Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, they belong to Square Enix.
Author's notes: Well first of all I would like to thank my most faithful reviewers, Kimmie, and Angel of Silence. They and all my other reviewers have been very encouraging. I have gone back into first person narration for this chapter. Also as Kimmie encouraged, I tried to add more focus to the characters, and their feelings. I hope you like it, and as always please REVIEW.
Apocalypse Rising

Chapter 5: A Love Growing on a Battlefield
Of all the members of Avalanche, I never expected Vincent to break down. He was always so calm, and collected, but last night I saw him lose control. Cid, Yuffie, and Red had landed the Highwind, and Vincent had gone to get the Masamune, to replace his now ruined Death Penalty.

We were all worried about how Vincent would deal with seeing Lucrecia's body. I was so tense that I left the group to walk and around and sort through my thoughts. I had a bad feeling about that night.

While I was walking I heard, and loud and an inhuman cry. I had only heard the sound a few times, but those times had been burned into my memory. The sound came from the creature Chaos. Something horrible must have happened to make Vincent transform. I ran to where the sound had originated, and there, hovering over three dismembered corpses, was Chaos. My first instinct had been to run for my life, but I found myself walking to the creature. Inside I knew that he would not hurt me, that inside the demon, was my friend, and that he was in great pain, and that I had to do what I could, to draw him out.

I am not quite sure what I said, I just tried to comfort him, and slowly Chaos faded away to leave an anguished Vincent. I tried to ask what had happened, but he wouldn't answer, his face was blank, and he looked paler than usual. I slowly rose and checked the cave. Inside I saw a small trail of blood, leading from the center of the cave to the alter where Lucrecia lay. I walked up to the body and saw a thin blade wound through her heart.

This sight took a moment to comprehend. Though I had known Vincent only a short time, I knew enough about him, to be sure that he would never willingly hurt Lucrecia. Something must have driven him to do it. I quickly walked back to Vincent. He was still on his knees, his face blank, as if he was still registering what he had done.

As I kneeled next to him, I started to realize what we were up against. Somehow this new evil had the ability to revive Lucrecia, and make Vincent kill her. I suppressed a shudder, these new creatures were more horrible than I had even feared. I tried to comfort Vincent. As I did his body began to shudder. It seemed he could no longer contain the grief, and that his body would break down. He continued to shudder, and then he began to sob, tears flowed like rivers from his crimson eyes, and his face was contorted with grief and shame. He cried almost the entire night. He cried until there were no more tears left to shed, and still he was unable to rise.

Through it all I stayed with him, until he unsteadily rose to his feat. I took his arm, and let him lean on my shoulder and slowly we walked back to the Highwind. When we arrived he silently walked into the conference room, and closed it behind him. No one followed, but they all looked to me for an explanation. When I finished telling them what had happened, there was complete silence. They all understood how much pain Vincent must be in, and they decided to leave him be. We took off not long ago, heading back to Midgar to meet up with the others.

Cid is at the helm, with Red discussing what they should do when we get back. Yuffie is trying to contain her motion sickness while we fly back. I am just standing on the deck, staring out at the clouds in the sky.

I truly hate Lucrecia. That is one thing I am sure of. I have never met her, but I know her story. She had never loved Vincent. She had just used him, and then broken his heart. I had hoped Vincent had moved on, that he could put her memory in the past and face his future, but now she has destroyed him yet again, and for that I hate her. Anyone who could hurt Vincent that deeply, has to be evil.

I think I sympathize with Vincent, because we are so similar. We both have loved people that did not love us back. We have spent our lives, trying to be worthy of their love, and we have both failed. I have always felt for Vincent, and in his own quiet way, Vincent has always been there for me.

I remember when we first met. Cloud, Aeris, and I had been exploring the Shin-Ra mansion when we found his coffin. While Cloud and Aeris, had been terrified by this dark man, I sensed that he was not evil. When he dismissed us, and we went to leave, I stayed behind. I could sense the power around him. I felt that he could be one of the deciding factors in our fight against Sephiroth. He finally joined.

As I started to look around the Highwind, I realized how depressing the scene was. There was an air of defeat around us, as if we were coming home with our tails between our legs. It was as if we had lost the will to fight along with Vincent. It made sense I guess. Throughout our entire journey, every one of us had had our moment of weakness, where we thought there was no point left in fighting. However, Vincent had never shown any weakness, he had always been strong, he had been our rock. Now he had finally cracked, he could no longer take care of us, and it had gone on long enough. It was time for them to be there for him.

With new determination, I marched to the conference room, I took a deep breath and opened the door. The room was pitch black except for the small porthole in the back of the room. There he was, sitting on the floor with his back against the back right corner, the Masamune lying right to him.

Vincent looked like hell. His eyes were bloodshot, making them look completely red. His face was sunken, and there were tear streaks still on his cheeks.

"Vincent, how are you doing?" I asked in a voice that sounded shakier than I wanted.

" Go away Tifa." Vincent said, in a hoarse, yet commanding voice.

"Not until you talk to me. Vincent, what happened last night, was horrible. No one should have to ...."

"Shut Up! What would you know?! You spend your time pining over Cloud, at least he is still alive! Do you think you could kill him? Until you have to kill a loved one you will never know what I went through. So just shut up and leave me alone!" Vincent yelled, and slowly stood up, and his hand reached for the Masamune.

I was shocked at how fiercely he had responded to me, and I took a fe2w steps back. My eyes began to burn a little, and a single tear fell from my eye.

"No! You listen to me Vincent! You mean a lot to everyone here, and we need you. You can deny your importance to all of us, but it is still there. Right now bad shit is happening, and you seem to be the only one with the faintest idea of what is going on. You can't repent by locking yourself up, if you truly seek forgiveness then help us. Please, we need you Vincent, I need you." I shot back in a harsh voice.

" You don't need me, go back to Cloud, when he wakes up he can help you. He was always a good leader." Vincent muttered in a soft voice.

" You still don't understand, Vincent you can't hide from your life, you can only go out and face it to the best of your ability. Cloud is not here, and you may be our only hope in this fight. So please just come with me." I pleaded.

Vincent gave no response, leaving us in complete silence.

"Fine, stay hidden, see where it leaves you. Goodbye Vincent." I muttered and walked out of the door.

When I left the room, I walked out and headed to the helm of the ship. My lower lip was quivering, but I was determined not to let myself cry. If Vincent insisted on hiding then we would have to fight on our own.

As I entered the helm I saw cid looking almost scared. Red was at the front of the helm looking out of the window.

"Cid, what's wrong?" I asked.

" Look." Was his only reply.

I walked over where Red was, and gasped at what I saw. There was a group of fifteen giant griffons flying towards us.

"What do we do?" Was all I asked.

"You, Red, and Yuffie get on deck, and try to fight them off. I will try to get us out of here. Do you think Vincent-"

"No, he won't fight." I answered before cid could finish his question.

With a curt nod Cid focused on the helm, and Red and I got up on deck, to find Yuffie already prepared for battle. Though she was sick she was ready to use all of her materia against these creatures. We each took a section of the deck and prepared ourselves for the coming fight.

We didn't have to wait long. The griffons came at us in full force. Yuffie was the first to attack, she used the spell ultima, and green flames flew at the beasts, they were sent flying back away from the ship, but they righted themselves and attacked again, as if the spell were merely an annoyance. Yuffie tried Fire 3 on the beasts, but the merely absorbed the attack. The beasts split up into three groups and attacked us. Red was using his Stardust Ray attack on them, but again it didn't seem to bother them. The five beasts I was facing formed a circle around me, they closed in on me while I was attacking the one closest to me. I cried out in pain when I felt a large talon claw my back. I turned and prepared my ultimate attack.

"Final Heaven!" I yelled as I preformed my ultimate attack. When I was done, four of the five beasts had died, but the attack had taken a lot of energy. I turned to see how Red and Yuffie were doing.

Yuffie was on the ground, being attacked by all five of her enemies. Red was doing slightly better, having killed two of his opponents, but he too was begging to tire. It seemed that we would not win this battle.

I paid for adverting my attention by being attacked by a fire spell from the beast. Both my arms were burned and I would be unable to fight against the creature's next strike.

The creature struck me with its talon and knocked me face down to the ground. I turned around to see the creature's face give a look of triumph as it prepared for the kill. Then, in a flash of red and black, the creature let out a small gurgling sound, before its head fell off its shoulders. I rubbed my eyes and stood up, and turned to see Vincent holding the Masamune in his normal hand, he was standing just to the right of me.

"Vincent! What are you doing?" I asked in a breathless voice.

" A friend recently told me that one can't hide from their life. They can only face it to the best of their ability. That's what I'm doing." Vincent said, as he pulled out a handgun from a holster on his left side.

Vincent charged through the group of griffons around Yuffie, he killed two with only one strike with the Masamune. Then he stood in the middle of the small circle they had formed around the young ninja.

" Prepare to die you vermin! I shall put the fear of hell into you!" Vincent yelled as he began firing his handgun. He fired twenty shots, and when he was done the griffons around him fell dead.

Scooping Yuffie into his arms , he ran back to me and lay her at my feet. The young girl was badly injured all over her tiny figure.

"Watch after her." Was all Vincent said as he charged the remaining three beasts. As he ran he dropped his handgun now that it was out of bullets and impaled one of them with his sword. He turned to face the other two beasts. With his claw he grabbed one of their necks and with only that one hand crushed its throat. The other griffon tried to slash at Vincent with its talon, but he only ducked under its swipe and slashed with his claw. Ripping open its underbelly, and then he jumped onto its back and with his blade thrust it into the creature's back.

I watched this in a state of awe. Vincent had taken out 9 of these creatures without even trying. Vincent was checking on how Red was doing before coming back to me.

He kneeled down and checked the young girls pulse.

"Is she going to be ok?" I asked in a worried tone.

" She will live, but she will need rest." Vincent said calmly. He looked at me, and noticed the burns on my arm and the large bloody scratch on my back.

"Are you alright? I am truly sorry that it took me so long to come and help." Vincent asked in a caring voice.

"Better late then never I guess, and yeah I have an a couple of potions inside.

Vincent gave a nod. " I want to thank you Tifa. You were right, I have too much time hiding as it is. When we get back to Midgar I will do all that I can to prepare us for our next fight."

"You don't need to thank me Vincent, if anything I should be thanking you, that's twice you have saved me." I said in a playful tone.

Vincent gave a slight chuckle, " Trust me, I will always be there for you. You have my word." Vincent said seriously.

I know that I sound girly, but when he said that I felt like my stomach had done a back flip. Vincent had turned to go inside the cockpit and as I watched him, I noticed how elegant he looked, from the way his hair hung to how his cape moved in the wind.

I gave myself a mental slap, and told myself to stop thinking such things, but still my mind was stuck on my guardian angel. My mind was still on Vincent when I walked back into the cockpit. Cid was on the PHS while Red and Vincent were taking care of Yuffie. When he hung up he looked at me and gave me a smile.

" Hey, got some good news. That was Barret, he says Cloud is awake, he is waiting for us right now." He said in a cheerful voice.

Though his news was supposed to cheer me up, I only felt cold dread. In all this time I had been able to forget about my feelings for Cloud, now he was back, and I wasn't sure how I was supposed to feel. All I could do now was wait and see what would happen, but my intuition told me it would be bad. Cid's words replaying in my mind

"He's awake."
Final thoughts: Well there you go. This was my vain attempt at romance, and if any of you still wonder, yes this is going to be a Vincent/Tifa story. I am sorry if you thought there was not enough action, and about those three new materia, they will be explained in my next chapter. I hope you all enjoyed this, and please if you have suggestions give them to me, I could use all the help I can get. Thanks for your time, and please REVIEW.