The vehicles landed in a field on the outskirts of Nibelheim near where Trevor's copter was still parked and waiting. Young Trevor had exited his vehicle to await the arrival of the incoming forces and had gotten thoroughly soaked. He was still standing, straight and shaking, clearly freezing, as several groups of WRO research troops, Cait Sith riding atop Nanaki's back, and Vincent collectively exited their vehicles to approach him.
Nanaki and Cait Sith were the first to reach him, having the benefit of faster movement on four legs. Cait Sith had bundled himself up in the hood of Nanaki's cloak and wasn't visible to Trevor upon their approach.
"Greetings, are you Trevor?" Nanaki asked in a rush as soon as they'd reached him.
"Uh," the young man began, attempting to control his shiver while he formulated a response. "Y-Yeah." He gave the feline a quick nod. "You can t-talk," he stated. He didn't frame it as a question to Nanaki, despite the shock displayed clearly on his face.
"Oh, tha's not'sa strange," Cait Sith interjected, finally poking his head out from Nanaki's hood.
"Agh!" The young man squeaked, as if a talking cat growing a second head was the last thing his heart could tolerate. Quickly realizing the offense his involuntary reactions might have caused, Trevor shut his eyes tight and bowed. "I-I'm sorry, I thought everything was fine, but now I don't know what's going on," he sheepishly admitted. Cait Sith snickered, softly this time.
"Have you heard from Yuffie?" Nanaki quickly asked, taking up the responsibility of the conversation since Cait Sith was slacking.
Trevor snapped to attention again with an aggressive head shake. "N-No! Not since she went into town. I...I thought she got held up by the storm, 'cause we're not supposed to fly in them... Ah," he hesitated for a moment, then scrambled into the vehicle behind him, fishing out his walkie. "Yuffie—" he began, but his own voice echoed back to him from inside the copter. A pit of dread was forming inside his stomach.
Vincent reached the group just as Trevor was diving back into the vehicle to search for the source of the sound. "What's the status?" He asked, calmly.
A few seconds later, a worried Trevor reappeared in the vehicle's doorway, this time carrying two walkies instead of just one.
"Ahhh," Cait Sith groaned. "Not good, m'fraid. Though I guess we knew tha'much already." Cait Sith uncovered himself to stand properly atop Nanaki's head. "So 'ere's what's happened: our friend Nanaki," he motioned to the large cat below him, "Was on the phone with Yuffie jes' passin' tha time in tha storm when something attacked her in the mansion. None of us 'ave been able to get'ahol'er since." Cait Sith pointed directly at Trevor, spooking him. "YOU stay 'ere, in case she gets out before we get in, and radio us soon'as ya see 'er." Trevor gave the small cat an even smaller nod. "Good! C'mon boys," Cait Sith redirected his attention towards the gates of the town, motioning his free hand and his megaphone towards them.
The groups complied with the visual command.
"There's no way he's going to listen to you," Nanaki whispered.
"If he doesn't, then ya know tha plan, Nan—keep him outta the fray best as ya can," Cait Sith responded, louder, as if he wasn't concerned at all who could hear.
Nanaki reduced the pace of his stride to walk beside Vincent. "Did you know about the monster we fought before we found you?" He asked the man directly.
"I assumed there had been many," Vincent responded, softly. And that I was just another, he continued in his mind.
"Of course," Nanaki said. "But not many of them were shapeshifters."
Like myself, Vincent thought. He didn't say anything.
The forces made their way into Nibelheim's town square, their capes flapping hard against the rain and wind, nearly mimicking the echos of thunder in intensity. Cait Sith reburied himself in Nanaki's hood while Nanaki prepared himself to continue his conversation, just as yet another deafening crack of thunder sounded, making him hesitate all over again.
"I wasn't in the state of mind to ask," Vincent finally invited, once the last of the overhead rumbles faded. Truthfully, that the beast was another shapeshifter made him think it was more than likely a precursor to his own existence—another failed, discarded experiment from his tormentor's legacy left to suffer Vincent's own fate. He felt the underpinnings of shame creep across his heart at the realization that he could still become a creature just like the one they were about to face, it was merely a matter of time.
"This thing..." Nanaki began, trying to formulate how best to describe it. "It would have bested us if Cloud hadn't figured out what it was doing. It evolved to resist whatever attack was used against it. One part of it was weak to magic, the other to physical..."
"Hm," Vincent grunted.
Nanaki stopped suddenly. Vincent turned, watching his comrade's ears twitch in every direction. A low growl sounded from deep within Nanaki's chest for a split second before he bolted forward into a sprint. Cait Sith could be heard yelping as Nanaki ran into the distance toward the manor. Vincent took off after him, only a moment behind the beast.
The WRO forces began to jog behind, unable to match the inhuman speed of either Vincent or Nanaki.
Nanaki crossed the threshold of the manor's courtyard in seconds by clearing the gate with one mighty leap. While Vincent could have done the same, he chose to open the gate to help the WRO members still on their way. He slowed his approach to Nanaki, watching as his comrade leaned his body up against the closet window to peer inside. As he closed the distance, Vincent could hear Nanaki panting and snarling as a frantic Caith Sith attempted to calm him.
"I SEE IT, REEVE," Nanaki kept repeating, hyper-focused in bloodthirst.
"AYE, AYE, REMEMBER WHAT WE TALKED ABOUT, LAD. Ya can't go'round like this!"
When Vincent was close enough, he leaned in to look through the dusty window just above Nanaki and Cait Sith. The three of them watched the tentacled monstrosity rampage about the first floor of the mansion, lashing its tentacle arms against the staircases and railings. While Nanaki couldn't part his gaze from his targeted prey, Vincent's eyes traced the direction of its thrashing up above, not to the first landing but to the second, and there he spotted...a body.
White hot rage burned within him as he stormed away from the window and towards the door, bursting through it with Nanaki right against his heels. Cait Sith launched himself from Nanaki's hood before they could rush in.
"WHAT ARE YA IDIOTS DOIN'?!" He screeched. "YA DON'T EVEN HAVE A PLAN!" But both Vincent and Nanaki were gone before he could finish trying to stop them.
A wet and seething Cait Sith was left to catch his troops up to speed and make a plan by himself, and he was too distracted to notice a lone, young pilot sneaking along the outskirts of the courtyard and towards the open door.
Nanaki let out a vicious roar as he lunged ahead of Vincent, catching the attention of the monster who swung one of its tentacle-arms directly at him. Nanaki caught it in his mouth, and though the force of its impact lifted him into the air and bashed him against a wall, the strength of his jaw ripped a chunk away from the appendage, leaving a trail of thick black ooze as it retreated.
Vincent commenced his own frontal assault, aiming Death Penalty and firing two shots, both directed toward the foe's giant head. The enemy protected itself by folding both of its arms over itself with lightning speed, though it let out a massive shriek of pain and oozed more black blood as the bullets passed through and stuck themselves somewhere deep within its thick appendages.
Nanaki, taking a moment to refill his lungs after impact had knocked the wind from them, circled back around to Vincent's side.
The foe was quiet and still with both arms remaining tightly wrapped around its body. Both men waited for its counter attack, muscles tensed and reflexes poised for a swift dodge once the strike finally came.
"Is this the form that's weak to magic?" Vincent suddenly asked Nanaki.
"No," Nanaki panted. "The other one was."
"Look," Vincent demanded. Both men watched as tendrils of flesh warped and writhed to seal the holes of Vincent's bullets and mend the gap of Nanaki's bite. Vincent chanced a glance at Nanaki, who looked thoroughly horrified.
"It—it didn't do this before," Nanaki stammered, his voice small.
"If it has magic, it has access to healing," Vincent said, his eyes fixed upon the foe once more.
"The other form could use magic too, but it never healed," Nanaki insisted.
The battlefield debate miraculously covered up Trevor's steps as he quickly sneaked his way right up the first staircase.
The monster produced a shrill scream as it finally unraveled itself. The smaller tentacles on its body writhed atop each other as it prepared to cast—-both Nanaki and Vincent felt their body hair stand on end, dodging in different directions just as the bolts materialized above them.