Mystified

Reno took a sip of his beer, as he looked at his cards again. Even though he had been looking at the reflection of Rude's cards in his glasses, he was losing.

"I can't lose my payment in gambling… again." he thought, as he wished for something to happen to prevent him from losing all of his money. In that moment, Tifa came closer with another jar of beer.

"Here you go, boys." She said, as she placed the jar in the table. "And, Rude… you should take your glasses off while playing cards… you don't want Reno to cheat, right?"

Rude look at her, surprised, and took his glasses off, and shot an angry look at Reno, who smirked cockily.

As Tifa was cleaning another table, Reno saw Lilah entering the bar, quite heated.

"Lilah… is there something wrong?" Tifa asked, but Lilah lost consciousness, and fell to the floor.

Reno and his partner made haste to see what had happened to the girl, but not before Reno 'accidentally' kicked the table upside down, and of course, cleaning all evidence that he had been about to lose all his money to his friend.

Lilah opened her eyes again. They were glowing bright green, and her body started to shake heavily.

"No one will take him away from me!!" She shouted.

"Calm down, Lilah… please!" Tifa said, while trying to hold her down.

"I won't have it!!" She shouted again. Reno tried to help Tifa, but Lilah, with an amazing strength pushed him aside, and made him crash against a wall.

"What's gotten into her??" He asked, looking confused, and then stood up.

"This is not Lilah." Tifa said. "Phoenix… Go away… Leave Lilah alone."

"No!... I must do something!" She answered.

"Lilah, please… don't let Phoenix gain control!" Tifa pleaded.

Lilah screamed once again, and fainted.

Reno and Rude took Lilah to another room, and then went back to the bar, while Tifa looked after her friend.

Two whole hours past, and Lilah was still unconscious. Tifa had dialed Vincent cell phone's number several times, but there was no answer. She was going to give another try, when Lilah finally woke up.

"Hey! Take it easy!" She said, when she noticed her friend was trying to get up.

"Tifa…" Lilah muttered, and she started to cry.

She explained to Tifa as clear as she could Vincent's current situation.

"I know I should be happy for him… He had always considered his immortality as a curse… but I can't bear the fact that someday I'm going to lose him… That I'll see him die... I just can't!"

"Maybe you misunderstood something." Tifa said, trying to calm her down.

"No!… I know what I heard… I don't know what to do."

"You should go back home, Lilah, and talk to him… I'm sure this is not easy for him either!"

"You're probably right…"

"Come on… Rest some more, and then we'll ask Reno to walk you home, ok?"

Lilah nodded, and Tifa walked back to the bar.

An hour after that, Lilah and Reno were walking down the street towards Vincent's apartment.


Vincent was still a little bit shocked for the information Dr. Gavin had given him. He was not expecting something like this to happen. But, somehow, he felt relieved, as if his sins had been finally redeemed and forgotten. After walking for the streets of Edge for some hours, he entered his apartment, and sat in the armchair. The only concern in his mind was how Lilah would react when she knew he was now just a mortal man. Maybe she already knew, maybe that was the reason why she left headquarters without saying goodbye. Anyway, he decided not to mention his new condition to her, at least for now.

About thirty minutes after, he heard some keys at the main door. Lilah entered the apartment, and her eyes widened when she noticed him sitting there.

"… Sorry I left like that earlier." She muttered, hiding her face from his view.

"Don't worry" He said, and stood up. "Are you alright?" Vincent asked when he noticed something strange about her.

"Everything's ok." She said, and tried to pass him by, but he quickly grabbed her shoulder to stop her. Lilah felt a tear running down her check, and once again, went blank.

"Are you sure?"

"Don't worry, Vincent… I'm feeling perfectly well." He heard her say, and then she suddenly kissed him, pushing him backwards towards a wall. He was surprised by her behavior, but there was no doubt that he liked when she did these kind of things. Lilah ripped off the two first buttons of his shirt, and started to kiss him down his neck. Vincent was surely enjoying this, however, he felt like something was not right. She made her way back to his mouth, as she started to undo his belt. That was when he noticed a strange green glow in her eyes.

"Look at me!" He said, as he grabbed her by her shoulders again. She started to laugh, and the glow in her eyes became more intense. Vincent knew that was definitely not Lilah.

"Come on, Vincent… let's have some fun."

"What are you doing, Phoenix?"

"Taking what is mine." She whispered near his ear. This time Vincent pushed her against the wall, and grabbed her wrists above her head.

"Why are you here? What are you doing to Lilah?" Vincent practically ordered her to answer, but she just laughed once again.

"Why do you want Lilah when you can have me?" She said, and gave him a nasty grin.

"Lilah… come back!"

"I think our Lilah is having a hard time trying to come back, sweetie. Maybe I should stay here forever... that would be fun!"

"Lilah! I know you're there… Come back! You are stronger!"

Her eyes slowly returned back to normal, Vincent released her hands and caught her before she fell to the floor. He quickly took her in his arms, and left her in the couch.

"…I don't want to lose you." She muttered.

"You are not losing me, Lilah…"

"I love you, Vincent… I don't want you to die." She said, and leaned against his chest, crying. Vincent realized Lilah already knew everything.

"This… This doesn't have to change anything."

"But it does! You don't know how I feel… to know that you are going to leave me here… alone again."

"That's not true." Vincent looked at her eyes and wiped her tears away. "That was exactly how I felt when I fell in love with you, when I didn't know you were… like me."

"I'm not like you!… I should have left when I had the opportunity, you should have let me go that day…"

"… Don't say that… You sound just like me some time ago... Last night you asked me if I was happy with what we have now... Well, I am."

"Vincent…" Lilah stopped sobbing. She knew it was very hard for him to tell those kind of things to her, and when he did, he really mean it.

"And I would renounce my mortality if that would keep me by your side, Lilah… but I can't… So, please… don't make this harder."

Lilah kissed him, and cleaned her tears from her face. Then, she gave him a small smile.

"What happened to your shirt?" She asked, noticing some of the buttons were gone, and part of the cloth was thorn.

"Phoenix was… out of control for a while…"

"Did she attack you?" Lilah asked concerned.

"Not exactly…"


A couple of hours after, a girl dressed in black was walking outside that very apartment building. She seemed to be about 15 years old, her eyes were blue, and her hair was black, shoulder length, and straight, though quite messy. She sighed, and made her way inside the building, thinking if what she was about to do would really fix the problem. All she had to do was to wait for Yuffie to arrive. She walked up and down the third floor hallway a hundred times, until someone opened the door of one of the apartments, and a slightly dark cloud of smoke came from inside. Lilah left the door wide opened, as she opened all of the windows in the apartment.

"Everything's ok, Vincent… But I think we'll have to order some food again." She shouted.

The girl stood still looking at her. Obviously, Lilah noticed her standing in the corridor.

"Hi… er… can I help you?" Lilah said, but the teenager didn't answer. She just stood there looking at her.

"You ok?" Lilah asked again.

"… Sure… I'm waiting for Yuffie." She said coming out of her astonishment.

"Yuffie doesn't live in here… oh! wait a sec." Lilah entered the apartment again. "Vincent, is Yuffie coming today?"

"Yes. I forgot to tell you, she must be about to arrive." Vincent answered from inside the apartment.

"Well, it seems she's coming. Are you a friend of hers?" Lilah asked the girl, while walking towards her.

"… Well… kind of…"

"You are not very talkative, are you?" Lilah smiled at her. "My name is Lilah. Vincent and I, well, we live here… we are friends of Yuffie. Do you want to wait for her inside?"

"That's not necessary."

"Oh, come on! It's cold out here."

The girl knew that she was putting her whole mission in risk, but she couldn't help it, and followed Lilah inside the apartment.

"It's quite smelly here…I was making some dinner, but I guess something went wrong. Sit down. Yuffie must be almost here." Lilah said. The girl was a little shaky... She had already forgotten how Lilah looked, and her presence was making her nervous. "What's your name?"

"… Riley."

"Well, Riley… nice to meet you."

In that moment Vincent came out of the bathroom, his hair completely soaked, and walked into the kitchen, not before giving an unfriendly look to the girl, who was now sitting on the couch. Lilah followed him.

"Who's she?" He asked, leaning against a counter.

"Yuffie's friend, she's waiting for her." Lilah answered, and arranged some bangs that were covering part of Vincent's face. He took her by her waist, and pulled her close, looking directly into her eyes

"What?" She asked, smiling.

"You burned the dinner again." He said, pretending to be angry.

"… You know I suck at cooking. And just because you love me so much, you are going to call for a pizza, right?"

"… Alright." He said, after a couple of seconds. "But I will demand some sort of …compensation for this... maybe tonight."

"You bet you'll get your... compensation." Lilah gave her a mischievous look, and came back to the living room. He followed immediately. She took Vincent's cell phone from a coffee table, and gave it to him. "There you go… I want mushrooms and olives."

Vincent started to dial a number, and walked into the bedroom. In that very moment, someone knocked at the door.

"It's me... Yuffie!" She heard someone said from the other side.

Lilah was going to open the door, but Riley quickly jumped from her seat, and walked out of the apartment, closing the door behind her.

"Hey! Watch out!... Who are you?" Yuffie said when Riley accidentally ran at her.

"I'm sorry… I… I need your help." She said, quite nervous. She searched in one of her pockets, and then handed Yuffie a jade amulet in the form of a star. "You said that if I showed you this you would surely help me."

Yuffie took the amulet, very confused.

"Where did you get this?" Yuffie asked her, raising her voice. "This was my mother's!"

"You gave it to me before I travelled here... I know it sounds crazy but... I... I come from the future." She explained, keeping her eyes fixed in the amulet, scared of looking into the eyes of the younger version of her trainer and friend.

"What?... Who are you?" Yuffie asked her, surprised.

"My name is Riley Valentine."


A/N: I know it took me forever to update this story, but I've been quite bussy lately, and I don't have internet at home anymore, so please be patient... and review!!!