A New Light

A/N: I do not own FF7. I decided what if you didn't unlock Yuffie and Vincent from the game, would they still meet each other? This is set 2 years after Meteor. I'm using Yuffie's look from Advent Children, even though the events don't happen in this story. Only reason why I'm using it is because she looks more mature. I'm not sure if I'm going to bring in Cloud and them in later chapters, but I might. I'm sorry for any OOCness.

Faster

I'm running as fast as I can!!!

Faster!

Dang it, I am!

Faster, or your life.

Don't you think I know that???

Faster

Dang it!!

A town...

I know... Wait a town!

Go towards it.

Don't have to tell me twice!!!

Cobble stone clicked with feet. Long pale yellow boots hit the ground, their white shoelaces hitting the boots and occasionally hitting their owner's knee. The owner huffed as they ran through the town. The sun was beginning to set, so there were not many people out about the town. The ones out though, gave the person a strange look. The stranger was an eighteen year old female. Her bright eyes held terror in them. On her back was a weird looking weapon, one that many people of the town never had seen before. The girl looked over her shoulder, breathing heavily. No one was following her, at least anyone she could see. That didn't help.

She jumped over a fence and stopped. In front of her was a huge mansion. She wrinkled her brow. It looked deserted. She looked behind her. She didn't see anyone, but she felt someone... More than one someone following her. She bit her lip and looked back at the mansion. It looked a little scary...

Dang it Yuffie... Don't chicken out now. Yuffie took a huge breath and ran towards the Mansion. She grabbed the handles to the door and pulled it open. It was heavy and dust greeted her nose. She didn't have enough time to sneeze for she dashed into the mansion, pulling the doors closed. She had to find somewhere to hide. They couldn't find her. If they found her, she could be dead. Or worse, captured. She began to run. There were so many rooms. She had an eerie feeling about the mansion. She could hear the doors of the mansion open and she gasped. They were onto her. She began to run again but soon met the floor, her foot hitting a step she didn't see and made her fall onto the ground. She heard something behind her and saw a monster.

"I don't have time for you!" she said, throwing her weapon at the creature. The creature died with one hit and Yuffie was on her way again.

The mansion was cold and dreary. She hated this feeling. She looked around, breathing deeply. She had to find somewhere to go, just to lose them. The rooms she had seen had no secret passage or hiding places so that wouldn't help her in her situation at all. Yuffie ran up the staircase, trying not to fall through some of the rotten boards. She came to a halt at the top. There was a balcony in front of her and a decision to go right or left. Yuffie bit her lip. She didn't have TIME to think. She hopped on one foot to the other and finally went right. She ran, inspecting the rooms and trying to figure out what to do. Nothing. She finally came to a dead end. She hit her hand upon the wall and her ear twitched. She hit the wall again and notices that it gave a hollow sound, a sound that no wall should make. Her eyes lit up. A secret passage! She kept hitting the wall, quietly so that she wouldn't give her position away. Unfortunately, a door didn't appear and she was still stuck where she was.

"I don't have time for this." she hissed. She jumped up and gave the wall a nice hard kick. She heard something go tink and a door swung open. Yuffie did a victory dance in her head as she ran into the hidden room. She almost lost her balance once she noticed it was a long, spiral staircase that leads downwards. She held a creepy feeling inside her belly, but when she heard a cry of a monster, she knew that the people following her were close on her tail. She held her breath and began to run down the stairs.

Running down the stairs was not a good idea. Yuffie hated being up in high places and going from a high place to a low place, fast, decided to upset her stomach and her head. Once she felt solid stone underneath her feet, she almost collapsed to the floor. She shook it off though; she knew she couldn't slow down. She caught her breath and looked in front of her. A long corridor stretched on for what seemed like ages. From the looks of it, it seemed like it had been abandoned long ago. This intrigued her. Why had such a mansion been abandoned? It seemed like it would have been a lovely place to live.

She found herself walking down the corridor slowly instead of being rushed. Just being down there made her forget that she was being followed. Her hand touched and trailed across the stone walls as she walked. It smelled... haunted. She could tell there were secrets in the walls. The entire corridor held a secret that Yuffie wanted to figure out.

She wasn't snapped out of her serenity until she heard something hit hard on the stairs. She then remembered why she was in the mansion in the first place and grabbed at the first door that she had seen from her position in the corridor. The door was locked. She grumbled, and kicked it, and forced her way into the room. She shut the door and looked around. It was a strange room. For one thing, there was, to her surprise, a coffin in the middle of the room. This made her gasp. Why was there a coffin down in the basement of the mansion? She approached it carefully. She could hear footsteps. Maybe it was empty? No one would leave a dead body down there in a coffin. Besides, the room smelled moldy and old if anything, no rotten flesh smells at all. It would make a great hiding place. She grabbed the top of the coffin and yanked it off. She let out a scream and fell backwards. There was a body in that coffin! She scrambled to her feet and looked at the body again. The person had long, black hair and was dressed in black and red garments. The thing that struck her the most though, was the person's left arm. It was a claw, not a human arm.

"Oh... my god..."she whispered. The person intrigued her, but also scared her. Why was there a body down here?

Yuffie stood next to the coffin, a look of amazement in her eyes. He was so still, so peaceful, so... dark. Yuffie stood next to the coffin and lightly placed her hands upon the edge of the pine box. Her eyes looked at the man. She felt sorrow fill her body. He was down there, all alone. Who would bury a man in a mansion? Well, bury wasn't the right word. Abandon would be a better choice of words. This confused her though. Nothing in the room seemed to have been disturbed in such a long time and the mansion was dusty and held no footsteps. How could this be if the man in question still looked like they were alive? What drew Yuffie to this man, more than anything, was his peaceful looking face. It was pale and screamed for her to touch it. She slowly raised her hand but when she noticed that he moved, she jumped back, trying not to scream. The body had just moved!

"Well, well, well..." said a voice and Yuffie turned around. She gasped. There stood two men, dressed in black; a black mask covered the lower part of their faces. The two looked similar, both had brown hair but their eyes were different. One had green eyes and the other had blue.

"So glad you screamed, you led us right to you." said the blue eyed one. Yuffie could tell that he was smiling, his mask moved after he had finished talking. Yuffie's hand went to her Conformer.

"Well, you want a doggie treat for catching up with me? So sorry I don't care for the bitch's attitude, I'm more of a cat person myself" spat Yuffie, sending her Conformer at the blue eyed man. He jumped and she caught her Conformer. She sensed him behind her, and her leg went back and connected with his jaw. She twirled around and grabbed his arm. She twisted it behind his back and grabbed his head. She pushed it forward and hit it on the wall. The man went limp and fell to the ground. She kicked him and put her hands on her hips.

"Stupid as..." but before she could finish, she felt a hand upon her shoulder. She looked and noticed that the green eyed man had decided to jump in after the take down of his partner.

"Don't forget about me." he said.

"Don't worry, I didn't." Yuffie said, taking her hand and jabbing it towards his face. It connected with his nose and he let go of her. Before she could do anything else, she was paying the cold ground a visit. She didn't know what had happened but he had managed to put her on the ground. She felt him grip her arms tightly and she felt them start to go numb. She began to wiggle.

"Let me go!!" she cried. She began to panic. Had they finally captured her? Why did they want her? Her chest began to heave.

"Please, let me go!!!" she cried. She felt a tear go down her cheek as she felt her body being pulled back.

The next thing that Yuffie knew was that there was a loud shot and something warm was upon her back. She let out a scream and began to tremble. What was that loud noise and why was her shoulder so warm? The hands that were holding her loosen and soon were gone. She heard a thump. She turned around and noticed that the person who once held her was dead. She was confused.

"How did..." she said softly but then stopped in her thought. She slowly turned around and saw a pair of unnatural red eyes looking into her bright ones. She wanted to scream but she thought that it would be incredibly rude.

She did it anyway.

After her short scream she noticed that his eyes were not leaving hers. She felt herself pressing her back against the wall. She studied him as he studied her. He was wild looking. Wild might have been a light word, but she had never seen a man look like him. His hair was crazy. She figured that it might have been short once, but being in the coffin possibly made it grow longer than he wanted. The claw of his, it glittered in the dim light. She was curious on how he got it.

The man stared at Yuffie. He felt adrenaline rush through his body, something that had not happened in so long. He had awoke to cries of a female and noticed that his coffin had been opened. When he saw that she had been caught, he had no other choice. Females should not be fighting and should never be handled roughly. When she turned around to look at him he saw fear in her eyes. A look of fear he had seen before, long ago before he had been confined to his coffin. Her eyes stared at him, scared but also curious. She was young and this surprised him. He had noticed the man she had killed slumped on the floor. She was young and had killed a man. He didn't understand the situation, and didn't feel like understanding it.

Yuffie began to open her mouth to say something but he beat her to it.

"Go away." he said. Yuffie was astonished.

"Wah... what?" was all she could say. His voice was... deep but not scary. It was a little gentle, something that didn't go with his looks at all.

"You heard me... leave me in peace." Yuffie's fear was gone now and she put her hands upon her hips.

"Wait a second. I was about to tell you thank you for saving my life but you decide to cut me off and tell me to go away? That's pretty rude." she said. She scrunched up her nose, her eyes glaring at him.

"And it is rude to wake someone from their sleep with screams." said the man. Yuffie opened her mouth.

"They want to kill me!" she squeaked.

"How do you know this?" The man seemed to be getting agitated; his claw was beginning to twitch.

"I... don't. They are after me though!! I didn't take anything from them either! I have never seen them before in my life!" Yuffie pleaded.

"Just leave me. I must repent for my sins.." he said and sat back down into the coffin. Yuffie advanced upon him.

"You can't! You gotta help me! Help me get out of this mansion! There are more than two, I know it! I felt more follow me here into this town..." Yuffie was a bit scared. She was right, she knew there were more people but they had yet to come down after her. This scared her a bit. She didn't understand at all.

"Please, go." he said as he lay down.

"Dang it! You can't do this to me!!!" she cried, stomping her foot. She stopped and sniffed the air. The man glanced up at the girl.

"Do you smell that?" she asked, turning and heading towards the doorway. The man sniffed the air and his eye brows twitched. He swiftly made his way to Yuffie's side. His legs were a bit wobbly because of being inactive for so long.

Yuffie stood in the corridor, her nose sniffing the air.

"This is a familiar smell..." she said softly. Something in her stomach made her feel wheezy. This didn't seem good.

"Smoke..." said the man. Yuffie turned around.

"What do you mean smoke? As in, smoke from a fire? I didn't smell it earlier... Does that mean..."

"Someone set the mansion on fire." his response held nothing within its words, it was just that. Words. Yuffie began to get worried.

"But... that means... this mansion will burn down! You have to help me get out of here!" she cried.

"Just leave before you get hurt." he said. Something was in his eyes and she was curious about it.

"How do I get out?" she asked.

"The staircase, the same one you came down." he said. Yuffie was a bit concerned about that answer but turn and ran towards the stairs anyway. The man stood and watched as she ran to the base of the staircase.

Yuffie began to ascend the stairs when she looked up and let out a cry. The staircase was on fire. She couldn't get through that, and she had no water or ice materia on her and she cursed under her breath. She couldn't go that way. She ran back towards the man, who had disappeared. She ran back into the room, just as he was grabbing the top to his coffin.

"Help!" she squeaked. He looked back at her.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"The stairwell! It's all on fire and its coming fast. Please, help me!" she cried. The man looked to the side.

"I am destined to die here in this Mansion... let me be..." he said quietly. Yuffie's heart began to beat fast. She ran to the coffin and knelt before it. Her hands gripped the coffin and she looked up at the man.

"Please." she said quietly. A flicker of light caught Yuffie off guard and she turned around. The fire had reached the room and was starting to catch everything on fire. Smoke began to fill the room, making the ninja cough. Yuffie closed her eyes and covered her mouth but she couldn't help but cough. The man looked at Yuffie. Her face was beginning to go pale and her coughs began to get louder. The man closed his eyes and sighed. He couldn't let this girl die here, he just couldn't. That would be one more sin he would have to live with and he couldn't handle the thought. He jumped out of his coffin and grabbed Yuffie's arm with his human hand.

"Follow me," was all he said. Yuffie was about to open her mouth but she coughed instead. She decided to do something she rarely did: shut up and follow.

Yuffie stumbled over her feet as the man pulled her from the room and down the hallway as quick as he could, the fire slowly following them. He ran into the library and began to look around. He knew there was a passage here somewhere. He went to the far corner and let his claw linger upon the books. Finally he found the one, and pulled it out. The case of books began to move and suddenly there was a path in front of them. Yuffie was going to cheer but felt herself jerked into the cold escape path. She could tell that it hadn't been used in a long time. The walls were filled with spider webs and the air smelled dry, not fresh at all. She crawled as fast as she could behind the man, the tunnel getting smaller and smaller. She was getting cramped by the tunnel but could imagine how the man in front of her felt, he was bigger than her. Finally she saw a little glimmer of light as the man pushed hard at the end of the tunnel and whatever was blocking the exit opened. The man crawled out and helped her. She fell to the ground and began to cough. She took in deep breaths of the fresh air and looked up at the man.

"Thank you." she said, her voice a lot raspier than she would have liked. The red eyes of the man looked at her then back up at the mansion. Sorrow seemed to fill his eyes but it was soon gone. Yuffie bit her lip and stood up. She turned around and looked at the burning mansion. His home was destroyed.

Yuffie glanced at the man then back at the mansion. It was her fault that it had been destroyed. She felt sorry for that, sorry for ruining what seemed like his final resting place. How long had he been down there? Did he not need food or water like everyone? She began to play with her hands. How would she make it up to him? She began to think and then something hit her. She slowly approached the man and looked up at him.

"You should come with me." she said. She smiled at her suggestion. How could the man refuse her offer? He was now homeless and from the looks of it, seemed to not know what day or even what year it was. It seemed like such a weird suggestion, especially since they had known each other for less than an hour, but it just felt right to Yuffie. She was so curious about him. Why had he been in that coffin when she found him? She wanted to know more about the man and she also wanted someone to go with her. He looked at her and her mind froze.

"No. I'm going back. It's my destiny to live forever in there, and if it is to burn then I shall burn with it." said the man and he began to walk to the entrance. Yuffie grabbed his arm and shuddered a bit when it brushed some of his claw.

"No. Come with me! You can help me back to my home and I'll tell them that you helped me all the way back and my dad will be so happy he'll give you money! Then you can go find yourself a nice house!" cooed Yuffie. The man just glared at her.

"Why would I do that?" he asked. A pout spread across Yuffie's lips.

"Hey! Do you know who you are talking to buddy?!" scolded Yuffie, her chest beginning to puff up. She hated to be treated like a kid. She wasn't a kid anymore! She was an adult!

"A little girl?" he said emotionless. Yuffie's mouth opened. Before she could yell at him, she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. She grabbed her Conformer and gave it a mighty throw in the direction of the movement. She heard a thud and felt the Conformer come in contact with her hand. She looked back at the man in front of her.

"You need to come with me!" she said. The man looked away from her.

"It is my destiny to die alone." he said. With that he turned around and began to walk from Yuffie. The ninja scrunched up her nose and grabbed the man's arm once again, her grip tighter than before.

"Destiny? Screw destiny. You make your own destiny. If someone told you that you were suppose to die in a mansion, you tell them that you make your own decisions. Your own decisions make your destiny, not someone else." said Yuffie. The man looked back at her but before he could say anything something pierced his shoulder, making his body jerk and pain to go through his body. The man lost his balance a little but he pulled his arm away from Yuffie and his eyes darted to a spot upon a house. Yuffie looked where the shot came from and her mouth opened.

"Crap." she said.

There upon the roof stood a man. Yuffie knew this man quite well. How could you forget someone with red hair and glass green eyes? Yuffie knew that she couldn't. It was the man, the same man that had been following her the entire time. Yuffie's heart began to race. They had to lose him; they had to throw him off of them. Yuffie looked at her new companion and noticed that he had taken out his own gun. She watched as he fired at the red headed man but miss. The dark haired man growled to himself as he shot again and again, always missing the other by seconds.

This man is agile. That or I am out of practice... He felt a hand upon his shoulder and he looked back.

"We have to run," said Yuffie. "This guy has been chasing me from the start. I can lose him for a day but he always finds me again." said Yuffie. She heard a shot and pushed away from her companion. She looked back at the house but did not see the red head man anywhere. This was starting to bug her. She looked at the dark haired man. "Please." was all she said before she jumped from a bullet. She saw that his crimson eyes seemed to agree and off the two of them went.

Nibelheim was a nice size town, but if you didn't know where you were going you could get confused. Yuffie was happy to be following the mysterious man she had found in the basement of the mansion. People were looking out their windows at the burning thing, people already trying to help put out the flames. This made Yuffie happy, giving them some shelter from the man following her.

The man looked around, his crimson eyes finding an alley and running towards it. Yuffie tried to keep up, but was starting to get tired. She could feel herself starting to break down a bit. She had been running for so long she was surprised that she had yet to collapse and stay down. Yuffie was pulled from her thoughts when she felt something cold encircle her bare midsection and felt herself leaving the ground. The man had wrapped his left arm around her and jumped up to catch a second floor windowsill. He hoisted them up into the dark room. There was nobody there, which he expected for they were all out trying to put out the large fire. He pulled Yuffie into the shadows, slinking his cape around them, holding Yuffie close to him.

Yuffie's heart began to race. Why were they hiding? They should keep going. This was something she never would have done, and that might be the reason she was always running. She felt the man's grip on her get tighter when the red head man entered the room from the window. His green eyes looked about the room. There was no emotion upon his face as he looked around. Yuffie was scared that they would be seen but was surprised when the red headed man exited the room. The dark man didn't budge, and neither did Yuffie.

What seemed like hours, the man finally let go of Yuffie. Yuffie sank to the ground, her adrenalin gone and her legs sore. Her heart felt like it wanted to pop out of her chest as she fell onto her back on the ground. The man watched as the young ninja caught her breath. He winched when he felt his arm begin to throb and noticed where he had been shot. Yuffie felt his stiffness and looked up at him. He touched his right shoulder and flinched just a bit. Yuffie scrambled to her feet and was at his shoulder. He watched as she touched it gently, shooing away his claw.

"I can fix it." she said.

"Don't bother," said the man. Yuffie glared up at him and he glared back.

"I'm going to heal your shoulder and you will say thank you." she said as she pulled out her cure materia. The spot glowed green for a few seconds and was as good as new. She stepped back and smiled at him. He touched his shoulder gently and then looked back at the young girl.

"Thank you." he said.

"No problem!" chirped Yuffie. "By the way, what is your name?" asked Yuffie. The man looked at her and debated on whether or not he should tell her his name.

"Vincent... Vincent Valentine." Yuffie smiled.

"Hi Vincent! I'm Yuffie Kisaragi." Yuffie stuck out her hand. Vincent shook it gently, thinking about her last name. Kisaragi...

"You should come with me! I would say its lonely out by yourself, but I've been doing this for four years and it's not that bad!" explained Yuffie, putting her hands behind her back, rocking back and forth. Vincent looked at her. Four years... Vincent's eyes glanced around the room and fell upon a calendar. Reading the date he did the math in his head and glanced at the ground. He had been in that coffin for a long time. He was snapped out of his thoughts when he noticed that Yuffie was still talking. "... those guys really do suck; they have been chasing me the past week!"

"I'm not going with you." Yuffie looked at Vincent.

"Oh, come on Vincent! If you come back with me to Wutai, my father will give you enough gil so you can go out and find yourself a nice place! Maybe as nice as that mansion!" cooed Yuffie. Vincent looked at her. Wutai...

"No." he said. Yuffie made a face.

"Don't tell me you think you should stick around here. Look Vince, I don't think Nibelheim will take too kindly to a vampire walking around."

"I'm not a vampire..." growled Vincent. "I'm a monster; no one would take kindly to me." Yuffie made a noise which seemed like a laugh and Vincent turned to her. "What is so funny?"

"You, a monster? Well, if you are then you sure aren't on the outside. A vampire, yes, monster, no. Just, come on. At least go with me so you can get some money to help you get back on your feet. See the world! It's a beautiful place; I've been all over it in the last four years. It's exciting. Also, maybe your destiny is going to be more exciting than what you thought. Come on, what do you say?" Yuffie looked at Vincent. Vincent just looked at her. He gave a small sigh.

"I guess I could." he said. What Yuffie didn't know was that he didn't agree to go with her because of the money, he could care less. What he wanted to know was how she fit in at Wutai. He hadn't been to Wutai since... well... a very long time and hearing the name again made him want to go back. He had almost drowned out the cheers of Yuffie until he felt his hand being pulled.

"Okay Vinnie! Before we head to Wutai we have to go back to the inn where all my stuff is at. I didn't have time to grab it before I had been run out of the town by that red headed man." explained Yuffie. Vincent pulled his hand from Yuffie's and shuttered a bit on the inside at the name that Yuffie had called him.

"Where is your stuff?" he asked, as he grabbed Yuffie and jumped out the window.

"Costa Del Sol."