Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy. Or Vincent. I just have him on loan
A/N: Sorry for the Haitus. Life, stuff, you know.
They tumbled back into the temple, and Seri blinked repeatedly at the sudden loss of light as her eyes slowly adjusted. The change was startling, from the cool, bright, city of the gods to this warm and humid, cave-like darkness. As Seri's eyes adjusted she also became aware of what she had forgotten in this room. It was empty, cleaned by the Lifestream of the bodies, their clothes, and even the excrement that abandons the body the same moment life does. But the smell still hung in the air, an unpleasant reminder. They moved outside the door, where Vincent sat down. Seri looked at him, puzzled.
"Gigas is asleep," Vincent explained.
Seri concentrated, listening the way she had in the Asgard. She could feel the one called Gigas, the simple-minded savant of a counter. He was quiet, his rhythms slowed.
"Should we... try to wake him?"
"It's better if he sleeps. He doesn't function properly if woken from sleep. And I think I want him to be accurate here. He's just napping; it shouldn't be more than ten minutes."
Seri nodded and slid down the wall beside him.
"I wanna go. Let's go!" Elias implored.
"Just a few minutes sweetie," Seri said. It was late for the little one to be up; maybe he would go to sleep, too.
"I want Mommy! Where's daddy?!"
"Shhh, we'll keep looking for them, in a minute. But we have to rest first."
Seri looked wearily at Vincent. They were pretty far from finding "mommy", and had no idea what happened to "daddy". They would have to find some townsperson to take the boy before they left. That was going to be an unpleasant conversation. Maybe she'd let Vincent handle it. They sat several minutes in silence, Seri tapping her foot, Elias fidgeting. Vincent might have been dead for all he moved.
"So..." Seri said, hoping for a time waster. "No kids yourself, huh?"
Vincent shook his head once.
"Wife? Family? Parents?"
Vincent shook his head again.
"Sister? Some cousins, maybe?"
"There's no one."
"Not even a girl? Or guy, whatever?"
"No," Vincent answered, annoyed and wanting to get the focus off his personal life. "And you? I suppose you have a brisk social life at U of Mied?"
Seri laughed, then snorted, not bothering this time to try and cover it. "College life isn't as lively as everyone seems to like to think. But I date some. I'm seeing a guy now. He's... nice."
Vincent turned his head at the telling pause. "Nice?"
"Yes, nice. Nice is nice. He's considerate, and funny... very sweet."
"He's empty-headed," Vincent concluded.
"Is not!"
"Is he blonde?" Vincent asked, feeling a bit wicked.
Seri pursed her lips and he knew his whimsical guess had actually been right.
"At least he sticks around. It's not easy, you know, most men run for it the first time I wake up screaming from some war nightmare, or turn blue in bed."
"I imagine it's the teeth."
"What teeth?"
"Your sharp, pointy, demon teeth."
Seri stared at Vincent in the dim light, unsure what he was playing at with this. She didn't have pointy teeth. She ran her tongue over them just to be sure, just to check that maybe somebody might find them... pointyish. But they weren't. They weren't very straight, but they weren't pointy, either.
They sharpen during your change now that you have been to Asgard, Fryja's home. She is strengthened in you now.
Seri's face opened in alarm and Vincent realized the pointy teeth business was new for her.
"I'm sorry," he said, genuinely sympathetic, knowing what it was like to suddenly be altered without your permission. "Mine are kind of pointy all the time, another leftover from Chaos." As a peace offering he lifted a lip and showed one canine that was, in fact, quite pointy.
It's better.
Seri closed her lips over her teeth, grateful hers weren't pointy full time but wondering in what way this new development could be 'better'.
"I don't suppose pointy teeth are exactly helpful to one's love life," she commented.
"I have no love life to worry about," Vincent said before he could remember to shut himself up. And now it was too late- if he didn't qualify his statement, and with some sense of finality, more questions would be asked.
"I never recovered from my first love, and now she is dead."
"I'm sorry," Seri said. "I lost my first love too, to the war. A beautiful boy, not suited to the ugly work of the rebellion. I guess we never get over them."
She had the sense not to look directly at Vincent during this exchange, but he felt her similar pain. Enough to speak a little more than he normally would have.
"Problem is I'm not sure she's gone. There are... strange circumstances."
"Oh," Seri said, thinking there was no level of strange she would not believe concerning Vincent. Even dead people who were somehow not "gone". But the second statement seemed to pain Vincent even more than the first.
"You have no closure," she said.
"No."
They sat another minute in silence. Seri looked into the gloom of the passageway they would be travelling. Faintly glowing tubes travelled from them.
"I guess the lights have come back on since we left," Seri said. "But they seem dimmer."
The imbalance of green has been corrected. But... the pool is a little low.
Uhn huh. Hope you enjoyed your little bath. Vincent was about to ask what he meant by "imbalance" when he felt Death Gigas stir and give a little grumble.
"Good morning, Gigas," Seri said softly.
« τεη-ƒorτy-τώo ρm »
Seri looked at Vincent, confused. Surely it was after two in the morning by now. Vincent shook his head; Gigas had never been off about time before.
"Maybe the trip to Asgard shifted his clock somehow. Let's hope his sense of direction is still good. Can you get us back to the entrance, Gigas?"
«yεαh, cαη do iτ! »
"It's better if I change again, if he tries to tell me the turns he'll just run it all together into a confused jumble. But his appearance is... disturbing."
Seri shrugged and Vincent stepped back into the bridge room, and moments later an enormous, blocky man stepped out. His misshapen head nearly brushed the top of the tunnel wall, his oddly out-of-proportion limbs heavy and ponderous. With the demon's vision that always consisted of muted shades of gray Vincent saw Seri lean away from him, and heavy brows knit as his face contracted on its own. That was the thing he had the poorest control over while in the demon form, the demon's emotional expressions on his face. He tried to speak with a tongue thick and clumsy.
"Down't," was all he could get out. He was suddenly acutely aware that Gigas was hurt, his feelings were hurt. Vincent had never used this form before except to fight, when there wasn't time for anything but aggression. It never occurred to him that the demon might be… sensitive.
Seri bravely came close and of all things grasped one of the big, meaty hands. She even smiled at Gigas, as if he were an overgrown child. The coarse features on the lumpy faced smiled back, or tried to. It felt more like a cross between a snarl and a yawn to Vincent. The actual child in this scenario, Elias, apparently had enough frights for one day and had sunk his face firmly into Seri's neck. Her hand was warm and smooth and tiny in the demon's oversized grip.
"Let's go, OK?" Seri asked sweetly, and the big demon slowly stepped forward.
"OK, we go," he said, Vincent cringing inside at his inability to speak better than a moron.
They walked along this way, Seri encouraging with her confident grip, as though she were the one leading rather than following the turns directed by the demon. Gigas made the turns, contentedly plodding along without a moment's hesitation or thought.
"You're good at this," Seri said, hoping it wouldn't break his concentration.
"Yeah, vere good. Vere good." The words were harsh and half formed, and Vincent cringed again. That wasn't exactly what he had directed the demon mouth to say. Things always came out that way when he tried to use Gigas to speak; language was tricky for him. But he could feel the demon was happy, and they were making good time. Another half an hour and they arrived back to the entrance chamber with the large green tube. Vincent eased back into himself, releasing Seri's hand with a trace of reluctance. It had been a lifetime since his hand had been held as if he were someone's beloved child. Even in his real childhood that part of it had been cut short. He moved to the door and easily located the mechanism that would open it from the inside, and then paused before pulling the massive lever, that same reluctance staying his hand. Reluctance to leave the temple, despite its darkness and death and the press of things that needed to be done. He in fact felt remarkably relaxed. He smiled ever so slightly, and Seri noticed.
"Feeling good?" she asked.
"Actually I am. Very." Vincent shook his head slightly, confused by himself.
"You feel good because your demons feel good."
He looked at her, skeptical.
"You know it too, or you would if you'd quit trying to deny them. Galian got to run, Gigas got to be useful by counting and calculating, and Chaos got to... rampage. And I don't know, talk?"
To a woman. I like women.
Seri laughed. "OK, he got to talk to a woman. Maybe you should indulge them more. What about the fourth one? I don't hear much from him."
.YOU ШILL, MY DEДЯ.
The sinister tone of the silent message, the clear, implied threat, caused the hair to stand up on the back of Seri's neck. Vincent felt Chaos reach out and smack Hellmasker with whatever constituted force in the other world inside himself. Then a ruckus ensued between all his demons, and he was pretty sure some biting was involved. Vincent winced. So much for relaxed.
"You don't want him indulged. As far as I know, inducing suffering is the only joy he knows. He's a class two, very dangerous, sly and manipulative. Don't play with him."
"OK, noted. Shall we go?"
"Yes, we shall. All seven of us." Vincent pulled the lever and the door swung gently towards them. As soon as the outside air touched him he knew something was wrong. That wasn't the smell of ocean and ranches of the eastern coast.
"Where are we?" Seri asked as they stepped out into the night.
"Midgar, I think," Vincent said.
They stepped out onto the moonlit landing near the door, the 532 steps of cardiac climb gone, only the first few steps by their feet tapering off into nothingness. Beyond that was empty space. They weren't so much in Midgar as above it, floating hundreds of meters above the ruins.
"Did we take a wrong turn?" Seri asked, knowing as she said it that it was ridiculous; you didn't take a wrong turn and accidentally walk across the continent to Midgar.
Care to explain this? Vincent asked. Chaos seemed to know a hell of a lot about the temple, door, and the world beyond. But all he gave him now was his more usual, stubborn grunting.
Then Seri stepped in front of him, gave him another of those "looking past him" looks that he hated, and her lips moved slightly as her brows knit in tense concentration. In a few moments Chaos spoke.
I don't remember all the workings of the bridges. It was never of much interest to me. But every bridge can open on any number of key locations. Midgard is a key location. It depends on the cycle count when the green phase is broached.
Vincent realized with a start and extreme irritation that Seri had spoken to Chaos, silently, and he hadn't heard it. Next for all he knew Chaos would learn to speak back without Vincent hearing. But on second thought he decided that might be better. Then they could prattle on all they wanted and wouldn't disturb him one whit. At least Chaos was cooperating for her. Vincent opted to address the issue as professionally as possible.
"I can't hear you when you speak to him silently. Please don't do that; you leave me out of half the conversation," he said coolly.
"Oh! Sorry!" Seri managed to look mortified and pleased at the same time. "I just wanted to know if it would work. But I guess it's pretty rude."
"It is," Vincent said, not mentioning that he meant to reserve the right to do exactly the same to her, discuss with Chaos silently whenever he felt the need. He was the one who hosted the bugger, after all, and most of what passed between them were just insults anyway.
"The broaching of green, you meant when Erik passed through the door when it was green?" Seri asked, aloud.
Yes. He returned after the correct number of cycles to set the bridge to Midgar, and restored the bridge's balance.
"Oh, so he's back?" Seri said. She had been expecting, with sadness and some guilt, that the shoemaker was dead.
Chaos gave a mental nudge and Vincent looked over to the left, and at the edge of the landing, leaning against a stony protrusion that mostly hid him, sat Erik Snortland. Seri followed his gaze and yelled.
"Erik!"
The pale head turned and Elias squirmed in her arms so that she nearly dropped him as he yelled for his daddy. Erik stood up slowly, like a man in a dream, and walked slowly over to them. Without thinking he held out his arms and gathered Elias to himself.
"Miss Kusa? And, Mr. Valentine, right?" The cobbler looked from one to the other, waiting for one of them to say something, but they stared at him as though they were as confused as he. Not knowing what else to do he stuck out his right hand to Vincent.
"Erik Snortland," he said, standing rather oddly as Vincent refused to take his hand.
"We've met. You don't remember?"
Erik's hand fell limply to his side, confused at both Vincent's question and demeanor.
Heh ehehehhee! Humans endure the green pull so poooorly!
"I... remember... breakfast. Where are we?"
Vincent rolled his eyes back into his head. This was just fantastic, now he had with him a child, a reckless young woman, and an amnesiac shoemaker. They were floating above miles and miles of the very hostile and dangerous ruins of Midgar. He needed some help.
"I don't suppose you have a phone?" he asked Seri.