Eternal Hell

By: Yuffie Kisaragi2

Dedicated to all my reviewers, for always being there to smack me around when my stories suck, but giving me more ideas to fix whatever's wrong.

A short story about Vincent Valentine. It does have a slight "Interview With A Vampire" twist, but I AM NOT copying Anne Rice in any way, shape, or form.

CHAPTER ONE

Immortal - 1. Not subject to death 2. Connected with or belonging to immortality 3. Lasting forever.

2 Immortal - 1 a. One exempt from death 1 b. The Greek and Roman gods of panthean 2. One whose fame is lasting

Do you know what it is like to out live all of your friends and comrades? I can tell you how it feels... Horrid. When I was a child, I may have thought that it would be a blast to be immortal, but now I know the truth. It isn't. So much pain has been inflicted... So much love has been lost... So much hurt fills my heart.

I suppose that I should start at the beginning, but which beginning? The beginning of my immortality? Or the beginning of my life? How about I tell you how I became and immortal and my life since then...

This is my story...

I was a twenty-five year old Turk working for ShinRa Incorperated. Truthfully, I was, and have always been, the best damn assassin they ever had. My sharp shooting abilities had been built upon since I was big enough to hold a gun. I say big enough, because I do not know if I was trully old enough. My father ran a risky business and was training me to help. He died when I was fifteen, leaving me with my mother, who was a whore.

You flinch at my bluntness, but I speak the truth. She was hardly around, most of the guys I hung around with were drug dealers or pimps, and I could barely buy myself something to eat each day. After signing up for SOLDIER at age sixteen, I was reassigned to the Turk branch. Sure, I was mouthy, oppinionated, and hot-headed, but I was also an excellent shot.

Back to where I started... I was twenty-five when I got assigned to escort two scientists and their lovely assistant to Nibelheim. Lucrecia was the most beautiful woman I had ever laid eyes on.

Her hair was a dark brown that had a golden aura when she was in the sunlight. Her deep brown eyes always sparkled with joy. We talked during the three days it took to reach Nibelheim. We also fell in love.

About five months later, Dr. Hojo requested to have me reassigned. No one questioned him and my Lucrecia and I were torn apart. I was stationed with President ShinRa, a large, oily man with enough grease in his hair to make a mechanic cringe.

"Vincent, my boy," I remember him saying to me while only clad in a yellow towel. "You'll forget all about that girl real quick hanging out here in Mideel. So many pretty ladies!"

But I did not want to forget about her. I loved her. We sent letters to each other, trying to find out when we could see each other again. Finally, the chance appeared for us to meet up in Midgar. Professors Hojo and Gast were going to take a break from their research and President ShinRa also decided to return home to see his newborn son.

We met in a restaraunt, but were back at my apartment in no time. For two weeks, she and I had the time of our lives. She stayed with me until that day came.

When they were preparing to leave for Nibelheim, she chose to tell me her horrible news. Lucy was to be married to Dr. Hojo within the next week. She swore to me that it was for the sake of their new project. I was too angry, too hurt, to listen.

I had barely turned twenty-six when I was assigned to take over the guard duty of the ShinRa Mansion in Nibelheim... To guard the woman whom I was angry at, but in love with. It was nearly six months since we had last seen each other... And I noticed that her stomach had swollen.

One night, about a week after I had arrived, Lucrecia came to me. "I am pregnant," she told me. I replied with a smart-ass comment and received a glare. "The child," she said softly. "Is yours."

Of course, this caught me off-guard. I, Vincent Valentine, was going to be a father? We made plans to run off, but she was afraid. Fears of what Hojo might do to us, me, if he found out! If he caught us! Of her child's safety. In the end, she went into labor a month and a hlaf early.

I could hear her agonizing screams of pain, but never heard my child's cries. Had our child been still born? When I questioned Dr. Gast, he merely looked at me with a tired look. "I am nno longer working on that project, Vincent. I have a wife at home that I want to see."

My beloved's screams faded, but the basement door remained locked. I had no way to get in there without raising a commotion.

Finally, I went off. One shot took off the lock. I ran down the spiral stair case and through the cob-webbed hallway. As I entered the lab, I saw Lucrecia on the table. Hojo held a gun pointed at me. My child was nowhere in sight.

With one shot, darkness overcame me. It was a warm, enveloping darkness that I welcomed with open arms.

I awoke some while later in a dark room. I raised my left hand to my forehead, only ot feel cold metal on my warm skin. I felt it with my right hand and discovered that my left hand had been replaced with a metal claw. I had enhanced vision and hearing. Something was wrong.

"Sleep well, Valentine," I heard Hojo say with the click of a lock. "I shall raise Sephiroth as my own... Specimen..."

For twenty years, I laid in that coffin until AVALANCHE happened upon me. I suppose that you know how we saed the world, so I will not go into detail there. I had to destroy Jenova, Meteor, and my son.

I saw Lucy during my travels. More of a glimpse of what she once was, if you wish to pull out the technicalities. I realized that I did not love her any longer. That she was, as Yuffie Kisaragi put it, "A wraith living under that damn waterfall."

During the final battle, Yuffie Kisaragi, our ninja from Wutai, had been critically injured. We cured her as well as we could and she had regained consciousness. On our way out of the Northern Crater, however, she fainted and fell over board. I could not leave a friend behind and leapt to save her. The Highwind, our air ship, and our friends left without knowing that we were not aboard.

"What happened?" the young blonde woman asked in awe, her burgundy eyes inquisitive.

The tall, well-built immortal leaned back against the white-washed wall. "I witnessed a friend's death..."

Yuffie and I climbed quickly, but the Life Stream rose quicker. It was going to swallow us whole, we realized, as we climbed. When we reached an out crop, I heard her prayer.

"Mighty Laviathon, please guide my people. Let that old goat, Godo, know that I do love him. Make Tifa and Cloud hook up together. Make Cid stop cursing so much and ask Shera to marry him already. I hope that Reeve meets them and that Nanaki grows old and has puppies or kittens or whatever his kind has! I hope I meet Aeris in the Life Stream..." I heard her sniff and realized that, for the first time since I met her, she was crying. Awkwardly, I placed an arm around her shoulders. Her eyes - Gods, her eyes! They held the very essence of every storm that had ever been concieved! - looked up at me, filled with tears she didn't want to let fall. "I'm gonna die, ain't I?"

What else could I tell her, but the truth? I could not very well lie and say "No, Yuffie, you're going to live. It's just going to be just dandy!" I only nodded, feeling my heart thud against my rib cage like it did every time she looked at me.

With that lop-sided grin that she always wore, that grin that seemed to bring hope into every situation, she nodded back to me. "And you're gonna live, arentcha?"

For the millionth time, the beautiful ninja rincess caught me off-guard. "... Yes," I replied. "I cannot die."

She nodded knowingly. "Do me a favor, then?" I watched her. "Tell Godo... To have Shake take over when the old goat dies. And tell Tifa to remember her sisters."

"I promise... Yuffs."

Her grin returned as the green liquid lapped at our feet, rapidly rising. "Well, Vampy, guess this is goodbye." She was visibly shaking, so I pulled her into a hug. I did not want her to believe that she was alone in any way. I felt the warm, wet spots starting to form on my shirt as she started crying. As the cool liquid lapped her shoulders and my middle, her stormy eyes looked up at me.

"I love you, Vinnie. Don't know if we were meant for each other, but I love you." The liquid splashed softly onto her face. "I'll miss the winter in Iciclle Town. So fragile and pretty..."

The man turned his head away, tear glistening in his claret orbs. "What she said repeats itself to me in a snog, reminding me of my deceased friend..." 'Do I love her? Or is this just memories haunting me?'

The blonde's burgundy eyes were full of tears. "'My Last Breath' by Evanescence..."

"I watched her die... And my heart crumbled... That ninja girl, the heir of Wutai, had affected me more than I realized."

I was washed upon the shore of Mideel some while later. AVALANCHE found me there after realizing that Yuffie and I were not aboard the air ship. They knew that Cloud had washed ahore near Mideel and hoped that we would also. They found me... Along with the young shinobi. She was lying with her eyes closed and looked completely peaceful.

Tifa shook her lightly, but the ninja would not move. "Yuffie," she called out several times before starting to cry. Nanaki put his nose to her hand, then howled a sad note, he nose to the sky. Barret, Cid, and Cloud all stood, staring in disbelief, the old pilot and large black man threatening to cry, Cloud not believing that the ninja could trully be gone.

I picked up the young woman and carried her toward the Highwind. She was so cold! I did not hold her away from my body as Cloud had while carrying Aeris, but as close as I could. I felt as if I could bring her back, if only I could warm her cold body!

Once on the Highwind, Cid took us to Wutai. The ride there was horrible. Without talking, Yuffie's gagging, or the young one's canstant chatter and warm smile, the air ship was plain... Bland... Depressing.

Tifa sat in the room that she and Yuffie had shared. The brave Wutainese princess was on the bottom bunk wit her "sister" at her side. I chose then to give Tifa the message.

"Tifa," I said softly as if I would wake a sick patient if I spoke loudly. Her burgundy eyes that yours are so much alike looked up at me. "Yuffie told me... She wants you to never forget your sisters."

Tears fell from her eyes. "Thanks, Vincent."

The Highwind jolted to a stop. I removed my cape and wrapped the dead shinobi in it, then walked into the small village. People parted for us, the Planet's Heroes. I walked behind Cloud and Tifa, Cid and Barret flanking me, Cait Sith following. We were all so solemn faced... When Lord Godo walked out of the Pagoda to greet us, he took one look at the bundle in my arms and fell to his kness, sobbing.