You know, the whole time we were fighting Sephiroth, I always had this annoying voice inside my head that told me I shouldn't really be here. I mean...everyone else had reasons for being there, apart from me. They all had some interesting back story that tied them in with everyone else. Me? Not really. I was just tagging along. No one really wanted me there... like if I had just disappeared, they could still go defeat Sephiroth without me. I wasn't really part of it...I was optional.

--

It was kinda strange I bumped into the AVALANCHE crew in the first place. It was completely by chance in one of the forests near Gongaga. I had just finished packing up camp in the morning and I. Was. Grumpy. It's not my fault if they came up behind me with materia on show, what else was I supposed to do!? Turned out to be a bad decision. Cloud can hit pretty hard when he wants to.

....I could beat him now though.. They just caught me off guard.

There were two girls with him that first time. One had beautiful long black hair reaching down past her waist and wine coloured eyes, classically beautiful you know, with a real emotion behind her surprisingly strong fists. The other girl was more mysterious, her eyes glowed green slightly in the dim forest light, and her magic skills beyond human capacity. I wondered what they were doing around such an empty part of forest, and worried secretly that they were hired by my father to take me back to Wutai.

It was earlier that month when my father summoned me to the top of the pagoda tower when trouble started. I stared at my feet while Godo spoke to me, drumming my fingers on the floor impatiently. I wanted to get back to my training and Godo was just going on and on and on about something really boring.

"Yuffie!" He snapped.

I rolled my eyes and looked up at him, I just assumed he'd found out I'd stolen another one of Gorkii's materia.

"Did you listen to anything I just said?!" His fierce gaze looked down on me.

"Yeah, yeah, alright, I won't steal any more materia, gawd, you were the one who taught me how. Anyway he really shouldn't just leave that stuff lying arou-"

"YUFFIE!"

"What?!" I posed innocently trying to keep his temper under control.

"I wasn't talking about you're childish antics, Yuffie, I was talking about you leading Wutai into the New Year." He rubbed his temples and gave me a tired look.

"What? Okay, yeah, like I could rule a country. Good one Godo, you know women aren't allowed to rule without a husba..."

He fidgeted in his chair silently.

"....WHAT?!" I exploded jumping back onto my feet, "You want me to get married?!"

"Well-"

"I'm freakin' SIXTEEN!"

"Exactly, you're verging on womanhood and well I'm not getting any younger-"

"What the hell? Gawd, I don't care how old you are. I don't care if you die a shrivelled old man living at the top of Da Chao and your last dying wish was for me to rule the country, I'm not getting freakin' married!!" So I stomped out of the pagoda, packed my bags, and ran away.

So now I had this choice. I could either; run back to Wutai and apologise to my father and get married like he wanted me to, run away from Cloud and his friends and steal a bit of their materia, or join them in their quest to find Sephiroth. Well it's pretty obvious I didn't pick the first one. The second choice had it's perks but, if I stayed and joined them, maybe I could learn how the girl uses so much materia at once. That was my original intention anyway.

Soon I found myself attached to this group of hell raisers, we were like family to each other. Albeit a slight dysfunctional one, but a family nonetheless.

The Journey we took made me stronger, much stronger than I was before. I thought it was finally safe to return to Wutai. I mean, it's not like I hadn't proven myself before. I defeated everyone at the pagoda, including Godo himself, and saved the freakin' world! Plus with all the materia I had mastered I thought I must have proven that I could run Wutai by myself (by this time I had thought about the idea and wouldn't mind being 'Lady Kisaragi' as long as there didn't need to be a Master Kisaragi), I even stole one of Cloud's materia!

.....It was Ultima...he didn't use it that much...I think..

But no! Godo was having none of it. Saying tradition is tradition, even he couldn't change that.

So I ran away again. He did say he was proud of me, but I was far from forgiving him when I left.

After that I didn't know what to do with myself. There wasn't much to do. I mean, I fought a couple of big battles with some friends but I still didn't feel like going back home, I knew Godo would NOT let me get away again. It was so boring though! Just killing the odd monster and checking up with a few relatives, in the end I ran out of gil and there was no one else to turn to... Aw crap.

It was late summer when I returned to Wutai. The leaves were slowly turning red and sun crept low in the sky. Godo was waiting for me at the entrance of my house. He looked up when he saw me coming with hope in eyes that were tired and heavy. Shuffling towards me slowly, he placed a hand on either shoulder and whispered in my ear.

"You came, you finally came."

Suddenly his hand caught a tight grip on my ear as anger erupted on his face. The stupid lier. He screamed his head off at me in front of the whole town and stomped up into the pagoda red faced, whilst still holding onto my now violent pink ear. He let go of me when we reached the top but shut the door and had Chekov guard behind it so I couldn't escape.

"HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU RUN AWAY AGAIN AND NOT RETURN FOR ALMOST THREE YEARS!" He wasn't too happy about the whole affair. "I COULD KILL YOU RIGHT NOW YUFFIE, I REALLY COULD!"

"Actually you probably couldn't, remember I beat you three years ago."

"Stop it, Yuffie! This is not a joke, what would've happened if I had died? Who would have ruled Wutai?" He looked more serious now and a lot less angry.

"Well then I would have had to take leadership without a husband. What a shame that would have been!" I slumped on the floor in front of him, rubbing my ear slightly.

"So you've just been waiting me to die? Well you're not getting away this time. You are staying in Wutai and you are getting married whether you like it or not! I've already chosen your groom."

"What?! You can't force me to get married! I could kill you old man, and your little minions. I've done it before and I'll do it again!" He had taken my weapons and materia off me when we entered the pagoda but he didn't know about the shurikens in the pocket of my shorts.

"Ah but have you taken us all on at the same time?" He had me there."Look, will you at least meet him?"

"Fine, but if he turns out to be some old creepy perverted guy so help me gods!" At this point I decided to get up, I could make a run for the door when he opens it.

"Chekov!" My insane father barked.

I readied myself to spring to the door, but just as it opened, just as I was about to hurl a shuriken into Chekov's thigh, I was stopped in my tracks...

"Kii?" I asked.

"Hia Yuffie!" He strided forward and enclosed me in a tight hug. Chekov then noticed the shuriken in my hand and shut the door quick. I missed my chance.

"Yuffie, you remember Kii don't you?" My father glared at me and snatched the shuriken out of my hand while I was still being squashed by Kii's bear hug.

It was a long time since I'd last seen him. Kii and I were top of our class in training since we were 4. I remember not ever being able to beat him, even though I was fast, he was just too strong. Every summer we used to run round Da Chao together looking for hidden caves and climb up the cherry blossom tree that lay between our houses and dream about becoming legendary warriors together, jumping from branch to branch. It was so strange, even though I was never able to beat him, I was the one who became the legendary saviour of the world. Shows you what happens when you stay in Wutai your whole life.

"It's good to see you." I sang giving him a cheery smile, I could work this to my advantage.

Finally he let go and looked me up and down. I guess he was okay looking, he gotten a lot taller and a lot bigger since I last saw him...We must have been about fourteen then. "Well, you sure have gotten taller, there's not much more on you though." He said, punching me playfully in the arm.

"You too, hulk." At that he started pulling faces until I giggled. Godo cleared his throat loudly.

"Well I'm glad to see you are getting along so well but we really must get moving. I have prepared everything and you will be wed in 6 days time, until then, Kii, you are dismissed." Kii bowed low towards Godo and gave me another bear hug before he left.

He was just about to pull away when I whispered silently in his ear. "Invite me for a walk in half an hour." He looked down at me closely before nodding and walking back out the door.

"Well," started Godo,"that went better than I thought it would. I'm glad I chose Kii, he's strong and determined and perfectly behaved, a good influence I'm hoping." I tried to interject to tell him about the time he and I had snatched a few ales from the Turtle's Paradise Bar when we were thirteen, but Godo just carried on. "However in the meantime you will NOT be running away again, you hear me! I'm sick of this Yuffie and Chekov will now be guarding your door day and night! I am NOT letting you go off gallivanting across the world again for three years, not as long as there's still a breath in my body." He then dismissed me and had Chekov lead me back down to my little house where I waited for Kii to appear again.

About 15 minutes later I heard a loud knocking and jumped off my bed and ran for freedom. I swung the door open and grinned and Kii wildly.

He grinned back and asked politely, "would Miss Kisaragi like to join me on a walk around Da Chao?" He winked at me and held out his hand.

"Oh what a wonderful idea, I would be delighted!" I replied taking his hand in my own. Chekov didn't smell anything and just smiled politely at Kii. Yes!

We walked through the town laughing at stories we remembered and life since we last met. Turned out Kii was now teaching master classes and the pagoda for the younger teens, the last class we had been in together. He stopped when we were beneath the blossom tree I remembered so well and he asked me a question.

"So why did you want me to take you for a walk, you hate walking."

I sat down on the bench nearby and patted next to me for him to sit down to. "Truth is, I don't really want to get married."

"Tell me about it!" He laughed and sat down next to me. "I wondered why you were taking this so well, I thought you'd be going All Creation on Godo's ass!"

"Believe me I wanted to! He took all my materia and weapons away from before we entered the pagoda. I didn't have much choice, but now I've got them back." I said, bringing a couple of colourful globes out of my pocket and showing them to him.

"It must be so much fun to save the world..." He sighed and looked up at the sky before looking back at me. "But I'm not trying to break you outta here. I like my job, and my face." He joked.

"Aw come on, you don't want to marry me anyway, do you. Gawd, what happened to the fun loving adventure seeking Kii, he was so much more fun!" I stood up again and mocked a battle stance.

He got up in front of me slowly, and looked me straight in the eye. "You know your father going to go mental." A smile spread across his faced and I screamed and hugged him tightly.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!" I shouted before running wildly into the forests behind us. "I won't forget this."

"Neither will I!" He shouted back and watched me descend further from Wutai and my nightmare wedding.

--

At least I'd gotten what I needed from Wutai, three elixirs, 7 restore materia I could pawn off at a local market, and enough gil to get into Cosmo Canyon reasonably safely. I was going to try and live with Nanaki and work there, he was the nearest to Wutai, bar Cid, and I knew Cid would make me tell him why I was running away and NOT let it go. So I jumped on the first boat I could find to the Cosmo Area and dreamt of a new life away from responsibility - whilst throwing up over the side of course.

It felt so wonderful to see the auburn cliffs of Cosmo Canyon coming into view on the horizon, we were nearly there! I could finally get off this God damn awful ship! I was just about to start jumping up and down when a mind blasting screech wailed from the shores. What in hell was that? The other passengers around me looked up and started whispering. Something wasn't right and we all knew it. The intercom system on the boat flared up and a hazy voice told us what was happening.

"This is your captain speaking, I'm sorry to say that due to some problems in the Canyon we're going to have to make a detour. Instead of heading South we are going to return North and then East to circle the continent down to Gongaga. Unfortunately no one will be able to visit the Canyon for the next few days as a dragon problem has emerged." My ears perked up. "This problem should be recovered in the next few days as some ex members of AVALANCHE have been dispatched to dispose of the problem."

Awesome! A dragon! Finally a proper challenge! All I needed to do was persuade the captain to let me off and I could go help! But wait.. I thought. Why haven't I been asked to help? I had my PHS on me, it's not like they couldn't contact me. My eyes narrowed and I stormed off to the captain's room. There was no way they were doing this with out me and I was going to make sure of that.

"But I need to get off this ship now!" I wailed, the captain's old stone eyes starting back at me with no emotion.

"I'm sorry Miss but I can't let anyone off this ship, ex member of AVALANCHE or not, porting this ship could put the rest of the passengers and crew in great danger, you're just going to have to wait until we get Gongaga." With that he just turned around acted like I wasn't there.

Wrong choice.

I twirled a shuriken in my hand and thought about slitting the captains throat to teach him a lesson. But someone else walked in and stared at me so I let out a frustrated scream and stomped back out on deck. Now I had to endure another few days of feeling like I was going to throw up my lungs on this stupid ship while everyone else got to go and kill the dragon, how was that fair!?

Luckily I slept through most of the journey, waking up just as we passed the remains of the Temple of the Ancients and started to head West. The port was completely empty and the few people left in Gongaga looked at me from behind twitching curtains as I walked through the village and back out into the forests. It felt good to be free again, in the cool jungle I felt so at home in. I wouldn't of had any money left but everyone was given a free refund on the trip because of what had happened and now I had more than enough to get to the Canyon. But now I wasn't heading there, this time I had bigger fish to fry, and this fish was a huge dragon terrorising the villages in the area. Man this is going to be fun!

After about an hour of tracking the dragon, I finally heard a screech ring out through the forest not far in front of me. I raced forward pulling weapons into my right hand ready to fight and taking a battle stance. I couldn't hear much apart from the wind until my ears caught the sound of giant beating wings swooping down from behind. I realised too late to turn around and the beast clawed it's way down one of my arms. I yelped in pain and fell to floor with a thump. I lay still for a few minutes before finally the flapping wings faded into the distance an I sat up sharp. Looking down on my arm I knew how lucky I had been. The beast had caused huge rip down the lower part of my right arm and had tried to inflict poison on me but the ribbon tied around my other wrist had prevented any further damage. I could move my fingers okay but I screamed out in pain every single time I did and I could see my muscles and bones moving when I looked down at the cut.

That made me throw up...again.

I found an old shirt in my bag and ripped it into strips before wrapping around the gash tightly. This wasn't good, I was right handed and had no other mean of protecting myself apart from the materia that lay in my weapon. Wait.. Where is my weapon?

I fumbled around on the forest floor trying see where I had dropped it. Finally I caught sight of it lying back on one of the paths, it was covered in my blood. I held back a lurch to vomit and crawled towards my only means of defence.

But before I could reach it a pair of golden boots clicked into view beside it and a man in a huge red cape picked it up slowly.

"Vincent?"

"Miss Kisaragi."