a/n: originally posted under the penname yesanimecharacterscanbesexy. reposted here per request.
Warning: Contains allusion to rape and torture, containing some graphic violence and harsh language.
Echoes Of Silence, So Loud In The Night
"Valentine's gone."
"Anyvone else in ze vehicle?"
"Drivers dead. We're checking the back now."
"Got something. She's not moving."
"Get her out of zere. She comes vith us."
"Vere vill you jump now, little flea?"
She awoke to find herself chained to a wall, arms and legs both secured, stretched to their limits, causing her joints to ache. Her head was pounding.
She kept her eyes closed, ignoring all the various pains that clamoured for attention, instead focusing on her other senses.
Waking up chained to a wall, after all, is very rarely a good thing.
She heard nothing. Felt no stir of wind against her face that would indicate movement. Cautiously, she peeked open one eye.
She was greeted by grey walls, a very solid looking door, and a woman dressed in red, who grinned at her.
She closed her eyes again.
Not good.
"Good morning, little flea. You are going to answer some questions for me."
Rosso was asking her about Vincent. Where he was now, what he was planning. The extents of Chaos's powers, about his other demons. A few extra questions were thrown in about Reeve and the WRO.
Yuffie wished she knew. She wished she knew if Vincent was okay, how he was handling this. How that hole in his chest was doing.
Not knowing made her chest ache with worry. Not that she'd ever let Rosso know that. Or let Rosso know anything else about Vincent - dear, precious Vinnie, who deserved to just be left the fuck alone.
And by alone she of course meant 'with Yuffie and all her wonderful, majestic company'.
So Yuffie just grinned cheekily at her. And with every question asked, she answered in a sing-song voice:
"I know a secret, and I'm not telling!"
It was odd, really, Yuffie thought. Despite the fact she hadn't answered a single question, Rosso hadn't touched her or hurt her in the least.
Yet.
Eventually Rosso grew tired of the games.
The crimson-clad woman sighed dramatically, lounging against the wall and regarding Yuffie with a bored look.
"You are not going to do zis ze easy vay, are you?"
Yuffie smiled at her, ignoring the tightening feeling in her gut.
Think of Vinnie, think of Vinnie, think of Vinnie -
"Thank you, Captain Obvious."
Rosso stalked forward, until her face was inches from Yuffie's. Despite herself, Yuffie found she instinctively drew back.
"Shall I show you pain?" Rosso murmured, her voice almost seductive.
Yuffie spat in her face.
Rosso wiped the spit from her cheek, smiling widely.
"Here is vhat is going to happen now," Rosso stated, taking a step back. "I do not have ze time for all ze games, and so I vill cut straight to the point."
"You answer my questions, or..." She ran a finger across her bottom lip, as if she was about to announce something particularly delicious.
"I let some of my soldiers have zheir fun vith you."
Yuffie froze.
Rosso grinned. That terrible, evil smile that was such a perversion of happiness.
"Vell?"
Think of Vinnie, think of Vinnie, oh gawd Vincent-
Yuffie spat on the floor.
Rosso shrugged.
"Very vell then."
She opened the door, indicating sharply to someone out of Yuffie's line of sight.
Yuffie closed her eyes, biting down on her lip to stop herself from letting out the terrified sobs that wanted to erupt and holy Leviathan she was so terrified, she was so scared but she couldn't, wouldn't betray him, no not Vinnie not ever once was enough.
She heard clunking footsteps. They seemed impossibly loud in her little prison.
"Get her down," Rosso ordered.
Two sets of hands gripped her, and she felt her shackles being released, one by one. As her last limb was freed, she snapped open her eyes, and began to stuggle wildly, feral with fear and rage, clawing at the soldiers who held her.
Rosso, almost lazily, punched her in the gut.
Yuffie doubled over, wheezing, her vision swimming, the four pairs of boots she was staring at blurring together then doubling a moment later.
"No need to be nice vith her. Take turns, boys. Get me if she starts to say anything."
She watched Rosso's legs stride out into the hallway, before they disappeared as the steel door slammed shut once more.
She slowly looked up. Three soldiers stood above her, watching her closely.
She grit her teeth, clenching her muscles as she prepared to launch herself at them when the first opportune moment appeared. Only three of them, I could take them, didn't I tell Vinnie how I've been wanting to get my hands on these punks for the longest time, how I'd take down a dozen of them at once?
That was before she'd been unarmed, had her head smashed into the side of a truck, and hung from a wall for who-knows-how-long, a little voice in her head pointed out. It sounded like Godo.
She ignored it. As she would Godo.
"Who wants to go first?" one soldier asked casually. They all still wore their helmets.
"I do," the other two chorused. The first soldier frowned.
"Damn, so did I." He glanced at his companions. "Rock, paper, scissors?"
Yuffie was torn between laughing and crying.
The others nodded in agreement, and they turned towards each other to play the game.
Yuffie found her opportune moment. She struck.
She got off a quick blow to the side of the first soldiers head, her foot connecting solidly. But they were faster than she'd expected, and before she knew it the other two were already aiming punches at her. She blocked one, and tried to dodge the other, but failed, her reflexes dulled by her previous injuries.
The blow slammed into her cheekbone. Multicoloured lights exploded in her vision as her head snapped to the side. She blinked, and when she opened her eyes again her face was lying against the cool stone floor.
A boot connected with her ribcage. She curled into the injury, trying to protect herself, gasping with pain.
"Little bitch," she heard the first soldier mutter. Apparently her kick hadn't incapacitated him in any way.
"Isn't she 'sposed to be a princess, with manners and the like?" one of the others asked.
"Who gives a shit? C'mon, let's do this. Rock, paper, scissors!"
She dimly registered two grunts of disappointment, and a low chuckle that made her skin crawl.
A hand flipped her roughly onto her back.
She tried to fight the soldier off, but he just hooked a punch into her side, then backhanded her across the face.
"Hey, try not to ugly her up too much," one of the other soldiers said, laughing.
The man on top of her grunted in acknowledgement.
As he tore at her shorts, Yuffie turned her eyes to the ceiling.
I'll never tell them a thing, Vinnie. I promise.
I'm so sorry.
When they were finished with her, they left, not even bothering to reshackle her to the wall. Her clothes were ripped to shreds, no longer fit for wearing.
She attempted to cover herself with them as best she could nonetheless, before she curled into a ball in the corner farthest from the door and hugged herself, tears gliding silently down her cheeks.
She hung upside down from one of the faces of Da Chao, watching with shock the scene before her.
They had actually come for her.
"It's not so much what you're doing as the idiotic way you're doing it."
There was Vincent, her new bestest buddy, confronting Corneo, coming to save her. She smiled.
Then he glanced at her, and her smile disappeared.
One glance. One glance, and she wanted nothing more than to shrivel up and die, to escape that look of betrayal and hurt.
I'm so sorry, Vincent.
Rosso returned some indefinite amount of time later, and repeated her earlier questions.
Yuffie said nothing.
Rosso snapped all the fingers in her left hand.
Yuffie silently screamed. Silently cried. Silently pleaded.
Always silent.
She stared at the fire. It had been two weeks since her betrayal, and no one had spoken any more than was strictly necessary to her. She had kept her mouth firmly shut, afraid that saying anything would get her kicked out.
Vincent sat opposite her, immersed in shadows that danced with the light of the flames.
His silence, though the one she had grown so accustomed to, hurt the most, but she knew she deserved every last moment of it.
He had started, oh-so-slowly, to trust her, despite his demons, his past, his present, to trust her enough to start to let her inside, just enough to dip a toe into the hurricane waters of his soul, and she had betrayed him.
She stared hard at the fire, blaming its bright light for making her eyes water as they were.
"Yuffie."
She flinched, afraid to look at him, to see the accusation in those blood red eyes.
"Yuffie."
A choked sob emerged, and she bit down on a knuckle to stop any more from following.
"It's in the past now."
She was trembling, still not daring to look at him. She withdrew her hand from her mouth, ignoring the stinging bite mark that oozed dark blood.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered, vision blurred from tears.
"...I know."
"You know, I am curious about something," Rosso said, pacing in front of her, one hand thoughtfully massaging her chin, unbothered by the specks of blood spattering her arms and chest.
"Vhy do you protect him so? Vhat has he done for you, hmm?"
Everything. Anything.
Everyone thought they were opposites, but they weren't, she realized. They were complements of each other.
For reasons that still escaped her, she come to this conclusion as she watched Aerith's body sink serenely into the lake at the Forgotten City.
Ironically enough, she hid by being open. Pretend to be open and frank, let them think you're shallow. Scare them away with cheerfulness and hyperactivity.
Vincent hid behind his cloak and garnet eyes. No one ever pried behind those curtains of his soul because they were all too terrified of what they'd find. It wasn't that they didn't like him – they were just very content with asking no questions that could lead to much more information than they wished to know.
He used to murder people for a living.
And who knows how many travellers had ended up dead because of her, because she needed to save her poor, downtrodden Wutai and who cared if all those people she stole from had actually needed that materia to survive, if it meant her Wutai could rise to the glory it had once known?
And now Aerith was dead.
Vincent didn't cry. She didn't expect him to.
She did, though.
Nightmares plagued her. Masamune sliding through Aerith's back, erupting from her abdomen, replayed again and again.
And one night, the nightmare began, the same as always. Until on the next replay, it was no longer Aerith, but her mother.
Then it was Tifa, her sole remaining sister, then Cid, Red, Cloud, Barret. A shadowy figure, who she knew to be Cait's controller.
Then it was Vincent's turn.
Until she was the only one left.
She woke up, already crying, hugging herself and doing her best not to let the sounds of her sobs escape, not wishing to wake Vincent.
But he was already awake, and suddenly next to her, and she clutched at him, because he was her lifeline, though Leviathan knows she didn't deserve him to cling to, after all she'd done.
And he held her, so gently, though she knew he must feel incredibly awkward doing so.
Rosso hadn't returned for some time now. Yuffie thought she could hear very faint yelling and gunshots.
Maybe she was imagining it.
If there was some commotion, it didn't stop another pair of soldiers from paying her a visit.
She could hardly feel them now anyways, delirious from pain, blood loss, and lack of water.
The smell of smoke clung to her. She ignored it, focused on the man before her.
She had never seen Vincent so angry.
"You had no right," he snarled, garnet eyes flashing dangerously.
She stubbornly held her ground, convinced she'd done the right thing.
"I had every right," she shot back, meeting his glare with her own. "As your friend, I'm not letting you do this to yourself."
"It was my choice to make!"
"You're such a hypocrite, you know that right?"
"How does wanting to live my 'life' the way I want to make me a hypocrite?"
"It's in the past."
He blinked in surprise, but the angry look remained, taking on a defiant edge. He said nothing.
"So explain to me, Valentine, why it's okay for others to move on and not for you?"
"It's different," he hissed, barely audible.
"Oh, really? Explain it to me, please, I'm very curious how the fuck you've convinced yourself of that."
She put her hands on her hips, waiting impatiently, her seething anger surprising even her.
"You would not understand."
"Not understand? Not understand what, exactly? That you loved her, but she loved someone else, loved something else, and you just couldn't accept it? Or that you don't seem to realize she was a grown woman who made her own choices fully aware of the consequences?
"Get out."
"Or maybe it's you who doesn't understand that if she really did love, if she cared for you at all, she wouldn't want you to spend the rest of your days sleeping in a coffin?"
"GET OUT!" he roared. The silhouettes of demons were visible in his eyes.
"Fine," she replied, feeling suddenly exhausted. She turned on her heel and trudged out of the mansion. "Have fun finding a new place to sleep, you fucking coward. And here I was, thinking you were my friend."
The door slammed behind her.
Rosso returned, limping heavily, dirty and streaked with blood.
Yuffie barely registered her return.
"Your Valentine is a strong one, I'll admit. But he is still no match for Weiss. I've decided to stay here and keep you company vhile ve vait for Weiss to finish vith him. Don't worry, I've planned some...entertainment."
Through barely opened eyes, Yuffie watched Rosso draw out a green orb. Yuffie stared at it blankly, uncomprehending.
Then the shocks began.
She all but ran up the ladder, hoisting herself onto the small deck of the Shera.
"Move it, old man!" she yelled at Cid, who was slowly ascending the ladder below her, eager to chase after Cloud and assist him in his battle with the Remnants.
She heard Cid grumble some unintelligible curse at her, which she ignored, instead descending into the bowels of the ship.
She wanted to get going, her adrenaline was pumping after the fight with the Bahamut and she wanted to finish those bastards who had dared touch her materia (even it was technically Cloud's – like Yuffie always said –
"Yuffie."
She stopped abruptly, as the growly voice reached her ears.
She breathed heavily through her nostrils, feeling months of suppressed anger attempting to rise, manipulating her face into a scowl and causing her fists to clench.
She turned towards the source of the voice. There he was, looking the same as always, standing inconspicuously in a corner shrouded by shadows.
"What do you want, Valentine," she asked flatly, not even bothering looking him in the eye but rather focusing on some point over his left shoulder. She had steadfastly ignored his presence during the previous battle, and had no intention of stopping now.
"...To thank you," he murmured.
Her eyes shot to his in surprise. He stared right back at her, and she knew he was sincere.
He looked away a moment later, staring at the floor, and she could tell he was trying to say something but didn't know how.
Eventually, he just let out a little sigh, and looked back at her.
"I'm so sorry."
Her face softened immediately, and she opened her mouth to tell him –
"Move it, you two!" Cid barked, grabbing her by the shoulders and pushing her towards the bridge.
She didn't see him again until she was rescuing him from Rosso, doing her best to ignore the terror that gripped her when she saw the gaping wound in his chest.
Still so much to tell him.
But there hadn't been any time.
Still so much to tell him.
The door swung open.
Rosso had just revived her again, so she could continue the tortures. Her head turned in surprise.
There was a split second of absolute silence, broken by a scream of rage, sounding torn from its owners throat. A huge retort sounded, echoing in the small room.
Yuffie blinked as Rosso's head disintegrated into a spray of red and gore. She stared at the body as it slumped to the side, but was distracted by a faintly glowing materia rolling across the floor, glinting as the dim rays of light caught it.
"Yuffie!"
She blinked slowly, still staring at the materia. She lost sight of it as a golden-clad boot came to rest in front of her face. She focused on that instead.
She vaguely felt something drape over her, covering her nakedness.
Someone rolled her gently over onto her back, and she closed her eyes, feeling so tired, expecting another round of rape.
"Yuffie..." someone whispered, and Yuffie expected a monotonous growl, but what reached her ears was the hushed voice of a man who had just broken.
She felt her features tug into a frown, stretching the scabbed cuts on her face. That's not right.
She forced herself to open her eyes, and saw him looking down at her, and –
Maybe it was her delirium, but she could have swore she saw tears on that pale face.
"Vincent..." she muttered.
Still so much to tell him.
"Shh, Yuffie, don't try to talk."
But I need to tell you. I need to tell you that you never needed to apologize to me. I need to tell you how you kept me together. How you repented for your supposed sins a hundred times over. How you taught me the wonders of silence.
I need to tell you that I think I've fallen in love with you, and I'm so sorry, because I know you don't want it but I can't help it.
She tried to tell him, she really did.
But blackness swallowed her.
And when she awoke, he was gone.
A/N: Planning on making this a three chapter fic – the next one will be from Vincent's perspective on the same events in this chapter, and the third will take place afterwards, probably dealing with both perspectives. Don't know how soon I'll be updating, as I want to finish another chapter of DoG before I continue this.
