Chapter 2: Guns and shurikens

The beginning saw existence of a chosen dream
But then came pain
With energy striking on those she knew would uncover her lies
She knew she must destroy everything that we had prayed for
So she sent shameful claim in her lies
She wants us to be what's going on in her mind
Music takes you round and round and round and round and round
Hold on to the love
Hold on to the love
The music takes you round and round and round and round and round
Hold on to the love
Nah Nah Nah Nah
Hold on to thelove
We are smiling
She wants us to be what's going on in her mind
If she is to take over she must prevent unity
But oh how cold her life must be
She knows she must destroy everything that we had prayed for
So here comes shameful claim in her lies

The beginning

SEAL

"Vincent! Hey, Vincent!" Yuffie shouted after the gunslinger, hastening her pace to try and keep up with him.

Vincent slowed down and waited for the young Shirobi to catch up with him and her breath. "Yes, Yuffie?"

"Are you really sure about this?" she asked. "I mean, if I were you, I wouldn't, like, return to a mansion that was so full of shadows of my past."

Vincent let it sink for a while. He did not know that Yuffie could be this deep. "I know, Yuffie. But it is the only property I have 1 for now."

"You can stay with any of the others."

The red-caped man sighed. "I do not really … like counting on others."

After a while, Yuffie let it go. "Take care of yourself, okay, Vinnie? I wanna see you healthy and not this pale at the reunion dinner!" she told him before riding off in her golden chocobo.

Vincent did not anwer (typical for him) and only gave her a firm nod.

He watched the ninja and her chocobo becoming a smaller and smaller speck until they became nothing more than a dot and disappeared from his line of superhumanvision.

The ex-Turk was about to walk away when he felt a tap on the shoulder.

"Yer one of those AVALANCHE, ain't cha?"

"saved us from Apocalypse…"

"Vincent Valentine, right?"

Vincent did not have any phobia the last time he checked, but as walls of people closed in, he began to get a vague feeling of how claustrophobic people felt when in a closed space.

Vincent made it alive to (now) his mansion. He looked at his cloak, which was now even more ragged, thanks to a group of hysteric girls. He wanted to yell that he was at least 3 times their age, but Vincent, being Vincent, only frowned.

The ShinRa mansion emitted that eerie stay-out-of-here feeling. No one wanted to come 10 feet near it as howls of monsters that lived in it scared them out of their skins. But when Vincent entered it, there were no beasts in sight and all were still.

Looks like they're terrified of the other beast…

Still, a little paranoia would do no harm.

Vincent's human hand crawled onto Death Penalty as he continued walking pass some monsters. He could feel their bloodlust eyes studying him from a distance… they were

afraid of him. They dared not attack him.

Still, he needed to think of a way to get rid of them if he was thinking of a long term stay.

The former leader of the Turks passed the secret entrance which led to Hojo's lab without so much of a thought. Instead, he walked up the stairs, towards the master bedroom. 30 years ago, it would be a miracle for somebody other than the president of ShinRa to enter it. Vincent had only entered it once, and he knew how beautiful it was. He was going to enter it again, without any permission this time, and the room felt forbidding to him.

Vincent mentally kicked himself.

The room was his now.

Vincent's brass-metal arm pressed down on the lever and the door creaked open, its hinges rusty after years of not being used. The room looked even more spacious with linen white sheet covering the furniture. The gunslinger lifted the covering of the easily biggest furniture there and was rewarded with a comfy-looking bed staring up at him, as if hypnotizing him: "You're getting sleepy… you're getting sleepy…"

And if it was, it was working well. A wave of vertigo slammed onto Vincent and he suddenly realized that he had not been sleeping for the past few days as Chaos was somewhat more active, even after Sephiroth defeated. He was afraid if he slept, the demon would seize control of him and harmed AVALANCHE.

The next thing Vincent knew, he was laying down on the bed, ignoring the tickling of the dust, half naked. I should not be doing this… Chaos… Chaos… control… But the human (or more human than the rest of him) part of him said the contrary, and that side was winning.

"It'll only be for a while. I'll be awake before I'll even realize it," Vincent assured himself before he finally gave in to the fatigue. His heavy eyelids drooped, and within a few seconds, he was well into the dream world.

This is how it felt to be Yuffie Kisaragi at the moment:

Your dinner threatens to spill out on Breeze, the gold chocobo you are riding, as the waves rock you back and forth. So you concentrate on something else to take your mind off the motion sickness, like the glimmering green and blue orbs on your shorts pockets.

You giggle when you think how Cid's, Vincent's and Barret's faces will look like when they find out their Materias are gone; not Vinny, you correct yourself. Vampire Boy does not have feelings. You remember stealing the magic Materias from the profane pilot when he got drunk off his ass during the party while Barret left his backpack on the floor while he went to the toilet; they are not really Mastered Materia, but they will do.

Stealing Vincent's was not easy. The ex-Turk rarely, if not never, let down his guard. But it looks like Leviathan loves you. A certain robotic cat picked Vincent as his next victim for his pranks, so while Vampire boy was busy, you quickly snatched an Ice Materia from the Death Penalty before fleeing the crime scene.

Seeing some tiny lights in the distance excites you, and Materia and motion sickness are all forgotten. As you come nearer and nearer to your beloved hometown, you notice black smokes dancing in the black sky, reflecting a huge flame tongue's red and yellow.

You gasp when you realize what is happening.

Wutai is at war.

Again.

Reeve walked around what was left of the once great city of Midgar, his free hand placing his cell on his ear (he lost his handsfree), his other hand in his pocket. As he waited for a certain Turk to pick up, he studied his surrounding.

Cait Sith bounced happily behind him, whistling some happy tunes he picked up in the Gold Saucer. People clothed in rags slouched around the brunette, their faces masked with sadness, some of them dragging a child or two who were covered by dust and soot.

Reeve felt someone tugging at him and he turned back. A woman looked up at him with hopeful brown eyes."Sir, some Gils, please? Ah havn't had any food fer dahys."

The man pitied the lady and gave her a quite large amount of Gils. As the lady hopped away joyfully, Reeve felt his heart turning into lead. There were bound to be many people whose cases were worse than the woman's.

"Reno. Who's this?" a voice cut the beeping.

"Hey, Reno. This is Reeve." The ex-Head of Urban Development took a deep breath. He had not known the redhead very well, but as a Head, he had the Turks' cellphone numbers in case of emergency. "You might be wondering what are you going to do next now that ShinRa is dead. Guess what?"

The other line was silent, probably digesting his words one by one.

Then, "What? Look, Reeve, I don't really know you and if you fuck around with me I might blow your head."

Reeve almost chuckled. "I won't fuck around. Promise."

"Anyway, I'm inviting the Turks to be part of the Neo-ShinRa, or as I'd like to call it, New Midgar."

Yuffie's heart could not help palpitating as she raced down to Wutai. Terrified screams could be heard everywhere, people running away from the usually peaceful Wutai, and thick black smokes snaked their way to the sky.

Telling Breeze to stay and giving her plentiful of greens, the shinobi caught up with a middle-aged woman clad in kimono.

"(What's happening?)" She asked her in Wutaian.

"(RUN! Disaster looms! Destroy clan!)" the woman stammered before running away as fast as her stubby legs could carry her.

Yuffie's heart was racing as fast as a running gold chocobo now. Taking out Conformer, she made her way to the Pagoda.

She spotted a guard missing a head, his hand still clutching a spear. His head lay somewhere nearby; it still had a shocked look on its face. Trying not to puke, Yuffie entered the pagoda… and she bent over and finally vomited the content of her stomach.

The stench of blood hang in the air, stinging Yuffie's nose. Having a bad feeling about this, the ninja looked around and her face turned pale, paler than Vincent's. Gorki's body lay in a pool of blood which Yuffie suspected was his, his stomach inside spilled out beside him.

"Gorki…" the Wutaian closed her eyes and mourned for the fallen hero. Then, she ran up the stairs as quickly as possible, hoping that it could not get worse than this.

The second level was not really stained with as much blood as Gorki's, but it felt as eerie. Death hovered close, tickling the base of Yuffie's spine, making her want to cry out for her mummy, but she remembered her mummy was gone.

Gone like Gorki. And maybe Shake too.

She did not have to look for Shake; he was pinned by several knives to the wall, two went through his head, while five to his torso. At least Shake died fast; it was less painful that way.

"Who… who would do such a thing?" Yuffie asked to no one in particular. She was in a verge of crying. Sure, she might not have really liked the four Gods, but they were close to her; she did not get to have any friends when she was young.

Climbing up another flight of steps, Yuffie was met with another gruesome image: Chekov was in two pieces in front of her. "I'm sorry, Cheeky," she said, using her favourite nickname for him, for the last time.

The next level was surprisingly almost clean of blood. There were signs of struggle, and droplets of blood as if both parties managed to wound each other. Yuffie realized that Staniv was not dead, at least he was not, unless he was flung out of the window. Maybe Godo would stand a chance…

Yuffie was now used to the stench of blood; but the images of the gruesome killings of Gorki, Shake and Chekov still ran in her head. She stayed at the fourth floor for a while, wondering if she had the strength to climb up the last set of stairs.

Her hand traveled to her side, where her PHS lay.

Should I…? The others are probably resting… I wouldn't dream bout disturbing them. (Yes, even Yuffie knows her limit) And this is personal anyway. But, what if it's bad? I'd need Cid's Venus Gospel or Cloud's Buster Sword ready. Or Vinnie's Death Penalty… No, you have your Conformer anyway, Yuffie! You're a ninja! You can face anything!

"Y—yeah, I can…" she assured herself before proceeding to the last level.

Wild images ran through her head as she climb the wooden stairs. She had not really cared about Godo, but she would not want to lose both parents…

"Ahhh, Yuffie-chan. You've arrived," a cold voice greeted her. Yuffie looked up and saw a hooded figure standing on where Godo stood.

"Who the fuck are you!" she retorted, not really like being treated as a child (she hang out too often with Cid, as Cloud deduced after hearing a line of profane cursing). "Where the hell is Godo! And what shit have you done with Gorki, Shake and Chekov!"

"(Ah, language, language, little one)," the voice spoke again, in Wutaian this time. Yuffie realized that the speaker was a female. "(So many questions… I shall answer only the last two I'm afraid…)"

"(Hey, it's not nice to ignore questions! Answer ALL of them!)" Yuffie demanded.

The woman ignored her and went on anyway. "(Godo is safe with us. The Sons and Daughters of Freedom will not hurt him as long as our leader does not give us the word.)"

And that gave me no guarantee, Yuffie thought bitterly.

"(The three losers are in the way, and they might prove to be a threat to our Lord's goal. So we dispose of them,") the woman's tone did not waver a bit.

"(DISPOSE! You don't dispose of people!)" Yuffie screeched. She gripped her Conformer in a dangerous manner.

"(Ah ah ah,)" the figure waved one long finger. "(I do not wish to hurt you.)" She flashed white teeth that stood out against her hooded face. "(May Leviathan allow us see each other again, Yuffie Kisaragi. And I may hope by that time, you will realize truly who you are, and what you can do with a flick of your finger.)

"(What're you talking about?)"

The woman smiled again. It was a cold smile that made Yuffie wanted to cuddle her Mog doll. She had seen warmer liquid nitrogen than her smile.

And by then, the ninja knew that she was going to flee from the scene of crime. She threw her shuriken at the figure with all her might, and it hit her straight on, decapitating her. Yuffie caught Conformer skillfully. A little harsh, but after what the woman did to the three Gods, Yuffie did not feel even that 'little'.

"(You have learned the imitation method, have you not?)"

Yuffie turned around sharply.

"(You will have to do some revision then.)"

And with that, she disappeared in wisps of grey smokes.

Yuffie stared at the empty space on which the mysterious woman had been standing on. What in Da Chao's name is going on?

Conformer hang weakly from her hand, and her other arm was fingering her PHS. She had to call the other members of AVALANCHE. Whoever she was facing, this 'Sons and Daughters of Freedom', they were dangerous.

Whom to call? Duh, of course Cloud! Spike will handle this!

She held the Portable Hand Set gingerly with newfound hope. That was when a hand grabbed her shoulder.

"Ah!" Yuffie shrieked with surprise and the PHS fell to the floor with a clang. She closed her eyes and chanted the traditional "Get away from me ghost! I've done nothing wrong!"

"(Yuffie-chan!)" a voice said.

"(It's Yuffie-san, idiot!)" the ninja automatically retorted, turning her head to look at the speaker, her initial fear forgotten. Her eyes widened with shock and her hand touched her tender pink lips.

"(Staniv!)" she hugged the Wutaian, excitement and relief washing over her. "(You're alive!)"

Staniv now supported a bruised eye and a torn lip. He had numerous cuts on his hands and legs, but other than that, he did not seem to look like a walking zombie.

Yuffie released the choking Mighty God and bent down on the floor. She studied the broken PHS. Cid was so gonna kill her. Pocketing the bits, pieces and screws of the handset, she returned to her full height and looked at Staniv again.

"How come you're not in pieces?"

Apparently, Staniv survived because of a secret chamber behind a fake wall that he discovered just at the critical moment ("Gawd! I don't even know about it!) When his attacker, the hooded woman, was distracted by a few Bolt magic, Staniv slid onto the secret chamber. The woman was furious for a while, she went around smashing the wall and the floor before she finally remembered her real goal to kidnap Godo.

Staniv was one lucky man

"Someone's killing off the Kisaragi clan and those close to them," Staniv said. "From what I heard, another clan is taking over the throne of Wutai…"

Yuffie put Conformer away and determinedly position herself on the window ledge; she did not want to see the three massacred corpses again, once was enough. "Let's go to the palace. And along the way I wanna use the payphone."

Cold…

Cold…

Stupid frail organism…

Vincent opened his eyes. Everything was white. Pure white.

Cold…

The room was empty.

Cold…

Not anymore.

A man in blue suit and a pair of dark shades appeared in front of him. His hair was a sharp contrast to Vincent's; his was neat and short, whereas Vincent's wild mane was beyond any help.

SAY HI TO THE MONSTER, VALENTINE.

Vincent was looking at himself. Him as a Turk.

"What are you doing, Chaos!" the dark man turned away from the Vincent-Turk. He closed his eyes and desperately trying to gain control of himself again. "Get out of my head, monster!"

THE POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK, the thunderous voice that belonged to Chaos chuckled.

Another image flashed in front of his eyes. His Turk-self was raising a handgun at an old man.

"ShinRa does not like failures, McCoy."

"Please… don't! I… I… the fault lies with that Highwind guy, yeah! He took th.." the man did not get to finish his sentence. Vincent fired once at his chest. Then once more. Then another time. His expression never once flickered.

Then he left. He had done his job. Turks always did a job well done.

COLD-BLOODED. CRUEL.

Vincent now found himself staring at the ruins of Kalm, more than forty years ago. A small boy dragging a stuffed Chocobo ran out of one of the ruins.

"Mum? Can-dee? Where're chu?" The boy was barefooted, his little feet bleeding as a result of contacts with splinters and scrap metals.

He tripped over something and fell. Scrambling up, the boy who had Wutaian complex glanced at… a body.

"Can-dee? Sis?" the boy shook the body, which looked like a 10 year old girl. "Sis…"

The boy did not understand. He thought that Candy was sleeping. Anyway, Candy loved sleeping. Everytime after school, his sister would go to her pink bedroom and slept.

This time Candy was sleeping again. But she would never wake up.

Vincent shook his head. Of all the memories Chaos had to play…

The boy took the sister's already cold hand.

Cold…

He felt another hand on his shoulder. Warm. Unlike Candy's.

"Vinnie…" a weak voice said.

The six-year old turned around and saw his mother's face. God, Hinata Kayama was pretty. With her tanned beautiful face, her black silky hair and her tall frame, she was like a goddess out of the fairy tale she always told Vincent every night.

She was crushed under tons of debris that used to be their house. Her hand gripped Vincent's shoulder tightly. So tightly that he winced.

"I love you, Vincent. Your daddy, your daddy will come," she whispered.

"Mummy, won't chu come with us?"

"Mummy already is with you, Vinnie," she smiled, using her favourite nickname for her son. "I'm always here…" she released her deathgrip on his shoulder and patted his chest. "I'm always here… with you… forever…"

"Chaos! Stop it!" the ex-Turk clutched his head as he saw how Hinata's hand fell, and closed her eyes. The rain spattered at her tear-stained cheek, at her slender body.

Meanwhile, Chaos was laughing at Vincent's pained face.

LET'S SEE THE REST OF YOUR CHILDHOOD, SHALL WE?

Crimson eyes widen. "No…"

Cold…

Virgil Valentine drinking his seventeenth bottle of Vodka, screaming at his son to bring him another packet of cigarettes. Vincent tripped over his own feet and dropped the Malboros to the floor.

"Damn it, son of a bitch! Those things cost me money! And money isn't easy to make!"

Then the beatings would come. The beatings scarred him not physically, but emotionally. And the scars were still with him. They would always stay with him.

The scars triggered something within Vincent. Something cold and hard. Something that wanted his poor excuse for a father to die.

And he got his wish.

KILLING YOUR FATHER FELT GOOD, DIDN'T IT?

"It was self-defense… I- I didn't mean it…"

DID YOU?

Cold…

Vincent sat up, panting hard. His back was aching and his head was spinning. And he suspected that he was having frostbites.

He looked down on himself. He was still topless, just like when he went to bed.

It was cold.

He was in the North Crater.

Standing up, he could see the Lifestream below him, endless green Mako energy swirling in irregular patterns.

He touched his back and felt something warm. Blood. Looked like Chaos had flown all the way here. To go back to the mansion, he could a) let the beast took over again and trusted him to go back there, or b) walked home as a walking icicle.

Vincent chose option C: ride that chocobo which was strapped to a tree stump, which had a skeleton of a human being beside it, probably killed by a passing monster. The blue chocobo was weak from starvation, but after giving it a few greens Vincent had found from the rucksack which was strapped to its side, it warked gratefully and let him mount him.

Pulling on a sweater from the rucksack (though it was two sizes too small), the ex-Turk rode back to Nibelheim.

A figure opened her green emerald eyes and stood up. She knew what to be done.

And she would do a great job out of it.

TBC…

This chapter's about three times as long as the first one, and oh boy, my fingers are so damn tired.

SHOUTOUT!

StormScarred- Thanks for reviewing!

MajesticPhoenix- I'm a "dudette" I'll try to update as soon as possible, if I can use the computer terminal in school.

00Destiny00- Ah, I hope you'll change your mind.

Demeter100- I hope it's gonna be a nice and cool lake which everyone likes. And oh yeah, there's a lot of things in store for Yuffie and Vincent.

the Dr.- Thanks so much for being the first reviewer! I really appreciate it! I hope this chapter's good enough!

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