A/N: Hello! still about.. sorry it's been so long since an update, been so busy with uni stuff.. who'd have thought it's not purely a drunken booze-up like everyone makes out! you have to do work too!

Um, just one other thing.. the last chapter involved an interaction between tifa and reno, not yuffie.. i think i was a bit unclear and it confused people.. you might want to go and have another look over it so you arent confused! sorry about that!

Chapter dedicated to Hipaytha, for help and support, thank you so much! x

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V

My beautiful Achilles

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Have I been… tricked?

Yuffie felt as though all the blood had been drained from her body as she shook with a sickness akin to fever. Fighting with gravity, she lost, falling to the floor like a rag-doll.

She had never dreamed that Reno would betray her, that he would use her. She remembered that day up on da chao, and how it had started everything between them.

She'd been fighting her responsibility then, as she always had done…

"You will marry. And you will stop running off on these childish little ventures of yours. Even if I have to beat it into you. You are unbecoming as the Kisaragi heir."

The words of her father kept swimming around in her head, drenching her with shame. But also a burning defiance. She certainly didn't want to marry someone she didn't even like, and she didn't want to stay in the same place forever, waiting to die. So why should she have to?

Bag stuffed with money, shuriken on her back, she had climbed up to the top of Da Chao to look upon her beautiful homeland for one last time. For she would never return.

"Goodbye.." she whispered, in her native tongue. Shaking from the enormity of it all she tried to will away her tears, which only made her shake more.

"Well… if it isn't the great ninja, Yuffie Kisaragi."

She whirled round suddenly. She hadn't noticed him sneaking up on her, and was more than a little unnerved to discover Reno standing there, smirking at her. She didn't know why, but his facial expression made her blush. Ignoring it, she hastily drew her shuriken and moved into a well practiced throwing stance.

"Whoa, Whoa!"

He held up his hands defensively.

"Slow down there little one.."

He smirked yet again. It seemed to be his favourite facial expression.

"We aren't enemies anymore, remember? I've left all that Shinra shit behind now..."

There was something attractive about the way his shirt was never buttoned correctly, and his shock of red hair hung in an untameable fashion around his angular face. And his eyes… so bright they shone with a quick and alluring intelligence she couldn't help but be drawn to. But these thoughts were quickly pushed aside.

"Yeah, well I still don't trust you." Yuffie replied, only relaxing her pose slightly. Her eyes narrowed. "Why are you here?"

He rolled his eyes at her mistrust.

"Vacation, if you must know. Although, I'll tell you this much: climbing up Da chao seems like a much better idea when you're totally smashed than when you wake up the next morning freezing your ass off on a mountain cliff. Perilously close to the edge, I might add." He grinned.

She couldn't help but smile a little through her tears. The first time she'd smiled since her return to Wutai.

He must have noticed her tears then, as his voice became soft.

"Hey, what's up?"

He looked into her eyes. She attempted to brush her tears away.

"Nothing... I just need to get out of this place… permanently." She said, with resolve.

He could see her shaking still, and opened his arms, gesturing for her to come to him. She frowned in response.

"Hey, its ok, I promise I won't try anything." He smiled slightly.

She didn't know what made her do it. Perhaps sheer, killing desperation. But she went willingly into his arms. She had felt so very alone for such a long time. They stood like that for some time, her crying softly into his chest; a comfort like no other: to simply be held. But inevitably, Reno's hands deviated from the acceptable position they had taken on her back and he moved to kiss her neck gently as his hands slowly slid lower.

He was awarded with a punch in the chest.

"oof! What was that for?"

"Hey! You said you wouldn't try anything!" She yelled through the remnants of her tears.

"Yeah, Well I meant like kick your ass try anything." He shrugged before continuing. "I know better than to pass up a good opportunity when it slaps me in the face."

She smiled again, despite herself.

"Hey, I'm heading west… why don't you hitch a ride with me?" He told her. "I'll show you everything..."

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She was stirred into wakefulness by gentle shake on her shoulders.

"Yuffie?"

A man's voice, low and smooth and intelligent. The kind that gave her goose bumps. The kind you could listen to forever, that might lull you into a peaceful slumber. She rationed internally somewhere in her head that now would be an appropriate time to open her eyes. She did so, groggily, attempting to blink away the sea of emotions brought on by her memory.

"Vincent?"

He helped her to her feet, frowning slightly. But she couldn't discern whether it was out of annoyance or concern. Probably annoyance, she decided. But then, Vincent had always been misinterpreted by their little group.

He helped her to her feet and led her to the moth-eaten couch to sit down.

"Yuffie…" he began, softly, somewhat wearily.

"What really happened? I will not tell Cloud. I give you my word." He paused, drawing a deep breath. "But you have to trust me. I cannot protect you if you lie." His casual gaze became piercing. But it was still beautiful.

"uh?" she mumbled, unintelligibly. "I haven't lied…" Even she realised how unconvincing she had sounded. Must be loosing her touch, she thought.

He sighed, running his hand through his black locks of hair and then began massage his head softly as he spoke. Yuffie did not miss this sign of his worry over the situation, a second display of emotions in what she had perceived to be a private, stoic man.

"We must hurry, Cloud will not be long getting transport, and then we must leave. He does not know that I am here. For your sake, I suggest that you hasten your answer."

She flinched at the sharpness of his voice. As did he, it wasn't like him to lose even a negligible amount of control.

"Yuffie? Begin. Now."

She took a deep, shuddering breath.

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Later, Vincent and Cloud journey to find Tifa.

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'Why is my head still so messed up? I thought we fixed it. Well, Tifa did. I thought. But why can't I remember? That place…'

Cloud had phoned Reeve to try to find out the location of the remaining members of Shinra inc. Reeve had tipped them off that he had received reports of Reno and Rude being sighted in Junon. It was the best that they could do to head there as quickly as possible. And so they drove. Cloud was starting to remember things, things about that room from the video. So familiar… he was sure he had been in it, at some point. And for some reason, he suspected it was in Junon. Vincent had told him to trust his instincts. But he didn't know whether he felt that it was Junon just because of what Reeve had said. His mind… was it deceiving him? But he must not give these thoughts more weight, less he be compelled to inaction; the worst possible thing he could do. He hoped that if he managed to calm himself down, he would be able to remember more clearly; but it was no good – he wanted to tear Rufus' throat out and feed it to his Turks, and just thinking about it made his muscles spasm and his breathing hitch. He unnervingly noticed that his usual cocky façade escaped him, however much he might try to recreate it. He sighed in anger and despair. It was useless in front of Vincent anyway – he saw straight through it, and seemed to draw nothing from it. It had always made Tifa feel better- When he told her that everything was under control, and smiled at her. He didn't even know whether she really believed him, or whether she just liked to hear him say it. Like a mantra. God, he hoped that he could find her in time. He knew he wouldn't be able to take loosing her as well. He attempted to reassure himself with the thought that it was obvious Shinra wanted him to get there, so it wouldn't make sense for them to hide somewhere too obscure. It was just like Rufus to put him in a challenging situation. Play God. Destroy him with stress; so that by the time he finally arrived, he wouldn't even be able to play the game. Cloud suspected it was working.

Vincent thought of Yuffie. He did not look upon her without sympathy. There was a sort of twisted romanticism in her with which he identified. She just needed to develop some common sense to accompany it. But he didn't know if he would be able to forgive her, or himself, if anything happened to Tifa. He looked across at Cloud. The blonde looked unbelievably tense, steel at maximum contortion point, waiting to shear. His whole body poised in stress, pressure invading his every move. A beautiful Achilles, blinded by his own anger. But Vincent knew that Cloud was intelligent, he'd seen Cloud take control of situations before. He only hoped his comrade would not let his passions obscure his judgement. The man wasn't the most stable he'd known, and Vincent was unsure how long it would take to push him over the edge. And from the quality of his driving right now, Vincent assumed he was pretty close.

"What did Reeve say?"

A pause. Vincent was thrown sideways in his seat as the car swerved to avoid oncoming traffic.

"… Junon." Was Cloud's stiff response. Vincent waited for further information, but was awarded none. After a large amount of uncomfortable silence between the two emotionally stunted men, Vincent probed further.

"I see. Is that… all he said?" Vincent wondered whether he could get cloud to let him drive instead, as they narrowly avoided a juggernaut.

Cloud said nothing. He gripped the steering wheel tightly, knuckles clenched, stark white against the thick dark leather.

"..Cloud?" Probably not, Vincent reasoned with himself.

"Its hard to get decent information when I can't tell him anything about our situation." He replied, his words tight-lipped, as he swerved around other vehicles, tyres screeching, like mythical sirens being tortured. "I'm going on instinct. If you don't like it, you can leave."

"No. I will stay." For Tifa, and for you. "I trust you, Cloud."

Cloud silently wondered whether Vincent's trust was misplaced. "Thanks" He muttered, under his breath. Perhaps, when they arrived at Junon, his mind would piece together why he had felt that he had been in that white room, from the video, before.

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Tifa's cell, location unknown.

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"Well my dear Tifa, your lucky day has arrived. It's time for your personal meeting with the president."

She started: hadn't even noticed Reno enter the room. She noted that being alone with her thoughts for so long was not great for her already inadequate mental health. And then, immediately afterwards, she wondered why she had thought solitary confinement worse for her mental health than, say, being kidnapped. Perhaps the situation was already worse than she was aware of.

The sound of metal on metal. Looking up, she saw Reno enter the cell.

"Hmm. This is good. I Can't wait forever for a hero that will never come, and doesn't exist." She thought, bracing herself; muscles like tightened elastic, breath held fast. She remained perfectly still, sat on the cold floor, long chains trailing across the floor, from her wrists to the wall. She watched with a façade of casual hatefulness as he approached. Step. Step. Step. Closer, closer still. And at that perfect moment, when he was precisely close enough so that her chains did not prohibit her from grabbing him, but not so close as to loose the element of surprise, she pounced with a catlike agility that only she possessed. He was ready for an attack, but she wouldn't have expected any less from him. He was fast. She was faster. Leaping up, she aimed a left-handed punch at his head, which he blocked, smugly. But he hadn't noticed that this was only a decoy to give her enough time to wrap her right arm's chain around his neck. With a sharp yank, she pulled him to her. Whilst he was temporarily off-balance, she took the opportunity to jump up to wrap her legs around his waist, and use her body weight to bring them crashing to the ground, with him underneath. As she attempted to tighten the chain around his neck, he managed (much to his credit), to splutter "hehe.. kinky.." Whilst her expression changed from shock to anger, he took the chance to ungracefully but speedily produce his Electro-magnetic rod from his pocket, his grasping about successful, and dealt her a low level shock to the base of her spine. She screamed: a sound that made his back arch as his lips adopted a roguish smile and. Loosening the chains from his neck whilst she was still in the aftershock paralysis of pain, he flipped her off of him onto her front on the floor. Straddling her, he wrestled her chained hands behind her back and replaced the chains with handcuffs. He replaced the chains that connected her feet to the cell with short chains from ankle to ankle. As her pain subsided, she began to writhe violently beneath him. Pushing, rolling, searching for a way to counterbalance his weight. Leaning forward, Reno brushed her hairfrom herface before whispering into her ear,

"stop struggling.. you know you want me baby.. heh heh." He grinned like a cheshire cat. He stood up, and began to brush the dust from his clothes, which only seemed to make the creases in his uniform worse. Shrugging at this, he bent down again to pull tifa up by her handcuffs. Her face amused him greatly: it was textbook vehemence. But at least she seemed to have resigned herself to cooperation. Grasping her arm, he made for the cell door, dragging her in tow. He stopped briefly to turn to her, and his features once again adopted his trademark grin as he raised one of his eyebrows.

"Now be on your best behaviour, we're going to see the pressy."

Thank-you's: soda-cola-pop (you really encouraged me to continue this, thank you), bynon carget, the tiramasu of impending doom, Hipaytha, azundubz, inubeka, Nando the RPS King, Fan, Tincent, Drakhonasu, Mbel4gs, Lunita Cero, Kannami, Lilly, Shizuya Kaze, Pinstripe, Goshikku seirei, and everyone who reads this lame story : D). I really appreaciate it, i do. Thanks xx