w00t! a 1200 word chapter, before i added this little note. this was supposed to be up two days ago, but my computer is being a spaz lately, and he keeps shutting off randomly. i think its time to take him tothe shop.

anyway, enjoy this latest installment. i think you'll all enjoy it.


Chapter 23

Yuffie and Chaos were silent all the way back to the Highwind. The ninja was lost in the horrors of the now, and the demon was tormented by the specters of his past. Cid was more worried about them than he was about Vincent.

Yuffie stared up at the air ship for a long time after they reached it. Finally, she spoke.

"Cid, I need you to drop me off at the City of the Ancients, then go get the Lunar Harp from Cloud."

"Yuffie?" Chaos asked.

"He has to go through the Sleeping Forest to get to Bone Village and get off this continent, right? Someone's gotta have the harp to wake the forest so he can get out."

"That's great, kid," Cid replied. "But why the City of the Ancients? Makes more sense to me to head to Bone Village and meet him comin' out."

"Maybe," Yuffie replied, "But either way we need the harp."

"Sure. But that's not a problem." The pilot grinned. "Cloud left the thing in the storage room on the Highwind on our way back to Midgar."

"Its already here? All right!" The ninja did a victory dance. "Then let's go get Vincent!"

Without waiting for a reply, she grabbed the ladder and began climbing onboard the airship. Silently, the demon watched her go.

She's so happy at the thought of Vincent that she's already forgotten what happened at the farm.

"You gotta tell her sometime," Cid said, looking over at Chaos. "You gotta tell 'em both sometime."

"How do you tell your best friend that you've fallen in love with his woman?" Chaos asked him.

"I dunno. But you gotta tell 'em something before you go all fuckin' weird on 'em." The Pilot grabbed the ladder and started climbing. "Meet us in Bone Village. I can't land outside the City of the Ancients."

Chaos stepped further away from the airship as it took off. He stood alone on the mountainside for several long moments pondering Cid's words before he, too, took to the air.

Telling them how I feel about Yuffie will change everything between us. I can't do that; I can't ruin the only good things I've got now.

Vincent Valentine looked at the imposing wall of the Sleeping Forest with dismay. Sighing, he looked over at the Galian Beast.

"I'd forgotten about this place. I'm not sure we can get through without the Lunar Harp."

The Galian Beast walked into the trees in response, then turned back and looked at Vincent.

"I suppose you're right," the gunslinger told him. "We really don't have much else to lose."

Hitching the small backpack of first aid supplies a little higher on his back, he trudged into the forest after his companion.

The forest had been like most others when they had come through before. There hadn't been as many creatures as in most forests, but not much could survive in a forest where entering it meant being lost forever. It had, at least, felt alive then. Now, while it was sleeping, the forest might as well be a corpse. It was still as the grave and the only sound they heard was the noise of their own footsteps in the underbrush. Vincent was a little unnerved by the utter lack of life in the place.

I wonder how Aeris managed to tolerate such a lifeless place when she passed through it.

They walked for hours, with Vincent marking a tree occasionally with his claw to keep them from going in circles. He knew they weren't lost, precisely, but from past experience Vincent also knew that the trip across the Sleeping Forest shouldn't have taken more than a single hour. Without the Lunar Harp, he and the Galian Beast had fallen victim to the magic of the woods.

Finally, Vincent slumped to the ground against a tree that looked like all the others they had passed, weary to his bones. The Galian Beast laid down next to him, and put his huge head across the gunman's lap. The Beast whimpered as Vincent reached down and scratched his head.

"Well, I suppose there are worse ways to go than being lost in the Sleeping Forest." The former Turk leaned his head back against the tree and closed his eyes. "We'll just rest here for a little while before we move on."

As he drifted off to sleep, Vincent thought he heard the gentle chords of harp music.

" 'I've got these fuckin' spare PHSes,' he says. 'Take one and let's split up to cover more ground,' he says. 'Sure, sounds great,' I said. What the hell was I thinking!" Yuffie demanded of the pair of dark dragons that were staring her down.

The dragons, for their part, had looked as surprised to see her in their new home as she had been to see them.

Man, Sephiroth really screwed things up. There weren't any dark dragons down here before. "Hehe…Nice dragons." Slowly the girl began backing away. "You just stay there, and I'll go look for Vincent someplace else."

The larger of the dragons snorted and stepped toward her. "Oh not good."

The dragon roared and Yuffie turned and ran. Even with Conformer, she wouldn't have been able to take on two fully grown dark dragons alone. And her skill with Death Penalty was nowhere near good enough to take even one. Her only choice was to run like hell and hope that she could find Chaos in time to help her.

She was pretty sure he could take out a dark dragon or two.

When a blast of dragon force knocked her off her feet and into a tree, she was pretty sure she was screwed. Sure, she'd gotten out of these life or death situations through the grace of her friends before, but this time they were all pretty far away. But she wouldn't go down without a fight.

She staggered to her feet, raised Death Penalty and fired.

Vincent and the Galian Beast snapped awake at the report of a gunshot. It was followed by the roar of a dragon and another gunshot. Quickly, they scrambled to their feet.

He was off and running toward the source of the sounds before he realized that he had nothing to fight with except a few infant materia. But it didn't matter; he'd never been the type to back down from someone in need of assistance; it was why he'd ended up in a coffin in the basement of the Shinra Mansion.

He and the Galian Beast broke into a clearing a few hundred yards away to see a familiar figure facing off against a pair of dark dragons.

"Yuffie…?"

The Beast didn't share his confusion; he barreled into the nearest dragon biting and clawing. Both dragons were distracted by his assault and Yuffie took the opportunity to fire another shot into one of them.

Vincent felt the darkness he'd been fighting all the way down the mountain surge up in response to the danger, promising some kind of help. He wasn't sure what it was; it didn't feel like a limit break, precisely, but if he could use it to help Yuffie, he would.

Taking a breath and spreading his arms, Vincent released the darkness.