Author's Note: Thank you to all of you who reviewed, by which I mean Pied Flycatcher. Support is appreciated, people. I write for me, but I post for you!

Anywho, in case you couldn't guess, its going to take a couple chapters to tie up the loose ends of the Crater. If you're wondering what happenned to a certain character, I HAVEN'T forgotten ANY of them. You will find out by the week's end if I can stick to my posting schedule. Still, let me know if you think I'm leaving anything out so that I can make sure I have all the loose ends tied up.

Chapter 8

Rinoa clung to the side of the train as best as she could as it lurched again. She tried to stand up, but again the train lurched and she fell forward. Vincent caught her just before she hit the ground, and it was then that she noticed his golden claw; the revelation almost made her scream, but she decided better, especially given the circumstances.

"We're stopping," Vincent growled. Something had been attacking the train, and his uncertainty as to what it was annoyed him as much as the fact that they were being attacked.

Rinoa grabbed her Pinwheel and attached it to her arm, suddenly glad that she had packed it. "Shall we?" she asked, sounding, in Vincent's mind, too ready to face the unknown enemy.

Her question was immediately answered by a loud screech as a claw tore through their train compartment. The two rolled to opposite sides of their compartment, narrowly avoiding the thrashing claw. Rinoa heard a gunshot, and as the claw was pulled out of the train she saw Vincent holding a three-barreled gun. He leapt out of the train through the hole that was left. Rinoa clumsily attempted to follow, but she stopped suddenly when she saw their enemy.

The claw had belonged to a massive dragon that was flying through the sky above them, circling the train and roaring ferociously, as if daring them to come out and attack. It unleashed a blast of fire at them, nearly hitting Vincent. It dove straight for their compartment again, and Rinoa barely had the presence of mind to leap out before the great beast struck.

"Tiamat," she whispered to no one, not realizing that Vincent was right next to her.

"You recognize this beast?" he asked calmly. "Perhaps you know how to defeat it?"

Rinoa shook her head, wishing now that she had come with Squall instead of insisting on travelling alone. "We were all together when we fought it before," she said timidly.

"Then you have faced it already?"

"In a sense. It was one of the guardians in Ultimecia's castle."

The beast stood where their train compartment had once been and threw the train off the tracks to give itself more room. It roared again, but it was interrupted as Vincent shot it several times, leaping forward to get a better shot. The dragon swung at him with his claws, but Vincent seemed, at least to Rinoa, to be inhumanly agile.

She, too, joined the fray, firing at Tiamat's head and hoping that her attack would actually injure the dragon. To her dismay, however, neither her nor Vincent seemed to be doing any more than frustrating the already enraged beast. As if in desperation, she unleashed a Thundaga spell, but it seemed to do little as well; the dragon seemed to be resistant to magic. The sorceress then shrieked as she was struck by Tiamat's tail and thrust into the rocky landscape around them.

Seconds too late, Vincent leapt onto the beast's head and fired three bullets directly into its eyes, each one hitting its mark and blinding the dragon. While enraging the dragon, he hoped that it would help them in the regard that the dragon could no longer see what it was doing, which hopefully meant they wouldn't be struck as Rinoa was anymore.

Unfortunately for Vincent, he had not anticipated the dragon's claw to grab him from behind, the dragon knowing exactly where Vincent was the entire time. He cursed himself for being so foolish, knowing that Rinoa wasn't in any condition to even distract the beast long enough for him to escape. Part of him realized that he likely had only one chance for escape, but even in times of danger Vincent remained calm and logical. This was no time to call on Chaos. He would rather humble himself and ask for help than call Chaos, something that the others never understood but all accepted nonetheless.

He knew that even calling for help was futile, though. Even if he could've reached his phone, no one was even close enough to come to his rescue. The only thing that he had going for him was that the train had not gone far, and the Esthar authorities were likely to have seen Tiamat floating around their precious town. If he could just hold on long enough for them to arrive.

Tiamat angrily threw Vincent on the ground. He felt lucky not to have broken anything on contact, despite the reasons that he could sustain such injuries, but at the same time he was barely strong enough to stand, let alone fight Tiamat. He braced himself for Tiamat's life ending attack, but it never came. He looked up and saw a large…thing…firing at Tiamat before vanishing. He looked over at Rinoa.

"The GF Eden," she said. "It was my last hope."

"It wasn't enough," Vincent told her, standing as Tiamat roared again. He was running out of options; more importantly, they were running out of time. There was only one choice left if they were to make it out alive.

Rinoa rushed towards the beast, hoping the use her magic to send it the other way, or at least distract the blind dragon to keep it from discovering where they were. Vincent, on the other hand, stayed behind and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. He quickly called Cloud, who, to his surprise, answered his phone.

"How long will it take you to get to Esthar?" Vincent asked.

"Hard to say," Cloud said. "I'd have to find a train."

"No time," Vincent said. "Ride Fenrir on the train tracks. It's the only way you'll make it in time."

"Vincent, what's going on?"

"You'll see when you get here. Use any means necessary."

He leapt in the air, heading straight for Tiamat. Rinoa thought he was insane, fearing that if he got too close the dragon might be able to strike him again. She screamed when she saw what happened instead.

From Vincent's back sprouted a massive pair of demon wings. His arms grew and gained large animal claws on his hands. His clothing seemed to fuse into his skin, changing into a demon hide. A tail sprouted and thrashed around wildly. A great demon soon hovered where once Vincent had been leaping.

The beast roared ferociously and lunged at Tiamat, striking the dragon's throat with what Rinoa guessed was his full force. A large gaping wound appeared, and blood dripped down the dragon's neck as it bellowed in pain. Tiamat took flight and dove towards his new enemy. The demon grappled with him momentarily before throwing the great dragon to the ground, bellowing in pain. The demon landed beside the stunned dragon, roared, and snapped the dragon's neck. Rinoa could only assume that the beast had died.

Even with the aid of the demon, Rinoa had expected the fight to last for some time, but the demon had won in hardly five minutes time. He roared in triumph, apparently proud in his accomplishment. He looked around, and he caught sight of Rinoa, who was trying to leave the scene with no success. Fear had paralyzed her, and though she was slowly moving backwards, it seemed as though she had made no progress at all.

The demon leapt into the air and landed in front of her. It took a step forward, and fear again overtook her. At first she feared for her life. Part of her knew that this demon was, at one time, Vincent, but it hadn't really clicked with her until the demon stood there in front of her, staring intently. Somewhere within the beast was Vincent, trying to convince the demon not to attack, she was almost certain of it. She feared that it was a losing battle, however.

Her fears were confirmed when the demon lashed out at her. He missed his mark, but only barely, and she was left with a long gash along the side of her arm. "Vincent," she whispered, terrified. "Vincent, please."

If there was any of Vincent left in the demon, which Rinoa was beginning to doubt, he could no longer hear her. The demon slashed again, but Rinoa had regained herself enough to roll aside and dodge the claw. She got up and started running.

She ran in vain, however. She soon saw the demon standing in front of her. With one sweep he threw her back, knocking her onto the ground. He roared with pride and ran towards her. She scrambled to get out of the way of his claws again with only mild success; she winced as a small piece of her shoulder was torn off. She rolled over and stood up, holding out her hand.

"Sorry, Vincent," she whispered.

The demon charged again, but he was thrown back by a Firaga spell. At best, he was stunned. It seemed that all the spell did was give her time to ready another. She released a Thundaga, but the beast grew enraged. He rushed at her, and despite her hasty Protect spell, she was thrown several yards. She managed to remain conscious, likely due to her now shattered spell, but she knew that she wouldn't fare quite as well against another hit.

She heard a low rumble and wondered why the demon was growling at her. Unfortunately, the noise distracted her, and the demon came and struck her again. She laid on the ground as the demon came over her. She stared at it, her eyes wide with fear as she waited for the demon to finish her off. The rumble grew louder, and suddenly the demon fell over. Standing behind him was a man with spiky blond hair and a large sword, the hilt of which he had apparently used to stun the demon. Had Rinoa had more presence of mind, she might've recognized her savior.

"Looks like I came just in time," Cloud said. He spun quickly, blocking another strike from the demon. He turned partially and struck the demon with the broadside of his sword, throwing him several feet and knocking him out. Cloud struck him with the hilt once more, just to be safe.

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The man actually got out of his chair. His associates scattered in fear of what their boss might do, but instead of lashing out, he laughed.

"We have a new target, boys," he said, the laugh still echoing throughout the room. "If Chaos can defeat Tiamat, there's no telling what he might do!"

One of his associates timidly walked over to him. "Sir?" he asked cautiously. "Are you sure that's such a wise idea? Even if we could get our hands on Vincent for long enough to actually capture him, how could you get Chaos to cooperate?"

Another was bold enough to agree. "If Sephiroth is a wild card, then what do you consider Chaos? He…it…doesn't conform to any will but its own. What happens when it grows out of your control?"

"Nonsense!" their boss said. "I know exactly what I'm doing! Besides, you aren't here to question me, you're here to help me!"

"Sir, I…" one of them began, but he was quickly cut off. It had taken only one silencing strike, but the man was dead. The other associates began to panic as the sword that killed their comrade was removed from his body and its owner stepped out of the shadows, ready to claim another life, if not all the lives present.

Next Time On Mad World: The fate of two crater occupants has been left untold. One of them will be discovered next time. Also, how are Yuffie and Rakunya faring, traipsing through a strange continent as Rakunya has lost a lot of blood? And what of my two favorite villains, Rufus and the mystery man? What fates befell them? All of these answered in the next chapter!