, you idiot!' Yuffie thought, grabbing a few materia out of her bag and squinting in the dark to see what they were. More crunching noises, causing her mind to race. 'Fire! I need Fire!'
"Ah! Fire!" Yuffie shouted when she recognized one of the orbs. Fire exploded where the campfire once was, sending light all about the area. Yuffie gulped back a scream when she saw more than twenty or so Nibel Wolves completely surrounding her now snarling and howling from the sudden light. Light reflected off the many eyes of the wolves as they circled her slowly, preparing to jump for her throat. Yuffie tried to slowly reach for her shuriken lying next to her bag, grasping the mastered Fire materia tightly in one hand. One wolf behind her was tired of waiting and lunged to attack hoping to catch Yuffie off guard, however it wasn't lucky enough. Yuffie brought her shuriken up, impaling the wolf's skull. Several more lunged for the young ninja, hoping for a meal. Yuffie sent out multiple swipes of her shuriken, kicks, and punches, repelling the attacking wolves. She let out a laugh at them. "HA! You think you mutts can take down the ultimate sezzy ninja! Bring it on, ya flea bags!"
Almost as if they understood her mockery and insults, the wolves looked at each other before snarling back at her. Four more wolves lunged at her at once, occupying all her limbs from kicks and punches. While she was taking care of the four, another wolf was able to sneak up and sink its teeth into Yuffie's right shoulder. She cried out in pain as she used her shuriken to beat the wolf's face bloody to try and get it to let go. However, because she was busy with the decoying wolf another wolf launched itself for her jugular. Yuffie turned her head soon enough to watch, as if in slow matrix motion, the wolf flying at her. She would not be able to bring her defenses up fast enough and realizing this made her eyes widen in terror. She watched as the wolf's head exploded after a sharp gunshot to her far right went off. The now headless wolf body hit her hard, covering her in blood.
"AW! GROSSNESS! And YOU! GET THE HELL OFF ME, MUTT!" Yuffie exclaimed at the mess as she pushed the corpse off and gave a final stab to the wolf that still hung onto her shoulder, finally getting it off. She looked up to see Vincent's cold silhouette form into a man when he came close enough to the firelight. He shot off an approaching wolf and glanced over to Yuffie. She stared up at him, surprised enough to forget about her shoulder wound. However, he noticed and she could have sworn she saw his cold façade shift to worry. Because he was distracted with the view of Yuffie's shoulder wound, he didn't notice the wolf beside him lunge until Yuffie's scream. "VINNY! LOOK OUT!"
Vincent turned too late as a Nibel wolf brought its jaws down onto the side of Vincent's neck. Yuffie let out a scream and hurled her shuriken at the wolf while Vincent let out a choking sound. Yuffie kicked the wolf off him and went to catch him as he fell. She looked down at him as he tried to grab at the gash in his neck, noticing something that made her let go. Vincent fell beside her and began to shake spastically, his eyes began to roll up, his bones could be heard snapping to shift location, and his clothes began melting away along with the rest of his human form. Yuffie had seen this happen only twice before and both times frightened her. He was transforming into Chaos from taking a great deal of damage. Yuffie fell back on her back as black wings ripped out of the form. What was left of the wolves was already backing away slowly, just like Yuffie was now doing. Vincent completed the transformation into the destructive demon that now gave out a howl. Yuffie continued to scoot back slowly, hoping Chaos wouldn't notice her. Yet, she was the first thing he laid his black eyes on as he stood. She let out a small shriek as she struggled to her feet. Chaos began advancing towards her, baring sharp fangs and flexing his sharp claws. She held up her hands to show she was not his enemy, giving a nervous smile.
"Uh, V-Vinny, It's me! Yuffie! Please don't kill me, I'm sorry I took your materia, you can totally have it back! It's right there in my bag. Uh, yeah, in the bag you just stepped over. Um, Vincent!" Yuffie began to panic as Chaos continued to approach. Lucky for her, one of the Nibel wolves thought it could take down Chaos. The wolf that attacked soon wound up on the ground ripped in half, sending the rest of the wolves running. Chaos went after the wolves, hunting each one of them down mercilessly and tearing them to shreds. Yuffie took the opportunity to run in the exact opposite direction of Chaos: up the mountainside next to her campsite. She climbed and leaped her way up as fast as ninjaly possible to escape the same fate as the wolves. She slipped a few times, scraping and cutting her arms and legs, though she hardly noticed. After twenty minutes, she took the time to look back over her shoulder when she slipped for the tenth time. She could see the small fire far below with wolf corpses littering the ground all around it. She could see no sign of Chaos, nor heard the yelping of dying wolves. For the time being, Yuffie didn't want to go back down anytime soon.
"Oh, Gawd! Stupid, Stupid! You're so stupid, Yuffie!" She told herself as she went back to climbing up the mountain, trying to ignore her aching body screaming for her to rest. She was almost to the top of the mountainside with only thirty feet to go, when she heard the heavy beating of wings coming her way. "Oh, sweet Leviathan, please don't be psycho Vinny………"
A loud roar answered above her, convincing her that she needed to climb really really fast. At the top of the mountainside, the moon was reflecting off a large body of water about as far down below as the campsite was behind her. The sound of a waterfall was the last thing she heard before she was grabbed roughly by a pair of sharp claws. Yuffie shrieked in complete horror as she was lifted high up into the air by the beast that was once Vincent. Chaos let out a malevolent cackle while clasping onto Yuffie by the front of her shirt. The terrified girl clung unto the leathery wrists of her captor when he decided to swoop down near the water. She began getting the horrible feeling in her stomach that she always got whenever she was on airships and boats.
"Oh, great! Let's get sick right before I get ripped apart! WHAT MORE COULD POSSIBLY GO WRO—Ugh! GLUGHBLAH!" Yuffie managed to scream before she lost all of the lunch Tifa made her, into Chaos' face. Yuffie then passed out as Chaos flew into the cliff next to the waterfall due to being blinded by Yuffie's vomit. Chaos howls and transforms back into an unconscious Vincent while still holding onto an also unconscious Yuffie, sliding downwards. The two fell about ten feet onto grass, Vincent braking Yuffie's fall.
Author's Notes: Hahaha! I suck. Anyways, I'm going to try and make it funnier. TOO SERIOUS! I don't like serious, tis boring. BUT, usually it gets the job done. I LOVE PRINGLES! If anyone gave me a pringle, I'd give them a kiss! I hope to include various bits of Vincent's solemn past with wu. Hehehe, wu is you. HA. I'm, I'm really lame. But I get the job done. Hmmmm, yea, job……… Ten more reviews please! Thanks!