::Wow! You are so lucky you're getting this chapter when you are! My internet has been down ever since the last chapter got posted. I was afraid I wouldn't get to post before I left for Stockton on Tuesday. Which reminds me... This may be the last chapter you get for a while. It all depends on when I can get my internet set up. Hopefully it will be a relatively painless process and won't take long, but lords knows with my luck :/

For all of you who have no clue where Reno was in the last chapter, I'll give you a hint. Remember who the pilot of the helicopter was in Advent Children? Remember the helicopter? And the "flash of red hair" mentioned in the last chapter? Yeah. That was my Reno appearance. Hehe. I'm evil I know.

Cookies to all my readers, yes even those of you who don't review, you get cookies too. I'm in a generous mood tonight :) The next time I come to you I will officially be a college girl! Wish me luck!

Disclaimer: You should know by now, I own no Final Fantasy chars, but all OC's are mine and death will come swift and sure to any who try to steal them!::

Chapter 10

Back at the airship Cid was being fussed over by Tifa. He had a few bruises and his ribs were going to be sore for a while. Tifa had carefully wrapped him up, making sure it was tight. The grumpy man wasted no time telling her to 'get the hell away from him,' and that 'he was FINE goddamnit!'

Cloud waited patiently for Tifa to give the pilot her seal of approval and then proceeded to grill him on what happened and why half of Junon now looked like a war zone.

"Me and Vin found the girl," Cid said taking a puff of his soggy, bent cigarettes. Tifa shook her head disapprovingly but did not try to wrestle the cigarette away. She knew better.

"Lousy traitorous bitch…" Yuffie mumbled as she walked in. Red and Barret followed.

"That's enough Yuffie!" Cid hollered. Yuffie crossed her arms, her eyes sharp as the daggers she most certainly wanted to plant in Mae, but bit her tongue. "Vin ran ahead and found her in a house. By the time I got there, she was asleep. I expressed our concerns over the mark, and we both came to the same conclusion…"

Cid paused to take another drag, making sure that Red and Cloud were paying close attention. Red because he was the primary one against Mae, and Cloud because he was undecided and his opinion would be reflected by Tifa.

"The curse mark can be used to trace her, but we think that the limit of control that Reixez has over her through the mark is manipulation of her dreams."

Cloud frowned. "How do you know that for sure? And how do you know what she dreams?"

"Vincent can sense nightmares," he replied hesitantly. He didn't want to put up Vincent's business, but he was pretty sure he wouldn't mind too much if it was in defense of Mae. "He says hers are pretty damn bad. Besides, if the man was able to gain control of her, don't you think he would have taken over her already? We didn't even know she had the damn mark until recently, and she had plenty of opportunity and time to kill us before that."

Cid let his words sink in. Tifa and Cloud seemed to agree with his point, Barret was fidgeting and not really listening much and both Red and Yuffie weren't buying it. At all.

"I still think it's unwise to trust the girl. She attacked Vincent, and left him for dead in that alley," Red said vehemently. "I don't care about her nightmares. She probably brought them on herself. As for Reixez taking over her body, what makes you think he has to? Mae was herself when she ran from the alley, just as she was herself when she attacked Vincent."

"Vincent…" Come to mention it, Vincent had deftly changed the subject when he mentioned the attack. But he had been tenderly holding the woman when he found them. Cid sighed. "Vincent said nothing on the attack," he said finally.

Yuffie huffed triumphantly.

"But," Cid said a bit louder. "She was in a sorry state when he found her, and he did not hesitate to care for her. He did not seem to think she was a threat."

"The little whore probably put a spell or a curse on him," Yuffie said venomously. Cid glared at her, annoyed by her childish demeanor.

"How Yuffie? Status spells last no longer then an hour unless its poison and he had been away from her for almost two days." Yuffie growled.

"I don't know! She did something to him because-"

"Because what!" Cid interrupted. "Because he is ignoring you in favor of her? Control your childish jealousy and grow the hell up!" Cid got up, off the medical table he'd been sitting on and walked stiffly out of the room, ignoring the pain in his ribs.

Cloud sighed wearily and battled the insistent migraine that was intent on making his day worse. Tifa took sympathy on him and used a cure spell to dull the headache. Cloud thanked her with a peck on the cheek.

His cell started to ring and he fished it out of his pocket.

"Hello?"

"Yo Cloud, what's up?" The voice on the other end was cheerful, irritating Cloud more.

"What is it Reno?" There was more then a hint of impatience in his voice. He was hoping Reno got the hint. He didn't.

"Well I was just calling you up to let you know that there is a rather large beasty running around creating havoc in Junon. We managed to injure it, but it kinda disappeared from view and we can't seem to find it again."

Cloud hit his head against the nearest wall. "Reno, please tell me that you didn't shoot at Vincent…"

"Vincent? No! I know what his freaky demon form thingy looks like. This other demon thing was bigger and meaner looking." Cloud could see him in his minds eye making clawing motions with his hands while haphazardly balancing the phone between his ear and shoulder. "We caught it trying to eat a civilian and managed to slow it long enough for her to escape. She was kinda cute…"

"Reno," Cloud said impatiently.

"Alright, alright. Vincent showed up and attacked the other demon before leaving again. Kinda rude if you ask me…"

"What did the female look like?"

"Aww, Cloud, now I thought you and Tifa were dating…" Cloud growled into the phone.

"Alright! Sheesh, never let a guy have any fun… She had black waist length hair and a pretty face. Hard to make out the color of her eyes from that distance, but I would say they looked blue. Nice butt too…"

"Mae…" Cloud ignored the lewd comment and annoying voice on the other side of the phone to contemplate the incident. If it was a different demon, and it was after Mae, there was a good chance that the demon was Reixez. That would make sense, but it would also make things a lot more complicated.

"Reno," Cloud said interrupting the red head's rant about all the cute woman being taken. "Do you know what direction the woman and Vincent went towards?"

"They both headed East to the edge of Junon." Cloud motioned for Tifa to get Cid. She nodded and left.

"Ok, thanks Reno."

"Hey! No problem! We're willing to help out anytime!" Barret nudged Cloud on the arm. Cloud glanced over. He had forgotten that he was still in the room.

"Do ya think I could go see Marlene?" Cloud noticed the gunman dancing from foot to foot anxiously. "Ya know, have the Turks gimme a ride to Midgar?"

Cloud was about to tell him that it might not be safe, but didn't have the heart. The poor guy wanted to make sure his kid was ok, and Cloud wanted to know how Marlene and Denzel were fine.

"Sure Barret, hang on. Reno, you still there?"

"Yep!" came the enthusiastic reply.

"Do me a favor and take Barret to Midgar ok?"

"Sure, we're heading back there anyway."

"Good. We'll leave him at the air port."

"Okie dokie!"

Mae was still trying to figure out why a rather large gruesome demon was acting like a house pet when the Shera flew overhead of her. Chaos looked up momentarily distracted from the soothing hands scratching various spots on his head. They were enveloped in the shadow of the airship momentarily before it moved on slowing to bank and let off the passengers.

They were hovering a good distance away. A rope ladder was thrown over the side to provide a safer exit from the airship. Mae stayed where she was, calmly petting the demon in her lap. Cloud was the first one to reach her.

He was amazed by the sight of the petite woman petting Chaos as if he were a normal house cat. He stared at her as if to say, 'What the hell?'

Mae simply shrugged and continued to run her hands over the demon's head. Tifa and Red were the next to play witness to the strange sight. Chaos hadn't minded Cloud's presence, but at Red's he growled and flexed his claws, digging them into the ground. His wings spread and he glared at the large cat.

Red's eyes narrowed, but he stepped back in respect of the demon's power. Mae almost smiled at the cat's plight. Almost. Cloud watched the exchange lightly, before addressing Mae.

"How long has he been like that?" Mae shrugged, unsure of what he was referring to; the placid state of the demon of his actual form. Cloud narrowed his eyes. Mae sighed and decided to elaborate.

"I have no clue how long he's been in this form, I was to busy running from a blood crazed demon to count the minutes. And this is Vincent right?" Cloud nodded. "Well he was human when I left him last." She looked down at the demon thoughtfully. It was still glaring at Red XIII. "If I had to guess I'd say it's been anywhere from fifteen minutes to a half an hour."

Slightly amazed by how quick she adjusted to the fact that Vincent had a demon in him, Cloud took a moment to respond. "He normally doesn't stay in that form for very long, though there have been occasions where he has stayed that way for days…"

"What about the other demon," Red prompted impatiently.

"Yeah…" Cloud looked up from the ground and locked eyes with Mae. "The demon that Reno saw, the one that was chasing you… It was Reixez right?" Mae nodded.

"He found us and knocked out Cid. He was going to kill Vincent, so I tried to lure him away. The only problem was that he had tasted Vincent's blood and he was losing his human senses to blood lust. I knew that he would not leave his meal," she said spitting out the word with hate, "without proper incentive. So I drew some of my own blood to get his attention."

"I take it that your plan worked."

"A little to well," Mae admitted, breaking eye contact with Cloud to stare and the sedate demon sitting at her feet. "It was actually my fault that he transformed," she said sheepishly. "I knew he would if he caught scent of my blood in that state, causing him to go crazy from blood lust, losing whatever was left of his humanity…"

She looked up at Cloud with conviction in her eyes. "But I was not going to let him kill Vincent." Cloud was a bit taken aback by the sheer determined passion in her voice. She was daring him to tell her she had been wrong to do what she did.

"I'm glad," he said with a disarming smile. Mae's eyes lost their hard look. She let out a soft breath and smiled back wearily. Tifa looked up at the sky. More storm clouds were rolling in.

"Why don't we all get back to the airship? It looks like it's going to rain again."

"Great idea!" Mae said enthusiastically. "Only," she said playfully, "I happen to have a slight problem here." She pointed to the content demon who was still practically laying on her. "Just a little one, you know…" Her smile was contagious and Cloud was soon laughing at the ridiculous situation.

Vincent was going to be mortified when he got back to normal.

Red wasn't sharing in the humor. Chaos watched the cat out of the corner of his eyes, knowing full well he harbored ill intent towards his human companion. Speaking of the devil, she was trying to stand up. Chaos reluctantly moved off of her and stood as well, making sure he stretched to his full height to intimidate the fire cat staring down his mistress.

His intimidation technique worked on Red as well as Cloud and Tifa who were now eyeing Chaos warily. Mae didn't seem perturbed in the least though. Cloud noted this with some fascination, though he had to admit that being chased by someone like Reixez and standing next to a demon that had just been purring placidly in her lap didn't really compare.

"What are we going to do about Vincent? Can he go in the airship like this?" Cloud looked over to the smug demon, who was daring him with his eyes to say no. Cloud raised an eye brow at that one, but shrugged and said simply,

"It's up to Cid…"

"Hell the fuck no!" Cid said gripping the controls tightly. "You are not, I repeat NOT letting Chaos onto my beautiful airship!" Mae sighed and crossed her arms.

"He won't do anything, I'll make sure of it…"

"Ha!" the pilot scoffed. "You think you can control him? No one can control a demon." Mae frowned and glared angrily at the pilot.

"You're right, no one can control a demon, but Vincent-"

"Chaos."

"-listens to me for whatever reason and I'm sure that he will be fine. We can confine him to the Chocobo stables if that makes you happier." Cid tossed his cigarette butt into a bucket at his feet and lit another cancer stick. Tifa had replaced the ash tray when emptying it became a daily chore that Cid refused to do.

"Happier, heh," the pilot laughed ruefully. "I would be happier if he were to stay outside."

"Well that's all fine and dandy on a normal day when you don't have a blood crazed demon chasing us," Mae said exasperated.

No matter how much he wanted to fight it he knew the stubborn girl was right. He wasn't going to go down without a fight though…

Just as Cid was about to protest again Tifa ran into the room, slightly winded and her face pinched with worry. "Chaos is on the ship, he's headed this way." Cid got really red in the face and so worked up that he couldn't even mutter the choice curse words running through his head.

Seeing this, Mae hurried out towards the demon to prevent any impending disaster. It didn't take her long to find him and he stopped the moment he figured he was close enough.

"Come on Vincent, let's get you to the stables before Cid has a coronary…" The demon followed obediently in her steps. Mae should have been surprised, or honored that a demon was being so submissive towards her, but she'd had a long day, and knew better then to jinx something with a few misplaced words or thoughts.

The moment they entered the stables the Chocobos made themselves scarce, getting as far away from Chaos as they could, most choosing to return to their stalls to cower in the hay. Chaos growled at a rather small bundle of feathers that was traipsing around as if nothing unusual was going on.

Mae scooped up the little bird, who immediately tried to escape and dig into her pack. "Behave you little monster or I'll feed you to Chaos," she said battling the baby Chocobo playfully.

Chaos growled at his loss of attention. Maybe he could lure the bird close enough to chomp off a wing or two…

Sensing the thoughts of the demon going down a violent path, Mae handed the bird to its mother who was digging through a pile of hay looking for the rascally little baby. Chaos lay down on the soft layer of hay on the floor, tired of hunching over to avoid hitting the ceiling.

Mae walked back over, stretched out and lay by the far corner of the pen. Chaos did not like this arrangement, so he crawled over to Mae, nudging her away from the corner. She protested loudly, but the demon ignored her and curled up in the corner.

"You know, if you wanted to sit there you should have done it before I got comfortable!" Chaos could feel the irritation coming off the dark haired woman in waves. She stood up to find a different place to lie down, but was stopped when Chaos, unceremoniously grabbed her and dumped her back on her butt.

Mae found herself snuggled up to the demon who had none to gently told her to stay put but use of force. Under normal circumstances, she would have immediately vanquished said demon and went on her way, but this particular demon happened to be Vincent, and had provided her with emotional comfort just the night before.

So, between guilt and curiosity, Mae came to the conclusion that maybe it was best to stay close to him. Just in case. Fatigue from the frantic running coupled with the stress of the day had Mae yawning. She fell asleep moments after gathering enough hay to make a decent pillow. She made a mental note to get another shower in the morning so she didn't smell like a dirty Chocobo before sleep claimed her.

:: So yeah, once again, the reason for Chaos' strange (to say the least) behavior, will be revealed at a later date. From the looks of it, much later. The plot thickens in the next chapter, and it will have a nasty little cliff hanger that will have me hiding under my bed until I post the following chapter.

This chapter is for ObsessedAngel who screamed for Reno.

Any suggestions or ideas are welcomed and encouraged! Reviews wouldn't hurt either... ::