Vincent stumbled, tried to catch himself and fell, landing painfully in the dirt with a muffled grunt he looked up trying to shove the pain of his accumulated injuries to the back of his mind, he'd been running since dawn trying to reach Rocket Town with as much haste as his wounded, exhausted body could manage.

WELCOME TO ROCKET TOWN!

A bright happy sign proclaimed in giant letters, and then just under those.

Home of World Renowned Captain Cid Highwind! Hero of The Meteor Crisis!

Vincent coughed and pulled himself up with a groan, he was overcome with a fit of coughing, doubling over he coughed into his hand clutching at his ribs with his free hand, when he finally managed to right himself he discovered his hand was bloody.

"Push it aside!" Vincent growled to himself "Keep going! If you ever want to see her again keep going god damn it!"

Vincent staggered into Rocket Town and towards Cid's Home, as he made his way through the empty streets his mind played over the events of that morning, he'd never seen the attack coming! It had been a testament of how quickly and horribly things could go wrong...

--

Vincent had been leading the Chocobo off the boat when the attack had begun, his senses were alert as always but he supposed in retrospect that the day they'd spent on the boat huddled close together even sometimes making love on the rocking waves had dulled his senses, it was the only possible explanation he could think of for falling Victim to an ambush.

The twang of a bowstring had caused his head to snap up but it was already too late as a large black arrow buried itself into the Golden Chocobo's neck, the bird "Warked" in agony and yanked away from Vincents grip trying to run, trying to breathe, but the frothy blood pouring from the creatures mouth told Vincent the bird was moments from death...it just didn't know it yet.

"VINCENT!"

Tifa's cry hadn't been necessary, he saw the large group coming at them, rushing them before they could fully disembark the boat, trying to catch them off guard before they could gather their senses about them.

That had been perhaps the only mistake they'd made, Tifa easily leapt the gap from the boat to the ground rolling up and coming to her feet, in one graceful motion she slid the Pistol from Vincent's hip just as Vincent had raised Death Penalty, they met their foes in a hail of gunfire.

Vincent zeroed in on the bowman pulling the trigger once and barely noticing when the bowman's head exploded in a mass of skull fragments and gray matter, he took another of the charging men down through the throat, Tifa resisted the urge to fire wildly at the advancing targets instead picking a larger one and focusing on the vital areas Vincent had taught her about...one shot slammed home into his leg staggering him, the martial artist was a quick study with any weapon and she knew of pressure points and vital areas anyway, her next shot took the man in the throat as he slowed to clutch at his knee.

Together they felled 4 of the advancing men, but their enemies had strength in numbers and by the time they met in melee combat there were still at least ten still standing, dressed in ragged clothing and caring nothing for team work or battle plans they threw themselves at Vincent and Tifa as if they had nothing to lose.

Tifa met the closest with a bone snapping roundhouse kick that killed her opponent immediately and sent his body crashing to the ground like a sack of grain, Vincent drew his sword, he knew very well that they were dealing with the same men who'd attacked them in Nibelheim and he knew that with this many of them the only way to fight them would be to not pull his punches

"Don't hold back!" he growled over the sounds of combat as he swung his sword severing the head of one of his attackers before reversing the blade and slicing another's throat.

Tifa heard Vincent's cry, her fists and feet were in a flurry of motion delivering bone crushing blows, but even as she dropped her opponents she realized that they were still stirring, rising with their broken limbs hanging limply at their sides or hobbling on sprained ankles or broken knees at her trying to get ahold of her, Tifa barely managed to dodge a dagger thrust taking a glancing blow to the shoulder she winced but drove her fist into the attackers nose driving his nose bone back into his brain, however as the ragged man dropped Tifa felt a wave of dizziness wash over her and staggered back, this cost her and she took a blow to the stomach that doubled her over.

"Tifa!"

Vincent cried out over the sounds of battle as he saw her go down under a pile of attackers, more had joined the fray and though Vincent fought them and killed them without quarter or mercy they were landing blows because of the sheer desperation and numbers they fought with, Vincent could feel the chances of Victory slipping away, still he redoubled his efforts cutting a bloody swath through his enemies, but as he reached Tifa he was stopped in mid charge by another figure, this one appeared to be masked eyes narrowed to slits glared out at him as the attacker slammed it's fists into Vincents chest rocking him back a step and staggering him, the figure advanced over the fallen bodies of it's companions and Vincent could only make out it was the form of a woman under the black clothing.

A dagger took him in the shoulder and he cursed himself ripping it out without a second thought growling in pain he buried it in the throat of another ragged man and then barely managed to block the attack of the masked females next attack, it cost him his sword as her kick sent it spinning from his hand to the ground.

"Tifa!"

Vincent cried out again, he could hardly make her out through the battle but he thought he could see the ragged men picking her up and despite her struggles managing to restrain her enough to get a rope around her, Vincent was beginning to see red and in his mind Chaos was howling to get free, Vincent knew it would be his only chance for survival and without reluctance he gave in to the transformation.

"I don't think so Valentine!"

With impossible speed the female broke through his defenses and slammed her hand into his chest, Vincent felt the air around him crackling with energy and he knew the Lightening spell was coming before it hit him at point blank range.

The pain was undescribable as the lightning flowed through his body like a living entity ripping open every nerve and pouring salt in the screaming wounds Vincent had never know this much pain all at once, he screamed in agony dropping to the ground, before he could recover from the assault he was kicked and pummeled from what seemed like a hundred different angles.

"STOP!"

The blows ceased instantly

"The Master wants this one alive! Leave him..."

Vincent tried to look up at the female, her voice sounded so familiar! But he couldn't place it.

"Ti...fa..."

He groaned trying to rise but his limbs would not support him, he crumpled back to the ground crying out in pain and frustration, they were taking Tifa! And he couldn't do anything about it! He reached out his arm trying to grab onto something, anything that would keep him from fading into the darkness, but like a colossal wave washing over a shipwrecked survivor clinging desperately to a plank there was no escape and he was swept away into oblivion.

--

"Cid!"

Vincents voice was more of a croak as he knocked on the door to the Captains house, the door swung open and Vincents unease grew, Rocket Town at a glance was virtually empty, a ghost town.

Vincent pushed his way inside and looked down in alarm at the trail of blood leading from the door across the room and into the bed room

"Cid?"

Vincent called out his hand reaching for his Pistol but coming up empty when he remembered Tifa had taken it back when the fighting had begun, instead he gripped his rifle and moved slowly through the house wary of a sudden ambush, he followed the blood trail to the door and pushed the door open cautiously.

"Cid!"

Vincent threw open the door and rushed to his friends side, Cid looked to be on deaths door beaten bruised and broken, his hand was stretched out towards a dresser as if he'd been trying to reach for something before he passed out, Vincent quickly rummaged through the drawer until he found what the Captain had been looking for...a Cure Materia, Vincent immediately went about healing his friends wounds and when he'd recovered enough from the effort he healed his own wounds, laying up against the bed grimacing he felt the pain slowly fade until it was merely an unpleasant memory.

Cid remained unconscious even after Vincent had gotten him into bed, sitting down utterly exhausted in a chair next to the bed Vincent closed his eyes and tried to push the grief of losing Tifa to the back of his mind, he would get her back! But until then he needed to keep his emotions on a tight leash, the army organized against him was obviously larger then he could handle, he needed to round up his friends, possibly go to Cosmo Canyon and plan an attack, find his enemies base of operations and lay siege to it, tear it down brick by brick and stone by stone if need be...Chaos raged inside his mind howling for a chance to be let loose on their unknown enemy.

Vincent closed his eyes and sighed in frustration, sleep came but it came slowly, the last thing Vincent thought he heard before he fell into the darkness of sleep was a helicopter passing overhead.

AN: Chapter 8 posted and done! Making up for a few tame chapters with a healthy dose of action, Tifa is gone and in the hands of our unknown enemy, more players to be revealed in the upcoming chapter 9 and I assure you the action is only going to heat up there.

lilmizgrunge I hope this update and its promptness meets your approval

As always thank you all for reading and reviewing!

-Lotuss