~Oh, we're racing now...~ Inside the young child's mind, the VOICE was
gleeful.
It would have been more joyous if it knew just how much the rain was pouring all over the world and how gloomy everything seemed to be, just the way it liked things. But after all, the VOICE did not have a body to feel. It used to, but now it was merely the sum of fear and all that was bad inside the body of a child.
The child thinks it had killed Bugenhagen, and the VOICE did nothing to deny it of that thought. For right now, the torrents of fear and guilt, confusing and grief, inside the young's mind was overwhelming, enough for the VOICE to simply consume them, break free, and claim the body for its own. It would transform these tiny helpless limbs into claws, make arms sprout behind this tiny back, grow fangs from this tiny mouth, turn this tiny defenseless creature into a giant demon of hell...
But... the VOICE would wait. Wait for what it knew was coming. WHOM it knew was right behind this tiny figure.
~Oh, we're racing...~ The child was running, running for its dear little life. But perhaps... perhaps the remaining powers from the VOICE's past would give it a little help...
SHADOWBODY ~ By Crimson Sun
Chapter Three
Raindrops as big as her thumb pounded endlessly down as Yuffie steered Cloud's golden Chocobo through the storm. She was soaked through, absolutely waterlogged. Her skin itched with discomfort as her clothing clung to it, and her short hair was pasted to her head and face. And that was not to mention being cold from being wet and tired from carrying her giant conformer in one hand.
~Damn Vincent Valentine and this damn weather! ~
But Yuffie had little to no time to think about the awful things she would do to Vincent if she found him. All of her concentration presently went to just keeping the Chocobo beneath her under control. Flare always seemed so gentle around Cloud... HE never had to promise it ninety-nine memmet greens to get it up and moving...
Being blinded by the rain, the young ninja wondered if Vincent was having any more luck than she was locating his whereabouts. It would be easier for him, she guessed, because he wouldn't have to worry about controlling the stupid birds. He apparently chose to ride his own Chocobo; the black Lucia was gone when Yuffie went to 'borrow' Flare. But despite its temper, Flare, being Lucia's breeding partner, had a good and accurate idea where it had gotten to. That did Yuffie good, though it was bad how the Chocobo was not too happy at all to co-operate with a sixteen-year-old ninja with a weapon as large as its body in her hands.
So now, Yuffie sat on the reluctant Flare as the Chocobo raced on, depending on the golden male's instinct and the bond between the birds to get her to Vincent. They seemed to be going in a straight line, crossing the plains of Cosmo Canyon and headed north along the Nibel mountainside. Where was Flare going, she thought? And would it catch up to Lucia and Vincent before she froze to death or drowned?
~I shouldn't be worrying about myself. ~ A clear picture of Bugenhagen and Red XIII appeared for a second, then disappeared.
Shocking, gruesome, poor Bugenhagen, Red, yadayada. In the end, Yuffie could only conclude that the darkness had done one thing right by hiding most of the Wiseman's body. But she did notice was that the wound was nasty, and she half-hoped that Vincent wouldn't find that monster who implied that hurt. Even though Bugenhagen was a frail old man to the eye, she thought that Vincent wouldn't stand any more of a chance than he did up against the 'thing'.
Poor Bugenhagen. Poor, old, wounded Bugenhagen.
~I'll find some way to pay them back for abandoning them later. First of all, I need to see what's wrong with ViVi! ~
Vincent didn't think anyone would follow him, nor did he care. He didn't care about anything at the moment; the storm, the night, all forgotten because of his own swept-up emotions. Though he thought that one day, the Gods would punish him for abandoning the village of Cosmo Canyon.
He really shouldn't have left Bugenhagen, Yuffie, and the others like he did, but selfishness was an irreversible flaw in the human being, and despite everything, Vincent was still partly human. And maybe the lack of any other human emotion was a good thing, because humans tend to make excuses that are far less than plausible whenever they weasel out of something like Vincent just did.
~I'm chasing the thing without name, and that would do everyone good. ~ Human-Vincent offered.
~I'm chasing the thing without name, but I do it for myself. ~ Inhuman- Vincent, the stronger part of him, immediately countered. He would offer himself no relief. He knew his own reason to track down the shadow ahead, and he'll stick to it.
Vincent looped his claw tighter around Lucia's leash. His flesh hand was closed around the tiny object he had found near Bugenhagen. In the night, in the damp, the metal seemed alight. He thought he could feel it burning into his glove, biting at his skin and traveling upwards until it flared a bonfire in his heart. The pain agonized him, but he would not let the object go. Not when he knew exactly what it was, and exactly where it had first come from.
The item in his hand was indeed a ring, a small delicate shape to fit the dainty female finger. The ring was specially crafted, with rare gold forming its structure. It resembled a dragon, with the tiny body forming the smooth curve, and sharp bat's wings and a long and pointed head coming together to support a many-sided, glowing blue materia. Alike the condensed mako piece, the dragon's eyes were also glowing, but instead of beauty, it burned with a fierce and menacing red. Hah... even the ring seemed to scream evil, and its intentions were indeed.
Vincent had not seen this ring in a long time, but he remembered it like he remembered the owner's tortured face. He remembered his own torture as the ring was presented to its previous owner, and the pain that was once just a numbing ache at the back of his head turned into a full migraine as he held the tiny object again...
~Lucrecia's ring...Lucrecia's tortured face...~
With thoughts of Lucrecia immediately arouse thoughts of Hojo, the scientist turned mad by his own intelligence. What had become of the professor in the end? He died for his actions, of cause, and Vincent had delivered the last blow to finish the madman's life. Vincent had prayed for Hojo's soul to rest in peace, but it seemed that even the death the professor stirs...
This ring, this ring that impacted his thoughts so and burned into his flesh, was Hojo's wedding ring to Lucrecia. The ring that ended the last days of her life on earth. And Hojo had known what his actions would have done to Vincent... for Vincent had been forced to be one of his 'best men'.
This was Hojo's evil intention, Hojo's plans for the world that was to come. With this ring came Lucrecia's pain, Lucrecia's heartbreak, and Lucrecia's son. When the young lady scientist died, Vincent had already been stored away someplace, left to rot and be forgotten. He had thought the ring went with Lucrecia to the very depths of the lifestream, but obviously, it still had unfinished business on earth.
The ring pulsed with Hojo's scent, mingled with a stench of fear and another of blood. The shadow had left this, and it was left intentionally.
~So I have to find out who or what held on to this item to this day. ~ Inhuman Vincent said mentally. ~There would be time to care about AVALANCHE later, but now we focus on one thing only. ~
~And don't get distracted! ~
The rain continued to fall outside his mind, and Vincent shuddered as he suddenly realized how wet he was and how much the wind was making the unpleasant feeling ever more chilling. Lucia, faithful Chocobo, slowed in steps as it tracked the tiny shadow, lost in the darkness beyond, but never faltered. First Vincent thought the decrease in speed was due to her own feathers being drenched in rain, but then, as the Chocobo's head started moving, Vincent sensed another person coming towards him. Quickly, almost instinctively, he slipped the tiny gold dragon in his shirt pocket where it burned even closer to his heart.
Vincent could hear the screaming now, the high-pitched screech of an agitated sixteen-year-old girl. He held Lucia's leash with both hands as he reluctantly slowed the Chocobo down.
~Well, at least we weren't planning a surprise attack. ~
"VINCENT VALENTINE, I COMMAND YOU TO HALT!"
How long has she been chasing him? How LONG has he kept the next great lady of Wutai out in the rain with nothing on but her party clothes, clutching desperately to Cloud's mad Chocobo with one hand and her giant weapon with the other?
Yuffie didn't know, and she couldn't care less at the moment. Despite the numbing cold and blinding, rainy darkness, she was close enough to see Vincent's large cape, still flying out behind him like bats wings even harder than it normally did, with the wild wind to back it up. His hair, too, the large amount that wasn't stuck to his face, was also being tugged fiercely by the storm, making his whole visible appearance alike one of those damned vampires in the many movies of DRACULA.
~Gods, this is so like one of those horror movies! ~ She wailed mentally to herself. The night, the storm, but instead of Count Dracula, the guy in front of her was Count VALENTINE. But Gods know he could be just as bad in many other ways...
In front of her, Lucia the Chocobo threw up its head and squawked sharply, having been pulled to an abrupt stop. Good, at least Vincent still had enough sense in that flyaway brain of his to listen to her. If he didn't... She could have used the target practice.
"Yuffie, go back to the others." Vincent shouted, his voice only slightly above the roar of the storm. Yuffie thought she detected a slight hint of annoyance in his tone, but before she could say anything about it, Vincent was kicking Lucia to get her moving again.
~Oh you'll keep going, huh? ~ Yuffie pouted openly, seeing Vincent wasn't paying enough attention to her to call her a little girl. ~Well you can't dump me again! ~
"Vincent!" She kicked her own carrier to catch up to the man's, all the while screaming into the wind as loud as she could. She wasn't in the mood for politeness, which wasn't really her thing in the first place.
"Yuffie, go back." Vincent 'answered'. Yuffie waited for something else, but when nothing came and Lucia kept running, she growled something audible only to herself and rode right after the damn bird and its damn rider.
"VINCENT!" More loudly this time, with more force, she hoped. "You don't leave a girl with an injured old man with no explanation, in the middle of a damn storm in the middle of the night! And do you even have the slightest clue where you're going?"
Vincent Valentine just kept on riding. And Yuffie, having been born with stubbornness, followed. Flare, being the golden Chocobo that he is, soon kept up easily with Lucia with an inch worth of space between them.
That man with her is crazy to think he could beat whatever it was that injured Bugenhagen by himself. Yuffie knew with experience that Bugenhagen, as frail as he appears, could actually defend himself better than most people much younger than himself. (Experience? A bad one when she once ran out of materia and had to 'borrow' some from the nearest person, which just so happened to be...) He didn't use weapons or fists, he simply gathered what energy he had and sort of... messed with the enemies' heads a little. Bugenhagen had a way with that telepathic mumble-jumble that Yuffie could never understand, but she knew it was strong enough to hold off anything BUT a worthy foe.
And that horrible scream he issued... She has never heard Bugenhagen - or anyone - scream like that before. That scar wound on his arm must be more than meets the eye. And what did the Wiseman say? 'I have not much time' or something? Did Bugenhagen already know his fate?
The thing they were chasing was dangerous, LETHAL, even. Didn't Vincent know that? Did that thing he found on the ground meddle with his head or something?
"Vincent..." She started again to try and bring him to his senses, but when she turned to look at his face, she found she had been only wasting her breath. There was something like stern concentration in his garnet eyes as he stared at something up ahead, and that was currently taking all of his attention. She followed his gaze and saw nothing but the excited raindrops swirling into her eyes, and the darkness in front of them stretching endlessly on and on like they were riding through some unearthly black hole.
"I highly suggest you go back now before it's too late, Yuffie." Vincent's voice sounded a mile away.
~Why? What did she miss? ~
But even though she sure as hell couldn't see anything unnerving, Vincent must have. Lucia threw up its head again before leaning down in sprint position, and raced on with its wings outstretched and its mouth wide open.
Yuffie pulled her mouth into a straight line as she urged Flare after Lucia, trying to ignore the endless plummeting of the raindrops on her skin and in her eyes. She battered her eyelashes and wiped one hand across her face, so maybe she could at least see where she was going, not to mention spot whatever it was that Vincent saw.
If one tries hard enough, one is bound to achieve... A shadow flickered on the path ahead of them, so light and fast that Yuffie thought it only her imagination at first. (Was it so small? And did it have wings?) Then something descended into her head with a force that nearly knocked her off her Chocobo, yet did not have a form. A dread, a deadly gloom, wrapped itself around her brain and refused to be swept off by the torrents of rain. The air around her suddenly felt like cotton, suffocating her as she tried desperately to breathe. Her head spun, the whole world spun, and the ache in her head caused a nausea so strong it threatened to bring up whatever was left in her stomach. A sickening metallic sound rose in her ears, and the world dissolved and lost its shape before her eyes.
Then everything snapped back to normal.
Yuffie gasped and gulped in a deep breath while looking around her in amazement. Vincent was still ahead of her, still uncaring, though she thought she heard him draw in air hastily too. The rain was still pounding on her cold and weary body, and the darkness...it went on and on. But it wasn't the same. It was as though she erupted through an invisible barrier and arrived on the parallel universe on the other side, only with an enhanced feeling of sense. She could feel evil brooding just in front of her, the shadow that she glimpsed for one second mocking her from ahead.
And then Yuffie Kisaragi knew: It was too late to turn back.
AN: This chapter was delayed for three main reasons, which would only waste time if I were to tell them.
This chapter had a lot of thinking in it, and I do hope you have not gotten bored. I am afraid of writing the fourth chapter; my chapters are lengthening and I find I cannot do anything about it...
The writing in ~ are thoughts. I find my WordPad program cannot be posted onto the website, and italics in Microsoft Word does not show for some reason.
Thank you for your reviews, all of them have helped me gather enough inspiration and confidence to write this chapter. I am beginning to lead up to something. Fancy you know who the shadow is?
It would have been more joyous if it knew just how much the rain was pouring all over the world and how gloomy everything seemed to be, just the way it liked things. But after all, the VOICE did not have a body to feel. It used to, but now it was merely the sum of fear and all that was bad inside the body of a child.
The child thinks it had killed Bugenhagen, and the VOICE did nothing to deny it of that thought. For right now, the torrents of fear and guilt, confusing and grief, inside the young's mind was overwhelming, enough for the VOICE to simply consume them, break free, and claim the body for its own. It would transform these tiny helpless limbs into claws, make arms sprout behind this tiny back, grow fangs from this tiny mouth, turn this tiny defenseless creature into a giant demon of hell...
But... the VOICE would wait. Wait for what it knew was coming. WHOM it knew was right behind this tiny figure.
~Oh, we're racing...~ The child was running, running for its dear little life. But perhaps... perhaps the remaining powers from the VOICE's past would give it a little help...
SHADOWBODY ~ By Crimson Sun
Chapter Three
Raindrops as big as her thumb pounded endlessly down as Yuffie steered Cloud's golden Chocobo through the storm. She was soaked through, absolutely waterlogged. Her skin itched with discomfort as her clothing clung to it, and her short hair was pasted to her head and face. And that was not to mention being cold from being wet and tired from carrying her giant conformer in one hand.
~Damn Vincent Valentine and this damn weather! ~
But Yuffie had little to no time to think about the awful things she would do to Vincent if she found him. All of her concentration presently went to just keeping the Chocobo beneath her under control. Flare always seemed so gentle around Cloud... HE never had to promise it ninety-nine memmet greens to get it up and moving...
Being blinded by the rain, the young ninja wondered if Vincent was having any more luck than she was locating his whereabouts. It would be easier for him, she guessed, because he wouldn't have to worry about controlling the stupid birds. He apparently chose to ride his own Chocobo; the black Lucia was gone when Yuffie went to 'borrow' Flare. But despite its temper, Flare, being Lucia's breeding partner, had a good and accurate idea where it had gotten to. That did Yuffie good, though it was bad how the Chocobo was not too happy at all to co-operate with a sixteen-year-old ninja with a weapon as large as its body in her hands.
So now, Yuffie sat on the reluctant Flare as the Chocobo raced on, depending on the golden male's instinct and the bond between the birds to get her to Vincent. They seemed to be going in a straight line, crossing the plains of Cosmo Canyon and headed north along the Nibel mountainside. Where was Flare going, she thought? And would it catch up to Lucia and Vincent before she froze to death or drowned?
~I shouldn't be worrying about myself. ~ A clear picture of Bugenhagen and Red XIII appeared for a second, then disappeared.
Shocking, gruesome, poor Bugenhagen, Red, yadayada. In the end, Yuffie could only conclude that the darkness had done one thing right by hiding most of the Wiseman's body. But she did notice was that the wound was nasty, and she half-hoped that Vincent wouldn't find that monster who implied that hurt. Even though Bugenhagen was a frail old man to the eye, she thought that Vincent wouldn't stand any more of a chance than he did up against the 'thing'.
Poor Bugenhagen. Poor, old, wounded Bugenhagen.
~I'll find some way to pay them back for abandoning them later. First of all, I need to see what's wrong with ViVi! ~
Vincent didn't think anyone would follow him, nor did he care. He didn't care about anything at the moment; the storm, the night, all forgotten because of his own swept-up emotions. Though he thought that one day, the Gods would punish him for abandoning the village of Cosmo Canyon.
He really shouldn't have left Bugenhagen, Yuffie, and the others like he did, but selfishness was an irreversible flaw in the human being, and despite everything, Vincent was still partly human. And maybe the lack of any other human emotion was a good thing, because humans tend to make excuses that are far less than plausible whenever they weasel out of something like Vincent just did.
~I'm chasing the thing without name, and that would do everyone good. ~ Human-Vincent offered.
~I'm chasing the thing without name, but I do it for myself. ~ Inhuman- Vincent, the stronger part of him, immediately countered. He would offer himself no relief. He knew his own reason to track down the shadow ahead, and he'll stick to it.
Vincent looped his claw tighter around Lucia's leash. His flesh hand was closed around the tiny object he had found near Bugenhagen. In the night, in the damp, the metal seemed alight. He thought he could feel it burning into his glove, biting at his skin and traveling upwards until it flared a bonfire in his heart. The pain agonized him, but he would not let the object go. Not when he knew exactly what it was, and exactly where it had first come from.
The item in his hand was indeed a ring, a small delicate shape to fit the dainty female finger. The ring was specially crafted, with rare gold forming its structure. It resembled a dragon, with the tiny body forming the smooth curve, and sharp bat's wings and a long and pointed head coming together to support a many-sided, glowing blue materia. Alike the condensed mako piece, the dragon's eyes were also glowing, but instead of beauty, it burned with a fierce and menacing red. Hah... even the ring seemed to scream evil, and its intentions were indeed.
Vincent had not seen this ring in a long time, but he remembered it like he remembered the owner's tortured face. He remembered his own torture as the ring was presented to its previous owner, and the pain that was once just a numbing ache at the back of his head turned into a full migraine as he held the tiny object again...
~Lucrecia's ring...Lucrecia's tortured face...~
With thoughts of Lucrecia immediately arouse thoughts of Hojo, the scientist turned mad by his own intelligence. What had become of the professor in the end? He died for his actions, of cause, and Vincent had delivered the last blow to finish the madman's life. Vincent had prayed for Hojo's soul to rest in peace, but it seemed that even the death the professor stirs...
This ring, this ring that impacted his thoughts so and burned into his flesh, was Hojo's wedding ring to Lucrecia. The ring that ended the last days of her life on earth. And Hojo had known what his actions would have done to Vincent... for Vincent had been forced to be one of his 'best men'.
This was Hojo's evil intention, Hojo's plans for the world that was to come. With this ring came Lucrecia's pain, Lucrecia's heartbreak, and Lucrecia's son. When the young lady scientist died, Vincent had already been stored away someplace, left to rot and be forgotten. He had thought the ring went with Lucrecia to the very depths of the lifestream, but obviously, it still had unfinished business on earth.
The ring pulsed with Hojo's scent, mingled with a stench of fear and another of blood. The shadow had left this, and it was left intentionally.
~So I have to find out who or what held on to this item to this day. ~ Inhuman Vincent said mentally. ~There would be time to care about AVALANCHE later, but now we focus on one thing only. ~
~And don't get distracted! ~
The rain continued to fall outside his mind, and Vincent shuddered as he suddenly realized how wet he was and how much the wind was making the unpleasant feeling ever more chilling. Lucia, faithful Chocobo, slowed in steps as it tracked the tiny shadow, lost in the darkness beyond, but never faltered. First Vincent thought the decrease in speed was due to her own feathers being drenched in rain, but then, as the Chocobo's head started moving, Vincent sensed another person coming towards him. Quickly, almost instinctively, he slipped the tiny gold dragon in his shirt pocket where it burned even closer to his heart.
Vincent could hear the screaming now, the high-pitched screech of an agitated sixteen-year-old girl. He held Lucia's leash with both hands as he reluctantly slowed the Chocobo down.
~Well, at least we weren't planning a surprise attack. ~
"VINCENT VALENTINE, I COMMAND YOU TO HALT!"
How long has she been chasing him? How LONG has he kept the next great lady of Wutai out in the rain with nothing on but her party clothes, clutching desperately to Cloud's mad Chocobo with one hand and her giant weapon with the other?
Yuffie didn't know, and she couldn't care less at the moment. Despite the numbing cold and blinding, rainy darkness, she was close enough to see Vincent's large cape, still flying out behind him like bats wings even harder than it normally did, with the wild wind to back it up. His hair, too, the large amount that wasn't stuck to his face, was also being tugged fiercely by the storm, making his whole visible appearance alike one of those damned vampires in the many movies of DRACULA.
~Gods, this is so like one of those horror movies! ~ She wailed mentally to herself. The night, the storm, but instead of Count Dracula, the guy in front of her was Count VALENTINE. But Gods know he could be just as bad in many other ways...
In front of her, Lucia the Chocobo threw up its head and squawked sharply, having been pulled to an abrupt stop. Good, at least Vincent still had enough sense in that flyaway brain of his to listen to her. If he didn't... She could have used the target practice.
"Yuffie, go back to the others." Vincent shouted, his voice only slightly above the roar of the storm. Yuffie thought she detected a slight hint of annoyance in his tone, but before she could say anything about it, Vincent was kicking Lucia to get her moving again.
~Oh you'll keep going, huh? ~ Yuffie pouted openly, seeing Vincent wasn't paying enough attention to her to call her a little girl. ~Well you can't dump me again! ~
"Vincent!" She kicked her own carrier to catch up to the man's, all the while screaming into the wind as loud as she could. She wasn't in the mood for politeness, which wasn't really her thing in the first place.
"Yuffie, go back." Vincent 'answered'. Yuffie waited for something else, but when nothing came and Lucia kept running, she growled something audible only to herself and rode right after the damn bird and its damn rider.
"VINCENT!" More loudly this time, with more force, she hoped. "You don't leave a girl with an injured old man with no explanation, in the middle of a damn storm in the middle of the night! And do you even have the slightest clue where you're going?"
Vincent Valentine just kept on riding. And Yuffie, having been born with stubbornness, followed. Flare, being the golden Chocobo that he is, soon kept up easily with Lucia with an inch worth of space between them.
That man with her is crazy to think he could beat whatever it was that injured Bugenhagen by himself. Yuffie knew with experience that Bugenhagen, as frail as he appears, could actually defend himself better than most people much younger than himself. (Experience? A bad one when she once ran out of materia and had to 'borrow' some from the nearest person, which just so happened to be...) He didn't use weapons or fists, he simply gathered what energy he had and sort of... messed with the enemies' heads a little. Bugenhagen had a way with that telepathic mumble-jumble that Yuffie could never understand, but she knew it was strong enough to hold off anything BUT a worthy foe.
And that horrible scream he issued... She has never heard Bugenhagen - or anyone - scream like that before. That scar wound on his arm must be more than meets the eye. And what did the Wiseman say? 'I have not much time' or something? Did Bugenhagen already know his fate?
The thing they were chasing was dangerous, LETHAL, even. Didn't Vincent know that? Did that thing he found on the ground meddle with his head or something?
"Vincent..." She started again to try and bring him to his senses, but when she turned to look at his face, she found she had been only wasting her breath. There was something like stern concentration in his garnet eyes as he stared at something up ahead, and that was currently taking all of his attention. She followed his gaze and saw nothing but the excited raindrops swirling into her eyes, and the darkness in front of them stretching endlessly on and on like they were riding through some unearthly black hole.
"I highly suggest you go back now before it's too late, Yuffie." Vincent's voice sounded a mile away.
~Why? What did she miss? ~
But even though she sure as hell couldn't see anything unnerving, Vincent must have. Lucia threw up its head again before leaning down in sprint position, and raced on with its wings outstretched and its mouth wide open.
Yuffie pulled her mouth into a straight line as she urged Flare after Lucia, trying to ignore the endless plummeting of the raindrops on her skin and in her eyes. She battered her eyelashes and wiped one hand across her face, so maybe she could at least see where she was going, not to mention spot whatever it was that Vincent saw.
If one tries hard enough, one is bound to achieve... A shadow flickered on the path ahead of them, so light and fast that Yuffie thought it only her imagination at first. (Was it so small? And did it have wings?) Then something descended into her head with a force that nearly knocked her off her Chocobo, yet did not have a form. A dread, a deadly gloom, wrapped itself around her brain and refused to be swept off by the torrents of rain. The air around her suddenly felt like cotton, suffocating her as she tried desperately to breathe. Her head spun, the whole world spun, and the ache in her head caused a nausea so strong it threatened to bring up whatever was left in her stomach. A sickening metallic sound rose in her ears, and the world dissolved and lost its shape before her eyes.
Then everything snapped back to normal.
Yuffie gasped and gulped in a deep breath while looking around her in amazement. Vincent was still ahead of her, still uncaring, though she thought she heard him draw in air hastily too. The rain was still pounding on her cold and weary body, and the darkness...it went on and on. But it wasn't the same. It was as though she erupted through an invisible barrier and arrived on the parallel universe on the other side, only with an enhanced feeling of sense. She could feel evil brooding just in front of her, the shadow that she glimpsed for one second mocking her from ahead.
And then Yuffie Kisaragi knew: It was too late to turn back.
AN: This chapter was delayed for three main reasons, which would only waste time if I were to tell them.
This chapter had a lot of thinking in it, and I do hope you have not gotten bored. I am afraid of writing the fourth chapter; my chapters are lengthening and I find I cannot do anything about it...
The writing in ~ are thoughts. I find my WordPad program cannot be posted onto the website, and italics in Microsoft Word does not show for some reason.
Thank you for your reviews, all of them have helped me gather enough inspiration and confidence to write this chapter. I am beginning to lead up to something. Fancy you know who the shadow is?