Meet Again
I'll miss you was the last thing she said to him. That was two months ago. It took a lot to realize what was missing; Vincent never really did know what he had until he nearly lost it forever.

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy! But I wish I did, because there would be a whole new sequel with a whole lotta Yuffentine…

Chapter 1: A Princess Lost

Don't worry, Vinnie!

That's what she had said, regardless of how very not amused he was at the nickname and not worried he appeared.

I'll be fine. I know you're going to miss me and all, but I'll be back soon.

Not that he was going to even miss her and only remotely cared when she would be back, so long as she came back in once piece.

Well, I'll be off now… make sure you take care of the house, okay? No sexy parties while I'm gone!

Because a sexy party was exactly what he was going to do, and she was far messier than he was even if he tried to live like a pig.

Pretty crappy timing on Reeve, hey? I was going to cook dinner for us tonight.

How convenient, seeing as how she was the only person he knew that could burn water and explode microwavable hot dogs.

I was gonna paint your gun pink and then try to seduce you as well, but I guess that will have to wait.

Finally she witnessed a reaction from him, which was none too happy. The disapproval on his face made her melodic laugh echo through their shared apartment.

I was just kidding, but at least I got a reaction out of the vampire.

He rolled his eyes at this.

I'll miss you!

That was the last thing she said before she swiftly wrapped her arms around his torso, nuzzling her head into his chest. While he made no move to return the gesture, she quickly pulled back. With one last smile, her eyes projecting her fleeting beauty, and she bounded out the door, travel bag on her side and shuriken hoisted on her back.

I'll miss you.

That was two months ago.

Another morning alone.

He would have scolded himself for complaining in the slightest about being 'alone'. It was here that Yuffie would have made some remark about him sleeping in a coffin for thirty years anyway.

But she wasn't here, was she?

He wasn't quite sure how long he had laid there. Vincent had never been lazy, but lately he found himself waking at the crack of dawn without the motivation to hop into the shower until it hit at least eight o'clock. When gentle vibrations derived from his slim black phone, Vincent's hand shot out and flipped it open, pressing it to his ear.

"Vincent here." he informed, his voice still deep and thick from sleep.

His boss and head of the World Regenesis Organization, Reeve, answered back. "Sorry Vincent, did I wake you up?"

"No." he lifted himself off the beg and swung his legs over the side. "Did you hear from Yuffie?"

Vincent expected Reeve to sigh as per usual when he asked this question, becoming deeper and the pause that followed longer as each day she was gone passed by. When he didn't, Vincent straightened his back as Reeve began to speak.

"Cloud found a lead," he replied. "Everyone's here at headquarters. Meet us in the top floor board room."

"The Turks? Wutai?" Vincent asked as he hurriedly got up from his spot, gathering some clothing from the closet.

"Lord Godo has instructed us to come up with a plan and send for as many ninjas as we need, and the Turks are coming as we speak."

"I'm on my way." Vincent snapped his phone shut and started for the washroom, all effects of sleep wearing off as adrenaline pumped through his body. By everyone, Reeve was referring to each AVALANCHE member - Cid, head of the air force; Barret, head of energy development; Cloud, head of the ground force, and Tifa, general of the ground force.

The same thoughts invaded Vincent's mind as he stepped into the shower, eagerly and impatiently getting ready to leave.

Two months ago, Reeve had sent Yuffie out on a mission. When she discussed it with Vincent, the easy way she spoke of the mission assured Vincent that it was nothing he had to worry about; gather intelligence about an underground team of scientists and military personnel from the old Shin-ra group and Deepground that had seemed to arise out of nowhere. Despite her constant bragging of being the world's greatest ninja, it was pretty much close to true. However, when her check-ins with Reeve were few and far between, the whole team had become worried. The whole team, as in AVALANCHE, that Reeve had successfully hired to work for the WRO.

Her last check-in spoke only of promise: "The scientists are pretty smart," she had said through radio one day. Each member of AVALANCHE was gathered in the board room, sitting at a circular table with the radio in Reeve's hands. "They seem to be designing something big, but no matter what I do, I can never find any paperwork or overhead anyone speaking to each other about anything. Everyone here has a sick sense of humour but barely speak to each other when it comes to business. Everyday there's a hand full of scientists designing weapons for their military unit, but there are a few biwigs that are doing… something…"

Yuffie sighed, her second week undercover and exhausted. "I know I'm due to return next week, but I just need to figure out more. Maybe you should send one of the Turks or a WRO soldier in to assist me. Whatever these scientists are doing, it feels wrong. Eerie. They seem to be developing energy of some sort, and we'd probably need Barret here to check for the energy readings, but they're way more powerful than mako or electricity or hydro power. It makes me wonder what they need the energy for."

"Very well, Yuffie," Reeve responded through the radio in hushed tones. "We'll send in a soldier and I'll call you when and where to meet them. You and the soldier are still due to come back on the assigned date, is that clear?"

"Yes, Dad."

Reeve chuckled.

"I bet Vincent isn't even there." Yuffie proceeded to rant. "You guys all better tell him when I get back I'm gonna kick his ass for letting his phone go to voicemail all the time! Oh, and if he isn't at my welcome back party - cough wink nudge -" she said everything quickly. "You better REALLY let him know I'm gonna whup his sorry vampire ass!"

"I'm right here, Yuffie."

"Oh."

And everyone began to laugh.

But laughs and smiles were the last thing on anyone's mind when a week and a half later, the soldier that had been assigned to assist Yuffie came back in a body bag, courtesy of whatever organization Yuffie had been checking out.

That's when Yuffie stopped answering her phone - then within a day, her signal had disappeared. She didn't respond to any messages she received through the emergency headset that was usually stuck in her ear.

That was a month ago.

With his trusty red cloak floating at his feet, it appeared as if Vincent truly was flying up the stairs into WRO headquarters. The elevator could not move fast enough against gravity for Vincent, but as it finally arrived on floor 31, he stepped out and composed himself. Striding into the board room, he noticed everyone was wrapped in a worried silence. Everyone was there, including Nanaki, who sat on the floor in the corner, his head resting in his paws.

Everyone turned their heads up to Vincent as he pushed open the door, an array of emotions on each person's face.

"Well fuck, that was quick." Cid broke the silence.

Vincent nodded. "Hello to you as well, Cid."

Reeve, who had been sitting at the head of the table, swivelled in his chair, turning his attention away from the lush surroundings that had become Edge and to the table. Vincent swiftly walked over to his seat, two down and on the left from Reeve.

A moment after Vincent sat down, the door opened again and in walked Rufus, the Turks closely behind him. Everyone nodded in greeting but said nothing as the former president sat down in the seat next to Reeve and across from Cloud, whilst the Turks hovered around the table.

"Talk about tension." Reno finally whispered, earning a chuckle from most around the table. Smirking proudly, he shoved his hands in his pocket and turned his attention to Reeve.

"Now that everyone's here, we can get down to business." Reeve announced, clasping his hands together. Yuffie's disappearance had definitely taken a toll on the man, as well as everyone else, marked by the dark circles under his eyes.

Cloud, on the right of Reeve, spoke up. "As you all know, when Yuffie went to infiltrate and gather intelligence on this… organization, now dubbed Shin-ground," someone in the room chuckled at this. "we couldn't locate their base after we lost contact with them. But the locals, they heard stuff. Shin-ground is almost… nomadic. They never stay in one place for too long."

Cid huffed. "They don't stay in one fuckin' place for the same amount of time either. They'll leave their fucking remains after two days, ten days, twenty days…"

"The guys in intelligence said there's no possible pattern of how many days they choose to stay." Cloud agreed. "But the remains of this last base - just outside of Gongaga - were destroyed last night and I watched it with my own eyes."

Tifa gasped, her hand coming up to cover her mouth. "But how did you even see them? They've been known to destroy a base and come up with a new one without anyone seeing, and barely anyone hearing." Her wine eyes widened with worry, still thinking about the ninja.

Cloud shook his head. "I guess they just weren't careful this time. I overheard a couple of kids - they looked like rookies - talking about how they can finally head to headquarters."

Nanaki shook his head slightly, still resting in his powerful paws. "Yuffie herself said the base is nomadic as well, since it was she would had been following them. How can there be a mother base?"

Clearing his throat, Reeve said, "Yeah, but she also noted that no one in the base ever speaks about anything business related, merely sticking to jokes. And when they sent back the body bag with our soldier in it... right to our doorstep... It was as if they…" Reeve swallowed.

"It was if they knew the WRO was watching them." Vincent muttered darkly. "They knew Yuffie was watching them."

Silence fell over the room again.

"That's not all." Cloud said just above a whisper. "I think… I think I saw Yuffie."

At once, the room erupted into yelling and arguments.

The screams and yelling - mostly from Cid, Barret and Reno - were barely heard by the gunslinger, who sat still in his chair. Stiffening, he unconsciously reached out to scratch the table with his claw, crimson eyes glazing over slightly.

"Well what in the hell are we waiting for?" Barret yelled over everyone elses cries, rising from his chair slightly. "Why aren't we going in after her?"

Reeve regained his composure and sat up straight, raising his chin. "Cloud, what do you mean by you think you saw her…"

"What I mean, is I think I saw her." Cloud said simply. "There was a bag over her head… and she was naked. Her arms and hands were bound tightly behind her, and her feet were shackled…." he looked sick to his stomach and the sadness of the sight pressed into his chest. "Yet they made her walk without any shoes through the dirt and into an armoured car."

Silenced enveloped the room, until a loud smash came from Vincent's side of the table, where he had crushed part of the table with his human fist, eyes wild with anger.

"Vince…" Tifa reached over and placed a hand on his forearm. His eyes snapped to her in apology and Reeve cleared his throat.

"We need a plan first," he said slowly. Then he looked over to the blonde next to him. "Take it away, General."

Mako-blue eyes looked up from the spot he had been staring at for the last few minutes. Thinking about Yuffie in danger or hurt twisted his insides up like a ribbon. "Well, I think I speak for everyone in this room when I say this mission won't call for extraneous help." Cloud eyed the Turks.

"Easy, Strife," Rufus warned. "Reeve?"

Reeve furrowed his brow. "I don't want anyone to throw a tantrum," he said. "and it's not official yet. But the Turks are a division of the WRO."

"TURKS?" Cid sputtered out. "Since when did we need to do any dirty work that involved Turks, anyway?" he cursed.

Tseng raised his chin indignantly. "You would be surprised, Highwind."

Cloud slapped his hand on the table gently, earning everyone's attention back. "That's not the point. I meant WRO soldiers, anyway. I also don't see an immediate need for the ninja in Wutai, however we will inform Godo of our plans."

Childishly, Reno made a stinky face at Cid, who flipped the bird at him in response.

"Yuffie has been gone for two months already!" Cloud said, exasperated.

Tifa narrowed her eyes in thought. "So what should we do? Infiltrate their new base, guns blazing, or do this as secretly as possible?"

Barret grabbed his gun-arm, no doubt about to go off about his gun blazing. Vincent put a hand on the larger man's arm, pushing him back down in his seat.

"We know not of their intentions for Yuffie or their power." Vincent spoke logically. "What we do know is that they have Yuffie prisoner and I - we - need her back. We should do this as swiftly and secretly as possible."

Everyone murmured in agreement, and finally began formulating a plan.

When Vincent arrived home, it was dark. Opening the door to the empty apartment, he flicked the lights on and noticed a dirty dish still in the sink. Make sure you take care of the house, okay?

Never had Vincent felt this worried over anything, the way he felt this month. Even as they proceeded into battle with Bahamut SIN, he didn't feel nervous.

Why was he getting such a bad feeling about this… about Yuffie… about everything?

He glanced at the clock, the numbers 5:52 burning a red hole in the black clock. He had one hour to gather his things, prepare for battle and meet up with everyone at the Seventh Heaven.

Sitting down on the bed, Vincent's eyes glanced to the phone he had thrown onto his bed. He picked it up and dialled, ignoring the insistent ringing of a home phone filling the apartment.

Hi there! You have reached the sexy ninja Yuffie and the vamp, Vinnie-boy! I'm probably busy dying his cloak baby blue, and he's probably sitting on his bed being emo-master, so leave a message, kay? We'll get back to you one day!

The message she recorded on the answering machine ended with her cackling, and Vincent suddenly realized just as she said two months ago - he missed her presence. Her voice filled his ears and the apartment alike, and with a new determination that flickered in his scarlet eyes, he prepared for what would be the longest night of his life. He would get the princess back no matter what it took.

I guess there's a lot that happened in this chapter. I thought about separating the beginning to make a prologue, but I didn't think I'd garner much interest. I hope you enjoyed it, please leave me some love! (REVIEW!) Please :]

Oh, and trust me, it's gonna get iiiiinteeeresting…