Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Not Final Fantasy, not Before It's Too Late by the Goo Goo Dolls! Sorry!

Shadow of a Past Ghost

by: Sparxyu

I wander through fiction to look for the truth

Buried beneath all the lies

and I stood at a distance

To feel who you are

Hiding myself in your eyes

A sweet voice called to him in his dreams. "Vincent, Vincent..."

The man opened blood-red orbs, staggering to his feet and searching for the direction in which his beloved's voice had come. "Lucrecia?"

A young woman stepped out from the shadows, as beautiful as the moon. Her chestnut hair snaked and swirled around her waist as she stepped toward him.

"Vincent?" she questioned, noticing the tear tracks on his face. "Why are you crying? Please, don't..."

He reached a hand out to touch her jaw line, his fingers feather-light. "You're real," the whisper escaped Vincent's lips with a trace of astonishment.

And

Hold on before it's too late

We'll run till we leave this behind

Don't fall just be who you are

It's all that we need in our lives

"Yeah, I'm real," she replied. Her hands wrapped themselves around his back, pulling him closer to her.

"I love you, Lucrecia," Vincent murmured.

"I love you, too."

He cupped her chin in his hand, gently lifting it. Their lips met, but Lucrecia found herself violently pulled away just seconds later, Hojo's hand gripping her arm roughly.

"My dear," the mad scientist cackled. "Are you ready?"

An anguished look swept over Lucrecia's face, darkening her features. "Yes," she replied. "But I still need another minute." At Hojo's stern look she added with sorrowful, pleading eyes, "Please."

Hojo sighed impatiently. "Very well." After a moment's thought, he crowed, "What a success our experiment shall be."

And the risk that might break you

Is the one that would save

A life you don't live is still lost

So stand on the edge with me

Hold back your fear and see

Nothing is real 'til it's gone

Hold on before it's too late

We'll run till we leave this behind

Don't fall just be who you are

It's all that we need in our lives

"What was that all about?" Vincent questioned, looking into Lucrecia's eyes.

"Professor Hojo, he wants me to perform an experiment with him."

"And what madness exactly does this 'experiment' entail?" Vincent's eyes were narrowed into red slits of suspicion.

"It's a project with Jenova cells. The Professor wants to inject them into my body in an attempt to see if we cannot conceive a child and see what the results would be."

Vincent lowered his gaze to the floor, an unreadable emotion making itself apparent in his eyes. A tear escaped.

"Whatever happens, I promise you I will always love you, Vincent. Nothing can ever change that."

"Nothing can ever change that," he echoed.

So live like you mean it

Love 'til you feel it

It's all that we need in our lives

So stand on the edge with me

Hold back your fear and see

Hold on before it's too late

We'll run till we leave this behind

Don't fall just be who you are

It's all that we need in our lives

Some time later, Lucrecia gave birth to a son named Sephiroth. Unfortunately, during her pregnancy, she'd had visions of her son causing destruction and she had even attempted suicide to make things right again, but because of the Jenova cells in her body, she was not allowed to die. Out of regret and pain, she sealed herself within a crystal of mako.

Vincent still loved her, but because of his grief and the sin he suffered of not being able to save her, he locked himself in a coffin and slept, not coming out for thirty years.

It's all that we need in our lives

It's all that I need in my life.

A/N: I'd like 2 thank .xXxRoCk aNgElxXx for the idea to use the song Before It's Too Late by the Goo Goo Dolls! Without her, we wouldn't have a story, so let's hear it for her, folks! R&R please!