.

Monsters Among Us

Chapter 3

Yuffie

Crossing Mt. Nibel took three days with blizzards raging on and off. During that time, the group kept an eye on Yuffie, particularly the quiet gunman. Now that Vincent was paying proper attention, the full extent of his young companion's offness was becoming apparent.

There were times he'd catch her murmuring to herself and staring off into space, and sometimes she would sing softly to herself when she thought nobody was listening. She exhibited other peculiarities as well, such as her fighting style, which had definitely changed—in a way Vincent found worrying. She brought down her enemies with increased brutality, hacking away at the fiends she encountered until all that remained was a bloody mess. It unsettled him how she seemed to take a silent but morbid kind of pleasure from their battles. Afterward, however, her face would adopt a vacant, faraway look and she wouldn't talk for long periods of time. A silent Yuffie was a troubled Yuffie, Vincent knew. He desperately wished to know what was bothering her but every attempt on his part to broach the subject was evaded.

While not as religious in their watch as Vincent, the others had kept a careful eye on Yuffie as well. They were concerned about her periodic silent episodes and noticeable lack of spirit. She still smiled and joked around for sure, but her actions were subdued. Tifa had taken it upon herself to try and lift the younger girl's mood whenever possible. She hypothesized that perhaps Yuffie's behavior had something to do with womanly issues, and the best kind of person with whom to discuss such issues was another woman.

"Yuffie," Tifa fell back to walk alongside her quiet companion. Her determination to help her friend compelled her to keep trying to get to the bottom of her odd behavior. Reflecting on her conversation with Vincent back in Nibelheim, she decided to see if she couldn't score some information pertaining to the month Yuffie had spent back home. "How are things in Wutai? We didn't hear from you at all while you were away."

Yuffie stared at her feet as she walked. "Everything's fine. As you know, the economy has picked up and we've regained some of our independence as a powerful nation." Her usual chipper smile appeared as she added, "All thanks to me, of course."

Several paces behind the girls, Vincent listened as Tifa attempted to coax Yuffie into opening up to her. He was glad for the older woman's positive presence. He knew he himself was unfit for these kinds of interactions. Cloud tried, but he was clumsy when it came to cheering people up and he often lacked tact. Nanaki was probably the best when it came to giving advice and holding meaningful conversations, but inspiring cheer was not his forte.

"How's your father doing?" Tifa fished, sounding for all the world as though she were simply curious. Vincent made a mental note to keep his guard up around the fist fighter. She was a better actor than most would give her credit for. Behind her soft, motherly veneer, Tifa was a smart and very sharp woman who, with a pretty smile and sweet tongue, could weasel information out of just about anybody.

Yuffie paused at this. "He's being...difficult," she finally said. She kicked a small rock on the trail with the toe of her boot. "Old bastard can't do anything right."

"He isn't forcing another fiancé on you, is he?" Tifa sounded worried. Understandably so, as Godo had tried everything in his power to get his daughter hitched in the year and a half following the geostigma scare. It was largely the reason Yuffie had begun taking on jobs for the WRO and why she had elected to stay and help Tifa with her bar after Deepground had been put down. The emperor of Wutai loved Yuffie, of course, but rules were rules and Yuffie would need to be married before she could take the throne.

"Nah," Yuffie dismissed with a laugh. "He still tries, but he knows I won't marry someone he chooses for me."

"Speaking of which," Tifa smiled coyly, "has anyone caught your eye? You're a healthy teenager. I'm sure there's been a man or two." She wiggled her eyebrows playfully.

"Aw, Tifa!" Yuffie's cheeks developed a faint rose hue.

Tifa's eyes sparkled. "Oooh! You're blushing! So, there has been!"

"What? No!" The ninja denied, waving her hands in front of her as if scandalized that Tifa would suggest that she, great and mighty ninja that she was, would be in any way less than miles above such an ailment as attraction to a male specimen of her species.

Cloud apparently had been listening as well and decided, possibly to his own detriment, to inject himself into the girls' conversation. "Yuffie likes someone? Do we know him?" he asked with interest.

Tifa nudged her younger friend playfully. "Is he Wutain?"

Yuffie stomped her foot petulantly. "Shut up, you guys! You're being embarrassing."

"What's embarrassing?" Nanaki chimed in, coming up beside them.

"Yuffie likes someone," Cloud explained.

"No, I don't!"

Vincent continued to listen quietly as his friends teased the blushing girl. He supposed it made sense that Yuffie would eventually find a man she fancied. She was that age. But the silent gunman couldn't help but feel a small bit uncomfortable at the thought of Yuffie dating. Perhaps he was feeling a tad protective of his young comrade. Relationships and dating were a messy business and he didn't much care for the thought of Yuffie's light being tainted by heartbreak.

"Okay, okay," Tifa reluctantly gave in. "If you say you don't like anyone, I'll stop pestering you about it. It's better that you don't get mixed up with men anyway," she advised sagely. "They're all a bunch of adulterous bastards."

"Excuse me," Cloud interjected, looking offended. "I think it's a little unfair to say that all men are like that."

"You're right," Tifa conceded. "Vincent's not like that."

The blond swordsman made a grumpy face at his childhood friend and stuffed his hands in his pockets petulantly.

"Although, I'm curious, Yuffie," Tifa ignored Cloud and addressed the young ninja again. "What sort of guy do you go for? What's your type?" As an aside, she muttered, "I can't believe we've never talked about this."

It wasn't so strange, Vincent thought. Until now, the group had always seen Yuffie as a child and treated her accordingly. It was just recently that any of them had begun to think of her as a woman in her own right. She'd flown right under the radar with her childish antics and reluctance to participate in conversations that approached any real depth. It was curious, now that he was thinking about it; Yuffie's tendency to abstain from sharing her genuine thoughts and feelings with them. It occurred to Vincent for the first time that despite her affinity for chatter Yuffie was actually quite a private person.

Yuffie appeared to consider Tifa's question for a moment and Vincent did as well. Yuffie was energetic and had a roguish personality. She'd likely be attracted to another deviant; someone quick-witted who could keep up with her youthful vigor and sharp mind. He knew that his teammates were thinking along the same lines as him when he saw Cloud share an uneasy look with Nanaki. Whatever man Yuffie chose was going to be a hell raiser, that look said. Enjoy these fleeting days of peace while you can.

So it was that Yuffie surprised them all when she put her hands on her hips, lifted her chin up high and stated with utmost surety, "I want a gentleman."

This declaration was, of course, met with a whole menagerie of odd looks from her friends. The expressions Vincent observed ranged from perplexed to unsure to full on skeptical.

"A gentleman? You?" Cloud sounded doubtful. His eyebrows had risen in such a way that Vincent thought they might detach from his face and join his spiky yellow fringe.

"Sure," Yuffie said, not missing a beat. "I'm a lady, after all." She made a show of batting her eyelashes while peering up at the group sweetly, making it hard to tell if she was being serious or mocking them.

Cloud snorted and Tifa brought a finger to her chin. Her lips pulled up into an amused smile. "Have you thought about maybe giving Reeve a ring, then?" she teased, giving the younger girl another nudge.

Yuffie crinkled her nose as if the idea of propositioning Reeve for a date were on par with opening the fridge for the first time after an extended holiday. "Naw, he's too old and stuffy."

Old and stuffy, Vincent mentally repeated, crossing his arms beneath his cloak. The motion must have caught the ninja's eye, because she looked back at him and affectionately said, "Aw, don't worry, Vince. Nobody's as old and stuffy as you."

Vincent leveled her a withering look. "Your charm is showing," he informed her blandly, which only caused her to laugh.

"But really, guys," Yuffie said, now grinning, "I don't need a man. I'm the great ninja Yuffie! The single white rose of Wutai. Lugging around a boy toy would just slow me down."

Vincent privately agreed. There weren't many men in the world who could keep up with Yuffie.

Tifa looked like she wanted to say more on the topic but she let it go, choosing instead to return to her fishing mission. "Well, if it's not fiancé related drama then what's Godo being difficult about this time?"

Yuffie huffed and crossed her arms. "He wants me to become more serious about the succession. I told him he's still in perfectly good health and that he can suck on his own cession until he's ready to croak because I'm not going to be tied to that throne just yet. I'm only nineteen, after all."

Tifa smiled knowingly. "So it is about marriage."

Yuffie sighed. "Okay, yeah, it is," she admitted. "But it's not just that. I just..." She looked back down at her boots and her shoulders seemed to slump just a little. "I just wish he'd be honest with me," she finished, sounding a little sad. She immediately perked back up, though, and proclaimed, "But hey! That's that and this is this and there's no point in worrying about some dumb fiancé that I'm not even going to marry. We've got a real problem on our hands, here."

She didn't say any more after that no matter how much Tifa prodded.

oO0Oo

Yuffie was a good liar. It was a skill she'd spent many years perfecting and it was one she prided herself on. Fiancé trouble. As if. If that were her only concern she wouldn't be concerned. She knew how to work around Godo. The old oaf had no real authority over her anymore and they both knew it. No, if Yuffie did harbor a concern, it wasn't that. Any good ninja knows, however, that a well-crafted lie usually contains a kernel of truth, and the truth was that Yuffie was, in fact, concerned about a family related matter.

No, perhaps concerned was the wrong word. To say she had an ill feeling would be more accurate. Yuffie had suspected for some time that something was happening not just to Gaia's monsters but to herself as well. She could feel its shadow stirring deep within her; past her blood and guts and bones to her very core. Try to pretend though she certainly had that the cause of her recent deviance derived from some curable affliction, she had a fairly good idea already of the real cause. And if she was being honest—something she tried to avoid as a general rule—she'd admit that she'd known all along that it was only a matter of time.

Tifa's words the morning of their departure from Nibelheim had only strengthened her postulations about just what was really afoot here, and the mere thought of it weighed down on her with a gravity that was rapidly increasing in magnitude. Because if she was correct in her assumption, she didn't know how she was going to tell her friends. Or rather, what could she tell them? Tifa would try to be supportive, Yuffie knew, but if it came down to a choice between helping her and the safety of their friends... Yuffie couldn't bear to force the sweet brunette who had become like an older sister to her to make such a decision. Or any of her comrades, for that matter. Of course, that was assuming they still accepted her after learning the truth. Vincent, at least, would probably understand, but…

Yuffie grimaced and trained her gaze ahead. No, the only people she could confide in were locked inside a pagoda back in Wutai. She couldn't push this onto her friends; not after everything she'd already put them through. But now that Avalanche had found her again there was no way they were going to just let her leave without an explanation. Not until their mission was complete. She was therefore faced with a choice: sneak away and hide like a coward and hope she could keep the monster at bay until everything was sorted—for better or worse—or help Cloud and the others find and eliminate the source of the fiends' strange behavior and potentially solve all their problems.

The choice should be simple. Were this any other situation, Yuffie wouldn't hesitate to throw herself into the thick of it, metaphorical guns blazing, until the evil of the day was reduced to an unattractive smear of internal organs and Fire3. But this wasn't any other situation and if Yuffie stayed, there was the very real possibility that someone else would end up an unattractive smear. The only question was whether that smear would be one of her friends or herself.

It was as she was contemplating this that a tall, crimson clad figure fell silently into step beside her, the hem of his cloak sweeping just above the frosty ground and kicking up small swirls of dry powder. Yuffie peeked up at his face and saw that his eyes were focused ahead, not sparing even a brief glance at the girl he flanked, but Yuffie knew him well enough by now to tell that he had approached her out of concern.

"Hey, Vinnie," she acknowledged softly and nudged him in greeting. "Worried because I haven't terrorized anyone in the past thirty minutes?"

Vincent was like a towering, slender shadow walking quietly alongside her with long, relaxed strides. He didn't say anything and Yuffie didn't expect him to. He was the type that rarely spoke unless there was something of import to say. But he always listened. Yuffie could tell he was listening right now, patiently waiting for her to tell him what was on her mind.

"Don't get your gloomy black panties in a twist. I was just kidding about you being old and stuffy," she teased in an effort to deflect the issue she knew he wanted her to address with him.

"Yuffie..."

Vincent's deep, calm voice stating her name always shut Yuffie up. It was one of several effects he had on her. All he had to do was say Yuffie in that mellow, erudite way of his and she would draw nearer to him, intent on hearing whatever it was he was about to say. After all, any utterance made with voice like Vincent's was bound to be important. Maybe that was the reason he spoke so infrequently. When you sounded like Vincent Valentine, verbalizing any thought that was less than deeply profound would just sound ridiculous. To illustrate, try imagining Vincent saying "three puffy, pretty ponies pranced off to pig out on pancakes." You see? All kinds of wrong. Yuffie sent the stoic gunman a mental apology for having to live with such an affliction.

"If something is troubling you, your friends are there to listen." Apparently this was today's deeply profound pearl of wisdom.

Yuffie quirked an eyebrow at the cloaked gunslinger. "Wow, Vince. That was so hypocritical I don't even know what to say to it."

Vincent didn't bat an eyelash. As usual, he wasn't bothered in the least by her backtalk. "Try, 'Yes, Vincent. I understand and will endeavor to take advantage of my comrades' desire to help me because they are my friends and by extension harbor concerns for my physical and emotional wellbeing.'"

Yuffie blinked, for once completely silenced. She looked up at her companion just to be sure he'd actually said what she thought she'd heard him say. He met her look with his usual neutral expression.

"Are you making fun of me?"

Vincent turned his face back to the front. "That wasn't my intention." His tone was the same as ever, but something—perhaps it was the less severe curve of his mouth as he looked away—belied him.

Yuffie felt her own lips pull up at the corners, genuine mirth bubbling up within her. The longest string of words Vincent had ever said to her and it was banter. She rewarded him with an approving nod. "Losing Chaos was good for you."

"I'd like to think so," he agreed mildly. Awarding her with another glance, he added, "I hope you'll give what I said some thought."

Yuffie frowned, a little confused by the gunman's uncharacteristic show of concern. Did he suspect that something was wrong? Was one of his freaky demonic nogginmates a mind reader? Or perhaps she was just transparent. Even Tifa had been prying more than usual, after all. The nineteen-year-old hadn't anticipated her comrades would pay so much attention to her. They never had in the past. It miffed her a little that after all the times she'd tried her darnedest to be noticed by them—only to be brushed off time and again—they'd pick now to suddenly develop an interest in her affairs.

If only she could remember what happened in Nibelheim. Tifa had told her she'd snuck out in the night and attacked two townsmen. Yuffie recalled none of it. It frightened her, hearing that she'd nearly been responsible for the murders of two innocents but being unable to summon up the incident in her mind. If she couldn't remember attacking those people, how could she guarantee that such a thing wouldn't happen again? Put simply, she couldn't, and that answer was unacceptable.

"Sure, Vince," she agreed without revealing a hint of her internal turmoil. "After you."

She expected silence or even some witty retort for her sass. She did not expect to feel the gentle pressure of Vincent's gloved palm as it briefly came to rest on her crown. It lingered there only for a moment before he picked up his pace and rejoined the others, leaving her to try and wrap her mind around her normally prickly comrade's sudden and very odd increase in affection toward her.

"Well, damn. Get rid of Death Gigas and I reckon he'll start giving hugs," she muttered, staring after him in bemusement.

oO0Oo

Rocket Town was a mess. Not even Reeve's grim reports had prepared Avalanche for the scene that greeted them upon their arrival the afternoon of their fourth day after departing Nibelheim. A makeshift wall had been erected around the town using vehicles and chunks of destroyed buildings. The houses and shops that still stood were cracked and shredded in places as though a heard of behemoths had stampeded through. It was a picture of terrifying and indiscriminate destruction and the whole group was rendered speechless upon seeing it.

Cid, on the other hand, had plenty of voice left and he was overjoyed to see them. The team could tell because he grinned like an unshaven hyena and let loose the most impressive—not to mention creative—string of expletives probably ever uttered by anyone in the Planet's long history. "Y'all ain't seen shit if y'think this is bad," he told them afterward, gesturing around at the damaged town. "We're lucky. There's village not four miles from here what got completely wiped off the map. Those that survived came here, 'n we've been lookin' after 'em, but it's a helluva grim scene. We can't even send anyone to check on it because those damn monsters are out there butcherin' anyone who tries to go west." The scruffy pilot took a long drag on his cigarette and then threw harshly to the ground where he stamped it out with his boot.

Vincent observed silently as Cloud swore and Tifa touched his arm in that gently reassuring way of hers. Nanaki wore a somber expression and Yuffie was peering around at the destruction, looking uncomfortable. Vincent himself was calm, but even he was alarmed by the severity of the situation. Reeve hadn't been kidding when he'd said Rocket Town was in need of reinforcements. What had started as a fairly straightforward investigation into odd wildlife behavior was now looking like the first stages of a proper crisis.

"Tell me everything," Cloud commanded, his too-blue eyes flashing with resolve. "We're going to get to the bottom of this and we're going to start now."

Tifa nodded in agreement. The look in her wine-colored eyes was fierce. It was easy to tell by looking at her that she was ready to lay down some serious hurt on the fiends that had beset her friend's town. Vincent was no longer paying attention to her or Cloud, though. Of far more interest to him was the young ninja who was now staring wistfully off to the west.

At that time, the quiet gunman had no way of predicting the harrowing chain of events that were soon to unfold. If only he could go back, he would lament later, to that moment; standing in the afternoon sun with his friends all around him, a gentle breeze ruffling his hair and hope in his heart; he might be able to avoid the terrible tragedy that, like a ninja, had already begun to encroach on them, unseen, unheard, and unnoticed.

oO0Oo

Well, lookey who updated. There are about a million places where I am unsatisfied with my writing in this chapter but I decided to post it anyway because I'm tired of fiddling with it. I'm already slow enough with the updates as it is. I'm hoping that as we get closer to the release of the remake I'll find more incentive to work on this. Yuffie and Vincent are honestly really fun to write about.

Till next time!