Late Results

By Moony

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Final Fantasy.

Note: Ummm. . . I honestly have no clue what inspired this. It was probably the fact that Yuffie and Red are my favourite characters, and you always wanna look for someone to pair your favourite character up with. Also, Hojo put all those experiments on Red, and you never really find out what they did to him. So this is where my mind eventually wandered. Really not that disturbing, I swear. R&R, please!

Oh, yeah, and one last thing: This pretty much ignores everything that happened in the end of Final Fantasy VII. My own stuff is happening here, folks.

Chapter One:

"That the last one?" Cloud called over his shoulder to the 32-year-old man smoking a cigarette. The other's response was to remove the thing from his mouth, his face breaking into a mischievous grin as he absent-mindedly scratched at the stubble growing on his chin.

"Yea, that's it," Cid replied, his gruff voice laced with delight.

"Okay!" Cloud shielded his eyes, peering out at the crater below him. The last Mako reactor.

After defeating Sephiroth, Barret had returned to Corel to help rebuild the coal mines and take care of Marlene. Tifa was helping with Reeves's campaign for presidency back in Midgar, and Vincent's current location was unknown. He'd followed them for the first few reactor missions before, quite literally, disappearing into the sunset.

Cloud turned to look at his partner in the destruction of Mako reactors, the older blond man looking quite in his element amidst the wires leading to the dynamite attached to the wall of the reactor. Cloud frowned as he watched the pilot's finger wiggling joyfully over the trigger for the explosions.

"Wait, Cid, hold on!" He twisted his head around in every direction, blinking in the afternoon sun. "Where are Yuffie and Red?"

Yuffie Kisaragi stepped nimbly over a fallen pipe, peering around a corner of the run-down building as her eyes darted from object to object. She didn't catch sight of anything that caught her interest, and she frowned, annoyed, as she continued her trek through the reactor.

"Yuffie, this is not a good idea," The tiger-like beast said, following behind her.

"Quiet, No-necky, this might be some of the last materia we ever see in our life." She tried to silence her companion with a half-hearted wag of her finger in his face, but he frowned, a low rumble in his voice.

"It's 'Nanaki'!" Red hissed, glaring silently at her. "And Cloud already went through the place. We'll find nothing."

"Nanaki. Right." Yuffie turned to the fiery-haired creature and winked, batting her eyelashes and grinning sweetly.

"Come on, don't be a party-pooper!" Her voice took on a slight whine as she tried to persuade her friend to stop arguing.

Red sighed, rolling his large, feline-like eyes.

"You always do that!" He said, exasperated, "And it never works. Why? Because, you are human, and I am--" The teenage girl had been ignoring him before, but with this she waved a hand in his direction.

"Shut up, Red! Look!" She cuffed her companion lightly on the head, and he fought the urge to nip at her hand, knowing that, as a human, she would take it as an act of violence, and not as a friendly snap.

"What?" He opted for a growl, instead, trying to see past her legs at the faint green glow that outlined her body in the darkness. He felt his stomach give a slight kick and he shook his head, hoping that he wasn't catching an illness. It would be embarrassing to lose his breakfast in front of the strong-willed girl.

"It's enormous!" Yuffie giggled impishly. "Yeehaw! Jack pot!" She bent down and gathered the large emerald chunk in her hands, bringing it up to her face, studying it. Red watched her delighted expression as the soft light from the materia illuminated her face. She closed her eyes, gently rocking back and forth on her heels before nodding to herself.

"It's some kind of transform materia." She slowly lowered it, allowing Red to peer into her hand. He shuddered when he saw it's pulsing green light, feeling his stomach give another lurch.

"How could Cloud have missed that?" He asked, slowly backing away from the glowing rock. Yuffie shrugged.

"Who cares? Oooh, baby, I wonder how this one works?" She licked her lips greedily, her eyes flicking towards Red as a thought occurred to her, a sinister grin playing across her face.

"Why don't I test it on you?" She snickered.

"Don't." Red's eyes flashed as she continued to stare at him, sizing him up.

"Why not, Red? Worried about what you might turn into?" She teasingly shoved it towards his face, and he leapt back, a slow, nervous growl rising in his throat.

"Of course not," he snapped, feeling anxious. "It'll probably just make me a frog or something like that. There's no point." He turned to leave, but Yuffie reached out and snagged his tail, pulling him closer.

"Only one way to find out!" She said, cheerfully, releasing her grip on his tail and clasping her hands around the materia instead.

"Yuffie, no!" Red shouted as a turquoise light surrounded her. She paid him no heed and continued focusing her energy into the stone. Red shut his eyes and tried to scamper away as he felt his heart thudding in his chest, but his insides began to squirm about uncomfortably, and he found it difficult to move. He suppressed a groan, not wanting to shame himself by fainting or vomiting. He'd seen Yuffie put up with even the strongest spells, and he wouldn't give her something to tease him about. He clenched his jaw, straining to keep from making any noise, until he heard a strange sound,his eyes to snapping open in alarm. His intestines felt like they were on fire, and his chest seemed like it would explode. Pinpricks attacked every inch of his skin as he heard a low grinding sound that made his body shake. The crunching was soon accompanied by a low scream, and he soon realized it was coming from his own mouth.

Something wasn't right. Instead of getting smaller, he was growing taller. The glow continued to radiate around Yuffie, but her face was horrified as she watched Red change.

The pain was unbearable. Red gladly succumbed to darkness as he collapsed to the ground, losing consciousness. The last thing he remembered was Yuffie's cool fingers grasping his shoulder, her voice calling out his name in despair.