Nibelheim is much as they left it. No one pays them much attention. Perhaps they're used to random weirdos just wandering through. Nibelheim had become something of a hub for troop transit for SOLDIERs heading toward Wutai. Now, however, it seems empty and eerily silent.

The mansion is much the same; full of only dust and cobwebs. Vincent is interested in the library they found earlier. Bypassing the the crypt, he and Seth- no, Sephiroth- make their way down, only to find a light already on in the far room. Vincent draws his gun, Sephiroth puts a hand on his sword.

"Veld?" Vincent gapes and lowers his weapon.

A man in a long black trench coat is standing there, nonplussed, a book in his hands.

"Valentine," he says mildly. "The hell happened to you?"

"I could ask you the same thing. What the hell? I thought you were dead! You were in a godsdamned coffin!"

"I know," Veld replies dryly. "Looks like I've missed a few things."

"The last twenty years," Vincent agrees, offering a hand. Veld takes it, but pulls him into a hug rather than simply shake. Sephiroth watches, bemused.

"This little Seth?"

"Sephiroth."

"Bless you."

Sephiroth rolls his eyes.

"Yeah, that's Seth," Vincent tells him. "Sephiroth these days."

"You look just like your mama," Veld says. "How is she?"

"Dead," Sephiroth tells him flatly. Veld winces.

"Damn. Sorry."

Vincent waves the apology away. "You had no way to know. What…? How…? I don't even know where to start!"

"We opened your coffin a few months ago," Sephiroth says. "You had a shard of Zirconiade materia that we needed. Thanks for that, by the way. I guess when we opened the lid, it must have broken your stasis."

"Could be," Veld agrees. "In which case, I owe you."

"Gods no, I owe you," Vincent insists.

"Well, you can start with a stiff drink. This place got a bar?"

"We'll find one," Vincent promises.

Nibelheim has a pub. The three of them get a table in a corner and they take turns trading stories. The long and short of it is this: Vincent sent Veld on assignment twenty years ago to act as security for the Jenova project. Veld might have fallen in love with one of the techs. She wound up pregnant and the child was donated to the project. Veld, understandably, didn't think this was a good idea, but when he challenged the team lead about it, he was shot. That's how he ended up in a coffin.

Both Vincent and Sephiroth feel there is probably more to the story, but don't push him. He's only been awake for a short time. Best not to pry.

"So Elfe's yours, then," Vincent says, a note of awe in his voice.

Veld shrugs. "Probably. I saw the pictures in the notebooks downstairs. Looks like her ma, I think."

"Always thought she reminded me a little of you."

Veld smiles. It's the first time he's done so.

"You know what happened to her mother?" Veld asks.

Vincent shifts, sighs, finishes his tumbler of whiskey. "She died in childbirth. She gave you a daughter, but didn't make it herself. I'm sorry."

Veld says nothing, only nods silently. Sephiroth thinks this must be what a dying star feels like; a sudden vacuum of icy darkness. Veld's expression has not shifted in the slightest, but anyone with half a brain can see he's devastated.

"Elfe's had a good life," Vincent says, trying to put a better light on things. "She's Shinra's darling. SOLDIER General, decorated veteran, fan club… Her men would follow her to the ends of Gaia and beyond."

"Any boyfriends I need to put the fear of Alexander into?"

"Nah, doubt she's got time for that. 'Sides, she could do that fine herself."

Sephiroth has to mentally take a step back to keep the heat from rising in his cheeks. Veld raises an eyebrow but again, says nothing.

"Shinra's sent Elfe out here," Vincent continues. "Dunno why. Figured it might be a good idea to make sure she's got someone watching her back. She may not need backup, but that doesn't mean she couldn't use some."

Veld nods thoughtfully.

"Gods know what Shinra's told her, or what she'd make of those journals. Can't very well just walk up to her and tell her I'm her long lost father. I'd be nice to see her, though. To know she's okay."

"We could probably arrange that. In the meantime, want in on the case?"

Veld grins, his smile wide and wolfish. "Try and stop me."

Sephiroth doesn't touch the journals, they aren't his to view. This doesn't stop Vincent and Veld from having a book-a-thon. Vincent holds a whispered conversation with Tseng via PHS; probably about relocating all the books to a more secure location. Everything keeps referencing something called "Jenova". Evidently the scientists thought it was a fossilized Cetra. Inside Sephiroth's head, Zirconiade laughs at the very idea. If Jenova isn't the body of a dead Cetra...what is it?

"Yeah, okay, that is not a Cetra," Sephiroth says.

The thing in the tank is...well it looks like it was mostly human at one time. The face is obscured by a helmet of some sort, pale, straight hair trails past its shoulders. It's naked, exposing a female body discolored and distorted by mako and gods know what else. There's a thick tube clamped to her belly. Her legs and arms trail away into twisted, misshapen hunks of flesh that more closely resemble tentacles of a sea creature than human limbs.

Vincent's hand has moved to cover his mouth, and his face has gone gray. Veld looks as if he's been shot; shock and pain and disbelief fighting for dominance. He wanders closer to the tank, eyes fixed on the helmeted face.

"Felicia," he breathes, resting a hand on the glass. "Oh gods, what did they do to you?"

Wait. That's Felicia? That's Elfe's mother? Sephiroth takes a second look at the abomination and feels a little ill himself.

"That's General Elfe's mom?"

"When I knew her, she was a human woman," Veld says quietly. His voice is steady, but there are tears trailing down his face. "A lovely woman named Felicia. She was an assistant in the Jenova project. I couldn't save her, and this is what happened."

"But I thought she died?"

"They must have preserved her body for study," Vincent says. "Why they left her here, I don't know."

The revelation hits him hard and heavy, knocking the wind out of Sephiroth. It takes him a moment to find breath and brain cells enough to speak.

"This is what Shinra sent her to find. They sent Elfe to find her mother. They want her to know the truth."

"But why now?" Veld asks. "Why wait all this time? Felicia's still dead. It doesn't change anything."

Sephiroth looks at the ruined body in the mako tank, at Veld crying unaware, at his own father he'd long thought dead.

"It changes everything. She should know, but it should come from you, not the notebooks. She should know she's got someone alive who loves her. That she's more than just an experiment."

No one argues with him.