Disclaimer: I do not own Yuffie and Godo Kisaragi, Vincent Valentine, AVALANCHE, all characters and concepts related to AVALANCHE, or, in fact, anything that is from Final Fantasy VII (that honour goes to the wonderful bunch at Square-Enix).
Claimer: I DO, however, own the concept of this story and all non-canon concepts seen in this chapter and previous chapters. Feel free to use my ideas and original characters, but please give me credit. If you don't give me credit, Tsen Li will turn into a Gary Stu, ruin your story, and then eat your liver.
And When that Day Comes
Dig my head down deep so I can't
hear the cars
Outside on the street, and the stars are
laughing
They get a kick out of my misery.
I've tried
everything short of Aristotle,
Dramamine, and the whiskey bottle,
I pray for the day when my ship comes in
And I can sleep the
sleep of the just again
—Insomniac, Straight No Chaser
(xx)
Yuffie stared as her father and her fiancée circled each other.
This building could easily come crashing onto their heads at any minute. Didn't they CARE? Did they even notice?
Her father struck out. His hand connected with Tsen Li's face.
From however far away she was, she could hear Godo's knuckles cracking against Tsen Li's cheekbone. The cracking sound as Godo's fist shattered Tsen Li's face was audible over the fire.
Tsen Li stumbled backwards. But within moments, he was moving towards Godo.
Godo moved away, dropping into a crouch. He rolled away from Tsen Li even as Tsen Li tried to hit him again. Tsen Li continued to try to strike him, and Godo just kept rolling away.
Flow like ocean, strike like mountain.
Her father was moving like a fluid— moving like a ninja. There was no way Tsen Li would hit him and actually do damage.
And that was when she saw it. Tsen Li bowed. He bowed, and then he screamed the two words she'd never thought she would hear again.
"OMNI CHANGE!"
She watched the transformation take place, almost... fascinated? It started with his legs. They grew bulkier. His feet began to curl in on themselves. Hardening, the toes merging together, until he had hooves. His hair lengthened until it was past his shoulders.
He screamed when his eyes literally melted into his face. No, not melted. More like his brain or something had just sucked them right up— schloop!— and back into his head.
He screamed even louder as something happened behind that mask of rapidly-darkening flesh. She could hear the grinding of his bones rearranging. And then his eyeballs popped back out.
There were six of them. Six solid black eyes. There was no white or brown or ANYTHING but black anywhere in those eyeballs.
Six black horns sprouted from his head. Four of them spiralled and twisted around his head like some sort of sick crown, but two of them shot up out of the sides of his head and twisted forward, like the horns of a bull.
Standing before her, she understood, was the Omni Change of Le Phe Tan.
So why did he look like Da Chao? That brown-red skin, the six eyes— it was Da Chao.
"Daddy!" She screamed, using a name she hadn't used in earnest since she was a child. And she'd left childhood a good long time ago. "Daddy, stay back! You don't have the Omni Change anymore!"
And Godo stood down. He turned to her, looked at her.
She knew what she had to do.
She bowed, too.
Within moments, she felt nothing but pain. Her hands hurt, her skin was, like, falling off or something. It hurt so horribly.
Had Godo felt this every time he changed? She understood why he was such a goddamn prune, now.
Her body seemed to balance perfectly. How was it possible, with this body that wasn't the same as it had been five minutes ago? How did she know how to stand?
But Tsen Li (Da Chao, some part of her whispered, the part of her that told her that the claws on the ends of her hands were useful) was moving towards her. Running, full speed, meaty hands clenched into fists.
Flow like ocean, strike like mountain some distant part of her thought as she slid to the side, easily evading his attack, and circled around behind him.
Snorting angrily, he turned.
She wasted no time. Within seconds, the world was reduced to six black eyes and fists the size of chickens. The claws that were now on her hands were incredibly useful— she felt a deep sense of satisfaction when she saw blood slide down his cheek.
He kicked out.
She sprang backwards, somersaulting easily. She kept somersaulting until she was out of his way, even as he began to charge her. Cartwheels and backflips and ground-hugging rolls. She led him on a merry chase through that tiny, tiny room.
She'd beaten him down before, so many times before, just in the past few days. Broken his rips, broken the cartilage AND the bone in his nose, nearly concussed him. Kicked his ass from there to Gold Saucer.
Funny, how being a gigantic bull-snake-spider-human thing made him a bit tougher.
She snarled at him, feeling her lips peel back to reveal wickedly sharp fangs. There was something odd about her jaw, too.
Was it... mobile? Really really mobile?
She paid it no mind. Time to shitbeat Tsen Li (Da Chao, her body insisted, though it agreed on the shitbeating). Her fist slammed into his jaw. As she connected, her wrist flicked, scraping her claws against him and gouging her fingers deep into his face.
Her hand came away bloody.
She licked the blood away with a forked tongue.
"Bitch," Tsen Li growled. "You're just like your father— the easterners' bitch."
"And you're a traitor!" She replied.
Oddly enough, there was no speech impediment. Her fangs were small enough they didn't interfere, and apparently, this body knew how to manage with a forked tongue.
What was going on? How did she know how to control this body? Why wasn't it just a pile of muscle and flesh? Why wasn't she tripping over her own feet?
Tsen Li screamed something. The kiai knocked her backwards, startled her for an instant. Just long enough for him to start moving towards her. Not long enough to save him.
She rushed him, letting loose her own kiai.
hr
Vincent heard two shouts. How he managed to hear them above the burning of the building, he didn't want to know.
He didn't want to think about the chances of something human screaming that loud.
But at least he knew where she was, now.
He moved through the halls, ignoring the insanity of the situation. He was running into a burning building.
On the other hand, he'd jumped out of an airship to save an idiot teenaged girl... Why not do this as well?
He made his way to the room where he'd heard the sound.
Something collided with the door from the other side. Vincent blinked, stepping back automatically as the something went through the shoji door.
He felt his breath leave him when he realized what it was. It was a human body. Corpse? The body landed on the floor with a thud, flopping perhaps once. It landed on its back, and Vincent felt his eyes widen, then narrow.
Godo looked up at him. There was no surprise on the man's face, only a determined expression that reminded him of an expression he had so recently seen Yuffie wearing.
Vincent noted the gaping hole in the man's stomach. His enhanced night vision could pick out claw marks.
Again, he heard two screams. One of them male, the other female. One triumphant, the other distraught.
Yuffie!
He ripped what remained of the door from its hinges to find—
Two creatures. Circling each other.
One of them looked like the Minotaur of legend... But with six eyes and with six horns. The other looked like a young woman. With claws and unbelievably pale skin.
The female figure half-turned, staring at him for a moment.
It, too, was six-eyed. It appeared to have some sort of whiskers or something, like a dragon.
Beautifully shaped pink lips parted, revealing wicked fangs and a forked tongue.
His breath caught in his throat.
Yuffie and Tsen Li?
Were these creatures the heirs of Wutai?
The female figure began to scream. Something changed, something went wrong.
She began to grow taller... Her skin began to darken. Moments later, Yuffie stood before him, her clothing ripped, her hair still long, now unbound.
"I— I can't—" She gasped. "I can't— I won't— I won't let you live!"
Vincent stared at her.
One hand swept out...
The shuriken embedded in the far wall began to move.
Within moments, it was whistling through the air, only to land in her hand. She half-turned, the shuriken extended.
Tsen Li tried to move backwards.
Vincent nodded to himself, already moving to the side. He took as careful aim as time allowed, squeezing the trigger only when he was sure.
The bullet struck Tsen Li in the shoulder, entering at an angle. Tsen Li, who had been back-pedalling, was now moving directly into Yuffie's swing.
The Conformer's blade connected with Tsen Li's throat.
Yuffie completed her turn, the sharp metal slicing easily through Tsen Li's neck.
Watching, Vincent found himself wondering if she'd had any difficulty in breaking through the spinal cord.
Yuffie kissed the Conformer, falling to her knees. A red glow surrounded her.
Suddenly, he could hear the roaring of the ocean. His breath began to produce steam in the air.
Was she calling Leviathan and Shiva?
He looked up, towards her.
There— a blue figure, barely visible. And beside it, a golden one.
Leviathan... And who? Surely not Shiva. Shiva wasn't gold.
"Leviathan-Father, Ashura-Mother." Yuffie breathed.
He listened as the sound of the fire began to dim. Soon, he could hear the rain. Where the rain didn't put out the fire, ice sprang to do the job.
"Thank you," Yuffie murmured. "Thank you."
She turned to face him. Upon seeing him, she went a little pale. But then she shook her head and told him, frankly: "I need to see what they've done. I need to find out who started this."
He nodded.
She would get her wish. He would see to that himself.
TBC 11 FEBRUARY 2006.
WOOT, JUST THE EPILOGUE LEFT.