Midgar had always been an ugly city, even before it was a ruin. Now, there was barely a complete building standing, although Vincent could see where effort had been made to patch up the occasional husk of a building.
Only two types of people lived in Midgar these days; those who took advantage of the tumbledown warren to hide, and those who couldn't afford to leave. He strongly suspected that Hine lay in the former category.
It hadn't taken him long to track the scientist down, although the first two people he asked cast him frightened looks and refused to answer. If Vincent's suspicions hadn't already been well and truly roused, that would have tipped him off. It had taken an extraordinarily generous bribe to get the next two informants to talk. Not that Vincent cared. Finding out what this man wanted with him was worth any amount of gil.
Hine's residence lay in what had become the centre of the city. Although it had been well-hidden (he'd had to retrace his steps several times to find to find the right way as the streets of Midgar more accurately resembled a maze), there was no security, no traps. All he had had to do was duck between two fallen metal beams and push aside a ragged curtain. It certainly didn't fit the profile that he had been creating in his mind due to Reeve's information and the reactions he'd garnered when he had spoken Janus Hine's name.
The lack of security didn't reassure him. He'd already un-holstered his gun. He couldn't even remember doing it. Something about this was wrong, and Vincent trusted his instincts.
Perhaps he should have taken the time to retrieve that file from Reeve. But full of rage and hurt and rapidly losing his hold over his demons, leaving and taking action had seemed the best thing to do.
It was too late for regrets now.
He managed to squeeze his way down the narrow corridor, ducking below various pieces of rubble before making his way into what, pre-Meteor, had probably been someone's living room.
He stopped and stared at his surroundings, lowering his gun slightly in surprise. The room was cleared of both debris and furniture, but was full of paper, loose, crumpled sheets of it piled up to his knees. There seemed to be no theme to the collection, he could spot ripped-up newspapers and faded magazines, old cereal boxes and menus for restaurants that no longer existed. There were no complete books that he could spot, but plenty of torn-out pages. He even spotted handwritten pages in cheery, uneven print, probably someone's diary.
If he had to sift through that mess to find his files, it could take weeks. He was already dreading it.
But before he could even start wondering why it was there, he heard the tell-tale crinkling of paper that indicated someone approaching the room from the other side. He readied his weapon once more.
The man who entered didn't appear to see him; he was reading an old newspaper with a furious kind of concentration. It wasn't until he let the paper drop into the pile that he noticed Vincent standing there. They stared at each other for a moment.
Janus Hine was a short, gaunt man, perhaps in his forties though he had not aged particularly well. He kept his greying hair cut close to his head, and was wearing clean but worn clothes. He was unarmed, and Vincent sensed no hostility from him. He wouldn't have looked twice at him if they had passed each other in the street.
Hine showed no sign of surprise at seeing him, or any alarm at being confronted by a man with a gun. "Ah, Vincent. I was beginning to wonder if I needed to send you an invitation. I suppose you're here for your files."
Vincent stared, bewildered at being addressed so familiarly by a stranger. Hine turned away and turned back the way he came. "This way. Don't damage my papers as you come through."
Vincent hesitated a moment, not wanting to blindly follow the scientist into unknown territory. But if he wanted his files and an explanation, it didn't appear as if he had much choice. Besides, if the man was a threat, he wasn't an immediate one, and Vincent was at least confident in his ability to deal with him.
He kept his gun ready, and waded through the drifts of paper, wrinkling his nose at the musky scent of it. Hine was waiting for him at the top of a set of stairs, watching impassively as he shook himself free of paper before he started walking again.
"It's a little inconvenient, I know, but just because the city is lost doesn't mean that its wisdom has to be. I gather up what scraps of it I can."
Vincent carefully stepped over a Kalm Fried Chocobo menu, doubting the presence of any wisdom there. He wished that Reeve had been more specific when he'd mentioned the man's psychological problems.
As he followed Hine down the stairs, he realised that the space was far bigger, and much cleaner. He must have knocked down walls to join several basements together. A table ran across one wall, covered in neatly stacked folders and journals, as well as a range of beakers and test tubes holding a range of solutions that he couldn't begin to guess at. A very old-fashioned looking computer and the low light were powered by a small generator (Midgar as whole had none of the new energy sources piped in). A curtain separated what he assumed was Hine's sleeping area from the rest of the room.
The presence of the scientific equipment aggravated Vincent's already existing frustration and he was no longer willing to tolerate delays. "Why did you take my files?" he asked, and although his tone was even, every word was an implied threat.
Hine didn't appear to acknowledge the threat. Instead he opened a folder marked with his name, leafing through it with an ease that suggested he had read it before. The thought caused anger to spike through him, and it was just as well that Hine chose then to start talking.
"I am sorry about taking them without permission, but I didn't think that you would give me access to them if I asked." He glanced briefly up at Vincent's stony expression, and then back down at the open pages. "I see I thought right." His attention drifted off again.
Vincent had never met a more irritating person in his entire life, and he had been the target of a prank war waged by Yuffie and Cait Sith.
"Why did you blackmail the woman from the WRO?" he tried again, more sharply.
"Because I needed the files," Hine replied, in a tone that suggested that the answer was obvious.
By this point, Vincent was all but tearing his hair out. "Why did you take my files?" he practically hissed at him.
Hine looked up irritably, as if Vincent had disturbed him from an important task. "Because we have something in common. Or someone, I should say." Vincent tensed in preparation for the news. He knew he wasn't going to like this revelation. "I used to work with Dr. Hojo"
Vincent clamped down on the instinctive urge to fire as Hine continued. "I was there as you and your… terrorist friends interrupted our work."
"But what does that have to do with me?" he snarled, his patience almost entirely lost.
"He spoke about you often. His greatest experiment, he called you." The vague tone had left the scientist's voice, to be replaced with a growing anger. "He tried to replicate it, but it was never successful. He called them all failures. I wanted to know what made you different."
Hine lifted his head and met Vincent's eyes for the first time. Vincent was so used to people avoiding his gaze that he hadn't even noticed the omission. His eyes were a strange yellow-gold colour, unnaturally bright in the dim light.
And in Vincent's head, there were three different cries from three different creatures; fear, hated, recognition. Hine had his own demon. In that moment of realisation, each of his demons tried to escape and he had to force back three different transformations at the same time. It had never happened to him before, his demons fought each other as often as they did him, he'd never had to deal with them co-operating. The tearing pain of it blinded him for a moment. He felt his nose start to bleed as the pressure to hold them back overwhelmed him. He staggered back, clutching at his temple with his good hand. He didn't even remember dropping his gun.
And in that moment of distraction, Janus Hine shot him with a tranquiliser dart.
It took Vincent a moment to refocus his eyes. Hine's face swam in and out of his vision for a queasy moment before he could see properly again.
Not that the view was particularly reassuring. All he could see was the series of webbed cracks in the ceiling. He could barely move his head, let alone the rest of his body; he was far too firmly restrained. As he rolled his eyes to the side, he could just about make out an IV, pumping something toxic into his blood.
A terrible wave of déjà vu crashed over him, filling him with an unfamiliar sense of panic. The last time he had felt such an overwhelming sense of anxiety was when Yuffie had been caught in Nero's Darkness; this time it was all for himself. After all, he had been in this situation before, and it hadn't ended well.
"You're awake," Hine said, leaning over him to shine a torch in his eyes. Apparently satisfied with what he saw, he leaned over and adjusted the flow of the IV. "I'm sorry, I had to estimate how much of the tranquiliser to use to counteract your demons. I must have given you a little too much." The courteous apology was at complete odds with his actions.
"What…?" his mouth was too dry to form the sentence, but Hine seemed to understand it.
"I'm extracting the demons from within your mind to infuse them with the one already in mine. You see, the process was never completed with me. I can transform, but I have none of the same advantages as you; the strength, the healing, the immortality." Hine took a deep, shuddering breath. "I'm dying, you know, and I don't want to. This is the only way. If we're lucky, you might even survive the process." He turned away, his tone thoughtful. "I only wish you still had Chaos. Nevertheless, the other three will have to do."
For the first time in months he tried to consciously call on his demons, to use their strength to free himself, but none of them responded. It was almost as if they were hiding. He took a little bit of hope from that.
"They'll… destroy you," he managed to get out.
Hine only laughed. "Are you having trouble with them? Then I'm doing you a favour. Kill or cure, as it were. Now, I just need to bring them closer to the surface."
He felt the prick of a needle in the crook of his un-armoured arm, then pain that seemed to split his skull in half.
As he drifted away, he heard Hine apologise politely once more.
Yuffie didn't appreciate the mid-morning emergency call from Reeve.
While she wasn't hung-over, she had only gone to bed a few hours before, and her eyes still felt dry and gritty. She could have done with at least twice as much sleep. But the wedding had been a huge success. Tifa and Cloud had deserved a great day, and they would be leaving for the Costa del Sol in just a few hours. Yuffie had planned to go and say goodbye before they left, but considering that there was some sort of crisis, that looked unlikely now.
So she sat in Reeve's office, her head in her folded arms on his desk while she waited for her mission details. Reeve didn't leave her waiting long; he entered holding a thick file and a very welcome cup of coffee.
She sipped it as he sat down on the opposite side of the desk, opening the folder and looking grave. "What's up, Reevie?" she asked, seeing that he was having trouble forming his request.
"Vincent's gone missing," he told her bluntly, watching while she tried to suppress her wince at his name.
"He can't have gone that far. He was at the wedding yesterday," she pointed out, the memory of the words he spoke to Reno pricking her like a clumsily-caught shuriken.
"You don't understand," Reeve replied. He closed his eyes for a moment, the picture of a man struggling with his conscience, before continuing. "Shinra Manor's basement was ransacked a few months ago," he informed her.
Yuffie frowned, trying to get her sleepy brain to focus. "Didn't we set up a password to get into the basement?"
Reeve nodded. "Exactly. And of all the information stored there, only the files on Vincent had been taken."
"But that must mean someone working here took them! Why didn't you tell me, Reeve, this is something I should have been…" she trailed off at the awkward look of guilt on his face. "Vincent told you not to, didn't he?"
Her voice was shrill with irritation. Dumping her and breaking her heart was one thing, preventing her from doing her job was something entirely different.
Reeve winced, all the conformation she needed. But before she could berate him, he continued rapidly. "It took us a while to track down the culprit, a Dr. Janus Hine who lives in Midgar. Vincent was supposed to come to a briefing this morning but he didn't show up or answer his phone. So when I tried to locate him…"
"Let me guess. Vincent thinks he's too cool for back-up and has gone off on his own. And now you need me to drag his ass out of trouble." She snorted. "Again."
Reeve didn't say anything about her derogatory tone, knowing as well as she did that there was concern under her anger. "More or less, yes. Vincent went in totally unprepared. It's possible he's fine but…" He trailed off and pushed the folder across the table to her so she could see for herself.
A lot of the file dealt with the psychological and medical tests that Hine had undergone, using terminology that she was unfamiliar with. She flipped through those pages until she reached his biography. It seemed pretty normal, until… "Trained by Dr. Hojo? Vincent doesn't know this?" she exclaimed. "That seems like some pretty vital knowledge, Reeve!"
"As I said, he didn't show for the briefing." Reeve's tone was worried and exasperated at once. She only ever usually heard that tone when Reeve was telling her off about something. If Vincent hadn't been in danger while they were talking, she probably would have found it funny.
"Why not? That doesn't seem like him," she couldn't help wondering aloud.
Reeve sent her a considering look, but only said, "I think he was eager to reclaim his files."
It was a lie, and she knew it, but she didn't protest. After all, it wasn't any of her business. Vincent was just a comrade in the WRO now. She would respond in the same way for any colleague in danger.
She would. But fear wouldn't be cramping up her stomach for any other colleague. She stood to go.
"I've already contacted Cid; he'll meet you at the landing-strip with the Shera. I've assembled a squad of six soldiers for you as well. Please use them; I don't want you running around without back-up as well. Vincent's last location is marked on the map of Midgar in the folder. Be prepared before you leave."
She nodded. Reeve generally left her to her own devices while she was on a mission so she took any requests he made seriously.
"Yuffie, don't underestimate this man. My sources have informed me that while he seems absent-minded and polite, even affable, he's incredibly intelligent and dangerous, totally lacking in empathy or morals. He's been blamed for several street-children going missing; they think he's trying to continue the programs of human experimentation that Shinra initiated."
Yuffie wrinkled her nose. She'd had more than enough of Shinra experiments in her life already. "It's about time we caught him, then."
"I don't know what he's capable of. Be on your guard… and if you can't capture him…"
"I understand," Yuffie said, to spare him actually giving her the order. Reeve hardly ever gave 'dead or alive' orders; he pretty much focused on the 'alive' part. "I'll see you when we get back."
Reeve smiled a little at her confident tone, but the worry didn't fade from his expression as she left his office, all tiredness forgotten.
It didn't take her long to get ready, she had her Conformer with her, as always, so all she needed was a detour to her locker, where she kept the mastered materia she used for work (at her request, Reeve had wired her locker to shock anyone who tried to force it. She never left materia lying around unguarded, unlike some people she could mention). Then she left for the airstrip just outside of the city.
Her squad was already waiting for her, and she greeted them as amiably as she could while inwardly shrieking with impatience. She was practically dancing on the spot, until she saw a familiar figure dressed in blue, leaning against the railings on the other side of the landing strip.
She jogged over to join him, standing downwind from his cigarette. "Reno? What're you doing here?"
"Heard about Valentine," he replied frankly, looking at her with a shrewd, assessing expression that he hardly ever showed. "You're going after him, then?"
"Reeve asked me to," she answered, feeling awkward without quite knowing why.
"But you'd go anyway, wouldn't you?" he asked. Her silence answered for her. "Why?"
"'Cause I'm a moron," she grumbled, leaning next to him.
He laughed lowly, but didn't say anything else until the Shera appeared on the horizon. "Call me if you need a rebound guy again, yo," he drawled, making a move to go.
"What? Hey!" She called after him. "Why have you stopped being my rebound guy now?" she demanded, slightly untactfully.
He paused and turned back to her, an unfamiliar seriousness in his usually mocking eyes. "You still love him." She couldn't deny it, and it made her angry. "And you didn't see the way he looked at me yesterday. Like he would happily break my fingers if I touched you again." He shrugged, his voice pragmatic. "I like my fingers the way they are."
"Reno…" She knew that whatever she said now could change things between them. She could push them beyond just being friends with benefits, or she could lose him completely from her life, in every way.
But she couldn't promise him more than she could give, she would never do to anyone else what Vincent had done to her, lying silently with every touch and every kiss. She just didn't want to lose his friendship entirely. He had stuck by her side while she had been so miserable, and he had done everything he could to cheer her up. And true, while it wasn't like he hadn't got anything out of it, she was still really grateful. She wouldn't have got through that rough patch without him.
Just because he was wrong about Vincent's feelings didn't mean that he was wrong about hers. It wasn't fair on him to pretend otherwise.
She squeezed one of his hands in both of hers. "You're my friend, not just my rebound guy, you know."
It wasn't what he'd been hoping for, she could tell, but he still grinned. "Yeah?"
"Yeah. My very close friend." He laughed at that, and ruffled her hair in a way that he knew annoyed her. Just because she was short, didn't mean that people had the right to mess up her hair!
"Well, who else would go and see those awful Wutainese horror films with you?" he asked with mock seriousness.
"Hey, Wutainese horror films are the best, and you know it!" she protested with a grin.
His reply was lost in the sound of the Shera landing. "Go and get him," he yelled directly in her ear. "Tell him from me he's an idiot."
She nodded and waved, running of to join her squad as they embarked. She kept her eyes on his vivid red hair until he was out of sight. The fact that she wasn't that upset about their physical relationship ending told her pretty much everything she needed to know. It had been fun while it lasted, but that was all. She was just glad he still considered her a friend now it was over.
Then her thoughts turned back to her more pressing problem, how to help Vincent. Even while talking to Reno, she had been turning a plan over in her head. Too wired-up to feel nauseous, she made her way to discuss her plans with the pilot.
Midgar was a huge dump. She'd always hated it, even more so now. Reeve's map wasn't much help, even though it was drawn after Meteor had crashed into the city, the streets changed pretty much every day as the city continued to crumble.
She hadn't been here since she and Vincent had helped to evacuate the city. That memory had been precious to her, but recalling it now was no real help.
Eventually though, she found the location by a combination of dubious navigation and bribery of locals. She'd even managed to find a young man who remembered a "scary-lookin' man in a red cloak" looking for the same place that morning.
Feeling optimistic, she stood outside the half-collapsed entrance. "You remember the plan?" she asked the captain of her squad.
He nodded, grinning behind his helmet. "Make a big noisy distraction so you can sneak in."
"Yup," she said, grinning herself. Simple plans were the best, sometimes. "I just need a few seconds get in to see if Vincent is still in there, and if he needs any help." The man nodded his understanding. "Don't engage him at close range; we don't know if he is armed. If he doesn't surrender, don't be afraid to shoot to kill." She was a ninja, she was not uncomfortable making that order. "If I'm not out in fifteen minutes, withdraw and contact the Commissioner for orders."
"Understood," the soldier said, saluting. She had been uncomfortable giving orders when she first entered the WRO, but she had got used to it by now. She guessed it would be good practice for whenever she went back to Wutai.
She sneaked forwards and hid herself by some rubble by the front entrance. Someone leaving the building wouldn't see her - she just needed a second to slip in behind him.
"Janus Hine!" The captain bellowed, making her jump in surprise even though she had been expecting it. He had the loudest voice she had ever heard, louder than even Barret when he was drunk and angry. "This is WRO. You are wanted on charges of kidnap and assault. You are surrounded by armed soldiers. If you do not come out, we will enter your building!"
The captain just started to shout his spiel again, when an impatient looking grey-haired man left the building with his hands held cautiously up. "What's this about? I'm extremely busy," he asked irritably. Yuffie couldn't help thinking that wasn't the normal reaction of an unarmed man to a confrontation with armed ones. They were missing something, she knew, but she couldn't think of what it could be. It couldn't be anything too bad, he was totally outnumbered. She just had to trust that the soldiers would follow her orders.
The captain threatened Hine into taking another step forward, leaving enough space for Yuffie to slip silently behind him, all the while praying to Leviathan that she wouldn't have an attack of clumsiness while she did.
She had no trouble making her way down the low, narrow corridor, but a room full of paper made her pause. If there was someone else here, they would hear her coming.
The sound of gunfire outside decided her. She didn't have a choice. She ran over it, as quickly and lightly as she could, before running down the stairs. The stairwell was too narrow to ready her Conformer, so she pulled out a kunai knife instead. One good throw could make all the difference.
Her caution was unneeded. There was no one down there. For a moment, she despaired; they had the right location, so where was Vincent? Then she noticed the curtain.
She hurried over to it and pulled it back, before crying out in shock. Vincent was strapped to a table, his eyes closed and chest hardly moving. There was dried blood under his nose. Even in his weakest moments, she had never thought of him as helpless, not until now. She hurried forwards, at a loss at how to help him, until she spotted the IV. She wasn't sure what was in it, but it glowed faintly mako-green and she guessed it wasn't healthy, so she went to remove it.
As she got closer though, she could see that Vincent's arm was covered in luxurious blue fur, as though he had started to transform before falling unconscious. Her fingers brushed softly against the fur, before she decided there was nothing she could do about it. Vincent would transform, or he wouldn't. She didn't have time to worry about it. She withdrew the needle from his arm. After a moment's thought, she cast esuna as well. It couldn't hurt.
By the time she had started work on picking his restraints, his eyelashes started fluttering. As she finished unfastening the ones around his left wrist and elbow, his eyes opened, showing that his pupils were flooded with black.
"Vincent?" she tried, but there was no response, not even a twitch. She finished opening the rest of the straps on his arms and legs, and the widest one around his waist, just in time to see his eyes fade back into their usual red, and lucidity return to them.
He blinked at her, confused, for a few moments. "Yuffie?" he whispered, voice hoarse with both disbelief and dryness. She cursed herself for not thinking about bringing water; there was nothing here that she trusted enough to give him.
Even with the soreness of his voice though, she was taken aback by the amount of emotion he let show in it; surprise, longing, fear, disbelief. She didn't know how to interpret it, so ignored it for the moment.
"Vince? How are you feeling? Can you sit up?" She put her arm around the back of his shoulders, trying to help, but whatever he had been given had taken its toll. She cast another esuna, just in case, but it didn't seem to make any difference.
She'd hoped that Vincent would be able to walk on his own, but a good ninja always had a plan B. His eyelids were flickering closed again, though, and she needed him at least awake for her back-up plan to work.
She could hear footsteps on the stairs. Only one set, which meant she couldn't guarantee that they belonged to a member of her squad. No time to be subtle then. "Vincent!" She slapped his face, not enough to hurt but enough to shock him into opening his eyes again. "You need to stay awake, okay?"
He stared blearily at her, but his attention sharpened as he heard the footsteps on the stairs. He tried to sit up, not quite managing it. There was a hint of fear in his expression now, and it shocked her to see it. What had happened to him?
"… Shouldn't be here," he whispered. "Why did you come?" The words hurt. Even when she was doing nothing but help him, he didn't want her around.
"You know why," she told him irritably, before thrusting an activated Exit materia into his hand. He grasped it automatically, his eyes having just enough time to widen in shock before he disappeared in a vivid green flash, to the sickbay of the Shera, where she had been focusing her will.
At least, that's where she hoped he ended up anyway, as a small, bitter part of her still quite wanted him to go to hell.
She pulled her Conformer from her back and stood alert as the footsteps entered the room. It was Hine. He looked past her first, to where Vincent had been lying, before turning his strange golden gaze on her.
"I suppose you're Yuffie." She didn't know how he knew that and the fury in his voice left her no time to wonder. "You shouldn't have interfered. I'll have to kill you to get him back here now."
"You could always surrender," she suggested, wondering how this old, unarmed man was planning on killing her.
He laughed, harsh and mocking; until the laugh was cut off by a howl of pain, torn from his throat. Considering that she hadn't thrown her weapon yet, she was baffled to what had caused it, until she noticed the coarse, dark hair sprout from his skin.
He was transforming. Of course. He had worked under that slimy git, Hojo. She didn't know why she had never considered the possibility that Vincent wasn't the only one to have demons implanted in him.
He started to shoot rapidly upwards in height, the dark hairs continuing to grow. Yuffie however, was not the type to politely wait for her opponent to finish changing before she attacked. She flung her Conformer, and then a fireball in rapid succession.
Hine's reflexes were already inhumanly fast, and the Conformer missed, though her fire spell hit him directly, filling the basement with the pungent smell of burnt hair. He continued to grow, taller and wider, as she somersaulted backwards to put as much space between them as she could.
She recognised the shape he was taking with a sinking heart. While Yuffie wasn't afraid of spiders, as such, she avoided them as much as possible, like all sane people.
She didn't think anyone would blame her for being a tiny bit afraid of a spider the size of a full-grown behemoth, however. It stared balefully down at her, each of its eight golden eyes filled with hatred and an inhuman intelligence.
This spider would spin the whole Planet into its web, if it had the opportunity. And it was going to start with her. It skittered forward, almost as fast she could dodge, the serrated hairs on its legs catching on her shirt, tearing through the fabric like razorblades. Its mandibles snapped at the air where she had been a split-second earlier, dripping poison puddling onto the floor.
She quickly threw her Conformer again, aiming for the weak parts of its legs. Although she cut through one, it didn't slow it down, and she had to flip quickly out of the way as it nearly trapped her against the wall. It crashed through the table that Vincent had been strapped to, leaving nothing but kindling behind it.
It turned to continue its attack, and that's when Yuffie realised, like most large creatures trapped indoors, it had trouble manoeuvring its bulk in a space too small for it. It was slow when it turned, much too slow.
She danced out of its reach, again and again, throwing fire and lightning spells into its eyes, as well as her weapon against its legs, letting it trap her into a corner. Then, feeling its jaws snag her shirt once more, she dropped to the floor just in time and rolled under the spider. It couldn't turn in time to keep up with her, couldn't back away before she pierced its soft underbelly with her shuriken.
It screeched, high and terrible, as she kept rolling, tearing a deep line throughout the whole of its body. She tumbled out of the way, coated in stinking black blood, just as the spider collapsed inwards on itself, its legs twitching as they curled up.
She staggered back, panting, as the spider slowly reverted back into Janus Hine. His face was screwed up with pain; the wound she had given to his demon-form had stayed when he reverted to human. It had been mortal to the spider. It was still mortal now.
His eyes opened just a slit, and he stared wordlessly at her as he died. She wondered if she had just imagined seeing relief there; having a spider skittering around in her head would have certainly driven her mad.
She checked herself over for injury, relieved to find nothing but scratches, though she would have to write off another shirt. How did she manage to get through so much more clothing than any of the others? It just didn't seem fair.
She stumbled over to Hine's workbench, giving his corpse a wide berth, gathering up any of the folders that had Vincent's name on them, and doing the same with the files on his slow-ass computer. As she turned to leave the basement, she saw Cerberus. Vincent must have dropped it, and it had been kicked into a corner at some point, probably during her fight. She picked it up, juggling the folders and the deceptively heavy gun as she climbed the steep staircase.
She almost dropped everything when she tried to clamber through the ocean of paper in the upstairs room; she would have gone mad if she had to search through all that for the reports she had dropped. She safely manoeuvred her way through, before pausing as she reached the door.
Turning back, she reached out a hand the best she could and cast one last fire spell. The dry paper caught quickly. She hoped it would destroy the lab downstairs along with everything she hadn't managed to take. She didn't want anyone to find those notes.
She got outside, to find the street more full of rubble than when she left it. Only the captain of the soldiers was left, he was staring at the merrily burning building with dismay.
"You're alright! Hine turned into a giant spider, then I saw the fire and I thought…"
"Hine's dead," she told him, noting his surprise. "I set the fire. Are you all okay?"
"Two of my men were injured, it took the rest of us to dig them out and take them back to the Shera. They'll be alright. Valentine was on bored when I got there."
"Oh good," she said faintly. The fight, along with her tiredness and all of her suppressed emotions, was catching up with her. She wanted to curl up and sleep for at least a week. She thrust the pile of folders at him, keeping hold only of Vincent's gun as they headed for the airship. "Let's go home."
A/N: I'm not usually scared of spiders, but I woke up the other day to find a spider as big as my hand-span right by my face. It was horrible. Thus, when I had to decide on Hine's demon-form he became an evil spider.
This chapter is mostly action. All the relationship stuff will be resolved in the final chapter. So, what will happen next? Will Vincent gain control of his demons? Will he and Yuffie talk, or will she call Reno?
Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. Review are always welcome for this one, and my poll still needs votes. There's a tie at the moment! Thanks guys.