Probably the last or second-last chapter to be uploaded.
Sin: /bored/ and she'd like to thank all the reviwers…
Katsu: Alright, right into it!
All the flowers are blooming on the road ahead?
When a path twists and turns this much
It's normal to get lost, isn't it?
My body and soul are trembling
I'm so nervous…
-Tsubomi
-Naruto third movie ending
emotion:
Impatience
Nothing but the deep black was before her, she couldn't see anything or register any light, she reached up to touch the fabric over her eyes, already feeling the need to take it off. She reached behind her head with both hands and fastened the bandages that were across her eyes tighter then shakily stood up. Once her body left the warm confines of the sheets she felt cold and awkward. She took a few steps forward, wobbling a little and then stood in where she thought was the middle of the floor.
Alright, she had done this before, and she could do this again, all she needed to do was focus and she would be able to find her way.
She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, hissing as she did so to relieve the tension building in her chest. All she could think about was the fact that she couldn't see and her mind screamed at her that she kind of NEEDED her eyes. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and took one more step towards the door. She heard her feet sink into the soft carpet and the slight creak because the floor boards were worn there.
The hum of the lights directly above her hit her ears first, she could hear the faint humming sound and could pinpoint their exact location.
'okay, using this sound I can deduce that I'm probably about seven to ten steps away from the door, and the handle is normally at my ribs, so if I just reach out my hand and-' Yuffie strode forward a bit confidently, hoping that this would be a good start to her training. She gave herself a little hi-five in her mind, as she carefully listened to her steps, counting silently in her head.
'Four, five six-' BANG!
"SHIT!" Yuffie grabbed her knee and hopped up and down on her other leg, what the hell was in front of the door? She angrily reached out to grab the offending item, but miscalculated and fell off balance smashing her forehead right into the wall. "OUCH! DAMNIT!"
She could only imagine what she looked like right now, and tried to calm herself down and put her aching knee back to it's rightful place. Yuffie was thankful that everyone was out at that moment, so no one could see her embarrassing little display of clumsiness. Once again she listened for the lights and found that they were behind her to her right, in her minds eye she planned out the contents of the room and realized that she had just walked into the side table that was beside the closet. She had gotten up from the bed and not faced the way to the door, then assumed that she would be in the right direction.
She cringed slightly as another throb of pain laced up her leg, she could only imagine how many more of these she was going to get before she started to get used to being blind. She tried again, but this time she tried to listen for anything else that may help her.
A plus side to this curse was that, apparently, it enhanced your other senses and if she could just learn how to use these things to her advantage she would be able to learn how to fight once again.
The ninja started to recall the last year of her training before she had turned fifteen and left in search of materia. A part of her final steps towards being considered a full fledged ninja was a task that no one had ever really succeeded at since the early traditions of the ninja were created. One was to live in darkness for three months and if they hadn't managed to get used to it before then they technically failed.
The problem was that so many people were failing that the Wusheng decided that they would take the practical exercise out of that part of the training, but the ninja in question could train on their own. They weren't allowed to take the blindfold off (unless extremely bad circumstances had risen) for TWO months instead of three, and they weren't expected to under go any real physical training.
Much to her chargin, her sensei had once told her that she expected Yuffie would be able to pass with flying colors and still be able to train. Her sensei was extremely old fashioned and didn't believe in watering things down, from the start Yuffie had chosen her to be her trainer because she knew she wouldn't be favored as because of her lineage. Yuffie had spent many nights outside in harsh conditions practicing her ninjutsu and perfecting the art of a silent killer. Although she complained constantly and always slacked off, her sensei was reluctant to admit that, unlike many others who had become ninja, Yuffie had a very natural talent since birth. She had her mother and father to thank for that since they had also been geniuses when it came to training.
Another reason why she had chosen Rikutsuya-Sensei or Riku-Sensei as the Wutain princess had always referred to her as, was because she had also trained her mother.
But now the great ninja Yuffie was cursing her own laziness, when Riku-sensei had told her about the final part of her 'exam' Yuffie had slacked off completely. She decided that she didn't care if she could have done three months, instead she opted for the two. Although she still trained, she whined if Riku-sensei would throw things at her since that was unfair and how could she expect her to dodge them.
"What would happen if someone threw acid in your eyes and you were in danger? Would you whine at them and say it's not fair?" Scolded the harsh elder woman, throwing another shuriken, although a bit sloppier and slower this time.
Yuffie had dodged it easily.
But now, at least four years later she almost slapped herself for not practicing that art more, for months before her testing she had practiced listening and feeling even before her sight had been taken away from her. And for all those months her sensei had believed that Yuffie would finally succeed the rest of the population and take the old-fashioned test during her blind stage.
But Yuffie was Yuffie, and she didn't want to, she wanted to get it over with and get on her way to collect materia.
Now she had to re-learn what she had so effortlessly done all those years ago, she could barely remember how she had done it, she knew it had something to do with listening to the sounds, but she could no longer remember the feeling, the groove that she had been in. Effortlessly moving from one terrain to the next without taking those blindfolds off and checking to make sure.
Weren't you supposed to get wiser in time?
She tried again, focusing more and more on anything but the lights, trying to hear something else that could help her out. How would she ever manage to get back the white materia if she couldn't get past her bedroom door? She would have to focus everything on training herself, which mean that yesterday was her last ever day with eyesight. She would have to learn to depend on her other senses before her eyes gave away totally.
Come on Yuffie concentrate, you used to be able to do this, think of what is around you, focus!
Nothing came, and she began to get frustrated, how long had she been standing there for? She told herself that there was NO way she was going to crawl along the wall until she found the door frame, she was a ninja and if she couldn't do this one simple thing then she would simply have to give up her title.
And to hell if she was going to let Cloud and Vincent get all the glory again!
She began to feel the coolness in the air crawling up her skin, the heaviness in her legs, the tickle of her hair dancing on her shoulders. She felt the snug warmth of her clothes, the tough material of her shorts, the coarseness of her mesh undershirt, the paper-like texture of the bandages on her arm. Slowly things began to open up to her, she relaxed slightly and listened to herself breathe in and out.
Slowly the image of where she was appeared in her mind, her breath was extending from her body and hitting nothing but air so she knew that there was nothing within at least arms length of her. The sound waves, the knowledge was slowly coming back to her, the feeling as well.
"When you focus everything onto these waves you will be able to create the same image that a bat uses to see." Riku-sensei's words rang in her ears like a soft whisper, "This is why we are ninja, we can move as agile as a cat, attack ferociously as a wolf, aim as correctly as a falcon and see as vividly as a bat in the dark." Her words were fading, "We are human, but this is what sets us apart from those we protect, if you must think of it with this analogy, we are the mother protecting the earth as it's young. You probably won't be able to understand this unless you fund someone you truly want to protect…but always remember this…"
Then she heard it, faintly at first, but it became more and more prominent.
'Tick-tock, tick-tock'
The clock that was right beside the stairs, if she could get to it then…
This time she walked with a slight limp, but she managed to make her way towards there the sound was being blocked from, the dullness seemed to echo in the wood of the door, and then there was a small ring as it hit the metal of the door knob.
This was it, she realized, that feeling, the sound that created the waves and changed to sound as it hit certain things. She could barely make it out now, but she could start to see that small shimmering light that she was making her way towards.
She reached up and turned the door handle, amazed at the loudness of it, she would have to remember that it was hard to listen intently and ignore other sounds in the process. She stepped out into the hallway, listening once more to wait for the image to manifest itself in her mind, the clock was hitting the walls, stopping the sound from going through the wall behind it but coming down the halls and bouncing off of the opaque surfaces.
It was an inverted picture, where everything was dark except for her and the surroundings the sound bounced off of, she could barely make the clock stand out as much as it's sounds did. She simply hoped that this would slowly become easier and easier for her, as simple as this was in a house, it would be even harder out in the open air.
She made it to the stairs with no injuries, and just when she thought she had succeeded at something she realized one thing:
Now that she had made it to the clock she couldn't use it anymore…
She stood there for the longest time, the image slowly fading away from her inner eye and being replaced with that dull darkness that had been with her before. Some doubt crept into the back of her mind, gently prodding at the edges of her conscious, she forced it back down with a shaky breath.
She cursed herself slightly; why couldn't this just fall into place like it should for the protagonist? Was she going to be the AVALANCHE member who actually failed? How was she ever going to prove that she could be just as successful as Cloud and Vincent if she was stuck here at the top of twelve stairs?
Her thoughts were becoming repetitive, she would get a small advantage and then lose it in the blink of an eye. She needed to stay calm and learn to not jump around or take shortcuts… if she was going to do this it was going to be right…
The pain from her leg was nearly gone now and so it was easier to focus on that same train of thoughts, she stilled her body and listened to her breathing. Now it was like a map was laid out before her, the dark places before her were like the places on a map no one had ventured to yet. She could see the sound waves of the lights and clock mapping out the hallway behind her and some of the sound echoing down the stairs, but it wasn't enough…
Then it occurred to her, the stairs were wooden and weren't carpeted… Which meant that each step would release a wave of sounds, right? Certainly there was the possibility that she could make her own waves and form the image around her?
She took a another small stride to get to the first stair, and when her shoes made contact with the wooden solid a burst of sound ripples erupted from where she stood like a large rock dropped into a tranquil pond. She didn't exactly see the next stair in her mind's eye, but she could see that the waves hit the curved staircase wall and couldn't go any farther. She knew there were stairs there, but she tried to make it seem like this was a new place to her, and if the sound waves were right, then there was nothing below her shoe, so if she took another step down…
The same sensation hit the walls, the echo's now started to hit off the curved surface and enter into a sort of game. The sound began to hit off the wall and create a picture, of a spiraling staircase that faded after a few stairs… So her 'sight' ranged only to about two metres in front of her…
And somewhere in her mind she knew that number would increase in time…
Once she made it to the bottom of the stairs she resisted her initial thought to do a happy dance, she needed to keep her focus on the sounds… She began to tap her foot in a small little rhythm and watched as the room filled out before her, the chairs legs were metal and made a small 'twank' sound when they were hit and the wooden surfaces like the counter and table made a dull 'thunk' sound when the sound hit them. The glasses on the counters were ringing slightly and the lights still made that buzzing sound…
It was like listening to a symphony, trying to pick out each individual instrument and using their sounds to maneuver around the room. She decided that things were becoming a little easier now, she stopped her foot tapping and waited for a moment until the image faded from her mind, but now that she knew where everything was she would be able to get around… that inner map was growing…
Now, her mind reminded her, what are you going to do when there are too many sounds? Like in a subway or a forest?
…She'd cross that bridge when she came to it….
BOOM! SLAM!
"HI YUFFIE!"
"AUGH!" The ninja girl threw her hands over her ears and nearly wanted to cry as the image was broken by Tifa's hello. When she was intoned with something so soft, hearing anything louder was like pounding on your skull.
"ARE YOU OKAY?" Tifa was talking in a regular tone, but to her it sounded like she was screaming…
"Yeah, I'm fine… keep talking…" She had to get used to it, she needed to start using voices to get the same reaction…
"Huh? What do you mean?" The image was appearing again, except with Tifa's voice as the cause of the sound waves. "Why should I keep talking, and why do you have a blindfold on?"
Yes, this was it, this was exactly it! As long as there was noise she could see everything…
"No, I'm just trying something out, anyways, so where did you go again?"
There was an impatient sigh as Tifa began walking towards the counter, her boots making clicking noises as they hit the floor. Yuffie followed quickly and sat down on a stool she knew was there beside the bar, it was almost like seeing… just with a few things left out…
"You know I went to my supplier, Jeez those people are crooks!" Yuffie began focusing on that her comrade was saying as compared to the image around her, she already knew where she was situated, all she needed now was to retain the information…
This was a serious amount of multitasking…
Tifa continued on woth her explanation about pricing and the such as Yuffie half-assed listened and tried to use her voice ripples to see the rest of the room. She growled softly in aggrivation whenever the sound cut off and she was no longer able to see. But it was done so quietly that the bartender never noticed and continued on for at least a few more minutes.
Finally after her explanation Tifa decided that a quiet Yuffie was extremely odd or even dangerous and turned her attention to the blind-folded ninja. She watched her eyebrows flex slightly in concentraton just above the black material that covered her eyes and the bridge of her nose. She paused to remember that the girl before had not answered her about the whole blindfold issue, but now she assumed that it had something to do with what had been explained the day before. Was this some sort of training that would help her hearing?
"Yuffie," She started cautiously as she slowly inched towards her closest female friend, "This is because of that curse, isn't it?"
The way her eyebrows jumped up slightly in surprise told Tifa she was right. She could only assume that in some way the ninja was trying to get used to being in the dark- so to speak- but how could she ever hope to fight without any sight?
"You aren't planning to fight without seeing, are you?"
The younger woman turned towards her with an expression on her face that she knew quite well. It was like the answer was so obvious that there was no opint in replying and solidifying Tifa's fear that the blindness was terrifyingly real and that no amount of magic would cure it. She didn't know how the Kisaragi heir was dealing with all of this so suddenly, and how she figured she would be able to actually attack and dodge weapons that could be coming faster then the speed of sound. Luck could only get her out of harm's way so many times.
And last time she checked, luck didn't like anyone in AVALANCHE very much...
"Tifa, I'm not going to sit around here twidling my thumbs while you all go get back the materia. I WILL learn to fight without my sight, I once had to do it for a couple months as training... I'm just trying to figure out HOW I did it..."
Tifa really didn't want to dampen the positivity and reassurance that Yuffie was telling her and herself, but there was no way in hell she could think of any logical way to fight without such a vital sense. How would she know if something was heading straight for her? Her hearing could only go so far...
Or could it reach even further then what Tifa expected?
"So, how are you going to do this, exactly...? Just walk around and expect that it will come to you?"
There was a sheepish grin, "In a way, yes and no... See, as the days go on the strength of my hearing progresses; it's a part of the human enstinct to survive combined with the curse. So I figured that as the curse gets stronger so will my hearing and the sonic sense I use to see..."
Tifa didn't know if this was true or not, and she wasn't sure what 'sonic sense' was, but she was sure it had something to do with the blindfold, so she left it at that.
"So where is everyone?"
She reached over and pulled out her cell phone from the bag on the bar, she checked her messages and saw Cloud was on his way back from WRO headquarters with information from Reeve. She also assumed that Cid and Barret were on their way back from their hometowns with the Sierra. The only member of the group that she couldn't account for was the gunslinger, but that wasn't any different from normal...
Both girls lapsed into a silence, and then the busty bartender busied herself with cleaning the neverending pile of glasses in the sink. With one look at Yuffie she knew conversation would have no effect on the reflective state she was in, so instead she went to her own thoughts. She didn't know when but she ended up humming to herself so gently that sometimes the notes were so soft that they were merely replaced with the sound of air movng out her nose. She didn't know what she was humming- something from her childhood perhaps- but she did know it was helping her concentration.
In a way, she had had her chance to do something about her life, especially a year or so ago when Cloud had to deal with the Geostigma. They had agreed to a family, a truce of some kind, in which they were raising a child but not exactly 'together'. Denzel was hers, and in a way Cloud was only a stand in for the random fatherly bits. It was hard to consider them anything more then house mates who threw the responsibility of the boy back and fourth like a hacky sac. Tifa would take all the schooling and 'motherly' things, and the blonde would take the motoecycle rides and talks about life and responsibilites as a guy.
Still, she wondered where the thought of the two of them 'getting closer' had gone to. They danced around the subject easily- it wasn't hard to ignore and neither brought it up. Yet, when it came down to all the technicalities like who his legal gaurdian was at school, and who the place of residence belonged to, the money... They all had to have names attached, and it was either Tifa Lockhart or Cloud Strife.
Never both, always seperate.
She wondered if she was just numb to the silent rejection by now, if maybe she was already moving on in her head and just stuck in a stalemate in getting out of her spiraling life. One life altering fight after the other, and in reality everyone else had grown closer. She had grown closer, he had, but not to each other... to everyone else.
Everyone- including her- had assumed that all these fights and moments of life or death would have caused both of them to snap out of it and ARRANGE something. But she kept silent in fear of rejecton, and she knew the moment she pushed it he'd be out the door muttering something about a delivery. Would she want to spend the rest of her life like this? Always hoping for something she knew would probably never happen? She was so focused on the future and he was so hung up on the past.
For the first time in her twenty four years of life she felt incredibly old.
She paused in her humming and started down at the soapy water, almost as if demanding it to tell her what to do.
She guessed that any woman would have probably realized this wasn't worth it and either pack up and leave or kick him out. But what could she do? She couldn't just stop him from seeing Denzel, and she had offered the bar/home as a resting place for everyone, so what could she possibly say? 'Everyone but Cloud can come over?'. Then there was the fact that she didn't WANT him to leave, because if she wasn't making sure he was still eating then who would? And at least she was a distinct PART of his life right now, they had no idea what the part was, but at least she was the one he went to for food and 'family obligations'.
Why couldn't things go back to the way they used to be when they were kids? When they were just friends and nothing was complicated, why couldn't Cloud have stayed instead of leaving at 15? Maybe if they had stayed they'd be married by now...
Or the world could have ended, but even then, they would be together... Wouldn't they?
There was no way she was going to even THINK about grazing over the thought of blaming Aeris for her weird relationship with the blonde. Aeris used to be her best friend, in the sense of it she still WAS. And she knew that Cloud probably still loved her, and with good reason too. Aeris had been everything she WASN'T. Gentle, kind, feminine...
The only thing she had going for her were assets she'd rather not have, a motherly personality, and she could take down a fully grown man with one punch. Those were things men admired, but she'd forever be 'that bartender with the knockers', and no one would ever get past that unless they were in AVALANCHE...
Or they were an incredibly arrogant redhead...
She snorted softly at that thought, her mouth twisting up into a half smile at the thought of the flirt. Reno had been, by far, one or her most interactive customers. He always wanted to talk to her- even if she was busy- and said the weirdest things when intoxicated. For a while there she had almost started enjoying the time they spent together at her bar, even when Rude was dragged along. She found it easy to forget when he was acting like any other guy- except with a distinct interest in her well being and opinions. In another life she could almost guarantee that they'd be really good friends.
She had always been a tomboy, it was well known that she always wrestled with the boys rather then play dress up with the girls. She never understood men; but if given a room full of boys and a room full of girls to interact with she'd defiantly pick the guys. Talking to them always seemed so simple; they just didn't care. It seemed like every time she was ignored or made fun of by girls she would always find a guy to talk to about it.
It was natural talking to them.
A lot like it was with Reno, when he sat down at the stool right in front of her she didn't remember he had once tried everything in his power to hinder their fight, and even tried to kill them at some points. During those moments he was a good friend who could give her an outsiders perspective and laugh about how nutty life was. He wasn't worried about anything but what was happening, he didn't need to know all of the intimate little details; he was just someone she could be blissfully unaware with.
He was simple, wild, and spontaneous.
Everything Cloud wasn't. It was like comparing their hair color; blonde was plain, but red was wild.
She stopped to analyze her thoughts; did she really just say Reno was more interesting than Cloud? That wasn't what she meant at all; perhaps she should stop this train of thought...
But it nagged at her, now her conscious was poking her brain going: 'excuse me, but just whom is it you love?' She shook her head to clear that thought, and focused back on the original topic, Cloud was the person she had loved since she could remember, there was no way she was going to give up this fight that easily... Just because some guy had come around and made her smile didn't mean that she was going to hinder her fight for the swordsman one bit. She resolved to talk to him after this was all over and after Yuffie had her eye sight back. She'd tell him straight and plain 'what are we and do we need to pick together or alone?'.
It sounded so easy to say in her head, and then she went off into la-la land, thinking up all the possibilities and answers that she was sure he would say; and even some she knew he wouldn't but she still hoped for. She also openly admitted that in the back of her mind the redhead was in some of those scenarios.
XxX
A gentle breeze carried along the dust from the road. It twisted and danced in the air and up until this point it had kept his mind blissfully blank. He didn't want to thing at this point- all he wanted to do was walk and clear his frazzled mind. He didn't know what he wanted anymore, nor what he could do to change it. He was simply 'living', and in a strange way he figured that was worse then what he was doing before the incident with Deepground. At least he believed he had to live to suffer for his sins, now that he had come to terms with his past he found that it was nearly impossible to find something to live for.
Was it possible that he was unable to have a normal life? With all the hardships and battles he had been included in he didn't know if it was even worth thinking about settling down in a town and making a living. What could someone like him possibly do that was 'normal', when he barely knew what the term meant anymore? What he did know was the word never pertained to him, he was everything that 'ordinary' wasn't. So, it brought him in a full circle. How could he do something that wasn't in his genetic makeup? Even as a child he had been too different; too old for his age (although a little more humane back then) and instead of the typical upbringing he knew his origins were nothing ordinary.
His father had been a scientist, and when his mother had passed away he had immersed himself into his research. He had still found a way to father Vincent, coming home every day to at least one meal with him, and talk to him about trivial things. Yet in all retrospect, he was nothing like a father- or an ideal father- should be. But he was so close; he had once explained to a younger Vincent when asked about where he went every day, to this discovery that he could taste it. So in a way the ex-turk knew that he could never consider himself anything but 'original' to put it nicely. He couldn't say he came from a humble shop keeper's family, nor that his childhood had been a fulfilling one. He had just lived every day; growing with nothing but reasonable and sensible decisions; he never dreamed he would be some artist or a traveler who did what they want because it was something they loved. No, he joined the Shinra Company because he knew he had the talent and the influence to get in.
And for the first time in his life he felt like he was living for something... He had a reason.
It was Lucrecia... and it was Lucrecia who took his reason to live back away from him again...
Wasn't this just what he always did; focused on these battles just so that he had a temporary thing to latch onto, to focus on so he could ignore the fact that he needed to choose a lifestyle. He COULD continue on the road; but so much time away from civilization made him worried that, with the company of only the voices in his head, he would go crazy. Perhaps he could join the WRO again, this time just as a field agent- someone who could get rid of the monsters, someone like Yuffie...
He mentally smacked himself- he knew that he had just hit a landfill in his mind, he could no longer put off the topic that had been plaguing him since the day he saw Shinra Manor on fire. He had to fight again, didn't he? But would he be able to do it for good reasons or just for another distraction? He had to admit that he was more than worried about Yuffie and her eventual blindness, but what could someone like him possibly do when she had not trusted him with the truth in the first place? What other bits of information would she withhold from him?
'It is as though you believe you did not deceive her once. Were there not things you have hidden from everyone but yourself?'
"Those were different..." He muttered softly to the demon underneath his breath, even though it would have been just as easy to think them. "They were my burden to bear, and mine alone, I had to come to terms with my sins and no one but me could have-"
'But you did need help; the Shinra Manor incident was all the proof of that. You cannot assume that others have no skeletons hidden, host.' There was a pause in the faint hiss of words in his mind, 'perhaps the girl has sins of her own she must relinquish.'
Yuffie... sins?
If that meant her kleptomaniac tendencies then he was sure she could easily redeem herself for that.
'That is your problem, host, you are in firm belief that it is only you with the problems and it is only you who can solve them. When will you stop taking the burden of everyone else on yourself? It must be boring to watch for those around you.' The sarcasm dripped from the insides of his mind, and he wondered if this demon was the worst of them all- the one who didn't care about scarring his mind with twisted images or taunting him of death...
Out of all the demons that had once inhabited his head, this one, this Calamity- or so he had named himself- made the most sense.
And that is what made him all the more dangerous.
'I am lucky, host,' Calamity said in an almost smug tone, and if Vincent could see him he could almost imagine him gesturing to the gunslinger as he spoke, ' your mind, as crowded with thoughts as it is, is much more then what I could have hoped for. When I was lost in that tube of liquid-' Vincent could only guess that Calamity was like Chaos in the way he was locked in a capsule until use. 'I was sure I would need to break free and absorb into the mind of the child in white.' To this Vincent had no response because he could not think of someone who fit that description, perhaps he was referring to Weiss? Or a scientist?
The demon in his head merely lapsed into a silence, and the emotions he sent back to his host were blasé and a lacking concern for the person behind his description. It was almost as though Vincent could see the other part of him shrug in nonchalance and then proceed to preoccupy him with other matters.
'I must admit, I was confused to find myself with no containment when you entered that lab and broke me free with a shot from your... quickly piercing weapon, the one that leaves holes?' He nudged the conscious of their mind, in order to silently ask for help on distinguishing the weapon he was describing.
"A gun?" Filled in Vincent helpfully, and with the confirmed feeling sent back he knew that was what Calamity had meant.
'Yes, the 'gun', the hard piece of metal that went through that man and hit my tank-' Vincent filled in the word 'bullet', "- took me by surprise. It was luck that I made it out and found my way back to the feeling of that lifeform that had attacked me.'
"You could feel your way back to me?" Cut in Vincent with an air or confusion about him, his eyebrows furrowed together trying to think about how a mass of liquid containing a soul could just slither its way towards something with any inch of direction.
Calamity scoffed, but with his snake like voice it sounded like a snarl, 'Vampires can catch the... I believe it is called 'frequency' of human minds, with Chaos and those others in you, yours was simple to draw myself to. I simply let you act as the magnet that was pulling me closer. When the moment came for Chaos to be extracted from your mind I struck and drove the other demons out.' He didn't know if he was appreciative for the fact that he only had ONE voice instead of four, but he wasn't about to admit that to something that would probably use it to its advantage.
'Stop that,' Snarled the vampire with anger obvious in his voice, 'I am no 'it', I am Calamity- once one of the most fierce of my kind! Do you know of whom you are referring to as an 'it'? I was not named as an attempt at mirth! I am most -certainly- a male of my species.' The threat that was in the undercurrent of his mind lost its effect when he added, 'Chaos has nothing on my power.' in a whisper that almost sounded like a huff.
"You are most certainly one of the more 'emotional' of my demons, the others didn't know human tongue, and simply sent urges and images to my head." Replied Vincent with the sarcasm that was just ghostly there, and he wondered if Calamity would pick up on the notion of being 'emotional'. However, he was telling the truth, this was the first 'voice' in his head that was actually a voice. The other demons were just different presences that were always there trying to urge him to kill or do what they wanted. It was easy to ignore their demands when they had only images and cravings to haunt him with; but Calamity's needs were harder to ignore.
Especially when he was hungry, because he made Vincent feel starved even if he had just eaten just so he could feel the burn of thirst to a vampire. It felt like no other hunger pain he had felt, it wasn't just a painful stomach and a scratchy 'can't swallow' feeling, this was a burn that licked like flames, spreading from his core to every inch of him skin. It made him feel half crazed, and suddenly he could hear the pulse of blood from every human in a two mile radius, and then the whispering began... 'That alleyway, no one would see you... and look; her neck is so inviting... Can you not hear it? The blood is begging you to taste it; does the smell not drive you crazed with thirst? It could be yours, if only you would let me...' Or even worse, when he was angry or disgusted with someone's display of vulgarity, like finding a man who had just killed an innocent just to 'feel alive'. The vampiristic instinct just tagged right along with vengeance and fury, so when he REALLY wanted to rip someone's throat out, he was also tempted with taking a bite. 'They deserve to rot in hell, host, and now you will feel no remorse in clenching your thirst.'
All it took was a reminder of his past sins to keep Calamity where he was- in his head. But he was good at tempting.
But now, on top of the need to fight the new nuisance that had presented himself, he also had to deal with Calamity wanting a bite of one wutai ninja, saying her blood sang for him. It made wanting to stay away from the spunky member of AVALANCHE all the more demanding, because the last thing he needed to hear was 'she is asleep, and blind; she will not know it is you until it's too late...' or another taunt that was much more human then he wanted to be... Especially with Yuffie.
'Perhaps my past persuasion should have been of a different approach?' Taunted the demon with a sick chuckle right after that haunted Vincent for some time afterwards. He didn't let the demon say any more, and instead proceeded to block him out with thoughts of his decision to once again take part in a battle that would more than likely be life or death. He had no issue with dying, in fact, he guessed that with all his sins repaid he'd have to real qualms about it. He knew Calamity would put up a good fight if it came down to it. So it was not the fear of dying...
Perhaps it was the strange attachment he had with everyone, and feeling like he was constantly being drawn to them, feeling relieved when they were still breathing. He guessed he was starting to let the companionship get to him; and he knew that he would gladly fight for any one of them- even if they didn't want or need it. Shouldn't that be reason enough to turn back around right now and go agree to help? Then again, they all probably assumed he would have agreed automatically anyways, so his decision really was already made...
Did it have anything to do with Keith? Lucrecia's only remaining family? No, there was no way he felt any attachment to someone who had tortured people as Granger had.
So why was he hesitating?
Could it be the insane guilt that had washed over him as he arrived with Cid to carry a dying ninja onto the airship, trying hard not to scream from the mixture of horror, thirst (from the vampire in his head), and helplessness? He wasn't sure, even now, why he had felt that stab in his chest when he saw her bloodied on the ground and not moving. He hadn't expected it to affect him that badly, and for a moment he had to remember that Tifa could help her more then he could, and handed her over. He had received a stare from Cloud, but the blonde had never voiced whatever that fleeting look at been about. Vincent could only guess that the swordsman was gauging if he was going to blame himself and try and take vengeance by himself.
He had to admit, he had tried in the past.
'Interesting choice in a mate...'
He shuddered; it was impossible. Yuffie was not a child anymore, and she had blood on her hands, so it wasn't that in particular. It also wasn't the fact that she was too innocent for him; it was the fact that there was no way he could ever love, or expect it in return, again. And Yuffie would expect, and deserve, what he could never give her. He also wasn't sure there was any attraction between them, or any gravity pulling them together, so it would be nothing more then a fleeting thought to both of them...
''Gravity', is it? So does that explain why you're HERE?' Calamity had a triumphant feel to him, 'Of course it could be a complete coincidence that you were thinking of her and your feet took you here...'
Vincent looked up and hated Calamity with a passion for not telling him he was headed this way. He also knew why the demon had been silent for most of the trip- knowing where they were going before the body did. He had a feeling that the vampire was more then just a voice sharing his mind, he was connected to it and it's subconscious; so Calamity would know more about him then he cared to learn for himself.
But no one could deny that -or explain why- the topic of Yuffie had come up...
But standing in front of the entrance of Wutai made him wonder if he really was as 'uncaring about her problems' as he had originally assumed.
Or else why would he be here, and suddenly thinking that this was a good place to start asking about why Yuffie had left so abruptly, and why she had been at the City of the Aincents instead of visiting her friends...
Worried about a girl he had no 'feelings' for or 'emotional attachment' to?
Never...
"I won't cry! I can do this! I'm not scared!"
I've told myself that a million times
"I won't cry! I can do this! I'm not scared!"
If I'm not aggressive I know I'll break down
-Tsubomi
-Naruto third movie ending
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