Disclaimer: I don't own FF7, DoC, or any video games/video game charries. Woe is me. Anyways, this is in an AU and I hope you like it. R&R appreciated, but I'm not gonna hunt you down and spaz at you if you don't review. God knows I usually don't...
The Things at Stake
Whooshpoof.
That was the best thing that Yuffie Kisaragi could think of to describe the noise when she killed a Vampire. It was better described without words. Being a very talented individual, she could imitate it...well, she could get it almost right.
The Slayer was currently bent over the ashes of a 'whooshpoof'-ed Vampire, as a matter of fact. See, there were a lot of really cool rituals you could perform with Vamp dust, and Yuffie was just one of the people who had the opportunity to try them out. She currently had 157 bottles, exactly.
...Actually, she just kept them because the dust glowed in the dark after being kept in the sun. It looked cool. And, well, she only had 21 bottles. The other version sounded more impressive, so she just told people that. Also, if you said to a Vampire that you'd killed more than one hundred and fifty of his kind, he'd take you a hell of a lot more seriously than he would if you told him you were nine Vamps past a dozen.
And if you told your watcher that you kept the bottles for protection spells, he'd like it a lot better than if he knew you actually kept them for night lights.
Because, although she'd never admit it, Yuffie was scared of the dark.
It was an odd thing for a Slayer to fear; she was faced with it constantly. But that was the thing about fear- you got used to it, but that didn't mean you were through with it. A person who's claustorphobic may ride in an elevator for fifteen minutes every day. Eventually, they'll get used to it. But they'll still be claustorphobic.
The dark was just the beginning of what she feared. She feared evil, and she feared not being able to see clearly. It was a subconcious thing. When you couldn't see who was holding the knife behind your back, how were you supposed to defend yourself? When you were faced with boundless evil, what could you do?
Even those two fears weren't the root of her phobia. What Yuffie really feared, what she was truly terrified of, was not being able to win. Not being able to act. In other words, losing control. No, not in small ways, like getting smashed or throwing a spaz, but life-altering ways. Ways that could change your future forever.
Unfortunetly, even her subconcious didn't realize that even the tiniest choice could alter things. This is the story of one such thing.
It begins in an ice cream shop.