I do not own FF7 nor did I create it. All rights go to its respected owners! Thank-you!
If the Gods Only Knew…
Chapter One
Her distraught blue eyes stared opaquely at the decorated funeral pyre. Roses, daises, and other types of flowers flooded the fresh mound of dirt. All seemed peaceful except for a young woman no more then seventeen dressed in black staring solemnly at the grave.
She stood alone in the pouring rain without a random thought in the world. Her father was gone forever and she hated the harsh fact of this reality. No more fights, no more materia gathering to please him, and no more advice she had come to take for granted. She missed the last fact the most.
All of her friends had come immediately when they heard the news, except one. The dark gunslinger and former Turk known as Vincent Valentine did not appear to console her grief. She truly missed him and sadly realized that her dark comrade was either hidden from everyone or no longer part of the physical world. She refused to consider the latter of the two choices. Her friends had already left the funeral site and boarded up in her guesthouse to rest.
Her best friend had begged her to come in from the rain, but she solemnly denied Tifa's request. To be honest, she wanted to be alone with the man she had known as her father.
Sure, they were not the best at getting along, but both had loved each other as father and daughter. She could remember their first lessons in martial arts or how Godo looked when her mother gave her a fire materia.
She had to face it. The girl known as Yuffie Kisaragi was now alone in the world, or so she thought…
Cold rain began to affect her balance as she felt a wave of fatigue hit her. Holding one hand on the tombstone for support Yuffie sobbed and closed her cobalt-blue eyes as if the god Morpheus had taken pity upon her weak form and finally gave her rest.
*…She's been out for three hours! Cloud, I'm worried *
* She'll be fine it's just she needs sleep. She's hasn't slept in a week. Tifa, she'll be fine. *
* If you say so Cloud, I'm glad he brought her here…*
*It…shocked me. I thought he was dead…*
*Come on, she needs her rest. We'll check on her in an hour. *
*Alright Cloud…*
*Was that a real conversation or just a dream? * Yuffie questioned tiredly.
She lay imperceptibly in her bed trying to sort her thoughts out. She hesitantly opened her eyes and abruptly closed them, the blinding pain surged through her mind. Yuffie finally forced herself to get up and drug her idle body to the vanity.
Yuffie grumbled at herself when she seen the disoriented image reflecting back at her. Dark rings stayed under her eyes and made no attempt on leaving anytime soon. She rubbed her aching temples and attempted to wash the runny mascara off of her eyes. Yuffie finished her task of making herself suitable for public.
*Great job genius! You have managed to pull off the gothic shtick you have had all along! * She inwardly thought as she put a black tank on with a duster that covered it. She got her dark denim jeans for the latter half of her body and pulled them on. Well at least she looked decent enough. She dreaded to see her friends, all Yuffie truly wanted was to be alone and contemplate on other things than just the looks of pity and remorse the team gave her.
She seen Cloud and Tifa on the sofa watching some kind of film while, the others were nowhere to be seen. Her only guess was the Turtle's Paradise since that was the only thing her town had to offer as entertainment.
Yuffie slowly made her way across the illuminated room and sat opposite of her best friends. Tifa gave a faint smile and made her way over to her.
"Are you feeling better?" The brunette asked pushing a lock of chocolate-brown hair out of her face.
"I suppose so, to be honest I cannot remember making my way back here. Did Cloud bring me back?"
"No, it was…" Tifa hesitated.
"It was? Come on Tifa, please tell me I would like to thank whoever it was."
Tifa stared at her friend briefly then sighed in defeat. "He's outside, you better say it before he leaves." The brunette cast her eyes away from her grieving friend, what could be considered relief and anger at the same time shown in her brown-eyes.
"Tifa, why won't you tell me who it is? What's wrong?" Yuffie pursed her eyebrows together.
"Just…just go outside and see for yourself okay? Please don't ask me…" Tifa turned back to the sofa and sat next to Cloud again, the same expression that Tifa held was also on his face.
"Fine. I'll see who this mystery person is and laugh at your fear!" Yuffie smiled for the first time in a week.
She only smiled because she truly wanted to cheer them up. Something was troubling them and she could not understand why.
Her smiling expression suddenly ran to shock when she opened the door. Her mouth gaped in surprise and then turned to a smile. "Vincent Valentine, I thought you were…"
"Dead?" The gunman deadpanned.
"Well, not really dead, but gone. You never contact any of us, are you to good be our friend anymore?" She smiled gingerly.
"No, I just prefer not to talk to anyone, do not ask me why." He muttered and turned from her.
Inward sadness swept over her as her smile faded to a frown. Her so-called friend wasn't even interested enough to see her; that hurt her more than anything the team ever said to her.
She glanced down at the ground and broke the awkward silence between them "So…um what brings you here to Wutai?"
" I was passing through."
"Oh. I'm happy that you stopped by to visit."
"Why? I didn't plan on seeing you."
"Then, why are you here?" Yuffie became confused.
"I found you passed-out in the cemetery and I brought you back to your home."
"Thank…thank you for bringing here I would have certainly caught pneumonia in this weather. The rain hasn't stopped since Godo…" She trailed off.
Vincent turned to her again with a questioning look. "What's wrong with him?"
"He…he passed away last week with cancer. His funeral was yesterday and…" She looked down to the ground and began to cry.
"I'm sorry." He looked at her icily.
"Don't be. I should have done something that could have prevented it, but I couldn't. I'm certain he's at peace and now I have a choice to make."
"And that is?"
"Become the leader in my father's place as he intended or leave it to someone who can actually run the city. I believe Staniv and Gorki can manage it with ease. Besides, they told me they could handle it."
Vincent said nothing and stared at her intently, she shuddered inwardly at his impending gaze. Yuffie adverted her eyes from the ex-Turk and stared blankly at the ground. She would not cry in front of him, she refused to. She couldn't cry, her father would not allow it, and now he wasn't here to scold in such a fatherly manner she missed it.
"I see…" Vincent broke the silence between them.
Yuffie struck her head up in shock. Did Vincent Valentine just speak when not spoken to? No, she must be dreaming.
She looked at him and gazed through tear-brimmed eyes. She quickly looked back down knowing he seen her true emotion. He stood there staring at her and then turned to leave.
"Where will you go?" Yuffie stopped the man in his tracks.
"Is it your concern about my personal affairs, Miss Kisaragi?" Vincent deadpanned.
"Well…I was just wondering where you would be going. Are you going to fade out of existence again? It's sad that someone does that to their friends."
"I don't consider having *friends*, Yuffie. It is not my nature nor my privilege to have such trivial things."
"Trivial? You call friendship trivial? What did that whacked-up scientist do to you? Did he screw around with your emotions as well?"
"Believe what you wish, your childish opinions mean nothing to me." He muttered.
"As a matter of fact Mister Valentine they do mean something. My views and prospects on life do mean something, to me anyway, and if you actually looked to see the truth, then possibly you could actually realize what life truly is." She fumed at his back.
Vincent said nothing and left without the faintest attempt to even say farewell. Yuffie only gazed at the gunman tears lightly falling down her chalk face.
*Why must you shut everyone out like that Vincent? Why? Don't you see that I…we care for you? I guess you never will. How sad to think that all through life you'll believe that lie you've manifested around your persona. I will not let this go on further, one day you will see the truth of what life holds. I promise you my friend. * Yuffie vowed.
Fall faded into winter and then onto spring as the young ninja sat alone in her room. The ancient pagoda gave comfort to the cold rain pouring furiously outside. Yuffie was at study reading the plans to restore her homeland. The entire idea was futile and useless to even conceive of happening. She read the same line of delegations for at least the thirtieth time and yet she could not process a single syllable.
Rolling the scroll back into place she put her mug of tea to her porcelain face. The intoxicating herbs teased her nose with the scent of chamomile and ginger. Truth be told, she was not too fond of the ginseng tea her father could swallow. It almost made her sick as riding the blasted ship Cid dubbed his *baby* the Highwind!
"Miss Yuffie, a message." Shake bowed to her and handed her an envelope.
"A message? Who could it possibly be from? Certainly not from Cloud and Tifa, I just talked to them today." Yuffie whispered as she opened the yellow envelope. "What on Gaia? No, this cannot be real! I never suspected…"
"Miss Yuffie, is everything alright in there?" Staniv questioned in the doorway.
"Yeah, everything's cool, go back to what you were doing."
Yuffie needed to be alone. Solitude was most important compared to having to discuss this information. Today's events seemed to run into one another and now a new thing surged through her mind.
*Mission? What could that be? Why's is it so secret that they will not even tell me? Oh well, it's better than staying here and feeling like a useless waste of space. *
She smiled and ran to pack all of what she would indefinitely need for her journey. She needed to hurry in order to make the ferry out of Wutai. Her destination: Kalm.
Authors Note: I am redoing like the first chapters of this fic. I have read over them and noticed all of the errors and crap. Sigh. I canna believe I had so many mistakes! Ugh! It drives me insane! Oh well. I hope you enjoy the fic.