Disclaimer: I don't own Yuffie, Vincent, or anything else from Final Fantasy VII. (You would have thought by this point that I'd give up on disclaimers and just buy the rights.)

Actually, that's a good idea! ^^ To support Raven in her quest to buy FFVII rights… leave a review and I'll get back to you. :)

Lonely Miracle The Perfect Soldier

Drip. Drip.

She was cold. Yuffie shivered and curled herself into a tighter ball, wishing Cloud could have found them a nicer place to camp. They could have gone back to the Highwind, couldn't they?

Drip. Drip. Drip.

She frowned as the obnoxious sound worked its way into her mind's crevices. She hadn't heard that sound in the north crater. It was just too cold for water to be dripping. Maybe it was blood. Yeah, that was it… Sephiroth's blood, dripping from her Conformer… Yuffie's eyes snapped open to darkness. Sephiroth was dead. He had to be – she couldn't have imagined that battle. But then… she gulped. That horrible dream about being abandoned to die in the Lifestream… it couldn't be real… could it? She sat up cautiously. She still couldn't see a thing.

Drip.

That sound… where was it coming from? She didn't understand what this place was. Was this the Lifestream? Was this… the Promised Land? It certainly didn't look very promising. Unless it was supposed to promise boredom, of course. Yuffie looked around ineffectually.

"Hello?"

She clambered to her feet, feeling around her uncertainly. The ground didn't seem to have any texture, but she couldn't say that it was smooth, either. It was just… indistinct, as though it weren't really there at all. Yuffie gulped and tried to believe very hard that there was ground under her feet. Obediently, the ground hardened and took on a form she knew well – the moist earth of her home town.

She looked up in surprise. There, before her, was Da Chao in all its glory. She stared around her, bewildered, at Wutai. Was this a dream, that all this had appeared so suddenly and yet so naturally around her? It was just as though it had always been there, though Yuffie knew it had not. She began to be frightened.

"Hello? Hey! Who's doing this?" She called. There was no answer. She began to walk through the village, looking about her in confusion. This wasn't the Wutai she remembered… everything looked newer, yet more worn down. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she rounded a corner and saw children playing there.

Three boys were using sticks they had found to play at sword fighting, while the girls cheered them on or ignored them entirely. Two of the boys uttered war-cries as they charged the third, who dodged their attack and then leaped over their heads. Two of the girls broke into applause at the boy's acrobatics. Yuffie studied him closely. His black hair was at the same time neatly clipped, but messy. She stared as he threw out his left arm, which held his stick, and ran forward to strike at the other two boys with a loud cry. "Hyeeaaargh!"

They fell backward into the dirt and started laughing despite themselves. The winner flopped down in the dirt and laughed, too. One of the girls approached.

"Mama says you should go with the Shinra." She said. Yuffie recognised the intonation and gasped in shock – it was Chekhov!

"I don't want to." The boy said defiantly. "Does your mama say that she should go, too?" He pointed to another girl, obviously Chekhov's sister. Chekhov looked abashed, but continued on stubbornly.

"Mama says that it's you they really want. She says that's why they started the war, and that's why Daddy isn't coming back." She said. Yuffie crouched next to them all.

"You mean the Wutai War? Wutai against the Shinra army?" She asked, curious. What was she doing here? The children ignored her. Annoyed, she pushed Chekhov. "Hey! I'm—whoa..." She stared as her hand went right through the little girl's torso. "Gah!" She scrambled backward frantically and stared at her hand. What was going on here?

"My mama says that it's 'cause you fight so good. She says that's why they want you." Another boy chimed in. "Those blue suits who came before the war told the Shinra about you, she says."

The boy who could fight looked down. "It's not my fault I can fight…"

"But it's your fault you stay here instead of going to the Shinra, Vincent. My papa says that that's why they took your mama away."

Yuffie stared at the good fighter in shock. This was Vincent? Then this couldn't possibly be the Wutai War! It was just too long ago. He was looking angry now, but the sadness that she had gotten so used to seeing on him was there, too. The other children, seeming to realise they had gone too far, ran off. Chekhov's sister glared at him as she passed, and kicked dirt on him.

"She wouldn't have gone if it weren't for you." She said cruelly. "And they never would've come for me if they hadn't heard of you, first." She ran away. Vincent looked down at his feet, black hair falling forward to cover his eyes.

"…my papa says that, too…"

Yuffie reached out to touch the small Vincent's shoulder, forgetting that she couldn't touch him. He winked out of existence as soon as she brushed him, along with the rest of Wutai. She was left in darkness once more.

Drip.

"Not that again…" Yuffie spun, trying to find a way out of whatever weird place this was. She started to run and shrieked to find the younger Vincent in front of her. He looked pale and washed out, not only in his face, but in the clothes he wore and in his hair and eyes. It was as though he was a ghost. Yuffie gaped at him for a few seconds before she summoned enough courage to stammer out, "W-what do you want?"

Great dark eyes stared up at her pitifully. His mouth moved, but only the barest of sounds made it to her. "…help…"

"What?" She stared at him. "What do you need help with?"

Vincent shook his head. "…have to help him…"

"Help who? What are you talking about, Vincent?" Yuffie dropped down to be on a level with the child version of Vincent Valentine.

He was flickering, fading, vanishing before her eyes. She reached out to grab him, to keep him there with her, but he was already gone, leaving only a whisper.

"…the memories are all he has… he believes them… help him…"

Yuffie stared at the patch of darkness the child Vincent had been for a long time. Slowly she sank to the ground and sat with her knees curled up to her chest. She didn't know what to do. How could she help Vincent? What was she supposed to do? The man was a walking, guilty angst-muffin. That and the fact she hadn't even seen him yet, except as a child. She looked around herself sadly, thinking back over the dream-like vision she had seen. So, Vincent was from Wutai. That explained a lot. He was from the same era as her father, one much more bound by duty, honour and tradition. Sure, Wutai was still that way, but she sort of ignored it as much as she could. Vincent's upbringing would have been even stricter than hers, which explained why he was so quiet, and why he was such a stickler for rules, morals and honour. She grimaced. She bet he definitely hadn't wanted to get dragged back to Wutai, let alone to be stolen from when he got there. She still felt ashamed that AVALANCHE had taken the time to help her, and then accepted her back into their midst, even though she had more or less proven herself unworthy of their trust. But, she supposed, she had proved herself in the end. She had been determined to be worthy of their trust because she hated being in debt to people. That was why she had stolen materia in the first place – to get out of her father's debt.

She wondered if what she had seen was true. Certainly, Shinra had waged a war against Wutai, but it was ridiculous to say that they would do it on account of Vincent. She frowned. I bet Shinra just wanted some of our top fighters because they couldn't expand far enough without us. We've always had some of the best warriors in the world, along with Cosmo Canyon. That's why they moved so fast to get us on their side… even though taking away children was definitely not the best way to bind a country to them. The Wutai War had been a rebellion against the Shinra - that she knew. Before that… well, who knew? All the great fighters who really knew the history of Wutai had been wiped out in the Wutai War. Sure, they had their own records, but most of the really old ones had gone to the Shinra. She scowled. The Shinra probably got the weak people of the village to raise their children believing that the way of the Shinra was right. Scum.

She got to her feet again and started walking in the hope that another vision would rise. She had to get to the bottom of this. It was probably the only way she was going to get out of this blackness. But what about Vincent? Where was he? She frowned again, wondering how she was supposed to help him when she didn't even know where he was.

"Vincent? Vincent…! Hey, Vincent, where are you…?"

She started running in the darkness, marvelling at how smooth and easy it was. It was as though she didn't even have to breathe. She had always dreamed of being able to run like this, without exhaustion, without any sort of fatigue. Filled with new determination, she ran faster and faster.

"Vincent! I'm coming to find you! Ready or not, here I come…!"

~*~

A/N: Well, isn't this fun? Let's all run around in darkness. Honestly, I'd be crawling. ^^; 'Cause it's real humiliating to trip over something while you're running.

Do remember to review to support my campaign to buy FFVII rights! That way we all get… more Vinnie! More Yuffie!

*stares at ringing phone and picks it up* *winces* *puts it down*

Yes. And more Sephiroth. Of course. ^^;h