Note: This is a re-post and yes, for those of you who do know me, *waves* Yo. I'm back, and I'm writing again…I finally have a break from the stress of my somewhat hectic college life. It's nice to be writing again, surprisingly, so heres the fic again, "Mirror".

Disclaimer: There's no way on earth I'd ever own a company like Sqauresoft, though if I did *wicked grin* The world would be mine…Nyahahahahaha…Meaning that the characters Vincent and Yuffie and any other Final Fantasy character mentioned in this fic I do not own and yadda, yadda, yadda…    

Proem\ Chapter 1: Vincent

King Of Pain

~Sting

There's a little black spot on the sun today

That's my soul up there

It's the same old thing as yesterday

That's my soul up there

There's a black hat caught in a high tree top

That's my soul up there

There's a flag pole rag and the wind won't stop

That's my soul up there

I have stood here before in the pouring rain

With the world turning circles running 'round my brain

I guess I'm always hoping that you'll end this reign

But it's my destiny to be the king of pain

There's a fossil that's trapped in a high cliff wall

There's a dead salmon frozen in a waterfall

There's a blue whale beached by a springtide's ebb

There's a butterfly trapped in a spider's web

There's a king on a throne with his eyes torn out

There's a blind man looking for a shadow of doubt

There's a rich man sleeping on a golden bed

There's a skeleton choking on a crust of bread

There's a red fox torn by a huntsman's pack

There's a black winged gull with a broken back

There's a little black spot on the sun today

It's the same old thing as yesterday

I have stood here before in the pouring rain

With the world turning circles running 'round my brain

I guess I always thought you could end this reign

But it's my destiny to be the king of pain...

I'll always be king of pain...

I'd been called many a name by people...

...vampire...

...freak...

...monster...

My pale white skin, the red eyes and the metal arm the hung by my side. Yes, I appeared the part they set for me, though what was I? I myself didn't know the answer- so unobtrusively I searched then, for the answers that eluded me.

And at times, I'd go to the depths of insanity, wracking my brain for the solutions that weren't to be found. Other times, I'd sit by the warm fire in quiet contemplation, brooding my demise.

It is and was a dark and bitter world we lived in, none the worse for it. And one has to learn to watch oneself else we be swallowed whole and chewed upon, the sadistic world dredging it's macabre willies on you. That's always how the world's been...as far back as I can remember...

Of my childhood, I remember little or rather, care to talk nothing of it at all. For even then, I'd always been alone. I remember begging in the streets, my scrawny limbs faint with hunger, my head spinning for the want of food, my mouth pining for the blue that runs in streams. A peasant boy with nothing to his name and a name I didn't have either.

Of my father and mother, I knew nothing of either...I knew nothing of how it all begun, the hunger, the loneliness and the great, great weight of the world upon my unstable shoulders. The moment was broken though, when one day, a washwoman took me in, seeing me sprawled by the reeds of the river bank, a boy unconscious and touched by death.

She cared for me, feed me, sheltered me- became my caretaker, my mother and yet I never found out her real name. But, she gave me mine- Vincent, Vincent Valentine. And from that day, I belonged to someone, I became my own person, I had an identity. I became special, because when one is given a name by another, they become connected- a bond is formed that cannot be broken.

And I too, gave her a name, it was mother, a name that meant much to us both- it filled both the gaps in our hearts- our loneliness. We became mother and son and we were happy. 

Though of course, there were problems,

Schooling for one, I went to school like all children must at my age, though even then, I was looked upon with dislike and contempt. I grew to hate school, hated the eyes that watched me, I hated them...all of them...

Though my fondness for learning kept me from skipping out on classes. My curiosity notwithstanding, I ate up volume after volume of books as my insatiable thirst for knowledge drove me to know everything I could. I'd finished reading the village library's archives by the time I turned 12.

I grew up fast, my days spent doing house chores, reading books and taking on jobs to help out mother. For her days were numbered, she was getting old and we both knew that she wouldn't last long.

I miss her, she was precious to me…the one who had showed me a glimpse of what love was. I have her to thank for that grand lesson of life, may God bless her sweet soul.

I left the village then soon after she had passed away and though I swore not to, I held an attachment to the place. Despite my misgivings and strife- I would miss my village, for all the fond memories it brought me, few as they might be.

I traveled a bit before becoming established in the Shinra corporation and was soon promoted to an organization called the Turks because of my fighting capabilities and my sharp mind. In the Turks, it was good to have combat prowess and it was even better for one to have quick wits- it would buy you time to keep your life. For it was shady business dealing with them, you never knew when the blade would strike you from behind.

And it was there in my service to Shinra that I met Lucrecia. An extraordinary woman, if there ever was one- beautiful, smart, witty, compassionate. I fell in love with her instantly. Though as fate would have it, she belonged to another, Hojo, a brilliant scientist of Shinra who dealt with the manipulation of genetic structures. He was brilliant, if not, maybe a bit dented in the head.

But then, no one can really draw a line between sane and insane, you have to change the border when you think it's right because no one else can... though I found out soon enough that the one that's insane is the world...

I screamed and screamed like a wild beast and clawed on the metal door in front of me despite the pain. My arm felt funny, like it was empty, my eyes felt as if they'd been ripped out and my skin felt sore...

I could hear the buzzing and crackling of machines outside despite my screaming. What was happening to Lucrecia? I wept, God...what has she done? Giving her body over to a mad man like him? The last thing I had heard was her plaintative cry as she had been infused with dark fluid. She had been holding Hojo's hand till the end... till she died. I cried then, for her loss, for the emptiness inside of me and the uncanny coldness of my arm… I cried till exhaustion took me.

I woke up though I knew not how long I slept and a name came... Jenova... somehow I felt that the name was important, that I should remember something about it but I couldn't.

I soon became lost in a maddening cycle of nightmares, tormented by a state of delirium that kept creeping back in and forth. I was in a state of shock, as my body was weak, going through some kind of change. Hojo had done something to my body before dumping me here in this dark place. And it hurt, my body wracked with the excruciating pain, which was somewhere between being stretched and the feel of millions of needles piercing everywhere.

It was senseless, in the sense that my senses were too flooded to feel. I'd go mad at times, screaming and screaming, never knowing how long it was I did scream. My body hurt like hell, though I don't know then if that was it- whether it was the pain outside or inside that beat at me constantly. Though now that I think about it- it was the thoughts going inside my head that did it.

It drove me insane, the death of Lucrecia- the manner of it. The mutilation, the sick morbid fascination of Hojo as he desecrated her body. And through that all, I was made to watch- for he knew, he knew I loved her and that she was his solely. She loved him, though if he did love her back I knew not, knew not if he was too deep into his sick little twisted world to feel a thing, much less love someone.

I didn't understand! How she could give her life for someone who might not even love her back. How she could still look into his eyes after all he had done to her and softly tell him she loved him. It was maddening! As the scene played over and over in my head and I could do nothing to avoid thinking of it.

Fortunately, my bodily pain left me, though my mind- was still stuck in the series of images that I had been left with. And by then, I had figured out that I was in some sort of box, a coffin I think. And I also knew better than to try to escape or to claw my way out. I had tried it hundreds of times already.

So, I just lay there in the darkness, trying to remember what it was like outside but then came to face again with the face again with the one thing I wanted to forget so bad....

Her head tilting to the right…

her long silver hair cascading behind…

…her perfect hands stained with blood

…she was dead…

…my Lucrecia…

…my beloved…

I'd weep, I'd laugh, I'd scream, though the world did not care nor hear. My world was dark- it was inside this coffin and there was no one here… and somehow, it wasn't that much different from what was outside.

I slept. For how long, I don't know, except that I was still alive. This disappointed me a lot, for I had hoped to drift in to slumber, a deeper one, one of no waking. Death I welcomed yet even she turned her back on me. I was still alive and I had no grace to feel thankful for it… I was empty, as empty as the hollow of my arm.

And it was then that I'd given up hope of anyone ever opening the box that someone chanced upon it.

A man with short blond spiky hair, wearing what looked to be a Soldier class A uniform. A woman with long brown hair, she had a nice smile. The other one was a girl with short brown hair kept back by a band, who never shut up, she kept on talking, talking and talking ...she was very annoying...

Note: Hope you liked the 1st chapter, haven't really written a fic in a while…much less a Final Fantasy one, this is a first actually, so if I screwed up with the Vincent POV, made him OC or something, tell me- your reviews would be extremely helpful… :3