~Hi-hi! With the new computer comes my renewed passion for writing! YAY NEW COMPUTER!!! And, yay, this new chapter here is even out in time for my birthday. YAY MY BIRTHDAY!!! So, without further ado, the next chapter! Disclaimer: Why do I bother…? You know I don't own FFVII.

Ninja

~*~12~*~

She cursed as she stumbled over yet another rock. "Gawd! Why do there have to be so *&^%ing many of these damn loose pebbles? My feet hurt!"

Red XIII chuckled at her. He himself was having no problems on the rough terrain, and at the moment Yuffie really wished she had four paws instead of her two feet. {Or at least that damn catlike agility…}

"Perhaps we should rest while you regain your footing and your temper?" he snickered at her.

"Ooh, that's it! You are SO dead, Red!" she snarled and began to chase him. {After all, that's only the fiftieth time he's implied I can't keep up today!} "Get back here and fight like a man, you kitten!"

Red, however, simply laughed at her feeble attempts to provoke him and bounded off. At least the path he was leading her down wasn't very rocky. She took notice of the trees around her as she ran and noticed why. He was leading her down the main road that led to the heart of the Ancient capital. {Oh… I guess he wants to visit Aeris's grave first. Heh, I'm cool with that…}

The large cat came to an abrupt halt in front of her, right at the spot where the trees gave way to the clearing. Yuffie, unprepared for his sudden halt, yelped and tried to stop. Her foot landed on one of the accursed pebbles, however, and she lost her balance and crashed into him, sending them both tumbling over one another.

"Ow… What the hell didja stop for!? The least you could do is warn me, you flea ridden…!" She trailed off, the sound of musical giggling ringing through the clearing. She looked up in surprise.

There, sitting next to the flowers that surrounded the clear pool of water was a woman. Her long, somewhat unevenly cut red hair was illuminated by the sun that shone through the trees and pulled back into two ponytails. Her dress was long and simple, green pulled over a white turtleneck sweater, and her eyes were hidden by the glare of the sun glinting off of her enormous glasses. Yuffie gaped.

"Excuse me, miss," Red said, shifting out from under Yuffie and pulling himself in a more dignified position, "but may I ask why you are here? One does not often see people in this dangerous and remote area."

The girl stopped giggling and instead simply smiled. "Oh, of course. I'm here to study this place. You see, I'm sort of a researcher. They told me that I would meet very special people if I waited here. Are you them? The people who saved the planet?"

Yuffie pulled herself up and grinned. "Yep! We sure are! Wait, who's 'they'?"

The other female seemed quite taken aback but quickly recovered herself. "Oh! Forgive my rudeness! I've been talking away and we haven't even been introduced! My name is Mizu Koorime, a sort of rogue researcher of old cultures. The Ancient civilization is the closest to me, though."

"Nice to meetcha! I'm the greatest ninja in the world, Yuffie Kisaragi!" The self proclaimed greatest ninja extended her hand to Mizu, who took it and shook with her politely.

"And I am Nanaki, guardian of Cosmo Canyon," he nodded his head to her. "But you may call me Red XIII if you wish. Now, what were you saying about 'them'?"

"Oh, you know… 'them'." Mizu looked a bit distressed. "You mean, you saved the planet and still cannot hear them? Oh, that's right… You aren't… The voices of the planet. I-I speak to them. And one of them told me you were coming here, so I waited. I don't know what help I could be, but…"

"Whoa! You mean you're an Ancient!? Weren't they all killed?" Yuffie was staring at her with wide eyes, and Mizu blushed slightly under all of the attention.

"Well, most of them," she explained, "But like the one who told me to wait, there were survivors. Very few, however, and I have yet to find more than a couple of more like myself. Which is why I'm studying them, their way of life. And, if I can help you…"

"You say we need help, yet how would you know? Unless…" Nanaki trailed off. "The one you speak of… Describe them."

"I did not see, yet… A soft female voice, very musical and a pleasure to listen to. She spoke very highly of you all, and said you could use my help. That's… really all I know." She bowed apologetically.

{Aeris…} From the look on Red XIII's face, he'd come to the same conclusion. {Unless this Mizu girl's another of Cyrus's lackeys… Still, if she can translate these books, she'll be useful}

"Tell us, what do you know of languages?" Nanaki asked, studying her with his eye. He seemed to trust her, and Yuffie had heard that animals had a sixth sense for these things, so…

The girl seemed to brighten even more at the mention of languages. "Oh! I love them! In fact, I'm a linguists scholar more than anything. You kind of have to be in my line of work. Do you…" She leaned forward, and Yuffie could see bright emerald eyes behind the glasses, "Do you need something translated? I love translations!"

Yuffie stared at her a few moments. "Isildous Vaspiris." She said simply.

Mizu blinked and thought for a moment. "Hm… It sounds like the Ancient tongue… 'The Transformation of the Night Lord?' Or to be short, 'Vampire's Curse.' I think that's right…" She stared at them. "You have a written document of the Ancient's folklore!? Oh, may I see it? Please?"

The young ninja-in-training was taken aback by the woman's eager pleas to see a dirty old book, but she wasn't going to look a gift linguist in the mouth. Or, er, whatever the saying was. She looked at Red and they both nodded. "Great! Now we can just kick back while you figure out what these old rags say!"

"T-these!?" Mizu's voice was overflowing with excitement. "Y-you mean there are more?"

Yuffie nodded and pulled the stack of tomes from her pack. The other woman gave a squeal of delight and hugged them close, as if verifying their existence. "Oh, I'll get started right away! Here, let's go to my camp. I set up in one of the shell houses, follow me!" Mizu practically skipped off in the direction of the cracked shells, and Yuffie simply shook her head as she fell into step with Nanaki.

"Yo Red, what do you think? Just so I know I'm not the only one screwing up by trusting a total stranger this time."

The orange feline chuckled. "I trust her. She doesn't smell like one with impure intentions, and besides, she's the only lead we have if we're to translate those documents. Which leads me to wonder: Why are you so interested in their translation? Materia certainly can't be the whole cause. You seem secretive lately, more so than usual. Is it perhaps something pertaining to Vincent?"

Yuffie nearly tripped at his perceptiveness, but managed to keep her footing somewhat steady. "Aw, c'mon Red! You know Vinnie wouldn't want me to help him!" She lowered her voice into a poor impersonation of Vincent's, complete with melodramatic hand gestures. "Yuffie! You must not trouble yourself with such a lowly monster such as I! I must atone by myself!"

She heard Nanaki laughing beside her at her rather masterful (in her humble opinion) impersonation of the dark ex-Turk.

The moment they reached Mizu's temporary home, the studious Ancient wasted no time in setting the books lovingly on her work table and beginning her work immediately. She was entranced, and the occasional 'hm…' or 'wow!' would issue forth from her. She scribbled notes down in a separate notebook, but Yuffie couldn't quite make out the writing. After about half an hour of watching her enraptured researcher at her work, Yuffie found herself growing restless. Nanaki, it seemed, was quite content to watch Mizu in her learning, and was obviously waiting for her to finish and share the knowledge she was gleaning with him.

The short-haired girl walked to the entrance of the building and looked back. "Hey, I'm goin' outside for awhile! I'll be back later! See ya!" And with that, she was out the door and off to find something to do.

The sun gleamed beautifully in the afternoon sky, its heat a great contrast to the chill of the northern winds. There wasn't a cloud in the entire azure sky, and Yuffie felt that this was a great day for adventuring. {Heh, now that my feet don't hurt so much. Goddamned rocks…} Still, she couldn't stray too far. She would have to find something nearby to occupy her time and kill her boredom…

She spent most of her time finding poor little monsters to kill, deciding that raiding their bodies for a bit of gil would be fun as well as profitable. None of the poor bastards even had a chance against her mad shuriken skills, and she felt her tension melt away in the heat of her slaughter fest. In fact, she had become so caught up in her 'fun' that she hadn't even noticed the sun's position. It was almost twilight. {Oh wow, I'd better be heading back. Don't want 'em to worry about me too much!}

She managed to find her way back fairly easily. In fact, there was a full moon out to guide her way. But, she noticed that the moon looked rather sinister this night. It was large and stained an insidious red, the color of fresh blood. Yuffie shuddered, and stepped quickly inside. In Wutai, stories of the red moon were told often. It was a bad omen, a sign of terrible tragedy. Children were never allowed to play outside on the rare evenings one was seen, and protection amulets were hung on most doors, a petition to Leviathan to watch over their households and protect them from the shadowed evils that the red moon brought. Yuffie had never been a very superstitious person, but still…

She had a bad feeling about that moon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vincent glared into the dark, dusty rooms as various colorful phrases floated through his mind. The events of the previous few days had left him in a somewhat dark mood, and for some reason his feelings seemed incredibly strong this night. He assumed it was due to the nature of his current mission, the search of Cyrus's lab.

The complex was even larger and more confusing than even Vincent had guessed, and he had been very lucky indeed to have found the room where Yuffie had been held again. He and Cloud had spent careful hours combing through that particular chamber. It had served little purpose, however, other than Vincent's discovery of a few 'scientific' tools that made even his blood run cold.

A ringing from somewhere in the folds of his cloak startled him as he walked through the many identical corridors. {The PHS… Who…?} He retrieved the phone and wondered absently when the last time it had rung had been. {Hm, not since Yuffie's prank call in the crater…} He pressed the flashing button labeled 'T' and held the device to his ear.

"Yes, Tifa?" he asked, resuming his walk through the halls.

"Hi Vincent. Hey, I found something I think you should see. Are you near the entrance?"

His face contorted in annoyance. {Even if I was near the beginning of this labyrinth, how would I know?} "Yes." After all, if he wasn't, he could get there.

"Good!" Tifa's voice was relieved. "Anyway, when you get there, follow that reflective tape I left on the walls. I'll wait for you out in the hall." Her voice grew distant, as if she were yelling away from the phone. "Hey! Cloud!" There was a small beep and the line went dead.

He replaced the phone in its customary place amidst his possessions and began his trek to the reflective tape. Tifa was an intelligent woman to have thought ahead for this event. He himself left small slashes on every door of the rooms he'd visited with his claw. It was by following these gashes that he was able to quickly return to the hall where Tifa's tape began. He didn't have to walk very long from there at his brisk pace before he saw Tifa waiting in the hall.

"What happened to Cloud?" He inquired, seeing no sign of the spiky haired swordsman.

"Huh? Oh! He said he needed to do something. Follow me," She turned to enter the room behind her.

The room was large and lavishly decorated. A large bed furnished in dark, silky materials was resting near the wall to his left. Standing adjacent to this was a large, ornately carved vanity with a mirror larger than he thought was strictly necessary. This was flanked by two large bookcases filled with old a new volumes alike. He eyed the tomes and ran a finger over their spines.

"Those are mostly romance novels," Tifa informed him. She sat at the vanity's bench and picked up a stack of papers that had been resting on the surface. "I found these behind one of the bookcases."

"What are they?" Vincent asked, seating himself on the bed across from her. The bed was extremely soft, almost beckoning him to lay down and rest. He had a suspicion he knew who's room this had been.

"Well, these seem to be… copies, I think, of a few of Cyrus's experiment records." She seemed increasingly uncomfortable.

He stared at the papers and nodded slightly. "Well? Either tell me what you've found or hand me the documents."

The busty woman seemed reluctant to speak. "Well… This one says 'I.D.: A.V., test subject: Adriana Valintine, age: seventeen.' It goes on to list more of her personal information, then says 'Combined subjects: Succubus, JENOVA cells, human. Restraining measures taken. Reason: Saw too much, interference. Leading scientist: Cyrus Torri.' " She paused. "Then it keeps track of her progress. It-it is the same woman as the kidnapper, right? I feel sorry for her…"

Vincent nodded. "I knew her before her alteration. She did not deserve that." There were a few moments of silence before he spoke again. "What of the other papers?"

"Well, the next one is the longest and most recently updated. It says: 'I.D.: VIC, test subject: Special. Combined subjects: Ice spirit, banshee, JENOVA cells…" She trailed off, unable to finish.

Annoyed, he leaned forward and snatched the papers from her hands before scanning the page. His eyes widened in shock as he stared at the information in his hand.

/Combined subjects: Ice spirit, banshee, JENOVA cells, Sephiroth DNA, Vincent Valentine DNA./

"A clone…" he trailed off, unable to continue. {No wonder he looked so similar to myself and Lucrecia's son. Cyrus took samples of my DNA and that of the newborn Sephiroth…} Vincent felt somewhat ill, but continued to read bit more. The child Vic was grown in a lab, and was apparently raised as an almost normal child until his powers manifested. He threw the documents to the ground in disgust and stood to leave.

"Vincent?" Tifa asked softly.

"I am not feeling well. I am going to get some fresh air and clear my mind." He stalked from the room and followed the reflective tape to the entrance of the building and stepped out into the cold night.

The full moon shown down upon him and he stared up into it, willing his jumbled mass of thoughts to calm and collect themselves. The moon was an odd, almost crimson color and hung so low in the velvety darkness of the sky that he felt he might be able to grasp it if he tried. He felt his thoughts slipping away into the recesses of his mind as it seemed to clear in his examination of this eldritch orb. He found himself stranded in the midst of a red haze that seemed to wrap around his mind and left him feeling strangely… different…

*Vincent?* a deep voice rumbled questioningly in the recesses of his mind. He ignored it. He felt a sharp pain in his mouth, but it was drowned out in the force of something more powerful. His senses were alight. He could feel the wind rushing past his face more vividly than he ever remembered, and the colors seemed so much richer… He breathed in deeply and he was assaulted by a myriad of scents he'd never noticed before.

He heard something behind him as he relished his newfound senses. Soft footfalls, boots, crunching the snow. The scent of jasmine and woman flowing through the breeze. He turned and smirked slightly at the human before him. He knew her, passingly, but could not place her name. It mattered not.

"Vincent?" She asked, tentatively stepping towards him, her long dark hair whipping back in the wind. "What's wrong with you? Your eyes…" She stopped, gaping.

His smirk turned to a grin and he beckoned to her. "Come here, woman," he enticed, his voice smooth and silky.

She took a few steps but stopped, her eyes moving to his exposed teeth. "Oh my god… Vin-CLOUD!" She screamed, but was unable to run. She could only stare at him as he concentrated on her burgundy eyes.

"Stop your screaming, woman," he hissed, his voice turning venomous. "I'm not going to hurt you." He watched as the panic faded, and her eyes started to glaze. "Now, come."

She walked slowly towards him, coming to a stop when she was within an inch of him. He drew her near and inhaled her scent before lowering his head to her neck.

*VINCENT! SNAP OUT OF IT! VINCENT!*

He growled lightly. "You will not stop me, demon." He drew in another breath of jasmine from her as he rested his lips on her skin. This woman was soft, though he briefly reflected that he'd felt softer. {But who…} Her pulse was slow, a side effect from his control on her mind, and he was a bit disappointed that she had not fought harder. She did not have the energy he craved. The memory of a lily scent invaded his mind, and he paused. {Where have I known such a scent…?}

In his wavering resolve, his spell on the woman was weakened to a point where she began to struggle. "Cl-CLOUD! HELP!" She tried to fight, but his inhuman strength was too much, even for as strong a fighter as she was.

"I told you to shut up!" he tightened his grip, his claw piercing the flesh of her arm. The scent of her blood invaded his senses and there were no more lilies. His eyes glazed in his blood lust and he yanked her head back by her long hair and moved for her neck, fangs gleaming in the pale moonlight.

~*~End Chapter~*~

~Damn, that's an evil cliffhanger, even for me! Sorry there's still no Vinnie/Yuffie goodness, but… Absence make the heart grow fonder, ne? ^_^ In another note… *Holds her vase of newly acquired black roses and her Vinnie doll.* Thank you, Angel280, for unknowingly giving me my birthday present! ~

~Kai