Author's Note:

Sorry, still don't own FF. Final Trinity is coming.

Chapter Thirty Nine

Death

For the first time, the Tali Hishna dared to make the attempt to breach Cosmo Canyon's walls. The attack came at dusk, before full night, and was completely unexpected. The enemy force threw itself at the defenses, heedless of casualties, a group of fanatics scrambling over rock and rubble, climbing to the walls and making their way up using grappling hooks with ease. The defenders, caught unprepared, were immediately pushed back, and heavy losses were taken. Worse, their force was weakened from Nanaki taking out a small force of fifty men out to scout the region for where the White Scourge may be hiding. Cosmo Canyon's soldiers were pushed from the walls immediately.

Vincent, who had been meditating at the Cosmo Candle, heard the attack and grabbing Masamune, which had been laying on the ground, he launched himself into the air, his demonic wings beginning to glow with an eery blue light, the scales of them flickering and glimmering. Flying at his enemies, he attacked the Tali Hishna with a ferocity unparalleled even in the enemy's fanatical zeal, hacking through waves of attackers. The White Scourge flinched back at the attack, retreating from those awful glowing wings, fearful of the light, and of Masamune's deadly blade.

Still, Vincent could not be everywhere at once, and the enemy flowed around him, pouring into the Canyon proper. The ex-Turk fought on, desperate to keep the enemy away from the refugees. He soon found that his fears were unwarranted.

Barret, hammer in hand, alongside a sword-wielding Dio charged from the encampment of refugees and bringing a small army of people brandishing torches, clubs and tools. The people of Corel and Gold Saucer would not go down without a fight. The battle quickly turned from a rout to an actual fight as the two forces collided. Even so, the Tali Hishna outnumbered the militia of refugees, and ignored injuries and wounds as they fought, driven on by a divine right to destroy their enemies.

Sweat streamed down Vincent's chest, arms and wings as he flew about, attacking the enemy from above and riddling their numbers with fatalities. Piles of ash and bodies on both sides began to build up, and the former Turk felt almost helpless. Despite all his efforts, it wasn't enough.

I've changed... Vincent realized with startling clarity.

Before, he hadn't care a whit if innocent bystanders lived or died. He had been a Turk, and a good one at that. More than likely, he was still held up as a model of what a Turk should be. Cold, dispassionate, and ruthless. Now? He seemed to actually care what happened to these people, cared that they were dying. When had that happened? Was it a part of his transformation? During his travels alongside heroes like Cloud and Barret and Tifa, people who were passionate about life, living, and protecting others? Or had it begun with Lucrecia? With his feelings for her, and his subsequent betrayal of Shinra, attempting to thwart her experiment?

As he slashed through another rank of enemies, he thought about it absently. Had Lucrecia, his near murderer, been a positive influence on him in some way?

An amused smile played on his lips, even as he fought on. It was true. The woman who had nearly destroyed him had given him the chance to live and care about life. The irony of it nearly made him laugh in the face of death, but his stoic nature overcame it, and focused more on the battle. But even as he continued his deadly dance, he thought more about his change.

Lucrecia had brought on the first stirrings of his change, yes. His failure to stop hers and Hojo's abomination of a son had helped nurish that. The coffin that he'd be trapped in, putting him in suspended animation and letting him sleep between the ages had been the womb. Nightmares of guilt and conscience wounded, that had been that wretched coffin. And when he had stepped out of it? What had precipitated it all? Was it truly Avalanche's heroics? No, he had initially joined them for revenge, and the possibility of encountering Lucrecia Hargun once more.

So what had really brought on his sudden caring for people he didn't even know?

He lunged at an enemy, the point of the sword coming down, to impale the albino through the back. Shock gripped him as he realized what he'd done, and he nearly cast the sword aside in absolute disgust. That was it! That exact same move that Sephiroth had done to Aeris so ... long... ago...

... That was it. Her death, the death of a valued companion. The death of a friend. Even if she was alive now, her falling to Masamune, the blade he now wielded, had forced him to make a moral choice and join the human race, and not the vile race he had become, a race that could be best described in one, soulless name.

Shinra.

He looked up, and saw then in the darkness a beacon of fiery orange light, and there, coming from outside the walls was Red XIII, returned with the scouting party he had gone out with earlier. The red beast flung himself through the gates that the Tali Hishna had opened for their reinforcements. Now that very mark of strategical brilliance backfired on them as fifty prepared soldiers led by a beast that had been born and bred to combat such threats as these.

Forced to fight on two fronts, with the demonic Vincent swooping in and decimating their center, the Tali Hishna lines broke, the fanatical edge gone from the finely honed blade that was their army. Their soldiers panicked and retreated, trying desperately to go around Red XIII's force and out into the canyon, but it was too late. The battle was now a rout, and within minutes, the Tali Hishna were killed to the last man.

When it was finished, Vincent flew down and landed alongside Barret, who was nursing a wounded arm. Dio was beside him, a nasty cut on his chest, but he seemed excited.

"Now that was a battle!" the leader of Gold Saucer declared. "That force easily numbered two thousand, and all of them dead!"

Vincent snorted, and Barret gave Dio a funny look, then shrugged. Red XIII loped up to join them, his tongue lolling out in a almost canine smile. Suddenly, his feline dignity asserted itself, and he sat back on his haunches and rubbed a paw across his scarred face, then said, "How many wounded did we take?"

Dio looked about him, as if just noticing that some of their people had died, and Barret answered, "Too damn early to tell. I'd say we lost 'bout a quarter o' the people from Corel and Gold Saucer, and 'bout half o' the people from Cosmo Canyon."

The feline made a small growl of disgust, and then asked, "How did we lose so many? How did the Scourge even get over the walls in the first place?"

"That dumbass, Dorret," Barret said in disgust. "I asked him to arm my weapon with whatever weapons he could supply. Said he'd get his quartermaster on that right away. Then, when I asked him how my people were supposed to stand watch on the walls, he just shrugged and said 'I guess they can't', then told me 'til they were armed, I couldn't put them on any guard duty. Jackass is determined to be right, trying to say the refugees're useless by goin' out o' his way to make 'em useless!"

"Of course," Vincent said, "it doesn't help that the guards on duty weren't paying attention. The attack came at dusk, and not full night. The Tali Hishna appear to be getting more bold. They're not as scared of the light as they once were."

Red XIII shook his head, then muttered, "I'll have a talk with the surviving guards. They should be paying at all times, not just when they think the enemy will attack. I'm saddened to see such a sad display from my people."

"There is more that you should be sad about this day!" the booming voice of Elder Dorret said.

The small party turned to face the robed Elder, his peer Frennal following behind. Vincent narrowed his eyes when he saw the blood-stained robe in Dorret's hands. An Elder's robe.

"What has happened?" Vincent and Red XIII said at the same time.

Dorret cast the robe to the ground and said, "Elder Juyan is dead. Killed during the battle."

"Wasn't he inside?" Vincent asked suspiciously.

"He was," the smaller Elder, Frennal, said. "By the Materia storage room. It looks like one of the albinos managed to get inside. We found Juyan's body along with a pile of ash. We suspect he somehow managed to kill the Scourge that killed him."

Red XIII nodded, and said, "A sad day indeed. You will need a third Elder to join your ranks now. Do you have someone in mind?"

A condescending sneer came across Dorret's face, and he answered, "I do indeed. I will name him at the next meeting of the Elders, which will take place tomorrow morning. I will make a public announcement of my nomination for the position."

The Elder turned then and strode away, his lackey Frennal following. Barret spat, and Red XIII sighed.

"A little convenient," Dio said. "Juyan dies, now Dorret gets to choose the third council member. Does he have any more friends like Frennal to put on, people he can push around to voice his opinion and agree with him?"

"Many," Red XIII answered. "I did not believe it to be in Dorret's character to have killed Juyan, though."

"I would. Guy's a jackass," Barret said firmly.

"A jackass, yes," the feline agreed, "but hardly a killer. Although it could just be as Dorret has said. Juyan's death could easily be just the work of one of the Tali Hishna."

"No," Vincent said, putting aside Masamune, picking up the robe and holding it up. "It wasn't one of them. All of the Tali Hishna that I have seen wield swords and axes, sometimes clubs. This wound," he indicated a small hole in the garment, "came from a poinard, a small dagger. It's too small for a sword stroke. Juyan was not killed by one of the Scourge. He was definitely kill by someone else. I'll have to investigate further. I'll look into the site of the body, and tell you what I find."

"In the mean time," Barret said, "I'm puttin' my damn people up on the walls where they can do some good. You with me, Red?"

"I wouldn't be anywhere else."