A/N: I need to write some angst. Not affiliated with any of my other fics...at all. Sorry if it sucks.

Disclaimer: All characters and places belong to Square Enix.

Honor was not a word to be taken lightly in her culture. And it wasn't necessarily about who you were, but more of what you were and the accomplishments it took for you to become greater than that you which you were born to. Even a commoner could become a hero in Wutai.

And it's queen could become a disgrace.

Godo was gone, dead now for nearly a decade. Forced into a marriage she had no say in and ruling a country she had abandoned at one point in her life, Yuffie was a disgrace to her people and her husband. She knew her father would turn his eyes from her if he was still alive. The shame of her failure, her inability to do that which all women are born to do, ate at her; consumed her day in and day out, leaving her as empty as her barren womb.

Five years now, she and her husband had tried to have a baby, all in vain. No amount of special conceiving herbs, no faithful tracking of her ovulation cycle in accordance to the moon's cycle had yielded any results. In a moment of desperation, Yuffie had even gone to visit her old comrade in arms, seducing the gunslinger into her bed. She clung to the hope that perhaps the fault didn't lie with her. Perhaps is was her husband who was sterile. But that had been over a month ago and she had still failed to conceive, despite her act of adultery.

Her prayers to the great god Leviathan seemed to fall on deaf ears, scattered about as if nothing more than meaningless leaves on a passing wind. No heir would come from her. Her father's bloodline would end with her.

No honor came to barren women in Wutai. A woman who bore a man a son saw great honor placed upon her head. Even a woman who bore nothing but female children still held a place of honor in her household, for she was the one who brought forth life. But for a woman who could not do that which she was placed on the Planet to do, she brought shame to herself and her family; disgrace to her mother, dishonor to her father and pity to her husband.

Staring into the midst of the fire's in the heart of Dao Chao's caves, Yuffie knew there was only one way to retain the last remnants of honor for herself and her family. In battle, it was better for a warrior to fall on his own sword than to be taken by the sword of his enemy. And thus for Wutai's queen, who failed to bring forth life, taking her own was seen as an honorable way to leave the world.

With a steady hand, she unsheathed the sword of her father, positioning it hilt down on the stone floor. Beads of sweat caused from the ever burning fires of Dao Chao rolled off her face, splashing against the silk of her ceremonial kimono. On her knees, head bent humbly, she took a deep breath and fell forward, the sharp Wutain steel penetrating her skin and piercing her heart, ceasing forever the flow of Kisaragi blood.

Her body was found two days later. Though the cause of death was obvious, an autopsy was performed to determine if Wutai's queen had been suffering from a terminal illness her husband had not known about. No such illness was found.

However, deep inside the barren wasteland her womb was thought to be, had been the first signs of a new life. Barely a month along, the little heart, having only just begun to beat, had been stopped when it's mother took her own life.

News of her death spread quickly, public figure that she was. The loss of her unborn child along with her own death was news worthy for several days. Her old friends were saddened at the loss of yet another of their comrades, but none seemed able to make the trek to the foreign land for the scattering of her ashes...save one.

Seen simply as a loyal friend to the late queen, the red-eyed man was asked to take part in the ceremony, releasing a portion of her remains to the winds above the oceans surrounding the island nation. Positioned on a cliff overlooking the sea, Vincent took the ceremonial urn that held his piece of Yuffie. In his mind, in this urn, was the heart of the woman he'd known. Pouring the contents into his hand, he traced a symbol into the ashes with the index finger of his other hand. The symbol in ashes, Honor, remained as the wind began to sweep the queen's remains from his palm, erasing itself only when that which surrounded it vanished into the sea.

Watching the remains of his one-time lover and their unborn child dance in the wind to the ocean, Vincent himself fell forward from the cliff to the rocky depths at it's base. His remains joined again with Yuffie's and their child's in the watery bosom of Leviathan, protected for eternity by the power of the great dragon.

For honor unattained in life can often times be found in death.

Thanks for reading.