It had not been an incredibly long time after Koichi had left Yuffie alone in the locked bedroom when Godo entered, his eyes cold but his expression softer than it had been the night before. She was immediately suspicious, and she wiped the tears from her eyes and turned almost totally away from him, crossing her arms over her chest and not wanting to look at him any more than she had to. Her father sighed and sat down on the bed, looking down at his hands as he folded them on his lap.

"Yuffie, won't you sit down with me for a moment?" he asked as she continued to stare at the tiny window, wondering just how late in the morning it was and how long it would be until sunset. She reluctantly obliged, sitting as far away from him on the bed as she possibly could and focusing on a chip in the paint on the opposite wall.

"What do you want to talk about now?" she asked venomously. "Haven't you already done enough to try to control my life? Did you have to take away even my choice of who to love?" Godo rested his hand on hers, and she tensed but did not pull away.

"Yuffie, you have known that this was your duty since you were a little girl. I have never kept it a secret from you. So why do you fight against it so much now?"

"Because Koichi is an ass who obviously only loves power and money, not me," she answered through gritted teeth. "And I'm already in love with someone else who I'm pretty damn sure is in love with me too! Why can't you understand that?!"

"Yuffie, that man could never be worthy of the throne of Wutai. He's not even Wutaian –"

"He's one-quarter Wutaian, Dad, on his mother's side."

"You know what I mean, Yuffie," Godo said firmly, looking her in the face now. How had he aged so much without her noticing? "Koichi has been raised to lead people, and that is what this country needs right now. But he wasn't born royal and so cannot just take the throne – for that, he needs you."

"So now I'm just a cog in the political machine, right?" Yuffie asked bitterly. "I know I've never been much of a leader, Dad, but hearing you say it like that still kinda stings."

"You are not a cog, Yuffie, but you are not interested in leading. I know this, so I have gone out of my way to find someone who is. Can't you learn to appreciate the fact that I have only ever done what is in your best interest?"

"This isn't my best interest!" Yuffie shouted, gesturing to the handprint on her cheek and the blood that had dripped down her chin onto the green kimono. "What's best for me is being back in Edge with all of the people who care about me, and loving Vincent!"

"Fine, Yuffie, say what you please," Godo said coldly, standing from the bed and walking toward the door. "But you are going to be married to Koichi tonight no matter how much you wish it otherwise, so you had best just accept it and stop being so selfish. And if you are under the impression that some washed-up, hard-hearted gunslinger is more worthy of your time than Koichi, then I truly have raised a fool."

"No, Father," Yuffie whispered sadly after he had closed the door and locked it behind him. "If that's what you think Vincent is, then you're the one who's a fool."

"That was some good acting back at the palace, Valentine," Chaos said to his host as the man fought his way through the undergrowth of the unbelievably thick forests. "If I hadn't been sharing your body, I really would have thought you'd been near death."

"If there's one thing I know after spending thirty years in a coffin," Vincent answered dryly as he fought to free himself from a tangle of thorns that had suddenly caught on his cloak, "it's how to play dead. I'm afraid my performance might have really frightened Yuffie, though…" Suddenly jerked out of his reverie, the gunman snorted in frustration as yet another piece of the red fabric tore loose, lost to the grip of the fiendish plants. If this kept up much longer, he wouldn't have a cloak left to tear.

"If I might make a suggestion," Chaos began as Vincent was forced to jump over another group of brambles. "Maybe it would be easier to just let me take over and fly above the trees? You've been at this for hours; it's already after noon, and we have no idea what time they plan on carrying out this ceremony. We may be too late if we don't hurry."

"I'd love to right now, trust me, but it's just too risky. There's no way they'd leave Yuffie unsupervised, and her guards will definitely recognize us; at best they might try to shoot us down and at worst they might hurt Yuffie or try to hide her farther from us. If I want to catch them off guard, I'm going to have to put up with this – damn!" Vincent was stopped by a sudden pull on his cloak, this time the branch of a tree that had managed to stick itself through one of the holes in it.

"That is it," he growled as he freed himself – again – and removed the cloak, folding it up and tucking the bundle between his belt and the back of his pants. "There," he muttered as he continued to sprint through the trees. "Now I should be able to get there without – Ouch!" He winced and looked upward at the knot of long black hair that was now stuck on a low-hanging branch. "Oh, wonderful." Finally, his shoulders sagged as he released his breath in a growling sigh.

"Alright, Chaos, you win. Are you ready to fly?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

The powerful demon had taken over Vincent's body in little more than an instant, his great red wings unfurling with a loud snap as he stood to his full height. With one flap of the powerful wings, he was up above the treetops, soaring forward in the direction where Yuffie's scent was strongest. His golden eyes scanned every inch of the landscape, searching for a sign of the White Rose while he easily glided on the air currents high above the ground. He had already recovered from the long flight of the day before, and now his fury drove him forward as fast as he could go; kidnapping someone Vincent cared about was never a wise decision, but when it was someone Chaos liked too, well… that was a death sentence.

"Do not harm the man when we get there, Chaos," Vincent said, this time from the recesses of Chaos's mind.

"Whaaaat? Why in the hell not?"

"Because that's an honor reserved for me." Chaos smirked, flapping his wings harder as he caught a stronger trace of Yuffie's scent on the breeze and followed it.

"Heheheh. You're gonna make that bastard wish he was dead, aren't you?"

"Absolutely. And if he's lucky, I may just grant his wish."