The moment the lightning illuminated the building where Vincent Valentine had taken a temporary haven from the raging storm, he knew this wasn't going to end well for him.

In the aftermath of Meteorfall, after pulling themselves out of the wreckage of the Highwind, the remnants of AVALANCHE had immediately been pressed into duty, eliminating creatures that had been displaced during the Meteor Disaster from the outlying regions of Midgar. The survivors of the crippled city migrated there, and this resulted in a need for pest control. Vincent Valentine had planned on disappearing, to walk the earth, to catch up with things…but he understood the importance of one's duty. It should always outrank desire and selfishness, lest order be disrupted and the larger picture endangered.

It was his fault the world was in this state. The least he could do was fix it. And then there was the glaring fact he had killed the corrupted innocent who had wrought all this as a result of Vincent's actions (or lack thereof). He could not leave yet.

And so Vincent found himself in a partially constructed warehouse in the midst of a lightning storm, realizing that he had just stumbled upon a nest of freshly spawned monsters. Their mothers were quite interested in this source of food, as slight as it was.

He held himself absolutely still, holding his breath and trying to make himself as undetectable as he could. He allowed his enhanced senses to feel their way around the room. The young were born blind as far as human vision went, but they managed to find their mothers amidst the numerous broods sharing this small space. A combination of scent and possibly heat seeking…

Well, being dead, he was sort of a sore thumb. This was made evident by what appeared to be the alpha female rounding on him with two of her associates in tow. Looking above, he saw that they were hardly the only ones that were eagerly awaiting his demise.

He straightened his tired, soaked body, reloaded the water-logged Death Penalty and one of his closer range guns, checked to see that his materia was in the correct slots, and then pushed the rain-sodden bandana back up on his forehead. This was going to be…a challenge.

Motherfucking rain. Goddamn motherfucking shitty-ass rain. Cid hated wet socks. He could already feel the blisters just waiting to savage his feet the second he took a load off. He ducked into an alley with an overhang and was nearly overcome with joy as he was finally able to light a ciggie. It'd been raining since Meteor had decided to take a bite out of Midgar. Atmospheric disruption, he figured. Sort of like how seeder planes paid visits to drought-ridden areas in order to stimulate the clouds. And if it had to be said, Cid would say it: the sky had gotten a hell of a handjob from the huge fucking piece of space dust that had barged in on them.

A piercing shriek shattered his bliss and startled him to the point where he nearly swallowed his cigarette. "Goddammit, can't a man light up without being nagged at around here?" Cid Highwind retreated back into the alley a bit further, spear raised slightly and looking for whatever it was that had made that noise.

Another yowl seemed to emanate from a warehouse further down the street. Cid cautiously peered around the corner and watched the building for a moment before a huge flare with dancing skulls razed the building to the ground.

He knew that send-up anywhere. He'd seen it when the gang had downed that white-haired pansy boy back up north.

When asked, "Satan Slam" was the response given by the creature that was part of his team and yet not. It had smirked and cackled, chilling Cid to the bone and at least unsettling a fair majority of the others. He was never sure about Spike actually recognizing anything beyond the Mama's Boy in the Northern Crater. And then its keeper regained control, just in time for all of them to scramble back into the Highwind and get the hell out of there.

"Valentine, you motherfucker, you better not be dead by the time I get there." Cid angrily stomped out his cigarette and hefted his weapon as he charged toward the building. Shit, he was gonna lose that potbelly of his faster than he could say Jack Robinson at this rate. Shera would be thrilled, since "it's a strain on your heart." Eh, fuck that. He'd drink more beer to celebrate once this mess was over and more than make up for whatever physical activity he'd done over the last few months.

By the time he made it to the door of what was the warehouse, there wasn't much left. Vincent's alter ego was nothing if not thorough. Cid let out a low whistle as he realized he couldn't approach that amount of heat without singeing his eyebrows. "Oh, come on, shoot out of there, Valentine. I don't wanna go in there," Cid muttered. "Might dry my socks though."

There was a long creak as the front wall of the warehouse finally collapsed upon itself, sending debris out into the street. Cid stared intently into the blaze. No movement. Ahhhh fuck. Not taking his eyes off of the inferno, he untied his jacket from around his waist and shrugged it back on, cringing slightly at the moldy scent it had started take on. He turned the collar up and chucked his cigarettes and his three spare lighters to the ground. He pulled his pilot's gloves back on. He needed these paws when he got back to the garage.

Cid Highwind took a deep breath, which nearly blew out a button on his jacket and started to head into the fire. He felt the heat on his face, and he wished that he'd had a hat or something because he was pretty sure his head, as wet as it was, was gonna light up and--

Fortunately for him, a red, black, and gold blur shot past him and toppled over onto the asphalt. Cid paused, one foot past the foundation line of the warehouse where the wall once stood. "Valentine, you made me go through all that psychological bullshit for nothing!" he barked at the form. "Goddammit, I was getting ready to charge in there to save your scrawny ass, and there you go, blasting your way out. Fuck you." Cid strode past the prone body on the ground and reclaimed his smoking paraphernalia. He lit up and puffed nervously once or twice.

Vincent was being awful quiet, even for Vincent.

Cid blinked. "Vince, you there?" Clenching the cigarette between his teeth, he knelt down and pulled at the cape that covered him.

"Holy shit." There lay Chaos, seemingly dead to the world. Cid immediately pulled his hands back, waiting to see if they'd be ripped off by Valentine's ill-gotten pet. That fear was quickly overridden by the fact that somewhere in there, Vincent wasn't moving or talking.

Cid yanked his gloves off and put his hand around Chaos's neck. "You better have a pulse in a fucking decent place, you sonuvabitch."

Fortunately, Chaos was enough of a humanoid to have some sort of carotid artery, despite it being under several layers of thick scaly armour. It was sluggish, Cid supposed. He was comparing it to human standards and this…thing certainly wasn't human. Neither was Vincent, he supposed, though he'd never gotten up close and personal with Vincent's neck, nor did he let Vampy anywhere near his own.

Cid couldn't see whether or not Vincent was just stunned or what. The demon's armoured skin was hiding an awful lot. "Oh, come on, Valentine. I can't help you if I don't know what's wrong." He experimentally tried lifting an arm – the faster they got back to base, the better. "Shiiiiiiit, you weigh a ton. Guess you drank your milk when you were a kid – fucking bones like cinderblocks." Cid yanked out his PHS and signalled Barret.

"Yo, what up?"

Cid sat back on his heels as the adrenaline started a deep drop back to normal. "Vincent's buddy Chaos decided to have a pyromaniac episode and burned down half of Midgar. The fucker knocked himself out or something – I dunno what the hell happened, but he's out for the count, and he musta ate a girder or like six people while he was in there because I can't even lift an arm without breaking a sweat."

"That's because yo' fat ass hasn't done any heavy lifting other than a 40-ounce beer can to your lips."

"Fuck off, if I wanted to hear that shit, I'd go home."

"Nobody stopping you."

"Shut the hell up and get your giant fluffy sailor-boy ass over here and help me carry Vampy back before he wakes up and eats me or something."

"I thought you said he was full."

"I don't fucking know when he last ate, he just feels full."

"The hell do you know when a vampire's full? Blood's liquid. Is he sloshing when you move him or some shit like that?"

"Fuck, it must have coagulated or something – gotten solid or --- …..fuck, just get over here and pick the sonuvabitch up, you meathead."

"Fine. See you, shorty."

"Blow me."

Cid clicked the PHS off. It was then he realized that Vincent was slowly coming out from within Chaos or Chaos was receding, however one looked at it. Gradually, Vincent's own clothes became superimposed over Chaos' body as a black, oily mist surrounded him. Cid inched backwards slightly, watching with fascination. Vincent had always hid himself whenever he came or went as Chaos – one of things where a person doesn't want to be seen at his worst.

Cid could understand that.

But then… "Jumpin' Jesus on a pogo stick, turn back, Vince!" Cid scrambled to rip the cloak off Valentine's shoulders and hastily pressed it against the wounds that were opening on his comrade. God, there were too many to get 'em all. Cid hastily picked what looked to be the biggest, baddest one and wadded up the cloak. He put all of his weight on it, practically sitting on Vincent. "Hurry the hell up, Barret." Cid's blue eyes widened as he realized that Vincent's thick cloak and his weight was doing very little to stop the bleeding. Despite the darkness and the excessive amounts of rain already on the ground, it was clear that the puddle of red liquid surrounding Vincent was growing at a rapid rate. "Must have nicked an artery…shit."

It was at that moment that Vincent's eyes shot open. Seemingly ignoring Cid altogether, he rose up, a creepy re-enactment of his rise from the coffin months before. The blonde man found himself shoved off to the side as Vincent, as if under a spell, reached inside of his cloak and pulled out the Death Penalty. Cid let out another low whistle. If he thought Vincent was in bad shape, the gun proved that Vincent had been relatively careful. The gun seemed to be held together by Vincent's grip on it. Vincent pushed himself to his feet and, by some ungodly power, started to walk, using the remains of the Death Penalty as a cane. Cid snapped himself out of it and scrambled to his feet. The shorter man tried to get a grip on the taller man's shoulders. "Hey, sit the hell back down. Barret's coming."

It was then that Vincent seemed to realize that Cid was standing there and talking to him. He turned his red eyes upon him. "Earth to Vincent…." Cid trailed off.

His face was deeply lined, not by age, but by agony of a few varieties. Physical, obviously. But there was more there. Cid had seen it before on the poor bastards who had had to raid Wutaiian villages during the war. It was the fact they had to live and be good soldiers after killing children that made their lives hell. They knew on the inside they were anything but. Cid knew Vincent was carrying around more baggage than an airport, between the mad scientist, the dead girlfriend, and now her dead kid. What disturbed Cid most was that Vincent's eyes seemed to be hollow. Nobody was home anymore – not anyone he knew or was living. The eyes seemed disappointed that the body had to trudge on through this existence. Vincent wanted to rest in peace, but even lying down back in Niebelheim couldn't grant that. He knew that. The weary traveller indeed – no end to the journey in sight, given how his body was now unable to age.

Suddenly, the eyes crackled to life again, as a fire relit. Vincent took a jagged breath in and the sad lines in his face were replaced by those of a sneer. "Vince..?"

Vince raised his gun to aim it directly at Cid. The cigarette fell from between Cid's lips as shock came over him. "Oh, fuck, man, don't go mental on me."

The trigger was pulled, and a deafening boom went off.

Cid squeezed his eyes shut, only cracking them slightly as he heard pieces of the Death Penalty fall to the ground and skitter away. "Holy fuck, my head still attached…..Valentine missed?" Cid wasn't sure what scenario was more worrying: Vincent trying to shoot him, or Vincent trying to shoot him and failing.

Vincent allowed his arm to drop to the side as his knees buckled slightly. The shell casings clattered to the ground, and with an amazing amount of dexterity, Vincent unloaded the gun and pocketed the shells. Then he leaned heavily on the remains of the gun, exhausted by his efforts.

Cid cautiously turned around, and his jaw dropped as he saw what was probably the biggest critter he'd seen in the area. Its brains were now splattered on the building behind them. "Alpha male. I exterminated the rest of his pack and offspring."

Cid turned back around and crossed his arms over his middle. "Well, fuck, if you didn't do a good job of pissing him off." He tilted his head slightly. "I hear Barret. Let's get you back to Tifa, and quick."

Vincent looked at him oddly for a moment before realizing the pain in his chest. "Yes, that would be…advisable." He felt his hand slip down the barrel of the gun and the wet ground collide with a knee.

It was the last lucid thought he had for quite awhile. The pain was absolutely excruciating. He heard a series of voices, heavy footfalls rushing toward him, and then had the distinct impression that he was moving, though not under his own power. His gun, now useless and broken, slipped out of his hands. The street under his dragged feet changed from the upturned asphalt to the cobblestones of a familiar neighbourhood.

"Cloud radio'ed me when he heard," came the voice of a very young girl. "Is Vincent OK? Can I help?"

"Move your skinny ass before I kick it out of the way."

"Get him on the table," he heard an older woman say. Tifa.

And then…he heard a small cry. His foggy mind took a moment to figure out who and what it was.

He realized that he was being sloppy with his emotions again. Time seemed to stop as his mind seized upon one vivid memory...