A/N: And now the boy has a name—which explains why he is named Vincent Valentine…oh, how sad. But then again, this will be a Cinderella story of sorts, so expect it to turn upwards soon.

The boy awoke again to the sight of finding his benefactor sitting on a seat next to his bed. "Are you all right?" she asked in his tribal tongue, "You had me worried for the past few days. I was afraid that I was too late to save you." The boy sat up, and looked to the lady who had saved him from future mistreatment from that horrid man. "I think I'm doing better now," he said in his own language, "and I think I'm ready to meet this person you wanted me to see."

"You understood me?"

"My father was the chief…he made sure that I was given a proper education so that I could succeed him as the next chieftain—so I had some private tutoring in several subjects as Common and Wutainese…I think so that I could deal with foreigners. Now that he's gone, I don't know what to do now that I have no tribe to lead."

"Well, I already have a position in mind for you, hence why I'm having you meet this one person…and she'll be here shortly…"

No sooner than when she had finished her sentence than Dr. Valentine entered the room. "Ifalna, it's so good to see you again, after all these years!"

"Likewise Lucrecia." Ifalna turned to the boy, and said in common, "Your majesty, this is Doctor Lucrecia Crescent-Valentine. I bought you from the auction to help her around the apartment as her son…in turn, she's going to take care of you."

Dr. Valentine looked at her friend in surprise, as did the boy to his benefactor. "Ifalna, I'm surprised! I thought you were against slavery! Besides, I don't really need the help!"

"Lucrecia, I've looked around your apartment—it's a mess! You barely even have time to enjoy yourself. You need someone in your life to help lift up your spirits, that's why I bought him from the auction…that and I saw that he was suffering so badly—you've seen how much he was starved, I couldn't let him suffer an even worse fate as a slave. So I'm doing the two of you a favor…he won't be a slave once you adopt him."

Dr. Valentine's eyes of surprise turned into shock, and a bit of anger. "Are you kidding? Adoption is not the same! Ifalna, I really appreciate what you're doing but…"

Ifalna stood up, and returned the look of anger to her friend. "Then do this as a favor to me. Adopt him and have him live with you as your son. Grimoire would never have wanted you to live the way you are now—he wanted you to be happy, and ever since he died, you've been letting yourself go. I can't stand to see you like this anymore…especially after that happened. Just go and have him adopted—I'm not asking much…look, he's the only one left of his family that I could save…possibly even his entire tribe. You're the only hope he has now."

Dr. Valentine looked at her friend with some degree of anger—how dare she mention her late husband's name…but then again, she was right; Grimoire would not have wanted her to be like this. And after losing a child due to complications, she worked at the hospital barely keeping up a happy front. She then softened her look to the boy before her. "What's your name?"

"In my tribe, I'm called Ying Gan—the 'eagle eye'."

"I'll give you a different name then…you can always remember your tribal name, but I want to give you a name myself…one that will tie you to my family…my husband had always wanted a son, and so now I will call you Vincent Valentine, how's that?"

The boy simply smiled…or rather, Vincent smiled back at his adopted mother. But inwardly, he knew that his mother and father were still out in the town, as were the rest of his tribe…from then on, he vowed to seek them out when he was ready, and to set them free…

Five years later…

Vincent walked down the street from the school after his brief visit with his old friends. At one point, he was very popular—now his stepbrother had taken his place…funny how life can tend to torture you when you least expect it.

A year into his adoption to Dr. Valentine, he had found out that his father and mother had both died after they had been gunned down for trying escape…needless to say, the total abolishment of slavery had been accelerated and redoubled by the order of the emperor due to the assassination of both Duke and Duchess Gast, leaving their daughter Aeris to be adopted by a kindly woman named Elmyra Gainsborough. Despite the sadness that happened in the year he was with her, Dr. Valentine managed to be a proper mother to him—she was there to comfort him, and she was even there as a shoulder for him to cry on. However, all good things must come to an end, for it would be the beginning of his hell at home the day that Hojo had re-entered Vincent's life under the guise of reform, and with the appearance of his son Weiss. Some six months into their relationship, Dr. Valentine had suffered several stab wounds on her way back—the lacerations had all hit vital parts of the body halfway home. Since then, Vincent had been subject to abuse at the hands of not only Hojo, but his son Weiss—the two of them had double-teamed in order to make his life even worse of a hell. Oh how he wished he would die at the moment—for not only did Hojo drop him out of school, he forced him to do backbreaking labor at the apartment while only treating his own son well.

He had no time to think more on it—Hojo had demanded that he cook dinner tonight as well, and so he went to buy the proper ingredients for pasta. As he continued walking, Vincent bumped into someone and dropped his groceries on her…she was shorter than he was, and not to mention younger. Who was this? The girl looked back up at him with coffee-colored eyes, and a face that had caused his heart to skip a beat with its purity. "I'm sorry," he said, "here, let me help you up."

"No, it's all right," she said, as she stood up, she started watching behind her—obviously, she was being chased, "here, it's my fault, so let me help you out!" With that, the two of them started picking up the bags of groceries before people started stepping on them as the city guard had run past them. Once all the groceries were accounted for, the girl let out a breath of relief and watched as Vincent beckoned her silently to follow him and then watched as he put the groceries down and his body language told her that he wanted to have a word with her.

As soon as she was seated, Vincent found it well to ask her a question. "Care to explain to me why you have the guards after you?"

"Why is it any of your business that the guards are chasing me down? You're not the boss of me."

"Yes, but you did make me your accomplice in helping you to escape. I'd like to at least know why I'm going to be thrown in jail by an upper-class girl."

The girl looked to Vincent with surprise. "I could tell by your looks that you are at least upper class. Such pure skin as yours does not appear often on those of the lower classes."

The girl sighed—she was made out. "Back at home, I've had to go through hell—I have so much pressure placed upon me, and all by my dad…he says that he wants me to take over his position one day. You wouldn't believe how hard he works me! It's private teachers here, tutors there, and even a tea ceremony instructor—and the kendo teacher was very harsh too!"

"I can see the frustration you have to go through, and I don't envy you for that…although I do envy you that your parents have gone so far for your sake as to make sure you at have a future and are prepared for it. I don't know why, but for some reason, fate seems to want to deal me a bad hand…to the point that I lost quite a few precious things in my life…I'd rather not talk about it, but the point is; at least you're lucky to have parents who care and love you enough to add this sort of frustration to your life."

The girl put herself in a thoughtful state—from Vincent's perspective, this must be rare if she had to think this hard. After a few minutes of thought, the girl stood up and looked to him with a smile. "You know what? You're right! Now that I think about it, I now see why I had to go through so much—because they care. Thanks!" With that, she turned and ran the opposite direction, only pausing briefly to turn and wave good-bye to him. Vincent smiled a sad smile, picked up his grocery bags, and started walking away…he may never get to see her again, and Hojo was bound to whip him some more for coming home late.

Moments later…

He knew it was going to happen this way—Hojo had beaten Vincent to the ground with a folding chair. The back of his head still hurt from the impact, but he still managed to pull through and start cooking dinner. There was no way that Hojo would allow Vincent to eat at the table with him and Weiss, and so he had the foresight to sneak a small and fresh apple from a shopper at the public market into his satchel, and then discretely take it to his room to eat…that girl he met at the market was not a very good thief if she did not understand the rewards of subtlety—sure, she had the talent, the stealth, and the quickness, but she did not have the ability to calm herself in order to make things more fluid in her theft.

He never did feel good about stealing from other people, but he needed to do this in order to survive…in fact, in his spare time, he was so determined to survive that he mastered the art of the pickpocket in one week and placed himself in the grandmaster level of pickpockets. He rarely ever stole money—only fruit from other shoppers so that he could eat it immediately and then dispose of the evidence…however, he had always hoped to get caught so that the city guard would arrest him and then take him away to prison…at least jail time was better than simply sitting around and taking another beating at the hands of Hojo. However, he had found another way to escape—it was a small chance, but if he gets accepted, he'll be getting the training he needs to get his revenge one day.

Vincent finished his apple, and threw it out the window. A soft 'clunk' told him that his aim was dead-on as the apple core landed into the trash can of one of the neighbors. With that, he snuck his way to the restroom, brushed his teeth quietly, and then snuck back to his room to sleep in the futon.