Leaning on You(FF7)

31

~Vincent's POV~

When Cloud eventually gets better, we move back to the Highwind. Thankfully, it was only a three day delay after he finally woke up all the way. Yuffie's finally eating again, though Cid's gonna get in trouble for not making her eat breakfast. I don't get it, but the nurse was bothering us nonstop about that. Trust me, it got annoying after the fourth or fifth time she reminded us. Now we're headed for the Northern Crater, where the leader of Sumter told us Sephiroth would be. Cloud isn't too happy about being left on board, and he nearly got away with throwing a temper tantrum like a six year old. I seriously hope he's all better for the wedding, which is in five days. I hate having to keep pushing it farther away. I just wanna marry Tifa, darn it!

"We'll reach the dang crater in about two hours," Cid announces, leaning against the back wall. Shera scowls at him playfully and pulls the cigarette out of his mouth, stamping it out. The guy's gotta quit sometime, right?

"What are we gonna do when we get there?" Cloud asks, hoping that no one will notice.

"You are gonna stay here," the pilot raises an eyebrow. "The rest of us already came up with a plan." We did? Liar...

"No fair," the younger blonde crosses his arms. He cringes every time he speaks, but I guess the mako in his veins is healing the wound in his throat.

"Too bad, spiky," Yuffie smirks, ruffling his hair.

"You're staying too."

"What?!" She glares at the captain. "Why?!"

"Because you're still weak from the whole Casper ordeal and you need to gain a little more weight before you go or else you'll get thrown around like a rag doll."

"Don't worry, I'll keep you company," Shera grins.

"Great," the ninja grumbles but no one really hears her. That or they don't react.

Everyone is either preparing for the next battle or wandering around aimlessly while we wait. For Cloud's sake, I hope this isn't our last battle with Sephiroth. I know he'll want to take down the silver haired man himself. That and the Casper guy. His cousin, according to Tifa. She says it's a bit harsh for him to kill his own family. I say she wasn't clawed through her Geostigma.

"We have arrived," Barret says in some fake movie voice that makes Tifa grin and Red roll his eye.

"Let's get going then," Cid nods toward the door. Shera sends him a weak smile as he goes, obviously bothered that he's going after the most powerful man on the universe. I follow in silence, my hand on the gun that's holstered on my leg.

"I wonder what he wanted with the rest of the black materia," Tifa says to me quietly. "He already summoned meteor once, does he need to do it again?"

"I have a feeling there's something more," I muse more to myself than her.

"What do you mean?"

"Not sure."

"You've made no sense lately," she shakes her head. "After this, we're taking you to the church to heal that nasty rash of yours."

"Hmm," I hum.

"Hang on," Red stops us. "I sense him. To the left."

We branch off to the left side of the crater and clumsily slide down the ridges of the mountainous terrain. The orange animal leads us, though I can sense the terrible vibes off the evil man as well. Demonic... Evil... Monstrous...