( None of these belong to me. They are owned by Squaresoft/enix so I would greatly appreciate it if you don't sue me please thanks) This is my second time writing a fic so bear with me, there's prolly a lot of mistakes in here. Lol no flames please. This is a Vincent/Aries fic. This is a great fic for all you Vincent or Aries fans out there... ' oh and another thing.. I know that I'm kinda rushing things and I'm telling the story really fast, but bear with me... I swear, I'll go more into depth and the later chapters will get better! ' I hope... I think I got Red 13's age wrond too... I know he was 40 something when he joined so... I dunno. Anyways... enjoy!! oh and the song to listen at Cosmo Canyon? Escaflowne movie soundtrack no 9

Red Death's Love

-LMG-

(Tori Amos-Winter) This song is dedicated to Yuffie thinking about her dad

Snow can wait I forgot my mittens

Wipe my nose Get my new boots on

I get a little warm in my heart When I think of winter

I put my hand in my father's glove

I run off where the DRIFTS GET DEEPER

Sleeping beauty trips me with a frown

I hear a voice

"You must learn to stand up for yourself

Cause I can't alyways be around"

He says when you gonna make up your mind

When you gonna love you as much as I do

When you gonna make up your mind

Cause things are gonna CHANGE so fast

All the white horses are still in bed

I tell you that I'll always want you near

You say that things change my dear

Boys get discovered as winter MELTS

Flowers competing for the sun

Years go by and I'm here still waiting

Withering where some snowman was

Mirror mirror where's the crystal palace

But I only can see myself

SKATING around the truth who I am

But I know dad the ice is getting thin

When you gonna make up your mind

When you gonna love you as much as I do

When you gonna make up your mind

Cause things are gonna CHANGE so fast

All the white horses are still in bed

I tell you that I'll always want you near

You say that things change my dear

Hair is grey and the fires are burning

So many dreams on the shelf

You say I wanted you to be PROUD of me

I always wanted that myself

Cause things are gonna change so fast

All the WHITE HORSES have gone ahead

I tell you that I'll always want you near

You say that things change my dear Never change All the white horses

It was much easier traveling on a gold chocobo. During his journey, he stopped at Cosmo Canyon. Nananki, or Red, as the group dubbed him, couldn't believe his eyes when he saw Vincent. Besides Vincent, Red was the only one that still looked the same. Red's aging process was slow. He was 43 years old when he joined up with Cloud. But in human years, he appeared as 16. Like Aeris, Red was the last of his kind. Hojo, tried to breed them together, but thankfully, Cloud had been there to save the day. Red 13 and Bugenhagen had bid him to stay for as long as he liked. Vincent thanked them, and stayed for three days. Enough time to replenish his supplies, feed his chocobo and find out about his old friends.

Red 13 talked about the other surviving AVALANCHE members while Vincent sat by silently listening. Aside from Reeve, Red was the only one that kept in contact with all members of team, excluding Vincent, ofcourse. Red continued on with his stories. He spoke a lot about the little ninja/thief, Yuffie. Vincent had almost forgotten about her. He remembered traveling with her thinking that a child shouldn't be on a trek to save the world. That she should be at home. The team put up with her shenanigans because she was very handy with her giant shurikan. Other than that, Yuffie annoyed the living daylights out of everyone. She kind of annoyed Vincent but not as often as the others. She left him alone when she discovered he was an ex-TURK. He didn't think about her once after he left, but after all these years, Vincent was curious about the little thief and how she was doing.

Apparently Vincent hadn't been the only one to jump ship after meteor. Yuffie left without a word to anyone. No one missed her presence except Red. Despite her thieving ways, Red was pretty close to Yuffie. They were both the youngest members on the team. Although Red was more mature, Yuffie made him laugh most of the times when things were dark. She was always playing practical jokes on Cait Sith and Cid. Red took no part in these "practical jokes", but he still thought it was funny when no one else did. Yuffie had been on several adventures after meteor. She was a curious little thing and she became something of a master at treasure hunting. She had come to visit Red often over the years... but one day, she stopped. Red 13 was worried that something had happened to his dear friend.

A couple of years passed without a word from her then, Yuffie showed up out of the blue. She had changed. She seemed more grown up. The little mischief maker was gone, only to be replaced by a young woman. Yuffie apologized to Red for not visiting sooner. She had with her a bag of all the materia she had stolen from him. She also called him by his real name Nananki, which disturbed Red a great deal. When Red asked Yuffie why she changed, Yuffie told him that her father died and that now she had to take up the Kisaragi thrown and take care of her people. She explained to him, that her father Godo died from a rare heart disease. She had been on an adventure when it happened. The royal messengers had been sent to her inn room. They informed her to return to Wutai and that she was to take her father's place as the rightful heiress of Wutai. By the time she got back, she was ready to take over where her father left off. She was heartbroken, but she couldn't show it.

Despite all of Yuffie's antics and disobedience, she loved her father and was devastated when he passed away. Godo had been well loved by his people, they all cried at the funeral but not Yuffie. Her people remarked at how brave and strong she was for not crying.. but Yuffie knew better. She knew that if she opened the damn, the flood would never stop. She couldn't allow herself to break. She had to be strong for her people. After she was done with the story, she had tears in her eyes. Red remained quiet and allowed her a moment of tears for her father. After her display of emotion, Yuffie bid Red farewell, and that she probably wouldn't visit him in a while. Red understood this and let her go. After Red was done telling the story, he sat by and looked at Vincent's face.

There was something different about the stoic man. Red could smell that something wasn't right with Vincent. But then again what's not normal about him? Red remembered Vincent mentioning something about a woman named Lucrecia, the mother of Sephiroth. Did he visit her after meteor? Wasn't she dead?

"Vincent? Are you ... alright?" Red didn't know if he had the right to ask, but he was worried about his friend. Vincent simply looked at him and then looked away.

Vincent surprised him when he answered his question. "I will be soon enough... thankyou..."

Other than Cloud, Red understood Vincent's predicament. Vincent was the only one who withstood Hojo's cruel experiments for a long time without going mad. Well, then again, he did lock himself in a coffin. Red eyed the dark man curiously. He didn't want to burden Vincent anymore than he had to, so he bid him good night, and retired for the evening. The next morning, Red got up early enough to see his friend off.

As Vincent left Cosmo Canyon, he noticed the pictographs engrave alongside the red wall. He remembered he's asked Red about them a while back, when AVALANCHE first appeared together here as a team, and Aeris was still alive. Red told him that the carvings depicted a story, about a brave man who lost his soul to a Wendigo, a half beast/phantom creature that ate the flesh of its victim. It was said that because the young man was so brave, the gods took pity upon him, and gave him back his body, but he could not get his soul back. The man wandered around the world trying to find the wendigo that stole his soul. Years later, the man was walking down the same path he walked down when he was attacked all those years ago. He had not forgotten about the wendigo who attacked him. Again the same thing happened, except this time, the man was ready. When the creature jumped out of the forest he found himself facing the man's ax instead.

The wendigo fell to the ground. As he lay upon the ground bleeding, the creature pleaded for his life. "I ate your flesh, because the gods had cursed me to do so... I beg for my life, please show me mercy"

Instead of showing him mercy, the man brought his ax down onto the monsters head. With one fell swoop, the monster died. The man found his soul again... but... it had changed. In place of a soul, was a black stone. The man cursed the Gods, but the gods shook their heads in shame and pity. Although the monster took the man's life, he was true to himself ... he ate for survival. The man.. killed out of cold blood. He was no better than the Wendigo. From that day forward, the man became what he feared most... Vincent didn't know why he was reminded of that story just now, but he pushed it away and continued his ride towards the ancient city. There was something that he had to do.

-End-