Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII or any of its characters. All rights to the game and movie belong to Square-Enix, yadda-yadda and all that other legal stuff.

-By the way, as a note for all readers, as an original fan of FFVII I will refer to her as AERIS not AERITH. Not sure why they changed it, but I don't like the idea of changing her original name in the game.

Prologue

The building stood alone out in the middle of nowhere. The question of how someone would even be able to construct such a massive complex in such a wild environment was overshadowed by the question of why someone would want to build such a massive complex in such a wild environment. There was no better way to guard a place than to surround it with monsters. It could be assumed the constructor had some kind of deal with the inhabitants of the land around it, doubtful as that may be. It would be the only reason to explain why the building was still standing and still in pristine condition. Not torn apart like most forms of civilization that attempted to make a home there. Most disconcerting of all things was the fact Vincent Valentine had never noticed it before. Not many things slipped by Vincent unnoticed. The grey sky behind him made his crimson cloak seem even more incongruent with his surroundings. Vincent stood out most places he went, in this place more so; it seemed as if he and the green grass were the only things with real colour today. The jet black building stood out in its own way, but not nearly as much as it should have. For the first time in a long time, Vincent stood and stared in puzzlement. How could he have not noticed this large jet black building before? Only a few miles from what was left of Midgar and on a bit more to the high ridge he stood upon now and here it was.

"Why have I never seen this before?" he muttered to himself, as per the trend his gruff voice seemed to stand out starkly in the empty void that was the world at that moment.

"Was it here before?" he asked himself. "Why haven't I seen this before?"

Someone tapped him on the shoulder and he turned, this however small action seemed much more graceful with Vincent as his red cloak swirled around him and then fell silently back to about as low as his feet. In front of him was a face he recognized as something else that should also not be here.

"What is this?" Vincent growled taking a defensive stance and putting a hand on his holstered gun. "You're not here!"

A female in pink clothing stood before him totally impassive, someone who should be dead.

Vincent relaxed, "Haven't you done enough popping up out of nowhere?" He was unsure of why he asked this question to the woman as it seemed like something he wouldn't say, have no reason to say.

The woman smiled and said in a melodic voice, "Don't you want to know why you've never noticed this building before?"

Vincent just nodded slowly.

"It's because this is a dream," the woman said.

"A dream," Vincent replied in confusion.

"Yes," the woman replied and continued to smile as the world exploded around Vincent.

§

Vincent's eyes shot open and he drew his pistol faster than most people could blink, for some reason his mind thought he might be in danger, at least proven by his drawn gun. Drawn gun pointed at a friendly face a few feet away. Vincent holstered the gun again. He wasn't going crazy, it's just that his reflexes still worked…that's all.

"Did I startle you?" asked Tifa smiling at him. The dark haired woman walked toward him, but Vincent focused on the smile. The smile…a figure shot into his mind and was gone again.

"You look preoccupied," Tifa commented with a look of concern.

"How so?" asked Vincent.

"People don't usually stare blankly at me like that," Tifa replied.

"I'm sure you get it from men all the time," Vincent replied deadpan.

Tifa was back to smiling, "Vincent, was that a compliment?"

Vincent used his usual cryptic answer: silence.

"You're a work in progress, but you're learning. Next we have to get you to start telling jokes, get you a sense of humour," Tifa said.

"I'd rather not," Vincent replied and looked off into the distance; somehow he knew he was looking off at something he knew of. His subconscious was telling him there was something over there he wanted to see. Another image popped into his mind, a building, and then a more familiar one, a woman in pink. "I just had a dream Tifa."

"Oh yeah, about what?" she asked.

Vincent was silent for a moment and took in where he was, after the dream it was as if he was disoriented. Maybe it was the fact he hadn't had an actual dream for many years, it had been a long time since he'd been interrupted in sleeping by a dream. He leaned back against the rock he was sleeping against. Sleep had become more of a formality with Vincent. Generally, Vincent didn't really need sleep so much. It did restore energy like it did with others, but he didn't need sleep per se as much as others did.

"Come on, Vince," Tifa said, enjoying the fact he was initiating the conversation and sitting down beside him using the rock, "tell me."

"Don't call me Vince," he replied in his usual gruff deadpan.

"Sorry," she said, "Vincent, whatever, what was in your dream?"

"It was…a building," Vincent replied closing his eyes trying to picture it all again, the face of the woman appeared in his mind's eye. "No, I think she was more important."

"Who?" Tifa asked.

Vincent opened his eyes and looked to Tifa with a profoundly blank expression, which was about Vincent's only facial expression, "I saw her."

Over time everyone came to know exactly what someone meant when they said her. There was only one person they remembered in such a way that it only needed to be said that way: her.

"Really?" asked Tifa. "You had a dream about Aeris?"

"I had always thought that was Cloud's job," Vincent said, after a few moments of silence from Tifa he said. "That was a joke, Tifa."

"Oh," she said as if shaken from a trance.

"That's why I don't do jokes," Vincent said. "In any case, if I'm correct, one does not randomly dream of the Ancient unless of course she wishes to be dreamt of."

Tifa nodded, "Why you?"

"It is usually Cloud that…" Vincent paused. "Usually Cloud's job…now I see why the joke wasn't funny…hm."

Tifa chuckled, "You tried at least."

"It appears she wanted me to see the building she mentioned," Vincent said.

"Oh yeah, the building, which building exactly?" asked Tifa.

Vincent looked off in the distance, "Over that ridge."

Tifa shook her head, "There's nothing over there, it's all wild, just a lot of scary things that kill people over there. You'd never be able to get people there to build anything."

Vincent had no response.

"Well, let's go look," Tifa said.

"I fear if I don't I may be ignoring a warning from her," Vincent said, "but why me?"

"Maybe because you're the closest," Tifa said.

"Closest?" asked Vincent.

"Well you do happen to be incidentally sitting a walking distance away from where this building should be," Tifa said shrugging.

"I hadn't considered that," Vincent muttered.

"Well, let's go," Tifa said jumping up.

Vincent nodded and stood up in his usual slow and fluid manner of doing things. His cloak floated around him and settled in a similar fashion as always and some of his jet black hair was blown back by the gust of wind that breezed past him. He looked up at the grey sky, it looked like rain, and it also looked like the same sky as in his dream. Unnerving as that was Vincent followed Tifa. The pair couldn't have seemed more different. They both had the same hair colour and that's where their similarities ended. Where Tifa wore a black outfit Vincent's was crimson, Tifa walked in a manner like a young girl heading toward a new adventure, a bit of a spring in her step. Vincent walked as he always did, one foot in front of the other, red cloak moving with the wind and his momentum and then falling back to his feet as usual, no more, no less. Vincent did however watch Tifa walk from behind. Due to his past Vincent had become detached, if anything he had a right to be. He had very little interest in most things though he had quickly come accustomed to Cloud's cause a long time ago. As it turned out being part of the said cause put Vincent in the path of quite a few dangerous creatures. The reason for his sticking with Cloud and his companions was clouded at best, mostly to take revenge on Hojo, but to even Vincent himself it wasn't clear. Though he'd also become accustomed to doing things with very little explanation, even to himself. As he watched Tifa it might have been something like friendship he noticed, though he ignored it mostly as he was more interested in the way she walked. More like skipping, Vincent, due to his detachedness, had all but forgotten what exactly it was like to be genuinely happy. Somewhere in his mind he knew this is what happy was supposed to look like, but it was like having a dictionary filled with words in a language you can't translate. He continued to observe her as they walked, Tifa looking as if walking on air and Vincent as if walking with a large dark storm cloud above him.

"You know, you could actually walk beside me," Tifa said looking over her shoulder.

"I'm aware of this, yes," Vincent replied.

"Okay," Tifa just said and continued walking.

Vincent and Tifa walked as they had before; as they approached the ridge Vincent began to feel a bit uneasy. He brushed his red cloak behind him and grabbed the grip of his gun. After a few moments he drew the weapon. The grey revolver was pointed forward quickly.

"Problem?" asked Tifa looking around cautiously.

"Maybe I should walk in front," Vincent said looking around.

Tifa smiled, "What's up with you? You're acting strange."

Vincent said nothing and moved forward, Tifa humoured him and allowed Vincent to lead them up the ridge. The ridge seemed to pass under him in slow motion as he came to the top and in front of him he saw something he had, in a way, expected to see.

"Is that it?" asked Tifa.

Vincent stared out at the familiar black building, "The very same."

"Why have I never seen this before?" asked Tifa.

Vincent shivered a little and looked behind him expecting to see Aeris, "That's what I said…or rather what I didn't say, depending on your opinion of dreams."

"This is really weird, Vincent," Tifa said.

"I'm sure she knew you'd think that, go get some of the others, see if they know anything about it," Vincent said.

"You're not going in there are you?" asked Tifa.

Vincent again replied wordlessly, he took a few running steps and leapt off the edge of the ridge.