Title: Omnia Vincit Amor
Summary: Peace followed the defeat of Kadaj… a peace that most hoped would never end… with AVALANCHE disbanded and scattered and the Turks busy with the rebuilding of Shinra none could imagine the threat that was growing in the shadows.
Disclaimer: I think we've established that I do not own Final Fantasy because then this would be a video game rather than a fanfiction…
Note: Okay… there are definite pairings in this story let that be known. I will probably get that settled in this chapter. Please review and tell me what you think because it's been a while since I was able to read some reviews…
Chapter: Vincent's Bane
Let it be known that there was nothing in the entire world that he hated more than someone disturbing his sleep… nothing more except maybe being shot at… let it also be known that on this particular day there didn't seem to be a single person who HADN'T attempted to interrupt his sleeping pattern. Why in the world had he ever gotten a cell phone? WHY?
Cloud Strife. Probably the most normal person he had ever met in his entire life… why would he be calling at 9:14. As he recalled he had recently moved into a new apartment above Tifa's bar… that brought up another problem.
Tifa Lockheart. The most dependable woman he had ever not fallen in love with. He clicked through the list. She had called at 9:47… maybe they were throwing a party. He didn't often pay attention to her but from time to time she was useful in fights.
Reno… He stared at the little silver object in his palm as he continued scrolling through the list. Why in the world was he calling? And where had he gotten his phone number. 10:09. He sighed impatiently. Ignoring these people was just too hard.
Reeve Tuesti. He would probably have to get back to him. After all, it was unlike Reeve to call him for no reason, though it was probably just something to do with the WRO. 10:32. The man seemed to call at the strangest of times though.
Barret Wallace. Of all people… what could possibly be going on that even Barret had to call him. Had he been hiding under a rock with his hands over his ears and a blindfold on? 11:28. People HAD to stop calling at some point.
Cid Highwind. Cloud was going to get it… why had he given out his phone number to EVERY person on the face of the Planet? May Mako burn you to a crisp Cloud was his only thought. 12: 14. At least SHE hadn't called him yet… which was good because he had warned Cloud not to give out his number to her.
His feet padded silently along on the grass carpet beneath him as he trudged towards the abandoned building. Something had been bothering him since his battle with Omega… something that had been nagging at the back of his mind like a violent beast… something like Chaos.
The silence filled his ears as he stepped into the dead silent laboratory. A gently wind picked up and whisked his hair around his head. "Is it here?" He heard a voice from behind him and he turned towards it.
"I don't know…" he muttered in reply. The speaker glanced around the room then looked back at the taller figure.
"If it is?" Her voice was soft, musical. He turned back to survey the room with a heavy sigh then walked forward, only to hear the smash of glass beneath his left foot. "You stepped on something…" she pointed out and he shrugged his shoulders lightly, that one little noise had sent his blood racing… he was on edge from being within the very building where it had all began.
"Glass…" came his reply through the darkness. She nodded and followed him silently, only the soft whisper of her long ponytail reached his ears.
"Why are we here?" She glanced around the room again and slid her fingers along a grimy overturned table.
"Don't touch anything…" he snapped in reply.
"This is the most talkative you've been since I met you…" she observed quietly from behind him. Nothing else was exchanged for some time as they walked towards a heavy steel door. "It's closed." His sarcastic comment was close behind.
"I can see that…" his red eyes scanned the steel and he pulled a vine away from the keypad. His fingers flew over the pad just before the heavy door began to move. How had he gotten to the point that he was walking around with a teenage girl in the middle of the night?
Oh that's right… he just HAD to feel like a Samaritan at that EXACT moment didn't he? He just HAD to feel like helping someone RIGHT then… of all of the ridiculous things… he walked through the door silently and she followed, making less noise than he.
"Vincent…" she spoke again from behind him as she scanned the room again.
"What now?" He asked as they walked through the research room.
"We're being watched…" she lifted her eyebrows and cast her gaze to the top left corner of the room.
"As if I don't know that…" his voice was cold, colder than he had meant it to be. Damn that Chaos… if only he would have fully recovered from that.
"Do we leave it?" She stared up at whatever it was in the corner then pulled out the twin guns from her hips.
"Put the guns away…" he sighed and she obeyed as he walked over to the corner curiously, the Cerberus drawn. His leather clad hand reached out to touch whatever it was in the corner as his cohort moved closer to him. Suddenly a head dropped to their feet and the screams echoed in the lab so badly he thought his ears would bleed. She buried her face into his chest, screaming bloody murder until he knocked her upside the head with his knuckles. She jerked away and he sighed again. "Well so much for secrecy…" At least she's not as bad as Yuffie… Yuffie would have been talking my ear off ever since we walked in.
"Sorry…" she grinned halfheartedly and he shook his head as his cell phone vibrated again. "You ever going to answer that thing?"
"They woke me up earlier… now I can't sleep… you think I'm going to answer it?" He glanced over to her. She was still shaking from the scare of the dead body. "It's been drained… like a… vampire or something…" he poked the dry, prune-like carcass with the Cerberus. He heard her expel air and he nearly smirked.
"I saw that!" She exclaimed. Damn her perceptiveness.
"Saw what?" He turned to her and she stared him down as he lowered the Cerberus.
"You're enjoying this! Scaring the living crap out of me…" She stared him down.
"Firstly, your feces are not living unless you drop parasites like a cow and secondly I don't enjoy anything…" Leave it to Vincent Valentine the human stack of bricks to dry up an entertaining conversation
"Firstly I… Don't walk away when I'm talking to you…" she jolted after him as he glided off.
"Damn, why doesn't he answer his phone?" Cloud stared at the phone in anger then tossed it over his shoulder.
"Why can't you get over the fact that he doesn't like to answer it when you call him in the middle of the night?" Tifa replied as she caught the phone before it hit the floor with her foot and flipped it up, catching it in her hand and placing it on the table.
"I'm sorry if there's something more important going on here than just his beauty sleep…" Cloud grumbled and Tifa sighed, rolling her eyes.
"The important thing is that you relax… if you go around calling every person you know on the face of the Planet this late at night they're going to hate you…" He looked at her over his shoulder. He had to admit, seeing her wearing nothing but his sweater was kind of… entertaining.
"Yes but…" He lifted his eyebrows and she rolled her eyes.
"Yes but nothing… now shut up." His jaw dropped angrily and he turned himself around in the chair to sit properly, placing an ankle on his knee. His folded his arms across his bare chest and stared her down as she eyed him.
"How dare you tell me to shut up…" his icy blue eyes nearly made her blink but she refused.
"How dare you take my clothes and not give them back…" she gritted her teeth.
"You just had to shower… It was tempting…" he chuckled. Earlier in the evening he had played a rather dirty trick on her and taken her clothes and tossed them into her room, effectively locking and sealing the door so she couldn't get in… a trick that she had yet to figure out.
"Give them back Strife…" she pulled the sweater vest around herself a little tighter and he let a snarky smirk cross his face.
"Nah…" he shook his head. He leaned back in the chair a little and immediately knew it was the wrong choice, with him off balance and her in just the right position to kick… "DAMN!" He went soaring across the empty bar, crashing into a table before tumbling to a stop near the opposite wall. "Why do you always have to do that to me…?"
"Why do you insist upon stealing my clothes?"
"Because you look cute in my sweater…" he fired back teasingly. "What?" He looked over as the cell phone began to ring.
"Cloud Strife's phone, Tifa Lockheart speaking…" she answered in all seriousness. "Yeah Yuffie what's up?" She looked concerned. "You mean he's not in his usual hide outs? That's odd…"
"Yep, totally so I checked it out, it was just on a hunch but I found something you might be interested in… I found a Wutai symbol stamped into the door…" Yuffie bounced on the bed lightly.
"What does it mean Yuffie?" Tifa looked over as the tall blonde strode towards her, his muscular upper body shining in the dim bar light.
"Here I'll upload it to your cell phone…" Within a few minutes a ding notified Tifa of her message. "It means silence … meaning that whenever the one assigned to it sees it they must kill anyone who is beyond the door… or take them as hostages… I don't know what they wanted with him but it seems that they either took him hostage or he moved on before they got here but somebody definitely ransacked this room." Yuffie glanced around at the mess before her. "Ransackery must run in their family cause they're good at it…"
"Thanks Yuffie… we'll be on the look out for Vincent…"
"Oh yeah… and there might be someone with him…" Yuffie pointed out as she looked at the other bed.
"Someone… with him?"
"Yeah it seems that there was another person in the room with him as the time he either left or was run out of the room… that's all from here…" She clicked her phone shut and Tifa looked at the cell phone curiously.
"Another person? Travelling with Vincent of all people?" She looked over at Cloud who shrugged.
"Maybe… he has a girlfriend now…" Cloud joked.
Ice, snow and sleet… that was the only thing beneath his feet at his ankles and above. The blizzard whipped around him as he walked through the empty town, He bent his head against the cold, pulling his cloak around himself tightly. I hate the cold. Suddenly, a hand grabbed onto his bright red cape and tugged. He stopped and jerked it free… it was then he noticed the nearly blue hand sticking out from the snow. He knelt down and pushed it aside to see a young girl lying beneath it, wrapped only in a thin blanket.
"How long have you been here?" He asked her and she shuddered violently. He knew she was close to death… and part of him knew he should leave her… but the other part said he should do what he could for her… so amidst the complaints of his darker side he lifted her up in his arms, wrapped her in his cloak against his body and fought his way through the icy wind towards one of the buildings.
Several hours later she had regained some color from his gentle attempts at warming her. His years of travelling had taught him some things, especially how to deal with frost bite. He warmed her icy limbs with lukewarm water beside a roaring fire in the fireplace of a house they had "borrowed".
"Here…" he handed her a bowl of hot broth… he had of course taken the liberty of searching the house… it seemed that none had lived in the town for years… something that confused him greatly. "Do you have a name?"
"Nadalia…" she muttered breathlessly and he squinted.
"Nadalia… my name is Vincent Valentine… can you tell me what you're doing here?" He leaned his elbows on his knees.
"I live here…" she told him. "That is… before the plague came…" his eyes dimmed. "It killed everyone…" she closed her eyes tightly.
"And why were you spared?" He asked as she lifted her cerulean eyes to meet his crimson.
"Vincent…" she said. He blinked. "VINCENT!" He was jolted from his reverie and he turned to look at her. She tilted her head to the side curiously and he frowned, a more human person would have blushed uncomfortably but he simply returned to normal.
"I apologize…" he continued walking.
"You were doing that thing again… the one that I warned you about…" she told him and he looked at her over his shoulder.
"Yeah, what's that?" He looked ahead again.
"When you space out like a zombie… what were you thinking about this time old man?" Unlike normal people her commonplace teasing about his age actually made him less than unhappy. Her steady defiance of every rule he gave her seemed to be the bane of his existence… though her constant teasing made him feel something close to human… something he had waited quite a long time to feel.
"The first time we met…"
"You mean when you found me right?" She looked off to the side as they walked, a thoughtful look on her face. He nodded his head. "I would have died…" she said matter-of-factly.
"Yes… you would have had I not found you in time." He nodded his head.
"Are we there yet?" She groaned and he sighed, for once he was talking and the only thing she can do is complain.
"I will tell you when we arrive at our destination…"
"Why do you do that?" He looked over his shoulder again.
"Do what?"
"Why can't you just say I'll tell you when we get there… why do you have to be all 'I will tell you when we arrive at our destination'?"
"I don't understand…"
"You could have just used contractions and a much shorter sentence to say the exact same thing…"
"Is my language too much for your tiny incompatible brain?" He teased. She nearly stopped in her tracks.
"Did you just make a joke?"
"You'll find I do that often if you would silence yourself."
"See there you go again… you could have just told me to shut up…" She shook her head. "Hopeless case…"
"If it weren't for me you wouldn't be close to a hopeless case… you'd be a lost cause…" He shot back.
"Ouch that smarts… yeah well if it weren't for me you'd still be as emotionless as a brick wall… though you're not quite past the brick stage yet… next step is pile of bricks rather than a solid wall…" it was at this that he let out something close to a laugh, a chuckle of sorts, more of a scoff than anything. A burst of air expelled from his mouth which was turned up at the corners. "Did you just laugh at my funny?"
"Nope…" she could hear the smile in his voice.
"You know you want to laugh…" She walked up beside him as they walked deeper into the ground. "You have no idea where we're going do you?"
"Yes… I do…" he assured her and she groaned.
"Why don't I trust you?"
"Because you're terrified of dead bodies…" he replied with some assurance. "And you think I'm leading you into a nest of zombies…"
"Something like that…" she looked off to the side and he chuckled. "HAH! There it was!" She pointed at him and he looked shocked as her finger neared his face. "You laughed!"
"I did no such thing…" he looked away, holding down the grin that threatened his stoicism.
"You did too…" it was at this point that she did what he had been trying to avoid… she looked down. "OH MY GOD!" She gripped his sleeve tightly as she saw what they were walking on. "Are those?"
"I can't believe you didn't notice…" he looked over as she dug her fingers into his sleeve.
"Bodies… human bodies… Vincent… what happened down here?" He glanced around at the enormous gashes in the walls and the severity of the broken bones of the bodies.
"Something terrible…" he had a feeling he knew what. As they reached the bottom, after much protest from the woman attached to his sleeve, he walked towards the destroyed metal door. "Nadalia…" he whispered gruffly. "Get behind me…" he attempted to shift her behind him as he listened for breathing.
"Why?"
"NADALIA!" He shoved her behind him as another man darted out from behind the wall and Vincent drew the Cerberus. He fired as two others opened fire. Nadalia covered her ears, crouching behind the ex-Turk.
"You mean to tell me that Vincent's gone back to that place?" Cloud nearly shouted into the phone.
"Calm down Cloud… I don't know why but some people say that a man matching his basic description entered the woods two days ago… he was accompanied by a young boy… or at least that's what the witness says…" Yuffie drove down through the streets of a long forgotten city.
"So he's gone back to the lab… but why?" Cloud turned to Tifa who shrugged. "This is a problem… especially with what's been happening around here lately… Tifa get in contact with Reno and Rude, tell them everything… Yuffie… which forest is this?"
"The old one by Midgar… I'm heading there now."
"I'll meet you there…" Cloud shut the phone and slipped it into his pocket. "It's been two days… you've had your clothes back for two days…" he stared at her and she frowned. "Tifa Lockheart…"
"You're doing that thing again… the running away and hurting people thing…" she looked him in the eye.
"This time I'm going to help Vincent…" he cocked a smile before pulling his goggles on and stepping onto Fenrir. The sword cases on either side opened, they were full. They closed as he kicked the stand.
"You better come back…" Yuffie told him and he nodded with a grin.
"No worries… I've just gotta find Vincent… if anyone calls…" he lifted an eyebrow then drove off. As the dust cleared Tifa lifted her hands to her chest.
"Please protect him…" she whispered then lifted her head.
How was that? I'll try and update later this weekend again if I get some reviews… so drop me a review if you're interested okay? Thanks… I really want this story to go somewhere and it can't if you guys don't review.