Four days had passed since that day Yuffie had resolved to do something. And she stuck to her promise, learning new things about herself everyday. She found that if she wanted, she could purr endlessly. Of course, she drove everyone insane because, in truth Yuffie purred loudly. She also learned that she could hiss (and rather menacingly to) if something ever angered or threatened her. She did this once when Taerk taunted her cat ears.

And just now, she learned three things all at once.

First she learned she could jump very high. Second she learned that her new strength and claws allowed her to scale buildings easily. And third, she learned the hard way what most cats learned at a young age…

Not to climb too high and get stuck.

Of course, sitting on top of the two story log cabin, Yuffie realized this immediately, seeing there was no way for her to come down. Or at least, no way she wanted to take.

It was mid-afternoon at the home, but the day was still cold. Yuffie was just a shivering mass, sitting on the roof, her teeth chattering loudly.

After quite a while, sitting there, fighting with her pride, Yuffie finally swallowed it and let out a long yowl.

It was something else she had learned to do, when Ern stepped on her tail just yesterday.

A minute or two later, Beatrix came out into the front, looking around. "Yuffie…?"

Yuffie shouted down at her, "I'm up here!"

The redhead turned and looked up, a look of disbelief dawning on her face as she saw where the ninja was. "Wha—How…How did you get up there!?"

"The birds gave me a lift." The girl responded sarcastically, "How do you think? I climbed!"

Beatrix shook her head, "And just what were you doing, climbing up there? It's freezing!"

"Think I don't know that!?" Yuffie snapped, still shivering. Her tail thumped angrily on the roof. "Just get me down!"

"What's going on?" Taerk came out from inside the house, and joined Beatrix. He followed the redhead's line of vision, and, spotting Yuffie, smirked. "Stuck?" he said tauntingly, crossing his arms.

Yuffie fumed. "Shut up and get me down!"

Taerk chuckled, his blonde hair blowing softly in the wind, "Why should I? You're the one who got yourself stuck up there. Why not just climb down?"

"If I could, don't you think I would have by now?"

Beatrix cut in before Taerk could get in a response. "Yuffie, how'd you get up there?"

Yuffie shrugged, "I jumped and clawed my way up."

Taerk scowled disapprovingly, "I can see where you did that…Look demon, you've got claw marks all on the side of the cabin!"

"Is it my fault you guy's wanted to play hillbillies and use logs to make a home!?"

"Last time I checked we were allowing you to stay here. You wanna get kicked out?"

"Last time I checked you weren't in the position to make threats like that."

Beatrix waved her arms, looking annoyed. "Hey! Hello? Guys? This isn't helping!"

Yuffie wrapped her arms around herself and muttered grumpily, "Well if Taerk would stop being 'big and stupid' over there-"

"I heard that you brat!" Taerk shouted, face reddening in anger.

"Gods you people are so loud…Just what's all the commotion about?"

Julius came into view, stopping in the snow next to Beatrix and Taerk. Doing just what Taerk did, he followed their line of vision up to Yuffie, who was growing increasingly irritated.

"I'm going to be stuck up here, aren't I?" Yuffie grumbled.

Julius scratched his head, "How'd you get up there?"

The ninja rolled her eyes.

Seeing as how everyone seemed to be coming out to look on at Yuffie's plight, Meridian and Ern also came into view, stopping beside everyone else. Yuffie glared down at them all, her tail lashing violently. "Well now that everyone's here to witness my stupidity, would any of you mind getting me down!?"

Ern scratched his head and asked, "How'd you get up there?"

Yuffie considered launching herself at him. Just plain jumping off the roof and ripping the stuttering man to shreds. But then, she reasoned, she'd probably break a few bones in process, and she didn't want that.

But Meridian's idea nearly made her fall right off anyway.

"Jump."

He looked serious, as he always did, and his voice was even and calm, like it always was. But Yuffie still couldn't help but think he was teasing her.

"Ha…very funny," she muttered sarcastically, "Like that's gonna work…"

Meridian shrugged. "It will."

She stared down at him. "You really can't be serious about this…"

He frowned softly at her, "Why wouldn't I be?"

Yuffie balked. Was he insane? "I can't jump off a two story house! I'll break a bone or something…or worse I'll die!"

Taerk muttered darkly to himself, "Great tragedy that would be…"

Beatrix glared at him, before turning to Meridian. "Um…Meridian, you…sure about this?"

He turned to her. "You have no faith in your leader?"

The girl paled, "No, no! That's not what I meant, I-"

"Ms. Kisaragi, you must remember what you are now. You're a demon. A cat demon. You can survive jumps higher than this. If you really feel like you hit the ground too hard, just tuck and roll." Meridan's eyes shined with a fierceness that instilled confidence in Yuffie. Maybe she really could do this…

"If I die…" Yuffie muttered, standing and stepping carefully to the edge of the roof, "…I'll come back to haunt you all."

And with that she jumped.

Though she had grown enough courage to do the stunt, that didn't mean she was completely confident.

In fact she screamed the whole way down.

With a dull thud, the cat girl landed in the snow, bending her knees so as to absorb the shock. She didn't stumble or trip, only straightened, looking surprised.

"Holy Shiva…" she breathed, eyes wide.

Everyone, except Meridian, looked just as shocked. Both Beatrix and Julius's mouths were hanging open and Taerk's eyes were widened in disbelief. Ern let out a simple squeak.

Yuffie was looking down at herself as if seeing her body for the first time. After a moment, she squealed. "That was great!" she danced around on the spot, "I'm Yuffie, the invincible kitty ninja!"

Taerk rolled his eyes and Beatrix giggled.

Yuffie ran back toward the cabin. "I'm doing that again!"

Julius started in alarm, "Yuffie, wait-!"

But she didn't pay him any mind. With an almighty jump, the girl hit the side of the cabin, only a couple of feet below the roof. Beatrix winced as she clawed the rest of the way to the top. "Ack…look at those claw marks…"

--

Mikau watched silently as Yuffie flew past his bedroom window for the sixth time. He looked down at the others outside. Taerk was holding a ladder and was shouting something, his face pink. The corner of the man's lips lifted in what suspiciously looked like a smile as he watched the shenanigans down below.

After watching Yuffie's eighth jump, he got up and left the room.

--

"So what's the deal with you guys?" Yuffie asked Beatrix, later that day. They were both sitting in the living room, Yuffie exhausted from all the jumping she did, Beatrix keeping her company. The others were down in the basement again. Whatever they were planning obviously didn't include the younger girl, and Yuffie was glad to have someone to talk to.

"What do you mean?" Beatrix responded, sitting back in the recliner. She wriggled gleefully in it. Usually she never got to sit there.

Yuffie shrugged, the tip of her tail flopping lazily on the couch cushion. "I mean, how did you all meet? You, Julius, Ern, all of you. You are all so different. Groups like that just don't happen."

Beatrix sighed, stretching. "It's a long story…"

Yuffie sat back. "And I've got plenty of time to kill."

The redhead sat forward, "Okay…Here's how it started I guess…and I'm just going to give you the gist of things, cuz' I'm kind of impatient, and I mean it when I say this story is a long one…"

The cat girl nodded. "All right. That's fine with me."

Beatrix crossed her legs, sitting in her seat Indian style. "This all started when we were young. About nine years ago in Shinra. That's the year Meridian was brought in by the science department as a specimen. He came alone, because his parents had resisted, and they killed them. I was only seven years old then, but I had been in born in captivity. So had Taerk, Ern, and Julius. We were all under 'observation' by the science department. They wanted to know more about us…see if they could harness our abilities for their own uses. In the end, they injected us with a bunch of 'enhancing' chemicals and performed surgery on us…All of us." The girl reached up and felt the side of her head, "I can still feel the scars…"

Yuffie paled, remembering stories from Aeris, Cloud, and Vincent. Just being under observation was demeaning enough. But for Shinra to just start experimenting with living things like something gave them the right to…

"Kisamas…" the ninja hissed.

Beatrix continued quietly, "Julius came out with enhanced eyes and reflexes. Taerk was given super strength. And Ern gained super hearing and photographic memory…I…I was given telekinetic powers."

Yuffie raised her eyebrows. "Wow…" but as she saw the look on Beatrix's face, her amazement faded away and was quickly replaced by dread. "Lemme' guess…things didn't exactly go as planned. Right?"

The younger girl sighed, looking remorseful. "Every now and then I get these bad headaches…I get dizzy and everything. And whenever I try to use my powers again, I get this excruciating headache. It's like a blinding pain…sometimes it's enough to make me go unconscious."

"Shiva…that's horrible!"

Beatrix shrugged, "I haven't had a headache in a while, and as long as I don't try to use my powers I'm fine. But nothing's for certain. For all I know, I'm dying."

Yuffie frowned, "Can't you, I dunno…check or something?"

Beatrix laughed bitterly, "Check!? Yuffie, we're lycans. We can't go to human doctors for anything."

"But…but…No!" the cat girl was sitting up, straight as a rod, her tail lashing slightly in passion. "You have to check! You really could be dying! Don't you wanna know? This isn't some menial thing!"

"And if the doctor finds out what I am, if he doesn't mind, if he finds a problem, do you really think he'll be able to do anything to help?"

Yuffie fell quiet. She bared her teeth fiercely, trying her hardest to come up with an argument, to come up with a solution…but she could find none.

She sat back again and rubbed at her eyes. "…S'not fair. Any of it."

Beatrix sighed, looking years older than she truly was. Crimson eyes downcast, she murmured, "I know…"

"…But you got out. You all got out! How?"

"Meridian."

"He rescued you?"

"He helped us escape. You see, not too long after they brought him in, Hojo called upon all scientists for this experiment he was doing."

"…Jenova?"

"Yeah, the project took all of the scientist's time and efforts. Pretty soon, we were sitting there, forgotten.

"Really. We were just there, the five of us. But then, finally, Meridian worked up a plan to get us out. Ern worked out all the kinks, and we were set to go. Julius, Taerk, and Meridian took out the guards during feeding time and busted Ern and me out of our cages. I would have done it myself, but those scientists were smart. They put disruptors around my cage, so that I couldn't use my powers.

"When we were out, Ern hacked into the computers and printed out a map of the building. After Taerk and Meridian put on the guard's clothes, cuz' they were the only ones who fit in them, we snuck out our way out of the Shinra building. Me, Julius, and Ern hid under some draped trolleys, and Taerk and Meridian pretended to be transferring something important to another department. Since their tags said 'Science Department Staff', everyone kept away and didn't ask many questions. No one wanted to get mixed up in what they were doing.

"After that, we got to the garage and hijacked a car, then we high tailed it out of there. It was the first time I had ever seen the outside. I was scared. Midgar didn't look like friendly place, but neither did the Shinra building, so I couldn't really complain.

"Eventually they found out we went missing and placed bounties on our heads, but we snuck out by way of the slums and went all the way to Kalm. They didn't pursue us. They were too busy with other important things to go looking for a couple of rejected specimens."

Yuffie let out a breath of air, "Geez…so you guys were able to get out? What did you do from there?"

"We decided to become a pack. Our only problem was who the leader was going to be. The others all decided to have a fighting contest and whoever was the victor would be leader. So one night, on a full moon, we went out into the fields, far from the town, and held the contest. I didn't fight, obviously. I was too young. Ern and Julius were taken out quick, and the fight was eventually narrowed down to Meridian and Taerk…Taerk was really strong and everything, but Meridian was way too quick for him. In the end, Taerk got tired, and Meridian won."

"And then you guys went on to form a small time rebel group, right?"

Beatrix frowned at Yuffie, "Yeah, when we were a little older…How'd you know?"

"Julius told me."

"Oh…"

"So tell me about how you guys met Mikau. He doesn't seem very social, in fact he seems like he doesn't like any of you very much at all."

"That's just Mikau, he's always been like that. He joined our pack three years ago and still none of us really know much about him."

"Creepy…reminds me of a friend of mine-"

"Vincent Valentine? Yes, I've heard of him. He was the anti-social one of your group, right?"

Yuffie bristled slightly at hearing a companion of hers referred to so loosely. "He was quiet and stuff, but he wasn't a bad guy…just been through a lot, y'know?"

Beatrix shrugged, "I never said he was a bad guy, just said he was anti-social."

Silence followed as the two girls fell quiet. This had been the first time in several days that they had been able to talk so much. Yuffie still didn't consider any of them her 'friends', per say, but she couldn't deny she was getting closer and closer to them as time wore on. She liked Julius and Beatrix at any rate, but the others she wasn't quite sure about. Taerk didn't really like her, or she him, Ern seemed to be in awe of her and she found it hard to keep a conversation with him and not get flustered or annoyed. Then there was Meridian, whom Yuffie really didn't have a definitive opinion on. The man intimidated her, but he seemed nice enough. Only she couldn't help but feel like there was a wall surrounding him. Meridian was fair, reasonable, and trusting. But he didn't seem to know anything else besides being a leader.

"Don Corneo."

Yuffie looked up. "Huh?"

Beatrix was looking at her with an expectant grin. "Don Corneo! You didn't get to finish your story last time!"

The cat girl flushed. "Oh yeah, that's right…"

She had avoided thinking about Avalanche in her time at the cabin, mainly because thinking about them meant remembering a group of friends she could never see again. They had been the only real friends she had ever made, and now, because of what she had been turned into, no one she knew would recognize her. No one would want to accept her new form.

Yuffie was lost to them now.

The older girl bit her lip, her ears drooping some as these thoughts passed through her mind. Beatrix frowned at her, concerned. "Yuffie? What's wrong?"

The cat girl began to speak as if she hadn't heard her. "Don Corneo tied me and Elena to the Da-Chao statue. It was at least a 100-foot drop to the ground. Cloud and the other Turks, Rude and Reno, saved us. Corneo was killed." Beatrix blinked, and Yuffie looked up at her with distant eyes. "The Turks left, and the others escorted me back to my house, where I gave them back their materia. I tagged along with them to the Temple of Ancients, after that…" The ninja sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "I stole their materia and they still let me come. I wasn't very popular after all that, especially with the guys of our group, but they gave me a second chance. I was determined not to screw that up. I was so grateful; I didn't care about the dangers or hardships that were coming. It was already obvious bad things were going to happen. It was like Cid had once said, they were all stupid and crazy, but none of that mattered…because I was stupid and crazy to, and they accepted me as a member of their group when no one else would have…"

Beatrix smiled softly, her eyes shining. "That' so sweet…"

Yuffie rubbed the back of her neck. "Yeah…real 'sweet'." She muttered.

She had never really been one for anything too 'mushy'.

Beatrix giggled, "Aw, come on! Why so glum?"

The ninja shrugged, her tail twitching slightly.

The redhead tilted her head to one side. "…You shouldn't be afraid y'know."

Yuffie's eyes snapped in her direction. "Afraid? Of what?" she asked guardedly.

"Afraid of your friends. After all they've been through, you'll still be the same to them."

The ninja frowned, "I'm not-"

"Sure you are."

Yuffie scowled, her cheeks reddening for the second time. Her tail began to wiggle around in agitation. "Yeah, well…what makes you so certain about that, huh? It's been two years since I've seen any of them. Do you really think they'll be-"

"Okay with it? No of course not. It'll be a nasty shock seeing you like that. But my point is, if they're really your friends, they won't reject you."

Yuffie said nothing for a moment. "…I'm not going to see them. Any of them."

Beatrix shrugged, "All right. We won't force you or anything."

Another long silence reigned over the room. Yuffie sat in discomfort, looking around in search of something to distract herself with. Occasionally she spared a glance in Beatrix's direction, frowning at the girl's content expression.

Why was she looking so…happy?

Considering she was suffering from past experiments from a bunch of mad scientists from Shinra, and with no parents to call her own, she had every reason to be sad or pessimistic.

But she wasn't.

Beatrix was positive and happy-go-lucky, and energetic and caring. She didn't seem to mind her past or her current situation.

Yuffie envied her resilience.

The two girls locked eyes, and Beatrix smiled at her.

She did that often.

"What's a hanyou?" she asked abruptly.

She did that often to…

"Um…" Yuffie scratched her head, "It's a word in my language that means a demon, human half-breed. I didn't think they existed; they were just an old legend in our culture. But apparently…" she wriggled her ears sheepishly and Beatrix laughed.

The younger girl eventually quieted down, and stared dreamily up at Yuffie's ears. Wistfully she said, "I wish I could keep my wolf ears when I'm in this form…they look so cute…" she smiled faintly.

Yuffie raised an eyebrow at her.

"Two days…" Beatrix murmured, curling into a secure little ball in her seat. Her eyes grew distant and gleamed with something Yuffie couldn't quiet put her finger on.

But whatever it was, it was making her nervous.

Beatrix closed her eyes and sighed. "Two more days until the full moon comes…"

--

The long, warm, arms of the sun came down from the sky, embracing its children lovingly. The breath of the wind blew lightly at their hair, keeping them cool, and the water lapped up onto the sand in invitation, whispering and murmuring cheerfully in a language long since dead.

These children were the children of the sun.

These were the residents of Costa del Sol.

Indulgent and ungrateful, they hid from the sun's love; they ignored the wind's kindness, and took advantage of the water's hospitality.

All except one woman.

Lying far away from everyone else, on a blanket she laid out on the sand, Tifa Lockheart was sun bathing. She enjoyed every breeze from the wind, and listened to the water's soft banter, taking in every word, though she didn't understand what any of it meant.

Easing her mind and her body, the brunette tried to relax with a sigh, her long hair spreading out around her.

She had been living in Costa del Sol for a year now, with Cloud. Before they had been living in Nibleheim, but memories still hung heavy in the air there. Eventually the two couldn't take it anymore and had moved here.

Both of them had grown out of the Nibleheim. They had left those painful memories behind.

Tifa sighed again and rolled over onto her stomach, her eyes holding nothing but sadness.

She and Cloud had been together for two years, ever since Meteor and the fight against Sephiroth. But from the start, the woman had felt something was missing. Cloud would get introversive and quiet. No amount of coaxing from her could snap him out of it. There was always a wall there, and Tifa was at ends at how to get around it.

It had been ages since he had last touched her. He avoided deep conversations and tried to find any excuse to get out of the house. Away from her.

But today she spared him the trouble and went out herself. "I want to work on my tan." She had said, "To think we've been here so long and not gone to the beach!"

Lies.

Tifa wanted desperately to talk with him, to help him. But she knew she couldn't. If anything, she would make the problem worse…what was the problem exactly?

Aeris.

It pained her to think of her deceased friend in such a way, but that was the truth. Cloud hadn't gotten over her yet and it seemed he never would.

Two years. It had been two years, their being together. If Cloud couldn't get out of his slump, Tifa would leave him.

She couldn't keep saving him. She couldn't keep sacrificing for him.

It brought tears to her eyes, because, perhaps foolishly, she still felt very strongly about him. But after all they had been through, if he still couldn't see the love she felt for him, then it really was time to just give up and leave.

Months had passed since they last slept together. Months since they had last really talked. Tifa wanted a family, and she just couldn't have that if things didn't change. In all honesty, she was tired of waiting for Cloud. She had always been waiting for him.

The woman closed her eyes as a tear slipped out.

She had always been waiting.

--

Cloud was sitting slumped on a bar stool, in some dingy pub on the outskirts of town. He held his head in his hands, staring groggily down his empty shot glass, the bitter taste of alcohol still lingering on his tongue. Distantly he registered the voices of the other bar patrons. Laughing, giggling, guffawing…

…They were laughing at him. He just knew it.

Cloud slammed his fist into the counter, a sudden wave of anger overtaking him. The bar quieted down and he felt the weight of eyes on his back, but he ignored them. Raising his shot glass, he muttered, "Bartender. Gimme another drink…"

The man behind the counter eyed him warily, but nevertheless filled his glass.

The swordsman downed it in one fell swoop.

Infertile.

"Hit me again," he demanded harshly, fist clenching tightly around the glass. The bartender filled it, and Cloud downed it again, without hesitation.

Disloyal.

"Again!" he snarled, slamming his glass back onto the counter.

The bartender glared at him. "Look, I think you've had enough."

A failure.

Cloud grabbed the man by the collar and hissed, his breath stinking with alcohol, "Just. Pour. The damn. Drink."

A silky voice sounded next to him, and the swordsman blinked in surprise. "My…aren't we feisty now?"

He turned to the voice, letting go of the bartender, who was also staring on in surprise.

On the stool beside Cloud, sat a woman with fiery red hair. She was quite possibly the most voluptuous woman he had ever seen, with full cherry lips and a busty chest that could easily have rivaled Tifa's. She was captivating in ever way.

But what really hooked him were her eyes.

The woman smiled and held out a hand. "I'm Terra…"

Cloud could only stare at her, his eyes locked onto hers. He was drowning in her…She was so…beautiful…

He jumped up with a start, "Oh…Um, my name's Cloud." He shook her hand and silently he marveled at her soft skin.

The woman's smile widened and she leaned forward, revealing a little cleavage. "Ah, so you're the hero who saved the world…"

Any other time, Cloud would have corrected her. But now he didn't. Now, he wasn't thinking straight.

He was under a spell.

He chuckled, leaning in a little as well. "Yes…I saved the world. I stopped Sephiroth single handedly."

Terra let out a purr, eyes shining with an insidious light, "Really now? Well…'Mr. Hero'…Would you like to come to my apartment for a drink? It will only take a second…"

Cloud nodded slowly, his eyes clouding over. "Yeah…sure I would."

Terra bit her lip playfully and took Cloud's hand, pulling him off the stool. "Come on then, my house is only a half a block away…"

Cloud grinned and nodded his head mutely while the other male patrons of the bar sent him envious glares. The bartender, who had listened in on the whole exchange, dried his face with a towel. "Hoo boy…" he muttered.

A pair of women sitting in a shadowy corner of the bar exchanged dark looks. One of the women, the one with short, pale blonde hair, stood, her gray eyes narrowing. Turning to her companion, she jerked her head towards the door. The other woman stood as well, her raven black hair pouring over her shoulder as she pushed her chair back into place. She smoothed out her skirt and nodded solemnly. "Let's go."

Cloaks sweeping, they left the bar and went after Cloud and Terra.

A/N: If this chapter is crap, it may be because I wrote this in just two days. As promised, Cloud and Tifa made an appearance in this chapter, and are going to be showing up more as time goes by…And before you start saying how out of character Cloud is, just wait until the next chapter, for things to be explained…

And I realize what Yuffie's 'discovering' about herself is really just some of the more basic and easy things, but as stated before, it would make sense to get used to things like that, so that when the time came for her to really push her limits, she isn't 'tripping' and 'falling' so to speak.

And I gave some more background on the lycans, next chapter is going to have some real action in it, so maybe things won't seem so boring around here.

Stratadrake: The Volocidor was me trying to type down the name of a specific monster which was actually the 'vlakorados', and it lurks right there in the Bone Village area. I couldn't remember the name, so I put 'volocidor' down and made a mental note to go back and change it after I checked the name. Apparently, I forgot, and I didn't change it…

Blargh…'too', 'to', 'it's', 'its', it all gets confusing. It's kind of sad since we reviewed the latter pair in our school. In fact, I think I've forgot the rules of use for 'too' and 'to'…I'll have to look that up.

One of these day's I'll go back and correct those chapters, but for now, out of simple laziness, I'll leave them be…

And on a side note: Anyone who thinks a Red/Yuffie pairing would work, needs to be shot into space and blown up just for their sheer creepy thinking.

Next chapter most likely will get done fast, if not, you know what happened...

Life.

Oh and please be a pal and leave a review…polite, constructive criticism is, as always, very much appreciated.