So, I ran the word count on this before I started typing on this chapter, just to see where I'm standing with sunrise—purely out of curiousity, you understand. It was at 18600 words! Its come so, so far from the little oneshot that it began as. Makes me feel all fuzzy inside.

This chapter took a little bit of effort to get out. I've been in Hellsing mode for the last couple of days, and sick to boot. But here it is.

Chapter 22

Cid couldn't tell who was more frightened when Chaos attacked. Yuffie and the farm girl both looked scared to the fainting point. He was fairly intimidated by the results of the attack as well, but he'd been expecting something similar to this.

"You didn't have to kill them," Yuffie whispered harshly. Cid would have sworn he saw the demon's skin pale when she said that.

Time to step in before somebody gets hurt. "Actually, kid, he probably did. Those weren't the kind of fuckers to play with kid gloves. You saw what they were tryin' to do."

The ninja nodded, still too stunned by what had happened to say anything else. Chaos looked slightly relieved at is words, but he didn't say anything either.

The pilot pulled out a cigarette and lit it, mulling over the situation as the farm girl wrapped her arms around herself and said, "Thank you for your help. Will you come into the house?"

"Sure," Cid replied. "It's fucking cold out here anyway."

Yuffie, recovering herself somewhat, shot him a look. "Quit your bitchin', old man."

"Who the hell you calling old, brat?" He wasn't sure if she was faking, or if she had recovered from her shock already, but he was glad she would banter with him.

It meant that Chaos hadn't traumatized her too much.

The house was pleasantly warm when they stepped inside and the trio was grateful, even if Chaos did have to keep his wings tucked in fairly close to keep from breaking anything—including himself.

The girl led them into the living room and asked them to sit down. Then she went off into another part of the house. They watched her go with slightly confused expressions, but Yuffie and Cid did as she asked and sat down.

Yuffie took the opportunity to study the house while the girl was off doing whatever. The place was very quaint, all hard wood floors and log walls. It looked like something out of the books her mother read her when she was little. She had always wanted a house like this.

I doubt Vincent would want a house like this, though. Not when he's got that whole huge mansion in Nibelheim.

"I'm sorry," the girl said, coming back into the room and sinking down into a wooden chair. "I just…I had to put on some different clothes."

"Its okay," Yuffie replied. "We understand." Or she did, anyway, after that time she and Elena spent with Don Corneo.

The girl didn't look like she believed her, but Yuffie wasn't going to begin to explain. AVALANCHE's time in Wutai was just a series of painful memories that were best left to die.

"I'm Jaya," the girl told them. "And I don't want to sound ungrateful, because I truly am, but what were you doing out there?" She shot a nervous glance to Chaos who was standing near Yuffie with his arms crossed over his chest.

"We were looking for somebody," Cid told her. "We thought maybe he came through here."

Jaya opened her mouth to reply, but it was a man's voice that said, "People don't come through here. You're the first visitors we've had in years."

The girl looked to the owner of the voice with obvious relief. "Vhan! That goodness you're home! There were bandits!"

"What? Bandits?" Cid and Yuffie watched as the man walked from, presumably, the back door to the girl and hugged her. "Are you hurt? Did they take anything?"

"No, I'm fine." Jaya hugged him back tightly, then indicated the party from AVALANCHE. "These people saved me."

Vhan looked to Cid and smiled. "Thank you. I don't know what might have happened if you hadn't been here."

Rather than point out that he hadn't done anything at all to help, Cid just nodded. "We just happened to be passin' through. Ain't like we planned on taking on bandits."

"I am surprised there were bandits at all, with Sephiroth having been near so recently," Chaos said finally.

Vhan's eyes narrowed noticeably at the mention of the Shinra general; Jaya looked surprised at it.

"Are you with AVALANCHE?" she asked tentatively.

"Yeah," Cid replied. "Why?"

"Jaya…" Vhan's tone was darkly warning.

The girl stepped away from him. "I'm not going to lie to them, Vhan. Everything is not going to get better if you just ignore what is going on, and we owe these people. If they're looking for the man we rescued from the cave, then we must help them."

Yuffie jumped to her feet at the girl's words. Chaos put a hand on her shoulder before she could do anything stupid. "Have you seen Vinnie?" the ninja asked.

"A few days ago, my brother and I rescued a man named Vincent Valentine from a cave not far from here. He was with a great beast and nearly frozen to death. He was here until yesterday morning, when my brother threw him out because he was in AVALANCHE."

Yuffie's elation that Vincent was alive was drowned out by the news that Vhan had thrown him out of the house. Chaos' grip on her shoulder tightened as he turned to Vhan.

"You threw him out? You threw out a man who had no supplies, no weapons and no way to survive in this environment? You sent him out there to die!"

"Calm down, Chaos," Cid said, knowing that it wouldn't work.

Ignoring the pilot, the demon advanced on the young man. In a move almost too fast to follow, he had Vhan by the throat and lifted him into the air. "I should kill you for what you did. Where did he go?"

Jaya began sobbing as her brother struggled for air. "Please, don't! I helped your friend. I gave him some supplies when he left. Please, don't kill my brother!"

"Where did he go?" Chaos asked again, seeming to ignore Jaya.

"South!" Jaya replied. "Oh, God, he went south! Toward the Forgotten City."

With a snarl, the demon threw Vhan to the ground. "If anything has happened to Vincent, I will come back and kill you." With that, he turned and stalked out of the house.

Yuffie looked at the siblings as Jaya dropped to the floor next to her brother. "If I were you two, I'd pray that Vincent's all right, because if he isn't, I'll be here helping Chaos."