Chapter III: The Snow Of Kalm.
Yuffie had armed herself with a shovel and thick clothes.
She was building a barricade of snow and ice to "welcome" Cloud home.
Shovelling all the snow in town (which everyone was very grateful for,) she laid it down in a straight line across the towns entrance to hold him out, while she threw a heavy barrage of snowballs at him. Eventually he would have to jump over the barricade, leaving his back exposed. Then, she would strike HARD! With Tifa's permission Yuffie had made an ice ball, just for that moment.
The barricade itself was about the height of Yuffie's shoulder, so she could easily hide behind it.
She scooped up a stray pile of snow and tossed it into a separate pile, out of which she make her snowballs.
In the distance she heard the roar of engines. Hastily turning her head, she saw the Highwind flying across the plains of Midgar. At the speed it was going, the Highwind generated a strong gust below it, which tossed the snow upwards as the Highwind flew across it.
Fear suddenly shot into Yuffie's eyes.
That would put her barricade in ruins!
She climbed over the over the barricade and waved her arms franticly.
The Highwind continued on its course.
"CRAP!" She swore, unaware that Cloud had said the same word not too long ago at the same spectacle.
Yuffie turned around and ran for the barricade, as the Highwind was about to fly over her.
She threw herself over the barricade and crawled as close to it as possible.
The Highwind flew right over her, sending a nice amount of snow flying on top of Yuffie.
"Right on target!" Barret yelled from the deck.
Silently swearing from under a mass of snow, Yuffie picked herself up and looked up at the Highwind as it stopped in the town centre.
The rope ladder was flung down and Yuffie got a good look at whom it was that had thrown it.
Barret.
It came as no surprise to her because it WAS him who had made fun of her from the deck.
He began to descend from the Highwind cautiously, watching for any sudden movements made by Yuffie.
Just as his foot touched the ground Yuffie threw a loose snowball at him. It struck him right in the back of the head. He grunted in pain and scooped up a bit of snow himself, but dropped it immediately as it became too hard to make a snowball with only one hand.
Yuffie threw another snowball at him and was rewarded with a yelp of surprise as it hit Barret's cheek.
"Truce!" He yelled, waving his arms to indicate surrender.
Another snowball struck him but Yuffie did not throw it. Tifa had come out of the bar and was punishing Barret with snowball after snowball.
"Ouch, yow. Stoppit! Peace, cease fire!" He cried.
Yuffie actually took pity on the big brawny man as raised his arm to deflect another snowball.
"Okay, that's enough Tifa." Yuffie called out.
Yuffie barely managed to sidestep an oncoming snowball as Tifa turned her attention to Yuffie.
"And why should I listen to you, oh great snow queen?" She replied, throwing another missile.
"Traitor!" Yuffie yelled as she retaliated.
Tifa jumped from the doorway where she had been kneeling and into the snow. She scooped up a handful of snow and was beginning to harden it when she was struck in the back by another snowball.
She turned to face the thrower of the snowball. She saw a grinning Cid and Barret. Cid was down on one knee and was rolling another snowball, grinning from ear to ear. Barret was ploughing up the snow near him with his gun-arm to build a makeshift barrier.
Yuffie gave a quick glance at Tifa, who nodded knowingly.
They both threw their snowballs at cid simultaneously. Tifa's snowball struck Cid forehead, making him fall backwards in surprise. Yuffie's missed Cid completely and hit Vincent, who was climbing down the ladder slowly and weakly. In his shock, Vincent let go of the ladder and plummeted to the ground.
"Vincent!" Yuffie cried as he crashed into the ground.
Tifa dropped the snowball she was making and ran to Vincent. Cid and Barret stopped what they were doing and kneeled bye his side. Red XIII even peeked over the railing to see what had happened.
Cid looked over his shoulder.
"Nice going, Yuffie."
"Yeah, couldn't you see he was hurt?" Barret added.
"I, er, it was accident!" Yuffie sputtered. She realized that hesitating wasn't the best way to get people to believe her.
"Yeah, why should we believe YOU?!" Cid countered.
"Forget it, lets just get Vincent to 'is room." Barret said.
"It was an ACCIDENT!" Yuffie cried.
"Just get out of the way, pest," Cid hissed while picking Vincent up and slinging him over his shoulder. "God he's heavy." He grunted, staggering under Vincent's weight.
Yuffie continued standing where she had ran to Vincent. They might as well have called her a bitch goddess for all that it mattered to her. For the past three years she had tolerated Cid and Barret bursting through the door and getting raving drunk whenever the thought came across their empty heads! Then she would have to listen to them call her "thief" and "pest" and numerous other names. Now they were doing it when they were SOBER! She could have understood it when they were drunk, but it was completely WRONG to do it when comprehending what you were doing. She kicked the snow irately.
"Yuffie." A Voice called from the deck of the Highwind. "Could you help me down? Cid was supposed to but he forgot when he saw Barret being turned into a walking Mr. Frosty."
Yuffie started at the voice but looked up to see a concerned Red XIII looking down at her pitifully. (He looked like a cat stuck up in a tree, but there wasn't going to be anyone to get him down.) This expression on a one-eyed flame red dog-like lion thing was almost too much for Yuffie to bear. A small grin cracked the surface of her severely pissed off attitude. She began climbing the rope ladder to carry Red down.
"Never fear my waltzing mutt, for Yuffie is here to the rescue!" She called.
Red XIII smiled as she approached the top. "For some reason I'm not too sure that's a good thing.
As she grabbed the top of the railing Red XIII climbed onto her shoulders and dug his claws into some of the thicker leather clothes.
"Going down." Yuffie said, wincing slightly as one of the claws grazed her shoulder.
With the combined weight of Yuffie and Red, it was easy for Yuffie to suddenly slip on the wet and icy rope ladder.
When they were about three meters from the ground Red jumped from Yuffie's shoulders and landed on his feet. Silently he walked into the bar and waited by doors the opening for her. Yuffie followed his example and also jumped, and fell right onto a patch of ice, where she slipped and fell on her behind.
Slowly, while rubbing her sore rump, she walked to the bar where Red stood. He walked inside and she followed him.
Barret and Cid were lying on the couches and was already sipping up their second beer, carefully ignoring the fact that Yuffie had entered. Tifa was behind the bar counter and was watching the pair suspiciously. The last time they had come here they had raided her stocks (it wasn't that much trouble considering she had forced Cloud to go out and kill a few monsters to replace the damage they had done, despite claims that she was mean, cruel and heartless.)
Yuffie walked over to Tifa and asked after Vincent.
"He's breathing normally, and doesn't seem to be hurt to badly. Did you really mean to hit him?" Tifa said lowly.
"No, it was accident!" She a said slightly annoyed. Why did everyone find it so hard to believe? "I'm gonna go check on him."
Despite the fact that Vincent already had home that wasn't too far away, Cloud had built a room for him in the bar, along with a room for everyone else in AVALANCHE. At his request, Vincent's room was at the end of the hallway with a door that Vincent had made especially for the room. It was a sturdy oak with intricate carvings of various monsters. At the bottom a pack of goblins ran wildly through some woods that formed an intricate pattern higher up. Around the center a dragon stood in a frightful stance. It seemed to reach towards you as you approached it from the hallway. But the most frightful part was the top. A horned demon head seemed to glower at anyone who dared to open the door. The eyes were made out of shards of black stone (which Yuffie had considered stealing before when she was REALLY bored), which added to the doors already immense intimidating nature.
Hesitating slightly when she looked up the demon's head, Yuffie opened the door as silently as possible.
When she walked through the door into Vincent's room the darkness overwhelmed her. She couldn't see her own hand in front of her. She looked franticly around for light switch. She pounded the wall where the light switch should have been.
No light.
She pulled out a fire materia and whispered the words that would activate the magic inside it. Fire flared out of nothingness to dissolve the darkness. While the fire burned Yuffie looked around the room for a light switch. None. There was only lots and lot of candles. Hastily, Yuffie lighted a small amount of candles before her spell dissipated. The darkness now only dominated parts of the room.
Yuffie gasped at the things Vincent kept in his room. There was a round table in one corner with a pile of tomes and HUGE books on it, with bits of materia scattered here and there. A stone gargoyle stood in the opposite corner, facing the door. A large dresser stood by the door. It had the same carvings as the door, only more of them. And finally, Vincent bed stood in the middle of the room. Glowering demons were carved into the bedposts and other monsters into the woodwork.
Vincent slept in his bed peacefully. Yuffie pulled out a chair from under the table and sat by his side. Even though SHE knew it was an accident, she still felt guilty. Watching him now, so blissfully peaceful, made her wonder what made him be the super anti-social man that everybody seemed to avoid even though he scarcely cared for anything other than beating himself on his head for things that he could not help. The candlelight added a slight tinge of colour to his pale ivory face. His black hair flowed luxuriously around him. The bandana still was tied around his head. The cape he wore was also still on him. She wondered why all his clothes were still on him for ehile.
Then Yuffie realized it.
They didn't care enough to take his clothes off. They just tossed him on his bed and put the covers on him and left.
"Well, we'll just hafta do somethin' 'bout that, won't we?" Yuffie said while standing up. She drew back the covers and began removing some of the less necessary clothes. She removed the cloak and tossed it in the direction of the dresser. She pulled off his boots and set the by the bedside. His shirt flew across the room and landed on the dresser. Yuffie blushed deeply at the sight of his bare chest. She wondered if she should take off his pants. She decided against it in fear of being called a pervert already as it was. She undid the bandana knowing that it would hurt him when awakened. She put it on one of the bedposts while watching Vincent\s slow breathing. She put the covers back on him and continued watching him. She didn't notice that the door opened slightly and Red come in. He closed the door behind him and walked up to Yuffie.
Only when he nudged her leg did she become aware that she was not alone.
"What are you doing here?" Yuffie whispered.
"I was going to check on you in your room, but you weren't there. So I guessed that you were here." He replied.
"Am I that predictable?" She pondered.
"Not really, Tifa told me where you were when I asked her." He grinned.
She sat down in the chair again and turned her head to meet the one of Red XIII's.
"Do you believe me?" She asked hopefully.
"Of course I do." He said comfortingly. "You may be a thief at times but from my experience with you I doubt you would intentionally throw a snowball at him when he was healthy unless he threw one at you. You know that he has suffered inconceivably more than anyone in you've ever known, and he makes it worse for himself everyday. No, only someone truly cruel would really try to hurt Vincent in a way that mattered. I believe that you did not intentionally hit him."
Yuffie sighed. "Thanks."
Red looked up at her face.
"Vincent has been a little odd lately. Two months ago he asked me to conduct a study on demons and, if I found anything, Chaos." He said.
Yuffie looked back up at Vincent. His eyes fluttered slightly.
"What did you find out?" She whispered.
"The demons do not or, more correctly, did not obey the laws of the Ancients. Their souls did not return to planet. Long ago they lived among the Ancients in a wary peace. But the differences finally got between them and war erupted. ALL the demons were killed, except Chaos, who escaped. He alone defied the way of the lifestream. His soul wandered the planet in search of someone who could contain him." He said.
"Vincent." Yuffie said in horror.
"The demons had a strange resemblance with Jenova. When they were dead they possessed another body and changed it to resemble itself. This way the Demons achieved immortality."
"But if they were immortal, how could the Ancients win?" Yuffie asked.
Red looked down at the floor for a moment before answering.
"They destroyed their souls."
Yuffie gasped at this.
"B, b, but that's horrible! They not only killed them off, but also destroyed their souls!" Yuffie's perfectly innocent image of Aeris was shattered.
"But is it any better to steal someone's body before their soul can achieve its true potential?" Red countered.
"No." Yuffie muttered. This seemed way passed her morals and ethics. "But what does this have with Vincent?" She asked.
Red sighed.
"Chaos is tying to take over Vincent's body. And since there are no Ancients around to destroy his soul, he could well succeed where Sephiroth failed. Also, because of the Demons resemblance to Jenova, he could restore her."
"Bring Jenova back!" Yuffie said in horror.
"But there is a way WE can destroy Chaos. The Demon needs to be killed by someone when Vincent morphs into him. Then Chaos's soul would be forced to leave Vincent once and foe all. We could then trap him in an item or destroy his soul utterly before he finds another host." He said.
"But what would happen to Vincent?" Yuffie asked.
Red looked down at the floor sadly before looking back up at Yuffie.
"He would die." He said with an unnatural calm.
Yuffie had armed herself with a shovel and thick clothes.
She was building a barricade of snow and ice to "welcome" Cloud home.
Shovelling all the snow in town (which everyone was very grateful for,) she laid it down in a straight line across the towns entrance to hold him out, while she threw a heavy barrage of snowballs at him. Eventually he would have to jump over the barricade, leaving his back exposed. Then, she would strike HARD! With Tifa's permission Yuffie had made an ice ball, just for that moment.
The barricade itself was about the height of Yuffie's shoulder, so she could easily hide behind it.
She scooped up a stray pile of snow and tossed it into a separate pile, out of which she make her snowballs.
In the distance she heard the roar of engines. Hastily turning her head, she saw the Highwind flying across the plains of Midgar. At the speed it was going, the Highwind generated a strong gust below it, which tossed the snow upwards as the Highwind flew across it.
Fear suddenly shot into Yuffie's eyes.
That would put her barricade in ruins!
She climbed over the over the barricade and waved her arms franticly.
The Highwind continued on its course.
"CRAP!" She swore, unaware that Cloud had said the same word not too long ago at the same spectacle.
Yuffie turned around and ran for the barricade, as the Highwind was about to fly over her.
She threw herself over the barricade and crawled as close to it as possible.
The Highwind flew right over her, sending a nice amount of snow flying on top of Yuffie.
"Right on target!" Barret yelled from the deck.
Silently swearing from under a mass of snow, Yuffie picked herself up and looked up at the Highwind as it stopped in the town centre.
The rope ladder was flung down and Yuffie got a good look at whom it was that had thrown it.
Barret.
It came as no surprise to her because it WAS him who had made fun of her from the deck.
He began to descend from the Highwind cautiously, watching for any sudden movements made by Yuffie.
Just as his foot touched the ground Yuffie threw a loose snowball at him. It struck him right in the back of the head. He grunted in pain and scooped up a bit of snow himself, but dropped it immediately as it became too hard to make a snowball with only one hand.
Yuffie threw another snowball at him and was rewarded with a yelp of surprise as it hit Barret's cheek.
"Truce!" He yelled, waving his arms to indicate surrender.
Another snowball struck him but Yuffie did not throw it. Tifa had come out of the bar and was punishing Barret with snowball after snowball.
"Ouch, yow. Stoppit! Peace, cease fire!" He cried.
Yuffie actually took pity on the big brawny man as raised his arm to deflect another snowball.
"Okay, that's enough Tifa." Yuffie called out.
Yuffie barely managed to sidestep an oncoming snowball as Tifa turned her attention to Yuffie.
"And why should I listen to you, oh great snow queen?" She replied, throwing another missile.
"Traitor!" Yuffie yelled as she retaliated.
Tifa jumped from the doorway where she had been kneeling and into the snow. She scooped up a handful of snow and was beginning to harden it when she was struck in the back by another snowball.
She turned to face the thrower of the snowball. She saw a grinning Cid and Barret. Cid was down on one knee and was rolling another snowball, grinning from ear to ear. Barret was ploughing up the snow near him with his gun-arm to build a makeshift barrier.
Yuffie gave a quick glance at Tifa, who nodded knowingly.
They both threw their snowballs at cid simultaneously. Tifa's snowball struck Cid forehead, making him fall backwards in surprise. Yuffie's missed Cid completely and hit Vincent, who was climbing down the ladder slowly and weakly. In his shock, Vincent let go of the ladder and plummeted to the ground.
"Vincent!" Yuffie cried as he crashed into the ground.
Tifa dropped the snowball she was making and ran to Vincent. Cid and Barret stopped what they were doing and kneeled bye his side. Red XIII even peeked over the railing to see what had happened.
Cid looked over his shoulder.
"Nice going, Yuffie."
"Yeah, couldn't you see he was hurt?" Barret added.
"I, er, it was accident!" Yuffie sputtered. She realized that hesitating wasn't the best way to get people to believe her.
"Yeah, why should we believe YOU?!" Cid countered.
"Forget it, lets just get Vincent to 'is room." Barret said.
"It was an ACCIDENT!" Yuffie cried.
"Just get out of the way, pest," Cid hissed while picking Vincent up and slinging him over his shoulder. "God he's heavy." He grunted, staggering under Vincent's weight.
Yuffie continued standing where she had ran to Vincent. They might as well have called her a bitch goddess for all that it mattered to her. For the past three years she had tolerated Cid and Barret bursting through the door and getting raving drunk whenever the thought came across their empty heads! Then she would have to listen to them call her "thief" and "pest" and numerous other names. Now they were doing it when they were SOBER! She could have understood it when they were drunk, but it was completely WRONG to do it when comprehending what you were doing. She kicked the snow irately.
"Yuffie." A Voice called from the deck of the Highwind. "Could you help me down? Cid was supposed to but he forgot when he saw Barret being turned into a walking Mr. Frosty."
Yuffie started at the voice but looked up to see a concerned Red XIII looking down at her pitifully. (He looked like a cat stuck up in a tree, but there wasn't going to be anyone to get him down.) This expression on a one-eyed flame red dog-like lion thing was almost too much for Yuffie to bear. A small grin cracked the surface of her severely pissed off attitude. She began climbing the rope ladder to carry Red down.
"Never fear my waltzing mutt, for Yuffie is here to the rescue!" She called.
Red XIII smiled as she approached the top. "For some reason I'm not too sure that's a good thing.
As she grabbed the top of the railing Red XIII climbed onto her shoulders and dug his claws into some of the thicker leather clothes.
"Going down." Yuffie said, wincing slightly as one of the claws grazed her shoulder.
With the combined weight of Yuffie and Red, it was easy for Yuffie to suddenly slip on the wet and icy rope ladder.
When they were about three meters from the ground Red jumped from Yuffie's shoulders and landed on his feet. Silently he walked into the bar and waited by doors the opening for her. Yuffie followed his example and also jumped, and fell right onto a patch of ice, where she slipped and fell on her behind.
Slowly, while rubbing her sore rump, she walked to the bar where Red stood. He walked inside and she followed him.
Barret and Cid were lying on the couches and was already sipping up their second beer, carefully ignoring the fact that Yuffie had entered. Tifa was behind the bar counter and was watching the pair suspiciously. The last time they had come here they had raided her stocks (it wasn't that much trouble considering she had forced Cloud to go out and kill a few monsters to replace the damage they had done, despite claims that she was mean, cruel and heartless.)
Yuffie walked over to Tifa and asked after Vincent.
"He's breathing normally, and doesn't seem to be hurt to badly. Did you really mean to hit him?" Tifa said lowly.
"No, it was accident!" She a said slightly annoyed. Why did everyone find it so hard to believe? "I'm gonna go check on him."
Despite the fact that Vincent already had home that wasn't too far away, Cloud had built a room for him in the bar, along with a room for everyone else in AVALANCHE. At his request, Vincent's room was at the end of the hallway with a door that Vincent had made especially for the room. It was a sturdy oak with intricate carvings of various monsters. At the bottom a pack of goblins ran wildly through some woods that formed an intricate pattern higher up. Around the center a dragon stood in a frightful stance. It seemed to reach towards you as you approached it from the hallway. But the most frightful part was the top. A horned demon head seemed to glower at anyone who dared to open the door. The eyes were made out of shards of black stone (which Yuffie had considered stealing before when she was REALLY bored), which added to the doors already immense intimidating nature.
Hesitating slightly when she looked up the demon's head, Yuffie opened the door as silently as possible.
When she walked through the door into Vincent's room the darkness overwhelmed her. She couldn't see her own hand in front of her. She looked franticly around for light switch. She pounded the wall where the light switch should have been.
No light.
She pulled out a fire materia and whispered the words that would activate the magic inside it. Fire flared out of nothingness to dissolve the darkness. While the fire burned Yuffie looked around the room for a light switch. None. There was only lots and lot of candles. Hastily, Yuffie lighted a small amount of candles before her spell dissipated. The darkness now only dominated parts of the room.
Yuffie gasped at the things Vincent kept in his room. There was a round table in one corner with a pile of tomes and HUGE books on it, with bits of materia scattered here and there. A stone gargoyle stood in the opposite corner, facing the door. A large dresser stood by the door. It had the same carvings as the door, only more of them. And finally, Vincent bed stood in the middle of the room. Glowering demons were carved into the bedposts and other monsters into the woodwork.
Vincent slept in his bed peacefully. Yuffie pulled out a chair from under the table and sat by his side. Even though SHE knew it was an accident, she still felt guilty. Watching him now, so blissfully peaceful, made her wonder what made him be the super anti-social man that everybody seemed to avoid even though he scarcely cared for anything other than beating himself on his head for things that he could not help. The candlelight added a slight tinge of colour to his pale ivory face. His black hair flowed luxuriously around him. The bandana still was tied around his head. The cape he wore was also still on him. She wondered why all his clothes were still on him for ehile.
Then Yuffie realized it.
They didn't care enough to take his clothes off. They just tossed him on his bed and put the covers on him and left.
"Well, we'll just hafta do somethin' 'bout that, won't we?" Yuffie said while standing up. She drew back the covers and began removing some of the less necessary clothes. She removed the cloak and tossed it in the direction of the dresser. She pulled off his boots and set the by the bedside. His shirt flew across the room and landed on the dresser. Yuffie blushed deeply at the sight of his bare chest. She wondered if she should take off his pants. She decided against it in fear of being called a pervert already as it was. She undid the bandana knowing that it would hurt him when awakened. She put it on one of the bedposts while watching Vincent\s slow breathing. She put the covers back on him and continued watching him. She didn't notice that the door opened slightly and Red come in. He closed the door behind him and walked up to Yuffie.
Only when he nudged her leg did she become aware that she was not alone.
"What are you doing here?" Yuffie whispered.
"I was going to check on you in your room, but you weren't there. So I guessed that you were here." He replied.
"Am I that predictable?" She pondered.
"Not really, Tifa told me where you were when I asked her." He grinned.
She sat down in the chair again and turned her head to meet the one of Red XIII's.
"Do you believe me?" She asked hopefully.
"Of course I do." He said comfortingly. "You may be a thief at times but from my experience with you I doubt you would intentionally throw a snowball at him when he was healthy unless he threw one at you. You know that he has suffered inconceivably more than anyone in you've ever known, and he makes it worse for himself everyday. No, only someone truly cruel would really try to hurt Vincent in a way that mattered. I believe that you did not intentionally hit him."
Yuffie sighed. "Thanks."
Red looked up at her face.
"Vincent has been a little odd lately. Two months ago he asked me to conduct a study on demons and, if I found anything, Chaos." He said.
Yuffie looked back up at Vincent. His eyes fluttered slightly.
"What did you find out?" She whispered.
"The demons do not or, more correctly, did not obey the laws of the Ancients. Their souls did not return to planet. Long ago they lived among the Ancients in a wary peace. But the differences finally got between them and war erupted. ALL the demons were killed, except Chaos, who escaped. He alone defied the way of the lifestream. His soul wandered the planet in search of someone who could contain him." He said.
"Vincent." Yuffie said in horror.
"The demons had a strange resemblance with Jenova. When they were dead they possessed another body and changed it to resemble itself. This way the Demons achieved immortality."
"But if they were immortal, how could the Ancients win?" Yuffie asked.
Red looked down at the floor for a moment before answering.
"They destroyed their souls."
Yuffie gasped at this.
"B, b, but that's horrible! They not only killed them off, but also destroyed their souls!" Yuffie's perfectly innocent image of Aeris was shattered.
"But is it any better to steal someone's body before their soul can achieve its true potential?" Red countered.
"No." Yuffie muttered. This seemed way passed her morals and ethics. "But what does this have with Vincent?" She asked.
Red sighed.
"Chaos is tying to take over Vincent's body. And since there are no Ancients around to destroy his soul, he could well succeed where Sephiroth failed. Also, because of the Demons resemblance to Jenova, he could restore her."
"Bring Jenova back!" Yuffie said in horror.
"But there is a way WE can destroy Chaos. The Demon needs to be killed by someone when Vincent morphs into him. Then Chaos's soul would be forced to leave Vincent once and foe all. We could then trap him in an item or destroy his soul utterly before he finds another host." He said.
"But what would happen to Vincent?" Yuffie asked.
Red looked down at the floor sadly before looking back up at Yuffie.
"He would die." He said with an unnatural calm.