--As a note, I will have a reference to a Yuffie/Vincent relationship, short but noticeable. Now my idea of this story was not to make it a Yuffentine or Yufvincentie or a Cloris…ith or whatever the hell...any of the name crossover thingies so I won't be basing my plot around it at all, but I thought logically it would make sense in the context of the chapter. After playing Dirge of Cerberus I could now see Yuffie and Vincent as a possibility, though the possiblity isn't made obvious in the game in any way. So if you consider any of these events out of character for Yuffie, you've been warned.
Chapter 30
Back in Town
The black cloud rose higher and billowed outward in the sky until it covered the sun, blackening the entire continent. The smoke rose solely from one spot, the North Crater. Though the sun shone and it was daytime elsewhere, under the cloud it was pitch black, night time.
Wymond sat alone watching the cloud encompass the area around the North Crater.
The Ancient Black was late, but it was still coming, Wymond knew that. If it wasn't then there wouldn't be this dark cloud forming around where it would appear.
Losing Vincent meant their battle with the Black would be that much harder, Aeris had been confident in the fact that Vincent could greatly damage the Ancient Black. Though Vincent was no longer here and couldn't help them. Even worse, Wymond wasn't sure his own powers could harm the Black enough.
Cid's airship was powerful, but powerful enough for the Black? There were just too many unknowns in the equation for Wymond to be confident. These people were strong, every one of them, but not strong enough to seriously damage the Ancient Black. Together they might be able to defeat the creature…maybe.
"The Highwind is as ready as we can make it," Rufus Shinra said walking up behind the seated Wymond. "As is everyone else, this monster of yours is taking its time."
"The Ancient Black doesn't really work on a schedule, but it is coming," Wymond replied.
"Of course," Rufus said, "it would be far too easy for us if it just took a wrong turn and ended up somewhere else."
"Unfortunately that kind of stuff doesn't happen," Wymond muttered, "I'd prefer it did at this point."
Rufus sat beside the guardian.
"You don't think we can win?" asked Rufus.
"It doesn't look promising," Wymond replied.
"You're obviously not familiar with how much we've all survived in the past," Rufus said.
"I apologize," Wymond said, "I don't mean to belittle any accomplishments, but a few Weapons and a psychopathic man with a long sword doesn't quite compare to this kind of thing."
"No," Rufus murmured, "I suppose it doesn't."
Wymond stared off silently at the increasingly dark cloud.
"I told an enemy something once, about a year ago, more or less I told him that every time an evil challenges us we will do as history dictates and stop them every time," Rufus stood up, "if it can't be done this time, then something has gone so utterly wrong in the world that it's probably not worth saving in that case anyways."
"You might be right," Wymond said nodding.
Rufus turned and walked away.
§
"I wonder if Cloud and Aeris are alright," Tifa said.
"I am sure they can handle their task," Red XIII said.
"I wonder if they saw Vincent there, in that time they're in," Cait Sith said, "it's possible he could have existed then right?"
"According to what I understand that is a possibility," Red XIII replied, "though I doubt it would be the same Vincent we know."
"I can't believe he's gone," Tifa said, "after everything that's happened, everything we've all survived."
"As the way of things would have it we are all destined to meet our match eventually," Red XIII said, "we will all meet our end, what I find troubling is that I always thought Vincent was…already dead."
"I don't think any of us were quite sure what Vincent was," Tifa said, "now we'll never know, I guess."
"Maybe it is better we do not know at all," Red XIII said.
Tifa opened her mouth to say something, but a noise interrupted her, it sounded like wind whistling through the air. She looked around curiously.
"Do you hear that?" asked Yuffie running toward them with Cid and Reno in tow.
"Sounds like a wind storm of some kind, but no wind," Tifa said looking around cautiously.
"Look up!" Reno said pointing.
Above them was what appeared to be a red scar in the sky, as if someone had made a cut in the air. Then the cut seemed to collapse in on itself and there was a bright red explosion. Everyone ducked and covered their eyes.
Though they all had their eyes closed they could hear the crash well enough. Something fell to the ground near them. They opened their eyes.
"My tall dark and shady friend, you make a horrible landing pad," Sam muttered in a growl.
Under Samael was Vincent, "Thank you."
"I don't think I can move," Sam said wincing, "you broke my back."
"Well, I think you broke my ribs so it appears we may be even," Vincent replied.
Sam got enough of his senses back to look around, "Uh oh."
"What?" asked Vincent.
"People," Sam said, "uh…people of Centre Time, we come in peace, ET phone home and all that stuff."
Vincent looked around and recognized his comrades.
"Oh, wait, I know her," Sam said rolling off Vincent and pointing at Tifa, "that's the chick with the…"
"Masterful martial arts?" asked Vincent.
"That's what I was going to say, yes," Sam struggled to his feet. "My people, I am God, fallen from the heavens to deliver you a message!"
"Sam, shut up," Vincent muttered.
"Come on, I just fell from the sky, let me play this one out," Sam retorted, "people of this planet, my message to you is…don't do drugs!"
"Ignore him," Vincent said getting to his feet.
"Now, continue about your duties as if I do not exist, if you're Muslim, stay in denial if you like, but Allah, he ain't comin'!" Sam said laughing.
No one had any idea what he was talking about as usual.
"Vincent?" asked Cid, "that really you buddy?"
"No, no, that's his twin brother Rick," Sam said, "Rick Valentine, Rick, this is Cid, and he flies airships."
"Shut up, Sam," Vincent said, "yes, it's me."
"Samael," Wymond said walking up behind Cid and the others making them jump at the sound of his voice, "I'd ask what you're doing here but I'm sure that question's getting old with you."
"Whoa-oh!" Sam said smiling, "a guardian. Now I'm in trouble, please sah, don't send me back to the Lifestream sah!"
"I assume you caught up with my charge and the other man?" asked Wymond.
"Cloud?" asked Sam. "Yeah, he's one bad dude, dude. Tall dark and shady here and I took a detour and last we heard the lovebirds were on their way to stop the Ancient Dark Navy."
"Black," Wymond corrected.
"Well, to the untrained eye, yes," Sam said, "in fact if you look closely it's not really black it's dark navy."
"You look that close?" asked Wymond.
"Hey, whoever said pink is the new black is crazy," Sam said, "queer eye for the dead guy if you know what I mean, you're the dead guy and people call me queer sometimes. Whether my eyes are queer is a completely different story."
"You haven't grown up in three hundred years have you?" asked Wymond.
"Are you kidding?" asked Sam. "Grown up? Why, you don't have to grow up anymore if you're dead. You can be irresponsible and have fun 24/7. It's like the 60's all over again…well, not the 60's here…if there was a 60's here…I'm not sure how years work here…my point is growing up is for alive people."
Wymond shook his head, "Well, if my charge and her friend…"
"Boyfriend," Sam corrected.
"He is?" asked Wymond.
"He just doesn't know it yet," Sam replied.
"Cloud, if my charge and Cloud don't do what they're trying to do then we could use your help to kill the Black," Wymond said.
"Dark Navy," Sam corrected.
"Okay, whatever, Dark Navy," Wymond said in annoyance.
"Sure, why the hell not," Sam said, "now where can I find Rufus Shinra?"
Wymond gestured behind him, "He's over there."
"Awesome, wanna ask how this guy got out of Shinra HQ without being blown to popcorn," Sam said, "I think we need a group hug with Vincent here, he's aliiiiiiivvveeee, everybody's happy!"
Sam knew every one of them probably thought he was out of his mind. He began walking toward Rufus when someone shot by him on his right side.
"Big world there, buddy, you could walk around…" Sam went silent as he saw the person go straight for Vincent. The he was a she. "…oh, the goofball, okay, never mind."
Sam watched Yuffie stop in front of Vincent then a moment later kissed him. Vincent staggered backward trying to keep his balance to stop from falling backward from the surprise.
"Well," Sam said, "no kiss for me; I'm the one who brought him back."
"Excuse me," Tifa said walking up to Sam from the left.
"Hey," Sam said facing her, "if Vincent tells you about any jokes I made about your breasts, I deny it to my grave…which if you wanna get technical is already where I am."
"What?" asked Tifa confused.
"Nothing," Sam said, "what can I do for ya?"
Tifa was silent for a moment then appeared to give up on trying to understand him, "You saw Cloud and Aeris?"
"I followed them around for a while, I know Aeris quite well, Cloud I've only every really heard of," Sam replied.
"So as far as you know they're okay?" asked Tifa.
"As far as I know," Sam said, "shouldn't you be over there helping Yuffie make out with tall dark and shady?"
"I…what…no," Tifa stuttered.
Sam smiled, "It's people like you that make my life more fun, tall dark and shady just tells me to shut up, people like you stand there trying to piece together what I'm saying. What I mean is shouldn't you be in shock he's alive?"
"I am, I just…" Tifa trailed off.
"You're jealous because Yuffie got to him first?" asked Sam.
"What…no," Tifa said.
"Sorry, my psychic powers are switched, you're jealous because Aeris got to Cloud first," Sam said.
"I…" Tifa stuttered.
"Good answer," Sam said, "look, I'd like to say something like: I can't read your mind…but I can't, because I can. My point is, I know you just spent however many hours being sad and now, boom, tall dark and shady is back and you wasted all that time trying to not be sad. You're worried he's still gonna die when the Dark Navy comes and you wanna stay distant so you don't experience the loss anymore, yadda yadda, denial, denial…you people really do like to make things all complicated in your mind, covering the fact you're scared of losing a friend by worrying about the one that got away and loves a dead chick more than you is a bad idea."
"You Cetra can be annoyingly good at understanding people," Tifa said quietly.
"Me especially, Wymond's just a bodyguard, me, I'm the Albert Einstein of Cetra," Sam said.
"Who?" asked Tifa.
"Alb…" Sam paused, "I'm really smart, okay, that's what I'm getting across here. Plus, as much traveling as I've done I pretty much understand everything there is to understand."
"Must be nice," Tifa said.
"A blessing and a curse," Sam replied.
"Thank you," Tifa said.
"Hey, I aim to please," Sam said and headed off toward Rufus.
Sam got his story from Rufus and everyone else got over the shock of their friend still being alive. During this time Sam did what he needed to do with the Omega Materia and ensured that they wouldn't have any other complications.
Vincent himself had been trying to get over the shock of Yuffie kissing him.
"So what's the story with the ninja chick, dude?" asked Sam quietly to Vincent.
"I'm not sure," Vincent said.
"Well, you just mean you're avoiding it," Sam said, "same thing, really."
Vincent was silent.
"First of all, you gotta forget this Lucrecia chick," Sam said, "I realize you've got a death grip but she's not emotionally available…and she's in a fucking crystal…regardless it's the walking talking," Sam lowered his voice a little more, "extremely good looking ninja chick…or the ice princess behind a waterfall. Look at it this way too, you're like what in real years…fifty-something? What's she…nineteen?"
"Sam…" Vincent began to respond.
"It's coming," Wymond said walking past them.
"There goes my talk on relationship dynamics," Sam muttered. "Dark Navy?"
Wymond nodded grimly, "It looks like whatever Cloud and Aeris were going to do failed."