New Ways

Chapter 4:

Harsh Reality

"I'm... I'm fine..." Yuffie was surprised that it was Vincent who really cared. Red XIII was just acting on childhood impulses, childhood innocence. Vincent was truly asking her if she was alright. Yuffie got up, and smoothed out her dress which had wrinkles on it from being on her ass for so long. She took for the door slowly, trying to look as dignified as possible, but it didn't really work. She wanted to cry for making such a huge fool of herself, but she couldn't cry. Not in front of Vincent, and plus, she still hadn't gotten that much-needed glass of water. She pinched the palm of her right hand hard, in attempt to distract her mind.

Vincent stood up, and stared after Yuffie silently, then right before she left the room, he spoke out once more. "Don't be intimidated. If you're truly telling the truth in your letter, then... Intimidation is not what you need."

He was referring to her being the new leader of Wutai, of course. Everyone thought that she was lying, and she knew it, even before this all happened. Barret, of course, felt the most strongly about it. He wanted everyone to celebrate with him. There was something comforting about having a rebel group by his side, in both hard times, and happy times, and at first, AVALANCHE was the group. AVALANCHE is dead now, though. Jessie, Biggs and Wedge were all killed. Biggs, the young man that was always pushed around by Barret with his fury for the leader's naggings bottled up inside. Jessie, the tomboy with a soft heart who planned all their routes and strategies. Wedge, the sensitive man with a soft spot for friends. They were gone. Now, it was the scrawny remainder of AVALANCHE, paired with many other people, and a beast. This was his group now, or at least, he was a part of his group. Yuffie never liked Barret for that reason- she felt like only a replacement. She thought it served him right to lose his place as a leader. That was why Barret had never believed her letter- he was still in denial of the fact that she couldn't come. Denial is a horrible thing.

* * *

"Alright, so far, both plans worked very well," Gorky said sarcastically. It was almost midnight, and him, and Staniv were in Chekhov's home, discussing another plan of attack with her.

"Shut the hell up, Gorky," Staniv warned. Although he was younger, Staniv had a glare that killed anyone, and if it didn't, his fists would. (A/N: I'm not really sure Staniv's younger, I just have this impression that Gorky is some fat-ass old fart)

"What do we do now?" asked Chekhov.

"I say we kill her easy. No plan, because plans take too long, too much elaboration, and if something goes wrong, we're screwed for life. Let's wing it," Gorky said.

"No!" Chekhov said, "Let's not wing it, although killing her easy is the most logical thing to do."

"Alright, then," Staniv agreed, "we'll do that. Now let's think... Maybe we kill her, dismantle her, and when her sons-of-whores and bitch friends try to save her, we invite them over for dinner and disguise her body parts as food and feed it to them."

Gorky chuckled at the thought, and Staniv had an evil smirk plastered onto his face, while Chekhov smiled silently. Even though they displayed their emotions in different ways, they were all feeling the same thing- this is the best way to kill someone.

Of course, they knew that to do this is just so much beyond human moral that it was impossible to do, but one child who woke up to take a drink of water truly believed they would do it. And he was so scared, he dared not make a sound. His name was Shake.

* * *

Yuffie's hard, wooden platform shoes clicked against the hard, gravel ground of the Da-Chao. Although she wasn't horribly religious, the Da-Chao was one place that she loved as a child to go to if she needed tranquility, time to herself. She had thought about this place a lot when she had left Wutai, and often wished she could feel its hard and sandy-colored mountainous terrain once more. I'm back now, she told herself.

Yuffie almost didn't see the man crouched on the fingertips of the Da-Chao statue, staring out at Wutai, until the wind blew and out of the corner of her eye, she saw a red cape flash out.

"Vincent?"

Of course, he remained quiet.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm... Looking at Wutai. How peaceful it is."

Yuffie scoffed. Peaceful... It's hardly peaceful when your father just got murdered. "If you forgot, this city used to be a fighting city."

Vincent was silent once more. He didn't talk unless he felt like he was needed to, or he was talked directly to. He would've elaborated and started a conversation with Yuffie, but there was just no need to. No, I didn't forget. That's why I'm staring at how peaceful it is. I'm wondering why, and how something as quiet as this place used to be a battleground. I'm wondering how on earth it turned from a fighting city to a inactive place. I'm also wondering why you aren't doing anything about it. Of course, his habit of not talking unless it was needed was what confused him, and as did the history of Wutai. What was it that made him persuade Barret into helping Yuffie? If he hadn't said a word, they would've found a way in anyhow, so why was he so eager to help, or get Barret to?

Great... Yuffie thought, Now I can't think in peace, not with him watching me like that. I really want time to myself. Yuffie began to leave, but stopped, observing how silent everything was.

"Aren't you going to ask why I'm leaving?" Yuffie asked, without turning.

Yes, he thought, Why are you leaving? "No," Vincent replied simply, then watched Yuffie walk into Wutai.

* * *

"No," Yuffie said firmly, then walked off.

"Yuffie, please!" Cloud begged, "We have nowhere else to stay! We can't sleep at your place, and I'm pretty sure the citizens dont' want us barging into their houses and asking for a place, so please, let us stay at your dad's inn!"

"No!" Yuffie said once more, still keeping up her pace.

"Yuffie!"

"No! No, no, no, no! No!" Yuffie repeated as she stopped to glare at Cloud straight in the eye. "That is my father's inn. You don't have any right to go there."

"Last time we were in Wutai, he let us," Cloud countered.

"That's because he was nice to you new-comers. You still had no right to intrude in there. You should be glad my dad didn't get you arrested for breaking-and-entering," Yuffie told him.

"My God!" Cloud said, throwing his hands up in exasperation, but Yuffie was walking away already and didn't hear him.

Yuffie stood in front of her father's inn. Tears started forming, but she forced them back, and slowly opened its front doors. She stepped in, and walked to the temple inside, and knelt down, clasping her hands together, interlacing her fingers.

"I... Don't know what I'm supposed to do," she began, staring at the glittering gold statue, "But... Mom, Dad, I... Know you can hear this. I hope you can hear this. Oh, God... I really need help. Please... Come back. I need help. I need you guys... I love you guys..." Mercilessly, beads of crystal clear tears trickled down her cheeks, and fell down, landing on the carpeted floor.

"Yuffie?" a soft voice called. Yuffie turned, and saw Cloud, Tifa, Cid and Barret standing in the doorway to the temple.

"So you weren't lying..." Barret uttered to himself.

"No," Yuffie said, sniffing slightly, "I wasn't. Thanks for calling me a liar, Barret, and thanks for coming here even though I specifically told you not to," she said sarcastically, then stood up and walked off. What do I have to do to get a little privacy? The door to my house is kicked down, Vincent's at the Da-Chao, and now they're here. Is there no God? "Since you're already here, there's no point in telling you not to come, since you defied the very purpose of me telling you not to come here. You might as well stay the night in this place," Yuffie said roughly, refusing to make eye-contact with her friends. She wasn't happy with this decision. Not happy at all.

"Yuffie?" a distant voice called, and Yuffie heard the front door open, then slam shut. Yuffie pushed her way through the corridor, and saw Shake with a scared expression on his face. "I need to talk to you," the ten-year-old said, "alone."

Yuffie nodded, then headed to a room and opened up a secret door. She let Shake in first, then she followed, and closed off the door. "What is it?" she asked.

"It's about your dad," Shake began, "and you."

Yuffie felt nervous, and she sensed that this was going to be bad news. Do I really want to know this? "What... What is it?"

"It's Staniv, Gorky and Chekhov," Shake whispered, "They're behind this!"

"Wait- behind what?"

"I overheard them talking yesterday," Shake said, ignoring Yuffie's question, "and they said they were going to dismantle you, and then feed your body to your friends!"

Yuffie was silent, then she eyed Shake suspiciously. "How do you know all this?"

"Hell-ooh," Shake said sarcastically, "I live with Chekhov!"

"They... They wouldn't do that," Yuffie said, dismissing Shake's conspiracies.

"Do you not see the point of this?" Shake exclaimed, "They killed your father! They killed Lord Godo, and they're going to kill you, too! Don't you see? Maybe you're right- maybe they won't dismantle you, but they will kill you one way or another! Yuffie, open your eyes!"

Suddenly, the image became clear. Why Chekhov was so stunned to see Yuffie- Gorky was supposed to have killed her. Why Staniv had frowned after she had took off to the fifth floor of the tower- it was oblivious that he had any emotion, but now she realized he had frowned, and she knew what the frown was for. Chekhov was supposed to have killed her. They wouldn't have expected Shake to, he's too young to participate in murder. They wouldn't trust him enough, even though he was extremely mature. And the trap... They had set it off. "Oh, my God..." Yuffie whispered.

A/N: Next chapter I'm adding the first touch of Vincent x Yuffie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whoopie!!!!