Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy seven, or any of its affiliations. I'm just a sad, sad little fan girl.

I

AN: Worked out the clue? Let's get this game rolling!

Also, I know I'm slower than anything to update. I blame Uni and my social life. But from now on, I'm REALLY gonna try! And if you want me to write more, then you should check out my friend Lykania's fics to motivate me ;)

Chapter Thirteen

Here is where my true heart lies,

Where the loves I had each fell upon earth

From the heavens above.

Rays of light shine in on me,

And feed the blooming love in my heart.

Yuffie shook her head, and sighed. Of course Vincent would have her compete against him in such a stupid race. If it were a matter of swiftness and agility, Yuffie may have stood a chance. Vincent may be smooth and silent, but she was the Great Ninja Yuffie, after all.

However, her gut fell as she examined the paper multiple times, looking for some hint as to what the small poem meant. In a battle of wits, she stood no chance. As a child, she was always ignoring lessons as they were taught to her, her only thoughts pertaining to restoring her country to how it was any physical way she could; she never had been good at using her head, and never would be.

As Yuffie wept silently to herself, a headache settling in from straining her limited thinking capacity, Tifa watched on sadly. Cloud had left shortly after Vincent had stridden off, and Tifa had been waiting for Yuffie to leave for the last hour. Unfortunately, it appeared the clueless little ninja couldn't even begin the race on her own, let alone be in any sort of competition with Vincent. If she knew anything about Vincent Valentine, whom she actually knew a quite a bit about, Tifa was almost certain he has onto at least the third clue by then.

Sighing and looking around sneakily, Tifa shuffled over to where Yuffie had thrown herself face first onto the hard ground that encompassed the city of Edge. As she neared the younger girl, she could hear her sniffing quiet tears, which hardened Tifa's resolve to help the girl out, at least a little bit.

"Yuffie, is it that hard?" Tifa asked softly, crouching beside her. Yuffie peeked up from the ground, dirt and tears mixed together as they silently rolled down her cheeks. She nodded, and promptly buried her head back into the earth in front of her. Though a lot of construction had taken place and roads were slowly springing about the city, there were many patches of rough soil and dirt, and Yuffie was destroying her clothes in the only patch available near Tifa's bar. Tifa leaned forward and brushed some of the short chocolate hair that had fallen from forward to cover Yuffie's face, and gently tugged it behind her ear, leaning in to whisper "the poem was about a sweet girl we used to know."

As if on fire, Yuffie jumped up, knocking a surprised Tifa onto her backside as she clumsily galloped off, taking a few moments to properly gain her stride as she sprinted down the side streets of Edge toward the deserted city of Midgar. She didn't even turn around to thank or apologise to the barmaid, Yuffie was so ecstatic to have some form of direction.

As soon as Tifa had told her that hint, she remembered a story the spiky-haired chocobo styled Cloud had told her, about how he, and her previous boyfriend, had met Aeris, the beautiful and serene flower girl. They'd both fallen through the ceiling of her church, where she grew the only flowers known to the slums of Midgar. Yuffie chortled to herself as she raced through the different sectors of Midgar, pleased that she may have a shot of beating Vincent at his own games, completely ignoring the fact that she would have no chance if Tifa hadn't broken the rules.

As she raced up the steps of the Sector 5 church, she shoulder the door open before skidding to a stop just within the doors insides. The scent of lilies hit her before she could collect her thoughts, and her knees felt weak.

Since the day that Aeris died, Yuffie had carefully avoided the lake they had laid her to rest, and had tried even harder to resist the church that the beautiful maiden had once called sanctuary, only entering once between her death and now. This was because the mere thought of the young woman made tears well up in the corners of Yuffie's eyes, and she never wanted anyone to see again just how much her death hurt Yuffie. Without realising it, Yuffie played with the pink ribbon tied around her left arm, and lightly made her way down the church aisle, salty tears trickling her pale cheeks. As she reached the edge of the pool of water that still remained from when the Geostigma swept the land, she crouched down, lazily running her fingers through the water, a sad smile teasing the corners of her mouth.

As she basked in the serenity of the place and her own fragile thoughts, Yuffie was unaware of anything else that surrounded her until a flitting shadow passed the corner of her vision.

Her training kicked in and she rolled across the floor, before pushing up onto her hands and flipped forward, her back toward a pillar as she scanned the room, whipping her shuriken from its restraints across her back.

The room was still and silent as Yuffie breathed rapidly, shifting her weight from either foot, ready to dodge any attack that came her way. After a few minutes of silence, Yuffie breathed in relief, relaxing against the pillar as the feeling of paranoia subsided. As she prepared herself to hunt for the next clue, a tingly feeling swept up Yuffie's shoulder. She glanced down, raising her hand to brush off a bug only to discover a cold, bony dead hand resting upon her. Screaming, Yuffie, swatted at the hand, fear pulsating throughout her body. Rooted to the spot with fear, she couldn't run as she smacked at the hand, whimpers of fear escaping her, her heart rate accelerating until it felt as if it would explode. Slowly, as Yuffie urged her body to move, the hand crept forward and a body began to emerge from around the pillar. Wisps of dark, frazzled hair caressed the bones of an arm, and a pink, bloodstained dress pressed up against Yuffie's thigh before she willed herself to look up into the darkness of what used to be the emerald green eyes of Aeris.

A cheep of fear slipped Yuffie's lips as she slipped backward, smacking her head on the pew. The corpse crept across the floor; Yuffie could hear the shuffle, disjointed steps.

The hand grabbed onto Yuffie's calf as she lay paralysed in fear. Without meaning to, she burst into tears and screamed hysterically in fear. The hand shook as it clasped her leg and as her screams subsided due to a lack of air, she heard a low, sultry rumbling that sounded suspiciously like the rare laughter of a certain delectable gunman. Yuffie felt the heat of unshakable embarrassment spread up her cheeks as Vincent burst into peals of laughter, and a mixture of anger and fear trailed the fragile beat of her heart.

As she burned in a mixture of emotions, the gunman leaned down, and tugged the small girl to her feet, grabbing her and holding her against him as her knees let her down. He swiftly lifted her and placed her on the front pew that she knocked, and sat down beside her.

"I'm sorry," Vincent told Yuffie, laughter still etched upon his soft lips. Tears still littered Yuffie's face as she sniffled slightly and Vincent's hand automatically reached up to caress her cheek. Yuffie stared into his crimson eyes, unable to breathe as the fingers of his right hand gently trailed the curve of her jawbone. Vincent dropped his hand as suddenly as he had lifted it, and stood up. He dropped a piece of paper on Yuffie's lap, turning his head away from her.

"I'm sorry...for scaring you. I forgot how close you were to her," he mumbled softly, before sweeping off toward the exit. He called over his shoulder, "and though I may be sorry, it doesn't mean I'm going to let you keep up anymore. I had my fun, now I'm going to be serious." With that, he was gone again, and Yuffie was alone, the fake Aeris prop lying across the floor in front of her, mocking her.

After taking several calming breaths, Yuffie got to her feet, and settled the Aeris skeleton on the pew, as a way of showing affection for the deceased flower girl. After carefully straightening the prop, Yuffie snatched the crumbled piece of paper from beside her, and hurriedly unravelled it.

Yuffie nodded to herself and ran from the church, accidently dropping the note as she left. The clue dropped gently onto the lap of the Aeris skeleton as Yuffie gently shut the church door behind her, and all was silent in Aeris' church once again.

Sheltered from the worst,

But kept from the people that matter

This is the place that kept

A little girl safe,

Thanks to the flower lady.