The next chapter as promised- but I would like to warn you all before you start reading. As most people have noticed my Vincent isn't your average Vincent. So I thought you all would maybe like a small little look inside his head. Therefore, the start of the chapter is in Vincent point of view. Vincent might come across like a jerk and I will tell you right now he is a jerk. But that's only because his confused and a tad bit bitter right now, he'll get better later. I'm ranting again, so I'm going to stop.
Disclaimer: I certainly don't own FFVII.
Secrets Out
None of this should be happening right now. I had half my mind telling me it wasn't happening. That this was all just one huge fucked up dream that was created to finally drive me insane. To top this damn nightmare off she was here. The one person that had been haunting my thoughts for the past six years is here. I want to kill her, after all of these years of searching for her- I want to kill her. She had no idea what she did to me, what she is still doing to me.
I caught myself looking down at her small form in my arms and then quickly looked back up before anyone noticed. The last thing I needed was for Tifa to give me another speech about declaring my nonexistent feelings. Yet, I've never seen Yuffie look so broken before. She was just limp in my arms, and if she wasn't breathing I would have been sure she was dead. It was unnerving seeing her this way, without a grin spreading her face. I despised it, all of it. However, most of all I hated the way her screaming was still ringing in my ears.
On no account have I've seen her look as scared and helpless as she had just a few minutes ago; and never in my lifetime had I felt the need to protect anyone the way I wanted to protect her at that moment. It's ironic and pathetic, seeing that I would love nothing more than to end her life.
It's not enough though, she has no clue about anything. She just doesn't understand. The way she looked at me, the panic and fear in her eyes. I would have done anything at that moment to have stopped all of her pain; anything to have just snapped the source of it into two. Yet, I couldn't leave her there screaming.
I had to protect her.
I didn't have it in me to leave her again. I couldn't let her be alone like that again. Just the thought of her screaming like that ever again... I can never let her feel anything close to that again. I will not sit back and allow these people to hurt her. I don't care what she is doing here with them- she can't ever feel that way again. She should be given a chance to explain before I let my judgment get the best of me anyway. Although, when we entered that kitchen and he was there I wondered. Hell, I'm still wondering what is going on here. She just went through all that pain and now she can tell us what the big damn secret is around here. These people should all be dead, so why are they here? Why is she with them?
"This is as far as you can go, Valentine." Sephiroth stopped at a metal door, his arms outwards as if he expected me to hand her over to him.
"I was under the impression that her 'friends could follow'." I didn't miss his smirk, and I most certainly didn't miss the desire to rip it off his face.
"You can follow all you want. However, you aren't allowed into this room. If it pleases you then you can wait for her here." I was just about to tell him what would really please me was ripping him into two pieces, when Aeris came bursting through the door in front of us.
"Yuffie!" Aeris's voice was filled with panic. "I swear I had no idea what he was doing. I would have-"
"Don't worry. I'm perfectly fine." Yuffie's voice was so weak that I my desire to kill the person responsible for this grew significantly. She was definitely not fine, not by any means.
"We have to take you to inside now. Shalua will make sure you'll be alright." Aeris looked close to tears at this point. Her eyes locked onto mine, and I know she notice the way my grip on Yuffie tightened. There was no way in hell I was about to hand her over.
"Vincent, please let us make her better." Aeris plead made me numb. It was their fault she was like this, their fault she was even here. What made her think I would willingly give her up to them without even knowing what they would be doing to her behind those doors? Yet, if they could help her…
"Maybe we should listen to them." Tifa whispered. I glanced back at her, noticing that her hands were moving nervously at her sides. She was scared, and I couldn't blame her. This was the most bizarre thing to happen to us in a while. None of us were prepared for this. We had no idea what we were even getting ourselves into right now, and I have a feeling that this isn't exactly what one would call a piece of cake.
"Why should we trust them?" Cloud's words had much more reasoning behind them than Tifa's. Why should we be trusting people that weren't even supposed to be alive? People that obviously didn't mind hurting one of their own to get what they wanted.
"It's okay, Vinnie." I glanced down at Yuffie. Her voice was still too soft for my liking. I was just about to tell her it was unquestionably not okay, that I wasn't going to allow this. But when a small smile reached her face I knew I wouldn't be able to refuse her. So I bitterly handed her over to Sephiroth.
She had to get better.
I was just about to warn Sephiroth when Cid beat me to it, "If you harm her in any way, shape, or form I will personally rip your head off."
"Don't worry, Old Man, she'll be perfectly fine." He was mocking Cid in a way I've only seen Yuffie do before, and I wasn't fond of it one bit. He was stepping on treacherous grounds and I would not hesitate to show him how dangerously close I was to slaughtering him.
Cid apparently didn't appreciate it either by the way his hands clenched in anger. "Listen you shit head, I'll-"
"Please no more fighting." Yuffie whispered, and before I could comprehend what was happening Sephiroth had taken her inside the metal doors and out of my sight. Loz and Yazoo followed Sephiroth into the room, but for some reason Aeris stayed behind.
"Don't worry; everything is going to be alright." Aeris seemed to be assuring herself as well as us. Her voice was hushed, and I found myself wondering again how she was even alive.
"What happens now?" Cloud asked. His gaze was fixed onto the doors in front of us and I wondered if he was thinking about the same thing I was. Just what was behind those doors that was so important?
"She heals up, and you get your rooms." she said clearly. "You'll have to share, though. We don't have enough rooms around Yuffie's room for each of you to get your own. I was told that I wouldn't be allowed to separate you for safety purposes. One of you can share with Yuffie too. There are five rooms so start thinking about roomies now. "
"Five? That's not so bad." Tifa was obviously trying to see the bright side of things.
"I'll take you there now. Yuffie won't be out for some time, it's pointless waiting here." Aeris walked us back to the kitchen, and while we went through it I couldn't help but glance back to the spot Yuffie was violently screaming minutes ago.
"Here we are," Aeris stopped and I took a moment to let the background sink in. The door in front of us was painted silver and the hallway here was much narrower than the ones we were previously passing to get here. "Yuffie's room is the one with the green door."
"There is only a silver door here." said Tifa looking around for another door.
"When you open it you'll see." Aeris explained, while giving Cloud some glass cards. "Everything in there is color coded."
"Um, okay?" Cloud said while glancing at cards.
"Anyway, I must be going- See ya soon." Aeris smiled sweetly before taking her leave.
Cloud went to open the door, and soon found it to be locked. He sighed and looked down at the five cards in his hands. Each card was a different color: green, silver, yellow, red, blue, and purple. They were transparent, and I had I feeling they were some sort of key. Cloud seemed to figure this out as well as he picked up the silver one and examined the door handle. It looked like a simple pull door handle and Cloud seemed to agree with me again.
"What the hell is this?" he asked while violently trying to pull the door open.
"Stop crazy- and give me that!" Tifa grabbed the card from Cloud and bent down to look at the handle more closely.
"This is ridiculous." I sighed, leaning against the wall.
"No one asked you, Vincent." Tifa said bitterly.
"Oh, wait!" Tifa took the card and pushed into the middle of the door handle. The card went through the handle and the door clicked open. Tifa pulled the handle and opened the door smirking as she did so.
"Women." Cid grunted as we all made our way through the door. Much to my surprise the room was a huge circle, and quite larger than the hallway led us to believe. In the center of the room, under an oversized carpet, there were a few sofas, a TV, and a coffee table. The rest of the floor was a white marble, and along the walls were dark wooden bookshelves that reached to the ceiling. In-between the bookshelves there were five doors: yellow, purple, blue, red and green. The handles were the same as the silver door we had just entered through.
"Dang." Marlene whispered while looking around.
"Miss. Yuffie didn't look like one who had such a love for books." Shelke commented.
"You can say that again." Barret whistled, while padding Shelke on back.
"So, who is rooming with whom? Nanaki asked.
"Cid and I can be roomies." Barret laughed, mocking the word at Aeris had previous used.
"Who the hell said that would be okay with me?" Cid smirked, as Cloud tossed them the red card.
"I call Shelke!" Marlene shouted, grabbing the purple card from Cloud.
"I can room with Reeve and Denzel when they get here." Nanaki offered.
"That's fine, I'll be rooming with Tifa." Cloud explained, as he gave Nanaki the blue card and handed Tifa the yellow one.
"So that leaves…"
"Yuffie and I." I finished, taking the green card from Cloud.
"Good luck with that Vince." Cid mocked.
"Hn."
"Yuffie, are you alright?" Shalua voice snapped me back to the world of the living.
"Yeah, I'm peachy." I replied, glaring at the silver door in front of me.
She frowned, "Well, Reeve and Denzel finally arrived here about an hour ago. However, they are all probably sleeping by now- it's quite late. You should get some sleep as well."
"Right, mother, I'll do that." I said sarcastically.
"Not funny." she smiled while handing me a pile of Key-Cards. "Here Zack changed all the locks a few days ago."
"Why?"
"Who knows? He just did."
"Of course."
Shalua turned to leave, "Bye Yuffie."
"Bye Mommy." I smirked, waving.
"Still not funny." I laughed watching her leave down the hallway. When she disappeared from my view, I turned back to the door in front of me. They were all in there, sleeping maybe, but all still in there. Okay, I could do this. I can be strong enough to do this. I mean what could go wrong, right? Totally not that big of a deal.
"Time to be a big girl, Yuffie." I whispered to myself while trying to find the silver Key-Card in the pile. After finding it, I opened the door. The room was dark, and no different from the way I left it. I heard the door behind me shut and lock itself once more.
"Hello?" I asked, walking round to find someone.
No one answered, they must have all been sleeping.
Well, that was easier than I thought it would be.
Pulling out the green Key-Card to my room, I opened my door, and walked up the few curving steps that lead to my bedroom and bathroom. When I got to the top of the stairs they turned right and left. The right side lead to my bathroom and the left to my bedroom. I turned left and followed the short hallway to my room. Everything seemed to be the same. The desk was still in the far left corner and my bed was still pushed into the other left corner. Nothing seemed to be different. So why in the world did I have this weird feeling? I ran over to my closet.
My heart sank.
The door was slightly pulled out.
Sliding it fully opened, I walked in. Looking down at the marble floor I realized that someone had been in here.
Inside my closet was a secret study, to get inside of it you had to move the last marble tile on the right. The tile would slip out and then the wall inside the closet would open to reveal the study. Shalua said that everyone was rooming with each other, this meant that my roommate had to have been the one who figured out how to open the study. After all, they had been in here long enough to have looked at just about everything.
Well, I guess there is only one way to find out.
I bent down and pulled out the tile, the wall opened, and I walked in.
It was dark as always. The room was a perfect square, the walls were one huge bookshelf, covered in my favorite books. There were two leather chairs in front of my big dark wooden desk, but that wasn't out of place either.
What was out of place was the man sitting behind my desk.
"Vincent?" I wondered.
"Yes, Yuffie?" Vincent's voice was distant. He didn't even flinch as I made my way to him. He didn't even look up from the papers he was reading to glance at me.
"Um, what are you doing?" Dang, that sounded even stupider out loud than it did in my head.
"What does it appear like I'm doing?" He completely just evaded my question.
"Why are you going through my stuff?" I asked while crossing my arms. I can play this game just as well as he can.
"Shouldn't you be somewhere else?" He had the nerve to sound annoyed as he asked me this.
"What are you talking about?" I snapped, "This is my room!"
"Unfortunately, it has become my room as well." Vincent finally moved away from the desk and walked over to me.
He was to close for my liking.
Way too close.
I took a step back, "Why didn't Tifa or Shelke room with me?"
"Shelke is currently rooming with Marlene," Vincent explained while making his way back to the bedroom. I quickly followed him making sure to place the tile back into it's corner in order to shut the study. He made his way over to the bed and as I followed I realized that I only had one bed in this room unlike my other spare rooms. This could be a problem. "As for Tifa, I'm assuming Cloud didn't want anyone else rooming with his girlfriend."
"Did you just say girlfriend?" I laughed.
"Is there something wrong with saying that?" Vincent asked moving to sit on the bed. He leaned against the wall and pulled up his right leg placing his hand on top of it.
"I guess I just never imaged you saying something like that before." I climbed onto the bed and mimicked his position.
"Hn."
I knew I had to tell him what was going on sooner or later. I couldn't keep them all in the dark forever. As much as I wanted to, I could be that selfish. They had a right to know. Besides after all the pain I just went through it would be pointless if I waited any longer to fill them in. Maybe if I told Vincent he would do me a favor and tell everyone for me. That way I wouldn't have to worry about telling everyone else and answering everything twice.
"Vincent, I'm going to tell you everything. Can you promise me something first though?" I asked playing with the bottom of my shorts.
His head turned to meet my eyes instantly, "What do you need?"
I took in a huge breathe of air thinking about how to word it to him. My mind was racing faster than I ever remembered it doing. I was close now, all I had to do was tell him. It was simple and I didn't have to complicate it by thinking too hard.
"After I tell you could you let everyone else know? I'm not sure if I could face all of them and I don't want to repeat it over and over again." I looked down after speaking, watching my hands as they continued to play with the edge of my shorts.
Please say yes, please.
"If that is what you wish then I will do it." he sighed.
My eyes moved up to met his once more.
"Thank you." I whispered, shifting my gaze back to my shorts.
The silence was painfully intense.
"It happened six years ago." I told him, not moving to glance at him.
He waited for a moment before asking, "What happened six years ago Yuffie?"
"I died," I said bitterly. "It was on that last mission we went on. Do you remember the one I'm talking about?"
He didn't answer me.
I finally glance over at him to find that his body was as stiff as a rock. He was looking at me, his eyes frozen with shock.
"Vince, it really isn't that surprising." I returned my gaze back to my hands. "Honestly pull yourself together."
Silence again.
"There was a fire in one of the old apartment building in Midgar. We were sent to look for survivors after the fire was put out. The fire department couldn't get to the top floors because of damage the stairs took." Vincent explained.
He obviously didn't forget.
"Right." I confirmed." It happened after we decided to split up; I kept going down the hallways of the building trying to find someone. The fire from the previous night had really taken a toll on the floors. I should have been more careful. Even now I wish I could redo that moment."
"One of the doors to an apartment was left opened, and I thought I would go check there for someone." I closed my eyes and exhaled. "The next thing I knew I was falling. I'm not even sure how far down I went. When I finally hit the bottom I landed on my knees and my back hit something that was behind me- I'm not really sure what it was. At that point I knew I had broken both my knees, if the bones poking out of my flesh were any indication."
"Yuffie-"
"I'm not quite sure when I figured out I broke my back as well. Probably after I realized the water I was laying in was my blood." I felt completely numb remembering the feeling of my blood pooling around me.
"Yuffie stop-"
"You know what's funny? I didn't even realize I was dying. I never even screamed out, I just waited. Waited for someone to find me."
"Yuffie please-"
"No one came though, and I don't blame them. How could have anyone have known? So, in the end the only thing that came for me was death. And I was grateful because the pain stopped."
"Yuffie!" Vincent yelled at me and I snapped back to reality.
"Sorry I'm getting off topic, aren't I?" I tried to smile but it just turned into a lopsided grin.
When I looked back at Vincent his eyes were shut, his hands balled into fists.
"Vince?"
"Yes Yuffie?" his voice was distant, almost hallow.
"You okay?" I was worried, maybe I went into too much detail. I always get kind of detached when I talk about my death.
"Yes." Vincent's eyes opened to meet mine." However, there is no way I will be able to tell everyone the details of your death."
I frowned, "As long as you tell them I died it will be okay."
Way to freak him out, Yuffie.
"Very well."
"Anyway, after I died, I didn't go into the Lifestream."
"Why not?" he wondered as I turned back to look at my hands.
"I wasn't able to leave because I was someone that the Lifestream cared for." I sighed. "The Lifestream is alive, as you know, and it apparently has favorites. Anyone that had a significant part in the future of the planet was under this, well, let say category of people."
"So these people will never die?" Vincent asked trying to wrap his mind around the information I just gave him.
"No, it isn't that simple. There has to be someone that is still living that regrets their death. Someone who wishes with everything that they are that they could change what happened." I told him.
"Then the person that had died comes back. We don't know how it happens, it just does. The weird thing is that they all come back here, that's why the castle was built here. We're not really vampires though. Zack just made a joke about it one day and it kind of just stuck. You see, we need to drink the Lifestream in order to keep ourselves sane and not go wild. However, drinking the Lifestream as painful consequents."
"Your body just starts to shut down. You can't move or talk. You just sit there, barely living. There were a few of us that could drink it and be perfectly fine, but not enough to keep us from trying other methods. After a while we found out that blood could also keep us sane and moving. See, the Lifestream is the life of the planet and blood is the life of the creatures on the planet. At least that's why we think it works the same. It doesn't matter why it works anyway." I could feel my eyes start to water, I blinked away the unwanted tears. No point in worrying about the past now. I had to tell him what was going on in the present.
"Yuffie..." He couldn't finish his sentence.
I understood.
"I know, it's a lot to take in but I have more."
I quickly moved on top of him, placing my legs around both sides of his body. As I did this I grabbed onto his shoulders and pushed him hard into the wall. He looked down at me in surprise and I pushed him harder.
"What are you doing?" He grabbed my hand to push it off but I paid him no attention. Staring straight into his eyes I pushed him even harder.
"Listen!" Vincent stopped fighting me and let go of my hand.
"There are more of us than the ones that live in this castle. Around three years ago we created a law that forbid any drinking from the Lifestream. The ones that use to take from the Lifestream without any side-effects rebelled against us because of the law. They still take from the Lifestream today and most of them have been doing it more than ever before. Drinking more than is absolutely necessary, way more. It's driving them mad Vince." I was shaking, fear ripping throughout my body.
"Why does it matter if they drink from the Lifestream and go insane?" Leviathan, he just didn't understand.
"It makes them stronger because the Lifestream is much more powerful than blood could ever be." I explained, "Besides, they are going to do something. Something really horrible. We just know it. The power has driven them crazy."
Vincent just nodded in understanding and I knew he had to be tired. I lifted myself off of him and laid down into the bed. I grabbed Vincent's sleeve giving it a small tug, he immediately knew what I wanted and laid down next to me. I gave him a small smile.
I wonder what he would say to me in the morning?
Probably that I've lost my mind as well.
"Where are they now?" he asked just as I closed my eyes to sleep.
"Who knows?" I yawned. "Let's just go to sleep Vinnie."
I felt myself drifting off, and right before I was completely gone I heard Vincent whisper to himself.
"I'm sorry I didn't come looking for you, Yuffie."
Me too, Vinnie, me too.
Ugh, I give up on trying fixing this chapter. I swear I wrote it like five times. I don't know why I don't like it. It's not like it isn't what I wanted, cause it is what I wanted. I just don't know what's wrong with it and it's driving me crazy! I'm so frustrated that I could pull out all of my hair right about now. God, I need my ice cream and Oreo's. If this keeps up I'm going to go from 119 pounds to 234 by the time summer ends. T_T
Anyway, enough about my problems. Tell me what you guys think, okay?
Till next time,
Nami