Disclaimer: I don't own Reno, the Turks, Midgar or its slums, only my OC.

Everyone mulled around Tifa's Seventh Heaven, waiting for the show to start. It had been Cam's idea to have a weekly karaoke event, since she remembered it had been something fun to do at the bars she'd worked in. Using her own expertise in the matter, as well as the help of a few technically savvy patrons, she'd been able to set up some flashy lights, and a projector with a background behind the small stage area, to display images while people sang.

So far, the winner would be chosen by the audience's applause. The winner got 2 free drinks as a prize. The first event had been a week ago, and it had been such a rousing success that Tifa was holding a special session tonight, friends only. Marlene had opened the show, singing a shy version of a lovely old ballad that had Barret nearly in tears, hollering "That's my kid! So much fuckin' talent!"

Now, the lights dimmed as the next friend was set to take the stage. Everyone looked around to see who it would be. Tifa mentally checked, thinking "Not Yuffie, she's over there . . . Reno! No, he's at the bar getting another round for the Turks, and all of them are there . . . Who is it, then?". Up on the stage, a baleful red light turned on and shone, and everyone gave a collective gasp as Vincent Valentine walked up on stage, the first chords of a song ringing out of the amplifiers.

On the projected background, the doomed floating city of Midgar could be seen, a shot taken from an aerial view, as if from a chopper. Everyone felt a bit nostalgic; it may have been corrupt and polluted, but most of them had called it home not so long ago. Valentine took a deep breath and began singing "I hear the roar of a big machine, Two worlds and in between, Hot metal and methedrine, I hear empire down, I hear empire down".

He had a pleasant voice, a husky, breathy sort of voice that seemed melancholy. The scene behind him had begun to change while he sang, and now showed Vincent as he'd been before as a Turk, stuck in the laboratory capsule where he'd been transformed into what he was now. "I hear the roar of a big machine, Two worlds and in between" he sang, and the scene changed.

Now it was Valentine in action as a Turk, leaping sideways and shooting his gun at enemies "Love lost, fire at will, Dum-dum bullets and shoot to kill, I hear Dive, bombers and, Empire down," a shot of Midgar as it was now, a ruin, on the screen "Empire down". Tifa looked around the bar, but Valentine was for now the sole center of attention. Everyone sight was fixed on him, and now the music picked up.

The lights switched to a different mode, the light beams arcing over Valentine as he tossed back his cape and gripped the microphone in his clawed hand "I hear the sons of the city and dispossessed, Get down, get undressed, Get pretty but you and me," and the background that had been previously showing pictures of Rufus ShinRa and a few of the executives, now showed pictures of Lucrecia, the woman everyone knew Valentine had pined for.

Interspersed among her pictures were images of Valentine as Chaos, of a pregnant Lucrecia, of Sephiroth as he'd been in better times, "We got the kingdom, we got the key, We got the empire, now as then, We don't doubt, we don't take direction, Lucretia, my reflection, dance the ghost with me" Valentine sang, reaching out with his normal hand as if to stroke Lucrecia's face.

There was now a break in the lyrics, the music taking over as it became more guitar-oriented. A few of the guys cheered quietly, surprised that the normally taciturn ex-Turk was giving such a good performance. Tifa, meanwhile, saw Yuffie grinning broadly as she kept the music's beat by tapping her foot. "Did you know about this?" Tifa asked, and the mischievous gleam in the young ninja's eyes told Tifa she was right. Yuffie nodded "Yup, I talked him into it, helped fix the picture slideshow, heck, I even coached the guy . . . shut up, he's about to begin again!"

Valentine took another deep breath as the lyrics again took precedence. "We look hard, We look through, We look hard to see for real" he sang, and the screen showed Lucrecia doing her research on the laboratory computer, and a few pictures Yuffie had taken when they first found the grotto where the likeness of Lucrecia could be seen in a giant crystal. In one of the pictures, Valentine was with his back to the camera as he peered into the grotto, a troubled expression on his face.

However, the scenes now changed to Valentine in his various forms. Death Gigas, Hellmasker, the Galian Beast, and even the most terrible of his forms, Chaos, flashed across the screen as Valentine sang on "Such things I hear, they don't make sense, I don't see much evidence, I don't feel, I don't feel, I don't Feel . . ."

The views on screen now were of the ShinRa Tower, where some of the world's most powerful, and evil, people made the decisions that helped shape and doom their world. "A long train held up by page on page, A hard reign held up by rage" , and the coldly handsome face of Rufus ShinRa that had stared at them from the screen was now replaced by scenes of the destroyed Midgar, Junon Harbor, and Mideel after the WEAPON attack "Once a railroad, Now it's done . . . "

Now Vincent's rapt audience was taken back to the start, as the screen presented them with shots of the Midgar Plate, and of the Sister Ray as it charged to shoot at the Diamond WEAPON "I hear the roar of a big machine, Two worlds and in between, Hot metal and methedrine, I hear empire down . . ." Finally, several different shots, a mix or a recap of everything previously shown, and everyone silently took in the pictures of the WEAPONs, of Sephiroth, of ShinRa Tower, the Sister Ray, the Junon Military Airbase, Meteor, the Deepground facility, Chaos and Omega and several other images, all in quick succession.

"We got the empire, now as then, We don't doubt, we don't take reflection, Lucretia, my direction, dance the ghost with me . . . " Valentine ended, and he stepped back from the light, his pale face seeming to hang suspended in the darkness as the music took over and the picture slideshow sped up as the song neared its end.

When the song finally ended, the lights were turned back on as everyone cheered wildly. Onstage, Valentine raised a hand in acknowledgement of his appreciative audience, a small smile playing on his lips. He bowed his head to them, and stepped off the stage. He was immediately accosted by Yuffie, who leaped at him. He caught her in midair, and she gave a small yelp when his clawed hand dug into her side.

Valentine readjusted his grip so he wouldn't hurt her as she exuberantly cheered "You did it, Vince! I knew you could, didn't I say so?" Valentine nodded "Thanks, Yuffie", and then he impulsively did something that surprised everyone, but none more than Yuffie and Valentine themselves: he kissed the corner of her mouth warmly, cupping her face between his hands. Yuffie went stiff in his arms, and blushed furiously once they'd broken apart.

Valentine smiled softly and turned his back on the girl, heading towards the bar. Yuffie placed her cold palms on her hot cheeks, and smiled also. Everyone had wisely stopped staring, glad that Valentine had made such progress. He'd seemed like such a troubled, jaded man when they first met him, but now it seemed he had managed to put the ghosts of his past behind him, and was finally ready to move on.

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A/N Valentine is a very special character to me. As much as I feel I can relate to some of his feelings of loneliness sometimes, I find him a maddeningly difficult character to write. I hope I did him justice. If not, well . . . You know what to do. The idea for the karaoke came from another writer here, Lady Manson (I pity the fool who don't check her stuff out!), who wrote a couple of fics involving some of the FFVII cast members doing exactly that, singing karaoke.

The song I had Valentine sing is called Lucretia (My Reflection), and it was originally created by Kreator. I was listening to it with my younger brother one day, and we thought it suited Valentine's aura of loneliness, melancholy, and "gothiness", as my brother so succinctly summed it up. The song's been covered a bunch of times, but the version I was using to model Valentine's voice and the music it was accompanied with was the version done by Alkaline Trio.

If you get a chance to listen to that particular version of the song, you'll see what I mean. Anyways, I'm gonna end this rather long-winded A/N by explaining a few things: I'm obviously a fan of Yuffentine fics (when done correctly). However, my fics will always be decidedly Reno-centric. If you noticed, one of my OCs, Cam, made a cameo appearance at the beginning of the story. She'll be Reno's love interest in my fics.

Now . . . Reviews, please! Whoever leaves a review will receive an imaginary plush, and you can choose if you want a moogle plushie, or a chocobo plushie. Cheers!