Ahh, I had the greatest idea, so I decided to try it out. I'll run with it for a while, so tell me what you think eh, and I might continue it if people like it!
And I'll try and work a yuffentine into this one, too. Hooray for yuffentines!
Chapter I: Kill One, Get Another Free!
Neo-Midgar, the gem of the freezing Northern continent, stood imperiously against the coast, with the immensely huge highway that connected the city to it predecessor, Midgar, the slightly less prestigious city to the south. It's sleek, pearly white buildings towered high in the air, reaching for the clouds, while the waves beat against the coastal walls that surrounded the city. Neo-Midgar was the great, new hope of the world, where the former AVALANCHE member, Reeve Orello currently had supremacy. The decadent, company/syndicate of Shinra had long since been disbanded, and all that remained of it were bad memories, the destroyed Shinra HQ, which teetered perilously in strong winds, and buckets of Gil that had mysteriously disappeared when the company/syndicate disbanded.
It was also, on a darker note, the current hunting grounds for a certain Materia hunter. It could safely be said that the streets (And banks, shops, and purses as well) of Neo-Midgar were a great deal less safe because of it. Already news of the substantial amount of Materia burglaries occurring was beginning to spread, and shopkeepers fearfully locked up their wares at night. Of course, it didn't help much, but it made people feel better.
"Mwuhahaha!" She laughed maniacally, tossing the bag filled to the brim with Materia into the air and catching it as it came back down as she made her stealthy escape. The moonlit streets of Neo-Midgar opened up to her, and she hastily looked to both sides, searching for someone who might identify her, before running down the street at a hasty run. Behind her, alarms were beginning to go off. Tying the loot-bag to her belt straps, she pulled out a long list of shops, and crossed off a name with a wicked grin. "Seventeen down, twenty-four to go!" She cried gleefully, tucking the list away.
As she rounded a corner, she slammed into somebody. Both people landed on the ground bodily, and the Materia-filled bag spilt it's contents across the ground. The glowing orbs radiated multiple coloured lights, and the Materia thief was up on her feet in a heartbeat, trying to pluck them all up as fast as she could.
"Oh, I'm sorry miss. Here, let me help you with that." Said the person on the ground, picking up some of the closer Materia orbs. Yuffie looked at the person suspiciously, and caught her breath suddenly. The person in front of her had iron grey hair, and terrifyingly familiar mako eyes. When he had a handful of Materia, he looked up, and saw Yuffie for the first time. He smiled widely, and proffered the Materia. "Here you go. I'm soooo sorry for this, really. I really should look where I walk." He said, pushing the Materia into her hands.
Yuffie looked at the Materia for a second, instinctively stuffing it into her bag, and looked back up at the person in front of her.
"S, Sephiroth?!" She squawked, taking a step back and reaching for the Conformer at the same time.
"That's m' name, miss." He said with a smile, bowing at the same time. The sound of the alarms seemed to reach him, "Oh my, did someone rob the Materia shop? Who would do such a thing? Oh, miss, you dropped this." Sephiroth said, bending over to pick up another Materia piece. When he stood back up, Yuffie was gone. "Miss?" He said slowly, somewhat confused. He looked down at the piece of Materia in his hand for moment, before looking around him. Upon seeing no one, he carefully tucked it into his jacket. "I'll just hold onto this until she comes to take it back. I'm sure she'll miss it." He muttered, before walking off in the direction of the alarms. "Maybe they'll need some help."
"I swear to Leviathan, Cloud, I saw him! I said 'Sephiroth' and he said that was his name! It's either him or a flippin' carbon-copy of 'im!" The panicking Materia hunter gasped out, pausing to breathe. "Really! I'm not joshing you! I mean, sure, it was really weird to see him playing the Good Samaritan act, but he was there!"
"Of course he was, Yuffie." Cloud said soothingly, brushing a stray strand of blond hair out of his vision. "Here, sit down-"
"We don't have time!" Yuffie shouted. "He could have jumped town by now!"
Cloud lived by himself in Kalm, as a next-door neighbour to Tifa Lockhart. Yuffie had dragged the fighter along with her to Cloud's house, just to tell them what she had discovered. Now they looked at her with polite smiles, and gave each other worried glances.
"Yuffie, Sephiroth is dead. Nothing could have survived that blast!"
The shinobi was silent, and then stood up.
"You don't believe me." She said, silently, as if this was totally inconceivable and a huge surprise. She started for the door with a resolute face.
"No, wait, Yuffie, come back-"Tifa began, but was greeted with the slamming of a door.
It was raining outside, and Yuffie cursed silently as the droplets quickly soaked her hair. Running for cover, she made a silent oath.
"I'll get proof, dammit, and then they'll be sorry!" She promised, grabbing a newspaper to use as a shield against the rain. After a moment of thought, she added another thing. "But I need help. I mean, if Sephiroth kills me, there's gotta be someone to pledge vengeance. I mean, it'd suck if Sephiroth hacked me to pieces and nobody knew..."
As the days went on, and Yuffie met more and more of her old friends, Yuffie began to notice a shocking pattern when she asked them to join her little escapade. Namely, they all seemed to decline, for some odd, unexplainable reason.
"Nope." Barret had said firmly, before changing the subject.
"(&ยค% No!" Cid had yelled, right before: "Now git!"
"Sorry." Red XIII said while calmly explaining that he was far too busy to help her chase down Sephiroth. He seemed to be the only person on her side. Well, somewhat, anyway. He had declined, after all.
Yuffie couldn't even get close enough to Reeve to ask for his help, considering that she was somewhat 'wanted' in Neo-Midgar at the time. There was only one person left who might help her now, but he was as good as gone, to everyone. He probably wouldn't even give her the time of the day, let alone any help. But he was the last person, and he had some pretty handy skills. Yuffie looked resolutely at the village before her, with the huge foot of Mt. Nibel spanning out behind it.
Yes, Vincent would have to be here. He liked being melodramatic. I mean, who wears a cape, anyway?
"Oh, c'mon, Vinnie!" Yuffie pleaded on her knees in front of the tall gunslinger. "Nobody believes me! I went Barret, Red, Cid, even Reeve! Well, maybe not Reeve, but that doesn't count! He wouldn't help me anyway! No one believes me! You're my last hope."
Vincent tried to take a step back, but the shinobi latched a hand on Vincent's ankle.
"Why should I believe you?" He demanded, trying to shake her loose. No such luck. He briefly considered kicking her fingers, but decided against it. The sound of her whining about her aching fingers would be too much for him to take without seriously getting angry.
"C'mon, just come and see him at least! Maybe then you'll believe me!"
"Sephiroth alive? How could he be? We all saw him die!" He managed to pry her fingers loose from his boots, and swiftly got out of grabbing range.
The young woman 'humphed', and got back to her feet, dusting herself off.
"We also saw a giant meteor that could have destroyed all life as we know it being stopped by a force almost forgotten a few years back. I don't think this would surprise you all that much." She said craftily, a sweet smile on her face.
Vincent was quite, searching her face for any trace of lies. Yuffie felt those garnet stones of eyes pierce her, and she cringed slightly at his withering glare. After a moment, though, Vincent shrugged.
"Why do you want me to go with you? Can't you spy on this person by yourself?"
Silently glad to be free of his scrutiny, Yuffie put her hands on her hips, frowning slightly.
"Well, yeah, I suppose, but I'd just like someone to, uh, back me up when we have proof. I don't think anybody would think you're lying about it. I mean, why would you? And anyway, if Sephiroth kills me I need someone to avenge me, y'know?"
The gunslinger stared at the shinobi coldly with those garnet eyes, and after a moment or two he spoke. The shinobi was surprised at the answer she got.
"I don't suppose you'd leave me alone either way, would you?"
And that was the way it had happened. Yuffie had coercedannoyed Vincent into to following her to Neo-Midgar in the pursuit of Sephiroth, who was pulling off a shifty 'Good Samaritan' act, as Yuffie put it. They set off from Nibelheim (You'll notice that I was really sneaky there and didn't specify exactly where she found him. Let's say she caught him stalking around the rooftops, eh?) and coerced/annoyed/glared silently Cid into flying them back to Neo Midgar, which was still on the coast of the Northern continent. It's not exactly going to float away, now is it?
The two snuck into the city (Well, Yuffie snuck into the city. Vincent didn't have to hide from angry shopkeepers. Not at the moment, at least.) and thus did their little (mis)adventure.
"I am so bored!" Yuffie yawned, peeking around a corner. Nope, no Sephiroth. Damn.
Vincent didn't respond, but merely followed after her. It was her plan, after all. Why should he interfere?
The shinobi pointedly yawned again, as if trying to get something across to the gunslinger.
Vincent still didn't respond.
Yawn.
Ignore.
Yawn.
Sigh.
"Yes?" Ice was warmer than his tone as Vincent said this.
"I'm bored." Yuffie reported with a grin. She turned around, and waited for his reaction.
"So you said."
"Can't we do something?"
Vincent glared irately. "I thought we were doing something. We're looking for Sephiroth, if you don't remember?"
"Well, of course!" Yuffie said innocently. "But there's no telling if he couldn't be in, say, a nightclub or maybe a Materia shop! We have to investigate them as well! Especially the Materia shops!" She added the last part with enthusiasm, even going as far as to punch the air pointedly.
Vincent actually seemed to consider this for a moment. He concluded that, yes, Sephiroth could indeed be hiding out in a Materia shop, but how would he manage that without getting caught? So no, no Materia shops.
"I doubt Sephiroth would 'hide out' in a Materia shop, Yuffie. If he's living here, then perhaps he's at home at the moment? We can't expect him to be out-"
"Oh, there you are!" Somebody shouted helpfully. Shinobi and Gunslinger whirled around to look at the speaker, who had long silver had and hauntingly familiar green eyes. "You forgot this the last time we spoke!"
Sephiroth held up a Materia to Yuffie, and when her hand reflexively yanked it out of his hand he smiled brightly. If he smiled any more the top of his would fall off.
"I'm so sorry that I didn't give this before, but you ran off in such a rush! I assume that you had pressing matters to attend to, of course, but you really should be more careful!" He suddenly seemed to notice Vincent for the first time. "Oh, why good evening, sir! And how does the day greet you?"
Vincent gaped. His mouth opened and closed as his head tried to work out what his eyes and ears reported, and tried to couple this together with the previous image of Sephiroth. It wasn't going too well.
"Uhm, rather," He hesitated for a moment, still staring at Sephiroth. "Rather well, thank you."
Sephiroth was radiating good will. There might as well have been a halo around his head.
"Oh, have you heard?! There have been a series of Materia robberies! How dreadful! Who would so such a thing? Oh my!" Yuffie had inadvertently dropped the Materia as Sephiroth spoke. He bent down and picked it up again, handing it back to her. "Butterfingers!" He teased lightly.
Vincent was feeling a bit bolder by now.
"You're name, it wouldn't happen to be Sephiroth by any chance?" He asked carefully.
Sephiroth gasped, his eyes going wide.
"Oh my! I must be getting popular! Somebody earlier, oh, why that's right! It was you!" He looked pointedly at Yuffie, and again, if he smiled any more the top of his head would fall off. "Silly me, forgetting something like that. You must have told him about me! How nice! And whom do I have the pleasure of meeting?" He reached out a hand merrily.
Out of reflex Vincent looked at the hand disdainfully, and kept his hands firmly at his sides. Sephiroth looked hurt, and withdrew his hand.
"My name is Vincent." He stated simply, finally in control of himself once again.
"How very nice to meet you, mister Vincent!" Sephiroth said brightly. "And I'd absolutely love to stay and chat with you both, but I really must be off!" And off he went. Vincent couldn't help but notice that he was walking with a hop in his step.
Both Yuffie and Vincent were silent, disbelief in their eyes.
"That couldn't have been Sephiroth." Vincent stated calmly, watching as the person in question disappeared down the street.
"Did you hear what he was saying?!" Yuffie gasped, flabbergasted. "He was chipper enough to make even Aeris go insane!"
Vincent found himself nodding, even if he knew that it was disrespectful to speak of the fallen woman so. I mean, it wasn't wrong to agree with what was already said, was it?
"There is something very wrong going on around here." Vincent stated, and started down the street.
"Huh?" Yuffie stared for a moment before chasing after Vincent. "Vinnie! Where're you goin'?!"
The gunslinger didn't even look behind him as he answered.
"I'm going to stalk Sephiroth."