Disclaimer: Sony and SquareSoft's FF7 characters were used in this story for non-profitable entertainment purposes. No infringement intended.

Hope is slipping from my hands, I only wish to die
I've given up on everything and ceased to try
All but bitterness has been stripped from the heart
My soul has turned black and the world has gone dark
Tremors and fears felt at every sight seen,
Scared of what will come and those that once had been,
I'm deep in this tunnel, and I've lost sight of the light
The day has disappeared, swallowed by the night...
What more is left in this world but deceit and failure?
Disappointments and pains I have long endured?
My soul is black and the world is now dimming...
Just when the light has entered, the darkness finally lifting...
-Black Soul, Dark World

Act Eight
Where the walls have ears

She knew he was really looking for a reason to get rid of her, but that didn't anger her even the slightest bit. She hated this place; he was right, though, that to be trapped here was like being in hell itself. Only, this hell had an ice-cold black flame instead of the scorching red inferno she had envisioned before.

She had spent only a short time in this manor, but already, she wanted out. His suggestion seemed like the perfect plan; there was only one problem...

"I don't have a home." His hard eyes lighted on her again, and as usual, not even a shadow of an emotion was present in them. She was about to open her mouth and say more when all the candles in the room flickered, before their flames fully gave out. Darkness enveloped the two once again.

She felt something cold moving in the emptiness around her and she almost screamed. The only reply was the sound of smooth baritone laughter in her ears.

"Young one, I've had enough of these childish games of yours!" This was the first time she heard Vincent raise his voice. A gust of wind blew, laying a hand on Tifa's skin with its icy touch and somehow giving back the candles' light. She gasped.

A handsome young man, with long hair so light it was almost white, was standing in front of her, taking Vincent's place. He had one of her hands in one of his, and what surprised her was that she never realized he was holding it if she had not seen him doing so. Like the complexions of the other inhabitants of this house, his paleness contrasted with the darkness in the background. And the smile on his face... failed to touch his eyes.

"I have travelled the continents, but I have yet to meet a maiden as lovely as you, my little lady..." he continued gazing into her eyes and she could only redden at the praise and the attention she was given. "I believe we haven't met formally...?"

"She is my guest." Vincent spoke up, and Tifa would have forgotten his presence had he not chosen that exact moment to say anything.

The anonymous man's brows raised slightly. "A visitor. Oh I see, and I believe I am beginning to understand your rudeness much earlier... But Vincent, any hospitable and righteous host would not just leave his guest running around in his house when he himself knows it is particularly unsafe for her."

"Yes, but I had business to attend to. I shall make sure it does not happen again." Vincent levelled Tifa with a glare, and she very well knew what that look meant. She tried to pull her hand free from the other man's grasp but he held unto her tighter.

"My, my! Have you forgotten your manners, Vincent?" The stranger shook his head. "Since our friend here has no intention of introducing the two of us, my name is Sephiroth-"

"It is not her obligation to tell you hers." Vincent interrupted the light haired one, who coolly stared back.

"Ah, but I was not talking to you."

"She would not be staying for long." Vincent stepped forward, eyes narrowing into slits. He grabbed Tifa's other arm and pulled her behind him as if to shield her from the man. "Now, be off."

Sephiroth stood there as if rooted to the same spot, a smirk forming on his lips. "I overheard what she said earlier. She does not have a home, she does not have anywhere else to go back to... If you are not willing to let her stay with you, she is more than welcome to live with me in my abode-"

"And let her sell her soul to the devil?" Vincent's usually cool eyes blazed, true to their scarlet colour. "Why, even-"

"Tifa." Before any one of the two could accept the other's challenge for a fight, Tifa decided to give Sephiroth what he had been asking for. She didn't understand why Vincent was making such a big deal out of it.

"Lady Tifa... I have a feeling this wouldn't be the last time we would meet..." He smiled at her and this time, the corners of her mouth curled into a smile as well. With that, he turned and disappeared out the door.

"I am most certain this would not be the last time you will encounter him." Vincent said as soon as the two of them were alone in the room. If he had been even the slightest bit angry at her, once again, he was able to conceal it well.

She watched him closely, hoping to see any slip that would give her an idea precisely what he was speaking of. "Why would that be? I find that… hard to believe, really. I didn't give him everything about me, just my name."

Vincent's cold eyes met her wide ones, and she could not do anything but avert her gaze from his steadfast stare. "Sephiroth has his ways, Tifa."

"Sephiroth has his ways...? Just… What do you mean? How..?" What Vincent was saying intrigued her. It was like decoding or trying to figure out some indecipherable puzzle. "He was like a grown-up child, but he seemed nice enough to me."

Vincent stared at her. " 'What you see is what you get,' is that what everything is to you?" He waited for her reply, but not a word escaped her lips. "You should not accept things as they come... If you should know, Sephiroth created the two men and the woman you met earlier."

"Created...?" She looked at him, waiting for him to continue.

He shook his head as if it would be too hard for her to understand. "Those other three you had just been acquainted with, they are Sephiroth's underlings." She didn't say anything, he sighed and started walking towards the door, motioning for her to follow him. "Come. We should not waste time here... You heard him, it is not safe for someone like you to be here."

Tifa stopped in her tracks. "Someone like me? Why, how am I different from all of you?"

Vincent turned around ever so slowly and once he completely faced her, she caught a glimmer of sadness or regret in his garnet eyes. The colour and the emotion reminded her of a flesh wound gushing out blood in small rivulets. Were those tears in his eyes...?

"Like the two sides of a coin, we are one, yet we could never be the other... Rather, we can no longer be like you." he paused, voice as soft as a whisper, "How different, you ask..."

His very gaze bore a hole through her soul. "Very different."


Act Nine
Pause, and Silence Answers
:Present Day:

"All of these happened in a day?"

Cool blue eyes met equally cool crimson ones. "What do you think?"

"Hell, I just asked! That means I don't know!" He blew up, exasperated by the regress of this conversation. He thought he would be getting some information soon enough, but they had been down here for half a day at the least... She still wasn't showing any sign of cooperation; instead of making it easier for both of them, she chose to narrate this story of hers.

"It is what you make of it."

Damn, she was doing it again! Why must she speak in such a profound way? His hands unconsciously balled into fists. "Did they all happen in a day? A week? A month? Years, decades or even centuries? Christ! I just asked so I'd have an idea how long it would take for you to finish saying all these!"

Her eyelids lowered to cover her eyes, long dark lashes standing out against her almost white skin. "Time has a way of confusing us. Sometimes, it passes by so swiftly; oftentimes, it just drags on and on... If it was a day or a century, a tortured soul wouldn't be able to distinguish one from the other. I don't know exactly how long ago these happened." Her eyes suddenly opened, and he was forced to look deep into two swirling pools of blood: her eyes. "There are more to come, a lot are left unsaid... but the night is coming to an end and we should get our rest. Do you wish to continue the next evening?"

He nodded, standing up to help her up. "This story will take long?"

She tore her gaze from him, settling it on the wooden table. "You have no idea just how long..."


Act Ten
A Riddle in Itself
:Present Day:

He found himself outside her detainee room's door the following night, after catching hours of rest during the day. Taking the key from his pocket, his hand hovered near the lock, but before the key could fully carry out its use, the door swung open.

"Come in."

Her voice came everywhere and nowhere around him at the same time, it was hard to pinpoint where it had come from until he saw her calmly seated on the worn out bed, hands clasped primly on her lap. The ropes that bound her wrists together laid discarded on the floor by her feet.

After seeing that she was able to escape her binds and that she had opened the supposedly locked door, he was left wondering why she hadn't fled when she had the chance to, why she stuck around just to be able to continue her story, why she even bothered to tell him a detailed version of this particular part of her life... Too many questions, none of which had an answer... That was how she'd forever be to him: one of life's mysteries; a question whose answer would ceaselessly be left unsaid; the enchanting woman who had captivated him with her ghostly charm.

"You're late." Her eyes emitted a cold glow, greatly contrasting with their natural color. "For someone so eager to know about my kind, you're showing a very minimal amount of enthusiasm regarding this topic."

He smirked. "Finally admitted you're one of them, huh."

"Technically, I am. But not wholly." She replied with a thin smile, he scowled. "Like I said, it would be too hard for you to understand. Perhaps I should enlighten you by continuing where I left off last night?"

He took the only chair in the room and rested his feet on the edge of the bed, near where she was seated. "Sure, go on, go ahead. I'm willing to listen." He brought out his lighter and a pack of cigarettes, just in case he'd want to use them.

A corner of her lips curled up. "My hands are not bound, are you sure it's safe for you that way?"

He shrugged. Looking at her, one would see that she was barely over a hundred pounds; he can take on her easily if she was to attack him. "How'd you do it? Get rid of the ropes and open the door, I mean."

"I have my ways... Not that it's my responsibility to tell you." She regarded him with her wide eyes. "Aren't you going to ask anything else? About the people in my story?"

He grinned at her. "Which one of the men in the photos was Vincent?"

"You do not know?" she frowned at him, and he silently praised her for being able to know he was just playing with the question. For god's sake, he was hired to know this! Of course he knew who Vincent was! If possible, his smile widened.

"Hey, carry on with the story... Especially now that I've decided to be patient enough."

She just stared at him. "You better make certain of that."


Act Eleven
Flight to the Seas Yonder

The turbulent sea was the toughest enemy one could ever have. Her anger brought forth typhoons, hurricanes and tsunamis that could ravage the land; she had spurned many ships under her seemingly bottomless sapphire waters; she had taken lives of the lot that wished to enrage her. Indeed, Mother Ocean had quite a temper...

Tifa looked out into the seemingly endless stretch of blue and shuddered. She feared the dark, for it held a lot of mysteries and mankind has a way of being afraid of certain things they cannot explain... But she feared the sea as well; she knew it could swallow her whole anytime it pleased. And too bad for her, she never learned how to swim. How Vincent convinced her to step into this ship, she probably might never know... That man had quite a lot of unexplained means of letting her obey him.

She stole a glance at him, who was stoically lingering somewhere in the background, close enough for comfort, though not too far from hearing range. He was still wearing that expensive suite and the black trenchcoat; those were the very same clothes Sephiroth was dressed in. She suddenly became self-conscious of what she was wearing, or rather, what she wasn't wearing.

"How much more time before we get there?" she asked him, tugging at the bottom of her short black miniskirt. The sooner they reach their destination, the sooner she could get out of these clothing and into decent ones.

"A bit impatient, aren't we?" She heard Vincent's footsteps approaching her. Tifa barely even had the chance to look up at him when she felt something drape around her shoulders. She saw Vincent walking away without his trench coat. "The cold would get intolerable in the next moments, when we dock."

The coat was a bit big on her; while it reached only his mid-calf, it went way past hers. Its end would have trailed on the ground if it weren't for her thick boots. "Thanks... But what about you?" she watched as he leaned against the railing, pulled out a cigarette and lit it. Such a simple act like that from him mesmerized her.

"No one can get possibly colder than I am."

Tifa didn't know whether to call that expression on his face a smirk or a scowl. Maybe it was both; perhaps it held some twinge of irony only he would know. Her gaze trailed down from his face to his hands. They were long and slender... Soft too; she remembered how it felt when he had pulled her from that man, from that Sephiroth...

The wind whipped locks of hair into her face and she shook them off, also trying to push the annoying thoughts away. Why bother thinking about things that had answers no one would be telling her? Still, she cannot avoid wondering why Vincent held such animosity towards that other man... But it was none of her business, right? She had only been here for such a short time, she shouldn't trouble herself with their problems when she had an abundance of them already...

"You know... you still haven't told me where we're going." She turned her attention back on her dark companion. He wasn't looking in her direction, but she knew he was listening. "Or will you be leaving me elsewhere again?"

His mere gaze sent shivers down her back. "Leave you and have you running off somewhere else? And then to bother myself by looking for you even in the lions' den?" A sparkle of humourless merriment appeared in his eyes. "No, I've learned from my mistake. This time, I'll shackle you to the bed if I have to."

Was he serious?

"Will there be any need for me to bind you?" Vincent didn't look at her this time, turning away as if tired of speaking with her.

"No, I don't think so." She replied, hugging the coat tighter around her body and walking up to where he was. "Tell me why we're running away again?"

He glanced in her way, cool scarlet eyes appearing uninterested. "We are not running away. I'm helping you escape."

She folded her arms in front of her chest, the corners of her lips turning down into a frown. "From what?" If he was going to get started on the whole deal with Sephiroth again, she might as well just jump from the ship and drown herself to death... Not really, she wasn't that out of her mind. "And really, you've already helped me, Vincent. That night, remember?"

He still wasn't looking at her. "You won't understand." Tifa knew he was going to say that.

"How can I when you don't bother telling me anything?" Her voice was almost pleading. Why the hunger to know, she couldn't comprehend that feeling as well. "I ask questions, you give me another question or a vague reply... I'm running around in circles! I don't even know half of what you're saying..."

Vincent watched her with his brooding eyes. "Do you have an idea what we are? What I am?"

She shook her head and he dropped his cigarette onto the ground, extinguishing its flame by stomping one booted foot on top of it.

"Then, it's not really important for you to know any other detail."

fin chapter four

Original Author's Notes: Heh, I'm back (this story), didja all miss me? I'm sorry for sort of abandoned this one... Things are getting tougher in college, but heck, I'm coping! Don't worry though, I'll keep writing stuff for as long as there would be people reading my works. Actually, writing is one of my few passions (like drawing, eating, reading fanfictions...) and the only thing that takes long is when I'm stuck checking and rechecking may chapters for any error or plothole... A hard task, if you ask me). Forgive me if there are still mistakes and grammar errors, I'm such a klutz, I'm very impulsive and most of the times, I do things without thinking (Except when it comes to writing stuff... but it seems that I cannot escape my fate, and blunders just stick to me like leeches, ick!).

But, yeah, I'll still write. Gotta finish all of my stories (and then maybe finally "retiring" from I hope I was able to write Sephiroth well enough (he's cool, he's hot, WHATEVER, I'll have him either way!) How do you like how I characterized him?

I know I left you all feeling confused with the whole story line, and I really apologize for that. For the whole period through, allow me to explain.

If any one of you looked back into the previous chapters, you'd realize that the man in Act One isn't Vincent. That part is the Aren't-you-going-to-speak?-Is-this-an-interrogation?-Maybe...-Maybe-not-You're-staring.-Do-you-know-these-men?... conversation Umm, I guess the give away that this 'interrogator' isn't Vincent is when he says: "Recount how you first encountered their kind... Give me a glimpse of what they were like, how they interacted with you. What they eat, how they feed..." And she replies with a "You're asking me to remember...? For what price?" ... Uh, I guess you got it now, huh? Sorry about the misunderstanding and everything...

To avoid any more confusion, I would be placing an asterisk beside the Acts which are supposed to be part of the captive girl's narrative (all the Vincent and Tifa acts that are written so far ARE part of that story)

In Chapter One, Act Two "A Living Corpse," the man Vincent was speaking with was dun, dun, dun...! Sephiroth. I think the two of them look alike... But, yeah, as I wrote in that act "A man whose looks greatly resembled his greeted him... It was as if was looking at his reflection in the mirror, only that it was everything he wasn't..." I say, in the game, Lucrecia and Vincent had their affair AND she mistook the child in her womb as her husband's baby... I mean, just look at Hojo! I don't think someone as good looking as Sephiroth would have a father as... slip a word in here, why doncha? ...that mad scientist... or maybe I'm just a little looney...? (Been chocolate-deprived for too long...)

Ahem...

In Chapter Two, Act Four "A Glimpse of the Phantom..." Where did Vincent go? Why did Tifa run? What did she see? Answer1: I wouldn't tell any of you YET... Answer2 and 3: She was scared and her mind was playing tricks on her... Umm, I hope I didn't baffle someone with this one...

Also, in Chapter Three, Act Five "Servants of the Night," the solid figure Tifa bumped into was supposedly Sephiroth. Since he spoke with Vincent earlier on, he was vaguely aware of someone else's presence and he stuck around to see who it was... I know, I know, that part was unclear but I thought I could 'imply' it through the "Little Lady" parts (in Act Eight, Sephiroth kept referring to her as such...) hehe, but I guess my plan didn't quite work...

Chapter Four, Act Eight "Where the Walls have Ears," how did Sephiroth end up in Lucrecia's room? Explanation: Since he is the solid figure from Act Five (the girl never apologized, remember?), he must have followed the two of them, curious or something... (I have something in mind BUT you may have something else and I'll just leave the pondering to your imagination )

---- And in Act Nine and Ten, you would fully realize the story just doesn't consist of Tifa, Vincent, Sephiroth, Lucrecia, Aeris, Cloud and Zack... Yup, our interrogator guy joins in the fray! Wait a minute--- Who IS he?

Additional Author's Notes, upon editing: Sorry if this one was a bit long, or that this one just made the storyline more complex and much, much more confusing than it already is.Not to worry though, I'm working on the next few Acts... If any of you have questions, you are free to ask, via email (sodacolapop AT yahoo DOT com OR sodacolapop AT gmail DOT com) or leave it in the review box. Without further ado, I bid you all adieu... Again, thanks very much for reading!