In which Heaven Tonight finally starts to come together.

Many, many thanks to ReadingChick for beta-ing this.

Don't Regret

AWAKEN

There was nothing but darkness, into the distance, forever. All of a sudden, it stopped being forever, and it had some measurable distance. A Point B to the Point A. Slowly, the distance began to get smaller and smaller, and soon it was nothing but the darkness one could see by sitting in a dark room and staring at the ceiling. He became aware of things inside the darkness shapes, shadows, and lines that swayed and glowed. Soon, he was aware of things that could not be seen. The occasional sound of dripping water. The sound of wind, somewhere to his left (I have a left side again?). Something quite different from darkness, a dim light from both sides (I have sides again). A voice, bringing him back.

"Breathe, Weiss."

Weiss?

Yes, Weiss. Weiss the Immaculate. Emperor of DeepGround. The most promising of all candidates. The leader of DeepGround's revolution. Omega. The epithets that had once marked his identity had once been hazy, useless notations. Now they served to identify the man who had become a God.

That's useless. Everything should be gone. Dead.

"That's fine. Good."

Weiss… NERO

With a choking inhale of air, Weiss the Immaculate sat up and heaved with the exertion of being pulled down from the Lifestream and back into physical reality. In wonder, he touched the muscles in his arms. This was gone, he thought as he palpated the flesh under his callused fingertips. I wasn't… I was dead. Nero? To his left, there was a soft sigh. Not Nero, but still Weiss' brother. "Good. You're back."

"YOU!"

Weiss threw himself up, trying to get to Genesis' throat. All the other man had to do was stand and Weiss went tumbling onto the ground. A haughty chuckle came from above.

"Still bursting with that energy that made you such an asset to DeepGround's petty rebellion, hm?"

"We won."

"A pyrrhic victory, I've gathered."

"It was enough for us."

"I've found my own path, beyond your ego-driven power struggles."

"Because you have no ego whatsoever." Sarcasm laced Weiss' speech as he clambered back up onto the stone he had awoken upon. Weiss felt fatigue in his muscles, as though he had just run an entire day's training in one hour. Weiss would wring Genesis' neck, but not in this condition.

"Where am I?"

"Mountains. You're a little ways South of Nibelheim." The name had come up in files, but it was a meaningless word to him. Genesis had clearly picked up on his confusion. He gave a dry chuckle at the furrows in Weiss' brow and the contemplative stare. "You're not even on the same continent as Midgar anymore."

"I see."

"You don't, but it's fine."

"You have no idea what I know, what I've seen. When I get my strength back, it will be your neck under my blade."

"Empty threats." Genesis changed the subject. "It's been about a year since you merged with Omega."

"Tell me where my brother is."

"I don't know. And even if I did, why would I tell you?"

Weiss scanned his head for another presence. Theoretically, in the same way Shelke had detected the Doctor's presence, he could find Nero's. There was no response. Either Nero couldn't respond, or he simply wasn't in Weiss' consciousness. During the Omega-merge, Weiss had assimilated everything with Nero. Their thoughts were one, if only for a few hours. Now his brother's presence was nowhere in Weiss' head. Weiss shifted and swung his legs over the edge of the slab. "I need to find him." Weiss' legs wobbled underneath him and Weiss had to steady himself.

"He's not the only one that you need to find."

"What are you talking about?"

The dark cave had two light sources; the light outside, and a glowing crystal protruding out from a grotto nearby. The crystal was two or three times larger than Weiss himself. It was this crystal to which the other man pointed. Inside, there was a woman.

"Doctor Crescent?"

"Yes. You need to free her."

Weiss gave a bark of laughter and turned on legs that still felt too weak to hold him upright. "This is nonsense. I need to find Nero."

"And what will you do then?" Weiss stopped. Genesis opened his hand and gestured at the opening of the cave. "Will you live amongst regular people? Live in ruins of Midgar? Become Omega again?" He lowered his hand and laughed. "Impossible."

"My schemes might have fallen apart, but they fell with only half of your indignity. What would you suggest?"

He didn't speak, but there was a voice in the cave.

"… 'm so…"

Weiss was suddenly on point, reaching for blades he no longer had.

"Her," Genesis intoned, pointing to the crystal.

"In the crystal?" Weiss staggered over to the grotto. His legs gave out close by the edge of the water and Weiss sank into a sitting position before the crystal. "She's alive?"

"Not as much as she used to. I think she just has a lot of apologizing to do. It's true enough. Her crimes are many, and Vincent Valentine isn't the only person she's wronged." With a rueful sigh, he turned away from the daylight and to Weiss' sitting form. "You will need your brother, and the other Tsviets as well."

"They're alive?"

"Find them, Weiss." With that, Genesis turned to leave. Within a few steps, he was almost to the entrance of the cave, and the sunlight seemed to be emanating from his body. "By the way, the Goddess has a message for you. Be honored." Weiss gave an vague murmur of assent as he tore his eyes away from Lucrecia. He was more interested on finding some kind of clothing or weaponry. "She says it's here."

Weiss halted his search and raised one eye brow. He crossed his arms and half-mockingly asked, "What's here?"

"Your destiny, Weiss, is here."

Weiss looked around. The furnishings were sparse: the stone slab that he had awoken upon, a wooden chair held together with thick twine, a small collection of clothing in the corner and some larger boxes. Along with all of that, the woman trapped in crystal.

"… So sor…"

"Extraction," Weiss murmured. "That's the idea."

Over the next three weeks, Weiss did not leave the cave. He would look outside, taking in the sunlight and sounds of the world, but decided against leaving immediately. He had found enough supplies in the boxes needed to keep him alive for several months, but Weiss didn't plan to stay. He focused on regaining his strength. Death had robbed him of his power, but Weiss had braved death twice now. He could get it back.

Every morning, Weiss woke with the sun. Weiss was used to looking up and seeing only metal grating and halogen lamps. This was different, organic, and inefficient, but glorious in its own way. Weiss usually found himself staring out at the sunrise for a long time before turning away to work.

He ate small, meager meals, and those were strange too. The food that Weiss was familiar with was bland, wrapped in foil, and existed only to sustain. The first time he had sat down to eat this new form of nourishment, Weiss had been uncertain it was even proper food. Shelke had implied that food didn't always come wrapped in tightly stretched foil, but she had never mentioned the taste or texture of even the most simple meals. How had anyone from above ground been able to stomach the rations when they were used to this?

Weiss trained, on-and-off throughout the day, stopping for a break only when completely necessary. His gunblades were not present among the supplies Genesis had left for him, but there were two swords. Calisthenics were his main way of regaining his strength, and most of his sword practice was technique-based.

Several weeks into his training, a wolf entered the cave. Weiss had been eyeing the crystal, wondering if breaking it open was an option, when he heard the paw scrapes and growling near the entrance. Weiss smiled. A test, then.

The wolf took no interest in Weiss' bedding, nor did it pay any attention to Lucrecia in her crystal. It sniffed its way over to Weiss' food and began pawing at the burlap sack.

Slowly, Weiss made his way over to his blades, next to the slab he had woken up on. He took them up. With a shout, Weiss charged the animal and slashed it across its hunched shoulders. It howled and turned around to try to take a bite from him. Weiss cut it across its maw and began moving backwards, blocking the creature's bites. Parrying one last lunge from the beast, Weiss drew low to the ground and cut upwards, slicing the wolf from its chest to the bottom of its jaw.

As Weiss threw the carcass out into the sun, he decided that he was improving, but his speed needed work. It was acceptable for now, but he would need to improve.

With each swing, each push, each sunrise, Weiss thought.

The fact that Genesis wanted him to revive this woman was laughable. She was a quiet companion, if she could even be called that. Her murmurs occasionally broke his sleep, and Weiss had no qualms with leaving her alone in the crystal and carving his own path, but his curiosity was more than piqued. Not to mention that, for Genesis to take interest in this woman, she had to hold some great power. Weiss was keen on amassing more power, if only to protect himself and his brother.

The doctor was another issue entirely. The fact that she spoke implied that she was alive. Weiss had tried to simply break the crystal around her, but it hadn't worked. He had only marred the surface of the crystals. He hadn't even managed to chip it. Setting her free wasn't going to be an easy task, but Weiss liked the challenge. Weiss could attack it from all angles,

He thought of his brother, feeling a prick in his chest whenever the possibility of being separated again came up. There was a strong chance that Nero would be dead. Weiss had done the deed himself, a thought that sent rage shivering up his spine. His own hands had struck down his brother. Hojo had committed the deed, but violated Weiss' own consciousness to do it. The hands that Weiss trained back to perfection had murdered his brother.

Compensation from Vincent Valentine was an option. Death was always present in DeepGround, so why not bring death with him? Give Valentine the death that Weiss had given to his own brother? It wouldn't bring Nero back, and Weiss acknowledged the futility of revenge. Such an acknowledgement didn't crumble his resolve.

Genesis had said that the other Tsviets lived. That was good, but Weiss had no idea where they were. Weiss had no records of where they had lived before, and Rosso had been brought up alongside Weiss and Nero; she had no home to which she could return. Argent might have slipped back to Wutai, and Shelke's files mentioned the dead village of Banora, but the whereabouts of Azul and Rosso were a mystery.

Argent was another worry. He had sent her out, the last of last resorts. The child inside her would have been born within the year that Weiss had been gone. The gestation period of a human was a little under a year, as Weiss recalled. His child walked the earth.

Weiss trained and thought for three weeks before he finally left the cave.