Poking Around [Yuffie/Vincent]

[Yuffie]

Yuffie was doing what she did best at the moment. Besides being loud. Or being talkative. Or being energetic. Okay maybe it wasn't exactly what she did best, but she did it well enough for her and the RGRC's purposes. She was spying, the current target still the castle. It was becoming more and more obvious that the dark presence that was present in the castle came from the witch Maleficent. The one who had destroyed their home before.

She had an idea that the man who attacked before could possibly have come from here, but the dark feeling she got from him and the castle felt different and somehow she doubted Maleficent was involved. Though it was still a good idea to check up on the witch and see what she was up to. However, she had kind of neglected to let the RGRC know what she was doing currently.

She had guessed that most of them wouldn't want her to be so close to someone so filled with darkness. With them still unsure if the man had spoken the truth, they would want her to be careful. However, she was antsy being in the town and just didn't feel like being there right now. And for some reason, it felt as if the castle had been calling to her somehow...

[Vincent Valentine]

Totally not stalking you.
--

Vincent followed after her, but kept his distance so that she didn't know he was following her. He felt he was obligated to. Several reasons why. He had sworn to protect her after their discussion in the Crystal Fissure. And apparently, he was the only one paying attention to her and the only one that saw her sneaking out with a sly look on her face. She thought she was slick, but Vincent didn't miss a beat. He knew Yuffie and so he knew that she was probably going to get into some trouble if she was going off somewhere by herself with that look on her face.

But he didn't want to overreact, so he stayed hidden. Just watching to make sure she was okay. He would be there if she needed him.

Her target became apparent to him the farther they went. She was headed towards the castle. He almost ran out to grab her and drag her back to the borough before she got herself killed. There was a dark cloud metaphorically hanging over that castle. He didn't like it and he definitely didn't want Yuffie going over there. How was he supposed to protect her if she insisted on jumping in the lion's den?

He sighed to himself. Vincent Valentine, babysitter extraordinaire.

[Yuffie]

Yuffie shook her head, getting the thoughts that the castle was somehow calling out to her out of her head. it was a ridiculous thought, even for her. There was no way a place with this much darkness would call out to her. She patted her face with both hands. C'mon, Yuffie snap out of it. You came here because you wanted to know what that witch was up to.

She got her fuma shuriken ready. Last time she had come up here, heartless appeared every time she tried to get close to the entrance. Obviously the witch didn't want anyone associated with the light to be near the place. Well, Yuffie was going to find a way to get in. She took a deep breath and then jumped out from where she was hiding and got ready to attack the heartless that would most likely attack. "Hiiiiiiii-" she started to yell out and swung her shuriken.

However, when she landed in the spot where she normally encountered heartless, there was nothing there. "-ya?" she finished confused. Normally there were heartless here, why weren't they here now? She put her shuriken away, there was no point in having it out now. She turned towards the entrance of the ominous looking castle. "This is probably a bad idea, but...." she mumbled to herself as she began to head for the entrance.

[Vincent Valentine]

I don't want to frighten you...
--

Vincent followed her as far as the entrance. He had smirked a a little when she jumped out to attack an invisible enemy, but the smile faded. She'd obviously been expecting an attack. She may have been a hyperactive teenage girl, but she was a skilled warrior. Vincent drew Cerberus, just to be safe and stealthily followed her to the entrance.

He had been hoping Yuffie would skip this mission of hers and go back home without him having to intervene. That obviously wasn't going to be the case. He sighed heavily. He couldn't just leave her to herself. He didn't want her to know she was being followed either, but he was about to forget that idea and join her, especially if there were going to be Heartless around.

So, grudgingly, he walked up to Yuffie and put a hand on her shoulder. He was quiet though, and Yuffie may not have even heard him coming except for the clinking of his boots. He didn't want to alarm her so he spoke as he grabbed her shoulder. "Yuffie,[/color]" he said, both identifying himself and grabbing her attention just before she walked into the castle.

[Yuffie]

Yuffie stopped short of the entrance way. She looked at it, the giant door looking just as ominous as the rest of the castle. She knew it was a bad idea to go in, she knew it. But...she just had to go in, and find out what was going on in there. They needed to know if the witch was up to something that could cause them trouble later.

She took a deep breath and was about to go through the door, when she felt something grab her shoulder. She yelped in surprise, and immediately drew a shuriken ready to chuck it behind her. However, she then heard her name and immediately recognized the voice. Apparently, Vincent had saw her and followed her over here.

She gave a sigh of relief and turned around, putting the shuriken away. She then frowned over at Vincent. "You scared me!" she exclaimed angrily. "What are you doing sneaking up on me anyway?" Truthfully she was kind of glad he had, there was no way her being here by herself was a good idea. However, she knew that he was going to be asking the same thing and so hopefully her acting angry would distract him from asking that. Hopefully

[Vincent Valentine]

Am I being a little over protective? Good.
--

"I'm sorry,[/color]" Vincent answered, taking away his hand. "I didn't mean to frighten you. I'm only making sure you're safe.[/color]"

He took a step back and looked up at the door. He looked around them, trying to spot potential enemies. Everything looked clear for the time being. He still had no idea what Yuffie was doing all the way out here and would have liked to try his best to convince her to come back to the borough with him.

"What are you doing here?[/color]" he asked in an almost demanding way. He thought about going on about how it wasn't safe and she didn't need to be here by herself and it wasn't right for her to sneak out and not tell anyone where she was going.

What would have happened if you had gotten hurt out here? he wanted to ask her, and shake her shoulders. No one could have helped you.

But in his usual way, he kept quiet and only asked the absolutely necessary questions. She didn't need a lecture, she probably knew what she was doing.

[Yuffie]

Yuffie calmed down a bit after Vincent responded. It was kind of sweet that he was here to make sure she was safe, but also kind of annoying. After all she wasn't a child and she could totally take care of herself. Granted there were moments that would suggest otherwise, but she knew how to be safe. Though right now would be one of those moments that would suggest otherwise.

Vincent then stepped back and looked around, looking for possible enemies. She found it odd that neither one of them had spotted any yet. What could that possibly mean, last time she was here whenever she approached heartless would just show up. Why weren't they now? Of course, Vincent asked her what she was doing here. He didn't ask or say anything else, but the look he gave her said it all. He was obviously that she hadn't said anything and that her being here by herself wasn't exactly the greatest of ideas.

"This place is acting funny," she started off. "Last time I was here, heartless would appear every time I tried to approach it. Now they aren't Plus...I think that witch is here again. I have to find out what she's up too!" She had a real determined look on her face, one that basically said she was going in whether or not Vincent came with her or tried to convince her otherwise. Yuffie wanted to make sure to stop whatever that witch was planning now, and make sure their home didn't fall in her clutches again.

[Vincent Valentine]

Always have a plan.
--

He did agree that it was a bit strange the Heartless weren't appearing where they had once been plentiful. But was that really a bad thing? For all they knew, perhaps the Heartless were just becoming less of a threat. Though, with the Figure's appearance and talk of darkness... Vincent severely doubted they would be so lucky.

And then she mentioned the witch. Maleficent, he assumed. It was noble of Yuffie to want to find out what the sorceress was up to, but she didn't need to go at it alone. If Maleficent was back and want trouble, which she most certainly did, it was going to take more than just Yuffie and Vincent to take her down. Her return couldn't have come at a bad time, if in fact she had returned and Yuffie wasn't simply overreacting.

Vincent made his decision. He would accompany the young ninja on a recon mission through the castle and they would leave at the first sign of trouble. On their return to the borough, they would let the others know and come up with a plan of action.

He tried the door. It was unlocked, but what reason would any potential burglars have in the gutted castle? The door was heavy, but it was not impassable. With the door open, they were now free to explore the castle.

[Yuffie]

Vincent stood there for a moment after Yuffie had spoke. It looked like he was thinking about what she had said and she waited for him to say or do something. He then moved toward the door and opened it. "Thanks Vincent! I promise we won't get into any trouble!" she exclaimed and hugged him from behind before enthusiastically entering the castle.

She soon reached the main hall and it was impressive looking. "Wow, I forgot how amazing this place looked..." she said aloud. Granted it was kind of creepy looking still but that didn't mean it didn't look neat. Though she wondered where they should go next. She pointed over to the door that was to the left.

"That way is the library right?" she asked Vincent. "Should we head that way? Or..." She then pointed over to the entrance way in front of her at the top of the stairs. "Should we head that way? I forget what's down there...."

[Vincent Valentine]

What's behind door number one?
--

Vincent froze in place when Yuffie hugged him but regained his composure quickly. He was still incredibly unused to physical human contact. After recovery, he followed Yuffie into the main hall and nodded once in agreement. The hall was once exquisite but had since fallen into disrepair. There was still beauty to be found among the destruction, something he had a hard time ignoring the symbolism in.

Yuffie was bouncing all over the hall, taking each path into account. One second she suggested the door to their left, then the library, then the entrance that lay at the top of the stairs. Vincent had been hoping they wouldn't stray too far, just enough to satisfy her curiosity and then they could leave. Her plan, it seemed, was to check every nook and cranny. She was just begging for trouble.

Vincent shrugged. "Let's try this door first,[/color]" he suggested, gesturing to the door to their left with Cerberus. He wasn't liking the vibes coming from the door on the stairs and though he also didn't like the thought of being trapped in the library, it seemed a lot safer. Why would Maleficent be in the library?

He walked past Yuffie and over to the door.

[Yuffie]

Yuffie was busy doing enie meenie miney moe to decide which way to go through first until Vincent walked past and started heading for one of the doors. She followed after him as he went for the library door. "Alright, sounds good to me!" she told him and opened the door enthusiastically.

She skipped into the library. It was quite huge. "Wow, I forgot how many books were in here...." she said in awe. She looked around but couldn't see all that much since the bookshelves almost formed like a sort of maze. "Why would someone arrange bookshelves like this? It doesn't seem to make much sense..." she wondered aloud.

She then skipped along till she saw a staircase. She looked to were it led and it was just to the second level of the library. She couldn't see from where she was what was exactly up there, so she started going up. She didn't exactly wait for Vincent, just assuming he'd come along at his own brisk pace.

[Vincent Valentine]

Gotta keep up, Vinny.
--

He followed closely behind her at first but then found himself becoming a bit distracted and falling behind. It was true, the bookshelves were set up a bit like a maze. Vincent felt uneasy. His fears about being trapped in the library in case of an attack by Heartless or otherwise weren't completely unreasonable after all.

When he looked up, he realized Yuffie was gone. He suffered a brief moment of panic before he noticed she was scaling the stair case. His panic turned to irritation quickly. Couldn't that girl just stay still and be careful for once? He sighed and started making his way over through the maze of shelves and up the staircase.

He quickly caught up with Yuffie, but didn't verbally express his annoyance with her. Hopefully she got the vibes. At any rate, they were on the second level of the library now and could see over the level they'd just come from. Vincent walked closer to the railing. Still no sign of Heartless... or anything else really. No evil sorceresses, evidence of human sacrifice or screaming. Just an abandoned library. Probably the worst danger they would run into here was allergies from all the dust.

[Yuffie]

Oblivious to the vibes Vincent hoped Yuffie was receiving, she continued further along on the second floor of the library. She stopped over by where there was a table and looked over the railing to see the layout of the floor below them. "It really does look like a maze from up here," she commented as she looked. There were no signs of heartless or of that witch, but Yuffie wasn't expecting to run into her quite yet.

However, the lack of heartless was odd. Even she had to take notice to that. She wasn't sure if this made the castle less creepy or not, but she didn't think much of it, getting a bit bored of the library. She then looked over down the rest of the floor and saw only a single doorway up here. "Looks like only one choice this time. Let's go!" she exclaimed, opening the door and skipping through it.

On the other side was a room that was circular and when she went over to the nearby railing, she realized they were above the main hall that they had entered the castle from. She looked around where she was and saw that there were no more doorways up here. She turned her head and called out to Vincent. "Hey, Vincent! This way's a dead end!"

[Vincent Valentine]

Just don't talk to any strangers... or evil witches.
--

A maze like library. Dead ends. This whole castle was one big trap. The lack of Heartless was still sort of unsettling. Normally, he would be happy for it but there was obviously something wrong. There was no way the Heartless could have suddenly ceased to exist, not with all this darkness snaking around Radiant Garden lately.

His soldier's instinct- left over from his time as a castle guard- told him that someone was biding their time, building their strength for an attack. You could almost feel the tension in the air.

Yuffie kept dashing off. He sighed heavily. You almost needed a leash to keep a good track on that girl. They were going to get separated, and she was going to get lost or hurt. At least, that's what he felt. He had to keep reminding himself that Yuffie knew how to take care of herself. She may have looked like a little girl, but she was capable. Still, he didn't want her to get separated from him with Maleficent around. If what the Figure had said was true... Maleficent would be drawn to Yuffie like the proverbial moth to a candle flame.

Vincent followed Yuffie through the door. They were right back where they started, just one floor up.

"Had enough yet?[/color]" he asked.

[Yuffie]

Yuffie leaned back against the railing as Vincent came through the doorway. She had forgotten how confusing this place could be, it seemed like an easy place to get lost in. It was kind of disappointing that there was no way forward up here, which meant the only option of moving forward was that other doorway down on the floor below them.

Vincent asked her if she had enough of this place yet. "Of course not Vincent! We still haven't found out anything yet," she exclaimed. She obviously did not want to leave the castle empty-handed, there were still questions that needed answers. Like the lack of heartless for starters.

She then saw out of the corner of her eye what appeared to be a heartless on the bottom floor. "Vincent did you see that?!" she asked quickly, turning around and looking down at the floor below. By the time she looked she barely saw it go off toward the way they hadn't checked out yet. "C'mon! We need to see where it's headed!" she exclaimed and then jumped over the railing. After all if they went back through the library they wouldn't be able to catch it. When she landed she chased after the heartless