Disclaimer: I don't own any of the ff7 stuff. If I did, I'd make it a Vincent/Tifa . or! OR! Make Reno a bigger character!!! –ahem- yes.

Okay, so far, some people got confused I guess. Like in my characters, they don't like the way I portray Vincent. Or Chaos. I'll try to make some adjustments =) because I love you people. Uhh, plus I'm just wondering. I could make this a shorter fanfic or I could make it like a LONG one; I personally think the longer one would be better but it's up to you. If you wouldn't mind a longer story then woo-hoo, but if you'd prefer a short and sweet story. Inform me… please. =)

Like… before I told you about this guy that I fell for and then stopped talking to me, remember that? Well guess what? My friend who's totally infatuated with this guy now hates him because she says he lies and stuff. But then her reasons aren't that strong, but her life not mine. I still love her =) but she told me that he got a girlfriend, which was like 'yes, let's just stick hand in here and rip heart out. What's holding it in? Oh, look. It's hope, let's just beat that over the head with a spikey mace.' but she doesn't know I'm completely into him too so she keeps trashing him. –sigh- and I actually dated this guy before, but at that time I was young(I was 12 and now I'm 13, not much of a change but I grew up more XD) and I wasn't really ready for such a relationship and now I've lost my chance and I'm overwhelmed by regret. Yeah. Pathetically depressing but that's my life. =) I'll still write and smile, don't worry. Story time, eh?

Newly Found Faith

Their pace was leisurely, not in a hurry, towards the man's house. Nanaki conversed happily with Tifa, he spoke fondly of his life in Cosmo Canyon. Cid walked aimlessly, staring down at the small slip of paper that held the man's address. Vincent tried his best to ignore the odd glances that he was attracting from pedestrians.

"Alright, I don't give a shit where this guy's fucking house is anymore!" Frustrated and stressed, the smoking pilot began a temper tantrum, screaming obscenities and stomping his feet. In the midst of it, he dropped the directions, in which Vincent picked up and began to lead. Only a few minutes later, the vampire-like man led them to a small house, the address matched the one on the parchment. Seemingly embarrassed, Cid shoved passed Vincent and banged on the door.

A man with spectacles the size of a fist answered the door, his physique was puny and his hair was gray with stress and stuck out in a nest-like mess. He wore a white lab coat that, surprise surprise, was misbuttoned.

"H-Hello." His voice was eerily like of Hojo's. The vileness of a rat's but deep with mistrust.

"I called earlier, fuck, your house is hard to fucking find. Anyways, we're the ones searching for something?" Still bitter about being out-shined by Vincent, Cid took control of the speaking as they entered the living area of the quaint home.

"A-ah, Y-yes. C-come in." He moved, allowing them to enter. "M-my name is Fong. I m-mean B-Ben! Ben F-Fong."

"I'm C-C-Cid." The aerial navigator mocked but a sharp slap from Tifa set him straight. "Ouch! Alright, fine. The fucking broad that just slapped me is Tifa, the bastard over there's Vincent. And that's Nanaki."

"W-well. Uh. T-that is, um. I understand y-your looking for a p-particular… thing?" Ben seemed very fidgety; overly nervous.

"Not thing. A person." Narrowing his eyes at the squirmy man, Vincent also received a smack from Tifa. Her glare expressed 'be nice'.

"O-of c-c-course! I, uh, I apo-apo-apologize!" Mr. Fong shrank into a minute form under the tall, dark and handsome man's simple glare. Turning away from the frightening guests, Ben left them in the living room as he headed into another room. When he returned, in his feeble hands was a huge book that it looked centuries old. On the front, gold letters of some sort were scratched into the odd looking material.

"This… um… s-should help y-you. It c-contains many s-spells, um, f-for searching… yeah." As he talked, Nanaki studied the heavy book, outwardly curious of its origin.

"Where did you find this…?"

"I- my- this… um. I-it, uh, y-you see, uh." Fong's stutters made it impossible to figure out what he was trying to say.

"Pardon?" Tifa's voice was soothing and encouraging, managing to calm the twitchy man.

"M-my colleague, h-he gave it t-to me." Readjusting his glasses, his gave them a nervous look.

"What does the book do?" Nanaki sounded more understanding than the rest but a tinge of annoyance was still evident. "Where did he find it?"

"…"

"Come on! Talk! It not that hard!" Cid was the first to finally have enough of the man's constant stuttering.

"I, um,"

"Come! On! I don't have all fucking day!"

"It's from the Chronos Temple." This time, his voice a low, confident undertone, as if positive of what he spoke.

"The thing's from a temple; a fucking temple. Why are you scared of a fucking book from a fucking temple?!"

"I-It's from t-the temple o-of destruction; Chronos."(a/n not CHRONO cross chrono, but chrono is the name of the Saturn's god. I like saturn... don't know why.)

"Oh, man, are you trying to fuck with me?!" The smoker waved his hands in disbelief, "The Temple of Kracno!"

"…C-Chronos."

Tifa stuck out a hand to keep Cid's ever-flaring anger from touching the bumbling man. "Now, Ben, explain."

All eyes now lay on the frail man. Tifa stood in front of him, behind her was Cid. To his left was Nanaki. To his right was Vincent, stoic and unyielding.

"L-Last year. I-I found it. It h-had all this d-dark stuff in it. B-blood!" He gestured towards it, over Nanaki's shoulder. Vincent left his place and flipped through the book; his eyes widened, the ancient inscriptions within it spoke of the Lifestream, life and death, and all of their boundaries. Most of the spells were for Resurrection or Crossing Into The Lifestream; meaning that the choices of spells were to bring the dead back onto the Planet from the Lifestream or sending the living into the Lifestream from the Planet. It also had many searching spells, mostly for 'souls'. The main ingredient in these spells was blood, definitely dark.

"What's it have inside, Vin?" Cid broke Vincent from his trance with his newly acclaimed nickname. Blinking twice before realizing that the hateful pilot now wore a favorable grin. At least he doesn't hate me as much anymore.

"Lifestream." Unable to break free from his habit of speaking in a monotone, the ex-Turk sounded plain. Lucretia, I can bring you back. Like a bucket under a faucet, hope drained into Vincent. Thoughts zoomed back and forth inside his brain.

"T-The hieroglyphs told o-of, um. Y-You can't m-meddle in those k-kind of a-affairs! Use it f-for searching, a-alright but n-none of the l-life things!"

"I will do as I like." From hopeful, Vince's eyes turned bone chilling towards Ben. Picking up the book, he began to leave. Tifa shot Cid and Nanaki a desperate look before running to catch up to the cold ex-killer.

"Hey, don't you think that was a little harsh? I mean, he was just freaked out. That book has some powerful stuff in it." Tifa defended Ben's name but all of her words crashed and burned at Vincent's deaf ears; his mind was whirling, every one of his thoughts were fueled by Lucretia.

Cid and Nanaki soon caught up with re-enforcing questions but soon noticed the glint in his eye and knew he was beyond reach, if he was to zone back in to reality, it'd be on his own. They decided to leave him with the book and his musings. Vincent's mind was whirling; Lucretia fueled every one of his thoughts.

The gusts shook her hair out of their place; Tifa Lockheart stood on the deck of the Highwind. Cid had chosen to join in their expedition but of course with his wife by his side, so they headed to Rocket town. Nanaki was inside with Vincent, looking for a suitable spell that didn't involve a fatal sacrifice.

"What about that one?"

"Uhh… Essence of Cetra. I don't think we'll be getting our hands on that very easily." The red creature gave Vincent a pitiful look; he was so dead set on finding the perfect spell.

Flip. Flip. The sound of riffling of pages echoed deep into the night. Everyone was slumbering but Vincent; nothing would coax him to sleep. But the mixture of Chaos and reading had pushed him in a nightmare-filled realm.

His world shook, but it wasn't painful.

"Vince. Wake up!" Was it the angel of his nightmare? No. It was Tifa's. His eyes drifted slowly open, his head lay on its side against the open pages of the book.

Her giggle was angelic. "Vince, maybe you shouldn't wake up. You look exhausted. Here, let's see."

Before he could move she whipped the block of pages from under his head and his skull felt the effects of gravity and plunked down onto the wooden table… hard. She leafed through it quickly but stopped abruptly.

"Hey… how about this one? The things we need don't sound that hard but… I've never heard of most of them." Holding it at his face, he skimmed the page. There it was. The spell that they needed. Right. There.