A/N: Finally, another chapter! As this is an alternate universe, there will of course be changes so do read and review would you kindly?

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[Eight years later, Nibelheim…]

"…so you're saying a warg has been running about, causing all sorts of trouble?" asked a man with gravity-defying blond hair, the enormous blade he wielded making it clear that he was a part of SOLDIER. He was accompanied by a stunning beauty in a white tank-top and a red lion-like creature with a flaming tail and the Roman Numeral 13 written on its shoulders.

"It's no fantasy I tell you," said a villager, "I've seen it with my own two eyes. That was no dog, neither was it one of those damn Nibel-wolves, it was like a big damn hellhound come to plague us!"

The leonine creature that accompanied the blond simply growled in irritation and indignation. "Like you thought I was when you first saw me?"

Before the red lion could continue on with his tirade, his companion simply put her red-gloved hands on his head and stroked through his fur in a placating manner. "Red, I'm sure it was an honest mistake. But either way, the problem won't be solved until we get to the bottom of this." Once she was satisfied with the cat's lowering temper, she then turned her attention back at the villager. "Is there anything else you can tell us about the warg?"

The villager was a simple farmer judging by his rough clothing, but one could tell in his eyes that he was as reliable as they could go. As of this moment however, he held his head up in thought as if trying to remember what he saw. "Well, it was dark every time, but I could make out a few details; it was real big, black fur, streamlined body, but one thing stuck out to me the most—glowing red eyes."

At this, Red's ears were perked up in interest at that last phrase as he turned his attention back to the farmer. "Glowing red eyes you say?"

The blond looked to the lion with confusion in his eyes. "Yeah, they were red—as if I were gazing into the blazing fires of hell."

"Can you tell us where you last saw the creature?" asked the woman, clearly concerned for the farmer's plight.

The farmer shrugged his shoulders, a clear 'I don't see why not' spoken in his gesture. "I would warn you against hunting that thing, but seeing as you're dead set on getting it, it's your funeral. The warg prowls Mt. Nibel; so far, there have been no deaths (save for the occasional mangled bandit, thank the gods), but that may change soon. I'm worried that some fool traveler would get it in his head to try and shoot it…I'm not even certain that guns can kill it."

"If we take care of the warg for you, you'll help us through the Nibel Plains?" asked the woman.

"Sure thing; assuming of course you survive the encounter."

As the trio left the farmer to his vices, the three of them continued down the road to Mt. Nibel. "Cloud, I never thought that wargs actually existed," stated the only female, "I thought they were just legends."

"Apparently not Tifa," answered Cloud, "but you know something, don't you Red?"

"I may have a theory as to the identity of the warg, but I'd rather not say until we encounter the beast ourselves."

…

{Play: "Descendant of Shinobi" by Uematsu Nobuo from "Final Fantasy VII"}

[Elsewhere…]

A girl in a striped green turtleneck hopped through the trees of Nibelheim with a giant shuriken held in one hand and a sack slung over her shoulder with the other. At fifteen years, young Kisaragi Yuffie had developed well for a girl her age. She was smiling to herself at the spring of good fortune she had encountered not too long ago; a gang of thieves had made camp in the area she had left behind, and all it took for the robbery to be a success was a mid-level Sleep spell and five minutes to empty their improvised treasury. In addition to a sizable amount of gil that she could use for basic necessities, one of the thieves had a box of six mastered materia spheres in his possession! Inwardly, she danced to herself, but every leap she made through the trees reminded her of why she should be postponing her victory dance.

Things have been getting worse in Wutai as of late, and the fact that the island nation had become nothing short of a tourist trap wasn't helping matters any. While the gil she was stealing would help her survive in this land, the materia she also stole was going towards saving her home from becoming a den of thieves. Seriously, those entrepreneurs were sprouting casinos in the capital faster than weeds could grow!

Her thoughts had just come to a halt, because she had just landed in front of her destination, which was a cave in the side of a mountain, the loud breathing sounds emanating from the mouth had made it clear that something was sleeping in it. After checking to make sure nobody was watching, Yuffie sucked in a deep breath before sticking her fingers into her mouth to let out a loud whistle. As if on cue, glowing red eyes had opened in the cave before it started getting closer rather quickly and revealing their owner to be a giant black dog who had walked outside with his mouth open and panting in joy. He had a streamlined but muscular build that made him resemble a mix between an Alaskan malamute and a wolf. Normal people would be scared of such a large creature, but not Yuffie—especially when that dog came up to her and licked her face affectionately. "How are you doing Vincent?" she asked, gently grabbing the dog by his muzzle and petting him, "Been lonely since I left you here last?"

To be honest, the past eight years have not been all bad; if it weren't for Yuffie finding Vincent and his father, who knows what would've happened? It was getting pretty hard to keep him these days; now his father Grimoire was a big dog, but that little puppy had put his father to shame in eight years! In fact, Vincent had grown to be roughly the size and mass of an adult Shire horse. Despite the financial troubles that hit Wutai, and the expense required in feeding him, it was well worth the effort in taking care of him. Due to his size, Vincent was a great steed and a good protector…not to mention he was smart too. She was not exactly a dog person, normally preferring cats over dogs, but Vincent was an obvious exception; and it seemed that he also had a soft spot for cats as he would allow the ones back home to hitch a ride or even to take a nap on his back. If she didn't know any better, she would've considered his actions and behavior as human.

Either way, Yuffie knew that she needed to get down to business before she started her personal ritual of baby-talking the giant dog she was petting. "Show me what you got so far."

Knowing that the dog understood her, and understanding his body language, Yuffie followed Vincent into the cave; the contents within showed that his time in guarding this secret stash was productive…what started off as a miniscule pile of gil had grown a good deal since the last time they first established a secret base in this part of the world more than a few months ago. Although she could attribute that to what she assumed was Vincent's capability as an alpha male, as he was able to get many of the ragtag Nibel-wolf packs organized under his rule—to the point that they were effectively a bandit army. Yuffie herself was considered a trusted member of the pack, and so they were under orders of their alpha to never attack her. She tousled his fur and hugged him around the neck. "That's good boy, now we've enough to send home while keeping us going for a while longer."

Vincent turned to look away before Yuffie turned his pools of red to look into the coffee color of her eyes. The second she made eye contact with him, she saw the regret and shame he felt weighing him down. Yuffie couldn't blame him, she too felt bad about stealing for the good of her homeland, but it needed to be done. "Hey, it's okay," she cooed softly, running her fingers on his head lovingly while scratching him behind the ears, "what we're doing is for the greater good…as long as we owe money, lots of people are going to come and make Wutai a bad place to live. The sooner we settle the debts we've accumulated in the war, the sooner we can stop this awful life. I'm not sure if we'll be able to go back to the way things were, but I promise you that in the end it'll be just you and me. You'll see! 'Cause I'm the Great Ninja Yuffie, and when I make a promise, I keep it!"

The dog's mood seemed to brighten at that, however it was not to last. Two wolves had run into the cave, the look in their eyes seemed urgent—Yuffie could not understand what it was they were trying to convey in their barking, but it seemed like an emergency. Vincent let out his own series of barks, and started rushing outside. Yuffie followed, coming to a stop at a cliff overlooking the forest. She pulled her binoculars out of her bag and followed Vincent's downward gaze to see what it was that was troubling the wolves…

…

{Play: "Evil" by Toshiro Masuda from "Naruto"}

[Somewhere near the cave…]

The trek up the mountain was not an easy one. It was shortly after a battle with Nibel-Wolves that Cloud, Tifa, and Red took the opportunity to catch their breaths. Hopefully, they would be safe at the moment. "Now that last fight was very tough," said Tifa in between pants, "I know Nibel-Wolves are fierce, but something seemed off about them."

"Tell me about it," responded Cloud, taking a whetstone to sharpen his Buster Sword, "these wolves seemed…I don't know, smarter and more organized I guess. In fact, if I believe what I just saw back there, I'd say they were performing guerilla tactics—as if they were waiting for us this time, and their attack was much fiercer than the last time."

"If that's the case, then we'd best hurry," warned Red, having been rejuvenated from the repose, "I noted that when we killed more than half of the wolves that attacked us recently, two of them ran off while the others charged in after us—as if they were buying time for those two to flee. And judging by your assessment of their tactics and organization Cloud, they would probably have warned their general by now."

After having registered that train of thought, Tifa looked to Red with a concerned look in her eyes. "Are you saying the warg organized these wolves into some kind of army?"

A single nod was Red's response. "If those two wolves that escaped were messengers, then I wouldn't doubt that the warg is watching us as we speak."

…

[Vincent…]

Knowing what he had to do and with a plan on his mind, Vincent turned to the two wolves and let out a series of barks. The both of them nodded and ran off…preparations had to be made to accommodate the intruders after all. Once he knew the trap would be set, he then turned to regard Yuffie with an urgent look in his eyes. She automatically knew what he was thinking; she would deal with the money he'd manage to scrounge up from bandits while he bought her time to hide it away.

A nod was Yuffie's response as she ran to a hidden perch for pigeons that she'd trained to fly straight to Wutai. She quickly grabbed a pigeon and ran to a table with a small pen in her hand and a piece of paper ready. The message she wrote would direct the shinobi sent their way to this location in order to find the money.

After lifting the weight from the pigeon's leg, and tying the note to it, Yuffie let the pigeon fly away to Wutai before she went to work at concealing the pile of money Vincent had accumulated. Time was of the essence, and if Vincent's strategy was what she thought, then she didn't have much time to hide the money away!

…

[The three travelers…]

The three of them had been chasing wolves for a while now. It wouldn't be long until Cloud, Tifa, and Red XIII found themselves looking at the mouth of a cave in the wall of the mountain. Whatever it was in there had to be big and mean if it were able to whip the wolves into shape. "It still smells like a trap to me," said Cloud, examining the terrain, "those Nibel-wolves doing hit and run on us made this a little too easy.

"Either way Cloud, we still run into their leader," answered Tifa, "we need to take care of that warg if that farmer is going help us across the plains." After seeing that Cloud agreed with her, Tifa then turned her attention to Red. "As for you, I think we should know what we're dealing with. What can you tell us about the warg?"

"If my assumptions are correct, we are dealing with a creature that is considered as a primitive pseudo-dragon…but until I see the creature for myself, I won't know for sure what we're dealing with."

Their thoughts were interrupted the second loud barks filled the air, and the exits were blocked by large numbers of wolves. The only way off this area now would have been the edge of the cliff and the cave, but the glowing red eyes that appeared in the latter had made that escape route impossible. Soon, the eyes were getting closer and closer until the identity of the creature was revealed; it was a giant black dog with glowing red eyes that was snarling at them.

Red looked on at the creature with cautiously appraising eyes. "I knew it! If I were a zoologist specializing in canines, and not in this situation, I would be ecstatic at encountering such a rare dog breed. What we're dealing with canis lupus rex…known worldwide under many names, but to the Fire-Lions; the Galian Beast!"

Both Cloud and Tifa looked to Red before focusing their attention back on the giant dog. "I don't suppose we have any doggy treats do we?" asked Cloud nervously, before the dog moved in for the first attack, scattering all three adventurers in an attempt to bite one of them.

"Be careful, brute strength is not the only thing to fear from this creature!" shouted Red as he barely leaped away from the dog's next bite, "I've heard tales that they can breathe fire."

The Galian Beast then turned to face the three adventurers, snarling at them as they managed to regroup. It wasn't long until the gigantic canine let out a series of barks. "I'm not too clear as to what he's saying, as canine is not my first language," began Red, analyzing what it was that was being spoken, "but from what I do understand, he's saying he's spilled enough bandit blood today, and is in no mood to spill anymore blood. He says that if we don't leave his cave alone, then he will make sure that the pack will be having us for dinner."

"Well we can't exactly leave now Red," shot back Cloud, "if we don't take care of that dog, we'll never be able to continue on."

More barks were fired in the direction of the AVALANCHE members. "He says that he fully understands what we are saying, and is insulted that we are speaking as though he were not here," translated Red, "he also says that this is our final warning; if we don't leave now, then he will make sure we die as food for his wolves."

"We didn't come here to make trouble," shouted Tifa, her words being directed at the massive dog in front of him, "we're just here to see if there is a way for you to leave this place peacefully. We don't want to fight you, but we will if we have to."

The gigantic dog simply stared on, before moving in slowly to get a closer look at Tifa while Cloud and Red tensed up, ready to act if the Galian Beast decided to attack. It was then that he circled around her, inspecting Tifa with appraising eyes before stopping in front of her.

Before anything could be said, a loud whistle was heard from the cave. The Galian Beast turned to enter the cave as a young teenage girl moved out from the shadows, placing his muzzle in her hands as she pet him down his snout. The three AVALANCHE members studied her very carefully…her young and petite features told them that she was Wutainese. "We're already done with our work here," she said, addressing the three of them as she mounted the gigantic dog in the same manner as a horse, "fortunately, we're not looking for trouble either. But next time we meet will be on the field of battle…and your materia will be mine!"

Once the teenager had said her piece, she gripped tightly on the Galian Beast's fur as her steed pounced away from the cliff. It wasn't long until the two of them were but specks in the horizon.

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A/N: There's not much to be said at the moment, except for a request for my fellow readers to read and review. This is only a prologue, but your reviews may determine if I should write more chapters.

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Vocabulary

Warg—contrary to popular belief, the term 'warg' has been used long before J.R.R. Tolkien ever came about by Scandinavians to describe wolves that are larger than what is considered normal (especially if you're describing Fenrir and his sons).