So, here comes Vincent and Lucrecia! This one was inspired by "Through Glass" by Stone Sour. Beautiful song, I really recomend you all listen to it.

Disclaimer: FFVII belongs to Square Enix.

Love In Four Acts

Act Three: Loneliness

Vincent had no idea for how long he had been there, looking at her through the ice that kept her body exactly how it was when they first met. Houjou… That damned scientist! How could he consider his own wife as one of his cursed experiments?

If he closed his eyes, he could easily imagine she was still alive, smiling, her white smock flying behind her as she walked. He could even hear her voice and her small and restrained laugh. His imagination was so good, sometimes he couldn't even tell his delusions apart from reality.

"Do you really intend to sit here the whole day again?" Yuffie's voice reverberated through the sea cave, hurting his sensitive hearing.

"Yuffie!" now it was Tifa's voice, in an almost whispered tone, way more suiting than the ninja's tone, reprehending the young girl.

"I will not apologize!" she exploded. "Vincent, you can't live in a past that will never come back! It's been decades, you said so yourself! Stop martyrizing yourself like this, as if she would open her eyes anytime now and come back to you!"

"Yuffie, that's enough." Tifa said, this time in a firmer tone. Vincent had only seen her using that kind of tone with Cloud, when doing something really stupid, or with the children, if they had done something worth reprehending. He could only imagine that Tifa, at that moment, was seeing Yuffie as one of her children.

He couldn't help but smile at his two friend interaction.

"Vincent, we came to pick you up because we were worried about you." Tifa said, completing ignoring Yuffie's protests, saying she was being too soft with him. "Come back home with us."

Actually, he wanted to tell her he had no home. He never had, especially after that hateful scientist took away from him the one woman he really loved and turning him into an immortal creature.

"Come back where?" he asked in his velvety smooth voice.

Tifa got closer and sat beside him, also staring at the beautiful woman frozen in front of them.

"If she loved you like you love her, Vincent, she wouldn't like to know you are wasting your life to come and see her dead body every day."

He chuckled.

"It's not like I had an eventful life waiting for me outside."

Tifa sighed and put her hands on her belly. At this point on her pregnancy, it offered her great support.

"If you don't want to live for yourself, at least live for her."

Vincent closed his eyes and, once more, his imagination, adding to his memory, offered him images of his dear Lucrecia. It was better living there, imagining her, than go back to the real world, where he didn't have her in any way at all.

"She probably doesn't care about me."

Tifa bit her inferior lip, a clear sign of nervousness. In a rare moment, some years ago, Vincent had told her the sad story of how he became what he was now. It was all so tragic. Even to that day, Tifa had serious problems understanding what brought Lucrecia to choose Houjou instead of Vincent – not for their looks, but for their personalities. How could someone possibly stand to live with Houjou was something Tifa would never understand.

"She had her reasons to make her choices, but I'm sure she loved you. If she didn't love you as you wanted her to, at least she loved you like we all do."

Tifa didn't get an answer, but she wasn't waiting for one anyways. If there was someone in this world with experience on unanswered questions, this someone was definitely her.

"Oh, please." Yuffie got back on her screaming routine. "Tifa, you're being way too soft with him!"

The Strife sent a nasty look to the princess of Wutai. Considering the ninja's love experiences was near the number zero, it was understandable that she couldn't even imagine what was going on through Vincent's mind at that moment.

"Vincent." Yuffie kept saying, ignoring Tifa's looks, even though she knew she would be in trouble the minute they got out of the underwater cave. "The time to move on had already passed. Unfortunately, this body in front of you is no longer the Lucrecia you loved. Her soul is not there. It's just a frozen body. It's time for you to get out of here, know other people, fall in love again."

Tifa sighed.

"I wish I didn't have to say that, but she is right, Vincent. The Lucrecia you knew is no longer there. She is back on the Life Stream. She must be with Aerith now." And she smiled a sweet smile of nostalgia at the mention of the flower seller.

"And why you think I don't know that?" he asked in a dark tone.

With another sigh, Tifa got up and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I already said everything I came to say. If you want, come see us in Edge. We all miss you, Marlene being the one that do it most."

She walked and passed by Yuffie.

"Let's go, Yuffie."

However, the ninja girl couldn't move. Her hands were pressed in fists, anger boiling in her veins.

"I understand you've always been alone. I understand losing her to that idiot must have been the most ridiculously painful experience. But, Vincent, you can't stay here forever."

She couldn't see, since he was with his back to her, but he opened a small bitter smile.

"What do you know about it, Yuffie? I slept for years in a coffin. I can stay here for eternity, if that is what I desire."

"Idiot!" her scream echoed through all the cave, repeating itself along the stoned walls. "It's different now! I know you had no one waiting for you before, but now you have us all: me, Tifa, Cloud, Barret, Marlene, Denzel, Cid, Reeve and Nanaki! And our family just keeps getting bigger! And we all miss you, Vincent."

At this point, the girl's voice was just a whisper, which Vincent could hear solely because of his sensitive hearing.

She was really sad with that all, although he couldn't really understand why. What difference did it make in her life? Just one person less really did any difference at all?

"After everything we went through to defeat Sephiroth and all, don't we mean anything to you at all?" fighting against her tears was proving to be a battle way harder than the one she had just mentioned. "Isn't it worthy to live for us, Vincent?"

His eyes widened. He never stopped to think of it under that perspective. He had always been alone and after they went their separate ways, he just got back on being alone. But Yuffie… she was the only one opposing their separation, wasn't she? And she had never been alone. All her life she had a family loving and caring for her as the princess she was. All the others knew solitude well, so that Tifa didn't insist on her asking for him to leave the cave. But Yuffie never knew and would never know what it was like to be completely alone. No one liked loneliness, but Yuffie didn't even know how it was.

However, one way or another, she was right, wasn't she? Admiring Lucrecia's lifeless body wouldn't bring her back. And even if he could, he wasn't the one she chose when she was alive. Maybe it was time for him to lock her in his best memories and live the life he had so far declined.

Getting up, he passed through Yuffie without saying a word. He didn't have to say anything in order for her to understand that, for the first time ever, she was able to make the antisocial Vicent change his mind.

Opening a huge smile, she followed him outside, heading for the submarine where Tifa was already waiting for them for the past couple of minutes.

At the end of the cave, two ethereal figures watched the scene with matching smiles on their lips.

"How good, right, Lucrecia?" the girl's voice was sweet and gentle.

"Yes." Lucrecia answered smiling. "His heart will finally be healed."

Holding hands, the two figures disappeared into the darkness.