A/N: sorry about the delay… *passes out*

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Once Again, Chapter Seven: Fight!

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At some point in the middle of the night, Vincent rose to his feet and stretched subtly. He had his book grasped in his gauntlet gently as he switched off the light and made his way down the hallway. He paused by Ranisa's door and listened. Calm, even breathing and a normal heartbeat... No nightmares so far it seemed. There was the faintest movement at the corner of his mouth before he swept down the hallway and into his room, his door clicking quietly shut behind him.

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XxXxX

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Reeve sat at his desk, brow drawn and his mouth twisted down into a worried frown. He was staring intently at the computer screen in front of him. After a long moment of silence only interrupted by the clicking of keys, he finally leaned back. "We're going to have to ask the Turks. I'm not as good as they are at locating this sort of data, but what I've found so far doesn't look promising." His brown eyes slid over to the man standing beside him.

Cloud looked at the screen and nodded. "I see what you mean…" His voice was soft and toneless, but Reeve felt as though there was a hint of worry there. "I'll call Tseng, he's probably the best one to go to I think…" Reeve nodded in response to Clouds words but held up a hand in a thoughtful gesture. "Leave that to me Cloud, it would look more suspicious if you suddenly wanted their help." He gave Cloud a slight grin and the blonde nodded. He said nothing, but he agreed with Reeve, had hoped the man would say that. Walking around the desk he paused when Reeve sat up, picking up a small square of paper as he did so. "So this is everything you know as of right now, correct?" Cloud looked over his shoulder and gave a nod, though his eyes seemed to grow distant for a moment, a look that indicated he was thinking. "Try also getting in touch with Vincent; he may know more though it's not guaranteed." Reeve nodded and Cloud gave him a look that Reeve knew was the blonde's thanks, before he was gone, out the door with the soft sound of cloth and sure footsteps.

Reeve looked down at the writing on the paper and sighed before picking up his phone in his other hand, tapping out a string of numbers, before raising it to his ear. He hoped there was less to this than there appeared to be, he really did.

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XxXxX

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One amber eye snapped open, blinking in the bright sunlight. A soft, curious growl sounded before Nanaki stretched and rose to his feet. Curious. That was how he described the dream vision he had just witnessed. It would seem he was needed back in Edge. With one last mental debate, he nodded to himself and started off. He would be there by nightfall, surely, with the way the ground flew beneath his strong paws.

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XxXxX

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Golden eyes blinked to see sunlight and Ranisa was pleasantly surprised to find she slept through the night without a dream to recall. Stretching, she stood from the bed and grabbed her clothes from the side table before heading for the bathroom. She paused in the entryway to the living room and frowned. She realized then, listening intently, that either Vincent was as silent as a corpse, or he wasn't in the house. She settled for the latter of the two thoughts before continuing to her shower.

The hot water was soothing against her skin, easing the taunt muscles in her stomach from the now fully healed wound. She shut the water off after she realized she'd been clean for nearly ten minutes now and was just soaking up the warmth of the water. Drying off, she noticed the hairbrush from last night sitting on the edge of the counter. Chuckling despite herself, she realized that Vincent must simply think of everything. Shaking her head, she was grateful, as she brushed the knots from her hair and dressed. She was pleased to find that the black stretchy shirt Vincent had provided her fit perfectly. It was a little snug over her chest but that was alright, she preferred that for practical reasons. She wandered into the living room and then the hall to snatch up her boots before making her way back to the couch to put them on. She had a whole day ahead of her in which she planned on being outside and seeing just what she was capable of.

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Vincent was silently amused. He didn't think Ranisa had noticed him yet, as he was perched atop the house, surprisingly comfortable atop the rim of the chimney, one leg hanging and the other brought up to his chest. The snow was a good three feet deep, but he had cleared it from where he now sat, not bothered at all by the cold. He watched silently as she swung her sword, testing the weight of it as though she knew it but had forgotten. He knew that was exactly it.

Ranisa let her instinct guide her hand as she progressed through a series of simple maneuvers and forms before working effortlessly into more complex ones, the snow not seeming to hamper her at all. She moved a lot like Vincent had seen Cloud do, though there were small differences in form. Vincent was sure that Cloud was more proficient, but on the same note, Ranisa would probably give Cloud a good work out. She was quick and light on her feet and Vincent thought for a moment that whatever had been done to her was far too similar to what had been done to himself. Frowning, he rose to his feet and leapt gracefully down to the ground. Ranisa stopped mid swing, turning her head slightly to see him. She was glad she had recognized that dark aura as Vincent when he moved or she might have attacked him.

Swinging the sword up and into the harness on her back, she turned fully and offered him a small smile. "Good morning Vincent." He nodded in response, a thoughtful gleam in his crimson eyes. Tilting her head slightly, she quirked an eyebrow and said nothing. After a moment, Vincent spoke, voice interested, though she wasn't certain if the minute change in his tone was real or her imagining it.

"You've clearly had training…" She gave him a questioning look, but his response startled her into movement. He had lunged forward, attacking with his clawed arm. Giving a surprised yelp, she dodged to the side, arms coming up in a ready stance. A smirk ghosted across Vincent's face before he blurred into movement again and Ranisa realized he wanted to spar, to test her. An easy and wide grin glided across her face as she accepted the challenge. He was quick, she'd give him that, but so was she. She practically danced, the snow slowing both of their foot work down only minimally, their enhanced muscle more than capable of pushing through the snow as if it were nothing. He seemed to melt away from a well aimed jab, fluidly, bringing one long lean leg towards her head. She ducked, twisting her torso and rocketed forwards, aiming her gloved fist at his ribs. Her fist met metal as he deflected her hand away and she caught his fist as it flew towards her face. She smirked at him as they fell into a flurry of motion.

Vincent leapt into the air, soaring upwards when she tried to sweep his feet from under him, back flipping easily to the top of the house. But she was quick in retaliation, exploding up from the snow to land heavily a few feet from him. He paused, an eyebrow raised, as he noted she seemed just as capable to the inhuman soaring leaps that he was used to seeing in himself and Cloud. Higher and farther than any of the other previously AVALANCHE members, including Cid; but then, that would be the Mako. She grinned at him, though, as she found nothing strange in being able to follow him to the roof… After all, he had jumped there, why couldn't she? Neither of the two were breathing hard or perspiring at all and Vincent let a small smirk plant itself on his face. As much as he hated being what he was, he couldn't deny that enjoyed good sparring sometimes. At least when he knew the other person sparring with him wasn't going to get too hurt. The moment of reflection passed, and both broke into a flurry of motion that ranged from the rooftop to the ground and into the tree line.

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XxXxX

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Muddy brown eyes stared down at some papers on a clipboard, a frown tugging at a too wide mouth. The sound of a tapping foot echoed around the large metal walled room and the man turned his head, looking through the glass of a large, glowing tank filled with greenish liquid. With a sharp sigh of frustration, Dr. Rydell slammed the clipboard down on the metal table next to him. "A failure." There was an edge to his voice that belied the calm look on his face, one that spoke of seething anger. Footsteps caught his attention and he turned his dull eyes to the doorway as one of his assistants walked in.

"Ah, sir? There's been an accident…" The mousy looking male trailed off, clearly terrified to tell Rydell what had happened. The frown deepened on his face and he started tapping his foot again… What was this boy's name again? Ah yes, Henry. Such a stupid boy really. "What is it Henry, I don't have all day."

The boy jumped, startled before stuttering, "A-ah, y-yes. I-I-it seems that um… sometime y-yesterday s-s-specimen 07 …err… escaped." This last word was barely a whisper and Rydell blinked. Then his eyes narrowed and his voice was cold, "What do you mean, escaped." Henry paled to an almost sickly and pasty white. "Well… It ah… seems that … either it figured out how to unlock the door… or… ah… s-s-someone let it out…" Rydell held his anger in check for a moment as he turned around, hands fiddling with something on the table before he picked up his clipboard. "I see… Well that's a shame. Number 7 was the most promising from that particular experiment." He gave a tight lipped smile to the boy who was slowly relaxing. "Well, it can't be helped. Come help me check the others, would you?" Henry nodded, glad to have escaped Rydell's well known anger streak. The boy assumed that his current project must be doing rather well. He could have never known that moments before, the doctor had dubbed it a failure and that there were much worse things than getting stabbed in the throat with a scalpel.

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XxXxX

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Ranisa flopped backwards into the snow, boneless. She winced slightly, having gotten kicked in the shoulder by Vincent about half an hour ago. Those metal boots were far from soft. She had a huge grin plastered on her face and she heaved a sigh, sitting up and looking across the snow to Vincent. The normally tireless gunman was kneeling down in the snow, breathing harder than normal. Red eyes met Golden ones and she started laughing. "Talk about a damn good workout!" There it was again, Vincent's lip twitched up into an almost smile. They had been sparring for hours. He rose fluidly to his feet, the movement surprising since he himself felt like he wanted to lie down and sleep for a few days, before offering his gloved right hand to help her up. She accepted the offer and nearly pulled him over though he didn't move. And Vincent wasn't about to tell her she had nearly knocked him over. Legs feeling akin to a cooked noodle, she hefted her sword from where she had dropped it on the ground hours ago after Vincent's clawed hand had nearly connected with her face. It was hard to bend backwards with a huge sword on your back and not fall over. Slowly, she slid it into its harness and followed Vincent back to the house.

There had been a couple moments where she had reacted on instinct alone and hit him hard, but he hadn't shown it and had promptly paid her back for it, with either a swift kick or a solid punch. It reminded her not to lose focus. What she didn't know, was every time she lost focus like that, her eyes had flashed blue. Vincent hadn't meant to hit her back the first time, but when he had and her eyes snapped back to gold, he realized that was apparently the best way to get her wits back in her head.

Ranisa stumbled over the threshold into the house and caught herself on the wall. Chuckling, she leaned against the wall and started tugging her boots off, fighting with the strings to untie them. Finally, she gave up and left them on, following Vincent into the living room where she plopped down hard on the couch. Head back, she sighed. "That was more fun than I had thought it would be." Vincent smirked into the high collar of his mantle before frowning when he realized it was wet from the snow… and heavy. Deft fingers attacked the buckles and he walked out of the room. He came back a few moments later, the thud of the dryer door shutting and the whirring coming from the utility room giving away that he had put it in the dryer. Ranisa knew she was damp from the snow melting against her, but, she was honestly too tired to care. She looked up, startled by the sight of Vincent without the cumbersome cloak like mantle. It really showed how tall he was… and how thin. It amazed her that someone who looked like they were might be borderline malnourished could be so damned strong. She let her gaze travel back up to the ceiling before they snapped back down. She realized he hadn't just shed the red cloak, but his bandana headband thing as well. He looked different with his hair falling around his face naturally. He glanced over at her when he felt her staring and she just grinned and looked back up. He caught the faintest tinge of red to her cheeks, embarrassment at being caught.

Ranisa glanced at the clock on the wall and blinked at it, as though confused. It was already three in the afternoon… They had been sparring for nearly five or six hours… She frowned. She knew that wasn't normal, knew it deep down. She picked her head up and looked at Vincent who was now sitting in his chair. He looked up at her when he felt her eyes on him yet again, his eyebrow arched.

"We fought for a really long time…." She trailed off and he nodded, understanding. "The Mako in our blood gives us more stamina that normal…" Humans "… people." She nodded before dropping her head back down. She was ready for a nap apparently, her eyelids drooping. She gave into the urge, letting her eyes shut and her body relax into sleep.

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A/N: So sorry about the wait, had a loooot of stuff going on this weekend including my best friend throwing a rod through his engine on our way out to my roommate's parent's house. Fun times in the country. Sigh. Anyways, R&R my pets, RnR.

~Risikaa~