Ok I know you are all going to kick my butt for not updating Shattered, but don't worry, I'm working on that as soon as I post this LOL. This is a set of three songfics, all right after Dirge of Cerberus. This is Yuffentine, YuffiexVincent pairing, so if you don't like it, don't read it. FF7 is owned by Square-Enix, and the song is Love Rescue Me, but U2. A series of three song fics, this one is from Vincent's point of view, explaining his absence after Omega was sent back to the planet, the next one will be Yuffie during the absence… then the final being Yuffie and Vinny fluff and angst more then likely. I don't know if I like writing in first person, present tense… I hope I did alright. Enjoy!
Chapter 1: The Rescue
Love rescue me
Come forth and speak to me
Raise me up and don't let me fall
No man is my enemy
My own hands imprison me
Love rescue me
Am I dead?
I must be, no one, not even me, could live through that type of explosion, Chaos and I had destroyed the indestructible. The world is safe, and I paid the ultimate price. My body hurts so badly, I couldn't be anything but dead.
And that's fine, a monster like me died saving the world. No, the man in me died saving the world, the monster was merely returned to the planet… was I really such a fragile being? I had always thought myself strong as the steel at my hip. I guess everyone has their delusions. I was cold as the steel as well, too cold to cling to anything but the uncomfortable warmth of sin.
Can sins ever be forgiven? Right now, I think so… I've never felt my chest feel so light. Then again, I think I've always had the power to forgive myself, I only had to forgive Lucrecia… maybe that's why I suffered so long, I couldn't admit to myself that deep down…
I hated her, I hated her for what she did to me, I hated her for lying, and I hated her for leaving. It's like they said, it's a thin line between love and hate. I tried to only dwell on the fierce love, and the hatred was what did this to me. The shame of hating someone you loved so completely, that was my true sin.
I lied, I lied to myself, and I lied to my friends… I denied everything in my heart and the truth for so long, locked in that box… I was like Cloud, fervently clinging to a reality that was never there. Lucrecia loved her job, and she saw me as a reminder of her own failures… I became an experiment to her, because she was so scared to fail again…
Look at us Lucrecia, what a couple of failures we turned out to be. Being the best and the brightest at Shinra Corp didn't save us from being fools… Bitter, those words are so bitter and true, and I turned out to be the biggest fool of them all. I pushed love away when it was never the problem… I could have been happy.
Many strangers have I met
On the road to my regret
Many lost who seek to find themselves in me
They ask me to reveal
The very thoughts they would conceal
Love rescue me
I, Vincent Valentine, as laudable as that may seem, wanted to be happy. I just never thought I deserved it. My friends all saw it, but I never could. Cloud would give me that knowing look as he reached for Tifa's hand, Tifa would smile softly and pat my back, trying to offer comfort. Cid would pour me a drink, and call me kid even though I'm twice his age, and Barret would trust me to watch over Marlene. Nanaki talked to me about science and astronomy, and Reeve looked to me as a source of strength when he didn't have enough of his own. Then there was Yuffie… the obstinate little ninja that showed me her feelings more then anyone.
Yuffie Kisaragi, the White Rose of Wutai, would come out of nowhere and save my life. She knew something that I didn't… that my life was worth saving. I was supposed to be the protector, be there to help my friends by turning into some terrible beast and staying alive to heal them when all hope had flown. I was the line of last defense, picking up my battered comrades so we could regroup and return, stronger then ever to finally defeat the evils of the world. How did I know that the tiny ninja with a tongue sharp enough to rival her deadly kunai, would feel the need to save me. Why was she there when I nearly lost myself and my life to Rosso the Crimson? Why was she in Nibelhiem of all places, the only place she refers to as ewww… that spooky place?
And why did my heart leap in my chest to see it was her behind the cowl, her goofy, grinning face causing my battered chest to thump wildly. She was flirting and what wonderful poetry came out of my mouth? It's been awhile… If my friends could only read my eyes, they'd know that more goes on in my head then outside, but that doesn't mean I love them less… it doesn't mean that I don't need them any less. The times I stare off into space, pulling myself in for quiet introspection, they thought I was cold, but normally I was just too scared to loose one of them and have to suffer all over again.
And the sun in the sky
Makes a shadow of you and I
Stretching out as the sun sinks in the sea
I'm here without a name
In the palace of my shame
Said, love rescue me
Like when we all lost Aerith. It didn't hurt me any lease then the rest of them, Cloud, Tifa and Barret had really been the only ones able to say goodbye to her. That just made me shyer, causing the wall to thicken. Yuffie had been the only one to see this, and weasel in all the deeper. Did I want her too? No, of course I didn't, a demon like me would only taint a young girl like that. I had to resist, Chaos loved taunting me with visions of the young ninja writhing in pleasure under me. He could sense the hidden desires I wouldn't even admit to myself.
In the cold mirror of a glass
I see my reflection pass
See the dark shades of what I used to be
See the purple of her eyes
The scarlet of my lies
Love rescue me
Now, in the grip of the Lifestream, I have no problem admitting that I wanted Yuffie… I wanted her for my own. For all her silly antics and busting pride, I loved her. She was the very antithesis of what I had become, and a reminder of how I'd been before Lucrecia and Shinra Manor. I'd been alive.
Yeah, though I walk
Through the valley of shadow
Yeah, I will fear no evil
I have cursed thy rod and staff
They no longer comfort me
Love rescue me
And now, I'm dead, given my life to protect her, and all my friends… I'd finally succeeded. I'd won in my death, and now it was all over, and I would be left with my regrets for eternity. If only I'd had the courage to tell her… Self sacrifice brought out by love can really be a bitch sometimes. The truth was painful, as bad as the pain in my back. Wait…
I said love, love rescue me
I said love
Climb up the mountains, said love
I said love, oh my love
On the hill of the son
I'm on the eve of a storm
And my word you must believe in
Oh, I said love, rescue me
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah...
Come on eyes, open…
Where am I?
Lucrecia's Cave… did you save me again? Am I smiling? I guess I am. I'm so happy that it's not over, that I can fix this… Lucrecia had saved me once again, and now I was cleansed, newly baptized and ready to face the world.
Reborn, alive, and ready to put all this behind me; I'll always remember the pain and anguish I suffered all these years, and I'll never be Vincent Valentine the Turk, nor will I be the Gunslinger Possessed… I think I'll try to find how Vincent the Man reacts to the world.
Yeah I'm here without a name
In the palace of my shame
I said love rescue me
"Everything's alright now, Chaos and Omega have returned to the planet." There, I said it; I have no reason to hold back now. My muscles ache from a week's disuse, and my heart is finally letting the last of that healing pain go… it's time to live.
"Thank you…" I say to her unmoving form, with a mixture of relief and sadness. I was leaving her, finally, after all the years that she left me, I was moving on, "for my life." I was keeping my promise to Shelke, I didn't even need to see her message to me… there was no way I couldn't let myself take the opportunity.
I've conquered my past
The future is here at last
I stand at the entrance
To a new world I can see
The ruins to the right of me
Will soon have lost sight of me
I stood, finally, on shaky legs, though I'm not sure if it's the disuse or the anxiety of starting over, but I knew as I left that cave, that I would never return. To do so would be hanging on to the painful past… and I was over it now. I was healing, no longer was this great, gaping wound in my soul, but rather a thick scab, tenderly wrapped in the gauze and cool salve of self perception. Coming through the waterfall is like being born again, the waters purifying my previously putrid soul.
Shelke is waiting for me, and I'm surprised she knew where to find me. She tells me that my friends sent her there, and the tiny smile playing over my lips grows just a bit more. Some water birds take flight from their nests along the valley walls, disappearing into the altered sky. I feel so light right now, I think I can join them, even without the wings of Chaos. "Hmph," I respond to Shelke's voice, the first sound I've made since the world was saved, and for once it wasn't a heavy sound. Just my way of confirming that I was there, and I was listening. I start to follow her out, toward the waiting Shera and all my friends, and I take one last look at the cave. "Goodbye," I whisper so softly, my voice is lost in the wind. Looking back to see Shelke far in front of me, I start out toward my future.
I want to see a certain little ninja, and let her know, it was my love for her that saved me in the end. And even if she didn't feel the same, it would be nice to get it off my chest. Yes… it had been laden with empty regrets for far too long. I was free and alive now, no longer locked in the prison of my own design.
Love Rescued Me