Eternal Hell
By: Yuffie Kisaragi2
Dedicated to all my reviewers, for always being there to smack me around when my stories suck, but giving me more ideas to fix whatever's wrong.
A short story about Vincent Valentine. It does have a slight "Interview With A Vampire" twist, but I AM NOT copying Anne Rice in any way, shape, or form.
CHAPTER TWO
Love - 1. To hold dear: CHERISH 2a. To feel a lover's passion, devotion, or tenderness for 2b. CARESS
The immortal paused from his story to wipe his human hand across his eyes. "She meant a lot to ya, huh?"
Vincent nodded. "Yes, she meant a lot to me. Just as Lucrecia once meant a lot to me. Both were stolen from me too early. Though, the pain from Lucrecia has lessened, Yuffie is still all around me all of the time." He swallowed and looked back at the pretty young woman. "I saw a young woman the other day who looked almost exactly like Yuffie. When she turned, though, she looked at me through green eyes, not grey." He took a breath. "Shall we continue?"
After Yuffie's burial in the Kisaragi tomb, we all went our seperate ways. I became a mercenary; I cleaned up the remaining monsters.
"Wait! Did you deliver Yuffie's message to her father?
He cast a rare smile at the blonde. "You are perceptive, aren't you?"
"Have to be, I'm a doctor!"
Yes, I delivered the message to Lord Godo, but he did not listen. Shake was second in line, Chekoc became ruler after Godo passed, then the young man.
As I was saying, I became a mercenary. I received various amounts of gil from the people that I helped. Sometimes, I was repaid with room and board.
One day, I got a call from Tifa. She asked me to hurry over to her home in Glasgow, a little above Gongaga. When I reached her home, she met me outside. Cloud had gone insane, she told me. "He's talking like Aeris is alive and sitting there next to him. He keeps talking about going to fight Sephiroth and, when I try to tell him otherwise, he gets mean! Like, he tells me that I'M dellusional!"
Three days later, I lost another friend. Cloud Strife died in his sleep. He was twenty-eight. We, meaning Tifa, Nanaki, and I, met Cid outside of Glasgow for him to take us to Nibelheim. Our remaining AVALANCHE members had a small ceremony on Mt. Nibel. Our number, once nine, was reduced to six. We said somber goodbyes and parted ways again. I neither contacted nor was contacted by any of them for fifteen years.
Barret's daughter, Marlene, called everyone. Her father had died at the age of fifty-seven due to a massive heart attack. He had been in the hospital for three days before he had finally given up.
For the first time in fifteen years, I saw my friends. Tifa, though obviously older, was still gorgeous. Cid was completely snow-haired. Nanaki was wiser, but still remained the same. Tifa had her male model husband and their twins, Sean and Sky. Cid and Shera had their twenty-one year old daughter, Lacey, her husband, Beau, and their infant son, Seth.
I felt, for an instant, a pang of jealousy toward my friends. They had their children... I had to destroy my only child.
His garnet pools drifted from the night sky to his listener. "You need not cry for me, young one."
"Why don't you use my name?" she asked, sniffing and wiping her face with the back of her perfectly manicured hand.
"Because... If I use your name, I might also get to know you, then be forced to watch your death." His voice was soft, caressing even.
"It's Julia," she told him with distinct pride.
He nodded. "As you wish, Julia." She smiled. "Back to Barret's death..."
Due to being afraid to return to Corel ,Barret Wallace lived in Junon with Marlene and Aeris's mother, Elmyra. The poor woman was heart-broken when she found out about her daughter's death. She had died a few years before. I was not particularly close to her, nor were Tifa, Nanaki, or Cid.
We had a quaint little funeral in Junon, then he was buried next to Elmyra in a small cemetary. Marlene and her husband moved to Kalm afterwards. Tifa and her family went back to Costa del Sol, Cid and his family back to Rocket Town, Nanaki to Cosmo Cnyon, and I was left to wonder aimlessly once again.
For no reason in particular, I decided to visit Wutai. I say that there was no reason, but I believe that I may have missed my young companion and wanted to visit her favorite spot atop Da Chao. Then again, it may have been that my curiosity had gotten the better of me about Shake's ruling. Either way, I went to Wutai.
It was not what I had expected. The small village was even more run down than before Meteor, when ShinRa had occupied it regularly. Do not misjudge me in the fact that I am normally calm and collected, but I flew off the handle.
I marched to the palace to find out that Shake was, indeed, ruling, but unfairly. He taxed his people - Yuffie's people! - harshly and was, as the saying goes, "Sittin' pretty." This irritated me beyond comparison. To know that my friend, who had fought so that she could save her people and died for the cause, would have cried in shame at the sight,,, I t pissed me off.
I went into a blind rage and forced my way to Lord Shake. Taking him by the collar, I held him high. "Lady Yuffie Kisaragi died to save her people that you are now destroying. She would cry in shame at one look. Change it, quickly!"
At that, I dropped him and swept out of the palace. I am not quite sure what happened after that. I only remember waking to find myself on the palm of Da Chao, where Cloud, Aeris, and I had found Don Corneo with that Turk, Elena, and Yuffie tied up.
The sunset, as Yuffie had told me once, was beautiful. I closed my eyes and felt the soft breeze blow my long tresses. I swear that I could hear Yuffie singing her Wutainese hymne again. She sang it whenever she was homesick and thought that no one was paying attention. I heard it on numerous occasions, but never knew the words, only the tune.
Julia took a drink from her bottle of soda. "You don't mind if I smoke, do you?"
"Not at all," he replied. Once she had her cigarette lit, he continued on.
After six years in Wutai, I decided to go to Rocket Town to visit Cid and Shera. I was in for another surprise. The day after I arrived there, Nanaki called and asked for me to meet him in Nibelheim. Cid, then sixty-one, volunteered to take me by his new air ship, Snow Storm. Lacey, Beau, Seth, Cid, Shera, and I rode by Snow Storm across the mountains to Nibelheim. Once there, I met a lovely black version of our Nanaki. Her name was Cortseki.
Nanaki, Cortseki, and I were going to go to Cosmo Canyon and Cid was going to take his family home to Rocket Town. Something went wrong, though. Snow Storm crashed into Mt. Nibel, killing Shera, Beau, and my firen, Cid Highwind.
When Nanaki, Cortseki, and I arrived at the crash, we helped Lacey and Seth. The others were obviously deceased. We retrieved their bodies and got them to Nibelheim before we heard the explosion. It was my job to call Tifa. She and her fifteen year old twins, Sean and Sky, arrived in Rocket Town just before we did.
Lacey was left with a seven year old son, no husband, and no job. Beau had been working as the resident doctor in Rocket Town, bringing in their money. She had not the need to work. Tifa, being the generous and considerate "aunt" to Lacey, took the woman and her son into her home. I, also, moved into the condo that Cloud had bought and left to AVALANCHE.
As Sean, Sky, and Seth grew up, their mothers remained close. I was there to see the twins graduate from high school; Sean was class Salutatorian and Sky just barely passed. Seth became like a nephew to me. Lacey let me teach him how to properly use firearms and we frequently went to the shooting range.
The night before his graduation, he and Tifa had gone out in his new sports car. She and Lacey had put their money together to get it for him and he promised Tifa a ride. It was dark and had been raining... Neither survived the accident. Tifa Lockheart was fifty-nine and Seth Ghamp was eighteen.
Vincent took a swig from a cup of coffee, now very cold. "That was eighty years ago. My only comrade left is Nanaki. He and Cortseki live in Cosmo Canyon."
Julia brushed her long bangs out of her face. "Are you completely immortal? I mean, if you get your head chopped off, will you continue talking?"
Vincent chuckled. "That is what Cortseki and Nanaki are researching for me, now."
The woman looked thoughtful. "Wait," she said slowly. "What about Cait Sith and Reeve?"
The immortal shook his head. "I do not know. Reeve never kept in touch after Yuffie's funeral and burial.
Julia's burgundy eyes fell to the floor. "I'm guessing that you know who my ancestor is?"
He smirked. "I had my guesses. Truthfully, though, you look more like Sky than Sean. He was dark-haired with burgundy eyes, whereas she was blonde. Sean is your great-great grandfather, correct?"
Julia smiled up at him with the same smile that Tifa used to flach at her friends, the same smile that Sky would flash at him when he would get her out of trouble with her parents. "Be strong, Vincent. You'll make it to the Life Stream to see Lucrecia and Yuffie and everybody. Just be patient and always keep your chin up!"
The man started to chuckle, but ended up laughing his deep, melodious laughter that filled Dr. Julia Hushman's apartment. "I apologize," he told the young woman. "It is just that you have the same sunny disposition that your great-great-great grandmother had. Tifa was a wonderful woman that I am proud to have known. Never forget that."
Julia smiled as he walked toward the door. "Thank you, Mr. Vincent Valentine." Without another word or a second glance, the man left Julia in her apartment.