Chapter 8: The Time She Left
"Who paid you to kill Yuffie?" Vincent inquired, still aiming Cerberus at Purge.
She did not say. She had already given enough information to these strangers.
A gun fired. It was not Vincent's. He turned to see who it was. Theris breathed heavily, glaring at Yuffie. She held a black gun that had already shot Yuffie in the right upper arm. If only she was not hurt and had more strength, she would have shot through Yuffie's head.
Yuffie let out a light moan, losing her balance. The bullet was burning inside of her. She irritably turned toward Theris, standing up straight. Without a word, she quickly ran off back into the forest. It was the only place where she would lose everyone who might follow her.
The redhead fired again, but Vincent quickly reacted and shot it with his own. He and Purge went after Yuffie and quickly caught up with her.
"Yuffie!" Vincent grabbed her arm, pulling her.
She glared at him, throwing a punch. He let her go and dodged it. Purge jumped above them, landing in front of the fleeing Yuffie. Yuffie summoned a claw on her right hand and tried to stab Purge. As Purge dodged, she slashed at Yuffie only to be deflected by Vincent's bullets.
Purge teleported and cut through Vincent, who had jumped out of the way and sliced a piece of cloth from his cape, which fell to the ground. Yuffie needed to buy more time for her wounds to heal so she rushed away from them.
The two hurried to catch up with Yuffie again.
A figure appeared jumping in the air, over Yuffie who continued to run, and landed in front of the two.
"Chrysanthemum!" Yuffie smiled and waved.
Vincent and Purge looked up at Kiku. She had her snake sword in her hand. Quickly, Kiku's snake sword split into pieces. She slashed on the ground with her whip-like sword sending a wave of dirt and the tree's root towards the two pursuers.
Vincent leapt over the shattered ground that flew in the air. He quickly made it to the other side and passed Kiku.
Purge started to feel tired. She wasted a lot of energy teleporting a lot of people away. I will have to use it again… she thought. Teleporting to where Yuffie was should not drain too much of her strength away. Kiku was in the way. This was her only chance so she would have to make sure she killed Yuffie this time.
A bomb was thrown toward Purge. She flipped back. It exploded and she hurried to escape the flames from the blast.
Yuffie jumped into the air and dropped more bombs around them, forcing Vincent and Purge out of the forest.
Kiku followed them. "Don't push yourself," she told Yuffie.
Yuffie landed on the branch of the tree, breathing heavily. Her wounds were not healing yet. She smiled at Kiku, "I'll stay here for a while then." The wind was blowing the flames away from her so she should be okay where she was at the moment.
Meanwhile, Vincent was trying to stop Purge from going off to kill Yuffie. "Who hired you?" he demanded again.
She distanced herself from him. She stared at the flames and saw Kiku jumping out of it. The Zetsumei returned, following Kiku's lead. "Great, bringing me more unnecessary trouble," she sighed. Her job was not going very well.
He pointed his gun at Purge, sensing the monsters behind him. He did not want to take his eyes off Purge and give her a chance to escape.
Kiku readied her sword to cut Vincent down. She leaped into the air, but then Sephiroth appeared, blocking her attack with Masamune. The two pushed each other away and landed on the ground.
"You again?" she glared at the silver hair man, irritated.
"Thanks," Vincent said, glancing behind him where Sephiroth stood.
"Humph," Sephiroth grinned at Kiku. "You should have killed me when you had the chance."
Kiku looked around and saw Theris. "Get her," she ordered the Zetsumei around her.
All of the human-looking Zetsumei spread across the field and ran straight towards the defenseless redhead.
Sephiroth ran past the Zetsumei and towards Kiku.
"Eh? Why are you coming after me?" Kiku demanded with an annoyance. She thought he would at least defend that woman over there. She gave Sephiroth an irritated look. She thrust into the ground and the tip of the snake sword came up behind Sephiroth, aiming for his back.
He turned around, hitting it away with his Masamune.
Theris covered her head as the Zetsumei all jumped for her.
"Theris!" a familiar deep voice cried.
She opened her eyes. Loz drove under the Zetsumei who were all in the air and grabbed her hand, jerking her to sit in front of him, her legs on the left side of the motorcycle. He quickly drove around the Zetsumei who followed.
Yazoo and Kadaj rode along with him, heading back to their destination. Yazoo shot the shadow creatures down as Kadaj sliced them out of their way.
"What are you boys doing here?" Theris glared. Loz's arm was around her, holding her in place in case she fell. His other hand was on the handle of the motorcycle.
Kadaj smirked, "Loz here was worried about you."
"We're taking you with us," Yazoo clarified. "No one else here can take care of you at the moment."
"Aren't you boys acting strange," Theris eyed Loz with doubtful eyes. "You're only taking me with you because you guys want to use the Image Weapons that I have, right?"
"This isn't the time to joke," Loz said, keeping his eyes in the front of them.
Theris looked up at him, half-smiling. Her legs were still hurting as they drove off, but she did not want to whine about it. She bit her lip, enduring the pain. I'll get Yuffie when I get better. She thought bitterly, narrowing her eyes.
Kadaj looked back and the Zetsumei were falling behind. He grinned and the three motorcycles sped up even more.
Vincent had lost Purge among the running crowed of Zetsumei. They were all after him and her. When he looked up at the sky, hearing the monsters' cries of pain, he saw Genesis and Angeal, who had been fighting the Zetsumei in the sky.
Kiku glared at Sephiroth, who kept coming at her with his Masamune. She turned away, disappearing among the monsters around her.
He ran and slashed his way through, but she was gone. "Tsk," he felt unsatisfied.
Kiku went back to where Yuffie was. She jumped up to the branch, in front of her. "Yuffie, I have a task for you," she said, giving her an intense look.
Yuffie's wounds were not healed yet. "…What is it?" she asked.
All of the Zetsumei were finished off. Sephiroth looked over to Vincent, Genesis, and Angeal. There was no one else around. He looked back at the forest. He saw a movement and quickly darted forward.
The flames flickered then slowly disappeared. Yuffie was thrown towards Sephiroth. He stopped running and caught her in his right arm. He looked at her. She looked human again. Her eyes were closed, unconscious.
Then he heard Kiku's footsteps and threw Yuffie over to Vincent. Sephiroth quickly left the group.
"Hey, Sephiroth!" Genesis shouted after him. "Geez… what does he think he's doing?"
Angeal watched Sephiroth leave and looked over to Vincent and Yuffie. He walked towards them. "How is she?" he asked, putting his sword behind him.
Vincent shook his head. "I'm not sure," he replied. He held her in his arms. "Yuffie?" he called softly.
Her eyes still closed, her body did not move. At least she was still breathing.
Genesis looked up at the green sky. "Well, if you're worried about her then let's take her with us," he said. "We should probably hurry to that laboratory. I don't want our group to be the last to complete a mission."
Vincent and Angeal nodded.
"Wait," Vincent said. "Yuffie's wounded in the back."
Genesis and Angeal looked at him and then at each other. "I'll fix her wounds," Angeal said, getting a few item out of his little pouch on his side.
Vincent set Yuffie on the ground and Angeal kneeled by her.
"Look away, you two," Angeal said in warning tone.
The both of them turned, facing the other way. Genesis glanced at Vincent in the corner of his eye. "So, her name's Yuffie?" he asked.
Vincent nodded.
Genesis smiled, sighing. "How did she get here?" he asked. "She wasn't with you guys when I saw you and your friends back in the village."
He looked at the ground.
"Did something happen to her?"
Frowning, Vincent allowed the memories to surface.
After Omega's defeat, Yuffie had been so anxious about Vincent disappearance and the search for him. When she heard Shelke went to pick him up, she received a call from an important friend, who Cloud and the others did not know and she left without a word.
The friend must have been Theris.
Vincent returned and was greeted back at Cloud's place. Everyone patted Vincent's back and celebrated for his hard work in stopping Omega from leaving the planet. When Vincent did not see Yuffie around, he did not question.
Shalua's capsule had been found later. So Vincent hung around and Shalua finally woke up after a few days. Shalua and Shelke were alone for some time and the both of them were getting along, but Shelke was just starting to get use to being around her sister. Three weeks later, the two of them left together. Before they did, Shelke talked to Vincent. She thanked him and had a little talk about how the two of them would live on.
Then the two left.
Tifa got a call from Cid about Yuffie. He was trying to get a hold of her but Yuffie never picked up her cell phone. Vincent was still at Cloud's place and he wasn't too worried. Yuffie could take care of herself after all.
A week later, Reeve called. He found out that Yuffie was last seen being chased after by someone, which was five days ago. No one knew where she was. Tifa, concerned, was going to suggest giving Barret a call to look for Yuffie but Vincent volunteered instead.
Over the phone, Vincent had asked Reeve who told who was chasing Yuffie. Reeve told him it was a young female who had Yuffie's cell phone. The woman would not answer the phone when they called.
After a month of searching, Vincent returned with no news about Yuffie. Their only clue was that the young woman who carried Yuffie's cell phone.
"Alright, I'm done," Angeal said, interrupting Vincent's thoughts.
Vincent and Genesis turned back, Angeal picked Yuffie up. The bandage was wrapped around her body for the cut on her back and another bandage around her right arm where Theris had shot her.
"I'll carry her," Vincent said. "You two head to the laboratory first."
"Are you sure about that?" Genesis questioned. "Although, it would be faster if Angeal and I fly there."
Angeal gave Yuffie to Vincent. "There's actually a wagon and a couple of horses near the village. I left it there the other day… but I'm not sure if the horses ran off after hearing all those explosions that Theris was causing."
"It doesn't matter," Vincent said glancing down at Yuffie's weary but peaceful form.
"We'll do that then," Angel said, looking over to Genesis.
"I still think it would be faster if we fly there," Genesis said, smirking at them.