I know i said i'd change the ending only if i came up with something better... well i thought it was a bit better... Sorry....

20) Fin.
Vincent looked at himself in the mirror, before deciding to tie his hair back in a pony-tail. The loose wavy black strands just didn't seem to go with anything with the exception of his red cape and black outfit he wore into battle. It had been nearly a week since they had buried Chaos on the shores of the lake in the City of the Ancients, and he found himself staring into a full sized mirror in one of the most upscale hotels still possessed by Midgar. He and Cloud were sharing a suite; it was nearly as large as the first floor of the Shinra mansion at Nibelhiem. There was an extremely well stocked kitchen, two bedrooms, guest bedroom, living room, three bathrooms, one with a Jacuzzi. Vincent had never tried a Jacuzzi. He decided that he would when he returned. Vincent began buttoning up his red patterned vest over his white shirt. He stared into the mirror, instead of the twin garnets staring back he found himself looking into a set of Mako green eyes, they weren't the original sky blue ones he once possessed, but it was something. He broke his gaze and looked down onto the couch next to him. On it were two pistols, a rifle, a tie, and a dress jacket. He was sure he wouldn't be able to sneak the Death Penalty in with him to his destination, which happened to be a highly upscale and well secured, but he did desire some form of protection. The pistols would have to do.

He positioned the Outsider's holster on the small of his back, and tucked the PK's holster on his foot, jus as he had when he was a Turk. A Turk. It was as a Turk he had first heard of this place. It was co-owned by his old mentor, the man who had brought him into that line of work. The man who so many years ago had taken every opportunity to have him clubbed over the head for each deviation during his training. He had spoken to Reeve and the other Turks when they had returned to Midgar. It seemed that the man decided to retire some months after Vincent's disappearance. The disappearance of his star pupil and the lies Hojo spat out for them had driven him to an early retirement. Afterwards he began working full time at the bar. He had died of heart failure nearly seven years ago. Now the bar was owned by his grand daughter, the same girl Vincent had taken a shot at when he was first being recruited by her grandfather. Miraculously the girl was still alive, and the bar unscathed. The bar had celebrated its reopening three days ago while AVALANCHE was still sunbathing in Costa del Sol. It was an upscale place, even its regulars the Turks had to don tuxedos or cocktail dresses just to get it. But the prize was bountiful and well worth the effort of dressing up as a penguin. The bar/ restaraunt served as a waterhole for all higher ups in the black market of information. The secrets, deals, and concessions that floated around that bar rivaled that of the Turks network. So logically the Turks made sure that they had someone they trusted owning the bar.

Vincent picked up his tie and looked around. He never figured out how exactly to work a bow tie. 'Probably should have asked the tailor while I was getting the tuxedo made.' He said to himself. Everyone else had already left. Cloud, Barret, Cid, Red and Reeve were out touring the city / getting plastered with Turks. Tifa and Yuffie left a few hours before them, thick as thieves giggling like two little school girls. He was glad she was gone. Yuffie. He felt that some things about their new relationship were just wrong... some things being one thing. '37 years is long time.' He told himself again. Maybe someday she would realize that, or was he just being stupid? He paused and stared into the mirror again.

"Who heard of a 53 year old man going out with a 16 year old?" he asked himself out loud. "It's wrong. It's disgraceful." He repeated to himself, as if saying it out loud would make the feelings disappear on their own.

There was a knock at the door. 'Good, must have been the champagne I ordered.' he went over in his head. Vincent began fiddling with the tie experimenting ways to get the damn thing to look right, and absent mindedly flung the door open for who he thought was room-service. Mind still on his tie he looked up at the figure before him before returning to the problem at hand. A moment later when he realized just what it was he was looking at he dropped his hands to his sides and looked up again just to be sure.

In front of his was a smiling Yuffie. On her side she was leaning against the door frame, in her right hand she carried two champagne flutes. In the other she had a metal bucket full of ice and a chilled bottle of unopened champagne. The bell-hop gave Vincent thumbs up from the elevator as the doors closed. He blinked twice to clear his eyes. She looked completely different. Throughout their entire journey Vincent had only seen her in her infamous green turtleneck, short shorts and orange sneakers. Vincent had no idea what to think, her entire appearance confused him. She was wearing a black dress jacket, like that of a suit; underneath she was wearing what looked to be a slightly liberal black strapless miniskirt cocktail dress that was done up the back like a corset. Black stockings ran down her legs to her high heels. On each wrist she had silver charm bracelets and a medium amount of make up on her already beautiful face. Vincent gaped. Yuffie smiled back, and said, "Aren't you going to invite me in Vinny?"

Vincent stepped to the side and let her enter before closing the door. "Yuffie what are you doing here?" he asked, he didn't even notice the nickname that had once annoyed him to no end.

"I just got back from dress shopping with Tifa. We just finished having this" she motioned to herself. "custom made. Its amazing how fast the tailors will go if you just tell them you're in a hurry... and wave obscene amounts of cash in their face." Indeed, even after splitting the remainder of Gil, items, materia, and armor all of the members of AVALANCHE was extremely rich, and well off. Cloud being a cheap bastard never allowed them to buy too many weapons or armor pieces from the town weapon shops. He claimed that the weapons they found while traveling were all much 'shinier' then what they could buy in the towns, and indeed they were. Yuffie put the champagne and glasses down on the table. She had a calm and cheery voice as she said, "You know its funny Vinny. That girl, the one you almost shot, I remembered she was the granddaughter of that Turk who trained you. So, I asked Reeve about her whereabouts. Funny thing is,' she giggled for a moment, 'right off the bat he knew just who I was talking about. Gave me her place of business, hours everything. So I asked him, and this is where it gets really funny.' her smile was gone. 'I asked him how he knew all this off the top of his head." Yuffie turned and looked at him. Her voice was much more pained and sad now, "He said you already asked about her and that you were planning on visiting her today... without me..."

"Yuffie...." Vincent had no idea what to say.

Yuffie turned around again and as she was opening and pouring the champagne into the two flutes said, "So, Me and Vince became good friends. There must have been some reason why he wouldn't invite me to go with him, after all he did invite me to witness his separation from his demons and I already helped him so much in his reconciliation, and he knew that I wanted to be there with him so... much..." her voice for an instant sounded like a whisper. "Then it dawned on me. Vincent, how old are you." She walked up to him and locked gazes, holding one of the flutes out to him.

Vincent took the champagne from her. "Fifty Three." He said quickly before downing the champagne.

"Fifty-three." Yuffie repeated dropping her stare to the floor, on hand under her chin, and the other limply holding the champagne flute. She looked up at Vincent and said. "Thirty seven years is a long time."

Vincent walked back to the table and started pouring another glass of champagne. "I know Yuffie, that's why-"

She cut him off. "Sit down Vincent I'll help you with that tie." Vincent sighed once and sat down on the foot stool ahead of the full length mirror. Yuffie sat down behind him and stretched her arms under his own and started working his bow-tie. 'God I hope I remember how to do this.' "Seven years isn't." she said suggestively.

He knew what she was thinking. Forget those thirty years in the coffin. As much as he would have like to forget those many years of self loathing and depression they were too much a part of his life. "Yuffie, I can't-"

She jerked on his neck once lightly. "Chin up."

He raised his chin a little. "I can't just ignore those years."

"I'm not asking you to ignore them. I'm asking you to look at it from a different point of view." She looked at her handy-work in the mirror and quickly undid it and started anew. "In the dictionary 'to live' is defined as: To go through; experience, or to practice one's life. Now, when you were in that coffin I don't believe you were alive. Because you did not go through anything you haven't encountered before. There were no new experiences, and you practiced nothing. So in my view those thirty years are invalid, and there is only a seven year gap between us."

"Yuffie..." he said again. He still had no idea what to say. She was trying so hard to make this ok for him. Maybe he was being too obstinate about this, or was he just letting the public eye frighten him. He had feelings for this girl, yes, but at the same time there were so many years separating them. On one hand he was aging in the same manner as Chaos was. Thirty years was a blink of an eye to Chaos. On the other, he grew up with her father... If it went that far his best friend as a child would be giving away his wife. Vincent nearly chuckled at the thought. It was a thought that had run through his head a thousand times over during their journey; 'Godo giving her away, their age difference, how... how wrong... it would have been...' Vincent scrunched his eyes in thought. He remembered these thoughts clear as day, but what could have caused them? He had no recollections of similar thoughts towards Aeries or Tifa. He struggled with his more recent memories. Where did those thoughts come from? Suddenly the flood-gates of memories opened and some things once forgotten came crashing back.

"A man with nothing to lose... Has everything to gain..."

". what?... "

"Everything... You could have everything..."

"Everything what?"

"Life, Humanity, love..."

It was... it was his conversation with... himself.

It was beginning to come back to him. Somewhere in the middle of that conversation Chaos had interrupted him and asked him to go with Yuffie through his memories. His breathing became somewhat heavier as he delved deeper. 'He was speaking to himself... about what... about... what he wanted... yes...'

The four doors present in his mind... were there four? One lead to the tragedies of his child-hood, another to those of his adolescence, a third to his early adulthood, and a fourth that he believed to be the most recent which alluded to his time with Lucrecia. But there was a fifth, hidden so deep within himself; it was a shroud of mystery even to him. Only Chas who had been with him for those many years knew where to look for it. And strangely enough it was Chaos, who a short time before that was plotting to take over Vincent's body, who came to him and offered the resolution.

(Chaos) Your pessimism is'nt fooling anyone, go talk with her.

What he wanted... yes... He wanted to be with her...

"Where was I?" Vincent breathed to himself.

"You were avoiding the subject of what you want."

"We know what you want, and you know what you want. Why do you continue resist?"

"Because monsters don't deserve what they want."

It had ended there… Afterwards he had closed that section of his mind and went back to wait for Yuffie, content to end this episode within his mind as quickly as possible.

At the time he believed himself to a monster, a hideous creature, a plague to mankind that had brought nothing but misery and suffering to those around him. After the horrible fates of all his previous loved ones it seemed like the only truth. Even those he simply cared for without even their knowledge seemed to end up dieing as a result of him. Look at Yuffie. She was trapped in the life-stream with him where they would more likely than not rot to death together, simply because she decided to follow him.

So he pushed everything and everyone away. Especially his feelings for that small ninja... He hid away all his feelings, and the moral implications of such a pairing served only to make him push them even further, until he was placed in a position where he had no choice but to face them, to face her. He had managed to hide his true feelings from Yuffie, she had never discovered that place in his mind. And afterwards he even managed to hide the memories from himself.

But now there was a second chance to rethink the situation... a chance to rethink the feelings he had stored away for so long.

Yuffie was oblivious to his thoughtful look and continued talking. "Besides, when I'm old and sixty, you'll still look like you're twenty-three. It won't matter then, why would it matter now?" Vincent took the liberty to lower his head a little to get a view. The tie looked great now, but there were tears in her eyes.

Vincent just looked at her for a moment. "You make a strong point." She pulled the ends of his tie out a little tightening it.

Then she dropped her hand to his shoulders. 'Vincent was from a completely different time.' Yuffie thought to herself. 'Social norms like this weren't something you would break without a serious amount of thought, some you still can't. I've heard so much nagging from my father about how different our generations are, how much more liberal we are...' her heart was aching, she thought she knew where this conversation was heading, and it was neither happy or beautiful. In a sea of colors it was a shade of gray.

"Technically... I guess I am still just twenty three."

Her heart skipped a beat, and Yuffie looked at him through his reflection. "Really?"

"Really" he replied. He decided at that point 'Screw the norms. There is nothing normal about the two of us anyways, a royal materia hunter and an ex turk/demon. I think I'm in love with this girl.'

She dried her unshed tears. "That's... That's really good. I'm glad to hear it." She was ecastic, all she could do from jumping up and down in joy was rub her eyes a little too hard and embrace the slight scheing pain in her high heeled feet.

Vincent stood up and moved around the chair. He took both her hands in his and looked down into her stormy gray eyes. "Yuffie... I think... I think I love you. I have for awhile now; I've just never been ok about saying it." He sighed. "I just pushed the feelings away. But no more. I love you, and I want you to know it, I want the world to know it. My only regret is that it's taken me this long to fully realize it."

Yuffie just looked into his Mako greens, they were different from the garnet set had earlier, but it was a welcome change, these eyes were warm with feeling and life. A small smile emerged on her face, and with a calm whisper like quality she replied, "I know."

It didn't happen often, but the roles of the two in conversation became switched. Yuffie adopted Vincent's technique of one-liners, and Vincent grew impatient and angry over it.

"I know... Yuffie, I just told you I love you, it's hard enough as it is. I'm telling you I love you, can you at least-"

She cut him off a second time in that conversation, on her tip-toes she pulled his head down and engaged with him a soft sensual kiss that lasted an eternity for the two. When Yuffie lowered herself from Vincent's lips she repeated in a soft stern voice, "I know."

Vincent slowly opened his eyes and looked down at her. "You know..."

Yuffie shined an enormous grin at Vincent as she slowly backed away towards the door. "Come on now, or we'll be late."

Vincent picked his tuxedo jacket up off the couch and quickly grabbed his PK stuffing it in his ankle holster. "Late for what?"

"I made eight o'clock reservations for us at the ritziest place still open in Midgar." She called out as she opened the door. "I figure we finish this within an hour, half hour cab ride later we sit down for dinner at our first formal, in real life not in our head, date." She winked once. "On you."

Vincent smiled. "On me, of course." Vincent followed her out the door. As it clicked shut behind them he held out his right arm in a loop, and gave Yuffie a happy grin. Yuffie smiled back and looped her left arm around his, and the two began walking towards the elevators. "And after tonight, what do you propose we do?" Vincent asked looking over at his date.

Yuffie sheepishly shrugged and replied, "We have time. We'll make it up as we go along." She pulled the arm closer and rested her head on his shoulder as the entered the elevator.

The two made their way out of the hotel, the darkness and confusion of their feelings no longer a blinding factor, they had each other and that's all they needed. A few years later when Yuffie became of legal age, they were wed under the shadow of Dao Chao, with all of Avalanche and most of Wutai present. Indeed Godo graciously gave his daughter away to his childhood friend, a thought which never ceased to amuse Vincent. Yuffie was an undoubtedly beautiful bride, and Vincent a naturally handsome groom. By the time Yuffie was ready to take over as leader of Wutai they already had three children, one eldest son and two daughters, they lovingly named Edgar, Aeris and Sera.

And together they lived as happily together as time would allow them.

So I was looking at this chapter on my laptop and the ending just seemed so dull... All it was was Vincent deciding that it would be ok for him to date Yuffie even though there was an age difference. I started elaborating on that and the next thing I know I have this section on how he held back his true feelings for her. I remembered that self-reflection chapter and it dawned on me how I could use it. When I first put that chapter in I thought it would be kinda lame because it was so short, but now its like a godsend for the ending. I thought the transformation was pretty cool. But I'm still kinda disappointed by it. I'm gonna keep working at it. Should I come up with anything better I'll switch out the chapters...

Anyways, the children's names: The son takes Gast's first name, I remembered he had one in an earlier chapter, so I went back and dug that out. I think we all know who Aeris is named after, and Sera was Vincent's first love, the girl who shot him so he fell through the manhole in an earlier chapter. Just felt like pointing that out.

I'm kinda bummed that this is finished. My first real attempt at a fanfiction. It ended pretty well I think... Anyways, I'd like to thank all those people who stuck with me through thick and thin, I really appreciate your reviews and everything! Sometimes when I was feeling discouraged, I would just go back through the reviews and feel remotivated. That's actually a large part of why I kept writing, I just really wanted to see how you would reply. Positive reinforcement is a grand thing!

I was thinking about doing a sequel to this, something along the lines of 'the misadventures of Vincent and yuffie valentine' but it will probably end up a flop and I don't want to ruin the ending to this. I actually had four fics I was thinking about. There is 'the general' which is coming along slowly. The sequel to that 'the clone.' Which will probably end up being 1000x times more interesting (The only real reason I'm doing 'the general' is to create a history I can reference for 'the clone'.). And I was thinking about a story about Jenova. How she get to the planet and how the war between her and the centra begins. Also there is a... well I spose a sequel to this. But it would take place like a few hundred years after meteor. Vincent will be there, and that would probably be the only connecting factor.

Anyways, the story is finished, and i cant' keep from grinning. Onto the replies:

Neko-Yuff16: Killing Chaos seemed to be the only way i could effectively get him out of Vincent. Having The Demon Chaos running around just didn't seem like it would inspire closure. And ya, atleast now hes with all his friends in the life-stream. Cause its just like heaven, or the elysian fields maybe, where you see every one you ever knew and happily hang out with them.

Empress-Eerian-Sadow: Thanks for the compliment. Splitting them up wasn't too pleasant... it was kinda hard to describe just what was happening without becomeing too repetative, but i'm glad to hear you liked it! Makes me feel like i've suceeded! 'With Honors' was a pretty nice movie, i wouldn't pay money to see it again, but the first time around its pleasant.

Hotaru170: I'm glad you liked chapter 19, and i hope you like 20 just as much. While this was definetly one of the shorter chapters, I just couldn't decide on a suitable ending, and thats partially why it took so long.

Cattibrie393: Thanks for the compliment. I'm sure i've said this sometime or another, but originally it was Chaos i wanted to talk about. Originally i was going to write him into a separate story, but fitting his story into this fic just seemed to work out. It worked out for the better i think.

ShadowReaver: I'm happy to hear the muses are so exited about this chapter and i hope i haven't let them down! Thanks for the compliment again! hah it seems like i say that once or twice each chapter when i'm writing replies, but i really do appreciate them. The move went well. No one was hurt, we got the futton and desk up without a hitch, now i just have to figure out how to work this darn air-conditioner.

Again I'd like to thank each and everyone of my readers, I did this for you! I hope you liked my story as much as i liked writing it! However all good things must come to an end. But remember its not the ending that matters, its the journey itself. The ending can only serve to sweeten it!

Catch yall on the flipside!

-Iflyte