Green Pig:- I have a new Final Fantasy fanfic soon to be posted! It's called (at the moment unless I can think of something better) 'Past Present Pretences' just cuz it sounded cool at the time.  It is a Vincent/Yuffie romance again but there is sweetness between Cloud and Tifa :: everybody say *awww!* :: I've written most of it, and it's written in a completely different way to this which totally works for me and I shall continue on it some more but only when June arrives because that's when I finally leave school and have all of the following months up to September completely FREE!!!!!!!! ::sheds a tear:: it's going to be so wonderful…

Please don't forget to review ::hugs:: I'm in a cuddly mood.

Disclaimer: - Final Fantasy does not belong to me. Squaresoft is cool. ^_^

Part Four

Yuffie bathed in the water and sat under the surface so that only her head poked out of the water and scrubbed the dirt and mud off of her face.  She was muttering to herself and occasionally she froze, listening…

"Who's there?" She said loudly once or twice, but it was never anything, just her imagination.  Damn it I'm getting too hopeful…stop thinking about Vincent, Yuffie, this is stupid!

Something rustled in a bush opposite her on the bank.  She instinctively covered herself with her arms and dropped deeper under the water and glared suspiciously at the bush.

"Come out then! Stop peeking at me whoever you are!" A rabbit scrambled out of the bush and look innocently curious at her before hopping away.  Yuffie breathed a sigh of relief, stepped out of the water and dressed again feeling much happier about being clean and fresh from the spring water.  She went back to the camp quickly; sure that everyone wanted to start searching the rest of the island for somewhere to stay the night, before noon came.

Someone came to the water not minutes after she had left and looked curiously at the footprints left by her.  I wonder if it was Yuffie? Vincent thought, and was glad that he'd missed her bathing in the water or else he'd have been in a very embarrassing situation.  However, a part of him deep, deep inside that hadn't had a say in anything for the past thirty years suddenly woke up and prodded a thought into his mind and he felt disappointed that he'd missed her.

Oh well. And he continued his walk onwards through the forest to the cave at the northern area of the island, sure that somewhere inside would be the legendary materia waiting for someone to take it.  If he got it, then he could…he could…in truth Vincent just wanted to go get it himself and be away from the group for a while, in peace and quiet.  Plus… his left arm was feeling badly sore and heavy, it was getting worse by the day, but at least he had cured himself of the poison by taking an antidote he'd found on an enemy earlier and his arm was no longer broken since he'd fixed that back into place the night before.  Still, he didn't feel that he should risk being near Cloud and the others until he was sure that he was completely safe from being taken over by Chaos.

Vincent felt his head pounding.  He tried to ignore it and ran off through the trees trying to get as far away from the others; he knew what was coming – it was the feeling he got before he transformed into Chaos and when he was that creature, nothing could stop him.  But this was different; usually the time between the headache and the transformation was brief, it had been going on for days now, he had now idea what was coming but he knew it was going to be big, bad and ultimately powerful.

~Final Fantasy VII~

Cloud was leading the gang through the cold forests, he didn't really know where he was going but they were heading further into the island to see if they could find any handy caves to spend the night in, maybe even a small settlement of people or something, anything.

Yuffie leapt out in front of them and triggered the whole group to bring out their weapons in surprise.

"WOAH! I'm safe! See?" She said pointing to a VERY large bunch of fruit in her hand.

"Fruit?"

"Yes Cloud, it's called fruit." She replied with sweet sarcasm.

"Can we have some?"

"Ummmm…" Yuffie walked around them slowly. "Here Red, have an apple." Red devoured it hungrily.

"Have a banana Barret."

"Is this your way of makin' fun?"

"Not at all…mango for Tifa and a peach for Cid aaaaaaand…" She came up to Cloud and gave him a strawberry.

"How'd you find this?"

"With great difficulty, but you deserve one."

"Why?"

"Because you're just so CUTE." (A/N *awww so true!!!* ^_^)

"And where have you been? Did you find Vincent?" Yuffie suddenly blushed.

"Er, yeah he said he wasn't coming back so we could go on without him."

"Not coming back?" Tifa gasped.

"Not for a while, he hasn't just given up on us he's just gone away for a while."

"Well who needs that unsociable, sulky @*~#'^ anyway.  Let's forget about him and carry on, my butt's getting' cold!" So they did, they travelled all day and all night, until eventually near the hour of 4am they came across a huge mountain range in front of them.  There was a very high cliff and they could just see that at the top was a cave.

"Hey! Who's that?" Tifa cried out, but too loud, because obviously the person above them heard and quickly hid themselves.

"I think that was Vincent – dude you can recognise his cloak so easily!!" Yuffie shouted out. "Hey, VINNY!!!!"

"Oawwwwww!!! Burst my ear drums why doncha?" Tifa groaned.  Yuffie leapt forward and began to climb up the cliff.

"Come on guys! Let's go get in that cave!!!" They followed her only because it seemed to be the obvious thing to do and she made it to the top first.

Vincent was waiting, the red summon materia glowing in his out stretched claw arm.  The sight of such a powerful looking materia made Yuffie's mouth start to drool inside, but it was made more appealing being held by the man who she had grown to love.

"They coming up?" He said.

"Yeah." He nodded his head towards the cave.

"There's a great map in there made by some explorer years ago – I know where exactly we are and where we can get a boat of some kind back to the mainland."

"You do? I mean, you know how to get back home?"

"No." Yuffie looked confused.

"What?"

"… I have no home.  You're home is far off in Wutai and the others are spread out even more across the world. I can't take you home, only back to the mainland." Yuffie rolled her eyes.

"Okay, okay, so just help us get back to the mainland!" Vincent shook his head and tucked the red summon materia into his pocket.

"…What are you doing?" Cloud and the others were approaching the end of the climb quickly. Vincent was retreating back into the shadow of the cave.

"WAIT!!" Yuffie reached out for him, clambered up onto the top of the cliff and raced into the cave.  It was surprisingly small and empty, where the red materia had lain was now just an empty space.  Vincent had completely disappeared.

Cloud stepped in.

"...But he was just…he came in here…"

"Wasn't Vincent here just now…?" Yuffie started and snapped round to see Cloud.

"Yeah, yeah he was.  He's just disappeared!"

"When? Just now?"

"Yes! Just now!" But there was nothing they could do to bring him back and they used the map to return back to the mainland.  There, AVALANCHE broke up to go their separate ways and return to their own homes, protecting their friends and family from the monsters that were all that remained of Shinra's past existence, until eventually, when they were older with children of their own (all except Yuffie) Yuffie stepped out from her dojo and looked across at the mountains, she thought she heard something calling.

No, it was crying…

Green Pig:- Oooo! Okay so I don't know what's gonna happen either!!! We shall see what I can dish up… stay tuned…oo! Review! Pwease? (0),(0)