The story of

Valentine

By Quinton Sams

Darkness.

Complete darkness; except for the soft, green glow of the Lifestream.

Then a bright, white light in the distance.

Then, a voice. A soft and luring voice.

"Vincent."

I started.

"Lucrecia?"

I started to run. Faster, ever faster.

"Vincent."

"Lucrecia."

Almost there, almost to the light.

Then, a flash and the Lifestream glow turned red

And the light started to fade

"Vin-in-incent, I-I-I'm sorry."

The light faded altogether.

"Lucrecia?"

"Lucrecia!"

'LUCRECIA!'

Chapter 1

I awoke to a noise. It was a small room, with no windows. I make sure that no one can find me when I'm having the dreams. But somehow someone, or something, did. I got up, grabbing Cerberus at the same time. Slowly, I crept towards the door, loading my gun and aiming it out. Gently, ever so gently, I open the door finding myself with two Fusion Swords against my neck.

"Come on," says a familiar voice. "You got to do better than that."

"Cloud," I say. "You should knock before entering a home."

"This isn't your home, to start with. Get your stuff, we're leaving."

"Where are we going?"

He looks at me unable to keep the contempt out of his voice.

"Midgar, of course. Where else would we be going?"

I get outside, looking left and right for Cloud. He is standing some hundred yards to the left, leaning against Fenrir. "What took you so long?" he asks. I look up. "I had to grab my stuff. You learn to pack light when you live like I do." "Oh, don't worry. I know exactly how you feel." He says laughingly. I toss him my bag and get on his bike. "So why are we going to Midgar. I thought I… I mean we destroyed the Tsiviets base? I remember firing the shot that killed Weiss!" "Weiss is dead," he says. But his older brother, Phoenix the Brilliant, just revealed himself to the world yesterday." I was deep in thought by the time we stopped by Edge to pick up the rest of Team Avalanche. We roll up to Tifa's hotel. Tifa runs to Cloud; Barret, Cid, and Yuffie are talking in the corner. The only one that I look forward to talking to is Cait Sith and Reeve. We were supposed to talk at Kalm, but ironically everything evolved into chaos. Reeve looks at me and nods. We both go to a booth and order a butterbeer. "Why must we keep meeting under these occasions," Reeve jokes. "Why can't we ever have a normal conversation?" "We will, but first fill me in on Phoenix."