"It started, I think, back when Gast dug up Jenova."

The four people that had come out of the mansion were now sitting in the meeting all of old Nibelheim, the only place large enough to hold AVALANCHE under a roof from the rain outside.

"I had just been assigned to the project as an…observer. The President was interested in the life form that was now viable. That was where I met Him."

Vincent Valentine started his story in the thunderous din of a Nibelheim summer storm, much like the one that had broke forty years ago.

The Bone Village summer was cold at best. Vincent was not unused to cold, but he did not particularly care for it. However, his mark was rather partial to it and Professor Gast was now drawn into his work. It had been colder than normal and now Vincent was thawing by the heater, buried in dry blankets.

He made a disgruntled noise as the door to the skull house opened, and he glared one red eye out from his haven of heat. Stomping off his boots was a gangly young man, barely into his twenties. Maybe only a year or two older than Vincent himself. And Vincent had to wonder at him for a moment.

Gast had been happy to see his latest assistant, immediately heaping the paperwork on him while he proclaimed about his New God. It had been eight months since he had found the specimen now being carefully unearthed from the ice.

Hojo Kataki had been fresh from the university, a Wutaian stray taken in as an example of Shinras 'goodwill'. Vincent knew he was only a pawn to fill a statistic, a name on a list to keep the peace. But…that was part of his charm too. Hojo was so unused to any sort of extreme that he spent days sitting at the fireside doing Gasts paperwork, happily inside.

And that meant he and Vincent formed some sort of bond. Vincent hated the cold. Hojo loathed it with every fiber of what he was. Apparently Bone Village was near his home, and he had not been well liked there. But here…Vincent had been captivated.

The gangly young man had this way of making you feel like you were the best person on the planet. He was innocent, naive, and to a certain point, sweet. It was such a contrast to the cold Turk that he could get along with the very large, fat Gast like he did. Gast was not the nicest man, and Vincent rather hoped he was frozen in an ice block somewhere.

Seven more months had passed before either of them had any sort of real conversation. Vincent was no talker, and preferred his long, detailed manuals or books to the dry, factual reports Hojo read. And the most contested thing in the little skull was shelf space for books. Vincent absolutely refused to set The Lord Of The Rings on the bottom shelf, and Hojo's 'Biology in Ancient Days' simply could not be moved.

It had been an epic battle. Lines were drawn. Buttons pushed. And in the end the two had fallen into bed exhausted from managing to fit fifteen volumes on one shelf. The fact that clothing had conveniently made itself scarce helped immensely, and Hojo for the first time in nearly nine months, was warm.

Vincents voice trailed off as the audience starred at him, almost stricken. He sounded so heartbroken reciting all of this to them. It made the man seem so…human, hearing about how he had loved someone like that, and how the two had just been normal. Painfully normal.

"It was not until several weeks later when Gast had finished unearthing the Jenova Specimen, that We were separated. Hojo went to Nibelheim to place the specimen in her holding tank, and I was sent to Midgar for my next assignment." here was where the finality had come in. that cold tone that said the matter was closed.

"We had…ten years. Maybe eleven, but right now I'm not sure if that year counts at all. It was…Her who drove the final wedge home."

She had been beautiful. Vincent remembered that much from Gasts files on her, and he was rather awed at her rapid rise in ranks. If her file was correct at twenty-eight she had managed to do what Hojo only just accomplished at Twenty nine. Become head of a department. And the fact that she had done it so quickly was suspect enough.

But if her file got any cleaner he'd have to investigate himself whether or not she was bona-fide. he never saw it coming until it was far, far too late. Honestly, it had been too easy to get to him, so it could have been attributed to him.

Vincent was back after a month long mission to Wutai when he saw the changes. Hojo never smiled anymore, and he looked drawn. When confronted he changed the subject, and Vincent was forced to drop it. But it had still bothered him.

Then one day it just…didn't. he didn't talk to Hojo, he didn't even really know his lover at all. Over the course of the last month he had been exposed to a mind altering drug developed by Lucretia Crescent and Gast. He had been used…and slowly he had begun to hate his lover. Lucretia had snapped him up and his heart had screamed out in anger.

Then he remembered the gunshot. Hojo had smirked at him, mind completely enthralled by Jenova now, and Vincent meant nothing. Over the course of the next year or so Vincent had been kept in a tank. Sephiroth had grown and been born, and Lucretia discarded him. Hojo's efforts had proved too great to overcome and so the man had sealed him, madness consuming him as the drug and Jenova cells ate at his mind.

"I was thirty-six when that thing that used to be my lover shot me. Hojo is dead. He has been for a long time." the voice was sad, and more than one person had tears in their eyes. Yuffie was sobbing, and Tifa was comforting her a little bit, as she could. Aerith had become very still, considering this dark man before her.

"So you're saying that Jenova…using the mind and body of your lover….set these events in motion decades ago?" she asked, and Vincent nodded in his strange way.

"I am afraid so. She has been very busy these long years…and only a swift intervention on my part prevented our Son from the fate of his…replicas." he said, tapping his temple. "Hojo was furious. So was Lucretia." and the others nodded.

Chaos had already introduced himself.

"So…what next?" the voice was Clouds, small yet strong, eyes fierce now, and whole again. Tifa had nearly broken down when Cloud had remembered himself at Sephiroths awakening.

"We destroy the shell." The voice was soft, guttural, and filled with hate. "Jenova…is not in that shell any more. Number One made sure of that. No, her Psyche is in someone else's body….always has been." he tried to sit up but winced. His side was damaged still from the blow that Chaos had dealt him with his claws. "And I think I know whose."

"Who is it, Seph?" Yuffie asked, eyes still teary as she scrubbed her face.

"Lucretia Crescent. My mother."

'' '' '' '' '' '' '' '' '' '' '' '' '' '' '' '' '' '' ''

Okay….this was maybe waaaay too fun to write. And oddly enough I did it without really looking at my keyboard! Yay!

This is what I want it to be. BLATANT AU here…no likey no ready. I'm aware that Medic! Is genderbend…this one is not. It is merely my interpretations of the motives of the characters. And I don't like Lu. So there.

Here's to you, Rosie X333and Mort, you make a feppic Hojo.