Chapter one

For one last time Vincent Valentine had returned to the abandoned Shin-Ra Mansion, -the same building in which he’d been woken up from Hojo’s horrific experiment by Cloud and his gang all those years ago- for a final once-over. Last night he had had a vivid dream involving the building and something … someone searching for him, he knew had to investigate.

So when the alarm went off at the godforsaken early hours of the dawn, he silently pulled himself out from under his black quilt-cover, rubbed his pale face in the pale sunlight with his mismatched hands and stretched. He shuddered as the icy morning wind blowing through his open window drape itself brazenly around his bare chest. The sweet aroma of dawn flooded throughout the book-filed box room. Vincent reached out for his clothes, which lay perfectly folded on the chair near his bed. Not quite completely awake yet, he knocked the stack of books towered haphazardly over, with a crash like an earthquake they hit and spilled all over the floor. “Damn it!” he muttered in an undertone and made to pick them up,a noise from the room next to his made him pause, the sound of a bed creaking as its occupant rolled over echoed in his ears. Then silence.

“Thank God for that.” Vincent thought as the silence continued, the room next to his was where Yuffie was busy dreaming. (A fantastic dream including him, where he’d swoop down and save her from the villain at the last possible second.) Vincent felt that if he couldn’t be bothered with Yuffie in the daytime, he’d never be able to stand her at this damn hour…and she certainly wasn’t going to tag along after him!

With absolute precision Vincent adjusted his scarlet cloak over his marquee black outfit. He paused on his way to the bedroom door to check himself quickly in the full length mirror, he sighed soundlessly as his criticising crimson eyes picked at every detail of his unnatural body. He self-consciously rubbed his golden gauntlet when his gaze fell upon his trademark red headband that almost covered his eerie eyes. With a final straightening of his cloak he swept out of his bedroom pausing briefly to reach for his gun. His hand was on the door handle when a thought hit him. Should I leave a note? They might worry when they wake up and find that I’m not here… Vincents subconscious seemed to put a lot of strain on the word “might.” True, they MIGHT miss me…or they Might not even notice I’m gone. He stood for a minute fighting with himself about the importance of his friends and him to them when he made the snap decision , flung open the door and disappeared into the morning.

When he finally arrived at Shin-Ra mansion Vincent felt a shiver run down the length of his spine, he looked around and once he was sure that he wasn’t being watched, he proceeded inside.

He approached the front door without hesitation, reached out and gently pushed the worn door. To his surprise it opened easily but not without a cre-ee-ak, Vincent stared into the gloom of the abandoned building with a sense of uneasiness lurking around him, a familiar scent invaded his consciousness. A reminiscence played over in his minds eye, there was laughter, his, and….and a girls. “Who is she?” he whispered confused in his mind, the short film replayed in his head but the pictures were too blurry to make out. He closed his eyes hard and focused. The girl giggled again at something he’d said, but everything else was blurred and as quick as it came the images faded. He sighed exasperated and made to go on, but then a image of two sharp, green eyes, outlined in black suddenly flashed into his vision.

“Vincent?” the girl said spontaneously. “We‘ll always be there for each other, won‘t we?”

“Of course, how could I ever forget you.” he laughed “Not that you let me.” he teased.

“Damn straight.” she laughed. A terrible pain flashed like a gunshot through his head, and then everything went black…