Final Fantasy VII: Redemption Chapter 2
By Aujang Abadi
"Stupid Vincent, leaving me here alone like this. Wounded and tired... who does he think he is?" Yuffie wrapped her blanket around herself more tightly. "There's probably some monster bent on my destruction just waiting in the shadows... hoping to kill the greatest ninja that ever lived." She raised her voice. "In fact, I hope something tries to mess with me tonight! I'm in a REAL bad mood, you hear?!"
Her wish was accompanied by a guttural scream, and the sound of frantic footsteps. Yuffie scrambled out of her blanket, struggling to find her boomerang before whatever the hell made that sound decided to make a lunch out of her. It burst into the camp, its labored breaths sending Yuffie's heart racing. With a bit of unbalanced footwork, she twisted herself away from the unknown aggressor as she found her weapon, bringing it to bear in front of her. It stopped, suddenly, trying to avoid the mess of blankets and pack, but failing miserably. With another agitated scream, it tripped, landing with a sickening crunch.
"What the hell is that?!" She exclaimed, holding her defensive stance. It seemed to be missing a limb, and was bleeding profusely. She gasped from the realization that the monster was actually missing half of its torso, and was also brutally covered with large, deep claw marks. Whatever got to this monster had utterly destroyed it. She trembled at the extent of its strength.
Deep, heavy breathing escaped the darkness from where the mutilated monster had fled. At its sound, the fatally wounded beast forced itself to its feet and tried to dash away. Yuffie flipped backwards from instinct alone, as something impossibly fast flew under her feet, and erupted into the monster's back, spearing it. A moment later, the shrill sound of its flight echoed in the rocky terrain.
The breathing deepened, as an absolutely massive creature formed from the shadows. It stood nearly ten feet in height, primal muscles flexed and bunched together as it roared its dominance into the night air. Yuffie bent back, moving her steel boomerang to shield her more effectively. Suddenly, it was moving, charging, and drove itself upon, into, the impaled beast. With one huge arm, it lifted the secondly impaled beast, and opened its own fist, tearing a gaping hole in its already tattered stomach. Yuffie cringed, squeezing her eyes shut as warm, wet gore spilled over her. She inched an eye open, trying to mark this thing that toyed with a monster as if it were a fly. Her hand rose to her mouth, and she turned, suppressing her urge to vomit. It had begun to feast. The revolting crunch of bone reached her ears, and she could hold it no longer.
It stopped suddenly, and turned its head to Yuffie, as if it were seeing her for the first time. It dropped the carcass and made its way to her, snorting. Yuffie clutched her stomach, still retching, and brought her weapon up, holding it in front of her.
"Stay the hell away!" She screamed, driving one of the boomerang's steel points into its left forearm, piercing to the bone. It roared in pain and drew back, twisting the weapon out of her hands. With an agonized cry, it ripped the weapon out, and flung it to the ground. It then took its recently acquired meal and sped back into the night. Yuffie picked up her weapon, still shaking. She didn't understand why it had fled; it could have very well killed her in those few moments. She wiped the gore off of her face, sat down heavily in her blanket, and began to cry.
* * * * *
Vincent made his way back into camp a few minutes later, catching her as she wept. He stopped on its outskirts, unsure of how to react. He cleared his throat awkwardly.
Yuffie stopped crying, turning her head to look at him. Then, she began crying with renewed fury, rising quickly and storming to him.
"How could you leave me here, in the dark, after everything that's happened?!" She drew her hand back and slapped him resoundingly, whipping his neck to the side. "Where were you while I almost got killed by some hellspawned demon? Everyone, damn you, everyone is gone, and all you can do is leave me to my death!" She held her face in her hands and continued sobbing. "How could you?"
Vincent brought his head back to center, facing her once more. His cheek throbbed painfully, and was slightly discolored where she'd hit him.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to abandon you. I had to go."
"You had to go?! Had to go where?!" Yuffie screamed, drawing her hand back to slap him again. "Do you even have a shred of humanity in you? First you treat me like garbage, a sixteen year old girl, and then you leave me for dead?" She snapped her arm forward, but this time he caught it, with his left hand.
"No. I do not." Yuffie's eyes traced the hand down to his forearm, wrapped tightly in bandages to stop the bleeding. The outline of red on the bandanges were the exact width of one of the blades on her boomerang. She gasped and looked back up to him, his red eyes flashing. "I lost my humanity a long time ago."
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