Chapter Ten

Claire hopped off the Tiny Bronco and sloushed through the shallows until she reached a deserted beach. In the distance was a forest. "You know," she said, brushing a strand of hair away from her face. "This planet sure does have a lot of plains punctuated by a lot of trees." Hands on her hips, she spun a slow survey, noting some semi-decent sized mountains. The terrain seemed pretty steady, and she doubted they would have anything really unique – like rainforests or deserts.

Or if they had them, she'd had not seen them yet.

Vincent leapt from the Bronco to the shore, landing lightly. But noisily. It was his pointy shoes' fault. It was hard to land ninja-quiet when wearing metal moccasins. He silently pulled out the Griffin, handing it to her. "I put an Anti-Gravity floater on it."

"What's that do?" she asked, fingers closing around the weapon. But as she took it, it became obvious. It made the gun lighter. She poked at the dangling charm. "How does it work?"

"Magic."

"Yeah, but how does it really work?" she mused. Her trip across the ocean was proof that she was on a different planet. On Earth she would have never even considered traveling from one continent to another on a broken airplane turned boat. Especially not for a trip taking more than a couple of days. Someone it had worked out. The plane had a ready supply of water – which didn't seem to run out no matter how much she drank. And Vincent never seemed to have a shortage of travel food (i.e. nasty military ration-type meals). Somehow she doubted the Turks ate travel rations, but then again, maybe they did.

Of course, she had suspended her disbelief, and allowed herself to simply enjoy the time alone with Vincent. She hadn't learned much about him – he was too much of a clam for that. But she had gotten used to the idea that she didn't mind a quiet and mysterious man. Once she figured out that he wasn't talkative, she even managed to out-silence him.

A day and a half into the journey – with her not making a peep – Vincent had asked about her love-life. It'd been an awkward moment for him. He rolled to a sitting position facing her, one leg extended, the other raised. Claire had blown him a kiss impulsively, and then directed her attention back to whatever daydream she'd been involved in.

"You weren't a virgin," Vincent had said.

Claire's head snapped around so face she heard tendons pop. "No kidding. I have had relationships before."

"But not now?" Vincent asked. He seemed deliberately uninterested in her response, so Claire knew he did care.

"Not now," she had agreed. She closed her eyes, Leon's face swimming into view. She sighed, thinking about how nice it would be if he really was her boyfriend. Then she wouldn't have to wonder about where she might end up with Vincent. She would be perfectly content to wonder what might have been, and devote her love to Leon.

"Who are you thinking of?"

"Leon . . ."

"Ex-boyfriend?"

Claire smiled wistfully. "No. But I'd like . . . him to notice me." She laughed softly. "I always end up falling for the guys who are either incapable of loving me, incapable of realizing they love me, or unwilling to love me like I love them." Another soft laugh. "Sad fact of life, I guess." She thought about all the creepy Umbrella guys who had expressed interest in her, and moaned. "And the really, creepy, sadistic guys."

Vincent sucked on his bottom lip, turning away.

Claire wondered what category he fit into. She didn't ask though. A good travel companion didn't push for details when in a confined space. Sometimes the details were unpleasant and percolated for the rest of the journey. (She'd learned that after reading Chris's sex journal before a ten-hour road trip . . .)

But now that they were on shore, she was willing to resume her questioning of Vincent, and that included a real answer to the question of how the Gravity Floater worked. She rotated her shoulders back. "So how does it really work?

Vincent gave her a weird look. "Magic."

"Magic? As in hocus pocus?"

"As in . . ." his voice trailed off. "Claire –"

"No, I don't believe in magic," she said. "Weird stuff, yes. Magic, no. And if you think zombies are magic, you'd better think again. They're created by a virus that animates dead flesh. That's science, not magic."

"Strange." Vincent started walking away, cape billowing.

Claire strolled after him, refusing to hurry. "How is it strange?"

Vincent didn't answer for a long time, and Claire didn't press him for an answer. The way she figured it, he was still trying to figure it out. After an hour of silence, she was about ready to offer her question, along with a reminder of the context. But Vincent stopped walking, turning to her, and fixing a level gaze. "I've never met someone who didn't believe in magic before."

"Never?"

"Lucrecia Crescent . . . the woman I love . . . was a scientist. She didn't believe in too much reliance on magic, but she believed in it. Her thesis was on Chaos. He rested a hand on his chest. Chaos is inside me now. The two of us are forever bound. I was killed by Hojo. Shot when I confronted him. He experimented on me. Transformed me into hideous monsters. But the final monster was Chaos, and with him came control. Well, with the protomateria. It wasn't science that saved my life . . . it was magic. And so, it's strange that you don't believe in magic." He stopped, eyeing her for a couple of seconds. Then he nodded, speech done.

Claire let him walk ahead of her while she tried to soak all of that in. She kept getting snagged on the first part. The woman I love. That figured. She always liked the guys who liked the girls who weren't Claire.

She pushed it aside. "Can you do magic?" she asked. "Besides transforming into . . . Chaos?"

"Of course."

"How?"

"With materia."

"Materia?"

Vincent stopped walking. "You have heard of it before, right?"

"Well, yeah," she said. "But I've never actually seen or used it."

"Back at the Tavern in Kalm Tifa cast a sleep spell on you," Vincent said. He snapped something free of his Cerberus and tossed it to her.

It was a red orb, almost completely filled with an internal red mist.

"That's a Fire Materia."

"It almost hot," she said. "How does it work?"

"Focus on Fire, and it will come," Vincent said. "Try it in the next fight."

"Kay," she said. They walked in near silence for a few more minutes before the next fight was upon them. It was a couple of little green men with hats and clubs.

Vincent opened fire, shooting one dead instantly. "Try Fire."

Claire hesitated. "But they're mini-people."

"They're goblins," Vincent corrected. He shot another one. And then turned around to face three more who had been trying to sneak up behind. "Just draw the Fire out. It's easy."

Claire frowned, but tried. Nothing happened. "Do I like have to clear my mind or something? Visualize a wall of fire?"

"No. Just Cast Fire."

"How?"

"Raise your arm and drop it," Vincent said. "When your hand falls, the fire will consume your foe."

"Right." Claire raised her arm, dropped it.

And nothing happened.

Well, that wasn't entirely sure. Vincent shot the remaining goblins before they could attack Claire or him.

"It didn't work" she said. "Maybe I can't do magic."

"Everyone can."

Claire punched him lightly in the arm. "Well, apparently I can't. And it's not like I've seen you do it either." She made to hand him the orb, but he shook his head. He pulled another one out, this one ice blue. In the next fight, he blasted ice around the monster, causing it to keel over permanently.

"Okay, you can do magic," Claire said. But no matter what she tried, she couldn't get the Fire Materia to work in the four hour march to the first significant landmark. By now they were at the edge of an inverted triangle hole.

"This is where the Temple of the Ancients used to be," Vincent said. "Cloud gave the Black Materia to Sephiroth for the first time here, and Aerith decided to go to the Forgotten City to pray for Holy."

"Sounds like it was a real . . . blast." She eyed the hole skeptically, trying to determine exactly how the thing had gotten blown up so that it would leave such a neat hole . . .

"Sephiroth killed Aerith, but not before she summoned Holy. But his power allowed him to block the message to the Planet, so we continued on, eventually battling him in the Northern Crater." Vincent smiled without humor. "It was there where Cloud and Tifa were repeatedly turned into frogs and everyone wanted my ribbon."

"Is that a joke?"

"No. Which reminds me. Watch out for the Touch Me's."

"O~kay," she said.

They continued on. "We've got to be getting close now," Claire said. They'd reached a small clearing and her legs were starting to hurt. Not to mention the fact that her stomach was empty and the bite-mark on her neck was starting to throb. She was worried about the hunger . . . but too nervous to tell Vincent about it.

"It should be about a mile away," Vincent said. He glanced at her, expression softening for a second. If Claire didn't know about Lucretcia she would have thought he looked lovingly at her. "We should stop and rest before breaking in. It will be an intense fight."

"Right," Claire said.

So they set up camp, ready to wait out the rapidly falling darkness – at least until the dead of night, which is when they would sneak in, find Hojo and eliminate him forever. Hopefully.

Vincent built a small fire and pulled cooking supplies from somewhere. Claire looked around the clearing, mind wandering. When all of a sudden she saw a strange frog. It was about the size of a water-bottle and brilliant green. It hopped toward her until it was a scant two feet away. Then it stood up on its hind legs and seemed to look right at her.

"Hey Vincent," she said, not sure if it was a threat or not. It certainly didn't look dangerous. "What is that?"

Several things happened at once. Vincent drew his gun and shot at the frog. The frog darted forward and slapped her leg. The world began to spin, getting larger and larger, and she was suddenly on the ground, as a frog . . . And as luck would have it, the Turks burst into the clearing on a golden chocobo, which came to an abrupt halt, tossing Reno off.

Then Cloud stomped out of the bushes. "You are a despicable creature, Reno. You know that."

Reno hauled his ass up from the ground, and at the same time, Claire felt herself getting scooped up and tucked into the folds of Vincent's cloak. She could still see everything. Including a brief spat with Reno and Cloud that ended with the former sprawled on top of Rude. Both unconscious, but not dead. She hoped.

"Good to see you again, Cloud."

Cloud shot Vincent an irritated glare. He made a beeline to his chocobo after squishing the Turks, and he had been petting her soothingly. "Good to see you too." His mako-glow eyes swept the area, looking for Claire and not seeing her. "Where's she?"

"I left her with the Tiny Bronco," Vincent lied. "I don't want her to get hurt by Hojo. She felt it was best. We don't know what he did to her."

"Right," Cloud said. He seemed like he was going to add more, but didn't. "Well, can you use company on this journey?"

"Yeah."

Cloud swung onto Lightning. "It'll go faster this way.

"Agreed." Vincent swung onto the chocobo behind Cloud. And together they rode toward the Umbrella facility.

Claire was silent, still shocked about getting turned into a toad. And not sure what to say or do. If Cloud had previously been a frog she knew it wasn't permanent, but she didn't know how long it lasted either. Maybe until True Love's Kiss . . . and if that was the case, she was screwed.