Chapter 16

Yuffie was surprised at how little the pilot had to slow the Highwind down to follow Chaos to the North Crater. Or, it was more accurate to say, she was surprised at how fast the demon could fly, since he couldn't stay on the airship.

They'd discovered, fairly quickly, that Chaos got airsick too. Cid had told the demon that it probably had something to do with not moving under his own power "or some shit" and thrown him off the ship.

Chaos was indignant, and Yuffie felt bad for him, but Cid refused to have two violently ill people on his ship at the same time.

"Its bad enough havin' to clean up after her skinny ass," the pilot had said, pointing to Yuffie. "I ain't cleanin' up after you too. Not when you can fly."

So, what should have been a twelve hour trip—with the condition the Highwind was in—took a day and a half. By the end of the trip, Yuffie was beginning to think that she was getting over this airsickness thing.

They decided to land on the edge of the crater, where Chaos thought they'd come up. Yuffie disappeared into her cabin while Cid landed, and came back carrying Death Penalty along with her supplies bag.

"Cloud gave you Vince's gun, huh?" Cid asked.

"Yeah."

"You know how to use it?"

"Vincent showed me on watch."

"She still works all right?"

"Yep. And Reeve gave me a couple of Materia too."

"Guess we're as ready as we'll ever be, then. Let's get the fuck outta here and find Vincent." The pilot shouldered his own supply bag and took Venus Gospel from its resting place near the pilot's console.

The two of them disembarked and Chaos joined them on the ground. Just as Cid's feet touched the ground, his PHS rang.

He glanced at the caller ID screen before answering. "What?"

"Where the hell are you?" At Cloud's shout, Cid moved the phone away from his ear with a wince.

Without asking, Yuffie plucked the phone from the pilot's hand and held it to her own ear. "He's being a real friend and helping me find Vincent. Unlike some people. We'll be back soon."

Without waiting for a response from Cloud, she hung up and gave the PHS back to Cid.

"He'll just call again," he told her. "Thinks he's gotta be your goddamn keeper since you're so depressed about Vincent."

"I guess Reeve told you guys about that, huh?" Yuffie looked at the ground, embarrassed.

"Yeah." The pilot lit yet another cigarette. "He also asked us not to say anything to you about it. Said he'd worked it out with you."

The ninja nodded, unable to meet the pilot's eyes. She was more than a little ashamed that Cid knew she'd tried suicide, but having Chaos know as well—which he would in a few seconds—would be much, much worse.

"What happened?" Chaos asked.

Yuffie glanced over to Cid, who was looking back at her. "Its not my place to say," he told the demon.

With that, he took a drag from his cigarette and started down the Cliffside.

"Yuffie?" the demon turned his gaze to the ninja. "What happened?"

She shook her head. "I don't want to talk about it."

Suddenly, it became clear to Chaos just what had happened to Yuffie. "You tried to kill yourself."

Still looking at the ground, the girl nodded. The feel of Chaos' claws wrapping around her shoulders shocked her into looking up at him. "Why?"

"I just felt so alone. It was so much worse than when my mom died." Tears began running down Yuffie's cheeks. "I wanted to be with him again."

Chaos didn't know what to say to that. He pulled the girl close and held her, letting Yuffie cry herself out.

"You'll never be alone again, Yuffie," he told her, when she reached up to wipe her tears away.

"Thanks," she said. "That means a lot. We'd better go catch up with Cid though."

"Go. I'll be there in a minute."

"Uh, okay. But be quick."

Chaos was relieved that she didn't ask any questions. He wasn't sure he could answer them at that moment. His thoughts were suddenly jumbled. His promise that Yuffie would never be alone again had wrung something unexpected from the depths of his being.

And, as she'd pulled away from him, Chaos realized that Vincent was not the only one to have fallen in love with the young ninja.

Please, Vincent, don't hate me for this…


okay, i'm sure i probably lost some of you here. but this whole vincent/yuffie/chaos love triangle has been in store since i decided to make this a multi-chapter fic. i guess that's all i had to say. let me know what you think.

eerian