I won't bother ya with notes!

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Chapter 4: - Lone wolf

CLANG-ANG-ANG!

The sound of metal against metal echoed through the now silent forest. Vincent, now shaking from the force of the blow and the convulsing pain in his body, had his metal arm up. Cloud's sword, instead of cutting through the wolf, had fallen on Vincent's arm. The metal was too tough for Cloud's sword to cut all the way through, but it had left a nasty mark, revealing wires and circuitry inside when Cloud lifted it off. Cloud's eyes were wide. Vincent had risked his life to save that wolf. They had a stronger bond than he thought Vincent's eyes glanced at his arm, inspecting the damage, but returned it quickly to Cloud.

"Vincent…I…I didn't mean to-" Cloud started but was cut off when Vincent pressed his gun against Cloud's head. Tifa gasped.

"He wouldn't!" She shrieked in her mind. Vincent glared at Cloud with cold, hard eyes, his menacing appearance disrupted by his heavy breathing.

"Get out of here!" Vincent scolded. His voice was low and dark. It sent shivers down Cloud's spine. Cloud backed off slowly, putting his sword carefully in its sheath. Vincent moved his glaring gaze toward Tifa who was frozen in fear. When she didn't move Vincent pointed his gun at her. Her body still refused to move, even when Vincent's finger squeeze the trigger slightly. A small noise escape from Tifa, and Cloud could see she had no will to move. He hastily dragged her away and when Vincent lowered his gun a little, Cloud saw his chance to escape, dashing back to the Sierra with a firm hold on Tifa's wrist. Looking back, he saw Vincent doubled over, clutching his right side and gasping for breath. But no matter how much he wanted to, Cloud couldn't go back to help him. It was things like this, the feeling of helplessness, that tore him apart. Just like two years ago when he was helpless to stop Aries' death. He couldn't lose Vincent too.

"Is this the pain that Vincent feels?" He thought as Vincent began to disappear behind the forest foliage.

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"Sir!" A ShinRa troop called, "Your ship is ready. You may leave if you wish." He reported, saluting to the new president of the ShinRa Company.

"Good! Let's leave then." He said, following the troop to their aircraft. The pilot and staff greeted them upon their arrival. The President handed the pilot a sheet of paper.

"Take me to these co-ordinates." He commanded. The pilot studied the paper, looking at hem strangely.

"But sir, this is in the middle of a forest!" the pilot said in surprise.

"I'm well aware of that." The president answered, "Now take me there."

The pilot paused, unsure of what business their president had in a forest.

"Yes sir!" He said.

The president smiled, "It'll be great to see Cloud in person," He thought.

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Cloud was in Vincent's room on the Sierra. He was searching for something, anything, that could help him bring Vincent back or at leas explain what was wrong with him. But as he thought, there was hardly anything in Vincent's room, save for a few clothes, potions and materia in an oak cupboard and a desk with a few books on it.

"I don't care for useless items that would only weigh me down." He remembered Vincent saying, he gave a defeated sigh and sat down on Vincent's bed.

"Why hadn't I noticed something was wrong sooner?" Cloud thought. If he had noticed, maybe all this wouldn't have happened. He could have been sitting here talking to Vincent right now but he was too stuck up to see are even asked how Vincent fel. Maybe al this was his fault.

At that moment, Nanaki trotted in the door, nails clicking on the floor, and sat in front of Cloud. Cait wasn't sitting on his back.

"Everyone's looking for you." Nanaki said. . Cloud's mind was on more important things than an ignorant crew.

"I don't care." Cloud replied coldly. A long pause followed.

It was broken when Nanaki said, "Tifa told me about Vincent." But Cloud remained silent. Nanaki frowned. He then stated to sniff around, first on the ground, then around Vincent's bed, and finally at his desk.

"I smell something. In there." He said, using his nose to point to the desk drawer. Cloud moved towards him and opened the drawer.

"What the…" Cloud said. Inside were long strips of dirty white cloths. They looked as if recently used about 2 or 3 days ago, but they were familiar to Cloud.

"Does Vincent have-"

"Cloud! You'll never guess who's here!" Tifa shouted from the hallway, bursting into the room and dragging him to the control room. Avalanche were talking to a man with dark hair and wearing a blue suit. Cait hung loosely in his arms like a rag doll.

"Hey Cloud!" He greeted with a wave, "Guess who's the new head of ShinRa!"

Cloud stared blankly at him for a moment, then asked, "Reeve? Is that you?"

Reeve smiled, "Yep!"

"So this is what you look like." Cloud said.

"You betcha. So I guess Vincent's still missing." Reeve noticed, looking at each one and seeing a member gone.

"Vincent…" Cloud murmured. He suddenly dashed to the exit while saying, "I need to do something. Be back later," to the others, picked up his bag a sword that he left there and left the Sierra.

"Wait for me!" Tifa called, chasing after him. the rest that were left behind looked dumbfounded.

"Should…we…follow…him?" Reeve asked slowly.

"Yeah…maybe we should." Barret answered. And so they did. But most of them didn't know the first thing about navigating so they soon got lost. Being fed up of aimlessly walking around, they found a small area to just sit and talk.

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Meanwhile Cloud and Tifa were in a completely different area to Avalanche. When Tifa had caught up to Cloud, he had agreed to let her come with him. He did promise her after all.

"Why did suddenly rush out, Cloud?" Tifa asked, thinking it was a little strange for him to run off like that when Reeve had shown up.

"Vincent may be…" loud started but paused and searched for the right words. There was defiantly something wrong with Vincent and Cloud had a strong suspicion about something but he wasn't sure yet.

"…sick." Cloud finished.

"What do you mean? What is he 'sick' with?" She asked.

"I'm not sure. Just give me some time to figure it out." Cloud answered. Then he heard a noise not too far from their position.

"Get down!" He whispered, crouching behind some shrubs and pulling Tifa down. He pushed aside the flimsy branches of the shrub and revealed the area in front of them.

"It's Vincent." Tifa whispered to Cloud. Vincent was casually strolling through the forest on hi own, the wolves probably being back at the den, and was staring lazily at the sky through the forest's canopy. He would pass them soon, but Cloud wanted some answers and would have to confront him.

"Vincent!" He called, standing up from his hiding pot. Vincent growled and flexed his claw. He couldn't believe that after all this time Cloud was still following him.

"I don't want to fight you. I just want some answers." Cloud explained. Vincent's tense body eased slightly but was still ready for an attack if needed. Tifa stood up as well, standing next to Cloud.

"What's wrong with your body? Why was it hurting so much before?"

"…"

"Does it have something to do with those bandages I found in you room?"

"…!"

"Do you have-"

Cloud was cut off by a loud howl close by. Vincent's attention targeted it as he faced the direction it had come from. For a moment everything was silent. But as the howl was heard again, Vincent bolted to its source. Cloud and Tifa exchange confused glances and decided to follow him. As they neared wherever it was they were going to, the sound of gunshots and snarling rang in their ears. Cloud readied his sword; certain there was trouble ahead, while Tifa slipped on a pair of black leather gloves. They entered the fray. The black wolves were back again but this time with an accomplice: a forest dragon.

"Since when do wolves team up with dragons?" Cloud thought. He studied the battle, they dark grey wolves had taken on the black wolves and Vincent had the task of taking down the dragon (hence the gunshots). The cubs were once again hidden under his cloak. The wolves were handling their fight well, but Vincent was having a tough time considering his recent injury. For the first few minutes he was doing all right but when the pain from his 'sickness' began to kick in, this time stronger than before. He slowed down significantly while trying to fight it off and nearly got caught in the dragon's fiery breath.

"Tifa! Take care of the cubs!" Cloud called to her and ran to help Vincent, who could now hardly stand up. The dragon's claw loomed over Vincent, threatening to crush him but a slash from Cloud's sword made it coil back. While the dragon recovered Cloud helped Vincent to his feet. The dragon, however, recovered quicker then he thought and its large head with its jaws wide open was advancing on them, ready to close on Cloud. He had not even a second to stare into what could've been the jaws of death, had he not somehow been forced to the ground. He was afraid to know what happened but when he looked at the dragon's jaws it only confirmed his fears. With his torso trapped in the razor teeth, legs sticking out on side of the menstruous jaws and from shoulders up sticking out the other, Vincent could only claw the dragon's snout in an attempt to free himself. His gun had fallen out of the holster. All Cloud could do was watch in horror as more pressure fell on his friend and Vincent's body suddenly go limp. The alpha wolf had seen it too and howled savagely as she charged and latched on to the dragon's neck. The younger wolves and even the cubs swarmed in to help protect Vincent. The dragon roared and thrashed his head, allowing Vincent to fall from its jaws. Cloud hurried to him. Deep puncture wounds marked his torso and Cloud figured he must have at least four broken ribs. He was still conscious but very weak and he managed to open at least halfway but his vision was terribly blurred. With Cloud's help he was able to sit up and he tried to make out what was going on in the battle. Blurry black objects were laying motionless on the ground and dark-grey objects, some big, some small, were being thrown about by a large green object. His vision cleared slightly and he could see more details, like the blood pouring out of the alpha wolf, the younger wolves and the cubs. All of them were on the ground, not moving, not breathing, nothing. Rage began to instantly fill Vincent, covering the agony from his wounds, telling him to kill! A roar louder than the dragon's escape from his throat and with inhuman speed, charged at rat the dragon and sunk his claw into a tender part of the dragon's neck. He then swung himself to the other side, twisting the dragon's neck in the process. A sickening snap could be heard as the neck bones twisted, broke or dislocated. Tifa made a disgusted face at the sound as a shiver went down her spine. Cloud stared at Vincent, awe and fear written all over his face. The black wolves were finally dead but the price of this victory was too great. When Vincent rage had subsided the energy that came with it evaporated and he was left to collapse to his knees. Cloud and Tifa were at his side before long but no mater what help they offered, Vincent refused.

"They're…all…dead…" he breathed out, surveying the corpses of battle, "…all of them…" he could hear soft whimpering from somewhere. Forcing himself to stand he located the source to be the dying alpha wolf and staggered to her.