Chapter 17

You're fighting for my love.

Vincent saw death coming for him. It was ironic but the first time it had taken its time creeping up on him as various sadistic experiments slowly drained the life from his body. Now filled with the blood of those he had killed, his second death came up on him all too fast.

There was a single sound, the tearing of metal to herald his prepared arrival in the pits of hell. As the Eagle crashed into the water, the handhold (or claw hold) Vincent had on the plane suddenly put too much pressure on it. The piece of the plane he held onto for dear unlife came loose, and Vincent was thrown forward.

If they had been on land regardless of how hard the impact would have been, he would have survived it, but they weren't. They were over water, and that meant Vincent had no chance of surviving what came next. He was thrown forward past the cockpit, and into the water.

He didn't bother trying to tread water or swim, his claw made a very effective deadweight to drag him to his final resting place. He didn't need to breath, but it wasn't suffocation that would get him. No it would be the crushing pressure at the bottom of the ocean that would finally do him in.

While he was reflecting on his fate to come, he suddenly realized that he wasn't sinking any more. His eyes could easily pierce darkness but underwater his vision was still distorted. He could barely see the cause of his sudden loss of downward momentum, strands of white were wrapped around his claw.

They must have gotten there while Vincent was still above water and they anchored him to the world of the living as securely as his claw anchored him to the world below. In a moment Vincent discovered that perhaps the strands of white were not quite as much of perfect blessing as they looked.

This was because as Vincent looked up at the world he would probably never see again, he could see James Firecat valiantly struggling against the pull of his own body, which he could now see was connected to Vincent's by white wires. It was a valiant struggle, but like most such struggles, it was completely useless.

James didn't posses near enough strength to even manage to keep his own body from joining Vincent's let alone save Vincent. Vincent sank a few more inches watching with vague irritation this unplanned roadblock on his final trip to the afterlife. James was drawing closer and closer to the edge of the plane; soon he would join Vincent in the water. At that point James would probably cut his losses and let Vincent sink.

Just as James' feet lost contact with the plane, he was stopped from splashing into the water. A white-gloved hand shot out and grabbed hold of James' tail, leaving James trapped between the air and water. For a while the three of them stayed like that, but then Vincent felt a sudden jerk as a fourth person joined the line.

James, who should have been in mind-bending pain, smiled as the entire bizarre procession took one step backwards, hauling him closer to the plane. Again and again steps were taken until James was finally back on his feet. From there it was only a matter of time until the three people pulling against Vincent's weight finally managed to pull a very wet, yet grateful vampire from the ocean.

James finally undid the white wires, which vanished back into his gloves. Alex slapped James on the back in what would have been a gesture of friendship except that it floored the Firecat. Judging from Alex's gratified expression, that had been his intent in the first place. "Not bad for a Ragabash. It only took half of the pack to get you out of the problem you created that time."

On the ground, clearly hoping that his spine was still arranged in the direction that it naturally favored, James still smiled. "Well a guy does what he has to do!" Master, who had up to this point been uninvolved with the entire affair, suddenly took part in it. "James, why did you do that?"

James shrugged as if the reasons for his actions should be blindly obvious. "Simple, everyone knows that vampires can't cross running water except at the flow or slack of the tide. As right now it didn't look like either, nothing good could come from Vincent trying swim, right?" Before anyone else could act Melkore threw himself into the debacle with reckless abandon.

He hoisted himself out of the cockpit and practically jumped to Vincent's side and grabbed his claw. "What in the name of God is this fing thing made from?" Vincent easily removed his claw from Melkore's grasp and took a moment to examine his reflection in it, he was in his 20's again. "I don't know, why?"

Melkore was practically salivating as he tried once again to grab the claw that Vincent jerked away from him. "James is using monofilament wires. That's a fancy way of saying they're about as many molecules wide as the new president has IQ points above a chocobo. With a proper grip, even Shinra battle mech armor can't stand up to them. James was pulling on those wires for all he was worth against your claw for at least a minute, and it isn't even scratched. If that had been your right hand he wrapped those wires around it would have come off at the wrist."

Vincent looked at his claw, and then with irritation at Melkore. "I don't know what it's made from and it doesn't matter." Mirri had spent a moment catching her breath and was now back in the conversation. "Melkore, put your idea factory to some good use and work on something useful. We're currently out in the middle the ocean, if we don't do something we'll either die of thirst or starvation."

"What do you mean 'we' mammals?" With Melkore out of the cockpit Niro had plenty of room to shift into his human form and climb out of the cockpit as well. The way he looked at the water was the exact opposite of how Vincent looked at it. Vincent glared down at the water which, unlike manmade surfaces, refused to show his reflection and knew that he glimpsed the pits of hell.

Niro was currently looking down at the thing as if he was tempted to dive right in. Vincent wondered how Shapeshifter blood would taste, it was a shame that Niro's black coat did a good job of covering his neck. "You don't have any fish big enough to ride on, or strong enough to pull this thing do you Niro?" Blind, halfwit hope, thy name is Firecat.

"Sorry James, but I could bring you guys back an olive branch from whichever way land is." Alex carefully dipped a hand into the water, and then slowly let it drain out of his hand. "We don't need that in the least Shapeshifter, land is that way."

Alex struck a pose like a statue pointing forward with complete and total confidence.

It was at this point, while everyone else was busy looking at the water that somebody acted decisively. The entire plane shuddered as the engine kicked itself to life. Instantly everyone spun around, Aeris was sitting in the cockpit and grinning. "The engine still works, why can't we use the plane like a boat?" There was a very long pause. "Why didn't I think of that?"

There was a very long pause as everyone excepted James looked pointedly away to avoid answering Melkore's question. James, of course, spoke when no words were needed. "Well we were all so busy looking at the water and trying to think about fancy solutions that none of us besides Aeris thought about the fact that the plane still worked." Aeris willingly moved aside and let Melkore "drive" while Alex pointed the way.

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James' ears got him into more trouble then the rest of his body combined. His ears also did help him get out of more trouble then the rest of his body combined.

Okay that might not be completely accurate, considering his feet and legs often had something to do with him getting out of trouble also. But then, to help level that playing field out, his ears also help him find things out. The Eagle had been "parked" near Cosmo Canyon and the rest of the group had disembarked. Most of the group had headed off to the canyon to gather various things they would need for the journey. Food, compass, another map to check Seph's against, and some more ammo.

James had all the "ammo" he would ever need for his gloves. He had been tempted to head out to the canyon just because it was a nice place to spend time. But in the end he had decided that someone needed to keep track of the Eagle just to make sure it didn't float away or something. Thus he and Vincent were plane, or boat watching. James had called the cockpit along with the second watch, and those two things added together well.

It was somewhat difficult, but he managed to cram his entire body semicomfortably into the cockpit with his head against the seat. He had then gone on to grab a quick catnap that lasted slightly longer then he planned. The cockpit was closed, but after all the damage the plane had suffered that didn't make it as airtight or soundproof as it used to be.

"What is so important that you needed to see me Vincent?" James' ears twitched to life at those words, and his eyes weren't far behind. He shut down the sense that he was able to fully controlled, and had to do something about his ears. He twisted slightly around, and kicked at his ears, it was a gesture he had seen Alex use a few times.

Sadly the action seemed more suited to a removing fleas then stopping you from hearing. "Master, I need to ask you a few things, and fill in a few blanks in my knowledge of the world." James could kick the cockpit open, that would be the best way to get attention, but then the two would stop the conversation. Whatever it was, the two of them clearly didn't have much free time. It wouldn't be nice of James to mess it up for them. "Fine, go ahead and ask Vincent."

James knew for a fact that it had to be Sephiroth from the start of the conversation, but the contextual clues were nice, too. "Master, how frequent is it for people to have mako and Jenova injections?" That was a good question, and General Sephiroth would really be the person to ask.

"It's hard to say, it varies from place to place. SOLDIER is made up exclusively of people with mako and Jenova injections. At this point, almost all of Shinra's 'real' army is made up of SOLDIERS. Its army, however is nowhere near the size of the number of people they've employed. They also have large number of guards for various duties. There are three types of SOLDIERS.

Third class SOLDIERS aren't much better then ordinary humans, except that they have much more training then ordinary guards. Second class SOLDIERS are more heavily enhanced, and even more heavily trained. First class SOLDIERS are the most dangerous, though my Seraphim were still a cut above most of them. Why do you ask?"

"It's about her, master." Her? Man, why did Vincent have to have such a love of pronouns? At least with Alex there was an easy-to-follow code, even if he never called people by their names. Okay, James could sort this out. She was probably a member of he group, which meant either Aeris or Mirri. "What about her?" Aww man, Sephiroth probably knew who Vincent was talking about one way or another, but that left James without a clue.

Okay he had a clue, it was a 50-50 shot, okay call it 75-25. It was probably Aeris, right? "Master, what is she doing traveling with us?" Yeah, okay now it was probably 90-10. But then Aeris was with the group because she wanted to be with the group; it was as simple as that, right?

"Hell if I know. I met her by complete chance, saved her life, and watched the rest of the group do the same ever since." It was now 100-0 they were talking about Aeris. "It is dangerous for someone like her to be traveling with people like us, master." If the odd got over 100-0, like 110 to negative ten, then that was what the odds were. "Do you think I need you to tell me that? Every time we go into battle, she's the one that we have to protect. She believes in the cause, though, and she's not willing to let a little thing like combat incompetence keep her from seeing it through."

"So she doesn't know the danger?" "I think she's starting to get an idea for the danger. However, at the moment she's too deep in with us to let her go on her own. Even if we could convince her to stay in some place like the canyon, it wouldn't be safe. Shinra isn't just after her for us, they're after her for her. She's a half Cetra."

This announcement was followed by an empty laugh from Sephiroth. "Do you even realize what that means Vincent?" If Sephiroth laughing sounded odd, Vincent laughing sounded even weirder, it was all hollow and dark. "I know what a Cetra is. I know far more then most people assume I know." Then Sephiroth asked a question that made James want to press his head up against the cockpit to hear what came next.

"Vincent, how old are you?" Each and every moment that passed made James' heart beat faster. This was without a doubt the kind of question that James knew would go onto getting your ordinary cat killed. Thankfully James was half human, or to be closer to the truth, three fourth's human, but it took all three of those fourths to hold back his cat side, because he couldn't wait to hear the answer. The only possible question that James would rather hear answered then that one was exactly how old Alex was.

Okay there were other questions, but this one was high up there in his top ten, at least five. "Master, look me in the eyes and tell me how old I am, for I do not know, myself." James' ears instantly drooped in dejection, an answer like that was even more final then what you got when you asked Alex for an answer to the question of how old he was. "Vincent, why do you care about her?" James' ears instantly shot up again; something good was coming now.

"To be honest Master, she reminds me of someone I once knew." "Did she die?" "Yes." "How wonderful, even vampire can hold onto human emotion." "Not for myself, but look into my eyes, which of us looks older right now?" "We look the same." "Exactly, but you know I am older. I fear that she will be for you, the same pain I have. I hold no more hope for myself, only for others. I am less then a vampire, just a ghost of the past, brining whispered warnings in the dark."

"I am a General at war, I will take any advice you have to offer." "Hold her tight, hold her very tight. Protect, shelter, and care for her. Let her know that she has those who care about her." "You make it sound like I love her, she's the same as any number of civilian specialists I've guarded over the years." "Your heartbeat tells a different story Master."

"Heartbeats are dictated by chemical releases, not rational thought." "The same could be said of love Master." "The same could be said of lust, love takes more then base animal attraction." "Yes, but base animal attraction makes a wonderful foundation for love." "You speak with experience?" "Beyond a doubt."

"I am not you, I am not destined to do the same things you have." "I can only pray to that Master." "Mixing romance and warfare is not a good way to do things." "Sadly, we do not often have the freedom to make those choices."

James tried (and manifestly failed) to keep his entire body still, though he did a decent job of slowing down his breathing. Finally Sephiroth apparently gave in. "You may have a point. I'll have to think on this, but we both know that love is no victory march." "No master… it's a cold, broken halleluiah." "Amen."

After that James only heard the sound of Sephiroth's boots on the ground as he walked away. To be fair it wasn't that much of a sound, James considered himself the master of making as much noise as a cat, but Sephiroth wasn't bad. Also to be fair, Seph was wearing boots while James had sneakers, which were more suited for ease of movement and silence. He decided not to dwell on the last exchange between Seph and Vince, trying to sort out conversations like that always made his brain hurt. Once even James couldn't pick up Sephiroth's steps any more, he started to wonder about exactly what time it was. If it was close to the start of his shift then he could climb out of the cockpit without arousing too much suspicion.

But if it wasn't, then he couldn't. In the end he was saved by Melkore's ingenuity, something he had been saved by a lot of times, considering at it was the same force responsible for his genetic code and thus abilities. Melkore had thought far enough ahead to build a clock into the Eagle's control panel, and unlike the compass, it hadn't been damaged in the crash and gunfire. Sadly, it wasn't one of those digital clocks James was used to. It took him a moment to decipher how to understand the three rotating hands. Once he had it down it was simple though, and a little study helped him discover the meaning of each hand.

At first he thought that the longest hand was hours, because hours were the longest measurement of time a clock showed. As it turned out the longest hand was minutes, or at least he judged that from how long it took for it to move. With the longest hands as minutes, it was only about five minutes from his shift. This was a good thing because if that hand was hours he had gone to sleep and woken up before he went to sleep. That possibility was just fraught with all kinds of time paradoxes and before James knew it he would have erased himself from existence.

Once he was totally sure of about what time it was, he kicked open the cockpit and climbed out. "Hey Vincent!" Be calm, don't reveal anything through body language, don't reveal that your not revealing anything through body language... be casual. "Yes James?" Subterfuge wasn't James' strong suit, but sometimes you could hide stuff just by being yourself, that and bring the conversation in a different direction. "Since, well I'm not going to say that you aren't gonna grab some z's, but aren't vampire's nocturnal? Anyways, since your probably not going to get any sleep, why don't you spend some time teaching me?"

James' strategy worked on both counts. It got Vincent onto the subject he wanted and got Vincent so shocked that he wasn't going to be paying close attention to James. "Teach you what?" That one was obvious to James, and always had been. "How you do the stuff you do. You know, turning into bats and shadows." Vincent looked like he might be sick for a moment, and then spoke with a voice that rivaled Sephiroth's for pure 'don't-argue-with-me'-ness. "You're a human. I do the things I do because I'm a vampire. It would be like trying to teach a cat to walk on its hind legs."

That was an ironic turn of the phrase for Vincent, considering who he was talking to. James removed his hat and took a moment to stroke his ears as he spoke. "I'm not human. Besides, I've talked with Alex about this kind of thing, because he knows everything about werebeasts and vampires. He told me that there is a very critical division between werewolves and werecats. I'm assuming that he was referring to me when he said wereacts, though he never bothered to clarify the term. Garou like Alex learn how to do the things they do by talking with spirits, and communing with the planet. Werecats can learn how to do something just by watching somebody else do something. He taught me a few tricks, and promised to teach me how to shift when he gets around to doing the same with Aeris. Anyway, if I can learn to do the stuff he does, why can't I learn to do the stuff you do?"

Then James played his trump card with a smoothness and grace that would have done Mirri proud. "Besides, you owe me one for fishing you out of the drink." There was a long pause, and James just smiled at Vincent without looking away or breaking his grin for the entire length of it. Optimism would prove victorious were experience and common sense dare not tread. "You realize that you'll look like an idiot as a corporeal being trying to turn your body into a swarm or bats, or move through a solid object, right?"

Mirri had taught James many important lessons, one of them was that when you hit a rhetorical question, the best thing to do was a statement of your beliefs. "Dance like noone is watching, work like you don't need the money, and love like you've never been hurt."

FN: For reference to Demon Surfer's line in review, let's do a little quick play by play analysis of who is who.

Melkore Morningstar--- Cid Highwind

Vincent Valentine--- Vincent Valentine

Aeris---- Aeris

Niro Rose--- Cait Sith

Alexander Diamondclaw --- Nanaki/Red XIII

That's all nice an easy

And now for the complicated part

Sephiroth-- Clouds Mental problems and Cloud's group leadership status.

Mirri -- Barret's Corel heritage with alterations. Tifa's uh… figure?

James-- Cloud's status as the main character of the story, at least to the extent that Marty is the main character in the Back to the Future movies.

My point being, that the three above shift things back and forth slightly when it comes to having traits from FF7 characters, and it's hard to solidly nail that much down. On the subject of Vincent, in one of the oldest sayings, "He just wants somebody to love" and I think I do a decent job writing his personality in this situation. As you notice he isn't so much mindless depression, as a very desperate man holding onto a life preserver. With all that said, onto the next chapter, which is shorter than the last few, but it's cut short for cinematic reasons.

Also, due to a mistake in my checking I forgot to mention that James' gloves also belong to Kohta Hirano.

OWAN: Also, in response to that same query, the majority of the feats of raw strength have been performed by Sephiroth, so you could assign that Barret aspect to him as well. Also, Jeff Buckley is awesome.