Northern Crater

Continued...

Cid didn't seem soothed by Vincent's words, instead whimpering again and burying his face in his chest. Cait Sith could see the visible pain on Vincent's face, as if he was failing at something. Little did Vincent or Cait Sith know that it had nothing to do with them at all...

Cid was still locked in his dream world. Although he had tried to ward off his memories while he was safe, they would not be denied. Eventually he had to yield to them. A cold wind blew what seemed like right through him, and the comforting vision of Vincent was gone.

Replaced was a scene from his own childhood. One that he knew, because it caused him pain. As it was, he was standing on the outskirts, watching himself. A small child, already equipped with a small pair of goggles, working on a engine. Near him stood Cyril, watching critically. He remembered, although he did not want to.

"No no, you turn it counter-clockwise! You'll never learn this way! Go back and try it again!"

"But...I thought you said..." his small childish voice, filled with frustration and sadness came to his own ears.

"Don't argue with me! Fix it now!"

Cid could remember the feelings that had always torn him apart while Cyril was alive. He always loved the sky. There was something in the sky that called to him, a feeling of belonging and love. He wanted to badly to be up there, forever. To never have to deal with the affairs of the earthly plane. He would do anything to be up there...anything to get off the dark earth and into the pure and untainted sky.

But to do that, he had to get through Cyril. Cyril would not let the slightest mistake go by and it seemed often to Cid that he would tell him the wrong directions just for the joy of telling him he was wrong. Cid grew to hate working on planes, simply because of all the things that Cyril would tell him was wrong.

He did not want to hate the planes or the sky, but he felt as if Cyril was making him. This was tearing him apart inside as hate and love fought alternatly over control. He hated going out with Cyril to work on planes, knowing that everything he would try to do would be wrong, yet knowing that this was the only way he could reach his dream. As it was, Cid was only around the age of ten at the time, and the emotions that constantly tormented him were incredibly powerful for someone of his age. Despite his natural precociousness towards electronics, Cyril showed no preference or special treatment for Cid's age. He treated him as he would treat a high-school student who wished to learn how to fly, and this was far, far too harsh for Cid. Cyril never layed a hand on him, but it was often Cid who would hurt himself, accidentally turning the wrong bolt or touching the wrong wire with the nervousness of being under Cyril's supervision. He was sure that if he didn't have Cyril to frighten him or make him nervous or pick at him, he could build things by himself. But as much as he hated to admit it, he learned a lot about flying while he worked, not just mechanics. When he came home, frustrated and torn almost to the point of tears, there was no one he could talk to. His parents were never home, and if they were, they wouldn't listen to him. Instead of allowing tears to flow from his eyes, he turned it to anger. Anger could be funneled more usefully, he reasoned. He changed it to determination, although he still felt both dread and joy at going to work with Cyril. The two conflicting emotions ripped him apart at his young age.What he loved hurt him, and he hated it for that. Yet he couldn't hate it.

It was when Cyril died that Cid was free. No one had told him how he'd died, considering his parents didn't even seem to know that he was with Cyril for most of the time. No one ever considered that the small blond kid would like to know what happened to the other mechanic. Cid was alone. Not that he ever wasn't.

Cid watched his memory fade away, fighting back the helpless rage he had felt so long ago. He had his dream now...he could fly. He could go as high as he wanted. He had gone into space, even...and yet, he couldn't stay there forever. Being in the sky made him happier then anything on earth, but there was no aircraft that could keep aloft at all hours, as much as he wished that it could. For all his suffering and work as a child, he still felt that it had come to naught. He wanted to fly, but he wanted to fly forever.

He sat down again, looking at himself in his child form. The helplessness at the alternate hating and loving of the sky kept coming at him, having been kept back so long. He wasn't sure what had opened the floodgates of such a painful emotion, but he wished there was some kind of way to stop it. Something had to stop these feelings...something...someone...anyone...

As usual, his mind wandered to the only person he could remember at the moment, and he appeared in front of him, standing passively and watching him with the same unreadable expression. Cid, following his natural urges, ran towards him, viewing him as some kind of protection against these feelings which came over him. Vincent lifted him upwards, holding him easily. Cid tried to control his tears by converting them to anger, but he found that all his anger was gone.

"I want to fly..." he managed to whisper, trying to keep the pain of his past years under control. Vincent looked at him and Cid could see the black wings of Chaos sweeping from behind Vincent forward. Cid looked disbelieving for a moment.

"No, you don't have to...you hate Chaos. You hate him."

"You want to fly." The wings began pumping up and down, lifting Vincent off the ground. Cid watched curiously.

"But what about what YOU want?" Cid spoke words that he had never considering before in his life. He had never cared for what someone else wanted until now. Vincent simply stared at him.

"Your happiness."

"Are all fathers like you?" Cid laughed, not sure of where it came from. It just came from within him, but he wasn't sure why. Perhaps it was the giddy feeling of the sky as they rose steadily.

"I don't know." Vincent spoke slowly. "I hope so."

"I want wings."

Vincent looked at him. Cid stared into the crimson eyes.

"What?"

"I want wings. Like yours."

"No...you don't want these. They came at a heavy price..."

"This is only a dream though, isn't it?" Cid tried to focus on his ideal vision of wings, and it took form. From his small, childlike back sprouted two small, metallic-blue, scaled wings. Vincent stared at him in confusion.

"See..." Cid flapped his wings and flew away from Vincent's arms, smiling brightly. "You can change your wings two, if you want to. You don't have to have the same wings forever."

Vincent looked shocked for a moment, then closed his eyes. The thick, black wings from his back slowly turned white, seperating into that of feathers. Soon the black demon wings were replaced by that of what looked like a great white bird. Cid watched surprised as Vincent began laughing, something he had never heard. It was both sad and beautiful at the same time.

"You're right...nothing has to stay the way it is forever..."

Vincent was distraught until he noticed that Cid was happy again. Curious as to why, he watched as the pilot spoke silent words in his sleep, then smiled and rested peacefully. Vincent sighed deeply. Thank goodness he had not awoken...

"That was close, wasn't it?" Cait Sith spoke from his shoulder. With lightning speed, Vincent grabbed Cait Sith around the neck again and dragged him forward. Again, Cait Sith hissed and his fur rose. Instead of anger, however, Vincent studied Cait Sith closely.

"Stay still."

Cait Sith was too frightened to think of what Vincent could do if angry, he watched as Vincent carefully drew his claw forth and placed the tip against Cait Sith's chest. Cait Sith began gasping for breath.

"Don't kill me, don't kill me, please please don't kill me..." Cait Sith babbled meaninglessly as Vincent pierced the layer of fur.

"OW!" Cait Sith cried rather loudly. Vincent was too interested in what he was doing to wonder whether this cry could have awakened Cid, which it fortunatly did not.

A drop of blood began flowing from the small wound. Cait Sith, realizing this, looked at it in shock. His cat mouth refused to form any words, so it was Vincent who spoke first.

"Cait Sith...where were you when Meteor came?"

"Reeve...I, I mean...I was at ShinRa corporation..." Cait Sith spoke with fear in voice. Vincent kept the same emotionless look on his face.

"But your mind was in Cait Sith, wasn't it?"

"Yes, but-"

"ShinRa was totally destroyed."

Cait Sith stared as the red droplet made its way slowly down his white chestfur. "But, how could I..."

"Because your body was destroyed, your mind has been stranded in this body."

"WHAT?!" Cait Sith shrieked hysterically. Vincent jabbed him with the claw, not hard enough to draw blood, to tell him to stay silent.

"I believe..." Vincent looked at Cait Sith's paws. "That while Holy was saving Meteor, the pure flux of life energy has transformed you into a true feline, Cait Sith, but with Reeve's mind."

"This can't be true..." Cait Sith looked near tears, something exceptionally rare for the cat. "This can't...I'm Reeve...I work at ShinRa...I'm human! I have a desk and a plaque and everything! I'm REEVE! I'm controlling this body from ShinRa!"

"Toys do not bleed."

Cait Sith finally began to weep, further proof of a function toys do not have. "This can't be real...I'm not a cat, I'm a person...my name is Reeve...this is just a toy...I'm not a cat! I'm not!"

Despite his normal nature, Vincent felt pity rising in him for the cat. He had just been displaced out of his true body and put into a cat's. No doubt he would be in denial. And hysterical. Vincent used his claw to wipe the tears away, causing Cait Sith to squeak with fright as the claw came near his face. Vincent again felt guilt.

"I'm sorry, Reeve, but there's nothing we can do. You're stuck as Cait Sith, a flesh and blood cat, until we find a way to return yourself to normal."

"I...I don't want to be a cat anymore..." Cait Sith sobbed. "I...I want to be real..."

"This is as real as it gets." Vincent leaned back, his eyes tired. He felt Cid twitching in his sleep. He released Cait Sith, who fell with feline grace onto the deck. This seemed to deepen the cats depression.

"I'm...not...I'm not Cait Sith..." Cait Sith kept repeating to himself. Vincent waited until Cait Sith had finished grieving and was weary of the effort. The cat looked at Vincent with sad, yellow eyes. They still had tears around the edges, flecking the whiskers.

"Try and get some rest, Cait Sith." Vincent said softly. Cait Sith stared at him for a moment, then finally nodded. He crawled painfully upwards, finally curling into a ball on Cid's shoulder, leaning against Vincent's chest, shivering uncontrollably. Vincent knew it was not because he was cold.

"Thanks a lot, Aeris..." Cait Sith mumbled resentfully, his voice broken and shaky with tears. "I didn't know how long you wanted the real me to sleep..."

Purring to comfort himself, Cait Sith fell asleep.

Darkness.

And cotton.

"Where...am I?"

Nanaki tried to focus his eyes, but found the effort useless. He was somewhere dark, and he could feel cotton. Where was he?"

"Hello? Anyone?" He called, but his voice was muffled. He tried to bring his paws forward to walk, but found they hit something soft. Focusing more carefully, he could tell he was standing on the deck of the Highwind, but...why...

"Is my head stuck in something?" he wondered aloud. The intelligent creature thought for a moment. If he remembered correctly, the last thing he was near was...

"CAIT SITH!" he shouted, but the cotton in the moogle made his cry soft and undecipherable. Anger flowed through the beast and he growled. He tried to pull his head out, but found a stabbing pain near the nape of his neck when he tried to move. He tried to think of what it was. If he remembered correctly, there was a zipper in the back of the Moogle...

"My mane..." Nanaki mumbled to himself. "Curse that cat! When I find him, I'm going to talk to him about this."

He pulled harder, but the pain from his neck cause him to stop. Sighing, he paused and rested for a moment. What WAS the last thing he remembered?

Yes...it was becoming clearer. He could remember meteor, that horrible affront to the planet, destroying Midgar...and the Highwind was suffering extreme turbulance. Cait Sith had attached himself to Yuffie's face...Nanaki smiled at that. But the Moogle was running about. He had tried to brace himself off of that to leap for a safer position, then he remembered a crate flying towards him...

That must have been what had happened! The crate had pushed his head into the back of the Moogle. That would have sheltered him from the impact of what had undoubtedly been a crash. He had already logically deduced from the lack of vibration in the floor that the Highwind's engines were not running, and there seemed to be complete silence.

Nanaki was struck by a sobering thought. What if his friends had all perished while he had survived in the back of Cait Sith's moogle? What if while he had been sleeping in the moogle his friends had been attacked by wild creatures or, worse yet, their corpses had been eaten by them! Nanaki was struck by fear and guilt and jerked his head back. More fierce pain bit into his neck, but he didn't care. He felt that this would be his recompense for leaving his friends helpless. Besides, pain such as this shouldn't bother a warrior...

He jerked back again and it felt as if his neck was on fire. He fought back a cry of pain and continued to pull. He could feel the hair of his mane coming out one by one.

With a great ripping noise, Nanaki was free. He was unable to move as firey pain flowed across his whole body from his neck and blinded for a moment from the abrupt change of light. Although dusk was approaching, it was far brighter then his eyes, accustomed to the darkness, were ready to handle. He blinked repeatedly to try and rid himself of the dancing circles in his vision. When he could finally see clearly and the pain had lessened, he looked about the deck. The sun was rapidly setting, so he did not have much time. He could see a wild shock of blond hair to his left. Worried, he dashed over towards it, finding it was exactly who he thought it would be. Cloud.

Cloud seemed to be huddled in a ball, barely balancing on the lower edge of the Highwind. It's tilt was causing everyone to slowly slid off, unless firmly anchored. It was luck that seemed to have saved the young mans life. The spiked bracelet's he was wearing had lodged deeply in a crack on the surface of the Highwind. However, this would not last. Cloud was slowly drifting off the edge.

Nanaki leaned close to Cloud and sniffed near his face. He was relieved to find that the young man was breathing. Grabbing the back of Cloud's shirt firmly between his teeth, he dragged him backwards slowly, lodging him behind a sturdy wall. Assured that Cloud was safe, he found his attention next caught by Barret, whose gun arm had caught between two crates, thus saving him from slowly sliding off the ship. Nanaki wondered mentally what in the world Cid could need so many crates for, but didn't question it. He grabbed Barret by the back of his vext and dragged him next to Cloud. He was relieved to find that Barret was also asleep, although he could already tell from their lack of response to his lifting and dragging that they were under some kind of sleeping spell.

He found Tifa, barely on the ship. It was the leverage of her arms that kept her from sliding off the ship and off into...

This thought led Nanaki to try and investigate his surroundings. Looking over the edge of the ship, he found it led to a steep drop. It was some kind of jungled area, but he could not recognize it all. Only the fact it would be a very long drop if Tifa fell off.

Taking her hand in his mouth, he tried to drag her back from the edge. He hoped he wasn't harming her, but he couldn't reach her clothing from this angle. Tugging backwards, he managed to drag the unconcious woman alongside Barret and Cloud. Panting slightly, Nanaki sat and watched them carefully, waiting to see if they would awaken. He noticed that Tifa's hand was bleeding slightly, and he deduced that if that injury had no woken her up, then they were definitly not waking up any time soon.

Nanaki looked around the deck, but could not see anyone else. The moon was swiftly rising, filling Nanaki with confidence. The once latent fire on his tail burst into bright flame, and he used this to look around the deck. He could smell nor see no sign of magic or any other reason his companions would be under this kind of enchantment. Now that he thought about it, he could not find any sign of Yuffie. Not that he particularly cared. He was not on friendly terms with the Ninja, after she had stolen his prized Seraph Comb, a long lost gift from his dead father that he had kept out of nostalgia, and then claimed to have "lost" it. He felt like ripping the girl's throat out, but Cloud had forced the two apart. There had been no love lost between the two since then.

Forcing the ninja from his mind, Nanaki walked along the deck of the Highwind, not sure of what to be looking for. He tried to recall the faces of all those on his team in his mind.

First to come was Cait Sith. He snarled at that. He would make the cat pay for mangling his mane. He probably looked like a wreck now.

Nanaki watched the flames of his tail throw light upon the darkening deck. The sky was growing steadily darker. There were more members, he knew...

Of course! The pilot and the namesake of the ship, Cid Highwind. Where was he? Nanaki didn't much care for him either. Cid was never very polite around him, and the fact that Cid kept lighting his cigarette on his tail made Nanaki furious. He tried not to care about where Cid had went and thought about the very last member of his team. After all the others had been recalled in Nanaki's mind, it seemed that Vincent appeared, as if wishing to remain last and forgotten. Vincent he liked. Vincent was intelligent, quiet, and mature, a counterpart to his nature. He enjoyed talking to Vincent and he was sure the feeling was mutual. If only Vincent could get over his guilt/inferiority complex...

He now wanted to know where Vincent was. He was worried for the dark man. He knew that if Vincent awoke to the scene which he had, he would most likely have blamed himself. And considering they were near a cliff, it would be all too easy to end the existence that Vincent claimed to hate...

If he remembered correctly, some hideous monster had landed on the Highwind near the last moments, holding it's captain, and claimed to be Vincent. It was to Nanaki as if the monster that Vincent had always claimed to be had taken flesh. He wondered if that really was Vincent...or perhaps just some kind of creature that had devoured Vincent and was planning to kill them all.

Nanaki began to wonder why he was so paranoid.

He wandered further along the ship, watching the red flickering light his tail gave off. He wondered how he would ever find them, now that the ship was shrouded in darkness. He watched the floor carefully, sniffing. He could catch the smell of tears and blood and began to worry. Following it, his tail lashing behind him, he nearly ran into what seemed like some kind of blood colored bundle.

Leaping back in surprise, he swung his tail forward for a better look. To his relief, he found that it was only Vincent. He sighed thankfully, glad to find the only other person on his team like him okay. He saw that Vincent was asleep.

But there was something off about this...

He walked around Vincent, staring at him curiously. Poking out from underneath the folds of Vincent's cloak was dirty blond hair, and near that what almost looked like the ears of a black cat...

He sniffed carefully. He easily identified Cait Sith, who was purring. Not aware that toys had such a function, he sniffed the blond hair and recoiled sharply. That was Cid, alright. What were they doing here?

Nanaki recoiled mentally at the thought of the only person like him taking care of two of his team-mates that he could not stand. He tried to think logically. This meant that the hideous thing WAS Vincent...and it must have been what had protected Cid and Vincent from harm. As for Cait Sith, his guess was just that the cat had happened to wake up first. He felt anger rising up within him for Cait Sith not solving the problem of his head stuck in the moogle when the cat had the chance.

Not sure of what else to do, Nanaki could feel a slight breeze blowing by. His thick fur protected him, but he noticed Cid shivering. He smiled slightly at this sign of weakness from someone who projected such a strong image. He smiled more as he noticed that Vincent had to hold him closer to make him stop.

"So much for not needing anyone, eh Cid?" Nanaki had always resented how Cid had claimed to never need any help from anyone and that the whole "team" thing was, as he would put it, a pile of @$^&. He found it amusing that the one person that it seemed that Cid would hate the most (other then Yuffie) was now the one that he was depending on.

Nanaki then sighed sadly, thinking of his grandfather.

"Well, at least you have someone to depend on..." Nanaki sighed deeply, remembered his grandfather's death with painful sadness. He could feel a tear running down his fur and he brushed it away angrily. Warriors do not cry, he tried to tell himself. Warriors don't need anyone...

I am the son of Seto...

Nanaki curled around Vincent easily, resting his head on Cid's hip and closing his eyes. He let his tail twitch slightly and could tell that the firey warmth of his body caused all those near him to relax. This helped him feel as if it was he who was needed. He had always felt as if he was un-necessary during this whole "Save The World" venture. This helped soothe his feelings, even if he WAS laying near the annoying cat and bad-tempered pilot.

"Father..." he cracked his eyes open a little and looked at the moon. "...I suppose we saved the world. But I am no warrior...just a son. Grant me this moment of weakness, father." After saying these words, Nanaki fell deep into slumber.

To Be Continued...

Go on to Part 3