CHAPTER 11

CAPTURE

Vincent sat frozen to the spot too in shock to do anything but breathe. What he read hurt him more than emotionally. It hurt him physically. Why? Why did he do this to me? I didn't do anything to hurt him.

The gunman slammed the bookshelf with his fist. Except get in his way! I was only trying to protect Lucrecia. I hate him! I hope he burns in Hell!
A knock on the door startled him.

Tucking the book under his arm he headed over to the door and opened it. "What is it?" he asked Yuffie.

The ninja whispered in a hurry. "Someone's coming. Finish whatever you're doing in there and get out here, quick!"

He stepped out of the room. "I'm done," he informed her.

She grabbed his arm. "Then let's go!" she pulled him toward the stairway.

"What about the elevator?" he asked her.

"It will take too long," she hissed.

Suddenly a voice shouted. "Hey you! Hold it right there!"

"Busted," Yuffie exclaimed, breaking into a run. "Let's move!"

With a jerk they were both running rapidly down the stairs.

"Security!" the person shouted. "Intruders!"

Sirens began blaring.

"Damn!" Yuffie cursed.

They ran down the stairs until they heard someone running toward them. "What are we going to do?" Yuffie asked. "If they catch us we're dead!"

"I know," he said.

Suddenly they were forced to stop because security guards blocked their way. "Halt!" one shouted.

Vincent turned to run back up the stairs but found more behind them. "Damn it!"

"We're surounded!" Yuffie shrieked.

Vincent was left with no other choice. Before the ninja knew what was happening she found herself in the air. The gunman wrapped his arms around her body as he flipped over the guards on the top steps.

The instant he landed he kept a tight hold on the girl and started running once more.

"STOP!" the dozen guards yelled coming after them, which was exactly what he wanted them to do.

He jumped over them again and now ran down the stairs.

"STOP OR WE'LL SHOOT!" they called after him.

Vincent ignored them and kept on running. Suddenly a shot rang out. Yuffie screamed and the gunman felt a sharp pain rip into his left shoulder.

He lost his footing and tumbled down the stairs, trying to keep Yuffie from getting injured in the process.

When he came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs Yuffie exclaimed, as he let her go and she was able to sit up. "VINCENT!"

"I'm fine," he lied, grabbing his shoulder, which felt like it was on fire. "Get out of here!"

"But they shot you!" she protested, trying to help him up.

"GO!" he yelled.

She stared at him. "Vincent..."

Guns clicked around them. "You won't be going anywhere," one of the guards said.

Yuffie didn't bother to try anything. She didn't want to lose Vincent. If she did try to fight her way out they would probably kill Vincent on her. Her shoulders sagged and she looked down at Vincent who was cursing silently.

"Search them," the lead security guard instructed his men.

Yuffie was pulled away from Vincent and they were both frisked roughly. "Hey, show some compassion!" she shouted at the ones searching Vincent. "That guy's injured."

"Aw, shut up!" one of them growled.

They found the book in his cloak.

"Look what I found," one of the searchers said handing it to his boss.

"What do we have here," the lead guard said flipping through it. "One of Hojo's research books. Looks like they're thieves after all."

"That book deserves to be burnt!" Vincent yelled from the floor.

The man kicked Vincent in the side. "Shut up!" he barked. He turned to the other guards. "Take them away!"

Vincent was pulled roughly to his feet and cuffed. The same was done to the ninja girl. Then he and Yuffie were led back up the stairs.

When they arrived on the cell area on floor sixty five the guards opened one of the cells and pushed Vincent in first. He stumbled and fell.

"Vincent!" Yuffie exclaimed.

The guards unlocked her cuffs and pushed her in as well. She was able to keep her balance. "Hey!" she yelled, looking back at them. "You should have more respect for a lady and a man who's wounded!"

"Shut up!" the leader ordered. He threw a key at her. "Here, you'd better unlock your friend."

The ninja bent down to pick up the key. The door slammed shut. She looked up. "Thank you," she said in a voice loaded with sarcasm.

She heard Vincent moan. She turned around and knelt down beside him. "Vincent," she said reaching for his arm. "Vinnie?"

He looked over his shoulder at her. "I told you not to call me that," he said through gritted teeth.

"Sorry," she said releasing him. "Are you all right?"

His hands were free. He turned around. Yuffie saw his face was etched with pain. "No, I am not," he said leaning his back against the wall.

"I wouldn't be either if I got shot," she said. She started to unbuckle his cloak. "Let's have a look."

He tried to swat her hand away. "No, thank you."

She stopped, put her hands on her hips, and glared at him. "Do you want to die?" she demanded.

"No."

"Then let me look."

Vincent paused. He knew he didn't have a choice anyway. "All right."

Yuffie took of his cape and then his shirt. When she saw his wound her eyes got real big and her face turned a little green.

"What?" he asked.

"Don't look at it," she advised. "There's blood all over."

Vincent closed his eyes.

"I think the bullet is still in there," she said, reaching into her shorts pocket. "I'm going to have to get it out."

"How?" he asked looking at her.

Yuffie pulled out a pair of tweezers. "I'm going to use this."

"That..."

"But first I'm going to have to sterialize (A/N I don't remember how to spell it) it," she pulled a lighter out of her shorts and lit it under the tweezers. "This will burn off all the germs."

"Where'd you get those?" he asked indicating the two items she held.

"I took the tweezers from Tifa (she uses them to pluck her eyebrows) and I took the lighter from Cid. I hope this will keep him from smoking." she turned to him. "Now let's get that bullet out."

She held him against the wall as she dug the tweezers into the gunshot wound. He winced in pain but tried to keep as still as possible. For some reason it seemed like Yuffie knew what she was doing.

"Gotcha!" she exclaimed after a minute. She pulled out the bullet. "And here you go," she said triumphantly, waving it in front of his face.

He felt like gagging when he caught a glimps of the piece of lead covered in gore. "Thank you, Yuffie," was all he said.

She smiled at him and dropped the bullet on the floor. "T'wasn't nothing," she said, her cheeks turning pink.

Huh? Why's she blushing?

"Now, to stop the bleeding," she said taking off her arm guard and ripping the green ribbon off of it. She began to tie the thick piece of green cloth around his wound. "So," she said as she wrapped the ribbon. "What did you find in those files?"

Vincent hesitated. He wasn't sure he should tell her.

She looked at him expectantly. "Vincent?"

He looked her in the eyes. He knew he couldn't hide anything from her. He had to tell her. Even more after how she'd helped him.

"I'm not sure I should tell you," he said slowly.

"Why not?"

"You may not like what I found."

"Why?"

"It's sick."

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh..."

Silence.

"So what did you find?"

"I was hoping you wouldn't want to know."

"I do."

"Why?"

"Because I'm curious."

He sighed. He'd never win with her.

"So...?"

"It's perverted," he said as a last resort. "You're way too young for that."

"I'm sixteen! I'm not too young!"

She was glaring at him. He hated when she got angry. I have to tell her. If I don't she'll just weasle it out of me anyway...

He sighed. "The book told everything that Hojo did to the people he experimanted on in great detail," he said, disgust showing in his voice.

"Who's everyone?" she asked sitting down beside him.

"Lucrecia, Ifalna, Aerith, Zack, Cloud, Sephiroth, me, and a few other people I don't even know."

"Like what kind of stuff?"

"Very detailed porn. Stuff he did to Lucrecia and Ifalna, Aerith's mother."

"But wasn't Professor Gast Aerith's father?"

"He is but remember that video in their house at the Icicle Inn? I guess he thought it would be fun to rape someone else's wife while he was conducting his 'experimants'."

Yuffie's face scrunched up in distaste. "Hojo de jerko," she said. "What a pervert! I'm glad the only times I met him was on the beach at Costa Del Villa and when I helped you and Cloud kill him. I'd hate to imagine what he'd do to me if I wound up as one of his test dummys."

"Just be glad he's dead and that will never happen."

The ninja smiled. "If he ever tried he wouldn't get anywhere."

"Can we drop this?" he asked sick of hearing talk about Hojo. "I don't want to talk about it. It makes me sick."

"Sure," she said giving the bandage one last tug. "and I'm done."

He put his hand on her's. "Thank you," he said.

Yuffie's cheeks started to turn pink. She turned away from him. "No problem, Vinnie."

For once he didn't tell her not to call him that.

Yuffie yawned loudly and rudely. "Man, I'm beat!" she said stretching. "I guess since we're stuck here we might as well get some sleep." She looked at Vincent. "So what do you want? The floor or the cot? I'll take the floor if you want the cot."

"No, that's okay," he said waving his golden clawed left hand at her. "You take the cot."

She stared at him. "Are you sure?" she asked carefully. She didn't want to hop crazily onto the cot and have him yell at her.

He nodded. "I was always told to give the best thing I had to a lady," he gave her what looked like a half smile. "Go ahead. Take it."

The ninja hesitently lay down and faced away from him. Did he just call me a lady? she thought curling into a comfortable position. I've been called almost everything there is to call a girl but not that...

She closed her eyes and tried to get to sleep. He's the first man I ever met who called me a lady. her face began to curve up into a smile. A lady. I like the sound of it.

A/N

I'm sorry. I'm trying. I like this chapter. Heh. It's got some soft Yuffintine in it. He's starting to realize things about her that he never noticed before. :D I hope you liked it. He'll realize it some more later on because I have a surprise for him and Yuffie. A surprise that won't be all that pleasent... :D you'll just have to keep reading to you find out. I hope I kept them in character. I think I did. I like these two a lot. I think I have a good grasp on their personalities.