A/N: Well, despite everything going on in my life right now, I've managed to get this posted, just like I promised Ezri-Candy that I would. Yay me! Hmmm...You know, I just realized that I really don't have much to say about this chapter. So, on with the story!

DISCLAIMER: Sadly, I don't the rights to the final fantasy series, the characters in it or anything else right now.
The climb down into the North Crater was enough to rattle anyone. All the long way down, the group had been attacked, harassed, mobbed and ambushed by any number of fiendish monsters. Dark dragons leaped at them from the shadows, and tonberry kings ambushed from small cracks in the walls. Marlboros lay in wait anywhere there was room for them to grow on the narrow paths down. Everyone was so exhausted when they reached the bottom, that Cloud decided to call a rest for the night an hour before planned.

After dinner, they broke the night into watches so that nothing would sneak up on them and kill them in their sleep. Somehow, no one doubted that Sephiroth would manage to find a way to send the monsters after them while they were incautious. Cait Sith and Cid took the first watch, since Reeve hadn't been present for the actual climb or the fighting and Cid had acted mostly as a healer today. Barret and Nanaki took the second watch since they both functioned well on only a few hours of sleep. Yuffie and Vincent were left the third watch since their dark vision was better than the others. Cloud and Tifa would be taking the dawn watch, so that the physically strongest member of the group could keep an eye out for early morning predators and the martial artist could make breakfast. The watches had been set up this way since the gunman and the ninja joined the group, an old and familiar routine that usually made Yuffie feel more secure.

So, of course, it wasn't working this time. After the trip down the crater, the night was entirely too quiet. Neither of the previous watches had seen anything, not even a bug, come near the camp. It was making her edgy, jumpy and more than a little nervous. She hadn't been this nervous since they'd shared the watch after the first time she saw Vincent transform into Hellmasker in combat. She hadn't known his secret then, and it had scared her the way Sephiroth did. Vincent's complete silence tonight wasn't helping either.

The two of them were sitting on a rock shelf, backs turned to the fire so that their night vision would be less impaired, wrapped in blankets. Normally, they would be talking--something they had started doing the night Vincent had scared her so badly. But tonight, apparently, he didn't have anything to say.

Vincent's lack of desire to talk didn't matter. If Yuffie didn't hear someone's voice soon, she was going to scream. "Vincent?"

"Hmm?" The gunman seemed distracted, but at least he'd answered.

"Ya wanna talk about something? Its spooky out here tonight and I need to get my mind off of it."

"We know." Vincent blinked, then turned to look at her. "Chaos and I are not at all comfortable with this. The night is too quiet, so we were listening for surprises."

"Oh." Usually, when Vincent talked in the plural like that, it creeped her out, but this time Yuffie realized that she felt a tiny bit better because of it. "Well, don't let me keep you. I know that I want to know if something is coming out of the shadows to eat us."

Vincent?

The former Turk sighed. "Yes, Chaos?" He'd discovered weeks ago that his conversations with his own personal demon bothered Yuffie less if his half was aloud.

The girl is afraid.

"I'd noticed. And what am I supposed to do about it?"

Don't be a fool, Vincent. You know what to do about it. And don't think I don't know that you want to. He could hear the smirk in the demon's voice.

"Vincent, what's going on?" Yuffie winced at the tremor in her voice.

Vincent started at the terror in her voice. Good gods, she's terrified!

I told you.

Be silent demon.

"Vince?" The ninja's voice trembled, and Vincent noticed that she was beginning to look more than a bit panicked.

"Yuffie, its all right." He snaked his clawed arm out from under his blanket and wrapped it around her shoulders, pulling her closer. "There's nothing out there. Chaos and I were just talking."

Yuffie responded to his touch and reassuring words by wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his side. "I'm so scared, Vincent. I don't…I don't want to die."

"I know. I don't either. Not anymore."

"What if Sephiroth is too strong? What…what if we can't stop him?"

"We will stop him. He is not too strong for all of us together."

"I wish I had your confidence."

They sat in silence then. Vincent's arm around her made Yuffie feel more secure; she trusted his words that nothing was lurking in the darkness. But she couldn't shake the feeling that she was never going to see Wutai--or her father--again. Softly, she began to cry.

When Vincent heard Yuffie's first choked sobs, he used his good hand to pull her onto his lap and then wrap his blanket around the two of them. Then he rocked her the way his mother had rocked him when he was young. A few tears of his own ran down his cheeks, falling to land in the young ninja's hair.

"Shhh, Yuffie. Its all right."

"No its not!" she wailed. "I'm never gonna see Wutai or my dad or anybody again! I'm gonna die here!"

Not much surprised Vincent anymore, but hearing that statement from this vibrant, lively girl sent the gunman into a shocked silence. She thinks she's going to die.

Chaos chose to use this thought as a form of address. I heard. I think that we should not let her.

I agree. "Yuffie, you are not going to die here. I'll protect you."

We'll protect her.

But Yuffie heard neither promise; she'd cried herself to sleep.