Chapter Three

She watched in glee at the ensuing chaos. The princess of Wutai nodded to herself in satisfaction. Vincent's attempts to be rid of her just made him that much more hot. From her hiding place in the tree beside the local inn, she saw Vincent hurry from the little house; Cid's yelling was still audible as he pulled the door shut behind him. As Vincent stole away from the tiny village, Yuffie jumped from her tree, with a catlike stretch, and a grin across her face. No matter where he went, she would follow.

North Corel was almost depressing as ever, besides a few minor differences. Instead of cheap, nasty tents stood the beginnings of cheap, nasty little buildings; more people were around too, cleaning the place up it seemed.

There was no way Yuffie would come here.

"Yo, Vinnie!"

Ah, Barrett, the original leader of AVALANCHE. He strode towards Vincent, a grin as he pulled him into a one-armed hug, his gun arm flapping about.

"Spikey called, said youse had a problem with Cid, no thanks to that damn ninja brat."

Vincent jumped a little, startled. It had been less than an hour…

"Phone," Vincent grunted to himself. He really had to catch up with this advancing technology.

Vincent nodded in response to Barrett, who dragged him along into a dingy little shack.

"To stop the enemy, we need to get you one of them strategy's Spikey used to go on 'bout," Barrett said, pulling down a manila folders full of random notepads, maps and pens, which he proceeded to plunk in Vincent's not-so-ready arms. Then strode across to a creaky table, and sat down across from each other. A few awkward moments passed, before Barrett cleared his throat and gestured towards the folder, currently in Vincent's lap. Vincent gingerly opened it. A piece of paper slipped out, hastily grabbed by Vincent before it fell to the floor. It read "OPERATION VINCENT: FREE HIM FROM THE SCARY ONE". Vincent chuckled, before sifted through everything. Basically, they were outrageous and impractical ideas that involved annihilating Yuffie, or sending Vincent into space for the next 150 years, whereupon they'd all be sure Yuffie was dead.

Setting the notes on the table, Vincent gave Barrett a watery smile. "I appreciate your help Barrett, but none of these…fantastic ideas….will work…" Vincent's sentenced mumbled off into nowhere as the big gunner man glared down at him, scaring the crap out of the equally scary gunman.

Just as Barrett was about to speak, the earth began to tremble. The two men looked at each other easily, before immediately running for the door.

Townspeople were milling about all over the place as the earthquake continued, increasing in roughness. As people cried in panic, a giant shadow began to cover North Corel, and Vincent's stomach began to knot…

AN:/ I haven't updated in a VERY long time, and this chapter really has nothing in it, but the next will make up for it!