Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Running out of Time ❯ Fighting a Losing Battle ( Chapter 4 )

Thanks to all of my reviewers!!! I love you all!

 

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Disclaimer: Me no own. I only own the idea for this story. Everything else belongs to Squenix.

 

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Running out of Time: chapter four.

 

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Wordlessly, Vincent rose to his feet, grabbing the red cape and pulling it back onto his shoulders before buckling it up. Cloud just looked on, feeling helpless and downright crappy.

 

“Vincent… I think the others should know.”

 

Vincent's reaction was instantaneous and violent.

 

He whirled around. “Absolutely not!” He hissed vehemently. “Cloud, I already told you; they don't know about it, and I plan to keep it that way!”

 

Cloud was taken aback. “But…!”

 

Vincent shook his head before whispering viciously, “If you tell them, I swear on all things holy that I am going to leave and you are never going to find me! I will tell them, at MY discretion, and ONLY if we require their assistance. I do NOT want to give them cause for alarm!”

 

Cloud mulled this over for a moment before an idea came to him. “What about Reeve? He has connections. He can probably find either the information you need or a means of fixing you…” Cloud suggested hesitantly, “Not to mention that he has a LOT of money. You're his friend too, Vincent, and he wouldn't hesitate in doing everything in his power to help you. And I would trust his discretion. He's not gonna blab.”

 

Vincent pondered the idea for a moment. “…All right. I'll leave that up to you, Cloud. I have some errands to run.”

 

Cloud was confused. “…Errands?”

 

Vincent paced over to the table by the door, grabbing his gun holster and strapping it on. “What? You expect me to survive without a decent supply of potions? I'll be needing to take them every day, and frequently, if you expect me to make it past the week,” he explained. “I also have a mastered Cure materia, but not with me; it's still at the mansion from the time I used to stay there. So I'll be getting that, the potions, and some ethers. If things start going downhill fast, I can always cast Regen on myself. But I'll need a lot of ethers if I'm going to keep that up for any length of time.”

 

Cloud whistled appreciatively. “You've really thought this out… wanna borrow Ketta?”

 

Vincent raised his eyebrows. “Your prized gold Chocobo?”

 

Cloud nodded. “Yeah. Now that I have Fenrir, I don't use her to make deliveries, so she doesn't get as much exercise as I'd like,” Cloud explained. “Check in the Chocobo stable out back—we just built it recently so I wouldn't have to go all the way to the farm to get her, and she doesn't have to stay on the Shera. Nibelheim is kinda far if you plan on walking, Vincent.”

 

Vincent gave Cloud a real, rare smile in thanks. When he moved towards the door, Cloud got worried. “Vincent, you aren't leaving for Nibelheim today, are you? You've been gone all this time; I was hoping you'd stay a little longer.”

 

Vincent shook his head. “No, I'm not leaving yet. I still need potions, and I don't want to use up your supply. For now, I'm only going to go buy enough to get me through today and tomorrow,” he reassured the blonde swordsman. “Besides, if I bought any more than that, the others would get suspicious, don't you think?”

 

Cloud had to agree with Vincent on that. “In that case, I'm going with you. What if you collapse in the street? …I'm serious!” He exclaimed as Vincent gave him a withering glare.

 

But Vincent finally gave in. “Fine,” he snapped. Cloud followed Vincent out of the room and down the stairs, not even pausing as he shouted out for the room to hear that they were going to get potions; Cloud's supply was running pretty low. Tifa waved them out. Yuffie was grinning to herself. Potions, indeed. Just what had they been doing upstairs? They'd been up there for quite a while. But the poor little fangirl was sadly mistaken.

 

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As it turned out, it was probably a very good thing that Cloud was accompanying Vincent; Vincent was hardly ever in Edge, so he had no idea where the best place to find a potion would be. Cloud, on the other hand, could navigate the city in his sleep. Which he had nearly done on more than one occasion when he was particularly exhausted and wanted to get to Aerith's church. The good thing was, Cloud knew exactly where they should go. The bad thing was, it wasn't particularly close to the 7th Heaven Bar, but there wasn't a good street route to get there. So, they had to walk.

 

Cloud watched Vincent with growing concern as the man had begun to shiver as soon as they'd set foot outside the front door. “Vincent… you okay?”

 

Vincent scowled. “It's just cold out here, that's all.” But when Cloud glanced at him sharply, Vincent had to wonder. “…Isn't it?”

 

Cloud turned his troubled eyes to the ground. “Vince… it's in the high 70s outside. The bar is hot right now because the air conditioning is broken. Or didn't you notice all the ceiling fans running at full blast?”

 

Vincent's eyes widened in surprise, then understanding. “So… my body has already deteriorated to the point that I can no longer regulate my internal temperature…” He whispered.

 

Cloud wanted to cry. It was so hard to see Vincent like this. Vincent was easily one of the strongest among them, physically. Next to himself, of course. There was nothing quite like the strength of a SOLDIER. Even though he'd never actually made the rank, he'd received all of the enhancements and then some. Now, Vincent… He'd seen the dark haired gunman do some amazing things. But now… It seemed like it was all Vincent could do to walk steadily.

 

They reached the apothecary about twenty minutes later. Fortunately, Vincent hadn't shown any more signs that his condition had worsened. Quickly, they took as many potions as they could fit in a bag and Vincent handed the man a pile of gil. Before the man could question it, Vincent told him to keep the change. He needed to get back to the bar; he was so fatigued that he wasn't sure if he could make it back without alerting the others to his condition. But if they left immediately, he should be able to make it before he grew too tired to walk properly.

 

Cloud didn't question his actions; he understood that Vincent was in no mood to dawdle. They were almost back to the bar when Vincent was seized by a second coughing fit. Eyes watering, he didn't seem to be able to get enough air. It felt like his lungs were trying to claw their way out through his esophagus. Cloud caught him just before he could collapse, bracing the other man by the shoulders as he hacked.

 

“Vincent! Vincent!! Are you all right!?” His voice had risen half an octave in alarm. The gunman didn't even nod his head in answer; he was powerless to control the spasms tearing through him. To Cloud, it felt like an eternity before Vincent finally stopped coughing. The gunman glanced up at Cloud to mutter a barely audible “I'm fine.” But his lips had a blue tinge to them.

 

“Vincent… are you sure? You're gray, and your lips… they're blue…” Cloud was unsure whether it would be wise for them to move just yet.

 

“Gray is how I feel. Let's just… get to the bar.”

 

But, to Cloud's horror, he saw that blue wasn't the only color on Vincent's lips. No… At the corner of the gunman's mouth was a tiny drop of red. Vincent noticed Cloud's staring and reached up to wipe his mouth with the back of his hand. He glanced at the resulting red smear on his glove and grunted, wiping it off onto the crimson cape. Cloud just shook his head, giving the gunman a worried glance before slinging the flesh arm around his shoulder.

 

“Come on… the sooner you can sit down, the better.”

 

Vincent winced as another shudder rippled through him. “Sorry. You were right, after all.”

 

Cloud glanced over at the gunman in confusion. “I generally am… but about what in particular?”

 

Vincent smirked. “Collapsing in the street.”

 

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Not a cliffie, for once, but this fic in general is one massive cliffhanger.

 

Sorry about Yuffie's Vin/Cloud fangirl moment. Normally, I write yaoi, but I thought it'd be funny to make this into a NON yaoi fic and have at least one character suspect something going on when it's NOT.

 

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End of Chapter Four. R&R.