plumbob - Eh heh... I take it you likeyed? A vin plush, for you! -Hands a Vinnie (shirtless, none-the-less) plushie-
Banana peel - -Tosses ya a Vinnie plushie, complete with magic of becoming a demon - YAY! for cookies! Glad you liked!
Gining - Wow! Another name that I recognize! Yuffentines are gravy, but even I tire of gravy and need an occasional biscuit! Don't ask, just read... -Hands out another Vin plush-plush! -
DarkSpades - I want plushies of all the characters... But can't find any! Not even a damn chocobo... -Hands a Yuffie plushie, this is cyber space, anything is possible (Even me bein' skinny!)-
pingpong867 - I speak only truth! Your review made me laugh. Glad you liked! -Gives a Vincent plushie with magnetic lips- For you triangle, love! Yuphys and Yuffentines are likebiscuits and gravy! WAHA!
Depressed Mizuki - One of the best in the world? -wraps her arms around you in a great big hugge- I LOVE YOU! You're my new best friend! Stupid IMs... lol! -Hands Vin & Yuff plushies - Everyone loves a Yuphy! (I'm gonna make that a tee-shirt one-a these days...)
DemonSurfer - Your waiting is over! Unless, of course, you read this part last... o.O -Hands a Yuffie plushie-
R: Quick thing... Thanks for reviewing, guys... If you haven't read my profile, which I'm sure you haven't, then I'll warn you now... You won't like the ending of this fic-fic... Go read muh profile fer mo' info! ONTO THE FIC! (I own nada)
Divine Being
That was so weird... Fireworks exploded in my head and I tingled everywhere... What was that? What did he do to me?
You liked it...
I did not! It was horrible and I never want him near me again!
The tingling sensation made you shudder in delight...
Did not!
The fireworks made you want more...
What?
You are more than infatuated with him...
Whatever. I'm not infatuated with him. He's the enemy... And I'm scared and alone. I just wanted Vinnie to cradle me like he did after Aeris's death, but Sephiroth was the only one, so I went to him. Yeah, that's it!
You liked that kiss...
Chapter Three
Yuffie was awaken by Sephiroth early the next morning. He merely called her name in a whisper and she arose, looking at him in confusion. "What?" she asked groggily.
"Be quiet. Surka is still asleep. I needed to ask you something." She felt her heart drop to her stomach, do a sumersault, then leap into her throat. "Do you believe that we can escape from this world?"
He heart stopped throbbing so loudly. Well, that was slightly unexpected... "Sure," she replied with a grin. "Why? Havin' second thoughts?" He shook his head and began to get up, but she caught his arm. His eyes met her's in a questioning manner. Without thinking, she leaned forward and kissed him, then pulled back, looking up at him through too-long chocolate bangs. "I... I'm sorry," she immediately apologized. "I... I don't know... I..."
He stopped her stuttering by holding up a finger. "Enough. Get a shower, I will wake Surka. We leave after breakfast."
She watched him walk out and felt her heart sink. Silly infatuation... He was the bad guy, after all... Why was she expecting him to say anything else? She was probably lucky that he didn't kill her or something. Sighing, she stood and walked toward the dresser, surprised that her hunch had been correct and that there were clothes. Somehow, she felt as if they had been planted there. She got into the bathroom and locked the door.
Sephiroth heard her mumble to herself and leaned heavily against the wall outside her room. That kiss... The one the night before... They both made him want more. He had to control those mortal urges... But...
She was his first kiss... His first infatuation... His first lust, if he would allow himself to admit it. Sure, Surka was strong and brilliant, like he would want if he wanted someone, but Yuffie... Yuffie made him smile at her antics to piss him off as they fought. She made a spectacle of herself and often seemed daft. Beneath those childish layers, however, there was a young woman stronger and more brilliant than Surka, or any other woman he had ever met.
"Are we leaving this early?" a soft, tired voice asked from down the hall. He looked over at Surka and nodded. She yawned and stretched. "Okay, I'm going to go make breakfast. Have you had a shower already?" she asked, eyeing his damp hair, tied back at the nape of his neck. Again, he nodded. "Okay, then once the ninja's done, I'll take my shower."
"Her name is Yuffie," he corrected automatically.
Surka raised a slim eyebrow, but smiled none-the-less. "Sorry, General... It must have slipped my mind.
Vincent awoke from a nightmare, sweat-drenched, heart pounding. He looked wildly over at Yuffie's slumbering form, then around the room they shared in Costa del Sol. Everyone had agreed to let Vincent and Yuffie stay in the villa in Costa del Sol and, after much persuasion on Vincent's part, he would call them if - when! - something happened. Nothing had happened... She didn't move... She wasn't there... And he missed her.
"Well, well, well... You are the great Vincent Valentine?"
He stood quickly, the balnkets falling away from him and revealing him in only sweat pants. "Who is there?" he demanded.
A melodic laughter, both frightening and inticing, cut through the air. Aqua eyes met his even scarlet gaze and he clenched his claw. "My name is Sephka, the Guardian. You know why I am here... So let me get to her, then I will leave you be."
She started toward the ninja's body, but he wrapped his arms around her waist and slung her into a wall. She staggered forward, glaring at him all the while. "You will not touch Yuffie..."
Yuffie stumbled forward, falling to one knee. Sephiroth, who had been following the two females, stopped beside her. "If you cannot walk on even ground, how did you ever fight me?" he asked coldly.
She closed her eyes against the tears, then stood, a goofy grin on her face. "Hey, what can I say? I'm just special that way!" She bounded forward again, but something made her left leg stiffen and she fell forward, clasping at her left thigh.
Sephiroth was more than willing to continue their trek without the talkative ninja - who had not stopped talking since they had left that morning - but Surka stopped. "What is wrong?" she asked, a concerned edge to her voice.
Yuffie clenched her eyes tightly shut, her jaw clenched in pain. "An old... wound," she mumbled, trying to get the streaking pain in her leg to stop.
Surka knelt beside her much younger comrade and asked to take a look. Yuffie, who wore baggy shorts, pulled the shorts up a bit to reveal a metal leg brace that Sephiroth had not noticed before. "What kind of surgery did you have?" Surka asked suddenly, eyes staring at a long thin scar in seemingly recognition.
Yuffie swallowed back the bile that had risen in her throat due to pain. "I was born with... fucked up hips. When they went to break and reset them, they fractured my thigh bone thingy... It gives me problems every now and then." She stood slowly, with the aid of Surka - who was a good six or seven inches taller than the ninja. "Just need... To walk it off."
Surka smiled encouragingly at the young ninja. "If it helps... I have seen something similar to your problem. I was twenty when I had my son. He was the most perfect child ever... But he was double-jointed in his hips. They tried to break and reset them, but fractured the same bone that you referred to. He had a similar scar from the surgery."
Yuffie looked at the woman with curious eyes. "You had a son? What was his name?"
Surka smiled sadly. "I can tell you the story while we continue, so that our general dies not get any more antsy than he already is." Sephiroth cast her a glare, to which she merely smiled and helped Yuffie walk.
"I met a man named Seri when I was sixteen. He offered me a chance to get off the streets and become something more than a gangster. I trained harder than the SOLDIER recruits, went through injections of something called MAKO, and had to prove myself by killing my former gang. I completed everything, passing the test with flying colors... But I had a small problem. The one man who I was supposed to kill, the leader of my former gang, was still alive. I couldn't kill him because I loved him too much.
"I convinced Seri that Scott would make a wonderful Turk, so he became my partner. Scott Reno was-"
"Reno?" the ninja blurted out, looking at Surka in shock. "Holy, Meteor, and icicles in Hades' nostrils! That's the name of one of the Turks! I dunno if it's his first or last name, but he goes by Reno."
Surka paused in her story to contemplate this. Had her son had a son of his own?
"It matters little," Sephiroth said. "Continue with your story, Surka."
Yuffie tossed her female comrade a grin. "Is Mr. high-And-Mighty General Sephy-kins listening too?"
He growled and glared at her, although she realized that it was not filled with nearly as much hate as he would have liked it to have been. "My name is Sephiroth, and I am listening merely to pass the time since no fiends or monsters have decided to attack us."
Surka suppressed a small smile and continued with her story. "Scott Reno was the father of my son... But he died before our son's first birthday. He went out on a suicide mission to Cosmo Canyon when the Gi Tribe attacked. He tried to prevent it, as per orders, but only died in trying. Seri had known that it was a suicide mission, that was why he had sent my beloved. He was jealous. Seri was thiry-five and I was twenty-"
"Grossness!"
Surka smiled. "That was my point exactly... But Seri wanted to try... He claimed that he was going to raise my son, Michael Reno, as his own. I did not want that... I did not want Seri... But he was my boss and... My son disappeared from the baby sitter's two nights before his third birthday... I was twenty-three... I went insane..." She got softer as she spoke. "I killed many people... I killed Seri, the president, and nearly everyone in the building. All that training that they had put me through to help them only made me stronger than them. So many of them died at my hands..."
Sephiroth could hear the regret in her voice and understood how she felt. No, he told himself sternly. You will become a god! No regrets!
"That's so sad," Yuffie said softly.
Surka nodded. "Yes, it is... But I made my choices in life. I ran to the North Crater to leap to my death... As I fell, I felt a prescence. Reina made herself known."
Poor, poor child. Your son is alive and well... He is living with a new mother. She surely can take care of him...
Who are you? Leave me alone!
You want power, else you would not have massacred those people... I can give you power... You can become a goddess...
Show me...
"I was instantly at her mercy... She healed my wounds and we travelled together for a long while. I met her twin brother, Kaiserinstics - he told me to call him Kais - and felt something that I had not felt in a long time... Hope. He tried to warn me of Reina's trickery, tried to tell me that she was not a goddess of power, but of trickery and mischief. She wanted power, but would not share it... And she led me into the recesses of my own mind, contorted everything, drove me insane, then left me here to die."
The trio fell into a contemplative silence, even the ninja having the sense to keep her mouth shut. If Surka was correct, then why had Reina chosen Sephiroth and Yuffie, of all people? Sephiroth, it was easy to see... But why the ninja girl?
"Because she possesses an innocence that Reinaistics has never before witnessed."
All three turned around and saw a man standing there, dark eyes glistening with warmth. He wore a dark blue suit with light pin-striping, his dark hair hanging loosely to his shoulders, curling at the ends in a sexy fashion - or so Yuffie thought.
"Who are you?" snarled Sephiroth, drawing the Mesamune. "Another trick of Reina's?"
The man laughed, a whole-hearted laugh that made Yuffie feel weak to her knees. "No, no, my friend. I am here to avenge myself, as well as help the three of you escape. My name is-"
"Kais!" Surka exclaimed, suddenly recognizing him.
He grinned a roguish grin and nodded. "Aye, that is me. You three are travelling to Mideel?" he asked curiously. "I can get you anywhere, but it will take as long as it would if we were within your dimension. We will still walk there, take a boat, take a plane, or whatever else." He smiled again at Surka. "It is truly wonderful to see you well, Guardian of the Night."
"Guardian of the Night?" asked both Sephiroth and Yuffie; Yuffie exclaimed it in her high-pitched voice and Sephiroth inquired lowly.
Reina punched Vincent squarely in the jaw. "I will get her, as I got Surka and Sephiroth. You will not be able to keep me from-" A pain erupted in her left shoulder and her right hand shot up to keep herself from losing too much blood. "You fucking prick!"
The mysterious man took aim and shot her again, this time in the stomach. "Leave now," he told her. "And bring back the Yuffie that I know."
She smirked wickedly at him, then crumpled into a heap upon the floor before vanishing. He watched as even the blood splatter on the wall from his shot to her shoulder disappeared. Sighing, he sat beside Yuffie, taking her hand in his. She felt cool, but no more than she had always felt.
"Please return to us soon, Lady Kisaragi..."
Please return to us soon, Lady Kisaragi...
"Did you hear that?" Yuffie blurted as they sat around a small fire - made more for food than for warmth in the middle of the day.
"Hear what?" snapped an impatient Sephiroth. He was getting worse as the day wore on. Unknown to everyone else, it was because the hormones that had not raged properly while he was a teen were surfacing and he was getting not-nice images in his mind.
Kais looked at the ninja curiously. "What did you hear, Ninja Kisaragi?"
She shook her head. "It was probably noth-"
Kais laughed his wonderful laugh once again. "Oh, Yuffie, if you heard something, it is surely something, not nothing. Now, what did you hear?"
She was unsure that his statement made real sense, but decided to tell him anyway. "I heard my friend's voice... I heard Vinnie say 'Please return to us, Lady Kisaragi...' It sounded like him, at least..."
Kais nodded slowly. "Yes, you heard correctly... But I thought that maybe you had heard something else, not your friend's voice from another dimension."
"What?" both Surka and Yuffie asked in clear disbelief.
The divine being nodded. "Oh, yes... Surka, surely you heard voices from the Life Stream, from your life, while you have been here."
Surka thought over this, debating on whether or not she had heard voices or if she had wanted to hear voices so desperately that she had made them up in her mind. After going insane once, it would not have surprised her if she was to go insane again, especially after fifty years alone in a strange world. "Yes," she admitted finally. "I heard Scott's voice many times... Even while these two practiced their skills yesterday."
Kais grinned. "Then you two will easily find a way out, although I believe Surka will go straight to the After Life in the Life Stream, due to you being here for so long. Sephiroth, however..." His dark eyes met Sephiroth's green. "You have done many evil things and have no one in your dimension to miss you right now... I do not know what I can do to help you."
Sephiroth ignored the man and continued eating his lunch. He had no one... And no one would ever miss him... He would be trapped in eternal waiting, forever living with his sins and the knowledge that he had failed... Forever living in eternal redemption...
And, worst of all, he told himself that he deserved every bit of it.
End of Chapter Three