A/N: I had the sudden urge to update my story right away 'cause, my vacation time is almost up and I go back to school the next day. :narrows eyes: Anyways, I swear I wanted to make this longer, but I thought of an idea for the next chapter. :evil grin: Hope you enjoy anyways!

Disclaimer: FF7 is not mi-ine!

Back To Those Human Years
Chapter Four

From Within (Part 2)

"What are… you still doing here?"

I backed away from Godo as my tail flame burned uncontrollably and my heart started to race twice than normal. My eye narrowed as I stared straight into his dark colored ones that stared back.

"For the festival," I simply responded.

He chuckled at that before pointing at me. "YOU are not welcome. YOU are inhuman!"

I stepped forward and growled furiously, not caring if I was making a big scene for everyone at the bottom of the Pagoda. I just about had enough of Godo lecturing me about how I didn't belong. Like Yuffie said before, I had every right to be here. What's the point of a festival if outsiders like myself couldn't join and have fun as well? I wrinkled my nose and growled once again to the man. He just backed away, still keeping his eyes on mine.

"Whoa, whoa," Cid said in a calming voice, "Don't get so fed up with this. Let's just go."

"What do you want from me!" I snarled at Godo, completely ignoring what Cid just said. "Why can't I join!"

He turned away and peeked over his shoulder. It seemed like he was hesitating, but he finally spoke, "…I will not go easy on you if I see you here again… with her." At that, the doors slowly closed right in my face.

I hit my head against the door several times, still filled with anger inside. How dare he! Never have I've been treated like THIS before! Didn't even give me a straight answer! Just run away from it! At least treat me better than this!

My body felt like it was on fire at the moment. That was when I stopped hitting my head and I lied on the ground… panting like crazy. I could feel everyone staring right at me… giving me weird looks. Probably thinking that I was inhuman. I closed my eye tightly, hoping that everything that just happened was a dream. I was still determined to join in with the ritual and the festival tomorrow… but… how was I supposed to do that when I'm not even wanted?

"This is what Yuffie meant."

I didn't bother to see who it was, but just by the sound of the voice I could tell that it was Vincent. I sighed and slowly wagged my tail around, not making one jingling noise from the bell. "I don't know what to do anymore…"

He kneeled down next to me then patted my shaking back. "Everyone wasn't paying attention to the fight."

I didn't respond. His attempt to cheer me up had completely failed. He sighed and stood up just when the sound of the horn sounded off. I slowly lifted my head and turned around.

"The ritual's continuing. Let's go."

I sunk my head between my shoulders then walked away from him without a word. After all that had happened, I just wasn't in the mood to continue on with the ritual… even if my wish were to never come true.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I watched the rest of the ritual from the bridge that was closest to the Pagoda. I sighed, realizing what I was missing. I just hoped that Yuffie wasn't watching me… if she saw me hanging around out here, she'd probably flip out. Part of me thought that I let down her… everyone… and myself. There was no other way to avoid conflicts with her father…

I paused and mentally whacked myself in the face. How could I have forgotten something that was right underneath my nose the whole time! Vincent's potion would allow me to change into a human any time I wanted! … but there's also the little matter with the 'outcome' after I take the potion. Hm… now that I mentioned it… I didn't know why… but something told me that everything would turn out all right. All my mind was concentrating on was, me taking that potion. No more doubts. I liked that.

My tail swung back and forth as I smiled down into the river that shimmered in the moonlight's brilliant glow. It seemed to smile back at me as the river's glow shone brightly back at me. My smile soon faded away as I spotted what looked like a dragon making its way up the river. I shook my head around and made my way towards the Highwind with full confidence in myself.

As I made my way towards the Highwind, I spotted the back of Tifa's head above. I was surprised, considering how late it must have been. I didn't want anyone, especially the girls, to see me out of the ritual. I hesitated for a second then decided to climb up the rope ladder.

"There you are, Red!"

I gasped, not realizing that my foot went right through the ladder and I found myself tangled up. The ladder spun around, allowing me to find out who was the one responsible for my current state. I gasped.

"C-Cloud!"

"Hey… uh… are you alright?"

I looked around and gave out a nervous smile. "O-Of course… I'm just… hanging around…"

He snickered at that. "So I see."

"What are you doing out of the ceremony?"

"Well, Vincent and the gang told me what happened… and I was worried. I'm… sorry."

I pouted, causing the rope ladder to turn away from Cloud. "Don't worry about it, 'cause I found a solution!" I shifted my body around and finally came lose, falling to the ground, surprisingly, hard. "He doesn't have to worry about seeing me tomorrow like this."

Cloud tilted his head at that. "Uh… you gonna dress up?"

"If you'd like to put it that way… yes!"

"Well, hope your… whatever-it-is will work."

I smiled. "I'm sure it'll work."

"Cloud! Back already?"

We both looked up and spotted Tifa waving her arms around. Cloud waved also and made his way up the rope ladder as I followed close behind. I had a little date with a certain potion.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The Highwind was unusually dark tonight. I couldn't find the light switch anywhere and I didn't want to ask Cloud or Tifa where it was. I didn't want to wake up Yuffie… wherever she was. I was guessing she would be somewhere near the conference room since… that's the only place I've seen Yuffie at.

I finally made it to Vincent's room. If I recalled correctly, Vincent had the potion somewhere in his cloak and I was sure it would be in his room. He had to change out s- My thoughts were cut short when I finally spotted his all-time famous red cloak on top of his bed. I swung my tail around, happily jingling my bell. I tugged the cloak down to the ground and dug my nose around and right away, out came the potion. I watched as it rolled out and stopped right in front of my paw.

"Hmm… am I feeling any doubts?" I paused then snickered at that. "Not one!"

I started to fumble around with the bottle, trying to get the cork out of the top. I finally pulled the cork out with my mouth and watched as white smoke emerged out of the bottle. I leaned closer and sniffed it. My face scrunched up at the horrible smell and backed away, shaking my head around. It smelled like a bunch of rotten old socks left in the back of the closet for millions of years. I have to drink this? I shrugged at that thought then slowly tilted the bottle into my mouth. I didn't need a lot of the potion, hopefully. As I was slowly drinking the potion, which actually didn't really taste that bad, the door suddenly flung open.

"I FOUND YOU!" Yuffie happily yelled into the dark room.

I gasped, accidentally taking in half of the potion than needed. I gagged for a second then quickly tilted the bottle away from me.

"You all right?" she wondered, slowly coming closer to me.

I coughed so much that blood began to spurt right out of my mouth. My body suddenly went numb and I found myself shaking uncontrollably on the ground. This feeling… was just like before. I forgot… how horrible it was. I moaned loudly in pain. My head felt like it was about to explode and my heart felt like it skipped countless beats. At this point, Yuffie was trying her best to help me. I couldn't talk to her since every single muscle in my body was completely numb. I closed my eye tightly, hoping that the pain would just pass any moment now.

"R-Red!"

A/N: End of chapter four! Meep! I'm sorry I had to leave you with that horrible cliffhanger. I'm such a jerk. :hug Nanaki: But! You know well what's going to happen. Hehehe… Anyways, there might not be an update for awhile. School stuff. :grunts: But, seeing that I got this chapter up really fast, who knows? I'll probably post ten more chapters in one day or something. Hehe, I'm on a ROLL! WHOO! Hope you liked and please tell me how you thought of it!