Awakening

Author's Note: Halo. Long time no see. Didn't really review over the summer, I know. I'm terrible. I'll try to get back in the habit of updating multi-chapter fanfiction. I started a side-project, and I went out of town quite frequently, so…yeah. School's starting in a week, so I suppose that's a good excuse to get back into writing. I hope that you guys like this chapter.

Summary: Yuffie wakes up. She wishes she hadn't. The truth isn't always a pleasant thing to know.

Disclaimer: Characters and all that isn't mine. Square-Enix. We know this.

Dark. So much darkness. But there are little balls of light. …Materia? I can't tell. There's nothing but the little balls of mako. This doesn't make sense. Where am I?

A bright light comes and engulfs the entire area, leaving me and the little balls of light. I don't get it. What's going on?

And then there's a pyramid. There's something weird about this pyramid, of course, but I can't really place it. It's triangular…it's in the middle of nowhere. Little indigenous people, which fits. Hm. What's the wrong piece? I keep looking at it, but I can't find anything wrong with it. Some other stuff comes into view, and I realize by the poison ivy that we're not in the desert, like most pyramids. Well, of course, the Golden Saucer took that up. But in fact, we are in the…

Forest? That doesn't make sense. But I can deal with that. I like forests. They have springs. And hot springs are very pretty. And good for swims. And stuff. Yeah.

Ooh, the entrance. I walk toward the pyramid, the little balls of light floating inside toward it. I still don't know what any of this means, nor do I know where I am, but I don't care. But…I know what's weird about this pyramid! The closer I get to it, the smaller it grows! But…that's weird! Shouldn't it be the other way around? I walk backwards a few steps, just to see whether it'll do reverse psychology on me, and it does.

Well, this makes no sense. Shrinking pyramids in the middle of the forest. How lovely.

And then, another blinding light as I finally get close enough to the pyramid before it completely shrinks.

I'm inside of it now, surrounded completely by water. Water? …That doesn't make any sense! There's not supposed ta be water IN a pyramid. D: What's going on?! And then, there's a sliver of silver. I don't know what the silver is, but I know it's really skinny. I want the silver…it's shiny. So pretty...I've never even heard of SILVER materia before!

I walk toward the silver sliver, whatever it is, and one of the balls of light, the green one, pop away somewhere. It just seems to like…fall. It's falling off the pedestal, but it's too quick for me. Besides, it's only light. It'd fade right through my hand. The other ball of light, the black one, runs right into the silver, and it gets absorbed. And the collision starts this giant earthquake.

Oh gawd! I'm in a pyramid full of water, experiencing an earthquake. I'm surely going to die. I'm sorry, Vinny, for stuff! And Wutai, I've failed you… Spiky, I'm sorry I was such a twerp. And Godo…well. You really need to apologize to me, Dad. You kinda failed me more than I failed you.

The water swooshes over me, and I'm slowly drowning. Man, I always thought I'd have a much more dramatic death than this. How gay! I can't scream; all my air is gone. My voice doesn't work, anyway. The water enters my lungs, and I feel this tightness in my chest. It hurts so much. But I can't do anything; I don't have gills. More water goes over me, and I find myself getting lower and lower, the pressure getting much higher. Gosh, I wish I'd just die. Whose sick idea was this to torture me? I hate this. Let me die, already!

The pain finally starts to dull out, and I lose my vision; I don't know whether I closed my eyes or whether it just decided to go by itself. Who knows. I realize that my hands have been tightened in a fist, and I let go. I let go…of everything. This isn't so bad…if everything just disappears. I like this feeling…no wonder Vinny likes sleeping so much. It's very comfortable. I don't think I wanna wake up.

Haha, somehow I always thought death was gonna be scary. I just knew I was gonna go to Hell; I'd end up Ifrit's slave and he'd torture me 'til the end of time. Leviathan wouldn't be able to help me a bit. But I was wrong. Total darkness. I wonder if Sephiroth experienced this, too.

Well, whatever. Sephiroth is none of my concern while I'm dead. The Grim Reaper better not wake me up and put me in some retarded spirit world! I'm finally happy. Everything's finally okay…

"Yuffie…Yuffie!" My hands are on her shoulders, trying to shake her from this. Why won't she wake up? I've never had this much trouble having her arising previously. If she finds this amusing… I surely don't. I'm almost tempted to dig my claw into her. Anything. She needs to wake up. It's been nearly a day.

I knew you liked her, Valentine.

Perhaps. But I promised myself I'd let nothing happen to her, and look at her. Another slumber.

Kind of like you, Count. Imagine if she slept like that for forty years.

…That won't happen. I'll make sure of it.

I look through my item sack and try to find something useful. I've checked her pupils multiple times; I don't think she suffered a major concussion. Wutains aren't known for high blood pressure or diabetes, so that's not the case. The case may be that she's exhausted, but surely she would've heard Barret's yell in her sleep.

I try splashing water on her face again, and she shudders. I finally let a breath release; I wasn't aware I was holding it. But she's still not awake. Why will she not arise?

I rip the cape off of me, and throw it someplace. What a burden. I lower my head to her mouth; she's still breathing, thank Leviathan. But…I don't understand this. Cloud walks over and crouches next to us, putting his hand on her forehead. I know she doesn't have a fever. Shaking his head, he returns back to his…clique, I suppose you could call it, and I growl. I only called them after I tried everything. Simply because I haven't moved around in nearly half a century doesn't mean I don't know my first aid.

Those insignificant balls of dust! I absolutely cannot tolerate those who cannot seem to have a functioning brain cell. I tense up on both the inside and out, and my hand starts to spasm. I move my fingers around, stretching them out again, before holding Yuffie by her shoulders again. Hmph. Since those peons can't seem to lend a pillow, I have to resort to this. I try to shake her awake yet again, but as usual, it doesn't work. I wish I could do more…this isn't any better than what I did to Lucretia.

I hear another voice yelling something, though I cannot place who it is, and I tense up again. Assuming it is Cid, I wave it off, but it still gets to the four beings inside of me. Another accusing voice, telling me I should've done this sooner. That I should take her to the hospital, that I can't do this myself. That I should've taken a closer exam. As the ring leader of the demons, Chaos, repeats the accusations over and over again in my head, I can't take it anymore. I lose control for one slight moment, and crack.

I see a spasm from Yuffie, and her mouth opens, like a silent scream, before going back into that dream-state. My claw has gone through clothes and skin, and I've broken and possibly dislocated her shoulder blade. I give silent apologizes over and over again, yet I know that she cannot hear me, and will not respond.

I immediately withdraw my left hand, my golden claw, from the Wutain princess, which I notice has been stained by crimson. Oh, Leviathan. I never meant for this to happen! I turn my head, repulsed by what I've done, yet I cannot neglect the fact that the child is losing precious life energy from both sides of her shoulder. I hear someone start to wretch, Barret I think, and I shudder. The area around the wound starts to turn red, to brown, to blue, to black, and even I feel the urge to purge.

She looks good, doesn't she, Vincent? Chaos gives a growl as the other three demons let out yearning growls. It's taking all of my self-control to prevent myself from transforming. The scent that she's releasing is intoxicating. Various signals in my brain are telling me to stop holding myself back; it's only demon nature. I know that I am not human, but even so…I cannot be selfish and feast upon this girl.

Shut up. The only thing I can do before I go ballistic is to heal the wound. And since everyone obviously likes to wretch their innards out, I look in my equipment for a Cure materia. It takes a while to look for it, and meanwhile Yuffie's blood is running down her chest, daring to touch me. That cannot happen. Unspeakable things may happen at that time.

Finally, as the girl's blood starts to reach my pants, staining the leather, I find the green ball of light and use the magic to heal the wound. Lime-colored glitter goes into the wounds, and skin starts forming back together, my claw marks disappearing.

…Materia. Why hadn't I thought of that sooner? I signal Aerith over and ask her for her cleansing materia. She pops it out of her rod and places it in my hand before sauntering back over to Strife and the rest of them. "Heal," I whisper, and I see a glow around Yuffie, but it does nothing. Damn. That doesn't work either.

The demons inside rejoice and wail with excitement; they weren't planning on her to awaken. I inwardly writhe at it. It's bone-chilling, and I change my glance to something from Yuffie. The terrorist-bartender obtains my sight, and I sigh.

Tifa walks over to my side, and giggles. No wonder Yuffie hates that laugh; it's entirely fake. Commercial. Something they think Cloud would like, no doubt. I'd like to crush their vocal cords. "What is so amusing about the situation, Tifa Lockhart?" I ask, with the force of five beings glaring at her. I see her shiver, and she nearly falls over, but somehow remains standing.

"Well, um. I know this sounds foolish, but maybe she needs a kiss from Prince Charming, hmm?" I automatically smack myself in the head, without a second thought. She's clearly been toying around the flower girl too much. Another laugh from her, and I have to divert my eye contact from her to prevent myself from transforming and doing something terrible. But clearly, Tifa isn't giving up with this idea. She peers over my shoulder, something I hate yet I tolerate from the young ninja. I feign an actual kiss; I lean over Kisaragi, my lips right above hers, my hand under her head, bringing her closer. I can feel her breathing against my face, and it tickles just a bit. As soon as the bartender seems satisfied enough to leave me alone, eyes spring open and lips crush against mine. My chest feels like it's going to crack open; I certainly did not want this to happen.

Well, I see the light, all right! I wasn't really looking forward to it; sleeping in the darkness was much, much better. I'm blinder than I was earlier. I guess it's 'cause I drowned, and the pressure really hurt my eyes.

But hey! How come I still can't breathe? I cough like a fish outta water, and my first reaction is to sit up. 'Cause, yanno, lung expansion and all that. Besides, lying down isn't all that fun anymore, after you've been sinking for like…a while.

But when I do happen to sit up, or attempt to, anyway (something's not letting me sit up all the way), I find something against my lips, and I'm not sure what it is, but I know that it's full of air. Delicious, fantastic, healthy air! I press my lips against it farther, more air getting into my lungs, and that terribly bright light fading away. Though, I'm not all quite happy about that. It'll probably be a terrible dream, or something.

After about a minute or so of constant air going down my throat and into my entire body, my brain finally has enough oxygen for a few brain cells to start workin'. The senses on overdrive at the moment are taste and touch, and I recognize that whatever I'm breathing tastes salty, yet sweet, and my lips are actually against other open lips. Oh gawd, I'm kissing someone! This is terrible; no one deserves Super Princess Ninja Yuffie's first kiss!

But I can't help feeling, in the back of my mind that this is amazing, and I don't wanna stop. I take another giant breath before deciding that I'm gonna stop, and either apologize or smack whoever decided to kiss me while I died. Or whatever. 'Cause I gotta be dead.

That last breath of air triggers my hearing, and the first thing I hear in Heaven is: "And that's why I smoke Camel—HOLY &#! I go outside for two minutes with Nanaki, and all of a sudden I miss the action? Why the # didn't anybody come out to get me, Spike?"

Well, oh gawd. That's Cid! And if that's the case, then I guess I never drowned. This means I never saw the random pyramid in the forest… WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON!? I WANT A REFUND. Even though that's not likely to happen, I want one!

Someone lets go of me, and I fall on the floor. Owwie! I scratch the back of my head while my vision finally starts working, and I see Vincent retreating into the back room. Was Vinnie the guy I…no way. NO WAY.

Mr. Hangman falls from the ceiling with that canned scream that plays every time he appears, and he laughs. "What's so funny? My gawd." Afterward, everyone starts laughing, Mr. T included, and then Tifa comes up to me saying, "Well, looks like Prince Charming woke up his slumbering princess. Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty!"

I don't get it, really. All I know is that Super Princess Ninja Yuffie just totally cheated death, and I wanna know who the crap I kissed, 'cause there's no way it was Vinnie. I hope it wasn't Mr. Hangman. Even if he is only a kid a couple of years older than me, that'd be gross. I'd be kissing a stranger, and…ew. That image doesn't look quite pretty! I start spitting and wiping my mouth off with the back of my hand. I hope that wasn't his air I was sucking in. I really hope it wasn't.

I have returned! 3 I really wanted to write a chapter that shows her 'secret' powers are awakening, and so if this seems like filler, I apologize. But, personally, I'm kind of proud of it. I'm going to try my best and make Vincent IC for the next chapter, because he does seem kind of OOC, and…yeah. I really don't want him to be that way.

But, um. Review button, please? Then I won't like, go fwoosh and just neglect this story. I wanna go somewhere with it, but if I don't get enough inspiration, I'll just give it up.

Thanks so much for waiting for me!