FROM THE VERY DEPTHS OF MY SOUL . . . .
by- diana dakai
"We did it," Tifa said, breathing a sigh of relief. She slumped down on the ground next to Yuffie, who was panting on all fours, shruiken dropped in exhaustion.
"Is it over?" she asked weakly, closing her eyes. "Is it finally over?"
"Yeah, honey, it is," Tifa replied, draping her arm over the trembling girl. "We beat Sephiroth. We saved the world."
Yuffie gave a small laugh.
"Good..."
"How can we be sure the danger has completely passed?" Nanaki asked, prowling around irritably. "There is a lot more danger around here than just Sephiroth."
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Barett exclaimed. "We should be fucking celebrating and you're over there mopingh as if nothing we just did mattered!"
"Guys," Tifa interrupted, wanting to avoid an argument. "We need to get out of here. We need to rest, the sooner the better, don't you think Cloud?......Cloud??"
The spikey haired man in question was standing stock still, his back to everyone. All of a sudden his sword slipped from his habd and thudded loadly on Crater's floor. Muscles protesting, Tifa got up and gently laied a hand on his shoulder.
"I killed him," Cloud wispered, turning around to face Tifa. "I killed him....I killed him.... I killed him...."
Frightened, Tifa gazed in to Cloud's eyes. They were glazed over and unseeing, just like a mad man's.
"What's wrong with him?" Tifa asked helplessly. "Why is he acting like this?"
"Post Dramatic Stress," Cid remarked knowlageably.
Everyone turned to stare at him as if he himself were the mad man.
"What?" he retorted, reaching in to his pocket to pull out a cigarette. "It's like what I had when Shera ruined the rocket take off. I was so upset I couldn't think straight for days. Spikey-Ass will be fine."
Tifa looked skeptical, but nodded anyway.
"Someone needs to help guide him back. I don't think he'll walk by himself.
As if to prove her point, Cloud fell to his knees.
"I killed him... I killed him.... I killed him...."
Cid stepped forward, shoved his polearm into Barett's hand, and pulled Cloud to his feet. Cait Sith also bounded forward and made to carry Cloud's swors. Tifa tirned to Yuffie, who still had yet to move from her position on the ground.
"Yuffie, are you ready to go?" Tifa asked quietly.
Yuffie shook her head, still trembling.
"What's wrong, honey?"
"I-I-I don't feel so good..." stammered Yuffie. "I-I think I'm gonna...."
Yuffie fell in to a dead faint.
Barett stared down at her, confused.
"What happened to the brat?" he asked.
Tifa pursed her lips together in annoyment.
"Don't call her that."
She turned to Vincent, who was standing silently in the shadows.
"Vincent, I can't carry her all the way back. Will you do it please? Everyone else has their hands full."
An almost undetectable flash of doubt crossed over his features, but he swooped up the fallen girl anyway.
"Thank you," Tifa said. She turned to the rest of the group. "Well, shall we be off?"
The group trekked up the Creter for hours, never resting, knowing that just because Sephiroth was gone, it didn't mean that the monsters were gone too. Reaching the airship without interruption brought a sigh of relief from all.
"Ah, my beautiful Highwind!" Cid exclaimed, climbing onboard and carlessly dumping Cloud on the deck floor. "I'm back, baby!"
Suddenly Yuffie woke and found herself being held down in a pair of strong arms. All she felt was cold metal claws, strong muscle, and a saw a flash of red eyes. Dizzy and not bothering to check who or what was holding her, she screamed and yelled, flailing her arms madly about in an attempt to escape.
"Get offa' me! Monster! Get offa' me! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"
Alarmed and unable to hold on, he let go of her so that she dropped hard on to the wooden floor. She scrambled up and raised her fists in to fighting position, eyes wild and frantic. Realizing that it had been Vincent carrying her, not some sort of monster, and that the whole group was staring at her in shock, she covered her mouth in horror.
"Oh my gawd..." was her muffled cry.
She stared long at hatd at Vincent, then ran down to the inside of the airship. Tifa peered up at Vincet to see his reaction. He looked.... hurt. But as soon as she saw it, his expression erased to one of stotic expressionless stone. She felt bad for him. Even though she hadn't spent much time with Vincent, she new that he took everything to heart and someone calling him a monster, meaning to or not, was terrible for his self esteem. Barret cleared his throat to break the uncomfortable silence.
"Yo, Cid, you gonna get us out of here or what?"
Cid slowly nodded and climbed down the long ladder. The rest of the group, with the exception of Vincent, followed. Cid took his usual position as pilot, Barret started a conversation with Nanaki, Cait Sith went to check on the gold chocobo in the stable, and Tifa went in search of Yuffie.
"Yuffie? Yuffie, where are you?" she called.
A groan sounded from behind some boxes and barrels. Yuffie was curled up on her side in a fetal position with a look of excrutiating pain written all over her face. Tifa came over and crouched beside her.
"Yuffie, what's wrong?"
Yuffie looked up at Tifa with tears in her eyes and showed her her hand, which was soaked in blood.
"Oh my God!" Tifa exclaimed, horrified. "Yuffie, what happened?!"
"My hip...." Yuffie answered weakly. "I guess Sephiroth got me pretty good.... I was trying to Cure it earlier, put it was painful. That's why I fainted. I guess running away opened up the wound again."
"Here, let me try," Tifa said softly, pulling out her Restore materia.
She tried using a Cure 3 spell, but Yuffie screamed.
"What?" Tifa asked, alarmed.
"It hurts..." Yuffie moaned, squeezing her eyes shut. "Tifa, it hurts so bad....."
"Maybe your body can't handle such a powerful spell," Tifa said, frowning. She reached in to her pocket and pulled out a common Potion. "Here, try this."
Yuffie gulped it down.
"Yuck, I hate the way Potions taste!" she complained, but accepted another one.
"The bleeding's lessened," she observed, checking over the horrendous gash on her right hip. It had indeed receeded to a light trikle.
"I don't have anymore Potions left," Tifa said, rising to her feet. "I'll go bother the men for some more. Why don't you change your shorts while I'm gone and put a bandage on that wound? You don't want blood everywhere."
Yuffie nodded and Tifa left.
Sighing, Yuffie attempted to stand. It was a difficult thing to do. Using the wall for support, she stumbled to a room so she could clean up.
"Damn Sephiroth..." she muttered darkly, scrubbing the drying blood. "Why am I the only one that got hurt? Everyone probably thinks I'm weak now. They were propably all laughing at me.... and what's the deal with Vincent carrying me anyway?!" she ranted on, searching for a clean cloth to put over her wound. Her spirits plumbeted as she remembered his expression when she threw that fit. She didn't mean to be mean, really she didn't! She had no idea that it was Vincent carrying her. Who would've expected it? Of all the people she didn't want to be against her, he was the top pick. The others might think he was to withdrawn and broody, but she.... she though he was, well, cool, in that dark and mysterious kind of way. When he did talk he had that knowlageable aura around him. And she could count at least 5 times where everybody else in the group got super mad at her, but not Vincent. Did he even get mad? It was hard to tell. He sure got sad, though.
"I'm such a brat!" she cried, punching her fist in to the wall. "Ouch..."
Making sure she was as presentable as she could make herself, she limped up the long ladder that led up to the deck. She would have to make ammends with Vincent, even if it killed her.
'Why does it mean so much to me?' she thought, climbing at a crawling pace. 'Why do I need Vincent to like me?'
When she finally made it to the deck, she saw him leaning against the rail, facing the scenery.
Yuffie's heart raced a bit nervously as she stepped foreward. It wasn't often that she tried to make ammends for her mistakes and Vincent wasn't exactly the sympathetic, forgiving type. Was he?
"Vincent," she said quietly, starting forward.
She saw Vincent bristle and start to turn. Yuffie winced.
'So he does hate me...' she though mournfully.
She inwardly sighed and limped a little faster. Unfortunately, Cid chose that moment to lift off, causing the airship to rumble, vibrate, and shake. Yuffie, unable to brace herself, found herself pitching forward, almost right off the deck and over the rail. And she would've, too, if it hadn't been for Vincent, who immediately stretched his arms out and grabbed her, inadvertantly crushing her face first in to his chest. An electric jolt charged through Yuffie as she breathed in the scent that was Vincent Valentine. Never had she been this close to him. In fact, there wasn't even a half an inch between their bodies! As if he too realized that, Vincent stiffly pushed her back at arms length.
"Are you all right?" he asked, not looking her straight in the eyes.
"Y-y-yeah," stammered a flustered Yuffie. ('Oh, how embarassing!' she thought) "Thanks."
Vincent gave a short nod and let his arms drop.
"And your hip?" he continued in a monotone voice. "I noticed it was in bad condition earlier."
Yuffie blushed at the thought of Vincent examining her body while she was passed out in his arms.
'Its not like that!' she scolded herself, blushing even deeper. 'He doesn't like you in that way, get a hold of yourself!'
"Um... painful?" she answered meekly, looking up in to his face. "Cure spells hurt really bad. Tifa's making me drink Potions cuz it opened up again when.." she trailed off, seeing Vincent stiffen again.
'Well, there's no time like the present to make an even bigger fool of yourself.' she told herself.
"When I ran away from you." she finished firmly. "And that's why I came up here. I...I wanted to... to apologize. I really didn't know it was you, Vincent, I'm so sorry. None of what I said was direscted towards you, I was totally out of it. I don't think of you as a monster and I certainly don't have the capabilities to kill you... so... I'm just... sorry. I am so so sorry. Can you forgive me?"
She stared at him anxiously, worry lines forming when he didn't say anything. She lowered her gaze and almost cried.
'So he doesn't forgive me...' she thought dejectedly, feeling an unnatural pain in her heart. 'I'm always screwing up so way or another. Maybe I should run away..forever.'
As if sensing her thoughts, Vincent put a hand on her shoulder. Yuffie glanceds up suprised, and was met with beautiful amber eyes, making that electric jolt go through her again.
"Pardon my silence," he said a bit less monotoniously then before. "I was meerly questioning why you felt the need to come up here, for there is nothing to forgive. Your behavior was understandable and it shows real character to come all the way up here, injury and all, apologizing for something you think you did wrong."
Yuffie broke out in to a grin, very much relieved that Vincent was so understanding.
"Oh Vincent, I could just hug you!" she cried gleefuly, forgetting herself for a moment.
Seeing his startled expression brought her back down the real world.
She turned red again and opened her mouth to apologize again, but was stopped in her tracks when she saw a tiny hint of a smile form on his lips. Shocked, she let her mouth hang wide open.
"You'd better close your mouth," he said amusedly "Or you'll attract flies."
That statement defineately did not help.
This time Vincent smiled for real and gently reached over and closed her mouth for her.
Waking from her numbness, Yuffie felt like hanging her mouth agape again.
"You-you... Did... did you.. You just made a joke!" she spluttered, staringup at him with wide eyes.
Vincent gave a short nod of acknowlagement.
"So I did..." he said.
Finally getting over her shock, Yuffie grinned.
"Well well, I didn't know you had it in you! I guess I just bring out the best in people!"
Vincent gave a whistful smile.
"So you do.." he said, suddenly becoming serious, and turned to face the scenery again.
Yuffie was about to question what that ment when all of a sudden Tifa made an appearance.
"Yuffie, there you are!" Tifa exclaimed, hurrying over to her with a handful of Potions.
"I've been looking all over for you! Why did you come all the way up here when your injured? You should no better then that!"
"Tifa, I don't need a scolding." Yuffie retorted, crossing her arms in annoyment. "What's done is done, unless you can change the past, there's no use fretting about it."
"Oh, its just like you not to care about the consequenses of what you do, Yuffie. You could've opened up that wound again. Here." She thrust the Potions in to Yuffie's hands. "I expect you to drink every single one of those, and if I hear you haven't, you'll hear from me personally, understand?"
"Yes Mother," mocked Yuffie.
Tifa frowned and left.
Gazing disgustedly at the Potions, Yuffie decided that she better not risk Tifa's anger and downed one. She made a bitter face and chucked the empty bottle overboard in an attempt to rid of the memory of such a vile thing forever.
A sweet, melodic laugh filled her ears and she turned to find Vincent leaning with his back against the railing, smiling at her.
"There is no amusement in my misfortune!" she pouted.
"No, there isn't I beg your forgiveness, Yuffie. I don't know what came over me."
"Don't mock me, Vincent Valentine!" said Yuffie, pouting even further. "I'm not one to be triffled with!"
"Oh?" asked Vincent. "And what will you do, sweetie, stamp your feet and tell me I'm mean? As I recall, you yourself admitted you haven't the capabilities of physically injuring me."
"My shruiken has never failed me once!" Yuffie defended.
Suddenly all amusement left her face. A look of horror replaced it.
"What's wrong?" Vincent asked.
"My shruiken..." she wispered. "Where... where is it?"
Vincent pondered it.
"Last time I saw it was..." he stopped.
Yuffie groaned, his silence confirming it. Her beloved weapon was collecting dust at the bottom of the Crater.
Vincent shook his head wildly, rejecting the idea that was obviously forming in Yuffie's head.
"Don't you dare go back there, Yuffie," he said. "You can just get a new one. It's not worth risking your life over."
Yuffie just stared up at him with vacant eyes. Her shruiken... her poor poor shruiken...
Cait Sith interrupted.
"Vincent, Tifa wants to see you down in the cockpit," reported the overstuffed toy cat.
With one last hopeless glance at the distraught Yuffie, Vincent proceeded Cait Sith down the ladder.
"What?" he asked irritably when he reached Tifa. He didn't have time for whatever she wanted. He had to comfort Yuffie. Truth be told, he didn't like Tifa too much. Sure, she was nice and everything, but something about her that he just couldn't place annoyed him. Actually, the only person that he could tolerate to a great extent was... Yuffie. It was hard to believe, they were such opposites, but that's what Vincent admired about her. Yuffie put such a spark on life and left the world guessing. All he could offer was self pity and moodiness.
"I wanted to see if you were all right," Tifa said.
"I'm fine," Vincent muttered.
"Are you sure? Because I know how sensititve you are to remarks of such... caliber." she continued.
". . . . ."
"Oh, come on, Vincent, I just want to see how you were, you don't have to get moody!"
"I'm not moody."
Suddenly Cait Sith bounded in to the room.
"Goldeen's missing!" he cried.
"Everyone turned to him in shock.
"What the hell?" Cid said. "How could that damn bird go missing, she's been in the stable this whole time!"
"I know!" mourned Cait Sith. "But now she's gone! My poor chocobo!"
"How could Goldeen have gone missing?" Tifa wondered. "Shes not one to run away...."
"Cid, land the ship." Vincent suddenly said.
"The hell?" he asked, turning to the dark man who never gave him an order.
"Dammit, Cid, land the ship!" Vincent said again, becoming frustrated. His heart had stopped when Cait Sith had given the news. Yuffie had taken the gold chocobo and she had taken it to the Crater.
Extremely confused, Cid did as he was asked.
"Go ahead and keep going to Niblehem." Vincent said, anxious to leave the ship and save Yuffie. "I won't be back in time."
With that said, he left the ship and ran at top speed towards the direction of Crater. Yuffie, on the well trained Goldeen, would have already gotten to the Crater by then. That chocobo was FAST. When Vincent grew tired, he called upon the power of Chaos. Chaos would be a lot stronger, faster, and capable of making the journey back to Crater. He just had to make sure to transform back to himself when he reached it so that he didn't accidently harm Yuffie. If he did that, he didn't know if he'd be able to live with himself. Thinking that thought made him realize the fact that he should have know all along. He was in love with Yuffie Kisaragi. He laughed bitterly at his former resolve not to love anybody but his dead Lucrita. She was no where near as wonderful as Yuffie was. When Vincent reached Crater, he transformed back in to himself and pulled out his Death Penalty. There was an extra need for caution inside the massive maze of danger. He traveled swiftly through Crater, searching for any signs of Yuffie. Just when he was about to lose hope, he heared a Yuffie's voice in the form of a scream. Breaking out in to a run, he followed the sound that followed her scream. A dragon's roar. He rounded a corner and found Yuffie, just as a giant Dragon Zombie took hold of her leg in it's massive teeth.
Yuffie screamed in pain as she felt her bones get crushed.
'Oh God, I'm done for!' she thought, frightened. 'I'm gonna die, oh my God, I'm gonna die!'
Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard 3 gunshots in a row. Blood spurted out of the monster's eyes from Vincents good aim and it released Yuffie, who fell to the ground hard. She heard 2 more shots and the Zombie Dragon fell, dead. Vincent holstered his gun and rushed over to Yuffie.
"Yuffie," he moaned, falling to his knees and drawing her to him.
"Vincent..." Yuffie wispered in disbelief. "You're here... I can't believe your here... and crying? Vincent, why are you crying?"
"I told you not to come back here," Vincent moaned, burting his face in to her hair. "I told you and you didn't listen.... you didn't listen. Now you're hurt and it's all my fault..."
"Your fault?" Yuffie asked, extremely confused. "Vincent, how is this your fault?"
"I shouldn't have let you out of my sight," Vincent said in a pained voice. "I knew you would come, I knew you would. But I left you. It's my fault. My fault."
Yuffie felt tears start to streak down her face.
"No Vincent, it's not your fault. It's never your fault, always mine. I'm such a screw up. Tifa was right. I don't think about the consequenses. I don't do anything right."
Vincent shook his head, holding her tighter.
"Don't say that," he whispered. "You're perfect, Yuffie, perfect. Everything you do in my eyes is done with perfection. You're perfect."
"Vincent..." Yuffie said, shocked.
"Shhh," Vincent said gently rocking them back and forth. "No need for words. No need. Well, except for this. I love you, Yuffie. I love you from the very depths of my soul and I will never, NEVER let you out of my sight again."
"You love me?" Yuffie asked weakly, starting to fade out from the loss of blood.
"I do, Yuffie, I do."
"I love you too..." Yuffie whispered, closing her eyes. "From the very depths of my soul...."
She started to nod off, but opened her eyes once more.
"Vincent..." she said. "Find my shruiken. It's yours. Please remember me by it."
"No, Yuffie, no," Vincent cried, kissing her forehead. "Don't talk like that, please... you're not dying, you can never die!"
Yuffie did not reply. She had already breathed her final breath.
Vincent closed his eyes and rested his cheek on top of her head. Yuffie was gone. Now he could only hear the sound of her voice in his dreams. Now he would never be able to touch her... kiss her... make love to her... Yuffie was gone.
"I love you..." Vincent wispered, letting the tears fall from his eyes. "From the very depths of my soul...."
With shaking hands, he pulled out his gun and raised it to his temple.
"Now I can be with you forever," he said and pulled the trigger.
Yuffie was gone. And now.... now Vincent was gone too. He could now hold on to his promise. She would never be out out of his sight again.
THE END
"We did it," Tifa said, breathing a sigh of relief. She slumped down on the ground next to Yuffie, who was panting on all fours, shruiken dropped in exhaustion.
"Is it over?" she asked weakly, closing her eyes. "Is it finally over?"
"Yeah, honey, it is," Tifa replied, draping her arm over the trembling girl. "We beat Sephiroth. We saved the world."
Yuffie gave a small laugh.
"Good..."
"How can we be sure the danger has completely passed?" Nanaki asked, prowling around irritably. "There is a lot more danger around here than just Sephiroth."
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Barett exclaimed. "We should be fucking celebrating and you're over there mopingh as if nothing we just did mattered!"
"Guys," Tifa interrupted, wanting to avoid an argument. "We need to get out of here. We need to rest, the sooner the better, don't you think Cloud?......Cloud??"
The spikey haired man in question was standing stock still, his back to everyone. All of a sudden his sword slipped from his habd and thudded loadly on Crater's floor. Muscles protesting, Tifa got up and gently laied a hand on his shoulder.
"I killed him," Cloud wispered, turning around to face Tifa. "I killed him....I killed him.... I killed him...."
Frightened, Tifa gazed in to Cloud's eyes. They were glazed over and unseeing, just like a mad man's.
"What's wrong with him?" Tifa asked helplessly. "Why is he acting like this?"
"Post Dramatic Stress," Cid remarked knowlageably.
Everyone turned to stare at him as if he himself were the mad man.
"What?" he retorted, reaching in to his pocket to pull out a cigarette. "It's like what I had when Shera ruined the rocket take off. I was so upset I couldn't think straight for days. Spikey-Ass will be fine."
Tifa looked skeptical, but nodded anyway.
"Someone needs to help guide him back. I don't think he'll walk by himself.
As if to prove her point, Cloud fell to his knees.
"I killed him... I killed him.... I killed him...."
Cid stepped forward, shoved his polearm into Barett's hand, and pulled Cloud to his feet. Cait Sith also bounded forward and made to carry Cloud's swors. Tifa tirned to Yuffie, who still had yet to move from her position on the ground.
"Yuffie, are you ready to go?" Tifa asked quietly.
Yuffie shook her head, still trembling.
"What's wrong, honey?"
"I-I-I don't feel so good..." stammered Yuffie. "I-I think I'm gonna...."
Yuffie fell in to a dead faint.
Barett stared down at her, confused.
"What happened to the brat?" he asked.
Tifa pursed her lips together in annoyment.
"Don't call her that."
She turned to Vincent, who was standing silently in the shadows.
"Vincent, I can't carry her all the way back. Will you do it please? Everyone else has their hands full."
An almost undetectable flash of doubt crossed over his features, but he swooped up the fallen girl anyway.
"Thank you," Tifa said. She turned to the rest of the group. "Well, shall we be off?"
The group trekked up the Creter for hours, never resting, knowing that just because Sephiroth was gone, it didn't mean that the monsters were gone too. Reaching the airship without interruption brought a sigh of relief from all.
"Ah, my beautiful Highwind!" Cid exclaimed, climbing onboard and carlessly dumping Cloud on the deck floor. "I'm back, baby!"
Suddenly Yuffie woke and found herself being held down in a pair of strong arms. All she felt was cold metal claws, strong muscle, and a saw a flash of red eyes. Dizzy and not bothering to check who or what was holding her, she screamed and yelled, flailing her arms madly about in an attempt to escape.
"Get offa' me! Monster! Get offa' me! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"
Alarmed and unable to hold on, he let go of her so that she dropped hard on to the wooden floor. She scrambled up and raised her fists in to fighting position, eyes wild and frantic. Realizing that it had been Vincent carrying her, not some sort of monster, and that the whole group was staring at her in shock, she covered her mouth in horror.
"Oh my gawd..." was her muffled cry.
She stared long at hatd at Vincent, then ran down to the inside of the airship. Tifa peered up at Vincet to see his reaction. He looked.... hurt. But as soon as she saw it, his expression erased to one of stotic expressionless stone. She felt bad for him. Even though she hadn't spent much time with Vincent, she new that he took everything to heart and someone calling him a monster, meaning to or not, was terrible for his self esteem. Barret cleared his throat to break the uncomfortable silence.
"Yo, Cid, you gonna get us out of here or what?"
Cid slowly nodded and climbed down the long ladder. The rest of the group, with the exception of Vincent, followed. Cid took his usual position as pilot, Barret started a conversation with Nanaki, Cait Sith went to check on the gold chocobo in the stable, and Tifa went in search of Yuffie.
"Yuffie? Yuffie, where are you?" she called.
A groan sounded from behind some boxes and barrels. Yuffie was curled up on her side in a fetal position with a look of excrutiating pain written all over her face. Tifa came over and crouched beside her.
"Yuffie, what's wrong?"
Yuffie looked up at Tifa with tears in her eyes and showed her her hand, which was soaked in blood.
"Oh my God!" Tifa exclaimed, horrified. "Yuffie, what happened?!"
"My hip...." Yuffie answered weakly. "I guess Sephiroth got me pretty good.... I was trying to Cure it earlier, put it was painful. That's why I fainted. I guess running away opened up the wound again."
"Here, let me try," Tifa said softly, pulling out her Restore materia.
She tried using a Cure 3 spell, but Yuffie screamed.
"What?" Tifa asked, alarmed.
"It hurts..." Yuffie moaned, squeezing her eyes shut. "Tifa, it hurts so bad....."
"Maybe your body can't handle such a powerful spell," Tifa said, frowning. She reached in to her pocket and pulled out a common Potion. "Here, try this."
Yuffie gulped it down.
"Yuck, I hate the way Potions taste!" she complained, but accepted another one.
"The bleeding's lessened," she observed, checking over the horrendous gash on her right hip. It had indeed receeded to a light trikle.
"I don't have anymore Potions left," Tifa said, rising to her feet. "I'll go bother the men for some more. Why don't you change your shorts while I'm gone and put a bandage on that wound? You don't want blood everywhere."
Yuffie nodded and Tifa left.
Sighing, Yuffie attempted to stand. It was a difficult thing to do. Using the wall for support, she stumbled to a room so she could clean up.
"Damn Sephiroth..." she muttered darkly, scrubbing the drying blood. "Why am I the only one that got hurt? Everyone probably thinks I'm weak now. They were propably all laughing at me.... and what's the deal with Vincent carrying me anyway?!" she ranted on, searching for a clean cloth to put over her wound. Her spirits plumbeted as she remembered his expression when she threw that fit. She didn't mean to be mean, really she didn't! She had no idea that it was Vincent carrying her. Who would've expected it? Of all the people she didn't want to be against her, he was the top pick. The others might think he was to withdrawn and broody, but she.... she though he was, well, cool, in that dark and mysterious kind of way. When he did talk he had that knowlageable aura around him. And she could count at least 5 times where everybody else in the group got super mad at her, but not Vincent. Did he even get mad? It was hard to tell. He sure got sad, though.
"I'm such a brat!" she cried, punching her fist in to the wall. "Ouch..."
Making sure she was as presentable as she could make herself, she limped up the long ladder that led up to the deck. She would have to make ammends with Vincent, even if it killed her.
'Why does it mean so much to me?' she thought, climbing at a crawling pace. 'Why do I need Vincent to like me?'
When she finally made it to the deck, she saw him leaning against the rail, facing the scenery.
Yuffie's heart raced a bit nervously as she stepped foreward. It wasn't often that she tried to make ammends for her mistakes and Vincent wasn't exactly the sympathetic, forgiving type. Was he?
"Vincent," she said quietly, starting forward.
She saw Vincent bristle and start to turn. Yuffie winced.
'So he does hate me...' she though mournfully.
She inwardly sighed and limped a little faster. Unfortunately, Cid chose that moment to lift off, causing the airship to rumble, vibrate, and shake. Yuffie, unable to brace herself, found herself pitching forward, almost right off the deck and over the rail. And she would've, too, if it hadn't been for Vincent, who immediately stretched his arms out and grabbed her, inadvertantly crushing her face first in to his chest. An electric jolt charged through Yuffie as she breathed in the scent that was Vincent Valentine. Never had she been this close to him. In fact, there wasn't even a half an inch between their bodies! As if he too realized that, Vincent stiffly pushed her back at arms length.
"Are you all right?" he asked, not looking her straight in the eyes.
"Y-y-yeah," stammered a flustered Yuffie. ('Oh, how embarassing!' she thought) "Thanks."
Vincent gave a short nod and let his arms drop.
"And your hip?" he continued in a monotone voice. "I noticed it was in bad condition earlier."
Yuffie blushed at the thought of Vincent examining her body while she was passed out in his arms.
'Its not like that!' she scolded herself, blushing even deeper. 'He doesn't like you in that way, get a hold of yourself!'
"Um... painful?" she answered meekly, looking up in to his face. "Cure spells hurt really bad. Tifa's making me drink Potions cuz it opened up again when.." she trailed off, seeing Vincent stiffen again.
'Well, there's no time like the present to make an even bigger fool of yourself.' she told herself.
"When I ran away from you." she finished firmly. "And that's why I came up here. I...I wanted to... to apologize. I really didn't know it was you, Vincent, I'm so sorry. None of what I said was direscted towards you, I was totally out of it. I don't think of you as a monster and I certainly don't have the capabilities to kill you... so... I'm just... sorry. I am so so sorry. Can you forgive me?"
She stared at him anxiously, worry lines forming when he didn't say anything. She lowered her gaze and almost cried.
'So he doesn't forgive me...' she thought dejectedly, feeling an unnatural pain in her heart. 'I'm always screwing up so way or another. Maybe I should run away..forever.'
As if sensing her thoughts, Vincent put a hand on her shoulder. Yuffie glanceds up suprised, and was met with beautiful amber eyes, making that electric jolt go through her again.
"Pardon my silence," he said a bit less monotoniously then before. "I was meerly questioning why you felt the need to come up here, for there is nothing to forgive. Your behavior was understandable and it shows real character to come all the way up here, injury and all, apologizing for something you think you did wrong."
Yuffie broke out in to a grin, very much relieved that Vincent was so understanding.
"Oh Vincent, I could just hug you!" she cried gleefuly, forgetting herself for a moment.
Seeing his startled expression brought her back down the real world.
She turned red again and opened her mouth to apologize again, but was stopped in her tracks when she saw a tiny hint of a smile form on his lips. Shocked, she let her mouth hang wide open.
"You'd better close your mouth," he said amusedly "Or you'll attract flies."
That statement defineately did not help.
This time Vincent smiled for real and gently reached over and closed her mouth for her.
Waking from her numbness, Yuffie felt like hanging her mouth agape again.
"You-you... Did... did you.. You just made a joke!" she spluttered, staringup at him with wide eyes.
Vincent gave a short nod of acknowlagement.
"So I did..." he said.
Finally getting over her shock, Yuffie grinned.
"Well well, I didn't know you had it in you! I guess I just bring out the best in people!"
Vincent gave a whistful smile.
"So you do.." he said, suddenly becoming serious, and turned to face the scenery again.
Yuffie was about to question what that ment when all of a sudden Tifa made an appearance.
"Yuffie, there you are!" Tifa exclaimed, hurrying over to her with a handful of Potions.
"I've been looking all over for you! Why did you come all the way up here when your injured? You should no better then that!"
"Tifa, I don't need a scolding." Yuffie retorted, crossing her arms in annoyment. "What's done is done, unless you can change the past, there's no use fretting about it."
"Oh, its just like you not to care about the consequenses of what you do, Yuffie. You could've opened up that wound again. Here." She thrust the Potions in to Yuffie's hands. "I expect you to drink every single one of those, and if I hear you haven't, you'll hear from me personally, understand?"
"Yes Mother," mocked Yuffie.
Tifa frowned and left.
Gazing disgustedly at the Potions, Yuffie decided that she better not risk Tifa's anger and downed one. She made a bitter face and chucked the empty bottle overboard in an attempt to rid of the memory of such a vile thing forever.
A sweet, melodic laugh filled her ears and she turned to find Vincent leaning with his back against the railing, smiling at her.
"There is no amusement in my misfortune!" she pouted.
"No, there isn't I beg your forgiveness, Yuffie. I don't know what came over me."
"Don't mock me, Vincent Valentine!" said Yuffie, pouting even further. "I'm not one to be triffled with!"
"Oh?" asked Vincent. "And what will you do, sweetie, stamp your feet and tell me I'm mean? As I recall, you yourself admitted you haven't the capabilities of physically injuring me."
"My shruiken has never failed me once!" Yuffie defended.
Suddenly all amusement left her face. A look of horror replaced it.
"What's wrong?" Vincent asked.
"My shruiken..." she wispered. "Where... where is it?"
Vincent pondered it.
"Last time I saw it was..." he stopped.
Yuffie groaned, his silence confirming it. Her beloved weapon was collecting dust at the bottom of the Crater.
Vincent shook his head wildly, rejecting the idea that was obviously forming in Yuffie's head.
"Don't you dare go back there, Yuffie," he said. "You can just get a new one. It's not worth risking your life over."
Yuffie just stared up at him with vacant eyes. Her shruiken... her poor poor shruiken...
Cait Sith interrupted.
"Vincent, Tifa wants to see you down in the cockpit," reported the overstuffed toy cat.
With one last hopeless glance at the distraught Yuffie, Vincent proceeded Cait Sith down the ladder.
"What?" he asked irritably when he reached Tifa. He didn't have time for whatever she wanted. He had to comfort Yuffie. Truth be told, he didn't like Tifa too much. Sure, she was nice and everything, but something about her that he just couldn't place annoyed him. Actually, the only person that he could tolerate to a great extent was... Yuffie. It was hard to believe, they were such opposites, but that's what Vincent admired about her. Yuffie put such a spark on life and left the world guessing. All he could offer was self pity and moodiness.
"I wanted to see if you were all right," Tifa said.
"I'm fine," Vincent muttered.
"Are you sure? Because I know how sensititve you are to remarks of such... caliber." she continued.
". . . . ."
"Oh, come on, Vincent, I just want to see how you were, you don't have to get moody!"
"I'm not moody."
Suddenly Cait Sith bounded in to the room.
"Goldeen's missing!" he cried.
"Everyone turned to him in shock.
"What the hell?" Cid said. "How could that damn bird go missing, she's been in the stable this whole time!"
"I know!" mourned Cait Sith. "But now she's gone! My poor chocobo!"
"How could Goldeen have gone missing?" Tifa wondered. "Shes not one to run away...."
"Cid, land the ship." Vincent suddenly said.
"The hell?" he asked, turning to the dark man who never gave him an order.
"Dammit, Cid, land the ship!" Vincent said again, becoming frustrated. His heart had stopped when Cait Sith had given the news. Yuffie had taken the gold chocobo and she had taken it to the Crater.
Extremely confused, Cid did as he was asked.
"Go ahead and keep going to Niblehem." Vincent said, anxious to leave the ship and save Yuffie. "I won't be back in time."
With that said, he left the ship and ran at top speed towards the direction of Crater. Yuffie, on the well trained Goldeen, would have already gotten to the Crater by then. That chocobo was FAST. When Vincent grew tired, he called upon the power of Chaos. Chaos would be a lot stronger, faster, and capable of making the journey back to Crater. He just had to make sure to transform back to himself when he reached it so that he didn't accidently harm Yuffie. If he did that, he didn't know if he'd be able to live with himself. Thinking that thought made him realize the fact that he should have know all along. He was in love with Yuffie Kisaragi. He laughed bitterly at his former resolve not to love anybody but his dead Lucrita. She was no where near as wonderful as Yuffie was. When Vincent reached Crater, he transformed back in to himself and pulled out his Death Penalty. There was an extra need for caution inside the massive maze of danger. He traveled swiftly through Crater, searching for any signs of Yuffie. Just when he was about to lose hope, he heared a Yuffie's voice in the form of a scream. Breaking out in to a run, he followed the sound that followed her scream. A dragon's roar. He rounded a corner and found Yuffie, just as a giant Dragon Zombie took hold of her leg in it's massive teeth.
Yuffie screamed in pain as she felt her bones get crushed.
'Oh God, I'm done for!' she thought, frightened. 'I'm gonna die, oh my God, I'm gonna die!'
Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard 3 gunshots in a row. Blood spurted out of the monster's eyes from Vincents good aim and it released Yuffie, who fell to the ground hard. She heard 2 more shots and the Zombie Dragon fell, dead. Vincent holstered his gun and rushed over to Yuffie.
"Yuffie," he moaned, falling to his knees and drawing her to him.
"Vincent..." Yuffie wispered in disbelief. "You're here... I can't believe your here... and crying? Vincent, why are you crying?"
"I told you not to come back here," Vincent moaned, burting his face in to her hair. "I told you and you didn't listen.... you didn't listen. Now you're hurt and it's all my fault..."
"Your fault?" Yuffie asked, extremely confused. "Vincent, how is this your fault?"
"I shouldn't have let you out of my sight," Vincent said in a pained voice. "I knew you would come, I knew you would. But I left you. It's my fault. My fault."
Yuffie felt tears start to streak down her face.
"No Vincent, it's not your fault. It's never your fault, always mine. I'm such a screw up. Tifa was right. I don't think about the consequenses. I don't do anything right."
Vincent shook his head, holding her tighter.
"Don't say that," he whispered. "You're perfect, Yuffie, perfect. Everything you do in my eyes is done with perfection. You're perfect."
"Vincent..." Yuffie said, shocked.
"Shhh," Vincent said gently rocking them back and forth. "No need for words. No need. Well, except for this. I love you, Yuffie. I love you from the very depths of my soul and I will never, NEVER let you out of my sight again."
"You love me?" Yuffie asked weakly, starting to fade out from the loss of blood.
"I do, Yuffie, I do."
"I love you too..." Yuffie whispered, closing her eyes. "From the very depths of my soul...."
She started to nod off, but opened her eyes once more.
"Vincent..." she said. "Find my shruiken. It's yours. Please remember me by it."
"No, Yuffie, no," Vincent cried, kissing her forehead. "Don't talk like that, please... you're not dying, you can never die!"
Yuffie did not reply. She had already breathed her final breath.
Vincent closed his eyes and rested his cheek on top of her head. Yuffie was gone. Now he could only hear the sound of her voice in his dreams. Now he would never be able to touch her... kiss her... make love to her... Yuffie was gone.
"I love you..." Vincent wispered, letting the tears fall from his eyes. "From the very depths of my soul...."
With shaking hands, he pulled out his gun and raised it to his temple.
"Now I can be with you forever," he said and pulled the trigger.
Yuffie was gone. And now.... now Vincent was gone too. He could now hold on to his promise. She would never be out out of his sight again.
THE END