Disclaimer: I think you all should know by now.

Note: I'm so very sorry it took me this long to get this chapter up. Seriously I have tons of things going on right now. I had OGTs (Ohio Graduation Tests) this past week and I've sort of neglected this chapter. I'll tell you now, this was not an easy chapter to write, I think I struggled with it for a good three weeks. But, no matter. I should stop making excuses and let you guys read, huh?

Crawling in the Dark

/I will dedicate/And sacrifice my everything for just a second's worth/Of how my story's endingAnd I wish I could know if the directions that I take/And all the choices that I make won't end up all for nothing/Show me what it's for/Make me understand it/I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer/Is there something more than what i've been handed/I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer/Help me carry on/Assure me it's ok to use my heart and not my eyes/To navigate the darkness/Will the ending be ever coming suddenly/Will I ever get to see the ending to my story/Show me what it's for/Make me understand it/I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer/Is there something more than what i've been handed/I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer/So when and how will I know/How much further do I have to go/How much longer until I finally know/Because I'm looking and I just can't see what's in front of me/In front of me/Show me what it's for/Make me understand it/I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer/Is there something more than what i've been handed/I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer/ -Hoobastank


The farther Tifa found herself following the younger two in front of her, the more anxious she became. The forest around her seemed to be closing in, the trees making dark shadows on everything in their path. She found herself flipping around to look behind her more than she normally would. Even the journey to defeat Sephiroth had not made her this agitated. She wondered vaguely what was so much different now.

"No one is following us, so you can relax." Vincent said over his shoulder after he observed her looking around frightened for the fifth time. Her eyes snapped to his own when she heard his cold voice.

She was more than a little surprised to see a slight smirk on his face, knowing the older version of the man would not have had such an expression on his face. She found herself liking the smile a little too much. Blushing in embarrassment of both acting like a fool and thinking of the teenaged Vincent, she turned her face away from his quickly. Instead she focused on her own body.

She noticed right away that something was missing. Creasing her brow in confusion, she brought her arms closer to her disbelieving eyes. One run of her fingers over the smooth flesh of her forearm confirmed her thoughts. Her scars were gone. Where angry jagged inflamed flesh had just been, was creamy soft skin. She found herself smiling at the thought that it could be real, but the grin was short-lived.

The scars that she had had should not have heeled that quickly. In fact, she was pretty sure some of them would not heel at all. So why was she looking at her unflawed forearm instead of a marker of her hardships.

"Vincent," she said quietly while moving closer to the teen, "where exactly are we?"

He looked down at her in disbelief. His eyes gleaming in the sunset. Something was different about them, she noted, but wasn't about to search for a reason.

"La Foret D'armes." He said after a while. "The Forest of Souls."

He kept walking, Tifa following close at his side. The younger Tifa had long since run ahead of them. Skipping on her little legs, she stopped only when Vincent told her not to get too far. He did that very thing then and turned to the twenty-year-old fully.

"I know you don't understand at the moment, but it will all make sense when he tells you." Vincent said. He looked worriedly to the younger version of the girl standing beside him. "Just a warning though," he continued, "don't always believe what he tells you."

"I'm never going to understand, until you tell me who this person is though." She replied

He smirked knowingly, making Tifa's stomach churn with desire again. If only the Vincent from her own world would do that sometime. She found herself drawing closer to the younger man. She knew this was wrong, but he wasn't backing away. In fact, he reached out and wrapped a slender hand on her side, pulling her closer. The smirk never left his face.

"Vincent!"

Tifa was pulled from her thoughts abruptly when she heard the young man's name being called by a tiny voice. Vincent chuckled just once, almost rolling his eyes at her, and turned to find his younger friend far away from the two of them. Instantly his expression changed.

"Tifa!" He shouted frighteningly. He walked furiously in the little girl's direction. "Tifa, what did I tell you about running off!"

The smallest of the three of them shrieked in mock surprise when Vincent caught up with her and threw her over his shoulder. She hung upside-down for a while, then lifted her head to look at the older woman's face with a broad smile.

It was the woman's turn to smirk now. She loved the way her two leaders reacted toward each other. They were just like brother and sister. The older sibling constantly watching out for the younger one who always found trouble.

"Vincent," young Tifa said when they had resumed walking again.

"Yes," was his monosyllabic response.

"Can I pick some more flowers?"

"No," again with the simplistic answers. He was on a roll with them.

"Please?" It seemed the little girl would not give up in a hurry.

Vincent set her down finally and bent to her level. She had a look of a lost puppy dog, and it appeared to be working on him. He sighed heavily.

"For a little while. Only a few minutes, okay. We've got to get going--" He didn't even have to finish his sentence before the little girl was running in the opposite direction.

"Don't run off too far." He reminded her once more, watching her retreating form climb a grassy hill.

"You seem to care for her very much." The older woman said, coming to a stop beside him. He looked to her and then away again. Tifa wondered if she'd said something wrong.

"She's all I have." He replied sincerely. He walked a few paces ahead of her, only to look over his shoulder to whisper, "don't listen."

"What?" Tifa asked, not quite sure if she had really heard the words leave his mouth.

"When we get to our destination, there will be someone. He will give you a lot of information, a lot of things you need to know about us. I just ask that you keep an opened mind. If it doesn't sound like a good idea, then it isn't. There is not a possibility to that statement. If you feel it's not a good choice, then it isn't."

"Oh, so now you're going to tell me something about this guy that we're going to see. I'm surprised. The Vincent I know would've taken the information to his grave. You sure grew up since your teen years." She giggled at her joke, but with another look at the man standing in front of her, she thought better of making such comments.

"You have to promise me something." He rounded on her now, his expression grave.

"Why do I have the feeling this is going to be difficult?" She was getting nervous at his sudden seriousness.

"Please."

The word had slipped through his mouth in such a fashion, Tifa was sure she was hearing things. The wind must have been playing tricks on her ears.

"Okay." She answered anyway.

"Promise me that you will not stay here," he began, "that no matter how appealing he makes it to you, you will not stay. You will go back to your time, to your body, to your Vincent. You will not be protected here if he is not with you. I cannot be your guardian as well as your younger self's."

"Vincent…"

"No," he said cutting her off, "no you said you'd promise."

"I do." She had never seen Vincent, younger or older, as excited as he was now. Not only was it abnormal, but also a little scary. She had a feeling this went beyond what he was telling her.

"You promise?" He asked hopefully and seemed to shrink a little when she nodded an affirmative.

"But, Vincent…" She said, taking a step forward, "what is this really about?"

He sighed heavily, giving in to her just as quickly as he'd given in to her younger self. He motioned to the girl on the hill and Tifa followed his hand to see her happily picking some yellow and white flowers, humming some old song to herself. Tifa remembered spending hours making up her own tunes when she was younger.

"If you stay," Vincent said softly, "she'll leave. She'll have to leave."

He turned worried eyes to the woman standing beside him. "She's all I have."

Tifa's brow creased in confusion. Everything she'd learned that day just seemed to be adding up and filling her to the max. She was afraid she might burst soon, from lack of options on what to do with her newfound knowledge. She turned back to the teenaged Vincent. Never before now had she noticed how very childlike he still was. The thought of being alone completely undoing him. His gaze found hers once more.

"What are you?" She asked in a barely audible whisper.

He didn't answer right away, and for the first time that day she realized what was so different about this Vincent and the one she knew from another time.

His eyes were still an innocent honey-brown.

Note: Well? I hope you all liked it. Seriously, I put a lot of thought into this chapter, and I still ended it on a cliffy. I should see you all soon. Love you all and love your reviews! You guys are the reason I keep going. I've got a plot worked out in my head, but knowing me, I'll end up making this thing really long and elaborate on a lot. If you can't already tell, it's almost impossible for me to write a short story. English class killed me this year.

Ayumi