Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII characters or any of the affiliated games. Square Enix owns them, I'm merely borrowing them for my own Otaku pleasure. X3
A Father Should Be.
Prologue: Decisions Made
Vincent Valentine was not the parental type, ask anybody who'd met him. Parents needed to be patient, endlessly so in some instances, had to be willing to be at least somewhat physically affectionate, accepting of their children and the choices that they made. He was a Turk, trained to sneak around, spy and take care of "problems". Oh he could spend hours, days even working on a quarry or watching steely-eyed so whomever he was protecting was really safe. But he had little patience when explaining things three times over, or teaching things, like shoe-tying. As for affectionate... Vincent had last been involved with hugging 15 years ago, his grandmother giving him one and his mother forced him into returning it. And accepting, especially if he knew the choice being made was a stupidly bad one? Forget it.
Still, the baby boy whom he had taken to calling Sephiroth was Lucrecia's son. For all that she had refused to love him... Vincent loved her, and Sephiroth was a part of her, the only part he could protect now. She had saved his life that time... when he was mad enough to confront the deranged lunatic that passed as a scientist. Who else would use their own child for...
Vincent let out a breath, collecting himself. He remembered well. The screaming match they'd had, the tell-tale click of the gun... a hand jerking him back a second before it went off... and Lucrecia's scream as the bullet tore through her. It was sheer luck all the vital organs were missed and they managed to stop the bleeding before both the unborn child and Lucrecia died. Vincent had been humbled, Hojo outraged that Lucrecia had almost 'ruined everything.' After that, Lucrecia was kept under careful surveillance, yet allowing no one but Vincent to be her guardian.
As the months crept by and she progressed in her pregnancy, Lucrecia confided to him her visions. The horrors she saw the child within her causing, the sheer unadulterated suffering and destruction he'd bring down on Gaia. If half of what she was saw was true... but the Turk had a tingling feeling. Call it an instinct or intuition, the kind that had saved his life several times over before on various missions. It told him that if the baby was taken elsewhere. Given a different place to grow up away from the mad scientist's clutches... Everything could be different.
Which was what was leading him, standing just out of view in a hallway of the main ShinRa Complex, to be evaluating his parental skills. But who else would do this? The baby and Lucrecia had been separated right after the infant had cried his first breaths, Lucrecia vanished shortly after and Vincent removed from the project. The president was amazed and was already crowing about what this experiment would yield, and no one else even seemed to realize or care that what they also had was a human being. Vincent felt his hand tighten on his gun for a moment before he forced himself to relax. He was a Turk, and ungrateful for his time here he was not. For his father's memory and chances he'd had thus far, he would keep the company secrets. Yet, Vincent also knew his father would agree with him. Hadn't he given his life for Lucrecia after all? The elder Valentine most certainly would do what he could to protect her son. But Grimoire Valentine was dead... and that left Vincent in this most awkward position.
The newborn, just days old, was being housed in a special room, patrolled every fifteen minutes. This baby WAS after all the prize experiment of prized experiments. Good thing he roamed the halls so much, and managed to snatch a key card to the room earlier, so when he passed by the guard there was the mere customary exchange of nods as Vincent rounded the bend and seemed to go on his usual way. Once out of sight, Vincent stood silently fingering two Id's he had hidden in his pocket. Here he allowed himself one last chance to back out, to let the silent chant sounding suspiciously like his mother saying stupid stupid... she never loved you even and this is bound to fail sometime, inside of his head win. Because if he did this, there was no going back. Ever.
Vincent remained where he was, silently waiting for the current patrol to pass by, before the well trained Turk slipped in to the make-shift nursery, wrinkling his nose slightly at the mixture of milk and baby powder that hovered in the room as the soon-to-be-ex-Turk reached for the sleeping boy and lifted him out of the bassinet he was in. Only to have the little ingrate start in with the sharpest, loudest wailing Vincent had ever heard.
RIGHT IN HIS EAR.
Forcing himself to remember infanticide, however justifiable, was morally wrong, Vincent rocked the baby for a second, glaring out the window in case the guard heard something. Thankfully Sephiroth decided that screaming wasn't needed now that he was being bounced and held. He made a soft noise, finally settling down, and Vincent let out a sigh. Test number one, down. And he seemed to have passed.
And hell if he didn't find the little bugger cute now that he was snuggling closer, yawning and going back to sleep.
Quietly as he'd come, the black haired man slid into the hallways, stealthily avoiding the cameras and sticking along the least lit halls until they were outside. Here he changed into a red cape outfit that looked the least like him, and wrapped Sephiroth into a new blanket as well. It would be a few hours before the switch would be noticed, and Vincent planned to use every minute.
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Hehehe! What kinda of Father will Vinnie make?! Stayed tuned to find out!