Tengoko: The start of a new story. The third episode of the Storm series. If you haven't read the first two, it's alright. This story takes place before both of them. The scene is set a few months after Dirge of Cerberus. To be perfectly honest, I've yet to play the game, so I'm going on what I've heard. I think I get the basic gist of things, and even so, I believe that the stories continuity is more important that correcting plot mistakes in respect to the video game. I'll try it get it right, though.
------------
Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to Final Fantasy 7.
Rated M for language and romance
------------
Chapter 1: Journey
------------

I have seldom seen the glassy shore
Of the sea that lies in west.
I stand to live, eternally more
Ever a burden upon my chest.
------------

The worst part was over. The journey; done. He knew what had happened to him. Knew how he came to be. And now, Chaos was completely gone. He was glad of it. No longer could he be called a monster. He was now a man of sorts. Still different, very much so. But at least he was only him. The days of sharing his body with the beast were over.

But now what? As relieved as he was to be rid of Chaos, he couldn't deny that he felt as though a part of him had been taken away. He never imagined he could feel such emptiness now, now when everything had been resolved. Had he really grown so used to the monstrosity that used to reside within? He hated to think so.

Vincent Valentine. Once a Turk. Once a man. Once a monster. Now? He was unsure. He certainly wasn't a Turk. An elite organization which belonged to Shin-Ra Inc. He'd long been betrayed by the company and wanted nothing more to do with it. He really couldn't be called a man. The experiments performed on him made him something much more than a mortal. He could no longer age. He could no longer die. It was as if time had decided to stand still for Valentine.

A monster? Had dispelling Chaos really changed him that much? Could he be called anything other than a beast? Inside him, he was still racked with anger and uncertainty. He wanted so badly to feel the way he once did, before he became Vincent the monster. Back when he was Vincent the man, Vincent the Turk.

But he couldn't be all that bad. He'd managed to make and keep new friends. Perhaps it was destiny that brought Cloud and the others to the basement of the Shin-Ra mansion. They were meant to find him. They were supposed to lead him through a course of events that brought him to Hojo, helped him find Lucrecia, and ultimately, helped him conquer his personal demons. For that, he was very grateful.

But he'd felt such a sense of loss afterward. He had no purpose. No meaning. Everything he wanted to accomplish had been accomplished. And now he was staring at the legitimacy of the situation. Confronted with the realness that he had all eternity to dwell in his own ambiguity. And one day, his friends would all be gone. And he'd be alone once more, and forever.

That's why he had decided to leave. To go own a personal journey, hopefully to make more sense of his life and what he was supposed to do now. He found nothing and only managed to expound on the broadness of his life. But, he wasn't disappointed. He had more than enough time to figure things out. After all, all an immortal has is time.

Vincent stared down at his hands with his blood-red eyes. He felt naked without the claw that he usually wore on his left arm, despite wearing his usual attire of all black, complete with crimson cape. He didn't believe any of his friends had seen him without it at all. Indeed, they probably thought it to be a prosthetic, like Barret's gun arm. It began to feel as much. It was more like his hand than what it had concealed.

The only reason he'd taken it off was because it seemed to scare the other passengers who kept eyeing him warily. Usually, it wouldn't bother him, but eventually, he got tired of the inquisitive stares, so he opted to just take it off. The less attention he brought to himself, the less compelled people would be to ask questions. And really, he was in no mood to answer to anybody.

At long last, the screeching of the train signaled to everybody that they were coming to a stop. Slowly, people stood to grab their belongings from their compartment. Vincent had no belongings. Only his claw, which he put back on now.

"Attention passengers, we have arrived at stop 14, Sector Six. If this is your stop, please head in an orderly fashion towards the nearest exit. We will depart in approximately seven minutes. Thank you for riding Midgar Xpress."

Vincent stood up and moved into the aisle. He walked as though he were floating, his cape flowing behind him. People couldn't help but stare in awe as the intimidating, six foot tall, dark man made his way off towards the open door.

"Vinny!" The voice was instantaneous. The moment he stepped onto the station, the loud, piercing scream came. A voice he knew all to well. A tone that made him groan inwardly. Of all people to come and greet him, of all the members of the group he'd reluctantly become attached to, it had to be the one person he couldn't stand.

She ran up to him in a child-like way and for a moment, it seemed as though she just might hug him. He took a step back to let her know that he wouldn't be pleased should she do so. She got the hint and stopped abruptly right in front of him.

"I believe I have asked you more than once to not call me that," he said in a dry voice. "You should respect my wishes, Yuffie."

Yuffie giggled. "You're such a grouch," she said, looking at him curiously. "Some things never change. So, how was your trip?"

"Well enough," he said, keeping it simple. "I trust things have been well here."

Yuffie frowned at that. Vincent knew that anything that could make Yuffie frown could not bode well. This was a girl who always seemed to be smiling, even during a fight. She looked up at him with her dark, brown eyes. "Cloud left her again. Just a few weeks ago. She's not doing so well. I've never seen anybody so heartbroken."

Vincent looked down. Tifa Lockheart. A woman so magnanimous, so caring. She deserved all the happiness in the world. And yet, she was so wrapped up in a supposed romance with Cloud Strife, a man tormented by demons of his own over the years, that she unknowingly denied herself joy.

"He left to find Aerith?" he asked knowingly. Yuffie nodded. "Then she's better off knowing now that Cloud has no room in his heart for her."

Yuffie gasped. "That's a horrible thing to say," she exclaimed.

"I'm not about to be euphemistic about it. Cloud left to find another woman. A woman we all thought he let go of a year ago. That speaks numbers of the love he had for her. A love like that encompasses the entire heart, leaving little room for much else. He never would have stopped loving her, and as a result, Tifa would have been loved much less."

Yuffie had nothing to say to that. She didn't understand love. Being only nineteen, she'd yet to experience anything remotely close to that. But still, she was at that age where love was romanticized. It wasn't supposed to cause pain. Only happiness. And Cloud's love hurt everybody. But mostly, to Tifa, her best friend. The only one who hadn't left.

She couldn't blame Red, Reeve or Cid for leaving. Red XIII, or Nanaki as he went by now, had to return to Cosmo Canyon, to fulfill his duty as the guardian of that place. But, at least he'd come by to see them ever now and again. Reeve was head of the WRO, which was now in charge of rebuilding and upgrading Midgar. He'd been doing a hell of a job, actually. Cid had a love to return to. He hadn't said it out loud to anybody yet, but they all knew he loved Shera.

"Still, he's an idiot," she finally blurted. "Tifa's the best thing that's ever happened to him, but he's too stupid to realize it."

"Speaking of Tifa," Vincent began, "I would really like to see her."

She was the main reason he'd come back. He'd grown rather close to her during their little adventure in trying to stop Meteor. It was strange how that turned out. He'd worked so hard at remaining distant, his intention was to leave after they'd killed Hojo. But, Tifa befriended him, went out of her way in fact. And you just couldn't deny Tifa. She had a way of getting into anybody's heart, no matter how hard or guarded it happened to be.

Yuffie nodded and turned to lead him off the station. "She's not too far from here." She turned her head to look at him, and then she said, "Barret's gone too, you know. We don't know where he went. But one day, he just came and got Denzel and Marlene and was gone. We haven't seen him since."

Vincent grunted in response. He really didn't care too much about Barret. Sure, he'd call him his friend, but he was sad to hear that he'd left. He'd never actually talked to Barret all that much. Truth be told, he found him to be boorish, ignorant, and petty. Far from being a equitable man. Then again, that wasn't enough reason to have an aversion to a fellow. After all, Cid was all that and more, and yet Vincent had befriended Cid with no problem.

But, Cid was also a scientist, and was far from being ignorant. Sure, he was rough around the edges, but he had every right to be. He'd been denied in his earlier days the one thing he'd ever wanted; to be the first man in space. He had to call the launch off in order to save Shera's life. After that, Shin-Ra stopped funding the space program altogether.

"You know, if Marlene and Denzel were still here, I think she'd have been okay. Tifa's just one of those people who needs to take care of somebody. Now, she has all this time and nobody to devote it to."

"Dependent on dependency. Yes. That sounds like Tifa."

"I'm half surprised she hasn't left to go find Cloud. She did last time he left. And without the kids to worry about, she has all the time in the world to find him. I don't know what's stopping her."

"She knows it's pointless to chase after a man who's chasing after a ghost."

"She went after you," Yuffie said. "You didn't tell anybody where you were going. She was afraid that you'd do something to harm yourself, so she and…well, she just wanted to be sure that you were safe."

"That was very kind of her. But all the same, it was unnecessary. I won't be found unless I want to be."

"Rubbish," Yuffie smiled. "We found you in the Shin-Ra Mansion's basement, didn't we?"

"Yes. How coincidental that a group of people with nothing in common but a goal to rid the world of the evil Shin-Ra corporation and it's devil spawn, Sephiroth, found me, somebody with the same aspirations."

"You're making that up. You had no idea we were coming, admit it."

"I'll do no such thing," Vincent said monotonously.

"Vinny?" He grimaced again. "I've always wondered…why did you leave?"

He stopped walking. "There was something I needed to find out."

"Did you?"

He looked at her for a moment. Her brown eyes were upon him as she waited for him to respond. Why did she care why he left? This was Yuffie. All she cared about was materia and her reputation as a fierce ninja.

Vincent considered her for a moment. She did look rather sincere. That was something he found very peculiar. It was a rare occurrence indeed for Yuffie to be anything other than her chipper, obnoxious self.

"Well?"

"For now," was all he said.