1.

"Okay, Birdie... which way is Midgar...?" Rain pondered as she gazed at the horizont, slowly realising she wasn't too sure she was on the right track after all. The chocobo seemed more occupied with poking at the grass with it's beak rather then worry on pesky details such as which way to go. The dark haired woman sighed resigned and tugged at the reins again, deciding that by going to the right; she wasn't in any danger of going around in circles yet. Luckily the bird managed to outrun the two monsters they encountered, as the feeble gun hanging at Rain's waist was a thin comfort. Soon she fell into gloomy thoughts about her future and was about to let the tears flooding her eyes run freely in her misery when voices snapped her out of her trance. Pulling at the reins, Rain tried in vain to halt the big bird as she wasn't too sure what kind of people she would meet here in the middle of nowhere! The chocobo, however was in no mood to listen to her and eagerly trotted towards the tiny forrest where the voice came from. "Noo..." Rain muttered in frustration, her arms aching from pulling at the reins, but her eyes quickly darted up from the back of the chocobos head when she heard them. "Hey, hey, what do we have here, fellas?" A tall man grinned, surrounded by his three friends. ShinRa soldiers. Rain swallowed hard, feeling her skin prickle with nervousness. "Uhm, hi... I'm just... on my way home. Nice to meet you, buh bye now!" She yanked her chocobo around and dug her heels into it's sides, making the bird jump forward with a startled 'wark'! One soldier suddenly appeared infront of her and grasped a hold of the reins, "not leaving so soon, pretty girl?" His smile told Rain she was not going to avoid trouble this time, but she tried to keep from panicing. "I have to. S-someone is waiting for me, so I have to g-go! Now! Let go!" Her ever rising tone of voice were not a good sign. The other soldiers surrounded her as well, and soon she felt them groping at her legs to pull her down. "No! Stop it!" Rain decided she gave up on staying calm and went into full panic mode; delivering a hard kick in the face of the nearest soldier before pulling her gun and aimed at them in turn with trembling hands. "S-stay away from me!" The soldier who'd fallen over as he recived the kick, got up with a murderous glare, while his companions merely laughed at her. "That wasn't very nice, little girl... You're going to make up for that by being very nice to me!" He moved so fast, there was a sound as her gun went off and Rain felt her chocobo take off, but hands held her back. The world span wildly around, Meteor mocking her from it's place and she heard herself scream...

Cid and Vincent watched the Highwing fly away into the horizont; the others would keep the airship to reach the other continents for their lost leader, Cloud, who'd been missing since he'd lost his mind and delivered the black materia to the frozen Sephiroth. The cave had collapsed and they were forced to flee; leaving the numb shell of their friend behind. Yet, they all belived he was alive. They had to belive he was alive! The pilot began to march rather determidly east-wards. The former Turk raised his eyebrows barely noticable and followed; "you have a specific destination?" Cid shrugged and lit up his cigarette. "Just thought that now we were in the neighbourhood, I'd drop by Rocket Town. Them folks always were the jumpy kind, and now that damn &%#&/%¤ Meteor is hangin' in the sky; they're probably runnin'round in circles. I AM the chief of that town, y'now!" He stared challengly over at Vincent, who merely shrugged. They walked in silence for a while, then, maybe it was the shining bright weather or the need to take their thoughts of the gloomy future that made Vincent feel the urge to poke at Cid's weak point, he cleared his throat innocently before asking; "it's not... Shera you are worried about, by any chance?" The words had barely been uttered before the pilot halted abrubtly and puffed angrily at his cigarette; "hell no! As the chief of that town I have a certain responsibility for the "/%#(/& people living there! It's just an unfortunate coincidence that Shera lives there, but then she always goes out of her way to &(%^/& annoy me!" Cid trampled on and Vincent sighed as he followed again. "I'm quite sure that isn't true." Shera seemed to him like someone completely uncapable of doing anyone harm intentionally. Cid glared irritated over at him and snorted; "well, you haven't been living with her for years now, have you?!" Vincent nodded slowly; "which brings me to my second question: why is she living in your house?" Staring intensly at the horizont, Cid shrugged. "When we were assigned to Rocket Town, we decided it would save us time and money as we were working on the space-program. And after that %(&%^$ Shera messed up everything... I don't know. I was too angry to talk to her, and she just... stayed." Deciding he'd interfered too much with other peoples buisness, Vincent let the silence fall again, but not without a slight admiration for the woman that had endured Cid's wrath for so long. Their thoughts were soon interupted by the sound of gun-fire. The two gazed quickly at eachother, but at the sound of a woman screaming, both darted towards the sound with weapons ready. By a tiny forrest, four ShinRa soldiers were surrounding a dark haired woman who held a tiny gun infront of her with shivering hands. "Hey!" Cid called out, "don't they teach you any manners in ShinRa? Be nice to the ladies, fellas!" Vincent merely pulled forward his shotgun and got ready for trouble. The soldiers spun around and at the sight of the intruders, the captain paled. "It's AVALANCHE! Fight them, you idiots! Kill them!" Cid and Vincent barely managed to jump away to avoid the grenade thrown at them, and the pilot ran in for the kill while the former Turk kept his distance and let the ShinRa soldiers do the running from the bullets he sendt their way.

The incredible loud explotion from the grenade threw Rain off balance, and she saw the ground greet her again. Numbly realising she'd lost her gun, Rain whimpered softly with pained worry. - Looks like I'm getting to see you again after all, Sky, Rain thought drowsily resigned, whimpering again as she felt someone lightly touch her face. Her eyelashes fluttered slightly and she managed to open her eyes and gather herself to make out the face that swam into focus. It was a man, and his long, raven hair blocked out the bright sun with silky ease. "Are you ok...?" She heard him asked in a deep, calm voice, but Rain was unable to answer. Her body simply refused to obey! Her head sang with throbbing pain, and it became harder to stay awake. The man gave a slight concerned frown and Rain found that he was really handsome, pale enough to be the angel of death. The world began to swim again and the last thing she remembered were a pair of ruby coloured eyes locked with hers...

The woman went limp in his arms, and Vincent swallowed hard. She felt too frail and living for him to hold so close. He felt a chill down his spine as darkness moved inside him, and wearily realised the monsters were reacting to her warm life. It was pure willpower that enabled him to ignore them, carefully gathering the slender form up in his arms. He could swear he could feel her warmth seeping through the golden metal Hojo had used to replace his arm... The former Turk cooly ignored the rumbling earth as Cid managed to throw a Earth2 and knock out the final soldier and the pilot discovered that the insane pain came from a bullet wound in his leg. "Damn..." he muttered as he saw the blood running, and didn't dare to hope; "hey, Vinnie? You don't have any Restore materia, huh?" Cid heard Vincent moving and as he glanced up he saw him carrying the woman. "No," was the calm answer and Cid bendt his head with a sigh. "Me neither... /&"#^$%^!!! Just my luck!" He forced himself to loosen his white scarf and managed to tie it tightly around his leg, wry relifed over that the bullet hadn't hit a few inches higher; damaging his knee. "That oughta hold it together until we get to Rocket Town..." Cid gazed over at Vincent, who was gazing slightly uncomfortably at the woman in his arms, asking curiously; "how is she?" Vincent quickly looked over at Cid and shrugged; "I think she'll be ok. Just frightened and a light cut above her eyebrow; probably from the fall of her chocobo, but I don't think it's any cause to worry." Cid shook his head confused; "wait a (*%^&$# minute! Chocobo? Why do you...?" His question faded out as Vincents gaze lowered explainatory towards the ground: covered in chocobo tracks. Cid snorted embarressed and tested how much weight he could put on his wounded leg; "Alright! Fine! So... what are we gonna do'bout her?" Once again the attention was brought to the limp woman in Vincents arms and there was a short silence that the former Turk broke; "what is there to... do? We cannot leave her here!" Cid sighed resigned and got ready for a long, painful trip to Rocket Town; "alright. Alright. Come on then." Vincent kneeled down and placed the woman genly on the ground; "in a few seconds. I just want to make sure she wont get cold." Cid raised his eyebrows suprised as Vincent took of his cape and placed it around the woman before lifting her up again; "my, my, Vince. Didn't know you were such a gentleman!" Suddenly Vincent heard an echo of a laugh, remembered a flash of mirthful eyes and felt the ghost of a woman's light touch on his arm. And that voice; never knew you were such a gentleman, Vincent! As always, the pain hit him like that very first time, and Vincent closed his eyes briefly as he remembered his own reply; only with you, Lucrecia. I will do anything for you. Vincent felt the monsters stirr inside him again, and this time he let them rise to just below the surface of his skin. Their aimless anger felt easier then the feeling of loss and unbearable guilt. He'd do anything for her. Except saving her... The smirk on Cid's face died when he saw the ice-cold look in Vincents eerie eyes and for the first time could the pilot see traces of... anger in his face? "I asure you, Mr Highwind, that I am nothing like a gentleman. And it would be very foolish of you to think so." Vincents voice were as cold as his eyes, and Cid merely stood staring after him as he strode off, several seconds passed before the pilot managed to gather himself enough to limp in the same direction.

The trip was continued in silence, yet Vincent could feel the pilot's nervous glanced at him. It took a lot to make Cid Highwind nervous. Almost as much as it took to make Vincent loose his temper. The woman showed no sign of regaining conciousness, and if it hadn't been for her regular breathing; she appeared dead to the world. He wondered idly what she was doing in the middle of nowhere with nothing but a gun, which she obviously didn't know how to use, to protect herself with... Vincent was relived to see Rocket Town in the horizont, knowing the rest would do him and the pilot well. The loss of Aeris was still heavy in the air, and Cloud's dissappearance was not improving things. Their escape from Junon was the only positive thing that had happened these last days, and by the looks of the ever approaching Meteor; it very well might be the last positive things as well! They entered the town and headed straight for Cid's house. "That woman better have that materia," Cid grumbled, leaning heavily on his spear to ease the weight on his wounded leg. The pilot slammed the door open, and hollered; "Shera! Where the %&#^$*^ are you?" There was the sound of papers collapsing and a nervous voice squeaked; "I-I'm here, Captain!" Vincent strode over to the sofa and gently lowered the unknown woman onto the soft cushions. Vincent crouched beside her a few seconds, studying her, before he started as he realised his human hand had reached out to stroke away a dark lock of hair from her face. She'd been crying not too long ago, Vincent numbly realised, easily recognizing sorrow when he saw it. Meanwhile, Shera hurried out to find Cid standing by the table, and the man she vaguely remembered called Vincent stood by the sofa, tending to some woman that looked asleep. "Dammit, woman!" Cid cursed angrily and dumped down in the chair, "are you planning on letting me bleed to death?! Get the &%#^$/* Restore materia!" Shera's eyes widened at the sight of Cid's injured leg and she automaticly raised a hand to her heart; "I-I'm sorry! I didn't notice..." "Shera! Get the damn materia!" Cid interupted angrily and massaged his temples in irritated motions as she ran off. Returning with the materia, Shera nervously walked over to the former Turk and gazed down at the wounded newcommer. "Who is she...?" Vincent made a faint shrugging movement, "we don't know. On our way here we encountered a group of soldiers hassling her. She fell off her chocobo. We figured we couldn't leave her there." Fighting off a faint smile, Shera crouched down beside him, "that was... kind of you." A few minutes later, Cid had healed himself and Shera was tending to the still unconcious woman. "She will be ok. She just needs some more rest," Shera declared quietly, and gazed up at Vincent. "Would you mind bringing her upstairs? There are two guestrooms there, you can place her in one of them." The former Turk nodded and gathered the woman in his arms once again before gently carrying her off. Walking up the stairs, Vincent heard Cid's voice and and Shera's stuttering reply, but merely focused on the task given to him; respecting others privacy as much as he wanted others to respect his. He'd been in Cid's house before and knew which rooms Shera referred to. Managing to open the door closest to the stairs, Vincent entered to place the woman on the bed. Hessitating, he reached out to place a blanket over her. He was never bothered by cold, but knew she might very well be. Shock and a hit to the head would not be made better with a severe cold on top of everything! Backing away, Vincent paused once more in the doorway and gazed at her. She was no fighter, that much he was certain about. Her hands were too soft, her arms too slender and her dress certainly unfit for any fighting. So, what would drive a big city girl out into the world of monsters and bad men? (And make her end up in the arms of one who was both?) Vincent shook of his thoughts, knowing it was no point in wondering. The answers would present themselves soon enough, and with that he retreated to the other guest room. Would he sleep tonight... or would the nightmares return again with the taunting sounds of the monsters swirling in his blood...?

Everything was soft and warm, and she really didn't want to wake up. Rain found herself relaxing for the first time in weeks... Slowly, her eyes opened and focused, as she realised she had no idea where she was. The memory of the soldiers flashed pass her eyes, but everything went blank from the moment she fell of the chocobo. There had been voices. Gun shots and explotions. And a pair of ruby-coloured eyes... Rain sat up, gasping sofly with pain as she then lifted a hand to her aching head. Those eyes... the knock on her head must have made her see things that weren't real! Glancing around, she quickly realised she was in somebody's house and not in some jail for attacking those soldiers. Rain got up and tried to make herself somewhat presentable before she made her way out of the room, and continued silently down the stairs. She heard voices, a grumbling man and a startled woman. Peering in, she saw a brown haired woman put something in the sink, gather herself before turning to face the blonde man by the table. "Tea, Captain?" Rain blinked puzzled, glancing over at the man who was rubbing his face tiredly. Captain? She could tell by his muscular back and strong arms that he could easily be an army captain, but something about his impatient air told her that was not the case. The blonde man nodded testily, "Yes, yes. Y'now I always have my #*^%$& morning tea!" My, someone was grumpy in the morning! Rain watched as the woman quickly moved over to pour the warm water into a cup she placed infront of the blonde, and found herself wondering how she would make her presence known. It would appear that her patrons weren't out to harm her, or Rain figured she'd be dead instead of placed in a warm bed. However, before she could say or do anything, the woman glanced up from her tea-pouring and noticed her. Smiling carefully, Rain managed a somewhat steady; "good morning." At least she figured it was morning... The woman gave a friendly smile and signaled towards a chair by the table; "morning. You want some tea?" Rain gave a barely noticable nod and walked over to the chair; "yes, please, if it's not too much trouble." The blonde man, a ruggedly handsome man at that, placed his cup down and waved her words off; "of course not! Now... I'm Cid. That there is Shera." Sitting down, Rain managed another nervous smile; "I'm called Rain." She accepted the cup Shera gave her, thanked and took a sip before continuing; "I'm afraid I don't remember much of what happened..." Cid leaned back and lit up a cigarette; "well, me'nd Vinnie just heard ya screamin' and found ya surrounded by some #&%^*$& ShinRa soldiers!" Cid watched her cautiously as Rain frowned slightly; "yes, those soldiers... " She then smiled weakly to Cid, "I guess I should explain, huh?" Cid nodded with a shrug as he tipped the ashes of his cigarette; "wouldn't hurt." Everybody started as the entrance door opened, but it was only a well-known, red-caped figure that entered and Shera exhaled relived; "Vincent. Would you like some tea as well?" The former Turk shook his head silently, "no, thank you." Rain was staring mesmerized at the shadowed figure, having already abandoned the image of ruby eyes, jet-black hair in silky, long lengths and porcelain skin to a concussion and a vivid imagination. Yet, the man obviously called Vincent was very much real. A red cape and his red bandana, aided by his long and dissarayed hair, hid most of him from vision and only made his eyes more prominent. The sun glinted of something gold and Rain was startled to see a golden glove of some sort on his hand. The long fingertips like deadly claws. She noticed his wary eyes caught her noticing and Rain felt a blush enter her cheeks. It wasn't polite to stare, much less ogle openly. Cid signaled for Vincent to have a seat at the table as well, and sighed irritated when he declined that as well. "Well, Rain here was just about to tell us what she was doing in the middle of nowhere with them &#^*$* ShinRas!" Vincent merely nodded and Rain shifted uneasily before starting, eager to find something else to focus on; "uhm, you see... I work at this bar at Midgar, but then I got word that my brother was ill and I had to go to Nibelheim and see him. Only... when I got there... he... " She hastily wiped away a tear that had formed in the corner of her eye with her sleeve and sniffled, the memory of her brother still an open, bleeding wound; "anyway, I had no choice but to return to Midgar. That was when I ran into that ShinRa patrol. They wouldn't let me pass and kept throwing these suggestions..." Cid snorted angrily and waved the cigarette to underline his words; "I tell ya, those *#&%^$% ShinRa soldiers are nothing but trouble!" Vincent frowned slightly and shifted his weight almost unoticably; "it's not safe to travel alone. Specially under these times, and in uknown territory." Rain blinked suprised as she gazed up at the silent figure. "How did you know this was my first time here?" Cid grinned and lifted his tea-cup; "you were going in the wrong direction." Rain moved her attention over to him and once again looked utterly puzzled; "I was?" Nodding, Cid sipped to his hot tea. "Yupp. Midgar is the other way. You were heddin' fer Rocket Town." Rain felt like a complete idiot, knowing she was about beet-red now. So she had been going in the wrong direction!

And so it was decided that Rain would stay with Shera until the final battle was over and they could make sure she actually got to Midgar, or it was really Shera that insisted, but all objections was quickly silenced. Vincent was silently polishing his gun as he was sitting by the window when Cid's PHS rang. Cid nearly jumped as it was clear that Tifa and the others actually had found Cloud, but in a bad shape, and the Highwind were comming to get them as well. The pilot instantly began loading up on his precious cigarettes, while Vincent merely gazed up at Meteor. Time was starting to run out. Maybe he deserved to die, but there were so many innocent souls on the Planet that did not. He'd not been able to save himself; but maybe he could save them? Maybe everything wouldn't be in vain...? Without taking his eyes of the burning Meteor, Vincent clicked shells into his gun and placed it into the holster. The pupils in ruby eyes dialated as the Meteors burning tail was reflected in them, and Vincent tensed. Look at the pretty colours! All consuming fire! Burn! Burn EVERYTHING! The former Turk shuddered and turned his face away from the window, forcing the Galiant Beast silent. "I've never thanked you," a voice said, and Vincent glanced at the woman beside him. Rain gave a careful smile, but he merely got up abruptly and walked pass her. "No need, I assure you."

(W.I.P.)