Note: After weeks of careful consideration, I have changed my mind...again.

I originally said that I wasn't going to finish the story with just this one chapter, but I've worked it out so that it will all fit in to this one chapter.

So, without any further ado, the final chapter in Baroquen Heart.

Chapter 15- The Plan

...At the most inopportune time, he came...

Yuffie and Vincent were sitting in the kitchen, eating breakfast at the precise time in which Yuffie was to be 'taken up'.

"So, Yuffie, how are you feeling this morning?"

"He's coming."

"I know. You've been saying that every morning. It's like you've been brainwashed or something."

"Maybe. My brain needed a good scrub."

"Whatever. I'm going to the bathroom."

After completing his 'business', Vincent walked back into the kitchen.

He instantly jumped back and gasped for his breath.

Kadaj was standing behind Yuffie, placing his hands on her shoulders.

Yuffie was beginning to levitate off of the ground.

As Yuffie lifted her face in order to talk to Vincent, the eerie voice of Kadaj escaped from her throat.

"Have you seen this before, Vince? Deja Vu?"

Vincent simply uttered one word:

"...Lucretia."

She too had been with child...and used as an experiment.

"What are you going to do with Yuffie?!"

Kadaj smiled at Vince and replied, "All that needs to be done is an aiding of the natural process. She could not handle this on her own. She's so lucky that we're here to help."

"Yuffie has more strength and will power than you and all of your brothers combined."

"Not anymore."

Yuffie was whisked away, into the air.

Vincent was left behind in the kitchen, alone.

_____________________________________________________

Once Kadaj had returned to his base in the Forgotten City, Loz and Yazoo greeted him less than warmly.

"It's about time you got here.", Loz exclaimed.

Yazoo chirped in, "She is ripe...not long before the plucking."

The spell that had been cast on Yuffie's head was beginning to wear off, and she was understand more of their conversation.

"Hey, wha...what's going on?! What are you doing to me? I want to go home!"

"Oh great.", Kadaj mused. "Now the spell is wearing off. Let's cast it again."

"Can't.", Loz replied. "We used all of our Magic Points with that grand entrance."

"Darn."

Within this strange place, Yuffie felt compelled to check herself to make sure that she was all in one piece. Everything appeared fine. She didn't hurt anywhere, and her pregnant belly still looked as big as a beachball.

Yazoo carefully approached Yuffie and asked, "How far along are you? You appear fit to burst."

"I'm due in a week!"

"Oops.", Kadaj muttered.

Loz countered, "Oops? What oops? What's wrong?"

"She's too far along. It won't work."

"What won't work?" Yuffie queried.

Yazoo covered Yuffie's eyes with his arm and whispered, "We'll show you."

_______________________________________________

...White room...

...darkness in the light...

Yuffie was visibly smaller than before. Based on the fact that her belly now appeared only as big as a volleyball, she mused that this must be a representation of her 6th month, or thereabouts.

The only problem was...representations aren't supposed to hurt this much.

The brothers were still here. Their voices could still be heard, although Yuffie no longer cared to identify which voice belonged to whom.

"The patient is ready. I need the tiny camera."

Yuffie suddenly noticed that she was bare on an operating table, stripped in front of the three brothers.

"Ready to insert camera."

Yuffie couldn't help but giggle when the camera was placed inside of her. It tickled, but she wouldn't dare look at the screen.

"Right there. That's it."

"Gross."

"If it disgusts you, then you can cry home to mommy."

"I'm not crying!"

"Enough. I need the tube."

Yuffie grimaced as a tube was placed far inside of her, straight through to the baby itself.

"Hit the switch."

Yuffie instantly screamed and cried out, not in pain, but in fear for her child. Tears streamed down her face as the dangerous Mako was injected into her system.

The room suddenly went black, and everything was placed in its rightful order.

________________________________________________

...A dusty backroad...

...much more real than before...

...flat as an ironing board...

Yuffie and Vincent stood, far apart, at opposite ends of a small dirt road in the city limits of Wutai.

For some reason, Yuffie could easily believe that this was the real scenario for the moment. She wasn't giving birth. She wasn't being injected.

Yuffie was simply another butt that got stuffed in some shorts.

Normal.

Vincent was everything that he was supposed to be. The cape flapping in the wind...the calm demeanor...baby Hunter in his arms.

My mind still felt tampered with, and for some odd reason, I was shy and ashamed of Vincent. His first statement proved why.

"So, it's a...what do they call it?"

"A phantom pregnancy. Pseudocyesis."

"But for Kadaj? Why dream of him?"

"I have no idea. Vince, I'm so ashamed. What if it happens again?"

"The doctor said you were fine."

"It feels like we're hardly even married anymore."

"Nonsense. But I know what you mean."

"Sometimes I cry."

"I know. I'm there. Does my ring burn your finger?"

"Sometimes, that happens too. I wonder if I really deserve you."

"Of course you do."

"But things can never be the same. I've felt so deeply about another man. I've been subconsciously lying to you this whole time. My body betrayed you."

"We'll work through this. Come on, hop in the car and we'll get some breakfast."

"Thanks, but no thanks. I'll ride my bike."

"But you'll be over for supper?"

"Sure. I'm not leaving. I just need time to think."

"Time granted."

Yuffie smiled, and rode back down the old dirt road that she walked on as a child.