Vincent Valentine didn't like working with others.
Not to say that he was completely incapable of it, he just preferred not to. This was a known fact to everyone in Shin-Ra's Department of Administrative Research especially the department head, Veld. So when the rookie and he were given the same assignment, Vincent wondered if they'd finally gotten sick of the boy.
It wasn't like Dax was bad at his job, though the friendly fire he was prone to was a big check against him; he was just… well… young… and annoying.
Extremely annoying.
It was a simple guard job. The better part of Midgar's upper plate was still under heavy construction, specifically the Mako reactors and Shin-Ra wanted to keep their newest pet project as safe as possible. Not that it was all that necessary most people didn't have access to the upper plate, but there in lie the problem; it was a boring assignment and Dax couldn't help but point it out every two minutes.
After only about an hour or so he'd managed to lose Dax, on purpose of course. Despite being extremely patient, even Vincent had his limits and the rookie Turk set an all new record for reaching them. This part of the plate was far from complete, more than most of it was the skeletal structure that would hold up the finer points of the new city. He was walking on support beams, staring down hundreds of feet to see the sectors far below. A few people scurried around in the dark; they were pinpricks in his eye sight from so far away. In a few more years those areas would be blocked from the sunlight forever.
It was a depressing prospect but Vincent hadn't been hired to study the psychological aspects of a city hidden from the sun. The Turk was even finding it hard to bring the sympathy for those people to mind; it was like a piece of him had been cut out, the part that actually cared for the lives of those around him.
Veld, he thought numbly, would be proud.
The moon sat full and high overhead, making the careful steps he needed to keep from falling to his death easy to judge. This wasn't like Vincent; to ignore an order and go off on his own, but he couldn't handle any more time with the rookie; he was far too overbearing for the silent Turk. It was like being stuck in a room with a dog that had the most annoying bark and who won't stop barking.
Besides, Dax was more than capable of completing a simple guard missions alone.
A girl screamed. Nothing new in the slums below, except that the sound came from above him; empty space. His head snapped in the direction, his hand instinctively went to his hip, his gun, but he quickly abandoned the notion.
Form the end of a support beam hung a girl by the fingers of one hand, other was holding tight to a massive shuriken. She flailed her legs wildly, trying to gain enough momentum to swing herself up onto the beam, but her kicks where doing little more than weakening her hold on her only support. What was worse, there was only empty space around and below her. Everything was far too out of reach for her to grab or aim for if she fell. It was like the girl herself appeared from empty space. She yelped as her grip slipped all the more, yet she still refused to drop that shuriken; as if it was more important than her life even then.
He had just enough time to wonder why she wouldn't just let the weapon go and save herself and how idiotic he was for even thinking he could pull this off in the first place before her grip gave way and she fell with a piercing shrill. He jumped.
They clashed in midair, his arm wrapped around her waist, her downward momentum pulling them at an angle. They hit a beam lying unattached and waiting to be fitted and bolted into place, the force and weight of their bodies giving it just enough a push, despite its immense weight, to slip from its perch. The beam however, falling in a completely opposite direction stole away their remaining momentum and gave Vincent enough time to plant his feet and jump to the safety of a much more secure section. The giant plank of steel tumbled downwards, clanging metal against heavy metal with a defining boom that made his ears burn and sent a tremor up and down the entire structure. Vincent silently hoped that there wouldn't be any major damage to the construction and, if there was, that they wouldn't be able to prove he was there at all
The girl seemed more then slightly dazed as he gently leaned her back against the L shape of the scaffolding. Her brown hair was cut short, boyish almost. Her clothing was strange; a blue strapless top, over a black one, pulled high above her midriff by a pointless belt, orange shorts that come up so high on her thighs they seemed to belong to a child. Wristbands, headbands, fingerless gloves, bags with ties and more, her boots came up to her knees and socks up to her thighs, no, he'd not seen stranger then this before.
The universe detests your very existence, Vincent. He bitterly thought to himself, trying to divert his eyes from her. It's trying to prove you're not as impervious to change as you'd like the world to believe.
The girl groaned, rubbing her temples with her fingertips, the massive weapon somehow managed to escape a fall and settled neatly in her lap. At least he now wouldn't be caught staring.
...
Yuffie vision was blurry and the world rocked like she was riding the Tiny Bronco on rough waters, but without the motion sickness induced nausea. Of course, the moment she thought about it was the moment that nausea decided to plague her again. That's where the groan had come from and she massaged her temples to try to placate it.
It wasn't helping.
"Anyone get the name of the Weapon that hit me?" She grumbled as she rubbed her eyes until they finally cleared.
For a moment she was going to ask when he'd cut his hair, she'd certainly never seen it that short. It took her the time to open her mouth to realize that not only was his hair short but his ever present red cape was not so ever present. "Vincent!" She squeaked, her voice hitting a note that made him cringe a little, or was that confusion on his face? She wasn't used to seeing the emotions pattern across his face so plainly; watching his face crease and his lips thin was a new sight.
"How do you know my name?" He asked simply. Yuffie must have imagined the subtle tilt in his head. Vincent did not- absolutely did not- respond so openly. He did not have short hair, he was never without that swirling red cloak and he did not wear that blue Turk suit.
"Um- uh… " She stuttered lamely.
Lie, lie, lie! her brain squealed not helping at all.
"You-You're… uhh…"
"VINCENT!" Someone called from a more stable area of the platform. He too was wearing the dark blue Turk suit. Oh thank you! She was saved! "We've got monsters over by reactor 2! I need your help!"
Vincent muttered something, low, under his breath. Standing before reaching a hand down to the girl he'd rescued. "Can you walk?" She nodded mutely, taking his hand and letting him pull her back to her feet without any effort on his part. He was already searching for a way back to the main platform; their current perch left it hard to return to the main plate.
"Dax- I'll have to take the long way around." He shouted to the younger boy who was looking on anxiously. Yuffie couldn't help but notice that even his voice sounded different; it didn't have much of that gravely scratchiness she was used to. "Stall, I'll be there as soon as I can."
The boy Turk- Dax, ran off again and they were alone once more.
"I can help." She said suddenly, surprising herself with her own voice. Vincent gave her an incredulous look, making Yuffie frown, her hands on her hips. "Really! That's what this is for!" She held up her shuriken pointedly. "-As a thank you for saving me?" She finally added earning a slow slump of his shoulders that put a smile on her face. They might look – and act, maybe- a little different, but she knew Vincent Valentine like no one else. That little motion meant 'fine, you win.'
"Wutai, right?" he asked, turning those blood-red eyes away from her and interrupting her mental happy dance. He was assessing the situation again; apparently her being of Wutai was something of importance. She nodded numbly again, finding he stole the words out of her mouth before they even had a chance to get there. Was it because he was so a like to the Vincent she knew, or, because they were so different that kept her mind spinning in circles?
He was walking suddenly, hopping onto another bit of steal framework. She traced the path his eyes where following with her own; with a little imagination and a heavy dose of luck there was a possibility that the main platform could be reached by jumping across several metal beans, and running along two more that where still suspended by giant cranes.
It was a haphazard and more than a little dangerous path to the platform he was considering, but, she figured, the only other option was to go down and then come back up. No, that would take far too long even for a Vincent who could jump fifteen feet in the air, (She always wanted to try and measure that guess). The sound of his steps suddenly hit a crescendo as he ran and leaped, running along a suspended beam a moment later as it swung and making the platform with room to spare, but taking it in a roll from the height difference that was left. Crouched on the cement floor he turned those ruby eyes back to her, a faint look of amusement on his face. Her she narrowed her eyes and puffed her cheeks in aggravation; he was teasing her, daring her to run the same route he'd just done and make it.
She had a little problem though. The massive shuriken on her back made it impossible for her to bend and roll enough for her to copy his movements. But this was as close to laughing as Vincent ever got, as far as she knew. With a roll of her eyes she tossed the shuriken high into the air. The sharp blade came down, imbedding itself into the cement at least six inches. Proud of that, at least, Yuffie took the same route he did and leapt.
But of course, on the last beam, she'd miss judge the distance.
Her toes landed on the edge and she flailed her arms in a despite attempt not to fall backwards, an attempt that was failing miserably. She squeaked reaching out blinding for anything to grab on to, feeling dread for the second time that day until something grabbed her hand.
Vincent pulled her forward, his arm going around her waist till she found her balance once again, his hand still grasping gently to her wrist. Yuffie had never seen this mask on his face before. He was amused by her, a ghost of a smile on his lips that shinned in his eyes.
At that thought she took it back, she had seen it before, only it was always covered by the high collar of a red cloak; she'd seen the smile in his eyes. Usually when she'd done something stupid and he'd have to save her sorry butt. "You can help." He said softly, she had to strain her neck to look up at him. "But be careful?"
A wild Cheshire grin plastered on her face as she spun gracefully from his grasp, skipping over to retrieve her weapon. "Careful?" She proclaimed, donning the massive four-pointed weapon in a victory pose. "I'm the great ninja Yuffie Kis-" It was as if a lightning bolt had struck her. Sure, she'd been thinking about it all this time, but it never really registered in her mind; here she was talking with Vincent Valentine, but not the demon-burdened stoic man she'd known. He stood watching her a curious look on his face, obviously wondering what was going on, his left hand shoved in the pocket of his suit. She swallowed hard, remembering the few things the stoic gunman had let slip over the years and realizing that to be seeing him here like this she was somehow transported at least thirty years in the past.
Thirty years.
Is this how Vincent had felt when they'd awoken him from that coffin? Confused, lost and out of place? She had new respect for the man, how he'd managed to not turn into a sniveling hunk of panic was a mystery to her. Actually, giving it some thought Yuffie realized exactly how he did it; he focused himself with their mission, with each and every fight and only thinking on the one to come until his mind was ready to cope with the time flux he'd found himself in.
It was a wonder why he was so quite then and even now; he had been trying to hold himself together and, probably, still he felt out of place in their world and it- also probably- had a bit to do with the monsters in his brain trying to take over all the time. Yeah. That was a safe bet.
She took a leaf out of Vincent's preverbal book, read it a few times, shoved it in her mouth and turned it into a spit ball with the name of the next monster she saw on it. Anything he could do she would have a monument carved in her honor of her exploits over.
Apparently Turk Vincent had gotten tired of waiting for her and had just brushed passed her when her thoughts had let their claim over her go. She, squeaking at him to wait up, spun on her heels dashing after him and was secretly thankful that he didn't seem capable of those shadowy-transporter moves he was so found of later.
...
Dax had said monsters. These were not like any monster Vincent had ever heard of or seen. They were easily the size of a Behemoth, if not bigger, their bodies where jet black with no depth or shadow to them. They stood on for legs, but had the length in their forearms to look like they simply dragged their knuckles. He'd almost accused them of being two dimensional, as their blackened appendages disappeared into the void of their bodies if they were not angled correctly. Where their skin met air, the outline of their body if it could be given name, gave way into wispy smoke while still having that depthless black to it. They looked like some kind of cutout or cartoon against the real world, out of place and purely unnatural.
The claw marks he earned on his arm proved, however, that they were also very deadly. The creature that made those marks lay face down on the cement behind him, proving Vincent was equally as deadly.
At the very least Dax and Yuffie seemed to be better back up than he expected. The former, knowing he was prone to friendly fire kept his back to the both of them, trusting them to cover him and keeping his lackluster skills in check. The latter, however, wasn't what he'd expected at all. He'd allowed her to come along, mostly so that she wouldn't be able to run off, and partly because he'd been surprised by her on that small little test he'd given her.
Maybe he was giving her too much credit at the time, but had she taken to account that the heavy weapon was not on her hand to balance herself she wouldn't have almost fallen backwards. She'd made a perfect landing otherwise, though she did prove she was impulsive and hard-headed at the same time. Now, however, he had no doubt; two of the eight creatures they'd begun with were already dark slumps of lifelessness thanks to her shuriken. There was a bit of blood on her leg, of course he'd have to notice, from the claws of one of those beasts, but it hardly seemed to bother her. She sprang and vaulted, running along the wall, vertically, to land a painful hit on top of the depthless creature's head.
Dax yelped, falling back as a black mass descended on him, his gun clattering from his hand to the floor. The beast rose one of its giant sized clawed hands, flexing the fingers before ripping through the air towards the Turk with a roar.
A roar that turned into a shriek of pain as two holes opened up in its palm. Vincent fired again, this time taking aim at the thing's snarling face. Or maybe it wasn't snarling; the blackness lead to more blackness, it was hard to tell if it even had eyes or even teeth, but then that wouldn't account noises it made. Three more shots to the head and then he thought he heard something crack, or it could have been his gun clicking empty. Luckily, the thing finally went down as he was reaching for a new clip.
Dax had scrambled for his gun, picking it up and aiming it in just enough time to earn an extremely lucky shot to the head of one more monster that charged for him. Body lifeless, but still fuelled with momentum, it smacked the ground and slid. Friction didn't steal enough energy from it and it crashed into Dax, flinging the boy backwards and trapping him between wall and beast. Other than being pinned, the boy was fine. There were still three more monsters.
She was on the defensive, fending off three sets of deadly claws meant she could do little else but dodges and the rare glancing blow that was more to save her own skin then for damage. From this distance he couldn't get a killing shot; their head seemed to be their only weak spot, but it was so indistinct that it made it hard to tell what was actually being hit.
Still, it seemed like he scored as one of the beasts fell backwards in a slump. The other two angered over their fallen kin, charged him. He fired, but they seemed unfazed by the bullets.
They were almost on top of him, when one of them smashed head first into the ground. Yuffie stood atop of it, her shuriken imbedded in its skull, her foot on the back of its head. She turned to the other.
Too slow.
He rolled underneath its massive body; two shots lost in the depth of its chest somewhere, missing claws as it passed. It skidded to a stop, sliding on the ground a kicking up dirt, giving Vincent enough time to reload a clip before it charged again.
He jumped, running up on that outstretched claw, unbalancing the monster as he twisted to his knees on its shoulders. Point blank to the back of the skull, two smoking holes opened up and the thing hit the ground with a crunch. Its body shuttered in death and went still.
Yuffie was staring at him. He lifted the handgun again, and her eyes went wide as she realized it was aimed at her. She squealed and ducked as he pulled the trigger.
The first of the three fell down again, this time not getting up.
She glanced behind her realizing the monster almost had her head in what would be its teeth. "You had to kill that one twice! It doesn't count!" She shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth, needlessly projecting her voice.
For a moment he was confused. Then he realized; she was keeping score. The last one not counting meant they were tied. He ran a free hand though his mass of bangs with a shake of his head. "If it means that much to you." He replied, her face going red as he brushed her off.
Hoping down from the monster corpse, he walked over to where Dax was still trying desperately to free himself. "Hey, little help?" He whined, not that Vincent could do anything; Dax was lucky he had the room to breathe right now. He shook his head, something else coming to mind.
That crack he heard, it defiantly wasn't a gun misfire.
One by one, monster flesh began to bubble like acid had been poured on it and much like acid; the bodies began to fade into nothingness. He never understood that reaction, something only monsters seemed to do. Maybe it was the planet's way of cleaning up its own mess.
The monster he was looking for faded away he could reach it, but it left something behind. Crouching, he picked the small piece from the ground, turning it around in his hand. It looked like glass, glowing yellow and red that swirled as he turned it and settled again when still. It looked like materia, but materia only came in single colors. Yuffie came up beside him, followed by a limping Dax, and he held it up for them to see.
"Not Materia." Yuffie stated flatly, though the expression on her face said she wasn't so sure of her words. Dax shook his head, not knowing enough about the stuff to comment.
He nodded in agreement, pocketing the piece and standing. "Dax needs to see a medic back at the company." He commented, turning to Yuffie as he spoke. Dax whined in the background, but was pointedly ignored. "You're welcomed to come with." He offered, knowing instantly that the girl really didn't want to. He filed that away with the rest of the strange things she'd said and done.
"Suit yourself." He added after a moment's pause where she said nothing. Walking off, abet a bit slow with Dax's limp. He only got a few steps before she squeaked.
"Wait-Wait! I'm coming too!" She ran back, having left her shuriken in her last monster's head; it now lay on the ground innocently, before trotting up beside him, letting the boy lag behind. "Hey. Umm…" Her eyes flicked from side to side. "You're left handed." She commented.
"Along with ten percent of the population." He replied. Her question in disguise was strange enough to catch him off guard, hence his smart reply.
She snorted a laugh, trying to keep it hidden.
Yes. She was very, very strange.
...
Apparently both Yuffie and Vincent had something in common. They both didn't like doctors all that much and both had trouble letting one take care of a wound they'd deem superficial. Of course, that was where the common ground ended. Vincent lamented to the treatment knowing the sooner it was started the sooner it would end.
Yuffie whined like a little baby.
And so did Dax.
On their way in, Vincent had flagged down one of the assistance while the others were not looking, especially the Wutai girl, and sent a message for Veld to come met them here. There was no way he was getting Yuffie any farther into the building then this; the indescribable look on her face, the only one so far, said much to her dislike of this place. Her reaction put him off. ShinRa wasn't all that bad…
But, it could be argued, it was getting there.
Treasons thoughts didn't last, Veld finally walked into the room and shooed the doctors away. "Vincent, Dax, report." He stated simply pulling up one of the rolling doctor's chairs.
"Monsters in the reactor, you wouldn't believe me if I described them to you." Vincent's voice, somehow carried over Dax's as the boy began jabbering on like a five year old, describing in detail and with plenty of sound effects, the monsters and their ensuing fight. He was left to animate his version of events, one where he saved both Vincent's and Yuffie's lives several times, in the background.
Veld frowned a little, half listening to Dax, as Vincent pulled the shard of glowing glass from his pocket for him to see. "Not like Materia I've ever seen, what do you think?" Vincent merely shrugged his shoulders.
With a sigh, the Turk stood, walking the few steps towards Yuffie, whom until then had also been ignored. "And what about you my dear, what where you doing out there?"
She shyly poked the tips of her index fingers together. "Well you see…" She began, her eyes darting in search of something to say. Veld was watching him out of the corner of his eye; he gave the man a faint nod. The next thing out of the girl's mouth would be a lie.
"I uh… Came here looking for work. " She stuttered, it looked like it was out of nervousness.
"Then, what where you doing in the construction area of the plate?" Veld went on.
"I got lost."
Vincent couldn't tell whether that was truth or not; he gave Veld the 'inconclusive' sign.
"Then it's a good thing my boys found you." Veld sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. "What's your name?"
"Yuffie Kis…owa… Kisowa."
She remembered her slip up, Vincent was impressed, and still, it was a lie.
"You're from Wutai, right?"
"Yes." Truth.
"Are you trained?"
"Trained in what, Sir?"
"Well, I'm not too versed in the countries' custom… Vincent, what's it called?"
"Ninjitsu. She'd be a kunoichi. A ninja." He replied.
"Oh," Yuffie mumbled. "Y-Yes, I'm a ninja." She'd been about to deny it, and had apparently barely remembered her boastful instruction in its entirety this time.
"Where you sent here by Wutai?"
"No." Inconclusive.
"They don't like us all that much, after all. A bit xenophobic, though we've tried being diplomatic with them." That struck a chord in the girl; she flinched a little at his words. "The thing is, Yuffie, I'll have to offer my apologies. Vincent's kind of like a human lie detector." The Turk in question huffed, not liking the way Veld said that. "Now, I don't really think you're here to cause mischief or anything, but you see; the way things have been with Wutai lately, we can't let anything go."
She fidgets under his gaze, even though Veld voice had gone kind, trying to go easy on her. "If you were honest about needing a job, I can help you out with that."
"I wouldn't know what to do." Yuffie mumbled softly, looking like a canary in a cage.
"She's an excellent fighter." Vincent offered. "Far better then she'd lead you to believe." Yuffie whined a 'Hey! What's that supposed to mean?' in the background. "We're rather short staffed… " He trailed off, Veld understood what he was getting at and nodded thoughtfully.
"What? What?" Yuffie squeaked standing between the men. Her head swung from side to side, hand clenched under her chin like a child, trying to decide which of them where more important.
"Infectious, aren't you?" The Turk commander commented with a chuckle. "Yuffie. ShinRa's main objective is to keep the populace of Midgar- both upper and lower- as content as possible."
The Wutai girl seemed to calm at this, Vincent watched her with interest. She wasn't saying anything, but she was thinking of something serious, she knew something that she wasn't telling them.
"What I'm saying is," Veld went on. "That the people look to ShinRa to keep them safe; they expect us to deal with monster outbreaks and other things they are not skilled enough to do themselves, but there are far too many requests for my group to handle. If you're willing, I would like you to unofficially work with us in that regard. I'll have to crack out the details, but that'll be the basic idea."
Yuffie was quite for a long moment, which somehow seemed strange when compared to her mostly jubilant behavior thus far, Veld waited her out. "Can I pick and choose? Like, I get a say what missions I take… right?"
"If that's what you want, I see no problem with it." Veld replied east enough. Vincent was deep in thought, she was still hiding something. Normally Vincent was far better at reading things, but this exuberant girl, who switched facades at the drop of a hat, had him vexed. She was a wild card that he could only predict some of the time. He didn't like wild cards, didn't like unpredictability. "Anyway," Veld went on, snapping his mind out if it's private reverie. "Vincent, I'll need a report on what happened at the reactor."
Vincent frowned. "Get Dax to do it." He muttered, ignoring the expected protests from the boy Turk.
"Fine." Veld shrugged, standing to walk out the door. He paused, putting a hand on the frame, before turning to the three. "Dax, you're stuck with the report. Vincent, take Yuffie home with you."
"What."