A/N: I'm back and have the next chapter. We left off the last chapter with Vincent in a bad situation...at least it gets better...maybe. You'll have to read to find out. Anyway, this is an explanitory chapter and as such it has the most potential for confusion. I hope I wrote it in a non-confusing manner but well, we'll see. Also I took a few creative liberties as the author in this chapter, again only for explaintory reasons. Also there's a moment I took from Advent Children and used here, hmm...I wonder if anyone will find it. Anyway onto the next installment of Demons and Dreamers!

Disclaimer: I don't know the characters used in this story EXCEPT Niome Whitewulf, but he's only there for second anyway. All the other characters belong to Square-Enix.

Warning note: As part of the creative liberties in this chapter, I have Vincents' father Grimoire Valentine married to another man named Niome (pronounced Naomi) Whitewulf. If you've got a problem with that honestly I don't care. This is a yaoi story to begin with so there should be no problems. I try to keep the characters in character but that doesn't mean I can't add a few things here and there and besides Niome and Grimoire are there and gone again so they don't even play a big part. I apologize if thats a bit too blunt but I don't really want any complaints about it. So consider yourself forewarned.


Vincent felt a hand roughly grab onto his cloak and yank him forcefully upward. Reluctantly opening his eyes Vincent gazed at Cloud who still looked just as angry. Finally the blonde spoke,

"You lied to us. You Fcking lied to us. We trusted you and you betrayed us." He released the cloak and Vincent sank back down. Cloud shook his head turning his back he walked a few paces and stopped. Throwing up his hands he released a frustrated sigh and said,

"I just don't know what to say Valentine, except why the hell? Answer me why?" He turned briefly and glanced at the ex-Turk. Vincent couldn't come up with a plausible answer right then so he just lowered his head. Cloud made an arrogant noise and turned his back again,

"So that's how it is? You can't even answer me that? Fine, then that's how it's gonna be. You think you're a monster is that it? It's because you're a v—"

"Do not call me that." Cloud turned around, slightly surprised at the seriousness in Vincent's tone. The ex-Turk's eyes glinted fiercely in the blonde's direction. Vincent's expression turned to anger and he hauled himself to his feet but kept his distance from the others. His gauntlet was gripping the railing tightly to this left and his right hand was balled into a fist at his side.

Cloud had to admit Vincent could be rather intimidating when he was standing full height and angry but the Leader would not be deterred. He folded his arms across his chest to avoid wanting to make the argument physical again. He gave the gunman a sharp glare and commented almost snarling,

"What so you can't handle being called a vampire, is that it?" Vincent closed his eyes and kept them closed as he inhaled a deep breath. It was physically obvious that he was trying really hard just to keep himself still. Reopening his eyes he his fierce look retrained to the blonde and he replied quiet coldly,

"You know absolutely nothing about me Strife, absolutely nothing at all so either quit making harsh accusations. Or just fck off and leave me alone." Cloud looked frustrated and threw up his hands a second time to prove it. He shook his head,

"You're not even making fcking sense Valentine! You say for me not to accuse you of being a vampire and yet you admit tonight that you are a vampire. And, you told us continually that you weren't a vampire. Now there's this…help me out here, I mean just what the hell are we supposed to believe huh?" Murmurs agreeing with Cloud came from the rest of the group as well.

Vincent just shook his head and replied,

"I never admitted to being a vampire, what I said was that I was better left dead. I never once said that I was a vampire and for the record, not that it matters anymore, I'm not a vampire. As for that man that you thought I killed heartlessly…" Vincent reached into his gun holster which got everybody -save Cid- nervous, pulled out an bloody fingerprinted ID card and flicked it at towards Cloud. The blonde reached down, picked up the card and realized the ID belonged to a Shinra Turk. However it wasn't just any classification of Turk, the card read:

Name: Haden Shepard

Classification: Shinra Department of Administrative Research Phoenix-Shadow Unit.

Cloud had never even heard of the Phoenix-Shadow Unit he looked up at the ex-Turk for an explanation.

Vincent folded his arms and commented,

"From the look on your face I highly doubt you've ever heard of a Phoenix-Shadow Turk and thus know absolutely nothing about them. Let me explain. You know that a normal Turk works as a body guard, a SOLDIER recruiter, a spy and on extremely rare occasions they work as assassins. A Phoenix-Shadow Turk works exclusively on spying/espionage, and mostly on assassinations. They're no laughing matter as only the best of the very best are ever even considered for the job…To put it into a perspective for you a P-ST out skills and out ranks even a General in SOLDIER. They are also masters of several different weapons, fighting styles and disguises. Call it what you want but I did you favor, as that P-ST wasn't in the theater for the show he was there to create a murder scene. His most likely targets would have been you and Tifa as stopping AVALANCHE is Shinra's main priority. Adding to that,"

Vincent gave thoughtful look, his anger and embarrassment having nearly dissipated, "The fact that this whole thing was a trap created by Shinra. Cait Sith's been spying for Shinra this whole time keeping tabs on our whereabouts and what we're doing. Think about it; the ropeway tram went out of order just as we were about to leave. Then Cait Sith tells us we can stay for free in the hotel. Why? Simple because then they have us cornered and because Cait Sith can get the keys to our rooms to steal the keystone. Also because the tram's out of order there was nothing we could to go after or get back the keystone after Tseng took it."

Cloud and the others just stared; apparently Vincent really did live up to his persona by always having a rational reasoning for everything he did. But rational reason or no it still didn't explain why he did what he did. Cloud as well as the rest of the group seemed to have relaxed slightly at both Vincent's revelation and explanation. Cloud nodded his head and stated,

"You talk as if you know a lot about these," he waved his hand, "these P-ST's."

Vincent averted his eyes and answered in a nonchalant tone,

"I can tell about them because I was one." Cloud nodded in understanding and said in return,

"Well, it would explain your obvious skills over the normal Turks we've seen but even so it still doesn't excuse what you did. Or rather as you put yourself, 'I don't care what you're doing as much as how you're doing it.'" Vincent remained calm and responded,

"Actually what I said was, I don't care what you're doing as much as how idiotic the way you're doing it." Cloud smirked slightly but countered,

"I edited it specifically because I'm calling into question your methods not your intellect." Vincent again averted his gaze and sighed. After a long moment he spoke but kept his head down,

"I…" he sighed again and shook his head before trying a second time, "I can't explain it to you, It's not that I don't want to it's just…really hard to explain. Besides I do have to ask a question of you and not just you but all of you and I want a real honest answer. Can you honestly tell me for sure that you would have ever placed any amount of trust in me if you knew that I was…like that?" The gunman looked at the group for their responses.

Tifa spoke first,

"In all honesty no I don't think we'd trust you. But then again, you lied to us and it's really your own fault that it came to light this way." Cid immediately said,

"Hey now Tifa that's a bit harsh don't cha think?" he scratched the back of his head and continued, "I can't really say one way or the other whether or not I'd trust ya 'cause I wasn't there when you were found. But what I can say is that I do trust you now, I should after all ya saved my life…twice in one night too." He faced Vincent full on and said, "If yer sayin' that yer not a vamp…well, then I'm inclined to believe you. I wouldn't be surprised if…that incident wasn't a result of the experiments that bastard Hojo did to ya." He turned to the rest of the group and said firmly,

"Did ya even think about that when ya'll were goin' and creatin' yer personal convictions of Vince?" The others looked at one another and soon the guilt of prejudgment shone plainly on their faces and they relaxed their stances. Cloud looked Vincent over and asked,

"Is Cid right?" Everyone's eyes including Cid's himself were on him waiting for his answer. Finally Vincent broke the silence by shaking his head and speaking,

"No, that's incorrect. This…condition if that's what you want to call it…it preexisted even my employment at Shinra." Cid was really surprised; he thought he'd finally figured out something about the gunman that no one else knew. Looking back at this companion he asked the bomb shell question,

"So where exactly did it come from?" Vincent lowered his head and closed his eyes responding in a quiet tone,

"My mother…" That got everyone confused. Yuffie commented,

"Wha? I thought that vampire people couldn't have kids 'cause well they're dead right?" She looked around at everyone who nodded except one person.

"No that's not right, Yuffie." The group turned their attention to the person who spoke, a person they least expected to hear from…Aerith. The ancient was looking thoughtful and finally returned her attention to the gang staring at her.

"What I mean to say is that Vincent most likely isn't a vampire…that's because vampires don't exist." The others opened their mouths to object but she firmly put up her hands to stop them and continued. "Vampires don't exist. Most likely Vincent's actually an ancient like I am but of a different race. You see the Centra weren't the humanoid race that populated the planet thousands of years ago. There were actually two ancient races…one died out and the other, the Centra, is what evolved into the human race. The Centra were known as the listeners of the Planet and were know as scholars. The other race, one Vincent most likely descended from is called the Ocupar. You can already see the similarity in the sounds of Ocupar and vampire which is because the legend is based off of that ancient race. The Ocupar were a powerful and strong race and to some of the ancient Centra they were known as barbarians and savages because of the way they lived. In reality they're not really like that."

Barret humphed and said,

"Thought you said that the Centra were scholars, if they were really that smart wouldn't they see the truth?" Aerith shook her head,

"Not really Barret, the Centra were a proud people and I guess that they considered themselves better than the Ocupar. I actually think that they are the ones that started the vampire legends as a way of putting down the Ocupar." Vincent spoke up,

"That's not all true Aerith, yes the Centra did have a bias against the Ocupar but as for the legends, they observed what they considered to be strange or alien behavior among my people and fabricated stories to try and make sense of it."

"So none of the vampire stories are true then?"

Vincent folded his arms and said in a rather confident voice,

"Try me." Cloud said,

"Alright then, how about sunlight and bursting into flames due to daylight?" Vincent coolly replied,

"Simple, we have pale skin and anyone, including normal humans, with pale skin can tell you that being out in the sun gives one hell of a sunburn. But that's about as close to physical burning as we get." Yuffie piped up,

"What about churches and holy stuff?" Vincent responded,

"Again that's simple, it's not that holy water burns us or that we can't go into churches it's that we don't worship the same way the Centra did. We still worship the Planet like the Centra but we prefer not to create reliquaries and churches. And because of that most of the Centra considered us pagans." Tifa looked him square in the eye and said,

"Well let's see if this is as 'simple' for you to explain: drinking blood. I want an explanation for that." Vincent looked at her evenly and replied,

"That one's slightly more complicated both in real life and in explanation. For starters there's actually two classifications of Ocupar's known simply as Day Life Ocupars and Night Life Ocupars. The classifications don't have anything to do with the time of day it's actually analogy of the difference being night and day. All Ocupar are born as Day Life Ocupars and as such they look, act, react and eat the same way as a human does. A Night Life Ocupar is…" he gestured to himself, "Essentially what most people think of when they think vampire. Black hair, pale skin," He pulled down his collar revealing his four long canines, "fangs and red eyes. Also Night Life Ocupars are the ones that drink blood. What makes them different isn't just they're outward appearance but they're insides too. A Day Life Ocupar has essentially the same physiology as a human or Centra. A Night Life Ocupar has a bit of a different anatomy. Our fangs are hollow and contain venom and are used to suck up blood, and we don't have stomachs. Instead we have an organ that works like the human liver and filters the blood we drink so we can derive nutrients, vitamins and minerals from it."

Cloud asked,

"And…just how do you become a Night Life Ocupar?" Vincent looked at him, then looked away but didn't answer.

FASHBACK

It was dark, cold and raining. He didn't know where he was or how he got there; he had only a few scant memories of the pass few hours. Of these memories one stood out: an image of himself almost seen from a third person view. His thin arms were painfully held behind the back of his 12 year old body by two shady figures whose faces couldn't be seen. A third person stood in front of him holding a cup with a thick dark liquid inside. The figure was trying to force the liquid down Vincent's throat and because of his struggles the liquid was spilled everywhere though some had unfortunately managed to get down his throat. The liquid was warm and thick, nearly choking him. The figure, angry at Vincent's defiance whipped around and slugged him hard. As his world spun and faded to black he could hear the sound of cruel laugher.

It was still raining; he realized he was outside because of the muddy ground against his cheek. He didn't see the faces of his assailants and he didn't have to in order to know who they were. They were some of the kids from his hometown, kids who made fun of him and believed he was a monster just because he was born with red eyes. He'd had similar abduction situations with them before but he'd always managed to find his way home anyway after they'd dump him. But he couldn't do that this time.

His entire body hurt, his back -especially his shoulder blades- felt like they were on fire. He tried to curl up his small frame even tighter. He wiped his hand across his hurting mouth to wipe away the water only to find that it wasn't water on his hand, it was blood coming from the inside of his mouth.

The pain all over intensified suddenly, causing his breathing to come out in short strangled gasps, hot stinging tears squeezed their way out of his eyes and down his mud covered face. His body writhed uncontrollably, his limbs flailing to all sides. He tried to get up, just wanting to outrun the pain and the suffering. He only succeeded in getting into a kneeling position where he was sitting on his ankles with his arms wrapped around him tightly. His vision was starting to turn red but he noticed bright headlights shining on him as a car approached. There came the sounds of shouting and the splashing footsteps of people approaching.

Then, all sound and sight failed him as the entire world seemed to light up in white hot fire. His vision completely turned red and he felt like he was being incinerated alive. He was screaming at the top of his lungs but was unable to hear it because of the pounding of blood in his ears. Tears streamed in torrents down his face but they too went unnoticed. He felt like his entire skeleton was shredding its way through the muscle and skin in his back. His hands clawed at his torso, ribcage and sides. His mouth felt like someone was trying to rip out every single tooth all at once. All he wanted was the pain to end, or for himself to faint…something…anything to make it go away, he just wanted it all to stop…

END FLASHBACK

Vincent eyes snapped shut and he involuntarily shivered at the memory. He'd never felt more pain at any one time before that night or since. Not even Hojo's horrific experimentation and torture could compare to that night. That night had changed everything. All the things he thought he'd known and all the things he never wanted to know clashed hard. Upon awakening he remembered finding himself in his father's lab lying on an operating table covered in a blanket. His father, Dr Grimoire Valentine, stood to his left with his back to him. He recalled that when he woke up he was greeted by his stepfather (aka Grimoire's husband) Niome Whitewulf who was standing at his other side.

Both men explained to him how it was them in the car that pulled up to him. His father had explained that the reason for his pain was the transformation of the Ocupar. Vincent had been greatly confused so his father had explained that his mother was indeed an Ocupar.

His train of thought was cut short by someone lightly shaking his shoulder.

"Hey, Vincent you still in there?" He jerked his head in the direction of the voice and noticed the question came from Cid and that everyone was staring at him. Cloud raised an eyebrow but commented,

"I asked you a question almost five minutes ago, and you just zoned off." Vincent composed himself and replied calmly,

"My apologies; could you repeat your question?" Cloud sighed but not in annoyance.

"I asked how a Day Life Ocupar becomes a Night Life Ocupar." He'd barely finished speaking when Vincent responded,

"I can't answer that." Cloud looked confused, like Vincent's reply had caught him off guard. Tifa spoke up instead,

"Just why can't you tell us?" Vincent looked down and breathed deeply through his nose and took a moment to figure out how to word his answer. Finally he looked at her and said,

"Because Tifa, it's not that I don't wish for you to know. It's that I don't have a solid answer to give. Aerith was slightly inaccurate in her assumption that the Ocupar died out, they didn't. Like I said a Day Life Ocupar could life their entire life as if they were a human and may not even have the knowledge that that are any different. That is the way Ocupar's live now. Transformations happen very rarely anymore. As for my own transformation, I have an idea what caused it but am not completely sure so I can't offer information on it." He shut his eyes and then turned and began walking toward the Ghost tube. Before reaching it he stopped and said without turning,

"That night is something I wish I had never experienced. That's all information I can give on it." He reached the tube and rested his gauntlet on the outer edge. Still not turning his back he asked,

"So now you know the truth, the reason for my methods and actions. I will leave you to deal with it your own way. However, I do have a question. Do you still want me in your party?" Cid didn't even hesitate a second,

"Well yea, ya should be. So what if yer an Ocupar last time I checked you were still our friend." Vincent snorted and answered,

"A friend? I believe that coming from you Cid. However I don't think that the others feel quite the same way." Cloud then commented,

"Hold it Valentine. While I can't excuse the fact that you didn't tell us I can't exactly blame you for your secrecy. As the Leader of this insane asylum of a group I personally think you fit right in…That is as long as you promise—and I mean promise not to prey on us." Vincent made a soft sound almost like he was laughing and commented in return,

"Hmm, I doubt turning my allies into meals would really be useful for any of us. Besides, there are plenty of Shinra still out there and if all else fails there's always the monsters roaming the woods. And so that means I'm staying?" Cloud nodded and said,

"Well you're an expert marksman and incredibly observant of everything." Vincent nodded and replied,

"So in other words yes you'd like me to stay." Looking at the time and then at the party Cloud commented,

"It already late, we should get some rest. After all now we're going to have race against the Turks to get to the Temple of the Ancients tomorrow." The rest of the group grumbled but nodded and they headed back to their rooms for the remainder of the night.


A/N: I know, I know the ending was quite cheezy but this chapter has been glaring at me for a while and so I just wanted to get it up.

Cid: well damn girl, that's a lot of new info to squeeze into one chapter.

Shadow of the Doubt: Yes, well I wanted to explain a bit of what was going on in my mind when I was writing this, besides it gives Vincent some backstory that DoC didn't.

Vincent: I got to go from being a normal human-like Day Life Ocupar to a dark brooding Night Life Ocupar. Yay...

Shadow of the Doubt: Oh quit whining, it doesn't suit you. Besides now that you two are in your room fun stuff gets to happen...

Cid: jes' what stuff gets to happen?

Vincent: Um...Cid, did you really have to ask?

Cid: -looks at Vincent puzzledly-

Vincent: -facepalm-

Shadow of the Doubt: -evil grin- ... Anyway read and review, and please tell if you are confused or have any questions.