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As Yuffie fell into silence, They all looked up, as if hearing her distant scream. They all looked in the direction of Wutia, as she fell into the dreaded silence. A shiver ran down Tifa's back, and goosebumps raised on her flesh, as if frightened of something she couldn't see. The same happened to the rest ofthe group, and although none of them would remember later, they all knew Yuffie had slipped into a place worse then death. She wasn't in the life stream. She was just dead...

* * * * *

It was 9:00 PM.

Yuffie was sitting at her home in Wutai when it started. She was sitting on her couch, watching an episode of her favorite television program.

Tifa had been in her home. She was half heartedly eating some of the pie she had made for her and Cloud to share that night... on their second date.

Cloud was quickly running to Tifa's house, knowing he was already late because the roses he bought had not been delivered. He had dropped by the florists' shop to get them.

Barret had been tucking Marlene into her bed for the night. Both of them would have nightmares on this last night they slept.

Red XIII was tending to a small garden in front of the house where his Grandfather had lived, looking at the blossoming stars.

Vincent had been roaming the mazes under Shinra Mansion, looking for nothing, but wishing Lucrietia was with him.

Cait Sith had been powered down for a while, while Reeve was out in the town, walking into the Mall of Midgar.

Cid had been flying around in the Highwind, looking at the lay of the land.

They had all looked up when it started, too, although Cid was the only one to see it happen. When the Chain Reaction started, they all looked up, and cringed at the screams. The screams from the Life Stream, hundreds of souls in mortal pain. One that struck Cloud in particular was Aeris' scream, her voice high and shrill.

Cid saw all of it from his place in the Highwind. He was flying solo (something he rarely did). He had just had a sudden urge to take off into the wild blue yonder, to forget it all.. or see it all come crashing down.

He had been flying in no direct path to any one place, only flying, enjoying the veiws. He had decided to fly over the rubble that used to be the Temple of the Ancients before he headed home, wanting to see it again. He just didn't know how bad his timing was today.

As he passed over the site, he looked down, hoping to admitre all of it's beauty. As he got closer, his instruments started giving strange readings, the needles jumping back and forth, the digital displays going crazy.

"What the fuck..." he muttered to himself, thinking he must have rebuilt the thing wrong after all. Then, as he reached the spot he thought most beautiful about the island, he saw something that shattered his good mood completely.

Where there had been the rubble of a mighty temple, glittering like gold, surronded by beautiful green forest, was nothing but fire. A twisted, black fire, sweeping through the island, spawning off electric surges of evil black energy. Where the rubble of the temple used to be, a swirl of black and gray had burst through the ground, and in the middle, was a temple. It wasn't a golden temple, something the Anceints would have made, but a dark, twisted, morbid temple. A temple that let off the energy of death.

"What the fuck?!!!" Cid practically screamed into the emptiness of the cockpit. "What the hell's goin' on?!!!"

As he ranted inside the otherwise silent cockpit, the winds outside grew violently fast, the fire reaching heights that even started to heat up the Highwind's under-belly. As it rose higher, so did the energy that sparked through it. It began to surge through the cockpit, burnung out navigations and damaging almost everythintg else.

"Oh, shit!!!!" Cid screamed, and began struggling to gain more alttitude, although it wasn't working. The engines had been fried by the energy surge, and the only direction Cid was going was down.

As Cid fought for control, and actually thought he would make it out alive, something shot out of he whirl of black and gray, straight at the cockpit. Cid had enough time to swing the large ship around to avoid sudden death, but the thing sliced through the port side of the ship. Cid looked at the aft display monitor, and saw the thing turn back for another pass.

It was something pitch black, like a shadow, with only one other color in it's whole body. The eyes were a startling green color that seemed somehow familiar, but Cid wasn't about to stick around to find out how.

As Cid powered the engines could go, with all the damage, he hit the throttle and took off at an incredible speed. The Highwind bucked, and the entire left side began to come off of it's frame. The metal began to peel away from the ship, the wiring and pipes began to hang out loosely, and began peeling off as well.

The black creature didn't much care to dodge the peices; it just went through them like they were nothing. It was closing on the Highwind now, moving in on it's paralized prey. Cid realized then that that was exactly what was happening; it was a hunter and he was the prey.

He was near Rocket Town now, finally realizing this hunter might destroy his town, too, like it had destroyed the Highwind. He began to change course when the hunter peeled off of it's chase, just as the peices of metal were tearing of the ship. He tried to change course to make a smooth landing, when he found out something else had gone out.

The steering.

"Oh, shit"

As he braced for an impact with the earth, the Highwind pitched downward, into Rocket Town, Behind Cid Highwind's house. It looked like a strange parody of the Shin-Ra 26, standing on it's nose instead of it's base.

Cid's head flew forward, hitting the control panels. Blood squirted from his nose and mouth as he impacted the console. Water streamed from his eyes, mixing with the blood on the console. The pain felt like a comet crashing into his face. His head jerked back fast enough to cause whip lash, and when his head hit the back of the seat, he let out a grunt of pain.

Cid drift back into the darkness of semi-consciousness, the pain dulling slightly, and then dove into a pool of dark unconscious. The dark was filled with nightmares. It would be three hours before he awoke from the dreaded nightmares to the horrors of the real world.

* * * * *

Yuffie was sitting in her home, still watching her favorite television program (altough it was a rerun, and it was almost over) when Cid was going through the horrific experience of meeting an instruments panel head on. The program was almost over, and she was wondering whether to take a shower or get a snack fist, and decided the food should come first. She stood up and walked into the kitchen. The wind outside had picked up terrible, and the holwing sounded almost human.

Yuffie had wished that the wind wasn't so damn loud. It seemed to scream at her, like it was screaming a warning, but she had quickly pushed that thought aside.

There was a loud crashing sound outside, and Yuffie stopped and looked up from the process of searching the fridge for food. Her father wasn't home, and at first she thought it might be him. She went back to looking through the fridge. She was interrupted again when the door in the front from began to rattle.

"Who's there?" she hollored, her voice edgy. She remembered slightly that her father was supposed to be out for at least tonight. He wouldn't be back until at least early morning. Despite the fact that all she was wearing was a pair of shorts and a bra, she ran to her room and grabbed her shuriken. This might be trouble.

"Who's there?! Answer me!!!!" She screamed at the door, but the hinges only rattled on, more and more. "Who the FUCK is there! Answer me!!! Who the fuck are you!?!"

With this final scream, the door shattered inward. Yuffie realized, with shocked relief, that the door wasn't off it's hinges; there was just a fist stuck six inches through the door. It was black, like a shadow of death, and it had shattered a hole into the door. The fist left through the hole it had made, and Yuffie thought for a brief but hopeful moment that it was leaving. Then it shoved both its hands through the door and began to pull it apart from the inside. The door shattered, and Yuffie jumped backward, strikng a fighting pose, ready to do battle.

The creature stepped through the door, and Yuffie realized its full horror. The thing had to stand seven foot tall. It was pure jet black, and made Yuffie think of a shadow. A shadow of death. It had two huge clawed hands, and a cape of total jet black. There were no lines between where one part ended and another part began. The only feature that wasn't jet black were it's eyes. Peircing green eyes that seemed distant and fimiliar.

"I don't know what the hell you are, but I'm giving you fair warning to get out of my house!!!"

What happened next suprised Yuffie, yet made her comfortable at the same time. And it somehow increased her already maxed out fear. It spoke to her, not audible, but somehow with a thought, and she somehow knew it had been directed from the creature toward her.

"I'm here for you... "It's thoughts hissed. "I will destroy you..."

This last thing that it said suprised her even more, but she stance changed to that of striking position. If wanted a peice of her, it had to go through her shuriken first.

"Fine then! Have it your way!" She said, a little to defiantly, "Your goin' wished you'd never messed with the great Yuffie!"

Somehow, the hunter smiled with it's eyes. It held up one of it's shadowy hands, two fingers up. Bring it on, He motioned with his fingers. So she did.

She jumped, flipped, ad brought the shirken straight through the hunter. Quite literally. passing through it made her body tingle all over, like her legs did when they often 'feel asleep' themselves. She fell straight through the hunter, like he wasn't even there. She caught herself from hitting the ground, flipped into the air, and landed on her feet. She turned to face the hunter, thinking that she would have to use Materia to destroy it. It was probably a dark spirit.

But when she turned, it was gone. Before she could turn back around, the hunter had grabbed the arm that held the shuriken, and twisted it backward. Yuffie felt the extreme pain as it dug its claws into her skin, her blood flowing from her arm. She dropped the shuriken, no longer able to feel her arm. She heard the bone and cartlidge cracking, giving way. The skin began to rip away, blood spraying. The bone and cartlidge finally gave way, and her arm gave way.

More blood flowed out, and the pain hit her like hammer. She was stumbling this way and that. She seemed to be floating away from reality.

The hunter transported behind her. It grabbed her with it's claws and threw her to the ground. She had nothing left in her to fight it.

It put knee firmly against her rib cage, and put it huge claws under her head, firmly around her neck. It began to pull up against her head, pulling the neck and the body apart. She heard the cracking of her own spine, the ripping of her flesh, and welcomeed it as releif from the pain.

"Don't worry," Yuffie told herself, "It will all be over soon... "

And as if to give finality to the thought, the hunter gave a firm jerk of his claws, ripping her head off of her shoulders. Some of her spine came out of her body as well, and blood began to stain the throw rug her body was one. The body twitched madly for a moment, the lay still.

As Yuffie's soul exited her body, the hunter somehow summoned it to him, pulling her soul into his dark body of souls. Her soul let out a final scream, which was somehow heard by all the other members of AVALANCHE...

With his work here done, and Yuffie's soul in him, The hunter walked from the small shelter where empty shell lay dead, a shell that should contain a heroine named Yuffie.

He began to float in the air, and flew off in the direction of Rocket Town.

The night was still young and dark, and the harvest of souls was ripe for the picking... Cid Highwind seemed to make a good target for the second of the AVALANCHE prey...

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As the night grew on, the process of the events that Cid had senn earier that night began around the Wutia area. The area became corrupt with evil, becoming new territory for the hunter...

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This is the end of part one of Hunter

Part two will be coming soon

Hunter copyright of Raven-Chan

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