Another long wait for all of you –wince- So sorry, we made the mistake of starting another RP at around chapter 5 and that's the cause for most of the lulls in this one, really sorry about that . . . But if you like PoT you could always look into Super Important Mission! Which is really pure crack . . . but it was mostly just for fun and posted as an afterthought . . . shameless self-promotion
THANKS FOR READING!
-----------------------------
WhiteWolfCub: hides Updated!
arelente2: I'm glad you like it!
kazuhiko: I hope this CONTINUES to give you questions! And I'm sorry about all the errors, I actually forgot to run spellcheck –wince-
String-home of Tolea: I hope this answers your question!
Aki: More Zak action to come!
Case-Chan's Angel: Glad you are enjoying it!
Kinzoko: Ask and ye shall receive . . . eventually –wince-
Sabith: I'm glad you like it!
The Sinner of Anger: There shall be more Zak eventually, not much of him in this one though, sorry.
Silver Tears 11: It's a secret! Please continue to enjoy!
Ashyx: And Rude's life would be immensely boring without Reno
scarlettHungress: YEAH! hums victory theme
HotIceRed: Enjoy this chap as well please!
darkmoon1202: Voodoodoll is the person who writes the other half of this, it's actually an RP her and I are doing.
KawaiiTidaChocoboCloud: Update for you!
Ice-Elk: Thanks for the comment!
Aeriadne: Of course they aren't dead, that would be boring XD
Cheekyamericangrl211: Urp, okay
------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: If we owned it, then Aeris, Tifa and Yuffie would probably not be in it . . . fans of them be glad
--------------------------------------------------
Sephiroth jolted awake suddenly, which was quite surprising considering it couldn't be more than an hour past noon. Vampires didn't necessarily sleep through the day, but it was hard not to when the sun was near its zenith.
He froze, listening to the sounds around him. There was nothing unusual that he could tell. But what had wakened him? With a slow breath Sephiroth began to stretch his senses to encompass more than what he could merely see.
At first there was nothing different, then, slowly, he became aware of a farther and farther radius. Zakarie's presence soon showed as a pulsing glow in his 'sight', curled around the blood-red shape that was the human boy. They really would have to do something about him, but for now there were more important things to deal with.
The farther out he got the easier and faster the expansion became. The house, the street, a few city blocks, his awareness grew out and out, covering the town. Each life that could provide energy for his kind showed up as red shapes of varying sizes, but nothing they did could have caused his premature awakening.
Farther and farther out, until he reached the city edge of town, still nothing worth concern. A little farther, stretching and stretching until- there. The silver-haired man frowned as he began the slower process of refocusing his awareness to that one spot.
There was an energy, almost new, down among the warehouse district.
The energy signature tickled his consciousness, trying to pull some memory from his mind. He had seen this before, but where or who yet eluded him. So focus on the what.
At first glance there was simply a ball of hazy energy, but once you got below the surface, the tones were there for anyone to read. This was none of the more common spells, a basic healing, an unseeing, a glamour; instead it was far more complicated with different intentions woven throughout to form the complex tapestry of the spell.
Here again came the sense of familiarity, the weave of the tapestry felt familiar under the scrutiny of his mind, like an old blanket found again in an attic perhaps, or a well-loved book, something owned by an individual for a long time and then set aside for a time, or maybe slightly altered-
What little blood he still had in his veins turned to ice as he realized where he had felt this energy signature before. It was his, with a subtle difference. The difference between the source of life and the ones animated by his power.
---------------------------------------
"Well," Kadaj remarked angrily, "That was pathetic, you failures." He dug a bullet from his chest with a long, slender finger, frowning deeply as he inspected the little piece of metal. Was that silver? Seriously, who the hell fired with silver bullets?
Loz hiccuped, looking decidedly pissy. "Look who's calling who a failure," He said gruffly, crossing his arms across his broad chest. Kadaj always tried to hurt with words- and it usually worked with him, no matter how much he tried to ignore it. Why did the shorter brother have to be so mean? It wasn't like he had done any better against the monks. He was just looking for someone to blame to make himself feel better, the bully.
"Hey," A soft voice near him made Loz startle, almost losing his cool, composed cross-armed stature. Almost. He looked over to see Yazoo looking up at him pleasantly, eyes shining brightly in the dark. Like flashlights or something. The slender man held up a short length of leather, looking at Loz expectantly. "Tie my hair back?"
Oh, and here it was. The pity. Loz frowned- Yazoo knew how much Loz loved his hair- well, how much he loved anything shiny and soft- and usually exploited that fact when he was especially mopey. It never failed to cheer Loz up, playing with Yazoo's hair. It was like giving a lighter to a pyro.
"It looks fine down," Loz said gruffly, deciding to be difficult. After all, Yazoo still smelled like stupid human hormones from that stupid red-head. Loz was still pissed about that, but more at Kadaj than anything.
Yazoo pouted. "C'mon, Loz. Please?" He turned around in front of Loz, lifting his long hair invitingly. It looked so soft... and shiny... and pretty...
Loz sighed and dug his fingers in. Five minutes later Yazoo was sporting a long braid, tied neatly at the end with a little leather bow. "Thanks," Yazoo said softly, patting Loz's arm. Loz coughed and nodded, face a shade of violent red. For such a manly looking guy- er, vampire- he sure was easy to manipulate into doing girly things.
"You two make me sick," Kadaj remarked from his position at the window, checking out the grounds around the warehouse. They were probably going to settle in there for the day, find a little room and hole up there. Home was too far away by now to chance making it there before sunrise, he decided. Behind him, Yazoo and Loz ignored him and continued... their weirdness. Jeez, Kadaj really had pulled the short straw as far as family was concerned.
After a while, when Kadaj had had enough of the weird semi-flirtations between the idiots, a strange feeling passed through him. It was strange because not only did he usually not feel anything feelings at all, but it was strange because-
Someone was sensing them. Oh, shit.
"Shut up." Kadaj ordered, hand raised. Loz looked up from where he was picking a stray bullet from Yazoo's neck, eyes wide.
"What is it?" Loz asked in a loud whisper, afraid to talk any louder. Yazoo was perfectly still under his fingers, alert and ready to move.
Kadaj spun around, teeth bared. "He's found us."
---------------------------------------------
"OWIE OW OW OW OW OW!" Rude frowned down at the red-head he was dabbing with antiseptic.
"Don't overreact," he said simply, continuing his administrations. The chains had made quite a mess of Reno's wrists, seemed vampires weren't really concerned about having non-chaff chains.
"I'm not! It hurts!"
"Yes, you seemed to notice it a lot when you had a silver-haired girly-boy between your legs," it was a low blow, and Rude knew it, but he couldn't help it. He had no reason to be this angry at the other man, but he was. He stabbed antiseptic into one of the deeper wounds and almost smiled at the other's wail of pain.
It had been a long walk home from the warehouse district, they would have never made it to the car in time; though Rude did intend to go back and get it as soon as he could safely.
The darker man ignored the howls of his partner and concentrated on trying to figure out what exactly had happened.
Three vampires. Check. Wanted info about the Lithen Monks. Made sense. Kidnapped Reno. Made reasonable sense. Tried to rape him. File cannot be accessed as it is considered a threat to the system, taking precautionary measures . . . . deleting. File deleted. Would you like to empty the recycle bin? Emptying recycle bin. Kidnapped Reno. Made reasonable sense. The dark man had the strangest feeling he was going in circles.
There had to be something he was missing. Why search for the Lithen Monks HERE of all places? They were far more numerous in Eurasia. How did they know to kidnap Reno? Why were they traveling together? Everything he had ever heard about vampires suggested that they were solitary creatures, why would three who clearly didn't get along travel together? There had to be something . . . there had to be . . .
"Uh, Rude, that's my elbow and it's fine," Reno called his attention back to the task at hand, which happened to be disinfecting Reno's uninjured elbow.
Under normal circumstances he would have run all of his ideas past the other man, checking for flaws in his logic, seeing if he had reached the same conclusions, and checking what to do next, but right now he was unreasonably angry with the red-head. So he ignored him.
Knowing it was unreasonable didn't help. In fact, it made him grumpy which made him want to ignore him more.
--------------------------------------
Rude was so. Freaking. Weird.
Usually the guy was totally cool. In fact, there was no one Reno would rather spend his day with, all things considered. They were like yin and yang, in some queer sense- Reno was loud and melodramatic and sexy, Rude was calm and quiet and supplied Reno with liquor. The only flaw in their mechanic was that Rude was just inherently cooler than Reno was, no matter how hard the red-head tried- and trust him, he tried. The man was always smirking or... saying something cool and collected.
Because that's what Rude was. Cool and collected.
Except now he wasn't.
Reno could understand that Rude wasn't the happiest with him. He had gotten himself kidnapped and tortured, making Rude have to come and rescue him, which was probably a pain in the ass. Reno would have to thank the guy when he had a chance. But there had been other times when Rude had had to save his ass- but Rude had never been... mad. And there was no denying that he was- Reno was pretty good at sensing what people were feeling, and anger was dripping off of Rude like water from a dishrag.
Reno didn't like it.
"Okay," Reno said loudly, yanking his arm away from Rude and his evil antiseptic. "You need to... stop emitting angry rays, dude." He turned around, trying to meet Rude eye to eye, maybe dispell some of the weird, quiet tenseness that had fallen between them. Reno scowled at Rude's sunglasses, unable to meet the darker man's eyes directly. "You got a problem?"
The line of Rude's mouth thinned, the only reaction Reno could see in the dim lighting of Rude's apartment. He didn't say anything, but set the cotton swab down on the coffee table. He leaned back into the couch, away from Reno.
Reno could tell when he was being ignored- and being a redhead, he didn't take dumb shit like that too well. Especially from Rude, who he had presumed was above petty things like that. "If this is about you having to save me from those freaks-"
Rude turned towards him almost too quickly, his eyes flashing above his sunglasses. "I really shouldn't have, is that what you're saying?"
Reno sat back, eyes slitted. "What?! They were vampires, Rude. If you wouldn't have saved me, I would have been meat."
"If I hadn't saved you," Rude said calmly, though his voice was cutting, "You would have been screwed against a wall. You looked like you were enjoying it, though-"
Reno saw red, his arms akimbo as he stood up as quickly as his body would allow. Was that what Rude thought? Did he think he really enjoyed that shit, being tied up and manipulated against his will? "You sick asshole," Reno hissed, "If this is your way of asking for thanks- screw you, Rude." He turned sharply, banging his calf really, really hard on Rude's coffee table. Shit, yet another injury to add to tonight's list- on top of the emotional stress from Rude, his night was topped off. Reno didn't chance a look backwards as he stormed across and out of Rude's apartment, slamming the door as hard as he could behind him.
He didn't need Rude, whatever his problem was. First thing in the morning he was hunting those vampires by himself, partner or not.
--------------------------------------------
Sephiroth sat perfectly still on his bed (Zakarie would be pacing the room, but he didn't allow himself to indulge in such . . . human actions) mind racing.
What were they doing here? Last he had heard they have been banished to somewhere in Africa and were creating chaos amidst the hyena population. There was no reason for them to come here. None! Perhaps he and Zakarie should leave.
Even as he thought it he knew he would never do it, even if it was the best plan in the entire universe. That would be running away, and he was Sephiroth. Sephiroth didn't run! Sephiroth laughed maniacally while he slaughtered your family and burnt down your home town . . . for some reason that particular metaphor gave him a funny feeling inside. As Zak would say, whatever.
There was a reasonable solution, he just had to have enough quiet time to find it.
A quick glance at the clock told him he had about an hour until Zak usually woke up, though he might stay in bed longer just so that when the human woke up he would find himself in the embrace of a 'sleeping' vampire and would struggle to break free of arms that tightened around him in 'sleep' and perhaps 'accidently' ended up somewhere inappropriate.
Oh Jenova, he was beginning to understand Zakarie enough to predict what he would do! What was the world coming to! No, no, surely it was just a mistake. He must have drunk some bad blood, maybe a hippie gone into hiding for a couple decades. Or even worse, a teenager on some new age substance. Drat it all, he tried to be more careful what he put into his body, but you could never tell these days! People in nice Armani business suits were injecting themselves with substances that would be more at home taking stubborn stains out of carpets. Jenova have mercy, he was even going off on TANGENTS. He made a mental note to make sure to blood test his victims before consuming and turned his mind back to the problem at hand.
There had to be an acceptable solution.
There had to had to had to be! This was the last thing he needed! First Zakarie brought home a human, then it turned out there were Lithen monks after the human, now . . . Sephiroth froze even more, eyes widening. Lithen monks after the human. Maybe, just maybe, there was a way to solve all of his problems.
------------------------------------------
By morning Tseng was pretty sure that this mission was going to be a hell of a lot harder than he had initially expected.
Vampires, going by his experiences, were not the smartest creatures. Vain, powerful, and usually not thinking past their next kill- it was never hard to detect them and take them out, especially with his skills. Tseng smirked to himself. Yes, he had mad skills.
...but apparently his prey's skills were even... madder.
There was definitely a presence- it was strong enough that he had been able enough to track it across the city to the graveyard he was crouched in- ha, a graveyard. Cliche much? Anyway. Once he hit the graveyard- bam, it was like he was getting nothing. He sighed, pressing a finger to his forehead as he tried to concentrate. Now would be a great time to just find the damn nuisances and take them out, while the sun was shining and they posed no threat.
Tseng frowned and kicked a little gravestone. Dammit, this was so aggravating. What would Rufus think if he took any longer? Tseng had a mighty fine reputation to upkeep, after all-
"Okay," Tseng murmured, stopping in his tracks. A pang of something hit him, familiar and pressing. A vampire? He glanced around, seeing nothing in the early morning light. The place was huge, and there was not a soul about- well, a living soul, anyway. Besides, it wasn't like a vampire could just wander around in the day. He was being silly. Silly, silly Tseng.
Tseng continued his stroll, senses high and mind alert. A rabbit nibbled on some grass as he passed, looking at him cutely. Shit, this was getting lame. He wanted some action!
"I see you're alone," A voice said, taunting. Tseng spun around, gun at the ready. Where he had pulled the gun- even he didn't know. But it was there and cocked and that was what mattered.
A bright pair of green eyes blinked as they stared down the barrel of his gun, blinking repeatedly.
"Reno," Tseng moaned, restraining the urge to pistol whip the dumb bastard. Jeez, this was NOT what he needed, some halfwit impeding his progress. "Why the hell are you here?"
Reno smiled tentatively, pulling down Tseng's gun. A brave move, considering Tseng was a little trigger happy. "Uh, hey," Reno said offhandishly, fingers wiggling in a little 'hi' gesture. "I, uh... I want to help you. Find the vampires."
"No." Tseng didn't even need to think about it. He put his gun in his hip-holster, the other hand smoothing his hair back. "Go home to Rude or something, Reno. I don't need an idiot like you screwing up my pace." He turned his back to the red-head and started a brisk walk.
Oh, god. Reno was jogging to catch up.
"Hey now!" Ignore him, Tseng. Ignore him. Reno kept talking, oblivious to the fact he was like, ten seconds from being bitchslapped into a mausoleum. "Fuck Rude, man. I can keep my own- I just want to go along with you. I won't be any liability or nothing. Swear."
Tseng didn't answer. He didn't deal with annoying things too well, beyond shooting them, so his next instinct was to ignore, it seemed.
Reno seemed to take this as a "welcome to the team".
---------------------------------------------
A/N: Um . . . STILL SORRY ABOUT THE WAIT? –runs-
