In the eyes of a demon.

Vincent's story.

Summary: The Final Fantasy gang are back in this cryptic tale of evil and deceit. Find out the true side of Vincent and the real secrets which lie beyond the walls of the crater. Please read and review, and be nice this is my first story.

Disclaimer: I do not own final fantasy from 7-9 or any of its characters.

Chapter 1

Realisations

It was dark in the forest, but Vincent didn't mind. He was like a shadow himself, slowly making his way through the trees.

As he came to an opening in that enchanted forest, he stopped, dead in his footsteps. As he stood there, a flash lighted up in front of him. He collapsed and there was darkness until he rose and stood on his feet. There in front of him he saw visions of the past of the forest itself, visions of destruction and chaos, monstrous beings, not unlike his own demons, sprouted out from the ground.

In an instant, the vision was gone and all was normal, he was back in the forest. Atop a ledge. 'The visions are back' he thought as he trembled and fell to his knees, tears now streaming down his pale white face for the first time in years, "how…..how did this happen?" he mumbled, the tears never stopping. He looked up and behind him, at the vast forest surrounding his lone hunched figure. He turned back at the emptiness of the ledges edge ahead of him and slowly rose to his feet. He sighed and silently made his way towards the tip of the ledge and peered over, the tears now stemmed.

"What happened here?" he murmured.

Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, a search party was taking place.

Cloud Strife, former SOLDIER, stood at the centre of a small group. He sighed an exasperated sigh and shook his head, "we will have to go look for Vincent, he's been too long out there already."

"Wonder where he went…." Aeris, a frail looking girl with emerald eyes and long hair tied in a braid, mumbled, fumbling with her dress.

Tifa, who was the opposite of Aeris by looks, as she had longer darker hair and a much more fuller figure. She was also a fighter and a martial arts specialist. She giggled, "he's probably sulking off somewhere," more giggles, "you know how 'dark and mysterious' he can be."

Aeris opened her mouth to reply but no sound came out, she was mesmerised by a white light shining in the depth of the forest.

"Watcha lookin' at? Barret asked Aeris, his voice gravely yet held a soft tone. He was huge in stature, his muscles rippling with every movement. He had dark skin and shortly cut hair. The only thing distinct was his formidable machine gun, grafted onto his right arm. His hardened face turns into a look of confusion when he gets no answer.

Aeris slowly steps away from the group and starts walking towards the light. Her walking turned into a run. Cloud immediately tried to run after her until a hand shot up in front of him, it was Tifa, "she needs to do this on her own. I feel it, she will be safe."

"Yeh! Let the chick have her fun for a while I'm #+ing beat!" exclaimed cid, taking a puff of his cigarette. This was the 'pilot' the group had acquired on their first mission. He had dusty blonde hair, cut slightly longer than Barret's and wore goggles on his forehead. He was built but not as much as Cloud or Barret. He sighed and headed back towards the massive airship, the Highwind, "let me know when you find that asshole Vincent yeah?" and he disappeared up the ladder.

Cloud thought for a moment I can't just let her go, can I? He looked around the group of people left, "ok we will stay here and keep guard until she comes back," then, reluctantly, he stepped back and sat next to Nanaki. He was feline in appearance, with fire red fur. His one eye glistened and showed wisdom beyond his age, whilst the other remained half closed, milky with blindness, and I slight scar across the lids. He was also very large. He said, with a tone of boredom, "maybe she found Vincent? He will keep her safe."

"I hope so…" Tifa whispered, barely audible as she looked sadly towards the direction Aeris had run to.

Finally, Aeris found where the light was coming from. She surveyed the area with awe. "Wow…" she commented, her voice broke at the beauty of her surroundings. There in front of her was a pool glistening in the moonlight. It was a mako pool, greenish blue in colour. A small rock waterfall trickled down towards, not steep, but still the liquid flowed as if falling from a great height.

She crept closer and peered into the pool. She saw her distorted reflection and laughed to herself. She reached a slender hand out and gently touched it with the tips of her fingers, creating gentle ripples.

Slowly she started to sway with motion of the waves, the voices of dead souls, held within the enchanted waters, filled her mind as the water dripped off her fingers. Her eyes glistened and shone with understanding, she must perform the sending, she was an ancient and needed to seal the souls held here. She stood and slowly took off her brown combat boots. She lifted her long pink dress and stepped into the shallow pool.

She waded to the centre and shivered a little at the cool feeling tingling through her body. She lifted her arm into an arc above her head and began to pray in the language known only to her race. Slowly she began to rise out of the water. Her hair broke free of its band and sprayed out behind her. As she surfaced and stood above the pool, her dress fanned out and she crossed her arms over her chest. She closed her eyes as a wall of mako swirled around her, the glowing spirits mixing within its depths. She opened her arms and her eyes and a light shone bright from the amulet around her neck. The light shot into the sky, like a beam of sunlight. Then it slowly faded.

The water subsided and Aeris drifted across the water, her figure slumped, eyes closed. She slowly fell onto the bank of the pool. She had passed out with exhaustion. She lay there sleeping; the pool still glistened and shone, giving an eerie look to the once beautiful waterfall of souls.

"She sure is taking her time," Nanaki complained, yawning, "wonder what is taking her so long." He stretched and stood up getting more alert.

"I'm gona go see if Cid needs a hand with the ship," Barret grumbled, knowing he would be left out of the search because of his size and stature.

Cloud nodded, "something is wrong," a cold leader-like tone was in his voice, "I knew I….we shouldn't have let her go alone."

Tifa nodded in agreement, "we should go look for her, it was my fault she went alone on the first place."

"Do not blame yourself, Tifa, we were all to blame," Nanaki explained as he trotted ahead, "I will lead the way."

And so the group of three made their way through the overgrowth.

Finally, with Nanaki's keen sense of smell, they found where the light was coming from. Then they saw Aeris, sprawled out on the bank. "Aeris!" they all cried. Cloud raced over to her, "Aeris wake up, please wake up!" he knelt down and lay her on his lap. He shook her gently and felt her heartbeat, "she's alive," he breathed, a look of relief on his pale face.

Tifa came over holding a green glowing orb, "it's cure material," she explained, "I've mastered it so it should work," a look of doubt quickly crossed her face but she looked away and passed it to Cloud regardless.

"Well we won't know until we try," Cloud replied. He took the material and held it close to his chest, then he started to pray. A bright greenish glow started to seep out from the orb and blanket itself over Aeris's body. After this, it started to sparkle, "cure!" he shouted and the green glow merged with Aeris and sparkled into nothingness.

Slowly, Aeris stirred, "huh? Wh…. What's going on?" she sat up and, realising she was still in Cloud's arms, shot up onto her feet, her face red with embarrassment, "oh ummm….why are you all here?"

"you were gone a long time, so we decided to see what you were doing," Nanaki informed her, "Cloud got worried," he chuckled a bit at this, but soon stopped when Cloud gave him a cold glare.

"Anyway….did you find Vincent?" Cloud asked.

"No," came the simple answer, "I found this pretty little pool though. But while is was looking into it, strange things happened. It felt like the souls of the planet themselves were here, the souls of the Cetra."

"The Cetra…" Cloud murmured, "did they say anything?"

"yes," Aeris continued, "they told me to perform the sending."

"Sending?" Tifa looked confused.

"The sending is the ritual done to depart the souls trapped in this world to the lifestream deep within the Earths core," Nanaki explained, "my grandpa told me a lot about this when he was alive."

Aeris nodded slightly, " they also told me stories of the past, stories of the pain they have suffered, the endless fighting that occurred here until the downfall of a great Lord."

"Great Lord? Sephiroth?" Cloud asked.

Aeris shook her head, "they would not speak his name, they simply disappeared in the sending."

Cloud also shook his head, a look of confusion on his face, "this is too much for us to even begin to understand. We should look for Vincent. Hopefully we will make it back before dawn."

They all nodded in agreement and headed back into the woods.

Aeris looked back, "the Cetra, were here?" she whispered.

Slowly the small group made their way through the trees. The way seemed to get more difficult the further they went. Nanaki grunted from time to time as the lower branches kept scratching him.

Finally they reached a ledge. A lone figure stood at the far side. Tall in stature, with black clothing and a long crimson cape which covered the lower half of his face. A golden claw covered his left hand and forearm. His raven hair flowed like a black stream down his back. Vincent had his back to them, seemingly staring off into the distance. Hearing them approach, he turned to face them. His tear stained face showed the despair he felt. His crimson eyes were filled with sorrow.

Aeris approached him cautiously and spoke gently, "Vincent….are you ok?" He stood there, motionless. "Vincent?" She asked again, a worried tone in her voice.

Finally he spoke, "what are you doing here?" his tone was ice cold. It froze Aeris where she stood. He turned to face the others, "well? What are you doing here?" his voice sounding more annoyed, "Can't you see I would rather be alone?" he turned away from them and continued his silent brooding.

Fuming, Tifa went to wrench him back to turn to them, but Cloud stopped her, "Vincent," he began, his voice showed more authority, "what's going on? Why have you been gone so long? What exactly have you been doing all this time?"

Vincent sighed to himself They will not cease their relentless questions. I must answer. He answered in his usual calm tone, "Must you continue to question me? I grow bored of this."

Authors note: Woohoo first chapter up, yay! Sorry it's a bit long but hey theres a lot to write lol. Please read and review!